(Thisismy firs attempt at action. Just a little something different from all the romance stories out there! P.S, I know nothing about boats except that they float!)

ABANDON SHIP!

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Three Hours Later

.

Arnold made his way up to the top deck of the boat. Up there the kids were listening and dancing to music, and some of the girls were sunbathing. He walked over to the stereo and switched it off.

"Hey, what's the big idea?" Sid demanded.

"Something's wrong, guys," he said loudly.

"Yeah, you turned off the music!" Park called out.

"No, I mean really wrong," he repeated. "The island is only a half hour ride."

"So?" Rhonda demanded.

"So, we've been sailing for three hours," Arnold informed them.

Everyone looked around at everyone else.

"Are you sure?" Lorenzo asked. Arnold nodded. "Maybe we should talk to the captain?"

"I already tried, he just told me to relax," Arnold told him. "Guys, as we were taking off there were police heading towards the dock."

"What's your point?" Sid asked. Arnold looked at him, and could see that, despite the bravado, he was starting to worry himself.

"My point is, I don't think the captain is sailing this ship, and I don't think we're heading for the island," Arnold said. "If anything, I'd say we're heading out to sea."

…..

Helga went in search of the toilet. Nature called, and she'd held on long enough. Gerald again had gone to try to talk to the captain, Arnold had gone upstairs to talk to the kids up there, and she had decided to use the powder room, so to speak. The boat hit a wave and she lost her balance, landing against a wall.

"Criminy!" she yelled. "Where'd he get his licence to drive a boat? The cereal box?"

THUMP!

Helga looked around. What was that?

"Hello?" she called.

"THUMP THUMP!

She followed the noise to a door in the hallway. She knocked on it and called out hello.

THUMP THUMP THUMP!

Steeling herself she pulled the door open and gasped in shock.

There was the captain and his helper.

Tied up, and badly beaten, but alive.

But if they were here?

Who was steering the boat?

…

"Hey guys," Helga said, gaining everyone's attention. Everyone turned to see Helga standing next to two beaten up guys. "This is the captain and his second. We've been hijacked."

"We're all gonna die!" Sid screamed. He fell to his knees, then his head hit the deck and he curled himself into a ball. "Not again!"

"What do you mean, we've been hijacked?" Rhonda demanded, storming over.

"I mean, Princess, that those cops we saw were after some criminals. Who are currently steering this boat!" Helga informed her.

"I need to get you kids off here," the captain said, looking around. "But we're too far out."

Silence fell over the crowd as the realisation of their predicament sunk in.

They were at sea.

With dangerous criminals.

No way to contact anyone.

"And those clouds a really concerning me."

…..

"Any news?" Miles asked. The man behind the desk shook his head.

"They haven't been spotted yet," he said. "They're calling off the search in any case."

"What? Why?" Bob demanded.

"Bad weather," he said. "It's not safe."

"So you have a hijacked ship out there, with a bunch of Junior High School kids, with deranged killers on board, and your going to stop?" Bob asked, his voice raising. A few of the parents and teachers who were gathered there added their voices and concerns to the mix. Miles had to hand it to the Pataki family. When they got outraged, they formed a mob faster than a human could blink.

"We can't risk losing more people at sea," he told them.

"Our children are lost at sea?" a woman's shrill voice could be heard.

…

The ride was starting to get really bumpy. The clouds had rolled in and were getting darker and darker.

"How many kids do we have?" Captain Stein asked.

"Lorenzo, Sid, Rhonda, Nadine, Helga, Gerald, me, Stinky, Curly, and Sheena," Arnold told him. "The rest were left behind."

"I want all of you to stay here, you hear me?" he told them. "I'm leaving Stewart with you. You listen to him. No matter what you hear, don't come looking for me."

He turned to Stewart.

"Get the lifeboat ready, and get lifejackets on these kids. Get them off this boat if you have to."

Stewart nodded, then went to a cupboard and started handing out lifejackets.

"Ugh, orange!" Rhonda cried. "I don't do orange." She stuck her nose in the air and held it out in front of her.

"Do you do blue?" Stewart asked.

"I can do blue, why?" she asked.

"Because that's the colour you'll be when you drown," he snapped. "Put the damn thing on."

"Well I never," she said.

"You drown, and you never will again."

Stewart continued handing them out and helping the kids get them on. Then he took them to the side of the boat and uncovered the two emergency rafts.

"Oh, god," Rhonda groaned. "We're going to die."

Looking out at the sea, Arnold wouldn't deny he was currently having the same thoughts. It was really bad. And just got worse. Cold, hard rain suddenly poured down on them.

"Arrh!" Rhonda cried, trying to take cover.

BANG!

"Oh my God, that was a gun!" Sid cried out. Panic set in.

"In the rafts, now!" Stewart shouted. Everyone tried piling in at once. Then screamed as a shot rang out and Stewart suddenly fell into the water without a sound.

