Back on Solid Ground (8 page)

“What do you
think?” she said.

“I think that
you
think
you do,” he said, ducking under a vine. 

“I think I
can outshoot you drunk and blindfolded,” Stacy boasted.

“Well, you’re
half-way there,” he said, turning to look at her. “All you need is the
blindfold.”

Something
moved just above Eli’s head and Stacy stopped cold. “Get on your knees, Eli,”
she told him. 

“What?” he
said.

“Get on your damn
knees
NOW
!” she repeated, raising the pistol and pointing it at Eli’s
head.

Eli dropped
to his knees and Stacy pulled the trigger.  The shot rang out through the
jungle and birds flew off in all directions. 

A huge snake
dropped out of the tree landing on Eli. “What the hell!” he yelled.  He jumped
up, frantically trying to undrape the snake from around his shoulders and
neck.  He threw the snake to the ground and it lay dead at his feet, half of its
head blown off. 

“Jesus
Christ!  You scared the shit out of me!” he yelled at Stacy.  Eli ran his hand
through his hair, wiping off the perspiration that was pouring down his
temples.  His heart was pounding through his shirt.

“For your
information, that snake was getting ready to bite you,” Stacy told him. “I
probably saved your life.” 

Eli sat down
and put his hand over his heart, as if he could will it to stop pounding.  “
Where
did you learn to shoot like that?” he asked.

“I’m from Texas,” she said, as if that explained it.

“So are
millions of other people,” he said sarcastically, “but they don’t go around
shooting snakes between the eyes.”

“It’s just
one of my many talents,” Stacy bragged.  She had enjoyed seeing him so scared. 
It served him right for cutting her hair.   “When you’re ready,” she said,
motioning towards the beach.

Niki, Carlos
and Jason were in the kitchen when they heard gunfire. 

“What the
hell was that?” said Jason, knowing full well what it was.

“That,” said
Niki, “was a gunshot.”  He walked across the kitchen and pressed the intercom. 
“Eli!”  No response.  “Eli!” Niki said louder.

“I’ll check
the girl’s room, you check Eli’s,” Carlos told Jason.  The two ran out of the
kitchen and up the stairs.  They met back in the hall.

“She’s not in
there,” said Carlos.

“Neither is
Eli,” said Jason.  “Shit!” he said, slamming his fist against the wall. 

Niki was at
the bottom of the stairs. “What?” he yelled up.

“They’re both
gone,” Carlos told him, running back downstairs with Jason right behind him.

The three men
took off out the door and looked around.  It sounded like the shot had come
from the jungle, south of the villa. 

“Carlos, you
take the beach.  Jason and I will take the jungle.  They’re probably heading
towards the boathouse.  I saw her checking it out when she was on the dock,”
Niki said.

Carlos headed
towards the beach and Niki and Jason took off into the trees.  The canopy
overhead where they entered was dense, making the jungle dark and eerie.  

“Eli,” Niki
shouted, but his voice was lost in the trees. 
If anything happens to him
I’ll strangle that girl with my bare hands,
he thought.  As brothers
growing up, the two fought more than they didn’t, but all that changed one
afternoon when they were walking home from school.  Niki had taken a detour to
talk to a girl and, not wanting his brother tagging along, he had sent Eli
ahead.  But when Niki caught up with his brother, the neighborhood bully had
gotten to him first.  Eli was sprawled out on the sidewalk, unconscious, his
face beaten to a pulp.  There had been a dark awakening in Niki that day.  He
sought out the guy who had pounded his brother and he beat him to within an
inch of his life.  It was his first taste of self-dispensed justice, and it
tasted sweet.  Niki had sat beside Eli in his hospital bed for three days
afterwards as his brother recovered from broken ribs, a concussion, bruises and
lacerations.  And from that day on, Niki had never laid another hand on Eli.

Niki
continued calling to his brother as they made their way through the jungle,
stopping now and then to listen for any reply. 

“Don’t even
think of saying anything,” Stacy warned Eli when they heard Niki calling.  The
two had come out of the jungle and were walking up by the tree line.  They were
almost to the boathouse.   

“Stacy,” Eli
said, trying to reason with her, “why don’t you give this up before one of us
gets hurt?” 

“Behave and
that won’t happen,” she said.

“There’s no
place for us to go.”

