Island Jumper 2

by M H Ryan

  The other thing was the sound of it—the slurping and the churning sound of water as it spun around the center. That was something I’d never expected, the whirlpool to make a noise like it was trying to lap us up into its belly. The edge of Luna dipped into the swirling edge of the water, and it didn’t seem as there was anything we could do to stop it. The raft tilted and went faster it got sucked into the circular current.

  “Paddle you bitches!” Aubrey screamed as she paddled as hard as I’d ever seen her.

  The women responded, taking action and paddling as I steered us. Moshe’s claws dug into the bamboo as the sea kitty held on for dear life. Our once mighty raft, now named after the moon, was seemingly along for the ride as we orbited the center for one full rotation.

  The paddling helped keep us from falling any closer to the center but we weren’t moving up and out either. The women were tough, but they weren’t immune to fatigue. They were going to wear out quickly as this level of effort. I had to come up with something, or we were going down to wherever the black hole led.

  Benji cried out, paddling hard, as a shark fin skimmed the inside wall of the whirlpool. So the stupid sharks naturally possessed the power to escape the grip of the vortex. And I thought we might have a chance of swimming down and away from it, but that would leave us looking like silver platers for the sharks, ripe for a quick bite. Plus, Benji wasn’t much of a swimmer, and I had a suspicion Eliza might not be either. Something about your dad being killed by sea monsters might make a mother keep the waters off limits.

  After a few more rotations, the girl’s frantic pace slowed a tad, and we dipped down a couple feet toward the center. The raft tilted at an angle, and we all leaned to our left as we spun clockwise around the funnel.

  Through the white foam and blue water, I could see a dark shadow of something large. It was calculated and angry at the same time, a dangerous mix that I hadn’t really felt from a shark before. I wondered what it was trying to figure out.

  This was turning into an aquatic merry-go-around of nightmares. The wall of water held the shadows of a massive shark with a plan forming and below led to certain death for at least some of us. Neither was an option I was willing to accept. There had to be something we could do.

  Then I felt a change in the shark, as if it had come to some conclusion. I watched the dark shadow in the water disappear, but it wasn’t gone for more than a couple seconds before swimming straight at us from the other side of the whirlpool.

  The shark breached the side wall of the whirlpool, leading with its wide-open mouth, full of seawater foam. It flew out, and I thought it was going to smack right into our raft, but the shark must not have counted on our forward momentum. The shark, realizing it had miscalculated, turned its head toward me, trying to bite me mid-air. An arrow struck it in the mouth just as it crashed into the other side of the whirlpool. It clipped the back of Luna with its tail fin. The impact was strong enough to send me to my knees.

  The impact sent a splash of water over us before the quick spin of the water erased any evidence of the fantastic thing we all just witnessed.

  “What the…” Aubrey said.

  “Flying sharks?” Eliza asked, looking terrified.

  “Keep paddling,” I yelled.

  Then I saw the shadow again and felt the shark boiling with anger below. Strategizing wasn’t in its head anymore, just a desire to put us in its mouth and squeeze.

  “Is this normal?” Eliza screamed over the sound of the swirling water.

  “This is not normal,” Aubrey said.

  In the shark-launching-distraction, we had dipped a few more feet toward the center, even as the women paddled. We spun around the center faster with each rotation. This was a losing fight, and we needed to think of something drastic. If we all swam for it, maybe I could distract the shark long enough for the whirlpool to suck up and inevitably spit the raft back out of its funnel. It would hopefully float up, and they could get back aboard. We risked more than losing our supplies; we risked losing people.

  From the other side of the whirlpool, I noticed the shark’s shadow deepen, and I watched as the mouth of the shark emerged once again from the wall. Now, the idea of getting sucked into the black hole below us, and most likely drowning us, wasn’t nearly as horrible as this shark jumping from the whirlpool, straight for us. It wouldn’t need to put its mouth on us, it would just need to use its immense body to slam into us. The impact would damage the raft and most likely send us all into the swirling water of death.

  Thankfully, once again the shark hadn’t taken into account our rapid speed around the whirlpool and launched straight for us. By the time it cleared the distance, we had moved a good ten feet. It got so close to me that I punched it in the gut. The physical contact with the shark sent me to my ass as it slammed back into the water right behind us, sending another splash of water over us.

  Now the shark had become pure rage and I felt it more intensely than before.

  The shark was a heat wave of anger moving around the whirlpool, and I didn’t need to sense the women to know they were terrified and losing hope. This wasn’t the first time we’d faced a dire situation, but this one felt perilous.

  Then a crazy idea hit me.

  “We need rope,” I yelled over the swirling roar.

  “We used it all on the raft,” Sherri yelled back.

  “Eliza has rope in her bag,” Kara said.

  “You looked in my bag?”

  “Sorry, I had to make sure it wasn’t something that could hurt the people I care about,” Kara eyed me.

  “Give me the rope!” I said, reaching toward her.

  She stopped paddling and reluctantly pulled out a nice bundle of rope. I grabbed it, feeling the weight and the intricate weaving of what felt like nylon. Eliza looked at the rope as if she was passing me her child, tears brimming in her eyes.

