Tribulation

by Scott B. Williams

  “Until they had the misfortune of crossing paths with you,” Keith said.

  Eight

  WHEN THEY ARRIVED BACK at Vic’s, and told the others what happened Daniel insisted that Keith take him along when he left for the hospital to go see about Shauna. Bart was ready for a nap, so he headed for his bunk aboard the schooner, while Jonathan and Andrew got back to their fishing off the dock near the stern of the schooner.

  “How is the fishing here?” Eric asked. “Anything been biting?”

  “Hell yeah, it’s better than Florida even here off the dock. I was already catching crappie and bass this morning right after y’all left. I can’t imagine what it’s like out there in those cypress lakes and back bayous.”

  “I told Keith we had to find you a boat. He doesn’t think that’ll be a problem. We’ll get you set up soon. I’m glad to know the fishing is meeting your expectations.”

  “Oh, I wasn’t worried about that. I can catch fish anywhere. Once you understand how a fish thinks, catching them is easy. What I’m really looking forward to is trying my luck in those mountain streams. I can’t wait!”

  “Mountain streams? Where are you gonna find mountain streams? I thought you were a swamp rat anyway. That’s why I suggested the Atchafalaya.”

  “Colorado, man! I wanna go with you to get Megan. I already know I’d be bored as shit around here after all that’s happened since we left Jupiter Inlet. I can help you, dude, I really can!”

  “This isn’t going to be like sailing, Jonathan. I’m looking at an overland journey through all kinds of terrain. There’s no telling what I’ll run into on the way or how long it’ll take to get there, much less get back. Winter will be coming soon to the mountains, and when it does, it’s going to make everything that much harder and more dangerous. It’s not a place you want to spend the winter outdoors, that’s for sure.

  “I’m not worried about danger and hardship, dude. I’m young and pretty tough. You already know that. I can handle it, and I want to help! You need somebody to watch your back. Your old man doesn’t need to go and your brother can’t. I’m the only one that can help you man, and I’ve got nothing better to do and nothing to lose anyway. It’s not like I’ve got a family or anything.”

  “I appreciate the offer, Jonathan, but you don’t owe me anything else. You’ve been a great help on the boat but this is just going to be a long slog that’s as likely to get you killed as not. There’s no need to get you involved in it.”

  “You might need help when you get there. You said yourself you don’t know what Megan’s got herself mixed up in. You’re liable to get into a situation where you need me to cover you again. Man, I wanna go! I really do! I hope you’ll consider it. I’ll keep my mouth shut and do whatever you ask me to do, I promise you, dude!”

  Eric didn’t want to give the kid false hope, but he didn’t completely dismiss the idea of taking him either, as he thought it over. Jonathan was right about one thing; it wouldn’t hurt to have another set of eyes and ears on a trek like that, not to mention someone to talk to now and then. The kid wasn’t trained and anything could happen out there, but he’d proven willing and able to learn, and Eric had worked with civilians in other settings that had been equally unskilled in the beginning. He would think it over when he had more time, but right now he was preoccupied with transportation options, particularly after learning of this TransAmerica Trail his brother spoke of. Before Keith left to go to the hospital, Eric had unloaded the three bicycles that had been left in Keith’s yard and now he returned to where he’d leaned them against Vic’s porch to inspect them closer.

  He already knew they were quality machines purchased from a bike shop and not department store toys. All of the bikes the professor’s little gang had been riding were well suited for traveling, as they had to be to make it that far without breaking down while carrying heavy loads. None of them were the ultra light racing type with skinny tires and fragile components, but instead were built for city commuting or trail riding. The extra gear, including panniers, tool bags and things like tire pumps and patch kits had been stripped from these three they left behind, but he couldn’t find anything else wrong with them. Eric figured that while some of the students might have already owned their bikes before all this started, the rest would have had ample opportunity to steal suitable machines considering that they were starting from the campus of a large university. If the bikes had been junk, Eric wouldn’t have bothered bringing them back here, much less given any thought to what he was now contemplating. But upon closer examination and comparison, he figured any one of the three would work. He would ride them all a bit and see which one felt best later, but first, he wanted to talk to Vic again, and so he made his way over to the other dock, where he found him in the engine room of the Miss Anita.

