Ozark Retreat

by Jerry D. Young

  Things had changed on the ship after the episode that morning. Joshua noticed it as soon as he left the library. People were talking in whispers, grim expression on their faces. There had been worry before, of course, but now it was worse. Before there was a safe destination in mind. Now there was only speculation.

  Another change was the meal. Much more limited menu and the serving sizes were smaller for the most part. Passengers complained.

  Some of the crew was becoming less polite and ready to please. More passengers complained. Joshua had a feeling the ship’s officers were running into some employee relationship problems.

  He had taken for granted the quick, courteous service of the officers and crew. Joshua quit doing that. He asked for little and expressed his thanks sincerely. He began tipping with ones for the little services he did get. He had a feeling that the crew might not be getting the accustomed tips at the end of the cruise. And that they knew it.

  Joshua was right. There was full blown mutiny by dinner time. At least half the crew was refusing to work, from the looks of it. It was obvious in the dining room. The servers and bus people that were in evidence were covering twice or more their regular stations.

  Many of the passengers made it worse, complaining to every crew member coming into earshot. Joshua noticed Sue and her new beau were some of the loudest of the bunch. Joshua quietly asked his server if there was some way he could help. She shook her head. “No, sir. Not now, anyway.” She hurried off when someone at another table called for her loudly.

  Joshua was at a loss. He went on deck after dinner, trying to sort possibilities in his head. They were traveling southeast now. Away from the North American Continent at an angle. Joshua assumed it was to avoid fallout and the ship would turn back to the west when the Captain was sure there was no more fallout. When he went to his stateroom he had to make up the bed.

  He woke up to an announcement that the dining room was closed. The other various daily options for meals were being discontinued, as well. Meals would only be available at the buffet and portions would be limited. No seconds allowed.

  When Joshua went up it was a mob scene. He saw Jerry standing in an out of the way corner, watching. There was a woman with him this time. Joshua noted her wan appearance, and jerky movements. Her eyes were never still, darting here and there as people moved about.

  “Won’t hurt me to miss a meal,” Joshua said, patting his stomach, trying for a little levity.

  “I’ve got to get June something to eat. She hasn’t eaten anything since yesterday morning.” Jerry turned appealing eyes to Joshua. “Would you wait here with her while I go try to get her something? She won’t go up to the buffet with all the people there. I’m afraid they’ll stop serving before she’s willing to get something herself.”

  “Sure, Jerry. No worries.” Joshua tried to engage June in conversation, but she just ignored him. She stepped behind him when someone came near them.

  Jerry worked his way up the line and was able to come back some time later with a plate of food. “You’d better hurry,” he told Joshua. “There’s not much left and they said there won’t be any more until dinner. No lunch.” He took his wife over to a vacant table and sat down beside her. Joshua thought he was going to have to feed her, but she finally picked up the fork and began to eat.

  When Joshua went over after the line had thinned out, he found that Jerry was right. There were only a few odds and ends left. He took what he could get, considering there wouldn’t be anything until evening. Of course, there were still the items in the stateroom dispenser.

  After he ate, Joshua tried to corral an officer to offer his assistance if they would take it. But they all seemed to be on missions of their own. He finally got one stopped long enough to make the offer. “Sir, the Captain will be addressing that issue this afternoon. Please wait until then and follow his lead.”

  “Will do,” Joshua said. It sounded like the command crew was ready to let some of the passengers’ help where they could.

  That was exactly what the Captain announced. He didn’t address the fact that some of the crew wasn’t working, only that there had been offers of help from passengers and he would allow it in specific circumstances. People would need to keep up their staterooms on their own. That staff was needed elsewhere.

  Joshua was one of the first ones to sign up. They put him to work with a vacuum cleaner, cleaning the common areas. The Captain was determined to keep the ship clean and orderly, Joshua decided. He finally noticed that he wasn’t seeing any crew that wasn’t working. He wondered where the mutineers were, but didn’t ask.

