“Okay, so we know a little bit. What about the people?” Ellen asked and looked around. “I know they are mostly Spanish, Indian and some blacks. But like every country they have their share of immigrants too.
“Well, the U.S. had control of the canal until…1977 when we gave up our rights and they abandoned the military base there. They did however maintain the right to defend the canal in case of war or upheaval.”
“So, do you think the U.S. military could be here already? They’d want to keep control over the canal wouldn’t you think?” Alan leaned into the conversation suddenly interested. “Maybe they are our ticket through the canal.”
“Don’t count on it, but unless we get moving we won’t know. For all we know, they may not have been affected by the E.M.P directly, however, I am sure some of the ramifications of what happened to the U.S. have had some kind of a trickle-down effect on about every country in this hemisphere.”
“Please tell me you are not going unarmed?” Ellen glared at Frank, daring him to tell her they weren’t going to be carrying something.
“I won’t be saying that at all. At least two of those rifles you have below were designed to break down. We can pack them in our backpacks along with enough food and water for three days.”
“Three days?” Hannah and Ellen exclaimed in unison.
“Why three days? How long can it take to find someone and see how much passage through the canal will be?” Ellen asked. She couldn’t believe Alan and Frank were going to be gone for three days.
“We can’t be sure how long it will take or what the conditions are like on shore. It probably won’t take that long, that’s why you guys are going to have to watch for our signal. We’ll start a fire on the beach when we are ready to be picked up.”
“We’re going to drop you guys off and then pick you up? Why not just take the dinghy?”
Frank shook his head no, “We can’t take the chance that someone would find it and decide to keep it. If you,” he looked directly at Ellen, “drop us off on the beach or as close to shore as we can get then you come back here, and we get to keep the dinghy. You could pull the anchor up go out a couple of miles, re-anchor and come back in on the third night. That way, we can know that you guys are safe. That’s not saying if someone sees you sitting out there they won’t come out to investigate or try to take the boat. Whatever you do, do not let anyone get within reach of the boat.”
“You don’t have to worry about us. Keep your thoughts on where you’re going and getting back here safely.”
Packed and ready to go Frank lowered the dinghy. Frank had his Glock in a paddle holster with three spare magazines in his backpack and one of the 9mm in his back waistband, along with a Black Legion Combat knife on his belt. The belt and knife were Ellen’s from her backpacking gear. With the weight they had all lost on their diet her belt fit him. He’s had to put a hole in the end to help it fit but it would do. The pants were a different story. She called them her fat pants and were obviously from a different time in her life, because there was no way she could even keep them up without suspenders. They were short but they would do.
Alan’s clothing was the same as he had worn when Ellen rescued him. His physique had changed in the past two months, his waist had trimmed and his muscles were more defined in his upper body. The swimming and rowing they had all done had changed all of them but it was more evident in Alan. He looked like a tan version of the hulk; as if he was going to bust out of his clothes at any second.
Alan had decided to take the other 9mm so they were at least using the same ammo for two of their guns. It turned out that they only had one of the break-down rifles so Alan had Ellen’s Mossberg shoved into his backpack. Hannah had stuffed a rag into the barrel to keep out debris and slid a baggy over the end to keep out moisture. She’d slid a brown cotton glove over the end to further disguise it was a gun. He and Frank had laughed between themselves at her attempts to hide it, but they were good with it, if it made her feel better.
Alan went below for his goodbyes with Hannah, and to give Olivia a last kiss goodbye. She would not know he had done it, but Hannah would tell her tomorrow with assurances that he would be back.
Ellen helped Frank load the dinghy. “Aw crap!” he said. “How could I have forgotten we don’t have a working motor?”
Ellen laughed, “We have oars.”
“I know that. I guess my head was up my ass because you can’t row all the way back here.”
“I thought we could motor in closer and it would be a shorter trip there and back. I can row farther than you may think.”
“Yeah, okay that would make the trip easier. Once you drop us hustle back to the boat and get out of here. No telling how much attention going in will draw, so you will have to be careful and keep watches. For God sake, don’t get caught unawares. Keep your guns handy and don’t let your guard down for one minute.”
Ellen held her hand up, palm forward, “Stop! How many ways are you going to tell me to be careful? I’ve…no, we’ve got this. We’ll be fine. You just take care of yourselves.”
Frank started the motor and turned toward the coast. They had no way of knowing the depth and it being night time, they couldn’t tell by the water color how deep it was. Slowly they moved in as close as they could. As they drew closer, they realized some of the lights they’d seen from the boat were from what appeared to be campfires. There were none on the beach itself, but up in the tree line. There were no houses in sight but they had expected none.
The town of Colon lay about five miles down the coast. Frank had thought they would not attract as much attention if they did not drive right up to the front door. He tried to give Ellen the shortest distance possible to have to row, but they had to drop anchor when the keel bumped the sand bottom.
Alan let the anchor down and was surprised how little chain it took to touch bottom, he dropped another fifteen feet and used the chain tie to cleat it off. They normally would have laid more down, but for a short time this would be enough and Ellen wouldn’t have to work as hard to get it up again. At his signal Frank backed down on it and quickly shut the motor off.
