by Billy Dering
Now 5:30 a.m., Kid’s heart began to race. There would be no way to keep down his rising fear. No more reasoning or rationalizing. The wake-up beep would sound in a half an hour. He crawled over to Jess. Both pulled out large wrenches and threw their backpacks aside.
“I’ll get Sara and Heidi,” Kid instructed. “You get Maria. As soon as you get her out, just go. Don’t wait for me. Try to get a good head start and get the boat started.”
Jess nodded, now visibly nervous.
Putting his hand on his friend’s shoulder and holding up his wrench, Kid emphasized every word, “It’s show time. Swing as hard as you can.”
Jess grabbed Kid’s arm and said nothing.
They both knew that nothing more needed to be said.
Jess crawled up to Maria’s window. He stood up and motioned for her to stand back as he cocked his arm back. Turning to Kid, he waited for the signal.
Kid became more tense, his hands clammy. He held up three fingers.
Jess tightened his grip on his wrench.
Taking a deep breath, he held up two fingers. He was breathing heavy as the tension swelled. Adrenaline ran through his veins like high voltage. He had to get his hand up and signal, but he paused. Jess cocked his arm back even further. In just a second, alarms and sirens would awaken every soldier on the ship, but there was no turning back now. It was as if the pin had already been pulled from the hand-grenade.
Raising his hand, Kid shot up just one finger.
All in the same instant, he and Jess swung down their wrenches.
III
OBLIVION
Chapter 21
December 30, 2044
Friday, Dawn
New Jersey coast, Utopia Project
Ship Number One
Four days after the event
Kid and Jess simultaneously slammed their wrenches down and both glass windows shattered on impact. The loud crash reverberated up and down the hallway.
Expecting alarms to sound and lights to flash right away, Kid froze when he was confronted with silence. He and Jess turned and looked at each other in bewilderment and then sprang into action.
Quickly knocking out the bigger pieces of the tempered glass from Sara’s window frame, Kid saw her standing in a bra and underwear. Dammit! He must not have written his message clear enough. He yelled, “Get dressed and put on shoes, quick! And then jump out!”
He ran over to Heidi’s window and smashed it. She stared at the broken window, appearing stunned, but fortunately she had grabbed her uniform and was already putting it on. “What the… Kid? What are you doing here?”
“Shoes on, now! We’re getting you out!” he barked as she zipped the front of her outfit.
“But…”
“Now!”
Heidi slipped on her footwear and climbed out of the window with Kid’s help.
Turning for Sara, he saw her pulling her uniform over her shoulders. As he scurried across the hall, she zipped it up and put on her shoes. “Hurry, hurry!” He reached in, pulled her top half through the opening and lifted her onto his shoulders. Once her legs were clear, he put her down.
Jess and Maria were running up the hall at full speed.
Kid grabbed Sara’s hand and started sprinting. They were halfway up the hall when lights started flashing and a loud alarm sounded, prompting them to all run faster. As he galloped past, Kid saw the shadows of soldiers in the windows of the stuck doors. The pennying trick had worked.
Elder-1 heard the alarms and was on his feet and dressed in seconds. His room monitor came to life. “Sir, alarms originating from level 29. System also detected hatches open in the engineer’s service shaft.”
“Alert all elders. Get a team armed and to level 29 immediately. Also, get a force on deck to ensure nobody tries to get off of the ship. We will head to the service shaft to determine status there. Go!”
Jess and Maria made it to the closet, climbed over the metal flap and started descending the ladder in the shaft. Heidi was right behind them.
Pushing open the hallway door and then entering the closet behind the staircase, Kid looked back. From several rooms at the opposite end of the hall, soldiers came spilling out. While closing the closet door, Kid peered up to see more soldiers coming down the staircase. He could see their feet as they marched in unison. Gingerly, he closed the door. It didn’t appear that any of the soldiers had seen them enter the closet. He helped Sara through the hole in the shaft and directed her to go down the ladder.
