“I hate to admit it, Candi, but I agree with her. We’re living out Darwin’s theory of evolution, or more accurately, Herbert Spencer’s often quoted theory: survival of the fittest. Only the strongest survive. We’re a team, and we stick together. It’s us against them. If someone has to die today, that will suck for sure – but let it be one of them, not us,” said Jonathan, putting his arm around Sarah’s waist.
Candi nodded her head. They were right. This a-hole with the stupid gold tooth had pointed the gun right at her back, knowing he was leading them to their deaths. She looked at the jerk on the ground who they had just tied to the stand of bamboo. “Sorry, dude. I guess you should have picked better friends.”
They all smiled at her wisdom as they walked away. They hadn’t chosen each other as friends, but in that moment, none of them would have chosen any other people in the world to stand against these drug dealers with.
***
They arrived near the south side of the cove, hiding on the ground in the cover of the trees. It was late afternoon, darkness was just a couple of hours away. They stayed quiet, taking a few minutes to eat a meal of bananas. Sarah started mouthing the words to her favorite song. ‘This shit is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S!’ No one had the heart to stop her this time. She found it wasn’t nearly as much fun when it wasn’t annoying someone, so she stopped.
As darkness fell, they kept a keen eye on the activity surrounding the boats. One of the guys emerged from the trees and set up a tent on the beach. He made a fire and started cooking something. They could catch whiffs of the scent on the breeze, and Jonathan’s stomach started growling. They all gave him bug eyes, signaling him to shut up. He mouthed, What? I can’t help it! I’m hungry! Sarah blew him a kiss, and he smiled back. Candi rolled her eyes and Kevin smiled.
They watched as the group of four men, now missing Mr. Gold Tooth, sat down and finished their dinner. They were talking a lot and gesturing towards the trees, probably discussing their missing friend.
Eventually it got late. The kids’ legs were cramped from sitting still for so long. Kevin signaled that it was time to execute the plan. He gestured for them to all lean in so he could talk quietly.
“Okay guys, this is it. I don’t think they can see us now, it’s too dark. Jonathan and Candi, you guys are going to swim underwater to that boat on the right. It has two guys on it that I can see. Tie the stuff around the propellers. Don’t just twist it around, tie knots in it if you can. Then swim over to the other boat and join us. Sarah and I will take your backpacks with us.” Then he looked at Sarah. “You and I are going to swim underwater to that boat on the left. It has only one guy on it. Put Candi’s backpack on your front and yours on your back. I’ll do the same with Jonathan’s. When we get to the boat, we’ll hang onto the back, staying silent until Candi and Jonathan join us.” He looked around at each of their faces in the dark, barely able to make out their features. “Does everybody know what to do?”
They all whispered in the affirmative. “Okay, let’s go. Candi, you and Jonathan first. Good luck.” He gave Candi a swift kiss on the lips before letting her go. His heart convulsed painfully in his chest as he watched her slip away.
Sarah reached out and grabbed her brother’s hand and squeezed. He squeezed her hand back but said nothing.
***
After a couple of minutes, Kevin and Sarah slipped from the trees, moving silently down to the water’s edge. They listened for signs that they had been discovered but heard none. They crawled on hands and knees into the water and were soon submerged.
The weight of the backpacks made swimming difficult and awkward. Sarah had no idea if she was swimming in the right direction, so she stayed close to Kevin, constantly bumping into his arms or legs, which made her feel better because it meant he was close. She felt him stop, so she stopped too and surfaced, treading water.
Their heads emerged; they were about ten feet away from their target. Sarah couldn’t see any sign of Candi or Jonathan. She and Kevin slowly and silently dipped back under the water and didn’t come up again until they were at the back of the boat. As soon as they brought their heads up out of the water, they heard a loud belch. From the sound of it, the guy was sitting in the seat by the steering wheel.