  “Aubrey, I need you,” I said.

  Aubrey set her paddle down.

  “Grab a spear, the biggest one with the notch,” I said.

  Aubrey grabbed it and brought it to me. I unspooled the rope onto the raft and hoped it was strong enough and long enough. I tied my best cinching knot onto the back of the spear, pulling it as hard as I could. Then I found the other end of the rope and started tying it off to the bottom of the mast.

  The shark’s shadow moved at the opposite side, and I felt the rage still building in it. It wasn’t going to leave us alone, and now I was counting on it.

  With the rope secured on both ends, I handed the spear to Aubrey.

  “We need a gold medal throw here, all the way into its mouth,” I said, with water misting our faces and dripping down into the whirlpool below. We had a minute at most before we went into the drink.

  Aubrey didn’t say anything but nodded, probably realizing what I planned and the chances of it working.

  “Everyone to the back of the raft,” I said, holding onto the rudder.

  They all stopped paddling and stood next to me. The weight of us lifted the front of the raft off the water, and I took a deep breath, searching for the shark out there.

  “It’s coming,” I said.

  I concentrated and sent an urge to the shark to launch at a certain point in front of us. I had no idea if I had any effect, but I kept the thought, sending it as hard as I could to the shark.

  Then I heard shark breach the water right at the point I was thinking. Its open mouth flew out first from the water, pulling a hundred gallons of the sea with it as it took flight once again. Its blinding rage radiated out from it. It had no other thought but to kill us and rip our flesh, gorge on us until the blood would draw its friends. They would eat until we were a brief red stain on the sea.

  Aubrey yelled, all the muscles in her champion body flexing, and sent the spear straight at the shark's open mouth. The rope line trailed with the spear like a party streamer, and everything seemed to slow as we all watched the thick, wooden spear enter the shark's mouth and into the tiny black hole
at the back of its throat. The spear went in and kept going, until just a foot of the spear stuck out from its mouth.

  The shark gagged on the intrusion, and I felt the shock and pain radiate from it. It tried to turn mid-air, but it belly flopped, sending a wave of water over us.

  “Hold on!” I said, grabbing Sherri and Benji as they knelt down, gripping the ropes we’d tied around the bamboo.

  “This is insane,” Sherri said, screaming as the rope zipped out from the raft.

  I sent another thought out, concentrating as hard as I could on one idea, pull. The rope line ran out and the tension set in against the line. The mast the rope had been tied to creaked, and I braced myself behind the girls.

  The jolt forward nearly knocked us all off the raft. Kara rolled back toward us, and I held her, pinning her to the raft floor. She gazed up at me as I kept her under me. In that second, I got lost in her eyes, as I had so many times. Her straight, black hair had gotten wet, and some strands clung to her face. She didn’t look scared as she held my gaze and pulled me against her. It felt longer, but it all had happened in less than a second.

  Pinned against Kara, I held onto a loose rope, keeping us both on the raft. The shark was scared and wanted to get away from us at all costs. I felt the same kind of urgency from the baby crocs. To the shark, it was get away from us or die and I kept feeding that thought down its throat. It kept pushing harder, using what energy it had left to flee.

  The line creaked under strain and the raft turned up the whirlpool wall. With us in the back, it kept the front of the raft lifted up as we moved toward the top.

  “Paddle,” I said.

  The girls jumped into action, and started paddling hard. Behind us, the whirlpool slurped and sloshed as if it had no intention of letting us go. The mast groaned and bent.

  “Hold on, Luna,” I said.

  The front of the raft dipped into the water as it neared the top.

  “We’re going under,” I yelled. “Hold on.”

  The girls dropped down to the deck of the raft and grabbed hold of it. The shark, in all its pain and fury, pulled at us harder. I screamed at it to pull. The front of the raft dipped under the crest of the whirlpool, and emerged on the other side. It pulled us out of the funnel and onto the flat water beyond. Looking around, I confirmed all the girls were still aboard.

  “Paddle!” I yelled, and they got back to their stations.

  I got off of Kara and jumped to the side, right behind Sherri, and started paddling.

  The shark pulled on the line, but the urgency had lessened. The fight was leaving the shark the fear and rage dwindling toward a resignation. It knew it was going to die. It turned, swimming in a loop, heading us back toward the maelstrom.

  The front of the raft turned as the line went from tight and straight out front to bending to the right. It wouldn’t be long until it pulled us right back into the black hole.

  I rushed to the front of the boat with my knife and reached out, trying to keep as much of the rope possible, and then cut the line. The raft jolted back from the release of tension.

  The girls kept paddling, concentrating briefly on one side to straighten us, and then we were clear from the whirlpool. Looking back, it took a second to find the circular dip in the water. The whole thing blended into the ocean, but Sherri had seen it way before any of us. If not for her, we could have sailed right down the middle of it, where it would have swallowed us up.

  “That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Sherri said with a shaky laugh, and then she screamed at the sky with excitement, holding her paddle over her head.

  Her statement broke the tension, and the other girls cheered with her. They stood, holding their paddles high. Kara ran to me and jumped into my arms, wrapping her legs around my waist and her arms around my neck.

