The Flooded Earth

by Mardi McConnochie

  “Oi!” Annalie shouted.

  The life preserver floated almost within reach. Will and Pod paddled toward it, then Pod grabbed onto it desperately and clung on. The girls hauled him in, leaving Will to swim the fastest he had ever swum in his life. Pod scrambled up the ladder, Will went up behind him, and they had barely got themselves over the side and onto the deck before Annalie gunned the engine and sent the Sunfish roaring out of the bay.

  On deck, Will started to giggle. “That was a close one.”

  “Who were those guys?” Annalie asked. “What did you do?”

  “Locals,” Will said. “I guess fishing isn’t allowed.”

  Pod was still sprawled on the deck where he’d flopped, still catching his breath, his face gray. Now he surged to his feet and grabbed Will angrily. “Never do that again!” he shouted.

  “What?” Will said. “You mean the water? Mate, I had to. They would have caught us.”

  “You never do that again,” Pod said ferociously, shaking him. “Ever.”

  “You tell him,” Essie said.

  “Okay, I’m sorry!” Will said, feeling ganged up on. “Man!”

  Pod let him go, still glowering.

  “Nobody likes being tossed in the water,” Essie said unapologetically. “You’ve really got to stop doing that.”

  Annalie, Will and Essie all turned then to look at Pod.

  “So...?” Annalie began, speaking for them all.

  “Those men,” Pod said. “They followed you from the market. They thought you were easy pickings. So I followed them.”

  “Why?” Will asked, astonished.

  “You saved me,” Pod said awkwardly. “I owe you.”

  “No you don’t,” Annalie said. “But thank you.”

  “What were they going to do to us?” Essie asked.

  Pod shrugged, brushing the question away.

  “So now what?” Annalie asked.

  Pod looked down, clearly very uncomfortable, then back at Annalie. “Maybe I can help you get where you’re going,” he said.

  Annalie looked at Will. Will raised his eyebrows at her and shrugged.

  “Okay,” Annalie said.

  And then, for the first time, Pod smiled.

  Pod joins the crew

  As they left the Astraman Islands behind, Annalie spotted an Admiralty boat patrolling the waters they had just left. This was probably just a coincidence, but it gave Annalie an uncomfortable feeling. How certain could they be that they weren’t still, somehow, being tracked? Luckily the patrol boat did not seem to see them, and they left the Astramans without any further trouble.

  From now on the sailing would be trickier; the seas of the Moon Islands were full of hazards, from rocks and reefs to dangerous currents and shipwrecks. Spinner’s sat nav had charts, but they were old—some were even pre-Flood—and couldn’t be relied on. That is, the islands were mostly in the right place, but some of them showed pre-Flood towns and coastlines that were now underwater. Others had been updated to show the present waterline and depths. But what they didn’t show were the other things they needed to know: where to buy water or get a mast repaired; where the movement of the ocean currents deposited sea junk, from lost shoes to whole shipping containers. They might not mention the whirlpool that sometimes appeared at high tide off a particular island. They certainly wouldn’t show the lighthouse that wasn’t really a lighthouse, but a trick designed to lure boats onto rocks so the islanders could strip their contents.

  “Now that we’re here we’re really going to have to work together as a crew,” Will told the others as they sat at dinner, the night they left the Astramans behind. “Pod will have to work with me to get up to speed on everything, and Annalie, you’ll need to make sure you stay across the navigation.”

  “Yes boss,” Pod said. The others looked at him and realized he was not joking.

  “What do you want me to do, boss?” Essie asked, more facetiously.

  “Just keep doing whatever it is you’ve been doing,” Will said.

  Essie stuck her tongue out at him.

  Now that Pod was a part of their crew, they realized they were going to have to try to get to know him. Essie, overawed by the story of his traumatic upbringing, didn’t have the first clue what to talk to him about, so she plied him with food instead. She had an idea that he must have grown up eating bread made with sawdust, moldy rice, and roasted rat, so it was up to her to introduce him to all the nice things in life, as if that might make up for the deprivation of his early years.

  Annalie wasn’t sure what to talk to him about either, but she noticed how his eyes followed Graham around the cabin, and that gave her an idea.

  “Did you know Graham’s more than forty years old?” she said to Pod one day.

  Pod looked surprised. “He doesn’t look that old.”

  “He is though. He was part of an experiment into animal communication, before the Flood.”

  “Is that how he learned to talk?”

  Annalie nodded. For the first time it crossed her mind to wonder how Spinner had come to own an experimental parrot who had once been part of a scientific study, and whether it had anything to do with his former life as a scientist. “My dad rescued him. They’ve been together ever since.”

  For a moment they watched Graham, who was hard at work tending his feathers.

  “He’s normally much livelier than this, even though he’s an old bird,” Annalie said. “But he’s really missing my dad.”

  The longer Graham spent away from his home and Spinner, the more he seemed to lose his spark. The bird had always been a bracing presence, deploying a stream of opinions, squawks and insults, but as the voyage continued he had begun to sink into himself, spending more time huddled on his perch with his back to the room.

