by Eric Vall
“It was pretty badass of him to give Bailey that gun,” Tara said as we walked. I had hung back since I had the box to carry, and Tara chose to walk in the back with me.
“It was nice,” I agreed.
“But I hate that he just calls her ‘the sniper’,” the platinum blonde added.
“You noticed that, too, huh?” I chuckled.
“Well yeah,” Tara said. “It’s so weird. Like, I wouldn’t just call him the Ranger. Bailey has a name.”
“It’s sweet of you to get upset for her,” I said.
“She’s like my sister,” the platinum blonde said. “Besides, she’s the sweetest one out of all of us. She deserves our protection.”
“I’m pretty sure she can protect herself,” I laughed and gestured to where Bailey walked with her new Barrett in front of us. The weapon was heavy, but she was too excited to care, and she staggered a bit to the right as she walked.
“You know what I mean,” Tara said with an eye roll.
“I do,” I chuckled. “And you’re very sweet for it.”
“Yeah, yeah,” the platinum blonde said. “Do you want me to carry the box for a while?”
“You must be in a very good mood today,” I said with a playful smirk.
“That coffee definitely helped,” Tara laughed.
We reached the boat and I put the supply box in the below deck cabinet, along with our belongings except for our weapons and a water bottle for each of us, along with our thermoses.
“Are we ready to get going?” Paige asked with a clap.
“I believe so,” I said.
The sun had just barely kissed the horizon as we got the boat untied and off onto the water. The morning air was cool, with a slight breeze that pulled us along effortlessly. We sailed from the large, open area of Lake Champlain, to the small canal that was the La Chute River.
By the time we reached the river the sun had risen and the day had begun. The horizon was lit with blues, oranges, purples, and pinks as a new day overtook the night.
“It’s so pretty out,” Bailey said as she looked at the sky.
“It is,” I agreed.
“How do you feel?” the blonde asked Anna, who sat and stared at the horizon with us.
“I feel fine, actually,” the redhead chuckled. “I think I’m over my seasickness.”
“You just needed some time to adjust,” Paige said with a smile.
We looked at the horizon for a moment and sipped at our coffee. It was a pleasant morning, and I was happy to be away from the fort and on the water with my girls once more. It was a shame we weren’t headed home, and that we couldn’t send word to let them know we were alright, but we would come home with fuel, and that would be a good enough reward for them to forgive our tardiness, I thought.
“We have a decent speed right now,” Paige said. “But this river is a lot smaller than Lake Champlain, so we just need to make sure that we’re steering.”
“That’s my job, right?” I asked.
“Yes,” Paige confirmed. “But we can take turns if you’d like.”
“I’ll go first,” Tara said.
“Oh,” the brunette said, and she bit her lip. “Actually, I meant Tav and I could take turns steering.”
“What?” the platinum blonde asked. “You don’t trust me to steer?”
“It’s not that,” Paige said. “It’s just that steering is really sensitive, so you have to be careful.”
“It’s cool,” Tara chuckled. “I get it. I didn’t really want to steer, anyway, I was just trying to be helpful.”
“Oh,” the brunette said, but she looked skeptical. “Well, thanks.”
“No problem,” the platinum blonde said with a grin.
“She’s in a good mood today,” I explained. “It’s the coffee.”
“Ah,” Paige said with a nod.
“Is anyone else hungry?” Bailey asked.
“Me,” the brunette said.
“I think she was talking to the rest of us,” Anna chuckled. “We know you’re always hungry.”
“Fair enough,” Paige laughed.
“Let’s see what we got in that supply box,” I suggested.
“Alright,” Bailey agreed, and she brought the box up from below.
“Plenty of canned goods it looks like,” Anna said as she peered into the box.
“Yeah,” the blonde agreed. “Canned corn, green beans, beans, potatoes.”
“What else is there?” Tara asked.
“Oh it looks like there’s some bread in here,” Bailey said happily.
