Survivors (Stranded) Read Online Free PDF Page A

out.”
    He picked up the wrench and fitted it to the first bolt. It was stiff and took some effort, but soon it loosened right up. He was able to finish taking it out with just his fingers.
    The same was true on the second one.
    With the bolts removed, there was still the matter of prying the big steel disc out of its place in the floor. Carter, Vanessa, and Jane gathered around, and they all crammed their fingers into the small space the bolts had left behind.
    “Ready?” Carter said. “One, two, three—”
    Buzz heaved along with the others. The cover was snugly fitted. It seemed to have formed a seal over the hole, or whatever was down there. It took several tries before it came up even a fraction of an inch.
    “Again!” Buzz said. “It’s coming!”
    They all lifted again. With a scrape of metal and the sound of sucking air, the cover finally came free. They shuffled it to the side, then let it drop onto the deck with a huge clang.
    The next thing Buzz noticed was the smell. A harsh chemical odor poured up and out of the dark space beneath the floor.
    Jane gagged. “What is that?” she asked.
    “Oh, man!” Carter said, backing up. “Did we just open a sewer?”
    “I don’t think so,” Buzz said. He lifted the collar of his T-shirt over his mouth and nose before he looked down inside.
    Just below floor level, he could see the top of a ladder built into the side of whatever tank they’d just opened. An old stained rope was tied to the top rung and extended down into the darkness. For about the hundredth time in the last week, Buzz wished for a flashlight.
    Instead, he reached down and grabbed hold of the rope. It was greasy and also sticky in his hands as he started to pull.
    “Buzz? What are you doing?” Vanessa asked.
    There was some resistance on the line at first. Then it gave way all at once. A bucket appeared out of the black, hanging on the end of the rope. He could see it was filled with a thick, dark liquid of some kind.
    Buzz’s pulse quickened, thinking about what this might be. The others all stepped back while he lifted the full bucket up and out of the hole.
    “What is it?” Jane asked.
    “I think it’s fuel,” Buzz replied.
    “Fuel?” Carter asked. “Like, gas?”
    Buzz shrugged. He didn’t know what these boats ran on. All he knew was that they’d just found something that
might
make life around camp easier. Which, in a place like this, was like striking gold.
    Or maybe more like oil.

CHAPTER 5

    F or the rest of the afternoon, everyone kept busy, exploring their new home and bringing any useful items up onto the main deck. Jane catalogued it all in her journal, and everyone set to making what they could out of what they’d found.
    Now, as the sun dipped to the west, Vanessa stood on the rocks at the mouth of the cove, dangling her homemade fishing pole in the water.
    The pole wasn’t much—a willowy branch from the woods, a piece of the plastic line Carter had found, and a wire she’d sharpened against the rocks to make a hook. With a snail for bait, she felt ready to catch some dinner.
    Or more like desperate for it.
    Up to now, Jane had proven herself to be the brain of the group. Buzz was the one who knew the most about survival, and Carter was the muscle. All Vanessa knew about herself anymore was that she was the oldest. It didn’t seem to be adding up to much lately.
    Nobody had said whether or not they wanted her to be the group leader anymore. Not since she’d run off that morning, before everything had gone so wrong.
    And maybe that was for the best, Vanessa thought. Maybe they didn’t need a leader anymore. What they needed right now was fish.
    Back at the ship, she could see Buzz, busily working on the campfire. He’d brought up several bucketloads of sand to make a big fire pit right there on the ship’s steel deck, surrounded by a ring of flat stones from the beach. It hadn’t taken him long after that to find a broken glass bottle he could use to