Dangerous Shores: Book Two; Hell or High Water

by Christine Conaway

  “I guess with the electronics down we’ll just have to be vigilant and pray we don’t get hit by a big storm. Guess you can say we have regressed back to the time when sailors were sailors. It would be smart to go ahead and tie everything down and be prepared just in case. Frank why don’t you take care of the firearms and Hannah and I can stow our provisions.”

  “We need to hide every gun that we don’t immediately need. When we get to Panama and if they still have them, the officials will be doing a pretty thorough search. I am not totally sure we want to even have them the guns onboard, but at this point we are not in a position to give them up either.”

  “So I guess you want me to take over the helm?” Alan asked. He had been quiet and Ellen hoped he wasn’t having problems with Frank being on board. Macho rivalry would be unacceptable.

  “For just a while…um, you know what, we have no wind to speak of so let’s just tighten down the wheel and let her float along with the current. You can help Frank with the guns and get a feel for them. I’ll keep an eye out here.” She watched Alan go below and wondered what his future was going to hold. She thought young men and women would be a needed element if they were going to rebuild.

  She had just turned after checking the water around them with the intentions of going below, when Franks head popped out the hatch.

  “Good. I was hoping to catch you alone so we can talk. Do you mind?” he asked as he sat on the port bench.

  “No, actually we do need to talk. I can’t get the Major out of my mind. I’ve played it over and over in my mind and where my thoughts are going is scary. Do you think there is any possibility that someone from our own government either set off or helped set off the bombs?”

  “It makes sense doesn’t it? When you think of the hate and discontent going around Washington right now. The president appears to be trying to start a race riot, the coffers are empty and they are spending money faster than they can print it. Someone obviously thinks it is time for a reset.”

  “A reset?” Ellen felt the color leave her face and acid burned at the back of her throat. “Oh my God, that’s what he was talking about. The New World Coalition. That’s what he called it. He said they were going to start over. Some people were going to have a meeting out there in the Tortugas and he wanted me to keep a record for posterity. At first I just thought he was some whacko with a dictator complex. Then when he shot his own man, I realized he believed in what he was doing. I almost wish we could have stuck around a while longer to find out who the other people were.”

  “I don’t think Alan or Hannah would have survived much longer. He was hand-picking the people he wanted around him and if you never told him the truth about those two, he had no reason to keep them around. Had you waited another day you would have been firmly ensconced in one of the ranger’s old rooms under guard. You would not have been able to go to the toilet without a guard standing outside of the door. When he was done with his meeting he would have planted you right alongside the others in the flower bed.”

  “You can’t know that. What if you’re wrong?” Ellen cupped her face in her hands and would have pushed her fingers through her hair had she not been wearing a gauze turban. “Oh my God, I don’t know what to think anymore. You know you always wonder if something like this could happen in your lifetime, but you don’t really believe it will. Everything that has happened to date has been surreal. Why the bombs? Why not just overthrow the government and replace all of them.?”

  “We would still have all the same problems. The upper class would still be getting richer, the lower class would still be getting all their entitlements and the middle class would be paying for all of it. As long as we have a lame duck society to go along with a socialist government we were going down. It was just a matter of time. Shutting off the power for them was a God send. All they have to do is sit back and wait for the population to die off. It’s been almost two weeks and I bet twenty percent or better of the population is already gone.”

  “Oh God,” Ellen moaned softly. “It’s one thing to think it, but to actually see it happening is unfathomable. A year, two at the most there won’t be anyone left. Who is going to be We the people?” She started to laugh because she finally got it. The government would and had probably already declared martial law. They could freeze everyone’s bank accounts, confiscate all of the firearms and collect any stored food. The people that did survive would basically be slaves to the government. They would be fed, clothed, housed, given basic medical care, much like it is today, but the government would own them. The populous would be at the mercy of the government.

  “Hell,” Frank said with a laugh, “they could start their own breeding program, take the babies and raise them to be good little robots. Let the village raise them rather than the parents. They could cull out the children that didn’t meet their standards, much like breeding cattle or thoroughbred horses.”

  “Don’t go there.” She saw the look on Frank’s face and knew he was being serious.

  “I think it is more about the socialist lifestyle. I did overhear a conversation between the guards and they are just as worried about their families back home. Apparently they have some kind of flu going around and many folks have already died from it. The guards were concerned that while their families had all been immunized, they had not.”

  “Is this one time I should be happy I never got a flu shot?” Ellen asked with a yawn. The horizon to the east was showing a thin line of light. Soon it would be day and they could dig out her sextant and try to figure out exactly where they were. “You ever shoot the stars?”

  “I didn’t have all the fancy electrical gadgets on my boat, so yes a time or two. However, I think you should go take a nap and let me take care of that.”

  “As bad as I am with the sextant I will let you. I never do get the math right. So needless to say I never end up where I thought I should be.” She stood and turned to the hatchway, “Frank, I am happy you decided to join us.”

