Tribulation

by Scott B. Williams

  Seventeen

  ERIC WAS THINKING FAST, trying to make sense of all that had occurred in the span of just minutes since he was awakened by those first shots. He had no doubt that the light he’d seen out there in the river fog had something to do with it, but he hadn’t expected to encounter incoming fire from aboard the C.J. Vaughn. The shooter was out on deck somewhere, so his first priority was to secure the other entrances to the second level cabin, and there were two more, one to port and one to starboard near the forward end. The locks wouldn’t hold for long against a determined intruder, but Eric hoped they would at least buy him some time to find Shauna and Jonathan and then a weapon. He checked the room they’d shared again and found it still empty. Jonathan’s was the same. Eric called them both by name, keeping his voice low and staying out of view of the exterior windows.

  “Eric! Is that you?” The door to the head opened, and Shauna waved him inside, closing it behind him. “I wanted to come get you, but I was afraid to come out.”

  “Did you see anything, Shauna? I know you heard the gunfire.”

  “I had already gotten up to come in here to the bathroom when it started. Just before I turned the light on, I heard someone shooting right outside that window.” She pointed to the small port light over the sink. “I don’t know who had the gun, but I think there’s a dead guy down there on the lower deck, and I think it’s one of the deckhands. I waited a minute or two after the shooting stopped before I dared to even look out there. When I saw him and realized what had happened, I was afraid to turn the light on or come out, and I didn’t want to yell for you because I didn’t want whoever did it to know that I saw. I had just about made up my mind to run for our cabin anyway though when I heard more shooting start again just a minute ago.”

  “Yeah, I was the target that time, and whoever it was didn’t miss by much. I didn’t see the shooter though and I still don’t know where he is.”

  “I thought whoever did it was coming inside to look for us. I didn’t know what I was going to do until I heard you call my name, but what can we do now, Eric? Without a gun, we’re trapped!”

  “Have you seen Jonathan?”

  “No, not since I went to bed last night. He was outside talking to you, wasn’t he?”

  “Yeah, but I figured he would be in and sleeping by now. He’s not in his cabin though.”

  Eric went to the edge of the window and looked down to the lower deck. He saw the body and knew immediately that Shauna was right; it was one of the deckhands. He scanned as much of the river as the poor visibility allowed, but saw nothing between the towboat and the smoke-like wall of fog two hundred feet away. The only window in the bathroom faced to starboard though, and the light he’d seen out there from their sleeping cabin was on the opposite side of the vessel, in the direction of the Arkansas shore. He would learn nothing else here, and waiting would put them in a death trap, just as Shauna said. Eric needed to find out what was going on outside, and he needed to do it fast, because whoever had taken a shot at him knew he was still in here and would eventually breach one of the entrances to come looking for him. With no weapon to turn the tables, he was going to have to rely on staying out of sight until he could acquire one. Hiding in the head would accomplish nothing.

  “Come on, we’ve got to get out of here, Shauna, before they break in and do a sweep of the cabin!”

  “Who do you think it is? And what do they want?”

  Eric told her about the light he’d seen flashing at the edge of the fog, and that he imagined whoever was out there was after the fuel tankers.

  “How would they get aboard with the security guys watching? We should have heard more shooting than we did if they tried, right?”

  Eric didn’t answer. He was thinking of the options, trying to figure out the best course of action to keep Shauna safe and then find out what was going on. Her question was a valid one though. Eric knew a trained assault team could easily board this vessel and take it with just three guards on duty, especially in this heavy fog. But where would such a team come from out here in the middle of nowhere on the Mississippi? His last visit to the pilothouse had been at sunset the day before, and Captain Anderson said they were nearing Greenville, a small river town on the Mississippi side. The highway bridge there was one of only two between Vicksburg and Memphis, and they were well to the north of there now as the C.J. Vaughn had maintained a steady speed all through the night. Eric hadn’t been able to pinpoint the location of the shooter that fired on him, but the door he’d opened was exposed to view from the aft end of the lower deck as well as the level he was on. It was possible there was more than one boat involved in the attack and that the boarders had come from somewhere near the stern, but if the shooting he’d heard before he was fired on had been the killing of that deckhand down there, then where were the security guys? And why hadn’t they returned fire? Eric was beginning to think his initial impression of their competence was well warranted. Either that, or they were somehow involved too.

