“GPS says not too far off what we’d thought,” Mary told us.
Vanessa headed over to the sail and untied a rope. Ray went over and helped her get the sail back to its regular position. Soon we were sailing full speed ahead, with the sun setting to our right. The crew looked tired, soaked, and hungry.
“How about those grilled cheese now?” I asked, laughing a little bit.
“Sure, but first I think we’d better give this boat a name. We fought the sea and won, and it deserves a better name than the letters on it,” Vanessa suggested.
I leaned over the side and read the lettering. Princess. I said it aloud and we all laughed.
“I don’t know, maybe we should just stick with Princess. They always get their way, after all.” This from Ray.
“Princess she is,” Vanessa said, smiling with wet hair plastered to her forehead.
FOURTEEN
We took turns sleeping on the bunk, and Mary and I didn’t talk about the moment we’d shared earlier. Ray and I demanded that Mary and Vanessa take the first sleeping shift, and around three am, we woke them up and hit the hay. My mind was reeling from the past few days, and I couldn’t believe the crazy adventures we’d been through already. I could only hope that once we landed in South America, things would run smoothly. As I lay my head down on the pillow, I doubted it would be quite as simple as I was dreaming it might be, but we’d already shown what a resilient group we’d become.
I woke some hours later and left Ray in the bed snoring lightly. Carey was sleeping by my feet when I woke up, and I was happy to see him finding himself a little more at home here. The sun was just coming up as I carried a sleepy dog up the ladder. Vanessa and Mary greeted me and offered me a cup of tea. The ship had a propane stove that was giving us just enough to make this almost seem like a normal trip across the Caribbean Sea: four friends heading to Panama for an excursion.
“Good morning, Dean. Ray still down for the count?” Mary asked, her gaze lingering on my eyes for a moment before she looked down to her cup.
“Yep, I left him snoozing like a baby. Are we still on track?” I asked, enjoying the lemon tea with a dash of honey. My mom always used honey in her tea. The worry for her and everyone I cared about was like a constant buzzing in the back of my mind, but I had to push it to the back of my thoughts to be able to keep functioning. It was easy to forget that everyone was somewhere out there, and that was the whole point of us heading down to Peru. Most of the time, it just felt like we had one small task at a time. Get to New York, get to Washington, get to Florida, get on a boat, and get to South America. It was a series of small tasks that would eventually make up one huge, immense task.
“Yes. We’re about six hours from land – one hundred and twenty miles. We made okay progress through the night. We got lucky last,” Mary said matter-of-factly.
“Don’t we know it. I’m pretty sure I had a nightmare that we capsized, and the last thing I saw as I was being pulled under the current was Carey swimming towards me, wearing a life vest.” I patted the loyal guy’s head as he sat beside me, tongue already hanging out the side of his mouth in the warm morning heat.
“One bad wave or one more minute with full sails and that might have been the case,” Vanessa said.
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to tell them, but I decided I should. “In the midst of the lightning and the storm, ship swaying in all directions, I thought I saw a ship,” I hesitantly said.
“Sure, there were probably a couple ships out there getting tossed about along with us. It could have been much worse; we could have hit one of them. Then we would have been going for a swim.” Vanessa had missed my point.
“Not that kind of ship. One of the big silver ones. I swear I saw one looming there, watching us. I saw it for two lightning strikes, and then it was gone. It could have been my imagination, but given all that’s happened, I think it was real.” There; I told them.
“I believe you,” Mary said. “They may not have known there was anyone on the boat, though. It could have just been one of their patrols, or whatever those ships are. Patrols, scouts...either way, they’re probably looking for us, but it doesn’t mean they found us. Otherwise, I have a feeling they would have red-beamed us, and we’d be searching for Spanish gold on the bottom of the ocean.”
I heard Ray banging around in the galley below, and soon we were smelling bacon and eggs: a real heart-healthy breakfast. The old me would have wished for something a little lighter, but today I was drooling almost as much as Carey when I went down to help Ray bring the food up.
