STRANDED: Box Set: Books 1-6

by Theresa Shaver

  Standing at the rail and looking out at the empty ocean with the sun setting behind him, Mason had no way of knowing that Lisa had come to the same conclusions hours earlier. He just knew that everything he thought about himself and others had just shifted and it would take a lot of hard work to stay there.

  Mason heard Mark’s lumbering footsteps before his friend joined him at the rail. His friend just stood beside him for a minute before speaking.

  “Tough day for you, bro. Shot down from all sides!” he exclaimed.

  Without even looking at Mark, Mason muttered, “It’s my own fault.”

  “Whoa! Looks like little goody goody Emily’s influenced more than just Lisa,” he laughed.

  Mason turned to look at him with a frown. “It was wrong. I was wrong. I treated them both badly.”

  Mark laughed, “It’s only wrong if you get caught, buddy, and you are so busted!”

  Mason looked away and rubbed his hands over his face. He tried to remember why he was friends with Mark and couldn’t come up with anything. They played football together and hung out in the halls and at parties but Mason couldn’t think of anything that really connected them. It was just one more way he had been selfish and self-involved. He turned back to Mark and tried to do better.

  “We haven’t really talked about what’s going on. Are you worried about your family?”

  “As if! The last thing I would want to do right now is have to fight my brothers for food. Trust me, they’re fine. Besides, I’m sure my mom is just happy she has one less mouth to feed,” Mark said sarcastically.

  Mason studied his face and realized that he meant what he said. “Wow, that’s cold.”

  Mark shrugged, “That’s life. Don’t sweat it. I’m not.” He grinned in a not nice way. “So are you and Lisa done? Is she back on the market?”

  Mason shook his head. There really wasn’t anything to this guy. “Yeah, good luck with that,” and he turned to look back out at the passing ocean so he didn’t see the smirk on Mark’s face.

  “Well, it’s a brand new world, anything could happen.” he said in a bland tone and turned and walked away.

  Mason thought about Mark’s words. It was a brand new world and he was determined to be a brand new person in it. Tim called out to him from the wheel and he went to join him there. There was still a lot to learn about sailing and he would do his best to help get them all home.

  Mark came down into the cabin in time to see Emily and David disappear into David’s room and shut the door. He gave a smirk and laughed to himself that Emily hadn’t taken very long to move on. He looked to Lisa’s closed bedroom door and then back up the stairs. After a moment, Mark settled down onto the couch and closed his eyes. It wasn’t long before he heard Mason come down and go into the other bedroom for the night. Tim would stay up on deck at the wheel for most of the night. He had told them that as they got closer to land they would run into more and more stranded vessels and they would have to keep a close watch so they didn’t run into any of them. Tim had said that this would be the last night he would keep sailing in the dark. They would anchor at night starting tomorrow.

  It was an hour later and Mark hadn’t heard any noises coming from the bedrooms in a while. He eased himself off the couch and quietly made his way to just beside the stairs to the deck. Peeking around the corner, he could just see the edge of Tim’s arm at the wheel. He backed up further into the cabin and crossed to the other side of it. It was only a few steps before he was standing at Lisa’s bedroom door. He leaned his forehead against the door and closed his eyes, listening for any sounds from within. Standing there he let his mind go back to all the times she had put him down and used her nasty sarcasm to wound him. He let the cold rage fill him and he took a deep breath before opening the door.

  The soft light of the bedside lamp shone over Lisa who was sitting back against the pillows on the bed. She was reading a book and glanced up when her door opened. It took a moment before her brain processed that it was Mark in her room and not Emily. Shutting the book with a snap, she scowled at him.

  “What do you want?” she demanded. A shot of fear went through her when he didn’t answer her but continued to stare at her. “Mark, what do you want?” she asked again.

  He stayed where he was with his back to the door and cocked his head to one side. “I thought we should talk about what’s going to happen in the future. You understand that everything is different now, don’t you?” he asked softly.

