by R. L. Stine
But then I felt my wet clothes sticking to my skin.
No, I realized. I’m awake.
My eyes flew open. Sheena and Dr. D. sat up, yawning and stretching.
“What’s happening?” Sheena murmured.
“The boat’s not moving,” I realized. “It stopped.”
I reached out to touch the water. Instead of water, my fingers sifted through sand.
Dry land!
“Hey!” I cried. “We’ve landed somewhere!”
The sky lightened a little. The sun was just rising. I could begin to make out where we were.
“Land!” Sheena shouted. She jumped out of the boat. “Hurray! Land! I don’t believe it! I don’t believe it!”
Dr. D. stood up and stretched. “Wow! That feels good.”
The sun shone brighter now. I threw myself on the sand. “Bake me, sun!” I sighed.
“I wonder where we are,” Dr. D. said softly, gazing around.
“Wherever we are, I hope they’ve got food,” Sheena added.
Our lifeboat had landed on a sandy beach. Up a slope I could see a stand of palm trees. Other than that, nothing. No docks, no boats, no houses.
“No sign of any people,” Dr. D. noted. “I’m going to take a look around.”
“I’m coming too,” I said.
“Me too!” Sheena said.
We followed Dr. D. along the beach. We walked along the edge of the water.
“Look! A coconut tree!” Sheena pointed to a tall tree on the beach. A few coconuts nestled in the sand beneath it.
“Let’s open one,” she insisted. “I’m starving!”
Dr. D. grabbed a coconut and smashed it against a rock. The coconut split open.
Sheena and I pounced on it. We picked up the broken pieces and chewed the coconut meat.
“Feel better?” Dr. D. asked, sipping coconut milk from the shell.
I wiped the sweet liquid from my chin. “A little,” I said. “But I could sure use a hamburger. Make that two. And a double order of french fries with tons of ketchup.”
“Or a pizza,” Sheena added.
“We’ll catch some fish later,” Dr. D. promised. “We can build a fire and cook them.”
We continued our way around the island.
“Maybe we’ll find a restaurant,” Sheena wished out loud.
But after about ten minutes, Dr. D. groaned. “Oh, no!”
“What is it?” I asked.
“Look.” He pointed a few yards down the beach.
Our lifeboat. We were right back where we’d started.
“You mean, that’s it?” I asked. “We’ve seen the whole island in ten minutes?”
“That’s it.” Dr. D. sighed. “It’s tiny.”
Sheena sighed too. “I’m still hungry. And I don’t want coconuts!”
“Looks as if we’ve landed on a deserted island,” Dr. D. said. “But don’t worry. We’ll find something to eat.”
I touched my face. My skin was hot. The sun had felt so good at first—but now I was getting sunburned.
Another question nagged at me. But I was so hungry, I tried to push it out of my mind.
“Billy, run into that clump of palm trees,” Dr. D. ordered. “See if you can find some wood to build a fire.”
I wandered into the grove, hunting for something to burn. There wasn’t much to be found. Mostly a lot of vines.
And that nagging worry wouldn’t go away.
We were stuck on a tiny island, with nothing but a rubber raft.
And I had one question, a question I was afraid to ask out loud:
How were we ever going to get off?
I found a few sticks and carried them back to the beach. Dr. D. was digging a pit for the fire.
“Good job, Billy.” He took the sticks from me. “This will do for now.”
Sheena was wading near the shore. I sat down on the sand. “Dr. D.—” I began. “What are we going to do? Do you think we’re far from the Cassandra?”
Dr. D. sighed. “I’m afraid I have no idea where we are,” he admitted.
“So—what’s going to happen? Are we going to rot on this island?” I knew we couldn’t last long. So far, we’d had nothing to eat but coconuts.
Dr. D. rubbed two of the sticks together, trying to get them to light. “Maybe someone will see our fire. Maybe a plane will fly over us, or a boat will pass by. Maybe someone will find the Cassandra empty and come searching for us.”
