Read Online Beyond the Sea by Keira Andrews - Free Book Online

the trees in the pale light of dawn.
    “ What the…” Groaning, Brian pushed himself up to sitting and dragged the net over his head, balling it in his lap. The crisp white of his uniform shirt was dull with dirt. “Are those…?”
    “ Parrots,” Troy answered. “They look like parrots.” The loudest freaking parrots in history. As the sun rose, it was apparently breakfast time, and they clustered in the trees, eating God knows what. Very enthusiastically.
    Brian groaned again, wincing. The red mark on his forehead had darkened to a purple bruise. He gingerly stretched his neck side to side. “That’s some wakeup call.”
    “ Yeah. How’s your head?” He peered closely, relieved to see Brian’s pupils looked normal in his hazel eyes.
    “ Hurts. But I’ll live.” He rubbed his face. “Got some sleep, at least. You?”
    “ A few hours, I guess.” Troy gazed around. The sky had cleared, and it looked like it would be a hot day. The sun was rising on the other side of the island, so their beach was facing west. Not that it mattered, since they were in the middle of nowhere. “So…what do we do now?”
    Brian stared at the parrots, barely blinking.
    Shit. Brian was in no condition to be doing anything. Okay. Be logical. What do we need first? “I should look for water. We still have some full bottles, but they won’t last long in this heat. There must be fresh water on the island, right? A stream, maybe? And we need something to catch rain when it comes.”
    At least Brian snapped out of it. “Yes. Sorry, I’m a little…fuzzy. Water is the priority. We should see what food we can find as well. Explore the island. But first do an inventory on our supplies. I’m not even sure what’s in this emergency pack.”
    Turned out to be a surprising number of things. Waterproof matches and a magnifying glass. A heavy duty orange laminate sheet that was a blanket or perhaps…something for camping? It had grommets on each corner, which confused Troy. He’d never camped a day in his life, but he’d watched some Bear Grylls. Now he really wished he’d paid more attention. “Orange seems to be the color of the day,” he noted as he unfolded two ponchos and bandannas.
    “ Good for being seen from above,” Brian said, unzipping a little kit. “Oh, thank God. Fishing line and hooks. Lures. This is important.”
    They cataloged the remaining protein bars and took two more. There was also a Nalgene water bottle, water purification tablets, a first aid kit, the orange rope and carabiner, and a thick roll of duct tape.
    Troy unzipped a small rectangular soft case. “A mirror? With a star in the middle?” He flipped it over to find instructions on the other side. The mirror was about the size of an instant camera and encased in solid plastic. “Oh, for signaling.”
    “ We’ll have to keep that handy.”
    “ One more thing in here…” Troy tore open the Velcro closure of a little black pouch and tipped out a coil of metal with thick material handhold straps on each end. “This looks like…a bike chain? With sharp edges?”
    Brian glanced up. “Chainsaw. We can cut through branches to make a shelter. Firewood.”
    “ Oh!” Troy eyed the teeth on the chain and carefully coiled it into its pouch. “Cool.” He watched as Brian unsheathed a knife from a leather case, about six or seven inches. “Whoa. That’s serious business.”
    “ It is indeed.” Brian slid it back into the sheath and buttoned the clasp before examining small tubes of sunscreen, lip balm, and mosquito repellent. “These won’t last long. We have to be careful.”
    “ Right.” Troy tried to smile. Fake it until you make it. “But we won’t be here very long. They’ll already be looking.”
    Brian seemed to be thinking as he checked his watch. “Yes, the searchers could be heading out this morning. They would have had to wait until the storm cleared. It depends on which direction it went, and the level of resources available.