They hung onto the platform that jutted out from the back of the boat, just over the two outboard motors. Within minutes, Sarah started to shiver. She didn’t know if it was from the coolness of the water, the adrenaline, or just her general nervousness. Kevin reached over and squeezed her arm. She didn’t know if it was to offer support or warn her about her chattering teeth. She gritted them together as hard as she could, transferring the shivering to her body instead.
Five long minutes later, Candi poked her head up out of the water silently, next to Kevin.
Then Jonathan arrived.
Kevin pressed his mouth to Candi’s ear, and Sarah heard him whisper, “All set?”
Candi turned and pressed her mouth to his. “All set.”
Kevin went to each of them, as quietly as he could, and gave them instructions.
They all moved to put his plan into action.
***
Thirty seconds later there was a splashing sound coming from the water in front of the boat, courtesy of Sarah. Candi heard the boat’s occupant get up from where he was sitting and start walking towards the bow. Jonathan and Kevin rose up out of the water as silently as they could and climbed onto the platform.
Candi stayed in the water at the back of the boat, now in charge of holding all four backpacks. They were so heavy she was struggling to hang onto them. She felt her hand slipping and realized she was going to get dragged to the bottom of the ocean if she kept ahold of all the backpacks in her hand. She dropped one, letting it sink down below her.
Jonathan and Kevin were dripping all over the place, the sound like a loud shower to their ears; but Sarah was doing a good job of acting like a deranged dolphin, so the boat guy didn’t hear either Kevin or Jonathan coming. They snuck up behind him as he peered over the bow to see what the splashing noise was.
He stood up and turned around, running right into Kevin coming up the tiny set of stairs that led to the bow; Kevin immediately knocked him back with an upper cut to the jaw.
The guy let out a yell as he went down that was heard by the guys in the other boat. Jonathan came racing up the stairs behind Kevin and headed straight for the drug dealer who had recovered from his fall and was getting up to face off against Kevin. Kevin had maneuvered himself so he was on the right side of the bow.
The guy didn’t see Jonathan coming until it was too late. Jonathan lowered his shoulder and gave the guy his best Kevin-style rugby-tackling move ever. The guy went flying towards the side of the bow where his leg got caught in the metal bar that ringed the edge of the boat. His leg stayed put, but the momentum sent his upper body over the top. The rest of him followed, and a loud splash signaled his departure from the boat.
In the meantime, Candi had pushed the backpacks up onto the platform. Sarah joined her, having finished her task of getting the bad guy to the front of the boat, and they both launched themselves out of the water and into the platform. They heard yelling pirates behind them on the beach and next to them in the other boat.
Kevin raced back to the console, turning the key that was luckily sitting in the ignition, trying to get the engines to start. The engines were turning over, but nothing was happening.
“How do you start this friggin’ thing?!” he yelled, desperation flooding his voice.
They could hear the sounds of men yelling and engines coming to life close by.
“Hurry up Kevin!! That a-hole in the water is going to get back up here!” yelled Sarah. She ran to the front of the boat and climbed up on the bow, peering into the water below.
“I know! Stop harassing me, I can’t start it!”
Jonathan joined him at the wheel. “Give it some gas. Maybe it needs some fuel in the lines.”
“Okay, boy genius, ho
w do I do that?” asked Kevin angrily.
“I think you move these two levers. I used to watch Miami Vice re-runs, and they used boats a lot on the show,” he explained.
Just then a movement coming from the boat’s galley area caught Candi’s eye. Suddenly the sliding door opened and a guy emerged. He was holding a gun, pointing it at Jonathan who was standing right in front of him.
Before she could even consider what was going to happen next, Candi saw a black shadow move away from the front of the boat.
“Hee yah!!” yelled Sarah, as she launched herself at him, leg out, giving the guy the most painful karate kick to the head that he would ever experience in his life.
The gun jerked away from Jonathan, a shot ringing out, gun flying from his grip and landing on the floor of the boat. Candi gasped, watching the guy fall to the ground, dazed. Jonathan and Kevin sprang into action, grabbing the guy and sending him overboard to join his friend.
