A Congress of Angels (The Collective)

by Fore, Jon

  The guy's voice sounded both weak and hopeful, and the weakness drove Vega crazy. "William?"

  He paused again before answering, "Yeah?"

  "What are you doing."

  "Going south to Florida."

  He still hadn't turned to look at her while he spoke. This infuriated Vega, and she found the butt of her handgun, lifted the leather strap, and drew it from the holster. Hoping her voice would cover any metal on leather sound, she said, "William, what happened to our rifles?" The gun was free, and she let it dangle at arm’s length on the far side of the reclining chair.

  This time he paused for a long while, "I threw them overboard."

  "Why, William?"

  "I don't like guns."

  Vega caught movement to her left, and her eyes played in that direction long enough to see Maria's pretty face. They locked eyes for a moment, then she vanished below decks.

  Vega knew there was going to be a confrontation, that she and William were about to come to a head right here, right now, but found she was completely without fear. This part of the new Vega, Vega liked. A lot. She felt for Maria and Jackson, and found them instantly. Maria was filled with excitement and rage, Jackson was bloated with concern. Vega knew they were coming, would be here any moment. "Tell me, William, what is it your intending to do with me? With us?"

  There was no pause this time, "I know a place, a place we can all go and be safe." It was almost as though he was bursting to admit this, had been holding it for a long time, but Vega knew there was more to the plan. She knew these plans didn't include Jackson, whatever they were.

  She decided to try and reason with the guy, "But, William...we don't want to go to this place. We want to go to America. We have...things to do. We talked..."

  "They will kill you!” He shouted, then laughed nervously. Then in a softer voice, "They will kill you and then your part will be over. No. You need to come with me, to my island, and we need to make a start there. You, me and that Maria, you know?"

  His voice was passing through octaves so quickly, Vega couldn't tell if he was laughing or crying or maybe even both.

  "There's plenty of food, and its big enough for all of us. I can build a house and hunt and you and Maria can collect fruits and nuts and we can be happy. Most of all, we can be safe." He snickered or sobbed again, just once and cut short.

  "We don't want to go to the island, William."

  "Yes, you do.” He said.

  The fact he hadn't turned to face her made Vega angry, and just a bit nervous, the nervous one feels when in the company of the clinically insane. She saw the motion again and looked to see Jackson's face hovering in the stairwell, then Maria's face appeared before his. They were like moles in a whack-a-mole game, and Vega wondered briefly how both of them could fit on that ladder at once. Still, even with the cartoon persona, their presence was a comfort.

  Vega returned her gaze to William, and he still stood with his back to her, legs stiff and shoulder width, arms flexing over and over as he gripped the wheel. "We don't want to go to your island, William. We won't go."

  "You can't stop it from happening, actually.” William said, then giggled again.

  "Why not?"

  "Cause, silly girl, you can't man this boat, and I have something special for the big man. When it comes down to it..."

  "We won't go with you.” Vega said again, this time more sternly.

  At this, William spun, abandoning the wheel all together. The rage on his face was that special rage reserved for hospitals. He was a peculiar shade of blue and red at the same time, and his eyes seemed to quiver in their sockets. "You do not have a choice!” He screamed at her. A filament of spit flew from his mouth and landed somewhere between them.

  "Take us to shore, William, and then you can go on your way.” Vega said, still using her reasonable tone. Truthfully, she was afraid if she showed him the gun, he would snap completely, and all bets would be off.

  "No.” His voice had turned as cold as it did low.

  Jackson came out on deck, alone. William didn't see him, at least it seemed that way to Vega. "Yes, William," she said, trying to keep his attention trained.

  "Why should I? This is my boat, you know. I get to say what happens."

  "William, if you do not bring this boat to shore, I will take it from you, and bring it to shore." Her voice, without even trying, had twisted from calm and collected to downright venomous.

  William stared at her, his eyes locked now, no longer shaking. Then he turned back to the helm, and made an adjustment to the wheel, "No, you will like the island better."

