Uncharted (22 page)

Why hadn’t she died?

She lay on the warm sand with her eyes closed, praying for death and the relief it would bring. If the others survived, let them find her corpse. They’d bury her and hide this disfigured body forever.

She couldn’t tell how long she lay there, but something in the steady pounding of the surf assured her that life wasn’t ebbing away. She might be hideous, but she was very much alive. Some of the others might be, too, and she needed to find them. She’d need their help to get to a plastic surgeon.

She pushed herself up and balanced on legs that felt as wobbly as a newborn colt’s. A mass of green seaweed lay on the sand; she plucked it up and pressed it to her wounded cheek. Maybe it would help; indigenous people always resorted to natural remedies. Even if seaweed didn’t hold medicinal qualities, it would hide her injury from the others.

She groaned as she took a tentative step on her wrinkled and puffy feet. For the first time, she looked up and surveyed her surroundings—blue sea, sunny sky, a beach as deserted as a billionaire’s private playground. Behind her, a dense stand of vegetation, alive with the ticks and buzzes of tropical insects.

What
was
this primitive place?

Driven by a desperation she had never known, Susan pressed the seaweed to her cheek and hobbled forward.

Lisa breathed deeply and nearly choked on the sensation of air in her lungs. For a moment she was confused—had she forgotten how to breathe?—then she felt grit beneath her hands and heard a masculine voice that made her heart beat faster.

Could it be? Her mind gripped the possibility, clung to it with terrible longing until her eyelids obeyed her urging and fluttered open.

The world had gone fluffy, bright, and blue.

“Thank God, you’re alive.”

She jerked to the right, sending a squealing pain down her neck and into her spine. Kevin knelt at her side, his face drawn with worry, his hair matted by sand and sea. She was so grateful she was almost able to ignore the pain.

“Kevin?” Her voice was crusty with exhaustion.

He lifted her hand and squeezed it. “You don’t know how glad I am to see you.”

She realized he
was
glad, unspeakably glad, because something terrible had happened, and they had cheated death. This was one of those moments when Destiny stepped in to set things right, so now he would gather her into his arms and declare they were meant to be together; his years with Karyn were all a dreadful mistake . . .

But he lowered her arm and stood, one hand to his forehead as he studied the distant horizon.

Her thoughts, which had been lulled into drowsiness by the soft sound of the surf, exploded into vivid awareness. Where
were
they?

She sat up, felt the prick of something against her water-softened palms, and registered the stab of a dozen miscellaneous agonies. She was lying on a lonely beach, a strip of shining sand flanked by sparkling ocean on one side and impenetrable jungle on the other. A breath of stink passed by her nostrils, the pungent odor of rotting seaweed.

“Kevin?” Her voice was clearer now. “Where are we?”

He turned, flashing a brief smile before shifting his gaze back to the horizon. “Don’t you remember? John said there are over twelve hundred islands in the Marshall chain, and many are uninhabited. I think we’ve landed on one.”

She glanced down and noticed for the first time that though her feet were bare, her jeans had survived the shipwreck. Her arms and feet were scraped and sunburned. The muscles of her legs ached, but the heavy denim had protected her skin.

Were any of the others as lucky?

Though something in her would be content to remain stranded here with Kevin indefinitely, she had to ask: “What about the rest of the group?”

Kevin shook his head. “No sign of anyone else yet, but I haven’t looked around. Once I was sure you were breathing, I waited for you to wake up. I thought we could head out together.”

Her eyes widened. “Did you—did you save my life?”

One corner of his mouth lifted in a wry smile. “You looked half dead when I first spotted you, so I decided to practice my CPR. I knew it’d come in handy one day.”

She knew she was being adolescent, but something in her warmed at the thought of Kevin’s lips pressing against hers as he breathed life into her deflated lungs. They were united now, bound by breath for as long as they lived.

She pushed herself to a standing position, wobbled on her feet, and felt his arm slip around her.

“Careful.” He nodded at the ground. “I’ve seen several chunks of rock in the sand.”

She crinkled her nose as she sought her balance. “The sand feels prickly—or maybe it’s my sore feet.”

“I’m no expert on geology, but I think this island is the result of a volcano. The rocks are probably solid lava. They have black beaches like this in Hawaii.”

She glanced at the rock formation looming behind her. “Don’t tell me that’s a volcano.”

“Don’t think so. Not a live one, anyway.” He released her and stepped away. “Can you walk?”

“I’m a little wobbly, but I’ll be okay.”

“Then let’s head out. We’ll see if we can find the others, then we need to build some sort of shelter. The daylight won’t last forever.”

She brought her hand to her throat, which felt like it had been lined with sandpaper. It seemed odd to Lisa that her hair and clothing could be waterlogged while her throat was as dry as chalk dust. “Won’t we need water?”

“We’ll need water right away. And food, eventually. But first we ought to see if any of the—”

His voice broke, and Lisa followed his gaze. A figure was approaching; a woman was moving over the beach with mincing steps and a slight limp.

Though a great distance separated them, Lisa realized the tattered woman’s identity when Kevin’s shoulders tensed. The woman recognized him, too, for after only an instant’s hesitation she began to run.

Heedless of the rocky sand and his bruised body, Kevin flew toward Karyn like a moth to a porch light. They embraced when they met, then Karyn pulled out of Kevin’s arms and squeezed his shoulders as if testing to be sure he was actually flesh and bone.

