by T I WADE
“Señor Wang! Señor Wang! That old boat of yours is very slow. It took forever for you to catch up to us in our fancy ship!” Pedro laughed, shouting over the distance. He was still at his five knots and they were over seventy miles from Roatán, in the middle of the ocean where nobody could find them. The only thing on the radar screen was Pedro’s boat.
Mo shouted over, asking if they needed anything and Pedro showed him a decent-sized fish he had caught. It was a yellow skipjack and Mo noticed that the fishing boat had two fishing lines running out the back of the boat. Pedro shouted back that they had everything for now and that apart from the heat everything was OK. They had twenty gallons of water on board and that would last them a day.
Marie was in the bridge and Mo was free to check out the outsides. Mo pulled out the fishing chair stored in a locker at the rear of the boat and positioned it in a round steel hole and locked it down with a pin and wire.
It was comfortable and knowing a reasonable amount about fishing, he prepared two deep-sea rods and, using rubberized surface bait that looked like silver fish, he played them out and left the rods in two shiny steel rod holders molded on the top railing running around the boat.
Mo sat down, waved at Pedro who was checking his line; his father was checking the other and sat back. At five knots they were at a fast, but still good, trawling speed.
For two hours Mo enjoyed the fishing chair. It was hot and Beatrice had brought him out a hat she had found. Pedro’s father got another skipjack and soon after that Mo fell asleep.
He had been asleep for over an hour when one of his rods woke up and buzzed loudly, its line playing out at a fast rate. He fumbled for the rod and got it in control before stopping the line feed. He looked over to Pedro and saw that both his rods were doing the same. He let the line feed out again, reeled in the other rod so that it wouldn’t get tangled and went back to the first rod. Most of the line was gone and again he shut off the outgoing feed, now much slower. He pulled back slowly and felt the weight at the other end.
It was quite a big flick as the fish felt the pull and Mo reckoned that it was another fish about the size of Pedro’s. Marie had noticed the fish on the line behind Pedro’s boat and she reduced the speed down to a crawl on seeing Pedro’s boat slowing down.
With sweat creeping onto his brow, Mo slowly reeled the fish in. He looked over to Pedro who was gaffing a fish, which looked like a small tuna of about fifty pounds. Pedro’s father was struggling with his rod and looked like he had a bigger fish on the end of his.
Mo’s fish caught a second wind and this time he had to pull hard, his two feet on the railing to stop from being dragged into the water. He heard shouts from the other boat as Pedro gaffed the second fish, also a tuna about thirty pounds bigger than Pedro’s. Mo shouted for Lu who was watching behind him to get the gaff from the same place he had found the rods and she got ready to bring the fish aboard.
After twenty minutes Mo reeled in the fish, also a tuna, next to the boat as Lu bent over and gaffed it. With the help of Beatrice, the three of them got the seventy-pound tuna onto the deck.
“Lunch is served,” stated Mo, tired but happy. “I’m going to do this for the rest of my life. Free fish! I just caught a thousand-dollar fish,” he stated to Lu smiling.
“And at least ten meals for all of us,” remarked Lu. “I found cutting equipment in the kitchen and I will need this space, Mr. Fisherman, to gut and clean it.” She shouted orders to her two children and they returned with knives, a saw and a bucket. Mo was shooed out of the way and decided to go forward.
“Nice fish,” commented Marie through the open bridge window above him. He thanked her and asked Beatrice and the three daughters to help him remove the tarpaulin over the guns.
Pedro whistled went he saw what was underneath. “You want to exchange ships, Señor Wang?” he shouted. “I’ll include our two fresh fish in the deal.
“No, thank you,” replied Mo. “But I have an American automatic rifle or two and ammo if you want.”
Pedro said that he would take anything and Mo went back into the bridge and shocked Marie when he opened the leather-topped couch to reveal what was inside.
“Merde!” was all she said.