I leaned back and gazed at the empty sky. “But that could take forever!” I cried. “Nobody even knows we’re missing! Except Dr. Ritter—and I don’t want him to find us.”
I heard a shriek. I turned and saw Sheena running up the beach, waving something in one hand.
“Look! Hey—check this out!” she shouted. “I caught a fish! I caught a fish with my bare hands!”
She held out a small, wriggling silverfish.
“It’s puny,” I said.
“So? Let’s see you catch one!” she shot back.
Dr. D. took the fish and set it on the sand. “It’s better than nothing.”
“I’ll catch a bigger one,” I declared.
Sheena and I raced back to the water. We waded in hip-high. A few small fish darted around us.
“These are all pretty small,” I complained. “We need some of Dr. Ritter’s plankton to make them grow.”
“I wouldn’t want to eat one of his giant fish,” Sheena replied, making a disgusted face. “Yuck.”
“Maybe if we go a little deeper we’ll find bigger fish,” I suggested.
We waded in farther. A silverfish with a black stripe swam past me.
“That one is a little bigger,” I said. I made a grab for it. Missed.
I tried again. I swam out a little farther, chasing the fish.
I guess I waded out deeper than I meant to. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my foot.
At first I thought Sheena was pinching me.
But the pain quickly swept up my whole leg.
“Hey—what’s going on?” I cried.
I lowered my gaze to the water—and let out a frightened scream.
“Oh, nooooo!” I moaned.
I stared down at the water—down at the creature beneath the water.
I saw a hairy back. A brown-purple shell. Enormous pincers.
And knew I’d been grabbed by a giant crab!
The crab was as big as a card table. And it squeezed my toe in a pincer the size of my dad’s lug wrench!
“Help!” I screeched. “Ohhhh, help!”
The crab snapped its claws. I managed to slip my toe out of its grip.
Slipping and stumbling, I scrambled back to shore as fast as I could.
“A giant crab!” I shouted. “Hey—look out! It’s following me!”
Sheena let out a gasp and came splashing out of the water.
The giant crab scrabbled onto the sand, moving sideways, its hairy legs moving rapidly.
“I don’t believe it!” Dr. D. cried.
The crab moved toward us with amazing speed, snapping its claws. Click … click … CLICK.
“Into the trees! Quick!” Dr. D. shouted,
We ran into the palm tree grove. I scrambled up a tree, out of the crab’s reach. Sheena climbed up behind me. Dr. D. grabbed the branch of another tree and swung himself up.
The crab watched us from below. It raised its hairy claws as if reaching for us. Click … CLICK.
“If only we could cook it!” Sheena exclaimed hungrily. “That thing could feed us for a week!”
“It must have eaten some of Dr. Ritter’s plankton! Its huge size has made this crab very hungry!”
The crab clicked its big claws, trying to grab us. Its body heaved in and out, in and out.
It stood there for what seemed like hours.
“How long will it wait before it gives up?” I asked.
Dr. D. shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
I heard a crack.
At first, I thought it
was the crab claws snapping.
Another crack. Too close to be the crab.
Coming from right beneath Sheena and me.
The tree branch.
Crack.
To my horror, I realized that Sheena and I were too heavy for it. The branch was breaking off the tree.
My sister and I were about to drop into the crab’s waiting claws.
With a low cry, I reached up both arms. I tried to grab the branch above us.
I reached … reached …
No. My arms were too short.
“We—we’re falling!” Sheena cried.
With a loud craaaack, our branch broke off.
And we tumbled down … down … onto the crab’s hairy back.
No.
Onto the hot sand.
“Huh?” I gasped and spun around.
The crab had moved away. It was scrabbling rapidly back toward the water.
Sheena sat up, her expression still startled.
Our uncle climbed down from his branch. “Are you two okay?”
We watched the huge creature splash back into the ocean.
“I’m never going back in that water,” I declared.
“Who knows what other monsters are waiting in there!”
“But how will we catch any fish?” Sheena wailed. “We’re going to starve to death!”
Dr. D. wasn’t listening to us. He had turned away and was gazing down the beach. “Oh, no!” he cried. “The tide—it came in! The life raft!”
