CHAPTER 4
Gabby noticed a fabric pack stuck onto the side of the raft’s wall. It was attached with Velcro. She tore it off and turned it over. When she read the label, she yelled, “Hey!”
“What?” Miles asked.
“This is a pack of emergency supplies!” Gabby told him. She shook the bag open and let the contents spill out.
The bag contained flares, a knife, six small packages of drinking water, two little paddles, a whistle, a flashlight, a mirror, a fishing kit, a first aid kit, and a few other things the kids didn’t recognize.
Miles picked up the whistle and blew on it. Then he put it down again.
“There’s no food,” Gabby said after looking at everything in the bag.
“It doesn’t matter,” Miles said. “We won’t be here long enough to get too hungry.”
He looked at the horizon. As the sun sank, the sky was turning bright red.
“It’ll be dark soon,” Skylar said. “Do you think they’ll find us before that?”
“I think they will,” Gabby said. She turned to look at the ocean.
“It doesn’t feel like we’ve drifted that far since we lost sight of Mom and Dad,” she added. She tried to sound brave, but she felt like crying.
“I think we should shoot off one of these flares. Then we should try to relax. We need to save our energy,” Miles said.
“Shouldn’t we wait until it’s dark to shoot off a flare? Or until we see a ship or a plane?” Skylar asked. “We only have three flares.”
“Yeah, that’s a better idea,” Gabby said.
“Captain Steve fired one right away,” Miles said.
“Captain Steve didn’t have a raft,” Gabby said.
“I’m the oldest,” Miles said. “I’ll make the decisions.”
“Being the oldest doesn’t make you the ship’s captain,” Gabby told him, rolling her eyes.
“We’re wasting time,” Miles said. He took out a flare. “I’m going to set one off.”
Quickly, Gabby reached out. She tried to grab the flare from Miles.
“Hey!” Miles yelled. “Quit it!”
The two fought for the flare for a second. It slipped out of their hands, bounced on the edge of the raft, and fell into the sea.
“No!” Miles and Gabby shouted. Miles leaned over the edge of the raft and reached for it, but the flare was already underwater.
“Great,” Miles said to Gabby. “You wanted to be the candlestick maker. Can you make us another one of those?”
“Maybe I should be in charge of the supplies,” Skylar said quietly.
Gabby and Skylar sat under the canopy in one corner of the raft. Miles sat in the opposite corner.
Gabby took her MP3 player out of the zippered pocket in her windbreaker and stuck one of the earbuds in her ear. “Still works!” she said, smiling. She handed the other earbud to Skylar. Miles tipped his head back against the canopy wall. As the upper sky began to darken, all three of them fell asleep.
* * *
Hours later, a crack of thunder jolted them awake. Gabby looked at her watch, but it was too dark out. She couldn’t see anything.
Skylar fumbled her way to the supplies. She found the flashlight, and switched it on. “It’s 10 o’clock,” she said. “Should we set off a flare?”
A bolt of lightning ripped through the sky. All three kids screamed.
“We can set off a flare when the storm passes,” Miles said. “If that’s okay with you,” he added, glaring at his sister.
Thunder shook the sky again, louder than before. The wind had picked up. The raft bounced up and down on the waves. Water was spilling over the sides.
“Good thing we don’t have anything in our stomachs,” Skylar said. “This would definitely make us sick!”
Miles took off his shoe. He used it to dump out water.
He worked faster and faster, but he couldn’t keep up with all the water pouring into the boat. A bolt of lightning zigzagged down the sky.
“You said we should save our energy!” Skylar called.
“Yeah, for times like this!” Miles said.
“You’re going to wear yourself out!” Gabby said. “Let’s just try to wait!”
Miles emptied a few more shoefuls of water. Then he gave up. It started to rain. The canopy began to vibrate when the raindrops hit it. Thunder rolled over the sky. All three kids were shivering. Each one was silently hoping that help would hurry up and come.