"Hey, look, Lucas, we got ourselves some kidlets!" the big guy said, stalking toward them. Arnold and Helga looked back at the others who were in the raft. Arnold leaped forward and released the raft everyone was in. it dropped into the water, and the man with the gun shot at him. Helga grabbed a bit of pulley lying on the floor and threw it, hitting the man in the knee.

"What's going on?" a man who must have been Lucas asked. Arnold and Helga took the chance to jump overboard.

…

They didn't let go of each others hands, and when they made it to the surface, they looked around, fighting from sinking beneath the waves. Thank God for the lifejackets!

"Where are they?" Helga asked, wrapping her arms around Arnoldas best she could. She felt his arms wrap around her. Damn it, why did she have to wear jeans? She should have worn pants.

"Arnold! Helga!" they heard Gerald's voice calling.

Arnold pulled the whistle attached to his lifejacket out and blew into it

Arnold felt something solid bump into his head.

"Arnold? Are you alright man?" Gerald asked, grabbing his hands and pulling him in. Curly grabbed Helga's and pulled her in. They were absolutely soaked.

"Yeah, we're alright," Arnold said, looking at Helga who just nodded and shivered. "Let's make some shelter to keep the rain off."

Arnold, Gerald, and the boys worked the raft cover into a kind of tent to keep the rain off them. All ten huddled together under it.

"Do you think there's sharks in there?" Rhonda asked. Helga shuddered, and not from the cold. Sharks. And she was just in there!

Scary.

"Too cold, I think," Arnold said, squeezing Helga's arm reassuringly. Helga gave him a smile, and he smiled back and Rhonda suddenly felt jealous. How come Helga had someone and something so wonderful and she didn't? she was prettier, richer, more popular, much more fashionable and friendly. And yet, there she was, single, while Helga had someone to lovingly wrap their arms around her to keep her warm.

"It's not fair," Rhonda muttered under her breath.

"Never fear, my sweetness and cream, Curly is here to protect you," he said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

"Ugh! Get away from me!" she yelled pushing him away.

"Rhonda, be careful!" Park yelled angrily. "You almost pushed me in!"

"It's his fault!" she yelled back. "If he weren't such a creep-"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Sid yelled, covering his ears.

Everyone was quiet.

Suddenly Sheena spoke quietly.

"No one knows where we are."

….

"How bad are these guys?" Rhonda's mother asked.

"One of them was in for assault, rape, robbery and attempted murder, the other murder and assault," Bob told them.

"Oh, no, the girls!" Sheena's mother cried out. She leaned into her husband and cried. "Our girls, what if one of them-"

"Shhh, nothing is going to happen," he told her. "Those kids are tough. They'll survive."

…

"Land!" Nadine's voice rang out. Everyone looked out of the cover. It was still raining pretty hard. They bumped into the shore and heard the sand against the base of the raft. The boys quickly got out and started to pull it further onto shore.

"Do you think the tide is in or out?" Lorenzo asked.

"Let's assume it's out," Stinky said, "And get this as close to those trees as we can!"

The girls hopped out and followed the boys.

"What's the time?" Arnold asked Lorenzo. He looked at his watch.

"Quarter to five," he said.

"Are you sure?" he asked. Lorenzo nodded.

They had gotten onboard at nine thirty, overboard by twelve thirty, quarter to one, and in the raft since. His stomach grumbled. Now he knew why.

"We need to build shelter," Arnold said. "Let's go."

Rhonda found some shade from the rain and plopped herself down. What a miserable day. First they were hijacked, then she had gotten all wet, watched a man die, spent hours on a raft with nine other people, and now she was stuck on some stupid beach with only trees for shelter! She hadn't even had time to grab her bag and stereo. So she had no hair dryer, or towels, or change of clothes. Only her bathing suit and sarong.

"This. Is. The worst. Day. Of. My. Life!" she said, pouting.

"Well, it's about to get worse," Helga snapped. "Get up and help us find some firewood, while the guys build some shade."

"And how do they intend to start a fire without matches?" she asked sharply. "Rub two sticks together?"

"Sid's a smoker, he had a lighter," Helga told her. "It's in a little waterproof carrier thing. "Just in case" or something."

She watched Helga walk away a bit, before stopping and turning to glare at her.

"Well? Hurry up!"

….

When the girls got back, the boys had used the raft cover to build a makeshift shelter.

"We can build a better one tomorrow when we have more time," Arnold told them.

They had used some big branches and tied the cover to it. They were as close to the trees as they could get.

"I come with food!" Curly said. Every turned and their jaws dropped. He had indeed. Somehow he had managed to catch fish!

"Curly, how-"

"Caught in the rock pools," he said, smiling and dropping them down on the ground.

"How are we going to prepare them?" Rhonda asked.

…..