Spy School: Zoe or Erica?

Arrival

Days passed by. Don't ask me how much.

I remember going through many, many energy bars. The number of calories I consumed just from those things was enough to choke a horse.

The freshwater barrel also was a clear essential. 

Unless you wanted to choke down the seawater, which, from experience, consisted of 30% salt, 60% water, and 10% unknown mix of substances that you don't want to know, you'd be grateful each boat had a barrel of the water. Water that you could at least put in your body without hucking half of it out again.

The boat engine's humming noise became a ring in my ears. The flapping of the waves droned me to sleep each night. To be honest, the days on the boat were the most peaceful that I'd had in years.

Until the storms came.

Of course. 

The first surge came at exactly 3:32 AM in the middle of the night, according to Erica's watch. I was in the middle of my REM sleep, dreaming of something that was my business, and suddenly a tidal wave of water completed soaked everything on board, including me.

My body shot up from the fetal position I'd gotten used to at the top-right corner of the boat. Then my body got shot down again, since another tidal wave blasted us before I could even react.

Erica, on the other hand, stood firmly and took the charge. With her hair billowing through the wind and he fists curled into tight balls, she looked like a model from some kind of movie. A model that had the fighting skill equivalent to a kung-fu master. Heck, it was probably more than that.

Erica was busy tinkering with the engine when I finally managed to get myself righted on the boat. My chest was a mix of fresh-sea-energy bar soup, and it was churning more than the sea. Not helping.

Clutching my stomach, I squinted my eyes to make out the darkness. I heard Erica shout something about our direction being changed, but I couldn't focus. The surges of rain and the crashes of thunder and lightning made me dizzy, mixed with the haze of being woken up in the middle of the night. The only thing that kept me from collapsing on the deck was the fact I had a will to live.

Struggling to limp over to Erica's position, I heard her shout some instructions over to me. I got the gist: Collect as much of the rain as you can for water, and make sure our Telephone and GPS weren't soaked to the point of short-circuiting. 

The telephone was stuck on the side of the boat. Taking off my shirt, I did my best to cover more rain from soaking the delicate machinery- though seeing my shirt was already soaked, all it did was make it even wetter.

I muttered a curse under my breath. Taking my shirt off the telephone, I struggled over to the encased area of the boat, where there was a plastic covering that magnified the sun. The covering could be used in a variety of ways, such as getting an airplane's attention or adding extra solar energy to dry our clothes after washing, or, in this case, blocking rain from reaching our only tech.

Erica nodded in approval after she saw what I was doing. I don't know how she even managed to spot me from that distance in a pitch-black night, but I didn't ask.

After covering the telephone in plastic covering, I squinted my eyes and searched the floor like a blind man for the GPS. The tiny device was usually easy to spot in the sunlight, but in a pitch-black storm like this, it was torture.

After a few minutes, I managed to spot the tiny flashing device from the corner of my eye. It was wedged beneath the telephone- silly me, I had looked everywhere except that place. It seemed that destiny just was trying to kill me.

Curse the stupid destiny. If it was on my side, I would be happily sleeping in my Spy School dorm right now.

I added the GPS under the plastic umbrella covering. Lucky devices. They had me to take care of them. Me? All I had was a wonder girl that could do everything except hold a stable social life.

Erica sighed loudly, at least loud enough for me to hear. I took this as a good sign since our boat was now going the correct way- somehow, Erica had done this with basically no source of light.

The wind howled through my ears. The rain pattered against the boat floor. The waves kept on crashing against us. The thunder boomed.

Just a normal day for me.

Erica huddled with me under the covered area, staring off into space. By this time, the storm was settling down. I could feel the rain slowing its speed, and the waves were gradually becoming tame. Somehow I had lost my shirt in the process, and I didn't have a spare one.

"What am I going to do?" I said, waving to my chest. "Burst into London only wearing a bra!?"

Erica mustered a smile. "A lost shirt? Many explanations. Say you got attacked by a wild animal. Say the wind blew it away. Heck, you could say you lost it in a game of strip poker and they would still believe it."

My mind flashed a disturbing video of me walking into London, showing off my bra and telling every that raised an eyebrow that I had lost it in a game of strip poker. I shook my head, trying not to collapse on the ground laughing. Like that was going to happen.

The last raindrops splashed onto the ground, and Erica heaved a sigh of relief. I followed with a similar action.

"At least my 'stranded at sea' lessons paid off," Erica said. "I thought I had just blown those bucks away for nothing."

srry guys gtg for now