Choose Your Own Adventure - ON HOLD

Chapter 7 ~ Up Late

You chose B) Cat.

Given the instruction to pair up, you consider your options for a moment then stand and make you way towards Cat. She smiles at you and you ask her if she'd like to be your partner. She nods and the both of you take a seat.

David, now sitting next to Luke, speaks up again. "Excellent. Who would like to take the first watch?" All around the boat heads turn to others. You look at Cat, silently consulting her for her opinion. She nods and you raise your hand.

"Great, thank you," David says, "Everyone else, get some rest; it's been a big day. In two hours, we'll swap watch." With that, he lays down on the floor in the middle of the boat. The others follows his lead.

You and Cat stay seated where you are. You pass the first few minutes in silence, watching the water shimmer in the moonlight. You wonder what she's thinking. More specifically, who she's grieving. This unsociable arrangement seems to work quite well for the both of you, that is until everything around you begins to blur into one monotonous black mass. You feel your eyelids sliding shut. Wait! You quickly open your eyes. You can't fall asleep on watch. You glance over at Cat. Her eyes are closed. You grab her shoulders and shake her awake. Realising she had fallen asleep on watch, Cat covers her mouth with her hand. "I'm so sorry," she gasps.
"It's okay, I nearly fell asleep myself," you assume her. "We need to make sure it won't happen again though."
"We could just talk?" Cat suggests.
You nod and ask her to tell you about herself.
"Well, I live with Melissa in New York, but we were visiting our parents in London," she explains. "I work in retail and so does Melissa. I enjoy it; she wants to be a designer though."
You nod. "I am originally from Australia but I moved to London a few years ago to pursue a career in journalism. Worked my way up to international journalism so, now, I get to travel a lot which is great."
"Is that why you were going to New York?" she asks.
"Yes, I was going to cover the disputes about Haitian refugees."
The conversation continues throughout your shift and you learn quite a lot about Cat. She and Melissa lost their cousin in the crash; he was close to their age and the three of them grew up together in London. Cat in engaged to be married next year to a man named Henry. She told you a little about Melissa as well: she has her own design studio in the girls' apartment in New York, she's single and focussed on her design career and has a fish called Mike.

By the end of the conversation, you feel almost human again. You check your watch. It's been two hours and ten minutes. You tell Cat and the two of you wake David and Luke for the next shift. David thanks you and you find a place on the rubber floor of the boat and lay flat on your back. Stars glisten in the black velvet sky above you. The picture is beautiful but frightening. In that instant, you realise the enormity of the predicament. You're stranded at sea. You don't know where you are. Maybe no one knows where you are. The thought of dying out here chills you to your very core.

Sleep evades you. Instead, thoughts of terror and guilt and anxiety crowd your mind. Eventually, you drift to a restless sleep.

The sky glows a light orange and you hear David's voice, "Wake up. Everyone up."
You sit up on the seat that wraps around the edge of the whole boat.
"We need to talk about our situation and plan a course of action," David continues. "Before I share what I have to say, does anyone else have anything they would like to share?"

What do you do?
A) Stay quiet, see how things play out before saying anything
B) Suggest making food & water preparations
C) Suggest making a plan for rescue
D) Free choice - leave your own idea in the comments