As day broke on the island, Emil had finally come up with some kind of plan. He looked down into the hole and noticed that Remy was still unconscious. Aside from the broken right leg, Emil now saw that there was a large gash on Remy's left arm and a nasty cut on the left side of his head. Emil could only imagine what other injuries his cousin had sustained in his fall.
He sighed and went back to the two backpacks, which, surprisingly, were still where he'd left them the night before. He needed the pocket knife he knew was in his pack. He sighed again as he returned to the hole, this time taking both packs with him.
"Too bad shovels couldn' be fit into backpacks..." He said to the surrounding jungle. "Dis is gon' take a million years...but it's de only idea I got..."
Using his hands more than the knife because it went faster that way, Emil widened the hole at the top on one side and then started digging down in a slope. He was about half-done, five hours later, when he paused and realized just how hungry, tired and thirsty he was. He went to the stream and took a drink of water, then downed a few handfuls of raspberries before continuing on his mission.
When he got the hole dug out enough so he could go down and get Remy out, Emil stopped. He then climbed down, as carefully as he could. He tied the towline around under Remy's arms and then climbed back out of the hole. Bracing himself as best he could, he started pulling on the towline, inch by inch dragging Remy's limp body out. Knowing he had more resources at the shelter, Emil passed on attending to Remy's injuries for the time being. He still had a big job ahead of him.
After taking another break to eat more raspberries and drink more water, Emil got to work on the second part of his mission. Using the knife as a saw, he cut down branches and leaves. Then he got a roll of duct tape out of Remy's pack, absently laughing at the memory of two days before, when he'd asked Remy why he brought the tape with him. Now that tape was going to come in handy. Using the tape to hold everything together, Emil turned the branches and leaves into a makeshift stretcher.
Once that was done, Emil stopped, leaning against a tree. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and chuckled. "What I wouldn' give for a shower right 'bout now..."
As gently as he could, Emil lifted Remy up and put him on the stretcher, praying it held together. It did. He remembered a line from a show he, Remy and Etienne had watched when they were children. "Holdin' together wit' chicken wire an' good intentions." He laughed. "Yeah, tell me 'bout it."
He rounded up his supplies and then put Remy's pack on the stretcher with his cousin and put his own pack on his back where it belonged. Then he picked up the top end of the stretcher and started walking back out towards the shelter. Twenty minutes into the hike, Emil's exhaustion overcame him and he stumbled, dropping the stretcher and falling to his knees. "I can'...I can'..." he sobbed wearily. All he wanted to do was go home and rest. But that wasn't an option, and he knew it, so after a brief breakdown, he pulled himself together again and got back to his feet.
When Emil finally made it to the shelter, he sat down for a few minutes, knowing that he still had to get Remy cleaned up before he could actually get some sleep.
Taking the knife, the tape, and a cloth he'd found at the bottom of Remy's pack, Emil dragged the stretcher over to the stream. He took Remy's boots off and cut his jeans on the leg that was broken. Using the cloth and water, he cleaned Remy's leg up a bit and then went in search of couple of sticks suitable for use as a splint. Once he found what he was looking for, he returned to Remy and, flinching in sympathy, put his cousin's leg back in place, securing it with one stick on either side. He secured the sticks with tape and then got to work on the rest of Remy's injuries.
Remy was wearing a t-shirt, so that wasn't going to be of much help to Emil. After doing a closer examination, Emil was pleased to learn that there were no other inujuries aside from those he'd already found. He gently cleaned up the gash on Remy's arm and then realized he needed bandages for both injuries.
"Good grief...what am I gon' use...?" He asked the water. Then he perked up and took off his own shirt, which was long-sleeved. "Bingo!"
Emil cut both sleeves off his shirt and then put it back on. He used one sleeve to bandage Remy's arm up and then, after cleaning up the cut on Remy's head, he used the other sleeve as a bandage there. Then he dragged the stretcher back and into the shelter so Remy would be out of the sun. He built a fire so they'd have some heat and light if they woke up in the night and then ate some coconut before giving in to his exhaustion and collapsing next to Remy's stretcher, falling asleep in mere seconds. Nor did he wake up again for many hours.
Off the coast of Florida, two men were walking along the beach. They were friends of James Armstrong and had been worried about their friend ever since he and his two students had not returned after the hurricane had hit. They were starting to lose hope that James and his companions would ever be found, but they still walked the beaches just in case. On that day, they spotted something they hadn't wanted to see.
"Hey Mike, you see that?" Steve asked, pointing down the beach at something that looked out of place.
"Yeah...looks like...my God..." Mike gasped.
The two friends ran to where the object was and then stopped in horror. What they'd found washed up on the beach was a piece of The Princess of Wales. The boat itself was in pieces, shattered by the storm. They knew from looking at it that it was James' boat. When Steve turned it over, it was confirmed. The writing was on the other side.
"...of Wales." Steve read quietly. "Mike, it's his boat. Shattered. There's no way..."
"I know, Steve. But don't say there's no way." Mike agreed. "Let's get this to the coast guard. We have to get a search going. We can't just give up. Not until we find them."
With that, Mike and Steve took their finding and headed back to the beach parking lot, on their way to the offices of the coast guard.
That night, as the five worried thieves and their equally worried healer sat in subdued silence watching the news on CNN, they heard a report they hadn't wanted to hear.
"Two friends of British sailor James Armstrong, whose boat went missing three days ago during the hurricane, found a piece of his sailboat, The Princess of Wales, on the beach a hundred miles from Miami this afternoon." The news anchor stated. "The coast guard started a search of the area and surrounding islands around 3 p.m. Eastern time for Mr. Armstrong and his two sailing companions, who were visiting from Louisiana. We're getting unconfirmed reports that Mr. Armstrong's body has been found in the water a few miles from where the piece of his boat was located. We'll keep you updated as we learn more."
"Dis does not sound promisin'..." Genard commented quietly.
"We must not give up hope." Tante Mattie said. "I know dey are alive. Jus' b'cause de news people don' know it, don' make it less true. We'll jus' keep prayin' an' keep watchin' CNN. It's all we can do."
As Mattie finished speaking, the news anchor on CNN started up again. "We have just gotten word from the coast guard off the coast of Florida that they have confirmed through identification that the body they found this afternoon was indeed that of James Armstrong. The coast guard are stepping up their search for the other two men on the boat. At this time we do not have any information regarding who they are. The friends of Mr. Armstrong, who found the piece of his boat this afternoon, could not give us information other than they are tourists on vacation from Louisiana. We will keep updating this story as we get more information."
"Dear lord..." Theoren said. "I don' know how much of dis I can handle..."
"Tante Mattie's right, t'ough, Theo. We can' do anythin'. At least not tonight." Mercy reminded him.
"Maybe not tonight, but tomorrow we can." Theoren returned.
"Yeah? Like what? I don' see how we could do anythin' without riskin' gettin' ourselves arrested." Mercy argued.
"Trust me." Theoren said with a grim smile. "An' no one goin' be t'inkin' 'bout us. Jus' trust me. Wait an' see."