Shipwrecked

9-Ryann

I open my eyes suddenly and squint. The sun burns my eyelids.
I crawl out from beneath the covers and hop down off my bed.
My legs tingle and I wince. I hate this feeling. It feels like I'm being poked from the inside out with millions of tiny needles.
I know it must be late in the morning because of the position of the sun in the sky, but I feel more tired than I ever have.
Noa and Brooklyn sit on the porch outside talking quietly.
I put on my shoes and open the door.
They both turn to look at me and I freeze in place.
I've never quite understood why people must look to whatever direction they hear the slightest sound from. I guess it's just a reflex, but it still bothers me. Always has, ever since elementary school.
We would be sitting there learning and someone would walk by in the hallway, and everyone would turn and look.
"What?" I ask my voice annoyed and snippy. I can't help it. I'm irritable today.
"You slept in late." Noa says ignoring my attitude.
"Yea, well..." I glance at Brooklyn who immediately looks away.
Wow, the coward, she can't even look at me after our conversation last night.
Noa can sense the tension between us, "Well, it doesn't matter. Um, do you want some of this," she asks holding up a plate of the panther meat Brooklyn must have prepared for breakfast.
I don't know why Brooklyn even bothered. She knows Noa is never going to cave. She's never going to eat meat, ever.
I ignore her offer and sit down on Brooklyn's left.
I clack my rubber heels against the wood quickly, the nervous energy flowing out of me.
I sigh. There is something I've been meaning to do for a while. Something I need to do.
Our ship still sits at the bottom of the ocean. There is still so much we haven't salvaged from it.
I don't know why, but for some reason I thought of the necklace and now I can't get it off my mind. I need it back.
My mother gave to me as a child. She gave one to my siblings as well, Pete and Michie.
We were all special. Mom and dad gave birth to three fighting machines.
Pete was barely a year younger than me and Michie almost a year after him. We were all in the same group. They took us all up at the same time.
Mom had to lose all three of us at once.
I think what reminded me of it was my talk with Brooklyn the other night. That necklace helped me get through training.
"I was thinking of going for a swim today," I try, looking to see Brooklyn's reaction.
She normally jumps at the chance to go anywhere near the water, but today she just looks tired. Maybe she's just good at containing her excitement. I think that's what it is. I hope.
"Well?" I begin.
Brooklyn rolls her eyes, "Don't you mean you were thinking of us going down to the ship for you to salvage something that you all of the sudden want."
"Brooklyn," Noa begins.
"What?" she shouts, looking at Noa with a look of pure annoyance on her face, "you know, maybe I don't feel like going for a swim with a bunch of man eating sharks today."
Noa and I both raise our eyebrows at her and she sighs.

