With no working technology or digital equipment left functional on board, the friends had to rely on an old paper map and a simple magnetic compass just to figure out which way was north. As they huddled around the steering wheel trying to make sense of the coordinates, Maya suddenly looked up and pointed out across the dark water. “Look! Over there!” she said, a massive wave of relief washing over her face. “There are three boats. Maybe they are local fishermen who can guide us back to the port.”
Leo grabbed a pair of marine binoculars from the plastic cockpit locker and focused on the distant vessels. But as the blurry image came into sharp focus, his blood ran cold. The oncoming boats weren’t casting fishing nets, and they certainly weren’t moving at a casual pace. They had altered their course the moment the sailboat appeared on the horizon, and they were already accelerating directly toward the friends at a terrifying, aggressive speed.