“Of course
there is.  We’re going for a boat ride.” 

“I don’t even
have the key.  I couldn’t take you out on the boat if I wanted to.”

Stacy pulled
the key out of her pocket.  “That’s not a problem.”

Eli stopped
and turned around.  Stacy was dangling the key on her finger. “You
are
resourceful,
aren’t you?” he said, impressed.

“I have my
moments,” she said humbly.  “Now, move along.”

They came to
the door of the boathouse and Eli stopped short.  “Someone’s been in here,” he
said with alarm.  He pulled at the padlock and it came off in his hand.  It had
been cut with bolt cutters.  He turned around and repeated himself, “Someone
has been here.”

She didn’t
get the upshot of what he was telling her.  “So what?” she said, shrugging her
shoulders.

“So, we’re
the only ones on the island.  There’s not supposed to be anybody here,” he said,
spelling it out for her.

The words
sank in and Stacy got a bad feeling in her gut.  “The six of us are the only
people on the entire island?” she said, hoping she had heard him wrong. 
How
the hell could she escape if there was no one to run to! 

“Yeah,” he
said, sounding surprised that she didn’t know.  “But someone has tampered with
this lock,” he said, holding it up.  “Someone has been here,” he repeated.

Stacy was on
the verge of panicking.  She had assumed they could take the boat to some
island village and she could get help.  The fact that there was no one around
changed everything.  
We’ll just have to take the boat to the mainland,
wherever that is,
she thought
.

“Let’s go,”
she directed Eli inside.

The boathouse
was much bigger than it looked from the outside.  There were two boats inside,
a bright yellow cigarette boat and a small fishing boat with an outboard
motor.  She pointed towards the big boat and Eli untied the ropes that held it
in place.  He lifted the door so he could back the boat out and climbed in, and
Stacy climbed in after him. 

“We need to
push off and start it outside,” Eli said.

“Go for it,”
Stacy said, with more confidence than she felt.

Eli pushed
the boat out of the slot and into the sunshine. 

Meanwhile,
Niki and Jason were making their way through the jungle.

“Look, they
passed by here,” said Jason, pointing at a broken branch.  He and Niki looked
around.  They could see the trail the two had taken.  Eli had made obvious
breaks in the foliage where he had passed.  Evidently they had turned back
towards the beach. 

“Shit!” Niki
said, jumping back, colliding with Jason.    An enormous snake lay dead at
their feet.  Niki bent down and picked up the end that used to be its head. 
“Son-of-a-bitch!” he said, shaking his head.  “Look at this!” 

“Who’s got
the gun?” Jason asked, confused. 

Niki dropped
the snake and thought about it.  “It’s got to be the girl,” said Niki.  “Eli
can’t shoot like that.”

“And she
can?” Jason asked, horrified.

“I don’t
know.  Let’s get out of here,” he said, looking down at the snake. 

Carlos had
almost reached the boathouse, when Eli backed the boat out of the boat slip and
into the open.  The boat was sitting sideways to the shore and Carlos could see
the gun in Stacy’s hand pointed at Eli’s back.  Niki and Jason came out of the
jungle and caught up with Carlos.  The three stood on the beach assessing the
situation. 

“She’s got a
gun,” Carlos informed his friends.

“She’s got
my
gun,” Jason clarified.

Niki called
out, “Stacy, let Eli go.  I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”

“Shut up,
Niki!” Eli yelled back.  “Give me the keys,” he told Stacy, and she handed them
over to him. Eli was determined to keep his brother out of it.  He put the key
in the ignition, but nothing happened.  “It’s not starting,” he said, stating
the obvious.

“Well, fix
it!” she said, looking at the worried faces of the men on the beach. 

Eli went to
the back of the boat and Stacy shifted places, keeping the gun on him as he
moved. 

Niki was
frantic.  He couldn’t tell if Stacy had her finger on the trigger or not. 
“Don’t hold your finger on the trigger,” he yelled to her. 

Stacy turned
the gun towards Niki and fired a shot over his head.  Birds scattered from the
trees.  “Don’t tell me what to do!” she yelled back. 

Niki, Jason
and Carlos hit the sand, and Eli jumped out of his skin. “Damn it, Stacy! 
What’s the matter with you!” Eli exclaimed.