“Where the hell’d that guy come from?!” yelled Kevin, totally freaked out.
He didn’t wait for an answer – he just rushed back to the steering wheel and turned the key again. They all listened as it turned over. They heard the other boat turning its motors over as well. It sounded clunky, like the bed sheet and ropes were doing what they wanted them to do.
“Try it again, I’m going to press on this lever,” ordered Jonathan.
Kevin turned the key, just as Jonathan was pressing one of the levers forward. Immediately the engine caught, and the boat leapt forward. All of them were caught by surprise and thrown to the back of the boat by the forward momentum, except for Kevin who was stopped from going very far by the seat behind him. He heard the girls scream, and he turned around to see total chaos, outlined by the moon that was now out in full force, no longer covered by clouds.
They were all in a pile at the back of the boat. “Oh my god, someone’s bleeding,” announced Sarah.
“It’s me,” said Candi weakly. “I think that guy shot me.”
“WHAT?!” roared Kevin, torn between going back there and turning his attention back to the task of driving the boat. “Holy shit!” he yelled. He’d just realized that the boat was pointing the wrong direction and instead of heading out to sea, it was heading towards the other boat.
He grabbed the steering wheel and jerked it to the left, narrowly missing the other boat. He looked at the lever Jonathan had pushed forward and noticed there were two of them, but only one was forward. He pushed the other one forward slowly, seeing what would happen. The boat straightened out and gained more power. The levers were about three quarters of the way to the top. He realized each one controlled one of the motors in the back individually. He had to move the levers together if he wanted full power and the ability to steer properly.
Shots rang out, but the boat kept going. Kevin spared a glance over his shoulder. “Are you guys okay back there?!” he shouted over the noise of the engine.
“Yes and no!” was Sarah’s answer. “Just keep going!”
Soon he was joined by Jonathan, who grabbed the handset of the radio and started transmitting.
“Maydaymaydaymayday, we need some help! Somebody out there, please help us!” He turned the dial on the front of the radio to another position and tried again. “Maydaymaydaymayday, someone, anyone out there! We need help!” He tried changing the dial again, stopping for a second to listen to the static that had broken out over the speaker. He started to press the button again and then he heard the growling sound of another engine. He looked out over the back side of the boat and saw lights coming in their direction. “They’re coming Kevin!”
“Hold on, guys – I’m going to push this thing as fast as it will go!” yelled Kevin. He pushed the throttle levers to their full forward positions. The boat’s tip picked up high in the water, but settled down again. “I don’t know what’s happening ... it feels like we’re going fast but the boat just went down lower,” said Kevin, panicking.
“Don’t worry about that, it’s planing.”
“What?!” yelled Kevin.
Jonathan continued, louder. “I said, it’s planing! When a boat is just sitting in the water, its weight is being carried by the buoyant force – it has a displacement hull! But as the speed increases to the critical point, the hydrodynamic lift increases to the point that it becomes the predominant upward force on the hull of the boat, which makes it ride more horizontally rather than diagonally! See what I mean?!”
“No!”
Jonathan shrugged his shoulders and then worriedly looked back at his sister and Sarah. Candi was laying down on one of the cushioned benches in the back of the boat, and Sarah was kneeling next to her.
Jonathan pushed the button again. “Maydaymaydaymayday, is there anyone out there? We need help! We’re being chased by drug dealers! Please! Someone ... ” he trailed off, worried they were never going to be saved. He looked at the gas gauge and saw that they had about a half a tank of gas.
“I’m going to go check on Candi. Keep going that direction.”
“What direction?” Kevin asked with a bitter laugh. “I have no idea what direction we are headed right now.”
Jonathan pointed to a radar screen that was glowing on the console. “I think this line here is the shoreline of the island. Just point directly away from it, and avoid any other similar looking lines because they will probably be other islands and shallow waters.”
He left Kevin to drive and went back to check on Candi.