  Sue and her beau walked by and she laughed at him delightedly. “And to think I used to go out with you. I must have been out of my mind.” She was still laughing as they walked away.

  Though he hadn’t expected it, Joshua found out there were a couple of perks for helping out. Those that worked that day were served meals in the crew’s mess. Nothing fancy or excessive, but a good, filling meal.

  Jerry, when Joshua ran into him that evening, said it had been another mob scene at the buffet. June wasn’t with him.

  “Were you able to get June to eat again?”

  With a sad smile on his face, Jerry shook his head. “Only what she ate this morning. I don’t know what to do. She won’t go see the doctor. I hate leaving her in the room by herself, but I just have to get out and get a cigarette every once in a while. I can’t stand being in that stateroom for hours on end.”

  “I understand,” Joshua told him. There wasn’t much else to say. They each were lost in their own thoughts for a while and then Joshua said he was going down to his stateroom to go to bed.

  “This early?” Jerry asked.

  “Used muscles today I haven’t used in years. I’m beat.”

  “You volunteered?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I think I may do that tomorrow. For something to do.”

  “It would probably help. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Good night.”

  Joshua was up bright and early the next morning, having gone to bed as early as he had. He was a little sore and decided a run on the deck would be good for him. He made a couple of laps and then saw Jerry and June near the stern of the ship. Just before he turned to go to a stairway and go down and join them, he saw June say something to Jerry and Jerry leave.

  When Joshua got down to the deck, he met Jerry coming out from inside the ship. “June wanted a cup of coffee. I was able to finagle one.” Jerry looked around. “Where is she?”

  “I don’t know,” Joshua said. They each walked toward opposite side of the ship to look down the length of the decks for her. “You see her over there?” Joshua called.

  “No. You?”

  Joshua shook his head. “Maybe she went back down to the cabin for a sweater. It is pretty cool out and I noticed she was wearing a sleeveless dress.”

  “Yeah. That’s her favorite dress.” Jerry handed Joshua the coffee. “I’m going to go check the stateroom.”

  A few minutes later he came running back, panic in his eyes. “We have to stop the ship! She’s jumped!” He was waving a piece of paper. “She left a note! How do we stop the ship?”

  Joshua ran to find an officer. Jerry was staring at the white wake of the ship. It was ten minutes before the ship began to slow and turn. Jerry ran to the furthest point he could go forward, and began to scan the ocean in front of them as the ship lined up with the wake.

  Afraid Jerry would do something stupid, Joshua stayed right with him. A ship’s officer came up to them and began to question Jerry about his wife. Jerry showed him the note. “She just couldn’t handle what happened,” he said. He was crying now. “She can’t swim.”

  The Elite came to a stop and lowered several of the life boats to search a wider area and then the Elite began searching again, too. It was almost dark when the lifeboats were recalled. “I’m sorry, sir,” said the officer. “We have to consider your wife lost at sea.”

>   “No! Jerry groaned. He collapsed to his knees, sobbing. Joshua and the officer got him up and down to the infirmary. Joshua stayed in the infirmary while the doctor talked to Jerry and gave him something to calm him and help him sleep. Joshua walked him back to the stateroom, made sure he got into bed and then went up see if there was any food left from the buffet dinner. There wasn’t.

  Joshua got a can of nuts out of the self-serve dispenser in his stateroom and went to bed himself. He was exhausted mentally. Jerry’s wife’s suicide on top of the worry about his daughter was getting to him.

  He went for a run on deck the following morning to work some more of the kinks out. Joshua noticed that their course was now to the southwest.

  He was first in line for the breakfast buffet and then for the work details. It seemed to Joshua that there was a few more of the crew at work than there had been. It was the same for the next three days. Jerry joined him on the work details, saying it kept his mind off of his wife.

  Joshua looked up from the deck as he was running the next day and saw a roughness to the horizon in front of the ship. They were approaching land.

