Dangerous Shores: Book Two; Hell or High Water

by Christine Conaway

  Ellen stood and stepped behind the wheel as if the act would help her thinking. With both hands resting on the wheel, she looked to the overhead canvas bimini, “Okay…I know my controller for the solar panels has to be fried, but would the panels themselves be ruined too?”

  Frank sat not saying anything. Finally, he stood on the gunnels in order to see the panels. “I guess that’s something we’ll have to look at in the morning. It’s too dark to see.”

  “Maybe we should look for new bulbs and batteries for the flashlights. You think they’d work again?”

  “Another thing I don’t know about. We can look for some in that store tomorrow and try them. But, remind me to check the panels out before it gets dark.”

  “I was thinking that maybe, we could find another controller off one of those other boats and maybe it would work again. It sure would be nice to have a way to keep the batteries charged just in case we needed to start the motor in an emergency.”

  “I agree. I’ll look at them in the morning when we get back.”

  They spent the remainder of their watch in silence. At two hours they woke Chuck and Darius for their watch. Frank went to the settee where Chuck had slept and Hannah to the sleeping bag in the aft cabin. She had hated sleeping in the cabin before she’d added all the food and while the food had dwindled in amount, she still felt claustrophobic with what was there.

  Ellen closed her eyes and mentally tried to relax her body starting at her toes. It was technique she had learned to use when she’d first come to Florida. Coming from the quiet seclusion of the farm to the active Florida lifestyle made it hard for her to keep her days and night straight. She found herself staying up later and later, visiting with other dock people and sleeping long into the day. When she found herself turning her sleep schedule completely around, is when she decided to use an anchorage instead of tying at the dock.

  The next thing she knew, voices in the cockpit woke her. She had opened the two small windows for air circulation not thinking that she would hear whoever was in the cockpit. She realized she was able to see in the dim light and decided she’d slept long enough.

  She dressed quickly and went up to the cockpit. Someone had made coffee earlier and the pot was still warm. Ellen grabbed an empty cup and filled it. It wasn’t cold out, but she wrapped both hands around her cup, enjoying the warmth. It was a reminder of better times; sitting around the woodstove at the farm. “What I wouldn’t give to be sitting there right now,” she thought.

  “They probably have frost at home,” she murmured.

  “You’re doing it again,” Alan said. When she gave him a puzzled look he added, “Talking to yourself.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “What time is it? Anyone?” Ellen was having a hard time with not having a working watch on her arm. She knew Alan had an old wind up, but he was staring at it as if it wasn’t working either. “Let me guess, you forgot to wind it?”

  “No…I always wind it before I go to bed. It’s five-thirty. Does anybody know the date?”

  “The date? Does it matter?” Chuck asked. “This is the day we all get started on our journey home. We’ll be back in the good old U.S. of A. before you know it. Or rather whatever is left of it.

  A massive explosion shook the boat. Frank threw himself over Ellen pushing her down into the well. Chuck and Alan hit the deck. They waited for what seemed like minutes but was probably only seconds when Chuck raised up to see what had happened. There was nothing to see that would indicate anything had happened except a rippling on the water’s surface.

  Puzzled, Chuck scanned the area all around. He didn’t see anything that hadn’t been there the night before. Finally, a dust cloud rose above the trees from somewhere up the canal behind them. He pointed, “There!”

  They watched as the apparent dust cloud turned to oily black smoke rising up into the morning sky. “I’m hoping that’s from my guys and not someone else.”

  Minutes passed with nothing else happening. “Alan and Darius, maybe you guys want to sit on the bow ready to pull that anchor just in case.” Although Chuck had said he was no longer in the military, he had put himself in charge by handing out orders.

  “You got it Sarge,” Darius said and headed to the bow with Alan following. Both men carried their rifles prepared to defend if they had to.

  “I’ll be ready with the motor if we need it,” Frank said letting Chuck know he understood their situation.

