by E S Richards
Unfortunately, without any of the camera equipment working, there was very little else Bryan, Lucas, and Cory could do while Andy and team were underneath the boat. Cory was left in charge of the safety lines and Bryan suited up as well just in case someone else needed to enter the water. As much as Andy and Brett were familiar with the water around Ningaloo Reef, they were still very aware that safety was the number one priority any time you stepped foot in the ocean. They might only be out there for whale sharks—one of the most docile and least dangerous animals in the sea—but that didn’t mean there weren’t other things to be afraid of.
“Right,” Andy spoke to Cory as he did a final oxygen test of his tank. “You know the drill, two tugs on this line and you start pulling, got it?”
“Got it Andy,” Cory nodded assertively. “Don’t worry, I got you guys.”
“Yeah I know you do, kid,” Andy smiled back. “You can never be too careful though. Three tugs and you’re in the water Bryan, sound good?”
“You know it,” Bryan spoke up from where he sat to one side, pulling on his flippers in case he needed to make an unscheduled rescue dive. “Stop messing around and get in, dude!”
Andy laughed, he knew he didn’t need to repeat the same safety instructions to these guys over and over, but it was part of his job as captain of the ship and leader of the expedition to keep everyone safe. Especially now that they’d run into some trouble.
“All right, see you on the other side then!”
Taking one last look at the three crew members still on the ship—Brett and Pablo already in the water—Andy tugged his diving mask down over his head, took a deep breath of filtered air and stepped off the edge of the diving platform into the ocean. The water was warm despite the relatively early hour and the three of them were only diving in summer wetsuits, a stark contrast to some of the dives Andy had made in South Africa the previous year. Thankfully the waters of Ningaloo Reef were a clear blue and immediately Andy could see Brett and Pablo in position underneath The Mako, the engine seal almost completely off the hull of the boat.
The intricately designed waterproof engine was a fairly new invention, but one that Andy had decided was worth forking out a large sum of money for. It had worked tirelessly for the past three years since he had it installed, so now he was definitely curious to see what had put a stop to it. Despite the hope of finding the solution to their problem, Andy couldn’t stop the niggling feeling in the back of his mind that there was something more wrong than just the engine. After all, the radio and the kitchen stove had stopped working as well—and they didn’t have anything to do with the boat’s engines.
Treading water and watching Brett and Pablo work, Andy found himself with very little to do. The space to work on the engine was small and he knew that the others would be better off without him crowding around them. So instead of helping, Andy was left to monitor the oxygen gauge and keep an eye on the vast ocean around them.
He wondered how many days they could survive at sea without any power. Hundreds of less prepared people had done it before following shipwrecks and storms and whatever else; for six seamen like Andy’s crew it really shouldn’t be a problem. His main worry was getting back to shore. Andy knew the currents in the area where they were currently anchored would push them further out to sea if they let them, so somehow they needed to find a way to counteract that. Due to the design of Andy’s boat, The Mako didn’t have any sails, so that would definitely be hurdle number one.
The list of things to think about gradually grew longer and longer in Andy’s head as he bobbed up and down underwater, methodically checking their surroundings and the oxygen tanks in turn. When the dial started to creep into the red, he kicked out a little at the water and pushed himself toward Brett and Pablo. The radio system in their diving masks had also stopped working, so Andy didn’t know how they’d been getting on. From a quick shake of Brett’s head though he could tell it wasn’t good news, and as the three of them surfaced, Andy’s list of possibilities started to become more and more real.
“I can’t see a single problem with it,” Brett pulled off his diving mask as soon as they were all sitting on the deck and turned to Andy immediately. “It’s so weird dude. There doesn’t appear to be anything wrong at all.”
“But it’s definitely not working?” Bryan was removing his flippers, the need for the rescue diver thankfully forgotten about.
“It didn’t work this morning,” Andy sighed, “Lucas, go and check it again would you?”
“On it!”
“There’s nothing that you saw, was there?” Brett continued talking, turning to Pablo to ask the younger man his thoughts on the engine. Pablo shook his head, opening his mouth to speak just as Lucas jogged back onto the deck.
“Nothing,” Lucas spoke softly. “Radio is still out as well. All of it.”
The boy’s words instilled an awkward silence over the deck, no one wanting to make eye contact with anyone else. Suddenly Andy got the feeling that everyone else was coming around to his way of thinking, trying to piece together how they would get home if they couldn’t get the boat to start. He locked eyes with Brett for a moment and saw his best friend shake his head ever so slightly; if Brett didn’t have a positive attitude about this situation, then it really was bad.
“Right.” Andy knew he had to do something and pushed himself to his feet so he wasn’t sitting on the floor of the deck any longer. “There’s no engine, no radio, and we’re miles from home. Those’re the facts. But we’re also fishermen, divers, marine specialists, biologists, engineers…if there’s any group of men designed for this scenario, it’s us. It’s not going to be easy, but when does the ocean ever make anything easy? We all signed up for the expedition for a challenge and well, here it is.
