Tribulation

by Scott B. Williams

  Eric and Bart had already thought out this sort of thing at the boatyard in Florida, when they took possession of the Colvin schooner, knowing full well that the retired owners, who lived in Canada, were unlikely to ever return for it. Because of the storage agreement the owners had signed with the yard though, it was somewhat reasonable that Bart could eventually take possession of it, because after all, payments for the storage fees had ceased to arrive and were unlikely to ever resume. Eric had been fully prepared to buy the vessel, but of course there was no way to contact the owners or get payment to them if they agreed. Bart knew that if the schooner remained where it was it would soon be looted and stripped of anything useful, like all other property left unguarded, so he and Eric got creative with the paperwork and topside paint and that was that.

  The situation with the Gulf Traveler was similar enough. With the owners dead and no heirs that Keith knew how to get in touch with, there was little point in leaving it at the dock for the taking. Bart suggested they do essentially the same thing they had done in Florida, and simply forge a bill of sale and title signature. Unlike the ocean-going Dreamtime, the Gulf Traveler was state registered, rather than Coast Guard documented, and they didn’t have a similar vessel from which to borrow papers. In the end, Eric went with a bill of sale and signed title, planning to explain that it was impossible to obtain state registration in the current situation and that he would get it registered when he could. It was risky of course, but there was little choice after the murder of Mr. Joubert and his wife if he wanted to follow through with his plan to go upriver.

  Despite his concerns though, Eric quickly determined that the security detail in charge of this river outpost had little interest in the registration or ownership of the vessel he’d arrived on. Their mission had nothing to do with such legal matters. They were charged with controlling access to the river at this critical chokepoint, and it didn’t matter who owned the Gulf Traveler, it wasn’t getting through. Eric now realized they would have simply been turned away to go back the way they came if not for the discovery of firearms, ammunition and explosive grenades on board. This was a serious violation, but at least he had a chance to plead his case.

  Once he’d been seated in the little room for interrogation, Eric truthfully disclosed his military and private security service background to the officer in charge, who he learned was a sergeant by the name of Patterson. Although many of the operations he’d conducted as a SEAL team member had remained classified and would be unknown to anyone outside certain close circles, Eric had worked in enough of the world’s hotspots over the years that it was easy enough to convince a fellow combat vet of his service by including a few key details. The sergeant had served his three tours in the Army, and had seen action in many of the same regions as Eric. He had enough experience to know Eric wasn’t feeding him a line of bullshit.

  “Why did you leave the Navy then, when you were a part of that elite unit, to go and work as a private security contractor? Were you dishonorably discharged?”

  “No, of course not. I served my time and then some and felt I’d been away from my family long enough. I wanted to try and have a normal life for a change. I got out and came home, thinking I could find something else to do. It didn’t work out though, and I needed the money, so I went back to doing what I do best, but without reenlisting.

  “Look, I heard enough before I came back this time to know I wouldn’t be able to do anything for my wife or my daughter if I wasn’t prepared. I brought in the minimum gear I thought I needed, and none of it is stolen. I’ve done my service to my country and I can assure you, I’m not here looking for a fight. And I’m damned sure not involved with any of the morons that are trying to tear down the nation I watched my best friends die for. But only a fool would try to move about in this environment without weapons, surely you’d agree with that? From what I’ve seen since I arrived in Florida, it’s even worse here than I’d heard.”

  “It is dangerous to move about, and that’s why civilians have been warned to stay put and wait until order is restored. Resources are spread thin and are insufficient to provide protection to those who violate the travel advisories.”

  “Well, my wife and nephew and I understand the risks, but we have to find our daughter. We’re doing our best to mitigate that risk by staying off the roads and highways so as to avoid other people. If we can transit this lock and enter the Mississippi, we can cover hundreds of miles with minimal contact. We won’t be interfering with your operations here or anywhere else and we are totally self-sufficient with the supplies we have.”

  “I’m afraid none of that matters. My orders are clear. Government authorized vessels are the only thing that transits this lock for the foreseeable future. I can’t open it for you or anyone else lacking proper clearance. It’s non-negotiable. As I said before, I could have you executed or detained indefinitely in a holding camp just for the possession of those firearms. I’ve heard enough to know you didn’t make up your war stories though, so I’m not going to do that. Unless my men find something else aboard that vessel that contradicts your story, you are free to go, just not through my lock and not with those weapons.”

  “I appreciate that, sir, but we can’t travel anywhere without weapons, for obvious reasons.”

  “And I can’t return them to you for the even more obvious reasons I just gave you. Like I said, the consequences for illegal transport and possession of firearms are severe. If you are stopped by other federal forces along the way, they won’t likely be so forgiving simply because of your past service, if they even bother to question you first. My advice to you is to take your wife and nephew back to St. Martin Parish and then return here and let me put in a call to the appropriate channels to get you back into the service of your country. Men with your skills are in short supply, Branson.”

  “Not gonna happen. This isn’t my fight right now. I’ve been taking the fight to the enemies of this country in every hellhole you can name for most of my adult life. It took me this long to figure out what’s important, and at the moment it’s my family.”

