by Robert Lyon
California and had plenty of time on the beach under my belt and I was very accustom to that it seemed only in summer did the temperature stay somewhat predictable. Dave Artimus the one time captain slept near the fire at the center of his pentagon, he had fallen asleep sitting and watching the fire with other survivors he had a trust of from their former jobs he had slumped over and rested his head on the shoulder of Mess specialist Robert Wildly and in his sleep had been dreaming of his wife, so he placed his arms around MS3 Wildly and slept in comfort.
The fire in the trench with us at the boiler site was burning hardening more clay components and the fire in the firebox still burned as well boiling the water of to steam which traveled down the neck of the spout and condensed to fresh water which the dripped and occasionally poured down into a vase. We gave way to sleep as well Tommi and Jennifer slept back to back, Michael, Mitch, and Mike slept in a triangle formation and I slept at Tommi and Jennifer’s feet.
In my sleep my eyes had opened during a dream and I heard music, I watched the moon sail through the sky as though it were the sea. The stars formed constellations with lines connecting the dots. And choirs sung of island paradises and civilizations lost. There was the smell of cinnamon in the air, and colorful leaves and flowers drifted on the breeze. The moonlight shown on the surface of the sea like a road to a happier past, and as I stepped upon that road the seas rose up and swallowed me and I drifted down into purple shadows and a ringing in my ears. I woke up gasping for breath, confused and panicked. I sat up and saw the fire still burned in the firebox and the trench fire still had a glow, there was dirt on my throat and dirt on Jennifer’s feet, I figured she must have kicked me in the neck, and having three younger sisters it didn’t surprise me at all so I rolled over and went back to sleep.
Jennifer began to toss and turn as she dreamt of a giant sea turtle crashing through the waves moaning like a whale, she stood in a small Indonesian village with young girls. She was dressed in a sarong, with a red and white floral print that included in its design a decorative bridge silhouette. The young girls watched the wave crashing up and around the tortoiseshell their village had been built upon and where they had lived since the great wave took their ancestors homes away. As Jennifer looked at the well in the center of the village and wondered how a well could possibly be there, the girls began a hypnotizing dance, the beads around the ankles shook like a rattle and a string of Chinese coins around their wastes jingled like tambourines. The young Indonesian girls wore the long hair up with a twist and a comb pressed in to hold their hair towered atop their heads. Some wore light blue veils a crossed their faces and they spun as the danced and angled the heels and ankles as
they pointed their toes up heel to the ground and crossed their arms over their chests and positioned their hands as though they were pushing away walls. They danced in perfect unison and
Jennifer delighted at their performance.
A man in a dark hood with a dark scarf acrossed his face, holding a folding fan in each hand, concealed himself behind the two fans and fluttered them making the sounds of wings, he opened and closed them in a mesmerizing pace and with them both closed brought them together and taped them together just above her head, with that, there in her dream she laid down and went to sleep.
Athena began talking in her sleep, she was dreaming she was a princess of an out skirting kingdom, she wear a corset and rough lace, and a dress with so many petticoats she could only kneel to rest her legs. Should she try and sit she would fall over. The rug in her castle was black with golden inlay and burgundy trim. Men dressed much as cardinals of the Catholic
Church leered at her lustfully and her garter seemed to tickle and tighten as did her corset. She feared her corset would rip open revealing her breasts to the men in red. She carried a porcelain pitcher to fill a washing bowl to appear busy and unaware of their lustful gaze and she took a handkerchief from between her full and sweaty breasts and used the water in the bowl to moisten her face. She glanced around and the men starred at her heaving breast so she moistened the cloth again and wet her lips, then used it to cool her inner thigh by reaching up and under her dress and all the petticoats she had to lift and hold. She gently pated at her inner thighs which glistened with a perfumed perspiration, and gently tugged at her garter on her upper thigh which had a strap leading down to her opaque white toeless stocking. The men stood very close now and she noticed her
pedicure was red nail polish; she then surrendered to the moment. She tugged down her corset revealing her breasts and erect tan nipples, the foot she had placed in the seat of a chair to adjust her garter angled at the hell as she swung wide that leg to release her heat and arched her back gathering her hair in both hands to tie it up with red silken ribbon.
