Into the River Lands (Darkness After Series Book 2)

by Williams, Scott B.

  The day she left was one of those clear days, where line of sight navigation to the islands was possible. Once out of the harbor and far enough out in the open waters of the sound to shut off the engine and raise sail, Tara steered for the old brick fort on West Ship Island. It was a familiar landmark and she’d spent time in the deep anchorage there before. She thought it would be a good place to wait and see what happened next while making plans to go somewhere more remote if things didn’t change.

  The ten-mile passage went fast, the Sarah J. heeled over on a beam reach and making hull speed most of the way. But as she closed the gap to landfall at the island, Tara began to have doubts about her choice. Smoke rose from several large fires on the beach and there were nearly a dozen boats of various sizes clustered around the pier and the anchorage in front of the old fort. Something about the crowd there just didn’t feel right, and Tara put the helm down to fall off to leeward before she got within a mile of the island. She set a new course for Cat Island, the next island to the west and the last in the chain before the Mississippi Sound gave way to Lake Borgne and the Louisiana marshlands surrounding New Orleans.

  Tara knew Cat Island didn’t have a deep-water anchorage relatively close to the beach like the one at West Ship. Sandy shoals extended far out from its shores, over a half mile in places, but the nice thing about the Tartan 37 with its keel-centerboard configuration was that she only needed a little over four feet to float—not much for a vessel that size. Tara found the island deserted that first day she got there, but then the Owens arrived the following day on their larger Catalina 42, anchoring a bit farther out. Tara had nervously watched the approaching sail through her father’s binoculars, but when she saw the gray-haired couple at the helm, she relaxed and returned their friendly wave as they drew near. When they came over later in their dinghy to introduce themselves, Tara learned that like her, since they had access to a comfortable vessel, they felt better about coming out here rather than remaining in Slidell. From what they said, things were really bad in New Orleans and the survivors who could make it out were pouring over the Causeway and the I-10 Twin Span Bridge to the North Shore.

  Tara enjoyed the company of the Owens and the days and evenings passed faster with someone else to talk to, even though it sometimes saddened her because they reminded her so much of her parents. Rebecca showed herself as little as possible while they were there, preferring to stay locked away in her cabin most of the time. Tara felt bad for her because she knew she was feeling the symptoms of seasickness even while they were anchored, due to the chop in the sound most afternoons and the lack of protection from it off the mostly-exposed coast of Cat Island.

  For several days, no other vessels called at Cat Island until the arrival of the catamaran that sailed past them one afternoon, continuing along until it disappeared around the point, most likely going to Smuggler’s Cove on the south side. It was an interesting-looking vessel and Tara had never seen anything quite like it, as it was both traditional and exotic at the same time, like something that should be on a postcard from the Far East or maybe the south Pacific. Later that evening she had confirmed that the vessel was indeed anchored around there in the cove, as she had rowed ashore in the Sarah J.’s dinghy and spotted the catamaran’s two masts silhouetted beyond the dunes. When the old fishing boat had later passed on the same course, she had again gone ashore and watched it as it made the turn to enter the cove as well, which was why she was confident the two boats were there now. She was looking forward to seeing the strange catamaran up close now that she’d made her decision, and she had her fingers crossed that the crew would be as interesting as their ship and as friendly as she dared to hope.

  Although Mike Owens warned her that there was no way of knowing what kind of people were aboard those two boats, Tara had studied the crews of each one through her binoculars as they cruised by. She had clearly seen two young women on the deck of the catamaran, and neither appeared to be distressed in any way. The women and the two men who accompanied them all waved as they passed, but the distance was much too great for shouting.

  When the fishing boat passed, Tara saw that the man at the helm of it was certainly a wild-looking character; a black islander-looking guy with long, knotted dreadlocks that swung almost to his waist. He had grinned and waved though, and his appearance didn’t particularly frighten her. He could have simply been a reggae musician from New Orleans for all she knew. His companion, a young-looking white guy, also gave her a friendly wave in return to hers.

