Page 47 of Stone Deep
Cleveland had gone to the bow to keep watch for the coast guard.
I turned to the useless captain. “You better get a flare out, Stew, and if you tell me you don’t have one then I’m going to personally toss you into the raging storm water myself.”
He marched past me to the storage hold behind the captain’s chair. Melonie was sitting with Kristy and trying her best to comfort her. Cleveland had done a decent job of tying his belt around the giant lifejacket, but Kristy was still swimming in it. I worried that one good wave would lift it off of her.
“Wait.” Stewie straightened from the hatch. “Here are two more life jackets.”
It was almost comical how we all looked around at each other as if we needed to count the bodies onboard.
“Well, the jackets are still outnumbered by one,” I said.
“You take it, buddy.” Cleveland patted his round belly. “I’ve got my own float right here.”
“That might keep you warmer, Cleve, but it’s not going to keep you afloat. I’m the only one who’ll be able to tread water for an extended time. Hopefully, it won’t be that long.”
Stewie tossed Cleveland the spare jacket and pulled one on himself.
The rain had slowed, which under any circumstance other than a burning boat would have been a good thing. But we were being battered by wind and waves, and Stewie’s relic of a boat was taking its last, long look around at the world before heading to a watery grave.
Stewie readied the flare. More flames lapped up from below deck.
“Anything, Cleve?” I yelled over the din of the storm.
“Nothing.”
The flare shot up and lit the gray sky before arcing back to the water in a fiery red display.
Without the rain to dissolve it, the smoke turned into a thick, choking cloud on deck.
I went over and crouched in front of the girls. The deck was lava hot beneath my shoes. I took Kristy’s hand. “Do you know how to swim?”
“Yes,” she said with less confidence than I would have liked to hear, considering we were about to jump into the stormy Pacific.
“We’re going to lower that floating bench cushion into the water. You two girls need to keep your upper bodies up on it as much as possible. The air above the water still has some summer heat, and if we’re lucky it will keep you from hypothermia.”
I looked over at Cleveland and Stewie. The grave looks on their faces mirrored the way I was feeling. “We need to get off before this thing blows,” I said.
Kristy cried out and grabbed hold of me.
“I’ve got you. You’ll be fine. The coast guard will have seen the flare, and I’m sure they’re headed this way. We’ll probably only be out there for a few minutes.” I tried to sound upbeat, but our grim situation made it hard.
Stewie reached down and made a ceremony of saluting his captain’s chair as if his last important duty as a captain was saying goodbye to his ship. Cleveland was biting his bottom lip, a habit of his when he was nervous, although it usually only happened when he was about to talk to a girl. I was in far better physical shape than either of my shipmates, but if the water was too cold, it would be that much harder to stay above the surface.
We had to walk a wide berth around the hatch door to avoid the flames that were now lapping at our legs.
Cleveland carried the bench cushion. Melonie and Kristy held onto my arms. I helped them onto the ledge running along the back of the stern. The boat was starting to take on water and the waves basically came up to meet us. Cleveland lowered the float in front of us, and as I helped Kristy grab onto it, Melonie was knocked off the stern ledge by an angry wave. Stewie pushed off but was moving at too slow of a pace to get to Melonie.
She screamed as the water went over her head. “Cleve, hold this.” I pushed the float closer to him. “Make sure Kristy holds on.” I dove off and swam for Melonie. The water was colder than I’d expected, and my limbs were slowed by the drop in temperature. Melonie grabbed hold of my shoulders and with some effort, I got her back to the float. She pulled herself up next to her terrified friend.
Behind us, Stewie’s boat was slowly being engulfed by flames. The long plume of black smoke would help the rescue boat see us, but for now, it was just us, the turbulent, cold water and the complete lack of safety equipment.
Stewie’s life jacket was up around his ears as he turned toward the flames. He looked close to puking as he watchedtheSea Empress, a boat that I was sure had been in his family for years, get overtaken by fire.
“Just think—Stew—” I said, not feeling the slightest bit sympathetic, especially after I’d had to wrestle the life jacket from his hands. “If only you had refilled that fire extinguisher.”
“Shut the hell up, Stone,” he muttered.
Cleveland bobbed up and down on the water like a big, wobbly sea creature. I swam over and put a hand on the girls’ float just to make sure the current didn’t drag them off. I figured I could easily tread water for an hour, even in rambunctious water, but the cold ocean temperature was sapping my strength faster than expected. I had half an hour tops. And from the way the girls were shivering, they had even less time. I looked out at the open sea. There was no sign of another boat.
