Apocalyptic Pirates 6, page 20
“But they’re heading this way!” Ally insisted. “How are we going to avoid bumping into them when we carry on with our journey? We can’t just sit here either because they’ll find us either way!”
“We’re sitting ducks,” Letty whispered.
“Okay, we all need to calm down and take a breath,” I instructed. “This isn’t great news, but it’s not the end of the world for us, either.”
“What if we made a beeline straight for Hawaii?” Letty’s voice suddenly lifted in hope. “We could cut straight across the ocean instead of making our way slowly around the coast like we have been doing.”
“I’ll get the charts.” Ally leaped to her feet and ran on deck.
“Do you think we could make it, Drew?” Letty looked at me with such hope in her eyes that all I wanted to do was agree with her.
“That would be amazing,” I admitted.
I didn’t want to acknowledge, even to myself, how exciting that thought was. I would get to see Sammy and my parents so much quicker. All of this would be over. I would finally be able to take my baby girl in my arms again and hold her close.
I didn’t want to hope, but the idea still sparked a glimmer of excitement inside my heart.
Ally almost tumbled down the hatch steps. She had the maps in her arms, and she knelt down on the floor and spread them out wide so we could all see clearly.
“We’re here,” Ally said, and she took a pencil and ruler out of her pocket and made a little cross on the map.
“And there’s Hawaii.” I pointed to the little cluster of islands.
It was so far away, and the miles of ocean we would have to cross to get there looked insurmountably enormous.
Ally carefully set about measuring the distance, but even before she spoke, I could tell it was hopeless.
“It would be about forty-five hundred miles to cut across the ocean from where we are now, maybe even forty-eight” she said, and the defeat in her voice wasn’t hard to hear. “Going by our average rate of knots, that’s over a month’s sailing across the ocean without the possibility of landing anywhere to refuel or stock up on supplies.”
There was a pause after she’d spoken.
I swallowed hard and had to fight down the disappointment that flared up inside me. I’d known it was dumb to get my hopes up, but even so, a part of me had already started thinking how amazing it would be to reach Niihau so far ahead of schedule.
“So what do we do?” Letty demanded.
She pressed her hand against her heart, and I could see the panicked rise and fall of her chest as she struggled to control her breathing.
“It’s okay, Letty,” Shannon began.
“No! It’s really not okay!” Letty’s breath turned into a wheeze. “I know you feel alright about the military, Shannon, but it’s not like that for everybody, okay, these ships aren’t full of people like your father and grandfather, they’re soldiers, and they’re not going to treat us any nicer because of the fact that you’ve got family in the army! We’re just sitting here and there’s no–”
Letty’s words trailed away. Her mouth opened and closed like a beached fish, and her eyes widened in panic as she struggled to draw breath.
“She’s having an asthma attack.” Shannon grabbed Dia’s arm. “Go get her inhaler.”
Dia was already scrambling to her feet.
“It’s okay, Letty, it’s okay,” Ally tried to soothe her.
Shannon pulled Letty’s hair away from her face, and Letty groped for my hand and held on tightly to it as she desperately tried to force air into her lungs.
“It’s okay, Letty,” I whispered. “We’ve got you, it’s okay.”
Dia was back with the inhaler in seconds, and Letty took it, pressed the button, and inhaled the life-saving medication inside.
The terrified look left her eyes, and the choking wheeze faded away.
The other women crowded around her and helped her recover, and I scanned the map desperately to see if there was an answer that I could find. I grabbed Ally’s ruler and pencil and charted a trail on the map. Then I did a quick calculation in my head.
“Guys,” I said. “Here’s what we are going to do.”
I stabbed my pencil into the map as they looked over at the chart spread out on the floor.
“We’re here near a place called Playa Bote,” I said. “There are some inlets nearby where we could hide, but they’re all near major highways, and we need to avoid civilization as much as possible, so we have to stay away from any major transport links. But if we leave the coast and sail nonstop across the ocean, we can hide here, in Bahía de Jiquilisco.”
