Dr. Franklin's Island Read Online Free

she’d moved into the pockets of her combats when the plane was in trouble), assisted by various stones and sticks, to break into them. It had not been easy. There had been a lot of trial-and-error bashing, dropping rocks on coconuts from a height, prizing and thumping and general frustrated hammering. But we had triumphed.
    We had water, we had food, we had shelter from the sun. We had washed ourselves and our clothes free of salt, which might not sound important, but feeling fresh and cool made a huge difference to my ability to cope. For the moment, we had the illusion that we were doing well, and this was a thrilling adventure that would soon be over.
    “
Now
we should start walking,” said Arnie, pointing to the northern headland with a piece of coconut shell. “That way looks nearer. It can’t be more than two or three miles.”
    Miranda shook her head stubbornly. “There are other priorities. We need shelter for tonight. We need to get a signal fire going. We should start work straightaway.”
    “Knock it off. If I was in a life raft, I’d take orders from the captain, or whoever. But why do I have to take orders from you?”
    “You don’t, Arnie. But I’m the one who found us fresh water and food, so maybe you should think about taking my advice. Look,” she added, in a peacemaking tone, “the tide’s gone out a long way. Let’s see if we can get to the wreckage. We might find some useful stuff. If we had a water container, that would be a good start.”
    Arnie groaned. “Okay. I’ll buy it. Find me my shoes, Wonder Girl. I left them under my seat.”
    It was afternoon. The sun was going to disappear quite soon, behind the headland at the end of our bay. There was a breeze and it was a beautiful, warm, comfortable temperature. As we walked down to the sea together, I had the illusion—again—that everything was going to be all right. None of us mentioned the idea, but I think we were all convinced that we’d get to the reef, and then we’d see the life rafts, and they’d see us. They’d pick us up. We’d be with everybody else. Soon we’d be safe. In a day or two we’d be settling into that rain-forest compound with the environmental scientists, and everything would be back to normal.
    When something terrifically terrible happens to you, I think your brain
doesn’t get it,
for quite a while. You go on trying to see the world the way it was, even when common sense should tell you that everything has changed forever.
    The tide had gone out a very long way, uncovering a strip of flat coral rock that stretched across the lagoon like a causeway. It was painfully rough underfoot, like walking on a giant petrified pan scrubber. I said we could take turns with my sandals, but Miranda said no, I was having enough trouble with my bad knee. She and Arnie managed barefoot. Quite soon we started seeing things from the plane. We came across a rucksack, wedged in among the coral. It was fastened up, but it seemed to have been invaded by some weird fluffy white sea creature that was trying to get out.
    “What’s
that
?” said Arnie, poking it.
    Miranda and I took a second look, and started to giggle. “It’s tampons,” I said. “Expanding widthways when wet—”
    “Yecch!” Arnie jumped up and kicked the bag away—
    “Don’t do that,” said Miranda. “Pull it out. Anything could be useful.”
    So we pulled it out, and threw away the tampons. There was a name on the inside of the top flap, scrolled and decorated in purple ink.
    Sophie Merrit. Which was Sophie Merrit?
I wondered. Maybe it was my owl girl—
    Then it hit me. From the looks on their faces, Arnie and Miranda had felt the same shock. We stared at each other, no one wanting to say what we were thinking.
    “Leave it here,” said Miranda. “We’ll pick it up on the way back.”
    We went on, in dead silence.
    Sophie Merrit’s in one of the life rafts,
I told myself.
They’re all in the life rafts.
But my mind kept showing me