Voyage of the Defiance

by S. E. Smith

  “Yeah, I am,” she grinned in return. “How about fixing a cup of hot chocolate for your captain? I made a bunch this morning and poured it into the thermos.”

  “I hope there’s enough for two, otherwise the captain is going to be out of luck,” Tyrell said, jumping down into the companionway instead of using the steps. “I love chocolate!”

  “So do I!” Makayla called out behind him.

  *.*.*

  By late that afternoon, Makayla was feeling pretty confident that they were ahead of schedule. There was a stiff breeze behind them and they were cutting through the water at a pretty good clip for a sailboat. She figured they were doing close to seven knots.

  Tyrell had spent most of the day sitting in the shade of the Dodger typing away on his cell phone that continued to vibrate whenever they were close enough to a larger city to receive a signal or taking a million pictures.

  He also did what he called ‘practice interviews’ with her. She had protested at first, but he had looked so pitiful that she had finally given up arguing with him. After all, it wasn’t like anyone would ever see the pictures or video clips. Even if they did, who would care?

  “Tell me about your life?” Tyrell said, turning the video on.

  Makayla shrugged her shoulders. “What’s there to tell?” She asked.

  Her lips curved at Tyrell’s exaggerated sigh. “You’re not going to make this easy, are you?” He asked impatiently.

  “Life isn’t easy,” she reminded him in a quiet voice.

  “Explain why you would say something like that?” He insisted. “I mean, I totally get where you are coming from. I know what it’s like to live in fear whenever you hear a car drive down the street, but, what about you? What do you fear?”

  “Everything,” Makayla said, forgetting about the camera for a moment. “I used to wake up every morning wondering if my mom was going to be alive, if she had overdosed on the drugs the doctors were giving her. I couldn’t understand why people who were supposed to help her kept giving her things that only hurt her. I was afraid I’d be left alone. Do you want to know my biggest fear?” She asked, looking at him. She continued when he nodded. “My biggest fear is that I would turn out just like her. I was afraid that I would feel a need to escape the world and that I’d do something stupid.”

  “You don’t think taking a sailboat and sailing around the coast of Florida is stupid?” He asked, staring back at her with an intense expression.

  “Do you think it was stupid of you to get between your grandmother and the bullets?” She retorted. “Do you think it was stupid to come to my house; and, when you found out what I planned, try to stop me? Most of all, do you think you were stupid to want to go on this crazy adventure with me when you had a chance to go home?”

  She dared him to answer her back. She wasn’t going to back down. If he wanted to know her deepest fears, then it was only fair that he share some of his own.

  “No,” he finally replied. “I’d do it all over again, even knowing the outcome.”

  “Why?” Makayla asked in a quiet voice. “Why would you do it when you know how dangerous it is?”

  Tyrell looked at her with a solemn expression filled with determination. He didn’t blink, didn’t look away. It was as if he knew she was pushing him to admit to the world the same emotions he was demanding of her. The same honesty that forced you to take a look at who you really were underneath the exterior you portrayed to everyone else. The person you saw when you looked in the mirror.

  “Because I have a choice,” he said quietly. “I have a choice to either be afraid or to take control of my fear. I want to follow my dreams. If I didn’t do something, that was all they would ever be – dreams. Now, whenever I’m afraid, I’ll ask myself why and I’ll deal with it. I’m not going to let it stop me any more.”

  A soft, sad smile curved Makayla’s lips and she nodded. “Then you understand why this voyage is necessary,” she replied. “For both of us.”

  *.*.*

  Tyrell grinned when he saw the latest number of hits to his social media sites. They would be leaving the upper Keys and turning more to the west as they rounded the lower peninsula of Florida and the Everglades. He almost groaned, wanting to know how well the last uploads he had just sent would do.

  Realizing his phone was almost dead; he plugged it in and glanced through the hatch up at Makayla. She was talking to her grandfather. He frowned when he heard Henry’s voice. It sounded like he was worried about something.