We ate, finished our tea and started to pack up our stuff as sea ate up the hours. Before we knew it, land was in sight, and Ray and I brought all the bags up to the front of the deck.
“I’m not looking forward to the trip back,” Ray said.
“God help us if we’re sailboating back. Let’s bank on us flying back with big fat medals around our necks,” I said with a laugh.
Vanessa directed us to reel the sails and we slowed the ship, then used the motor to bring us closer to shore. Panama’s landscape looked beautiful and lush.
“We’re coming up to the Gulf of San Blas. There should be some mooring points, and I bet there are a few resorts down here. How could there not be? Look how amazing this water is,” Mary said, waving her hand over the water like she was Vanna White on a game show.
“Tell them what they’ve won, Pat,” Ray said, mirroring my thoughts. We all had a good laugh, and soon we were coming up to a sailboat dock a couple hundred yards from the shore-line.
There was a four-seater tender there, waiting to take us to land. We took two trips on the tiny boat, hauling our supplies along with us. The thing’s motor sounded like it needed tuning up, and the noise echoed down the bay. We were happy to finally be off the boat and on shore, though my legs told me otherwise. The world felt like it was moving, and I was standing still as I tried to get my bearings on the sandy beach. I could see the others also trying to adjust to being on land again. Carey gave up and settled for lying down and rolling in the sand.
“It’ll take a while, but before you know it, you’ll all be back to normal,” Vanessa assured us. She broke into a violent coughing fit and turned from us for privacy. I tried not to watch, but I had my suspicions about her, and I’d heard that same coughing from Janine. I swore there was blood on the sand before she kicked at it with her foot. If Vanessa was one of them, what did it mean? My wife, Bob, and Kate all seemed to be on the right side of whatever internal alien conflict was going on, so all I could do is hope Vanessa was too. But the way she’d casually killed that man back in Tampa weighed heavily on my mind. She’d helped to get us this far, so for the time being, I told myself that I’d have to trust her. Trust her but keep an eye on her.
I could see Ray watching her too, out of the corner of his eye.
“Are you okay, ‘Nessa?” Mary asked, concern thick in her voice.
“Yes, I’ll be fine. I’ve just been over-exerting myself. Let’s get moving.” Vanessa grabbed a bag, slung it over her shoulder, and started to walk toward the road.
“Let’s do this,” Ray said, following suit.
We got to the narrow road and spotted signs for resorts down the street. There were a few vehicles down the road, so we made for them, hoping there was something we could all fit into. We found a van from a local tourist company. The back was full of snorkel gear, which we proceeded to toss out onto the ground.
“Maybe we better keep a set,” Mary said. “You never know what we’re going to be up against out here.”
I didn’t see a case where we would need goggles, but she was right. We really didn’t know what we were in for. Once we were loaded up, we all filed into the white van. I took the driver’s seat, adjusted it, and off we went.
“Where are we going, other than east? Do we need to make any stops?” I asked.
Mary was sitting beside me, Ray and Carey in the middle row, and Vanessa was all alone in the back, lying down. M
ary brought up the GPS. “Let’s hang a right in a couple minutes. About five miles down, we’ll turn left, and we’ll eventually hit the main highway. Hopefully, there won’t be a lot of cars blocking our way. It’s not like we’re in the best off-roading vehicle.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said. “I wish we could just stop at one of these resorts first, play a round of golf, have a couple Mai Tais.”
“I can float in a pool for hours. We don’t have a lot of nice outdoor pools in the ‘burg. I used to go down to the Y twice a week and do laps. That was in my twenties, and before Kate passed away. I don’t think I’ve been to the gym since. We used to go together all the time. She brought out the best in me, always pushing me to run with her. Hell, I even did yoga. Take a guess how many black guys in Pittsburgh there were at the yoga studio. None. Just me. I miss it all, though. Maybe I just miss her, I guess,” Ray said.