  Keith had told him that while Vic was most familiar with the lower stretches of the Atchafalaya between his home and the Gulf, he also knew something of the river upstream. Eric wanted to pick his brain about the feasibility of running the Atchafalaya up to the Mississippi, as Bart had suggested from the beginning, as that could put him right in position to take advantage of this new overland route Keith had spoken of.

  “There ain’t much of nothing most of the way,” Vic said. “You got the levees and you got woods. There might be some local folk out there doing what hunting and fishing they can, because times are desperate, but you won’t be passing close to many towns and no cities ’til you get to Natchez and Vicksburg. I’d say there’s a pretty good chance of getting through, with the right kind of boat.”

  Eric already knew that any such trip would require a very different sort of boat than the schooner that brought them here across the Gulf. For one thing, it needed to be shallower draft in order to avoid situations like the one that happened when the towboat forced Dreamtime out of the channel. A boat that could operate outside the main channel could cut across the big bends in the river and take advantage of shortcuts around islands and such, as well as anchor and hide in shallow side waters. The boat also needed a more powerful engine than the schooner, to buck the river current and make good time while still being fuel-efficient. While an outboard-powered speedboat like Keith’s patrol boat could cover a lot of river quickly, carrying the gasoline for such thirsty engines would be practically impossible for a trip of that length. Eric already knew before Vic suggested it that a diesel powered vessel would be best.

  “I know someone that has the perfect boat for this,” he said. “It’s a converted Lafitte skiff.”

  “A skiff? I’m pretty sure I’m going to need something bigger than a skiff, Vic.”

  “It’s not what you’re thinking when you think ‘skiff’, bro. The Lafitte skiff is a shallow-draft hull type used on a lot of the fishing boats around here. When everybody used to build their own shrimp boats out of wood, it was the preferred design. It gives you shallow draft while still being able to handle rough water out in the Gulf. You can build them any size you want, but this fellow restored an original cypress-planked 28-foot shrimp trawler. He got rid of the outriggers and working pilothouse and built a real nice cruiser-style cabin. He was planning on using it for his retirement boat, you know, something he and the wife could cruise down the Intracoastal to New Orleans and Pensacola and such. He wasn’t finished with the interior when all the trouble started, but she’s seaworthy, and she’s got a rebuilt Caterpillar diesel in her, I’m not sure of the horsepower, but it’s plenty because she was built to work. A boat like that would get you up the rivers all right, but I know damned well she’s not for sale.”

  “Everything’s for sale if the price is right,” Eric said.

  “Not the Gulf Traveler, bro. Ole Curt Joubert considers her his pride and joy and the last boat he’ll ever own. He’s put everything he had into her, and I’ll bet he wouldn’t take a million dollars for her now.”

  “Yeah, but he’s got to understand by now that he’s not going to be taking any pleasure cruises to Florida anytime s
oon, right? I can’t pay him a million dollars, but what I can pay, I can pay in gold.”

  Vic looked at him and shook his head. “It won’t matter. He’s not gonna sell, but there’s a chance he might hire her out. I can’t promise you he will, but we can go talk to him sometime after Keith gets back from Lafayette. He can run us down there in the truck or in his boat, but it’s quicker by boat. Curt lives way down on Bayou Chene.”

  Hearing about this boat had Eric chomping at the bit for Keith to return. Vic said the Gulf Traveler could probably cruise upriver at 15 to 20 knots. That would be way faster than the schooner and Vic thought the vessel had enough tankage to give it a range of a few hundred miles. With its shallow draft it would probably be feasible to run day and night, especially since it didn’t sound like Eric could simply buy the boat and take it upriver alone. The arrangement, if Curt agreed to one at all, would be either a charter or a rental. If Curt didn’t insist on going along as captain, Vic said he’d like the job. Eric was fine with that because he already knew Keith’s brother-in-law was a capable boatman. In a way it was better if he didn’t buy a boat and go alone, because finding a place to leave it when he began the overland section would be a problem and there was also a chance he’d be returning by an entirely different route after he found Megan. Eric was mulling all this over when Keith pulled back up to the house later that afternoon. He saw that Shauna was in the middle seat of the pickup between Keith and Daniel, and when she got out he saw that she had a new type of splint and bandage on her injured hand.

