Steve started the motor while Terry and Jake undid the mooring lines and pushed the boat out a few inches. Steve expertly maneuvered the boat out of the slip and up the inlet. A few minutes later, they were on open water.
“Wow. That went a lot better than I’d expected. I had hoped it would be easy, but nothing has been really easy over the last week.”
“I agree. This was some good thinking, Bill. Let’s hope the rest of the trip goes that smoothly.”
Bill sat in amazement as Steve’s fingers expertly slid across the touchscreen with the charts.
“Looks like once we get past Kelley’s Island, we will be in Buffalo in about seven hours.”
“Badass. So, tell me how you know this stuff? ’Cause when I presented the idea, all you said was that you had skills I could use and you wanted to help.”
“Navy. I was a navigations officer on the USS Vicksburg before I separated a few years ago. Pleasure boating was a hobby of mine before I joined and after I separated. After the Navy, I moved back home and was working in the family business. That’s when Brandy and I rediscovered each other. We’ve known each other since junior high but lost touch when we went to college. She went to one school, and I went to another.”
“Wow, cool, man. Well, I’m glad y’all found us, then.”
“So are we. You seem like you have some military experience. What’s your story?”
“Well, I was enlisted in the regular Air Force as an aircraft mechanic. I spent several years as a flying crew chief, and I was three months from my retirement when shit hit the fan. I was going to relax until next fall and start the culinary arts program at one of the nearby schools. But yea, to answer your question, I spent twenty years active duty. I didn’t join the Army, because I didn’t want to be a bullet catcher or a grunt. Now look at me. Oh, the irony,” Bill said as he rubbed his shoulder.
“Yea, we heard about what you did from some of the others last night. This world is definitely fucked up now. We also heard why you’re going to Washington and what you hope to accomplish up there. But like we said last night, we don’t have anywhere else to go and will do whatever to help restart a new society.”
“Thanks, I really appreciate it. I’m going to need help from someone with leadership experience too. Some of us have it, but if you were commissioned, then you might be better off leading than me.”
“No way, man. Thanks, but no thanks. That is one of the main reasons I got out of the Navy. They kept pushing to make me a Captain, but all I wanted was the experience and to have a good time. So, when my contract was up, I headed home.”
“Dude, I totally understand that. Air Force was the same way. If you’re not biting and scratching your way to the next level, working twelve plus hours a day, doing PT, and taking at least two classes every semester, they looked at you like you were a lazy piece of shit. I made my decision a long time ago that family was more important than making it to the top. I still worked my ass off and took care of my guys, but at the end of the day, I had a clear conscience that I was doing what was best for me and mine. And with that decision, I was going to retire at twenty with whatever rank doing the right thing got me. And I’d be happy about it.”
“I can tell. It still shows. I can’t believe you rescued your ex-wife and her parents.”
“Well, the ex-in-laws are good people, and I mostly did it for my kids.”
“You might very well be the last true family man left on earth.”
“Nah, there are still hundreds of thousands of people left. Seems like we just attract mostly assholes that have no morals.”
“You can say that again.”
“Seems like we just attract mostly assholes that have no morals.”
Steve chuckled quietly to Bill’s attempt at humor.
The temperature out on the lake was cooler than Bill was accustomed to in Texas. It was overcast and sixty-eight degrees. The wind was fairly calm, and the lake surface was smooth. They were cruising along at thirty-five knots, and as they passed Kelley’s Island to their south, a bright flash to the west drew everyone’s attention. From their vantage point on the lake, they couldn’t see what had just blown up, but from the mushroom cloud growing in the sky, they had an idea.
“Holy fuck! This can’t be good.”
Bill’s stomach dropped. His heart began to flutter, and he started having pain in his chest. Motherfucker, now is not a good time for a heart attack, he thought. But his hands started to shake a little, and his vision narrowed slightly. He then recognized it as adrenaline: his fight-or-flight reflex was kicking in, and being on a boat, he could do neither. That caused his anxiety to skyrocket. He felt trapped.
“Dude, please tell me that nuclear plant over by the marina we left an hour ago didn’t just explode. Please tell me that is not what I saw there.”
Steve opened his mouth to respond when a line in the water as wide as they could see passed them and the concussion from the blast rattled the boat. They were far enough away that it didn’t blow out their eardrums or shatter any windows, but they knew that it was big enough that if they’d still been at the marina, they would have been dead.
“Bro, that’s exactly what I think it is. If the nuclear plant up there didn’t have anyone monitoring the temp levels, it would have overheated. The prevailing winds for this time of year are going to blow the fallout towards us, so the rest of our group will be fine. We really need to get the fuck back as soon as possible.”
“I agree. I knew that they would start popping off without humans to keep them in check. I was hoping that it wouldn’t be for another few days though. The whole Eastern seaboard is going to be uninhabitable in the next week if it’s started already. Can you make this boat go any faster?”
“No, man, this is a working boat not a speedboat. But on the bright side, only five more hours to go.”
“Fucking shit. Say, you wouldn’t happen to have a Geiger counter in your pocket, would you?”
“HAHAHAH! Boy, I really wish I did now.’
