Matt de la Peña - The Living

Shy could also tell Shoeshine was holding something back. About the syringes in the duffel bag maybe. Or the gun. Or the people who had something wrong with them.

The man turned and looked Shy dead in the eyes, like he sensed all his questions. “Main thing is this. I didn’t give you no vitamins out here, you understand?”

“Why not?” Shy said.

“And you all never saw this bag I’m holding.” He patted the duffel hanging from his shoulder. “It’s important this part stays between us three, you hear?”

Shy and Addie looked at each other. Before Shy could say anything else, though, Shoeshine told them: “I know all this seems confusing right now. But trust me, the less you know, the better. Now come on.” He turned back toward the water and jumped in.

Addie jumped in feetfirst with her life jacket on, her blond hair fanning out in clumps on the water’s surface. Shy took off his life jacket and flung it back into the boat. He was weak, but he didn’t care. The shore was close. And he felt free as he leaped off the boat, a cool rush of ocean water quickly enveloping his body, bringing him back to life. For a few surreal seconds his head was underwater, feet dangling a few feet above the grassy bottom, then he dog-paddled his way up and his face broke through the surface.

He and Addie looked at each other, smiling, and Shy recalled the last thing she’d said to him on the lifeboat, about how she was going to love him. He wondered if it was something she had said because she thought she was going to die, or if she really felt it. And what did he think about that?

Shy reached down into the water and squeezed Addie’s knee through her jeans. It was the closest he could come to acknowledging what she’d said. Addie grinned and turned onto her stomach, started swimming for shore.

Before Shy swam after her, he glanced back at the motorboat that had just saved their lives. And then he looked beyond the boat, at the massive sparkling ocean. Hours before they’d been lost in it. Left for dead. But here they were now, less than twenty yards from land.

He could feel his entire body coming back to life as he turned and set off after Addie.

Shy stepped onto shore last.

He walked up the closely cut grass on shaky legs and allowed himself to collapse near Addie, where they both looked around in silence.

They were on what was once a golf course—most of it was now underwater. The research ship with the helicopter was a couple hundred feet offshore, and Shy spotted a couple people moving around on the top deck. He turned around and looked at the island. Old-looking stone stairs zigzagged up the face of the cliff. A thick cable came up out of the water, ran all the way up to the hotel where a fancy aerial tram sat. The cliffs themselves were intensely green with densely packed trees and bushes. A group of squawking seagulls chased after each other low in the sky.

It was like they’d landed in paradise. Shy put both his palms on the ground beside him, amazed that he was actually back on solid ground. He studied the broken-down sailboat on his left. He saw now that there were gashes in the side and the bar that held the torn sail was badly bent. No way this thing would ever sail again. It was a major reminder of what damage the waves had caused.

“That was the easy part,” Shoeshine called to them. “Still got four hundred sixty-five steps to go. I’ve counted.”

“It’s so strange,” Addie said to Shy. “In a few minutes I’ll know if he’s still alive.”

He nodded.

“Even if he’s done bad things,” she said, “he’s still my dad, you know?”

“I get it,” Shy said as he struggled to his feet. But he didn’t want to think about Addie’s dad right now. Or the shady things he may have been doing. Like the picture of Shy Addie had found in his room. His legs were incredibly wobbly. He could barely walk. All Shy wanted to think about right now was the fact that he was alive. And he was on dry land.

Addie looked up at Shy, said: “I don’t even know if I can make it up these stairs. I’m so weak.”

“I bet there’s food and water up there,” Shy told her. “And a bed.” He helped Addie up, thinking about how close he now felt to her. They’d survived together. No one could ever take that away. But he also knew the butterflies flooding his stomach were about something else. Something that made him feel like a bad guy.

As Shy and Addie followed Shoeshine up the stairs, side by side, he remembered Carmen’s dark brown hair and brown eyes. He tried to stop himself, but he couldn’t. He remembered how she’d stepped into the hall outside her cabin with wine when he couldn’t sleep. All the early-morning talks they’d had on the Lido Deck, when she stopped by with her coffee.

Come on, Carm, he thought as he closed his eyes and touched the ring in his pocket.

You gotta be up there.

Please be up there.

Shoeshine stopped as they neared the top of the stairs. He glanced up at the hotel, then looked out at the men on the research ship. He pulled his notebook from the duffel bag, hid the bag with the gun and syringes inside the thick bushes growing right up against the stairs and continued on.

“What was that all about?” Shy asked, glancing at the beat-up leather notebook in Shoeshine’s hand.

“We know the world has changed,” Shoeshine answered, “we just don’t know which way.”

Shy and Addie looked at each other, confused. “I don’t get it,” Shy said.

Shoeshine shook his head and pointed toward the hotel. “Plenty of empty rooms. Doors are all open, keys on the desks inside. Once you claim your room you can lock it. Food and water in the restaurant out back. Extra clothes in the lobby.”

“Aren’t you coming?” Shy said.

“I need to check something on the other side,” Shoeshine said. “Ask for Christian, the doctor I told you about. He’ll tell you whatever else you need to know.”

After they watched Shoeshine disappear around the hotel, Addie turned to Shy. “So you know him?”

“Shoeshine? Sort of.” Shy turned toward the hotel. “I know Christian a little, too. We started out on the same life raft.” Shy remembered being right next to Christian as the giant wave roared toward them. He shook the memory out of his head and wondered if he’d find Kevin and Marcus inside. And Paolo.

“I don’t understand why everything’s so secretive,” Addie said. She squatted down and put her hand on the ground.

“Same here.” Shy looked up at the hotel, which was about a dozen stories high, with big windows and balconies. He turned to Addie, who was now rubbing her temples. “You all right?”

She nodded. “Just a little dizzy. Getting up here took all my strength. I think I need to lie down or something.”

“Can you make it inside? I’m sure we’ll find you a better spot.”

Addie nodded, and Shy helped her to her feet.

They cut across the puddled lawn together, pushed through the hotel doors and stepped into the lobby.

“Damn, look at this place,” Shy said. It reminded him of the ship’s atrium, only ten times the size. High domed ceilings and massive chandeliers. Giant framed paintings on every wall. Thick carved pillars. Antique-looking couches. Marble floors and a marble staircase that wrapped in a circle up to the second level. Shy wondered if those stairs would lead him to a room where he’d find Carmen.

“I knew they had a hotel here,” Addie said, “but I never pictured it like this.”

“So, this is where people from your old man’s company stay?” Shy asked.

“And the doctors they fly out for vacation. My mom said it’s one of the ways they get people to invest in their products.”