“No, it’s not that. I know what we have to do…and I can do it. It just makes me sick to think what they could do to her.”
With grim determination, Hannah picked up the AR and stepped up to the starboard gunnel and made her way to the mid-way point on deck. While down below she had also pocketed the Walther P38. She pulled it from her back pocket and laid it on the cabin roof tucked next to the handrail. She sat beside it with her eyes on the three men in the aluminum boat.
“Olivia honey, you need to stay down below for now. We have some bad men up here and I don’t want you to get hurt. Go back down.” Ellen told Olivia.
At the sound of Ellen’s voice Hannah had taken her eyes of the boat and looked to where Ellen was in the cockpit. She saw the top of Olivia’s head as she went back down below.
“Aw crap!” Eyes back on the fish boat she realized there was only two bodies sitting in it. Whether it was pre-arranged or not she didn’t know, but they had obviously decided to board from the water. Not showing that she had seen the discrepancy in the body count, her eyes searched the water for the third man. Seconds later she saw he had closed the distance to the boat and was only about forty-feet away. Her mindset was now to be determined by the man in the water. If he tried to board she would consider it a threatening act and shoot him.
Pretending she hadn’t noticed him swimming toward the boat she stood and for all intents and purposes looked like her attention was turned on the fishing boat. Her eyes however, were glued to him.
When he reached the point where the anchor line went into the water, his hand grabbed for it. He was literally hanging from it to catch his breath. Without another thought, Hannah reached for the pistol and walked forward, head still turned toward the other boat. She held the pistol down at her side of her leg effectively hiding it from the man in the water. When she reached the last stanchion, she dropped onto one knee, pointed and pulled the trigger.
Immediately she turned and fired at the men in the boat, pulling the trigger until the slide locked open. She turned and ran back to where the AR lay on the cabin roof, picked it up and continued firing on the stunned men in the boat. She saw one slump over obviously hit. The other one seemed to be in a panic as he scrambled over his fallen comrade trying to get to the motor. When she hit him, he spun sideways and fell into the water. Hannah continued firing at the now empty boat until all of the thirty rounds had been fired.
She sank to the deck mentally and physically exhausted. She stared at the water seeing nothing until the body of the first man she’d shot floated by. Lunging to the lifeline she vomited into the water until she had nothing left.
Ellen had seen Hannah go forward and wondered what she was up to. She continued to watch the men in the johnboat until she heard Hannah’s first shot. Without the time to process what was going on, she began sending buckshot into the johnboat. She knew Hannah would not have fired for no reason and logic told her she needed to take care of the occupants of the johnboat.
She began to pump double aught into the johnboat. She immediately saw the men begin to fall. The fat guy who should have been the first to go down because of his size, scrambled to man the motor when the man there fell into the bottom of the boat. He was able to gain control over the boat and turned it toward shore.
Realizing her shotgun was now useless at that distance, Ellen grabbed her 357, took aim and began firing. She aimed at the motor and the man running it. Smoke began to pour out of the motor and Ellen rejoiced. Then the johnboat began to settle into the water. She saw the fat man slapping at the water as if he didn’t know how to swim. As hard as it was to believe it appeared as if he didn’t when he sank out of sight.
Ellen sat down on the lazarette. She had never felt so emotionally drained in her life; she had just taken four lives. These were the first people that she knew had died by her hand. She had seen a man die and had let men die as a direct result of their own actions but she had not, to her knowledge physically taken a life; until now.
She saw that Hannah was having a hard time as well. Had they over-reacted to an unknown threat? Maybe they had, but what recourse would they have had if they had simply gone with the men and jeopardized all of their lives. It wasn’t only about Olivia now there was the new baby to think about. “A dozen…I would kill a dozen more if it meant saving the innocents.”
“A dozen what?” Hannah asked.
“Sorry I was thinking out loud. We’re going to have to be extra vigilant until we pick up the guys. I am sure there are more of these guys wherever they came from.”