“Yum.” Paige grinned.
“Whoa,” Bailey said.
“What?” Tara asked, and she leaned forward.
“They made us some pastries,” the blonde said and she held up a box filled with what appeared to be danishes.
“Oh hell yeah,” Paige said. “Pass me one of those.”
“Alright,” I laughed. “Danishes for breakfast it is.”
We sipped our coffee and ate our danishes while I carefully steered the boat when necessary, and the girls chatted.
The danish was delicious, it seemed they had some supply of fresh or canned fruit, because the one I got was peach, and Tara said hers was cherry. I was grateful to whoever had made them for us, I didn’t know much about pastries, but I doubted they were the easiest thing to make, and unless they had some on hand, then that meant they made these for us last night or that morning.
I savored the last bite of my breakfast and took another swig of my coffee.
It was mid morning already, and we had passed the interstate and had just started around a large curve in the river.
“There’s going to be a park up here on our left,” Paige said. “And the falls won’t be far after that.”
“Oh great,” Tara said with an eye roll.
“At least we’ll get that part out of the way the first day,” Anna said with a shrug.
“That’s true,” the platinum blonde conceded.
“There’s a little bridge up there,” Bailey said with a point. “Will we fit under that?”
“We should,” Paige said. “There’s a boat launch not too far from us, so we should be able to navigate through everything.”
We went under the little bridge without a problem, and in the distance I saw the falls. They weren’t large, but we definitely wouldn’t be able to get up them in the boat. Paige was right, we would have to take the boat to shore and go around them.
To my left the park Paige had talked about came into view. The vegetation had become overgrown, and where it looked like it had once been a park meant more for people to enjoy, now I saw several deer in the grass, and some were even at the water's edge to get a drink.
“Girls,” I said quietly, and I pointed.
The conversation stopped as the girls looked at the deer and gave out an audible ‘aww’. There were several babies with the herd, and they were quite cute.
“Gonna put that new gun of yours to the test?” Tara asked with a grin, and she elbowed Bailey in the side.
“What?” Bailey screeched with wide eyes.
“I’m just kidding,” the platinum blonde laughed. “They’re obviously too cute to shoot. Besides, we have plenty of food.”
“Jeez,” the blonde sighed. “I was going to throw you over if you were serious.”
“Damn, Bailey.” Anna burst out laughing.
“What?” the blonde asked. “That would have been so cruel!”
“Yeah, but you went straight for throwing overboard,” Paige laughed.
“My bad,” the hippie said with a smile and a shrug.
I laughed at the girls and watched the deer for a moment more. As crazy as the world had become, it was beautiful to see nature take it back one small step at a time. That park, and this river had been modified for humanity, and now the animals and the forest had taken it back.
I felt a sense of serenity as I watched the beautiful animals graze and the babies running around and playing.<
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“Uh, Tav,” Tara said.
“Yeah?” I asked, and I looked up to see all the girls staring at me. “What?”
“You’re kind of veering the boat toward the shore,” Paige laughed.
“Whoops,” I said and I shook my head. “Sorry, I was distracted by the deer.”
“And she didn’t trust me to steer,” Tara whispered to Bailey.
“Oh, shush,” Paige chuckled. “Here, Tav. I’ll steer for a bit. We’re almost to the falls anyways.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “Thanks.”
“You said there’s a boat launch up there?” Anna asked.
“Yeah,” Paige said. “It’s right by the falls, I figured that’s where we would pull the boat to shore.”
“So,” the redhead said. “If there’s a boat launch then there could be a trailer there, right?”
“I suppose so,” the brunette responded.
“If there’s not there could be one nearby,” Bailey said. “I bet a lot of people that live by the water have them.”
“If we could find a trailer then that would make moving the boat a lot easier, wouldn’t it?” Anna asked.
“Yeah,” Paige agreed. “Anything with wheels makes moving something way easier on the person having to exert the force.”