  Chapter Two

  The water is exactly the same color as the cerulean blue sky this morning. It is hard to differentiate between the start of one and the end of the other. There is barely a ripple on the water and the sails hang limp on their shackles. There was no point taking the main down and they had pulled the spinnaker around to give them a modicum of shade. After they had fled the Tortugas they had had to jury rig the sails and neither fit the boat. They had spread the original main out but it was too damaged to repair. The Dacron had melted where it didn’t burn.

  Today was the third day the wind had refused to blow. The current carried them north and every few hours one of them would start the motor and power back the direction they wanted to go. They had passed Cuba with no mishaps or sightings of anything moving at all. By staying closer to the coast than they wanted they were able to stay out of the main current. They should have passed Jamaica already, but with no wind they were barely holding their own against the northerly current.

  “Frank, I think rather than waste the fuel playing catch up, what do you think about dropping the anchor?”

  “Good plan, I wish we had thought of it earlier. We’re going to have to stand watch tonight though. We’re too close to Jamaican waters to let our guard down.”

  Ellen laughed and turned in a circle looking. “You’re kidding right? There is not a speck of land as far as you can see. Who would be out here?”

  The chain rattled as Frank lowered it into the water. He had tied her impromptu anchor ball-bleach-bottle onto the anchor and turned it lose. It bobbed happily on the water. He’d only put out the twenty-five feet of chain with about a hundred forty feet of road, the CQR had grabbed first try. He only hoped there were no coral reefs under them. He was able to detect shadowed water to port and but the water color around them said they were sitting on white sand. Maybe he would dive down after a while and have a look. He didn’t have his dive gear, but felt he was an adequate free diver.

  Satisfied they weren’t going an
ywhere, he walked back to the cockpit. They had been lax on their security up to that point, and he wanted to rectify the situation starting today.

  Hannah was sitting on the swim step with a pile of laundry and a small bottle of Dawn dish soap. Alan had a plunger and a white five-gallon bucket. He dipped it half full and set it on the deck. Frank silently watched as Alan sorted through the laundry pile until he had the clothes he wanted. Hannah squirted in some Dawn and began to plunge up and down.

  She and Alan had their heads close and Hannah must have found whatever Alan had said to be extremely funny. She threw her head back and laughed loudly. There was none of that polite tittering you heard from most young women, she put everything she had into her laughter.

  Watching them together made him smile. He felt blessed to be on this small sailboat with these people. He knew if he had not seen Ellen get shot, he would probably be dead by now. He had admired her courage when she faced the soldiers and it had almost gotten her killed. This was a far better outcome for him. For too long he had let his grief cripple him.

  Hannah had taken the bandages off of Ellen, but her hair was a mess. He thought about asking her if she would like him to help wash it, but she had been distant the past week. Not to the point of rudeness, but like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders and didn’t want any help carrying it. Right then she looked comfortable, and as always she was writing in her book.

  His shadow fell across her and she looked up and smiled, “Hi. You want to sit?” she asked as she pulled her feet up making room for him.

  “Thank you. Did you give any thought to what I said a while ago?”

  She thought for a moment, “About standing watch?”

  Hannah shrieked followed closely by a splash, startling both of them. Immediately Frank pulled his 45 out of the back of his waistband and leapt to his feet. He felt Ellen’s hand on his arm and looked back at her. She was smiling, then from the corner of his eye he saw Alan canon ball off the back of the boat.

  With an exaggerated eye roll at Ellen, he slid it back into his waistband. “Maybe I should quit seeing violence in every splash.”

  Ellen’s answer was not exactly the response he was expecting. “Maybe it is a good thing you are so on top of the game. The hair on the back of my neck has been on end all morning. I was thinking about what you said about standing watch and I think you’re right. We’ve all been taking our safety for granted. When you look around, how can you possibly imagine death and destruction out here. We’ve been lucky so far.”

  “I think we should take turns standing night watches. During the day someone is always on deck and as long as we pause for a look around, we should be okay during the daylight hours. After dark it would be an easy task to sneak up on us. Especially while we’re at anchor.”

  Alan and Hannah were getting louder; their laughter and splashing filling the air. An observer would have thought they were having the time of their lives had the circumstances been different.

  “It’s good to hear them having fun. I can barely imagine how different my life will be let alone theirs. They’re so young and have so much in front of them. I just hope I am doing the right thing for them.” Ellen had rested her head against the back of the cabin as if it had grown too heavy to hold up. “I pray for all of us every night. If God’s up there watching, I hope he sees what is going on and lends us his hand.”

  “I have never been overly religious, but I like to think my wife Amanda found what she believed in. However, I do question the times when I should have been dead while I was in Iraq and later in Afghanistan. Something interfered with my demise each time. I am keeping an open mind if that matters any.” He laughed at his admission because he didn’t talk God with anyone. He just plain didn’t know and he didn’t want to be a hypocrite and just call on God when he was in a fix like a lot of his military friends did.

  “Fair enough, until then I’ll pray for all of us and you can chime in anytime you feel ready. Now…” Ellen screamed when a cascade of water came over the gunnels, soaking her where she sat.