  Just because a lot of people had reverted to savagery in the aftermath of the blackout didn't mean everyone had. Tara felt better about almost anyone aboard a sailboat, because the very fact that they were out here, anchoring away from the mainland, meant they were probably seeking to avoid trouble rather than cause it. Like her and Rebecca and the Owens, they probably just wanted to get away from the looting and violence that had consumed so much of the coastal cities. At least these were the things she told herself when she hauled in the Sarah J.’s anchor using the manual windlass and sheeted in the mainsail to go around there and find out.

  FOUR

  ARTIE DRAGER STOOD TO stretch his back and give his knees a short break. He’d been on them for over an hour, sweat dripping onto the deck where he was smoothing cured epoxy fairing compound by hand with a wooden block with sandpaper wrapped around it. It was hard labor, but required less skill than the actual boat carpentry and fiberglass work he knew nothing about. He had watched his younger brother, Larry and his friend, Scully as they expertly applied layers of resin-saturated fiberglass to the new wood in the decks and hull topsides. Now they were down below, reinforcing the repairs from the inside while Artie did the dirty work to prep the patches for finishing. He could already tell that once the first coat of gray primer went on, the damaged areas would be invisible. Larry and Scully knew what they were doing, but then they should. Artie had to frequently remind himself that the two of them built this 36-foot catamaran from scratch by themselves, entirely by hand on the beach in Puerto Rico.

  It was hard for Artie to comprehend such a task, but his brother had always had a single-minded focus; and for most of his adult life, that focus had been on spending as much of his life as possible at sea. Larry built the boat of his dreams exactly to the standards he required. He made his living moving other people’s boats from place to place, mostly in the trade wind belts of the tropics, and many such deliveries of marginally seaworthy craft had taught him what was needed. The Casey Nicole was an amazing vessel, and they were all fortunate indeed to be aboard her now, where she provided refuge and escape from turmoil the likes of which none of them had ever seen.

  The important thing was that they were all together again—finally. His daughter, Casey, for whom Larry’s boat was named, was here. Her best friend and roommate, Jessica Nielson, was also here, as was Grant Dyer, the young man Casey had met in college that helped the two girls escape from the dangers of New Orleans when the lights went out. The three of them were ashore right now exploring the beaches and wooded dunes of Cat Island while the dusty sanding work was going on. Artie glanced over to where the two kayaks were pulled up on the sand and saw that the kids were out of sight at the moment, probably somewhere among the Live oaks and pines of the interior. He turned his gaze to the north, in the direction of the mainland.

  From out here, approximately seven miles to the south, the coastline of Mississippi looked peaceful and normal. From this distance, the shore was mostly a thin line of darker blue, its outline rising just slightly above the open expanse of the Mississippi Sound that stretched between him and the coast. Lacking any significant elevation for its entire length, this part of the northern Gulf Coast was barely visible beyond a few miles. The tallest objects in Artie’s view were all man-made—a few multi-story hotels and apartment buildings, water storage tanks and communications towers. All were too far away to make out any detail, but their presence on that coast gave the illusion of normalcy—the illusi
on that he was looking at just another civilized and developed American shoreline. Like almost everywhere on the Atlantic coast from Boston to Miami and Key West to Brownsville, development and progress had permanently altered the view that an approaching mariner would see upon making landfall.

  But Artie knew that an illusion was all any of it was, and the advanced civilization that such distantly visible edifices should signify was in ruin. Despite the near-tropical warmth of the Gulf air, he felt a chill slide down his spine as he contemplated just how dangerous that coast and the interior beyond it really was. He was grateful for the miles of water that separated him and his loved ones from it, but he knew he would feel much better when that distance was even greater.

