Adrift in the Deep Blue

Blue as far as the eye could see.

Sarah lay limp against the side of the inflatable boat, bobbing in the waves of the Pacific.

She’d lost track of how many days they’d been floating, dehydration and sun exposure making her thoughts muddled. At first, after her friends’ boat had sunk, they’d tried paddling with their arms but didn’t know which direction to go. The small bag she’d packed with bottles of water and sunscreen were all she’d managed as the water on the boat had reached her knees, making it obvious the boat wouldn’t make it. She and Jess had jumped into the inflatable and cut the lines, fingers crossed that Josh and Morgan had jumped into the other one. Paddling frantically away from the sinking boat so they wouldn’t be pulled down in the tow, by the time they looked, there was nothing visible on the horizon. Still, they didn’t give up hope that their friends had survived, as well.

A shrill alarm cut the silence and she weakly slapped her wristwatch , stopping the alarm. Shifting over to the bag wedged in the corner, she pulled out one of the water bottles and took two small sips, just enough to wet her tongue and soothe her throat.

“Jess,” she called, “Water time.”

She tossed the bottle to her friend who didn’t move. It rolled against her leg and Sarah held her breath, wondering if this was it, if her friend was dead. Every time Jess failed to say something or open her eyes, Sarah’s heart seemed to stop beating, fearing the worst.

But Jess’ fingers twitched and she reached down and grabbed the bottle, drinking with her eyes still closed. Finished, she rolled it back towards Sarah and seemed to slump farther down the side, the rubber making an awful screeching sound.

Sarah tucked the water back into the bag and pulled out the sunblock. It was only SPF60, but better than nothing. At least it was water resistant. She slathered it thickly onto her legs, arms, neck, and face, and then crawled across the boat to Jess and did the same for her. Their skin was red and cracking after days under the brutal oceanic sun and thoughts of sun cancer crossed her mind.

Really, though? She almost laughed. They’d have to survive first.

Kneeling by Jess, holding her friends limp hand in hers, she scanned the horizon, feebly hoping for signs of land. Nothing. Just this endless blue, blending into the sky till one was indistinguishable from the other. Sighing, she lay back and closed her eyes.

The caw of a bird roused her from sleep.

She cracked open her eyes, vision bleary, and scanned the sky above. A shape flew above them, brilliant white against the blue, and again it cawed. Sarah stared for a minute, her mind unable to function properly, before sitting up quickly, jostling the boat.

A bird was a sign land was near. Again, Sarah scanned the horizon and this time, she saw a dark mass to their right. She couldn’t tell how far off it was but it was there! She could see it.

“Jess,” she whispered, throat raw from lack of moisture. “Jess, wake up!” she shook her friend’s shoulder. “There’s land.”

Jess grumbled under her breath at the interruption and opened her eyes. Sarah was shocked at the bloodshot irises and wondered if hers looked the same. She didn’t have a mirror handy to check.

“Huh? What did you say?” Jess asked.

“Look, land,” Sarah pointed, “And birds. Birds wouldn’t be out here if there wasn’t land nearby.”

Jess squinted in the direction she pointed.

“I don’t know, Sarah, I really don’t see anything.”

“Ok, yeah I know, but the birds.” Now she pointed above them where a handful of birds circled.

Jess looked up and sighed.

“Sure, birds make sense,” she whispered, eyes slipping shut. “They always circle dead things.”

Sarah stared down at her friend in shock a moment then, refusing to take her words as prophesy, she shook her

“Jess, knock it off,” she snapped, “we have to try to get to that land. That’s our only hope to survive."

Jess pushed her hands away.

“Shh, Sarah, I’m trying to sleep.”

Realizing she’d get no help, Sarah faced that dark mass on the horizon again and took a deep breath. She leaned over the side of the boat, plunged her hands into the cool water, and began to paddle.

It wasn’t long before she started to see dark shapes under the waves. She didn’t pay attention to them at first, telling herself they were shadows of clouds or her vision going funny from her ordeal. When a fin broke the surface though, less than ten feet away, she couldn’t ignore them anymore.

Jerking her hands back inside the suddenly flimsy protection of the inflatable boat, she watched the fin draw closer and closer and then disappear, the shadow disappearing under them. Her breath turned choppy, heart hammering inside her chest. Is this what would kill them? Not the sun, but what lurked in the water? Stupidly, she’d thought them safe from sharks since they were inside a boat but now, she no longer felt very safe. The theme song from Jaws began playing inside her head as she saw another fin break the surface and begin to glide towards them.