“You haven’t seen half of what is in the boat,” added Mo taking out one of the M-16s and several cases of ammo. With both boats still crawling along at two knots through the calm water, he went outside and Pedro eased his boat alongside after adding some buoys as protection.
Beatrice arrived with a case of plastic water bottles and a box full of beers and Cokes. The gun was passed over the water, and three buckets were filled with the boxes of ammo and provisions.
They increased the distance back to a hundred feet and continued towards Cozumel.
That afternoon, Mo learned how to shoot the fancy weaponry aboard. He told the girls over a lunch of fresh tuna sashimi, a beautifully prepared dish the French ladies and Lu had made, and one of Mo’s favorites, that he needed to learn how to use the weapons to defend them. He was sure that their voyage might not be plain sailing.
He had the tarpaulin already removed and studied the parts of the heavy machine gun. He figured out the aiming devise, how to take it off safety and that he needed earplugs as several rounds pounded out of the gun while it faced outwards on the starboard side, the opposite side to where Pedro’s boat was. With his ears ringing, he returned to the bridge and returned with a pair of headphones to protect his ears.
Mo fired several more rounds which took less than a second and then studied how to reload the steel belt which held the rounds. He went below and returned with a large military wooden box weighing more than a man of his age should be carrying, and inside was a belt of another 1,000 rounds.
All he needed to do was to open the top part of the machine gun when the current belt of 1,000 rounds ended, replace the belt, close the gun and continue firing. He carried and placed the second box underneath the first one and under the tarp where it would be protected from the rain, which seemed to be possible on the eastern horizon.
He just had time to study the 80-mm mortar tube, set it up and figure out which end to put the bomb into the tube before a wind squall arrived, hitting the starboard side of the boat hard.
He packed everything up and the girls helped him cover the forward armaments with the tarp, fastening the heavy cloth down as tight as they could.
The sea began to form white caps and on the way back to the bridge, Mo looked over to see that Pedro had slowed and that they were getting ready for rain, were still on their port side, but now a hundred or so feet aft.
With all windows and doors latched and checked, Mo returned to the bridge. He found Marie expertly guiding the ship which was still not on autopilot. For the first time Mo had to hold something as the ship lurched slightly to starboard. Beatrice was the closest thing to grab onto.
The rain, a black line of clouds, hit the starboard windows hard and began a drumming sound on the roof. Visibility outside reduced to a few feet and Pedro’s boat, now behind them, could barely be seen.
At five knots, the ship wasn’t hitting the growing waves hard, but he could feel the weather faintly through the steel plates. Marie showed him how to guide the boat through the swells, which were short, fast and coming in from a northeasterly direction. The swells were now four to five feet tall and the bow was beginning to dive into them as they arrived.
Within twenty minutes, the storm had passed. The wet ship was sparkling in new sunlight and the fishing boat could be seen several hundred yards behind them. Marie slowed down so that the other boat could resume her position a hundred feet from their port side, and Pedro opened the small cabin door looking dry. At least their investment was sort of weatherproof.
Mo, with only three hours of sleep, just made it through dinner. The youngsters didn’t want to sleep that early. The sun had only been down an hour and they had found a few movies and an old video player next to a small black and white television set. The
entire ship’s equipment was old but still worked.
They could watch a movie in the lounge and Mo, after taking a shower, was ordered into the master stateroom. It was his for the night and he was on the four-to-eight watch, which gave him eight hours of sleep.
They had decided to have night running lights on both boats, keep several hundred yards apart and travel throughout the calm dark hours. Nobody knew how much longer the calm weather would last. Pedro reckoned that he had used up half his fuel and he would have enough until the next evening.
Sometime during the night, he felt somebody get into his bed. An arm came across him and he snuggled up to the warm body.
It felt like only seconds but he felt a tap on his shoulder and Marie telling him that it was five and she needed sleep. He moved out from the warm body beside him and felt for the clothes he had put out to find in the dark.