It was touching, hearing Ray talk about it. I think we all felt a little bit of what he was saying. I’m sure we all missed our spouses. Even Mary did, I was sure, though she wouldn’t admit it. Vanessa had been married, and I could picture her and the hubby sitting on a Sunday morning, sipping teas and doing a crossword together, the kids in the other room watching some educational program or another.
“Janine used to convince me to watch her horrible television shows with her. When I was a bachelor, I watched a lot of hockey – always the Rangers. That and outdoor shows. You’d think I would be better at roughing it, but maybe I just liked watching other people do it. Before I knew what was happening, I was watching singing shows and chefs yelling at line cooks. I didn’t mind though. We accommodated each other. That’s what couples do,” I said.
Mary had been quiet up to this point, but she now chimed in quietly. “Bob used to come to kickboxing with me. Ever since I was a little girl, I wasn’t like everyone else. I liked playing with GI Joes and footballs. I used to get teased about being a tomboy, but I never cared. I didn’t want to play with dolls or braid my hair. The Air Force was awesome for me. I met so many like-minded people, and more importantly, women who respected me and treated me like one of them. Bob seemed to pick up on this, and he tried to do things with me that friends outside of the Force wouldn’t, typically. He hated kick boxing.” She laughed. “But he did it for almost a year before he admitted it wasn’t for him. Maybe I should have taken it a little easier on him. Or maybe a small part of me knew he wasn’t who he said he was, so each landed hit was a little pre-emptive revenge.”
“I wish I could just go swimming with Kate again. Maybe one day I’ll be able to swim in the eternal waters of heaven with her. What do you guys think?” Ray asked.
“I think anything’s possible. I mean, Earth’s entire population was just threatened by aliens from another world. A week ago, anyone would have laughed at you and called the asylum just for suggesting such a thing was going to happen. Now I’m driving around Panama with three complete strangers in a snorkel van.” I made it sound like a joke, but it was one hundred percent true.
“I’m quite happy to see so few vehicles on the roads out here. I know this part of the country must be sparsely populated, but I wasn’t expecting this clear a path,” Mary said from the seat beside me. I glanced over at her, her brown hair in a ponytail. She had light bags under her eyes, and they did nothing to lessen her piercing eyes’ effect on me. I wondered if she’d relived that small kiss over and over in her head like I had. Since she hadn’t mentioned it, I doubted the impact on her. Still, she had initiated every touch of the hand, every tension-filled eye contact moment. So far apart from what I was used to. I remembered the moment when I’d met Janine and how I’d taken charge and a chance.
I reached across the console separating the two of us and took her hand in mine, giving it a light squeeze. She smiled at me with her eyes, and as I started to pull my hand away, she held it tight. My heart rate sped up and I could feel a bead of sweat drip down my back, and not just from the Caribbean heat.
“Hey, guys, we’re coming up to the Colombian border. That was faster than I expected,” Ray said from behind us. Mary opened her hand and I pulled mine loose. I smiled at her while keeping my eyes on the road.
“GPS is saying that we’re about an hour from the mountain range that we have to go around. I doubt the roads will be very accommodating. I think we’ll have to change out this thing, as much as I love the leg room, in favor of an all-terrain vehicle,” Mary said.
Colombia was going to be a bit of a challenge to navigate through. With mountains cutting through most of the country’s length, running north-south, we’d have to hit them from the top and follow the valley road on the east side of them. There weren’t going to be more than a few little villages along the way, but we knew things should be fairly quiet here. It felt more humid as we approached the border, and I was surprised by the amount of security here. There were gates at each section where the guards would presumably ask for documentation – or bribes, for all I knew. I didn’t know a lot about Colombia short of what the movies told me, and that amounted to some terrorized villages, cocaine factories, and bad guys with moustaches smoking huge cigars.
