Jonathan grabbed Sarah in a bear hug. “You are the most amazing woman. I am so sorry I almost made you leave that stupid case on the ship.”
Sarah smiled over his shoulder. “You’re welcome. I meant it when I said nobody messes with my Louis Vuitton.”
Candi smiled. Sarah was always going to be Sarah, no matter what, and that was okay with her.
Candi turned back around to Kevin, mentally psyching herself up to do what she had to do. She began issuing instructions. “We have to move quick while he’s still out of it. Get lots of salt and regular water up here, the sheet, scissors, the antibiotic cream, gauze and tape from the first aid kit.”
She was interrupted by Sarah who had already gone down the ladder and was busy following Candi’s instructions. “Check my Louis for the scissors!” she yelled from below.
Jonathan opened the case and quickly located a pair of delicate fingernail scissors. He handed them to Candi and then continued his search. “What else is she hiding in here?”
“Jonathan! Close my Louis!” came Sarah’s voice again.
Jonathan got a sour look on his face but shut the case. “Chicks.”
Candi got to work readying the needle and thread, doubling the thin cotton, hoping it would be strong enough to hold his skin together. Sarah came back up the ladder with the other supplies, joining Jonathan and Candi next to Kevin’s cot.
“I need you guys to hold him down. This is going to hurt a lot, and I’m not sure when he’s going to wake up.”
Sarah went over to Kevin’s other side and lay down on his arm and shoulder, trapping them beneath her. Jonathan went down to his legs and held them down from above, leaning over and resting his hands on Kevin’s knees.
Candi uncovered the wound. She couldn’t help but grimace. It was really gross. She took a bamboo cup with fresh water and used it to rinse out the wound. It started to bleed heavily again. She held the edges of the skin together at the middle. “I’m going to start in the center,” she said.
Jonathan was looking up at the ceiling, paying no attention to what she was doing.
Candi was okay with that because she knew he would be no good to them unconscious. She inserted the needle into Kevin’s skin on the edge of the wound. Then she went across to stick the needle in the other side, pulling the thread almost all the way through. Then she tied the ends together, using the knot to draw the edges of the wound closed. She put two more knots in that stitch and then cut it off with the scissors. “One down, about a hundred left to go.” Her stomach rolled, vomit threatening to rise up. She held it down, readying herself for the next stich.
When she was about half done, Kevin started coming around. He was weak from loss of blood and confused. He started to struggle as Candi was piercing his skin for the second part of a stitch.
“Hold him still!”
The other two held him down as best they could, but Candi couldn’t make the stiches and hold his injured arm at the same time. She had to calm him down. “Kevin! Kevin! Listen to me! You were hurt. I’m stitching you up, but you have to lie still!”
He stopped moving for a second. “Gumdrop?”
“Yes, it’s me. Can you stop moving, please?”
“Hurts,” he moaned.
“I know, I’m almost done. I’m stitching your arm up. Please stop moving.” She looked at Sarah. “Sarah, come over here and hold his other arm down. I can’t have him moving it while I’m stitching.
Sarah said nothing, just followed her instructions.
Candi finished the stitching with only minor struggles from Kevin. He fell unconscious again near the end, which made it go faster.
“There. Done. Thirty-five stitches. He probably needs more, but we are out of thread. The scar is going to be ugly.” She didn’t want to consider the fact that it might get infected and then there would never be a scar.
“Sarah, can you clean it up real good with the salt water and then clean water? I’m going to go clean myself off. I’ll bring your dress with me to the shower and see what I can do about getting the blood out.” She looked down and saw that her green top and capris were covered in blood too.
“Sure, you go ahead.”
Jonathan joined Candi at the shower. “You were awesome, Candi. You saved his life.”
Candi didn’t feel any better at hearing his compliments. “He lost a lot of blood, there’s nothing I can do about that.”
“Yeah, but he’s tough. He’ll pull through, you’ll see. Just stay positive. We still need to deal with these drug dealers who are going to be back soon.”
“How do you know they’ll be back soon?”
“Well, I assume they will because those plants look pretty big, like they’re ready to harvest. I think when they come again, they’ll bring more guys and more boats. That’s a lot of plants to haul.”
“Makes sense.” She sighed, not wanting to think about that awful reality.
They finished washing off and then relieved Sarah so she could do the same. She put her soggy and slightly blood-stained dress back on biting her lip before setting her mouth in a thin, determined line.
“Thanks, Candi. You saved him. I’ll never forget this.”
Candi was embarrassed. “You would have done the same if it were Jonathan.”
They gave each other a fierce hug before Sarah left to go wash off.
Kevin slept on, his face a scary shade of white. Even his lips looked pale.
“Can you get our food ready today, Jonathan? I’m going to stay here with Kevin.”
“Sure, no problem, Candi. Sarah and I will take care of everything.”
The rest of the night passed without incident. Kevin continued to breathe shallowly but with no sign of fever. Candi slept with him, getting up every hour or so, trying to get him to drink and checking his wound.
The next day Kevin woke up for a few hours. He wasn’t able to stand for longer than a minute because he was feeling really weak, but the color was starting to come back to his face. Candi insisted that everyone let him sleep as much as possible, while she barely slept at all.
