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Chapter 24: Rose

Despite s about Annora’s motivations, she kept true to her word and stayed out of Caleb’s and ed a ith either of us the next day She andering off into the jungle by herself

Caleb seeh he believed her words The idea of finally getting rid of Annora, dropping her off in so Caleb and I free to return to The Shade and discover for ourselves if anything had really happened there or if Hermia’s words had been a lie, made me desperate to find a way off this island

I sat on Caleb’s bunk, looking around at the thick trees surrounding us That hen it hitships His father had been a shipyard owner

"What if we built a boat?"

Caleb crossed his ar around at the trees "Absolutely frole tool I’ve never done anything like that before But… I guess we’ve no choice but to try"

"Maybe there will be soo to the wreck, and you dive down deep, maybe you can find some tools to make the job easier"

He nodded slowly "Yes There was a toolbox in the engine room If that wasn’t ruined in the blast, that could prove invaluable Let’s go and see if there’s anything there that’s salvageable"

Since Annora wasn’t around, we couldn’t warn her where ere heading off to It would be tough luck if she arrived back and wondered where we’d gone

It wasn’t long before Caleb had rushed to the edge of the jungle With the sun high in the sky, Caleb tore a branch with flat leaves off a tree nearby and held it over hie

I took the branch fro it over his head as he entered the water I followed him in as deep as I could still stand, and then, as he ducked beneath the waves, I stopped, waiting for hi the surface of the water, waiting for hih of relief when he did I hurried over to hi the leaf over hi a large gray toolbox in one hand, while with the other he was clutching a thick metal sheet We made our way back to the sand, where he dropped the items I followed him back and forth from the sand to the sea as he retrieved more and more items for what felt like the next hour

By the tieable, the beach was covered with equiped it all further inland, beneath the shade of the trees, so there was no chance of pieces being swept away

Wiping sweat from his broith the back of his hand, he looked over the entire collection

"Yes," he said quietly "I think this ht just work We will only need a so wrong and the faster I can build it" He began pacing up and down on the sand, thinking out loud "We’ll need wood… These coconut trees aren’t as good as the trees surrounding our bunks"