  “Well, I hope you understand that it’s highly unlikely that you’ll find your daughter waiting for you in Boulder anyway. There were massive riots in Denver and huge numbers of refugees flooded out to the surrounding areas. Like most places with a large population, resources in the region were overwhelmed. Anyone who didn’t leave in the first few weeks has likely been relocated to one of the shelter facilities set up for those determined to be innocent of participating in the violence. But sorting them out hasn’t exactly been straightforward.”

  “And what of the ones who were involved?”

  “I honestly don’t know, but you’ve seen insurgencies before. You know what to expect. Maybe your daughter will somehow make it back home on her own. That’s the best hope you’ve got. Maybe she was one of the ones that got out early and found somewhere to take refuge and wait it out. Going out there to look for her is probably a waste of time, and a good way to get the three of you killed.”

  “Make it back home on her own? I don’t think so. She’s a twenty-year-old female, and besides, home isn’t even there any more. Do you have any idea of the extent of the hurricane damage in south Florida? And one other thing, Sergeant Patterson; do you have any children yourself?”

  “No. I never married.”

  “Then you don’t understand. My wife and I are going to look for her, and we’ll keep looking as long as we have to. If you’re not going to let us onto that river, it’s going to take a whole lot longer to get there, but we came prepared for that too.”

  “There might be another way to go up the river if you insist on trying, but you’ll have to work it out yourself.”

  “What do you mean, another way?”

  “You might be able to work out passage on one of the fuel transport vessels, if you have something worthwhile to offer them.”

  “So you’re saying that if we are passengers on an authorized vessel, then we
can go upriver?”

  “Yes, but it’s up to you to negotiate the terms with the captain of the vessel. They’re certainly not running a passenger service, but for the right price, one of them might consider it, especially on my recommendation. Are you prepared to pay?”

  “It depends,” Eric said, still unsure whether he could trust this man. “But we haven’t seen any commercial vessels since we set out yesterday. How frequently do they run?”

  “We see one or two a week right now. That’s just the ones from Texas that are using the Atchafalaya shortcut. There’s more traffic on the main river now, since they sent troops in to clean out the insurgents and retake New Orleans.”

  “So why hasn’t that happened everywhere? How has this managed to stay out of control for so long?”

  “You know as well as I do how thin we’ve been spread these last few years. It could be done, if we were willing to accept the amount of collateral damage it would cost, but I think a lot of the more effective options have been taken off the table. That said there are priorities, Branson, and plenty of places are not on that list, especially here in the South and in most of the places you’re headed. But you’re right, if you go by river, you can avoid a lot of trouble, and all the authorized riverboats have their own security teams on board, so you don’t have to worry about not having weapons.”

  “Maybe not while we’re on the boat, but we’ll still have a couple of weeks of travel overland.” Eric went on to tell him about their plan to get off the river in Arkansas, and use the bikes to head west via the TAT.”

  “That would be a really bad idea and I doubt you’d make it through once you hit the hills in western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. That’s one of the areas that’s lower priority right now, but we have good intel that its under control of a militant secessionist organization that’s been gaining momentum ever since the urban rioting began. They’re hoping to take advantage of the situation by digging in and taking control of remote rural areas while they can. They are heavily armed and they apparently have lots of local law enforcement on their side, so it’s one of those situations that’s been left to sort itself out for now, as the cost to take it down has been deemed too high. They’re not causing the kinds of problems the anarchists are, but they’re doing their best to prevent outsiders unsympathetic to their cause from entering the territories they hold.

  “If I were you, I’d avoid that area completely, because I doubt you’d get through without trouble. Most of the fuel barges are going to St. Louis and points north anyway. If you can get there, you can get much closer to your destination by taking the Missouri part way west. That’ll shorten your overland portion significantly.”

  Eric was fuming at the idea of losing his rifles and pistols and trusting his crew’s safety to civilian security guards that probably had never even seen real combat. But it was either that or head out from right here on the bicycles, which was something he really wanted to avoid if possible, especially now that he’d learned the TAT was probably a no go.

  He decided he would at least talk to one of these towboat captains and find out how far the boat could take them, if any would agree to take them at all. It might cost an extra day or two of waiting for one, but if he could strike a deal to go all the way to the Missouri, as the sergeant suggested, they would be many days ahead in the long run. Eric wasn’t sure how Shauna and Jonathan would feel about it, but it wouldn’t change things regardless. This was his mission, and just as he’d been captain of the Gulf Traveler, he was still the team leader and he would be calling the shots when it came to critical decisions like this.

  Eric knew the matter was settled as far as his weapons were concerned. The sergeant wasn’t going to relinquish them, no matter if he did seem somewhat sympathetic to Eric’s plight now that he’d heard him out. Too many of his men had seen what was on board that vessel for their commander to back down, and Eric knew it and knew he’d have to accept it.

  “What are we supposed to do with our boat if we catch another ride? Can we leave it here?”

