The Sea Nymph was a large, motor-driven yacht with two cabins and a spacious deck on which to suntan, but Sarika did not imagine she would be doing much sunbathing in this weather. She felt the vibration of the engines beneath her, then they were leaving the harbour and heading out towards the sea.
It was all hands on deck for a time, with Craig at the helm, and the rest of them rushing around to carry out his instructions. They were some miles out to sea when the weather cleared slightly, and Craig cut the engines so that they could lounge about on the deck and help themselves to something to eat and drink. Paul was pleasant and undemanding company, and Sarika eventually slipped into a dreamless sleep from which she was awakened with a start some time later with the feeling that she was being jolted about. She was not alone on the deck. Paul stood gripping the low rail close to her and staring out across a sea which had become rough and choppy while she had slept.
A film of mist had sprung up from nowhere, and it was beginning to surround them when Sarika joined Paul at the rail. 'I know it's too late to say this now, but we definitely shouldn't have come out in the yacht today, and I wish Craig and Melissa had listened to us,' he said grimly.
Sarika cast a searching glance across the deck. 'Where are Melissa and Craig?'
'They went below a few minutes ago to—' A giant wave rose unexpectedly to crash against the side of the Sea Nymph. It soaked them to the skin and there was water everywhere as it sent them sprawling across the deck. 'Get below,' Paul shouted to Sarika, 'and send Craig up to help me at the helm!'
Stay calm, Sarika! Stay calm! she warned herself as she crawled across the heaving, rocking deck, and she somehow managed to get below without injuring herself.
'Paul needs your help at the helm,' she told Craig when he burst out of one of the cabins before she could knock. 'Where's Melissa?'
'She's in there.' He pointed with his thumb over his shoulder to the cabin from which he had just emerged. 'I suggest you stay with her while Paul and I sort out this problem.'
He squeezed past Sarika in the narrow passage and clambered up the steps on to the deck, while Sarika stood there being jolted about like a limp doll. The yacht rolled violently again, and Sarika was thrown forward so that she lunged into the cabin to find Melissa lying curled into a ball on one of the bunks. She thought at first that Melissa was ill, but when she looked into those wide green eyes she saw naked terror.
'For God's sake, Melissa!' Sarika rebuked her angrily. 'You're the one who got us into this mess, and it's up to you to help get us out of it!'
'I'm scared!' wailed Melissa, her face almost as white as the pillow beneath her head.
'I'm just as scared,' Sarika shouted out her confession, 'but getting into a panic isn't going to help!'
Melissa refused to budge and, losing patience with her, Sarika left the cabin and climbed up on to the deck to face the elements.
The sky had become dark and ominous, and the sea was getting rougher by the second, but somehow she managed to reach Craig and Paul in the control cabin where they clung to the helm with every ounce of strength they possessed. The engines were throbbing beneath her feet, but Sarika knew they would never reach Bombay safely in this weather despite the Sea Nymph's powerful engines.
The storm broke loose in all its fury a few minutes later, and the yacht was bounced about like a cork. The bow rose and fell, sending a spray of frothy water across the deck while the turbulent sea rocked them from port to starboard at a nauseating pace. Drenched and shivering, Sarika stood clutching at a rail for support in the tiny control cabin.
'There's a small island not far from here, but it's surrounded by a coral reef,' Craig shouted above the noise of the storm. 'There's a break in the reef to the north side of the island. If we can make it through that opening, then we'll be safe on the island until the storm has passed.'
'You're crazy!' shouted Paul. 'We'll never make it!'
'We've got to try!' Craig shouted back at him, the muscles in their arms and shoulders bulging as they clung to the helm while the sea lifted them repeatedly and flung them back into the water.
Sarika could not stand there doing nothing while Craig and Paul fought to control the yacht and keep it on course through a current which seemed determined to take them elsewhere. Someone had to make the necessary preparations in case of an emergency, and common sense warned that the safest place in a disaster would be on the deck.
