On The Surface

Chapter 5

Jason and Kayla stripped off their wet suits and changed into dry clothes. They headed down the beach, looking for a way to the mainland.

There on the shore stood an enormous white house. Broken windows peered at them from the shadow of the front porch and holes dotted the roof. Debris drifted around the old rocking chair by the door. Kayla couldn't believe someone had once lived there, looking out over the ocean everyday. It would have been beautiful.

"How many families do you suppose lived there?" she asked, still staring.

"From what I've read, before the Collapse just one family would have lived there."

"What? What on earth would one family do with all that space? It would take all day just to clean it." She shook her head. One family. They continued walking.

Sapphire blue stretched over their heads and the sun warmed their shoulders. Kayla kept throwing her head back to gaze at the sky. The sand squished beneath her feet as she walked and felt unlike anything she had ever experienced.

The wind raised goosebumps on their arms. They rubbed them vigorously. The sun helped a little.

Up ahead a wooden structure jutted out into the water. Beside it floated a small boat. Jason started to jog toward it. Kayla pushed through the sand to keep up.

"Hey, maybe we can use this to get to the mainland," he said. Kayla agreed and they climbed aboard. It had an outboard motor attached to the back. Kayla examined it carefully. She had read about out-board motors. If she remembered correctly, you had to pull start it. She located the handle and gave it a tug. Nothing. She tried again. And again. At last, she yanked as hard as she could and fell over backward, slamming her wrist against the side of the boat.

"Damn it!"

"Let me take a look at that motor," Jason eased his way around Kayla and knelt beside it. Unscrewing the gas cap, he looked inside.

"I think I found the problem. No fuel."

Kayla threw her hands up in the air.

"Of course not."

"We'd better keep walking"

She nodded and climbed out onto the pier. Jason followed and they resumed their trek through the sand. The wind was picking up, blowing their hair in their eyes and chilling them to the bone. They pushed on.

As they rounded the point, a bridge came into view, connecting the island to the mainland. About a mile long, it stretched high above the water. From where she stood Kayla could see the bridge swaying in the wind. She gulped. It looked really high.

"Alright, problem solved," said Jason. He picked up his pace and Kayla had no choice but to follow.

The arrived at the base of the bridge and Kayla tipped her head back to look up at it. The sky and the bridge began to bend and twist. Grasping one of the supports, she stood there until her head cleared. Jason found a path and they followed it around to the single lane road that led across the bridge. Jason adjusted the sack over his shoulder and headed for the other side.

Kayla hesitated. Jason had once dared her to climb up to the catwalk inside Atlantis. She'd made it halfway up the ladder before she looked down and froze. Mr. Meyer, the maintenance man, had to climb up and get her.

Taking a deep breath, she repeated her dad's mantra: True courage is facing your fears and walking through them. She repeated it over and over as she followed Jason across the bridge.

There was a narrow pedestrian lane that had a railing between it and the road. She clung to the railing with one hand and tried not to look down. Jason was already about 20 feet ahead of her.