The Abnormals: Book One

by Isabelle Sorrells

  Alex dove back under the tarp, startling everyone awake.

  “What the heck? Where did you come from?” Nicole shouted.

  “Outside. There is a huge storm going on and it’s tearing the ship apart!” Alex shouted.

  Suddenly the tarp flew open revealing Will, the bigger man that Alex had seen talking at the port not long ago. Will grabbed Alex’s arm and hoisted him off the ground. More men came from behind and did the same to the others. They grabbed their bags and struggled to walk as the men were practically carrying them across, almost slipping on the wet metal of the ship’s deck. Water crashed over the side of the ship and onto the deck, making it almost impossible to stand. The ship’s cargo strained against the ropes in rhythm with the motion of the ship.

  Will burst into the bridge where the captain struggled to hold the wheel in place. Desks were aligned all around the room, covered in multiple buttons and switches and lights. Multiple men sat at those desks and some men to the right of the captain sat radioing for help from multiple stations. Will and the other men stepped inside and held Alex and the others in front of them, facing the captain holding the teens’ hands behind their backs, holding them in place.The room became quiet as they entered. A man beside the captain took the wheel as the captain spun around to face them. The captain was tall and muscular. His hair was bright red and his piercing blue eyes looked like the ocean itself reflected in them. He had a slight goatee from the lack of time to shave and sweat beaded his skin from the stress of the storm.

  “What are you doing here? You should be outside! We need to get those crates secure and this ship intact!” The captain stopped when he saw the five children struggling in his crew’s hands. “Children! What are children doing on my ship?” he growled.

  “Captain, we found them hiding under a tarp covering a section of crates,” said the man holding David in place.

  “Stowaways, eh? Bring them to room 232. Gentlemen, continue your work,” the captain commanded the men inside the control room as he followed the men out the door and into the hall.

  The men dragged the teens down the hall and stopped in front of a door that had the numbers 232 on it. Will opened the door and held it open as the men shoved Brooke and the others into the room before shoving Alex in as well. The men then left and in walked the captain. The room was small with bare white walls and nothing but a table nailed to the floor and chairs sitting around it. At the very back of the room on the wall was a round window the size of a large plate. The storm raged on outside the window and thunder shook the metal hinges. The captain shut the door and turned to face the kids.

  “So, why do I have stowaways on my ship?” he asked.

  The five of them stayed silent, not making a sound.

  “You know what? It doesn’t matter. Do you know what I do to stowaways on this ship? I have them work. Come on then.” The captain turned around and opened the door, then paused. He turned his head to face the others and suddenly his expression softened from the hard and stern one he had worn just moments before. His eyes fell on Alex as he spoke. “Don’t worry. I’ve been in the same boat before, in a manner of speaking. You can call me Nick.” And with that he turned and walked out the door, with Alex and the others following close behind. The entire walk back, one thought confused Alex the most. “I’ve been in the same boat before.” What was that supposed to mean?

  Nick led them back to the door that led to the dock. Outside, the deck hands scurried from left to right across the deck. Many would slip and fall, all fighting against the storm, desperately trying not to be swept overboard. Nick turned to Alex and the others. An expression of sadness and guilt washed over his face.

  “I still can’t believe I’m doing this. But at this rate the ship will crash either way. I am going to send you out there. I need you to try to get as many of those crates secure and attached to the deck as tightly as you can.” The captain paused. “Good luck.” He opened the door and after a brief moment of uncertainty, the others ran out into the rain.

  Before Alex could run out, Nick grabbed his arm.

  “I know you have run away from your family,” Nick said.

  “So? What’s it to you?” Alex’s eyes narrowed at the man standing before him, hiding his disbelief at how obvious he was.

  “I was once a runaway as well. I know that expression all too well. I just wanted you to know, you are not the only one.” Nick’s face hardened into the stern expression Alex saw when he first met the captain. Alex ran out into the darkness and soon was engulfed by it.

  Immediately, the sound of the crashing waves and the rain pounding against the ship’s metal lining was all Alex could hear. The darkness of the night and the rain clouded Alex’s vision so that he couldn’t see his own hand, though it was right in front of his face. Alex continued to walk in search of his friends, but could not find them. Alex called out for them, but he couldn’t even hear his own voice. Something cold and wet brushed against Alex’s hand.

  He felt around and realized it was the side of the ship. Suddenly, the air pressure changed and it felt as though time had stopped. A clap of thunder and flash of lightning made it all too clear. A massive wave loomed over the side of the ship. The water looked an unforgiving black in the night. Alex stared at the wave unable to move, frozen to the spot.

  The wave crashed down onto the boat, washing away anything on board. Water rushed into Alex’s lungs caving in on him at all sides. Alex was tossed and turned as the wave sent him sprawling off the ship and into the water. Alex hit the water like concrete. His arms and legs flailed around in utter panic, clouding all reasoning. His lungs burned, desperate for air.

  Alex shot back to the surface gasping for breath. Crew members were falling in the water everywhere, along with crates and pieces of ship that had broken off. Alex looked around for the others but could see none of them. Lightning flashed incessantly, brightening up the sky for mere moments at a time. Another wave washed over Alex, and he plummeted toward the bottom. He tried to reach the surface once again, but he was pushed down farther and farther until everything went completely black.

