Apocalyptic Pirates 6, page 25
The dragons had been infuriated by my final gunshot, and the whole terrifying crowd of them were rushing after us.
One of the smaller creatures threw itself into the air. It flapped wildly to keep itself aloft, and I felt the downdraft from its wings ruffling my hair and shirt. It wasn’t graceful, but it didn’t need to be if it landed on us from that height.
“Run!” I yelled. “Quicker!”
The trees were just up ahead.
With one final burst of speed, we reached the treeline and stumbled through the tangled roots and undergrowth as the dragon cannoned into the ground with a thud that shook the trees.
I heard roaring and screeching as the other dragons tried to claw over their fallen friend to get to us. I leaped over a twisted clump of roots, ducked under a low-hanging branch, vaulted over a dip in the sandy ground, and saw the gap in the trees just up ahead.
“There!” I shouted. “That’s the clearing!”
We ran for it as fast as we could through the cluttered undergrowth.
Behind us the dragons were roaring and tearing their way through the trees, but we reached the clearing first and burst out next to the nearest hut.
“Dia!” I hollered. “The rucksack!”
Dia dragged it off her back and tossed it to me.
I rummaged around inside the bag until I found the matches.
“What are you doing?” she asked with her eyes wide.
“We’re going to set the nests on fire,” I replied.
“A fire?” Dia gasped. “But what if it spreads? We’re surrounded by trees.”
“Then it’ll take out even more dragons,” I replied. “I know it’s not ideal, but we don’t have that many choices right now, Dia!”
“Okay!” She bent down and ripped up a handful of dry grass from the ground. “Let’s do it.”
I struck a match and held it to the pile of grass in Dia’s hand.
It caught immediately, and Dia ran with it to the nearest hut and lobbed it in through the hole in the wall. For a second I thought it had gone out, but then smoke began to billow out from the hut walls.
“Here’s more!” Dia pulled out some of the dry reeds from the walls of another hut, and when I lit it with another match, she threw it into the furrow that led underneath the hut floor.
In just a few moments, the whole clearing was on fire.
The huts were made of old, dry reeds and ancient timber framework, and they went up like fireworks on the Fourth of July.
The tongues of flame licked around the old roofs and leaped from hut to hut. We only needed to set a few alight before the flames rushed between the huts and spread even quicker than we would have been able to manufacture.
Thick black smoke billowed up into the sky, and soon we were both coughing.
“I see why you didn’t want Letty to come,” Dia wheezed.
A deafening roar split the air.
The dragons barreled out of the trees. They were almost falling over each other in their haste, and their agonized screams filled the air as thickly as the smoke.
“Watch out!” I dragged Dia out of the way as a red dragon lunged by us and hurled itself into one of the burning huts.
The dragons completely ignored us and were too focused on their burning nests to try to attack.
“That’s it!” I shouted. “Let’s go!”
“Okay, jefe!” Dia hoisted the rucksack back over her shoulders, and we hightailed it out of the clearing back the way we’d come.
We stumbled through the roots and the undergrowth. The smoke still followed us, and there was a tightness in my chest that made breathing difficult, and I kept stumbling over the bushes and tangled tufts of grass.
Then we were suddenly running on sand, and I could see the yacht just up ahead.
Shannon and Letty were standing on the deck and anxiously looking out for us. As soon as they saw us, they started to wave.
I tried to wave back, but a fit of coughing racked my chest, and I almost stumbled and fell in the sand.
Then Dia crashed to her hands and knees. Her breathing was labored, and her spine arched like she was a cat trying to hawk up a hairball.
“Come on!” I grabbed her arm and pulled her back to her feet. “We’re not out of the woods yet!”
Dia took a step forward and then doubled over with another fit of coughing.
I threw a glance behind us, calculated the distance from here to the yacht, and then I scooped up Dia into my arms and ran with her across the sand.