  An hour passed with nothing but the dwindling plume of smoke to indicate anything had happened. They began to relax and Chuck asked the guys if they minded staying on the bow and keeping an eye out.

  “Well Frank, how about looking at the panels now?” Ellen still wanted to know if it would benefit them to find a new controller for the solar panels. Having to run the motor every day to keep the last of the freezer meat frozen used up fuel they could be saving for later. She had already transferred the meat from her refrigerated icebox to the portable freezer and turned the icebox off.

  Frank was standing up on the gunnel stretched up to see the panel wiring. He couldn’t see anything wrong with the wires coming from them, there was no scorching or darkening of the coating from getting too hot, the panel itself didn’t look any different than the ones he’d installed on the Aurora.

  “Are you sure they were even on? If they had high voltage electricity going through them, enough to burn them out, I would expect to see some melted wires or maybe cracks in the panels or something to indicate they were useless.”

  “The only way they could have been off was if I had turned the main breaker off and I’m sure I wouldn’t have done that. Besides the batteries were fried, so I would expect everything connected to them would be gone too.”

  “And I think that would be true if they were on.” Frank didn’t want to argue with her so he went below and checked out the panel. The main breaker was on, however the switch for the Solar was in the off position. He turned and was going to pull the cushions off the settee over the battery storage box, but he had forgotten about Simon.

  Simon was awake and watching him. “Can you help me sit up?

  “Sure if it’s okay with Hannah.”

  She was just climbing out of the V-berth. “Go ahead but don’t use your arm. It’s important for the wound to heal before you try using it. I don’t want any stitches pulled out.”

  Frank propped him up with a couple of pillows. He left Hannah to look after Simon and went back up top. “It’ll have to wait for now. We’ll worry about the panels later.”

  “Are you guys ready to head for shore? We may as well do it. I’m not sure what happened to my guys but we may as well do this. It would be nice to get it out of the way.”

  “Alan, bring those empty fuel jugs and put them in the dinghy.”

  “Dinghy hell, we’ll take the Zodiac in.” Chuck said. “Put them in the Zodiac. Darius, untie that line we’re going to shore.”

  Equipped with rifles and extra ammunition, Chuck, Darius, Scott, Frank and Ellen boarded the Zodiac. At Simon’s insistence he was sitting in the cockpit with Alan, Hannah and Olivia.

  “My arm may not work but my eyes do,” he’d said on hearing they were going to shore.

  Chuck had agreed and they had helped him into the cockpit.

  The four of them watched the Zodiac leave and circle to the other side of the island.

  “I sure would have liked to have gone with them.” Alan said as he watched them leave. “I just hope they’ll be okay.”

  “Oh stop being a mother hen. They’ll be fine. This whole place looks deserted.

  “What or who is that?” Hannah asked. She reached for the binoculars and aimed them down the causeway. “We have a bunch of people headed onto the causeway.” She watched briefly and added, “Wait, it looks like there’s another group chasing them.”

  Simon sat up straighter trying to see. “Can you tell who they are? I mean are they wearing uniforms or not?

  “Yup, they are…both gr
oups are.”

  “Can I see through the glasses please?” Simon held his hand out. Hannah handed them to him. He tried to hold them to his eyes but with only one useable arm he couldn’t adjust them to see through them.

  “Let me help,” Hannah said. He held them to his eyes and Hannah worked the adjustment knob until he told her to stop.

  Simon studied the two groups. The first had stopped and hunkered down he could no longer see them. The second group looked to be soldiers, but they weren’t from an American unit. Their camouflage was too green. “What are you guys up to?” He couldn’t see where either group was as they had both reached the first island.

  He let his arm sink to his lap still holding the glasses. “Chuck left us a radio didn’t he?”

  Alan said, “It’s on the charger. I’ll get it.” He headed below and returned with the radio. “Want me to call them?”

  “Yeah go ahead. Just tell them we have company on the road. Sarge will know what it means without getting into a long conversation.”