As he went to go through the opening, Kid heard noises echoing from the very top of the shaft. Fearing they would need cover while descending the ladder, he strained as he lifted and pushed the flap of sheet metal through the hole. The metal creaked and began to rip at the bend point, but it held as he slid over it headfirst into the shaft. The skin of his forehead was sliced by one of the metal edges as he glided off the flap and caught a ladder rung.
Descending a few rungs, Kid glanced up. The metal flap was over his head in the shaft, but it would only cover the left side of the ladder. Moving his head and peering up, he saw that the top hatch to the navigation room was open. He noticed soldiers scurrying about, but he had to turn away and squint as blood ran into his eye from the cut on his forehead.
Sara stopped at the bottom of the ladder and waited.
Kid went down the ladder in the shaft under the cover of the metal flap. A weapon was fired from the navigation room above. Upon hearing an odd sound, like someone with a deep voice sneezing, he froze. A bolt streaked down right next to him. It was dangerously close, but as long as he stayed under the flap they couldn’t get a clear shot. He then felt the vibration of soldiers on the ladder above him. The next shot bounced diagonally from one side to the other down the shaft. Kid realized they had adjusted their shooting angle to reach the covered space. He hugged the ladder as a shot careened behind him, just inches from his back.
“Get out of the way!” he screamed at Sara as the shot made it all the way down. She stepped aside as the shot hit the ground right where she was standing just a second before. “Run Sara! Catch up to them!”
With only ten feet remaining to reach the lower hatch, Kid held the ladder’s vertical rails and jumped. He put the soles of his feet against the outsides of the rails and loosened his handgrip. As he plummeted, his palms started to burn. Squeezing his grip to put on the brakes, his feet found a rung and he pulled the bottom hatch down above his head. Dropping to the ground, he grabbed Sara’s hand and sprinted across the bottom of the ship.
Standing on a platform, Heidi frantically waved her hand. Sara made her way up the metal companionway, and the girls entered the hawsepipe opening.
As Kid ran up the companionway, he looked behind to see soldiers dropping down to the ship bottom from the ladder enclosure. Without hesitation, he squirmed through the hawsepipe and grabbed the rope ladder. He tugged it to ensure it was still attached to the deck rail above. He peered down as the boat engine coughed and then started. The girls had made it down the ladder and were waiting in the boat. Jess peered up and was waving for him to hurry down. Getting his footing and descending, Kid heard a commotion on the deck above. Suddenly, the ladder went limp and he fell the last eight feet into the boat below. He knocked Maria down and the ladder piled on top of the both of them. With the wind knocked out of him, Kid was on his back, gasping. He met the eyes of a soldier leaning over the deck rail above.
Jess hit the throttle and sped toward shore as the elder aimed his weapon in their direction.
Catching his breath, Kid pulled the rope ladder off of him and Maria and cast it over the side. He put his hand on her shoulder, but she addressed his concern before he could ask. “I’m alright.”
Kid struggled to sit up. Spotlights from all three ships were searching the water through the light snow that was falling. The whole scene was one of absolute havoc, with loud alarms and lights from the three ships combing the surrounding waters and illuminating the pre-dawn sky.
R
unning to the deck rail, Elder-1 heard a boat speeding away. He could not believe this was happening. A number of other elders were already armed and assembled, and he turned to them. “The captives are escaping! Why aren’t we firing?”
“We cannot locate them!” an elder called out.
Turning to the comrades beside him, he spotted Elder-91, a competent Lieutenant Colonel in the Unites States Marines. “Elder-91!”
“Sir!”
“Take three boats. Each should have an elder leader and a team of 20 members. Arm the members and insert a tracker in each so we can account for them this time when off of our ships. And then get after that boat! Hurry!”
“Yes, Sir. Keep in mind we can only use the basic tracking chip right now.”
“We know! Now go!”
“Yes, Sir,” Elder-91 said and ran off.