  At this point, Jackson was nearly beside the insane man. Maria had come on deck as well, clearly unsure of what to do, but confident she would do what needed to be done. It made a strange mixture on her face as she leaned against the railing near the ladder well.

  Vega was still pretty sure that William had not noticed Jackson or Maria, and somewhere in his head he had come to some reasoning. After all, he turned his back, no longer arguing when just a moment ago, he looked as though he was about attack Vega. Attack her in a violent, physical way. Now that was gone, and Vega knew it had to be some form of sanity that did that.

  "William?” Vega asked, filtering the venom out of her voice again. He stood rigid, his legs planted like stakes. "William, if you won’t take us ashore, then you will have to give us the steering wheel." No venom in that one either, but there was a certain urgency, a measure of a demand.

  Williams head dipped visibly, "Don't make me do this.” He said this so softly, she almost didn't hear him over the lapping water.

  "I'm sorry, William. But I am not going to an island to be your sex slave or baby manufacturing plant or whatever you have in mind. We are going ashore, then you are going to continue on to Florida. Simple as that."

  William turned, slow, revealing what he had in his windbreaker's pocket. One of the grenades sat heavy in his upturned hand, and Vega felt her heart seize a moment before seeing the pull ring still hanging from the primer mechanism.

  Jackson saw it too, and worked that much closer to William, close enough to be the whack-job's shadow.

  He didn't hold the grenade up, but just stared down at it, "This says I still make the rules.” He looked up at Vega, his eyes red and wild with unshed tears, "I don't want to, you know? But I will blow us all to hell. I promise. Do you believe me?"

  Vega just nodded.

  "Then everything goes back to how it was, you know? Your friends don't have to know nothing....” He glanced to the ladder, "Shit. You, Maria, come up here with Vega."

  Maria stared at him, wide-eyed and defiant, her lips smashed to a thin red line, her chin locked.

  "Come on. I'm serious. You get up here and stand with Vega."

  Maria shook her head, "You're a real asshole, you know that? Take'm Jackson"

  Before William could reply, Jackson wrapped his massive arms around the skinnier surfer and squeezed, hard. One of William's arms was penned down, the other at half-mast, but it still held the grenade, if anything, tighter.

  Vega took a step forward, bringing her gun up before she realized how completely William was immobilized. In fact, it looked like William was turning a bit blue in the bargain. "Can he breathe."

  "I don't give a damn.” Jackson said, his voice smooth, hard, and flat.

  Maria came up on deck and strolled to the embraced William, and plucked the grenade from his hand like an apple from a tree. Grab, twist, and pull. Her eyes locked on Williams and if anything, her jaw clenched even further. "Bastard.” She hissed in a low voice.

  "Let him breath, Jackson."

  Jackson relaxed his grip a bit, and William gasped a breath, then began panting in a shallow way.

  "The world isn't over yet, William.” Vega said, and holstered her sidearm. "It's only over when people like you start doing shit like that. Maria, would you take the steering wheel, and turn to the right a little bit. I saw land."

  "Really?” She said, her face mel
ting into an excited look. Taking the wheel, she had to slide behind Jackson who picked William up and walked forward a bit to give her room.

  "What are you doing?” William asked, his face a picture of resignation, his voice filled with fear.

  "We are getting off this boat," Vega replied.

  "Land!” Maria called, "It's really there, see it?"

  "Yeah, I see it.” Vega called, unable to keep excitement out of her own voice.

  "What do we do with him?” Jackson asked, jostling William in his arms.

  Vega had no idea what to do with the guy. They needed to land the boat, they needed to collect their supplies and get off the boat. But not with this nut walking around. She could tie him, but she had never restrained anyone with less than a pair of handcuffs. That, and he probably knew more about tying and untying knots than any of them. They couldn't lock him in a room. She realized her hand had come to rest on the butt of her pistol, and a cold current ran down her back. No! Turning away from William, she could see the land was close, no more than a half mile off, then a thought struck her, "Throw him overboard."