  “You saved me, again,” Kara said.

  Now, I’ve held Sherri, Benji, and Aubrey, but there was a different energy that came from Kara. Her small frame and weight barely pulled at me but she gripped me tight with her legs, and I felt her pressing hard against me. She squeezed me once more and then got off, letting her hands slide off my shoulder and down my chest with a long sigh.

  “Sherri, you’re right,” Kara said. “Thinking you’re going to die in one minute makes you appreciate every minute after.”

  Chapter 7

  The waters were calm, but as a precaution, I put Sherri at the front of the raft, keeping an eye on the water. She seemed to have a good feeling for the water and spotted that last whirlpool far ahead of the rest of us.

  Eliza gave us the direction, but we had the island in sight now.

  The shark that saved us was gone. I wasn’t sure if it had died and sunk to the bottom, becoming nothing more than a feeding frenzy from the static of the ocean, or if it had somehow lived and swum to safer waters. The creatures around these islands did seem resilient, so I didn’t rule out the possibility of that shark returning.

  Thankfully, the mast had survived the pull of the shark, but now it bent forward and had the tendency to move with the wind more. A decent breeze pushed us along at a good pace.

  Benji held her bow, constantly rotating in anticipation of more attacks. I could tell her I didn’t feel any danger, but this gave her something to do, and after what we just went through, we all needed tasks to keep us busy.

  Aubrey paddled, not saying anything, but she kept looking at the cloudy sky as if sharks were going to fall from it.

  “Can I have my rope back?” Eliza asked.

  “Oh, yeah, sure,” I said, kneeling down and untying the knot.

  It had cinched so tightly at the bottom, I had to take my knife out and cut a small section off. Eliza let out a gasp as I sliced through it.

  “Mr. Rope,” Eliza said as I handed her the piece of rope.

  Eliza coiled the rope up and placed it in her bag, patting the bag and looking upset. I guessed if I spent the amount of time it would take to make a rope like that by hand, I would have given it a name and sentimental value.

  We spent the next thirty minutes sailing and getting closer to the island. I looked through the scope at it. The island was small and didn’t have a single tree on it. The green grass seemed to cover most of the island but for the gray rocks that peppered the shore and poked through the large hill rising up from the island.

  The hill might have been fifty feet tall and seemed to be the whole island, as if some great mountain was below and all that showed was the peak. The shoreline held some flat ground but most of it was jagged, black rocks, wet from the ocean spray and waves. The waves were larger there as well, curling up one or two feet tall before hitting the rocks in white foam.

  “Not much of an island,” Aubrey said.

  “That’s not the island,” Eliza said. “It’s past it.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “It’s in line with the other one,” Eliza said. “So I didn’t know it was the wrong one until we got closer. It’s definitely the wrong one; we should keep going.”

  “We’re going to check that island out before moving on. Every island we’ve been on has held a person. We can’t assume this one is any different,” I said, and no one disagreed, although Eliza fidgeted with her bag and looked scared.

  I studied the small island, hoping to see evidence of another soul on it—I had good reason. Each island we found had held a person on it. Now, on one island that person was already dead, Chef Frank, but the rest had one of their friends.

  The waves rolled under the raft as we neared the shoreline. I had the girls bring down the sail and move to their paddling positions.

  “Let’s round the island and see if we can find a safe place to land.”

  They paddled and I steered, and as we rounded a section of rocks, we saw something incredible.

  On the back side of the island there was a plane, mostly submerged in water, lying near a sandy shore. Large rocks stuffed along the shoreline obscured portions of the plane.

 
“Wow,” Sherri said. “Is that some kind of fighter jet?”

  “Looks like a World War II jet,” Kara said.

  Most of the metal framework around the plane had fallen off, but some of the paneling remained, and a red, white, and blue star emblem was still faintly visible on the belly of the aircraft. The tail had broken off, and one wing sat halfway in and out of the water with waves rolling between the open frameworks. The front propeller appeared to be intact and stuck up from the sea. At the front of the craft, a shadow of what looked like a painted shark’s mouth still remained.

  The sight of this plane answered questions and brought up more. Somebody and some things that had not originated on our ship had come here as well. From the look of the shell of a plane, it had been there for a long time. Had it crashed? It must have. There wasn’t really a chance of the thing washing up on the shore. It might have even gone through a mysterious storm wall, as we had.

  “There’s a good landing spot,” I said, pointing to the shoreline near the plane.

  “Okay,” Sherri said, paddling toward the sandy beach I pointed out. “This plane here is crazy.”

  We were staring at it like it was an alien ship, and for Eliza, it probably was.

  The bigger waves rolled under the raft, tilting us forward and back. We paddled, pushing hard into the next wave. Luna rode the wave, and drove us hard onto the sandy beach that was only about ten feet deep before meeting a wall of broken rocks about five feet high. The tides were mild on our home island, but I suspected the tides here reached all the way to the rocks.

  I jumped off the front of the raft with a knife in hand, first looking for anything that might want to kill us, but the island seemed void of any animals. I motioned it clear for them and they jumped off the raft as well.