“I vote we try to find a trailer, then,” the redhead said.
“That’s a good idea,” I said with a smile.
We traveled on as Paige steered the boat toward the falls, and I watched the wildlife in the park.
“There’s the boat launch,” Paige said.
“If you just pull the boat close enough for us to hop off, then we’ll go look for a trailer,” Anna offered.
“I’ll go with Anna,” I said. “You three stay on the boat.”
“Alright,” the brunette agreed. “I’m sure I can manage that.”
Paige pulled us close to the boat dock, threw a rope around one of the poles on the side, and pulled us in.
“You might miss the water if you jump,” she laughed. “Sorry, this is as good as I can get.”
“Ready?” I asked Anna.
“Ready,” the redhead responded, and we both hopped down into the water and headed toward shore. It was only about knee deep, though it came up a bit farther on Anna since she was shorter than I was.
“We'll be back in twenty minutes at most,” I hollered.
“Got it,” Bailey called.
Anna and I headed up the small ramp and followed the road to a visitor’s center about the falls, the small place was run down and trashed, and there wasn’t a single boat trailer in sight, so we continued on. Once we got to the main road, it appeared we were in a commercial part of town instead of residential like we’d hoped.
“There’s not going to be any houses near us,” the redhead said with a frown. “Shit.”
“This could be better for us, actually,” I said with a grin.
“How so?” she asked.
“Look for a hardware store, lumber store, or even a boat or fishing store,” I said.
“Alright,” Anna agreed. “We need to hurry, though.”
“You’re right,” I said. “Let’s get to it.”
We walked down the main strip and looked for any businesses that might provide us with a chance at a trailer. There was a barbecue place, a pizza place, a bank, and a pub, but no hardware stores or lumber shops in sight. The town itself was absolutely destroyed, there were busted windows everywhere, some dead bodies lying on the ground, and it looked like the place had been picked absolutely clean. The Candians had done a real number on this place, and I was sure it wasn’t the only town that looked like this now.
“I have an idea,” Anna said as we were almost to the end of the road.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“There’s a country shop down there,” she said with a point.
“Yeah?” I asked.
“Just follow me,” she said with a grin.
I followed the redhead down to the shop and around the corner to its parking lot. Sure enough there were three or four trucks parked there, and one had a medium sized trailer attached to it.
“How on earth did you think of this?” I chuckled.
“Country boys love their trucks,” Anna responded with a wink. “One of them was bound to have a boat trailer since we are right by the river.”
We got the trailer unhooked and started to walk it back to the girls. It wasn’t a long walk, but the trailer slowed us down some since we had to maneuver it on the road and watch for the broken glass from the store windows. It wasn’t exactly light, either.
“Hey!” Bailey called as we made the turn back toward the boat launch.
“You got one!” Paige hollered, and she jumped up and down.
“It’s like she had no faith in us,” Anna chuckled.
We pulled the trailer to the boat launch and got it ready to bring our sailboat onto land. The ratchet straps came in handy, and we were able to attach them to the trailer, and the boat, and pull the boat into place a lot more easily than we would have without them.
Next I attached the winch to a nearby tree, and Anna hooked it to the trailer. The webbing was tough, and I figured it would handle the weight of our sailboat, but we were also hauling it up the steep angle of the boat launch.
I began to crank the handle. The first few rounds were easy as the rope tightened, but once I encountered that resistance it was a total bitch. The girls stood on either side of the trailer and tried to push as I cranked the handle as best as I could. My arms grew sore quickly from the amount of force I had to exert, but after twenty minutes or so we finally had the trailer out of the water, though my muscles were absolutely dead at that point.
Next we unhooked the winch and it was time to lift the trailer and pull it around. Wheels always made things seem lighter, but the initial lift was still quite a bit of effort. Once we had the front end off the ground, and got some momentum going it wasn’t too bad, but it still took us an hour and several rest breaks to get over to the boat launch on the other side of the falls.
