by Kendra Riley
Zac was quiet for a while. “Well, if it’s any consolation, I’m with you. I don’t intend on abandoning you or anything close to it.”
“Why?”
“Doesn’t it count as me liking you?”
“I don’t know if I…”
“You don’t know if you feel the same way? Come on, Sara, it’s not rocket science. This isn’t some thesis you need to run through over and over again. Things like this aren’t perfect.”
“It’s just not in my system.”
“To like people romantically? It sure seemed like the opposite the other day, and the day before that.”
“You’ve gotten too used to it, too quickly,” she said, with a near growl.
He found himself grinning. “You still haven’t directly said if you liked it.”
“This is not a normal conversation people have when their lives are on the line, when there are crocs waiting in the water, you know.”
“I know. I just needed a distraction, we both need the distraction. Go on.”
“Go on with what? You can’t just make me admit that I liked that.”
“Because clearly, you didn’t?” he drawled.
“I’m an intern, I’m not from here.”
“Okay, first of all, what is it with the whole ‘I’m so prissy and uptight’ thing?”
“Prissy?”
“Yeah, you slept with me twice, and you’re brushing it off by saying it’s not in your system? Now, I’m the one that feels used.”
“What? I was just saying the truth,” she protested. “It’s really not in my system.”
“To be naturally nice to people?”
“To date,” she retorted. “It’s just not in me, it doesn’t come naturally. I’m bad at this, okay?”
“This isn’t a contest you know. Why be bad at it? You haven’t even given yourself a chance.”
“A chance to what? Have fun? I had fun earlier. Everything was great until the rain, and the crocs, and this island—”
“This island is keeping us alive and in one piece. I can hear the panic in your voice. Stop it.”
“You aren’t the boss of me.”
“I’m not, but I just might be the guy to keep you alive.”
She was quiet, and he was glad he showed her who was currently boss. He felt in charge now, something he had grown accustomed to since he began handling a few of the Turner companies last year.
“So, tell me more about yourself. Be spontaneous,” he said, hearing thunder again.
She shook beside him. “I’m just not used to thunder.”
“Neither am I,” he admitted. “The rain will give us fresh water, though. We need it.”
“But that means this river will only get higher. We have nowhere else to go.”
“We’ll manage,” he said, feeling apprehension creep up on him.
Chapter12
She knew he was trying his best to calm her nerves, and he was doing the same for himself. Get a grip, Sara, she told herself, I can’t be the only one feeling this way. What he had done earlier was no easy feat.
Everything had happened so fast; she didn’t even know he had grabbed provisions to help them survive the night. The thermal blanket was a great help, but she still found herself shaking involuntarily every now and then. The rains didn’t help at all. She also knew he couldn’t light a fire just yet, lest he waste what little matches he had left.
It was surreal, almost like some bad scene in a movie, to be stuck on a small island in the middle of nowhere, with water just about to cover them up, and that water was going to spoon feed them easily to the crocs, the hungry, territorial, horny bastards. She had asked herself for a second, if she was ready to die. There was a resounding “no” in her, coupled with Zac’s insistence that they were going to see this through.
How? When was help coming? How could they lose Solomon and everyone else? She had hoped desperately to hear from them, to hear they were alive at least… Zac was asking her random questions, to make it feel normal, even though everything was far from it.
She couldn’t control the situation, and it was something that made her feel uneasy. She had always been in control. She had gone on excursions before—but she had always been in control. This was a slap to the face, a torrent of nightmarish reality.
They were stuck, with no way out… she tried to calm herself down, and forcing herself to calm down was one of the most difficult things she had to do. Jesus, she thought, I’m going to die here, and I’ll never see my family again, and I’ll never have kids… she stopped, knowing it was a revelation. She had never been the maternal kind, and she had thought she was closed off to relationships that could affect her career.
Her career was affecting her entire life now. It wasn’t even by choice. This was fate. She didn’t even believe in fate, and yet, it had to happen.
“I have insurance, right?”
His head snapped up. “Insurance?”
“Yeah, insurance while I’m here.”
“Uh, yeah. You won’t need it, except for a few days in the hospital…” his voice trailed off. “Well, you’re gonna need a check-up, a thorough one, mind you.”
“Because we’re gonna make it out of here alive?”
“Because we’re going to make it out of here alive and in one piece,” he corrected her.
“How long do we have until sunrise?”
“Four hours I think…”
Four hours seemed like an eternity to her. But what did she know? This was bush time. She should have done her research on search and rescue in Kakadu. They had a radio—had.
“I have a question,” he began.
“Shoot,” she finally said. There was no other way out yet. Might as well talk, right? Immediate danger was everywhere, but he was constantly reassuring her.
“Have you ever dated?”
“Of course I have,” she quickly replied.
“Boyfriends?”
“One. I mean, had one.”
“What happened?”
She shrugged. “We didn’t work out. We were too busy with school and our future careers.”
“You never saw yourself married to him?”