“Let’s go,” Frank quietly told them. He didn’t know if anyone had seen their arrival, but if they hadn’t, he didn’t want to announce it by having someone overhear their voices.
Alan hugged Hannah one last time and climbed into the dinghy followed by Ellen and then Frank. They were silent on the trip to the beach each of them thinking about what the next few days would bring.
Chapter Fourteen
Ellen bobbed in the surf watching Frank and Alan wade to shore, her 357 in hand waiting to defend them if she had to. While she probably wouldn’t hit anyone while bouncing up and down, being shot at by anything may buy the guys enough time to hide in the foliage.
The fact that Frank had grabbed her and kissed her soundly before leaving the boat had surprised her. He’d whispered in her ear, “That’s a promise I intend to keep.”
When she could no longer see them, she put her gun into the pocket of her jacket and started the long haul back. Fighting her way through the first few small breakers, she realized it was going to be a harder to get back to the Annie-C than she had thought. Frank had made the trip in look easy and effortless; it had taken less than 15 minutes. She had been rowing for only 10 minutes and already her shoulders were burning with the effort.
Her back to her target she had to keep turning around to gauge her position relative to the boat. Like most right-handed people she tended to row in a clockwise circle if she wasn’t careful. Thoughts of Frank’s parting words crowded her brain and she dissected them on the way back.
Before she knew it the dinghy bumped the Annie-C. She had ignored the pain of rowing until her arrival, then it didn’t seem as if she had the strength to grab the line that Hannah threw to her. Hannah must have realized she was in trouble because she scrambled to the swim step and physically grabbed the permanent bow line.
“God, I didn’t
think you were ever going to get here. Did they make it to shore?”
Ellen looked back blankly, “What?”
With Hannah holding the dinghy tight to the transom, Ellen crawled over the bow, grateful to have arrived. Her arms, shoulders and back refused to work properly and she seriously wondered if she could have gone any farther. Hannah had to help her into the boat.
Ellen flopped on the lazarette exhausted and weak. She thought she could close her eyes and sleep for a week, but knew that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. Groaning with the effort, she sat up.
Hannah pressed a cup into her hand, “Take a drink of this, it’ll help.”
When Ellen continued to sit with her eyes closed, she guided the cup to Ellen’s mouth and tipped it. “Drink!”
As soon as the fire reached her stomach, Ellen began to cough and sputter, spraying Hannah down with good Irish whiskey.
“Wait a minute. I only need to catch my breath.” Ellen finally cleared the whiskey from her lungs. “Dang it Hannah, where did you find that? I got that two years ago for Christmas. It disappeared. Heck I thought someone either drank it or stole it.”
“Well, you looked like you needed it. I assume you got them to shore okay.” She was going to put the cap back on the bottle when Ellen reached for it. She poured two fingers in the bottom of her glass and lifted her glass towards shore. “Here’s to you Alan and Frank. Hurry back and stay safe.” She tipped the glass back and emptied it. Poured two fingers again and held it out to Hannah. “Go ahead. Toast their safe return.”
“But I don’t drink. Besides we may need it later.”
“A shortage of alcohol is not going to be a problem. Behind the port settee is more in the cabinet. Now, say a couple words, drink up and let’s get out of here.”
Ellen went to the bow and pulled the anchor while Hannah ran the motor as Ellen needed it. It hadn’t taken but a few minutes and they were on their way back out to a safe distance.
“How far is safe?” Hannah was facing aft watching the shore recede.
“I think this is it.” She knocked the transmission into neutral, and they began to slow and Ellen tightened the wheel down. “I’ll put the anchor out. You don’t have to do anything.”
They needed movement to set the anchor so Ellen dropped it before they had stopped completely. The boat passed the anchor and swung around to face it. She loved this CQR anchor. It didn’t matter what the bottom was like, sand, mud or rock, it always seemed to grab the first time. She laid out all of the chain and a hundred feet of road. They hadn’t gone as far off-shore as previously when they first arrived. She didn’t want to take a chance on missing the signal fire, Frank would light when they were ready to come back to the boat.
Satisfied they were not going anywhere, Ellen joined Hannah back in the cockpit. She flopped on the lazarette, arm draped across her eyes. She drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out. “And now we wait.”
“I never was a good waiter either. That’s why I got through school so fast, I hated waiting for everyone else to catch up. My poor Mom never…”
“I’m sorry about your Mom, but we don’t know she’s not okay. As self-sufficient as you are, I find it hard to believe she wasn’t prepared for anything.”
“I know. Sometimes I remind myself of how strong she is. I can only hope she is…alive.”
“That’s why we are going to do our best to stay safe. Plus, we have Olivia to think about. Whatever we have to do to keep her safe is what we do. I don’t understand why, but I feel like she’s connected to each of us.”
I know Alan and I would be devastated if something were to happen to her. When we get to wherever we’re going, we want Olivia to live with us. To be our daughter.” She turned to look at Ellen maybe to gauge how her words would affect her. “We are going to get married once we get to Washington.”
