As the chute pulled them violently backwards, Danny dropped the last large bag he’d been carrying. It hit the water with a splash and burst open, converting into a raft. He and Lazzo landed shortly after it did, and Danny pulled him, still unconscious, through the water to the raft. There was debris all around them and no sign of the rest of us. Someone had fired at the remaining fighter planes from Hawaii. Whether they would fire at us as well, we weren’t yet sure. But those fighters now were gone.
Blake never saw where Isaac went. For some reason he’d never pulled his chute, or it hadn’t opened, and Blake never saw him fall or land. Blake, however, made it to Kate in plenty of time to pull her chute and then pushed off of her to try to help Mom. But by the time he made it to her and pulled her chute they were too close to the water. They hit hard.
He shook the cobwebs from his own head as best he could and checked Mom for a pulse. There was none. He pulled her to the raft nonetheless, and then swam frantically for Kate. He reached her and pulled her back to the raft as well. After a few minutes of CPR, she coughed up a gallon of salt water and slowly came back around. Blake knelt beside her, relieved he’d saved at least one life, but crushed he hadn’t been able to save Mom or find any trace of Isaac. He leaned back against the edge of the raft and pulled Kate up to a sitting position—wrapping his arms around her—tears streaming down his face. Crushed…devastated…there were no words to sum up their emotions. But the two of them were safe. For now.
The rest of us made it safely down as well, and made our way into two of the other three rafts. The third one was splintered by shrapnel from the planes and sank. We were a few miles closer to Hawaii than Blake and Kate, but had nothing to paddle with. We could see them in the distance but were helpless to do anything about it. We just had to sit and wait.
Twenty minutes later we heard another plane coming. As it approached from the direction of the mainland, we saw another streak of light zip through the sky—from Hawaii—and strike the plane. It too erupted into flame. Did that mean someone knew we were out here? Or did they just shoot anyone who got this close? We had to still be almost three hundred miles out. For the next five hours we didn’t see any other aircraft, but then, off on the horizon, we saw boats coming our way from Hawaii’s general direction. Minutes later four jet fighters flew overhead, also from Hawaii. They flew circular patterns around us for the next half hour as the two boats—Coast Guard Cutters—approached us. The Cutters pulled up alongside us, and asked each of us to identify ourselves. They looked up our information one by one on some computer, and then apparently satisfied, allowed us onto the boat. We then continued on over to pick up Blake, Kate, and Mom.
As we approached Blake, Kate, and Mom, it was clear that Mom hadn’t survived the fall. It wasn’t surprising but that didn’t make it any less shocking, or the pain any less sharp. Dad collapsed into a heap, the first time I’d seen him actually cry since Sophie’s funeral. Pulling alongside their raft, Jenna helped Dad stand to assist Blake—through a flood of tears—slowly lift Mom into the Coast Guard boat. We knew Blake had done all he could. Dad even hugged him as he climbed into the boat. I heard them both say, “I’m sorry” at the exact same time. I couldn’t imagine how hard it was for either of them, and I was standing right there.
No one else had reacted nearly as quickly or decisively as Blake had. He honestly had nothing to be sorry about. But what else could he say? It was the ultimate conflictive moment. None of us could have simultaneously felt any better or worse than we did. Mom had been so close to making it all the way.
Kate was now mostly recovered and was kneeling, with Hayley, beside Dad. Dad had developed a tight bond over the years with both of them, and no one knew more about what Mom meant to him than those two did.
The Coast Guard captain checked to make sure we were ready to go, and I looked at him like he was crazy. “No sir. We need to get the other boat.”
“Other boat?” he replied, turning to look at the radar. “There is no other boat.”
EIGHTY-FIVE: “Fox and the Hound”
“Yes, there…” I began to object while also looking at the screen. Danny had to be out there! But he was right. There was no other boat. “Do you have any idea where the plane went down?” I asked, knowing the wreckage had long since sunk.
The captain turned to his maps and tried to determine exactly where they were in regards to where the signal had been lost by the airplane. “Has to be about ten miles that way.”
“Two hundred sixty miles from land,” another officer added.
“Have you been over there yet?” I asked.
“No, sir,” he replied. “Nothing came up on our screens.”
“Let’s go,” I cut in. “Can we please at least check?”
“We don’t have security clearance,” the captain replied. “We’re well beyond our safety zone out here.”
As I started to object, Blake grabbed my arm. “Are you Coast Guard?” Blake asked the captain.
“Yes, sir,” he replied.
“Well you’ve got a US Marine out there,” Blake continued, pointing towards where the plane had gone down. “And he’d never leave you if the roles were reversed.”
That’s all it took. The captain turned and gave the order to his man on the radio to have the other Cutter follow us. We raced off in the direction of the flight’s path towards the islands. We saw nothing until we were almost right on top of them. Then one of the captain’s men yelled, “Man in the water!”
One man? I scrambled to see who it was, as a voice shouted out again. “Correction…two men in the water!”
We hurried to the side of the boat, and as we approached we could see Danny treading water, holding Lazzo around the neck. The crew tossed out a line to Danny, who grabbed ahold of it. He pulled Lazzo over to the boat, and the crew helped the two of them up. It appeared as if Lazzo was either dead or unconscious, but fortunately he was neither. He merely didn’t know how to swim, and Danny had been forced to give him a quick lesson on the back-float. As soon as he was able to grab the boat ladder, he pulled himself out of the water. He was fine. But as soon as they helped him up on the deck, and he said, “Thank you,” there was a commotion. The captain started shouting orders, and several men came running towards us with guns.
We stepped out of their way, but Danny lunged up and shoved Lazzo towards the back corner of the boat. He put himself directly between the African and the guns. “Move out of the way, sir!” The captain shouted. “I’m not going to tell you again!”
“Like hell,” Danny said. This was Todd and Copper from Fox and the Hound all over again.
“Sir, he can’t come to the island,” the captain replied. “We can’t even let him live.”
“Then you’re going to have to kill me, too,” Danny replied with an icy glare.
“Danny,” Lazzo whispered.
“Shut up!” Danny ordered.
“Danny. They’re right,” Lazzo said.
“No. They’re not,” Danny replied. “We don’t just kill people. You have to have a reason. This man has done nothing but help us. He lives, or we both die.”
It was a stare down that didn’t look like it was going to end well, until Reagan stepped in. “Captain. May I have a word?” she said quietly.