  “They didn’t have to cut it off then?” he joked, when he walked out to greet them.

  “It’s not as bad as you thought,” she said. “They were able to put a pin in there to hold the metacarpal together until it heals. They didn’t have room to keep me there, so they kicked me out and sent me home. The doctor said I’d probably regain full use of it, but that my middle finger might always be a little stiff.”

  “It often was before, whenever you waved it at me,” Eric grinned and winked at Daniel. Then he turned to Keith: “What about Greg?”

  “He’s still got a ways to go, but he’s making progress every day. He’s determined to get out of there and back out here on the job. He’s one of the good ones Eric, the best, really. I’m glad he’s going to pull through, because when I first saw how bad he’d been hit, I didn’t think he would make it.”

  They went inside and Eric told Keith what he and Vic had discussed, regarding the boat, and how it could work to get him to the jump-off point for his overland journey west. “I want to see those maps of that off-road riding route if Greg can tell us where to find them at his house.”

  “I mentioned it to him while I was there and he already did. Are you thinking about my motorcycle idea? Greg said his DR650 would have been perfect. It’s too bad what happened to it, but we can probably find something similar that’ll work. I’m not sure how easy it will be to get a motorcycle on and off of a Lafitte skiff though, especially one without outrigger booms. Even a small dual sport weighs three or four hundred pounds.”

  “Getting it on and off the boat can be done, but that’s not the biggest problem by any means. The real issue is gas. Even with a big tank like the one on the KLR you had, I’d still have to refill several times along the way. I’m not sure if that’s possible, but even if it is it will require making contact with someone every couple hundred miles or so, and any contact I make could lead to a firefight. I think I need a stealthier option. I’m gonna take one of those bikes we brought back with us instead.”

  “A bicycle? Man, that’s crazy. It’ll take you forever to get there on a bicycle!”

  “Why do you say that? Those kids and that professor rode them all the way here from Chicago. People travel on them all the time. I’ve done some hundred-mile workout and sightseeing rides in a single day myself, back when some buddies and I had downtime between assignments in different places. A good bike makes all the difference, and those three are all good ones. I may not be able to cover quite that much distance loaded down with weapons and gear, but I’ll bet I can average 70 to 80 miles a day.”

  “Maybe you could on good pavement, but the TAT is mostly gravel. In some places there’ll be deep sand and even creeks to ford, at least according to what Greg’s researched of it.”

  “That’s why a bike will be perfect. I can just pick it up and carry it across creeks, or over fences and other obstacles. You can’t do that with a motorcycle, not even a small dirt bike. Plus, the bike will be quiet, almost as quiet as walking, but a hell of a lot faster.”

  Eric could see that Keith was thinking as he considered these points. He also saw Shauna and Jonathan nodding in agreement. Daniel was listening too, but with little interest, as he didn’t think anything in this conversation mattered to him, at least until Shauna spoke up.

  “How long will it take to get to the place where you plan to start riding, and how far will it be to Boulder from there?”

  “I haven’t worked out all the distances, and I know it’s not the most direct route, but it is the route that offers the best chance of crossing that much of the country off the radar. This isn’t going to be like sailing across the Gulf, where hardly anybody is around to see. This is crossing the very heartland of America. The Midwest and Rocky Mountain states may not be as heavily populated as the South and the East, but there are still a lot of people between here and there and who knows how they may be relocated or rearranged now. Anyway, I’m guessing a few days by boat to get to where the trail crosses the river between Arkansas and Mississippi, and then at least a couple of weeks of riding. Allow for contingencies and I’m betting I can still get there in well under a month.”

  “A month! That’s a long time,” Shauna said.

