Read Online Sea (A Stranded Novel) by Theresa Shaver - Free Book Online

she couldn’t find them, just endless smoke and flames, her feet tripping over bloody bodies as she ran. She stopped and spun around, looking for anyone who could help but when the wind blew the smoke away, she found herself facing two smirking men in baggy jeans and wife beater tank tops. The taller man snarled and said, “Here’s another one!” as he raised his hand and pointed at her. Emily gasped as she saw the gun pointed at her head and screamed herself awake to the sound of the gunshot.
    She was shaking and drenched in sweat from the nightmare. The cabin was filled with muted sunlight that was filtered from the curtains covering the deck windows. She was alone in the bed and she flinched at another bang from the main room. Emily realized that it was someone banging cupboard doors in the galley that had woken her. Someone was walking around on the deck and the sounds of puking were very clear. Scrubbing her sweaty face with her hands , she swung down from the bed and opened the door to see what was going on.
    Tim was going through all the cupboards looking for something and sent her a distracted smile when he noticed her in the doorway.
    “Hey, sorry if I woke you, but we seem to be having a pukefest on deck and I’m looking for the Dramamine. Mark and Lisa are hanging over the edge and it’s not a pretty sight. How are you feeling?” he asked with a frown at her tired and sweaty face.
    “I’m fine, just a nightmare. Grab some crackers as well. It will help if they had something in their stomachs. I’m going to get cleaned up and I’ll be right up.” Emily flashed him a wan smile and headed to the tiny bathroom. She stopped at a pile of clothes and sorted through them for the things she had gotten at Costco. Looking around the cabin at things tossed everywhere she decided it would be a good thing to sort everything and put it all away after she had cleaned herself up. In the bathroom, she found the boxes of toothbrushes and sighed in relief. Under the sink, she found washcloths and soap. Using very little water, Emily stripped her clothes off and washed her body as best as she could. She couldn’t help but be jealous that Lisa had showered yesterday. Her scalp was itchy and her hair smelled like smoke.
    Putting on fresh clothes helped a lot and after brushing her long blond hair she knotted it high up on the back of her head. Without makeup , there was nothing she could do about the dark bags under her eyes so she settled for a layer of sunscreen and called it good. Stepping back out into the cabin her stomach gave a lurch and she remembered how long it had been since she had eaten. Emily searched around until she found the instant oatmeal and made herself a bowl with bottled water. She left it sitting on the counter to soak and started to move stuff around. There hadn’t been much time last night to stow everything properly and the cabin was a mess. She worked away at it for ten minutes before she started to feel nauseous so she grabbed her bowl and started to eat. It was awful made from cold water but she ate it anyway. Her belly felt a little better when she was done so she put the bowl in the sink and went back to work on the cabin.
    Mason came down the stairs as she worked and he grabbed a granola bar and watched her. Emily still wasn’t sure about him after what happened yesterday so she just ignored him. After a few minutes he let out an exaggerated sigh.
    “Are you going to give me the cold shoulder for the whole trip home?”
    “I’m not giving you the cold shoulder , Mason. I’m just…thinking things through. That’s all,” she told him without looking at him.
    It was true. She didn’t know how she felt about him anymore. His leaving her on the street blew every ounce of trust she had with him. Saying that he loved her made things even worse, as she couldn’t believe that you would abandon someone you loved. So, either he was lying, or he didn’t really know what love was, and that was