The mood of our group began to change over the next several days. Petty fights which used to pop up all the time became a rare occurrence as everyone started to grasp the idea that the little things didn't matter anymore. We all were working towards a greater goal that required all of our focus and energy: finding a way to escape.
"So how did you and Rita get back here in the first place?" Anna asked Toby one day. "I mean that couldn't have been an accident."
Toby looked over at Rita who was sorting coconut shells with Alex. "When I first left the island, I was really just trying to go in one direction, thinking if I did that, I'd eventually find land. It wasn't going well and when I washed up on the beach near Rita's village, I was barely conscious. Rita's father discovered me and brought me back to the village with him. He and his family welcomed me, but the others seemed suspicious of me. I became friends with Rita and one day when we were alone, I told her my story. It turns out she knew the island I was talking about, she and her father had happened upon it by accident a few years ago. So I asked her if she could take me back there (when I described the writing to her, she said she knew the language on the wall) and eventually she said yes."
"Wait wait wait," Isaac interrupted. "Her family just let her go? Just like that? Why wouldn't you guys bring a rescue crew?"
Toby grimaced. "If it had been that easy, I would have brought the whole Navy; you guys know that. Unfortunately, things got a lot more complicated. See, there's this rivalry between Rita's people and a group of descendants who live near them-"
"Why?" Anna interrupted.
Toby turned to her. "Why what?"
"Why is there a rivalry?"
"I'm not exactly sure how it started, but I'm sure Rita could tell you. Its no joke though, this rivalry. When I arrived in Rita's village, they were preparing to go to war and I gradually figured out that many of them thought I was a spy from the other side, even though I look nothing like them. Anyways, one night when we were coming back from making our trip preparations, the men were gearing up to go to war. Rita and I tried to stop them but that just made them angry at us. So they fought in the battle and when they returned, we learned that Rita's father was killed. For some reason, the people blamed me for his death, claiming that I was some sort of evil spirit come to ruin them. Rita overheard all of this and early the next morning, we took off. "
We stared at him. "Dude," Isaac said after a minute. "That's some intense stuff!"
"Wait," I said, my brain still processing his explanation. "They'd be looking for you, right? Or at least for Rita. Couldn't someone come here looking for her?"
Toby slowly shook his head. "I doubt it. They wanted me gone and now that she's run off with me, I don't think they'd be too fond of Rita either. Besides, Rita and her father were the only ones who knew about the island, they had come across it by accident. And now that her father's dead..."
I nodded, disappointed. "No one knows it even exists."
"Well maybe Rita could get us back there," Anna pointed out. "If she could get here then she should remember how to get back, right? Even if there are problems, we have a lot better chance against an angry village than staying on this island."
We all took a moment to ponder Anna's suggestion. "Okay yeah," Toby said finally. "But how do we all get there? The last raft we built could only fit four people tops."
Anna's face fell. "Yeah that's true.."
"No wait a minute," I stood up and everyone looked at me. "I think Anna's on to something here. If we can build three rafts to hold four, we can send Rita on the front raft and she can lead the way back."
"Whew!" Isaac huffed, rumpling his hair. "That sounds like a long shot!"
"And how are we supposed to make three rafts in that short of time?" Anna asked.
"If we all work on a plan together, we can make it happen," I said. There was also the fact that we currently had no other viable options.
Toby caught my eye and I held his gaze, daring him to defy me. Then he nodded. "Meg is right. I think we should do it."
Anna looked surprised. "Are you sure?"
I raised an eyebrow. "It was your idea."
She shrugged. "Yeah but who knows if it will actually work. I mean, how long did it take you and Rita to get here, Toby?"
Toby silently counted. "Two weeks."
"When you knew where you were going?"
He nodded.
Isaac blew a deep breath out again.
"Well it doesn't matter so much how long it takes us to get somewhere else once we're gone," I said. "Once we're off the island, the flood won't be able to get us."
Toby grimaced. "Not necessarily. I mean, think about it; floods don't just happen by accident. There's got to be some sort of tsunami or something that makes the water cover the island. That won't be a picnic out on the water either, although it's more likely we'll survive."
