Waves Of Passion

Chapter 8

The whole point of joining the search party was putting her mind at ease but the more Eliza was out there, the more worried she grew. She was with a small group of around twenty people walking around in the dark with flashlights in the reef section of the beach as they called out Justin’s name. As they walked further and further into the reef section, the more Eliza got worried. The tide was rising and fast. And if Justin was out here, hurt, then she knew that he probably didn’t have a very good chance at survival.

“I think we need to call the guards and ask them to search the water,” one of the volunteers said and Eliza’s heart skipped a beat.

“Why? Do you think we are looking for a body?” another volunteer asked.

“Not necessarily” the first volunteer said. “He may be hurt floating on his board or whatever is left of it and the tide might be taking him further and further.”

“Way to be positive,” Eliza thought as she looked around. Her eyes were watery but she knew that she could not afford to come undone at that moment. “Keep it together, Warren. He is depending on you so keep it together,” she scolded herself. She knew that both volunteers had a point. There was a very big possibility that the coast guard could be looking for a body but she also knew that finding him alive was also high.

Justin was not only a pro-surfer. He was also a good swimmer and she had seen him swim and surf through his pain. It was not a big deal for him. She was like a zombie walking on and on. She didn’t even have enough in her to call out for him.

“His phone,” she suddenly said to no one in particular. She turned to one of the volunteers. “His phone is still on!”

“What?” the man asked.

“I have been calling him all day and his phone is still on,” she explained. “Maybe we can do a search based on that.”

“How?” the man asked.

“Call the coast guard. I’ll give them his number and as long as his phone is on, they can locate the GPS co-ordinates of where the phone is. And probably, that is where he is.”

“Good point,” he said. “Who’s on the phone with the coast guard?”

“I am,” a woman’s voice called out.

“Justin Frank’s phone is still on. Tell them they can locate his phone’s GPS,” the man said.

Eliza practically ran to where the woman was. She pulled up Justin’s number and then handed her phone to her. She was breathing hard and heavily as she waited for the woman to give Justin’s details to the coast guard.

“Call him,” she suddenly thought. “His ring tone could also be another indicator of his geographical position.”

As soon as the woman handed her phone back, she called Justin and listened. She could hear the phone ringing but that was just it. She could not hear the ring tone, just the phone ringing in her ear.

“Coast guard’s got a signal,” the woman said. “They say that the phone is a four hundred meters south of our position.”

“There!”

Eliza didn’t care whose voice it was. She just began running towards the direction like everyone else. It seemed like forever before they finally got to the location.

“Where is he?” Eliza asked. “Where the hell is he?”

“Somebody call his phone,” she heard someone say.

“Good idea,” she said to no one in particular as she dialed Justin once again. “Everybody quiet!” she yelled as she waited to hear the phone ringing. It was not long before they heard the distinctive ringing from a distance. Eliza began walking towards the direction of the ringing phone. It was not long before she saw something glimmering in the sand. She got down and picked it up before she began looking around. “I found the phone. He has to be around here somewhere.”

“Alright people,” the woman said. “You heard her. Everyone split up and look around.”

Eliza did not know why but she just couldn’t move. All she could do was just stand there and wait to hear when someone found him.

“Any minute now,” she assured herself. “Any minute now, someone is going to find him.”

But no one ever did.

“We have been up and down every inch of this place taking into account where you found the phone and there is no sign of him,” one of the volunteers said as she looked at Eliza who was now sinking to the ground. “We need to call it. We have been at this for hours.”

“We can’t give up,” Eliza said shaking her head. “There is no way of telling where he could be and if he is hurt…”

“A few more hours,” the woman said after a long silence. “But we will need to give the search up to the authorities at some point.”

“A few more hours,” Eliza said as she held the woman’s hand in hers. “That’s all I ask for. He is close…I can feel it.”

The woman nodded and readjusted her flashlight.

“Okay,” she said as she held her phone to her ear. Eliza didn’t know who she was calling but at that moment it did not really matter. All that mattered was that she was getting more time to look for Justin.

Eliza pulled herself up and that is when she heard the woman speaking to the authorities. She must have been the contact between the search party and the coast guard.

“The coast guard says there is a bay just ahead. But they say that it might be out of sight soon since the tide is rising,” the woman says.

“Then we have to hurry,” Eliza said before she began running. She was not even sure she was on the right track but at that moment, she didn’t really care. All she really wanted to do was get out to the bay. And the faster she ran, she could have sworn she could see something. “I think I see something,” she called out as she went on running.

“Yeah, there is a clearing up ahead,” a male voice behind her called out.

The more people that approached the area, the clearer it became. The bay the coast guard had talked about was right ahead. But as she looked around, she still couldn’t see any sign of Justin. She could feel herself giving in and once more she sunk to her knees.