  “He’s sad,” Pod said.

  “You know,” Annalie said, “it’d be good if you tried to make friends with him.”

  Pod’s face was caught between eagerness and doubt. “What do I know about birds?”

  “There’s nothing to know,” Annalie said. “You just have to pay him attention. Tell him how clever and handsome he is. He loves all that stuff.”

  Pod was good at following orders. As the days unfolded he courted Graham, offering him biscuits, talking to him, praising him, carrying him about, laughing at his birdy jokes. They even began to develop their own private jokes about the other people on the boat.

  Will didn’t like the feeling that Pod and the parrot were laughing at him behind his back. “I think I preferred it when Graham was miserable,” he said.

  * * *

  The journey proceeded uneventfully for the next few days. They saw other boats from time to time—fishing boats, small mixed cargo ships, even the odd passenger vessel—but no one gave them any trouble or even seemed terribly interested in them.

  Soon they arrived at the Millinni Islands, a group of almost a hundred islands varying in size from quite large to little more than specks of rock. One of the Millinni Islands had a volcano on it, and the view as you sailed into the strait was spectacular. Essie, perched in the bow, was taking pictures of the volcano with her shell when something caught her eye.

  She put her camera down, stared, could see nothing, looked back at the picture she’d taken, and zoomed in. Then she hurried back to where Annalie was standing with Will, checking some details on the charts. “I think I saw an Admiralty boat,” she said.

  “Where?”

  “Up ahead.” She showed them the photo she’d just taken. They all peered at it. “Look. There.”

  “Are you sure?” Will asked.

  Annalie studied the photo then looked at the chart, comparing them. “If that bit there is this bit here,” she said, “there’s a bay they could be hiding in. Coming up the strait we won’t see them until we’re right on top of them.”


  Will looked at the chart and could see that Annalie might be right.

  “Why do you think it was Admiralty?” he asked.

  “Doesn’t that look like their flag?” Essie said, pointing at a sliver of color on the picture.

  “It could be,” Will admitted.

  That was enough for Annalie. “So what shall we do?”

  “Better be on the safe side and go round the outside,” Will said.

  They changed course, taking a wider path around the island, although Will remained skeptical that it really had been an Admiralty boat.

  * * *

  They saw some fascinating things in the Millinnis. They came across a floating village in the calm waters between two islands. Houses had been built on rafts constructed out of natural and recycled materials. The rafts were lashed together and linked by walkways, and as they sailed by they saw kids leaping in and out of the water, swimming and playing like frogs, while the adults came and went in little boats. These people watched them go by, and some waved; they were neither hostile nor overly curious.

  “Look,” Essie said, “the islands on either side are completely covered with crops.” Although small, the islands were like market gardens, filled with fruit trees, vegetables, and other edible crops.

  “Maybe they decided not to waste their land on housing,” Annalie said. “I think a lot of these islands won’t grow anything any more because they’re salt-affected. Maybe they put the village out to sea so they could cultivate as much of the land as they could.” Annalie sighed. “Wouldn’t you love to live somewhere like this?”

  Essie shuddered. “Too wet.”

  “You sound like Graham,” Annalie laughed.

  Another day, still in the Millinnis, they spotted the patrol boat again, sliding past the tail end of another island, still a long way off.

  This time it was Will who spotted it. “Guess you were right,” he told Essie. “There they are again.”

  Annalie frowned. “Do you think they’re following us?”

  “They don’t know we’re here,” Will said. “They’re just patrolling. It’s what they do, being a patrol boat.”

  “Hmm,” Annalie said thoughtfully.

  They passed a number of islands that had clearly once been alive, but were now dead, graveyards for the skeletal, storm-battered trunks of palm trees. Others were still lush, green and tropical.

  They continued on through the Millinnis, safely navigating several tricky passages. As they were about to clear the island group completely, they saw, yet again, the patrol boat cruising nearby.

  “There they are again,” Annalie said.

  “We’ll take cover until they’re gone,” Will said.

  He took them into a rocky inlet and they waited there, watching as the patrol boat sailed to the end of the island group, then performed a slow arc, turned around and began cruising back the way they’d come.

  “What are they doing?” Annalie wondered.

  “Patrolling,” Will said, with a roll of the eyes.

  “Why here? It’s so quiet round here.”

  “Maybe pirates have moved in. The good news is they didn’t see us. Let’s get out of here in case they decide to come back.”

  They left the Millinnis behind them and sailed out into the open sea again.

  That night, over dinner, Annalie expressed her concerns.

  “That patrol boat,” she began, “don’t you think it’s sort of funny it was hanging around the Millinnis like that?”

  “Not really,” Will said. “Why?”

  “Well, for one thing, they don’t really patrol the Islands that much. That’s why there are so many criminals here. But they seemed to be patrolling those islands pretty thoroughly.”

  “Not that thoroughly,” Will chortled, “they never noticed us.”