“Looks like Beatrice has taken a fancy to you, Mo. You should be ashamed of yourself; she is twenty years younger than you… but she always had a thing about older men,” joked Marie as he softly climbed the stairs to the bridge.
“I had nothing to do with it,” Mo replied, feeling guilty.
“Not directly, but inadvertently you have given her hope for some companionship. Look after her and she will never leave your side,” added Marie. “I’m going for six hours of sleep. The autopilot is set on our heading, not on any radar markers. I have brewed a fresh pot of coffee for you. Apart from Pedro who has lost ground slightly and is currently several hundred yards behind and directly in our wake, I’ve seen nothing on the radar. I switch it down to ten miles to see Pedro and then switch it up to sixty miles. We are still at five knots, the small engine fuel tank is the same as it was, but I think we should fill the other two tanks with the extra we have on deck. We are about 180 miles north of Roatán and 240 miles south of Cozumel.” With that she padded him on the shoulder and left the bridge.
The second dawn was experienced by Mo alone. It was a pleasant and pretty yellow dawn with no clouds anywhere. Pedro speeded up and waving, got into his usual position a hundred feet or so from the bigger ship. Mo turned off the lights and enjoyed the peace and quiet.
Mo’s mind was busy trying to understand that for the second time in his life, he might not be single anymore. It was certainly one for the record books, a man his age catching such a beautiful fish as Beatrice. He smiled, thinking that it was because there was no opposition around.
Nobody moved until about eight when Lu arrived, gave him a kiss on the cheek and a freshly made fruit salad in a bowl. “What do you think is our future, Uncle Mo?” she asked.
“It all depends on getting to America safely and then it will be up to your brother Lee and his friend Carlos Rodriquez,” he answered. “I’m sure Lee will be very happy to see you and your children. His wife and daughter are with him. He will give you a place to stay and I will sail off with my new toy and live on her if I am not welcome in America.”
“Is the world in such a bad condition?” Lu asked.
“I’m afraid so. Zedong Electronics made sure that nobody would survive apart from themselves and a workforce made up of whoever was left in the world. I don’t really know much, but there were two massive nuclear explosions inside China and the Supreme Commander blew Taiwan off the face of the earth. If half of the earth’s population survived all this, that will be a lot.”
“Is America in bad shape?” she asked.
“Very bad! Zedong Electronics relied on two powerful mechanisms for destruction: the first three months of winter in the year and the people in America who all have guns to shoot each other. Statistics showed that only about 40 to 60 million Americans could survive the first year out of 330 million. That country is going to be pretty empty of people if the scenarios come true.”
They sat enjoying the serenity of early morning with a cup of green tea, a pack Lu had brought with her. Mo noticed that the fuel tank for the small engine was slightly off full tank.
The second day aboard ship was hot with very little breeze to cool the air. The air conditioner was keeping the interior cool and comfortable. Pedro didn’t have such luxuries but his family had lived in these conditions all their lives and were used to them.
Mo had just returned to the bridge for his day watch two hours before dusk when he switched on the radar to full range and thought he saw a quick blip on his screen about 30 miles away to the northeast and moving across the top right-hand corner. He reduced the range down to 40 miles and two blips suddenly appeared heading south at a fast rate, one following the other. They were just over 22 miles away, zigzagging about, heading in their direction and were traveling fast. Mo shouted to Marie and Beatrice and they came to see.
Marie reduced the radar range to 30 miles and the blips increased in strength. They seemed to be constantly changing direction and following one another. The three watched them for three minutes and Marie decreased the range down to 20 miles. Still the fast boats went northwest and then southwest, and for another five minutes continued towards them. Suddenly, at 12 miles distance, one blip suddenly disappeared from the screen and the other seemed to head towards them for another three miles and then began to look stationary.
“That’s 20 minutes away on the big engines,” stated Mo. Do you think we should go and see what’s happening?”
“Why would we do that?” asked Marie.