  “There’s a small supply room Ralph showed me that’s accessed through a door at the far end of the second level crew lounge,” Eric said. “It’ll be one of the last places they search, and there’s lots of stuff to hide under. Let’s get you there while I figure out a plan. Come on. Follow me and keep as low as you can!”

  They were halfway down the hall when Eric saw someone through the small window in the starboard entrance door. It was Jonathan, and he was desperately trying to get in, working the locked door handle back and forth to no avail. Jonathan saw him through the glass and began banging on the door with his fist. In his other hand, Eric saw that he had a rifle!

  “Go on to the supply room!” he told Shauna. “I’ll let him in and we’ll be right behind you.

  Eric turned back to the door to see that Jonathan was gone. Then, he heard more pistol shots ring out from somewhere outside. He rushed to the door just as one of the two younger security men crept by, headed to the forward end of the deck. He’d either shot Jonathan already or the kid had retreated to the front of the cabin. Whatever the case, the guard was fully focused in that direction and didn’t even glance at the window from which Eric watched him pass. Eric flipped the latch as quietly as he could and drew his Bowie as he stepped outside behind him. The guard had his pistol out in front of him; both hands on the grip now as he stalked towards the corner of the cabin house, ready to pull the trigger. Whether he’d already shot Jonathan or not, his intentions were clear, and Eric knew now that it was probably this man who’d just tried to kill him too. Eric took two quick, silent steps to close the gap and then grabbed him by the hair with his left hand while plunging his blade through the side of the man’s neck with his right.

  As his adversary went down, Eric was reaching for the man’s pistol so it wouldn’t fall over the rail to the deck below when the muzzle of a rifle appeared around the corner just six or seven feet away. If Eric hadn’t already dropped low to grab the pistol, he would have been hit at that instant as several rounds fired blindly in rapid succession cut the air just over his head, the muzzle blast so close it stung his face.

  “JONATHAN! Hold your fire! It’s me!” Eric screamed as soon as the shooting let up.

  “Eric?”

  Jonathan stuck his head around the corner and Eric quickly joined him at the front of the cabin. There he saw the body of one of the other guards sprawled out on the catwalk, an iron pipe next to his bloody head, and he knew then where Jonathan got the rifle.

  “We’ve got to get out of sight, Eric! There are two more guys with rifles coming aboard from a motorboat on the other side. I think these security guys were talking to them on a handheld radio.”

  Eric told him he’d seen the light of a boat out there, and now he knew for certain the guards were in on this. Two were dead, but the one he knew as Kenneth was unaccounted for and there were an unknown number of intruders possibly aboard as well.

  “I got his pistol too, look!” Jonathan said, when Eric compleme
nted him on a job well done, taking the rifle.

  “Great! Now get inside the cabin and lock the door behind you! Shauna’s in the supply room. Here, take her this pistol and keep the one you have. Give me the rifle and stay there with her until I come back for you.”

  “You’d better be careful, dude! Don’t you want me to cover for you?”

  “Not now! You’ll know it if I need help. If I don’t stop them and they get inside, kill them before they kill you!”

  Eric slung the rifle over his shoulder and grabbed the railing, quickly climbing over to drop to the first level deck below, where he expected to find the two armed intruders Jonathan had seen in the boat. The engine noise made it easy for him to move without being heard, but also masked any sounds of those he sought. Eric had the AR in front of him and ready for action as he eased his way aft along the side deck.

