Separated

Chapter V

THE NEXT DAY

ELLE

Music: High Speed Dimension from Gradius III Arcade

"WOOHOO!" Avery screams as water splashes in both her face and mine. Apparently this cruise allows you the option of a short water ski, so Avery and I decided to take that on.

And I don't regret the decision one bit.

Now, granted, it's really just a small boat pulling us in small circles near the cruise ship itself, but it's still a load of fun. It's still hanging on to your ski for dear life while water splashes in your face constantly.

Plus a lot of ecstatic screaming from both of us.

"How're you hanging over there?" Avery yells to me at one point.

"Great!" I yell back, taking the risk of letting go of my ski with one hand to give her a thumbs up.

After our short five-minute ride, the boat carrying us drives into a small garage-type space in a side of the cruise ship. Avery and I get off, laughing from the new experience. We then dry ourselves off, change back into normal clothing, and join the rest of our gang in the ship's cafe. Avery and I head to a table already occupied by Sam, Heath, Luke, and Skylar. Mia, Mackenzie, Sean, and Shanna have another table to themselves.

"You two look thrilled," Skylar says at our arrival.

"They've got water skiing here. You should try it sometime. It's super fun," Avery says in reply.

"I'll have to remember that," Heath nods.

"This cruise has been amazing so far, and it's only the second day," I say, scooching closer to Sam on my side of the table.

"You see, Sam? We've got nothing to worry about, man," Luke tells Sam.

Sam rolls his eyes. "Whatever you say, pal. Anything can happen only two days in."

"Like what?" Skylar snorts.

Music: Theme of the Mechanical Boss from Salamander 2

Right after she says that is when the yelling begins. It's coming from a few tables to our right, and it's between two older-looking guys who apparently are getting hostile with each other over who has to pay the bill or something.

"Oh boy, a fight," I hear Sam mutter.

The two guys then stand up and start getting physical. At first it's a simple matter of shoving each other, but then the slightly bigger of the two tackles the other and forces him to the ground. Then they start wrestling each other, beating on each other like ragdolls. A couple of nearby employees and supervisors come over to try and break them up, to no avail.

I start hearing discussion from the other table. "Should we stay or leave?" Shanna asks.

Before anybody gets to answer, the smaller of the two guys reaches for the table and grabs a knife from it. "Okay, now we need to leave," Mia says as the people from our tables begin standing up.

It's at this moment that I notice that Avery has disappeared. A quick scan of the room for her reveals her in a nearby hallway, right next to the stairs leading down to where the jet ski boat was.

When everyone else realizes where she is, she points down the stairs and mouths to us, "Down here!"

SHANNA

Avery leads our group down to a small garage-type room. The room inhabits a group of small, inflatable boats, which are likely supposed to be rescue boats. No adults are currently present down here.

"Everyone, hop in. We need to get away from here for a little bit," Avery whispers to us as she jumps into one of the boats.

"Um, Avery, are you sure this is the best idea?" Mia asks, a little skeptical.

"Better to be safe than sorry," is Avery's answer. The rest of our group then hops in the boat with Avery (some with hesitance). There isn't a door or anything, so Heath then unties the boat from the ship, and we go out on our merry way.

It's only when we're out for about a minute that a realization comes to me. "Um... shouldn't we have tied the boat to the side of the ship or something?"

Everyone's facial expressions then turn to horror after I say that. Heath begins frantically attempting to paddle the boat back to the ship. The water is a bit unstable at the moment, however, so we get nowhere.

"Heath, stop! It's not going to work!" Skylar yells.

"It was at this moment that our heroic yet idiotic group of teens knew that they were fucked," Mia sighs.

"We're all gonna die out here!" Luke screams half-seriously, clinging onto Avery.

"Get off of me," Avery growls, elbowing Luke in the ribs to get him away from her.

"Guys, guys, calm down. This is not the time to panic," Sam says.

"This is the perfect time to panic! We're gonna end up lost at sea!" Sean yells.

"Oh, come on. It could be worse," Sam growls.

"How could this possibly get worse?" Mia sighs.

And that's when I take notice of two things. One is the sky. Earlier this morning, it was bright and sunny as ever, but now I'm noticing a lot more grey clouds in the sky than normal for a mid-June afternoon.

And second of all, the look on Skylar's face.

Fear.

"Mia... you picked a really bad time to ask that," she says, her voice trembling as she points to what's in front of her.

Music: Peach's Castle is Stolen from Super Mario Galaxy

Not only is the water bobbing us up and down by an exponentially growing amount, the waves in front of us are also growing as well. "This can only end badly," I hear Heath mutter.

A few seconds later, he's proven to be correct. One big enough wave ends up coming down on top of us. I, along with several others, let out a small scream as the water completely drenches us. Upon resurfacing, I instantly take notice of two horrible things.

First, the raft is now split in half (don't ask me how that's possible).

Second, there are only four other people on my side of the raft: Mia, Sean, Elle, and Luke.

Elle's the second one to discover these findings, and she immediately begins to panic. "Sam? Avery? Heath? Where are you guys!?" she yells hectically.

"Elle!" I hear Sam's voice yell from faraway. I'm able to catch a brief glimpse of him, Avery, Heath, Skylar, and Mackenzie on the other side of the raft just a few feet away from us. Then another huge wave comes down on top of them, and they vanish.

"No!" I cry out.

Luke slowly gets up from lying down, and once he realizes what's happened, he gasps, puts his hands to his face, and mutters, "Holy shit... we've been separated."

Yeah, MC and I decided to change up a couple of things to allow this part to be just a bit more logical. There's still a couple of things that you're just going to have to deal with, but it's at least manageable imo.

If you remember the scene that happens after this in the original story, you might be a little disappointed in me for what the next chapter is going to contain. Sorry.