Alicia never thought that she would get tired of the ocean view. After all, she used to enjoy going to the beach with her friends on weekends. But after two days on the Abigail, she was already longing for land. Between the lack of personal space, the stress of the past few days finally catching up to her, Chris lashing out during Liza's funeral, and the storm that had hit the night before and had kept her from sleeping more than an hour or two, she was exhausted.
Tired of the wind that wouldn't stop sending her hair into her mouth, she had retreated with the radio into the room she shared with her brother. When Travis had asked her the day before to man the radio and listen for possible instructions from the military, she had thought that he was only trying to keep her mind off the strangers on the boat that they had not stopped to help. But now, despite the depressing messages she kept hearing, she was glad for the distraction.
Lying on the left side bed, she started falling asleep, lulled by an old song on the radio, when she heard a raspy, female voice over the music. The woman was singing, pretty much in tune as far as Alicia could tell, despite sounding pretty sad. Once the song was over, the brunette expected her to continue singing along to the next one, but she was surprised to hear her talk instead.
"Man, that was super nostalgic, sorry about that. I used to love this song, but it's not quite the same when you are alone on a boat. Oh well, I'm still alive, I guess there is that. Anybody out there? Hello? If you hear this, give me a shout. It'd be nice to talk to someone else other than the fish before I lose my sanity. They don't make for great conversationalists, to be honest."
Alicia could not help the corners of her mouth from moving upward. The woman sounded funny, a bit crazy too, but after all who was she to judge? The world seemed to have descended into madness, a stranger singing on the radio was hardly the weirdest thing she had seen recently. Before she realized what she is doing, her index had pressed the microphone switch. She held her breath and lifted her finger slowly, hoping that the stranger had not heard her, when the voice came back.
"Hello? Is someone listening? Hello? Please, don't let me hanging, I haven't talked to anyone in days, I promise I'll stop singing if you answer me. Please? Pretty please?"
"Hi," replied Alicia after taking a big inhalation.
"Hi there. For a second, I thought I had lost my mind and started imagining things. How are you doing?"
"I—I'm okay. And you? You sounded good earlier, I didn't want to interrupt your performance."
"Haha, thanks. You should see what I can do after a couple of beers." Alicia could not stop herself from smiling again, for the second time in less than five minutes. Maybe it was the relative carefreeness in the woman's voice or the fact that her own family had been pretty much ignoring her for the previous 24 hours. Either way, the young girl did not want the conversation to end so soon.
"My name is Alicia, and you?"
"Elyza, Elyza Lex, at your service young Alicia."
"Hey! What makes you think I'm young?" asked Alicia while rolling her eyes. "As far as you know I could be a 50-year-old crazy cat lady with a bad perm and fluffy slippers."
The mysterious woman did not immediately respond. Her laugh resonated through the device that the brunette was holding, making her smile.
"You're right, Love, I can't be sure. Although I can't imagine a crazy cat lady surviving on the ocean or knowing how to operate a radio. Anyway, tell me about yourself? How long have you been out here?"
The conversation continued like that for what felt like ages, but it was probably closer to an hour. Alicia learned that Elyza was Australian and used to have a dog as a child. She had just moved to LA to be a resident in a teaching hospital when the dead had started coming back to life. Since those fateful days, she had not heard from her mother and step-dad back in Sydney and had little hope to do so.
In return, the teenager told her about her brother's regular escapades, her mother's protectiveness, and the life on the Abigail with her new makeshift family. She even surprised herself by mentioning Matt and how she wished she had said goodbye to him; back when she had not known that a bite was a death sentence.
Elyza was easy to talk to. She listened when needed, joked at the right time to lighten the atmosphere, and the most refreshing part, she seemed to take Alicia seriously. She asked for her opinion on the situation, wanted to know what the brunette would do differently if she could go back in time, and showed interest in her and her family's plans. For the first time since they had found Nick at the hospital, Alicia felt like someone was talking to her like the adult she almost was, and not like the little girl with chubby cheeks and eyes too big for her face that she had once been.
Eventually, she had to say goodbye and join her family for dinner, but not before promising Elyza that she would talk to her again the next day if she could.
That night, lying in her bed and listening to her brother's snores, Alicia felt her eyes water when she remembered the conversation with the Australian woman. She saw all the faces of those she has already lost. Matt, her friends from school, her neighbors. When the image of her father appeared in front of her eyes, she could not stop a sob from leaving her lips. Thankfully, the exhaustion caught up with her after some time, and she fell into a dreamless slumber, hoping to hear the raspy voice again.
The next day, after a frugal breakfast, Alicia found herself once again left to her own devices. She had tried to strike a conversation with Ofelia, but the poor woman was still recovering from her injury. Her father did not seem inclined to leave her side for more than a few minutes at a time, and Alicia gave up. Since Nick was in the wheelhouse making friends with Strand, she was free to go back to their cabin and turn on the radio. But where she had been looking forward to hearing music or the beautiful voice of the Australian woman, she was only greeted with silence.
"Elyza? Elyza, can you hear me? It's Alicia."
The young brunette listened to the statics anxiously for a couple of minutes. She was ready to turn off the radio and try again later, when a panting voice came from the device.
"Alicia? Are you still here? Sorry, I am in a bit of a situation right now."
"What's wrong?"
"My boat is taking on water, and it's getting in faster than I can remove it. There must have been a small hole in the hull or something. Shit!"
Alicia could feel her heartbeat getting faster at the sound of panic in Elyza's voice. She had not known the woman for more than a day, but the idea of losing someone else, someone who was willing to spend time with her, to listen to her, sent a sharp pain in her stomach.
"Elyza? Do you have any idea where you are? What can you see? Maybe we can pick you up. I can try to convince my mom; I'll tell her that we need a doctor for Ofelia or something. Where are you?"
"That's sweet of you, Love", replied the voice, "but I can't see much, apart from some smock coming from the Santa Monica Mountains. Is that your north or your south?"
"Our north."
"Okay, I'm south of that. Maybe two miles offshore."
"Don't give up yet, I'll talk to my mom and Travis."
Alicia ran out of her cabin and onto the communal area to find the adults. As anticipated, her mother and Travis seemed to consider rerouting the yacht to rescue the woman. Even Daniel did not reject the idea once he heard that the stranger is a doctor. He was probably thinking about his daughter who still had a hole in her shoulder.
But once Strand learned that she had been talking to someone on the radio and had given them their approximate location, went south. He and Madison argued for a few minutes, but after he threatened to throw overboard Alicia and anyone else who tried to bring in more people onto his goddamn boat, there was not much room left for discussion.
Devastated, Alicia returned to her cabin and announced in a voice full of sadness that they could not come to meet her. The answer was nothing like she had anticipated though. Instead of despair, or even anger, she could clearly hear the smirk in Elyza's voice when she replied.
"That's fine, Love, I got you. I'll see you soon."