‘No,’ Bill shouted back.
‘Where’ve you come from?’
‘We left South Africa six weeks ago.’
‘Why are you here?’
‘We were meant to deliver this boat to Miami.’
‘But why d’you come once you heard about everything?’
‘We haven’t heard anything. We lost all our electronics about four weeks ago. We haven’t spoken to, or heard from another human being since then.’ Bill lent on the guard rail nearest the airboat. ‘Can you tell us what happened?’
‘You mean you don’t know anything about all this?’ The passenger on the airboat sounded incredulous.
‘Nothing.’
‘And none of you are sick?’
‘No.’
‘D’you have room for two more?’
‘Hang on.’ Bill beckoned us to huddle round.
‘They look pretty harmless.’ CJ wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt.
‘Yeah, Cammy, so does your average psychopath. Everyone always says how quiet and normal they were after they’ve found half a dozen people buried in their backyard.’
I opened my mouth to say something to Jon but thought better of it. I didn’t agree with his tone but I could see what he was getting at. Instead, I turned to Bill. ‘Look, we don’t know what’s happened. They seem to be worried about some sort of disease. For all we know, they could be carrying it themselves.’
‘Yes, but we really need to know what’s been going on, and they seem to know something about it.’ Bill made a reasonable point
‘But what about the gun?’ My eyes flicked over to the airboat and I saw its occupants watching us intently. ‘They’re armed. We‘re not.’
‘There’re two of them and four of us.’ Jon was trying to sound tough, but a slight quiver in his voice gave him away. The discussion went on for a full ten minutes with Bill, Jon and me going round in circles and getting nowhere.
‘We’ve got plenty of room, and they know more about what’s happened than we do. I think we’ve got to go for it. Trade them some space for information, but only if they give up the gun.’ We all looked at CJ, it was by far the best suggestion any of us had come up with.
‘That’d work for me. What about you two?’ Bill glanced round. Both Jon and I nodded a hesitant yes.
Bill called across the airboat. ‘You can come aboard, but you’ll need to give me the gun.’
There was a hurried exchange of whispered words before they replied. ‘Okay.’
It seemed they weren’t as wary of us as I’d first thought. They pulled alongside and handed Bill the rifle before climbing aboard. They didn’t even bother to tie the airboat on and it started to float away slowly.
‘Wait!’ The taller of the two jumped onto the airboat and came back a few seconds later with a small box that he handed to Bill. ‘Bullets. There’s about sixty in there. It’s all we’ve got left.’
They stood, skinny and awkward, as we looked them over. Close up, I could see they needed us more than we needed them. They were younger than I’d originally thought, just kids really. The smaller one was only thirteen or fourteen, the older one sixteen at the most. They were scared and desperate, and looked like they hadn’t slept in days.
‘Thanks. We thought we were going to be stuck on that thing forever.’ The relief was clear in the older boy’s voice. ‘We’ve already been on it for almost two weeks, ever since they lost control of Miami. We came down the Intracoastal at first, but it started to get too dangerous. That’s when we decided to head out to sea. We’ve been running along the coast for the last five days looking for other survivors.’ He hesitated momentarily. ‘You’re the first we’ve met.’
‘So what can you tell us about all this?’ Bill did his best to look unthreatening.
‘You really don’t know?’ The older boy looked first at Bill and then the rest of us as if he couldn’t believe it. The younger one was standing behind him as if trying to hide.
‘As I said, we’ve not heard any news in weeks.’ Bill didn’t say anything else, he just waited.
‘When things started kicking off, it just seemed like the heat was getting to everyone. It was so hot, even though it was only spring and when it gets hot, guys get wound up, anything can set them off. But it was soon clear this wasn’t just the usual jerks letting off steam. It started at nights, in the cities, but then it spread into the days too. Soon it seemed like everyone there was fighting each other, the police, anyone. Then we started hearing about the virus.’ He glanced round as if checking we were following him.
