Stranded with the Quarterback

by Elana Johnson

  “The wave is going to hit us in thirty seconds,” the man said. He got down off the table. “I want as many people under the table as will fit, and—”

  No one waited for the rest of the instructions, Maine included. He pushed Orchid under the table, as she was the closest one to it. “Scoot in, Orchid,” he said. “As far as you can.”

  Cries and gasps and general anxiety filled the air. Maine was used to a high-pressure situation, but this was a little different than trying to find the open receiver forty yards down the field.

  He managed to fold his tall frame in half and slide under the table beside Orchid. She had her eyes closed, and she sat cross-legged under the very center of the table. He crowded in beside her so someone else could have the edge of the space remaining.

  Maine looked around, trying to find Shane. He had to be here. Everyone was accounted for, right?

  “Hold on,” the man yelled, and Maine grabbed one of the table legs, reaching right over another woman’s head to do it.

  In the next moment, the boat swung wildly. Screams filled the air, and Maine wasn’t entirely sure he hadn’t added to chaos. Orchid definitely had, and she cried openly now. With his other arm, he gathered her right against his chest.

  “It’s—” Another violent sway in the opposite direction stole the word “okay” from his throat. She clung to him now, and Maine didn’t mind. If he could help her, he would. He’d heard her say something about her husband’s boat going under, and he couldn’t imagine what fresh nightmare she was living.

  The ship groaned, a deep guttural noise that didn’t inspire confidence. “What is that?” someone asked, their voice full of alarm.

  “We’re evening out,” the man said, but in the next moment, the ship lurched again. Knees and elbows hit Maine in the back and sides, and he jabbed other people too. Someone screamed, and another woman said, “She’s out from underneath the table!”

  The boat continued to sway and swing, until finally, the motion stopped.

  Maine didn’t dare move. What if this was like an earthquake, where there could still be aftershocks? Did that happen with tsunamis? He’d grown up in Texas, and he knew hardly anything about earthquakes. Hurricanes, sure.

  Silence descended upon the room, except for a little bit of residual crying and sniffling. Orchid was utterly silent and if not for the way she had her arms cinched around Maine’s torso, he’d have thought her dead or asleep.

  “It’s okay to come out now,” the man said. “We’ve already radioed for a rescue boat, but it’ll be morning before they get here.”

  Maine waited his turn while others slid and shuffled out from underneath the table. He pulled Orchid with him, keeping her tight against his side. “It’s okay,” he said to her. “We’re okay. There’s food on the ship, and we’ll be fine until help arrives.”

  Several others looked at him too, and he decided if he had to be the voice of comfort, so be it. The security guard repeated the same things he did, and his partner released them from the room.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” came over the loudspeaker, and Orchid flinched. Maine too was triggered, as now he knew what damage could come from an announcement. “Your attention please. We’ve lost both our engines. We won’t be able to continue on this boat. Rest assured, our rescue vessel will be here in the morning, and we have plenty of water and food.”

  So everything Maine had just said was really true. “All right,” he said to Orchid. “Let’s go get that backpack, just in case. Okay?” He held her at arm’s length, and looking into those gorgeous, if not a little watery, blue eyes, he could see her strength. See her phantoms.

  “Okay,” she said, and Maine let her direct him to her cabin.

  That night, the party atmosphere on the boat seemed to have returned, at least a little bit. Maine ate a lot of pizza, figuring he wasn’t sure when or where his next meal would come from so he should get as full as possible.

  Orchid stayed at his side, and Maine managed to carry on a conversation with her about surface things. She’d told him about her three sisters, two of whom had been in the news in the past couple of years as they’d been stranded in remote locations.

  That’s not going to happen to us, he told himself. Number one, there were fifty people on this ship, and they had working communications. Number two, there were no islands in sight, but he wasn’t sure if that was comforting or not. And third, Orchid had an entire backpack of emergency supplies. Maine wanted to go to his cabin and pack something similar, but he didn’t have a utility knife, or unbreakable cords, or a desalination kit. He could bring extra clothes, but he was sure they wouldn’t do much against the endless ocean beyond the ship.