Isaac scoffed. "Yeah because our odds are nonexistent the other way."
My heart sank. They were both right. Even if we managed to get off the island, we would most likely run into a terrible storm on our way out. It was a chance I was willing to take if it meant survival, but I couldn't make that decision for the rest of my friends.
"We need to talk to the others," I said. "Tell them the idea and make a group decision."
Anna, Isaac, and Toby nodded in unison. "Tonight at dinner," Anna suggested.
"Sounds good. Let's start working on plans for the rafts in the meantime," Isaac suggested. "We've still got plenty of daylight left."
I sat up straighter. The rafts!
"Wait!" I said urgently. "Toby, that happened to the raft you and Rita came in? Is it still there?!"
Toby frowned. "I..I don't know, I'd forgotten about it to be honest." He turned around and called for Rita.
Dusting off her hands, she joined us. "What's going on?"
"Do you know what happened to the raft we came in?" Toby asked her.
She tilted her head thoughtfully. "I think we dragged it onto the beach, but I haven't checked on it since we got here."
"Which beach?" I was on my feet.
"We came in from the south shore."
I looked at Isaac and he nodded at me. Then we were both off running. If by some miracle, Toby had dragged the raft beyond the tide's reach, we would have one whole raft ready to go. That would mean extra time for the others, or even finishing early and getting a head start on escaping the flood. I quieted my buzzing thoughts enough to recognize my surroundings and make sure we were going in the right direction. At last we came to the clearing where I had been hunting when I had run into Toby. Had that really only been ten days ago? It seemed a lifetime in the past.
Anna, Rita, and Toby came crashing through the underbrush behind us.
"Where to now?" I asked, looking at Toby.
He paused to look around the clearing and get his bearings. "This way," he said jerking his head to the right. "Follow me."
Close at his heels, we followed, each silently begging whichever deities we believed in that the raft would be there.
"I hear the ocean!" Anna cried excitedly.
"You can always hear the ocean," Isaac shouted over his shoulder. "We're on an island!"
"We're almost there," Toby called.
A flock of sea birds scattered noisily as we spilled onto the beach. I looked around and my heart dropped. The beach was empty.
Toby kicked a clump of sand. "Great.."
"Look!" It was Rita, standing on the far edge of the beach and gesturing wildly towards the water.
The remaining four of us raced towards her. It wasn't until I was practically on top of her that I saw it too. The raft was about a hundred feet out in the water, tossing violently from side to side in the waves. I immediately began to charge into the surf, but Toby grabbed my arm.
"No, it's too deep," he said, reading my thoughts.
"Then I'll swim to it," I insisted, wriggling out of his grip.
"You wouldn't make it."
I glared at him. "Someone's got to do something!"
He shook his head, but didn't try to grab me again. "It's no use, Meg. I'm sorry."
Frustrated as I was, I knew he was right. And getting myself killed wouldn't help anyone either.
"I can't believe this," Isaac groaned.
I turned on my heel and waded back to shore. Anna sat down heavily in the sand, staring blankly at the sea. A moment later, Isaac joined her. Toby began to pace slowly along the waterline. Everyone was silent.
"I guess this just goes to show how fragile our hope is, to be lost so quickly," I thought darkly.
I looked around at my forlorn friends. This would never do, we had things to get done. "Well," I said briskly. "Back to the cove! We'll need all the time we can get to get these rafts done."
The others began to slowly follow as I strode back towards the way we had come.
"Wait!" Rita cried. "I've got it!"
I turned, hoping to miraculously see Rita hefting the entire raft over her head.
"What do you mean?" Toby asked.
"What time does the tide come in?" Rita addressed me.
I raised an eyebrow. "A few hours before sundown. Why?"
"The fact that the raft hasn't been carried away already shows that the tide has kept it near the island," She explained excitedly.
Isaac voiced my thoughts. "So?"
"So," Rita echoed. "All we have to do is wait for the tide to come in and we can get the raft back!"