I drew a little cross on the map to mark the location.
“It’s about ten o’clock now,” I said. “If we sail non-stop, we can be there in under two days. Shannon, do you know roughly how quickly a naval cruiser can travel?”
“Gee, uh…” Shannon exhaled as she thought about it. “Maybe thirty knots?”
“That’s significantly quicker than we travel,” Ally said.
“Right.” I nodded. “But if the fleet is coming from the Gulf of California, that’s almost two thousand miles of ocean that they have to cross before they reach us.”
“So what does that mean?” Dia demanded. “How long will it take the fleet to travel that distance?”
I scribbled another quick calculation on the edge of the map.
“A little over two days,” I said. “It’ll be tight, but we can make it. What do you guys think?”
“I think that sounds like a plan,” Shannon said with a nod.
“Yes,” Ally agreed.
Dia nodded, and Letty gave a thumbs up to signal her approval.
“Great,” I said and folded up the map again. “We’ll hide out in Bahía de Jiquilisco until the Naval fleet has passed by. From the look of it on the map, we should even be able to see it go by from the bay.”
“Double win,” Shannon declared.
“I’ll go and change the course now,” Ally said.
She ran up the hatch again, and I helped Letty sit back on the couch. She was still breathing heavily, and although the scary pale tinge had left her lips, she still didn’t look entirely at ease.
I took her hand in mine and kissed it gently.
“It’s okay,” I told her. “We’re all going to be okay. I’m not going to let anything happen to us.”
Letty nodded. And then a tear slipped down her cheek.
“Hey,” I soothed. “What’s wrong?”
“I just…” Letty shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know.”
“It’s been a lot,” I told her. “Think about how action-packed these last few days have been. And now this news on top of everything? It’s no wonder it’s making you anxious.”
“I just feel like I’m a lot sometimes,” Letty sniffed. “Like, I can’t just be anxious like everyone else, I have to have a damn asthma fit on top of it as well.”
“Letty, it’s not like you do it on purpose.” I brushed a stray curl away from her face. “You can’t help it.”
“I know,” she said in a voice that trembled. “But that don’t make me feel like any less of a burden to y’all.”
“Hey, we love you!” Shannon sat down on Letty’s other side and put her arm around her shoulders. “Don’t talk like that. You’re not a burden, you’re such an important part of the crew. There’s no way we could do without you.”
“Yeah, Letty,” Dia chimed in. “Even if you didn’t cook, we’d still miss you if you fell overboard.”
As weird as Dia’s comforting methods were, that seemed to be what Letty needed to hear right then.
She gave a wobbly laugh and dabbed at her eyes with the back of her wrist.
“Lord,” she said with another sniff. “Look at me gettin’ all weepy like this.”
“Not being able to breathe is pretty upsetting,” Dia said with an air of someone imparting great wisdom.
“You don’t say?” Shannon retorted.
“Bet they didn’t teach you that at lawyer school, did they?” Dia smirked.
Shannon rolled her eyes.
“Hey,” I said gently. “It’s getting pretty late. Maybe you guys should turn in. I imagine it’s going to be an intense few days while we make for the bay.”
“How are you pronouncing its name again?” Dia asked with an innocent expression.
“Okay,” I sighed. “I’m not going to sit here and be mocked for my poor Spanish.”
“I’m just saying!” Dia protested. “What if Ally misheard you? What if we’re actually heading to Paris, or Rome, or…”
“How about you head to bed,” I told her severely.
Dia laughed. She held out her hand to Letty, and then she linked her arm through the Southern woman’s and helped her through the lounge to get to the cabin.
“Look at our little Dia,” Shannon said with a fond smile as she watched them go. “She told you, didn’t she? She feels like she’s not always very good at being comforting.”
