Sea (A Stranded Novel) (6 page)

“Are you going to give me the cold shoulder for the whole trip home?”

“I’m not giving you the cold shoulder
, Mason. I’m just…thinking things through. That’s all,” she told him without looking at him.

It was true. She didn’t know how she felt about him anymore. His leaving her on the street blew every ounce of trust she had with him. Saying that he loved her made things even worse,
as she couldn’t believe that you would abandon someone you loved. So, either he was lying, or he didn’t really know what love was, and that was something she needed to really think about. She turned around and faced him and her heart softened at how miserable he looked.

“Mason
, I just need a little time to figure things out. You really scared me yesterday. I just don’t know how I feel right now. Just be there for me, okay? We’ll get through this together.” She let him fold her into his arms and she felt a little bit better. The sounds of someone retching on deck made her pull back.

“Tim said Lisa and Mark are seasick. Are they ok
ay? He was going to give them some medicine,” Emily asked with concern.

“Yeah, he tried but they both threw it back up. It’s pretty gross. David seems fine.
How about you?”

“I’m ok
ay. I had something to eat and that helped a lot. Help me clean this place up some more and we can get them down here. If they aren’t looking at the waves they might feel better.”

“Good idea. We’ll get them some puke buckets and leave them alone to be miserable together. We can go up and enjoy the sun
,” he said with a smirk.

Emily had to shake her head at him. Sometimes he was such a jerk. They finished organizing the cabin and Emily lined two waste paper baskets with plastic bags, put a box of crackers on the table and two bottles of water in the cup holders. From the bathroom
, she wet two washcloths and brought them out to the table as well. Mason went up on deck and helped Lisa down. She collapsed at the table and rested her head in her hands with a moan. She was so pale and her eyes were sunken. Mark came down and settled across from her. The shade of sickly green his skin had changed to didn’t look very good with his red hair. Emily placed the baskets next to them and handed them both the cool washcloths.

“Try and eat some crackers
, guys. It will help with the nausea and once they stay down you can have some medicine that will make it much better.”

Neither one of them even acknowledged her so she left them alone and went up on deck for the first time that day. The sun was brilliant and the air was clean. There was no taint of smoke in the wind and she tilted her head back and let the wind blow over her face.

Looking around on deck she saw Tim at the wheel and Mason and David sitting back enjoying the sun. There were resting places moulded into the deck so she lowered herself into one and just let the stress of their situation go for a few moments. Mason scooted closer to her and handed her a bottle of water. He draped his arm over her shoulder and she leaned into him. They sat like that for ten minutes until Tim spoke and brought their attention to him.

“There’s another one. How many does that make
, David?” he asked, pointing out ahead of them.

David grabbed the binoculars and stood to take a look. “That makes six. It’s a big one too.”

“What is it? What are you guys talking about?” Emily asked while trying to see into the distance.

“Dead ships.
We’ve seen trawlers, oil tankers, cargo ships. We even saw a small cruise ship. They’re all stranded out here,” Tim told her.

“That’s terrible, all those people so far from shore! What are we going to do?” she asked him.

Tim looked at her and frowned sadly. “There’s nothing we can do, Emily. We couldn’t take on very many people and if we tried we would just end up swamped. All those ships have lifeboats. They’ll have to try for land pretty soon. If rough weather comes up and they don’t have any power, most of those ships will go down. Things are going to be just as bad out here as on land, just more spread out. We have to keep going if we want to make it.”

Emily dropped her head in defeat. Knowing he was right didn’t make her heart ache any less for all the pain and death the world was going through. It would be easy to forget what was happening on land while out in the ocean but she knew they would have to face it once they docked again. She took the binoculars from David and scanned the seas all around them, focusing on the huge ship that was off in the distance. She thought she could see tiny people on the deck waving their arms. She turned to David to mention it when her stomach dropped and she had to rush to the side where all
her breakfast came rushing out. David held onto her while she heaved again and again until there was nothing left. He helped her to the stairs and down below where she joined the others in their misery.