“You said it yourself this morning Lucas, a few extra days of research in a beautiful place like this can’t be bad! We just need to make the most of this, buck up our ideas, get back to the mainland, and just imagine the story we’ll have to tell everyone when we do!”
***
Somehow, Andy’s speech managed to have exactly the desired effect on his crew and everyone packed up from the dive, ready to face the next problem. As Andy watched them working, however, he couldn’t help but regress to the sense of dread he was feeling inside. He’d done what he needed to do as the captain of The Mako and reassured his crew that they were going to be all right. That they were going to make it home. But try as he might, he just couldn’t believe his own words.
Chapter 15
Len tried desperately to control his breathing as he was marched away from the dock, a rough burlap sack pulled down over his face and obscuring his vision. He could still see to some extent, just only making out blurry shapes lacking detail. Still, it allowed him to stay on his feet, the gang of men around him constantly pushing and prodding him as they moved.
Terrified didn’t even begin to cover what Len was feeling, but he refused to let it show. He was still reeling from the sight of Harrison running away from him and then the sound of that single gunshot that had echoed through all the corners of his head. Len had seen Harrison do several very impressive things, but he doubted that he could survive a gunshot wound. Especially when he was so grossly outnumbered. Harrison was dead, and that was just something Len was going to have to accept and move on from. While he was still alive, he had to fight for his own life instead.
So instead of thinking about people he couldn’t save, Len started to focus on where he was being taken. Although the sack distorted his vision a lot he could still make out the basic information. They were moving away from the lake and into a more populated area. Buildings lined the streets which remarkably didn’t look as damaged as Len would have thought. He didn’t know how much the sack was hiding from his view, but the fact the buildings were still standing was more than he could say for most of Chicago.
“Eyes down!”
Len yelped slightly as a hard jab caught him in the small of his bac
k, one of the men noticing him looking around and trying to put a stop to it. It was impossible to forget the weapons the gang carried and so Len did as he was told, too frightened to defy the men when he was clueless about their intentions. The rest of the walk he kept his head forward, but his eyes still moved to try and gather what information they could.
He was marched through a set of large, iron gates, a sign positioned on the top of them that Len didn’t quite have enough time to read. He heard the gates clang shut behind him though and winced slightly. If he was locked inside wherever they were then things were going to get a lot more complicated. Already the gang seemed much more organized than Len ever imagined and he just hoped they didn’t know he and Harrison had killed several of them earlier that day.
Continuing to walk, Len started to notice the strange smells and sounds that now surrounded him. He swung his head to the right slightly and caught sight of an extravagant birdcage, peppered with bright colors that he could make out through the sack. The turn of his head earned him another jab in the back and before Len could open his mouth in protest he was pushed forward through a door and away from the mysterious birdcage.
“Clear the way!”
A voice rang out from beside Len that was followed by several scraping sounds, a thud and the echo of metal clanging against metal. The noises lasted for around five minutes before Len was pushed forward again, the sack finally removed from his head as he landed in a heap on the floor. The sound of another metal gate being closed rang through his ears as Len held his head, trying to process what had just happened.
“Are you all right?”
“Quick, let’s get him away from the door.”
Len spun around as he heard the two voices, a strong set of hands hooking underneath his armpits and dragging him back slightly. Finally, as his eyes adjusted to the light, Len focused on a young couple, both looking at him with concern in their eyes.
“Who are you?” Len asked suspiciously, sweeping his gaze around the room they were in. “Where are we?”
The man cleared his throat and shuffled away from Len slightly, giving him some more room. “I’m Angelo, and this is Vanessa. We’re at Washington Park Zoo in Michigan City, which has somehow been…taken over by that gang of criminals. I’ve been in here for a couple of days and they brought Vanessa in this morning. What’s your name?”
Len stared at Angelo. He couldn’t understand how the man appeared so calm when they had just been kidnapped by a violent gang and locked away in a zoo. It made no sense. Looking across at Vanessa, who had apparently only been in the zoo since the morning, he noticed that she definitely appeared more panicked than Angelo, yet she wasn’t crying or screaming or trying to escape. Clearly something strange was happening here and Len had to figure out what that was.
“I’m Len,” he spoke cautiously, unsure whether he could trust the two people. “Why are we in a zoo? What do those guys want with us?”
“Money,” Vanessa cut into the conversation, “I’m pretty sure that’s what they’re after.”
“Money?” Len couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Chicago had basically burnt to the ground and these people wanted money. For what? Nothing was working, there wasn’t an Internet connection to make any bank transfers and there wasn’t anything out there worth buying. It seemed like the most ridiculous thing in the world to him.
