We didn’t waste any time. It was staring to get lighter, the cover of darkness slipping away. As we crept closer I found myself slipping in behind Eli as he took the lead. It irked me, I’d freely admit that, but it made sense. He knew where he was going. Where the boat was.

Eli slunk closer to the building, pressing himself against the wall just below the nearest window and I followed suit, my back pressing into the wood. There was a faint light seeping out of the window, as if there was a candle or a lantern burning somewhere inside

“He’s probably asleep or something,” Eli whispered. “We should just go quietly onto the dock. He probably won’t see us.”

I nodded an affirmative, gesturing for him to lead the way to the dock. Eli darted forward, half crouched down and I followed, edging our way around the side of the old wooden shack. Once we were around the corner, a wide expanse of darkness stretched in front of us. The ocean. It seemed impossibly huge, and doubts began to bite at the edges of my mind.

How were we going to get across this huge body of water in a ruby dingey with just the two of us? This was already looking hopeless.

The dock was old and rickety, and it creaked with each step we took, making me wince. Hopefully the old guy was as deaf as Eli thought he was. We weren’t exactly being subtle. Of course, our surroundings were dark. The huge expanse of water all around us seemed to suck the moonlight in and make it vanish, making Eli and I into long, wavering shadows creeping down the dock. If the old man looked out, he would have to have pretty sharp eyes to spot us.

Eli stopped at the end of the dock. “Here, this one.”

I squinted through the darkness, incredulous. The boat Eli was pointing to was a lot bigger than I’d expected. A medium sized speedboat bobbed alongside the rickety dock, painted in sharp red and white. It was hard to make out the name written in shiny silver letters along its side, but I thought it might have said “Mermaid”.

“Do you know how to run one of these things?” I didn’t want to admit my abysmal ignorance of all things electronic. If we were in my world I could have shown him how to ride a horse or hook up a sleigh, but this boat…it was beyond me.

“My gandpa used to let us drive sometimes.” He hesitated. “I mean…not for very long, but I think I could do it.”

“You think?” My voice went an octave higher in protest. “This isn’t a rowboat. If you run us aground you could kill us both.”

“Do you have a better idea? Do you want to swim off this island?” His whisper came out in a hiss, and I pressed my lips shut firmly, suddenly aware that I hadn’t done much beside criticize him so far. He might belong to a crazy, horrible family legacy, but he hadn’t done what his grandpa had done, hell, he was a better man than his brother was too. Taking out my anger on him wasn’t fair. On top of that, we didn’t have time to fight.

“No,” I muttered. “I don’t have a better plan. Let’s try the speedboat.”

Eli let me go first, and to my surprise he offered me a hand. I nearly brushed it away out of sheer instinct, but then remembered I was trying not to be such a jerk anymore. I muttered my thanks, and then was glad for his steadying hand when I discovered how shaky my footing was, nearly tipping backwards as I tried to bridge the gap between the dock, and the ever-moving side of the boat. It was trickier than it looked.

Eli climbed on next, his footing sure. He’d clearly done this before. He turned back and leaned over the side of the boat, fingers fumbling with the knot that bound us to the side of the dock. Ignoring the curses he was mumbling under his breath, I glanced back over at the boat house. The tiny shack looked the same. That single light was still flickering in the window, and there was no sound. No cry from inside, no shout to rouse the others. He hadn’t even looked out. Eli was probably right, the old man had likely fallen asleep on watch.

As I glanced back down at Eli, about to open my mouth and say something impatient about how long it was taking him to untie one knot, two things happened at once. There was a shrill, frantic ringing from inside the tiny shack. The sound of an old fashioned telephone. And through the trees came the low roar of some kind of engine.

Eli jerked upright, and we both saw the lights at the same time. Three of them, bobbing and shaking, weaving through the trees in the distance.

“Motorcycles,” Eli said.

Inside the shack the shrill ringing persisted, then it was abruptly cut off. “They called him.” My voice sounded calmer than I felt. “They’re telling him to check the dock. Come on, we’ve got to go now.”

