by Jordan Rivet
Judith kept an eye on the storm and the Catalina lurching just beyond the surf. The weather was getting worse by the minute, and they still had a lot of work to do.
While the first lifeboat inched toward the Catalina, everyone else returned to the cargo ship to start the process over again. Reggie’s crew was already lifting the third tank off the deck with the crane.
It took ages, but eventually they got two more fuel tanks down from the cargo ship and secured to the second lifeboat. Another group sailed slowly toward the Catalina, their precious cargo in tow.
The storm was larger now, floating like an evil presence above the waves. Waterspouts rose from the sea. A wall of rain swept across the beach, instantly blurring the world. There were twenty people and one lifeboat left on the atoll. They sheltered from the rain in the shadow of the cargo ship.
“We should go now,” Judith said. “There’s no time for two more tanks.”
“If we leave all this fuel behind, we won’t get far,” Reggie said.
“But when that storm hits we’ll never reach the ship,” Judith said. She didn’t like the look of those funnel clouds.
“Come on, people, don’t just stand around arguing,” Michael said. “Let’s move one more tank and then get the heck out of here.”
“Fine,” Judith said. “But hurry!”
Reggie climbed back up to the crane to get the fifth nine-thousand-gallon tank. Nora finally emerged from the deckhouse and darted to the last lifeboat, arms laden with circuit boards. Wires trailed behind her. Soon she was running back through the rain to assist the team guiding the final fuel tank off the cargo ship.
“Got enough hardware to build the ship a new brain!” she called. “I think I can fix our communication problem.”
The wind picked up, driving the rain horizontally. It couldn’t be past four in the afternoon, but the sky was growing progressively darker. The team freed the next tank from the deck above and worked to secure it to the crane. It was becoming harder for them to hear each other above the wind.
Beyond the waterline the Catalina was a stark shape against the darkened sky. The first lifeboat was already being lifted up the side of the ship with the winch. Judith had forgotten how tall it was. How were they going to get all the fuel tanks up there?
“Wait! Something’s wrong!” Michael shouted, bringing her attention back to the cargo ship.
The fifth tank was teetering over the edge of the ship above them, swaying dangerously. The crane strained, trying to lift it high enough to make it over the rail. The crew struggled to keep it steady in the strengthening wind.
“The crane is stuck,” someone shouted.
“A little higher.”
“It’s slipping!”
“Shit!”
There was a loud crack. The tank lurched and slammed into the deck of the cargo ship. Then it seesawed over the edge and plummeted downward.
“Look out!”
Michael leapt back, flinging out his arm to push Judith further away. The tank hit the water with a huge splash, drenching everyone within twenty feet.
Judith picked herself up off the beach, an angry retort on her lips. She hadn’t been underneath the thing! But Michael was gritting his teeth, and a muscle throbbed in his jaw.
“You okay?” Judith asked.
“Landed on my foot wrong,” he said. He tried putting some weight on it. “Damn, that hurts.” Sweat coated his forehead.
“I was fine, you know,” Judith said. “But thank you. Can you walk?”
“If I have to, I’ll run.”
Michael nodded at the sea. The heart of the storm was closer. The funnel clouds whirled, sucking water up from the sea in spouts. The second lifeboat had reached the Catalina, and it was being lifted up the side of the hull. The four fuel tanks bobbed in the roughening waves, apparently tethered to the ship somehow.
“Let’s push this thing into position,” Reggie said, jumping out of the cargo ship with the last of the crane crew. Veins stood out on his forehead.
“How are we going to get the tanks onto the ship?” Nora asked, wiping the rainwater out of her own eyes.
“We’re not for now,” Reggie said. “We need to get away from the atoll before the storm hits.”
The final tank had landed closer to the waterline than the others, and it had become wedged in the sand. The team worked together to push it further out into the water as the last lifeboat motored forward.
