Page 67 of Adrift

“But where you thought we should be, there’s no island.”

“Yeah. I mean, I didn’t leave my phone on long.”

“We turned that first night. I was watching the compass. We caught some sort of jet stream that’s not on the charts.”

My stomach sinks. “They’ll be searching the wrong area.”

“Exactly. Even if they widen the search, the tuna?—”

“It changed our speed. Not much, but enough to make the math of where we are not make sense.”

“Yup. If that’s the case, this is a big meal we can’t pass up.”

“Have you seen wild boars before? That thing was huge.” I shake my hand.

“Have I seen boars before?” He laughs.

Right, Calvin grew up in the middle of nowhere with nothing and walked to school early to pick up roadkill for dinner. At least, that’s what he told the chef last year. But then again, the two of them didn’t exactly get along.

The spatters of blood get closer and closer together the longer we walk on the path. The stream widens out too.

“You don’t think there are more of them around and the damn thing went off to tell them what an arse I am?”

“They live in groups. They don’t normally attack humans. But then again, this bunch probably hasn’t seen too many humans. If we get cornered by more of them, we climb trees. Good idea you had.”

“It was Haley’s idea.”

“She’s smart. Too bad she wasn’t smart enough to not get in the middle of Fuckhead and me.”

“She was going to distract you.”

“I know.” Calvin shakes his head. “That would have worked too. She has a fine—” He pops up a closed fist like military or SWAT do in the movies when they’re creeping up on the bad guys. Then he points silently to a small clearing near the water.

I raise my eyebrows because I can’t see anything. But then I am not a Viking who’s defeated pirates twice—like Calvin. I point.

And he nods. From what I can make out, he’s going to circle around and I’m going to stay where I am.

Calvin moves through the brush. He grunts and bends down. I can’t see what he’s doing, but when he stands up, there’s blood on his hands. “Help me carry it back.”

The dead beast weighs as much as Calvin and me combined. I glance at the ocean approaching through the palm fronds. I want the stench washed off me, but I also want to sit down. The adrenaline from the landing and then killing the beast is gone, and I want to crawl into a bed. But I’ll settle for a spot next to Haley. Watching Easton and Calvin snuggle up against her last night made me jealous, and then waves of guilt settled around me. The girl can do whatever she wants. I just happen to want to be the one she does something with.

When we break through the jungle to the beach, Dante is sitting up and the fire is going in the pit I made.

“Put it down here.” Calvin points to a dry patch of sand downwind from the fire.

I drop the tail end with a thud.

“What the fuck, Zane?” He puts his half down gently.

I shrug. “It’s dead. I didn’t figure it would matter.”

I give up on jumping into the ocean when Haley catches my eye, and I wander over and collapse next to her.

“Come with me, Swimmer Boy.”

I glare at Calvin. He might have muscles the size of an Italian smart car, but if he called me that, I’d be swinging at him too.

Easton doesn’t move. And we all glance between the two of them.

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