  FOURTEEN

  Alex woke up to broad daylight. His eyes stung and his head pounded in the sudden light. He clutched his head as he slowly sat up to look around. As he took in his surroundings, he realized he was on a beach. Wreckage from the ship was strewn across the sand. How long had he been unconscious? Alex searched frantically for Mark or Nicole or anyone for that matter, but he could not see any sign of them. If they were there, they were beyond sight.

  Alex looked down at the water that swept up his legs and then back down. From the corner of his eyes, he noticed a large rock that was the entire width of the beach, hiding the rest of it from view. With a sliver of hope, Alex stood up and made his way over to the rock. Still drenched and covered in sand, He climbed the scorching hot boulder, burning his hands in the process. When he finally made it to the top, he immediately stood up and scanned the beach on the other side.

  Alex breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of them. Scattered across the beach were Mark, Nicole, and David. They were all unconscious, but Alex could tell they were alive. Alex jumped down from the massive rock and ran over to David. Alex lightly placed his hand on David’s arm and started to shake him.

  “David? David, wake up! Are you all right?” Alex said, shaking David awake.

  “Ten more minutes,” David grumbled.

  Alex shook harder.

  “What! What happened? Where’s the fire?” David asked wearily, his words slurred.

  “The boat crashed and we ended up on this beach. You’re not hurt, are you?” Alex asked.

  “Um, no I don’t think so,” David said, sitting up, becoming more aware.

  “Come help me get the others,” Alex called as he walked over to Nicole.

  After Nicole was awake he searched frantically for Brooke, but she was nowhere t
o be found. He could feel panic well up inside of him as he thought of all the things that could have happened to her.

  “Guys! Hey guys!” a familiar voice called. Alex looked in the direction of the voice, relief flooding through him to find Brooke walking toward them from further down the beach. Her clothes were drenched and ripped in a few places, but as far as Alex could tell, she was unhurt.

  Alex returned her wave and she ran toward him. Once they met she threw her arms around him in relief, catching Alex in surprise.

  “Thank God! I thought I was alone! And dead. I’m so glad to see you!” Brooke exclaimed.

  “Me too,” Alex said, hugging her back.

  “Brooke!” Nicole yelled when she caught sight of the two, running over to them and hugging them from behind.

  “Don’t leave me out of this!” David laughed, running into them all and knocking them onto the sand in a laughing heap. Mark walked over to see if they were all right and David yanked him down into the sand with them. The laughter died quickly as they stared out at the sea in front of them and they sat there in silence, taking everything in, a melancholic fog settling over them.

  After they had regrouped, they scoured the shoreline for their bags, which they hoped had washed up with them. Thankfully, they all managed to find their soaked bags. Some of them had torn, but they were still usable. The teens gathered their things and sat down, immediately rummaging through their bags for food. Their clothes were drenched and their bodies were coated with sand, their hair included.

  “It’s a good thing my backpack is waterproof,” David said absentmindedly as he chewed on a granola bar.

  “Does anyone know where we are?” asked Mark. Everyone stopped moving and looked at him. After a moment of silence, they all shook their heads.

  “I have no idea,” Brooke said.

  Suddenly, David dropped the bar in his hand and his eyes widened.

  “What’s up, David?” Nicole asked. David didn’t answer. “David?” she asked again. He kept staring. They all turned around to find a large forest stretching as far as the eye could see.

  “Where did that come from?” Alex exclaimed.

  “Our heads must be messed up after that storm. You would think that kind of thing would be impossible to miss,” said Nicole.

  “You would think,” agreed David.

  “No one saw that earlier?” Alex asked. He was answered by a series of shaking heads. “Freaky…”

  “Maybe we would see something if we went up there in one of those trees?” asked Brooke.

  Every head whipped around to look at Brooke.

  “You know that’s not a bad idea,” said Mark.

  Alex stood up and ran over to the edge of the forest. He turned to make sure his friends were following him before he jumped and grabbed the closest tree branch and hoisted himself up, quickly pulling himself higher up the tree. The rest of them followed suit. Alex pushed aside the remaining leaves and branches and looked over the canopy. There was nothing but forest and ocean that stretched for miles, showing no sign of end or civilization.

  “Do you guys see anything?” Nicole shouted over the roar of the wind.

  “No!” David shouted back.

  Unable to see anything but trees and water, Alex started to make his way back down when a sudden movement in his peripheral vision caught his attention. Alex stopped his descent and turned toward an area farther back in the forest. Without warning, a flock of birds burst from a section of branches and up into the sky. Where the birds had fled, the trees shook, shaking off leaves and branches. Some trees broke from the sudden weight and slowly fell to the ground with a crash. As the trees fell, Alex noticed that whatever was making the trees fall was coming in his direction.

  Alex climbed down from the tree quickly, trying to reach the ground in time. The others were waiting for him at the bottom. Alex turned around to face the woods and searched for any sign of what he saw in the tree. Alex could see no sign of the trees or whatever caused the commotion.