  Frank sat laughing until he was treated to the same treatment. He didn’t exactly scream but he was clearly taken by surprise. “What was that for?” he asked wiping the water from his eyes.

  “You guys could use a bath too and you can wash your clothes at the same time. Come on in,” Hannah hollered.

  “What about my stitches? They’ll get wet.”

  “I was going to take them out tonight anyhow so come on in the water is glorious,” Hannah yelled back.

  Frank and Ellen looked at each other, contemplating how good a swim would feel and silently agreed. They bailed over the gunnel into the warm water, clothes and all.

  The sun was just slipping down into the water when they all decided they had had enough. Frank had brought up four nice sized lobsters with plans to put them on the barbeque.

  Hannah gathered up the laundry that had sat in the bucket while they played. She plunged them until she thought her arm would fall off then piece by piece she rinsed them in the water and handed them to Alan. He stretched each piece on the lifelines and clipped on a plastic covered wire clothes pin. When they were dry, he would shake each piece vigorously, effectively removing the dried salt crystals.

  Dinner over and the galley tidied up the four sat in the cockpit. They had unknowingly divided themselves into two couples.

  Ellen covertly studied Hannah and Alan as they interacted with each other. She was pretty sure they would have a long lasting relationship, if they could survive long enough.

  Chapter Three

  Frank and Alan were sitting in the cockpit, trying to stay out of the sun. They had been sitting at anchor for over a week with hardly a ripple on the water. The spinnaker had hung limply offering nothing but shade. Hannah and Ellen had swum over to the dark water to do some snorkeling. They had discovered a beautiful reef of coral and Frank thought that maybe it had grown up over the hull of a sunken ship. They all agreed that from the surface the shape did resemble a ship, broken into two pieces.

  “How much longer do you think this weather will last?” Alan asked.

  “Not much longer. Look over there,” Frank said indicating the direction with his chin. A row of thunder heads was evident; stretching across the eastern horizon. The golden forks of lightning were visible to both of them.

  “That can’t be good. I guess you know I’m not an accomplished sailor. I do however, take orders rather well.” Alan studied the cloud formation and wondered if it was a tropical storm or something that could develop into a hurricane. He didn’t remember where they were on the named storm list, but the way the situation was now, it didn’t really matter. “Do you think it will make it this far?”

  “Maybe, maybe not, but we’ll get the some of the wind even if it isn’t a direct hit. We can use it to our advantage and get the heck out of here. We’re using our food up at an alarming rate and going nowhere. We should have been fishing more to supplement our food. I think it is time to start rationing what we do have. As soon as the girls get back we’ll have a conversation about it. I haven’t wanted to be nosey but I couldn’t help but notice the tubs and buckets in the aft cabin. I am assuming from the labels they are full of food?”

  “Yup they are. Ellen stocked up from Patriot Supply and Wise Foods. She said she could carry more food with minimal weight in less space. We haven’t even touched that stuff yet. Hannah did say that we could use a few things whenever we hit land somewhere. I am not sure that she gets it yet.”

  “Don’t underestimate her. She gets it alright. She just isn’t ready to admit it yet. She’ll be okay.”

  “Hey you two, do you see the clouds moving in?” Ellen asked as she climbed up the boarding ladder. Looks like we may get some use of that spinnaker other than using it for shade.” She grabbed towels off the lifeline where they had been hung to dry and passed one to Hannah.

  She rubbed vigorously at her hair, “Hannah and I wanted to talk to you guys. She sa
ys we are using our food up too quickly and she thinks we need to cut back on our caloric intake. We’re not doing anything to justify the way we are eating.” She pulled the towel off her head when she heard Alan and Frank burst into unrestrained laughter. “What? Did you guys finally lose it?”

  “I would have brought it up myself if I had known they would find it so hilarious.” Hannah wrapped her towel around her body and tucked the end into the wrap under her arm. “Speaking of which, we’re going to clean some of these left overs up tonight.”

  Once they had eaten and cleaned up the galley they met in the cockpit. Frank was still keeping an eye on the approaching storm. It didn’t appear to have made much progress in their direction. The water was remained mill pond calm with the occasional swirls from surfacing fish or the odd turtle.

  “Okay guys, let’s get this started. We’ve been sitting here for over a week and it looks like we may finally get the wind to leave. In one way sitting here is a benefit to us in that the situation on shore has some time to do whatever it’s going to do. I’ve thought about this a lot and if the power didn’t come back on while we’ve been sitting out here a lot of people have already died. It’s been over a month and I think food will be pretty scarce right now. Those that have guns will have used them to take what they want and…” Ellen’s voice broke. “Sorry, I can’t get my brain around the face that old people and people with medical problems and life-support. They could all be gone.”

  “The hard facts are that people with low morals or those that place no value on life itself will take whatever they want and to hell with everyone else. Many more will commit suicide rather than try to survive. Then you have the people on medications to keep themselves sane.” Frank laughed softly, “As strange as this may sound the people who have the best chance of surviving are the homeless. They are used to living on nothing and hiding themselves to stay safe.”