  "What?” William screamed, "This is my fucking boat! You can't through me overboard, you know!"

  Jackson picked him up again, dangling the surfer dude between his arms, and walked to the railing.

  "William," Vega called, "land is just over there. We will leave the boat down the shore. You swim to the beach, then head south. You'll find it."

  "I'm going to fucking...."

  Jackson didn't wait for him to finish and hauled him over the railing. A resounding splash threw water against the side of the boat.

  Vega still felt cold inside. She might have just resigned him to his own death, but when she looked over the railing, she could just make him out, stroking towards the beach. Then he became invisible in the blackness. She could still hear him screaming obscenities from the darkness, but they were too feint and distant to be understood.

  "He was exactly what I thought, huh?” Maria asked.

  "I knew there was something about him....” Vega began, but couldn't think of a way to finish. In her chest, it felt as though she had failed them, even though she couldn't come to a reason as to how. They were safe for now, though, and that was what was important. The boat groaned a wooden complaint and settled under her feet. "Let’s go for about an hour and then just beach this thing. William can figure out how to get it back on the water."

  "We probably should have killed him, right? He's going to go find other girls to... steal for his island," Maria said.

  Vega knew this was true, but Jackson saved her from answering.

  "We can't do things like that. If that's what God wills, then that's what God wills."

  "Yeah," Maria said solemnly, "I guess so. Shame though, I kind of liked William."

  "Me too, almost too much.” Vega said. "But now what we have to do is get off this boat, and get to shore. Then figure out where the hell we are. Come on Jackson, let's go pack up and get ready."

  Vega turned and headed back down the ladder, now comfortable enough with its steep decline to go down forward instead of backward. She still didn't feel right, tossing the guy off the boat, but she kept reassuring herself he would be fine. He looked like a pretty strong swimmer, after all.

  In less than an hour, she and Jackson had carried three large packs topside, all they could really carry, leaving most of the M.R.E.s behind, but none of the ammunition or the grenades. Vega took the wheel and sent Maria down to get ready to abandon ship, or whatever it was they were about to do.

  Jackson laid back in the reclining chair near the helm with a sigh. "You did it right, Vega."

  Vega looked over her shoulder at him, "Did what?"

  "Handled our friend. You did that right. I can tell you're not feeling good about it, and I just wanted you to know you did right. Better than I would have, boy-howdy."

  Vega turned back to the wheel, stopping a moment to look from the beach to the homes built along the shore. "Yeah? What would you have done."

  "I would have killed him."

  That sounded odd coming from Jackson, the gentle, loving, Jackson. But it did make her feel better. Not a lot, but somewhat, enough. "How's this look for a place to stop?” Vega asked as a beach began to reveal itself, the beach homes now further back on shore.

  "Looks good. Do you know where we at yet?" He stretched his arms over his head, and this time, the recliner moaned.

  "Not a clue. William said it was Long Island, but this looks more like North Carolina or Maryland. Some of those houses look really old."

  "Yeah, they do.” He said and climbed to his feet. "I think some of them are burned up. Well, on the inside."

  "I noticed that."

  "Noticed what?” Maria said as she climbed topside. She wore tight jeans and thick socks inside heavy boots. She had on a tee-shirt, flannel button down, and her hiking jacket they bought in Germany.

  "The houses, some of them are burned," Jackson said.

  Maria took her perch beneath one of his massive arms and looked out across the shore. "Wait....” She fell to silence.

  "What?” Vega asked, turning her attention back to the shore.

  "I think I know where we are. We should land here." Maria's face sprouted a grin.

  Vega turned the wheel to starboard, "Where?"

  "This is New Jersey. It has to be. In fact, it is either Belmar beach or Avalon."

  "It is?” Jackson said, and began studying the rapidly approaching shoreline.

  "Yeah, I don't remember which, but I remember this beach."