“Your brother
pisses me off.”

Eli got his
wits back and pulled the cover off the engine.  He got down on his knees to
examine the motor and froze.  “What the . . .” Eli jumped to his feet and
scrambled backwards right into Stacy, knocking her over and falling on top of
her. She was pushing him off and fumbling with the pistol when she realized
what Eli was shouting. 

“
There’s a
bomb in the engine
!”

“Oh,
brother,” Stacy said, getting back on her feet.  She walked to the engine and
peered over the motor cover.  Three sticks of dynamite were taped together and
there were wires going into a digital clock.  The timer must have started when
Eli put the key in the ignition and the seconds were ticking backward:  15 . .
.14 . . .

Stacy
screamed and ran towards the front of the boat.  Eli grabbed her by the arm and
dragged her up onto the bow and they ran to the side of the boat.

“Jump!” Eli
yelled, and they both jumped into the water.  They surfaced and started
swimming away from the boat as fast as they could, but Stacy was lagging
behind.  Eli grabbed her arm and dragged her as he powered through the water. 
He was counting to himself “
four, three, two . .
.”

“Go under!”
he yelled, dunking Stacy’s head.

The bomb went
off and the boat exploded into a million pieces.   Flaming chunks of the boat
were falling from the sky landing all around Eli and Stacy. 

Carlos, Niki
and Jason had watched the two jump from the boat, but had no idea what was
going on.  When the boat blew up, they were stunned.  Niki ran out into the
surf and was swimming out to meet Eli and Stacy, with Jason right behind him. 
The water was in flames where the boat had been sitting seconds earlier. 

Stacy and Eli
swam under water until they needed to come up for air.  Debris was everywhere. 
Stacy surfaced first, just in time to see a chunk of the boat coming down right
above Eli’s head.

“No!” she
screamed, as Eli came up right underneath it. 

Eli’s eyes
rolled in his head and he went under. 

“Eli!” Stacy
screamed.  She shoved the debris out of the way, dove under, and grabbed hold
of Eli’s arm, then shifted him around and dragged him to the surface.  Stacy
was trying to swim and keep Eli’s head above water, but his weight was driving
her under. She choked on a mouthful of water and started sinking. 

Niki was
swimming hard to reach his brother.  He got there just as Stacy was going
under.  He grabbed onto Eli and passed him to Jason.  Eli’s weight having been
lifted, Stacy was trying to swim up, but she was exhausted and couldn’t hold
her breath any longer.  Niki dove down, grabbed Stacy, and pulled her to the
surface.   She came up coughing and choking. 

“Hold on to
my back,” Niki told her.

Stacy put an
arm around his neck and collapsed against his back without an ounce of energy
left.  Niki and Jason swam back to shore and dumped their loads on the beach. 

Carlos was
onto Eli before he hit the sand, examining his head where he had been hit. 
There was already an egg growing out the side of his head, but Eli was coming
to.

Stacy was lying
in the sand, face down, still coughing when Carlos came to check on her.  “I’m
fine,” she said between coughs, before he had a chance to look at her.  Stacy
rolled over onto her back and tried to sit up, but the pain stopped her. She
reached down into her waistband and pulled out the pistol.  “Here’s your gun,”
she told Jason, and she tossed it into the sand without lifting her head.

Jason picked
up the pistol and put it in his waistband.

“How’s Eli?”
Stacy said, with her eyes shut.

“I’m fine,”
Eli groaned.

She opened
her eyes and forced herself into a sitting position.   “You realize I’ve saved
your life twice?” she commented.

Everyone had
been so concerned with Eli that no one had even mentioned the fact that someone
had put a bomb on their boat.  It was Stacy who broached the subject.

“Excuse me,
but is this an everyday occurrence in the bank robbing/kidnapping business,
this boat-blowing-up thing?  I mean, none of you has even mentioned the fact
that someone planted a bomb on your boat.”

“It’s a
first,” Jason said.

Eli sat up
and looked over at Stacy, “I told you someone had been here.”  He turned to
Niki, “The padlock on the boathouse was cut.”

“Yeah?” Niki
said. He was silent for a minute. “Do you think that whoever did this is still
on the island?” Niki asked Carlos.

Carlos
thought about it.  “I don’t know,” he said, “but I don’t think so.”