“I guess they figure everything will go back to normal eventually,” Angelo took control of the conversation again. “When that happens, having a lot of money will certainly put someone at an advantage.”
“So has everything stopped working here as well then?” Len asked as he mined for more information. He still wasn’t sure how far the collapse had spread and was eager to find out anything more about the state of the rest of the country.
“Yep,” Angelo nodded, “we’re completely off the grid. Huge plane came down in the center of the city a couple of days ago and after that everything fell apart. Every man for himself out there now, unless you’re a part of this group, of course.” Angelo gestured to the gang running the rest of the zoo and rolled his eyes.
“Have you not tried to—”
“Escape?” Angelo cut Len off mid-sentence and held two fingers up in the air between them. “They tend to make that a little difficult, I’m afraid. Just you wait and see.”
Len furrowed his brow as he listened to Angelo talking. The more the man said, the more strange he found him, his mannerisms and the attitude he carried seemingly out of place in their makeshift prison. Just then though a familiar scraping sound filled the room and Angelo and Vanessa immediately moved themselves further back against the wall.
“Get back!”
Vanessa hissed at Len as he saw a metal door slide open and a huge Bengal tiger slowly padded into the room. A thin metal fence separated their side of the room from the side where the tiger had entered, but Len could tell if the beast wanted to cross the room he would be able to manage it.
He had witnessed many terrifying things since the start of the collapse of Chicago, but never had he imagined the lack of power would result in him coming face to face with a bloodthirsty animal. It was a whole new type of fear that he hadn’t experienced yet, but it was a real and bone-chilling fear all the same.
“What the—”
“Told you,” Angelo grinned from where he cowered beside the wall. “If you still want to try and escape, be my guest.”
Len stared at his fellow prisoner, his attitude continuing to amaze and starting to annoy him. Just because Angelo had been at the zoo the longest didn’t give him any right to talk down to Len, or Vanessa if he tried that as well. In Len’s mind they were all in the same situation and they should all be trying to find a way to escape. He found it difficult to believe that the gang was doing all of this for money. There was no way of knowing how long it would take before things returned to normal—if they ever did—and keeping prisoners for the potential promise of money seemed foolish. From what Len had already seen from this gang, they had immense manpower as well as ample supplies and weapons. Sadly, he couldn’t help but think they wanted more than just money and were thinking further ahead for resources in this strange new world. Len shuddered at the thought, realizing there was no way to predict what these types of people would do.
As he leaned further back against the wall and tried to put as much distance as possible between himself and the tiger, Len knew he was going to have to take matters into his own hands. Vanessa seemed like a nice enough woman, but Angelo didn’t look like he was going to offer much help. Somehow Len was going to have to get them out of there, and quickly. If what Angelo had said was true, then South Haven was probably in a similar state to Chicago and Len didn’t want to wait any longer before finding his family.
***
A cold hand over Len’s mouth woke him some hours later. He blinked and struggled in the relative darkness that the room had given way to, the image of the Bengal tiger still fresh in his mind. Whoever was covering his mouth kept his body in place and wouldn’t let him struggle. Len desperately tried to figure out what was happening and if his end had finally come.
Slowly, the figure started to come into focus in front of Len’s eyes and his body stilled as he realized who was there. He couldn’t quite believe who was standing in front of him, for many, many reasons. Harrison grinned. Half of his rescue mission, executed to perfection.
As Harrison slid his hand from Len’s mouth, he put a finger to his own lips and signaled for Len to be silent. Len naturally obliged, wondering how Harrison had managed to survive the attack on the dock and how he had managed to break into wherever the gang had taken him.
His eyes immediately snapped to the Bengal tiger, finding the large beast lying peacefully on its side, seemingly fast asleep. Len looked back at Harrison and saw the older man’s grin only widened, a playful glint in his eye. How Harrison had done that was a question Len would make sure to ask later, but for now he just wanted to escape from this plac
e and continue their journey. With Harrison back by his side, suddenly Len felt like they could accomplish anything.
Scrambling to his feet Len tried his best to remain completely silent. Harrison looked at Angelo and Vanessa, both of them still asleep despite the presence of a fourth member in the room with them. As Len locked eyes with Harrison he saw the prepper slowly shake his head and immediately he understood. Escaping from the zoo with it surrounded by gang members would be hard enough for the two of them, bringing along two more pairs of feet would only slow them down. As heartless as it might appear, Len agreed with Harrison and knew they would have to leave the others behind.
“Hey!”
Sadly, it seemed Angelo had another idea. Harrison immediately leapt forward as soon as the man rose and slammed a hand to his mouth like he had done with Len, stopping him from saying anything else. As Len saw Vanessa starting to stir as well he did the same to her, both of them silencing the others until they understood that they weren’t in any more danger. With a nod from Harrison, Len removed his hand from Vanessa’s mouth and offered her a meek smile in apology. After a moment, Harrison’s whisper filled the small room.