  Shane had found him soon after they’d been released from the conference room on Level Two, and they’d stuck together. Night fell, but Maine didn’t want to go to his room. Eventually, the security team on the ship came around and told everyone to go to their cabins, and Maine went with Orchid to hers before following Shane to his.

  Maine was right next door, and he said, “See you on the flip side,” to his buddy before going inside and closing the door behind him. He did a thorough search of his room and found a life vest under the cushion of the desk chair. He strapped it around himself and fell onto the narrow bed.

  Just in case, he thought as his exhaustion overwhelmed him and he fell asleep.

  He woke when he fell out of bed. A curse sat at the tip of his tongue—until he remembered the events of the previous afternoon. Then panic coated everything, and he pushed himself to his feet and flew out the door.

  People ran by him, screaming from somewhere in the distance. But the biggest problem in Maine’s opinion, was the driving rain on the deck outside his door.

  He was soaked in a matter of seconds, and still his only thought was to get to Orchid and make sure she was okay. It was insane, really. He’d only known the woman for a day, and yet he felt a connection to her. He’d wanted to get to know her before the tsunami, and that hadn’t changed. He also felt the insane need to keep her safe. Protect her. Make sure nothing bad happened to her, as it had obviously happened to her husband.

  Husband.

  She was definitely older like him, and he wondered how long she’d been married. What exactly had happened. And if she had kids.

  He wasn’t going to ask her any of those things until later. Much later. Maybe when they made it back to dry land and he asked her to dinner.

  An announcement came over the speaker system, but it only broadcast every other word, and Maine had no idea what they were saying. He finally moved, running and slipping as he headed toward Orchid’s cabin.

  He saw employees directing people toward the back of the boat, where he caught sight of another ship thrashing in the weather. The very bad, very tropical-storm-like weather.

  The wind howled and rain pounded his shoulders. Men opened their mouths, but he couldn’t hear the sound of their yells above the thunder and power of Mother Nature. This was very, very bad.

  Maine found Orchid cowering in the door, her backpack on and her face full of fright. “Come on,” he said, grabbing her hand. “We have to get on the other ship.” He towed her after him, slowing down now so they both didn’t land flat on their faces.

  The press of people had dwindled from what he’d caught sight of a few minutes ago, but the other ship heaved away from the one he and Orchid were still on. People swayed and fell, cries lifting into the air, where the waves smothered them.

  The two ships moved closer together again, and several more people made it from the limping boat to the new one. “That’s it!” a man yelled on the other side of the tumultuous ocean. “No more. We’re going to tear in half!”

  “No,” Maine said, nowhere near loud enough for anyone to hear him. “They can’t leave.” He couldn’t stay on this boat. This dead-in-the-water boat, going nowhere but underwater.

  One security guard remained on the ship, as well as the captain and two other singles. And Maine a
nd Orchid. It was only six more people.

  The ship beneath him groaned again, and Maine rushed toward the railing. “Let us come over!” He waved his arms above his head, feeling his feet slip out from underneath him. He landed hard on the deck, stars shooting behind his eyes and up into his brain.

  He struggled to stand up, but he managed to do it. He felt like he’d just been sacked by the biggest defensive lineman in the football association. “Please,” he said. “We can’t survive over here.”

  He got pulled back, and then he had no choice as the other boat backed away, slowly getting obscured by the waves and surf and wind and rain.

  His only chance of getting to safety, just fading before his very eyes.

  Cold fingers slipped into his, and then Orchid’s pretty face loomed in front of his. “Come on, Maine,” she said. “We have to ride out the storm down below.”

  Chapter Five

  Orchid huddled with Maine at her side, an eternal chill inside her again. She’d felt like this after finding out Henry had passed away. Lost at sea was the term the Coast Guard had used, and Orchid never did get to see her husband again.