I looked at Toby and he shrugged. "I don't see why not. By the time we get back, we wouldn't be able to get any work done on a new raft anyways. Even if it doesn't work-"
"It will!" Rita insisted.
Isaac and Anna were both looking at me now. "Okay," I said finally. "What have we got to lose?"
Rita smiled at me. "We can do it, you said so yourself, Meg!"
So I had. It seemed I had temporarily forgotten my own genius. "Of course we can."
The tide was still low, so we all found various ways to pass the time. I went searching for shells along the water's edge. Each shell was so smooth that I couldn't feel their perfection with my rough, calloused fingers. Instead I ran them across my cheek, relishing in the gloss that could only be cultivated by hours upon hours of being rolled by the waves.
It seemed like years since I had done something as leisurely as looking for pretty shells and I immediately felt sheepish. I turned back to the others and saw that Anna and Isaac and begun to build a sandcastle. I smiled to myself. Clearly I wasn't the only one feeling nostalgic.
"Can I help?" I asked, coming up beside them.
Anna looked up. "Of course! We need two turrets over here.."
"Make that three," Isaac said guiltily, picking at the remnants of a turret he had just stepped on.
Anna and I rolled our eyes at each other and laughed.
"What are you doing?" Rita was peering curiously over my shoulder.
"Building a sand castle," I told her. "Look; Here's the moat surrounding the center of the fortress.." I continued to showcase the various attributes that our castle consisted of.
Rita was delighted. As she joined in, it occurred to me that she may not have played in such a way.
"How different her life must have been from mine," I thought as I watched her carefully constructing a tower under Anna's instruction.
We were putting the finishing touches on our masterpiece when we heard Toby shouting for us.
"The tide has started to come in," he said when we had reached him. "When the water reaches this line" he gestured towards a deep groove that he had drawn in the sand "Two people can start to wade into the surf to try and reach it."
"I'll go," I said quickly.
"Right behind you," Isaac chimed in.
I grinned at him gratefully.
Toby nodded. "Alright, when you guys have brought it into shallower water, Rita, Anna, and I will grab hold and pull from the front."
Everyone murmured their consent.
"Perfect." Toby ran a hand through his hair and looked towards the water.
We all watched impatiently as the waves crept closer and closer to the line. At last, a tiny splash of water pooled in the rivet briefly before being sucked back out to sea.
That was close enough for me. "Let's do this," I said.
Isaac and I splashed into the surf. The water was pleasantly cool against my bare legs, but I was taken aback by how hard it was to stay upright as the undertow tugged us back and forth the deeper we got. Despite this challenge, the distance between us and the raft dwindled rapidly.
"Get ready," I called over my shoulder to the others on the beach. Looking back, I was surprised to see how small they looked as we waded into the rising tide.
"Almost there," Isaac panted.
I, too, was out of breath. The pull of the water was tremendous now and little more than half of our bodies were submerged.
"Just one step at a time," I thought, gritting my teeth.
A few strides later, the raft was nearly within reach. The waves teased us, bringing the wood within inches of our outstretched hands and then whisking our prize away, luring us into deeper water.
"This is ridiculous," Isaac puffed. "It's right there!" He surged forward and his fingertips hooked onto the edge of the raft.
With a whoop, I leapt after him. Suddenly, there was nothing beneath my feet. Quick as a flash, the undertow sucked me down under the breakers. Salt water shot up my nose and into my mouth, inflaming my lungs. I flailed uselessly for a few seconds before I got my wits about me and pushed towards the surface.
I came up gasping for air, my ears ringing. My bare toes frantically sought for the sandbar I had been standing on moments before. Treading water, I looked around me. About fifty yards away, I saw Isaac with the raft. My head reeled. How had I been swept so far in just a few seconds?
"Isaac!" I called. My voice was not my own it seemed. I sounded raspy and weak. He couldn't possibly have heard me.
Another surge of current tugged at me and with a gasp, I went under again. I surfaced, but as I did an icy terror gripped me. I was out of breath and already tiring. I knew I couldn't last much longer in this current before I was swept further out to sea. A fleeting image of Adam struggling helplessly against the waves flashed through my mind. Would I die here in the same way?