Dia looped her arms around my neck, and I ran with my feet slipping and sliding in the sand. My arms were burning, my shoulders were screaming, and my chest was in agony. But then the yacht was right in front of us, and Dia slid down out of my arms and climbed up the ladder.
I followed her, and then we both collapsed onto the deck.
“Drew?” Shannon cried.
“Just go,” I wheezed and gestured with my hands. “Tell Ally to get us the fuck out of here.”
“Ally!” Shannon yelled, and I felt the yacht sigh and respond as Ally unfurled the sail.
We caught the wind, and the yacht pulled away from the sandy shore just as two dragons came charging out of the trees down the beach.
The forest behind them was starting to smoke, and the dragons had black singed spots on their scales. They ran after us with their jaws wide open, but they stopped in the shallows with the waves breaking around their scaled legs.
One of them tried to roar but stopped to vomit up a string of black bile. The other threw back its head and coughed out a hoarse roar that was closer to a scream.
“Drew!” Shannon insisted. “Are you guys okay? What the hell happened?”
“Did you set the island on fire?” Letty demanded.
“Just… the resort huts,” I managed to wheeze out. “I didn’t want you to come… because of the… smoke.”
Letty bent over me and pressed a kiss to my forehead.
“I get you,” she said, and then she wrinkled her nose and laughed. “You taste like smoky bacon.”
“Mm, tasty,” I wheezed.
The fresh salt wind of the ocean lifted my smoky hair from my sweaty forehead, and I took down a deep, clean breath of it with appreciation.
Dia sat up and pushed back her wild curls out of her face. There was a sooty smudge on her forehead, and there was still a wheezy catch in her breath, but she was grinning widely.
I grinned back at her as the realization dawned about what we’d managed to do.
We’d gotten the footage, and we’d taken out a hell of a lot of dragon nests in the bargain.
“We fucking did it,” Dia croaked.
I grinned back at her. “We fucking did it.”
Chapter 16
When we looked back over the footage, we were even more exhilarated.
“You can see it all right there,” Ally said.
“All those cages,” Letty added with a shudder.
“The only way this could be more damning is if we filmed them in the middle of actually capturing a dragon,” Shannon agreed.
“We did it.” I leaned back and swiped my hair off my forehead. “We actually fucking did it.”
“What, are you surprised?” Dia grinned at me.
“A little,” I admitted. “I mean, it’s the goddamn US Navy. I guess a part of me was always expecting something to go a little bit wrong. But it fucking didn’t. We won.”
“We won!” Dia threw her hands up in the air and did a little shimmy of triumph. “Ooh, ooh, yeah.”
“You look ridiculous,” Shannon told her, but then Dia grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet to start dancing with her.
Shannon protested for a moment, but then she laughed and joined Dia in her victory dance.
“Yeah, baby!” Letty said in a passable Austin Powers impression that made Dia snort with laughter, and then suddenly bend over as another fit of coughing took her.
“Okay,” Shannon exclaimed. “No more dancing for you, girl. You need a shower, a sit down, and a glass of water.”
“I find some warm water with honey is good for your throat after you’ve been coughing,” Letty suggested.
“My nanny used to make me tea with honey in it when I got sick,” Ally added.
“I did that for Sammy, too,” I said.
“Why you all trying to sweeten me up,” Dia complained. “Aren’t I–”
But her words were cut off by more coughing.
“Okay.” Shannon put her arm firmly around Dia’s shoulders and guided her to the hatch. “Let’s get you in the shower and in clothes that don’t stink of smoke.”
“Oh… my god, stop… flirting with me,” Dia wheezed with tears in her eyes.
“Ally,” I said, and I stepped with the redhead into the cockpit.
“You know, you should take a shower, too,” she told me. “You smell of smoke pretty bad.”
“Yeah, I will once Dia is settled,” I assured her. “I just wanted to check that we’re back on course.”
“Yep.” She nodded. “The wind is in our favor again, so we should pretty easily get back on track. This diversion shouldn’t cost us too much time.”
