Stranded - Shipwrecked
#2 of Stranded
Chapter 1 of the new story! :D
Ooooooooooooh it's time you guys! I buckled down and busted my ass so I could have this out tonight, I've been waiting all night to write this thing so here it is! I won't keep you guys waiting, so I hope you all enjoy, please leave feedback if you liked it or not, and I'll see you at the bottom of the page!
If you have no idea what this story is or about then you need to go read the teaser right now as it's kinda important, just go into my journals and find it! :D
"I can't believe we're actually doing this!" A black Labrador exclaimed, tail wagging happily behind her.
"Me neither, and I'm the one doing the sailing so I'm not sure if I should be nervous or excited." I replied, eyes flicking around as I navigated the boat carefully out of the busy port. "One perk of having wealthy parents, you can take the family yacht out whenever you like." I chuckled.
"Oh yeah? I wouldn't know." The lab responded, the whole-hearted grin never fading from her face as she looked out across the blue water. "Thanks for doing this by the way, never dreamed I'd get to go to the Bahamas!" She added gleefully.
"I've been wanting to go for a while and now that I have my license my parents finally gave me the okay." I replied. It was no easy task navigating the semi-large boat out of the busy Miami port but finally I was able to get her out into open water.
It was just another hot day in Florida with the temperatures threatening to crack 100 degrees already in only late May, which was something I wasn't particularly used to having moved here from England when I was younger. It wouldn't be much better in the Bahamas of course, but it was something I'd been planning for a while and now was the best time to do it.
I'd just finished my fourth year at college and gotten my degree, and I decided a vacation was in order. Lauren begged me to take her along, and I played her into thinking that I wasn't going to bring her along when I'd had plans to bring her from the start.
Lauren was my first friend that I made in high school. It was a difficult transition for me; I showed up for open house with my parents who decided it would only be right if they wore their most expensive clothes and jewelry and made it known that they could purchase the school if they so felt the need. Let's just say that when you throw a good looking tiger with white fur, blue eyes, an English accent into a public school (which I could never understand), you tend to attract a lot of unwanted attention.
I learned the hard way the most people were in it for the money, and so most of my friends were fake. Lauren was not one of those people. She never followed me around during school, never came to throw herself and her body at me like most did, never approached me in general. And so when I saw her seated by herself against the lockers during lunch, something made me decide to approach her and ask if I could sit with her.
Without hesitation she told me I could, and I could sense her nervousness as she spoke. When I made myself comfortable next to her I thought she was going to have a nervous breakdown. Once we got passed the initial awkwardness of the situation however we hit it off great. I learned that she was from a very underprivileged family, and that she was lucky enough to be attending school in the first place.
I of course having more money than I could think to do with felt pity for her, and made it my job to take her places she could only dream of going. She always tried to stop me but I wouldn't have any of it, always wanting to make sure she was enjoying herself. In turn I made a friend for life, something I'd never had throughout my first few years of school.
Our friendship blossomed during high school, and grew further during college, but we came to an agreement that our friendship was just that; a _friend_ship. I was somewhat perplexed by the idea at first, but by agreeing to not get involved romantically we felt more attached than I could have ever imagined.
This trip was just another thing for us to enjoy as friends, but I'd never admit to her that I sometimes wished we could be more than that. I focused my attention ahead on the water, also making sure to glance down at the radar every so often to make sure I wouldn't hit any sandbars that cluttered the coast of the sunshine state.
"How're you holding up back there?" I looked over my shoulder to the lab who was seated in one of the plush chairs behind me.
"I'm not sick yet so I think I'll be okay." She replied, turning her head to look out of one of the windows on the side of the boat. It was definitely a nice day for sailing, the waters weren't choppy in the slightest making for a smooth ride.
"So how long are we gonna be sailing for Nick?" Lauren asked.
"A few hours as long as the weather stays like this." I replied, glancing over my shoulder once again to address her. I got bored of sitting so I stood up from the chair, pushing it aside with a foot. I rested my arms in a crossed position on the wheel, striped tail swishing lazily behind me as I watched the water be pushed aside by the fairly sized boat.
It wasn't my first time going out on the open water, but it would be the first time I wasn't just going out for a quick spin then bringing the yacht back. Once I felt content with the speed we were travelling at I set the boat to auto-pilot, trusting the ship to steer itself. Stepping away from the controls I joined the Lab whose brown eyes watched me curiously.
"You and your fancy self-driving boats." She commented humorously.
"It's pretty nice yeah? I like it a lot." I replied, letting my gaze drift around the luxurious interior of the ship. Towards the back off the ship was the sleeping cabin where I'd snuck out to sleep in on more than one occasion. There was something about the gentle sway of the waves in the port that made for some awesome sleep.