The sound of soft moaning woke me up just before
Jennifer kicked me in the throat again. I got up and looked at the moon and down at the fire box and the fire was failing, so I looked in the vase and it was full so I set it aside and let the fire die. I thought I’d never get back to sleep, but I looked down just as Athena was issuing more moans and watched her caress herself which brought me an odd sense of wellbeing so I lied down beside her and fell right to sleep again.
At the landing Artimus too was awake he stepped out of the pentagon and strolled over to where Mormus was sleeping, he had slept for nearly two days. Artimus kneeled down beside him and sighed; he choked up and rubbed at his eyes. Robert Wildly stepped up and kneeled next to Dave and took his hand, it was still relatively dark and the captain looked up to the dark sky dismayed as to why anyone would stroll up and take his hand, as rage began to well up in him he coughed out a sigh, but the heard Robert starting to pray. A sense of relief washed over captain Artimus and upon the word ‘amen’ Dave reached around Robert and gave him a hug. Robert said in a hush, “He’ll be okay, just needs rest.”
Dave had been the captain of that destroyer and he knew what the situation called for, just assert a little self- delusion and once the context has changed in your mind it will be manageable, but you have to bring your subordinates up with you or they will shatter your illusion and all manner of
nightmare will become true, but he couldn’t stomach it. It had all been bitter for too long, nearly a week on the ocean, without so much as a floatation device, from a sunken U.S. Navy destroyer; Impossibility upon impossibility he wasn’t even sure they were actually alive. The alternative however was hell, thirst, hunger, and shipmates dyeing of exposure or dehydration and even what seemed to be forgetting to breath under the strain of fatigue…they just forgot to breath.
Dave thought back to the outright harassments he had practiced in order to find the ships first ‘five point oh’ sailor, the things he had done to encourage the subordinates to believe their immediate superior was always correct which was a task that only rose to his level when they were in fact wrong, molesting the ship in order to provoke a measurable event for chief petty officer performance evaluations under the heading of cultural diversity, that being encouraging the racists to believe they shared a view with their superiors that due to rank and station could not admit it. His list went on, now he was tired and defeated but it was anything but a quick death. Some deserter in his crew fled the camp site and is now delivering water rations and is working on a fishing net, while the noble captain watches his crew die apparently out of a failure of leadership, or simply having given up. The conversations he had with the corpsman concluded this crew could survive drinking sea water for two weeks, though some would need to drink urine as it is less saline. But, their spirits are failing them as their captain mourns a past out of his control and the ranks are beyond restless and disheveled, they are becoming animalistic and the captain is fighting his urge to just become a hunter of such animals.
Charlie Mcree lie beside Hauldbalm “the ghost” she looked up from her rest and once again removed his hand from
her breast, she looked over and saw Artimus and Wildly kneeling together. She as
ked the master chief, “Hey, what are they doing?” Hauldbalm just grumbled in his sleep, so Charlie grabbed a hold of his crotch to wake him. Hauldbalm instantly woke and said, “About god damn time” Charlie smacked his shoulder and pointed at the Captain and Wildy and asked again,
“What are they doing?” Hauldbalm straightened his glasses and looked, he asked, “What did you see them do?” Charlie replied,
“Their over there kneeling by the X.O.” Hauldbalm sat up some more beside her and watched a little, then put his arm around her and said, “Honey we need to sleep, they’re having a séance. I know that probably breaks your heart but I’ve got you.” Charlie scoffed and looked at him and realized the biggest smile she had had on her face in three years was right then, and she replied,
“Huh…you do, you really do.” Hauldbalm tapped her nose and said, “Yes I do” he leaned in and kissed her and pulled her to him. As she snuggled into his chest she laughed and said,
“ahaha, I’m only twenty four you cradle robber.” and as he began to choke with doubt she gave him a long slow deep kiss and welcomed his hand back to her breast.
