Chris sat in the bow of the boat, looking out at the waves crashing below him. He was by no means a world traveler, and he hadn't been on a boat more than twice in his life, neither of which had been at sea. He was only on this boat because it was the only way to get to the small tropical island that his brother was now living on. Jay had been in the military for seven years, and while stationed in Guam, he met a girl. Now they were living together, and Jay had told Chris that they would be getting married.
Jay's new fiancΓ© had no citizenship, even in Guam, so it would be nearly impossible for them to visit Chris in America. Chris hadn't seen his brother in over a year, so he had decided to go to them. First, he had taken a 13-hour flight, and then another two-hour flight, and then a long drive, and now he was finishing the journey off with a seventeen-hour boat ride out to the island they were on. There were many other islands on the way as they sailed through the pacific, and Chris could see why his brother had fallen in love with this place. The ocean was crystal clear, and the islands all looked amazing.
Chris was sitting alone on the boat because the other people had already gotten on his nerves. They didn't all seem so bad, but the loud mouth named Anthony had nearly gotten Chris to hit him. Anthony was a man in his mid-forties, traveling with his wife and daughter, both of whom were quite attractive. Anthony had accused Chris of staring at his wife, and then at his daughter. He hadn't been staring at either of them at the time, though he had checked them both out when no one was looking. Chris had no intention of getting into a fight with a drunk guy on a boat in the middle of nowhere, so he had taken up his spot on the bow, watching the waves.
He could hear everyone else on the boat laughing and drinking down below. Besides Anthony and his wife and daughter, there was a newlywed couple. The man was a rich guy in his forties, named Jim, and his wife was an incredibly sexy woman in her twenties, named Stacey. Chris could tell that she was a trophy wife, and Jim seemed like a bigger asshole than Anthony. The other two passengers were an older man and his daughter. They seemed ok to Chris, but he didn't want to deal with the others, so he had secluded himself.
They were about halfway to their destination, giving them about eight hours left. But Chris could see dark ominous clouds forming to the east, where they were headed, and he wondered how that would affect their journey. He waited another half an hour, watching the clouds now as much as the waves. The clouds were only getting more ominous, so Chris finally got up and walked down to the cabin, to ask captain Marcel about it.
When he stepped down into the cabin, he heard everyone fall silent. He noticed both Anthony and Jim glaring at him, as well as Anthony's wife. Everyone else was looking away awkwardly. Chris could only wonder what they might have been saying about him, but he didn't care. He walked over to where the captain was seated, having himself a glass of wine with his dinner.
"Hey captain," Chris said, ignoring the dirty looks he was getting from some of them. "We have some pretty nasty looking clouds coming up ahead of us."
"The forecast says we'll be fine," Marcel said nonchalantly, taking another sip of his wine.
"You might want to check it again," Chris suggested, "the clouds that just formed look bad."
"I'm sure the captain knows what he's doing," Jim said, with an annoying air of authority. "This is his job after all. What was it you do again Chris?"
"I'm a park ranger," Chris said, shooting Jim an angry look. "I used to be in the army."
"And is there an ocean in you park?" Jim asked, and Anthony snorted laughter.
"No, but there are sometimes clouds," Chris shot back, which made Stacey and Anthony's daughter both smile. "And sometimes those clouds make storms. And the clouds I'm seeing outside right now look like the kind that make storms."
"I'll take a look when I'm done eating," Marcel said lazily. Chris could tell he wasn't going to get any better from the captain, and he was still being glared at, so he went back up to the deck. He resumed his watching from the bow, now focused fully on the clouds. He didn't want to be proved right, but he could already tell he would be. The clouds had gone from grey, to nearly black, and were getting larger every minute.
Twenty minutes later it began to drizzle. Twenty minutes after that it began to pour. Chris went back down below deck. Everyone was still laughing and eating. The men didn't look worried at all, except Howard, the older man. The women all seemed to be taking it a bit more seriously. Chris knew that they were in a bad storm, even if no one else did. He still felt safe enough, but he had no illusions about what a bad storm at sea meant.