She shook her head. “Nah. In some ways, it was dating out of convenience, you know, conforming to society. Looking back, I guess it was only infatuation. So I didn’t bother dating again. I’ve always thought love took time, and I waited for me to fall head over heels in love with him—only, I didn’t.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
“Don’t be. It wasn’t meant to be.”
“So it didn’t hurt when you broke up with him?”
“A little. Wait, why are you asking me so many questions about my past. Shouldn’t it be my turn?”
“Go ahead.”
“Any girlfriends I should know about?”
“None. Isn’t that fortunate? Or is it unfortunate?”
“You got me confused there,” she said. “So… what happened?”
“What happened with what?”
“Your last girlfriend?”
He shook his head, and he gave a sigh and then a laugh. “It just didn’t work out, you know. Things happened. I wasn’t ready, she wasn’t ready. You know, stuff.”
“Shouldn’t it be your turn for some honesty?”
“I’m as honest as I can be. We didn’t work out. Well, she didn’t want me anymore, for her own reasons.”
“What was she like?”
“Look, why are we talking about her? You wanna know my dating history?” he said.
“You did ask me personal things.”
“Fine. She was… I think she still is pretty. She models and stuff, so I see her face everywhere from time to time. I almost proposed to her, if you must know.”
“It just didn’t work out…”
“It didn’t,” Zac said. “Good thing, though.”
“You don’t miss her?”
There was a pause. “Sometimes. I think it was because we’d been dating since
college… but hey, we all have to move on, right?”
She had a feeling he missed her more than he’d wanted to admit. She said nothing about it, but she felt her own emotions conflict. She had read somewhere that there was the possibility of emotionally bonding with someone after a traumatic event. Was this it? This wasn’t the place to like someone, let alone, fall in love with someone. Can’t I control this?
She nearly forgot to respond to him. “I guess.”
“So tell me something random about yourself. Well, more of it?”
“Crocs scare me. I think it’s because they’re prehistoric, and wild, and big, and powerful… I respect them, but I don’t like them.”
“And you’re in their territory now,” he chuckled. “What else?”
“I love Chinese food,” Sara found herself saying. “Well, the ones I can eat.”
“That must be so sad, liking Chinese food, and yet being unable to eat most of it,” he said. “I personally prefer Japanese.”
He flicked on the flashlight as he said that, and she saw the water rising, nearing their perch.
“Zac…” her voice faded. Oh god, the water was rising too fast. She thought that was just going to be it. There was barely any light, and there was barely anything to hold onto once the water got higher…
It seemed that he was thinking the same. “It must’ve been the rain…”
The night was quiet, except for the rush of water around them and the occasional chirping of insects, and some unseen and lurking danger underneath. “What are we going to do?” she found herself whispering.
“How fast can you swim?”
“Without seeing anything?” her voice turned a notch higher, a signal of growing panic.
“How fast can you swim?” he repeated again.
“I had lessons as a kid,” she said, her mind starting to fill with unspeakable terror. “I don’t think I can do this.”
“You don’t have a choice, okay?” he told her.
She began to shake again, and it wasn’t because of the cold. “Is it too far from daytime yet? You said search and rescue could start in a few.”
Zac took a deep breath beside her. He stood up and turned on the flashlight once more, surveying what little dry land they had left. He turned the flashlight towards whatever was across from them, and Sara could only see a dark river and nothing else.
“I remember there was land in between us, right before something hit the boat…” he murmured.
“Don’t assume that,” she said, her voice still sounded strained. She gave up any effort in controlling it. “For all we know, that part of land is gone, too.”
“If we stay here, we’re sitting ducks, we’re bait. Or early bird special,” he mumbled.
She closed her eyes, willing for it to go away. This was a bad dream. They were just having a normal conversation somewhere safe, in another place, in another time. Wake up, wake up, she told herself.
There was a part of her that said she could swim, but her mind began to calculate the odds. There was no way in hell she was getting out of that water alive, or in one piece. “How, how long before it covers us?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I don’t want to stick around to find out.” Zac looked at the bag beside him. He took out the flare gun and took another deep breath.
“How long will that take to work?”
“It depends. Minutes, I hope. If it doesn’t rain, all the better. I don’t think I can wait until morning for this. I just hope they’ve started looking for us. But it’s only been eleven hours since…” he stopped. “Whatever.”
He stood up and aimed the gun to the sky. Sara watched, quiet, nervous, unsure of what was going on. She hadn’t gone through Girl Scout affairs, and she hadn’t read on this kind of emergency procedure, and if she had, she would have made something out of it. She felt unprepared, so damned unprepared. The sky rumbled once more, and she saw lightning snake across the sky, illuminating everything for a split second. She saw a canopy of trees across. No sign of crocodiles…
There was a whooshing sound, and a bright red light shot up to the sky. She saw the flare soar higher and higher, until it began to fall down. She willed for it to stay up longer, just in case someone was waiting for any news of them, just in case someone was searching for them.
Zac collapsed, sitting down on the ground again, minutes after he had shot the flare into the air. “We’ll wait. I’ll fire the last one later.”