“Yeah, she did,” I said. “But you’re right, yeah, she was really good at making Letty feel better.”
“So were you.” Shannon planted a light kiss on my cheek. “I’d better go and turn in as well so I can get some sleep before it’s my turn on watch.”
“Okay,” I said. “Goodnight.”
Ally came down the steps from the deck, and I said goodnight to her as well before I went back up on deck.
The sail flapped overhead in alignment with the new course Ally had set. The yacht cut through the water without hesitation as the wind drove us forward to our new destination.
I craned my neck back and looked up at the stars that were peeping through the dark canvas of the night sky. I couldn’t help but think of all the countless sailors and mariners throughout history– pirates or otherwise– who must have looked up at the stars and hoped for a sign that the choices they’d made were the right ones.
I guessed that was where astrology came from.
I wasn’t much for horoscopes, but at that moment I could really have done with some signal that my decision to take the yacht to the bay was the right one.
I didn’t know what I thought about our current dilemma, or which one of the women I agreed with.
It seemed crazy that the United States would be mobilizing in response to a YouTube video that I’d made, but at the same time, I knew it would also be crazy to discount the massive impact that my videos had. We’d been recruited by the Panamanian government, for God’s sake. If I was ever looking for a sign that the videos mattered, it didn’t get much clearer than that.
But was the Navy really going to trouble themselves with hunting down one yacht and a crew of renegade nobodies? They might have our files and background information from the Coast Guard, but that didn’t mean they were going to start a manhunt to take out the Good Pirates.
I suspected the truth was somewhere in-between these two extremes.
The Navy’s primary goal was probably to help the Coast Guard in their missions to capture the dragons and harvest the eggs. That had to be the main reason behind their mobilization and leaving the Gulf of California, as we’d seen in the YouTube video that Shannon had found.
But if they happened to run into the yacht and crew that was causing them so much trouble and dragging them through the court of public opinion?
I didn’t doubt for a second that they would use the opportunity that Fate had given them to take every one of us out. They might not kill us outright, but even if we avoided that fate, it would only be so that they could throw us in a cell to rot somewhere where no one could find us. They’d wait until we were forgotten about, or they would concoct some cover story to discredit our reputations and maybe even fake our deaths so that no one would think to come look for us.
Sammy would grow up without a father and with only conflicting stories about my motives. My parents would make sure that she knew the truth as much as they knew it, but she would still be exposed to any fake story that the armed forces made up about me to smear my legacy.
I ground my teeth together as I pictured that kind of fate for me and my daughter.
We had to avoid detection by the Navy at all costs. I knew that, and I knew that the women knew that, too. We couldn’t have stayed where we were, and we couldn’t have stayed on our previous course either as it would have taken us right into the Navy fleet’s path.
It was the right choice to change our course and make for the bay. We had enough time to reach it before the fleet passed that way. We would hide out there for a couple of days, wait for the ships to go on by, and then we could carry on our way.
It was the right choice, I told myself again, but as I stared up at the stars, I couldn’t stop a big sigh slipping out of my mouth.
“Are you okay?” Shannon’s soft voice floated out of the night, and she came to stand by my side.
“Yeah.” I rubbed my eyes and pulled my gaze away from the sky. There were no answers to be found up there.
“Are you sure?” she pressed. “That was quite a sigh. Remember what we talked about before? It’s okay to share what you’re feeling with us.”
“I guess I’m just worried about whether I made the right choice,” I admitted. “If moving us to the bay was the best decision to make for us.”
“Drew.” Shannon touched my shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. I think it was a good decision. I would have said something if I didn’t agree with you.”
“It’s just hard to know for sure,” I confessed. “I know we couldn’t have stayed where we were, and we had to deviate from our chosen course in order to avoid the fleet… I don’t know. Seeing Letty so worked up about it freaked me out a bit, I think.”
