"We lost them, didn't we?" I said as I peered into the distance.

"It appears so," Adeline said dully.

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We ran out of water. But we had a survival guide.

"No more eating until we find more water," I said. "That's the first rule." I had placed the tarp over our boat for shade. We were sitting on top of our sleeping mats on the floor of the boat.

"We need to either get rain or catch fish." I ran my hand down the paper of the guide. "But it doesn't tell us how to fish and we can only wait for rain."

"We need to fish then," Adeline said. "Waiting for something to happen isn't going to work. Plus, it will be good to keep our minds active."

"But we don't have rods," Emma pointed out, speaking the exact words that were running through my head.

Moments of silence passed.

"We could use the tarp," I suggested.

"Oh yeah! We could trail it behind the boat and pick up any fish trapped inside. But we'll need to be quick," Adeline said.

I nodded. "But we need the shade so we don't sweat out any water we already have." The days were getting increasingly hot and the nights increasingly cold.

"We'll have to fish at night," Emma dared to suggest.

I nodded, accepting it. "I guess we do."

"Sleep during the day, collect fish at night," Adeline said. The pattern would hopefully keep us alive until rescue finally came.

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Thunder clapped and the waves thrashed against the side of the boat. Emma threw a rotten fish out of the little hole in the tarp and whimpered miserably. The storm had started about an hour ago and it had taken many tries to fit the tarpaulin over the boat.

Fishing had worked, almost too well. The stench of rotten fish and the constant sloshing had made poor Fawn heave all over her sleeping bag. She quickly shoved it to the floor of the boat, which was filled with water. The beaches were the only dry area.

Emma shivered as another dead fish slapped her in the face. Clearly, she wasn't going to pick up another one. Suppressing a groan, I began reaching for the rotten fish on the sides of the benches.

The survival book, along with the half-empty leftover food sack, was safely enclosed in my sleeping bag. We had ended up dumping all the dehydrated food into one sack and had barely touched it since we began fishing.

Eventually, I fell asleep. When I woke up, the storm had ended and the sea was calm. It was night, but the tarp was still hung over the boat. Water still filled the bottom.

Fawn was curled up in her sleeping bag, which she must have washed somehow. Adeline was also fast asleep.

"Pierre?"

I turned my head to the side without breaking my lying position. If I sat up on the bench I might break the tarp, or at the very least bonk my head.

Emma stared back at me. She was shivering.

"My sleeping bag fell in the water. It's no use getting it. It'll be all soggy." Her voice cracked with every word.

"Oh. Do you want to borrow mine?" I could empty the items and hold them myself. I already got some sleep and I wasn't soaked.

"Yes, please."

I emptied the things from my sleeping bag carefully, knowing they could just as well save my life at some later point. Handing over the sleeping bag, I smiled at Emma's smile.

"Thanks."

"Anytime."

I watched Emma crawl into the bag and slowly fall asleep. By the time I knew for sure she had drifted off, I could see the sun rising through the small hole in the tarp. Fawn had woken up.

"I feel sick," she murmured.

"Do you need water?" Immediately after the words left my mouth, I realized there was no way, even if I wanted, to get water.

An overwhelming sense of hopelessness crashed over me. I slipped off my glasses and began wiping them off. I would make it out alive. I would.

"No, it's all good. I just need to be stable for a bit."

Slipping my glasses back on, I looked to Fawn. She was so brave. Her dress was tattered and her hair was a mess, but her dark eyes were full of hope. "Tell me if you need anything," I offered.

Fawn nodded, but she quickly fell asleep again.

I managed to doze off for a bit but then was woken up by quiet humming. At first, I thought it was Emma. She would always hum to herself when she was anxious. But I realized the voice was different.

"Adeline?"

"Oh. You're awake?"

"I fell asleep early."

"Oh."

"What were you humming?"

"Just a classical piece I used to play on violin a lot... If I had it I would play it for you. I memorized many songs."

I hadn't known Adeline played the violin. I thought she only did schoolwork. She was in high school at age thirteen. I couldn't imagine playing the violin and mastering advanced placement classes all before my teenage years.

The boat was silent for a bit until a question found its way into my head.

"Why did you choose to play the violin and all those advanced classes?"

Adeline sucked in a small breath through her teeth. "My parents. They always push me to greatness. Languages, instruments, class, work... It's all part of it." She shrugged.

"Wow." I was average at school. It made good enough grades for advanced classes, but I was never extraordinary. Adeline... She was extraordinary.

Adeline asked me for the survival guide, which was sitting on my sleeping mat. Nodding, I handed it to her. Immediately, she busied herself within the misty papers of the thin paperback.

After a bit of time, Fawn woke up. Adeline had finished rereading the guide and so together we played I-spy-with-my-little-eye. Nostalgic. I was reminded of my not-so-distant childhood.

When Emma woke up, it was afternoon. Our sleep schedule had been knocked off by the storm and I suggested we try to fix it somehow.

"We just need to do it," Adeline said, voice full of confidence. "Late night studies can be numbed with a strict schedule, if done long enough."

"So... we just sleep now and wake up at night like we should always do?" Emma asked. "That sounds... tiring."

"It is, but no pain no gain. No naps. No waking up later than usual, at all. When the sun starts going down we should all be awake and ready," Adeline said. "And we have to stay awake all night! We can keep ourselves busy by catching fish."

I nodded. Adeline was usually quiet, not like Fawn, but still quiet. When she took charge it was best to listen. "Well, I guess I'll sleep for a bit in a couple of hours," I said. Staying up all night with limited sleep would be a challenge, I could tell, but after that, we would have our sleep schedule back.

There was no more easing into things.

‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

"Your eyes fell out of the boat," Emma said. "I... tried to get them-"

"No, you didn't!" a voice shouted. It was familiar, but I couldn't place it. My eyelids were lifted, but my sight was gone. I couldn't see?

"I tried to catch them!"

"We swam in the water to get them. But you were selfish," the same voice said.

"You gave up on her eyes because you wouldn't swim in the water," Adeline said. I wish I could see them all. Adeline's voice was so monotone... I needed a face to detect emotion.

"We all went into the water! Maybe if you were there-"

"Shut up, Killian!" Emma snapped. "You don't care about Pierre at all! All you want to do is get her to let you take our supplies!"

That was the voice before her: Killian. The guy from the other boat.

"Don't insult him! Know your place, nasty rat," a girl, someone I didn't know, snapped. I had heard her voice once before though.

"Get off our boat!"

Five splashes of water erupted in my left ear and a bit of water hit the side of my face. The people had left the boat.