The next three days were hell for Emily and everyone else onboard. She seriously thought she would die. Nothing would stay down and even when her belly was empty she continued to dry heave. Lisa and Mark were just as bad off as she was and Mason and David had their hands full trying to take care of them. Tim had stopped trying to give them the small amount of medicine he had onboard as they just threw it up before it could even take effect. Her throat was raw
, and her abdomen muscles ached like she had been punched repeatedly. It helped to be up on deck where they could see the horizon but there just wasn’t room for all of them to be up there comfortably. Those three days were a blur for Emily and all she wanted was her mom’s cool hand on her forehead.

Tim tried to help but he had his hands full sailing the boat and teaching Mason as much as he could. It was the fourth night on the boat and the three patients were slumped around the table when Tim
came flying down the stairs with a look of triumph on his face.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t think of this before guys. I know how to get the medicine into you.” He raced into the bathroom and came out with the bottle of Dramamine.

Mark groaned and muttered, “Save it.”

Lisa and Emily just shook their heads. They had all tried to keep the medicine down but it just wouldn’t work.

“No, really! I just remembered a friend telling me this trick. It will work, I know it. You guys really need to get some fluids and food in you, as well as a good night sleep. Take one of these pills and put it under your tongue. Let it dissolve fully. Don’t try and swallow it. It’s going to taste really bad but it will finally get into your system and start to work,” he explained while handing out the pills.

Emily was willing to try anything to get this under control. She was feeling really weak and her head pounded from dehydration. The pill was very bitter and her tongue started to go numb but she kept it there until it had dissolved. After twenty minutes
, she took a cautious sip of water and waited. After a few more sips, she tried a cracker and then another one. One hour after they had taken the pills, all three felt much better. They all felt drowsy but Tim wouldn’t let them sleep until they had all had a bowl of soup and more water.

Emily barely remembered crawling into bed next to Lisa. Her only thought was to wonder what would be for breakfast.

When Emily cracked her eyes open the next morning, she stayed perfectly still taking stock of her body. She felt clear-headed for the first time in days and knew she had turned a corner. She turned her head slightly and saw the bottle of medicine in the cup holder beside the bed, slowly reached out for it and got it open. She felt Lisa shift beside her and cautiously turned her head to see that Lisa was awake and staring at the ceiling. Neither girl wanted to move in case the sickness came rushing back. Emily slipped one of the pills into the other girl’s hand and whispered to her.

“Put it under your tongue. Let’s just stay here until we know it’s going to work.”

“It has to work. I can’t do that again. I don’t endorse anorexia as a diet plan,” Lisa whimpered jokingly.

Emily laughed
. It was the first time she had heard Lisa make a joke that wasn’t full of nasty sarcasm. They laid side by side waiting for the pills to dissolve and take effect. After a while they could hear someone banging around in the kitchen. Soon the smell of cooking came to them and Emily’s belly growled loudly.

Lisa’s head whipped towards her and she had panic on her face. “Oh God, are you going to hurl?”

Emily lay frozen; she just couldn’t take being sick again. After a few minutes, she turned her head towards Lisa and slowly smiled. “I think…I’m hungry. And judging by the smell I think that someone is cooking pancakes. Do you want to get up?”

Lisa’s concerned face changed to one of relief and she smiled while nodding her head. “Oh yeah, let’s go. I swear if breakfast stays down I’m going to lay on
the deck and suntan all day long.”

The girls cautiously got up and got dressed. When Lisa held the door open for Emily
, she marveled that it had taken a pukefest to get them past their animosity towards each other. Tim was in the kitchen using the small propane stove and he was expertly flipping pancakes onto a growing stack. When he saw the girls come out of the bedroom, his face blossomed with relief.

