Free The Hike by Drew Magary Page B

against the hard glass and felt it shatter from the force of impact. Now he was falling out of the bridge tower, the broken glass shredding his skin, and he slammed hard against the fiberglass shell covering the twin propellers as they blew the hovercraft up and way.
    Now came the
really
mean part, because gravity was asserting itself once more, and the craft started to flatten back out. And in 3, 2, 1 . . . BOOM. It splashed back down in the ocean like a humpback whale, displacing thousands of gallons of seawater and throwing Ben to the deck. Before he could recover, the acceleration kicked in and he was thrown back and to the side and then, finally, overboard.
    Ah, but the rope. There was a frayed end of rope hanging off to the side, cut loose from the dock thanks to Crab’s diligent work. Somehow, Ben found the rope in the dark. He clung to it as the hovercraftpicked up speed and jetted out into the great wide blue. It was at cruising speed now, and Ben felt his feet dragging along the surface of the ocean, the water pounding away at him as he biffed and bashed into the rubber skirt of the craft. He wasn’t going to be able to hold on much longer. He called out for Crab, not knowing where he was, or if he was even still aboard.
    â€œCRAB!”
    Crab peeked over the edge of the main deck. “What?”
    â€œCut the engine!”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œJust cut the engine!”
    Crab scurried back to the cockpit, but he was too small to push down the throttle or turn the key. Under the console was a series of connecting wires, so he found a wire under the ignition and gave it a good, hard pinch.
    The mighty roar of the propellers and the engine died down, and the rope finally slackened in Ben’s raw hands. His feet were dipping into the calm waters now as he swung forward and found himself dangling straight down the side of the craft. He began to scale the rope, drawing from a reserve of energy he never knew he had until this moment. It would cost him his last ounce of strength. Cost him everything, really. Dying here would have been just as fine as dying later on, but still he pushed on, pulling himself upward and feeling the sting of the wet and salty rope as it dug deeper into his wounded hand. This would be the last time he’d be able to use his hands for a while.
    He pulled himself back on board and flopped across the deck like a reeled-in marlin. Nothing but furious breathing for a good long time. After a while, he felt a tickling on his belly. In the moonlight, he could see the outline of Crab.
    â€œThank you,” he said to Crab.
    â€œI think I broke the boat.”
    When Crab moved out of the way, Ben noticed the moon. Well, one of them at least. There were two of them in the sky now.
    Two moons.

CHAPTER ELEVEN
NIGHT ON THE OCEAN
    â€œY ou need to get up,” said Crab.
    â€œI can’t,” Ben said. He was all wet and bloody. Breathing was the only thing that didn’t hurt right now. “I can’t move.”
    â€œGet your ass up. We’re drifting off the path.”
    That got Ben back on his feet in a hurry. Sure enough, he could see the hovercraft was floating off course, with one of the lines of glowing algae running straight underneath the ship and at an odd angle. If they drifted completely out of bounds, a sperm whale was probably going to come and swallow them whole. He raced back up to the cockpit and turned the key. Nothing.
    â€œIt won’t turn on.”
    â€œI told you,” Crab said. “I broke the damn thing. I clipped the wire.”
    â€œWhich one?”
    â€œI don’t know. The right one.”
    Ben looked underneath the console and found a frayed end. He frantically searched for a matching wire as the craft drifted farther to the . . . Christ, what direction was it?
    Finally, he lucked out and found the match. He sparked the twowires together and the resulting shock offered his hands one final, painful