My favorite place to be however was the bow of the ship where you could basically see everything. And so with that thought in mind I reached out to pull Lauren from her seat leading to her to that exact place. We walked up the small flight of stairs to the deck of the yacht where the light breeze blew across our faces.
I smiled as I breathed in the scent of the salty sea air, enjoying how it tickled the end of my muzzle. I grinned at the similar expression plastered to the face of my canine companion.
"You can't tell me it isn't awesome out here. Just the wide open ocean and not a speck on the horizon." I commented, gesturing my hands about to the ocean.
"Well I mean, it's just the ocean. Nothing super special about it." The lab started, turning to study my comical expression at her statement. She burst into laughter before continuing. "I'm messing with you! It's awesome out here are you kidding me?!" She exclaimed, eyes sparkling with glee.
"Definitely. Hey look!" I pointed off the side of the boat. A small pod of dolphins was keeping pace with the ship, hopping out of the water every few seconds.
"First time I've seen actual dolphins! I mean Sam is a dolphin but this is like the real deal!" She commented, watching joyfully as the pod swam gracefully alongside the vessel.
"Don't tell him that, he might do the 'thing'." I chuckled referring to the sound Sam made when he got angry, very similar to the squeaking dolphins were famous for.
"Aww but it's so cute when he does it!" She mock pouted.
"Okay, you know just as well as I do that is one of the most terrifying sounds you have ever heard." I replied, grinning at her.
"It is pretty scary, good thing he like never gets mad." She responded, watching as the pod of dolphins finally swam away. "How long have we been going?" Lauren asked after a few more minutes of idle chit chat.
"Getting close to an hour. I made lunch if you're hungry?" I proposed.
"That just what I was going to ask you actually, you sure you aren't a mind reader?" She joked.
"Not that I know of." I replied.
"What color am I thinking of?" She asked mockingly. I went along with the act, looking deeply into her brown eyes hoping to get her to focus on the blue of my eyes.
"I'm gonna guess blue." I attempted.
"Wow that's actually right!" She giggled.
"Hey maybe I am I mind reader then, who knows?" I exclaimed, making my way back to the staircase leading down to the inside of the ship.
"Well if you're a mind reader you should be able to read your own mind right?" She asked, following behind me.
"In theory yes, but I unfortunately don't have an answer for that question." I replied, moving towards the small kitchen area in the corner. I hadn't found the need to restock the pantry seeing as how we'd only be sailing for a couple of hours, but I'd put two sandwiches in there to hold us over for the trip. Grabbing them out, I kept one for myself and handed the other to the lab who thanked me. I checked the navigation system quickly to make sure we were still on course before joining her in the sitting area once again.
"What'd you get?" I asked curiously, knowing I'd made two different sandwiches.
"PB&J, you?" She mumbled as she'd just taken her first bite, but I was unable to get a reply out as I burst into laughter. I watched as she helplessly tried to chew the sandwich, peanut butter stuck to the roof of her mouth.
"I'm so sorry, I was supposed to get that one. I made the turkey one specifically for you because I thought this would happen." I explained, jumping up from the chair to grab her a bottle of water. I traded her sandwich out with mine, each with a bite taken out of them but we weren't bothered in the slightest by it.
"Jerk." She muttered once she could speak properly again.
"Hey I said I was sorry! I even put provolone cheese on it because I know that's what you like on your sandwiches." I pouted. Her eyes widened slightly as she inspected the sandwich.
"All is forgiven." She replied before taking a large bite and chewing happily. We ate in silence, chuckling occasionally as I struggled a few times with the peanut butter as well.
"Alright, so next time no PB&J." I commented once I'd downed the rest of the sandwich.
"Just J then maybe?" Lauren replied, dusting the crumbs off her paw onto her jeans.
"Sounds like a plan!" I responded, letting my feet rest on the leather ottoman in front of me. When the lab across from me added her feet to the mix as well however, it became a game of war. We fought for foot space as a couple of children would do, squealing when a foot paw would get knocked off the table.
We continued this for a few minutes before a loud buzzer sound yanked my attention from the game. I scrambled from my seat and quickly ran to the navigation system, turning off the autopilot. I watched perplexedly as the various dials spun wildly, a small red light labeled 'interference' flashing on the dash. It also seemed to be the source of the loud buzzer sound that flooded my sensitive ears.
"Do you know what's happening?" Lauren shouted over the noise next to me. I was turning various switches on and off in attempt to alleviate the issues but to no avail.
"No idea, this has never happened before." I replied. Lauren's gasp caused me to glance up momentarily from my attempts as solving the issue. I followed her gaze out of the front of the ship to a large cloud off the distance.
"Huh, weatherman didn't call for rain today." I commented as I squinted slightly to try to get a good look at what seemed to me like a low hanging cloud.