Jonathan and Sarah handled all the housekeeping duties, taking turns watching from the lookout tree at the cove. Jonathan shared his concerns with Candi and Sarah and they agreed – the bad guys were coming back. Soon.
***
After a week had passed, Kevin was finally able to resume his schedule, minus the strenuous morning workouts. His appetite was back, and he was given double portions at every meal to help him build up his strength. He had a hell of a scab forming on his arm, skinny in some spots, thick and mottled in others.
“Man, I feel like I got run over by a bus,” he said one night when he was finally able to join them around the fire. “Cool scar though.”
“Well, you did get run over … by a boat. I’m thinking that’s pretty much the same thing,” said Candi. She looked at his arm. “That scar is awful. I’m sorry I didn’t do a better job sewing you up.”
“So tell us again, Kevin, what happened out there on the boat. The last couple of times we asked you, you were still a little fuzzy on the details,” said Jonathan. They had held off questioning him too seriously up until now, since the loss of blood apparently made him a little woozy and not so lucid all the time.
Kevin related his experience to them again, including the transmission by someone looking for Juan. They debated whether the message was heard by anyone who could help them. It was disturbing that he hadn’t heard any response when he was done; and the fact that there was some guy looking for ‘Juan’ on the channel was worrisome too.
“Maybe I didn’t get a response because I had to get the hell out of there,” offered Kevin. “Maybe they responded after I shut it off.”
“Yeah, but who wouldn’t immediately respond to such an obvious distress call?” asked Candi. “And if they did respond later, that means they responded to the wrong guys.”
He switched topics. “By the way, I’m ready to start doing lookout shifts again.”
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Candi looked at him with concern, but it was Sarah who spoke up. “I don’t think you climbing trees is such a good idea right now.”
“Why?”
“Because just the other day you were mumbling on about how Candi was Wonder Woman and you were Superman and you were going to make superhero babies together some day.”
Candi’s face flamed red.
Kevin just looked confused. “I did?”
“Yeah, among other things,” volunteered Jonathan, grinning around the food he had in his mouth.
“Fine,” conceded Kevin. “Maybe I’ll just go with Candi and keep her company.” He looked at her for approval.
She knew he was going crazy being in the treehouse all the time. “That’s okay with me, if you guys think it is.” She looked around at the others and they nodded in agreement.
“So what’s the new plan?” asked Kevin. “I assume you’ve already made those decisions while I was sleeping the week away.”
“We figured the next time they come, we need to be ready to get the hell out of here,” said Sarah.
“Isn’t that too risky?” he asked.
“Well of course it’s risky, but at this point, it might be too risky not to. First of all, since the next time they come it will probably be to harvest, they’re likely going to bring more than one boat, and more guys too. We need to somehow get to one of those boats and drive it away. We also need to disable the other boat or boats so they can’t follow us.”
Kevin nodded but said, “Why don’t we just hide from them and stay here?”
“Well, we thought about that,” said Candi, “but we were concerned that they might already know we’re here. They were looking all around the pot plant area, including the place where we had come in and trampled all the plants down. Jonathan saw them gesturing all over the place. Then, instead of going directly to their boat, they started heading to where Sarah had been hiding. Lucky for her, she had already left because her slingshot broke, and she needed to alert me some other way. But they probably saw more evidence of us being there. Now we know that some guy on the radio asked about someone named Juan ... doesn’t seem like Coast Guard talk to me.”
Sarah joined in, “You didn’t get a response from the radio person right away, and that doesn’t seem right, especially considering what you said. Why wouldn’t they respond back, like, instantly?”
“Well, maybe they did but I didn’t get the signal,” suggested Kevin.
“Or maybe you transmitted to some of their drug dealer buddies and not a rescuer.”
Everyone stopped talking and just stared at each other across the cold fire pit. The only sound to be heard was the ocean.
“We’re screwed,” said Kevin.
“Yeah,” agreed Jonathan. “That pretty much sums it up perfectly.”
“Alright, so ‘Operation Escape On The Drug Dealer’s Boat’ it is then,” declared Kevin.
They spent the next two hours working out their plan, packing their backpacks with the things they knew they would need to take when the time came. They weren’t going to have any advance notice when it was time to execute their strategy, so they had to be ready at all times.
***
They didn’t have to wait long. Three days later, Sarah came running back from her lookout duty to report that two boats and five men had just arrived at the harbor. They had guns too. She saw three of them holding the weapons in front of their bodies as they pulled in, while they looked towards the tree line.
“What does that mean?” asked Candi in a worried voice, as she shoved the last item into her backpack.
“It means they know we’re here,” answered Kevin, all traces of humor gone from his voice.
Kevin’s assessment sent them all into overdrive. They scrambled around the treehouse, securing what they didn’t need up above and shoving things they did need into the backpacks.
“Does everyone have at least one bottle of water?” asked Jonathan.
“Yes!” they answered in unison.
“Okay, let’s go, guys. I don’t want to be sitting ducks up here in the treehouse when they come,” growled Kevin.
