Unbroken (The Young Adult Adaptation): An Olympian's Journey from Airman to Castaway to Captive

Meanwhile, Deasy lands Daisy Mae on Palmyra. When he receives news that Green Hornet never landed, a rescue mission is organized. However, due to the vastness of the sea they went down in, and because of drifts and currents, there is little hope of finding them in the “enormous” search area (107).

Louie awakens on the raft to discover that Mac has eaten their entire food supply. He controls his anger by telling himself that they will be rescued that day or the next. However, when a bomber passes far from them and they fail to get its attention, they realize that their rafts are drifting rapidly west, out of the regular bomber flight path.

On the third morning, Daisy Mae flies directly overhead. Louie fires four flares in its direction, nearly hitting the bomber, but due to cloud cover, they go unnoticed. This, coupled with their continued drift west toward the Japanese-controlled islands of Marshall and Gilbert, further dwindles Louie’s hopes of rescue. Meanwhile, Mac drifts further into shock, again screaming wildly about their doom and forcing Louie to slap him into silence. For the first time since childhood, Louie silently prays to himself.

One week after the wreck, the search for the Green Hornet is abandoned. The men’s families are informed of their disappearances. However, Louie’s mother is “absolutely certain” that Louie is still alive (111).

During their first three weeks on the ocean, the men battle with thirst and hunger. Although Louie designs a system to catch rainwater in the fabric of the pump covers, it rains infrequently. They manage to kill two albatrosses, and although only one is edible, they use both as bait to catch a few small fish. They are also able to catch birds, although one infests Louie with lice. Through it all, Louie begins to openly pray, with Phil joining in; however, Mac remains mostly silent because he “couldn’t see a future,” believing “the world was too far gone” (114).

After six days without water, Louie prays and promises to “dedicate his life” to God (117) in exchange for water. The next day, it rains.

On the 27th day, which the Introduction briefly describes, a Japanese bomber flies overhead and returns several times to shoot at the men. After the first pass, all three jump into the water. On subsequent passes, Mac and Phil lack the strength to jump back in and instead do their best to find cover on the raft. Louie jumps into the water each time and is forced to fight off several sharks. Eventually, the plane flies on, but one raft is destroyed, and the other is filled with holes.

The men work for hours to reinflate and patch the raft, as sharks attempt several times to bring down the raft or pull the men from it. Eventually, they succeed in mostly reinflating it, only needing to occasionally pump to counteract the few holes they could not reach. Louis notes that if there were not three of them, they would not have survived, and “for the first time, Mac was truly helpful” (122).

Using their knowledge of the bomber’s fuel and their original crash point, the men calculate that they are about 850 miles from a Japanese base. They figure they will reach the island in about three more weeks. Although they fear what awaits them on the island, they at least feel the destination gives them “something on which to ground their hope” (123).

Meanwhile, Mac goes back to not interacting with Louie and Phil, continuing to emotionally slip further away from them.

Louie notices the beauty of the sharks and reaches out to touch one. However, the sharks then launch their bodies onto the raft and attempt to pull him in. To his surprise, Mac, who seems revived by the incident and has “reclaimed himself,” saves him (126).

Angry at the sharks, Louie decides that they are going to catch and eat one. Although he initially fails, he and Phil eventually get the hang of it and manage to catch two, eating their livers. However, no more small sharks appear after that.

One night, around the 30th day, Mac dies while the men sleep. He began “his last journey with a panicked, disastrous act” but gave everything he had, saving Phil and Louie’s lives. He dies having “redeemed himself.” Louie prays to God that if they are saved, he will “serve heaven forever” (128).

Eventually, Louie and Phil pass into the doldrums and experience complete stillness. Louie feels as though everything, their suffering, hunger, and thirst, is “suspended,” and that the moment is a gift to him and Phil.

On the 40th day, Louie hears singing from above. As he looks into the clouds, he sees 21 human beings who sing the “sweetest song he’d ever heard” (129). He is adamant that he is lucid, and that it is not a hallucination—even though Phil hears and sees nothing.

Just as the men are on the verge of death, their raft barely afloat, more birds and planes begin to appear overhead. Off in the distance to the west, they see an island.

Louie and Phil drift off the coast of the islands in their raft as a typhoon ravages the area. When the storm breaks, they find that they are in a chain of islands and are immediately spotted and taken aboard a Japanese boat.

Initially, they are treated with hostility, beaten, and tied to the mast. However, the captain comes, and they are taken to an infirmary and fed, with their wounds treated. They remain on the Marshall Islands for two days but are then told they will be going to Kwajalein, known as Execution Island, and an officer tells them that, once there, he can no longer guarantee their safety.

Phil and Louie are put aboard a freighter and taken to Kwajalein. Louie is thrown into a cell where he sees nine names carved into the wall, marines who were left behind after an American raid on the Marshall Islands. He yells to Phil, who is in a cell nearby, and he hears guards outside. He looks down at his emaciated body and sobs.