“I wish we could take this trailer with us,” Bailey said as we prepared to put the boat back into the water. “It’s so handy.”
“This should be the only time we need to do this,” Paige said. “But a trailer is always handy for a boat.”
“We’ll get a permanent one for us soon,” I said. “Don’t worry.”
“Alright,” the brunette agreed with a clap. “Now let’s get back on the water.”
We maneuvered the trailer and lowered the boat into the water. Paige hopped on quickly, and helped the other girls while I gave the boat a push from the trailer, and scrambled to get on. The water lifted it off the trailer, and we once more began to float.
“Whoo!” Paige exclaimed as we took our positions on the boat once more. “That was fun.”
“Hopefully that was all the fun we’ll have for today,” Tara said with a shake of her head.
“Well, actually,” the brunette said, and she bit her lip.
“What?” the platinum blonde asked with wide eyes. “What didn’t you tell us?”
“It’s nothing like what we just did,” Paige explained. “But up here in a minute it is going to get kind of narrow and we might get some rapids.”
“Rapids?” Bailey asked with a panicked voice.
“Not crazy rapids,” Paige said. “But some small ones. Don’t worry, we got this.”
“Um, speak for yourself,” Tara scoffed. “When it comes to rapids, I definitely don’t got this.” The platinum blonde put air quotes around the last couple of words in the sentence to mock Paige’s nonchalance, and I had to laugh.
“We’ll be fine,” Paige chuckled.
She had warned me about the rapids the day before, but I trusted the brunette entirely. She was an expert navigator, and one hell of a sailor, so I had no reason to believe she wouldn’t be able to handle a bit of choppy water, on a river no less.
I had been rafting befor
e, and it could be seriously dangerous, but Paige had assured me that these were nothing like what you would encounter on a white water rafting trip. She said they were far more tame, and with the size of the boat it shouldn’t be an issue.
“How long do we have until these rapids?” Tara asked, and she looked around warily as if they were going to sneak up on her.
“Um, a couple minutes,” Paige said.
“A couple minutes?” the platinum blonde squealed.
“Hey, at least we’re getting all the crazy stuff out of the way early,” Anna said, and then she looked at Paige. “This is the last crazy thing for today, right?”
“Yes,” the brunette said. “I promise.”
“Alright, then,” Anna agreed. “We got this, guys.”
“Can everyone stop saying we got this and actually look panicked for a second like normal human beings, please?” Tara asked, and she glared at each of us.
“What can we do to help?” I asked Paige while I ignored Tara’s outburst.
“Just stay at your stations,” the brunette said. “But Tav, I want you to trade with me, I’ll need to steer through this.”
“Understandable,” I said and I stood up and let Paige take my spot at the rudder.
“Is that the rapids up there?” Bailey asked, and she pointed just ahead of us. “The water looks kind of choppy.”
“That’s the start of them,” Paige agreed, and she flashed a wide grin to the group. “Ready?”
“We got this,” the blonde said with a smile.
“Does it concern anyone else that she’s smiling?” Tara asked, and we all laughed. “No? Just me, then, huh? Cool, that’s cool.”
Paige steered us into the rapids, and the boat rocked side to side slightly as we went, but otherwise the ride was smooth.
“This is it?” Tara asked, and she opened her eyes after a moment. “This is nothing.”
“Hold on!” Paige shouted just then, and the boat turned hard to the left with the river, and Tara halfway fell to the floor.
“What the fuck!” the platinum blonde yelled.
“Not done yet!” Paige called.
The water had gone from mild to hot in a split second. The boat rocked back and forth and veered side to side and Paige expertly navigated us through the rough waters and around the large bend in the river. The choppy water tossed us around, and I looked ahead to see a small dip that looked like another waterfall. I looked back to Paige and was about to ask her if we were going down that when I saw the joy in her eyes as she veered and twisted the boat, so instead I just shut my mouth and watched.