Kaboom!
Loud noises could be heard from the factory, even though the factory was located on an island quite far away. The noise was becoming a nuisance and this nuisance was becoming a part of life. Whatever was going on on that island, nobody knew.

Johnny couldn’t take it anymore; he had to find out what was causing that noise. And more strangely, late at night he could see things that looked like drones flying over the island. So that day at school, he told all his friends about it and asked them whether they would like to ‘investigate’ it with him. Then before they could continue their conversation, they heard the bell ring. Johnny then spoke, “So if you’re interested in solving that mystery, meet me at my place at 5pm and please don’t be late.” After that, they went back to class. There were four periods left for school to end, and Johnny was getting impatient. He couldn’t concentrate in class anymore; all he could think about was that annoying noise. He kept glancing at his watch, so much so that the teacher even asked if he would like to leave the class. After school ended, he rode his bike as fast as he could to reach home and prepare for the trip. He took some of his pocket money and went to a nearby shop. He bought some ropes, flashlights and a couple of other things that he could afford. Then he returned home.

Two hours later…

Shawn and Katie were the first ones to arrive. Johnny greeted them and saw that they had come prepared aswell. They waited for about fifteen minutes, trying to pass the time while waiting for anyone else to show up. Johnny sighed. It didn’t seem like anyone else was coming. Although he had hoped more people would come, there was nothing he could do about it now.

“Alright Shawn, Katie, it’s already 5:20pm and it doesn’t look like anyone else will be joining us. We’ll leave in ten minutes, so freshen up now if you have to.”

Johnny borrowed some money from his parents and bid them farewell. (If you’re wondering how on earth his parents let him travel to a mysterious island, well let’s just say he told his parents that he had a camping trip. Johnny always was good at forgeries, and it would be easy to forge a signature.)

So Shawn, Katie and Johnny took their cycles and rode to the marina. They needed a boat – and you could rent one from there. After awhile, they finally reached. Shawn and Katie waited outside while Johnny talked to the person in charge of renting the boats.
The man’s name was Tony. After a minute or so, they could see Johnny walking towards them.

“So what did he say?” asked Katie.

“It seems that we need an adult to travel with us. They don’t allow children who are younger than eighteen to travel alone. But we can’t take an adult with us, it will ruin our plans.” replied Johnny.

“So what do you propose we do?” asked Shawn.

“Eerr…wait! I’ve got an awesome idea. Katie you tell Tony that there’s someone bleeding badly in one of the boats, and Shawn you run to that firework’s factory and see if you can get some gunpowder. Meanwhile I’ll get some other things that we’ll need for a small explosion. Rendezvous back here in fifteen minutes, alright? Let’s go!”

Katie was such a drama queen. She ran to Tony and acted like she was terrified. She told Tony what she was supposed to say, trying to fake tears simultaneously. Tony thanked her for informing him and said that he would check it out. After he was gone, Katie grabbed the boat keys of “Cheetah”, a cabin cruiser and walked to the rendezvous point.

Meanwhile Shawn had arrived at the factory. He asked one worker for some gunpowder. The worker refused at first, but later gave in to his request, after Shawn had put about 30$ in his pocket.

After a few minutes, they could see Shawn walking towards them. The factory was a bit far, so they didn’t mind although he was ten minutes late.

“Well guys, how’d it go? Have you accomplished your tasks? As for me, I’ve managed to get some things we need to create a small explosion. We need a distraction to borrow the boat without anyone seeing us, and this little trick will give us plenty of time.”

Then Katie spoke up, “Borrow? You mean steal right? Gosh I feel so bad about this. But yeah, I got the boat keys.”

“Nah, we’re not stealing it. I left the money of the front desk. Its just that we’re legally not allowed to sail a boat since we’re under eighteen, and that’s why we need to go through so much trouble to ‘borrow’ the boat” Johnny replied.