"Think Meg!" I urged myself. "Don't panic, think!"
The tide was going in and so was the water; this much I knew. So all I had to do was let the water push me back in. "But you have to stop struggling first," I reminded myself.
Against every animal instinct in me, I stopped floundering and moved my arms just enough to keep myself afloat. A wave next to me broke and rushed towards the beach. Heart racing, I swam with the current with all my might.
My toes brushed the sandbar, but I was sucked backwards again with the undertow.
I tried to conserve my energy as I waited for the next wave, but I had nearly worn myself out struggling before.
"Come on!" I told myself. "Just a little further..."
The second wave was upon me, but I was ready. With a second wind of energy, or maybe it was just stubbornness, I launched myself into the wave and propelled my body forward.
My feet slammed into the sandbar and I scrambled up, gasping. The others were about a hundred yards away but that was nothing so long as I had solid ground beneath my feet.
They had dragged the raft safely to shore by the time I reached them.
"Oh my God!" Anna cried, hugging me. "I thought you were gone!"
Isaac was white as a sheet. "I'm so sorry, Meg," he stammered. "I was going to go back, but I thought you had just fallen behind. But then when I looked back and you weren't there..." He stopped. "I'm so sorry."
"Hey," I said, grasping his shoulder. "I'm fine, okay? Don't worry about it."
"I'm so glad you're alright, Meg," Rita said feelingly.
Toby hadn't said a word. When I turned to look at him, I saw that his face was ashen.
"Toby..?" I began hesitantly.
"I thought you.." His voice sounded hoarse. "You were.. I thought you had.."
I offered him a weak smile. "But I'm okay," I said, moving towards him. "And we have the raft now. Everything's okay."
A sound caught in his throat and the next thing I knew, he was holding me so tightly I could hardly breathe. I patted his back uncertainly, but it was a long time before he released me.
The others were staring at Toby as though he had grown an extra head. Isaac's eyes flicked from Toby to me, and then back again. He raised his eyebrows at me in a question mark.
"Well," Anna said falteringly, breaking the awkward silence that settled over us. "We did it!"
"We should probably get back," Isaac said slowly, still looking at me. "Can you make it, Meg, or do you want to rest for a while?"
I shook my head. "I'll be alright. The best place to rest is at camp anyways. I could sleep for a year." It was true. My arms and legs felt like wet noodles.
Isaac nodded. "Right then. Anna, why don't you take Meg back to camp while the Rita, Toby and I bring the raft to the cave?"
"Come on, Meg." Despite my protesting that I was fine, Anna slung my arm across her shoulders so that she could support some of my weight.
Evening was rapidly approaching, and by the time we got back to camp, there was a fire going. None of us had the energy to talk much and I found I was still shivering slightly as I knelt by the fire.
"You look like a trainwreck." Chris handed me a piece of fish and crouched next to me. "What happened?"
My stomach growled violently and I tore into the meat. "It was fine," I mumbled, mouth full. "I just had a bit of a tussle with the ocean, that's all. Nothing I couldn't handle."
Chris laughed. "No doubt, you seem to be in one piece."
I thought of the cold grip of the relentless water as it tugged me under and I knew I was lying. I could have drowned easily. The water was in control, not I. I was just one of the lucky ones. But I said none of this to Chris.
Across the fire, Anna coughed in a way that caught my attention. She gave a pointed looked around the circle and jerked her head in a "go on, tell them" gesture. I had almost forgotten about just how eventful the day had been, what with our escape plan formation as well.
Setting down the bone fragments in my hands, I stood up. Everyone looked at me expectantly as I cleared my throat.
"Um, okay so here's the deal," I began, for the first time ever nervous to address them.
"Did you guys figure something out?" Rachel asked hopefully.
I swallowed. "That's the thing," I answered. "We sort of did, but it's a long shot."
Jessie frowned. "Like what?"
"Today we recovered the raft Toby and Rita came back to the island in. We were thinking if we can build two more sturdy enough to carry four or five people each, Rita can lead us all back the way she and Toby came. It took them about two weeks to get here so we're hoping we could make it back to Rita's village in about the same amount of time." I was surprised by how much easier it was to voice the plan than to think about it.
