Landfall: Islands in the Aftermath

by Scott B. Williams

  “Nah, it’s just a scratch.”

  “Right…. Hey, I can work a winch handle. But I’m still so weak from the last two days of being sick. And not having enough to eat for a month.”

  “Don’t worry about it. We’ve got enough muscle between the three of us to do the grinding. You can help the girls with the fenders as she comes out. It’ll probably take two people on either side of each hull to hold them in place until they get some weight on them. It’s going to be slow, but slow is better than nothing.”

  Larry looked at the gentle waves lapping at the rocks and decided it was time to get started if they were going to make this work.

  “Okay, if everybody’s ready, let’s do this.”

  Grant was already in the cockpit, standing behind the centrally mounted winch that served as the anchor windlass when it wasn’t needed for the sheets. Larry gave him the go ahead to start cranking even as he and his brother were still climbing aboard.

  Nine

  RUSSELL WAS QUITE CONTENT to stay on the beach and work with the girls on the placement of the fenders. He followed Jessica, the brunette that had caught his eye from a distance, seizing the opportunity to talk to her by offering to help her. The other girl, Casey, and the blonde named Tara, who owned the other boat, were busy getting their half of the fenders ready for the other hull.

  “So where are you from, Jessica?”

  “L.A.” She said, without asking him the same.

  “Wow, you are a long way from home then. How did you end up on a boat in the Bahamas? Were you in L.A. when the pulse hit?”

  “No, I was in New Orleans. Casey and I were roommates there.”

  “Cool! I love New Orleans. I used to go every chance I got! It’s a party town.”

  “Not anymore, it isn’t.”

  “No, I guess not. I didn’t realize until I talked to Larry that the effects of this thing went that far. What about the West Coast? Have you heard from anybody back home?”

  “How would I?” Jessica asked, giving him a look that suggested she didn’t want to talk about it.

  “Sorry, I guess that was a stupid question. Nobody’s got a phone that’ll work. I just thought you might have gotten word somehow.”

  “No, and I’m just trying not to think about it. I don’t know what will happen to my parents and my other family and friends out there, or if something already has. I’m afraid it’s as bad as New Orleans, or worse.”

  “Yeah, big cities are the worst in something like this. That’s why I didn’t want to go back to Florida when it happened. Some people living on boats in Nassau said that’s what they were going to do, but I knew it was crazy. We’d already heard from others who’d arrived from Ft. Lauderdale since it happened and they said things were insane on the mainland. I wanted to stay the hell away. That’s why I waited until I could find a ride with somebody going to the out islands. I knew it would be better to be somewhere with fewer people and where the fishing was good. You guys did the right thing, coming here.”

  “We never planned to stop here. It was just dark out and we didn’t see the island.”

  “Maybe it was just fate then,” Russell grinned at her. “I’ve been waiting all this time for a boat to show up, and now, there are two. What are the odds of that?” When Jessica said nothing, Russell went on.

  “I hope I can get a ride with you guys. I’m a good sailor. I can help Larry with everything. You think he’ll agree to that? I’ve got to get off of this freakin’ rock. Wherever you guys are going is fine with me. I don’t even care. I’ve just got to get back on a boat. It’s in my blood and at sea is where I belong. I’ll sail anywhere, just as long as I’m moving, I’m happy.”

  “You’ll have to ask him. All I know is that our boat is already too crowded as it is. We never planned to sail with another boat, but he wanted to help Tara out because she was alone with her daughter, and she had her own boat. But they didn’t plan to stop here at this place anymore than we did. Larry only did because they had engine trouble.”

  “I can help him with that, no problem. I’m a good mechanic; gas engines, diesel engines, all of them. I’ve never run across one I couldn’t fix! I’ll help him get it going just as soon as we get this catamaran out of the water. I’ll show him what I can do. He’s going to want me as crew when he sees, believe me.”

