Part 3: Water, Water, Everywhere

After about a day, the boy ran out of food.

Panic set in, and then relief when the boy found out that he still had plenty of water bottles.

Plenty for ten more days.

For the whole next day he just sat there, staring into the never-ending stretch of water.

It's hard to describe that strange empty feeling the boy felt for the next three days, and then he finally a small island in the distance. He blinked, wondering if he was hallucinating from hunger, and then he jumped up, staring at the dark spot on the horizon.

It was land, and he dove off the raft and dragged it ashore. He stepped onto the beach and fear struck him. Was this the same island that he just left?

The trees looked the same, and the island was about the same size, but it was different than the one he left. He spied a coconut at the top of a nearby tree, and for the next three hours tried desperately to get it down.

He succeeded in bringing down five of them, and he stocked his raft full of coconuts and other fruits he found. He walked around the entire island, laughed for joy at still being alive, and then he fell to the ground, crying.

He spent the night on the island, cold and afraid.

Twelve hours later, he was once again in the middle of the ocean, staring lazily into the horizon.

Then he felt a bump.

It was a light tap, but enough for him to feel it. He turned around to see a large fin sticking out of the water next to the raft.

When he was eight, his father once took him out on a walk on the beach to show him something interesting. His father pointed out into the waves, and the boy saw the same fins swimming around. He was fascinated. "What are those?" he asked. His father laughed and said, "Those, my son, are Carcharodon carcharias." The boy blinked in confusion. The father laughed. "They are also called great white sharks. Don't go swimming when they're around."

The boy, who was planning on taking a swim that afternoon, asked, "Why not?" His father once again laughed and changed the subject, saying, "Don't worry about it, and now go along play with your blocks."

The boy now wished that his father was more specific, because the two more fins appeared on the left and back of the raft. For about twenty minutes the fins followed him, and the boy grew less and less afraid.

And then they attacked.

Part 4: Jaws

It all happened in slow motion.

The great fish leaped out of the water, its mouth open wide, and the boy sat gaping at the large mouth. The shark landed on the raft, instantly turning the thick branches into splinters. The boy was thrown into the water, swallowing water and swimming for his life. He could see the three of them attacking the pieces of the raft, and blood was in the water. It wasn't his blood, that's for sure, and he slowly swam away from the mini feeding frenzy. One of the sharks was bleeding profusely, due to another shark biting him instead of the boy.

Then the boy heard a loud horn sound from the distance. He turned his head around and saw a monstrous machine bearing down on him. It was taller than the highest point on his home island, and it was the biggest thing he had ever seen. It had colorful tubes sticking out of the top, and you, my reader, have realized that the machine is a cruise ship, with the horn blowing. The boy, while treading water, looked behind him to see the raft in shambles, but the sharks had left. The sharks had swum away from the noise, and the boy smiled with relief.

He turned around again to see the machine closer than before and moving extremely fast. Then he noticed the danger he was in, and frantically tried to swim out of the way before the machine ran over him and his raft.

It ran over both, and the captain of the cruise ship did not notice the small boy and broken pieces of wood get pulled underneath the hull.

Coming soon: Part 5: Sore Thumb