  “Not in the canal, but if you want to tie it up to the bank around that first bend to the west where those old barges are, you can do that. There won’t be anyone watching it, but if you go up that river and then out to Colorado like you’re planning, it’s unlikely you’ll ever be back for it anyway.”

  “Maybe not, especially since we’ll be unarmed,” Eric couldn’t resist.

  “With your background, I’m sure you’ll manage, Branson. What you carry once you leave here is none of my concern. I just want you to fully understand the consequences for you and your family if you get intercepted by some of the security forces out there.”

  Eric had no doubt that he could acquire more weapons; he just hoped it would happen before he needed them. Maybe he could get something from the towboat crew, if they worked out a deal. The glint of gold had a powerful effect on most men, and more so now with the shutdown of the banks that rendered credit worthless and cash nearly impossible to get.

  “If we’re done here, Sergeant, I’d like to get my crew and go ahead and move the boat back there where we can tie it up then. We need to sort the supplies and gear that we can carry with us when we leave it. I assume we won’t be able to miss it if an authorized vessel comes through.”

  “No, you’ll know, but I’ll send my men to pick you up as soon as we have radio contact with the captain. Just make sure you get your vessel well clear of the channel, because those barges need a lot of room to maneuver.”

  “You don’t have to tell me. The only one we’ve seen on the river almost ran us down!”

  “It sounds like that was deliberate,” the sergeant said, when Eric told him what happened in the marsh. “I’m not all that surprised, though. The captain probably didn’t want to share the channel with anyone that might present a threat. Come on, let’s go. I’ll tell my men to release your wife and nephew and you can go ahead and move the boat now. I hope my men didn’t leave it in too much of a mess, but I’m sure you can understand the necessity of what we’re doing here.”

  “I understand orders, Sergeant, but how many actual terrorists have you intercepted here since this post was established? Do you really think the insurgents are using the rivers? It looks to me like they’re concentrated in the cities and along the major highways.”

  “Maybe, but if we weren’t watching places like this, then we’d never know, would we?”

  Eric followed the sergeant outside and waited as one of his men went to fetch Shauna and Jonathan from another part of the building. When they came outside, he gave them both a stern look that said stay quiet and he’d fill them in on what was happening later. The main thing he wanted to do was get back aboard the Gulf Traveler with them so he could make sure nothing else was missing besides his firearms. When he did, of course the interior was a wreck, with everything pulled out of lockers and spread all over the cabin sole.

  “Do you want to tell me what this is all about, Eric?”

  “Sure. The good news is that they’re not going to shoot us or lock us away in a detention camp. The bad news is that we can’t take the Gulf Traveler through that lock and our weapons and ammunition have been confiscated. What did they tell you?”

  “Nothing. They took me into a room and locked the door behind me. No one came until just now, when they let me out.”

  “Same here,” Jonathan said. “So what are we gonna do now, man?”

  “The first thing we’re going to do is get out from under these guys so we can talk. I’ve had enough of being questioned and watched for one day. The sergeant there said we could tie up back around the last bend, where we saw those old barges. I say let’s do it without delay before he changes his mind.”

  Eric started the engine and one of the sergeant’s men tossed the lines one at a time to Jonathan. The gunboat that had corralled them into the seawall was tied astern of the Gulf Traveler, the machine gun station at the bow now vacant, all but one crewmember apparently gone ashore. Eri
c wasted no time turning the Gulf Traveler around and pointing it back to the east. It was frustrating to have a major part of his plan thwarted so early into the journey, but the prospect of going upriver on an authorized vessel seemed to have some advantages too.

  “For one thing, we won’t have to worry the next time we run into guys like that. If the towboat captain has the necessary permission and we’re simply passengers, the authorities won’t likely hassle us. They won’t have reason to, since we’re unarmed.”

  “But then what?” Shauna asked. “What about when we get off the towboat? How are we going to go the rest of the way to Colorado with no way to protect ourselves?”

  “We won’t. We’ll get what we need, one way or the other. I don’t think it’ll be an issue. Maybe we can even buy weapons from the towboat crew, but first we’ve got to convince one to take us with them.”

  Eric was relieved to hear that Shauna and Jonathan hadn’t been physically searched. They both said they still had the gold coins Eric had given them, and he had his as well. Eric saw that the men had even returned his prized knife that had been under a seat cushion next to his Glock. He found it on the dinette table in the cabin. The guns, ammo and grenades were the only thing missing.

  “They could have at least left us your old man’s .22 rifle,” Jonathan said. “It’s not like we were gonna kill anyone with it. We just needed it to shoot some rabbits and stuff.”

  “Well, it’s gone, so I guess you’ll just have to stick to fishing, Jonathan. Can you deal with that?”

  “I’ll manage,” Jonathan grinned, “but hey, what do you think’s going to happen to the Gulf Traveler now? It’s a shame to leave a good boat like this behind.”

  “Well, it wasn’t ours to begin with, was it? It was always just a means to an end… but if you’re having second thoughts, you’re welcome to it Jonathan. You could live aboard and have the whole Atchafalaya Basin to explore and fish to your heart’s content.”