  Russell was excited. So much was happening in one day after all those days of nothing. Now, not only was he no longer alone on the island, he had the prospect of a ride off of it. And on a sailboat with Jessica, at that. Russell had a hard time keeping his eyes off of her as he stood there in the knee deep water beside the hull, waiting on the boat to start moving. He heard the clicking of the winch on deck above and saw the main anchor rode from the bow begin to vibrate as it went taut. Before starting this phase of the operation, Larry had taken his biggest anchor some one hundred feet from the water’s edge and buried it in a pocket of deep sand among the rocks. The lead of the rode was as straight as possible off the bow, so that there would be no binding as the winch ratcheted up the tension.

  Larry had said the catamaran was light for its size, and Russell believed him, because he knew all catamarans and trimarans had to be lightweight to sail at the speeds they did. He still thought the design was too minimal though, and like he had told Larry, he would have built more cabin space onto it if it were his boat. It just seemed a waste to leave all that deck area open like that. But he would sail on it, no question about that. He didn’t care if it was a raft if it was a way off this island and a way to go wherever Jessica was going.

  The hull beside him began to move, and Russell followed it, wading forward to the point where the keel curved upwards in a gentle sweep to the bow stem. He held the line attached to the big inflatable fender in one hand as it floated next to the hull. Larry wanted them to stuff the first fender under that forward rocker area of the keel, so that the hulls would lift up over the sand as the boat was winched forward. Russell aligned the fender perpendicular to the bow and passed the rope attached to the other end to Jessica, who was across from him on the inner side of the hull. He could see that Tara and Casey were doing the same thing on their hull. It took some effort to force the fully inflated fender into position, because of its buoyancy, but with Jessica pulling and pushing from the other side to help him, at last it was done.

  “Watch your fingers, Jessica!” he warned as they finagled it in place. He was staring at her again, trying to make eye contact, but she quickly turned away. It didn’t matter. Russell was sure she was interested. How could she not be? She obviously liked boats and he was a boatman. He was a survivor too, and she would be impressed the more she learned about how he’d managed to make it here on this island all alone for so many weeks. Girls like Jessica needed survivors in this new reality. She might not have looked his way back in her old world before the grid collapse, but she couldn’t ignore him now. Those college boys from that other life were probably all dead now and what she needed was a man. A real man who could do things! Russell grinned at her again as the hull began to lift onto the fender.

  Larry said that if they used enough of them to distribute the weight, the heavy-duty inflatable fenders could completely support the catamaran out of the water. He had a lot of them, enough to put four of them under each of the twin hulls, but it was going to be a slow process, getting them all in place. Jessica was hidden from view now on the other side of the hull as the boat steadily moved forward, pulled onward by the inexorable force of the winch. As the weight of the keels forced them down onto the hard sand bottom, the first two fenders were squeezed and distorted, but seemed to be holding up. Russell grabbed a second one off the beach while Tara and Casey did the same on their side.

  “It looks like it’s working,” Russell said, smiling at Jessica as she stepped forward to help him when the time was right to place the next fender in front of the first.

  “Of course it is. Larry knows what he’s doing. He’ll have it fixed and back in the water i
n no time too.”

  “It’s still going to be tricky, getting back out through these reefs to clear water from this side. It’s a wonder you got through them coming in without a lot more damage. Your friend Grant should have been keeping a better watch.”

  “Anybody could have made the same mistake. Larry said so himself. Grant was doing the best he could.”

  “Maybe. But running right into an island is not very good sailing.”

  Jessica ignored him and Russell didn’t press it. As soon as she got to know him, she would see the difference between a man like him and a boy like Grant. She was obviously going to defend his actions because he was her friend. He may even be her boyfriend for all Russell knew, but if so, it was because he was the only one among them close to her age. That and he was a college prick that probably had money and a nice car before the collapse. None of that mattered now though, and Russell didn’t see what use he could be to anyone out here. What an idiot, to run a boat right into an island!