  Vega stared for a long while before realizing she had never been to New Jersey, more or less a beach. There was that lake her dad used to take her to during the summer to swim and fish, just being a dad and daughter. But that was a fresh water lake, not an ocean beach. Then the boat struck a sand bar.

  The impact was hard, hard enough to knock them all off their feet, and the boat released a deep groaning complaint, as if the the wood were at its breaking point. Anything loose on deck rushed forward, and Vega fell to her knees hard enough to knock the wind out of her. She missed smacking her face on the metal steering wheel by bare inches.

  Jackson tried to toss Maria back to her feet as they went down, but it didn't work. She did land on top of him for his efforts, which Vega was pretty certain was a better result than he hoped for. Maria as well for that matter.

  Their packs made a mad rush for the bow of the boat, and slammed themselves against the chain railing hanging there. They caught in the lattice and fell back to the deck. There was a couple of small splashing from things that didn't catch in the chains and fell overboard. Then the ass end of the boat began to swing to one side, bringing them broadside of the beach again, only now they were stuck.

  Vega climbed to her feet, forcing herself to draw breath and noticed that land was still about a hundred yards away. She cursed inwardly as the other two giggled at each other's face. They were going to have to walk through the tide to get to shore, and it was way too cold for that. Now it was too late. This was going to suck big time.

  "Guys, we are going to have to walk through the surf," She announced, and the two stopped giggling and began to climb up.

  "Oh, that's going to be cold, boy-howdy.” Jackson moaned.

  "Carry me?” Maria asked with a mouth full of joviality.

  "Sure." he said immediately, "I'll just have to make two trips is all."

  "No, wait. Look around, we have to figure out another way. Something we can float our packs on," Vega said. She spun on her heals and began walk along the starboard side, looking for something wide and wooden, something like a raft. She heard the others walking the port side of the boat. Almost everything was bolted down, anything big at least, and she wondered if there were tools down in the engine room to remove some bolts. Maybe they could tie a bunch of things together, and make a raft. Then she noticed a pod attached to the side. It looked like a barrel from a rodeo, the kind clowns dove into to escap
e the bull. It hung inconspicuously from the side of the boat by a small steel cable.

  When she got close enough, she could see the label said 'life raft', and she smiled inwardly. She turned, "Life raft. We can take that to the shore."

  "Is that legal?” Jackson asked, and Maria chuckled at him. "Well, it ain't like we sinking or nothing."

  "There's another one on the other side. William won’t need two, if he makes it back to the boat.” Maria said.

  "Oh, he'll make it, I bet. Let's get the bags.” Jackson led Maria forward to the bow of the ship to collect the bags.

  Vega read the directions on the life raft. It seemed all she needed to do was cut this nylon rope wrapped over and over again between the steel cable and the barrel. Once it hit the water, it would self-inflate. Then they could toss their bags in from here, and use the bundled rope ladders to get down. Simple.

  Using her folding knife, she cut the rope and the rodeo barrel fell into the water with a loud splash. Like the directions said, it began to inflate in a fat orange way. It sounded as though it was sucking in air, but Vega knew it was some canister hissing into the thing. The she realized the raft had a roof. It began to stand erect above the hexagonal raft. They would have to hump their bags down the rope ladder anyway. She hoped that Maria would be strong enough to do that. Well, she had Jackson after all.

  Then the raft began to float away from the boat and toward shore.

  "It's not tied to anything.” Vega said, not sure if she should laugh or not.

  Jackson dropped his pack, yanked open the knot keeping the rope ladder rolled up and began to climb down.

  "You're not going to be able to catch it.” Maria said.

  "No use in all of us getting wet.” He called up.

  When he made it into the water, it was waist deep and clearly cold as hell. He hugged his chest tightly and began striding with exaggerated steps to catch the boat. In about ten steps he caught hold of a thin rope trailing behind the raft and reversed his course, dragging the thing back.

  When he got to the foot of the ladder, he called up, "Drop the packs on down!"