“Yea, me too.”
After another hour on the lake at full speed, they were getting closer to Buffalo, and then it began to rain.
“Damnit, I hope this isn’t contaminated with fallout,” Bill said.
“I don’t think it’s had time to reach this far out into the atmosphere yet. I’ve read reports about the aftereffects from Chernobyl, and we should be just fine. This rain will actually help contain it to a smaller area. Granted, we will never go back to that marina again. The concentration of radiation for at least a forty-mile radius is going to be ridiculous.”
“Man, I hope you’re right. I start growing eyes on my dick, I’m going to be pissed. Or at least, I’ll be better equipped to not piss on the toilet seat.”
Another two hours went by, and nobody really said a word. Bill had finally started to calm down about growing a third eye or any other random appendage when Steve pointed out that several miles to the starboard side was Erie, Pennsylvania, the city that shared the name of the lake. Bill got out his binoculars and started to glass the horizon when he noticed a couple of boats headed their way.
“Y’all look alive. We have company.”
“You have got to be shitting me.” Now it was Steve’s turn to have a panic attack.
“Maybe they want to help,” Bill said, sounding hopeful.
“Maybe.” Steve, on the other hand, sounded quite doubtful.
Steve never altered their course as they watched the other boats gain on them. When the boats were fairly close, someone, over a bullhorn, told them to stop. Of course, Steve did not. Over a few tense minutes, the aggressive boats got closer, and the command was issued again. Steve figured out how to turn on the PA system on their vessel.
“Under whose authority?” he questioned.
The reply came back, “Mine, motherfucker,” followed by a volley of gunshots. Bill told everyone to get as low as possible. The front glass was shot out of the fishing boat, and Steve started to do some evasi
ve maneuvering. Bill could tell that it wouldn’t be nearly enough to shake off the much faster pleasure crafts. He dug around in his bag until he found what he was looking for. He turned to Terry and told him to hold his hand out.
“What the actual fuck, Dad? Where did you get these?”
“Army depot just outside San Angelo,” Bill said, sounding like a kid with his hand caught in the candy jar.
“You mean to tell me you’ve been carrying them around with you every time you put on that pack?”
“Yes, and when did you become the parent?”
“Holy shit, Dad, maybe fill in the rest of us next time you decide to run around with live grenades.”
“Yea, ok. A real badass never gives away all of their secrets. That is part of the mystery that make them badass. That’s your life lesson for the day.”
Bill pulled the pin of the first one and lobbed it towards the nearest boat on the port side, but he missed miserably by several feet. It showered the boat in an impressive spray of water, but the boat was otherwise completely intact. Bill quickly lobbed the second one in anticipation of the waves this time, and it landed in the open bow of the fish and ski combo boat. Without hesitation, Terry mimicked what he’d seen his dad do and threw one at the other boat. His first throw was much better than dear old Dad’s. Within seconds of each other, both hand grenades exploded and splintered the bows of both boats. In a last-ditch effort, someone on one of the sinking vessels unloaded an entire thirty-round magazine in the general direction of the fishing boat. Most pinged harmlessly off the water or went over, but two pierced the stern below the water line.
“Let’s hope the bilge pumps can keep up for the next couple of hours,” Steve stated.
“Yea, and let’s hope those other two ski boats leave us alone after what we just did to their friends.”
“You’re fucking kidding me ri—Goddamn it!”
As they left the scene as fast as the shot-up fishing vessel would carry them, they saw a signal flare shoot up into the sky. It looked exceptionally bright against the dreary gray clouds that still dumped their burden on the lake below. The two fresh ski boats turned towards the shooter of the flare, and ended their pursuit of the slower boat. Eventually, they were no longer visible.
Chapter 2. Buffalo.
The bilge pumps continually fell behind, so the two younger men on the team were put to work with buckets to bail water. Every twenty minutes for the last few hours of the trip required six pails of water tossed overboard. They approached Buffalo with great anticipation and fear of the unknown. What they did know was that once they made landfall, they had to acquire a vehicle and make their way across a city and find his friend’s family.
“That paranoia you feel, don’t block it, don’t override it. Let it guide you and keep your head on a swivel. It will keep you alive. You get too comfortable, you get sloppy. You get sloppy, you get dead. Paranoia can be your friend and keep you alive as long as you don’t let it debilitate you,” Bill warned everyone.
Bill and Steve decided to use the marina to the south of the city because it would give them space from downtown to get a ride and get their bearings for where they needed to go. The directions Cootch had given Bill were that his parents lived on Monroe Drive in the suburb of Williamsville, just north of Interstate 90, northeast of downtown Buffalo. That meant they had fourteen miles of densely populated urban terrain to cover one way. Then they had to return with an elderly couple and God only knew what other ailments the rest would have. Cootch hadn’t said anything about what they had been though in the last week. Bill hoped they had hunkered down and waited for help to arrive.
As Steve once again expertly maneuvered the boat into a slip at the Safe Harbor Marina. Terry and Jake stepped out onto the dock and tied off the mooring lines. Brandy handed up backpacks as Steve shut everything down.