She went down below once again, clinging to the rails on either side of her wherever she could for fear of losing her footing and being flung overboard. Melissa was still in her cabin, and she was lying on her bunk with her clenched fist in her mouth. Sarika's own fear made her want to scream abuse at her friend, but she knew this was not going to help. She had to remain calm, and she had to motivate Melissa into giving them assistance.
'Listen to me, Melissa,' she said as calmly as she could. 'You can't lie here like this while there's work to be done. I need your help; we all need your help, and you must pull yourself together.'
'We're going to die! Oh, God, we're going to die!' Melissa screamed hysterically. 'I should have listened to you, and we should have stayed at home, but instead we're out here in this stinking weather and we're all going to die!'
Sarika stood there clutching at the top bunk for support and dripping sea water on the carpeted floor. She was staring at the hysterical girl lying on the lower bunk, but her mind was elsewhere at that moment. She was thinking about her parents and how they had died, and fear almost choked off her breath at the thought that she was going to die in a similar manner, but Melissa's hysterical sobbing brought her swiftly back to reality. She had to do something about Melissa, and she had to do it quickly. Her hand shot out, and she slapped the girl hard across the cheek.
'No one is going to die, do you hear me!' she shouted as she dragged a miraculously silent Melissa to her feet. 'I won't let it happen, and you're going to help me!'
Melissa was all at once like a subdued child ready to take instructions from a superior. 'What do you want me to do?'
'Show me where the lifejackets are kept, and let's get on deck so we can be on hand if our help is needed in the control cabin.'
Brushing her wispy blonde hair out of her eyes, Melissa led the way out of the cabin to a small cupboard below the steps that led up on to the deck. She slid open the door and produced four bright orange lifejackets. They were helping each other don their jackets when Sarika noticed a small first aid kit on a shelf against the wall. Realising that they might need it if one of them should be injured, she took it off the shelf and pushed it into the zip-up pocket of the lifejacket before they went up the steps to join Craig and Paul.
The driving rain and the spray of sea water washing over the deck had drenched both the girls by the time they stumbled into the control cabin, and Sarika's teeth were beginning to chatter with the cold. The two men looked as nauseous as Sarika was beginning to feel when she helped them into the lifejackets, but it was a difficult task to accomplish while the men had to put all their weight to the helm of their wildly rocking yacht.
'I've radioed through an S.O.S., but I don't know whether anyone picked it up,' Paul shouted the information to Sarika.
She was about to suggest that he show her how to use the radio so that she could repeat the request for assistance, but the Sea Nymph lurched violently in the storm-tossed sea, and sent her stumbling towards the opposite side of the tiny cabin where Melissa had crouched some minutes ago with a new look of terror in her eyes.
How long could they still survive in this weather? Sarika was fast becoming frantic with fear as the yacht creaked and groaned in protest beneath her. Would this nightmare ever end?
'The island should be just up ahead of us,' Craig proffered the information as if he had read Sarika's thoughts, 'If we can get round it to the north side, then our troubles are over.'
Sarika shivered and clung to that fragile hope. On the floor beside her Melissa sat white-faced but silent, and Sarika
momentarily brushed her own fears aside to comfort her friend.
'We have a chance to land safely on the island,' she said, gripping Melissa's hand briefly. 'Hang on to that thought, Melissa.'
It was all very well telling Melissa what to do, but Sarika was not coping so very well with her own fears. She thought of her parents, and wondered why fate had decided that her life should end in a similar way. Sean's rugged features leapt into her mind, and she longed for the strength of his arms about her.
'Oh, Sean, Sean!' her heart wept. 'If only you could have loved me too!'
An eternity seemed to pass before the men shouted that the island was in sight through the mist. Sarika and Melissa were instantly on their feet, clutching at the railings as they watched the two men battle at the helm to keep the yacht off the reef as they steered it in a north-westerly direction towards the opening in the barrier Craig had spoken of. Rocks suddenly jutted out of the sea, and Sarika stood with her heart beating in her mouth for fear that they might hit one of them.
