CH 21
Jackie got the piece of airplane wing over to the raft. Duncan had gotten in and pulled the other two in with him. Jackie swam the last man over to the raft, not wanting the wing piece to rip a hole in the raft. Once he was on the raft, Jackie punched holes the top of the wing piece until it sank.
Jackie then swam over to hold onto the raft. "Any idea where we are?" she asked.
"Mid pacific," Duncan said dryly. "Other than that, no clues."
"Shit," Jackie complained. "Let me get a look around, Maybe I can find something."
"Don't go far, you might not find us again," Duncan warned.
"I'm going to jump and take a look," she said, then dove back under.
"She won't see much more," the thin boy said. "A jump is what, maybe five, ten feet in the air?"
"She's not a dolphin," the girl said with a snort. "People can't jump out of the water like that."
Off to the side, Jackie burst from the water straight up in the air. She went high, her head looked this way and that, then she bent over and turned to point straight down to splash back in head first.
"Damn," the boy said.
"I'd say that was about a 20 foot jump," Duncan noted.
"She can't be human," the girl stated.
"She is a mermaid," the man said.
The girl frowned at him. "No, she was on the plane with us, she got me out."
"Then where did that tail come from?" the man asked.
All three looked at Duncan. He said, "Jackie does have a mermaid tail, yes. She is part human, but not all human."
Behind him, Jackie shot into the air again, looking that way. Again she managed to tip upside down on the way down to hit the water head first. Duncan looked behind him and said, "And I hope she stops soon. She can get tired."
Jackie then appeared right beside the raft to jump up and swing her tail onto the raft and sit on the side. "Duncan, there's something off this way," she said, pointing behind him. "I didn't see much, but it looks like a mountaintop. I'd say 20,25 miles away."
"Great, we got paddles?" Duncan asked.
The emergency life boat was just that, a thing to float on. It was big and bright orange, but there was nothing on it. No provisions, no paddles, no nothing. Right now, the sky had light clouds. Duncan knew if the sun came out and stayed out, they would roast. If a storm came, they'd be lucky to hold onto the raft.
"I'll push," Jackie said.
"Yes, but you'll need help," Duncan told her. "You did get the direction that island is at?" he asked Jackie.
Jackie nodded. "That way," she said, pointing.
Duncan noted the sun's position on the sky. "We don't want to be paddling in circles." He pointed to the boy. "It's afternoon, sit up, note where your shadow is on the raft. Guide us to keep it in the same place. Jackie, you push. I'm Duncan. What's your names?" he asked the girl and the other guy.
"Wanda"
"Fred"
"I'm Randy," the boy said.
"Wanda, take the right side, Fred take the left. Take off your socks, put them over your hands so when you spread your fingers you can move a little more water when you paddle. Let's get started." Duncan told them.
Jackie rolled back in the water and got in back to push. Noting where the sun was himself, Duncan put his socks on his hands and bent over the front to paddle. With all of them paddling, the raft did move. It wasn't fast, but they were moving along.
After about ah hour of paddling, Jackie jumped up in the air again to point at the island, then dive back in. They'd drifted to the left some. Duncan turned them right a bit and they kept paddling away as Jackie pushed. after another hour he guessed, Jackie did another jump and told them they had to go right just a bit more.
The sun was setting, but now, the top of the island was visible in the distance. Even with night setting, Jackie could lift up and keep them headed in the right direction. Wanda was exhausted, Randy took her place paddling.
Getting closer to the island that was filling their horizon now, Duncan had Jackie get into the back just in case there were shallow coral reefs around the island. He didn't want her tearing up her tail or her skin on coral. There were no signs of breakers or exposed reef. Duncan guess it was close to midnight when they beached on the sand. The stars in the sky brightened the dark landscape enough to see the beach. Where the trees line was, was nothing but a dark, foreboding place to most of them.
Tired from their ordeal, they pulled the raft up onto the shore and laid down in it to sleep for the rest of the night.
.
Dry, hot, miserable, and hungry. That was how they all woke up in the morning. Awaking to the sun beating down on them, they moaned and shielded their eyes. Duncan sat up. "Guys, we need to find two things, Food and water. Fred, Randy, go inland, be careful but we need fresh water. Jackie, see if you can grab us some fish. Wanda, help me get a camp started."
