“What are you doing,” Mio yells and grabs my wrist.
“Trying to stop this thing from attacking us. We can’t sit here and do nothing,” I scream back and rip my wrist from his grasp. I spin and scan the water, looking for the beast, and then the shadow crawls across the floor of the boat. I spin and see the eel tower up into the air. Before I can tell my arms to move and position for another attack the monster crashes into our boat causing it to crumble and suddenly I’m pulled underwater. Salty liquid engulfs me. My eyes burn and I fight the urge to scream or suck in a breath of water. My head is pushed back above water by the life vest and then pulled back under with the current.
I finally come up next to some debris from the boat and latch onto it, coughing up mouthfuls of saltwater. When I finally catch my breath I glance around at the disaster. Both boats have been completely destroyed, and now four or five eels are lashing in and out of the ocean. The water around us is dyed a dark crimson. Blood.
My eyes are scanning through the water, looking for Alexander. Suddenly someone surfaces next to me gasping for air, “Alexander!” I yell over the chaos, his green eyes lock with mine and he grabs onto the debris with me.
“We need to get out of here,” he yells to me. I look back out to the island I’d spotted moments before.
“I could use my gift,” I say and begin to work out a plan. “I can transport us to the island.”
“But?” Alexander says, seeing the hesitation on my face.
“I’m not sure what’ll happen when I do it. It knocked me out last time and paralyzed me. That was just the two of us, who knows what could happen now.”
“I’ve got you,” he says, grabbing my hand. I close my eyes tightly and start to picture everyone being put on the island. I run through the list of everyone in my head as I had seen them the night we were assigned our boats, careful not to forget any one: Cooper, Zavy, Toby, Mio, Cinder, Molly, April, May, Lilly, Sam, Essie, Cassandra, Sarah, James, Bren, Andy, Albert, Alexander, and finally myself.
Suddenly my world becomes deathly silent. A warm sensation is pressing against my cheek. I crack my eyes open and can see the stretch of white sand meeting the calm ocean water and then my world goes black.
Chapter 27
When I finally come to I flutter my eyelids open and a roof of green leaves hangs over me. My body is pushed into sandy dirt. I try to sit up, but find I can’t. My breathing quickens when I realize I am unable to move any part of my body. I try to yell for help, but no words leave my mouth. Then Molly’s young face comes into view above me.
“You’re awake,” she says and a soft smile falls across her face. Her cheeks look stained with tears and her eyes are red. “You guys, she’s awake!” Molly yells. Suddenly Alexander and Cooper appear on either side of me. I feel Alexander take my hand in his and give me a tight squeeze. I urge my hand to squeeze back, but I’m unable to.
“It’s okay,” he says, noticing my panic when I still can’t move. “Mio says you’ll get back full mobility with a lot of rest,” Alexander says.
“Just take it easy Adaline,” Cooper says. I notice he has a damp white wrap around his forehead and I remember him hitting his head during the attack. “We’ve already had to resuscitate you twice. We were so close to losing you,” he says with a tight voice.
Alexander finishes for him, “You were so weak you couldn’t even keep your own heart going.”
“But we saved you,” Molly pipes in. “I’m your doctor for this shift, and I request much more rest so you’ll have to visit later,” she says looking between Cooper and Alexander.
Dark spots form in my sight and I can feel myself getting pulled back to sleep. I try as hard as I can to stay awake. I keep blinking, trying to clear the black dots that clutter my vision, but they continue to grow until my whole world is dark again.
“Adaline, wake up,” I hear Alexander’s voice say softly. My eyelids crack open and the rosy pink sky bleeds into view. “Guess who’s your doctor now,” he says with a light laugh to himself. “You need to get some water in you.” He presses a water bottle against my cracked lips. Slowly I sip on the cool liquid, and then I hear Mio and Cooper yelling somewhere off in the distance.
“There’s nothing on this island to eat!” Cooper yells at Mio.
“Well, I’m sorry she didn’t think to bring some of our food when she zapped us here,” Mio yells back.
“Not even Toby can find something here to get his hands on,” Cooper mumbles.
“I can try to catch those birds again if you want,” I hear Toby’s childish voice say softly.
“No Toby, you tried your best. They need to stop pushing you so hard,” Zavy’s voice says sternly.
“It’s a little chaotic here,” Alexander’s warm voice says, bringing me back to him. “Don’t worry about it, you just need to rest,” he finishes and pulls the bottle away from my lips.
I try to ask him how long I’ve been out, but find I am still inaudible. I try to move my arms or legs, but they are still frozen in place. I find that I’m able to twitch my fingers on my right hand and am relieved with