Chapter Seventeen
Frank walked out of the office pulling the door shut behind himself. He saw Alan standing with a new military backpack already strapped on. A clean white dressing covered the cut on his neck, standing out against his tanned skin and the green camo. Their shoes had been traded for canvas military styled boots provided by the supply clerk. When they had finally made it into Colon they found that an army company had been sent down on an exercise. Frank had never been so happy to see the familiar green camo as he was when they’d walked into town.
He approached the first uniform they saw and asked about the canal transit. He’d directed them to the correct building. As soon as the Staff Sergeant had seen the marine corps tattoo on Frank’s bicep, their fates were sealed.
It seemed to Alan that Frank must have made a name for himself sometime in the past. Two phone calls on the company radio and they had passage through the canal, new clothing, ammo and boots. He watched as a jeep rolled up and the guy behind the wheel jumped out, ran up to Frank and threw both arms around him. A few more back slaps and the soldier jumped back in the jeep and rolled off in a cloud of dust.
Frank stood with his hands resting on his hips and watched until the jeep out of sight, a huge grin on his face. He shook his head and walked over to Alan. “You ready?
Alan stared after the jeep, eyes wide in amazement, “They have a working jeep? How?”
“I didn’t ask but they have a boat that works too, and it’s giving us a ride back to the boat. We’ll be back aboard the Annie-C before you know it.”
“I take it, that was someone you knew?” Alan picked his old backpack up and hooked it over his arm. He had thought about leaving it behind until Frank reminded them that now they would all have one. There would no longer be a need for one of them to carry the duffle bag.
“Yep, we served two tours together in Iraq. He saved my life once and almost lost his in the process. When we got home, he got out of the Corps, couldn’t get a decent job and after a year of beating the pavement he joined back up with the army. Now we need to hump it back to the marina or lose our ride out to the boat.”
“We got lucky here didn’t we? Did you mention the guys back there on the trail?”
“I did, but the Staff Sergeant didn’t seem overly concerned. He said they were probably part of the band of gorillas who have decided to take up arms against the little government that’s left. As soon as this trouble started they wiped out the canal authorities thinking to run it themselves. It took some persuasion to make them give it up.”
“So, I take it that Panama wasn’t as devastated as the U.S.?”
Frank sighed deeply, “No they were not. They took their share of hits; lost a few power plants and Panama City is pretty much decimated.” He laughed without mirth, “He said the Columbian rebels were trying to get their foot in the door again. They’re not even sure the bombs dropped here didn’t come from Columbia. They’ve been trying to take Panama back into the fold since 1999 when the U.S. gave control over the canal back to Panama.”
“We go through the canal tomorrow?”
“Yup as soon as we get there. There is a freighter and a couple of other boats who have the same idea that we have. People trying to get home, just like us. They need us to go in a group to save the strain on the power plant and for security. While they have their own hydroelectric plant to run the gates, they’ve been having their share of problems with
breakdowns and sabotage. They don’t want to open them anymore than they absolutely need to. When they run out of replacement parts the canal will be closed.”
“We’re lucky the army is even here.” Alan stopped walking, “Why is the army here? I thought they closed the military base back in the late 70’s?”
“That my friend is the puzzle that Staff Sergeant Wilson is trying to figure out. They received orders three months ago, before this shit came down. It was to be nothing more than another exercise for them; an assessment of tactical response in the event of Columbia or some other faction trying to get their foot in the door. At least that’s what their orders said.”
“Well I guess with the new clothes and all, I’m pretty happy they are. These BDU’s sure beat the hell out of the clothes we had on. My feet are sure grateful and I’ll bet yours are too. Too bad we couldn’t have saved Hannah’s shoes…” He laughed thinking about Frank in the cut down tennis shoes. “I hope the girls like theirs. Think they’ll want to wear them?”
“Why not? By the time we get headed up the coast we’ll be in a whole different climate. The farther north we go the colder it’s going to get. I only hope Ellen has some warm things that will fit Olivia. You have to remember it’s going to be the middle of winter by the time we get anywhere close to Washington.”
“Yeah well I wonder how long Hannah will be able to fit in hers…”
They had been walking side by side when Alan noticed that Frank had stopped. He turned around and Frank was standing still staring at him. “What?”