“I’m thinking at that speed the boats must have gasoline engines and we might be able to barter some for food or something for Pedro’s boat,” Mo replied. He called Pedro, told him to continue towards Cozumel and explained to him what they had seen on the radar. Two minutes later he had the big engines fired up and was heading towards the stationary blip still over the horizon.
They watched as the blip came closer. It was still stationary and 25 minutes later Marie pulled back on the throttles as Mo stood on the bow with an M-16 at the ready. He signaled Marie to stop the engines and she put the throttles into neutral.
In front of them was a stationary speed boat, about the length of Pedro’s boat. There were a couple of bodies hanging over the railing, one on each side and a third slumped over the wheel. It was slowly sinking; the bow was down and it wouldn’t be long before it disappeared from sight. She heard Mo hailing the boat, but nobody moved. There was no fire and Marie nudged the ship to within ten yards, still nobody moved. There were floating objects all around, presumably from the second boat which must have already sunk as Mo saw several other bodies a hundred yards off, and the fin of a large shark close by.
The floating boat had bullet holes everywhere and Mo signaled Marie to get in closer. Marie slowly edged the boat closer and closer by turning off the big engines and using the smaller one. Mo told her to stop and she put the engine into reverse to cease all movement, and then into neutral.
Standing on the bow, eight feet above the speed boat, Mo could see everything. He called Beatrice forward gave her the M-16 carbine and as the boats touched gently he jumped aboard the smaller one. He threw a line he found in the water to Beatrice and told her to wrap it around the railing.
He then checked the bodies. The two hanging over the sides were riddled with bullets and he suddenly realized that he was looking at the fin of a massive shark as it glided by the side of the boat. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, he checked the man slumped over the wheel. He must have bled to death, as the floor around him was a pool of blood.
Mo felt something nudge the boat and he shouted at Beatrice to keep the boat close alongside.
He had little time and he looked towards the two large outboard engines at the rear. They were old and pretty rusty in areas and he saw a line of red five-gallon cans which could hold gasoline. The boat tilted a little more and he jumped to the rear.
The first can was full and he grabbed it and the next one, moved to the side of the boat and lifted them high one at a time so that Beatrice could grab them. There were eight of them that were full and the other four were empty.
&nbs
p; A second harder nudge nearly made him fall into the water and he looked over the side to see several large sharks fighting to grab the body dangling out of the boat. Mo had pulled the other one into the boat so that it wouldn’t get caught between the two craft when they came together. The eight canisters were aboard and he was about to follow them when he saw six travel bags on the rear seat facing aft. He had actually stepped on them as he rushed over the rear seat. He picked one up, it was heavy and he lifted it above his head to be collected. Lu and Beatrice were ready, grabbed them and as he reached the last one, he felt the boat sharpen its angle.
The rising water had now reached the windshield of the boat and was starting to flow over the top. He lifted the bag up and then the two women literally lifted him up as the boat filled with water and he was left dangling in space, holding onto the top railing. He raised his left leg and found footage and then was able to get his other leg over the railing as Beatrice let the line to the boat go. He turned to see a massive shark flip itself into what was left of the boat above water and grab onto one of the semi-floating bodies.
Marie must have put the engine into gear, as the vessel moved forward scraping the side of the sinking boat. As they passed, the smaller boat went completely under, blood spilled over the sides, and suddenly sharks came in from all directions.
Within seconds empty, floating red gas cans were all that was left in the water, and Mo realized how close he had come to going down with the boat. Beatrice hugged him. “You had better not do that again, Mo… that was much too close!”
It took Mo several minutes to get back to reality and all the youngsters came out to carry the salvaged spoils to the rear of the boat. Marie already had the big engines started and the ship surged ahead in a slow turn away from the floating debris. He tied the new canisters to the railing and asked that the bags be taken inside as the water was getting choppy all of a sudden. He looked to the east and saw a dark grey rain squall a mile or two away from them.