They all stared at me. Then Brian said what everyone else was thinking. "Is that it?"
"Yes?" Anna said uncertainly.
"There's no way we could survive that kind of exposure on the open ocean," Jessie shook her head.
"Sharks could eat us!" Kate's contribution.
"You've got to be kidding me," Chris finally said, deadpan.
"I know, I know!" I snapped. "It's crazy and there's a one in a million chance it'll work, but that's what we've got. If anyone else has a better idea, I'd love to hear it."
Silence answered me.
I sighed, irritated with myself that I had lost my cool. "Okay, now no one is forcing anyone to do anything. If anyone wants to stay behind. . ." I swallowed, thinking of what that would mean for them. "Well, that's their decision to make."
For a moment, everyone sort of looked at each other, trying to read each others' faces. Who would be the first one to make a decision?
"Well I for one am staying here!" Everyone turned and looked at Brian who was leaning against the bolder at the edge of camp. "All this talk of writing on walls and stuff is just a load of crap. If it really does disappear every forty-something years, how could people keep track of that? And what kind of flood is that predictable? It doesn't make any sense." He shook his head. "I don't know about you guys but I'm staying right here. Yeah it sucks here, but getting out there again," he gestured towards the general direction of the water. "Is suicide."
More silence followed his speech. Then Chris slowly rose and walked to Brian's side. "I'm with him," he said. "I'm staying here."
My heart sank. I looked at the rest of the group, willing them to believe us.
Rachel was looking doubtfully from one side to the other. "If we go," She said, addressing Toby. "What are the odds we'll make it?"
"I don't know," he answered truthfully. "But it's more of a chance than we'll have here."
Brian snorted. "Yeah right! What if this flood never comes? Remember when everyone was freaking out about the world ending in 2012 because the Mayans predicted it? Well clearly we're still here! I can't believe you're taking this so seriously. I mean, even if the cave people were onto something, what if they were off by a year or like twenty?! You're really going to risk your lives over that?"
"And you're really going to risk yours because you're afraid of facing the ocean again?" Anna shot back. "If someone had told you nine months ago that all of this would happen but then you would get a chance to escape, you would have jumped on it in a heartbeat!"
Brian glared at her. "Yeah? Well times have changed, haven't they! I'd rather stay here the rest of my life than go the way Mark and Adam did."
Rachel gasped and Anna's eyes grew huge but no one spoke. It had been an unspoken pact among the islanders to not speak of the ones we had lost.
"Mark would have tried," I said abruptly. "Adam too."
Everyone looked at me. "You all know they would have," I went on. "They wouldn't have just stayed here waiting to die. Mark and Adam wouldn't have been afraid to take a leap of faith if it meant getting home."
Chris sniffed loudly but when I looked at him, he turned away and buried his head in his arm.
"I'm going," Jessie said. She stood up and looked at me. "Erin wouldn't want us to die here either. Or Noelle."
Pain pierced me as I thought of Noelle. My happy and gentle friend. I would drive her crazy sometimes because I was so forgetful, but she would always just roll her eyes and remind me. We would laugh about how I couldn't function without her . . . and now I had to.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and I looked up to see Toby by my side. He gave me a questioning look, but I shook my head at him. With a slight squeeze, he released me.
Jessie came to stand next to Isaac, Anna, Rita, Toby, and me. I looked expectantly at the group, waiting.
Without a word, Alex came to stand next to us, followed by Joe, then Kate. Finally, only Rachel remained.
It was clear that she was torn. Her eyes flicked between both groups as she desperately tried to figure out which decision was best. For a few minutes, we all just looked at her as she grew more and more agitated. Just when it appeared she was about to spontaneously combust under the pressure, Rita darted to her side.
"It's okay, Rachel," she said softly. "You don't have to decide now. That's just something to think about. We'll make sure there's room for everyone in case someone changes their mind." She half-glanced at Brian and Chris as she said this.