  He found the first of the two men at the base of the exterior flight of steps on the aft end of the cabin that led up to level two. The man was covering for his partner, who apparently had already ascended the stairway, as Eric could hear someone kicking the door on the level above. The fellow at the bottom wasn’t expecting danger just around the corner down there, as the two of them had only seen Jonathan on the second level. Eric took him out with two quick rounds from the AR and then moved into line with the steps, sweeping his barrel up to the second level doorway in hopes of getting the second man before he could react. He was just seconds too late though, as the man had already breached the door and disappeared inside.

  Before he could ascend the steps in pursuit, a glance upwards at the pilothouse deck caused Eric to dive for cover back against the bulkhead. Kendall, the head of the security team, was leaning over the rail with a rifle, and bullets ricocheted off the deck around him as he opened fire. It would be suicide now to try and get up those steps to level two, and even more difficult to reach the upper pilothouse deck from the outside. There was a stairway leading up there from level two inside the cabin, but he had to first get in and clear that deck of the other gunman in order to access it. He already knew all the entrances up there other than the kicked-in aft door were locked, because he’d done it himself. Eric tried the watertight hatchway on the lower level but it wouldn’t budge, as it was dogged down from the inside as well. He was just about to go back forward and pull himself up to the second level from the outside where he’d climbed down over the rail, when he heard more shooting erupt above him, this time from a pistol.

  At first it was three quick shots. An AR-15 came tumbling down from above, bouncing off the second level rail overhead and clattering onto the open lower deck a few feet away. Eric heard the pistol ring out twice more, and then a brief moment of silence ensued before more gunfire erupted from somewhere within the cabin. Risking a quick peek out from under the deck directly overhead, he saw the head and one arm of a man hanging over the edge of the pilothouse deck. Blood trickled down and spattered in big drops on the steel deck below, and Eric knew Kendall was no longer a threat to anyone.

  * * *

  Jonathan didn’t like the idea of locking himself in the cabin while Eric was out there facing two or three armed men alone. He did as he was ordered though, and made his way to the supply room, where he found Shauna after calling her name.

  “What’s going on out there, Jonathan? Do you know who killed that deckhand?”

  “Yeah, the security guys did it. I saw one of them stab one of the other deckhands too. Eric and I got two of them, but now there’s two more dudes out there that just got off another boat!”

  “Where’s Eric? Is he still out there unarmed?”

  “No, he’s got a rifle I took from one of the guards, and I’ve got these two pistols; one is for you. Eric said for you to stay in here and shoot anyone that tries to get in.”

  “No, we need to go help him!”

  “Not unless he calls us. It’s better that somebody stays in here out of sight. Those other guys don’t know we’ve got guns. Eric thinks that head security dude is up in the pilothouse. There’s no telling what they did to the captain and the chief engineer. Probably killed them just like the deckhands. I’m gonna sneak up the inside stairway and see if I can tell what’s going on up there, because Eric might need me to cover him. If that other dude’s up in the pilothouse and Eric’s dealing with the two guys from the other boat, he’s gonna have his hands full. I need to see if I can hear anything up there. You stay down here in case he calls for us and I’ll be down as fast as I can if you need me.”

  Jonathan wouldn’t hear it when Shauna tried to talk him out of going up there alone. He had just reached the closed door at the top of the stairs when he heard a vicious banging at the aft doorway down below. He was about to turn and rush back down when two things happened at once that stopped him in his tracks. First there were two quick shots from down there in the direction of the banging, which had stopped abruptly. Then, someone on the other side of the door in front of him, either inside the pilothouse or somewhere on the upper deck, suddenly opened fire with a rifle, shooting round after round in rapid succession. Jonathan knew it must be the security guard, probably firing at Eric. He readied the pistol in his hand and tried the door latch to the pilothouse. It was unlocked, and when he cracked it open, he could see the shooter though the glass, outside at the upper rail, leaning over firing at something down below.