  “Of course it is, compared to before, when you could just drive there in a couple of days, but it’s better than not getting there at all, which could easily happen if I get intercepted on the road. Look, here’s the thing, I’m going to be flexible. If I plan on biking it but see an opportunity to grab a vehicle or catch a ride part of the way, the bike is easy enough to pick up and bring along until I need it again. But the main thing is that it makes me independent of gas.”

  “You’ll need a lot of food though, how do you plan to carry enough?” Bart asked.

  “Those bikes have racks to strap bags to, but I liked the little one-wheeled trailers that a couple of the riders in that group were using. I could carry more than enough for two weeks in one of those. They didn’t leave one, of course, but I think I could use a wheel off one of the other two bikes and fabricate something that’ll work. Between that and what I can put on the racks, I’ll have the carrying capacity not only for food, but the ammo and other gear I’ll need.”

  “Whoa, that sounds like a really cool idea, dude!” Jonathan said. “I know I’m up for it. I can ride the shit out of a bike! I used to sneak off and ride mine all up and down the coast when I was growing up. You brought three bikes back from Keith’s. Just pick the one you want and I’ll take either one of the other ones, man. We can make two of those trailers with the wheels off the other one. It’ll be awesome!”

  “I never said I was taking you with me,” Eric said, looking at the kid.

  “Well, I know I’m going, I can tell you that!” Shauna said. “I don’t care if we have to walk all the way, but I can ride a bike just fine and I can see your point now.”

  Eric turned to his ex-wife and at the same time Daniel stared at her in open-mouthed disbelief, before both of them began to speak at once.

  Shauna immediately cut them off: “Look! I’m Megan’s mother! I’ve been patiently waiting long enough. I stayed in Florida for weeks when there was no reasonable option to get to her from there. Then I agreed to come here and now we’ve arrived only to find that the situation here is just as dangerous and uncertain as it was down there.” She turned to Daniel. “At least we’ve got the boat docked in a safe place and you and Andrew won’t be alone here like you would be
if you’d stayed in Florida.”

  “I never wanted to leave Florida in the first place, Shauna, and you know it!” Daniel said. “I agreed to come only to keep our family together, but now you’re wanting to run off with your ex-husband to the middle of nowhere? And for God knows how long? Do you expect me to be happy about that?”

  “I can’t control how you feel about it, Daniel, but I do expect you to understand that I have to do this. I would never ask you to do it with me and I wouldn’t put Andrew in any more danger than he’s already in by dragging him along. But both of you are as safe here with Bart and Keith as you would be anywhere else and whether I’m here or not doesn’t change that. Eric’s got a plan and a means to carry it out, and as Megan’s mother, I need to help him. I’m sick of just waiting and worrying and doing nothing!”

  “Look at your hand! How are you going to travel halfway across the country on a bicycle when you can’t even use your hand? You’re being ridiculous, Shauna!”

  “He’s right,” Eric said. “I’m going to be riding hard and I can’t wait for you if you can’t keep up. You’ve got to have both hands to ride a bike.”

  “You both know what I’m capable of,” Shauna said. “You don’t have to worry about me keeping up, and it doesn’t hurt to put weight on my hand. I can squeeze the front brake lever with my other hand, and that’s all I need. The legs do all the work riding a bike. Besides, my hand’s getting better every day and it’ll still be a few days before we get on the bikes if we’re going part of the way by boat.”

  Eric knew Shauna wasn’t exaggerating about being able to keep up. She had always been into fitness, and had kept herself in shape all her adult life, mostly with running and swimming, and she was no stranger to hard bike riding either, having trained for and completed a few triathlons over the years. It was the condition of her hand that concerned him more than anything else, that and having to worry about her if they got into more gunfights, but he understood her desire to go. He doubted he would have to argue with her about it much though, because Daniel was going to pitch a fit if this idea went any further. Eric could see his point of view too, of course. The man’s wife was talking about being gone for weeks and possibly much longer, on an extremely risky trip with her ex-husband, while leaving him behind in a place that had to seem to him like the middle of nowhere. He had a right to be upset about it, and Eric figured Shauna would come to her senses and relinquish the idea before he left.