Tension almost visibly lifted off Rachel and she gave Rita a weak smile. Rita stayed next to her at the fire and after a moment, the sides that had formed moved back together. Normal night time activities slowly resumed, although with less chatter than usual.
"Well that was fun," Isaac said low to me as we went to crouch by the fire together.
I breathed out deeply. "Tell me about it. I can't believe Brian and Chris are seriously going to stay here!"
Isaac shook his head. "They won't, they'll come around once they realize the rest of us are really going."
"Let's hope so."
We were just settling in when I remembered something. "Where did we leave the plans for the raft we made before Toby left?"
Isaac shrugged, his mouth full of food.
I stood up. "I'm going to go look for it."
Isaac rolled his eyes at me. "Meeegg, just wait until tomorrow! You literally almost drowned today."
I shook my head. I needed something to get my mind off of everything anyways. "I think I might know where to start looking anyways. See you in a bit."
Isaac raised a hand and went back to eating.
A salty breeze refreshed my face as I trekked across the island. If the plans were still salvageable, they would have to be somewhere around the beach where the raft had been stored. I was betting on the alcove just around the corner from the stretch of sand where Isaac and Joe had spent hours piecing the raft together.
I had been this way so many times that my body dodged and turned automatically as I neared the cove. My mind was occupied with escape plans when I realized I heard voices up ahead. Who else would be out here this late? Suspicious, I stopped walking crouched down to listen. The voices sounded familiar. I peered between the leaves in front of me to see Jessie and Alex deep in conversation.
"It doesn't make sense," Alex was saying. "Why would they think that this would work when we already tried the raft idea?"
Jessie shrugged. "Well we never really got to try it, Toby saw to that."
"Yeah and he's lucky he found land at all. I mean, think about it; that thing was stocked with food for four people and he was starving by the time he washed up by Rita's village."
"That's true," Jessie admitted. "And he had been trying to steer too, it must have been brutal out there if it took that long."
"Exactly!" Alex was growing more adamant. "That's another thing! They're expecting us to direct ourselves to shore with some sort of rod? What good is that against the ocean?"
Jessie sighed. "Yeah, it's definitely a long shot. But do you have any better ideas?"
"Well for a start," Alex said. "We need to establish a leader here. There's no sort of order whatsoever, which is fine until we come to something like this where we can't agree and a decision needs to be made."
"Meg seems to be doing a pretty good job of leading things."
I jumped slightly when Jessie said my name, thinking I had been discovered. When I realized I had not, I leaned closer to the conversation.
"Meg doesn't know what she's doing," Alex said dismissively. "She's too diplomatic; everyone gets a say and no gets left out of anything. This is a survival situation and the brutal reality of it is that more people are going to die and we're just going to have to be ready to deal with it."
It felt as though someone had poured ice water directly into my veins. Sure, I didn't know what I was doing, I could own that. Arguably, neither did anyone else. But what was he saying about more people dying? The whole point of this plan was we all would at least have a chance. This was not at all like the easy-going Alex that I knew. Was he implying that people had to die for any of us to get off the island? The insinuations of that were unthinkable.
When Jessie spoke again, I could tell she too was frightened by Alex's words. "So what are you saying we should do?"
Alex moved towards Jessie and took her hands. "Jessie do you trust me?"
"Of course." She sounded flustered
"I can get us out of this," he said urgently. "I'll think of a plan but I need to know that you're with me."
She hesitated. "Well I don't know..."
"Please Jessie." His voice lowered. "I can't do this without you. I need you."
"What about the others?"
"What about them? They can join us once we come up with a plan. But if they don't want to," Alex's tone hardened. "It's their choice to stay behind."
I had heard enough. A branch swished against me as I started to back away and Alex looked up.
"Who's there?" He demanded, rising quickly.
I ran, my head reeling. What had I just heard? A shiver ran down my spine as his words continued to echo in my head. "More people are going to die and we're just going to have to be ready to deal with it...If they don't want to, it's their choice to stay behind." Their choice? It wasn't anyone's choice to die! I ran faster, trying desperately to think of something other than what I had just witnessed.