  Lisa frowned in confusion. Mark had never really spoken to her about anything and he hadn’t really seemed all that concerned with the current crisis. She wondered if he was starting to worry about his future too.

  “Yes, I know that things are different and I know how hard life is going to get when we get off this boat.”

  He nodded his head. “Good. I wanted to make sure you understand that only the strong will survive and that nothing will be free from now on. In this new world, everyone will have to be useful or have something to barter if they want to live.” He paused and looked at her thoughtfully. “It seems to me that you won’t be very useful. You’re the kind of girl who will have to be taken care of and now that you dumped Mason, there’s no one who will do that.”

  Anger filled Lisa. As if she needed this jerk to tell her how inadequate she was to deal with and survive what was coming. She had spent all day coming to terms with that very thing.

  She snarled at him, “Get out!”

  Mark didn’t seem to hear her as he took a step towards the bed. “I don’t want you to worry. You have something that I value. I’ll take care of you and make sure you live as long as you take care of me.”

  He took another step towards the bed.

  Lisa pushed herself further up against the pillows. She was angry and scared at the same time. There was a blank glaze to Mark’s eyes. “I don’t need your help. I can take care of myself. Just get out of my room,” she said the last with a slight tremble in her voice.

  He took one more step and he was up against the bed. “The people with power will rule now. If you want to live, you’ll need to make them happy.”

  He reached behind his back and pulled out a small handgun. He held it in his hands and stared down at it almost lovingly. At Lisa’s gasp, his head whipped up and their eyes met. The blank glazed look was gone and in its place was cold as ice determination.

  “This gives me the power now and you will make yourself useful to me or you won’t be making it off this boat. You will want to be quiet now or things will go very badly,” he told her in a flat, hard voice.

  Lisa stared wide-eyed at the gun and felt tears trickle down her face. When Mark reached out and grabbed her ankle in a vise-tight grip and dragged her down the length of the bed, it was only a small whimper that escaped her throat, not nearly loud enough for anyone on the boat to hear.

  Chapter Twelve

  When Emily woke the next morning, she laid still and listened to David’s quiet breathing. She was so grateful to have him onboard with her. The ache in her lower back told her that sleeping in the cramped single bed with him was over. She needed to make peace with Lisa and that thought reminded her that they were almost to land. A few more days and they would start the final journey towards home. She was scared and excited all at the same time. Other than the high school drama, things had been so easy so far. Once they stepped off this boat, all that would change. She quietly left the bed and stepped out into the main cabin. There was no one in the room so she went to the bathroom and got cleaned up and brushed her teeth. There was no longer enough water for showers so she had a quick wash with a cloth and braided her hair back. When she came out, the cabin was still empty so she decided to make breakfast. They still had plenty of propane for the small stove so she dragged out the biggest pot and started making oatmeal. Emily added raisins and dried cranberries to sweeten it and left it on the stove to boil.

  With only a few days left, she decided that today would be a good day to wash all of
the dirty clothes. They wouldn’t be able to do much with them once they were walking. She went to her and Lisa’s door and knocked softly before opening it and going in. Emily didn’t even look at the bed but went straight to the pile of dirty clothes she and Lisa had been throwing in the corner. Gathering them up in her arms she turned to go back out when her eyes landed on the bed and she froze with surprise.

  Sprawled across the bed with a sheet pulled over him was Mark. Even in sleep, his face hadn’t softened, it still had a scowl on it. Emily glanced around but Lisa wasn’t in the room so she quickly left and softly closed the door behind her. She dumped the dirty laundry on one end of the couch and gave the oatmeal a quick stir. She turned the heat down on it and went over to the panel that had the gauges that showed the boat's holding tanks levels. There was a quarter tank of fresh water left. They still had plenty of water bottles and jugs left so she figured it would be okay to wash the clothes as long as she used the water sparingly.

