Page 16 of Uncharted

“Nooo. Sam.”

Penny turns. I see her pull on her collar. But he’s not having it. He tucks her away in the wheelhouse and disappears around the side of the ship.

“Sam!”

“Does the captain see you? What is he doing?” Zane’s talking, but I can’t hear him. I can’t process what he’s saying. It’s like I’m underwater. When I pull away from the hole, the quiet of the cavern takes over. It’s pushing on my insides. I can’t handle it. This is all too much. He’s alive. Alive and alone. And how are we ever going to get to him? I take a breath. That’s not me, that’s fear talking. We can do hard things. I can do hard things. Easton is a champion swimmer. He might be able to round the side of the island. Or we can make something. Or... I take off my crew jacket. It’s hard to pull the sleeves off, but I do. I tie them in a knot. I inch forward with care. There are jagged rocks around the outside of the hole. But I find one and push the sleeves tightly down into a crevasse and push the rest of the jacket out. It’s not going to go anywhere. And if he sees it, I have a whole lot of clothes down there that smell a hell of a lot better than this thing does.

“Sam.” I yell one more time. I know he can’t hear me, but I have to try. I should let Dante see. It’s a ray of hope. Not that the Rock Candy looks like she can take us anywhere, but she can sure make life a whole lot more comfortable. There’s a twist in my gut because I know getting off the island isn’t going to happen anytime soon. And I’m not naïve. Things are going to get awkward. Uncomfortable, messy. But I want him to know we’re here. I want to see him. Touch him. Know that he’s in one piece.

“No. He didn’t hear me. I’m coming back. We should let Dante see.” I crawl backwards. My knees are scraped, and there’s a cut on my left hand. I make a fist, holding the blood in. Letting my palm fill in the darkness. I tell them everything I saw. “You should look, Dante. Maybe with your deep voice, he can hear you. Or maybe if Penny keeps barking.”

“It’s okay Little Bird. He’ll see your jacket. That was smart. And you know we’re going to find a way to get to him.”

I nod, even though I know they can’t see me.

“Wish me luck,” Dante says.

“I’m staying with him. Is that okay? I want to hold his ankles.”

“Yes. Please.”

“I’m not going to practice cliff diving. I could have done that in Greece last year, and I passed on it.” Dante’s voice trails off as he crawls down the cavern.

I make my way out, first crawling on all fours, then crouching, then ducking. When I walk out, Calvin is sitting on a rock at the entrance. I blink at the sunlight shining behind him. His shorts are off. His shirt too. He’s washing the side of his leg with water. I want to both hug him and kick him.

“I know. I know you told me I might get hurt. But it worked, and I’m just bashed up. I’m not really hurt.”

I look at Easton because he’s going to give me the truth. He shrugs. “He’s not. It’s just a deep bruise. This is exactly what I went to school for. I can even give him some exercises to speed up his recovery.”

“Just what everyone wants, to be stuck on a fucking island and still have to do their physical therapy.”

“I could push him down the mountain. We wouldn’t really miss him that much.” Easton laughs and quickly steps back.

“What did you see, Chiefie?” Calvin pulls his shirt back on.

“Penny barked at me. But Sam didn’t see me. He came out onto the bow and took her back inside.”

“She likes to bark at seagulls. Drives him crazy. He probably thought that’s what she was doing.”

“I’ve been thinking. You didn’t want to use the flare gun before, but now? When there’s a shit ton of more supplies down there on the ship. If we wait until tonight at dusk and bring the flashlight, we could get his attention. Shit, the flashlight alone should be enough.” Easton crosses his arms over his chest. “We could run back to camp and get the supplies and do it tonight.”

“Think about what you just said, Swimmer Boy.” Calvin leans back on the rock.

“Right, Zane’s foot, which is not injured as he says, your leg, Haley’s ankle, Dante’s hatred of hiking. Fine, I’ll run back to camp and get the supplies.”

“I don’t like it. I’m not sure I want any of us up here at night.” He’s got that growly tone to his voice. The one that’s all “you will listen to me.” It drives me nuts because my body is like, okay, whatever you want, Calvin. But my brain wants me to clock him sideways with a rolled-up newspaper.

“You mean you don’t want me up here at night?” I blink at Calvin and cross my arms over my chest. Two can play that game.

“Yes, that is exactly what I mean. It’s going to get cold.”

“So we start a fire. We brought the flint.” There’s not much firewood around here, but I’m not going to point that out.

“We only have enough food for one meal.” He cocks his head to the sack he carried up the mountain.

“So Easton brings back more jerky.” I’m going to have an answer for every darn problem he comes up with. “What if the boat’s not here tomorrow?”

“Well then, Sam’s a fool. If he has any chance of survival, he’s trying to get the radios back online. And when he does that, they’ll send a plane. We’ve got our SOS on our beach, and we’ve got our signal fire ready to go. We do this the right way.”

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