Apocalyptic Pirates 6, page 2
She leaned over me and pressed her finger to a point on the Costa Rican coast.
“We’re here,” she said. “We sailed by these wetlands this morning, and soon we’ll be approaching Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio.”
“Our current course has us sailing by the coast,” I said and traced the route with my finger. “But this is now potentially going to lead us right into these waiting ships.”
“Wait, what ships?” Ally exclaimed.
“Oh, sorry, I forgot you didn’t hear what happened,” I said. “Dia translated for the women in the boat. One of them said they’d seen big army ships where they’d just come from, near Guatemala and Mexico.”
“Army ships?” Ally gasped. “Wait, did she mean Navy ships or Coast Guard ships?”
“That’s the thing,” I admitted. “She couldn’t tell. So now we don’t know what’s ahead of us.”
“If she couldn’t tell what kind of boats they were, then they might not even be military vessels,” Shannon pointed out. “They might be something else altogether.”
“That’s even worse,” Dia grumbled. “At least if they were military, we’d have some idea of what to expect.”
“What if they’re military but not US military?” Letty suggested. “We don’t know if any other countries are mobilizing their troops in response to everything that’s happened.”
“Do you mean the dragons or Drew’s videos?” Ally queried.
“Exactly my point.” Letty shrugged. “We don’t have a clue.”
“So with all that in mind…” I paused. “Do we still upload the video?”
There was an instant clamor of responses.
“Of course!” Shannon said in outrage.
“We said we would, so we’re going to,” Letty declared.
“That was the whole point of the mission,” Dia interjected. “What’s the point if we don’t post the video?”
“We knew there would be consequences when we agreed to it,” Ally said.
“Okay, okay,” I said with a smile. “I was just checking that you guys were all still on board with this.”
“Of course we are,” Shannon repeated with a definite nod of her head. “We can’t leave Panama in the lurch like that.”
“I agree,” I told her. “But the yacht is a democracy, so I need to check that everyone is still okay with it.”
“I think Shannon would throw us overboard if we disagreed,” Ally said with a giggle.
“That’s not even a joke, I totally would,” Shannon declared.
Dia snorted and shook her head. “Worst kind of democracy, but okay.”
“Okay, so we’re all still agreed that we post the video.” I tapped the map again. “But that leaves the question of the ships up ahead. And even if they’re not US military vessels, I think it still makes sense for us to lay low for a little while. There’s bound to be a lot of uproar about the video, and I think it’ll be good if we take a detour and hide away for a few days until the initial commotion dies down.”
“So we do get to take a vacation!” Dia cheered.
“Well, I wouldn’t put it exactly like that,” I began.
“We’re taking a break for a few days so we can relax and leave the stress of the outside world behind,” Dia pointed out. “What would you call it?”
“Alright,” I chuckled. “I guess you’re right. We’re going on vacation.”
“Whoo!” Dia pumped her fist in the air.
“Dia, babe,” Shannon said. “You do realize that you’re already on a luxury yacht in the middle of the ocean?”
“Yeah, but there’s nothing like a change of scenery, is there?” Dia said in a complacent tone.
She was so happy about the idea of a vacation that I couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm.
“When we reach the national park, we can start looking for an inlet,” I said with a glance at Ally. “Somewhere we can hide away and not be visible from the ocean.”
“It looks like there’s a river here.” Ally traced the thin blue line with her fingernail. “Rio Naranjo. That might be a good option, although it might be a bit of a struggle since it’s going to be flowing outward into the ocean. There’s bound to be a strong current that we’ll have to fight against, but I reckon we can handle it.”
“Great.” I got to my feet and folded up the map. “Sounds like a plan.”
“I’ll go and make the adjustments,” Ally said before heading back into the cockpit.
“Holidayyy,” Dia sang. “Everybody spread the word, we’re gonna have a celebration…”
“Madonna?” Letty questioned with a raised eyebrow.
“It’s better than the Beach Boys, isn’t it?” I said with a chuckle.
“It’s time for the good times, forget about the bad times, oh yeah!” Dia warbled.
“If you start twerking, I’m out of here,” Letty warned.
“Nobody twerk,” I ordered. “We’re not on vacation just yet, we still need to be on high alert until we reach the river.”
“Okay,” Dia sighed.
As she moved away to stand by the rail, I could still hear her humming the song under her breath.
There was a good wind behind us, and the sail snapped and cracked as it caught the breeze and sent the yacht churning through the ocean waters. We’d already made good progress during the morning, and the yacht continued to make good time through the rest of the day. Letty served lunch– fresh biscuits with the last of the fresh greens that the Panamanian government had stocked in the kitchen– and after a couple of hours, Ally called us on deck to announce that we were approaching the inlet.
We were very close to the coast, and the scenery here was impressive. Tall, towering palm trees hung over the crystal blue water, and the waves made a white frothing crown around the little islets we passed, which were thick with luscious greenery and fringed by startlingly clean-looking white sand and rocks. I saw a red parrot take flight, and it darted across the bright blue sky like a streak of scarlet ink falling from a painter’s brush. White gulls soared on the warm wind, and their cries mingled with the crash of the waves as we approached the coast.
