Stranded! Read Online Free PDF Page B

pig, a wild boar is deadly with its tusk-like upper and lower teeth. This animal stood on all four at a height of four feet and Marshall approximated its weight to be about 200lbs.

"YAH!!!" He screamed, as he waved his hands in the air trying to catch the attention of the wild animal. Oceans looked up at him and saw the creature too. It was between them by several yards. Instead of standing still as he would have liked her to do, she took off in the opposite direction. Between the waving man and the fleeing woman, the wild boar saw Oceans as more prey and like any predator went after her.

Marshall picked up Ocean's walking stick as he went sprinting towards the animal. Forgetting about his injured foot, he screamed and made as much of a ruckus as he could. But the animal had been closer to her than it had been to him and he was amazed at how quickly the hulking animal moved. He'd always associated over-sized animals like that as fat and slow. He was very wrong! Oceans sprinted and looked behind her, panicking when she saw that she hadn't left it behind.

Marshall's heart thudded in his chest as he prayed that she wouldn't fall. "Oceans get into the water! Run to the water!" Oceans suddenly veered and began sprinting to the water. He prayed that the thing couldn't swim and even if it could, he'd seen Oceans swim and he didn't think it could catch up. As he suspected, the animal came to a halt at the water's edge.

Marshall came to a halt as well. He wanted to kill it! He hated the thing. But a walking stick that didn't even have a point to it was no weapon against a 200lb animal of that magnitude. As these thoughts went through his mind, the animal turned to look at him. Marshall strolled to the ocean as the animal charged at him. He was neck deep in water before the huffing animal stopped. It stamped the ground for a few moments and then headed slowly back towards the forest. As soon as it disappeared, Ocean's swam to the beach and dropped on the wet sand. He hurried out of the water himself. She was crying.

"Oh, Oceans!" He came to his knees and gathered her in his arms while she trembled and sobbed. "It's gone, honey. It's going to be ok."

"It knows we're here." He didn't answer. "It will come back." She cried. He just stroked her wet, sandy hair.

***

Neither of them had an easy time sleeping. So Marshall told her he'd keep watch and then when he got very tired he'd let her take over. He was proud that she trusted him enough to drop off to sleep as easily as she did. But he only knew one thing that they could do if the animal came back, and that was to rouse Oceans and run for the water.

Being at the mercy of the large animal ate at his mind mercilessly. While he stood watch as the night grew cooler, Marshall began forging weapons from the scrap metal.

When Oceans awoke at the crack of dawn, Marshall had a neat row of weapons situated on the sand. He'd fashioned several spears with heavy pieces of twisted, sharp metal that they hadn't previously found a use for. He'd also made huge torches which surrounded the campsite that would be ready to be lit each night. Ingeniously, he had used bits of the fiberglass to keep the torches from burning up. Marshall was staring into the distance as if he were mesmerized.

"Marshall?" He blinked and looked at her. He was exhausted. "Why didn't you wake me?"

"I wanted to finish this." He gestured to the items. Then he climbed to his feet and stumbled back into the little hut. "I need to sleep." He murmured and then he lay down on his side. She watched him, worried. He closed his eyes and didn't reopen them and soon he was snoring deeply.

Some hours later when he awoke, Oceans wanted to walk back to the old campsite to see if anything good had washed ashore. Marshall wasn't chatting idly as he usually did and she noticed dark circles under his eyes.

"Are you okay?"

He offered her a thin smile that didn't reach his eyes. "I'm fine. I'm just thinking." She didn't keep probing him.