"Who put you in charge?" Fred asked.
Jackie stated, "Duncan knows what he's doing. Just do it!"
"I. Am. A. Manager of my own factory AND store!" Fred announced.
"I don't give a fuck if you're the president of the US!" Jackie snapped back, "Go find some water!"
Fred stood up, jabbed a finger at Duncan and said, "I want a camp made here before we get back!" He then strode off. "Randy, come!" he snapped.
"Isn't he pleasant," Wanda grumbled.
"I'll see what I can do about breakfast," Jackie said and hand walked into the surf.
Duncan got up. "Let's look inside the tree line for a good place." He held his hand out to Wanda.
Wanda took it and got up. "I don't know anything about making a camp."
"Then you'll learn," Duncan said with a grin.
"We need something to put water in, to cook in, everything," Wanda said in a huff.
Duncan looked up at the trees. "At least we have coconuts." He pointed up. "And Coconut crabs."
Wanda looked up. "Crabs climb trees?" she asked.
"Coconut crabs do, and they climb up to get the coconuts. They get the coconuts down so we don't have to climb trees. They drop the shells, we pick them up. Just don't get too close to them. Their claws can break your bones."
Walking over to a tree, Duncan picked a half shell off the ground. "See, we already got a cup."
.
Jackie swam down, searching the bottom. There were plenty of small fish down here. She was looking for something family sized. Starfish were here and there too. Nothing big. A shark passed by shallower. It was a shark. Not a big one, but just being a shark, it was a good four feet long. she swam up behind it and gabbed it's dorsal fin to pull herself close. The shark tried to swim away. she grabbed it around the middle and squeezed. The shark flailed, trying to throw her off.
It was a wrestling match, but constantly squeezing it, the shark was weakening. Jackie tried to swim for shore. The shark was making it difficult. A quick thrust and she got up to grab it around the head and keep it's gills shut. It thrashed, trying to throw her off. With the gills shut, it wasn't breathing. Holding tight, she knew she's wear it down. It was thrashing hard, and she was holding on hard. She managed to keep pointing it towards the shore. The water got shallow. Jackie was beginning to need air now. she managed to force the shark up and got a quick breath before it forced her back under.
Slowly she was winning the battle. She got it into water only a few feet deep and got her legs under her to kick up and at the beach. That threw her and the shark into the surf. Up on her knees again, she make a little more headway. The shark was only twitching now. An arm firmly round it, she used her other arm to push them higher onto the beach. When the shark was clear of the water, she let go and sat up to look around.
Where was everyone? She didn't even see the life raft. Great! Jackie got her tail off and tossed it over one shoulder, and the shark over the other. The raft was here someplace. She walked along the beach to go find it.
.
Fred walked along, looking for a stream or a pond. Randy walked behind him.
"Ah Fred? When we find water, how do we take it back?" Randy asked.
"First things first," Fred stated. He walked inland, then kept the beach in sight through the trees. There had to be a stream on this island someplace!
It was hot, and Fred was feeling a little weak, but he kept stepping along. Hearing something, he moved towards the sound and found a stream running down a steep incline to form in several pools in it's path to land in a larger pool before the steam ran out towards the ocean.
"Yes!" he cried and waded into the pool. He drank some water and bathed in it. "Yes, I saved us," he said happily.
Randy joined him in the pool, scooping up water in his hands to drink. "Great, I'll go tell the others..."
"Hold on!" Fred snapped. "We have to get water to them, so now, we know where the water is, we need to go find something to put it in."
"But, they can come and..."
"RANDY!" Fred barked. "You don't understand commodities! We have water now. We have it, they don't. We take water to them, and they give us food. If they know where the water is, then they don't have to give us anything. We exchange water for food. To do that, we don't let them know where the water is, we just take it to them."
Randy stared at him. "But..."
"No butts. Come on, we need to find some kind of container."
.
