Free Sea (A Stranded Novel) by Theresa Shaver

loudly.
    Lisa’s head whipped towards her and she had panic on her face. “Oh God, are you going to hurl?”
    Emily lay frozen; she just couldn’t take being sick again. After a few minutes, she turned her head towards Lisa and slowly smiled. “I think…I’m hungry. And judging by the smell I think that someone is cooking pancakes. Do you want to get up?”
    Lisa’s concerned face changed to one of relief and she smiled while nodding her head. “Oh yeah, let’s go. I swear if breakfast stays down I’m going to lay on the deck and suntan all day long.”
    The girls cautiously got up and got dressed. When Lisa held the door open for Emily , she marveled that it had taken a pukefest to get them past their animosity towards each other. Tim was in the kitchen using the small propane stove and he was expertly flipping pancakes onto a growing stack. When he saw the girls come out of the bedroom, his face blossomed with relief.
    “Ladies, you both look so much better! I hope your appetites have returned. You both need to make up the calories that you lost the past few days. I found a huge bag of just add water pancake mix so fill your plates. We don’t have any butter or maple syrup but we have jam and peanut butter so they’ll still be good.”
    The girls grabbed plates and helped themselves from the stack. They sat at the dining table and smeared their pancakes with the breakfast condiments waiting there. Emily made a sandwich with hers and happily munched her way through her plate. When she had finished she let out an uncontrollable yawn. “This is crazy. I could go right back to sleep,” she muttered.
    Lisa added her own yawn. Emily realized that the medication was taking effect and they were feeling the side effects.
    “So the upside is we won’t be throwing up constantly but the downside is all we’ll want to do is sleep. Can’t seem to win this one,” she told Lisa.
    “I can live with that. I have no problem napping while working on my tan. It’s not like we have a lot to do for the next couple of weeks. It’s probably a good thing if you think about it. You said when we land that we’ll have to walk the rest of the way home , so we should rest up while we can, right?” Lisa asked.
    “That is true. We are so lucky Tim’s helping us. Where do you think Alex and others are? I can’t even imagine how bad it must be for them right now. I wonder if they found bikes or a ride. It’s been what? Five days since it happened. How far do you think they’ve gotten?” Emily wondered with a frown.
    Tim sat down at the table with them and started to fix his pancakes. “Who are you talking about, Emily?” he asked while rolling up his jam-filled pancake.
    “There were ten of us that decided to get out of the city that day. Our teacher told us what she thought had happened and encouraged us to try and get out of the city. My best friend Alex and some of the others wanted to go overland. But Mason convinced us that finding a boat out would be a better idea. We split up and went our different ways ,” she told him sadly.
    Tim seemed to consider this . “Well, if they made it out of the city, they would have a very hard road ahead of them. They would have to get over the mountains first and then they’d have to cross the desert.” He shook his head. “I don’t think anyone could make that trip on foot. Even if they had bikes it would be next to impossible. Sorry, Emily.”
    David had come down from the deck while Tim was talking. He was shaking his head with a fierce expression. “You don’t know my friends. Quinn and Josh will make it happen and Alex doesn’t know the meaning of quit. I believe a hundred percent that they will make it. I have no doubt ,” he said with confidence.
    Tim waved David towards the stack of waiting pancakes and waited while he fixed his plate before speaking. “You’re right. I don’t know your friends and if they’re as smart as you guys, they probably have a pretty good