Three months ago, Haikuan and Meng Yao snuck away in the middle of the night, leaving Yibo and me alone. We lost our luxury sailing yacht and almost all our belongings only a short time later, in a stormy night. And we were able to save ourselves by escaping in a lifeboat before the yacht was rammed by a cruise ship and thus destroyed. Now it lies at the bottom of the sea, which will be its graveyard forever.
For three months, Yibo and I sailed from one island to the next. In the process, we learned to sail properly and had to deal with several bad storms, in which we could only survive because we finally knew how to sail properly and with a good portion of luck.
We headed for one island after the other. At the beginning we were always looking for the big islands, hoping to stock up our supplies there and find important or useful materials. But at almost every of these big islands we saw the same picture. Death and destruction everywhere we looked.
When we arrived at our first big island, we already suspected that we would not go ashore there. Already hundreds of meters before the island, the sky turned an orange-yellow color. So it was clear that there was a sinkhole there and where there are sinkholes, there are creatures. Nevertheless, we sailed closer to the island.
A good 20 meters from the island, Yibo dropped the anchor into the water. We didn't have to get any closer to the island and its beach. We could smell the death and see the destruction even from this distance. Bodies lay everywhere on the beach. Some looked like they had been burned. Birds and crabs were feasting on the flesh of the dead and a huge dog ran into the bushes with a forearm.
The buildings that could be seen were all destroyed. Some were even still burning. Others looked as if someone had simply torn them down, or at least tried to. A few boats were also lying on the beach, the owners had not even made it into the water. Most of them lay lifeless next to or in the boats.
Yibo didn't want to believe that everyone there was dead and steered our sailboat around the island several times. At first I just let him do it, but at some point I asked him what he was going to do when he found survivors? After all, our sailboat had already been too small for both of us and our island chicken, which Yibo called chicken fricassee.
But Yibo just shrugged and asked me instead, "What if we can at least save some kids?" I said nothing to that and continued to search the beach with my binoculars. But we didn't see any survivors. Yibo, however, didn't want to give up yet and anchored in front of the island. He told me we would wait this night, send up some flares to the sky and maybe possible survivors would see and understand the signal and then come to us. I doubted it, but I just let Yibo do it.
In the end, one night turned into three nights. But we found no survivors. But we saw creatures coming to the beach and collecting the bodies. They didn't destroy the boats, which was probably the final proof that there were no more living people there. Or they didn't know that people could use them to get to the sea. There were no flying creatures there, just as on the other large islands we had headed for.
Our journey continued and we headed for at least 8 more large islands before Yibo finally gave up the illusion that we would find a solution to all our problems there. Instead, we had headed for smaller islands in the meantime, where we at least found fruits and berries that we could eat. Because chicken fricassee, as our chicken is now called thanks to Yibo, was now our pet. Yibo did not have the heart to slaughter our last island chicken, so we had to live on fruits, berries and lots of fish.
The last big island we went to was not completely free. Because at least there we found a solution for our much too small sailboat, which was probably already old and would have given way at some point with the permanent load. We found a larger sailboat, which had probably once belonged to a family of 6 or 6 friends. Now it was ours!
And to our delight, the sailboat was not only equipped with an engine that started on the first test and had a full tank. But it also had electricity generated by a generator! Also, we finally had a real shower again and not just a water hose as before. And we had found supplies and water!
On the large sailboat, that actually already resembled a little a yacht, was the supply room, a large long cabinet, and all the kitchen cabinets full of food. And at the dock were several unopened large boxes, on which, for example, rice, noodles, dried fruit / vegetables, clothing and emergency rations, was written.
Yibo opened one of these boxes labeled rice and it was packed to the top with rice that was in a bag. With some effort, we heaved all the boxes aboard our new sailboat and ventured a little further from the beach and to a store that was nearby.
In this store we found diving equipment, tools, swimming gear, clothes, fishing supplies and a brand new satellite phone. Our satellite phone had been lost with our yacht, now we had a new one and wanted to call our parents right away. But we found that the cell phone network had completely broken down in the meantime. So we have had no contact with our parents for about three months now.
But we were less worried about our parents for the time being, because we knew that they were in a remote and relatively safe place where there were no sinkholes. Still, of course, there was some worry in us. And, of course, we missed our parents, too.
But we missed not only our parents, but also general social contact with other people. There is a difference between voluntarily not having contact with others, but being able to have it at any time, and wanting contact with others and not being able to have it. On the sea and so without contact to others, one is lonely, even if there are two of you.
Maybe that's why Yibo was so happy when we found a stranded man our age on a small desert island there. He lost his small sailboat in a storm and was just able to save himself on this lonely island. He had been there for days and was overjoyed when Yibo offered him that we could take him with us.
He Peng, as he was called, told us what he had experienced since he sought his salvation by fleeing to the sea. And with what he told, the final decision was made to avoid the big islands. Because he said, the big islands are besieged by the creatures. That there are no more surviving people there. And that a few hundred meters from the islands pirates are waiting, who not only plunder, but also want to kill.
After we gave He Peng one of the rooms, he showered and put on clean clothes and we ate with him, we told him about our journey so far. He said that we had been really lucky, because the pirates were mainly at the big islands, because they know that sailors like us would surely head for them. And I think he is right. We were really lucky!
He Peng has been with us for 2 months now and we get along well with him. The three of us share the work and he can even cook well. He also gave us coordinates of islands where we actually found survivors, where nothing had happened at all, because they had no sinkholes and were too far away from the other bigger islands.
At this point, however, I must also admit that I became very jealous at the beginning because Yibo and He Peng got along so well. They talked a lot together, laughed and made our further travel plans together. I felt left out and became increasingly stubborn. However, this did not go unnoticed by Yibo.
