Journey with the waves

Chapter Four ~ Finally! Freedom...

Oh lord, how many days has it been? Two? Three? Four?

Basically, it's been a couple of days since we escaped.

We've been rowing the rescue boat, searching for any islands (hopefully Hawai'i...) to dock at and look for any people to help us.

I have no clue how far we've gotten. With the seven of us on this small ship, plus the buckets of water, it's really heavy and hard for Jack and John to row. We all were taking turns rowing the boat and keeping a lookout for any ships. At night, we may rest for a couple of hours, but at dawn, we start rowing again.

We had limited supplies, so we ate very little and drank very little. My throat was parched from the lack of water and my stomach constantly growled, begging to be feed. I did my best to ignore my body's the constant complaining.

Harmony and Ashley were on watch. I stared ahead into the ocean, watching for any clues that we're nearing an island. Sofia looked at Harmony's and Ashley's direction. She gulped. "I hope I'm hallucinating from the hunger and thirst but is that a ship nearing us?"

I looked behind me and squinted. I saw a dark blob heading our way. Ashley whipped around and screamed, "JACK! JOHN! ROW FASTER!"

Jack and John began to row frantically. John was breathing quickly, preparing to hyperventilate, Angel splashed the water in a desperate attempt to push us forward. I joined in with Angel. We all did.

The ship loomed over us. We rowed and splashed faster.

BAM!

The water next to us rippled. We froze in place. That was the sound of a rifle firing.

"Alright," a familiar voice called from the ship. "Hands in the air. We got you all now. Surrender and your punishment won't be as bad as you think it'll be.''

We hung our heads and raised our hands in surrender. Fighting back would be a death wish. Even with the small knife we had, it would be useless against a rifle.

A ladder was let down. Two crewmates climbed down and escorted us back on the ship.

Our hands were tied with ropes as we forced down onto our knees. The captain grinned, showing off his yellow teeth. "You all thought you could escape?" He taunted. "I admit; you're little escape plan was well planned out. Almost starved one of the crew mates to death. Luckily we unlocked the door with the spare keys we had."

A crew member brought the keys I was holding. The captain grinned as he tsked the keys in the air, taunting us. "Take these children back down there," he ordered, "and don't untie them."

***time skip***

"Well, anybody got any plans?" Jack asked. We were all on our knees, hand behind our backs, bound with ropes. This is the second time I got pins and needles in my legs.

"We're bound, got no keys, likely not going to be fed for a couple of days, and we are losing the feeling in our legs," John began hyperventilating again.

"In other words, we're done for," Harmony declared.

Angel quietly cried at what was going on. Sofia and Ashley whimpered. The below deck door opened and the captain strutted in. He grinned. "You kids havin' a nice time?" He mocked, "hope you are. Because now it all ends."

The captain pulled out a long, thin brown piece of rope. He flicked his wrist and the rope smacked the ground with a snap! "In case you all haven't seen this before, it's called a whip," he explained. "It's used to punish naughty children. Now, who wants to go first?"