“That is kind of quick isn’t it?” She saw the distress written all over Hannah’s face. “Wait, not that I’m against it, in fact I think it’s great but with everything you’ve been through the past two months…”
Hannah sank to the seat and buried her face in her hands. Ellen could hear her sniffles and the hair rose on the back of her neck. “Did he do something to you?”
Hannah wordlessly shook her head no. Slowly she wiped her face and tucked her hair behind her ears. The scars that were hardly visible stood out an angry red; a constant reminder of what she had endured at the hands of her abusers. Her eyes slowly rose to look Ellen in the eyes. “I’m pregnant. About eight or nine weeks as near as I can tell.”
“Then it couldn’t…there’s not a chance it could be…no I suppose not. And Alan already knows?”
Hannah nodded. “We talked last night and we want to keep the baby and raise it together. I have no way of knowing which of them is the father, not that it would make a difference. This baby is the innocent here.”
“For once I find myself without words. I don’t know what to say; I mean do I congratulate you or what?”
“I keep asking myself how can I have a baby in the middle of all this? Children should be safe and happy…not born on the side of a road somewhere in the middle of the worst time in America.”
“Well, he or she, won’t be born on the side of the road, I can promise you that. I can’t promise you it won’t be born on this boat, but hopefully we’ll be at the farm all safe and secure.”
“Why don’t you try to rest. Olivia will be up before you know it and then I’ll take a nap. We have to stay vigilant while the guys are gone. That means one of us watching at all times.
Hannah stretched out on the seat a pillow tucked under her head. She was asleep within minutes.
Ellen sat and pondered how having Hannah pregnant would change their plans. It could play a role in how they were to get home. They no longer had the luxury of sailing to the Galapagos, to Hawaii, and finally across to Washington as she had planned. Nor would they be able to sail up to the north end of the Sea of Cortez and walk home. Somehow they were going to have to find more fuel, draw a straight line on the chart once they got out of the canal and motor all the way. When she had discussed their options with Frank they had both agreed the Galapagos would be the safest if not fastest route home. That was when they had time on their side. They could have spent the winter months there and left for Washington in the spring. With Hannah being pregnant they needed to get to the farm.
“Well crap…please not again.” Somewhere between them and shore someone was running a small motor. To her practiced ears it sounded like a two stroke and it was on the water.
“Hannah, get up and go down below.”
She lifted her head and looked at Ellen, puzzled by the request. “I’d rather sit up here with you.”
“Don’t over-react, but we’ve got company. Go down below and get one of the rifles and pass it up to me.”
Hannah stood, gathered up the empty glass and bottle of whiskey. She was trying to act as natural as she could, but inside she was shaking. She went below.
Ellen pulled her 357 from her pocket and lay it on the cockpit table within easy reach. Ellen cursed the cloudy sky, because while she couldn’t see who was coming to them, she was pretty sure whoever it was could pick out their silhouette easily enough. She could hear Hannah in the aft cabin throwing stuff around and she wondered where exactly the guns were.
“Ellen?” Hannah whispered. She had to have been putting her face up to the port under Ellen’s seat because her voice was coming from under Ellen.
“What?” Ellen’s eyes were continuously scanning the water around them.
“Which one do you want? The shotgun or the semi-automatic?”
“Both of them.”
Seconds later, the barrel of the shotgun appeared resting on the hatch step. No one could see over the gunnels into the cockpit itself so Ellen felt okay about reaching for it and pulling it through and on to the deck at her feet. Hannah saw what she had done and slid the AR-15 out and onto the deck beside the shotgun.
Hannah climbed out and sat opposite Ellen with her back to the house. “Do you see them yet?”
“No, but listen. It sounds like maybe there are two smaller motors.”
“I hear them. What do you want to do? Do you think they saw you coming back with the dinghy?”
“I think they must have seen us when we were anchored in closer. Now I think they’re looking for us. That’s why it sounds like they are going back and forth and not getting any closer right now.”
“Do you really think they are looking for us? Maybe they’re just fishing or something.”
“I wish…but I think they are looking for us and it won’t take very long before they widen their search area. They saw us or they probably wouldn’t be out here in the first place.”
“I wish the sun would come up so we could see them…hear that?” Hannah turned and peered into the pre-sunrise gloom. “I think they’re coming this way.”
“Go down and wake Olivia. I don’t want to fire this shotgun off and scare the crap out of her. Hurry!”
It had seemed to take hours for the boats to discover them. Unfortunately, being at anchor offered no hiding places.
“Are they here yet?” Hannah climbed up the ladder.
“Hey lady! You need some help?”
“Yup, that would be them. At least they speak basic English.”
“From the accent I bet they speak Spanish better.” Hannah said as she showed herself in the cockpit.
Chapter Fifteen
Hidden in the shelter of trees and brush, Frank dug through his pack looking for dry socks. “I can’t fucking believe we didn’t think to take our shoes and socks off.”
“At least we have shoes to take off.” Alan snickered, as a reminder that Frank was wearing a pair of Hannah’s. Hannah had large feet for a woman, but they had still to cut the toes out for Frank to wear them comfortably. He’d complained they were still too small, but Ellen reminded him that while they were definitely not “Man shoes” they were far better than being barefoot.
Dangerous Shores: Book Two; Hell or High Water Page 10