‘It started in Haiti. Then it turned up in Miami, and then in other cities. At first, the authorities could deal with it, but then it started going from person to person. Infected people were attacking others, infecting them too. It seemed a little scary, but there were only small pockets here and there, mostly in the inner cities. We thought we were fine out in the ’burbs; that we could carry on as usual. We just need to keep away from certain areas. Then, out of nowhere, something happened in Miami and the next thing we knew, people were getting infected all over the place. We were on a camping trip in the Everglades, out on our own, away from everyone else when Miami was overrun. When we heard on the radio how bad things were getting, we tried to get back to Fort Lauderdale, to get back home. But we started running into mobs of people attacking each other, trying to attack us. We managed to launch the airboat into the Intracoastal and tried to get home that way, because our house backs onto a canal.’ Mike’s eyes flicked from face to face to see if we believed him.
When he spoke next his voice was quieter, more withdrawn. ‘We got home eventually, but I think Mom and Dad must’ve got the virus from somewhere. We’d just got off the boat and were about half-way across the backyard when they came running out of the house. We thought they were just pleased to see us, that we were safe. Billy ran forward, to hug them. He was so happy to see them, he’s only eleven ... he was only eleven.’ The kid wiped a tear away from his eye.
‘Mom and Dad attacked him. They just tore right into him, ripping him apart right there in front of us. I don’t think they even recognised him. He was their own son and they killed him without even thinking about it. There was blood everywhere. Me, Jimmy and Sam managed to get back to the airboat, and we just got the hell out of there.’
We all looked at each other. There’d been three of them and now there were only two. Where had the other one gone? Jon looked like he was about to say something, but Bill stopped him, letting the kid carry on.
‘We’ve been raiding boats and houses for food, but it’s very risky. We got attacked and Sam got bit. He got away though. But once we were back on the airboat, he got sick; he got very hot and went kinda funny.’ The kid paused, lost briefly in his memories, ‘And then he went very quiet. He was breathing quickly but barely taking in any air, and we thought he was going to die. But he didn’t. He ...’
The kid dropped his eyes to the floor for a second and then looked straight at Bill.
‘He suddenly woke up. We could see from his eyes he was different, that he’d changed. He went for Jimmy, but I managed to push him over the side and we left him there. I killed my own brother.’ His face went blank. When he started speaking again it was with an air of defiance. ’I had no choice. If I hadn’t he’d have killed Jimmy and me.’
As he said this, I wondered what else these kids had been through, what else they had seen, what else they’d done to survive.
‘That was a week ago. You’re the first people we’ve seen since then who haven’t been infected.’
Bill was the first to speak, ‘Do you know what sort of virus it is?’
‘It’s meant to be some sort of rabies virus. Some big company’s been messing around with it, made it much more nasty. It doesn’t kill you any more, it just makes you mad. All you care about is killing: you just want to attack anyone who doesn’t have the virus. There’s something about uninfected people that the infected can’t stand.’
‘So how far’s it spread?’ Bill looked concerned.
‘It’s all over the US, in every city, every town. It’s in Canada and Mexico, and even in Europe, I think.’
‘What about England? Is it in England?’ CJ was thinking about her family and friends back home.
‘Yeah, England too.’
A panicked look spread across CJ’s face. She picked up her phone and fiddled with it, trying yet again to get a signal.
The older boy saw what she was doing. ‘No point. We’ve been trying, but there hasn’t been a cell phone signal in days. Even if you could get one, all you’d get is dead air. It’s been that way since it happened.’
CJ ignored him and stood up to see if it would help her get a signal.
‘Shit!’ Jon sounded deeply shocked. ‘All this in a few weeks?’ A crestfallen look spread across his face. ‘I guess there’s no point in going up the coast, is there? People will be the same there, like the ones we saw in Miami, and at the lighthouse.’
‘He’s right, Bill.’ I felt a sense of dread start to rise inside me. ‘What are we going to do?’
