As Michael looked out over the vast ocean, he wondered what ancient spirit he must have angered. Did his great grandfather forget to carry Madame Zeroni up the mountain? Well that would be terrible as he doubted he would find God’s Thumb out in the middle of the ocean, let alone a Zeroni to carry up the mountain. Whatever it was, surely anything lucky that happened to him would soon come back as a much worse burden.

After a week he had managed to stabilize both boats and the water and food supply for the two of them. He had expanded the fishing hooks with supplies from the Golden Fleece. He even managed to get the stove to work after he found it smashed. There were even two large water reservoirs, though both were filled with salt water which was a frustrating ordeal to try to fix. Still, he managed to do it. The empty glass bottles were also a nice small way to make pseudo distillers to separate salt from water. Now preserving fish was a potential as well. Though, being salty enough it’d be a last resort.

More than once he cursed not cutting off the Golden Fleece. Leaks, tilting, nearly capsizing both boats, getting struck by lightning and catching on fire, and so many other problems he even considered swimming for it and taking his chances. All in all, he lost much more than he gained from bringing in another boat and passenger.

Not only was the boat a burden, but so was its captain. Carolyn always had something to say, and since silence bothered her, she would constantly be talking. Through any work Michael tried to do, she was there prattling on. Rather quickly he learned to mostly tune her out. Snippets made it through, but he was trying to focus on survival, and working too hard would only make things even harder. Whatever he did, he had to get right the first time.

“…when she tried to stab him, but that’s where the book we found totally came in handy. Like it just so happened that…”

“Carrie?” said Michael as he stared into the blue sky above with his feet hanging over the edge of the Golden Fleece.

“Umm, oh like yeah?”

“Was I wrong?”

“About what?”

“The nukes.”

“Like…what?”

“What if I was wrong about the nukes going off?”

“Uhh, you know we totally saw it on your phone, right? Like we both saw reports of it.”

“Then why is the sky so clear?”

“Like…what?”

“The fallout should’ve…”

Carrie interrupted Michael as she rushed over to the side of the Golden Fleece and leaned out over the water. “Like O M G! Mikey, there’s totally someone over there!”

Michael followed her gaze and saw it too. A circular bright orange raft floating alone. It was close enough to see, but unless they did something they’d probably never reach each other. His mind started to race as he ran through ways to get over there.

As he was thinking, Carrie dove into the waves. “Carrie!” he shouted in astonishment as she already jumped into action.

She was a good swimmer, but it still worried Michael as he rushed to steering wheel of the Golden Fleece. He turned the wheel slightly towards the Lil Ducky, and the wrapped the rope set up nearby to lock it in place. He rushed down the side and leaped over to the Lil Ducky. He swore under his breath as he fished the keys out of his pocket and slid into the driver’s seat. He turned the keys, and the engine squealed, but wouldn’t quite start. After three times it finally started, and he struggled to make his way over towards the raft.

Thanks to their combined efforts, in a few minutes Carrie had pulled a woman in rags up onto the Golden Fleece. Michael Shut off the engine and let out a relieved sigh. Before yelling out, “Next time give me a moment to plan Carrie! You risked a lot just jumping in and using up all of those calories swimming.”

“Like you’d rather I left her alone?”

“No, I just…” he grunted angrily. “It’s better to plan than just recklessly act okay?”

“Like maybe with some guys, but totally not you.”

“I…huh?”

Carrie smirked. “Like you act totally brainy and junk, but always make better decisions when you’re in a time crunch. Give you too much time and you like so overthink everything.”

Michael was caught off-guard a bit and then a small coughing brought him back into reality. He grabbed a bottle with some water and went over to the castaway. The woman grabbed it and tried to greedily drink it all before Michael stopped her.

“Whoa now. You have to go slow,” he cautioned. “If you haven’t had a lot of water recently it’s easy to drink too much and make yourself sick, okay?”

“He’s like totally right,” agreed Carrie, “what’s like your name anyway?”

“I’m Sharon,” she squeaked weakly.

Lying there she seemed to be the opposite of Carrie. Meek and timid, frail and helpless, dark skin and darker hair. “So, Sharon, how did you get out here?”

“I…” she muttered weakly. “I was...” she coughed gently, almost like her lungs were the size of a toddler’s.

“Like it’s okay Sher,” cooed Carrie. “Rest for now and let us handle the rest.”

Sharon’s eyes looked heavy as she smacked her dry lips. “Don’t lose…the book.” She coughed again. “The path…it is finally open again…” With that her eyes closed and she passed out.

“What do you think she was talking about?” asked Michael as he tried to look closer at Sharon’s face.

“Well, like whatever it was, it can totally wait.” Replied Carrie as she scooped up Sharon in her arms. “Sher can tell us or not when she’s doing a bit better.” She smirked, “Besides, she’s got that raft I dragged here you can check out. I bet you’ll totally love that with what a survivalist nut you are.”

“What? I just understand priorities!” he argued. “It’s…I mean…ugh,” frustrated he simply rolled his eyes and went into the cabin to grab some rope.