“What’s that?” Dia pointed to the shore of the little islet we were sailing past.
I went to stand by her side and saw where she was pointing.
“Holy shit,” I exclaimed.
It was a dragon skeleton. The islet was very small, and although it was covered in sturdy palm trees and more bushes and plants that I didn’t know the names of, I could see the path of destruction that the dragon had made in its rampage across the small space before it had evidently collapsed and died on the islet’s tiny stretch of beach.
Shannon and Letty had come to see as well.
“A dragon?” Letty’s brow furrowed. “That’s weird, isn’t it? They hate the water. They can’t swim. So what’s one doing on a tiny island?”
“It could have landed there during the storm,” Shannon objected.
“That skeleton could be pretty fresh, though,” I pointed out. “It looks like it still has some shreds of, well, flesh on it.”
“Nice.” Letty wrinkled her nose.
“But that means it had to have landed there recently.” Dia frowned in puzzlement. “There’s no way it could have survived that long if it had been living there since the storm. So, what, did it starve to death? It doesn’t look like there’s much to eat on that tiny bit of land.”
“I guess it must have,” I said. “But then why didn’t it try to make it back to the mainland? If it managed to make it to the islet, it must have been able to make it back.”
We all looked at each other. None of us had the answers, and none of us liked the idea of a drastic change in the dragons’ behavior. We’d just started to get a handle on how the scaly fucks thought and acted, and the last thing we needed was some new development to throw us a curve ball.
There wasn’t anything we could do about it now, though, and Ally was carefully approaching the inlet that was up ahead.
I’d managed to get up a larger-scale map of the area on my phone, and after an eternity of waiting for the crappy internet to load it up, Ally and I had found that the Rio Naranjo led to a little estuary called Estero Negro. It was tucked away from sight, and it seemed like it was the perfect place for us to secret ourselves away from any passing ships that might be on the lookout for the Good Pirates.
However, Ally’s prediction was correct, and there was a strong current that we had to fight against in order to get the yacht into the estuary.
The water smashed and frothed against the yacht’s side, and the current forced the yacht sideways. The sail snapped and cracked in the wind, and we had to grab hold of the railing to steady ourselves as the boat slid and dipped in the water.
“Ally?” I yelled.
“It’s okay!” Ally shouted back. “I’m going to take the sail in and use the engine.”
“Do you need any help?” I shouted.
“Nope, I’m all good!” she called.
The ropes creaked as Ally folded the sail back in. The engine roared into life, and I felt the deck vibrate under my feet as Ally swung the back of the boat around so it was facing straight into the wind head-on.
As the yacht charged forward, it bucked and rode the current like a wild horse, and Ally gunned the engine just as we were almost at the west bank. The yacht shot forward, and Ally lunged for a lever on the cockpit control panel.
In this weird way, we fought against the current, and Ally finally steered the yacht into the estuary.
“Well done, Ally!” I was finally able to release my grip on the railing, and I clapped my hands together.
The others joined in, and Ally waved at us with a grin all over her face.
“I can’t believe that worked!” she cried. “I’d read about that technique, but I’ve never tried it before.”
“I’m glad you didn’t tell us that ten minutes ago,” Shannon joked.
“Hey, you’re in safe hands with me,” Ally chuckled.
Now that we were away from the ocean, the water in the estuary was very still. We were surrounded by tall, feathery palm trees that waved their green fronds in the wind and leaned low over the water as though they were admiring their own reflections in the clear blue surface. The banks on either side were covered in lush, bright-green grass that faded into burnt umber earth that turned into a darker brown where it met the lapping edges of the water.
“If we took a holiday, took some time to celebrate just one day out of life, it would be, it would be so nice…” Dia sang softly under her breath.
“You know what?” I told her. “I agree with you. There are a hundred worse places to spend a few days.”
“Vacation time!” She clapped her hands together in glee. “I’m going to do absolutely nothing for the next few days.”
“You will absolutely not do that,” Shannon informed her. “You’re going to go below and set the table for Letty.”
“Ugh, fine, you’re such a party pooper.” Dia pulled a face and rolled her eyes, but I knew from the happy light in her eyes that she was enjoying the game that she and Shannon played together. Dia liked pretending to be a brat, but when it came down to it, she was as focused and determined as the rest of us.
I smiled quietly to myself and pulled out my phone.
No matter what Dia said, this wasn’t really a vacation. We were in hiding, and now I had to do the thing that this was all in aid of.
I opened up the YouTube app on my phone. For a moment, nothing happened, and I had a fierce flash of worry that as remote as this estuary was, it was too far removed from civilization to get any service.
But finally, after a lot of pacing up and down the deck, my phone picked up a bar.
I’d already put the video in my drafts so it would be ready to go as soon as the moment was right.
Well, the moment was here, and I wasn’t going to back down from it.
I hit upload and watched with my heart beating hard in my chest as the progress bar slowly edged its way toward completion.
There was no going back now.
Chapter 2
It hadn’t taken long for the responses to the video to start rolling in.
Not all of them were good.
“Okay, wow.” Shannon raised her eyebrows and let out a whistle. “Some of these people are very angry.”