  The catamaran inched along as Artie and Grant took their turns at the winch. By the time they had four fenders under each hull, the keels were barely touching the water from amidships forward, and the sterns were only halfway submerged. When the tide went out again, they would be completely dry until the next high cycle. Russell heard Larry tell Grant to stop winching and then he jumped down from the deck to have a look.

  “We could go a good bit farther,” Russell said. “She’s still going to get wet at every high tide.”

  Larry ignored him and walked into the water between the hulls, going back and forth to feel along the keels and get a better look at the damaged areas. Russell was right behind him, step for step.

  “If you try to do the repair like this, your epoxy is going to get wet before it cures. I think we ought to pull her up another eight or ten feet.”

  “I’ve got fast-drying hardener for the epoxy,” Larry said. “We’ll have plenty of working time between the tides. It’ll take several cycles to get it all done, but I don’t want to be any farther out of the water than absolutely necessary. The way things are, you never know when you’re going to have to make a quick escape.”

  “You’re being paranoid man. Nobody’s coming here. Like I said, I’ve been on this island for weeks and there hasn’t been a boat in sight until you guys came. It would be safe to stay here from now on, but not the way I did it, with nothing to my name and all alone.”

  Ten

  NO MATTER HOW MANY times Larry and the others assured him that any of them could have made the same mistake, Grant still felt all this inconvenience was his fault and his alone. He had been the one at the helm, after all, even though he and Artie had worked together to plot their course. He was the one who failed to recognize the sound of surf in the dark in time to do something about it, so how could it be anyone’s fault but his? Now they were days away at best from getting the repairs done and leaving again. It would not have mattered so much if all of them were accounted for, but Scully was missing. Every day that went by could be crucial for him and might determine whether or not they ever found him. Larry would never be satisfied until he could sail back to Florida to look for him, but he wouldn’t do it until the damage to the boat was taken care of.

  Like Casey, Grant had offered to go with him when he sailed, arguing that he was the best choice despite his error in nearly wrecking the boat. But Larry wouldn’t hear it, saying he didn’t want to keep dividing their group. Besides, they now had this Russell guy to deal with and since he wanted off the island, Larry said he would take him to Florida. Russell could help him with the steering and watch keeping on the way over, and if things went as planned, Scully would do so on the way back. It didn’t take any of them long to discover how obnoxious Russell was, and even though he didn’t think he was dangerous, Larry thought it best if they got rid of him as soon as possible. He didn’t want to leave him there for everyone else to deal with, so taking him to Florida seemed like the best solution. He would be a pain in the ass to deal with on the boat, even for that short trip, but Larry said he would have to do as he was told or he would drop him off somewhere along the way. Russell might not like it, but that was going to be his only choice, and Grant was relieved to hear it. Russell’s interest in Jessica especially, was making her uncomfortable, and Grant knew if it continued, he was going to have to say something to him about it.

  They were all exhausted after a full day of work with little sleep the night before. After unloading the Casey Nicole and moving her most of the way out of the water, they worked with Larry to scrub the hull bottoms when the tide fell later that afternoon. With the green film of marine growth cleaned away, the repairs could begin tomorrow with the next low tide. A closer inspection once they were clean revealed numerous cracks and scrapes and a couple of places where the reef had punctured the plywood core near the keel of the starboard hull. Larry assured them that none of the damage was serious, but fixing it would take longer and be harder without grinders and other power tools to prepare the surfaces for new layers of glass and epoxy.

  Russell was in the midst of the discussion the whole time, and no matter what Larry said, he had to add his two cents, usually to offer a differing opinion. Grant was about sick of hearing his mouth, and he knew Larry was, but just as he’d shown them through all the trials they’d already been through, their captain had great reserves of patience, even when dealing with an asshole. Russell even had the audacity to argue in the face of Larry’s generous offer of a ride off the island.