All three of us started running to the spot where we’d left our lifeboat. But it was gone.
I stared out over the ocean—and I spotted a yellow speck in the distance. The lifeboat.
The tide had carried it away.
“Now we’ll never get off this stupid island!” I cried. “Never.”
Dr. D. didn’t reply. He didn’t need to say anything. The worried expression on his face said it all.
* * *
We passed the rest of the day keeping in the shade, chewing coconut meat.
“I’ll never eat coconut again,” Sheena whined. “Not even in candy bars!”
We didn’t talk much. What was there to say?
Night fell slowly. We watched the sky fade from blue to purple to black.
Dr. D. sat up suddenly. “Did you hear that?” he asked.
I sat up too. And listened hard.
“What is it?” Sheena asked.
“It’s coming from the beach,” Dr. D. said.
We walked quickly down to the beach. Two huge animals splashed and played in the water.
“Whales!” Sheena cried.
“No—not whales,” Dr. D. said. “Dolphins!”
The dolphins ate the plankton too, I realized.
“What’s that yellow thing they’re playing with?” Sheena asked. “It looks like—”
“It is!” I shouted. “Our lifeboat! The dolphins brought it back!”
The lifeboat rope had tangled around the middle of one of the dolphins. Wherever the dolphin swam, the boat trailed behind it.
“Let’s go rescue it!” Dr. D. cried. He splashed into the water. Sheena and I followed him. No time to worry about giant crabs. We had to get that raft.
We swam out to where the dolphins played. They gurgled at us. They didn’t seem afraid of us at all.
Why should they be? They were a lot bigger than we were!
They’re only dolphins, I told myself. Dolphins don’t hurt people.
But I was a little afraid of them. Especially since our visit from the giant crab.
Dr. D. grabbed the edge of the rubber raft. Sheena and I climbed in.
“Now, if I can just get that rope from around this dolphin … ,” Dr. D. groaned.
He tugged on the rope. The dolphin began to swim.
“The dolphin is carrying us away!” Sheena said. “Wait, dolphin! Stop!”
The dolphin didn’t stop. It kept swimming, faster and harder.
Dr. D. hauled himself into the boat.
The island was a speck behind us now. We couldn’t swim back to it if we wanted to! The dolphin was carrying us far out to sea.
“We might as well settle back and enjoy the ride,” Dr. D. said. “There’s nothing else we can do.”
* * *
The dolphin pulled us all night long. The sea was calm that night. We slept in the boat again.
When I opened my eyes, everything was gray. Misty.
I heard the dolphin gurgling and chirping, as if it were talking to us.
The sun was just about to come up. The ocean was covered with a thick blanket of fog.
The dolphin poked its head over the side of the boat. It had slipped the rope off. It was free now.
With a splash, it swam away. It quickly disappeared through the thick fog.
I peered through the fog. I could barely see past the lifeboat. We were still in the middle of the ocean. But I thought I saw something nearby. Something big and white.
Like a boat.
My heart sank.
Oh, no, I thought. I think I’ve seen this boat before.
I shut my eyes again, wishing it would go away.
I opened them. There it was.
No! It can’t be! It’s too horrible!
I shook Dr. D. “Wake up!” I cried. “Look where we are!”
Dr. D. opened his eyes. “Huh?” my uncle muttered. “Where are we?”
“The dolphin carried us back!” I wailed. “Back to Dr. Ritter’s boat!”
“Oh, no!” Sheena wailed. “Not again!”
“What are we going to do?” I asked.
“Shhh!” Dr. D. whispered. “Stay calm. They don’t know we’re here. Maybe we can get away somehow.”
“Get away?” I exclaimed. “To where?”
“I can’t stay on this raft another minute!” Sheena insisted. “I want to go home!”
“That stupid dolphin!” I muttered. “I thought dolphins were supposed to be smart! I can’t believe it pulled us to Dr. Ritter’s boat.”
The fog surrounded us like a thick gray curtain. It swept in and out, making Dr. Ritter’s boat appear to shimmer.
