Page 32 of Uncharted

I make my way down the hall, all the way to the end, to where my cabin was—or I guess still is.

There, I look through my stuff. I grab my wets and my swimming shoes too. The captain brought us a couple of clean uniforms each, most likely pulled from the laundry room. I grab some of my own clothes—an old football sweatshirt from high school, threadbare in the sleeves, but it feels like home. My toiletries, toothbrush, toothpaste?I toss them in the bag. Then I duck into Haley’s cabin and do the same for her. On the desk, there’s a picture of her as a little girl with her mother. I wrap that in a plastic bag that I find on the floor and tuck it into my larger bag, as well as some slippers and her robe from behind the door. I grab a few things for Dante and a couple of boxes of biscuits that I know Zane has been talking about before I make my way up to Swimmer Boy’s room. Everything has slid around in his cabin, and most of the contents are pushed up against the wall. I walk into it and, before the door can wedge itself shut, I shove a fake plant between the door and the doorframe, holding it open.

I rummage around in his drawers, grab a few things: his swimsuit, a pair of sweatpants that say Team USA with the Olympic rings on it, and a sweatshirt. That should make Dante laugh. I add a couple of pairs of shoes—tennis shoes and a pair of comfy-looking boots. Going up the stairs, I now have three or four bags over my shoulder.

I haven’t run into Zane again, and I’ve yet to see Penny.

But on the back deck, I look at the big lounging cushions. “Fuck, those will be a lot better than a yoga mat,” I say to myself. “Zane!” I call at the top of my lungs. “Are you ready to go?”

“I’ll be right there,” he calls back from the sundeck.

“What are you doing?”

He has a large bundle under his arm. He was thinking the same thing as me.

“Did you even get any of your own stuff?”

“A few things. But this is way more important,” he replies. He has the big cushion from the top sundeck rolled up tight like a sleeping bag.

“Looks good. You ready to go?” I ask.

“Let’s do it,” he agrees.

Just as we’re getting things into the tender, the captain pokes his head out. “Somebody wants to say goodbye before you take off,” he says.

The dog comes racing down the stairs, flying at me. I barely have time to catch her, keeping her from knocking us into the ocean. She licks up one side of my face and down the other.

“Be a good girl,” I tell her. She actually looks a little fat, but it’s good to see her.

Zane loads up the rest of the tender.

I look up at the captain; Penny trots back up to him. “We’ll see you in the morning,” I say.

“Well, be here just after— Scratch that. High tide should be right around sunrise. Be back then. It should make going along the cliff easier,” he says.

“Sounds good,” I reply.

Dread fills me as we pull away. I can’t help but wonder. It just feels like the ship might disappear.

Zane has a large sheet of plastic from the toy hauler room off the swim platform. “It’s too bad we can’t get the Skidoos down without powering the crane. We could zip back and forth to the boat a lot easier.” He eyes them on the roof of the Rock Candy as we pull away.

“Yeah, that’s not happening. Hey, make sure that grocery bag stays dry.” I touch the one containing Haley’s picture with my toe.

He moves it closer to the cushion. “What’s in it?”

“I think it’s a picture of Haley and her mom.”

“Damn.” He rolls the top closed. “You should have said that to start with.” He scratches his head.

“You really think someone tried to sink us?”

“The evidence sure as hell looks that way.”

“What I do know is that there is no fucking way Haley, Dante, or Easton have anything to do with it.”

“I agree.”

“And are we going to tell them?” Zane looks up at me with his expressive eyes. The guy can make Haley do anything with the way he looks at her.

---