“We all know that you have our best interests at heart, always,” Shannon reassured me. “It’s not an easy thing to do, to be in charge of a crew. And it’s even harder with that whole goddamn American Navy on our tail.”
“Yeah.” I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. “I’m sorry. I know I need to be strong for you guys, but…”
“Hey.” Shannon took my hand in hers and pressed it against her cheek. Her dark eyes searched mine, and the gentle glow of the starlight shone in her pupils and made them flicker like tiger’s eyes. “Drew. You’re always so strong. And dependable, and comforting, and warm, and tender. You’re not doing anything wrong by wanting a little reassurance. That’s human.”
“I guess I’m not used to hearing that from women,” I said. “A lot of the time the message is the opposite. It’s about being strong, and dependable, and in control.”
“Yeah, I get that,” Shannon replied. “There’s so much pressure on men to be stoic and calm. But you have emotions, too. You’re human. Feeling things is a part of that.”
I pulled her close to me. She looked up into my face, and her dark, thick eyelashes fluttered as I lowered my mouth to hers and kissed her gently.
“Thank you,” I told her with a smile. “You’re very wise.”
“You bet I am.” Shannon laughed softly. “Now, go down and get your ass to bed. I’m on watch now.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I chuckled.
I went down below and crawled into bed next to Ally and Dia. Letty was curled up on the floor, presumably so she wouldn’t feel claustrophobic and struggle to breathe in the night. I draped my arm lightly over Dia’s hip, and she sighed in her sleep and rolled over so she was facing me. Her lips were slightly parted, and her cheeks were flushed rosy pink.
I kissed her forehead lightly, and her eyelashes fluttered, but she didn’t wake up. It would take a herd of elephants to rouse Dia when she was in the middle of a REM cycle.
I smiled softly to myself and laid down in the bed. Soon I was fast asleep, and I didn’t wake until Ally gently shook my shoulder the next morning.
“Drew,” she said. “Breakfast is ready.”
I yawned, stretched, and sat up. Ally was already dressed, and I noted with surprise that the light was shining through the door.
“Is it late?” I asked.
“It’s a bit later than normal,” Ally replied. “We decided to let you sleep.”
“Thank you.” I smiled at her as I climbed out of bed and started getting dressed.
The others were already gathered around the table, and they greeted me with teasing smiles as I sat down.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Letty said as she slid a plate of pancakes over to me.
“God, Drew, what time do you call this?” Dia teased.
“I was tired, okay,” I said with a laugh. “I don’t see you taking shifts on watch.”
“Yeah, Dia,” Shannon chided. “Cut the man some slack.”
“Okay, fine,” Dia chuckled.
Despite the banter, I could tell that the women were still on edge. It was understandable given everything that we’d talked about the night before, and as we finished breakfast I tried to think of something that would help keep them busy and distract them from thoughts about the Navy.
“Why don’t you guys practice more of your self-defense?” I suggested as we got up from the table to tidy up after breakfast. “I know we’re not being so careful about gunfire at the minute, but it’s still a useful skill to keep practicing.”
“That’s a good idea,” Shannon said with an enthusiastic nod. “I still need to bring Ally crashing down from her position as self-defense queen.”
“You will never manage that,” Ally retorted with a grin. “I’m the reigning champion, and I intend it to stay that way.”
“Fight!” Dia chanted. “Fight, fight, fight.”
“No fighting,” Letty pleaded.
“Okay, fine, no fighting,” Dia sighed.
As soon as the kitchen was clean, we headed up on deck, and the women started warming up.
“Drew, are you going to join us?” Shannon asked. “It’s good for us to try our moves on people of different heights and strengths.”
“Yeah, sure,” I replied.
The women paired up and ran through the moves that they were working on. Then I stepped in.
I walked up behind Ally and grabbed her around the waist.
She took hold of my arms and swung her hips to the side. She aimed a fake blow at my crotch, then broke free from my arms, whipped around, grabbed my shoulders and brought her knee up into my crotch.
