Island Jumper: An Archipelago Series by M. H. Ryan

Author:M. H. Ryan [Ryan, M. H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-02-04T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

For the second morning in a row, I watched the sunrise over the ocean. I yawned, trying to stretch out my back from sitting for too long. I definitely wanted to build a chair, but the necessities would come first. I sat on the edge of the platform with my feet hanging off the side with three amazing women asleep behind me. I used a spear stuck into the sand below to balance myself as I leaned forward.

Thankfully, no predators had come through the night, and the only thing that broke the eerie dark drone of waves was the occasional screeches in the sky and splashes of water in the ocean. I thought I heard the spouting blowhole of a whale at some point, but for most of the night, it was just static out there, except for some brief moments that sent chills down my arms. I’d never been afraid of the ocean, but there were things I felt in it now that might have swayed me from my nautical career as a young man.

As a kid, I’d have races with my friends. We’d jump into the waves and just keep swimming. I’d swim way past what my friends were comfortable with, going past the buoys with warning signs attached. I kept going until I reached a point where the shore was hard to see over the swelling waves and touching the bottom was a distant option. I’d lay on my back and just float there beyond the breaking waves, rising and falling with the ocean, as if it was breathing. There was a comfort I found out there. I had loved the water and the ocean all my life. Now, being stranded in it all, forced a new appreciation for the beauty and danger of it all.

In a way, Sherri was right; this was a gift. A gift that wanted to kill us.

Through the night, there was an occasional snapping of a branch that gave me a jump start, but I suspected that a dead limb had fallen from a tree. About halfway through the night, the geyser erupted again. It sent some drops of warm water over to us, but it was more of a mist than a rain, and once it was over, a fog spread over the forest for about an hour. If the snapping noises and splashes from the ocean made me jump before, I was launching out of my skin when I couldn’t see more than ten feet around us.

I thought for sure the girls would wake up from that, but they must have been dead tired, and most of the night it was just the soft sounds of them breathing. I did hear Aubrey stirring once, though, as if she was having a nightmare. I thought of waking her, but she settled down back into a soft slumber.

I felt the fatigue as well. I hadn’t slept much in a couple nights now, and I thanked the growing glow on the horizon. The sun was coming up, and I knew the fight against sleep would be easier in the daylight.

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