Blueisland (Watermagic Series, #4) (5 page)

I was
stunned—horrified. “Move out,” I yelled to my friend.

“No way,” was all Savannah could say. Her eyes were wide as she stared out the window
. She just held her hand over her lips. “Let’s get out of here,” she managed to say through her fingers. There was no time to talk in the panic, so we made our way between fallen things, through the water, and across the room out onto what we thought should be the deck, but was really the outer side of the boat. The yacht thrashed again violently. This time it lifted out of the water held up by, sure enough, great octopus tentacles!

I held fast to the deck rail and
Savannah held to my leg as we swung over the side of the deck.

This really was my night. No joke. Some sort of treacherous sea monster, a mythological kraken perhaps, was toying with us. It’s long, enormous tentacles reached around the boat and rocked it, softer this time.

“Hold on Savannah,” I yelled down to her, holding tightly to the rail. We swung side to side.

I looked down, rain and wind thrashing against our bodies. People I knew were screaming and pummeling in the violent waters below. Some were hanging onto broken parts from the boat.

But, after a second the boat jolted again and without any time to think I was in the ocean myself. It occurred so fast that I didn’t know what happened to Savannah.

I felt like I was literally being pulled under the waves. There wasn’t much time to think about anything other than how do I get to the surface for air, then save
Savannah. But the surface wouldn’t come and something just kept pulling me deeper and deeper into the depths.

If it didn’t seem so real, I would have thought I was hallucinating. I heard the most beautiful, entrancing music. It sounded like the call of angels. The black water lit up in a rush of sparkles of light. It looked like
some kind of water creatures… No, it looked like
human beings
were pulling my classmates down and devouring them with their teeth the way sharks feed in frenzy. They were tearing them to shreds. Blood flowed fiercely.

Soon, my lungs felt like they were going to explode. The pain was excruciating. But, worse, was the unbearable fear and then remorse. Now, I knew what my mother must have felt when her boyfriend drowned her in the bathtub. That’s when the pain intensified to the unimaginable—death is not an easy transit
ion, no matter what anyone says.

Suddenly, I felt someone grab onto me. It must be my turn to be ripped apart and devoured. But instead I felt soft lips pressed against mine. I struggled violently to get away. The pain in my lungs vanished. Such erotic sensations rushed through my body, better than sex and better than the heroin my uncle’s friend shot into my arm once as a kid.
Everything went black.

Chapter Four

When I awoke, I was panting heavily. My chest rose and fell at a rapid pace. I was lying on a white sandy shore. The shallow waves rolled over my legs and then retreated back into the ocean. My eyes widened. It was completely dark except for the stars overhead that twinkled upon the black waters. I heard a loud crack from the ship breaking apart and distant screams. My teeth clenched.

In a sudden rush,
I tried to stand up, but my leg was too damaged and gave out from beneath me. My body collapsed in intense pain.

My face ached and burned. When I touched it, I felt jags of glass embedded in my cheeks. I was too exhaust
ed to attempt pulling the pieces out. But I gathered enough energy to dig my fingers into the sand to pull myself out of the water, heaving my body farther onto the shore. It took all of the strength out of me and I passed out again.

***

When I awoke, it was morning. A dark gloom came over me as I sat up and looked out at the vast ocean before me. Aside from the gentle waves rolling upon the shore, there was silence. The yacht was gone, the gigantic octopus was gone, and the screams had subsided.

The sun was rising on the horizon. It was a shockingly beautiful greeting to such a horrendous morning. My surroundings were gorgeous. It appeared as if I was on a tropical island with white sand, palm trees, and lots of o
ther exotic greenery. An angry feeling waded over me in an almost surreal manner that I couldn’t fully grasp as I considered the idea that all of my friends were dead. Nausea waded in my belly. My mouth felt dry and a little sticky inside. It was so damn hot and I was so heart wrenchingly furious.

I
scrambled to my feet. In a rage, I started screaming my friends’ names unable to accept the possibility of their deaths. “Savannah, Donny... Can anybody hear me?” My voice sounded different, almost lyrical. What the hell? Was I hallucinating? It had a beautiful resonance to it. I kept yelling out names until my strange voice became hoarse as I leaned over yelling and pounding my thighs with my fists.

Nobody responded. The
quiet island sounds of the ocean and a terrifying silence ensued.

When
I looked down at my body and realized how agile I felt, shock overtook me. How quickly I had physically rejuvenated from such a treacherous night. It wasn’t possible!

My body seemed different
, not as skinny. What in God’s name? When I touched my face, all the shards of glass were gone and I did not detect any gashes or cuts. How could that be? Alarmed, I looked down and saw the pieces of glass glistening upon the sand; some were still tinged with blood. My leg, clothed in blood dried jeans, felt totally healed. Only the night prior, it had been crushed something awful. A person could not recover from such serious wounds so rapidly.

I started shaking all over now. I was petrified.
Nothing made sense.

And oddly,
I felt strong. I pulled down my jeans to examine my leg further. Whoa! The shape of my leg was different. It was thicker and sexier. My leg showed no signs of being crushed by the cabinet. And aside from feeling mentally off balance, I felt physically better than I had ever felt in my life.

I pulled my pants back up
in an anxious rush. Looking around, I ran my fingers nervously through my hair caked in sand and dried salt water. It felt so much longer. Damn. It had grown down to my waist! Nothing made sense to me—a gigantic octopus, a bloody horror show of people eating people, and now a miraculous healing and a more attractive body. My hands reached to my breasts. They were fuller, probably two cups bigger, like I had shot from an A cup to a C.