They had separated by the time Lisa reached them, but their relief was still evident. “I’m so glad you’re here,” Karyn was saying, tears streaking her swollen face. “I thought Sarah would be an orphan. I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her alone in the world.”

“She’s going to be fine,” Kevin said, one hand rising to push a strand of wet hair from Karyn’s forehead. “
We’re
going to be fine.”

Karyn trembled, her blue eyes sparking with worry. “But how are we supposed to—”

“We’ll get home.” Kevin’s chin jutted forward. “In this technological era, there are no more uncharted islands. The captain had a GPS on board; if it was transmitting, it’ll only be a matter of days before a search party finds us. We’ll get home. We’ll see Sarah soon, and you’ll have the story of all stories to tell at your friends’ dinner parties.”

Lisa bit her lip and looked away as Karyn stepped closer and dropped her forehead to her ex-husband’s chest.

26

Karyn shook her watch, but the face was barely visible behind a layer of condensation inside the glass. Why was she bothering? Time might as well be standing still, for it was impossible to track the sun’s movement behind the thick clouds that had begun to accumulate overhead.

Her watch was as dead as Kevin’s cell phone, still clipped to his belt. As useless as the bottles of sunscreen Susan had packed in her huge suitcase.

After establishing a beachhead well beyond the waterline, Karyn, Kevin, and Lisa had fanned out to search for other survivors. They’d found Mark less than fifty yards to the west (assuming, Kevin said, that west lay to the left), then Susan limped in from the east, hiding half her face behind a mass of seaweed. Because she was weeping and in obvious pain, Kevin left Susan with Lisa and Karyn while he and Mark set out to look for John, Captain Weza, and the boy.

Karyn couldn’t help but notice that Kevin and Mark exchanged heated words as they moved down the beach. She heard Kevin yell something about the captain, then Mark roared that something “had to be done.”

“Turf wars,” Susan said. She’d stopped crying, and her voice had gone flat.

Karyn blinked. “What?”

Still holding a handful of sour-smelling plant life to the side of her face, Susan gestured toward the two men. “Blame it on testosterone. Our little Gilligan’s Island can only have one skipper. Kevin’s brighter than Mark, but Mark’s a survivor. He’ll be the alpha male before dark.”

Karyn made a face. “Good grief, Susan, they’re not in middle school. They’re both adults—”

“They’re both hardheaded businessmen,” Susan interrupted. “And which one will land at the top of the heap? Mark Morris.”

“Oh, come on. Kevin is a corporate executive. Mark’s a car dealer.”

Susan gave Karyn a bleak, tight-lipped smile. “I know men, honey. And I know I’m right.”

Since when had Susan become so cynical? Leaving the blond to her opinions, Karyn joined Lisa in her search for anything that might meet their immediate needs.

They hadn’t walked far before they discovered Mark’s plaid suitcase on the beach. It was dented, and the zipper broken, but Karyn would have recognized it anywhere.

“Look.” Lisa pointed toward the surf, where several pieces of clothing were rolling in with the waves.

Karyn ran forward until her toes hit the chilly water. She had assumed that the boat and everything on it had gone down, but the luggage had been on deck, not in the cabin. Their suitcases must have been dragged by the waves and pounded against a reef or something, then deposited on the island just as Karyn and the rest had been.

Lisa pulled a long-sleeved white shirt from the wave wash. “Does this look like Mark to you?”

“Looks more like Kevin.”

Lisa folded the dripping shirt, then draped it across her shoulder. “You never know when something like this will come in handy.”

After a long while, the men returned. Mark stood with his arms crossed and looked out to sea, while Kevin caught Karyn’s eye. “No sign of anyone else. Looks like it’s the five of us.”

Mark gave the group a grim smile. “I’m sorry about the others, but if I have to be stranded on an island, I’d rather be with you guys. Besides, the fewer of us there are, the less water and food we’ll have to find.”

Karyn grimaced at Mark’s ruthless practicality, but she was beginning to see why Susan thought he’d be a better leader. Kevin’s idea of roughing it was staying at a Holiday Inn instead of a Hilton.

She glanced at her watch again, then groaned. Why did her mind persist in useless habits? Her muscles ached from strain and exhaustion. This long day should soon be over, but the sunlight seeping through the thick clouds had not dimmed, and darkness had not approached from the east—if the area to her right
was
east. Without a compass or a clear view of the sun, who could tell?

She glanced at Lisa’s arm, but it was bare. Mark, however, was wearing a silver-banded watch that looked expensive.

She lifted her head. “Hey, Morris. What time is it?”

He glanced at his wrist, then released a word that made Lisa clap her hands over her ears. “I don’t believe it, but this stupid thing drowned,” he said. “It’s supposed to be watertight to two hundred meters.”

Karyn shot him a twisted smile. “Better
it
drown than you.” She’d hoped to lighten his mood, but at her words his mouth took on an even more unpleasant twist.

Ignoring Mark and his foul disposition, Karyn shifted her attention to Kevin, who was trying to organize their efforts. “Ladies,” he said, resting one elbow on his bent knee, “why don’t you scout around and see if you can find anything dry enough to burn? We have to build a signal fire.”

Mark turned from the sea. “First we need water. Already I feel as dry as a Baptist picnic.”

Lisa, whose favorite necklace in college had been a pendant that read
Born to be Baptist
, wasn’t amused. She stood and brushed sand from her jeans, then winced. “I’m going to gather material for the fire,” she said, not looking up as she searched her palm for whatever had caused her pain. “Anyone want to come with me?”