“That’s great.” I smiled at her in relief. “I know we’re not on a deadline, but…”
“You want to see your family as soon as possible.” Ally gave me a soft smile. “I get it.”
“It’s funny how simple I thought this journey was going to be when we first set out,” I recalled with a chuckle. “Now look at us.”
“It’s proof that you never can tell where you’re going to end up.” Ally patted my arm and then pushed my hair back from my forehead. “Look at you, you’re all covered in schmutz.”
There was a tender note in her voice that warmed my heart. I’d always been good at taking care of myself, but there was something about having a beautiful woman care about the state of my health that I realized I’d really missed since Marie died.
I linked my fingers through Ally’s and stepped closer to her so I could gently kiss her smooth forehead. She lifted her lips to mine, and we kissed softly.
When I looked up, I realized with a rueful smile that I’d left a gray smudge on Ally’s white forehead. She guessed where I was looking, and she wiped her forehead with the back of her wrist.
“Okay, firestarter,” she said with a grin. “Go and get cleaned up.”
“Okay,” I conceded.
I went down below and found Letty in the kitchen making a steaming kettle.
“The steam will be good for Dia to inhale,” she explained. “And afterwards, I’ll make us all tea. It’ll be good for you to have something soothing on your throat as well.”
“Okay,” I said and sat down obediently at the table.
“Wow.” Letty raised an eyebrow. “And here I thought we’d have to hold you down and force feed it to you. You’re so difficult to take care of sometimes.”
“I am not,” I said. “Am I?”
“You’re just always so insistent that you can do it all,” Letty said. “And, I know, to be fair, most of the time you can. But you have to let us be there for you as well, Drew. It’s not fair otherwise.”
“Have you been talking to Shannon?” My mouth twitched in a rueful smile.
“I don’t need to talk to Shannon.” Letty put her hands on her hips and gave me a meaningful look. “We’ve all been thinking this.”
“Okay,” I conceded. “I’m going to try to be better about letting you guys help me and support me.”
Letty’s face softened. She bent down and kissed my dirty forehead before turning back to the stove and turning up the heat.
“I’m going to give Dia the kettle,” she told me. “And then I’ll make you a pan of hot water so you can inhale the steam, too.”
Leaning over a steaming pan with a towel draped over my head wasn’t the most comfortable way to spend ten minutes, but I had to admit that my chest felt looser afterwards. I didn’t feel that tight catch in my lungs whenever I drew a breath, and my head felt clearer as well.
Dia was out of the shower and looking a lot better. Her face was clean of soot, and she was no longer wheezing.
I headed in to take my shower, and I hadn’t realized quite how sooty I was, but when I looked in the mirror, I was startled by the amount of gray smudges on my face. My blond hair had turned a weird shade of ash, and my blue eyes seemed to leap out at me from my dirty reflection. It was a relief to scrub off all the grime of the day.
“Aw, I kind of miss the salt-and-pepper look,” Shannon teased when I came back into the kitchen after my shower was done.
“Don’t worry,” I chuckled. “Just give it a few years, I’m sure you’ll get to see me with gray hair soon enough.”
“Mm, you’re going to be a real silver fox,” Letty purred.
“Okay.” I grinned. “But I’m not wishing that day to come any sooner than it has to.”
“I don’t know.” Shannon pursed her lips in appreciation. “There’s something about an older guy.”
“Shannon’s thinking about all the old soldiers she wants to bang,” Dia announced in a stage whisper.
“Shut up.” Shannon rolled her eyes. “Drew’s the only old guy I’d ever want to bang.”
“Thank you,” I said with a chuckle.
The kettle was boiling, and Letty made us all tea. She stirred heaping spoonfuls of honey into my and Dia’s mugs, and we all took slow, careful sips.
“Mm, tasty,” Dia murmured.
“It does feel good on my throat,” I admitted.