  The thoughts of him out there in the ocean, somewhere, had haunted her for months. Even now, she couldn’t stop thinking about it.

  The remaining people on the boat sat in the conference room, saying nothing.

  If only she hadn’t frozen in her doorway. Then she could’ve been one of the earlier people in line to move from the bad ship to the working one. As it was, she’d had to wait for Maine to show up, and the weakness inside her seemed to grow and bloom, staining everything.

  The ship lurched, and a massive, metal-on-metal sound met her ears. The captain scrambled to his feet only moments before he started sliding away from where Maine and Orchid sat against the wall.

  “Get to a lifeboat!” he yelled, his last word getting swallowed by the mechanical screaming still filling the air. Maine grabbed Orchid’s hand and they ran from the room. She couldn’t breathe, and she couldn’t really feel her feet, but she managed to move.

  The ship tipped dangerously, and Maine yelled, “Hold on!” and he got to work untying a boat. The security guard appeared at her side, practically pinning her to the railing. He helped Maine with the front of the lifeboat, and together, they got it lowered into the frothing water below.

  “We have to get away from the ship,” the security guard yelled, and Maine grabbed Orchid and swung over the side of the boat with all the athleticism she’d expect from a starting quarterback in the NFL.

  She screamed into the weeping sky, finally hitting the hard surface of the boat. Maine reached up and helped the security guard down, calling, “Anyone else?”

  No one appeared, and the security guard took the life jacket from Orchid, and he and Maine sat in the middle of the boat, manning the oars.

  “Away from the ship,” the security guard said, and Maine repeated it. Over and over, with every stroke.

  Orchid didn’t feel seconds away from getting ripped in half the further from the boat they moved, and a mild sense of relief wound through her. The rain lessened and lessened until it finally subsided too.

  Then they were left alone with soaking wet clothes, the three of them in a lifeboat, and miles and miles of water in every direction.

  “I’m Tanner,” the security guard said sometime later. Orchid didn’t know how much time had passed. Could’ve been minutes or hours. She honestly wasn’t sure.

  “Orchid,” she said.

  “Maine.” He stared lifelessly out into the water, and Orchid wanted to snap her fingers in front of his face and tell him to focus. Get them somewhere safe, where they could find food and build a shelter.

  “Okay,” she said, when neither man said another word. She could boss them around. She did it all day and all night, whether she wanted to or not. She put on her Mom-pants and said, “Let’s think. Which way was the ship going when we hit the tsunami?”

  “Our singles cruises go out to the north,” Tanner said. “For three days. Then we circle back around Maui, and all the way down and around Getaway Bay again on the Big Island.”

  “So we’re north of the Big Island,” she said. “We moved all day.”

  “Right,” Tanner said.

  “There are islands out here,” Orchid said, sending up a prayer that the wind would stop altogether. Her clothes were soaked, and she shivered. “Did either of you read about the couples that got stranded on the same island over and over?”

  Maine looked as blank as ever, and Tanner shook his head.

  Orchid worked hard not to roll her eyes. “Well, I read about them, and I know there are islands out here.” She peered into the same distance Maine was looking. “So we just need to find one, and then we’ll wait for help to come.”

  “Do you think help is coming?” Maine asked.

  “Of course,” Orchid said, glad some of her earlier shock and fear had worn off. It seemed to have been transferred right into Maine, as he continued to stare catatonically at the horizon.

  The sky held an ominous shade of gray, but no more rain fell. Several minutes later, the sun broke through, and Orchid peered up at it. “Do you think that’s east? It was morning when the other ship arrived, right?”

  “It’s almost nine o’clock now,” Tanner said, glancing at Maine. He nudged him with his shoulder, and that seemed to bring the football player back to life.

  “So yes,” Tanner added. “That’s east.”