“What’s going on?” he yelled at Sarah, crouching down to look in Candi’s face.
“She’s been shot in the arm, she’s bleeding. I don’t think it hit an artery or anything. Not that I’m an expert, but there’s not as much blood as I’d expect, like there is in the movies.”
“How are you feeling Gumdrop?”
“I’ve had better days, but I’m okay. Keep trying the radio.”
Jonathan stood up to look out the back of the boat. The lights of the other boat were still behind them. He went back to the front. “Candi’s been shot, but Sarah says it’s not an artery. She’s awake and talking, but we need to get her to a doctor.”
Jonathan looked at Kevin’s face and saw from the lights of the console that Kevin had tears running down his cheeks, his throat moving convulsively as he held back as much as he could. Jonathan awkwardly patted him on the back. “Don’t worry, she’s going to be fine. We all are, I’m sure of it.”
Kevin swiped at his cheeks with the back of his hand. “Yeah,” was all he could say. He turned and watched the lights of the boat behind; they appeared to be closer than the last time he looked.
Jonathan pressed the button on the radio handset again. “Mayday, mayday, mayday, somebody please, answer me!”
He let go of the button and heard static on the line. Then a crackling. He looked closer at the radio console. “Hello?” he said into the handset.
Some crackling came over the speaker again and then a voice. “Roger, on that mayday, Captain, state your position.”
Jonathan got so excited he dropped the handset. “Oh crap!” He grabbed the cord and followed it down to the dangling handset as the voice came over the speaker again.
“Captain, please state your position and have all passengers don life jackets ... copy?”
Jonathan grabbed the handset and pressed the button, “Hello! I’m ... I have no idea where we are, but we are being chased by drug dealers at high speed ... Over!”
At first there was no reply. Then some static and the voice again. “Captain, be informed it is a federal offense to make a false SOS mayday over these frequencies.”
Jonathan’s face blanched. “No! Sir! This is NOT a false mayday! We are currently being chased by drug dealers! We stole one of their boats, and we are being chased by one of their other boats! They have guns, sir! My sister has been shot with a GUN! With a BULLET!!” He paused for a second and then continued. “Come and arrest me. Please. I will gladly be arrested, just get us out of here!”
r /> They all waited anxiously for the voice to come back. It seemed to take forever. “Captain, identify your vessel and location.”
“My name is Jonathan Buckley. I am here with my sister Candi Buckley and our friends Kevin and Sarah Peterson. We were on the cruise ship Columbus that sailed on February fifteenth from Miami.”
Then there was silence for a few moments followed by some crackling. “Copy that ... standby.”
None of them could remember ever waiting so long for anything in their lives.
“Captain, provide Loran coordinates or GPS of your location.”
Jonathan barked out a bitter laugh. “Sir, I wish I could, but I have no idea where we are. Can’t you use your radar or something?”
“Captain, do you have a radar screen on the console of the vessel? By the steering wheel?”
“Yes!”
“Captain, do you see a number at the top of the screen between the number one and three hundred sixty?”
“Yes, it says one-eight-five.”
“Okay,” the voice continued, “there should also be some sort of GPS unit on board there. Either built into the console or attached to some holder near the console.”
Jonathan bent down to look at the console closer. He saw a black box sitting suspended in a holder near the wheel.
“I see a black box, but it’s not on.”
“Find the power button and turn it on. It should show you your current latitude and longitude.”
Jonathan dropped the handset and felt all over the GPS unit for a button. He found one on the side and pressed it. Precious seconds ticked by as it powered up. It seemed to take forever. Jonathan looked back and noticed that the drug dealers were closing in. “Can’t this thing go any faster?” he shouted at Kevin.
“I’ve got it going full blast, it’s going as fast as it can.”
The GPS screen lit up. Jonathan saw some numbers in the lower right corner that looked like they might be latitude and longitude coordinates.
“Hello, Sir, are you there?”
“Yes Captain, go ahead, state your position.”