  *****

  Scott had powered the Zodiac around to the first marina and tied to the dock. After checking for people they had decided to go ashore and see what they could find. As near as they could tell there were no people anywhere. Someone had broken the glass out of the door at the grocery store and the shelves had been ransacked. Surprisingly, the things that were missing were the cookies, chips and soda pop. The junk food shelves had been cleaned out. The beer and wine shelves were empty also.

  They each grabbed a cart, picked an aisle began throwing food in. Rice beans, pasta were the first shelves cleared, followed by flour, spices and anything to do with baking. Ellen moved on to the shelf with nuts, jerky and granolas bars. When their carts were full, Scott ran them down the dock to the boat.

  Depositing her cart beside the door she looked to the last row. She could hardly believe her luck. She grabbed an empty cart and headed for the coffee row. She began loading coffee of every kind into the cart. Knowing they would eventually be reduced to drinking it, she took all the instant coffee there was. With Hannah in mind she loaded up all the green tea on the shelf. She had Olivia in mind when she scooped the hot chocolate and to her surprise there was even Nestlé’ Quick. Only two small containers but she knew it would be a treat for Olivia.

  Basket full she wheeled it to the front. Another full of canned vegetables and meat was already parked there so she put hers beside it. While in the coffee aisle, she thought about where they got the stuff they stocked the shelves with. Logic told her there had to be a stockroom of some kind. She had been avoiding the freezer section because of the rotten meat. While the odor wasn’t strong you could still rotten meat in the air. After two plus months she would have thought whatever ate rotten meat would have cleaned it up by then, but the closer she got to the deli/meat section the stronger the stench became. She pulled the front of her t-shirt up over her nose. It smelled of her own sweat and she was reminded she hadn’t showered in days.

  Behind the deli counter she found a pair of swinging doors that looked promising. She pushed but they didn’t move. She pushed harder and whatever had them blocked moved with a wet sucking sound. Before she could halt her forward motion she was standing in a sticky sludge that covered the floor. A writhing mass of maggots crawled through the pile of decaying bodies in the middle of the floor. Unable to stop herself she leaned over and puked until her stomach was empty. She felt someone grab her from behind and started screaming. A hand clamped over her mouth and she bit as hard as she could. The rusty taste of blood filled her mouth and she gagged, filling her mouth with bile. An arm wrapped around her waist pulling her backwards out of the storage room. Finally, the sound of Frank’s voice crooning in her ear stopped her screams.

  “Hush…Shh, I’ve got you. It’s okay now. Come on Ellen it’s only me.” He had to repeat himself several times before his words sank in.

  “Oh my God…kids. There were kids in there. Oh Frank, they were all dead.” Ellen sobbed. Frank turned her around and wrapped his arms around her. He began to guide her to the doors.

  She staggered along within the safety of his arms. Her body was wracked with uncontrolled sobs. Frank didn’t want to leave her alone, but Chuck and Scott were loading the food in the Zodiac, but the last cart was still sitting inside the door. Ellen would be royally pissed when she realized the only basket they had left behind was the one with coffee in it.

  Chuck had told them of the of the men down the causeway. The first island was a couple miles away and he hoped to have everything loaded and be back on the Zodiac before the men could reach them. He hadn’t gone into the storage room when his nose warned him exactly what was behind the doors. He’d smelled that same smell in Iraq. Had he even thought she’d go back there he would have warned her off.

  “Okay, I need to let go of you for just a minute. We need that last cart. He set her on a bench at the head walk for the pier. He saw Chuck and Scott both headed his way on the run.

  “We got to make tracks right now!” Chuck yelled. “Come on!”

  Frank waved them on when he saw both men stop. He pointed at Ellen who was sitting with her eyes closed. He could smell her as well as see the vomit down the front of her shirt. He really didn’t want to leave her, but they needed that cart.

  “Take her to the boat,” he yelled back over his shoulder as he sprinted for the store. He grabbed the cart and ran full speed to the Zodiac. Ellen was huddled in the bow. Chuck was holding on to the cleat and Scott was behind the wheel. Frank drove the cart down the dock and tipped the contents into the Zodiac and leapt aboard as Scott wheeled the boat away from the dock. The water jumped all around them and Frank realized they were being fired at.