  “What’s wrong?” He asked, standing in the doorway.

  Makayla turned and looked behind them. The skies were dark, but he thought that it was because that was the way it was supposed to be. The wind was whipping her hair free of the braid she had done earlier.

  “The storm that was stalled and supposed to head north into the Atlantic has changed its mind,” she said. “I need you to turn on the weather radio. We might be in for some rough weather.”

  Tyrell swallowed as he stared up at her. “How rough?” He asked, a sinking feeling developing in his stomach. “As rough as the last one?”

  Makayla looked pale, but composed. “Rougher,” she whispered. “It’s expected to hit the lower Keys by early tomorrow afternoon as a Tropical Storm, but they are expecting it to strengthen to a Category One, possibly higher, hurricane when it gets in the Gulf.”

  “How could that happen without the weather guys knowing? I mean, they have a whole channel devoted to this kind of stuff,” Tyrell demanded, looking back at the sky behind them.

  “It was a weird upper level pressure that developed and came down faster and further than they expected,” she said. “We didn’t pay attention to the weather yesterday. I should have checked it last night, but I didn’t.”

  “Henry did, but the radio needed to be charged, so I had it off,” she said. “It’s been a beautiful day. I didn’t know, Tyrell, I’m sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault that the weather is screwy,” he muttered, turning around to switch on the radio that was in the compartment under the stairs. “Can we turn around and go back to the Keys?”

  “No, we’d be going straight into it,” she said, shaking her head. “Henry and I both agree the best thing is to try to out-run it. I don’t want to get trapped near the Everglades either. If I can make it to either Naples or Fort Myers, we might be able to find a safe place to ride it out.”

  “How far are we from there?” Tyrell asked, noticing for the first time the lightning threading through the clouds behind them.

  “Not too far,” she said, glancing down at the GPS. “It’s just…”

  Tyrell turned to look at her again. “It’s just what?” He demanded.

  Makayla bit her lip and stared at him in concern. “The storm is moving faster than we are,” she admitted. “I’m not sure we’ll make it.”

  Chapter 28

  By midnight, Makayla knew they weren’t going to make it. The outer bands were sweeping hundreds of miles out from the storm. While they weren’t the worst of what they would feel, the thirty mile an hour gusts and the heavy bands of rain gave them a taste of what was to come. The calm seas that they had left that morning had turned to rolling, churning, bubbling froths of angry waves.

  They had both put their foul weather gear and life vests on and attached their lifelines to the safety railing around the sides. In addition, they had stowed everything that could get blown away. It had been a tough decision, but they had decided to leave the raft attached to the bow. Tyrell had added additional bungee cords to it.

  The Dodger had been snapped down and anything that could fly stored below. The final thing that had been done was making sure the hatch was sealed shut. They would take turns during the night, trying to rest above when they could.

  “It’s getting worse,” Tyrell said in a loud voice.

  “I need to furl the mainsail,” Makayla replied. “This wind is too dangerous to have them up. I don’t want to take a chance of a knockdown. Use the winch t
o bring it down into the boom. I’ll use the engine. The winds are hitting us from the northeast at the moment, but they’ll turn and come from the other direction. We need to keep the Defiance into the waves, Tyrell, no matter what.”

  Tyrell was already working the winch, winding down the mainsail that they had partially furled earlier. They had already furled the jib. Once he was done, he flipped the lock on it. Holding onto the hand rail that wrapped around the helm console, he braced his knees as they rocked sideways before coming up onto the crest of a wave. He didn’t mind the going up, it was the coming down that always scared him the most.

  Makayla gripped the helm as fear and adrenaline poured through her body, giving it the extra energy she needed to remain focused. It was hard to see the waves. They all just looked like huge, black mountains after a while. Her stomach churned as she thought about what they were about to go through.

  The sound of the National Hurricane Center’s report was muted, but she was still able to pick up enough words to understand what was going on. From the look on Tyrell’s face, he understood it as well.