The wind was a howling force behind the rain, and the sea was like a wild horse trying to fling the yacht off its back. The bow lifted towards a rock that appeared suddenly in front of it, but the yacht was flung aside the next instant to pass it safely.
'Damn these rocks!' shouted Paul. 'We came in too close to the island, and we're never going to make it!'
Those words had barely been spoken when they felt the shuddering impact of the yacht's hull on rocks which had been hidden beneath the swirling surface of the sea. The engines cut out at once, and the jarring sound of splintering wood was in Sarika's ears as she was flung against the rail on impact. An excruciating stab of pain in her side made her lose her grip on the rail, and she fell to the floor of the control cabin with Paul and Craig almost on top of her. A cry of terror rose in her throat, but she bit it back when Melissa's piercing scream rang out above the noise of the storm. Again and again Melissa screamed until Sarika managed to get on to her hands and knees to crawl towards the hysterical girl.
'Shut up, Melissa, this is no time for hysterics!' she spoke sharply to the girl. 'We're all in this together, and we have to stay together and work together if we're going to come out of this alive.'
'We must inflate the raft,' instructed Craig when they heard the ominous sound of water gurgling and gushing into the yacht.
Paul leapt into action, and Craig followed with Sarika and a white-faced Melissa hard on his heels, but they never succeeded in inflating the dinghy. The yacht lurched once more as a giant wave lifted it beyond the rocks and on to the reef. The hull was completely shattered on impact, and Sarika felt the blood drain away from her face to leave her as deathly white as her three companions. She knew what this meant. The Sea Nymph was sinking, they all knew it, but Melissa perhaps more than the rest of them. She had gone beyond mere hysteria, and they watched with stupefied eyes as Melissa slid on to the deck in a dead faint.
'We'll have to swim for it, and there's no time to waste!' Sarika yelled when the three of them had failed to revive Melissa. 'The yacht isn't going to remain stable for long, and if we stay here a moment longer we're going to be thrown against the rocks.'
The two men stared helplessly at Melissa's lifeless body, and Sarika knew they were just as frightened as she was. Melissa was a burden at that moment; a burden which could cost them their lives, but their consciences would not let them go and leave her. The yacht was still reasonably stable, but no one knew for how long. There was no time to lose, and they were wasting precious seconds. It was then that Sarika took charge. She ordered Craig into the raging, bucking sea and, with Paul's help, Sarika lowered the unconscious Melissa into Craig's waiting hands. Paul followed next, and the yacht was sinking swiftly when Sarika finally jumped into the freezing water.
What followed was a nightmare Sarika knew she would never forget if she survived this ordeal. Between the three of them they managed to battle through the water. The lifejackets kept them afloat, but they were cumbersome to swim in, and they were at their wits' end when Melissa came to her senses, only to panic and scream hysterically. She thrashed about wildly, endangering all their lives, and this time it was Paul's fist that shot out to deliver a blow to Melissa's jaw that rendered her unconscious once more.
Sarika was aware of the pain in her side, and it felt as if every muscle was being strained to its limit as they fought to reach an island which seemed to be drifting farther away from them in the swirling mist. They had heard a terrible crashing sound behind them, but none of them looked back. It was as if they were all afraid to see nothing but the black sea and the mist where the Sea Nymph should have been.
They managed to stay together as they struggled towards the island with their heavy burden between them, and, after what seemed like hours, they were spat out into shallower water. They staggered out of the icy ocean with Melissa, and they had to drag her on to the beach where they collapsed on the wet sand. Panting and exhausted beyond their endurance, they lay stretched out on the beach while the rain beat down on them. It was a miracle they were alive, and they all knew it!
'We made it! Oh, God, we made it!' moaned Sarika, then reaction set in. She was trembling all over, and she curled her fingers into the sand to make sure she was not dreaming.
Melissa coughed and started to cry, and Sarika struggled instantly to her knees to raise her friend up into a sitting position. She could not keep her own tears of relief back when she looked into Melissa's eyes, and the two girls clung to each other, crying and laughing a little hysterically.