An hour into the storm, no one was laughing anymore. The whole boat was rocking heavily with the waves. Jim was trying to tell everyone that it was all fine, and that nothing could possibly happen to them. They had all paid well to be on this boat, and therefore nothing bad would happen. Chris knew better though. He knew Marcel was not a great captain, and he had seen the clouds, and how fast they had formed. He knew they were in some real trouble, but he didn't know what to do about it.
Chris was thinking about going up to Marcel, to see if there was any way he could help, when he felt and heard a loud crash. The whole boat lurched, and everyone was thrown to the floor. The rocking of the boat stopped for a moment, and then resumed. Water began to flood in from somewhere, and then everyone began to panic. Anthony's daughter was crying, while her mother tried to console her, and Anthony shouted at no one. Stacey and Jim were shouting at each other, and Howard and his daughter were huddled together, looking scared. Chris knew they all had to get above deck fast.
"Everyone up, now!" Chris shouted in his old military cadence he rarely used anymore. "We need to get up top!"
"Marcel is handling it," Anthony shouted back. "We should stay here until he tells us otherwise. If we go up there we could be thrown off the boat, and then we'd drown."
"This boat is going to sink," Chris shouted. "Look, you see all that water? If we don't get up there now then we'll definitely drown. Come on, move!" Howard and his daughter quickly followed Chris. Anthony's family got up as well, and Anthony started shouting at them, but they didn't listen. Stacey came too, and then Jim. Everyone but Anthony ended up following Chris to the deck of the boat.
They all began to get pounded by the thick rain. The boat seemed to be going sideways now, and Chris could see a large rock coming out of the water up ahead. He looked to where Marcel was meant to be manning the wheel, and didn't see him. Chris ran to the wheel, and looked around frantically, but didn't see Marcel anywhere. Chris realized Marcel must have been thrown from the boat when they hit whatever they had hit, and he quickly grabbed the wheel. He tried to steer them away from the rock they were sailing towards, but it was too late. Chris shouted at everyone to take cover, and then he watched and felt as the boat slammed into a sheer rockface. The boat crumpled against the rocks, and he knew they were going down. Chris saw two of the women already in the water, and knew they needed help. He jumped in, and swam to them, glad he was such a strong swimmer.
When he got to them he saw that it was Anthony's wife and daughter, the wife only semiconscious. Chris grabbed her, and told the daughter to follow. She seemed like a decent swimmer as well, and they swam towards the rocks. When they got there, Chris had to be careful not to get slammed against the rocks by the waves. He carefully pulled the woman onto the rocks, and then helped her daughter up as well. Once they were on the rocks, Chris dove back into the water, looking for others. He could see Howard and his daughter in the distance, climbing up onto the rocks. He looked around some more and saw Stacey splashing about. She didn't seem to be a good swimmer at all. Chris dove in and swam to her, and then pulled her to the rocks where he had put the others. He looked around for Jim and Anthony and Marcel, but couldn't see any of them.
Chris looked for them for another twenty minutes but couldn't see them anywhere. The girls were all crying, and shivering, and Chris knew he needed to get them to better cover. The rocks they were on were jagged and clustered, but he knew they could climb them. He began to lead his small group up, helping them all as they went, until they found a small cave halfway up the rockface. They all huddled together in the cave, and Chris went back to search for the others. He spent most of the night on the rocks, looking for any signs of the missing parties, but never saw them.
When the storm finally ended, it was the following day. Chris led the small group up the mountain. When they reached the top, he could see that they were on one of the many tropical islands. He had no idea if there were any people on this island, so he led his group off the rocks, and onto the beach. They were all still terrified, but they were safe, at least for the time being.
"What happened to my husband?" Anthony's wife demanded.
"I don't know," Chris sighed, "I couldn't see him anywhere."