All of the gates were shut, and for a minute, I thought about pretending I was Arnold in one of those movies, crashing the gates down with the van while machine gun fire sprayed around me, narrowly missing me as the windshield caved in. Instead, I pulled up and we hopped out to check if it would slide open without a key.
“Ray, can you check on Vanessa? She hasn’t made a sound in quite a while,” I said while testing the first gate. It was locked.
“Guys! Something’s wrong here.” Ray was crouched over Vanessa in the back of the van. We hurried over and saw blood on the seat beside Vanessa’s head.
“‘Nessa, are you okay?” Mary asked, fingers on Vanessa’s wrist, checking for a pulse. She nodded, and Ray hit the lever leaning his seat forward. We lifted Vanessa out, onto the ground outside, on the grass. Her chest was rising up and down.
“Get the water!” I called, and her eyes shot open, blood dripping from her mouth when she violently coughed. She coughed non-stop and rolled to her side. I knew this cough. I’d seen it too many times over that six-month period. I could tell from the looks on the others’ faces that they did too. Whatever Vanessa was, it was the same thing our significant others had been. From my estimation, that made her, at the very least, some sort of alien hybrid. Now that I was sure, I really hoped she was going to pull through so we could get her to tell us the truth.
We tried to get her sat up and against a tree when she seemed like she was going to stop the hacking. She hesitantly took the water bottle and sat catching her breath for a minute before taking a drink. She coughed halfway through her first guzzle and spit water on herself. Three minutes later, she had finished coughing and she leaned back, eyes closed, chest heaving slightly.
“Vanessa, we need to know the truth,” Mary said, crouching low to the ground. I had no idea how this was going to go down, and I felt thankful her gun was under the seat in the van; images of that man falling to the ground dead in front of me flashed in my mind.
FIFTEEN
Vanessa nodded slowly and started to talk. The sun was still high in the sky, beating down on us. I could smell the tropical plants mixed with seawater around me. Her words were so quiet at first, I had to lean closer to make them out.
“My husband died five months ago. Heart attack. He was only fifty but had some sort of hereditary condition that wasn’t picked up until it was too late. He was truly an amazing man. Olympic triathlete, long distance runner, and swimmer. He could swim any length in ice-cold water or run a marathon in the snow; I thought he was invincible, and when I was directed to meet him and make a relationship, it didn’t take much for my mission to become sloppy.” She took a pause and asked for more water. I got the bottle, noticing my hands were shaking from her story. I eagerly anticipated hearing the next part of the tale.
She took another drink and continued. “I th
ink I fell for the guy. We were together for seven years, and they were good years. I knew there was an end date to it all, but I never thought it would end like it did.” Tears fell down her face. “We were born to come to Earth and recruit people to our cause. We knew they were coming to take over the planet, and we’d seen it done to others before you. It was up to us to stop them, without them even knowing it. We brought a fail-safe device a long time ago, and eventually, they would make it here to take your planet from you. The bastards had no care about another race. We started off as a conquered race, when they came. It took many years for them to almost see us as equals. Thousands of years. Eventually, we were trusted enough to have ships of our own, and one of the first things we did was head to livable planets to help them. Instead of just telling our spouses the true story and risking blowing the cover, we figured the best way was to find partners we could trust and leave them the information they needed to save your world.”
“Why didn’t you guys just find people in Peru or close by to make it faster and easier?” Ray asked, eyes wide.
“This world is poison to us. The closer to the equator we get, the sicker we become. We basically have an expiration date, and the ring around the center of the world advances the decline of our limited lives. We really aren’t sure why, but it has something to do with the air and the planet’s energy. You all saw it with your other halves. They couldn’t survive, but we had hoped this event would happen while they were still around. We guessed wrong by about three years.”
“This is a lot to take in. Would you be okay if you headed back north?” I asked her.
“It’s too late. I’m in this and committed to see it through. I want to see every last human back on the planet, and my race will have helped one world.”
The Survivors Box Set Page 10