  Scott swerved back and forth until they passed out of the marina trying to avoid being a good target a hard right turn and they were out of sight of whoever was trying to shoot them.

  Chuck was on the radio yelling at the soldiers they had just left behind. “I’ll be right back find a spot and dig in.”

  Frank couldn’t hear his words, but his body language and expression spoke volumes. He couldn’t get across all the food to reach Ellen but she seemed to have gotten herself together. At least she was no longer crying.

  He wished he had warned her about the possibility of finding bodies. Someone had obviously put them in the storeroom. He didn’t know if they had been killed or they had gotten sick and died there. For them to have been all in the same place, said that someone had cleaned up.

  At the boat, they immediately began throwing the food off of the Zodiac onto the deck and into the cockpit of the sailboat. The empty fuel jugs were flung in with the food in an attempt to empty the Zodiac. There were seventeen American soldiers back there and Chuck was going to bring them all out.

  Hannah hustled Olivia down below to keep her from getting hit by flying food. Once she had her situated on the V-berth and cautioned to stay there she went up and began throwing food from the cockpit to the salon.

  Before the Zodiac was untied from the Annie-C an explosion rocked them. Between the third island and Flamenco the causeway erupted into a ball of flying rock and palm trees.

  “That’s a whole lot of C-4 right there,” Chuck said. “I guess they just bought us some time.”

  “You guys got this?” he asked and laughed. Food and fuel jugs were heaped up together. Simon was buried in food, white flour wafted out around him when he tried to move, all you could see was his brown eyes staring through the white, even his brown skin and hair were dusted in white.

  “Ellen?” Frank called. She was still sitting curled up in the bow of the Zodiac. The food had been removed, but she was still there. Chuck started to go forward to get her when Frank stopped him. “I’ll get her.” As if his words alone could explain what was wrong he said, “She went into the storage room.”

  Chuck nodded. He’d smelled the death stench that had hung over the back of the store and suspected that somewhere there were dead bodies. It wasn’t a
smell you could ever forget once it got in your nose.

  “Frank wait just a minute, I’ll clean out in front of the head so you can get the door open.

  She went to the steps and was surprised when the floor was almost clean of food. Olivia was picking the last of the bags of beans off of the floor. She had filled an empty container with the smaller things. Food was stacked on both settees and on the counter.

  She looked up at Hannah, “I’m sorry. I just wanted to help.”

  “Thank you Olivia, just this one time I forgive you. But next time you have to listen to me when I tell you something.” She opened the door to the bathroom. The floor in there was clean and she put a bathmat down.

  There wasn’t going to be enough time to heat saltwater up for Ellen to wash in, but just this once Hannah thought a rinse in hot freshwater would be okay. She pumped a pot full of saltwater and added a little hot from the freshwater side. Their hot water came from running the engine and while they had been stopped since the night before the water was still hot. They usually saved it for quick hair rinses and Olivia.

  Frank pushed Ellen down the stairs in front of him. When she reached the bottom he turned her into the bathroom. She just stood there doing nothing. The smell of vomit and rot clung to her. Frank reached down and pulled her shoes off and threw them into the sink. Hannah wrinkled her nose in disgust. Using the foot-pump she filled the sink with saltwater and added bleach.

  “My God, that is gross. What did she walk in.?”

  “You don’t want to know.” Ellen hadn’t moved or made any move to clean herself up. Silent tears had started running down her cheeks again. Frank took the matters into his own hands and pulled her shirt over her head. She started to shiver and he grabbed the shower head and holding it over her head he began to spray her off. She finally began to help herself. She began by stripping her clothes off until she was standing naked under the spray of water. Frank handed her a bar of soap and she began to scrub. The hot water ran out and still she scrubbed. Frank finally took the soap from her and rinsed the suds off. Hannah handed him a large bath towel and he wrapped it around her.