Survivors (Stranded) Read Free Page A

only plane any of them had seen since they’d been stranded here a week ago. Despite Carter, Jane, and Buzz’s best efforts, everything had gone horribly wrong. The tree bridge they’d been using to reach Lookout Point was gone now, and they’d never gotten a real chance to signal the plane.
    Tears showed in Buzz’s eyes as he told his part of the story.
    “I’m really sorry, you guys,” he said. “If I hadn’t fallen off the tree bridge, we could have gotten up there in time. We might have been on our way home by now—”
    He stopped and bit his lip. That word—
home
—seemed to weigh heavily on all of them.
    “You didn’t fall, Buzz,” Carter said. “The tree fell. And that was
my
fault.”
    Vanessa stared at each of the boys in turn. It was the closest thing to an apology she’d ever heard from Carter. Usually, he was too stubborn for anything like that. But then again, Carter had changed out here. They all had. And it seemed like the perfect time for some good news.
    “Listen, you guys,” she said. “First of all, it was stupid of me to run off like that. I’m really sorry, and I promise it won’t happen again. But you’re not going to believe what else happened. I found this cove up the shore. There’s an old wrecked boat, and—”
    Carter raised his head from where he lay in the sand. “What kind of boat?” he asked. Jane and Buzz sat up, too.
    “I don’t know,” Vanessa said. “Not a sailboat. Some kind of ship. I didn’t go on board.”
    “Why not?” Carter asked.
    Vanessa paused. The real answer was because she’d found the grave and skeletal remains before she could explore the ship. But the whole point was to focus on positive news right now.
    “Because I found a freshwater stream,” she said. “And we don’t have to go through those nasty caves to get to it, like the last one.”
    At that, all three of the others jumped up. The only fresh water they’d found until now was on the other side of a pitch-black maze of caves. Without any flashlight or torch to lead the way, it might as well have been on another island.
    “Are you serious? Why didn’t you say so?” Buzz asked.
    “Let’s go,” Carter said. “Right now. I want to see this ship.”
    “I want a drink,” Jane said.
    “I want about eighteen drinks,” Buzz said.
    Vanessa stood and looked up the shore. It wasn’t far to the cove, but it was tough going over that long stretch of volcanic rock. The others were already exhausted from their climb down.
    Still, that didn’t seem to matter, compared with the prospect of fresh water and supplies.
    “All right, let’s go,” she said. “But just so you know, it’s not going to be easy getting there.”

    Buzz had never explored the island’s shore in this direction. None of them had, except for Vanessa. She was right about the slow going over the rocks, too. It took the better part of an hour to reach the cove.
    But finally, he stood at the mouth of the wide inlet, staring at the big ship Vanessa had told them about.
    It was strange, seeing anything man-made here. Anything from the outside world. The ship was maybe twice the length of the
Lucky Star
. That would make it a hundred feet long. The whole thing was grounded along its starboard side, at the far end of the cove.
    “Where’s the drinking water?” Carter asked.
    Vanessa pointed past the bow of the ship. Behind it, water was seeping down a low, curved rock wall that formed the U-shape of the inlet itself. The stone was dark with moisture, and it was covered in the green moss and algae that seemed to grow everywhere in this quiet, shady spot.
    All four of them—Jane, Carter, Buzz, and Vanessa—took off running. They splashed through shallow water, following the curve of the cove until they came to the stream at the back. It trickled down in several places. To get a drink Buzz pressed his face sideways against the mossy rock and let the cold water run into his mouth. It felt like suddenly waking up.