After they climbed down, Kevin took the ladder and walked off into the trees with it.
“What are you doing?” whispered Candi, going after him.
Sarah heard his answer before he disappeared into the trees.
“Hiding this to keep those assholes from getting into our home.”
Candi and Kevin rejoined the others, and they all stood in a tight circle so they could talk softly.
Jonathan began. “Okay. We’re probably going to have a hard time getting away on the boat in the daytime. I say we lay low until nighttime and swim out then. Candi, you and I can swim out to the boat we’re not going to take, and tangle our bed sheet and some plant ropes around the propellers of that boat as much as possible. I’m not sure how much it will slow them down, but we have to do what we can.”
“Why don’t we just steal the key?” asked Sarah.
“Because I think they know we’re here. They’re not going to leave their boats unguarded. We can’t take the risk of trying to climb onto two boats. We have to take the one that has the least amount of guys on it and disable the other one from the water. I don’t know much about boats, but I assume there are no wires or things we can just unplug down there by the engine – otherwise it would constantly break down every time it went fast or touched the sand. I think messing with the propeller is our only option.”
Sarah nodded at his reasoning. “Makes sense.”
Jonathan continued, “Kevin, you and Sarah will swim out to the other boat and wait until you think it’s safe to get on. There will probably be at least one guy on there, maybe more. Wait until you think maybe they’re sleeping or whatever, get on board, and somehow neutralize them. Get them off that boat however you can.” Jonathan looked at Kevin. “I know you’re still kind of on the injured list. Do you think you can handle this?”
Kevin got an offended look on his face. “Handle it? Sheee-it, just don’t get in my way.”
Jonathan smiled. “That’s what I wanted to hear. Any more questions?”
“I just need to go fill my water bottle up a little,” said Sarah. “I’ll be right back.”
***
The three stood in the clearing waiting for her to come back, none of them hearing the sound of approaching footsteps.
“Well, well, well ... what do we have here?” The sound of the stranger’s voice sent shivers up Candi’s spine. She turned slowly with the others to see a gun pointed right at them. It was being held by a guy dressed in Bermuda shorts and a muscle shirt. When he smiled, she noticed he had a gold front tooth.
Pirates! was all she could think. She risked a glance over at Jonathan and saw him giving her an ‘I told you so’ look. She was never going to doubt him again. The only thing the guy was missing was an eye patch or a peg leg.
The guy with the gold tooth glanced up above them, noticing the treehouse for the first time. “Nice place you got here. We’re going to like staying in it when we come to the island. Too bad you won’t be staying in it anymore.” He laughed at his own lame joke. “Now we’re all going to go back to the beach and talk to Jean-Philippe. It’s up to him where you die.” He gestured with the gun as he moved sideways to make room for them to precede him in the direction from which he had come. “Get moving.”
Candi forced herself not to look in the direction that Sarah had gone. She didn’t want to let on to this guy that there was someone missing. Just because they were going to die, didn’t mean she had to.
They all started down the path, Candi hyper-conscious of the fact that there was a gun pointed directly at her back. She prayed he wouldn’t pull the trigger until this guy Jean-Philippe or whatever had his say. Maybe between now and then they could come up with an escape plan.
“Eeeeeyaaah!!” came a screech from behind Candi.
CRASH!!
“Ooopf!” The sound of a ma
n going down with a grunt reached her ears.
Candi spun around to see Sarah standing over the prone form of their captor, who was now on the ground, surrounded by pieces of broken rat cage. He started to shake off his confusion, raising up his gun to take aim at Sarah.
She didn’t hesitate; she kicked the hand that was holding the gun, sending it flying, and then bashed him over the head with the piece of rat cage she was still holding.
He slumped over sideways into the bushes.
They all stood in stunned silence for a second, staring at the unconscious drug dealer and the karate death queen, Sarah Peterson. “Now stay down, you fugly pirate!” she commanded.
Candi, Jonathan, and Kevin all rushed back to surround Sarah and give her a giant group hug. Kevin gave her a resounding high five that echoed in the trees around them.
“Sarah, you are the most amazing woman I’ve ever known ... thank you for saving us!” Candi grabbed her around the waist in a tight hug filled with the power of her relief.
Jonathan came up on her side and silently gathered her in his arms. “You crazy woman.”
Sarah was smiling, if a bit shakily. “No one messes with my family.”
Kevin stepped back from the group. “Hey, guys, I don’t mean to be a wet blanket on the love fest here, but before we get going, we have to immobilize this jerkoff, or he’ll alert the rest of them. We need to keep him quiet at least until we’re outta here on that boat. If they get to him first, we won’t have the cover of darkness to execute our plan. And obviously, they know we’re here somewhere. So let’s get moving.”
They tore off a couple of strips from the precious bed sheet and used them to stuff the guy’s mouth. Then they bound his hands and feet with lengths of plant rope, finishing him off by tying a cord around his head to securing the sheets inside his mouth.
Candi felt a little bit guilty. “What if they don’t find him and he dies out here?”
Sarah looked at Candi incredulously. “Candi! This asshole was going to kill all of you. He’s getting what he deserves. Let the universe sort it out. We just need to survive.”