The island was still above water when the countdown reached ten minutes.
Harlan had rowed the three rafts clear of the southern rocks, but he kept the oars in his hands.
Frey’s group remained to the north.
Two of his people were still pulling wood down the beach, and another raft had stopped beside them to take the load.
Chloe sat with her injured wrist against her chest.
The cloth Harlan had wrapped around it was dry.
She could move her fingers, though gripping the seedling bottle with that hand hurt.
Adam moved the bottle into the crate and checked that her own raft was still tied to his.
The rope was tight where the current pulled the three rafts away from land.
“They’re still cutting,” she said.
“They’ve seen the timer,” Harlan said.
He put his oars back in the water and took them farther out.
Adam watched a man on the western shore drag a branch that caught on a root.
The man left it, lifted a smaller piece and ran.
Two other people were still in the trees.
From this distance Adam could not tell whether they belonged to Frey’s group or the rafts that had arrived late.
[Formation collapse: 5 minutes.]
The first change was at the spring.
Water ran down the cut in the ground, then stopped.
The hollow at its source had dropped out of sight behind the slope.
Adam stepped to the edge of his raft, careful of the loose corner tile.
The sand above the water line darkened as it sank.
The nearest palm leaned toward the beach.
“Those two,” Chloe said.
She pointed toward the trees.
They were coming now, each carrying an armful of wood.
The first reached a raft and threw his load onto it.
The second slipped on the wet sand.
He got up without the wood.
Farther north a third raft pushed away from shore before its owner had climbed aboard.
The man splashed after it and caught the side.
The beach narrowed.
Frey’s rowers turned back toward the three rafts that had stayed.
One of the late arrivals slid over a submerged strip of sand and lurched sideways.
A person fell between it and the next raft.
Another jumped in after him.
Frey’s nearest rower came alongside and hauled both people aboard by their arms.
Adam could see no way for his joined rafts to get through the boats in time to help.
Harlan kept them moving clear while Frey’s people pulled the last men away.
The two from the trees reached their raft together, leaving their wood where it lay.
The timer reached zero.
The ground under the trees dropped more quickly.
Sand and dark soil washed into the shallows.
The water at the beach turned brown, then spread in a broad cloud around the departing rafts.
One palm stood for another minute with water partway up its trunk.
It tilted, and the crown disappeared beneath the surface.
Adam kept looking toward the spring.
He could no longer pick out the hollow, only disturbed water where the middle of the island had been.
The jerrycan on his raft was full of that spring’s water.
Nobody would fill another container there.
Harlan stopped rowing when the last tree went under.
Frey’s rafts were moving away to the north with the two people they had pulled from the water.
The other groups spread out in smaller clusters.
No one on the southern side had been left ashore; there was no shore left.
“We got clear,” Chloe said.
She looked at her wrapped wrist.
“I shouldn’t have jumped.”
“You kept that raft off ours,” Adam said.
“I’ll tie the bottle down.
Leave the ropes to us.”
Harlan checked the join between his raft and Adam’s before they settled for the night.
The island’s collapse had left loose wood and leaves on the surface, but the current carried the three rafts past most of it.
Adam caught one floating branch with the hook pole and found it too green and narrow to count as Wood.
He let it go.
They already had more wood than his raft was carrying comfortably.
They ate the three cooked fish left in Adam’s crate.
Chloe held hers in her right hand.
Harlan took a turn at the oars whenever the joined rafts drifted toward the cluster of boats north of them, then stopped once there was clear water between.
In the dark, Adam checked the ropes at the two joins and set a dry cloth under Chloe’s wrist.
She slept on her own raft where she could keep the injured arm from being knocked by the crate.
By morning, Adam’s raft sat low at the side that carried the extra wood.
He had taken eight pieces from Harlan before they left the beach, and the three soil sacks were stacked under his shade.
When he walked past the old purifier, water touched the lower edge of the boards.
The damaged corner tile lifted slightly after each long swell.
It had held through the night, but the added weight made him avoid that edge.
He opened the Raft tab.
[Tiles: 7.
Buoyancy: 525 kg.
Stability: Low.]
The load was below the limit, but waves touched the low corner.
He opened the Raft Tile recipe.
“Two tiles,” he told Harlan.
“One on each side of the weak corner.”
Harlan set his oars down and stepped across to look.
“Don’t build off the loose edge first.
Get a sound side under it.”
He had enough material for two tiles.
Chloe offered to hold the pieces while he worked.
He asked her to sit where she could pass them with her right hand.
She made a face at that but stayed off the damaged corner.
Adam fitted four Wood and a Rope to the sound edge while Harlan steadied the joined rafts with his oars.
The new tile joined the old edge.
Adam pressed on it; it stayed level.
[Raft Tile added.
Tiles: 8.
Buoyancy: 600 kg.]
For the second tile he used another four Wood and one Rope.
Harlan had him place it beyond the first, where a person could stand without pressing down on the damaged corner.
The System finished the join.
Adam moved the soil sacks onto the new boards, then carried part of the wood across.
The old corner still shifted, but less water reached it when he walked the raft.
[Tiles: 9.
Buoyancy: 675 kg.
Stability: Low.]
Chloe brought out the fruit seeds she had folded into paper.
She could spread them with her good hand, but the fold slipped when she tried to hold it down with the injured one.
Adam put a clean board in front of her as a weight.
She counted twelve seeds, checked the paper for any caught in the crease and wrapped them again.
The fruit in the crate was bruising.
They ate the softest one rather than leave it to spoil.
Harlan moved back to his raft and tested the ropes between them.
With the new floor, Adam could reach the sacks without standing over the weak tile.
The group remained joined while they worked, each raft pulling a little against the other as the swell passed.
Adam filled both purifier intakes.
They had spring water stored, but it would not last through many days if the sun stayed clear and the group drank normally.
Regional Chat showed Frey’s offer just after midday.
[Frey] Island Core (Tier 0).
Looking for offers over 40 Water.
Message me.
No physical meeting without a confirmed trade.
Replies came quickly.
Some wanted to know whether he had a recipe for it.
Others asked what the core had done before the island sank.
Frey answered that it was rare and said little else.
Adam saw no confirmed sale.
A new handle replied from outside their region when someone copied Frey’s offer into Global Chat.
[Lena.V] It is a component.
Read the item tab.
Its description points to a stationary formation.
Until someone can build one, the price is a guess.