Arin came over and looked at Derek. Derek nodded and held up a hand. Arin understood, and a few minutes later the Dolphins reclaimed their beach.

“You can’t stay out here forever.” That seemed to be the message Arin was trying to deliver as he stood and looked back over his shoulder toward the trees and held out his hands invitingly. Yes. Of course. Hutch and her friends exchanged glances and nods, and followed him back into the forest.

When they’d gotten out of the sun, Arin confronted Derek and asked a question, part language, part signals. It wasn’t hard to guess the meaning: Did we think we’d contacted whoever was in the sky?

Derek shook his head and held out his hands. No way to know. He turned to Hutch. “He realizes we were in trouble and you could have crash-landed on the beach. I’m pretty sure he appreciates what you did.”

Arin signaled they should walk.

They looked at one another. “We’re going to need his help,” said Derek, “if we have any chance to survive.” He waved everybody on. “Let’s go.”

“Where to?” asked Ken.

“I’d guess wherever Arin wants to take us.”

•  •  •

They came out of the trees onto a winding dirt road that led north. Nobody said anything. Behind them, the sunbathers gathered and watched but did not follow. There were a few parked cars, which looked more like golf carts with canvas roofs. A couple of the islanders came out of the foliage, got into two of the vehicles, and pulled abreast of them, where they stopped and had a brief conversation with Arin. Everybody waited while some sort of agreement was reached. Then Arin indicated they should get into the cars. Each was designed to accommodate three passengers. Actually, the rear seat was so large, it could have taken three itself. Beth and Ken got into one, and Derek, Hutch, and Arin into the other. Derek raised a hand to signal they were ready. Arin said something to their driver and he returned a smile that was wider and somehow as congenial and innocent as any Hutch could remember. They pulled out onto the road and continued north.

The trees blocked off the sky. Birds sang and flapped in the upper branches. A pair of creatures that might have been lizards chased one another up a vine. A small creature with brown fur watched from behind a bush.

They passed a few cabins and cottages. In one of them, two creatures sat on a porch. They got out of their seats and stared as the cars approached. Hutch couldn’t help noticing that a lamp was lit in one of the windows. That drew her attention to wires attached to several places.