Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24

WHEN I OPENED my eyes, I saw the first rays of sun poking through the back of the lean-to. I listened for voices, but all I heard was the rolling surf. Strange. Maybe the boys had already gone out to fish, or maybe they'd headed home—wherever home was. I imagined a bunch of angry parents waiting for them on a beach somewhere over the horizon. Maybe they'd be grounded, I thought.

I rolled over. No Kira. Probably off doing her sunrise yoga. She'd tried to get me interested once or twice, but I'd rather sleep than stretch.

I crawled out of the hut and stared across the sand. Two things hit me wrong. The outrigger canoes were floating offshore, empty. And the dinghy was lying halfway up the beach, deflated.

Then I saw the shapes in the surf.

My heart started pounding. For a second, my vision almost went black. I felt a surge of adrenaline as I ran toward the water.

I got to the smallest boy first. "Dai!" He was face down, half buried in wet sand. The water all around him was pale red. I grabbed his bony shoulder and turned him over. Blood oozed from a deep slash across his throat.

The bile rose in my belly. I felt like vomiting. I held it down and turned toward the other shapes in the water. Five more boys. I ran from one to the next. Same limp bodies. Same bloody gashes.

I looked back up the beach. Near the firepit, my cutlass was stuck into the sand. The blade was glistening red.

"Kira!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. I waded out into the surf, looking for another body in the water. Praying I wouldn't find one. Water splashed up to my chest. Then I spotted the Albatross . She was mostly underwater, keel up. Sunk.

I was crazed now. "Kira!" I shouted again. "Where are you?"

Nothing.

I waded back to shore and turned around. Suddenly, the horizon was filled with boats—huge outrigger canoes, with four or five brown-skinned men in each, paddling powerfully toward the island.

I knelt down in the sand. All the breath went out of me. I knew in an instant why the men were here.

They were looking for their children.

And they were about to find them.

Dead.