‘What about in the islands?’ Bill ignored me. He was clearly running through possible plans of action in his head. Again I admired his ability to think logically in the face of all that had happened.
‘I heard it was in Nassau and Freeport, and in Cuba, Jamaica and Haiti.’
‘Sounds like it’s widespread; possibly even global.’ Bill seemed deflated. It sounded like there was nowhere we could go that had been unaffected.
‘Yeah, it’s pretty much everywhere. But there will be other people on boats like you, won’t there? I mean that’s why you guys survived, isn’t it?’
‘That’s a very good point.’ The boy smiled at Bill’s response. We waited for Bill to carry on, but instead he disappeared into the cabin, leaving us standing in the cockpit staring after him.
As I wondered what Bill was up to, CJ stepped towards the two boys and held out her hand. ‘I’m CJ. This is Jon and Rob.’
As we shook hands, the older boy told us his name was Mike and his younger brother was called Jimmy. There was then an awkward silence as we stood around, none of us too sure of what to do next. The silence was only broken when Bill returned with a large chart that he spread out on the table. The chart covered an area from Florida in the north to Haiti in the south.
‘Okay, we need to work out what we’re going to do next; where we’re going to go. We’re currently here,’ Bill made a small cross on the chart with the pencil he was now holding. ‘You guys came from up here, right?’ He pointed to the chart and Mike nodded. Bill made another cross on the chart there.
‘Given what we saw in Miami and how widespread this thing seems to be, we’ll probably want to avoid anywhere that has …’ Bill stopped and corrected himself, ‘… that had a large population. There will be too many people with the infection there, and too great a risk we’ll get attacked or get infected. That rules out most of Florida — at least the bits we can easily reach by sea — Freeport, Nassau, and probably most of Cuba. Haiti’s where it all started, so that’s out of the question.’ Bill circled each of these areas as he said their name and then put a cross through them. ‘It’s probably not worth going further north. We’ll run into the same problem in Georgia, North Carolina and so on.’ Bill drew a line across the top of the chart. ‘Where does that leave us?’
We pored over the chart. There were really only two possibilities left: the Bahamas to the east and the Florida Keys to the south. Everywhere else would be too heavily populated or too far away for us to get to, given the condition our boat was in.
‘What about the Keys?’ Jon pointed to the small chain of islands that clung to the southern tip of Florida.
‘I’m not too sure. There’s a road all the way down to Key West and there’s a lot of people down there too. I think we really need to be looking for somewhere more remote, somewhere with less people, but still somewhere we might find others like us.’ Bill scratched his head with the end of his pencil and we turned our attention back to the chart.
‘What about here?’ CJ pointed to a string of small islands that skirted the eastern edge of Little Bahama Bank, almost 200 miles to our east. ‘There can’t have been a lot of people there, can there?’
‘When I was working in the Caribbean, we never came this far north, so I’m not really familiar with that part of the world. Anyone else?’ Bill looked round. From the look on their faces, I could tell CJ and Jon knew as little about these waters as I did.
‘That’s the Abacos. I think there’s one main town … about there.’ Mike leaned forward and pointed about half-way down a large island. I could see Hole-in-the-Wall lighthouse marked at its southern end. I’d not even noticed the many small islands that lay to our north when we’d plotted our course towards the lighthouse a few days earlier. That was when we still thought Miami would be our final destination; before we found out everything had changed.
Mike carried on. ‘There may be little settlements on some of the small islands, but there’s not a lot of people living on them. It’s popular with boaters though. Lots of people go over there from Florida, to spend a few weeks cruising around. Uncle Randy used to go over there each summer, and charter a boat for his family. Dad always promised we’d do it one day ...’ Mike’s voice tailed off as he realised this was one of many plans he’d never get to fulfil. Bill put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed.
