The Complete Seabound Trilogy Box Set by Jordan Rivet

Author:Jordan Rivet [Rivet, Jordan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2016-03-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21—The Lifeboat

The sea was eerily quiet. After the cacophony of the day, the solitude was unnerving. Esther started the small outboard motor, grateful for the warm growl of machinery. The lifeboat chugged away from the dark hull of the Terra Firma. She scanned the ship for any sign that she’d been spotted. Lights glowed, sometimes flickering with the movement of the sailors. Once, Esther thought she saw a face watching her. She hoped it belonged to one of her allies.

Cody had told her they’d been sailing southeast ever since leaving Calderon Island, so she charted a course for the northwest and prayed she wouldn’t miss it entirely. The Terra Firma shrank behind her. Darkness pressed in close, like water. The sea was even blacker than the sky. The clouds glowed dimly from the cloaked moon, the only thing distinguishing sea and sky. The rush of the waves against the lifeboat harmonized with the hum of the engine.

Esther had never been alone on a boat before. For almost her entire life she had been at sea. She knew the feel of the waves before a storm, the sting of the wind on her face, the emptiness of a vast, watery horizon. The scents of salt and fish had been her constant companions. She’d grown up with the sound of water in her ears and the rocking of the ship in her bones. Yet she’d always had company in her seabound world. She’d lived in the cramped quarters of the forlorn former luxury ship, surrounded by her family, her coworkers, her friends. Even on her recent adventures she’d connected with other survivors across the New Pacific, from the rebels on the Galaxy Flotilla to the young sailors with the Metal Harvesters. But tonight, for the first time she felt the true isolation of the sea.

The mists contained sound, captured it, smothered it. The sea clutched at the lifeboat like oil. A crippling fear threatened to rise through Esther’s body. She tried to fight it down, and the fear lodged beneath her bottom ribs.

She’d often sought privacy on the Catalina, busy at her work, in need of peace. But this was true solitude. The solitude of a world that had lost 90 percent of its population. The solitude of the watery prison that was her home, usually kept at bay by the everyday bustle of her work.

The waves were choppy, and Esther couldn’t be sure that she was staying on course as she drove through the night. She had found a battered compass in the lifeboat’s emergency storage compartment. She kept it in her hand, wishing the first mate hadn’t taken the good one in her tool belt. She’d found a flashlight in the storage compartment too, along with a bit of clean water, a small knife, and some fishing gear.

The Harvesters didn’t seem to be pursuing her. Cody would take his time delivering Zoe to the captain, and he’d take even more time going back to their cabin to supposedly fetch the right girl.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.