  “We can do this, Makayla,” Tyrell said, bending closer so that she could hear him. “We’ll make it through this.”

  Makayla didn’t say anything, she just nodded. She really hoped he was right, because she was filled with doubt. Closing her eyes for a brief moment, she thought about Henry. He had said the same thing.

  Opening her eyes, she stared out over the bow of the Defiance. In a way, just the name of the sailboat filled her with determination. She had started this voyage with the intentions of getting home and she wasn’t going to let anything stop her. Not her fears, not her doubts, and especially not a damn hurricane!

  *.*.*

  Six hours later, Makayla knew they were definitely in the hurricane. She gasped as another drenching wave covered her. She couldn’t see anything, but water all around them. Wave after wave crashed into the Defiance, tossing it around like a child’s toy in a bathtub. The rain blew at them sideways, cutting through the gaps around their necks and stinging like a million heated needles when it struck their skin.

  Tyrell had positioned himself behind her, holding her as steady as he could as they rose and fell. She had fallen at least twice. One of those times, she came close to being thrown over the back of the cockpit.

  “The lower part of the jib has broken loose,” Makayla yelled. “I need to secure it.”

  “It’s too dangerous,” Tyrell yelled.

  Makayla shook her head. “If the bottom piece crashes through one of the port windows, water could flood the companionway. I need to secure it,” she said. “Take the helm and keep us pointed into the waves!”

  “How do you know which way they’re going?” Tyrell shouted back in frustration. “They look like they are going everywhere!”

  Makayla pointed her finger straight ahead. She didn’t know what else to do. He was right. It looked like the ways were coming at them from every angle. Taking the short lifeline she had, she attached it to the railing around the cabin area.

  A wave hit them, knocking her backwards and spinning her around until she hit the closed hatch of the companionway. If it had been open, she would have taken a nasty spill. Ducking her head to keep the rain out of her eyes, she turned and grabbed the railing.

  The force of the wind took her breath away as she struggled forward, moving barely an inch per step. Gripping the metal, she pulled herself forward until she reached the section where one of the pulley’s had broken loose and was flapping in the wind. She barely ducked in time when it swung wildly around, missing her head by mere centimeters.

  She reached out, wrapping her hand around the line and holding onto it as a huge wave of water broke over the bow. The cold water poured down the neckline of her gear, soaking every inch of her. Shaking her head, she tried to clear her vision to see what had happened.

  She realized that she wasn’t going to be able to fix the problem. The bolt on the back side of the pulley was missing. She reached up and wrapped her arm around the mast. Holding herself in place, she tied it as best she could to one of the other ropes.

  A cry escaped her as the Defiance rose up on a wave, going airborne for a moment before crashing down. The combination of weightlessness followed by the force of the next wave breaking over the bow felt like she had been hit by a car head-on. Her arm slipped from the hold she had on the mast and she was thrown backwards onto the top of the cabin, her head striking the upper railing before her body fell as another wave hit them on the front quarter. She vaguely felt her body going airborne again before everything went black.

  *.*.*

  Tyrell struggled to keep the Defiance headed into the waves. He glanced at the compass, but couldn’t keep his eyes on it long enough to really see which direction they were heading. For all he knew, they could either be heading straight for land or further out into the Gulf of Mexico.

  He followed Makayla’s form, barely able to see her in the driving rain and crashing waves. How she made it up to the midsection, he had no idea. His admiration of her strength and courage kept growing as he watched her struggle to get to the front of the sailboat. His heart skipped when a huge wave crashed over the bow. He thought for sure she would be gone when it cleared. Instead, she was pulling herself up and straddling the mast.

  His eyes flashed down to the compass again. In that brief second, a wave hit them from the side, throwing him sideways. His right hand ripped away from the helm, but his left hand held tight. He could feel the Defiance tilt to the side and for a moment, he was looking straight up at the churning, lightning illuminated clouds. With a sense of dread, he glanced over his shoulder and felt a terror so primitive that he almost clawed his way back to the helm, hoping that his weight alone would straighten the sailboat back out until it was level once again.