“In any case, I managed to get some gunpowder. I’m not sure if it will be enough but something’s better than nothing, right?” asked Shawn.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a plastic bag containing the gunpowder. Then Johnny took the bag from him saying, “Yeah, this should be more than enough. I’ll go and set up this trick near that sushi restaurant. Katie, you wait near the boat. Shawn after I give you the signal, you run to the restaurant and throw these pellets at those barrels. Make sure you throw them with force, only then will they burst into flames and will ignite the rest of the gunpowder.”

Then Johnny showed him the signal, handed him a couple of pellets and went to setup his trick. He took about five to six minutes to set everything up but he finally managed to do it. He gave the signal and walked back to the boats. About thirty seconds later, he heard an explosion. He smiled. All those classes of chemistry proved to be useful yet again.

Shorty after, they could see Shawn running towards them. He looked a bit tense. Maybe he thought that someone had seen him throwing the pellets.

“Good work! Come on, let’s get in the boat and get out o’ here, it won’t be too long till Tony realizes that one of his rentals has been stolen.”

After that was said, they hopped into the boat. Then Katie went to start the engine. But when she had turned the ignition key, it seemed that there was either no fuel or the engine simply didn’t work, but then all of a sudden it roared to life.

They had decided that they would take shifts sailing the boat towards the island. So Shawn and Johnny went to sleep while Katie took the first shift. This was Johnny's first time on a boat and so he wasn’t getting any sleep. About an hour later, he heard someone’s footsteps, Katie's obviously. "She must have come to wake me up, it was my turn to sail now," he thought. She saw that he was already awake and so she just waited for him to stand up. She was too tired to say anything, so she just smiled at him. He didn’t want to exert her anymore than she already had and so he just smiled back at her instead of talking to her. She laid down on the bed and fell asleep immediately.

While walking to the deck, he felt a bit unstable. He wasn’t walking straight. His suspicions were confirmed when he reached the deck. The weather was pretty bad. And by the looks of it, it had just begun. He felt like the weather-gods must hate him.

Suddenly—

His leg slipped on some water and he fell overboard. Luckily he had caught the side of the boat. He screamed for help. Nobody could hear him through all the noise (of the storm). He started panicking. He knew how to swim, but this was the ocean, not a swimming pool, and if he so much as lost his energy, he would be a goner. He started hoping that I wouldn’t wind up being some shark’s dessert. "I had to try to pull myself up," he thought. He tried screaming again. Then he heard Shawn’s voice.
“Johnny, is that you? Where are you?” His heart leaped for joy. “Yo Shawn! I’m over here. Hurry, please!”
Shawn walked towards Johnny's voice. When he saw him, he just dropped his jaw at first. But then Johnny tried to snap him out of it by screaming his name. He wasn’t doing too well. He definitely wouldn’t be able to hold on for much longer. He wasn’t very strong, but the fright of death kept his grip strong.

“Shawn, Shawn Shawwwn. Snap out of it you moron!”

I could tell that he wanted to say something to me, but he knew it wasn’t the time. After that he reached out to me and pulled me up with all of his strength.

I was relieved to be back on board.

“Thanks a lot man. But um…shouldn’t you be asleep? I mean its not your shift yet.”

“Well to be honest, I got a strange nightmare. And after that I wasn’t getting much of sleep. So I got up and went to grab some food from my backpack. Then I thought I heard someone screaming. So I came out and that’s when I heard you.”

“Oh okay. Hey um…if your still not sleepy, would you mind sailing now? I think I’ve had enough of excitement for tonight. I think we should reach land in about two hours. But don’t forget we have to dock the boat on the forest side, since that will provide some cover for our boat.”

“Yeah alright. I can handle it. You go take a nice long nap. And when we near the island, I’ll wake you both up.”

The rest of the morning passed without further excitement. Shawn was having fun, listening to music and sailing, with an occasional sip of Pepsi. About an hour later, he came to wake us up. Few minutes more, and they would finally reach the mysterious island.