  After breakfast the public address system chimed and the Captain began speaking. “Ladies and Gentlemen. I am pleased to announce that we will be making landfall in the morning at Savanna, Georgia. We have had contact with amateur radio operators that say, though the city was hit with a nuclear missile, it missed the port. The radioactivity is down enough to allow a small volunteer crew to go in and look for fuel and food. We will not be able to remain. Everyone will be transferred to the life boats, which will remain offshore to avoid the radiation until the ship can refuel and restock if fuel and provisions are available.”

  There were loud protests all around Joshua. Seems most of the people wanted to go to shore as soon as possible. Jerry looked over at Joshua. “What do you think? You going to try to get to shore?”

  “Are you nuts? Right into a radiation zone? No way.”

  Someone behind them had heard Joshua’s comment. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, fellow. He said the radiation was low enough to go in. He wouldn’t be doing that if there was any real risk. He just wants to get us off the ship so they can get the food and fuel and for themselves so they can go back to England.”

  “If there is no risk, why don’t you ask to go in with the ship and disembark? Head out on your own.”

  “I think I’ll do just that, smart guy!” The man stomped off, looking for a ship’s officer.

  “You sure, Josh?” Jerry asked.

  “Sure as I can be. I think the Captain and most of the crew has done everything they could to keep us safe. I’m not going to start questioning them now.”

  “Okay. I’m with you, then.”

  Apparently quite a few of the passengers and crew had the same idea as the angry man, for the Captain was on the public address system only a few minutes later with another announcement. You could hear the anger in his voice. “Ladies and Gentlemen. This is not a game. Several of us, all volunteers, will be risking our future health in trying to re-supply the Elite in order to get to a place that is safe enough for us all. No one will be allowed to disembark from the ship at the port. That is all.”

  There were more outcries. Joshua and Jerry got out of the crowd, suddenly fearing that violence might break out. They found a corner out of the way and watched the crowd warily. The ship began to slow and the report-to-lifeboats alarm sounded. Joshua and Jerry headed to their respective staterooms to get their life jackets and report to their lifeboat stations.

  Joshua was amazed at how few people were coming out to the lifeboats. More people began to show up, but not nearly as quickly as they had at the lifeboat drill just a few days ago. It was almost twenty minutes before they began boarding the lifeboats. Joshua was sure not everyone had shown up by then. But his boat was full and being lowered to the water below and he lost sight of the activity on board the Elite.

  As each lifeboat was filled to capacity, it was lowered, and motored out a little ways from the ship. They gathered together, keeping enough distance to avoid bumping into each other from the gentle wave action. The Elite began to move toward the opening to the harbor.

  Suddenly a fight broke out in Joshua’s lifeboat. Two men were trying to drag the helmsman down from his perch. One of them was another crewmember. Others were fighting to keep them from doing so. But more people joined those trying to take over the lifeboat. Joshua was sitting well away from the helm and was unable to influence the fight.

  The helmsman was dragged down and passed hand over hand and thrown out the door of the lifeboat. The other crewman climbed onto the raised helmsman’s perch. “We’re going in,” said the man that had helped drag the original helmsman down. “Anyone don’t want to go can just get out now.”

  There were loud protests. Joshua was one of the first to head for the door of the lifeboat. He had to climb over several people to get there, but he did, and dived out into the water. He was followed by several more, but the rest that had protested fell silent. They weren’t going into the water.

  The new helmsman set off toward the shoreline. Everyone in the water began swimming toward another lifeboat. It started happening all over the small fleet of lifeboats when people saw the other one leaving the group. A couple more lifeboats broke away. There were people leaving other boats, swimming toward those departing. All but the first lifeboat stopped to pick up those that wanted to go to shore.

  When it was obvious what was going on, people began to shift from lifeboat to lifeboat when one indicated the majority wanted to stay and another wanted to go. Joshua was amazed that a full three-quarters of the lifeboats headed for shore.

