19. Abandon Ship
Chapter 19
Abandon Ship
Haley
M y heart is thudding, but I’ve trained for this for a decade. I grab my water shoes and my crew sweatshirt and toss it on. I glance back at my little cabin and grab Calvin’s stuffed animal. I shove it inside my crew jacket.
I open Shayla’s door. She’s sound asleep with an eye mask on. “Shayla, wake up.”
The alarm is still blasting. She goes from asleep to turbo in an instant, jumping down from her bunk, grabbing shoes and a jacket.
I race to the bench in the galley. It’s open already. I grab a vest for myself and one for Shayla, then two more for the primaries, because that’s where I’m heading next.
Everyone has an assigned zone. When we practiced two days ago, taking time from all I had to do, I was a little upset. Now I’m moving to the primary’s cabin, where I’m assigned to make sure they are up and on their way to the life rafts. Normally we would go by levels, but Rocky is older, and the captain said he sleeps like the dead. Not dead. Not dead.
I knock on the door out of habit but then turn the handle. They’re both still asleep. “Rocky, Candy! Wake up.”
That’s all it takes, and Candy is screaming.
“Shh, Candy, breathe. Panicking won’t help you,” Rocky says. He’s up and he’s pulling on a shirt and a pair of suit trousers, but whatever.
I hand him the life vest and round the bed to the other side. I’m not sure what the heck Candy is sleeping in, but she needs more. I open the dresser and pull out a T-shirt and yoga pants, and a sweatshirt with a horse on it. I shove it all in the laundry bag she’s never used next to the dresser.
“Candy, stop!”
She’s flailing around picking up jewelry and shit.
“Drop it, all of it,” I order.
She looks at me like I’m mad.
“Now,” I say.
Rocky is zipping up his jacket. “Now,” he yells.
She drops them.
“Put this on.” I put her arms through her life jacket and hand her the bag. “Let’s go.”
In the foyer, Emily and Brick are ready. They both have on sensible clothes and life vests, and Emily is carrying water shoes. “I can’t get Easton’s door open, and neither can Brick.” Her eyes are searching, but she’s remarkably calm.
“I’ve got it. Take them to the port aft side. That’s where we launch the life rafts.”
“The what?” Candy says.
“Driver’s side back,” I yell at them. The ocean is loud, and the boat shifts back and forth. Things are flying off shelves in the main salon. I skirt down the stairs by sliding along the wall.
Easton is banging on the door.
“Hold on, I’ve got you.” I do the normal thing: push down, lean on the door, lift. It doesn’t work. The boat lists to the other side, and I stumble away from it. I should have had Calvin fix the door. Damn.
“Haley, get back from the door. I’m going to kick it,” Easton says through the door.
“That’s not going to work.” But I hear a thud anyway.
I take a deep breath. Slow down to go fast , I remind myself. Focus. I push on the door latch, lean on it, and lift, and the door clicks open.
Easton’s more shocked than I am, but he’s wearing a life vest.
“Follow me,” I yell. We climb the steps, but the angle is wrong. Steep. He grabs my hips, helping me climb. “This way.” I haven’t seen Shayla since she went to check the rest of the crew cabins.
This is wrong, so wrong. They launched the tender. We’re not supposed to use the tender in an emergency—it’s too tippy. There are two rafts inflated too, but the tender is pulling away.
“What’s going on?” Easton holds my arm. The wind is blustering, and the waves are crashing over where the swim platform would be. I’m holding on to the sidebar. Most of the crew is already in the other raft. Shayla, the engineers, Emily, Brick, and all the deckhands but bosun Zane. Anders is in the tender with Rocky and Candy.
“She wouldn’t get in the raft. Rocky made us launch the tender.” Zane is scowling at the tender. “Let me help you into the raft.”
“Where’s the captain?”
“Captain’s on the bridge,” says Zane. “The radio’s down, electrical too. No one knows where we are. Get in the life raft, Haley.”
Sam. I can’t go without Sam. I spin to head to the bridge. “What about Dante?”
“Shit, I don’t know.” Zane picks up his radio. “Dante, Dante.” But it’s clear the system is down. He tosses it in the raft. “Get in, Haley. I’ll go get Dante.”
“No, you help Easton in.” I take off before Zane can stop me.
The boat is really rocking now, and going up the stairs is like a fun house gone wrong. I hit the top step near the butler’s pantry. The light coming in is from the small emergency power lights and a little sliver of twilight. There at the end of the counter, his crocks are sticking out.
“Oh, no. Dante.”
He’s unconscious on the floor. There’s blood on the corner of the counter and some near his head. I drop to my knees.