Over the island hung a long streak of stratus cloud and if that cloud had a mind and eyes it would have seen the new allegiances and rivalries forming that night. Old political arguments and conflicting leadership still on the back burner and new problems of being lost and somehow more significantly was the sense of feeling lost. As a sailor being lost is nearly inconsequential, feeling lost however was an invitation to disaster. From above would be seen the huddled crowds had stabilized, no more games of hide and seek, they sat were all had, without words, agreed that they belonged. The hostility that erupted over the discovery of the water rations and the follow up
discovery of crew members that had broken away to make the water, had revealed long held animosities amongst the crew.
Biting and shoving at each other pushing away those that did not matter to them only to discover they did not matter to some they did care for; leaving them with a new sense of betrayal. They were ostracized from their supposed peers and found themselves amongst others willing to tolerate them, for too long they had held each other’s hands and washed each other’s backs only to learn familiarity breeds contempt. If only that cloud could rain down on them some sympathy over the brewing anguish that would soon yield a bitter fruit.
As the sun rose Chief Brosuer went around from group to group wakening only those he trusted; gathering social support for the morning’s assertion of authority. Today they would be finalizing the pentagon walls, and now that they had fire and a water delivery it was time to make tea.
Brosuer first woke GMG2 Smity a gunner’s mate guns, he had had the position of lead brig watch though he had only stood those watches on one occasion under the previous captain when I man was put on bread and water and three days confinement for assaulting an officer with an additional specification of It having happened at sea. Smity enjoyed the image of the navy with its heady lusty images of noblemen and pirates at sea despite the fact the all his navy experience went against that recruiting image. He then woke FC3 Zemkay he had been a rising star in the fire control rating, dating females in the gunners mate missile rate to have a personal contact within the work centers maintaining the other half of the systems he was responsible for…he handled the consoles and control systems, they took care of the actual missiles. Next was Atrisia Wells, relatively new to the ship but impassioned by the job, social
outrage would inspire her to strike with lethal force and without the guidance of her chain of command she would act in haste and likely kill the victim of a crime before even confronting the assailant. Then he woke Hudlow and authoritative engineer that had reached E-6 before leaving the training command, he had been made a ‘building maintenance supervisor’; BMS a code for janitor that was synonymous with mental disorders, in Hudlow’s case he had a remarkably low constitution; had personnel at his command been wearing costumes during the workday on
Halloween, Hudlow would have gone delirious and stammered through the day. This marooning left Hudlow on another plain of reality, full of magic and illusion. Chief Tony Casley was a navy runt and he was awoken next, the runts were motivated by a lifetime of short jokes and harassments within the navy for being of a lesser stature, anyone familiar with the old word belief that a tall man was inherently more intelligent than a shorter man could see the reasoning and the situations that lead to those deductions develop on just about any ship in the navy.
On the slightest sign of uncertainty they appeared to be lessor men, and it was necessary to leave room for leadership from subordinates by not always presenting as domineering; something a taller man would survive with his reputation intact, but the shorter guys would never live down. He had stayed in the navy to build a reputation that overcame this observed reality in his life, though it was only high school and the navy where that belief system flourished, had he left the navy he would have been subjected to a higher degree of maturity and more reasonable deductions made by his co-workers.
Brosuer had decided that the command master chief was genuinely too old for these military endeavors so we woke
Charlie McCree instead of the master chief, she stood there
being stared at by those he had already awoken. They starred at her in shock as though they were looking at the command master chief’s geisha girl, which was distinctly different than a whore. Charlie looked back at them mirroring their shock and realized they seemed to have some contempt for her and she uttered, “What?”; they then strolled away and formed ranks.