Duncan pulled at the plant and got it uprooted. Wanda had the piece of coconut shell and smoothed out the ground where the plant came up and scraped dead leaves and other debris from the area. They cleared enough ground for a decent sized camp. With coconut shells, they'd dug a fire pit, and piling the brush they pulled up around the 20 foot circle, they made a short wind block.
Wanda sat down and whined, "I'm really thirsty."
"I know. Me too," Duncan agreed. "Hopefully Fred and Randy will find water and come get us."
Wanda nodded vacantly. "What is Jackie? I mean, I'm still confused how she got us out of that plane, and she's got a friggin tail like a fish!"
Duncan said, "Jackie is a cyborg. Part human, part machine. Yes, she's intelligent. Very much so. She is also very strong and fast because she is part machine. Jackie ripped a hole in the side of the plane to get us out. I know she would have done more, but the plane was sinking. She had no time left. She did have to get herself out too."
"She thought something was wrong with that plane, and she was right," Wanda noted.
"Yeah, I should have listened to her," Duncan agreed.
Wanda cast him a brief smile. "I'm glad you didn't. I'd be dead now of it wasn't for you two."
"We still have much to do if we're going to survive," he told her. "If those guys don't come back soon with water, I'll go looking. That is our number one priority."
.
Walking along the beach, Jackie saw a trench in the sand. A stream coming out from the woods cut a path to the shore. She smiled at seeing the water. Dropping her loads, she got down and got a hand full of water to taste it. It was fresh water! All right! Thinking about how to get it to the others, she looked at her tail.
Jackie dug into the sand to the sides of the stream to make a pit, puling the sand up on the downstream side. She then pushed all the dug up sand into the stream. It worked, the dam she made built up water that ran into her pit. She put her tail in the water to fill it, then poured it back out on the downstream side over the dam to rinse her tail out. She refilled her tail about halfway. OK, so they might get a bit of leftover toe-jam in their water, but at least everyone would have water. With water bulging out the bottom of her tail she hefted her tail and the shark and continued on.
By the time she found the orange life raft, she swore she'd walked halfway around the island. Seeing the life raft, she yelled, "Duncan! I got food AND water!"
Duncan came out of the trees with Wanda. "Over here," he called.
With Coconut shells, they dipped water out of her tail to drink. Jackie first used her plasma canon to start a fire in the pit Duncan made. She then formed a knife to cut open and gut the shark, then carefully skinned it. Duncan made a rack of sticks to hang the shark over the fire.
"I found a stream on the beach coming from the land," Jackie explained. "I rinsed my tail out then filled the bottom of it from the stream. The shark I had to wrestle up onto the beach. That was not easy."
"I imagine not," Duncan said with a big grin as they sat around the fire, waiting for the shark to cook. Jackie sat trimming the fins off the shark skin, then split the fins to peel the meat out of them. She hung the fins on a bush open and upside down. The main shark skin she laid flat over some sticks.
"Making leather?" Wanda asked.
"Rawhide. I don't have any tannic acid to make leather," Jackie explained. "We're going to need a shelter, and a roof for it."
"We can do that with palm leaves," Duncan said. "Someone had to know that plane went down, there will be a search for us."
"We hope," Jackie replied dryly. "If there is, that big orange raft should clue someone we're here."
Duncan turned the shark over to cook the other side. "At least we won't starve or dehydrate before they get here."
Jackie let out a snort. "No, but I hope we can find something else to eat besides shark. Maybe something that doesn't put up so much of a fight."
"I'm surprised you were able to do that," Wanda said.
"Like I said, it wasn't easy."
.
The sun was going down, and they had their shark meat dinner and drank water from Jackie's tail in coconut shells. Fred and Randy returned.
"We found water!" Fred announced. He then noticed the shark over the fire. "Well since you somehow managed to find a dead shark, we can trade."
Jackie eyed him. "What are you talking about?"
Randy wordlessly came over and looked at the shark. Jackie told him, "There's a pile of shark meat cooked on that leaf, grab some and a coconut shell. Water's in my tail here, just dip in and grab some."
"WE found the water!" Fred announced.
Jackie eyed him. "Sit down and shut it."
Fred stood over her. "When did you steal water from our stream?"
