Terra Incognita

• Robin De Garis, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2009

With a sound like the roaring thunder, I was woken from my sleep. The whole boat rocked and I could tell that this wasn’t just turbulence. I looked around and saw that everyone in the room was awake, eyes open. I clambered manically out of bed. As I ran over to the stairs I could see the crew up on deck in a frenzy. Water started seeping through the floor and I knew immediately what I needed to do. “Out!” I yelled “Everyone hurry-up! Get on deck!” By now, everyone was wide awake and had started running. I panicked, grabbing my gear. “German Sub, off the port bow” I heard a sailor yelling, “Torpedo, direct hit on the port side, we need to evacuate”. Everyone scrambled for the lifeboats. I managed to find a boat with three other guys in it. We pushed off from the ship and saw other lifeboats all going in different directions. We were slowly pushed away from the boat and we saw it sink gradually into the water. We all introduced ourselves, and then I tried to get some sleep.

I woke up to the splashing of the waves hitting the rough wooden hull of the boat.. I had a dull headache, and I was sure this had to be a bad dream. I was feeling worse as every second passed. I looked around and I could see Jesse and Amir sleeping and Cody watching the waves. I could already see signs of their dehydration. We were saving our limited supplies. I felt horrible. Luck proved to be with us, because when I went and checked our supplies, we had all the essentials, along with many other useful things. We even had a tent, which provided us with shelter from the burning sun. Just then a particularly powerful wave hit the boat, and I felt sick. I leaned over the side and vomited... I felt better but I was very hot, and I was sweating. I took a swig of water from a canteen, and then splashed my face with salt water. I lay back watched the fish, and thought of home.

A few hours later, things seemed to be getting worse, and I was starting to despair. Then I saw something up in the distance, a small speck. Amazed, I woke up Amir and yelled, “Land!” Everyone was instantly alert. Sure enough, the speck got closer and closer until we could see the island properly. In the centre, we could see a volcano stretching up high until it was too high to see. I hoped that it was dormant. Our boat beached itself, and we began to get out and unload the equipment. I sighed. Something inside me said it was going to be a long, tough time.