  As the wave that hit them broadside pulled away, the Defiance shifted, rolling back to its starboard side and throwing him forward. He looked up in time to see the bow cresting a high wave. His eyes locked on Makayla’s fragile form as the Defiance was held suspended in the air for a brief moment before it crashed downward, the next wave crashing over the bow.

  In that brief second, Tyrell saw Makayla’s body become airborne. He lost sight of her when he turned his head as the wave crashed down over the remains of the Dodger, pounding it and pouring through the shredded panels. Whipping his head around, he stared in dismay at the empty spot where Makayla had been.

  “No!” He yelled hoarsely, his cry ripped away in the winds. “Makayla!”

  *.*.*

  “Anything yet?” Jason asked, sitting on the end of the bed in the motel room that they had finally been forced to take refuge in.

  Henry looked up and ran a tired hand down over his face. Guilt ate at him, but he pushed it away. It was a useless emotion and wouldn’t make a difference in the grand scheme of things. Either Makayla and Tyrell would make it or… His mind shied away from the alternative.

  “No,” he said. “What about the EPIRB? Where does it say they are?”

  The Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon was their only contact with the Defiance now. If anything happened, if the Defiance sank, the water would trigger it. He just hoped to God that it didn’t come down to that.

  “Nothing,” Jason said. “Dad… I think you should try to contact Teresa. She has the right to know what is going on, just in case.”

  Henry glanced up at Jason. He had kept his distance, not wanting to take a chance on Teresa having a relapse, but Jason was right. This was more than about her, this was about Makayla as well.

  “I need to contact Tyrell’s grandmother, too,” Henry finally said with a sharp nod.

  “I already did,” Jason admitted. “She says it’s in God’s hands now.”

  Henry bit back his own feelings about that. He had given up on God after Mary Rose died and Teresa took off. He hadn’t had much use for praying to Him since then.

  Swallowing, he pulled the cell phone out, a
lmost wishing that there had been no signal. They were east of Hurricane Otto. It was moving away from the coast heading toward Texas.

  With trembling fingers, he pulled up Teresa’s phone number and pressed the call button. He waited in tense silence as the phone rang. She answered on the third ring.

  “Hello,” Teresa answered in a hesitant voice.

  “Teresa, this is your dad,” Henry said in a quiet voice.

  The low hiss of her breath echoed over the line. “Listen, dad, now’s not a good time. I….” She stopped when Henry interrupted her.

  “It’s Makayla, Teresa,” Henry interjected.

  Teresa’s breath hissed as she drew it in. “I’ve been trying to reach her, but she isn’t answering her phone. I… I thought she was with you,” she whispered in a tight voice. “She went back to Fort Pierce with you.”

  “Yeah, she did, honey, but she… she wanted to come home to you,” Henry said with a sigh, looking out the window at the wind and rain. “She missed you and her friends.”

  “Where is she, dad? Where is my daughter?” Teresa demanded.

  “She’s on the Defiance,” Henry said, bowing his head. “She’s in the hurricane.”

  Henry waited, hearing Teresa’s uneven breathing as she tried to comprehend what he was telling her. A sob broke the silence, but she didn’t hang up on him. Instead, he heard Arnie in the background, asking her what was wrong before she spoke again.

  “Dad, tell me… Tell me what happened,” Teresa ordered in a soft, slightly unsteady voice. “Tell me why my daughter is on a sailboat in the middle of a hurricane.”

  “It began last Saturday,” Henry said in a quiet voice.

  *.*.*

  “Laura, have you found anything else?” Audrey asked.

  “No, just the post from last night,” Laura commented in frustration. “Tisha and Debbie are looking for more information, too.”

  “I can’t believe Makayla is out there in this,” Audrey whispered, tears filling her eyes.

  “I know,” Laura replied, staring at the message she had just posted on the screen before she hit enter.