Brosuer said, “Don’t form up yet it isn’t just us. We need a role call on everyone. Let’s just cover what we need to get them to do first.”
Over at the boiler work camp I started to wake up again the sun was just risen and as I awoke I heard music in my dreams, violins and cello’s playing a harmony like some kind of
U2 song. I looked at Athena still asleep next to me and I rolled over to find Tommi staring at me like she had been watching an aquarium and drifted off into thought. I said, “Good morning.” she looked away from me by looking down at the ground near her feet as she sat there butt on the ground and legs stretched feet on the ground and she replied, “Ya..” I asked, “Where did you sleep?” She replied, “I’m not sure I have Rob, but I lied down on the hillside. I couldn’t find my way down in the dark, once the sun came up I went for a walk.” I asked, “How was your walk?” as I began to sit up and she said, “Well, there’s definitely wild boar here.” I responded, “That’s what I suspected and was hoping for.” Tommi crossed her legs and still staring toward the ground as if she couldn’t make eye contact with me she asked, “What you hoped for?” I said, “Ya, they may be dangerous, but when all is said and done they will just be cheeseburgers…sans cheese.” Tommi turn on her butt and laid back and said, “Ahh…that does make it different.” then she rolled over to go to sleep. I glanced back at Athena and she was still asleep so I scooted over to Tommi and caressed her hair
asking her if she was alright to which she responded, “Oh, I’m fine…just fine…” Tommi drifted off to sleep and I got up to see how much more work we needed on the fishing net and how far along we were on the other boilers and as I got up I looked over to see Athena glaring at me. Athena said, “You pull that shit on me and I’ll cut your balls off.” I said, “What shit?” Athena said,
“The way you were touching her, I’m not going to be needing any of your reflexology massages Rob.” I sighed and ran my fingers across Athena’s head and said, “She slept on the hillside stranded in the dark; couldn’t find her way down, I actually slept next to you.” Athena responded, “I know…you pull any shit with me and your balls will be fish bait.” I replied, “Okay” and got up and went back to the fishing net lines we were weaving.
Mike Elper woke up and saw me working on the net and looked over at the cooling boiler pieces they had finished last night only one bowl half, the top, had cracked and A couple of the brick
s had split. He asked, “Hey Rob, what do I do about these cracked pieces?” As he held them up I glanced over and saw what he was referring to. I said, “Spackle them and recook them, if they crack again well just make all new pieces.” He replied, “Alright…how long on the net?” I said, “This will take the rest of the day and we need a couple of logs to turn into a pontoon boat” Mitch interjected, “We need fish soon Rob.” I replied, “I know. There’s wild boar running around here and we’ll have to take some of them, but there’s something about those Hawaiian luaus where they bury the pig for three days to kill the worms in it.” Athena got up and said, “Gruble was up all night she could get down from the mountain in the dark so let her sleep. I’ll help with the boiler.” Mike retorted, “They’re stills. It’s evaporative distillation we’re using.” Mitch said, “I’ll look for some logs.” Michael coughed and asked, “Do we have
any water ready” Athena checked the vase and tasted the water and replied, “Ya, it’s almost full” Michael got up and drank some water then jointed me at net making. Jennifer slowly got up and ran behind a tree which startled everyone. They were just headed to their tasks, but in a hushed silence the sound of water splattering in the dirt was heard and everyone realized she had to pee and went back to their tasks. Jennifer came out from behind a tree and looked at Athena and asked, “They didn’t watch did they?” Athena responded causally, “No, but you heard linda, so what color was it?” Jennifer blushed and laughed a little and said, “Same slightly yellow color it always is..” Athena replied,
“okay”
Jennifer joined Michael and I at the net, she looked at me and said, “Lyon you should probably help Mitch find those logs you need and I didn’t leave any back there it was just pee…sorry.” I laughed and said, “Okay” and headed out to look for trees that had already fallen and weren’t rotted out.