Once it was out of the sand, they had to hold on to the tank to keep it from moving in the waves. Michael took over manager duty, and Judith went down to the water to help the others hold it still against the increasingly rough waves. Reggie brought the lifeboat in closer. It was getting harder to maneuver against the tossing of the waves.
“Steady!” Michael called.
“It’s too rough!”
“We can’t hold it.”
The lifeboat got closer. Judith moved forward to make sure the chain was ready. A few of the men released their grip on the tank to help her with it.
“Come on, guys,” Judith said. “We can do this.”
Lightning cracked across the sky. The waves battered the team around the tank. They dug their feet into the sand, bracing their shoulders against the rivets and slick edges. The men were having trouble securing the chain around the tank so they could link it to the lifeboat.
“Almost . . . there . . .” Judith said.
Suddenly, a harsh wave knocked some of the team off their feet. The tank slipped sideways. It began to roll, pushed off balance by the waves. More people lost their hold. Then it was loose, tumbling in the breakers. It slammed back against the hull of the cargo ship. The team shouted, stumbling over each other to try to get a grip on it without being crushed.
The waves crashed. Then the tank was being sucked back toward the sea, pulled along by the current rushing dangerously around the hull of the broken ship.
“We’re losing it!” Michael shouted.
But Judith wasn’t going to let that happen. She dashed through the water, staying even with the tank as the waves pushed it to and fro. There was nothing she could do to stop it. It was far too heavy. But they couldn’t lose it now. She would not let it float away when they were so close.
She darted past the tank. She would win this race. The cold shock of a wave doused her face. She splashed through the surf until she was waist deep. She found the dangling edge of the chain and clung to it, trying to keep her grip without allowing it to bowl over her.
Then the natural pressure of the waves slowed the tank’s momentum. If it hadn’t, Judith would certainly have been crushed. She held on to the chain around the tank and planted her feet deep in the mud, trying to keep it from floating further out to sea. The waves pushed her back and forth like a rag doll.
Michael appeared beside her. “Easy. Let’s keep hold of this thing.”
“I’ve got it,” Judith said.
A wave filled her mouth with salt and sand. As she spluttered and coughed, Michael stayed calm.
“You’re a champ,” he said. “Reg! Bring that boat closer, will you? The girls are doing all the work.”
Nora and another crew member had already attached another chain to the lifeboat. It was piled high with salvaged objects, mostly suitcases from the plane wreckage. Reggie sailed it in closer to Michael and Judith, and they linked the two chains together with a hook the size of her hand.
“The other boats are already back at the Catalina,” Nora shouted. “Climb aboard!”
Together, Judith, Michael, and their team clambered aboard the lifeboat. Reggie gunned the motor. They pulled away from the cargo ship and the beach, the fuel tank bobbing behind them like an overgrown mastiff.
The sea roughened. Their lifeboat dipped into troughs, making Judith’s stomach plummet, and then rose up high on peaks of surging water. She lost all sense of perspective as the waves grew. Swells obscured the fuel tank behind them half the time. The lifeboat’s motor strained against the drag
of the tank and the pressure of the rough seas.
Nora’s eyes were wide, and she kept both arms wrapped around her circuit boards. She smiled at Judith from across the boat, but her face had gone a little green. Michael sat beside Judith, holding on to a pile of suitcases to keep them from being tossed overboard.
“Almost there,” he said, and flashed her a quick smile. “We can beat this storm. And it’ll keep the navy off our backs.”
Lightning flashed across the sky. The whistling of the wind grew to a howl. Judith checked the chain again. The tank trailed behind them. It was slowing them down. They hadn’t crossed half the distance between the beach and the Catalina yet, and the storm was getting worse by the second.
The ship heaved in the growing waves. It was hard to tell over the roar of the wind, but Judith thought the engines were running.
“There’s no way we’re getting the lifeboat back onto the ship,” Reggie shouted over the wind.
“Can we secure it until the storm is over, like the tanks?” Judith asked.
“We can try. No guarantee it’ll survive a battering like this.”