I needed someone to talk to, someone to figure this all out with. Desperately,
I hoped that Savannah, Donny, and some of my other school mates had made it to shore too. Even Emily would be better than no one.

At least one of them
could have found his or her way to the beach at another part of this island. I reasoned this as bleak as the possibility seemed. Perhaps, somebody was nearby trying to make sense of it all just as I was. My body trembled even worse at thoughts of the alternative. What if they were dead? What if they were torn to bloody shreds?

Fury
ran rampant through my veins—I had to look for them. Atrocious flashes of the night before flooded my mind. I could still hear the sounds of chilling screams in my head.

Oh, I couldn’t think anymore. I tried to switch my thoughts to something more constructive. I held my head in my hands and dug my fingers in.
Probably a search team would come looking for us from the mainland. My breathing was heavy as I tried desperately to focus. Or maybe there was city life further up the islet.

There must be hotels, bars, and other recreational things here. I could make a phone call and get my uncle to pick me up.
My hands were shaking worse than the rest of me. Deep down I feared this was an uninhabited island. I could be entirely alone. What if nobody came for me?

I wondered why there were no buildings on this exact beach.
I looked toward the jungle. It was a great spot for ocean front views and restaurants. I figured this would be a prime tourist location. I tried to calm my racing heartbeat with another thought. Maybe I was in some sort of nature reserve and all the action was inland. Yes, that had to be it.

A lot of debris from the wreckage had washed up to shore.
Damn, I was thirsty. I had my eyes on the plastic water bottles over by the craggy rocks. Once I made my way over, I discovered that most were empty. I threw them down in a fury. But one had a little water left inside. I guzzled the contents down hastily.

I
tried to convince myself that a rescue team would come for me soon, but as a former overly zealous Girl Scout, I knew it was better to prepare for the worst. And the worst was what I feared deep within my gut. With that thought, I gathered up as many bottles as I could find and hid them farther inland at the edge of what appeared to be some sort of jungle. If needed, I could look for a fresh water source and fill them later.

Who knew how long it would take the rescuers to find
me, if at all. My guess was that if they were coming, they would be here by noon at the latest. Once, I found Savannah, I planned to light a big bonfire to attract attention. But for now, I was determined to gather anyone else I could find.

I continued onward over the rocks, trekking through tide pools, stepping over sea anemones, starfish, and crabs.  Some of the boulders were huge, but to my surprise, I was easily able to make my way over them. I had always been a good climber, b
ut my new agility surprised me.

The hike over rock after rock became tedious and disheartening though and the direct sunlight was heat
ing up my body way too fast. I started to feel even more agitated and uncomfortable.

Every so often, I had to move out into the ocean to immerse as an attempt to cool off. The water on my body felt
so good and tingly. To my surprise, it brought such pleasurable sensations to my skin. It was like nothing I ever experienced. The feeling was euphoric. I wanted to drink it, but I knew better than to consume saltwater.

As much as I craved to stay immersed,
I had to force myself to get out and continue onward over the rocks. I had to find other survivors. My heart tightened at the thought of Savannah. I had to find her.

When I thought of
Donny, I nearly cried. The last time I saw him, he was so weak. Of all the people, I couldn’t imagine that he survived. But life was full of miracles and the fact that I was still alive attested to that. I had to keep my faith that I would find both Savannah and Donny in perfect condition just as I was.

I was relieved after a couple of hours when I came to another white shore. But this beach was desolate too—just sand tapering off to dense jungle like the last.
My cheeks burned in anger. The situation was looking bleak.

My heart started beating fast now. I was feeling less confident about finding other survivors. I called out my friends
’ names as loud as I could, but the response was just the sounds of the waves rolling gently on the shore and the distant buzz of insects coming from the rainforest.

I found some more half drunken water bottles, but the liquid was rancid. I spit i
t out spraying the yellow water out of my mouth, onto the ground.

Star
ing at the ocean, I found it difficult to believe that I couldn’t drink the saltwater. Even just a small amount in the system would cause hallucinations, dehydration, and finally death. My mouth felt so dry.

I had to hurry back to the
empty water bottles and look for a water source in the jungle before dehydration overwhelmed me. The search team would be looking for me there, not here, and I needed to get a fire started to attract their attention.

What if I had missed them? I should have never left. Once I was saved, I could instruct them to search the other beaches for survivors. They probably knew that anyway.
What an idiot I was.

Back at the original beach, I was relieved to find my bottles just as I left them in the foliage.
I shook each one into my mouth and received a few droplets.

No matter how
I tried to forget the night prior, I could not. The sounds of my classmates screams, the ripping of metal, and the huge tentacles breaking through the glass windows was overwhelming. I grabbed my head and held it tightly. I just wanted to stop the sounds.

“Please stop, please stop…” I screamed out.

Nothing helped. I had to keep my mind on my tasks. “Focus, focus, focus…”

I took a closer look at my surroundings.
There were so many trees. It was relatively easy to find fallen branches from the edge of the jungle to use as fire wood.

Steadying my thoughts, I dragged the limbs onto the sand, one after another. My strength continued to surprise me. After a short time, I simply started throwing huge branches onto the beach from the jungle’s edge. The wood soared easily through the air and crashed with such shocking precision into the self-made pile.

What the hell was going on? I couldn’t figure it out. My body seemed so strong.

I was nervous about igniting a fire at first. But I had seen so many survival shows and even read books on end of the world stuff. And t
hanks to the Discovery Channel, I was able to eventually get a fire going by rubbing together flint stones over brush. The flames were huge, bright orange, red and yellow. It was a remarkable sight with lots of smoke rising. Only an imbecile could miss this show.