  Emily went to the stairs and looked up to see who was at the wheel. Mason was standing behind it and looking ahead with a frown on his face. She pulled back and thought for a minute. Yesterday had been full of tension and she didn’t want today to be a repeat. So she filled a bowl with the steaming oatmeal and grabbed a spoon. Carefully carrying it up the stairs she brought it to Mason and hoped he would take it as a peace offering.

  He studied her face as she held the bowl out to him and then he reached out and took it with a small smile. “Can you take the wheel for a minute while I eat?” he asked. “Just hold it steady.”

  Emily stepped up to the wheel and took Mason’s place while he took a seat close to her. They didn’t speak for a while and Mason made short work of his breakfast. When he was done, he stared into his empty bowl.

  “Thanks, Emily, this was really good. You should make a big pot of this before we leave the boat and take it with us. It would be easy to warm it up and it’s great carb and fiber-loaded food for when we are walking a lot.”

  Emily was surprised at his comment. Mason hadn’t really talked about preparations for the long walk ahead and his comment was a really good idea.

  “That’s a great idea, Mason. Good thinking!” She looked at him for a minute and then asked, “Are you okay?”

  His head came up and his face showed confusion. “How can you be so nice to me after what I did to you?” he asked her in awe.

  She shook her head. “You made a mistake, Mason. I know you are a good person but you struggle with it. Everybody makes mistakes. We’re teenagers; we are supposed to make mistakes! Besides, this isn’t really a good time to be fighting with each other. You know the whole end of the world thing? We really need to work together, especially in a few days when we hit land,” she said with a laugh.

  Mason looked out to sea and was quiet for a minute. When he turned back to face her, she saw such sadness on his face that she reached out her hand and grabbed his.

  His voice was choked when he said, “God, I’m so sorry Emily. You didn’t deserve to be treated the way I treated you. Please forgive me?”

  “Oh, Mason, of course I forgive you! Listen, listen to me. This is not an excuse for what you did but I understand some of the reasons for why you act this way. I know how much pressure you get from your dad to live up to your brother’s accomplishments. I know how hard he makes it for you to be the cool popular sports star. But your brother is a jerk! Just because he has talent with a football he thinks he can treat people like dirt. I mean, how many girls does the guy use and discard on a weekly basis? And the way he’s always bragging about his conquests and putting you down whenever he’s home. You have told me how much you don’t like him, so tell me why would you want to live up to that? If you really want to be better than your brother then be better than him. You’ve shown me the good person inside of you now you need to show the rest of the world.” She wasn’t surprised to see the tears in Mason’s eyes and when his met hers, she finished. “Who you really need to show that to is Lisa.”

  He rubbed his eyes, took a deep breath and nodded. “She’s over there at the bow. When Tim woke me up to change out with him she was already sitting out here. She hasn’t moved in a couple of hours. I think I really hurt her, Emily. I don’t know if an apology is going to be enough to fix this.”

  Emily left the wheel to Mason and moved to the side to get a better view of where Lisa was sitting. The girl had her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped tight around them. With a frown, she turned back to Mason. “I went into our room this morning to get some clothes and Mark was sleeping in our bed. I think he was being a jerk and didn’t want to take his turn on the couch. He probably figured with me in David’s room he should get to share the bed with her. No wonder she came out here.”

  Mason looked away from her and asked, “I know it’s none of my business now but are you and David together?”

  “What? No! Mason, I told you this before. David is one of my best friends. I just needed some space from you and Lisa so I stayed in his room. This really isn’t the time to be playing musical boyfriends. Anyway, I think I’ll get Lisa a bowl of oatmeal and try to talk to her but you need to as well. We need to fix this mess before we hit land. There will be enough to worry about then without us fighting with each other.”

  “You’re a really good person, Emily. I wish things had turned out differently,” Mason told her.

  She gave him a sad smile and squeezed his arm before taking his empty bowl and going down to get Lisa some breakfast. She filled another bowl and said good morning to a sleepy David when he came out of the bathroom. Mark had still not come out of the main bedroom and she knew Tim would sleep for hours after staying up at the wheel all night. She handed the filled bowl to David and made another one to take up to Lisa. She considered eating it herself before taking one up to Lisa but the image of her sitting at the bow looking so alone made Emily push the thought aside. Grabbing another spoon, she carried the bowl up on deck and carefully made her way to the front of the boat where Lisa was sitting in a tight ball.