“‘Fuck off and die.’” Dia was reading the comments from over my shoulder. “‘You should all get cancer and die’. ‘I hope you all get strafed by the Coast Guard and die…’ Do you get the feeling that these people don’t like us very much?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s beyond the Coast Guard’s capabilities to strafe us.” Shannon clucked her tongue. “Don’t these people know anything? They should at least make their hate comments technically accurate.”
“I think a lot of these people are just angry,” Letty said. “Not at us specifically, but we’re easy targets for them to take their feelings out on.”
“That’s very emotionally intelligent of you,” Shannon told her with a smile. “Unfortunately I think that skill is beyond most of these keyboard warriors.”
“They’re so angry, though.” Ally’s forehead was wrinkled in concern as she leaned against Dia so she could read the comments as well. “I just would have thought that people would be happy for the truth to come out.”
“Really, babe?” Shannon cocked an eyebrow.
“Well, yeah,” Ally said in a defensive voice. “I mean, the truth shall set you free, all of that…”
“Were you happy when you found out that Lonnie was cheating on you?” Dia queried.
Ally blinked, and Shannon gave Dia a nudge in the side.
“Bit too blunt,” the Indian woman said in a low voice.
“Oh.” Dia’s hand flew to cover her mouth. “Oh, shit, Ally, sorry, I didn’t think… I just meant…”
“Yeah, no, I know what you meant.” Ally sighed and squared her shoulders. “And, yeah, you’re right. I wasn’t happy. I was furious.”
“I remember,” I said with a chuckle. “You were going to trash the yacht.”
“Yeah…” Ally’s cheeks flushed pink. “I was very furious. And I was sad, and I’d had a few drinks…”
“It was pretty cool,” I reassured her. “I think I said it to you then, but honestly? That was when I knew you would be fun to hang around with.”
“Aw, really?” Ally smiled.
“You mean it wasn’t when you saw her ass?” Shannon said, and she laughed when Ally shot her a murderous glare.
“Now how come that’s okay for you to say?” Dia complained. “What’s too blunt and what’s just banter?”
“It’s a special skill to discern the difference,” Shannon told her. “You’ll learn it one day.”
“I wish,” Dia muttered, and her knitted brow and pouting lower lip were both very cute and a clear sign that this was a sore subject for her.
“Hey, no, don’t worry about it,” Ally said to her quickly. “I know what you meant, and I know you’re not the kind of person to say mean things on purpose.”
“Was it really mean what I said?” Dia’s eyes opened wide in dismay. “Ah, shit. I really thought I was just helping you understand.”
“You were!” Ally laughed and shook her head. “I don’t know. Communication is complicated.”
“That’s why marriage counselors exist,” Letty said with a chuckle.
“I just never seem to get it right,” Dia said with a sigh.
Ally put her arm around Dia’s shoulders and gave her a hug.
“Don’t worry,” she told her. “We love you anyway.”
“Even when you’re an idiot,” Shannon said with a teasing grin.
Dia rolled her eyes.
“Hey, look,” I said. “Here are some positive comments.”
Dia leaned in to see, and I surreptitiously patted her back.
She looked up at me, and I gave her a reassuring smile. Dia smiled back.
I hoped that she could see the love and passion I had for her, shining out through my eyes. Dia had confided in me that she often found it hard to make and keep friendships, and it always warmed my heart to see how protective and forgiving the other women were of her, and how quickly they’d welcomed her into their circle.
I held up my phone so she and the others had a better angle from which to read the comments under the video.
“‘Good job guys!’” I read out. “‘Corruption is everywhere. Trust no one.’”
“Not quite the vibe we were going for,” Shannon said with a grimace.
“There’s another.” Dia pointed. “‘Great vid, loved it, next stop the White House!’ Wait, does that mean they want us to be president or they want us to film the president?”
“I’m not sure if they’ve even thought about it in that much detail.” I scrolled further down. “Okay, this is more like it: ‘I hate that this makes so much sense. The news stories coming out of the US made such a song and dance about sending aid to help the countries along the meteorite belt, but I’ve yet to see any videos or verified news reports that suggest the aid is actually doing anything. It all just seems to be a cover for something else. And now we know what that something else is.’”
“Okay!” Dia exclaimed and slapped her hands against her thighs. “Someone finally gets it.”
“There are some people who still don’t know about the dragon blood, though,” Shannon said as she pointed to a few comments further down the page. “Look… ‘Why is the Coast Guard wasting time collecting these things though? How is this in any way a good use of the USCG’s time?’”
“Someone’s replied, though.” I opened up the responses to that comment and carried on reading aloud. “‘Dude. What rock have you been living under?’ ‘Be nice, not everyone has access to the same privileges you do.’ ‘It’s an individual’s responsibility to stay informed on current affairs. I’m not going to censor myself over some dumb boomer who can’t even be bothered to switch on the television.’”
“Oof.” Ally winced. “I don’t miss comment sections at all.”
“Yeah.” I scrolled through the rest of the thread with raised eyebrows before shaking my head. “All that vitriol, and still no one bothered to explain to the original commenter what the deal is with the dragon eggs.”
