Teenage Castaways

Chapter Four || Pierre

"We lost them, didn't we?" I said as I peered into the distance.

"It appears so," Adeline said dully.

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We ran out of water. But we had a survival guide.

"No more eating until we find more water," I said. "That's the first rule." I had placed the tarp over our boat for shade. We were sitting on top of our sleeping mats on the floor of the boat.

"We need to either get rain or catch fish." I ran my hand down the paper of the guide. "But it doesn't tell us how to fish and we can only wait for rain."

"We need to fish then," Adeline said. "Waiting for something to happen isn't going to work. Plus, it will be good to keep our minds active."

"But we don't have rods," Emma pointed out, speaking the exact words that were running through my head.

Moments of silence passed.

"We could use the tarp," I suggested.

"Oh yeah! We could trail it behind the boat and pick up any fish trapped inside. But we'll need to be quick," Adeline said.

I nodded. "But we need the shade so we don't sweat out any water we already have." The days were getting increasingly hot and the nights increasingly cold.

"We'll have to fish at night," Emma dared to suggest.

I nodded, accepting it. "I guess we do."

"Sleep during the day, collect fish at night," Adeline said. The pattern would hopefully keep us alive until rescue finally came.

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Thunder clapped and the waves thrashed against the side of the boat. Emma threw a rotten fish out of the little hole in the tarp and whimpered miserably. The storm had started about an hour ago and it had taken many tries to fit the tarpaulin over the boat.

Fishing had worked, almost too well. The stench of rotten fish and the constant sloshing had made poor Fawn heave all over her sleeping bag. She quickly shoved it to the floor of the boat, which was filled with water. The beaches were the only dry area.

Emma shivered as another dead fish slapped her in the face. Clearly, she wasn't going to pick up another one. Suppressing a groan, I began reaching for the rotten fish on the sides of the benches.

The survival book, along with the half-empty leftover food sack, was safely enclosed in my sleeping bag. We had ended up dumping all the dehydrated food into one sack and had barely touched it since we began fishing.

Eventually, I fell asleep. When I woke up, the storm had ended and the sea was calm. It was night, but the tarp was still hung over the boat. Water still filled the bottom.

Fawn was curled up in her sleeping bag, which she must have washed somehow. Adeline was also fast asleep.

"Pierre?"

I turned my head to the side without breaking my lying position. If I sat up on the bench I might break the tarp, or at the very least bonk my head.

Emma stared back at me. She was shivering.

"My sleeping bag fell in the water. It's no use getting it. It'll be all soggy." Her voice cracked with every word.

"Oh. Do you want to borrow mine?" I could empty the items and hold them myself. I already got some sleep and I wasn't soaked.

"Yes, please."

I emptied the things from my sleeping bag carefully, knowing they could just as well save my life at some later point. Handing over the sleeping bag, I smiled at Emma's smile.