Remembering that two elders were still on the mainland hunting survivors, Elder-1 raised his walkie-talkie to his lips. “Elder-48, do you copy?”
“Here, Sir. What is going on out there?”
“The captives are trying to escape. We need you to head them off and eliminate them!”
“Yes, Sir. We came down to our boat as soon as we saw the lights and commotion. We are departing now. Out.”
Finally, a spotlight found the fleeing craft and stayed on it.
Elder-1 saw the three female captives, but also a couple of males who were clearly not project members. Where did these bastards come from, and how did they get on our ship? “There! Fire!” he barked, and shots started raining down from the ships.
“Lay down! Take cover!” Kid yelled to the girls.
A couple of soldiers had taken up positions on one of the rope bridges between ships. They took aim and started firing bolts from their technologically advanced weapons. Sara was standing in the stern of the boat when Kid spotted a soldier training his weapon on her from the rope bridge. The scene unfolded as if it was happening in slow motion. “Down!” he screamed. As he jumped to one knee and leaned forward to reach for her, he flinched for a split second as his raw and bruised shin bumped against a seat.
The soldier pulled the trigger and a shot headed straight for Sara. Through a torrent of pain, Kid screamed but still grabbed her hand. He pulled her hard and watched in horror as the shot grazed the top of her shoulder while she fell. The bolt changed direction, but kept going. Sara hit the boat bottom hard as she landed next to him. “Oh, no! Can you move?” he asked, panicked.
She wiggled her body, and said in a deeper than usual tone, “Yes.”
“What happened?” Jess called out.
“Shot grazed Sara,” Kid answered as he helped her into a seat in the back. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. “She’s alright.” His voice conveyed the desperate hope is his heart. “She’s alright…”
A few moments later, Elder-91 was panting as he approached Elder-1. He had in tow three other elders and 60 members. “Sir, there are no more boats!”
“What?”
“They were all at the water, and they have been cut free.”
As he was about to explode with rage, Elder-1’s walkie-talkie beeped, and it was the channel reserved for the Board of Elders. “Go ahead!”
“Sir, Elder-2 here. Our boats were cut free, but we found one! It was stuck behind the anchor chain of ship number three. We are holding it.”
Here was their opportunity. The battle was not over yet. “We will be right there with a team, and we will lead this mission personally. Drop a rope ladder into the boat!”
“Already have, Sir,” she answered.
Turning to Elder-91, Elder-1 asked, “Do these members have arms and trackers?”
“Arms, yes. Trackers, not yet, but we are ready.” He held up his hand. He was holding a device that looked like a label gun, which was used to slip a tracker under the skin. He also held a couple of sleeves of tracking chips.
“Come with me, and bring 20 members.”
After hustling across the deck and crossing the swaying rope bridge between the ships, Elder-1 reached the deck rail where Elder-2 was waiting. After getting a tracker was inserted into the scalp, the members started descending the ladder one at a time.
“The members will all have basic trackers inserted,” Elder-1 said. “Since we do not have the aid of satellites, our location can only be monitored within a 50-mile range using the antennas on the ships. But should the chase reach the mainland and we call for reinforcements, then you will have our exact location.”
Elder-2 nodded.
The final member, number 801, had a tracker inserted under his scalp and descended to the waiting boat. Elder-1 grabbed the rail, swung his leg over and found his footing on the rope ladder. Holding the deck rail, he said to Elder-2, “Since we are departing, you are in charge until we return.”
“Yes, Sir,” she said as Elder-1 climbed down the ladder and disappeared.
Dropping into the boat below, Elder-1 felt the old, familiar rush. The chase was on and he was thirsting for blood. There was nothing more exhilarating than catching and slaughtering prey. And since the world was effectively wiped out, this may be his last such hunt. He planned to savor it.
Jess, driving all hunched over, turned his head back and then did a double take. “Ah, shit!”
