None of us expected to see the sunrise. Pink strands of daylight sliced through the black clouds. Just like that, the storm receded, leaving only a thin layer of fog in its wake. Captain Salvador Gomez’s dazed stare fixated on the sea, as if he expected it to vanish with a blink. There in the distance, barely visible in the mist, the strange island materialized like a mirage. We almost hadn’t seen it.

“We can make it to the beach, it’s not too far,” Chief Officer Yanni called across the water. He boarded our last available life raft. The other had failed to inflate. “She leaks but she’ll get us there.”

It unsettled me to look at the water, now so eerily calm. Almost as though at any moment the storm could return and with it those mountainous waves. Below us, two bloated bodies still floated. They rocked against the ship, jostling to return aboard.