The Earth's Secret - The Hidden Island - Book 1

Chapter 2 - The Island

I woke to a soft wave caressing my face. I opened my eyes and gulped air. Cold, clean, and... blue? I looked around and saw a soft bed of sand under me, blueish air rippling around me. I blinked and then realized... OCEAN!

I sat up, my heart racing. Why... how was I breathing? My hair was loose, floating around me in a golden brown cloud. I waved my arms around and felt the resistance of the water. Nope. Not dreaming.

I took a deep, steadying breath. I was obviously dead. But where was I?

I needed to know more. First of all- where were Laura, Sarah, and Charlie? I looked up and saw the sun, slashed and swirled by the water. The surface was... about 20 feet above. I looked around again and saw no rocks (except for one big one next to me that jutted up to the surface., no animals, just sand flowing into the distant murky depths. I was pushing myself up when a current caressed my face. It felt soft and pleasant, and for a second, I wanted to stay.

Then I heard the splashing.

Forgetting completely why I was confused, I kicked and swam up until my head broke the surface. Sarah was flailing nearby. I swam over to her, dunked, and pushed her up. I joined her and we studied each other. She looked rather tired, but she croaked, "Nicole, where did you land?"

I looked at her quizzically, and she said, "Laura and Charlie aren't here."

"Sarah?"

I cried out in relief. Laura was doggy- paddling over to us, soaked and... oh my gosh.

She was obviously exhausted, but that wasn't it. Ash and cuts covered her arms. I looked at Sarah to make sure that I wasn't dreaming, and realized that she was just as bad. I glanced at myself, but I was just wet and tired.

Laura yelped and I jerked up. She whispered, "Rock." I looked near her feet and saw the outline of a big chunk of rock- the one I had seen underwater. I swam over and realized that it was no more than a foot below the surface. I sat on it and Sarah and Laura joined me. We all could have fallen asleep, but Charlie's absence kept us from it.

I avoided talking about my incident underwater, making it sound as though I had simply swum around until I found Sarah. At her name, Sarah jerked up as though she had an idea. "Nicole, try doing it again! You are the best swimmer here- look for Charlie!" I stared at her as the sense of her words came over me. Without further talking, I dove off the rock and into the salty, tropical- clear water.

As soon as the liquid covered my skin, I felt better. I surfaced a few times until it was safe to go under for good. It wasn't as though I didn't trust them- I just needed time. I would share when we got back to civilization.

I swam near the ocean floor, searching for anything. Minutes passed before I saw the faint outline of a thrashing figure. Bubbles streamed around the figure, who seemed to be disoriented and close to drowning.

I kicked up sand in my effort to get there, and when I seized his arm, Charlie looked as though he had run out of air.

I swam as fast as I could while towing a limp boy behind me to the surface, where both of us inhaled the warm, fresh air. Charlie began treading water, and in the distance, I could see Laura and Sarah waving their arms. Charlie cried out and began paddling over. I followed, dunking to make sure that there wasn't a shark underwater- we had no idea where we were- for all we knew, we could be in a shark reservoir.

Laura and Sarah pulled us onto the rock, and we all kind of collapsed after that. When we could all sit without falling over, we all looked up at each other at the same time, and we all burst into tears. We were only twelve, we were alone, and we were stuck. We were most likely going to die in a few days at most, and there was no way around it. Even Charlie was sobbing as we all huddled together in warm, salty water. Our clothes were soaked, and my hair was a snarled mess as it stuck to my face. It was pretty long- halfway down my back- and right now, I wanted nothing to do with it.