  “Man, going back to Florida now would be crazy!” he said, as they all sat around the evening cooking fire they’d built on the beach, overlooking the catamaran. “We’d never find your friend now,” Russell continued. “From what you said about those ships and from what your brother and Grant and Jessica said about the smaller gunboats, he’s got to be either dead or in a prison camp somewhere. If we go there, the same thing is going to happen to us. I know he’s your friend, but that’s the harsh reality of it, man. We should all just go to the Exumas. We can anchor near my friend’s house and we’ll be safe and have everything we need.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure that it’s any safer there than it is in Florida,” Grant said. “From what Larry told us back when we were first talking about the Bahamas, the Exumas are probably the one place that thousands of boats from Florida headed to after things got bad.”

  “We are not sailing to the Exumas,” Larry said, flatly.

  “But dude, it’s just stupid to sail to Florida now!”

  “Look, Russell. You said you wanted a ride off this island, right? Well, I’m offering you a ride, but that ride’s going to Florida! You can sail with me, or you can stay here from now on or until you have a better offer. The choice is yours.”

  Grant could see Russell fuming, staring down at the sand between his feet before turning to look at Jessica, hoping to catch her eye and get some sympathy for his cause. She ignored him, of course, and looked at Grant instead. Grant knew from the look in her eyes that she wanted him to say something to get this guy off her back.

  “You need to go with Larry,” Grant said. “He’s offering you a ride and you’ll have free food too while you’re on the passage. If you’ve been stuck here as long as you say you have, I don’t see why you wouldn’t jump at that opportunity.”

  “Because going to Florida is a death sentence. It would be worse than things were here when I was alone. You’re not going there. Neither is Jessica or Tara or anybody else. Larry here is going just because of his friend. There’s no other reason to risk it. I’ll just wait here with all of you then and go with you when you finally do leave to sail somewhere sensible.”

  “That’s not going to happen,” Larry said. “We’ve already got enough people to take care of.”

  “I’m talking about going with them on the other boat—the monohull—when you don’t come back. Because if you sail to Florida, you won’t be coming back.”

  “And if he doesn’t, you still can
’t go with us,” Tara spoke up. “I’m the captain of the Sarah J., and she is much too small to take on any more crew, especially if Larry doesn’t come back. There will already be six of us aboard her.”

  “Damn! You people are some cold! I thought I’d finally caught a lucky break when I saw two boats here this morning!”

  “You did,” Larry said. “At least we didn’t shoot you on sight like a lot of people would these days.”

  Russell muttered something under his breath and then, as if nothing ever happened, started running his mouth again about how useful he was around boats. He could work on engines, do rigging work, electrical repairs, fiberglassing… not to mention clean and cook. He would be their greatest asset, and they would never regret taking him on as crew. It was if he hadn’t heard what Larry and Tara just told him and he still thought he could convince them to take him where he wanted to go. Grant just rolled his eyes. The sooner this guy left with Larry, the better, as far as he was concerned.

  He excused himself from the fire and walked across the island to the point overlooking the calm waters where the Sarah J. was anchored. He wanted a few minutes of peace and quiet, but when Casey joined him he welcomed the opportunity to talk to her alone. Jessica had been doing her best to stay between them since they’d arrived there, and so far he’d not had any real time with Casey. She sat down beside him on a big rock, and as if reading his mind, Jessica was the first thing she brought up.

  “It seems like my former roommate has taking quite a liking to you, Grant, though I can’t say that I blame her.”

  “It’s not what you think,” Casey. “Yeah, we had a lot of time together on the voyage, but it wasn’t like it was a romantic cruise or something.”

  “It’s none of my business if it was. I just want all of us to be happy. I’m glad you’re here safe, Grant.”

  “Me too.” He took her hand in his and looked into her eyes so there would be no doubt that he meant what he said. “I missed you the whole time you were on the other boat, Casey. I didn’t like the idea of splitting up like that, but I understand why Larry wanted to do it. Tara seemed perfect for him, but from what I heard, it didn’t work out so well between them.”