Shipwreck Island (14 page)

“You did a great job starting the fire.” Sarah was sincere, because she'd been very impressed. She knew she wouldn't have been able to do it.

“Thanks,” said Nacho. “It's kind of the first outdoor thing I've done.”

Sarah frowned. “But I thought Eco-Scouts were all about the outdoors.”

“Yeah, they are. I'm not that comfortable in the outdoors, I guess.” He shrugged.

She smiled at him. “Well, you could have fooled me.”

“Really?” He raised his eyebrows.

She nodded.

He smiled, then began to page through the notebook.

Sarah asked, “Is that more boating stuff?”

“No.” He shook his head. “I'm kinda trying to get my mind off that for the moment.”

Sarah nodded. “I get that. So what is it?”

Nacho pointed at a page. “I'm studying for my astronomy badge.”

Sarah frowned. “I thought Eco-Scouts were just about the Earth. I mean, our planet.” She shrugged. “It is the only one we have, right?”

“Maybe not.” Nacho's eyes widened and he lowered his voice to almost a whisper. “Scientists think that the first truly Earth-like alien planet is going to be spotted next year.”

“What?” Sarah scrunched up her nose. “We're on the only Earth.”

Nacho shook his head. “That's what we've thought all this time.”

“But what would happen if they found another … Earth?”

Nacho swallowed and said, even more quietly, “We would have to rethink our place in the universe.”

Sarah wondered what that would be like, to know there was another Earth out there, maybe even with a girl like her living a parallel life. Was that even possible? She rolled her eyes. “Are you just messing with me?”

“No!” Nacho shook his head. “Really, I'm not. Check this out.” He flipped through his notebook and pulled out a newspaper clipping. “See? Back in 1995 they found the first planet that had a sun like ours. And since then, they've found more than eight hundred worlds beyond our solar system. In the last few years, astronomers have found several exoplanets that have one or two of the same traits as Earth.”

She asked, “What's an exoplanet?”

Nacho said, “Planets outside our solar system.”

“Oh.” Sarah looked at the clipping, a black-and-white photo of a tiny planet. “Like what kind of traits?”

Nacho shrugged. “Like size or surface temperature.” He paged through and pulled out another clipping. “Here.”

Sarah skimmed the article, which was an interview with an astronomer. She stopped and went back to reread one part: the part where he said he was certain Earth's twin would be discovered in the next year. She looked up at Nacho. “Is this for real?”

Nacho nodded. “Since the Kepler Space Telescope launched, it's flagged more than twenty-three hundred potential planets.”

“What's a potential planet?” asked Sarah.

“It might just end up being an asteroid or something,” explained Nacho. “So they have to follow up, make sure it's the real deal.”

She handed the clipping back to him. “So what happens if they find one? It's not like we have a spaceship to get there.”

Nacho shrugged. “Maybe we won't have to.”

“Why?” asked Sarah.

“Because whoever lives on those planets might be smarter than we are. They might already know how to come to us.” Nacho buried his head back in the notebook.

Weird kid, thought Sarah. But then maybe she wasn't giving him enough credit. He knew a lot of stuff she hadn't known when she was ten. She smiled. Actually, he knew a lot of stuff she didn't know
now
. She was rather glad he was there, although she wished his older brother wasn't.

And she reached into her own backpack and pulled out Harry Potter, hoping that some time at Hogwarts would help take her mind off the fact that they were stuck in a cave on a deserted island that was turning out to be stranger and stranger the longer they stayed.

 

24

Marco shivered and pulled on his sweatshirt. With him wearing only a T-shirt and board shorts—and after sweating in the heat of the day—the chill air inside the enclosed space was not easy to get used to. But despite the dank and clammy cave, and the faint sound of constantly dripping water, Marco found himself content for the moment. They were safe and dry and whatever was outside didn't seem to be coming for them.

John had charged two solar flashlights from the boat earlier that day, and they shone brightly, lighting up the cave to the level of a bunch of candles. Ahab was asleep, leading Marco to believe they weren't in any danger at the moment.