“Why would she not fit in hers?”
“Shoot, I forgot you didn’t know. She’s pregnant!”
“Are you shitting me? That’s just great…with what we still have in front of us. What the hell were you thinking?”
“Take it easy. I’m not that stupid and we don’t have that kind of a relationship yet. It was the guys on the trawler. One of them is the father.”
Frank paused in his tirade at Alan, frowning while he digested Alan’s words, “Poor Hannah…first to be treated like that and then to be reminded of what she went through every day for the rest of her life. I can’t imagine what that could do to a person’s state of mind. Good thing she’s strong. Most young girls could never handle it.”
“Actually, she’s handling it better than you would think. Other than aspiring to be a doctor, being a Mother was next on her list. I’m sure that rape was not one of the ways she thought to have them. Back in her real life she was big into a Big Sister/Big Brother program. She spent all her spare time with under-privileged kids. She didn’t have plans to have children of her own; she was going to adopt them.”
“Wow, I guess I need to spend some time getting to know her better. Amanda and I almost had a baby once. She miscarried and didn’t want to try again.”
“That sucks. I haven’t even thought of having kids yet. Now I probably never will.”
Frank had either ignored Alan or been so occupied with his own thoughts’ he had not heard him, continued, “I guess I couldn’t blame her. I was gone most of our married life and I think if she hadn’t gotten the cancer she would have moved on anyhow.”
“Well now we’re all going to have a baby. She may be the one having it, but I have the idea it will take all of our combined efforts to raise it.” The big grin on Alan’s face said he would enjoy having a hand in raising Hannah’s baby.
“Well, I wish I had known earlier. When we were at the medical tent we could have gotten her vitamins and stuff. How can we hope to keep her healthy on the food we have?”
Alan patted his extra bag. “Hey, no problem I’ve got it covered. Apparently they had a surplus of prenatal vitamins because they gave me enough to last the duration. I can’t even imagine why an army unit would have prenatal vitamins in the first place.”
“They do have women soldiers and men soldiers have wives in case you have forgotten. Does she have any idea when?”
“She thinks it could be anytime the end of April or early May.”
“Let’s hope we’ve reached Ellen’s farm by then or at least somewhere safe. I can’t imagine having a new baby and us being a thousand miles from the farm.”
“I hope the farm is still there.” Alan mumbled as they walked. Frank merely grunted in return.
They walked in silence for another mile before Alan couldn’t resist, “So…did they say what happened?”
“He said when the lights went out from a nuclear bomb being detonated high up in the atmosphere, people went crazy. He thinks some countries got their nukes off and others didn’t have time before they were annihilated. In the chaos that followed, someone still had the ability to take out D.C. Or so he thinks. He said the east coast was silent but they were picking up the odd transmission from several different spots on the west coast. San Diego for one. So apparently there was no nuclear bomb there. But at this point, who can really say what’s going on. I guess we’ll wait until we get there.”
“So, no one really knows exactly what’s going on or who did it? Is that what they’re saying without all the bullshit?”
Frank laughed at the simplicity of Alan’s words. “I think that pretty much covers it. Anything he told us is based on supposition and what he hopes is the worst case scenario. Until they figure how to contact someone with more authority than he has, they’ll stay and take care of the canal. Hell, they’ve already lost half of their company, from guys going A.W.O.L. He said it was the same with the company on the other end of the canal. The ones who stayed behind, figured they had nothing to go home to and decided to stay. At least here they would have shelter, food and ammunition. He said if too many more decide to leave they’ll all regroup at one end or the other, close the gates and take up a defensive position.”
“It’s been two months; wouldn’t you think someone would be trying to put it all back together by now?”
“Right now, I don’t think they can. The Sergeant said people have died all over the world, from starvation, and diseases that were eradicated in most countries returned with a vengeance and people have died by the hundreds of thousands if not more. Look how few people we’ve seen here and this used to be the second largest city in Panama.”
“Something that private told me makes me wonder why they didn’t just nuke San Diego? If they wanted to get rid of the high population areas, why not just nuke it? It didn’t sound like nuclear weapons were used on the west coast at all.”
