High And Dry – Ari McKay

After several minutes, however, he stopped, frowning in dismay as the boat seemed to be receding from them faster than he was swimming. The wind was pushing them sideways, which he was accounting for, but when he rested for a few moments, he felt the water pulling them backward. “Oh, shit,” he muttered. He glanced over at Mark. “We have a problem. The wind is still pushing on the boat, since it’s higher up out of the water and has enough rudder to resist.

But we’re at the mercy of the current, and it’s pulling us away.” Mark stopped kicking and began treading water, his breathing labored. “Is there anything we can do?” “We can’t exhaust ourselves, so we’re going to float,” he said. “Even if the radio on the boat was damaged in the storm, they have an EPIRB, which is a locator beacon that transmits a distress signal via a satellite link.

Let’s conserve our energy for now. We might get out of the current, or maybe the captain can somehow slow the boat so they keep us in sight.” He kept his tone light, but he was worried. If the radio worked, the captain could request a faster pickup, since people in the water were a bigger emergency than those on a boat.

But if there were enough boats in distress from the weather, it might be awhile before they were rescued. “Okay, sounds good.” Mark loosened his death grip on the life ring, seeming much more reassured now that he knew the boat had a backup emergency system. “I don’t feel tired right now, but that could be the adrenaline.”

“It’s definitely the adrenaline,” Terry said, giving him a smile before looking at the boat again. It was still pulling away from them, but he saw the crew on deck, trying to deploy a small outboard, and he felt a sudden rush of relief. “Oh, thank heavens, they have an emergency engine.

It’s little, but as long as they can move the boat, they can fight against the wind to pick us up.” Mark followed Terry’s gaze, and he let out a gusty sigh of relief. “I never understood why anyone would want to kiss the ground before, but the first solid ground I step on is getting a big wet one.” Terry laughed. “Yeah, I know the feeling.

As much as I love the water, I’m ready to be out of it for a while.” They watched as the crew worked for several minutes on mounting the engine, trying to get it running.

The image on the front cover is a model. Model photo available at www.periodimages.com No AI was used in generation of the cover. No AI was used in any part of the writing of this book. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. NO AI/NO BOT. We do not consent to any Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarize, or otherwise replicate any part of this creative work, via any means: print, graphic, sculpture, multimedia, audio, or other medium.

We support the right of humans to control their artistic works. Formatted with Vellum OceanofPDF.com CONTENTS Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Epilogue About the Author Also by Ari McKay By Rachel Langella OceanofPDF.com “F CHAPTER 1 elicia, why are there drag queens dancing on the deck of the cruise ship you booked me on?”

Mark tried to sound patient and calm, but he hadn’t boarded the ship yet, and it already didn’t look like the peaceful, quiet get- away he’d had in mind when he turned over the task of booking a cruise to his personal assistant. He’d mentioned he was thinking about going on a cruise for his vacation, and Felicia had insisted that he let her handle it. “I’ve been on several cruises,” she had said. “You’ve never been on one. I’ve got this.” Her eagerness to take over should have been a red flag, but he’d mistaken it for a legitimate desire to help him out with her lived experience.

He should’ve known better. “Oh, are they?” They weren’t face-timing, but they didn’t need to be for Mark to be suspicious of her tone. He could picture her face: eyes wide and round, eyebrows raised, lips in a sweet little “o” of innocence. He narrowed his eyes, even though she couldn’t see it. “Yes, Felicia. They are. Why?” “Oh, gosh, Mark, I couldn’t say.”

Her voice was sugary enough to give him a phantom toothache.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: a93551d017339cf7
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 1,487,763 bytes (1.419 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 90
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 159.55 minutes
• Total Words: 31,910
• Total Characters: 174,187
• Average Words per Page: 354.56
• Average Characters per Page: 1935.41

Most Frequent Words

mark (380), terry (358), said (148), back (134), like (104), get (97), water (84), one (83), didn’t (80), i’m (79), he’d (77), wasn’t (75), time (72), it’s (71), mark’s (68), don’t (66), see (60), much (56), want (56), around (55), going (54), eyes (54), ship (53), think (52), good (51), life (51), know (50), little (49), still (47), made (47), right (46), cruise (46), away (45), himself (45), looked (45), boat (45), look (44), take (44), way (44), enough (43), since (42), even (41), maybe (41), people (41), felt (40), terry’s (40), now (39), got (39), sure (39), first (39), work (38), well (38), long (38), dolphins (38), something (37), smile (37), thought (36), anything (36), dolphin (36), find (35), hand (35), day (34), gave (34), wanted (32), another (32), seemed (32), i’ll (32), looking (31), last (31), fire (31), need (30), you’re (30), man (30), head (30), help (29), couldn’t (29), swim (29), without (28), i’ve (28), several (28), knew (28), moment (28), also (27), glanced (27), keep (27), beach (27), someone (27), book (26), felicia (26), never (26), voice (26), asked (26), shirt (26), lifeguard (26), feel (26), we’re (26), least (25), toward (25), hadn’t (24), turned (24).

PDF Download