His mom came over to him and held out a granola bar. “Hungry?”

Actually, he was famished. “Thanks.” Marco unwrapped it and took a bite. He asked, “How long are we gonna stay in here?”

His mom shrugged. “I don't know.”

John was only a few feet away and said, “I was thinking of checking in a little while.”

Yvonna frowned. “You can't go out there! What if—”

“What?” asked Marco.

“I don't know,” she said. “What if that thing, whatever it was, is right outside the cave? What do we do then?”

Marco ate the rest of his snack, crumpled up the wrapper, and set it down beside him. He got to his feet and told his stepfather, “Let's go check.”

“No,” said his mom.

Sarah and Nacho were a few feet away, reading, and they both looked up. Sarah asked, “We're leaving?”

“No, we're not,” said Yvonna.

John set a hand on her arm. “We do have to check eventually. We can't stay in here forever.” He glanced at his watch. “Almost five. We've been in here a few hours.”

Marco said, “I think we should check.”

John stood up. “So do I.” He smiled down at his wife before she could protest. “Marco and I will go and we'll be careful.”

As if he'd been invited, Ahab stood up, stretched, and lined up in front of them, ready to lead the way.

“See? We'll be fine.” Before his mom could stop him, Marco picked up one of the flashlights and headed for the passageway to the cave entrance.

His stepfather called out, “Hey, wait up.”

Marco paused so he could catch up, and handed him the flashlight. “You better go first or my mom will have a fit.”

“I heard that,” said his mom.

He smiled at her. “Mom, we'll be fine.”

She just shook her head and sank down beside Nacho and Sarah.

Marco followed John up the passageway, which seemed longer now that they weren't hurrying like before. In fact, Marco wondered whether they could go any slower, but then he realized Ahab was being cautious on purpose. He asked John, “Do you think it's safe?”

He didn't answer at first. Then he said, “I hope it is. I mean, it's a little hard to tell. It's not exactly like a thunderstorm passing, is it?”

Marco didn't have a reply, so he followed the dog and John and the glow of the flashlight in silence. As they neared the entrance, their path grew lighter, and then they were mere steps from outside. Ahab ran outside.

John handed Marco the flashlight. “Take this. If anything happens, you run back to your mom and the others, okay?”

Marco nodded, his fingers folding tightly around the flashlight. He stayed right behind John as he took the final steps to the entrance and leaned out.

Marco held his breath.

John popped back in so fast that Marco jumped. “What? What did you see?”

His stepfather smiled. “Nothing. Looks like it looked before.”

Marco stepped around him and walked outside. Ahab stood in the clearing, his nose in the air, sniffing. His tail wagged. Above the trees the sky was blue and free of clouds and, more important,
normal.
He grinned. That red orb was nowhere to be seen.

John said, “Stay right here with Ahab, I'll go get the others.” He took the flashlight and disappeared back into the cave.

Marco took a few more steps into the clearing and patted Ahab on the head. The trees, and maybe the island itself, no longer seemed sinister. Well, for the moment anyway, until another danger showed up. How funny, he thought, that everything about the island seemed
better
almost, now that one scary, unknown thing had been eliminated.

Ahab barked, but didn't show any inclination to run off. He barked again.

“What's wrong?” Marco didn't see anything in the trees.

A few minutes later, everyone piled out of the cave.

Yvonna asked, “Where are we going?”

John said, “I still think the house is a good idea for the rest of the day.”

“Beats that cave,” said Sarah.

Before Marco could say anything, they heard a scream. Not like the sound the day before. This one was more human. More like a real scream.

And it came from the direction of the beach.

 

25

The sound of the scream made Sarah's heart pound. “Where is that coming from?”

“Sounds like the beach,” said her dad. “Everyone, grab your stuff.” He began to head that way.

“Wait!” she yelled. “Why are we going toward it?” The vision of that blood-colored ball in the sky still haunted her.

Her dad said, “Someone could be hurt. Maybe a boat came during the … storm.”