“Ladies, you both look so much better! I hope your appetites have returned. You both need to make up the calories that you lost the past few days. I found a huge bag of just add water pancake mix so fill your plates. We don’t have any butter or maple syrup but we have jam and peanut butter so they’ll still be good.”

The girls grabbed plates and helped themselves from the stack. They sat at the dining table and smeared their pancakes with the breakfast condiments waiting there. Emily made a sandwich with hers and happily munched her way through her plate. When she had finished she let out an uncontrollable yawn. “This is crazy. I could go right back to sleep,” she muttered.

Lisa added her own yawn. Emily realized that the medication was taking effect and they were feeling the side effects.

“So the upside is we won’t be throwing up constantly but the downside is all we’ll want to do is sleep. Can’t seem to win this one,” she told Lisa.

“I can live with that. I have no problem napping while working on my tan. It’s not like we have a lot to do for the next couple of weeks. It’s probably a good thing if you think about it. You said when we land that we’ll have to walk the rest of the way home
, so we should rest up while we can, right?” Lisa asked.

“That is true. We are so lucky Tim’s helping us. Where do you think Alex and others are? I can’t even imagine how bad it must be for them right now. I wonder if they found bikes or a ride. It’s been what? Five days since it happened. How far do you think they’ve gotten?” Emily wondered with a frown.

Tim sat down at the table with them and started to fix his pancakes. “Who are you talking about, Emily?” he asked while rolling up his jam-filled pancake.

“There were ten of us that decided to get out of the city that day. Our teacher told us what she thought had happened and encouraged us to try and get out of the city. My best friend Alex and some of the others wanted to go overland. But Mason convinced us that finding a boat out would be a better idea. We split up and went our different ways
,” she told him sadly.

Tim seemed to consider this
. “Well, if they made it out of the city, they would have a very hard road ahead of them. They would have to get over the mountains first and then they’d have to cross the desert.” He shook his head. “I don’t think anyone could make that trip on foot. Even if they had bikes it would be next to impossible. Sorry, Emily.”

David had come down from the deck while Tim was talking. He was shaking his head with a fierce expression. “You don’t know my friends. Quinn and Josh will make it happen and Alex doesn’t know the meaning of quit. I believe a hundred percent that they will make it. I have no doubt
,” he said with confidence.

Tim waved David towards the stack of waiting pancakes and waited while he fixed his plate before speaking. “You’re right. I don’t know your friends and if
they’re as smart as you guys, they probably have a pretty good shot. I mean, look what your group did. You guys walked over twenty miles through a burning city filled with gunshots and mayhem. You found transportation and managed to fill them with a huge amount of supplies and made it to the marina. So you’re right, David, they have a good chance.” He smiled reassuringly at Alex and continued, “It’s good in a way that it will take us a few more weeks to get back to land. I know this is going to sound harsh but we have to be prepared. The first week will be bad with all the confusion but most people will have had some food and water on hand. The second week people will start getting really desperate and that’s when things will get the ugliest. Massive amounts of people will start leaving the cities and larger towns. They’ll head out to the country looking for food and water. There will be a huge die off as people who haven’t walked further than from their cars to their offices start making extreme physical demands on their bodies. People will die from exhaustion, exposure and dehydration. Violence will take out a lot of people as they fight over dwindling resources. Anyone who is dependent on modern medicine and drugs will die as well. In the third week, disease will start to crop up. All those bodies lying around will be rotting. When we hit land, it will be important to stay away from any population centers. Stick to fields and forested areas. You’ll have to watch out for survivors who are going to be ready to shoot first to try and protect any supplies they have left. My family has a cabin up in the Cascades that I’m going to head for. You guys will have a much longer hike to get up into B.C. David, we’ll take a look at those maps you have later and try to plot a route. Anyway, there will be a lot less people around by the time we have to start walking.”

The table was filled with silence as they all digested the gruesome picture that Tim had painted. Emily thought about her family and felt tears welling in her eyes. She ruthlessly pushed those thoughts back. She couldn’t let herself speculate on their well
-being or she would dissolve in grief.