  The lifeboats staying behind regrouped and redistributed people to ease overcrowding. It was getting dark when the Elite returned to the group of lifeboats. The crew aboard the ship reconnected the lift cables and pulled the lifeboats up to unload.

  Joshua saw the Captain talking to one of the officers that had been with the lifeboats. Joshua could tell that he was both angry and disappointed. Many of those that had deserted had been crew. Joshua found out a little later from a talkative crewmember that several passengers had indeed stayed aboard in hiding and exited the ship when it docked and the gangway was lowered. As with the lifeboats, some crew left the Elite, too.

  He found out why they hadn’t moved after everyone was aboard. The Captain sent a select team to shore in one of the lifeboats to recover the others. Joshua went up on deck to watch. He saw the string of lifeboats coming back near midnight. The group had recovered all but three of the lifeboats.

  When they were hoisted up and locked in their brackets the Elite got underway again. It wasn’t long before the Captain was on the public address system. “Ladies and Gentlemen. I am pleased to announce that we are now fully fueled and have added significantly to our food stores. As you are all aware, I have lost many of my crew to desertion. Any passenger willing to help in the operation of this ship will be greatly appreciated.

  “I am also pleased to announce that we located records at the harbor that a regular supply tanker load of diesel was inbound to the harbor from Houston, Texas. I plan to find that ship. That is all.”

  Joshua found many of the crew that had gone into Savanna Harbor, including a few of the officers, were more talkative than in the past. He got most of the story of what had gone on in the harbor and in the recovery of the lifeboats.

  There was a great deal of damage in the harbor from the blast and ground waves of the device that hit on the western edge of Savanna. Those on the bridge of the ship could see the devastation extending to the limit of their line of sight. The tanks in the tank farm for the harbor all seemed to be standing. There were several empty berths available and the crew docked the ship and then went ashore to see if they could get the fueling system going so they could re-fuel the Elite.

  It took most of the day for the work crew assigned to the fuel to find a generator and hook it up to t
he pump feeding the fuel line to their berth. Though the tanks had appeared undamaged from a distance, when the crew got there they discovered quite a bit of damage. But there was some diesel fuel suitable for the engine in the Elite available in one tank. They transferred all they could get out of the tank to the ship.

  While the one team was working on the fuel, two more were sent in search of useable food, with the caution not to venture too far from the harbor. They were able to get a couple of forklifts running, as well as one semi-truck.

  They scoured the harbor area for delivery trucks. Much of the food they found had been fresh and was now a rotting mess. But there were canned, bottled and packaged foods, as well. They gathered up all they could find. Like the fuel, there was a limited amount. But it would feed the ship’s complement for at least two weeks, they decided, if it was rationed carefully. And they still had a week’s worth aboard. They loaded everything aboard, including the forklift that ran on diesel, after strengthening the boarding ramp to the cargo hold. Just in case it was needed in the future.

  When it was discovered that three quarters of the passengers and half of the crew had deserted, and the Captain had decided not to try to force those that had left back aboard the ship, he received updated estimates on their situation. They had food for a month for those left aboard, and the fuel tanks were almost full. Since the ship was equipped with desalinators, they didn’t have to worry about water, as long as they had fuel.

  Joshua was watching through the windows on the lifeboat deck when those that were going after the other lifeboats disembarked. He noticed that two of the men carried shotguns. They were the ones used for shooting trap off the aft deck. The Captain was not playing games with the deserters. They could leave, but they weren’t taking any more of the ship’s property than he could help.

  It didn’t take long to find the lifeboats, bright orange that they were, clustered together near the south shore of the harbor. Apparently those in three of the lifeboats had decided on another location. The recovery crew was able to transfer helmsmen to the other craft and left, without ever seeing anyone ashore, not even a campfire. No one was even standing a watch on the lifeboats. A couple of them weren’t even tied up to the shore, but were drifting free, a quarter of a mile away.