Storm? thought Sarah. That thing was no storm and everyone knew it. But they all followed her dad as he headed back toward the beach. She took a look around, realized she was not about to stay there by herself, and had to jog to catch up.

After a moment, they no longer heard the scream. Sarah called ahead to the others, “It stopped! I don't think we should go any farther.”

Her dad was in front, just behind Ahab, and he stopped and turned around. He was breathing a little hard from the heat and the exertion, and he took a moment to wipe sweat off his red face. “We really need to check it out, sweetie. You could stay here.”

“No way.” Sarah shook her head. As the others began moving again, she followed, just wanting to get it over with.

They emerged on the beach a few moments later, and Ahab tore off down the sand, rounding the first corner where he disappeared. John and Marco dropped their things and jogged after him, while Nacho and Yvonna carried their things to their abandoned camp. She said, “I think we should stay here.”

Nacho nodded. “I'll take care of the fire.”

Sarah set her things down and said, “I'm gonna follow them.”

Yvonna said, “Maybe you should stay here.”

All the more reason to go, thought Sarah. “I want to be with my dad.” She jogged down the beach and around the corner. Her dad and Marco were just down the beach, crouched in the sand as Ahab barked beside them. Sarah sped up until she nearly reached them. She stopped and leaned over to catch her breath, then started to ask, “What—”

Then she saw what lay between them on the sand.

A girl.

Her dark skin glistened with sweat, and her thick, ebony hair was in two massive braids that reached nearly to her waist. Under an orange T-shirt her chest heaved, but her eyes remained closed. The girl wore bright pink-and-orange-flowered shorts, and her feet were bare, the soles caked with sand.

“Dad?” asked Sarah. “Who is that?”

Her dad shook his head but didn't look at her. He set a hand on the girl's forehead. “She's so hot.”

Marco asked, “Do you think she's the one who screamed?”

John looked down the beach. “Yeah.”

“Where did she come from?” asked Sarah. Then she noticed footprints that had to belong to the girl. They had come from down the beach, around the next corner, where Sarah thought she had seen the kangaroo. She took a few steps that way and looked down.

“Look! She left a message in the sand!”

Scrawled into the sand at her feet were the words:

BEWARE THE C

A stick lay next to the
C
, as if the girl dropped it before she could finish the message.

Marco stood next to Sarah. “It's a warning.”

“She didn't get a chance to finish it.” She asked Marco, “What do you think she was trying to say? Beware the
C
. What starts with
C
?” Then her eyes widened. “Crabs! Coconut crabs! Maybe she was warning us about them.”

“Maybe,” said Marco. He didn't seem convinced. “She must have seen our camp or the fire and realized there were people here. And she wanted to leave us a message.”

They all gazed at the girl, who was still unconscious.

Just then, the wail arose, that same grief-stricken keening of the day before. Sarah covered her ears, as did her dad and Marco.

“It's the same time as yesterday!” Marco yelled.

Sarah felt the sound in her chest, biting through her. She shut her eyes, trying to close out the sound. “What is that?!” Sarah looked at her dad and Marco, and they all stood there, hands over their ears, until the sound stopped.

They dropped their hands.

John put one arm around the girl's back, the other under her legs, and lifted her up. Her head sagged into his chest, and he told Marco and Sarah, “Come on. Let's get back to the fire.” He headed toward their camp.

But Marco and Sarah stayed there, looking at the words in the sand, a panting Ahab between them.

Marco asked, “What is with this place?”

Sarah looked sideways at him. “You lied earlier.”

He nodded.

“To me or them?” She swallowed. “Did you really see the bird?”

“Yeah, I did,” he said.

Sarah crossed her arms. “Then why did you say that you didn't?”

He held out his palms. “Mom and Nacho are so freaked out. And my mom hasn't been feeling well. I didn't want to worry them anymore. Everything was kind of weird already, and—”

“And you think after that thing in the sky…” She looked up the beach, at her dad carrying the girl. “And her.” She pointed at the words. “And that? You think they won't get suspicious?” She shook her head. “This isn't Disneyland.”