One of the bedroom doors crashed open and Mark stumbled out
. He staggered over to the table and dropped heavily down onto the bench. Tim asked him how he felt but all he got in return was a grunt as Mark started to shove food into his mouth. He had had the worst time of the sickness, and he looked horrible. His face was haggard, and it was plain to see he had lost weight. Mark’s red hair was greasy and matted and the smell coming off him was rank. Emily was more than ready to escape up onto the deck into the fresh air. Thoughts of being on deck made Emily’s head whip towards Tim.

“Tim, shouldn’t you be sailing the boat?” she asked with wide eyes.

He laughed, “Don’t worry, Mason’s got it. While you guys were out of it, I’ve been teaching him as much as I can. He’s a fast learner and right now there are clear skies and good wind so all he really needs to do is stay on course and keep an eye out. You’re right though, I should head on up and take over so he can have something to eat.”

With a brief frown towards Mark
, he jumped up and put his plate in the sink and disappeared up the stairs. Emily, Lisa and David were quick to follow him. Mark didn’t even seem to notice he had been left alone as he stuffed another pancake into his mouth.

It was another brilliantly clear day on the water. Emily loved the feel of the fresh wind blowing through her hair. Mason’s face broke into a huge smile when he saw her come up the stairs. She went to him and he pulled her close to his side.

“You feel better! I was really starting to worry about you, Em. This is amazing. I love being out here on the water. We can just relax and forget about all the crap that’s happening on land.”

Emily frowned at that. It was easier being out on the ocean but she couldn’t forget about the pain and suffering happening especially not knowing if her family and friends were ok
ay.

“It is nice, Mason but this isn’t a vacation. Aren’t you worried about your family?”

He laughed. “Oh, I’m sure they’re fine. My dad will just bull his way through anything. You know what he’s like. He probably bullied someone to get the house stocked on the first day. He’s got his hunting rifles and I’m sure Brett’s made it home by now. Besides, there’s nothing to worry about in central Alberta, lots of farms and cattle to feed everyone. Don’t worry so much. Just relax and get a tan.” He bent down to kiss her head and made a face. “You should get cleaned up, wash your hair. You’ve been sick for days and you would feel much better if you did.” He let go of her and put his hand back on the wheel.

Emily stepped away from him in embarrassment. She knew she wasn’t looking or smelling her best but that wasn’t exactly her fault. Maybe she should ask Tim to stop the boat so she could take a dip in the ocean and scrub off. The salt water would be better than being stinky. Tim noticed Emily’s embarrassment and intervened.

“Hey Emily, we’re looking pretty good for water in the tank. You can have a fast shower if you want. Just get in and get wet, turn the water off and soap up and then rinse. If you do it that way, it doesn’t actually use that much water.”

Emily looked at Tim with excitement, “Really? Oh
, wow, that would be great! I was contemplating going for a swim to clean off.”

He laughed “We might have to resort to that but not yet. I know you’ll be conservative with the water so go ahead.”

Lisa was just as excited about the prospects of a shower and she started to follow Emily down into the cabin until Tim called her back. “Lisa, we need to go over some shower rules first, please.”

Emily heard her groan as she left her there on deck. She quickly gathered up her cleanest clothes and a towel and headed to the tiny bathroom. Mason had followed her down and intercepted her at the door.

“Hey, why don’t we really conserve water and I’ll join you in there. I could scrub your back,” he offered.

Emily just stared at him with a bland expression until he backed away. “Ok
ay, okay, just thought we could have some fun,” he muttered.

She watched him sit at the table and grab some food before closing herself into the bathroom. Emily shook her head at her reflection. She wasn’t sure if she even wanted to be Mason’s girlfriend anymore let alone have some “fun” with him. She turned away from her hollow
-looking eyes and stripped off her clothes.