***

Not even an hour after lunch I find myself walking behind Noa and Brooklyn in a wetsuit lugging my air tank and an armful of other equipment to the beach.
Brooklyn dumps her stuff on the sand and ties her hair with a rubber band, closing her eyes before stretching her arms out.
I watch her sit down in the sand and start adjusting her equipment. I see Noa mimicking her. They know what they're doing, so I copy them as well.
"So what's the plan?" I ask.
"I assumed you had one." Brooklyn answers calmly, "This was your idea."
They both look to me expectantly.
"Well, I'm not the strongest swimmer..." I begin.
  "So, what I'm hearing is you want me and Noa to go down for you?" Brooklyn retaliates.
"No, I just, I'd like it if you could do the harder stuff."
"Okay, so we do the dirty work to get what you want from the ship?" she asks. "How is that fair?"
"It's not, I'm just not a good swimmer, and I might drown if I go too deep."
"It's not that hard you know, you don't even need to know how to swim, you just dive down, take some rocks, you'll sink for sure, you probably don't even need them with all the gear, then you just swim back up, you've done this a million times before Ryann."
That's my problem, swimming back up.
"I'm just nervous okay; I'm not as comfortable as you are in the water. Not everyone can be like that."
"Yea Brooklyn, give her a break, we can get whatever it is she wants, it's not that big of a deal." Noa agrees with me.
"Ok." Brooklyn glares at her, "And how do you know that Noa?" she asks, "She hasn't even told us what it is yet."
"It's just my necklace," I say, "nothing too heavy."
"Yea, nothing too heavy, just something that's nearly impossible to find." Brooklyn says in annoyance.
I sigh, "What's your deal?"
"What's my deal? What's your deal? You're always so controlling. You make us do everything for you, and then you're not even grateful for it."
"I never said you had to do this." I shoot back at her. "I was just asking, and you happened to agree."
"You would've made us anyway Ryann."
"So, it's not like you dread the ocean anyway Brooklyn. You and Noa are both like little fish."
"That doesn't mean we want to be trapped all the time." she throws her gear into the sand and lets her feet sink into it, sighing a little too loudly.
I think she might fall to the ground and hug her knees, breaking down like she always does, but she doesn't.
"Sometimes even the fish need to get out of the water." she says putting her hands on her hips.
I am not used to her sticking up for herself so much like this. I don't know how to take it.
"Let's just go back then, if you're so insistent on not doing me this one simple favor." I say.
"It's too late now," she says pulling the arms of her wet suit up and over her shoulders, sliding into it as graceful as she could be. She pulls the string on the back and zips it up in one tug. "I'm here and ready, so I'm going in,"
She gathers the rest of her gear, putting it on her back, checking every gage on her air tank twice before walking towards the ocean.
"Wait," I call, "Do you even remember what it looks like?"
She swats my question like it's a fly. "Yes, I know what it looks like; you wore it every single fucking day like it was some sort of life line."
She looks so sure footed as she steps into the water, so confident.
"Do you have any idea where it might be?" I shout.
"In the jewelry box, I'm not stupid Ry!" she answers. The water is up to her ankles, her knees, her thighs.
"Brooklyn, could you wait up!" Noa calls. "You shouldn't go alone!"
"I'll be alright," she shouts back at us.
It's up to her belly button now, her waist, her chest.
She pulls her goggles on and holds the air tube to her mouth.
"Don't forget to turn on your radio!" Noa yells just as she starts swimming against the waves.
Noa stares at her body growing smaller and finally she dives down into the deep ocean.
"She's crazy." I say, "Absolutely crazy."
Noa nods and we help each other into our wetsuits and hop into the little paddle boat we salvaged lugging our gear with us.
I help Noa paddle, and we don't say much to each other.
I stare at the crystal clear ocean as my wooden oar slices through it. The waters are pretty calm today, not nearly as wild as they were on the night we crashed here.
It's almost serene. I begin to feel like I understand why Noa and Brooklyn like the water so much.
We find our way to the spot where our sunken ship rests, and I swear I see Brooklyn swimming around amongst the hundreds of little sea creatures down there.
Noa looks over at me and says, "Are you coming or what?"
I see that she already has some of her gear on.
"I guess I'll come. Do you think we should get as much as we can on each dive?"
"That would be smart." she says a little sarcastically. "Just don't overload, it'll be harder to swim up."
I take a deep breath and look down at the ocean floor through the crystal clear rippling water.
I feel her hand on my shoulder, "Hey, it'll be okay."
I bite my lip.
"It's just the ocean right?"
Yea just the ship killing-man eating-shark infested-deep-dark-scary ocean, I think to myself.
"You'll be fine." Noa assures me. "If you feel stuck, just remember, the anchor is always there, just lure yourself up."
I take another deep breath and let her help me with my gear. Then she asks if I want to get in first or she.
It takes me a minute to think of the pros and cons of each but I finally decide on myself going first. That way she can help me and I don't have to drop the anchor down alone. It's really heavy.
I slink in, the boat wobbles and I freak out a little bit. Noa doesn't even flinch; she just helps me in, holding onto my slippery hands.
The cold water creeps into my wetsuit, sending chills up my spine.
By the time I'm fully in Noa looks a little annoyed by me and our hands are both red from the pressure of holding on so tight. I am practically hyperventilating when I realize the way Noa is looking at me.
She feels sorry for me I think. She's sympathetic, unlike Brooklyn.
"I'm sorry." I say with a little laugh, gripping the edge of the boat as tightly as I possibly can. "It's just you know, after the wreck, and all..."
I don't have to finish, she knows what I mean.
"It's okay, we were all given a scare that day." she says.
"Yea, you guys got over it though, I'm still terrified."
"It's okay Ry. Everyone has their one thing."
I think about that. I know what Brooklyn's is, fire. Mine is water. I wonder what Noa's is though, what is her one thing?
"What's yours?" I ask.
She shrugs. "I don't know."
Then it hits me, guns.
I don't bring it up. I know Noa's ego is too big for that kind of thing. That's why she tried her best to ignore her fear during training, but I could tell the weapons made her uneasy. Shane knew too. He would make her hold the evil things anyways though.
I look up at her, her light red hair glows a little in the sun's light that is reflecting off the glimmering ocean.
She is holding the anchor. "Are you ready?" she asks, struggling a little under the weight of the large anchor we carved out of the heaviest rock we could find on the island.
I take a huge breath and slowly let go of the boat's edges kicking my feet as hard as I can to stay afloat. Noa begins lowering the anchor and I help her ease it into the water.
I put on my goggles to see how much further it has to go, and soon it hits the ground with a slight thud that scares several fish away.
"Alright," Noa says pulling on the last of her gear and swinging her legs over the edge of the boat.
When she hops in the boat sways a little and I have to try harder to keep my grip on it.
Noa comes up to the surface and shakes her hair out of her eyes.
She puts her goggles on and looks to me, "Ready?"
I nod and she dives face first into the ocean. I follow her, not much on my mind other than the fact that I could drown so easily in this ocean.
I see Noa in front of me, her flippers making it easy for her to swim straight down. I allow my feet to move like hers and use my arms to help as well.
I can feel the pressure of the water above me and it makes me feel claustrophobic, like I am being crushed.
Most people would feel amazing and free in a vast open ocean like this, but here I am panicking because the water is getting in my personal space.
I try to take my mind off things and admire the beautiful scenery.
I have almost reached the ship. I can grab some stuff and reach the surface soon.
I see Noa in front of me. She opens the hatch on the door of the ships hold and disappears inside. Brooklyn is swimming around near some of the ruins nearby; she doesn't even glance over at me.
The ship is so close I could touch it, but just as I am about to grab hold of it to steady myself something brushes my leg and I scream, flailing around like a mad man.
Noa pops out of the ship to see what the commotion is.
I twist and turn to see what touched me and all I see is a gray fin. I automatically make the assumption that it is a shark and close my eyes, beginning to pray for my life.
I hear a voice inside my ear and think that it's God talking to me in my first stages of death, but really it's just Noa comforting me through the radio.
"It's just a dolphin, Ry," she says. "He's very friendly."
I slowly open my eyes to see a big, gray dolphin with this immense grin on his face. He is less than three feet away from me and my first instinct is to flee. I don't know what this creature could do to me; he has some of the sharpest looking teeth I have ever seen. Instead I freeze.
The dolphin cocks his head at me kind of like my old cat Janice used to do when I'd bring home chicken nuggets from school lunch
I reach my hand out slowly and he touches his nose to it and nuzzles me.
I laugh and turn to see Noa giving me two thumbs up.
Brooklyn shakes her head and goes back to searching.