‘Right!’ Bill sounded much more confident now. ‘It sounds like the Abacos will be our best chance, both of avoiding people with the infection and of finding others like us … other survivors. What do the rest of you think?’ I nodded in agreement, not because I necessarily thought he was right, but because I was well out of my depth and I was glad someone else was taking charge. Jon and CJ nodded too, presumably for the same reason.
‘Do you think I’ll be able to phone home from there?’ CJ glanced at Bill, but he turned away.
‘CJ, I don’t think that’s going to be possible.’ Jon sounded empty and I could see the enormity of the situation was starting to sink in. ‘I don’t think any of us will ever be phoning home again.’
‘But how am I going to let my family know I’m okay? They’ll be worried about me. I can’t leave it until I get home. That mightn’t be for days.’ CJ still seemed to think things were better elsewhere, yet from what the boys had told us and from what we’d seen, I doubted that was the case.
‘CJ, I don’t think you’ll be going home any time soon. I don’t think any of us will.’ I didn’t want to be the one to do it, but I felt it was important CJ understood just how bad things were. ‘I don’t think any of us will ever be going home.’
CJ stared at me. ‘What d’you mean?’
‘CJ, you heard what might Mike said.’ I hated doing this to her, but I had to make her understand, ‘This isn’t just some local outbreak, this isn’t just about Miami. This thing is global; it’s all over the world. Everything’s changed. This just isn’t the same world any more. Everything we’ve ever known is gone and, by the sounds of it, most of the people are gone too. All we can do is try to survive.’
CJ crumbled as the realisation of just how bad things had become hit her like a tsunami. She tried desperately to fight it. ‘Bill, tell Rob he’s wrong.’ CJ was looking at him imploringly.
‘I can’t.’ Bill’s eyes dropped to the floor as he said it.
‘Jon?’
Jon shifted uncomfortably and mumbled, ‘Sorry CJ.’
CJ looked at Mike and Jimmy. They both did their best to avoid catching her eye. Finally, the
reality of it all won out and CJ slid to the deck. She sat there, her head in her hands, sobbing uncontrollably. A look passed among Jon, Mike and Jimmy, but before any of them could say anything, Bill stepped forward and held out his hand toward her. ‘CJ?’
CJ looked up and wiped her eyes before grabbing Bill’s hand and pulling herself back to her feet. She disappeared into the cabin and Bill followed.
Once they were gone, Jon spoke. ‘What are we going to do with her? We can’t afford to carry any deadwood, not now all this has happened. It’s going to be difficult enough to survive as it is.’ His earlier solidarity with CJ had clearly evaporated.
‘Jon, don’t talk about her like that. She’ll cope.’ I was angry at him for writing her off so soon, but I had my doubts too, and I hoped it sounded more believable to him than it did to me. One thing I was sure Jon was right about though, we wouldn’t be able to carry anyone who couldn’t pull their own weight, not for long at any rate, and I had no idea how long this situation would last.
Bill came back a few minutes later. ‘I’ve given her something to help her sleep.’ He sat down at the table. ’She’ll be fine once she’s got some rest.’
‘What if she’s not?’ Jon was looking at Bill questioningly.
‘Don’t go jumping the gun. She’s tougher than she looks.’ Bill had known CJ longer than either Jon or me, so he was in a better position to judge this, but from all I’d seen so far I wasn’t so sure he was right.
Chapter Four
The Gulf Stream had been calm when we’d crossed it the first time but, as we headed in the opposite direction, it was as if we were crossing a different ocean. It bucked and swayed beneath us as the wind blew a steady twenty knots against the current, piling the sea into steep waves that battered our hulls, and it took eighteen hours to reach the relative safety of Little Bahama Bank. Once there, we dropped anchor in the shallow sandy waters and I checked in on CJ. I didn’t know what Bill had given her but, whatever it was, it must have been good. She was sound asleep and, even though it had been a rough crossing, it looked like she’d slept through the entire trip.
For Those In Peril (Book 1): For Those In Peril On The Sea Page 5