"Fred, Knock it off," Duncan warned.
"Before you get hurt," Jackie added, looking up at him.
"I will NOT be told what to do!" he snapped. "We found the water, it's ours!" he barked and kicked the coconut out of Jackie's hand.
Duncan stood up. "FRED! Jackie brought that water back, not you. You need to calm down NOW!"
"Too late," Jackie said and got up. "Need your ass kicked, do you Fred?" she asked.
Pointing a finger at her he growled, "Touch me and I will KILL YOU!"
Jackie grabbed his wrist, pulled and twisted to force him to turn and bend over. "Duncan, we'll be right back." She marched Fred out of the camp as he grimaced and tried in vain to struggle against her grip.
Randy watched this wide-eyed. Fred had to be twice the size of Jackie, bout she was manhandling him.
Jackie led him out onto the beach, then planted a foot on his butt and kicked him away. Fred dove face first into the sand. "Well, big shot, I touched you, so come on, Kill me," she challenged.
Fred got up and was ready to belt her a good one. Duncan, Wanda and Randy were all watching. That little blonde bitch was standing, hands on her hips, eyeing him. It would not be good if he did beat on her. "Sorry," he forced out.
"You are," Jackie stated. "Now, you will back your mouth up, or you will shut up and behave yourself."
Fred gritted his teeth, jaw clenched. "You don't tell me what to do," he spat.
"Yes, I do," Jackie stated. "Tell me, you found that stream and now you think it's yours? Sorry asshole, it belongs to no one. It's also what we need to live, so if you have any brains, you must know I will bust you up and leave you in a crippled state unless you can cooperate. Duncan knows what he's doing. He's in charge here. Say it."
Fred glowered at her. "Be lucky you're a girl!" he growled.
"Who also saved your ass," Jackie replied. "Say Duncan is in charge here."
"I can lead you ... Offff!"
Jackie kicked him in the gut, knocking him back on his ass. "Who's in charge here?" she asked and walked up to him.
Fred let out a scream and jumped up at her. Jackie twisted his arm and flung him to the sand. She stepped on his shoulder blade and twisted his arm a little farther.
"WHO's in charge here?" Jackie asked in a hard tone.
"All right! Duncan is!" Fred cried out.
Jackie released him. "Glad we got that straight," she said and walked away. "Next time, I break it."
Fred seethed in anger, but kept quiet. He would teach her she couldn't treat him like that!
.
Fred didn't come back into the camp. That was fine with Jackie. Once she made sure everyone had the water they wanted for the night, she washed around down inside in her tail and dumped it out. She laid it out on the barrier bushes beside where she cuddled up with Duncan for the night. She also slept lightly, expecting trouble from Fred.
Thankfully Fred nor anything else bothered them. She heard Randy get up . He stopped just beyond the camp and cried, "It's gone!"
Jackie perked up. "What's gone?" she asked as she got up.
Randy pointed. "The life raft, it's gone!"
Jackie walked out by him. The life raft was nowhere to be seen.
"Think the tide came and washed it away?" Randy asked.
Jackie walked closer to where it was. "No, see, there's the drag marks where we brought it up, and where someone dragged it back to the water." She looked back at the camp. She knew Duncan was lying down, and she could see Wanda. "The only one missing is Fred."
"Why would he do that?" Randy asked.
"Because he wants us stranded. I pissed him off, so he wants revenge." Jackie said as she scanned the horizon. "He couldn't take the fact he's not the top dog."
"How's he moving it? I mean when we came here, it was all of us paddling, and we weren't going very fast then." Randy told her.
"True," Jackie said. "If you remember, we headed straight for this island, but had to keep turning to the right. That means there is a current out there. If he got out far enough, the current would take him away."
"Mornin, what's up?" Duncan asked as he approached.
"Fred stole the raft. I think he got taken away by the current," Jackie said.
Duncan frowned a moment, then said, "Maybe that's best. At least you didn't have to kill him. I'm thinking we should move down closer to the stream. If you don't mind leftover shark, we got breakfast."
"Yay, cold shark," Jackie grumbled.