Judith grabbed the seat in front of her as a dip in the sea made her lose her balance. They had to get the fuel to the ship. But then how would they get back on board themselves? Judith cast about for an idea, holding on so hard her fingers ached.
Lightning and thunder cracked together.
Then the Catalina started to move.
Chapter 14—Lifeboat
Simon
Simon entered the bridge with Captain Martinelli. Ren paled and began a sputtering apology, but the captain ignored her. It was like he had flipped a switch on his reason. He barked out orders so swift and complex that Simon couldn’t follow half the words. Ren leapt to obey.
Simon hung back as the captain and Ren did their work. He was profoundly grateful that they hadn’t ended up on this ship without any of its original crew, even though they were severely understaffed.
The captain didn’t seem too worried about the storm and their proximity to the atoll. He asked about the weather and the news. Vinny and Ren did their best to fill him in. They explained that the storm had come out of nowhere.
“Goddamn weather patterns,” the captain muttered. “They’ve never been predictable, truly, but we used to make better guesses.”
“What do you mean?” Simon asked.
“A storm like this doesn’t come out of the blue. We used to be able to track them on the satellites for one, and we’d get updates from ships at other coordinates. Even then we got hit with surprises sometimes. Storms went north when they should go south, stayed in one place longer than expected, all but disappeared. It was getting worse. Global warming, you know? But this is madness.”
Simon didn’t answer. Nothing at all surprised him anymore.
He couldn’t see anyone left on the beach. Vinny reported that one of their lifeboats had made it back onto the ship already and they were lifting the other now. The crew would be climbing aboard, unloading the salvage, and hopefully hauling in the lifeboats.
The sea was growing ever darker, wilder. A shift of the waves revealed the final lifeboat struggling toward them. A huge fuel tank dragged behind it.
“We have to get those people on board,” Simon said.
“It’s too late,” Captain Martinelli said. “We need to get away from the shore before the waves get any worse.”
“We can’t leave them,” Simon said.
Ren started up too, but he gestured for her to remain calm.
“Are you insane?” the captain said. “If we run aground here, it’ll be impossible to launch again.”
A crack of lightning illuminated the ghostly broken cargo vessel lying in the shallows. The Catalina would end up like that if they didn’t get away from the atoll soon.
“Give them a few more minutes,” Simon said.
“Are you giving orders on my ship?”
“This isn’t a ship anymore, sir. This is a survival operation, and I’m in charge. We are not leaving those people behind. Take us closer to the beach.”
Judith
The team was exhausted. Judith felt like she’d been in the lifeboat for hours. The boat tossed them about so much they could do little more than hold on. Reggie had a death grip on the motor controls. Michael winced with each shift of the sea, bearing up well despite his injured foot. He had planted his feet firmly against the lifeboat floor to keep from pitching forward. He must be in agony.
The Catalina started moving toward them. Judith felt a mixture of relief and fear. What if there were rocks underwater? How close could the big ship get to the atoll without getting stuck?
The lifeboat fought the waves, trying to get closer to the Catalina. She sailed nearer, cutting the distance between them to a hundred feet. Almost there. But as they approached the towering hull of the cruise ship . . .
“They’re going to hit us!” someone yelled.
The lifeboat lurched forward on a wave, and the hull of the Catalina was suddenly a solid wall. The four other oil tanks were chained to the hull somehow, and they tossed about dangerously. With each surge they got closer to a collision.
“Look!” Reggie shouted. “They tossed down the ladder. Let’s swim for it.”
“What about the salvage?”
“Leave it, or we’re not making it out of this alive.”
He abandoned the controls and began pushing people over the side. They disappeared beneath the boiling black sea and then emerged, gasping and splashing their way toward the Catalina. The ladder swung pendulum-like, scraping across the slick white paint of the hull.
Judith gripped Reggie’s arm when he reached her, digging her fingers into his skin.
“We can’t leave the fuel. I’ll stay with it.”