“See.” Letty smiled.
I put my mug down and pulled out my phone from my shorts pocket. I’d been thinking while I was in the shower, and I was now ready to talk to the others about it.
“I want to upload the video now,” I said.
“Like, now now?” Ally raised her eyebrows. “I don’t think we’ve made enough progress yet to be fully away from the bay.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said.
“But you still want to upload it now?” Shannon frowned. “Is that the best idea?”
“I’m just so sick of everything that’s being said online.” The words spilled out of me, and I knew the women had to hear the passion in my voice. “No one knows the truth about what’s happening. There are so many conflicting opinions, and we’ve got the truth right here in our hands. I know it’s a bit risky, and we wouldn’t normally do this, but the fleet has passed by, and we’re sailing in the complete opposite direction to where they were headed. The video doesn’t give any indication of our course or where we might be headed next. Ally, you said we had a good wind, right?”
“Yeah.” Ally nodded. “We’re already making good progress.”
“Right,” I replied. “I don’t know what you guys think, and I want to hear your opinions, but for me, I just can’t stand the thought of people out there not knowing the truth of what’s going on. There are going to be people who are directly in the fleet’s path, and they’re not going to know if they’re there to send aid or to capture dragons. This video could reach some of those people and help them so much sooner if we post it now, and a fleet that huge is on their own mission. The likelihood of any of them turning around to look for us is pretty low.”
The women looked at each other with furrowed brows.
“I wouldn’t suggest this if I didn’t think it was a safe plan,” I added. “I’m never going to suggest anything that might put you guys in danger. And, as always, this yacht is a democracy. So if anyone thinks we should wait, then I’ll listen to what they have to say.”
“Well,” Dia said. “I don’t know about the others, but I just about busted a lung today, and I don’t want that going to waste. I say we post it now.”
“I’m in.” Letty nodded.
“Me, too,” Shannon said. “We need to reveal the truth about what the Navy is actually up to. They’re a disgrace. I don’t want anyone thinking this is normal behavior for the American armed forces.”
“Ally?” Letty asked.
“Yep.” Ally nodded. “Let’s do it.”
“Awesome.” I couldn’t hold back the grin that spread across my face. “I’ll start uploading it now.”
There wasn’t enough signal for me to load the video in the kitchen, so I went above and did my usual walk about on deck to grab a connection.
“Drew?” Ally called from the hatch. “Everything okay?”
“I can’t get online,” I said in frustration. “The signal just keeps on dropping out.”
“That’s what I was going to come and tell you,” she said as she walked across the deck to my side. “I was looking at the charts, and there’s a little cove on our way that I reckon we’ll reach by this evening. We can moor there for the night so we’re not sailing across the ocean in the dark. I figured it might be a good idea to stay out of sight as much as we can, just while the fleet is still out there.”
“That’s a good idea,” I said. “We’ll lose some miles, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
“That’s what I thought.” She nodded. “The cove is called La Barra. There might be a better connection when we’re there.”
“I hope you’re right,” I sighed.
I walked around the deck for a bit longer and then gave up.
The rest of the day was spent sailing to Guatemala. We saw a few small boats in the distance but for the most part the waters were empty.
“Maybe everyone’s cleared out because of the fleet,” Ally suggested.
“Maybe.” Shannon nodded. “I bet if we were sailing a bit closer to the coast, we’d see plenty of little boats hiding away in bays and inlets.”
“But they don’t know that the fleet is going to capture dragons for their own selfish means,” Letty objected.
“No,” Dia agreed. “But if I was out on the water, and I saw a huge fuck-off fleet of ships out there, I know that I would hide somewhere until I was sure they’d gone.”
“That’s because you’re a criminal,” Letty said with a giggle.
“I am not!” Dia protested.
“Uh, hot-wire much?” Shannon said.
“Well, okay,” Dia conceded.
“Didn’t you say you also got kicked out of school?” Ally said.