  Lisa didn’t seem to register Emily coming up beside her but when she kneeled down, the girl jerked away like she was going to be hit. The eyes that met Emily’s were huge and had a sheen of tears on them. Taken aback by her reaction, Emily frowned in confusion.

  “Oh Lisa, it’s okay. I just brought you some breakfast!” she said compassionately.

  Lisa took a deep breath and seemed to relax slightly. “You brought me breakfast?” she said, looking down at the bowl that Emily held out to her. When she looked back up into Emily’s eyes, the tears started to trickle down her face. In a choked-up voice she said, “After everything I’ve done to you, you brought me breakfast?” Lisa broke down into sobs. Her shoulders shook as she gasped out, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry! I’m a horrible person and you are so nice. I’m sorry!”

  Emily set the bowl down on the deck and wrapped the crying girl in her arms. She made soothing noises and rubbed her trembling back. It took a while but eventually, Lisa’s sobs quieted and she pulled back from Emily.

  With red puffy eyes and a dripping nose, Lisa took a shuddering breath. “How can you be so nice? Why don’t you hate me?”

  Emily looked out at the waves while she considered Lisa’s question. Finally, she turned back and tried to explain.

  “We weren’t friends. You obviously wanted to be with Mason before we started to date and I know you didn’t sleep with him to hurt me.” At Lisa’s confused expression, Emily changed tact. “Alex is my best friend and has been for years. When I started dating Mason, I betrayed her by dropping her from my life. I dumped her for a guy. What I did to Alex was way worse than what you did to me, and Alex forgave me. She yelled at me first but she forgave me. So how can I not forgive you? Besides, you hurt someone else way more than you hurt me,” Emily said sadly.

  Lisa cast her eyes down in shame and whispered, “Me.”

  Emily put her hand on Lisa’s shoulder. “You are going to have to fo
rgive yourself. And then there’s Mason.” At that, Lisa scowled in his direction. “What he did was pretty crappy and I’m not going to make excuses for him but I talked to him this morning and he’s feeling pretty awful. Strange as this may sound, I think he really gets what he did and wants to make amends.” Emily picked up the now cool bowl of oatmeal and held it out to Lisa. “You should really eat this. The last thing you need right now is another round of sea sickness. Not eating and being tired can start that up again.”

  Lisa took the bowl and ate a spoonful. “Emily, I just want to say thank you. Even though we weren’t friends before, you have treated me like one - so thanks.”

  Emily bumped shoulders with her and said, “Hey, we’re outnumbered! Us girls need to stick together.” Emily laughed. “Did you even get any sleep last night? I went into our room this morning to get our dirty clothes to wash and saw Mark snoring away in our bed. Did the jerk decide he didn’t want to sleep on the couch? Just because I stayed in David’s room doesn’t mean he gets to kick you out of there!” Emily said hotly.

  Lisa looked away but not before Emily saw dark shadows come into her eyes. “Yeah…he wanted the bed,” Lisa mumbled.

  Emily knew what a bully Mark could be and shook her head. “Well, don’t worry about it. It won’t happen again. I’ll be staying with you in there now that we’ve worked stuff out and I plan on giving him a piece of my mind!”

  Lisa’s head whipped around and she grabbed Emily’s arm. “No! Don’t do that. It’s fine. It’s not worth the fight. Just stay away from him. He will be trading with David tonight so it won’t be a problem,” she said almost desperately.

  Emily frowned but nodded. She knew that Mark gave her the creeps and Lisa must feel that way too. Lisa was right. It wasn’t worth getting into an argument with the guy.

  “Okay, you’re right but that guy is a major ass…you know what! Anyway, I’m going to go down and grab something to eat and then wash out our clothes.” With that, she stood up to go.