Eli cursed again, fumbling in his pockets. “Hold on, I’ll cut it.” When he pulled a short, blunt knife from his pocket I couldn’t keep my groan in. The rope was thick, made to withstand sea salt and the boat constantly tugging at it, it would take too long to cut through with that thing. Frantically, I searched the boat for something, anything. Maybe there was a better knife on board, maybe…

My foot kicked something hard enough to send me stumbling into the side of the boat. The tinkle of glass bottles made me wince and glance in the direction of the shack. Light was flooding through the window now. The old man had turned on the lights. That wasn’t good.

I snatched up the beer bottle rolling around on the bottom of the speedboat and hissed at Eli, “Move.”

He jumped out of the way just as I reached out and smashed the bottle on the edge of the dock, leaving the jagged broken neck in my hand. “Good. Let’s try this.”

The glass was sharper than the stone knife Eli had been holding, but not by much. It bit into the rope one fiber at a time, and the fabric of the hospital gown I was wearing was drenched in sweat by the time I was halfway through. It was hard to concentrate on the rope when my eyes were constantly drawn to the shack by the dock. Any minute now the old man was going to burst out through the door and point a shotgun at us. Any minute…

Finally the last fibre snapped, and the boat lurched sideways, nearly spilling both of us over the side. Eli gasped, then laughed. His voice was shaky.

“I hope you know how to start this thing.” I let the glass bottle drop out of my hand and into the water, just as the door in the front of the boat shack slammed open. The old man that stood in the doorway was frazzled looking, his eyes still glassy with sleep. His trucker hat, the name of a beer company blazed across the front, was on crooked, and his shirt had a large stain across the front of it. Sure enough, he was holding a shotgun.

“Shit!” I whirled around to tell Eli just as the boat roared to life underneath me. Eli grinned over at his shoulder at me, then he spotted the old man in the doorway and yelled, “Get down!”

We both ducked, Eli still at the helm, cranking the throttle as he did so. The boat lurched, shooting forward just as a deafening crack sounded out across the water. Frantic, I double checked Eli’s crouching form in the dark. It was hard to see, but he looked okay. He was still peering over the top, trying to steer us, wind whipping his shaggy hair back. Clearly he hadn’t been shot.

Another sharp crack, and I ducked back down again, heart pulsing in my throat. What if he shot the speedboat? What if we started taking on water? I was a strong swimmer, but not strong enough to make it across the ocean. We’d both drown.

Shouts rang out, echoing in the distance. “Put it down, idiot! Get back in the house.”

“They took the –”

“Useless old man, get back in the house before I shoot you myself.”

Eli winced, even in the dark I could see how that voice affected him. He said, loud enough so I could hear him over the roar of the speedboat. “Sounds like Grandpa’s not happy.”

“Do you think he knows you’re with me?” I had to force myself not to poke my head above the side of the boat again. It would have been satisfying to see them all standing there on the dock, watching us leave them behind.

“Yeah, he knows.” Eli reached out beside the wheel of the speedboat, indicating the shiny silver key that was in the ignition. My mouth dropped open. I hadn’t even thought of that. I had run like a bat out of hell, all the way down to the docks without even thinking that we might need a key for the boat we were going to steal. What kind of an idiot was I?

“How…how did you get that?”

“Grandpa keeps a key taped to the underside of the wheel.” Eli patted the wheel affectionately. “It’s his boat. He taught us how to use it, Cain and I.” His smile turned into a grimace. “And he knows that Cain is still there, safely tucked away in the lab. So the only other option…”

“Is you.”

“Yeah. Me.” He pressed his lips together in a straight line, and turned back to watching the water ahead of us, as if he didn’t want to talk about his grandfather anymore. I fell silent, and it was just the hum of the engine and the ocean splashing around the sides of the boat. Eli moved from a crouching position so that he was kneeling, glancing back over his shoulder. They obviously weren’t shooting at us anymore, so I did the same, letting myself glance back at the dock. My hair whipped around my face and across my throat, and I shoved it aside impatiently, squinting at the distant figures lined up on shore.

The good news is that they were steadily shrinking, a crowd of people getting smaller and smaller as Eli and I sped away. The bad news is that I could still so what they were doing, and I could tell that three of the little figures on the dock were climbing onto a second speedboat that was docked on the other side. They were coming after us.

Thanks for reading, guys! And thanks for your patience in waiting for updates! My wrist is feeling a lot better, so I should be able to start updating a little more regularily! Please vote and comment if you're enjoying "Flood" so far, more soon!