Once they finished the leftover shark they wanted, Randy and Wanda carried the coconut shells they wanted to keep on the now hard shark skin and carried them. Jackie had her tail over her shoulder, scanning the horizon as she walked just ahead of them with Duncan.
Walking behind Jackie and carrying the front of the shark-rawhide, Randy noticed without her tail on, Jackie only had panties and the bottom of her shirt only covered the top of her butt. He walked along, watching her butt cheeks move with her steps. Yeah, this was nice.
"Are you thinking a plasma flare if we see someone?" Duncan asked.
"That, and big sign on the beach for a plane or satellite to see," Jackie replied.
"Yes, do that. We'll look for a decent place to camp near this stream," he agreed.
They got to the stream. Duncan had Randy and Wanda set the shark skin down and follow him upstream. Jackie set her tail down and eyed a palm tree bending towards the beach. She shot one leaning towards the water with her plasma canon. It fell, the raw end and the stump burned. OK, so she had to be careful, but it worked.
The tree was as long as the beach. She cut it in half, then used the halves to for the upright for the letter 'H' She cut the top off and dragged it to the side. Another tree she cut down, had a big coconut crab it it. He wasn't happy, backing away as he held his huge front claw and his smaller claw up. She finished her 'H' and had enough trunk to do a couple short lengths for the 'E'.
Working at making the word HELP out of trunks, she noted besides cutting through trunks, she was making glass in the sand. It was cloudy, but it was hard glass. Hmm, this could be useful. Once she had HELP spelled out on the beach, she worked more at making glass. A simple blast into th sand, and when it cooled, she had a glass plate that was thicker in the middle. Some careful trimming and she got a circular glass plate. Panning her plasma shot over the sand made a longer glass form.
She experimented with making glass, and found it did melt. She was able to stand the rough sword shapes on end to smooth out the edges to make glass poles. She found that if she was very careful, she could even weld glass pieces together.
The coconut crab was coming back. He was big. The body on that thing had to be two feet long, and wide. He had long legs and that front claw was the size of both her she moved closer, it stopped and raised up it's claws at her. Hmm, she wondered how one of these would taste. Most crab meat was in the legs.
Carefully, Jackie aimed a it's eyes and right down it's body. She used a small plasma shot. The crab exploded. The sides and legs fell to the side, along with those meaty looking claws. Yes, lunch!
.
Walking along carefully following the stream, Duncan found the land rose up. They came to a small waterfall coming down a steep bank. At the top was a large pool on fairly flat land. The area near the pool was also thick with trees and plants.
"What do you think? It's a good spot once we get it cleared, and not that far from the beach," Duncan said.
Randy asked, "We got anything to cut with?"
"We are going to need a knife, axe ... something," Wanda said.
"We are," Duncan agreed. "Let's go back down. Watch your step."
Going back, Wanda lead. She was careful and stepped slowly, scrutinizing the ground in front of her. It was only a hundred yards or so off the beach, but it took them a while to return. Duncan also noticed smoke from a fire burning.
They finally made the beach to see Jackie sitting on a glass stool watching a glass bowl with water in it, heating up over a fire. As they got closer, they saw halves of a coconut crab beside her.
"What's that?" Wanda asked, eyeing the stool.
Jackie beamed at them and said, "Lunch! I got a coconut crab. The was easier than fishing."
Duncan noted the big 'HELP' sign laid out on the beach in the sand. "What are you sitting on?" he asked.
"A stool I made," Jackie said with a grin. "I found shooting plasma into the sand makes glass. I messed around found I can heat it enough to bend it and I made a bowl, but the glass has to heat up slow or it will crack and break. I also found I can make simple things to sit on, like this stool. I thought you'd be gone longer, or else I'd have made more."
Randy came over and eyed the bowl. "That's great Jackie! Can you clear some land too?"
"It's think it might catch fire," Duncan said.
"Then I'll make some glass tools we can use," Jackie assured him. "As well as the knife I form." Looking at the bowl, she saw bubbles rising up. She lifted half the crab in the water. She then pointed over by the shark skin. "I also made some glass globes. Once the crab is done, you can crack the shell open with those and the glass plate over here."