The last one—it sent panic into her once more. That bright, red light in the sky provided comfort, it provided hope. It began to fade. She didn’t want it to. She looked at Zac, before the light disappeared altogether.
“What if we build fire?” she suddenly said. “It’s hot, but we can make smoke signals…”
“And burn this little safe haven we have? Let’s stick to swimming. There’s a chance we’ll both die with the smoke, and a chance one of us will make it out alive. So, yeah, you’re carrying the knife.”
“Knife…” she closed her eyes and shuddered.
“Trust me, you can do it.”
“I can’t just stab an animal. I haven’t stabbed anyone or anything my entire life.”
“This is a precaution, but you’re the one that needs that knife.”
“Why? Because you’re kicking a croc in the balls?”
“Wish I could. I only saw one croc the last twenty-four hours, the same croc, most likely.”
“Do you remember how big that croc was?”
“Yes, thus the knife. One hour, and I want you to swim with everything you have. I’ll be right behind you.”
She shook her head. “I can’t, I can’t do this,” she said in horror.
“Don’t you dare stop swimming,” he told her. “And what in the bloody hell makes you think you can’t do it? You won that scholarship. You’re here, doing what you love. Don’t let a damned saltie take it away from you.”
“That was purely academic,” she protested. “This one’s a helluva lot different.”
“Well, if we both live, you have to say yes to that date with me.”
“What date? You want me to go on a date with you? Are you out of your mind? Aren’t we in a situation here?” she stopped. Then she nodded nervously. “A date, yes a date sounds about right.”
“Atta girl.”
“Where are you taking me?”
“Somewhere fun,” he replied, “but that’s something you’ll have to wait for.”
“I’ve waited this long for you to ask me out,” she said with a nervous laugh.
Chapter13
Zac had been quietly hoping and then praying, and he had never been a religious man. The flare had gone out two hours ago, and he could see the beginnings of sunrise, a hazy one at that, but he didn’t care, as long as it was dawn.
Where did he hear that again? It’s always darkest before the dawn? As soon as the light was good enough for visibility, he quickly looked at her. She had a few scratches from getting off of the boat, most probably, but she also had a large gash on her head,and she didn’t even tell him about it.
“You’re bleeding,” he said with a frown.
“I don’t think it’s that much. Doesn’t feel like it,” she responded listlessly. She was looking at the water, which was just a good six feet below them.
He quickly opened the first-aid kit and found a few waterproof bandages, wet gauze, and half a bottle of alcohol. “This might sting a little,” he told her.
“Do we really need that?”
“Yes.”
“There aren’t any sharks around here…”
“Bull sharks,” he said. Frickin’ bull sharks could swim way up into the river. Crocs ate bull sharks, and bull sharks ate tiny crocs. Both the bull sharks and crocs could just as easily attack them.
“Oh.”
She barely flinched when he poured alcohol on her temple, a by-product of shock most probably, and he finished it off with two large bandages, put side by side.
&n
bsp; “You okay?” he asked her.
“Yeah. I didn’t feel it much. Or I could be tired.”
Dehydrated was more likely, he thought. He was starting to feel the same thing, too. They needed water, and there was none that was clean. He didn’t dare drink from the river, not without a filter or something close to it. Aren’t you the unprepared prick? He admonished himself.
“Look,” she said quietly, pointing to the water.
Zac strained his eyes. Lo and behold, across from them was a saltie. He couldn’t tell if it was a large one, as only a part of its head showed. He didn’t see any other crocs, and he wasn’t sure if that was a good sign, or not. At least that was one problem down, he thought. Croc attacks were highly unlikely, yet they experienced one just hours ago. However large that croc was, Zac was sure there was no swimming back to shore anytime soon. How long would they wait for the next opportune moment? It seemed like the croc was taunting them, and for a moment, he wanted to throw a rock at the croc’s head, just to spite it.
“We’ll just have to wait a bit more. Come seven o’clock, I’ll fire out our last flare,” he said to her.
The last flare—he nearly trembled at the thought of their last flare. What was next? They needed water, they needed to eat. She needed medical attention. And to think he prioritized that he needed to check on their mines yesterday. He’d have been awake by now, ready to be picked up, and brought to the sites.
“Zac, it’s moving,” she said with a gasp, “it’s swimming toward us.”
He quickly helped her up, and they stood. Zac quickly grabbed the nearest object he could find—a rock. Jesus, he thought, a rock against a ton of pressure from this saltie’s jaws. Her hand slipped into his, and she gripped it with surprising ferocity. She was shaking beside him, her fear evident.
“Get up,” he quickly said, “Get up now.”
He had never been familiar with how crocs worked; everything he knew was based on what he learned at the zoo, and what they told him. He had used the last flare… Grabbing her hand, he pushed her behind him, closer to a small tree.
“Zac…”
“Shhh.”
The saltie was slowly moving up out of the water, watching them with its glassy eyes. It blinked, and Zac took a step back. He waited quietly, almost too afraid to breathe. The croc slid gracefully by the islet’s shore, as if to let them know they were invaders.