  “Did you guys hear that sound?” Alex asked over his shoulder.

  “What sound? We are right next to an ocean and a forest. I didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary,” said Brooke, peering over Alex’s shoulder to see what he was looking at.

  “Neither did I. Did you see something when you were up in that tree?” asked Mark.

  “No. Nevermind. Just forget about it,” Alex said, turning back around.

  “I couldn’t see any sign of civilization anywhere!” Nicole explained. “How are we supposed to get back home now?”

  “Where do you think we are?” asked Mark.

  “We could be on an island,” replied Alex.

  “An island?” replied David, his eyes widening.

  “Just think about it,” explained Alex. “No people, no boats, no buildings, just a beach and jungle.”

  “We have to find a way out of here!” said Brooke.

  “Yeah, like we didn’t think of that before Captain Obvious!” David snapped.

  “Calm down,” Mark said. “We will find a way out, so just calm down.”

  “What do we do now?” asked Brooke.

  “We start walking,” Alex replied. “There isn’t really anything else we can do.”

  “We could stay on the beach and wait for another boat to come around. Maybe we could call out to them so they could rescue us,” Nicole suggested.

  “They are going to ask how we got here, and then we’ll have to tell them that we were stowaways on a ship. How do you think they’ll respond to that?” Mark asked.

  “That is if another ship will even come around,” Alex said. Everyone went silent as they digested Alex’s words. Sounds of leaves rustling in the wind and waves crashing against rocks filled the air.

  “Then we’ll just have to make a raft,” David said, breaking the silence.

  “I don’t think that’s possible. There are really strong currents out there and to top it all off we’re in salt-water. Who knows how many sharks are out there,” Alex replied.

  “But we could give it a shot. We have no other ideas,” David replied.

  Alex had stopped trying to argue and so had the others, giving into David’s idea. They all scattered throughout the shore and the edge of the woods, searching for wood and vines and anything they thought would help make a raft. Alex tried to go where he saw the closest tree fall, but he could find no sign of broken branches or fallen trees. He climbed another tree and looked out. The trees that had fallen earlier weren’t visible up there. He could have sworn that he saw something knock down those trees.

  Alex used some of the vines they collected and wrapped them around the tree logs, securing them together as the last step to assembling their raft.

  “I don’t think this will work,” Alex said, standing up and shaking his head after tying the last knot. “It’s just a bunch of tree trunks and vines. Something that you only read about in books or see in movies. How will we know if the tree trunks won’t sink with all the extra weight? How do we know they will float at all?”

  “Come on, let’s just try at least,” said Brooke.

  On the count of three, they pushed the raft into the water and jumped on, using branches as paddles. It almost seemed as if the tree trunks were going to hold, but the raft didn’t get very far from the island before it started to sink.

  “Guys…it’s sinking,” David said, panic lingering in his voice.

  “Yeah, we know! Jump off! Hurry!” Nicole exclaimed.

  They all jumped off and swam back to shore just in time. When they looked back, the raft they had made slammed into a rock and broke in half. A few pieces of wood remained on top of the rock while the rest drifted away with the tide.

  “That was a complete waste of time,” David huffed.

  “At least we know for future references not to try it,” Brooke
sighed.

  As the sun began to set, they began to set up a campfire. As Alex gave the fire room to breathe, Brooke, Mark, David, and Nicole pulled out sleeping bags from their backpacks. Alex stared at them with wide eyes.

  “Why do you have sleeping bags?” Alex asked.

  “We didn’t know how long we’d be gone. It’s better to be prepared,” Nicole explained.

  “Where’s your sleeping bag?” asked Brooke.

  “I don’t have one,” Alex replied sourly. “Didn’t think I’d need it.”

  “I thought so,” Mark commented. “I got you one too, don’t worry.”

  “You guys are strangely prepared for some people who had no idea where they were going and just randomly threw a bunch of stuff together,” Alex pointed out.

  “What can I say? We’re strange,” David said, yawning.

  Alex sighed and took the sleeping bag from Mark’s hands. He rolled it out on the sand and crawled inside it. He hadn’t realized how tired he was. He fell asleep within minutes. When the sun rose the next morning, he didn’t even remember going to bed.

  A black wall of water hundreds of feet high towered over Alex, ready to crash over the ship at any second. Lightning flashed, lighting up the sky before darkening again. A crash of thunder filled the air. A second flash of lightning lit up the sky, and Alex waited for the sky to darken once again but it didn’t. The world remained filled with bright white light. The rain that had been falling on him before had stopped and was now floating in mid-air. Time was frozen before him.

  Men and women hung over the side of the ship. Some held the side and dangled while some were suspended in the air, about to fall into the unforgiving waters below. Their expressions remained the same. Some of confusion, some of panic, and some simply of fright. Alex looked behind him to find the heavy metal door to the inside of the ship open. Just inches away from it, in a running position with his arms outstretched toward him, was Nick. His expression was completely different from the others he had seen. Alex didn’t know how, but it was. A number of crew members were holding him by the shoulders and torso and pulling him to an extra life boat.