"Very well done, Jackie," Duncan praised. I can see some useful things you can make."
"I was thinking a glass boat," Jackie replied. "Something to get us off this island."
Duncan winced. "I'd be afraid of meeting a storm with something like that. How about a wooden boat? Those don't break from impact. They also float better."
"Or maybe a raft?" Randy said.
"How will we know which way to go?" Wanda asked.
Duncan shrugged. "Be like the mariners of old. You know the sun comes up in the east and sets in the west. At night, we go by the North star. It's not GPS accurate, but you can get to continents that way."
"And off this island," Randy agreed.
"Yes, off the island and back to civilization is our objective," Jackie agreed.
.
John Henry was looking, Cameron was also. Delilah tried to piece together the best possible scenarios after that plane had made their last contact. The report was that the fuel system had 'failed', so the readout read read full, when in fact the plane didn't have enough fuel for the trip. The flight engineer had found the problem, and instead of all tanks full, when he rebooted the system, they were all but empty. The pilot claimed an emergency and turned back for Hawaii. His last transmission was they were performing a water landing and gave coordinates.
Rescue craft and any craft in the area turned to go look for the plane, but all that was found was small debris on the water. The conclusion was that Jackie's plane disintegrated on impact, and there were no survivors.
Possibility one - the report was accurate and broken apart, the plane sunk with everyone on board.
Possibility two - The coordinates were wrong, the plane stayed aloft long enough to leave the area and the search parties were looking in the wrong place.
Delilah knew Jackie was paranoid about crashing in a plane again. Jackie had told Delilah since the flights were over water, she was taking her mermaid tail with her as carry on. Delilah also knew Jackie would not sit patiently in the crash position, waiting to hit the water and go blub, blub, blub to the bottom. As soon as she knew there was danger, Jackie would be looking for an escape route.
Delilah did get a call from Victoria, telling her of the crash. Delilah asked, "Vicky, do remember the last time Jackie was in a plane crash?"
"Yes, the report was she died, but later she was found alive."
"Then don't go believing Jackie is dead this time," Delilah said firmly. "Yes, the plane crashed over the middle of the pacific. Jackie also took her mermaid tail with her as a carry on, just in case. She tore a hole in the first plane that crashed so she didn't die with everyone else. What makes you think she didn't do the same this time? If that plane is found I will bet you anything there's a big hole in the side of it where she ripped her way out. We may not see her for a while, but don't any of you give up on her!"
"Yes, you're right." Vicky said. "Jackie is very resilient. Is there anything we can do to help?"
"John Henry is searching, we believe the initial coordinates for where the plane went down are wrong. He's extending the track of the projected flight path, and backtracking, looking for signs. For the moment, that is all anyone can do."
"It's just, we've been having the most terrible luck!" Vicky said with a sniffle.
"It's not all luck," Delilah stated. "Jackie has been targeted before, as have many of our family. Come on, this is the third plane Jackie was a listed passenger on that happened to crash? That's not bad luck. That's someone targeting her. We are still collecting data, but when we find enough I am sure we will find a common thread, and who is responsible."
"That's horrible!"
"That's life," Delilah stated. "But hey, From what Jackie told me, she did have a fun time in Australia. We'll find out more when she turns up. OK?"
.
John Henry scrutinized the ocean and finally found something. A floating body being attacked by sharks. the arms were gone, but he did see it had a flight attendant's uniform on it. He marked the position and tracked the ocean current back to a week ago when the plane went down. He'd found within a 95% chance this was where the plane crashed. 40 miles away from the floating body, he also found a bright orange raft with a single person laid out on the bottom. He contacted rescue and gave them the coordinates where the raft was. He highly suspected this was a survivor of that crash.
.
Fred was barely conscious when the float plane pulled up to his raft and dragged him aboard. He was so happy to see someone, he cried. Very weak dehydrated and burned from the sun, he did say he was on that plane when it crashed. Getting hydrated by medical personnel and having his burns looked after, he said he didn't remember how he got out of the plane, only that he'd found an empty life raft and got in it. When asked if he knew of any others who survived, he shook his head. "No, I didn't see anyone else alive."
.