Escape

Escape is the third and final book in Gordon Korman's Island trilogy, a young adult adventure series about six children stranded on a tiny, uncharted Pacific island after a shipwreck.

A prologue set on September 3, 1945, establishes the island's hidden history. At a top-secret U.S. Army Air Corps installation, 26 airmen rush to fly home after World War II. Their classified mission had been to deploy a third atomic bomb, code-named Junior, a backup in case the first two bombs failed to end the war. The crane required to move the 9,000-pound bomb has broken down, and Junior is left stranded in its underground pit. The narrator notes that 56 years later, six young shipwreck survivors wash up on the island's shores.

By Day 16, the six castaways have settled into a tense survival routine. Luke Haggerty, the group's unofficial leader, and Ian Sikorsky, whose encyclopedic television knowledge proves invaluable, chase a wild jungle fowl as a birthday present for the injured Will Greenfield. Will has a bullet wound in his thigh from a stray shot fired by smugglers who use the island's abandoned military base for trading in illegal animal parts. J.J. Lane, the son of movie star Jonathan Lane, kills the bird but clashes with Charla Swann, the group's most athletic member, and with Luke, who is fed up with J.J.'s refusal to contribute. When the castaways overboil the fowl, Will's sister Lyssa Greenfield discovers the broth has become chicken soup, briefly lifting spirits.

J.J. believes the entire ordeal is a simulation staged by Charting a New Course (CNC), the program for troubled youth that placed all six teens on the boat trip aboard the Phoenix. Each was sent for a specific issue: Luke for a gun found in his locker, which he insists was planted; Charla for obsessive athletic striving; Ian for television addiction; Will and Lyssa for destructive sibling rivalry; and J.J. for reckless stunts meant to win his father's attention. J.J. is convinced CNC is watching on hidden cameras and will intervene when things go too far.

On Day 17, Will's health deteriorates after he takes his last antibiotic. Luke and Charla trek to the abandoned military dispensary for medicine, but the smugglers' floatplane lands while they are inside, trapping them overnight. The smugglers' leader, a large man the castaways call Mr. Big, is furious over a suitcase of money that fell from the plane during a fistfight. At camp, the others spot the plane and confirm it belongs to the smugglers; they smother their signal bonfire and hide. At dawn, Luke and Charla slip away and discover the fallen suitcase, which contains millions of dollars. Recognizing that a search for the money could expose the camp, Luke leaves the cash in a clearing near the smugglers' base.

Back at camp, a copy of USA Today left by the smugglers reveals that the Phoenix's mate, Calvin Radford, abandoned the children at sea and told the world all six died. No one is looking for them. Over the following days, the castaways treat Will's worsening infection using the wartime diary of Captain Hap Skelly, the base's former doctor, who recorded using bitter melon, a local plant, when penicillin ran out. Will's fever climbs past 102 degrees, and he grows delirious. On Day 22, he blacks out while swimming and sinks; Luke pulls him to safety. The group confronts the reality that Will may die without surgery.

Luke proposes stowing away in a smugglers' cargo crate, flying off the island, and contacting authorities. The group resolves to deliver the suitcase directly into the smugglers' path so the smugglers will leave, and Ian prepares papers with the island's precise coordinates for the stowaway to carry. In a quiet moment, Luke reflects on how each castaway's flaw has revealed a hidden strength: Ian's television addiction supplies survival knowledge, Charla's athleticism provides physical capability, and Will and Lyssa's rivalry conceals fierce loyalty. Luke's own trusting nature, the trait that landed him on the trip, has made him the group's unifying force. Only J.J.'s spoiled attitude has yet to yield an asset.

On Day 23, Charla hurls the suitcase into the smugglers' path, but one smuggler falls into the hidden bomb pit and discovers Junior. That evening, J.J. undergoes a profound shift, reasoning that CNC would never allow children to perform surgery on another child. Since no rescuers have appeared, no one is watching. J.J. volunteers to replace Luke as the stowaway, arguing that his identity as Jonathan Lane's son is a survival advantage: If caught, the smugglers might ransom him rather than kill him. Luke resists, but the group sides with J.J.

Before dawn on Day 24, J.J. climbs into a cargo crate alongside elephant tusks in Mr. Big's plane, asking Luke to tell his father he is sorry he never grew up. The plane lands on Taiwan, where J.J. attempts to flee but is captured. Mr. Big and his British-accented associate, Naslund, demand to know who else is on the island. Naslund twists J.J.'s arm to the breaking point, but J.J. refuses to reveal the others. When Mr. Big orders him killed, J.J. shouts that he is Jonathan Lane's son. Mr. Big spares his life to pursue a ransom.

Locked in a storeroom and guarded by two men J.J. nicknames Mean and Meaner, J.J. has his one-of-a-kind designer sunglasses stolen by Mean. The sunglasses were custom-made for Jonathan Lane by fashion designer Paul Smith. The smugglers arrange a phone call with Lane, who confirms the ransom is ready. J.J. realizes the smugglers will kill him after payment, and Naslund reveals plans to extract nuclear material from Junior's shell.

On the island on Day 26, with no sign of rescue, Luke performs emergency surgery on Will, whose fever has topped 103 degrees. Using old Novocain and a scalpel, and following Ian's advice from a television show, Luke extracts the bullet. Ian applies antiseptic, and a modern adhesive patch seals the wound.

On Day 28, J.J. escapes by overpowering a lone guard, seizing his gun, and shooting through an exit door lock, inadvertently striking Naslund on the other side. He sprints down the runway and encounters a police cruiser; the officers recognize him as Jonathan Lane's missing son. That same day on the island, Will awakens alert and recovering. Fearing the smugglers' return, the castaways launch their lifeboat with a sail sewn from old fatigues. After six hours at sea, a U.S. Marine climbs aboard, and a helicopter winches them to safety.

Aboard the helicopter, J.J. explains that the smugglers are in jail. Mean tried to pawn J.J.'s stolen sunglasses, and the pawnshop owner contacted Jonathan Lane's office to verify an inscription, alerting Lane and the FBI. Armed with the coordinates J.J. carried from the island, rescuers located the castaways at sea.

A final interlude reveals that in 1945, technicians removed Junior's uranium fuel and detonator before leaving, rendering the bomb an empty shell; someone placed a note reading "KA-BOOM!" inside. In the epilogue, the six castaways attend the opening of Junior's shell on Guam, where scientists find only the joke note. Radford is arrested in Macao and charged with six counts of attempted murder. The island is added to official maps as Junior Island. On December 28, 2001, the six castaways hold their first reunion at Jonathan Lane's Los Angeles home. They do not go to the beach.