Paul and Craig recovered swiftly and instructed them to stay on the beach while they went in search of shelter from the storm. The two girls sat huddled together, trying to keep each other warm. Neither of them spoke while they waited, and it seemed as if yet another eternity had passed before the men returned with the news that they had found a place which would give them protection from the rain.
They staggered up the beach, and fought their way through the undergrowth beneath the trees until they came to a natural clearing. What the men had found was a cave. It was not high enough to stand up in, but it was big enough to accommodate all four of them. Stooping down, they entered it and lowered themselves on to the dry sand beneath them. They took off their lifejackets and sat in silence for some time, each busy with their own thoughts until they were capable of assessing the situation. Paul had sustained no injuries, Melissa's jaw felt a bit stiff and bruised after the vicious blow Paul had given her, but Craig had nicked his foot on the coral, and Sarika's side was beginning to throb painfully. Sarika had the first aid kit to attend to their injuries, but they were without food and drinking water, and God only knew how long they would have to stay on that island before they were found.
Sarika attended to Craig's foot, but there was nothing she could do about the ugly bruise darkening the skin against her right side. She was cold and she was shivering, and they had nothing with which to light a fire even if they could find a few dry twigs. They sat huddled together, trying to stay warm while the storm continued to rage outside. Conversation was sadly lacking, but when they did speak it was to thank God they were still alive.
The storm had passed by five-thirty that afternoon, but the nightmare had not ended. Craig's foot had become inflamed, and his temperature was rising steadily and dangerously. Melissa sat curled up in a tight ball, saying nothing and doing nothing, and that left Sarika and Paul to cope with the task of looking after Craig.
'I'm hungry,' Melissa complained as the sky darkened and the long night lay ahead of them.
'We're all hungry!' Sarika snapped at her. 'There's nothing we can do about it, so there's no sense in complaining.'
Melissa curled up on the sand like a petulant child, and she promptly went to sleep. Sarika stared at her incredulously, but Craig groaned in pain, and she turned at once to attend to him.
During the night Sarika kept him cool with sea water which Paul fetched in the shallow lid which they had broken off the first aid kit
. By midnight Sarika was beginning to feel equally feverish. Her body was aching, and it seemed an effort to move about.
'Sarika?' Paul's hand touched her shoulder. 'I'll stay up with Craig while you get some sleep.'
Sarika did not argue. She crawled across to where she knew Melissa was lying sleeping, and she curled herself up on the sand with a weariness in her mind and her body. She went to sleep instantly, but in her dreams she was on the yacht, and it was crumbling beneath her. Death reached out to her from the depths of the dark sea, but Sean was calling her to safety, and she hovered somewhere in between, incapable of deciding. The dream went on and on until the fingers of death licked at her skin, and she awoke abruptly to discover that it was morning. Paul was crouching beside her, his eyes heavy with lack of sleep, and somehow Sarika managed to rouse herself sufficiently to move over to Craig while Paul collapsed on the sand and slept.
Craig's fever had not broken, and Sarika was equally feverish as she sat there next to him. She bathed his fiery forehead, but her mind was still occupied with her dream. If she had to die, then she would have been happy doing so in Sean's arms. He did not care for her, but somehow that did not seem to matter. He would be there, and that was all she would need.
Her heart cried out her love for him, but her lips remained silent as she continued to bathe Craig's forehead like an automaton. Her body was aching, her head was throbbing, and her vision was becoming blurred. When oblivion threatened to claim her she tried to call Paul, but she could not get a sound past her burning throat. She had no idea how much time had passed before a mist finally enveloped her mind, and she lowered her shivering, aching body on to the sand. The heat of Craig's body warmed her, but her feverish mind told her it was Sean lying there next to her, and she felt comforted and protected against that terrible cold which had penetrated into her bones. She nestled closer, her arm sliding across his chest, and the next instant she felt herself sliding into a pit of darkness.
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