"Looks like fog or something." Lauren added, causing me to draw back slightly.
"That's exactly what it is, still doesn't explain the navigation system going crazy though." I pulled my phone from my pocket, sighing when I realized I didn't have signal. I tried to tune into the radio as well, but the resulting static caused me to worry slightly. The encroaching fog grew closer and closer until it enveloped the ship, causing me to frown slightly. "I want to speed up so we can get through this fog quickly, but because the navigation systems are down I can't see anything on the map. The course I set had us steering clear of any islands and stuff, but I don't know if the autopilot took us off course or not." I exclaimed, rocking back and forth in the captain's chair.
"Better safe than sorry right?" The lab offered.
"Agreed." I nodded, using the lever to decrease the speed of the vessel. I still felt apprehensive seeing as I had to vision out of the ship, but felt slightly better now that we were going slower.
"Not much we can do except ride it out at this point. Hopefully this fog just passes over." I exclaimed, keeping my eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary. The lab remained vigilant as well, pulling a seat up next to me to add an extra set of eyes to the watch. I kept a white knuckle grip on the wheel the entire time, ready to make a sudden turn if need be.
After nearly thirty anxious minutes of sailing through the dense fog I slowly let my muscles unclench, sighing and letting my posture relax. I leaned back in the chair ever so slightly, stealing a quick glance to the Lab who was still seated next to me.
Little did I know that glance would cost me as the look of fear that flooded her eyes caused every nerve in my body to light up as I turned back to the forward facing position. I cranked the wheel as hard as I could to the left, throwing the lever into reverse in attempts to miss the large black rocks the boat was headed for.
I heard the boat creak slightly in protest as the rotors switched directions, trying to stop the forward momentum and give me enough time to steer the ship out of harm's way. The ship kept creeping forward towards the rocks, but I cranked the wheel as far to the left as I could.
It looked as if we would miss the rocks by the smallest of margins, but when the deafening sound of metal tearing and water rushing into the cabin my worst fears came to reality.
"We gotta go now, come on." I said with an eerie calmness as the only sound left was the sound of water slowly filling the interior of the ship. I grabbed the immobilized Lab's paw, pulling her from her seat and walking to the emergency raft case. Opening it up I grabbed the raft and led Lauren up the stairs to the bow of the ship once again, only this time there would be no sightseeing.
I unwrapped the raft and clicked the activation button, watching as it slowly inflated. The boat, having caught on the rocks, would not sink all the way to the bottom of the ocean, but would be almost completely submerged. Once the raft was ready to be deployed, we descended down the deck of the ship to where the water was lapping at our feet.
I placed it in the water, helping Lauren in first before I stepped in as well. I pushed off of the railing of the ship, using one of the paddles to propel us away from the rocks. I quickly noticed however that the waves were bringing us straight back to the rocks, indicating that there was a body of land likely on the other side of them.
"Grab the other paddle, we gotta get around these rocks okay?" I asked the Lab who looked absolutely petrified but nodded nonetheless and grabbed the other paddle off the floor. We began our slow journey around the spires of stone, dense fog still occupying much of our vision. I was pleasantly surprised however once we'd cleared them and I saw the land mass just a few hundred yards out.
"Come on, that's where we're going right there." I pointed to the island making sure she knew what the plan was before beginning to paddle once again. The process was slow and painful as the waves rough waves impeded us on more than one occasion, threatening to tip the small orange raft over. Finally after what seemed like nearly an hour of paddling the raft came to rest on the sandy beach of the island. I jumped out of raft, taking care to help Lauren out as well.
I paused to let the feeling return to my legs, inspecting the surroundings in the process. Both ends of the beach wrapped around the island which clued me in that this was a very small island, perhaps only a mile or two across.
"Hey, are you okay?" I asked Lauren who had been silent through the entire ordeal.
"Y-yeah, just a little shaken up." She replied quietly. I could visibly see her trembling, black coat soaked with seawater. The hug I pulled her into not only served as a means to warm her up, but as reassurance that we'd survived the shipwreck.
"Hey, we'll be okay. I let the coastguard know where we were going and when we don't show up they'll come looking for us okay?" I explained to the still shivering canine. She nodded slightly holding her arms close to her chest as I held her tightly. Peering over her shoulder I watched as the waves crashed up against the same rocks that'd put us on the island in the first place.
I closed my eyes and sighed deeply, knowing that the next few days would likely be the hardest of my life.
I'm extremely happy personally with how this chapter came out, but I said that about chapter 1 of In My Time of Need as well and we all know how that turned out. Be sure to let me know what you thought, leave some friendly criticism or just say hey I liked it, nothing crazy. Hope you all enjoyed, I will see you all Monday for A Silent Soul! Bye! :D