The rubber raft drifted closer to the boat. I could almost touch the side of the bow.
I thought I saw a word printed there. I did. The name of the boat.
I strained to read it. I could make out the first few letters.
C-A-S …
Huh?
“Dr. D.!” I cried. “It’s not Dr. Ritter’s boat. It’s our boat! It’s the Cassandra!”
Dr. D. squinted. “Yes!” he cried. “You’re right, Billy!”
We were safe! Sheena and I jumped up and danced around.
“We’re home! We’re home! We’re home!” we sang.
The lifeboat bounced under our feet. “Whoa!” I cried. We nearly tipped it over!
“Sit down, kids,” Dr. D. said. “We’re two feet from safety. We don’t want to drown now.”
We paddled the rubber raft to our boat and dragged ourselves aboard.
I was so tired. But I couldn’t help doing another little dance on the deck of the Cassandra.
Sheena slapped me five. “Nothing can stop us!” she cried happily. “Not a stormy night on the high seas! Not getting stranded on an empty island! Nothing!”
Dr. D. laughed. “I can’t wait to take a shower and go to bed. But first—I’m cooking us all a big breakfast.”
“Pancakes!” I suggested.
“Pancakes and waffles!” Sheena cried.
“Breakfast is going to have to wait,” a deep voice said.
We all froze.
Dr. Ritter stepped out of the cabin.
“You won’t be hungry much longer,” he sneered.
“I can’t take this!” Sheena wailed. Tears formed in her eyes.
“Quiet!” Dr. Ritter snapped.
Dr. D. laid a hand on Sheena’s shoulder and shushed her. “Where are your assistants?” he asked Dr. Ritter.
“That’s none of your busin
ess. I don’t need them now. I can take care of you myself,” Dr. Ritter replied. “You’re all very tired and weak, aren’t you? Even you, Dr. D. That’s what happens when you don’t eat for two days.”
I glanced at Dr. D. It was true. He looked exhausted.
“Go ahead,” Dr. Ritter went on. “Get back in the lifeboat. I dare you.”
My eyes fell on the rubber boat. Dr. Ritter knew what he was doing. I would rather have eaten fish guts with horseradish than get back in that thing.
“What do you want now, Ritter?” Dr. D.’s voice was tired, but angry. “Why did you wait here for us?”
Dr. Ritter scowled. “I can’t let you live. I can’t let you tell the world about my plankton.”
“We promised we wouldn’t tell!” Sheena cried. “Look—cross my heart and hope to die.” She crossed her heart and held up her hand, Girl Scout–style.
Dr. Ritter laughed. “You’re very amusing. I’m so sorry it has to end this way. Really, I am.”
The sun finally burned through the fog. I shivered. I wasn’t cold and wet anymore. But Dr. Ritter was giving me chills.
“All of you—down to the lab,” Dr. Ritter ordered. “Go!”
He forced us downstairs. Into my uncle’s lab.
Dr. Ritter stood in front of the cabinet—the one that held the plankton bottles.
“I believe these are the plankton samples you collected, Dr. Deep,” he said. “Am I right?”
Dr. D. nodded.
“Good. You’ve gathered a lot of my work. You must have been very interested in it.”
“Of course I was,” Dr. D. said. “I’m a scientist.”
“Yes,” Dr. Ritter hissed. “You’re a scientist. You want to learn more—am I right?”
Dr. D. nodded slowly.
“Excellent. You asked me earlier about the side effects of my plankton experiments, Dr. Deep. About the few kinks I haven’t worked out yet. I think now is the time to show you what they are.”
Dr. Ritter opened the glass door of the cabinet. “When fish eat the plankton, they grow huge.” He pointed to the bottles of plankton lined up on the shelves.
“You’ve already seen that, haven’t you? But what do you think happens when a human eats the plankton? Billy? Want to take a guess?” Dr. Ritter asked.
I took a stab at it. “Um—they grow into giant people?”
“Wrong!” Dr. Ritter cried. “Sheena? What do you think?”