“Don’t be stupid,” he shouted, trying to force her into the water.
Judith stood her ground. “Get up there and throw me a rope or something,” she said. “We need as much of it as possible.”
“It’s on your own head,” Reggie said, then waved to Michael. “Let’s go, man.”
Reggie dove cleanly over the side of the lifeboat, but Michael didn’t follow. Nora hesitated for a moment and squeezed Judith’s arm. A flash of lightning sparked off the metal post in her eyebrow. She held her breath and jumped into the sea after Reggie. Her pink hair popped up a moment later.
“You’re right. We need this,” Michael shouted to Judith above the wind. “Grab an oar and help me stay close to the ship.”
She complied, helping him to retrieve the long emergency oars from the bottom of the boat. She gripped one so hard her hands hurt.
The first struggling swimmer reached the rope ladder. He climbed it slowly, holding on for dear life, but his weight kept it a bit steadier for the next person to swim toward it. Judith counted the swimmers climbing up the side of the ship. Unseen hands helped them aboard. The ladder swayed dangerously as they climbed. One by one their team reached the safety of the Catalina’s deck. But something was wrong.
“We lost one,” she shouted.
“What?” Michael leaned toward her, his breath a shock of warmth on her cheek.
“There were twenty of us left on the beach. Only seventeen made it up the ladder.”
Michael didn’t respond. Judith struggled against her oar, her eyes stinging from the salt water and wind.
Suddenly, Michael dropped his oar and lunged sideways, forcing Judith down into the boat to get out of his way. When she lifted her head, he had both hands around a thick rope trailing down from the Catalina. Someone had tossed them a lifeline.
Michael swayed wildly, trying to keep his balance. Judith dropped her own oar and wrapped both arms around his waist to hold him steady.
“Get to the stern!” he said.
They scrambled backward to where the fuel tank was chained to the lifeboat. Mercifully, it was still attached. Judith kept Michael balanced as he pulled at the line trailing down from the Catalina.
�
��Can you tie it?” she shouted.
“I need more slack. Pull!”
They heaved at the rope, bringing more of it into the boat. Another wave pushed them dangerously close to the Catalina, making their task easier. Judith held on to the excess rope and climbed underneath the nearest bench to wedge herself more securely into the boat. Her hands were raw, so she wrapped the rope beneath her arm. Water cascaded around her.
Michael worked at the chain. Judith couldn’t see what he was doing. She hoped he wouldn’t have to cut the lifeboat loose in order to secure the oil tank. The muscles in his calves tensed as he braced himself against the pitching of the boat. She watched his feet, praying they’d stay firmly planted. The lifeboat tossed about like kindling.
A crash. The rope ripped out of Judith’s grasp, taking a thick layer of skin from her arm and side as it wrenched away. The jolt knocked her teeth together so hard she saw stars.
They’d collided with the Catalina. Michael’s feet disappeared. He had gone overboard.
Simon
“We need more time,” Simon said.
Manny reported on the intercom that most of the salvagers from the final lifeboat had come aboard, but they were still trying to secure the fuel tank. They weren’t sure the others would stay attached to the ship.
“This whole thing will be a waste without them,” Ren whispered.
“I know. Damn it.” Simon pressed his face against the glass. The atoll loomed. They were far too close.
“We’re going to run aground if we don’t move now,” Captain Martinelli said, his voice emotionless.
“A few more minutes.”
Judith
Salt water stung Judith’s eyes as she clung to the bench. The rope was secure, but she couldn’t see Michael anywhere. She couldn’t do anything to help him now. A wave pushed the boat further away from the Catalina again. The rope tightened, but it held. The lifeboat, with the oil tank in tow, was now firmly attached to the Catalina.
Judith dove into the sea.
She was so cold and wet already that it almost didn’t matter when her head went beneath the waves. The water swirled around her, dark, consuming. Fear flashed through her with each bolt of lightning. She flailed blindly toward the Catalina, swallowing seawater with every stroke.