  “Seems like I read that the islands were north and a bit west of the main island,” Orchid mused. She looked behind the two men in the boat, but she couldn’t see the Big Island, of course. A slip of foolishness pulled through her, and she faced what she believed to be north again. “So let’s just keep going this way.”

  “You really think there will be islands out here?” Maine asked. “With a storm surge and a tsunami? They could be submerged.”

  Submerged.

  Fear gripped Orchid’s heart with that single word. “True,” she said. “What ideas do you guys have? Can we go south? We’ll run into the Big Island then, right?”

  “No way,” Tanner said. “The waves are too powerful to row against. We have to go with the waves until the storm is completely gone.” He nodded toward the southern sky. “And it’s not.”

  Orchid drew in a deep breath. “Okay. Go with the waves, but let’s keep looking for any sign of land.” She felt like an idiot for stating the obvious, but both men agreed, and she went back to scanning the ocean waves for any hint of green among so much blue.

  Hours later, Orchid felt sure her stomach would claw itself out for want of food. She’d gone through her backpack a half a dozen times, and Eden had packed plenty to eat. But Orchid had no way of knowing how long she’d be without food, which made rationing impossible.

  Tears gathered in her eyes, but she pushed them back. She would not cry in front of these two men, one of whom she’d just started to like. She couldn’t help the thoughts of Henry, as no one seemed to feel much like talking, and she’d been left to her own mind.

  “Right there,” Maine said, standing up and disturbing the equilibrium in the boat. “There’s an island right over there.” He pointed due east, and Orchid followed his outstretched arm.

  “Oh, wow,” she said, startled at how close it was. “Why didn’t we see that?” The pale sand shone in the sun like gold now, and all the trees were the purest of greens.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Tanner said, positioning himself at the oars. “Let’s get this boat out of the water.” He heaved against the waves, lining the boat up with the island, which had some rocky cliffs on one side. The articles she’d read about the prior strandings spoke of a cave the couples had used for shelter, but these cliffs looked a little too jagged for such things.

  Tanner groaned and grunted, and he still couldn’t get them all the way to the beach before he stood and said, “Maine, you take us in.”

  Maine put his hands on the oars, and while each st
roke wasn’t as powerful as the security guard’s, he easily got them up on the beach. Tanner jumped out of the boat and pushed them up onto the sand while Maine sat there, his chest heaving.

  “You need to eat,” Orchid said, going into mother mode again. She pulled out three protein bars and held them out. “Let’s each eat one of these now. There are four bottles of water in here. We should each drink one too. Then we can start looking for food and making more water.”

  She had a desalination kit in her pack, as well as emergency blankets, vitamins, a knife, cord, and several other packages of food. Eden had made sure she’d have what she’d need in case of emergency, and she could hear her younger sister saying, “You won’t need it, Orchid. But just in case.”

  Just in case had arrived. Orchid did need every single thing in this pack, and she didn’t let Maine take it before she stepped out of the boat. He and Tanner had refused the food earlier, but they didn’t now. Each of them took the protein bar and bottle of water from her.

  With things distributed, she wrapped her arms around Maine and held on tight. “We made it,” he whispered into her hair, and Orchid wondered what the fluttery feeling in her lungs meant.

  “We made it dry land,” she said, facing the forest up the beach a ways. “Now we have to figure out how to survive here until someone finds us.” She didn’t want to think about how Iris and Justin had waited, eating only dragon fruit and rambutans, only to realize no one would ever find them.

  But you’re not as far from civilization, Orchid reasoned within her own mind. Two boats had known where they were, and they still had plenty of summer daylight left to make shelter, which meant they hadn’t been out on the open water for long.

  She adjusted the hat she’d found in her pack and put on hours ago and started marching up the beach. “Shelter first,” she said, glad when neither Maine nor Tanner argued with her.

  A strange sound met her ears as she approached the tree line. “Is that…?” She didn’t know how to finish, because the warbling was so odd, she couldn’t quite give it a name.