Drift

Chapter 7

"Whooo- eee!!" Jason exclaimed as he jumped off the boat. He did a series of cartwheels and elegant twirls, then finished on the ground with a flourish, kissing the damp, white sand.
"It feels so good to be off that stupid thing!" He cried maniacally, inbetween passionate ground kisses.

"Easy there, Broadway. I know you haven't seen the ground for a while, but I don't think it appreciates your affection." Kat laughed, but Jason just smiled and started to make a sand angel.

One by one we jumped off the boat and on to the sand. Most of us had lost our luggage and shoes in the accident, so the first thing we met was the damp sand inbetween our toes. It wasn't necessarily a great feeling, but it was good to feel anything but the wooden floorboards of our floating 'home'.

"Do you think there's anywhere to stay here? I'm dying for a shower!" Carrie whined, but I could tell that she was happy that we had finally found our salvation.

The moon illuminated the large beach and we all smiled at each other. I grinned at Alex and Charlie in turn, wanting to capture the moment. The only thing better than constantly being in a good situation, is when you finally get out of a bad one, making you realise what you truly have.

The silence was peaceful and calm. Jason had stopped his victory dance and was just laying down with sand caught in his dreadlocks, staring at the sky, content.

But, all good things must come to an end. The harmonious atmosphere was soon broken.

"Guys." Kat said calmly, so at first we didn't think that there was anything wrong. "Where's Ben?!"

We all looked around, and after realising that Ben wouldn't materialise just because we wanted him to, we actually started to realise that something was up.

"Ben? Ben!" Kat called, her voice getting more and more frantic with every mention of his name.

"Ben!" Jason called. The rest of us then followed, so that the only sound to be heard was Ben's name being called in a chorus of voices. After a while it just turned into an indistinguishable blend of sound, and the word lost all it's meaning.

"Okay, let's all calm down. He has to be around here somewhere!" Charlie hollered, after our voices had started to fight for dominance.

He looked around once more and clapped his hands decidedly, immediately taking his role as leader. "Let's all pair up and go looking for him. Pick one direction and do not veer more than 50 steps away from..." He paused to look for a landmark. "... That rock." He pointed to a large and rather noble- looking rock that you would probably be able to see from the other side of the beach.

Charlie continued. "Call his name every step, and once you've exceeded your limit, come back to this meeting point and we'll discuss things further. Don't worry Kat, we'll find him."

Carrie then cleared her throat, interrupting the atmosphere. She sighed as if we were all idiots, then said. "Or we could just follow those sandy footprints..." She gestured to a path of sandy, Ben sized prints that no-one had noticed.

We all smiled sheepishly and Kat sighed in relief.

Well, at least Carrie's first contribution was a beneficial one.

***

"Be careful guys, we don't know what's out here, remember!" Charlie said as we followed the footprint path.

"Yeah, watch out for the deadly scorpions and the unnamed sea monsters that pop up in every movie where someone gets stranded." Jason said, laughing.

"Yep, I'm just about expecting a Spy Kids 2 spider monkey to jump up and eat us right about now." Alex responded wittily, then squinted her eyes to look further into the distance.