Read Red Sand for Free Online

you guys noticed this, but these are not our lifeboats. Remember the lifeboat drill you had when you got on board? Those were shiny and white. These are dingy and old.”
    “So what are you saying?” Mason was still groggy.
    Carter didn’t answer right away. He let it sink in, making eyes at the two men paddling the boat.
    Howie struggled to follow, so Mason whispered in his ear. “He means we’re either being rescued or kidnapped.”
    This was not good news.
    Max lay limp at the end of the boat. Carter prodded him with his foot. A groan emanated from the body. “He’s not dead,” said Carter.
    “He’ll need water soon or he will be.”
    The sea reflected the sun like a crisper. Howie felt his pasty skin peeling like dried latex. His bladder was fit to explode.
    Lauren shaded her eyes with her hand. “Is that an island?” Everyone turned.
    Yes it was. An island.
     
    A dark shape crawled over the horizon. A head rose from the water with a long tongue tasting the sea. The shape resolved into a volcano. Though dormant, at some point in the recent past lava flows shed a black apron around the core. These flows ended in ebony cliffs, unapproachable. The surf beat against gleaming black rivers of stone. Their lifeboat headed for the sandy wasteland that extended several miles to the right of the volcano. Light green grasses dotted the dunes, but not one man-made structure broke that monotony of sand.
    A desert island , he thought.
    “Magnificent,” Howie heard over his shoulder. He turned to see Mason smiling.
    “What!?” Emily asked, surprised. “We’re kidnapped by tongueless natives, taken to a deserted island, and you think it’s magnificent?”
    “Yeah, I do! This is great! I mean, how routine was life when we got on that ship, and now this!”
    “You could have been a nudist at home.” Carter held up his hand to hide parts Mason accidentally exposed.
    “My life was fine,” Emily added.
    “What? Hunched over a computer keyboard? Lorded over by urban slavers? C’mon. When was the last time anything crazy like this happened?”
    Lauren took him to task. “Hundreds of people died, Mason.”
    Mason looked down. “Yeah, well. Listen, you know what ‘anomie’ is?”
    “When you don’t have enough iron?”
    “No, that’s anemic.”
    “When you throw up to look good?” added Carter.
    “No, that’s Max. He looks thinner already. No, ‘anomie’ is when you’re stuck between two worlds. I suffered from that when we left.”
    “There’s a drink for that,” Carter added.
    “I tried that. It didn’t help.” Mason paused long enough that they thought he was done talking. Finally he said, “My wife left me not long ago. I came on this cruise to, you know, ‘find myself’. And here we are, on an adventure.”
    Howie commiserated. He patted Mason’s bare leg. “My wife left me, too,” he said.
    Silence fell over the boat. The island grew with every paddle stroke. Then Max muttered, “I’m thirsty.”
    “I hope they have martinis,” said Lauren.
    Howard hoped they had a restroom.
     
    Their lifeboat glided over a coral reef into smooth, bright blue water. Howard spotted hundreds of fish drifting in lazy circles around the shadow of the boat.
    The boats steered close to the black cliffs. Lava flows frozen in time spilled over fifty foot accretions of prior eruptions to form a serrated and deadly coastline. Suicidal waves rushed that torn edge only to explode in thunderous oblivion. Deep beneath overhanging rock, caves of night sucked in the tide and then blew it out again like whales hunting krill. Howie felt the ensuing concussion as much as heard the echoing boom as the island devoured each new wave. The boatmen paddled furiously to keep their distance.
    Why would they risk their lives to stay so close to these dangerous walls when the rest of the island stretched away with miles of pristine, sandy beaches? Was there something even more dangerous there?
    High above them, a massive red