“Not real sure why we’re mooring it. It’s just going to sink,” Terry said to Bill.
“True, but in the meantime, it might float out and block the channel. Just because it’s the end of the world doesn’t mean someone might not want to use it again someday.”
“Good point.”
“Like us. We are supposed to be going back this way.”
“Oh yea, I guess I already forgot that we were planning on boating back.”
“I still haven’t decided yet what I want to do because of the whole nuclear reactor meltdown thing. I’m open to suggestions, so if you get a good one, please feel free to share with the rest of the class.”
By the time they got everything out, the boat was already listing lazily to the left, and they only had a few backpacks. They walked up to the parking lot looking for threats and anything promising. They dispatched a few thrillers, but like the marina on the other side, it had been sparsely populated that Saturday morning. The only people who would have been left would have been the employees of the nearby Shanty Shack and the city employees of the marina. They found a truck that had been backed up to the loading ramp. The driver’s door was open, and there was a boat moored to the dock just behind the empty trailer. Team Buffalo walked over to it, and Bill saw that the keys were still in the ignition. The driver’s seat was soaked from the rain, but if the truck ran, Bill would deal with it. He reached for the ignition and found it already in the on position. He turned it off and back on again.
“Fuck. That would have been too easy. I’m guessing the owner left it running to launch his boat, got attacked, and it ran out of gas. Then the battery went dead. Let’s keep going.”
Next to the marina building was a city truck.
“I bet the keys for that are inside,” Steve said.
“Yup, I’m right there with you, man.”
The slowly crept around the building until they found an unlocked door. It opened up into a garage or a repair shop; Bill wasn’t certain which, nor did he care. He just wanted to get the keys and get the hell out of there. They walked to the other end of the shop and found a door that led into an office space. Bill took out his machete and then loudly cleared his throat.
“Hello? Anyone here?”
A low moan resonated from behind another closed door in the back. Bill walked towards it until Brandy spoke up.
“I think these might be the keys you’re looking for.” She held them up as Exhibit A.
“Sweet. Let’s go find out. Hopefully, we don’t have to deal with mush brains in there.”
Back outside, the key slid into the driver’s door lock and turned.
“This will get us there,” Bill said, “but hopefully, we can find some better wheels to get everyone back. Brandy, it’s your turn to drive since you found the keys.”
“You got it.”
Brandy jumped into the driver’s seat and reached over and popped the passenger door open. Bill got in while the other three got in the back of the truck. She stuck the key in the ignition and turned it, but nothing happened.
“Well, we’re waiting,” Bill said sarcastically.
“Um. Yea. It’s dead.”
“Well, shit. Ok. False start, guys. Brandy, pop the hood.”
Bill got out, lifted the hood, and saw that the battery had been disconnected. He got the multitool out of his backpack and tightened the cable lead back on. He took one more quick look around the engine bay and didn’t see anything else out of place.
“Ok, try it now.”
Brandy turned the key again, and it started right up. Bill closed the hood and got back into the truck.
“What do you think that was about?”
“Probably to discourage people from stealing it. If they break in and jimmy the ignition switch, it still won’t start. Thieves won’t stick around to figure out why. They will move on to an easier target. “
“Ah, good point. I never thought about it like that.”
She pulled out onto Tifft Street and then turned north on South Park Avenue. The church on the corner had been burned to the ground a few days ago, and the doors to the food pantry behind it
were wide open.
“We get three blocks into town, and already there are signs of some dickheads taking everything they want and burning down everything they hate.”
“I noticed that too,” Brandy replied.
The air in the truck was thick with anticipation as they crossed the Buffalo River into the business district. Bill noticed there was a Tim Hortons on every corner.
“You can tell we’re up in the north for sure now. I haven’t seen a Tim Hortons since I was up here on temporary duty several years ago.”
“You’re from Washington,” said Brandy. “That’s pretty far north. Don’t they have them there too?”
“No, they can’t compete with Starbucks over there, since that is their home state.”
“Oh yea, I forgot about that. I’ve never been this far north before. Ever. It’s so different up here. How the trees look, the way the birds sound, even the smell of the air. All of it.”
“Yea, that is true.”
Brandy was doing a good job of avoiding thrillers and trying to not ruin their truck. They were certainly everywhere. There were a few times where driving on the sidewalk was necessary.
Going due north on Bailey Avenue, the road slopped under train tracks. It was completely blocked by an eighteen-wheeler and several cars. Bill noticed there was a dirt road on the left side of the street that went up. He instructed Brandy to head that way. At the top, they got to the train tracks, but there was no vehicle crossing.
“Brandy, stop. Let the guys in the back out because it’s about to get really bumpy.”
The guys in the back hopped out, and they crossed the first set of tracks the hard way. There was a section where several sets of tracks merged, and the right front tire got caught where they meet. Brandy tried to back the truck up, but the left front tire was on the other side of the track, and the back tires just spun in the rocks. Bill hopped out, and the four men tried to push the truck, but it was truly stuck.
“Well, gang, looks like we’re walking over to the next street and getting another one.”
Beginning of the New Beginning, Vol. 2 Page 2