  “Well, we got lucky,” Annalie said. “But they were spending a lot of time hanging around those islands, don’t you think?”

  “What are you getting at?” Will said.

  “Do you think they were looking for us?”

  Will stared at her, his color rising. “How would they know where we are?”

  “Do you think they noticed that search Will did back in Southaven?” Essie asked, catching Annalie’s drift.

  “They couldn’t trace it back to us,” Will said, his face now very red. “I didn’t give the guy any information.”

  “You did optimize the search for a boat just like this,” Essie said. “And they knew we were in Southaven. There can’t have been that many small sailboats leaving for outlaw country that day.”

  “You’ve got no reason to think that patrol boat was looking for us,” Will argued, but he also had a creeping sense that he might have unwittingly led them into danger. “They could have been looking for anyone. Could be pirates. Could be just a coincidence.”

  “I think we need to change our route,” Annalie said.

  “No,” Will said. “This is the best route. It’s the quickest. You agreed with me, remember?”

  “I know, but—”

  “After we leave here we’re not even following the route from the sat nav,” Will said, exasperated. “I couldn’t remember the rest of it. We’ll be going a different route anyway.”

  “Yes, but not that different,” Annalie said. “I think we need to take another look at it, maybe go somewhere they really won’t be expecting—go south, or north—”

  “That will take weeks longer,” Will said. “If we take too long, we could miss him!”

  “But if they catch us—”

  “They’re not going to catch us!” Will shouted. “I’m the captain of this boat and I say we follow the original route!”

  For a long, terrible moment, Essie and Pod looked at Annalie, waiting to see what she would say next. Will could feel his control over the voyage teetering, and he hated Annalie for it.

  She drew a breath—her mouth opened—there was a moment’s pause. Then she said, “Okay.”

  Will turned to Pod and Essie. “Okay?” he said aggressively.

  Pod gave Will a nod. Still on his side.

  Essie looked dismayed. She turned to Annalie, but Annalie was looking at her hands. “Okay,” Essie said.

  “Right then,” Will said.

  Dinner ended in silence.

  * * *

  That night, when the girls were in their bunks, Essie asked, “Why did you back down like that?”

  “Because it wasn’t worth fighting about,” Annalie said.

  “It wasn’t? But what if you were right? What if they know where we’re going, and they catch us?”

  “I don’t know that they are following us,” Annalie said. “It was just a feeling. And Will’s right about one thing—if we take too long, the whole journey’s pointless.”

  Essie thought for a moment. “Remember when we were back in Port Fine, you told me you didn’t trust Will because he always wanted to do the dangerous thing, not the smart thing?”

  Annalie didn’t reply for a while. Then finally she said, “I did say that.”

  “Then why did you let him say that he was the captain of the boat?”

  “Because he needs to believe that he is.”

  “But he isn’t,” Essie said.

  “Then who is?”

  “Well, you are, obviously.”

  “No I’m not,” Annalie said. “I didn’t come on this trip because I thought it was a good idea. I mean, it all happened so fast, for one thing. But the main reason I came was because I knew he wouldn’t make it on his own. Apart from anything else, he can’t tell one end of a sextant from the other. He needs me.”

  This seemed, to Essie, to prove her point, but Annalie did not agree.

  “I couldn’t do this without him, either. I couldn’t sail this boat single-handed. The thing you have to unders
tand about him and me is, I’m happy to be part of a team. But he can’t be, unless he thinks he’s the boss. So let’s just let him think that.”

  “Yes, but what if he’s wrong about this?”

  “We’re all sailing blind out here. His guess is as good as mine. So why not let him decide?”

  Essie would have much preferred to see Annalie cut Will down to size. But she could see now that perhaps Annalie had a point.

  She just hoped Annalie’s suspicion about the route was wrong—otherwise they were sailing into big trouble.

  Mangoes

  There were many strange sights in the Moon Islands. One day they sailed near a large island that stood alone and unneighbored, some distance from any other island groups. It was thickly forested and there was one tree in particular that caught Annalie’s eye.

  “Look!” Annalie cried. “Mangoes!”

  A huge mango tree, laden with fruit, was clearly visible from the sea. The others all came to look.

  “I’ve never seen a mango tree,” Essie said. “Big, isn’t it?”

  “That one’s huge,” Annalie said.

  “Hey Pod, you ever eaten a mango?” Will asked.

  Pod shrugged.

  Annalie looked at the others. “Do you think anyone lives there?” she asked.

  “You want to go and get some mangoes?” Will asked.

  “Don’t you?” Annalie said, grinning.

  Annalie and Pod took the dinghy and rowed it over to the island. It was lush and beautiful and smelled strongly of overripe fruit. It didn’t take them long to find the tree, and they got busy picking the ripest mangoes and placing them carefully into the bags they’d brought with them.

  Just as Annalie was beginning to wonder whether they’d picked enough and it was time to go back, she heard something substantial making the upper branches rustle. At first, the thickness of the foliage meant she couldn’t see what was making the noise, and she began to feel frightened, because whatever it was, it was big.