Survival

The second book in Gordon Korman's Island trilogy, Survival picks up where the first installment left off. A tiny wooden raft, once the galley roof of the schooner Phoenix, rests on the beach of an unnamed coral island deep in the Pacific Ocean. Four young people survived seven days adrift after a shipwreck that killed their captain, after their mate deserted them, and after two companions vanished. Three were near death when they washed ashore; the fourth was deeply unconscious. The island appears on no maps and lies along no shipping lanes.

Luke Haggerty, Charla Swann, and Ian Sikorsky, three of the survivors, are starving after a week without food. Their fourth companion, Will Greenfield, lies unconscious on the beach. All six young people aboard the Phoenix had been participants in Charting a New Course (CNC), a monthlong sailing program for troubled youth. Luke was sentenced to CNC after a pistol was found in his backpack during a locker inspection, a crime he insists he did not commit. Captain Cascadden drowned in the shipwreck, and their shipmates Lyssa Greenfield, Will's sister, and J.J. Lane are presumed dead. When the group cannot crack open a coconut, Ian, the youngest, identifies durian fruits in the jungle. The three gorge themselves on the foul-smelling fruit, but the sudden intake overwhelms their bodies, and all three lose consciousness.

Luke awakens in the dark to find a tusked wild boar inches from his face. Remembering Will, the three navigate back to the beach by following the sound of the surf, only to find him gone. Will has regained consciousness but has amnesia; his last memory is boarding a plane to Guam with Lyssa. He remembers nothing of the Phoenix or his fellow castaways, accuses the others of lying and kidnapping his sister, and flees into the jungle.

On Day 2, Ian uses his eyeglasses to focus sunlight and start a signal fire. Charla climbs a palm tree to harvest coconuts, and they find small bananas. They build a lean-to shelter and head into the jungle to search for Will. He watches them from hiding, convinced they are dangerous. When they leave, he sneaks into camp, steals bananas, and sets fire to the shelter to destroy evidence of his visit.

On Day 3, the group rebuilds the shelter. A twin-engine seaplane appears and lands on the far side of the island. Assuming their fire has been spotted, the three set off along the coast, navigating jagged coral and steep cliffs for hours. They spot the plane in a sheltered lagoon where four men are unloading crates. A gunshot rings out, and the three watch a tall, red-haired man holding a revolver while a fourth man floats facedown in the water, dead. Despite Charla's plea to approach the men for help, Luke insists the killers would murder witnesses. They retreat, devastated.

On Day 4, Will constructs a crude bow and arrows, still viewing the castaways as enemies. A wild boar charges him, and he lodges an arrow in its snout, driving it away. That same morning, Ian discovers the murdered man's body washed up on the castaways' beach. The three bury the man deep in the jungle and hold an improvised funeral. Afterward, Ian spots fresh footprints near the grave, proof that Will is alive.

Following the tracks, the group finds two sets of footprints and fears the smugglers are nearby. A figure trips over Luke in the underbrush, and Luke grabs a rock before recognizing J.J. Lane's designer sunglasses, engraved with his movie-star father's name. Lyssa then appears, and the five survivors share an emotional reunion. J.J. and Lyssa escaped the sinking Phoenix on an inflatable lifeboat equipped with a survival pack containing cookware, a knife, a lighter, fishing supplies, a first aid kit, and one freeze-dried meal. J.J. insists the entire ordeal is an elaborate CNC test. The others reject his theory.

That night, Will sneaks into camp and grabs Lyssa, begging her to escape with him. Horrified by his emaciated, wild-eyed appearance, she calls for help, and Will flees. Back at his camp, he finds the wounded boar near his fire, removes the arrow from its snout, but cannot bring himself to kill the animal. By morning, the boar is asleep on his feet. Will names it "Rat-face," finding the name strangely familiar.

On Day 5, a second plane arrives. The castaways spy on the lagoon and watch the smugglers unwrap elephant tusks, refrigerated containers of tiger parts, and rhinoceros horns. Ian identifies the operation as illegal wildlife trafficking. An enormously fat man in a white silk suit, whom J.J. dubs "Mr. Big," arrives carrying a suitcase of cash, accompanied by a Doberman pinscher that catches the castaways' scent. They flee. Back at camp, they find the lifeboat ransacked by a boar and their last emergency meal gone.

Over the following days, the group improves their survival routines: fishing, boiling taro root, and eating snails for protein. Ian builds saltwater stills, and Lyssa works on repairing the lifeboat's radio. Depression and tension mount; Luke cruelly blames J.J. for Captain Cascadden's death. Scout patrols reveal that the smugglers are systematically searching the jungle with the Doberman. The group develops a concealment protocol called the "two-minute drill": Charla signals with an owl hoot from a lookout tree, and the others extinguish fires, camouflage the lifeboat, and vanish into the underbrush. Ian suggests placing fish remains around camp to confuse the dog's nose.

While scouting, Luke and Ian discover a Quonset hut, a semicircular military structure, hidden in the jungle. A rusted sign reads "UNITED STATES ARMY AIR CORPS." Inside, they find a World War II-era office now serving as the smugglers' quarters. Ian discovers a top-secret envelope referencing "Junior," which he identifies as the code name for a third atomic bomb from the Manhattan Project, the secret wartime program that produced the first nuclear weapons. The island was a hidden launch site, meaning it officially does not exist and making rescue even more unlikely. The smugglers return before the boys can leave, and they barely escape by squeezing under a gap in the hut's wall.

Will's memory finally breaks through when he whispers "Rat-face" and a vivid image of the Phoenix's mate, Radford, flashes through his mind. His full memory of the shipwreck returns, and he rushes toward the others' camp. Meanwhile, two smugglers and the Doberman approach, triggering the two-minute drill. The group forgets to deploy the fish scraps, and the smugglers release the dog, which charges toward the hidden castaways. Rat-face bursts from the bushes and kills the Doberman before the smugglers shoot and kill the boar. The red-haired smuggler concludes the dog was merely tracking the pig and announces they can leave the island. After the smugglers depart, the castaways find Will beneath a fern with a bullet wound in his thigh, struck by a stray round. His memory has fully returned, and he greets each of them by name. Ian warns that the bullet, still lodged in Will's leg, will cause infection without medical treatment.

Both planes depart, freeing the castaways to move openly. Exploring the Quonset hut, they find a copy of USA Today hailing Radford as a hero who fought to save the six young people, all "presumed dead," and blaming J.J. for raising sails in the storm. While carrying medical supplies from the installation, J.J. falls into a pit and uncovers a massive black metal object roughly 10 feet long with fins on one end: Junior, the third atomic bomb, built and abandoned contrary to historical accounts. The book ends with the castaways confronting compounding dangers: a hostile environment, the smugglers' inevitable return, Will's worsening wound, and an atomic bomb beneath their feet.