Frank thought on it for a minute, “Because of the radiation. It would be uninhabitable for years if they dropped a nuke on it. This way, they can go in and begin to rebuild immediately.”
“Who? Who can go in and rebuild? The people who started this whole thing?” Alan was getting angry and his voice rose with every question.
“Tell you what, let’s wait until we get back to the boat and I’ll share all the info I have with the girls at the same time.” He pointed to the dock where a Zodiac RIB sat idling, obviously waiting on them. A private stood ready to take their bags and help them aboard.
Alan whistled under his breath, “How would you like to have that for a dinghy?”
The rubber boat was 24 feet long fitted with two 150 mercury outboards. Three rows of seats for passengers and a stern console for the operator, leaving the bow open for cargo. In the bow were six red fuel jugs, two dark green ammo cans and what looked like four cases of army M.R.E.’s. (Meals ready to eat)
Alan sat looking at the cargo, “Gees I guess we should have asked them about getting some extra fuel. Ellen was concerned we wouldn’t have enough to get up the coast. She didn’t want to have to go to shore until we hit U.S. waters, but she doesn’t know about San Diego either.”
Frank pointed at the row of five-gallon jugs, sitting in the bow. “Those are ours. It’s not going to get us all the way home for sure, but we may be able to fill them somewhere along the way. We’ll probably have to trade or syphon it from abandoned vehicles, or if we’re lucky other boats, but we will get home. Don’t fo
rget we have sails too, which we may be able to swap out for better ones somewhere along the way. He suggested to try looking in Colon. They have some radio contact with the unit on the other end of the canal and they were talking about all of the abandoned boats in the marina.”
“There she is!” Alan pointed. They aren’t going to be expecting us to be coming home in style. I hope they know it’s us.”
“I hope they don’t shoot at us thinking we’re the bad guys.”
Frank turned to look at the private when all of a sudden he kicked the motors down to nothing. “What’s up?”
The Private, a young guy that didn’t look old enough to shave was staring into the water off the starboard bow. His face had grown pale tinged with green. He looked as if was going to throw-up at any second. He shook his head as if he were unable to talk, lifted his arm and pointed. Frank stood to see what he pointed at. At first he saw nothing then it bobbed back up. The wake had caught up to them, momentarily covering whatever it was. As the wake dissipated it revealed what appeared to be a body floating face down.
“Boat hook?” The Private seemed to have conquered his nausea and pointed to the port gunnel. In a holder were two boat hooks. Frank grabbed one and used the hook to turn the body over. The man’s face was unrecognizable as human; something had been feeding on him and his features were gone. Without bringing him into the boat they would not know who he was, how he came to be floating in the ocean or even how he had died. Frank wasn’t sure how to proceed until he heard the Private.
“Leave it be. We see these all the time. I just can’t get used to finding them. By tomorrow there will be nothing left of him.”
Alan hadn’t wanted to see and instead sat watching their boat. He thought she looked like a picture postcard sitting there. The sails were tucked away out of sight and from this distance you couldn’t see the patched hull or that she needed a good wash-down or that her sails didn’t fit. He thought about how lucky they all were that Ellen had chosen to anchor out the night it had all began. Had she not, they would have had a very different story to tell and so would she. She could have been one of the unlucky boats and never had the chance to leave. It seemed ludicrous to think that two months ago he was worrying about where he was going to get enough money for his next semester or if his shoes could last a little longer, or if he was going to have to take the bus home or if his Dad had driven home drunk again. He wondered if his Dad had sobered up enough to know what was happening all around himself. His throat tightened at the thought, but he had spent his whole life or as long as he could remember looking after his father…as much as he would have wanted or even needed to, he couldn’t hate the man. He just couldn’t worry about him anymore. He had said his last goodbye when he boarded the Annie-C the first time. Frank’s voice brought his thoughts back to the present. He saw the Annie-C dead ahead with Ellen and Hannah standing on deck watching their approach. They both held guns as if they were expecting and prepared for trouble and fully capable of dealing with it.
Dangerous Shores: Book Two; Hell or High Water Page 12