Without even looking, Kid’s heart sank. He knew just by the tone of voice, and then his friend confirmed when he yelled, “I thought we cut all of the boats free!”
“So did I,” Kid said as he popped his head up and turned back. With the flood of lights coming off of the ships, he could see a boat wedged between the anchor chain and the hull of the southernmost ship. Damn! He cursed himself for being so careless. They should’ve made sure all of the smaller crafts cleared the anchor chain after they cut them loose. The wedged boat appeared to be full and was taking off. “Now they’re coming after us!”
Elder-2 leaned on the deck rail and watched as the boat sped away.
“Always a field commander at heart,” said Elder-3 as he approached and stood next to her. “Elder-1 doesn’t want to watch a slaying, he wants to drive the sword himself and taste and smell the blood.”
She turned and was always surprised that her elder comrade spoke such perfect English. His words offered no hint that his native language was Mandarin Chinese.
“That is true,” she responded, knowing her own words carried too much inflection. She grew up speaking only Russian and never fully mastered the English language, but she did not care. She spoke it well enough. “But we should not be in this position. How did the lead psychologist not identify that these captives were a flight risk, and had the risk tolerance to try an escape?”
“Elder-76 failed us…again,” Elder-3 responded. “Remember, she convinced the Board not to fire the former lead psychologist, Elder-62, and look what harm that brought upon us.”
Nodding, she stated, “Since Elder-1 has departed and we are in charge, Elder-76 will immediately be demoted and will no longer be the lead psychologist.”
Grunting, Elder-3 waved his hand dismissively. “We are too lenient.”
“Unfortunately, we must be, for now. Until we get authorization from Elder-1 to administer a more…fitting punishment.”
Backing up from the rail, Elder-3 stated, “Elder-76 must pay a much steeper price. And mark my words, she will.”
Jess was already at full throttle. As he headed toward the inlet, he said, “They aren’t the only ones coming after us. Look!” He pointed to the north.
Kid jumped into the passenger seat and saw a boat in the distance. He realized that it had to be the one sent out by the soldiers a couple of days ago. It appeared that the craft was occupied by two soldiers.
As Jess came into the inlet, he slowed down to avoid crashing into the rock jetty. The boat with the two soldiers came into the inlet a little too hot and their boat spun out of control. Kid watched, hoping they would crash. The soldiers just barely avoided the large rocks lining the inlet and resumed the chase.
Glancing around, Kid tried to figure out how to slow down their pursuers. He remembered what happened when his cousin had hit a sand bar while speeding across Barnegat Bay. He was slowed down alright, and was lucky he wound up with only a broken arm. “Where is the closest sand bar?”
“Right over that way is Tices Shoal.” Jess pointed to a large section of the bay abutting the western side of Island Beach State Park.
Kid knew that particular shoal. There the water was shallow, less than waist-high in most places. In the hot months, the place was always filled with hundreds of boaters who would lay anchor and have a non-stop party. “Head for it!” he instructed. “We’ll pull the engine up on an angle so we don’t hit ground, but hopefully they will.”
Looking at the boat’s dashboard, Jess put his finger on a button and said, “Power trim!”
The boat with the 20 soldiers had passed the struggling two-man boat and was gaining speed. After coming around the next buoy, Jess cut the wheel hard and veered away from the path designated by the channel markers. “Kid, go to the back and tell me when the engine is almost out of the water.”
While heading to the back of the boat, Kid heard crunching noises. “What’s that sound?” he yelled over the high-pitched whine of the boat’s engine.
“Ice. Bay is partially frozen, especially here in the shallow water. Lifting the engine, now!”
Jess raised the 350-horsepower outboard engine until the propeller was almost entirely out of the water.
“Hold!” Kid yelled, as the barely submerged propeller still powered them forward while avoiding the shallow, sandy bottom. He noticed that Sara was hunched over as she sat in the back of the boat. She seemed aware of her surroundings, but was in obvious discomfort. He was about to check on her when someone screamed.