One evening, He Peng had been with us for two weeks, Yibo wanted to snuggle up to me in bed and I backed away from him to the edge of the bed. "Why don't you go cuddle with your new friend? You'd rather have him around than me now anyway!" I said angrily after he asked me why I was laying away from him.
Yibo turned on the night light on the nightstand, grabbed me and pulled me around to him. "Repeat that!" He said, no less angry.
"Why? You understood me, didn't you?"
"Yes. But I can't believe what I heard."
"Why not?"
"You're even asking that?"
"Listen Yibo. Since He Peng has been with us, you've almost only talked to him. You're always together, talking, laughing, and planning, and you leave me out of it! And how can you make plans without including me? I'm part of you too!"
Yibo looked at me with a mixture of tiredness and sadness. "So you really think I prefer He Peng to you?" He asked me, sounding very disappointed at that. I nodded.Yibo then got up from bed, grabbed his pillow and comforter, and said, "Think about what you said! Tonight I'll sleep on the sofa!" Then he went and left me behind.
But since I was not aware of any guilt, I did not think about Yibo's words, as he had wanted, but only became more angry. The anger in my stomach and chest felt like a fire, and the more I told myself that I was in the right, the worse my anger became and the worse the burning inside me.
Without even a minute's sleep, I got out of bed in the morning, angrier than I had ever been in my life, put on a swim trunk, went out on deck and jumped into the cold sea water. But it didn't feel cold, nor could it stop the burning inside me.
Like a stubborn child, I screamed underwater, swimming deeper and deeper until my chest began to ache. I stayed at that depth, looking up, amazed that I had dived so far and still didn't have to surface to catch my breath. And then I saw a shadow jumping into the water and trying to get closer to me, but not making it.
I tried to recognize who it was and then I recognized it by the silhouette of the person. It was Yibo! Slowly I swam up and in his direction and the closer I got to him, the better I could recognize him. And when he got a hold of me, he grabbed my arm so hard to pull me with him that it actually really hurt.
He pulled me up to the top, breathing violently and uncontrollably, while I breathed calmly. And as soon as he had his breathing halfway under control again, he grabbed me by the shoulders, shook me vigorously, yelled, "Have you gone completely crazy? Do you want me to lose you too? Are you doing this to hurt me? If so, congratulations, you did it!" Then he suddenly let go of me and looked at me in shock, as if he had only just realized that he had hurt me.
Yibo swam back to the sailboat and climbed in. I stayed behind in the water and watched him go back below deck with his head down and his clothes dripping wet. Only then did I see He Peng, who looked at me shaking his head. He came to the railing and said, "Hey Zhan, I think you should talk to him."
"Why? He'd much rather talk to you than me!" I replied.
"That's not true. Come out of the water and I'll explain." He said and then helped me out of the water.
"So?" I asked him as I wrapped myself in a towel and yet now I was freezing and shivering all over.
"The reason why Yibo and I talked so much is not because he is interested in me. No, he really loves you a lot and tells me so all the time. It's just that he lets me teach him everything about sailing. Things he doesn't know yet. He doesn't think about anything but giving you a safe place, like this sailboat. It's big and there's some equipment here that he didn't know how to use. I taught him how to use them."
"And?" I asked, as if I hadn't already understood what he was trying to tell me.
He Peng smiled and rubbed his hand through my wet hair. "Zhan, I'm not into men. I was married, but my wife died in an attack by a flying creature when we were trying to leave the harbor. Yibo listened attentively when I talked about her. And yes, we also laughed together sometimes when I told him about my wife. He does this because I needed someone to talk to. He said if I want to talk, it should be with him and not with you because he doesn't want you to be bothered. He loves you so much Zhan. And yes, we made plans without you. But not travel plans. Yibo wishes he could give you a romantic gift to show you what you mean to him. But the options here are very limited. So we made plans for what to look for the next time we go ashore."
"So..."
"Just go see him. You almost scared him to death with your jump in the water."
"Okay." I said, thanking He Peng for his open and honest words.
Feeling the most guilty ever, I went below deck to Yibo. He was sitting on the bed in our room with tears in his eyes. When he saw me come in, he jumped up from the bed, came toward me, and wrapped me tightly in his arms. "I'm sorry I hurt you." He said, sobbing. My arm and shoulders were still all red.
I shook my head and replied, "I love you Yibo. I apologize to you for being jealous. I was mean to you. I'm terribly sorry for that." For some reason, Yibo immediately sobbed harder and held me so tightly in his arms that it almost hurt again.
"Please don't ever think that anyone else is more important to me than you. I love only you." He finally replied after several seconds. I kissed him and promised him that I would never forget that again. Then I dried his tears and he helped me dry off and get dressed.
We stayed in our room for a moment, using this time for long and sensual kisses, before going to the kitchen where He Peng was preparing breakfast for us. He smiled at us and said with satisfaction, "Thank God you've made up. Now let's eat!" Since then, I was no longer jealous and just let the two of them talk in peace. Because at the end of the day, I knew Yibo would come to me, hold me in his arms, kiss me and tell me that he loves me.
Our journey went on and on and on. We sailed and sailed. Every now and then we would stay ashore for a few days to just stretch our legs a bit on solid ground as well, but mostly we stayed out at sea watching the radar or keeping ourselves otherwise occupied. Indeed, we must have always had good positions, because no other boat or ship ever approached us.
And I also wondered why I could stay underwater for so long and swim so deep without any problems? I had not thought about the bite of the elf-vampire for a long time. But after that day it was on my mind again for a long time and I also realized again that I have to find out what abilities I still have.
Autumn is slowly coming and with it many heavy storms. We know that we probably can't stay on the high seas any longer and that we have to find a safe place somewhere ashore. But where?