“Oh god oh god,” she whispered as something knocked the boat, making them bob and slowly spin. The rubber made a screeching sound and she crawled across the boat on hands and knees to see. Looking over the side, she was eye to black eye with a shark. The snout was flat and broad, almost the length of her thigh, and its teeth were bared as it scraped against the side of their boat.

“Go away,” she begged. “Please, just go away.”

A shrill scream left her throat as something hit them from the other side but she didn’t bother to investigate. The shark below her let its teeth slide down as it sunk and the shadow of its body seemed enormous as it swam beneath. A nudge from below had her whimpering, tears now running down her face. Another hit from the side sent them twisting in the water, rubber screeching under sharp teeth, and Sarah was close to panicking.

“Please, please,” she chanted, eyes squeezed shut, body frozen in place. “Please help me, help us. Just go away.”

She whispered the word please over and over, as the hits turned more frequent and aggressive. Her whimpers turned to sobs as the boat bobbed and spun on the waves. She could do nothing, was completely powerless. These sharks would do what they would, she was in their territory. Never had she felt so helpless or so terrified. She’d watched Shark Week for years, was an avid fan. She’d read Jaws and seen all the movies. She knew what they were capable of, that she was at their mercy, and as apex predators, they had none.

She had no idea how long went on, the bumps and bites, but suddenly they stopped. After a few minutes of stillness, she dared to open her eyes and look around. No fins, no dark shapes under the water. Had they lost interest? Or had something bigger scared them off?

That thought terrified her more than the sharks themselves and she frantically stared down into the blueness, trying to see if there was a bigger, darker shape heading up from the depths. She knew a lot of sharks were ambush predators, striking from below where their prey couldn’t see them coming.

She couldn’t see anything but it was a long time before she was able to stop searching, body jerking at every shadow on the water, real or imagined. She twisted in the boat, looking for the land she’d been aiming for.

There! Off to the left, and it seemed closer. Impossible, but it seemed the sharks had been pushing her nearer to the land. She could actually see the trees covering the hills and the birds circling the sky were more numerous.

Knowing she’d have to put her hands back into the water and that the sharks had more than likely been attracted by her splashing, Sarah wasn’t sure if she’d be able to do it. She was shaking where she knelt by the side of the boat, breaths quick and shallow.

They were down to their last bottle of water and even rationing it, they’d get maybe another day out of it. Neither of them had eaten in however many days they’d been adrift, at least three she was sure. Already their skin was cracked and peeling, and the sunblock would run out soon, as well. Today, Sarah felt relatively strong and her mind was focused. She didn’t know how she’d feel tomorrow. This was their chance. Land was in sight.

“You have to put your damn hands in the water,” she told herself. “That’s how you get to land and that’s how you survive.”

Unlocking one hand at a time and crawling to the side facing the land, she had to close her eyes and breath for a minute.

“Sharks can sense prey, they sense fear,” she reminded herself. “You have to slow your heartrate down. Deep breaths. Calm thoughts.”

Eyes still closed, she started to reach her hands out. Then her eyes flew open as she jerked them back, visions of her putting her hands inside a sharks’ open mouth filling her mind. There was nothing in the water below her, nothing lurking around the boat. Taking another deep breath, she put her hands in the water and, slowly, started to paddle, trying to be as quiet as possible.

Time dragged on as the shape of the land gradually became clearer, closer. Twice, she had to stop as shapes appeared in the water, circling the boat and bumping it. Each time, she swallowed back her screams as the sharks seemed to be pushing her closer to the shore. They didn’t bite at the boat either time, no hair-raising screech of teeth on rubber filled the air, just the breath steeling nudges, the terror inducing glimpse of a fin.

As day bled into night, the boat scraped bottom on the beach and Sarah slumped against the side in exhaustion. They’d made it to land.

“Jess,” she turned and nudged her friend. “Jess, we’re on land.”

“What?” her friend opened those blood-filled eyes and looked around. She sat up straight when she glimpsed the moonlight on sand, the night shrouded forest beyond, and the lack of rocking from the waves. “Where are we?”

“I have no idea,” Sarah sighed. “But let’s go find out.”

As they helped each other stand and step out of the boat, feeling the sand squish between their toes, she wanted to cry. They’d made it to shore with some dubious help and now finding food and surviving would be up to them. Glancing back over her shoulder, she thought she caught sight of a fin breaking the surface just beyond the drop-off of the beach into the deep ocean.

“Thank you,” she whispered to the darkness.