  Jonathan crouched low and entered the pilothouse. He was startled to see Captain Anderson lashed to one of the chairs with a length of rope, the end of it wrapped around his neck where it had been used to strangle him to death. There was no one else in there though, so he quietly stepped out the side door behind the guard that was still pointing his rifle downward, apparently waiting for a target to appear. Jonathan leveled the pistol and squeezed the trigger three times. The man dropped his rifle and fell to his knees, clinging to the rail until Jonathan fired twice more and put him down for good. He was just about to run out there and yell for Eric when more shooting from somewhere inside the cabin stopped him again. It sounded like it was coming from the lounge area below, where he’d left Shauna! Jonathan turned and dashed back down the stairs. He found the hallway clear, but the door to the crew lounge and the supply room within was now standing wide open. Jonathan had no idea what he’d find inside, but he didn’t hesitate. With the pistol gripped in both hands in front of him and his finger on the trigger, he stepped into the room.

  “Shauna!”

  Eighteen

  AS SOON AS ERIC saw that the threat from the pilothouse was eliminated, he charged up the steps to the second deck where he’d heard the other shots. He was almost certain the other of the two intruders had run into Jonathan and Shauna, and he hoped he wasn’t too late. He slipped quietly inside through the open door the man had kicked in and advanced down the central hallway with his rifle at the ready. He was almost to the crew lounge doorway when he heard someone flip the latch on the inside and slowly turn the handle. Eric shouldered his rifle and aimed at the widening gap, ready to squeeze the trigger the moment he saw his face if it was the other gunman. But the face that appeared in his sights when the opening was wide enough to reveal it was Jonathan’s. The kid was just sticking his head out to scan the hallway when he found himself looking down the barrel of Eric’s AR-15.

  “Jonathan! Are you okay? Where is Shauna?”

  “Right here, Eric,” he heard his ex-wife call from within.

  Jonathan opened the door the rest of the way, and Eric saw he now had another rifle, while Shauna was standing there with one of the pistols in her good hand. The body of a man sprawled on the floor behind her told him that they’d taken care of the other intruder that had boarded the C.J. Vaughn.

  “Shauna got him, dude! And I got the one up top that was trying to kill you.”

  “Are you okay, Eric? Are you hit?” Shauna asked.

  “Nope. I’m good. What about the captain and the chief, Jonathan? Did you see any sign of them up there?”

  “Yeah, unfort
unately Captain Anderson is dead. I haven’t seen Ralph. We got all those assholes though, right?”

  “All except for the one driving the boat he was on,” Eric nodded at the body on the floor. “I doubt he’ll try to come back to help his friends though. Come on! Let’s get up to that pilothouse! We’ve got to stop this boat before we run it into the riverbank!”

  Eric entered the pilothouse, where he glanced at the dead captain only briefly before giving his full attention to the helm. The C.J. Vaughn was holding a straight course on autopilot, but the fog had begun to lift now and from this elevated vantage point, Eric could see dense woods dead ahead, just a few hundred feet from the bows of the forward most barges. He grabbed the wheel to begin bringing the vessel about, while at the same time throttling back the engines to slow it down. Nothing happened fast when maneuvering a rig of that length, especially when it also meant turning back into a strong current that already had the hulls of all those barges firmly in its grip. Eric managed to save it only by reversing down with full power at the last minute while turning the helm to aim the stern downriver. The barges had been less than a hundred feet from ramming into the vertical clay bluffs of the riverbank when he finally regained control and got them pointed into the current again. There were still traces of the fog over some areas of the river, but the morning sun was rapidly burning it off. Eric gradually eased the tow to back to middle of the channel, keeping the engine speed reduced to the minimum necessary to maintain steerageway against the current.

  “Jonathan! I need you and Shauna to stay here at the helm, and make sure we stay in the channel while I go clear the ship. I need to be damned sure the threat is over and see if I can find the rest of the crew.”

  Eric started at the second deck and went room-by-room, finding that level clear, as expected. The third deckhand he found dead in his bunk in the first level crew quarters, his throat slashed open. He found Chief Engineer Ralph Stewart on the floor in the engine room, his face bruised and bloody and his hands tied behind his back, but alive and not seriously hurt. Eric quickly cut him loose and helped him to his feet.