“Stasia! Stasia, wake up!” My eyes flew open and I pushed whoever was hovering over me out of the way, clumsily getting to my feet. I ran into my room, found my flip flops and bolted out the door. I had to save them. I couldn’t let all those babies die!
“Stasia! Where are you going? Wait!” I vaguely hear d them calling after me, as I took the stairs two at a time and made my way out the back door of Maren. Flying down the boardwalk, I jumped onto the sand and sprinted up the beach as fast as I could. People were behind me yelling something, but I wasn’t listening. All I could think about were those eggs. The baby turtles. I couldn’t let them die. After running for what felt like hours, I finally spotted it. Orange tape. I flopped down beside the first square and started digging. About ten whole eggs were cradled in the cool sand.
“Stasia! Please stop and tell us what’s going on!” Willow tugged on my arm, but I shook her off and moved on to the next nest. One by one, I made sure the eggs were safe. At the last nest, my legs gave out from under me and I fell on the soft sand.
“Thank God they’re safe!” I sighed with relief.
“You better have a damn good reason why we’re running for our lives on the beach in the middle of the night!” Carmen sat down beside me, breathing hard.
“Stop being so dramatic, Carmen,” Phoebe said, “Tell us what happened, Stasia.” She rubbed my arm supportively.
“I saw them die. They washed away. All of them.” Hot tears burned my eyes and I was helpless to stop them from spilling over. If these eggs were safe, what nests did I see get destroyed?
According to the tape, I was on Bald Head. The boardwalk I had stood on was right above us. It had to be these eggs. I watched the waves rolling in to the shore and noticed how much bigger they had gotten since this afternoon. It hit me like a ton of bricks. The hurricane. I remembered the wind. The blinding rain. The rising water. I wasn’t having a reverie or even a dream. I was seeing something that hadn’t happened yet. I was seeing into the future. A new panic took over. “We have to move them!
Before the hurricane comes!”
“But they’re protected by the shield! They’ll be fine.” Carmen dismissed my worries.
“It doesn’t extend this far. They’ll wash away. I saw it happen.”
“What do you mean you saw it happen?” Phoebe’s forehead scrunched in confusion.
Suddenly exhausted, I tried to explain, “When I blacked out….I had a vision. I saw it happen.”
“Are you talking about foresight?” Carmen shook her head unbelieving. “You have reveries, Stasia, not foresight. No descendent has ever had foresight.”
“It couldn’t have been a reverie, the hurricane isn’t here yet!” I threw up my arms in frustration. “In my vision, the hurricane was here and it washed all of the eggs out to sea. We have to hurry!”
“Are you sure?” Carmen asked at me, still skeptical.
“I’m sure, Carmen.” I closed my eyes hoping to stop the tears, but that just caused them to come faster.
“We could move them closer to our beach where they’ll be pr otected by the shield?” suggested Phoebe.
“You know it’s illegal to touch the eggs,” Willow countered, “We should call someone from the island to come and get them.”
“There’s no time. We have to move them now. It could be too late by the time we went and got someone. We don’t have much time.”
“She’s right,” Phoebe agreed with me, “we can’t just leave them.”
After several more convincing arguments, Willow gave in. We decided the best thing to do was go back to Maren and get our clothes baskets, pad them with towels, and then transport the eggs to our protected beach. We took off running. I just hoped we made it back before it was too late.
Twenty minutes later, clothes baskets and blankets in hand, we split up and each made our way toward a different nest. The weather was quickly going downhill. The rain was coming down in sheets and persistent wind howled around us. Phoebe jogged down to the last nest. It was closest to the water, therefore more susceptible to the increasing waves. Carmen and Willow ran past me to the other nests.
I knelt down and gently removed each egg from the first nest, placing them into the clothes basket. I secured them with the blanket, preparing them for the walk back. I moved onto the next nest and did the same. The water had risen to my calves and the rain had started blowing sideways. I could barely see Phoebe down the beach as she struggled in the much larger waves.
Carmen made her way over to me and set her basket down. “I got them all except for one, it slipped out of my hand!” she yelled over the wind. Her dark hair was plastered against her head and mascara was running down her cheeks.
“I just hope we can get them back without breaking any!” I called up to her. Willow joined us, having retrieved as many eggs as she could.
“Where’s Phoebe?” she yelled.
“She was right over there!” Carmen leaned into the wind and pointed up the beach. The nest Phoebe had been emptying was now under at least three feet of water and her basket was floating away, held captive by the waves. I looked around frantically, but didn’t see her.
“Take the baskets!” I yelled to Carmen and Willow, “I’m going to find her!”
As I maneuvered my way down the beach, the water rose up to my thighs. I was having difficulty keeping my balance in the strong current, and the waves crashing into me were relentless. I could hardly see my hand in front of my face. This wasn’t going to work! There was only one thing to do. I dove into the water.
Beneath the water, my vision magically cleared. Not sure how to find her, I tried to swim in a zigzag pattern, hoping she hadn’t been swept out too far. The current was still strong, but I was able to counteract it pretty well and stay on course. I spotted something bright green blowing in the current just a couple of yards away and instinctively swam toward it. Phoebe’s shirt. She was sinking. I wrapped my arms around her and kicked toward the surface.
“Phoebe!” I called out to her, but there was no response. “Phoebe!” Her lips had turned blue and her eyes had rolled back in her head. I struggled to keep her head above water and swim at the same time. I’d never had any lifeguard training and I had no idea what I was doing. I kicked as hard as I could with my legs, but I knew I wasn’t getting anywhere. The rain assaulted my face, making it hard to see where we were in relation to the beach. I could be swimming out to sea for all I knew.
Wave after wave crashed over us, trying to pull her from my arms. I latched onto her as tight as I could and shut my eyes. I controlled the waves once before, I could do it again. I concentrated on breathing and tried to slow my heart rate. Be calm. Be calm. Be calm. I tried to project my feelings in to the water. Another wave crashed over us and we tumbled helplessly below the water. Somehow I held on to her shirt and was able to pull her back up to me as I kicked to the surface again. This wasn’t working. She was going to drown out here in this God forsaken hurricane. Another wave hit us from the side, instantly ripping Phoebe away from me.
“Phoebe!!” I screamed, knowing she couldn’t hear me. My eyes stayed locked on her green shirt as she was tossed around like a rag doll.
I lost sight of her as a wave crashed directly on top of me, pulling me under and slamming me against the ocean floor. The back of my head hit something solid, a sharp pain shot down my neck, and I decided I’d had enough. An inferno sparked deep within my soul, growing in to an all-consuming emblazoned fury. My vision sharpened immediately and a powerful sensation shot through my limbs, filling me with added strength and resolve. I pushed off the bottom with my feet, propelling myself back up to the surface easily. I glared at the boiling ocean with hatred, like I was staring down an old opponent in the ring before a fight. It would NOT break my will. And it would NOT take my friend.