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the sun had signified the end of all activity on the island. Darkness was
final, total. Now they had artificial light, courtesy of the inflatable raft.
While JJ. and Ian had searched for Will, Luke and the girls had moved the
covered lifeboat from the small cove where it was beached to a spot just
inside the trees at the castaways' camp. It wasn't easy to maneuver such a
bulky object through heavy jungle  it had to be rolled, carried, squeezed,
and sometimes tossed. But it was all worth it when Luke took the cover off the
survival pack.
"We're rich," he breathed.
No, this was much better than money.
Conveniences.
Small aluminum pots, pans, plates. Plastic cups and cutlery. Compass. Knife.
Lighter and waterproof matches. First aid kit. Fishing line and hooks&
There it was. Macaroni and cheese. A hole opened up in his stomach. Fruit
could keep them from starving, but this wasreal food. Big too. The label read:
SERVES TEN.
He had an insane desire to bite into the package  straight through the
shrink-wrap. Ha! The others would kill him, and they'd be right. He set it
back in the survival kit. This was their last meal, their safety net. They had
to preserve it for when they were really desperate.
He hefted the raft's water keg. It was almost empty, but it would still come
in handy. In the coconut shells, the rainwater was always mostly evaporated by
the time they got around to drinking it. Now they had a reservoir they could
close. That was a big help.
Tokeep us alive so we candie here , he thought suddenly.Or bemurdered .
That was an ongoing battle  Luke's brain versus his morale. He got through
the days by setting realistic goals for himself: Find food. Find water. Keep
looking for Will.
Twoshipmates you'd written off as dead showed up today , he reminded
himself,If that won't keep your spirits up, nothing will .
He sighed. These days, survival included winning these arguments with
himself.
With the keg under his arm, he ducked out of the raft's sun canopy that
loosely covered the lifeboat like a tent. The other four sat around the fire.
The dancing light of the flames played across their faces. It felt unreal,
like a movie scene. Luke guessed that he had interrupted a conversation.
He picked up a coconut shell, careful not to spill a drop. "From now on,
let's use this keg to store our water."
"Good idea," said Lyssa. "Hey, Luke, what do you think happened to Radford?"
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Luke clenched the shell harder. Out of six crew members who hadn't been too
fond of thePhoenix's mate, Luke had the strongest feelings. "Personally, I
don't think about him at all," he replied sourly. "But now that you mention
it, I hope the biggest shark in the ocean swam up and bit his ugly head off."
Radford had proved to be much more than just a seagoing bully. With the boat
crippled and slowly sinking, he had slipped off during the night in the
schooner's twelve-foot dinghy, taking most of their food with him. In effect,
he had left them to die. It had been that predicament  and their efforts to
restart the engine  that had led to the explosion and fire that had scuttled
the ship.
"But do you think he could have made it back to Guam?" asked Charla.
"Rat-face is an experienced sailor," Luke mused, emptying another shell, "but
he was in the open Pacific in a tiny boat. One good wave could have flipped
him."
"He's fine," scoffed JJ. "It's all part of the game."
"In your fantasy world," Charla added unkindly.
"Well, he never could have survived for real on that pile of Popsicle
sticks." The actor's son shrugged. "His own B.O. would have killed him."
"Big joke," snorted Luke. "That guy's as bad as the men from the plane.
Worse, because he was getting paid 'tolook after us." His wrist shook, and he
brought his lips to the coconut shell to suck up the spilled water. "Just
hearing his name again makes me nuts."
The five had decided to bed down in the inflatable lifeboat. The sand of the
beach was soft and comfortable, but four nights of ant bites had convinced
them it was time for a new home. As the others retired to divvy up sleeping
space, Lyssa remained outside to trim down their fire  a sensible precaution
to avoid being noticed by the men on the other side of the island.
It was an eerie feeling: killers out there, somewhere in the blackness.
Almost too much to accept. After everything else that had happened  murderers
on the very same tiny cay where both groups of castaways had washed ashore.
She saw a flicker of light coming from the woods. Her first reaction was
panic. It was them!
She squinted into the gloom. Nothing. Were her eyes playing tricks on her?
Suddenly, a hand reached out from behind and clamped down hard over her
mouth. Her scream was smothered by the powerful grip. She struggled, but her
attacker had too firm a hold.
And then  a whisper in her ear:
"Cut it out, Lyss! It's me!"
Will? If he hadn't been clutching her so tightly, she would have dropped like
a stone from relief.
You'realive! What happened to you? Don't you remember the shipwreck ? The
thoughts darted around in her head. There was so much to say. But when she
opened her mouth she couldn't speak. Mute, she wheeled and embraced her
brother. He resisted for an instant and then wrapped his arms around her. They
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held each other with an intensity that momentarily canceled out the danger,
the horror, the fear. A small part of Lyssa, standing strangely distant from [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]