  That would happen, but not before his brother was ready. Larry was working tirelessly to complete the repairs and prepare the Casey Nicole for a long sea voyage. Although getting out to Cat Island after being rammed by the big fishing boat in the Pearl River swamp was not a problem, the catamaran was not ready for the open ocean in that condition. They were much closer now though, Artie thought, as he looked back down at the new areas of fiberglass and plywood that were beginning to blend in seamlessly to the rest of the damaged hull and deck. Once again his brother’s experience had proven invaluable, simply by the fact that he had the foresight to include spare materials as part of the ship’s provisions.

  The catamaran was still wearing dull gray primer as a topcoat everywhere above the waterline, since there had been no time to paint her when they launched in Culebra for their voyage to New Orleans. Appearance was the last thing on Larry's mind at the time and Artie knew it would be a long time before the Casey Nicole was finished to her full glory, if ever. The important thing was making ready to sail so they could get her as far away from the United States mainland as possible. Although they were relatively safe anchored at Cat Island, as compared to being right off the coast, there was still too much proximity to all that madness for anyone's comfort. Everyone in their crew had seen more than enough of the aftermath of the collapse, and no one wanted a repeat of their recent experiences.

  How long had it actually been? Artie tried to think back. Three weeks? Almost a month? It sure seemed a lot longer. So much had happened in such a short time, it was hard to fathom. He hoped the worst of it was over, at least for the six of them. It would be hard to imagine anything worse than the feeling of not knowing if his daughter was alive or dead. Now that he was reunited with Casey, Artie felt that no matter what happened next, it had to be better than the pain he'd gone through during those dark days of wondering if he was ever going to see her again.

  Casey and her roommate Jessica were fortunate to escape the nightmare that New Orleans quickly became after the solar flares destroyed the power and communications grid and rendered most automobiles useless. Both had gotten out unscathed, at least physically, but Artie was certain that Casey's experience with the deranged kidnapper who took her captive on the Bogue Chitto River would trouble her later, especially considering how that episode ended. At least for now though, she seemed to be able to put it out of her thoughts or to hide it well if not.

  Artie knew that if not for Grant Dyer, the young grad-student that his daughter had befriended long before all this happened, it was unlikely that either of the girls would have gotten out of the dying city before it was too late. But even if not for all the risks this young man took to get his daughter and her friend to safety, Artie would have liked Grant if he had met him before. He was an interesting person to talk to despite being so young, partly because he had already traveled far more than most men twice his age.

  Artie knew he owed a lot to Grant for all he had done, but every single one of them had Larry to be thankful for most of all. If not for this 36-foot catamaran that Larry had built before he ever dreamed something like this could happen, Artie had no idea where any of them would be today or what they would do. The catamaran was a magic carpet that had brought him here, back to the U.S. after the solar flare’s devastating pulse left him stranded on his vacation in the islands. It was a rare event when Artie even got a vacation, and fortunately for him, he’d chosen to spend this one sailing with his resourceful brother in the Eastern Caribbean. He’d merely wanted to get away from his duties at the hospital for a few days to see how his carefree younger brother lived. Little did he know that while he was there, the world was about to change with a flashing of lights in the night sky.

  Because of Larry's boat, Artie had the means to get back to New Orleans to find his daughter when otherwise he would have remained stranded in St. Thomas indefinitely. The passage from the islands had been difficult and dangerous, but with the help of Larry’s Rastafarian friend, Scully; they made it there relatively quickly, only to find that Casey and her roommate Jessica were already gone. If not for the note Casey had left for Artie in his parked car at the New Orleans airport, it would have been impossible to ever find the girls.

  But fortunately they had, and now, because of Larry's catamaran, all of them could leave the violence that had consumed the mainland behind them for good. They could set sail and even cross entire oceans if necessary to get someplace where life might be normal again. Or even if not normal, perhaps at least someplace where they would not have to literally fight for survival every day. Artie hoped he would never have to wield a firearm against his fellow man again, but he now knew that he could and that he would if he had to.

  Where they were going was still uncertain. They discussed the alternatives at length, but in the end Artie knew it was ultimately Larry's decision. Larry was the one with the most experience in such matters, having lived an ocean-wandering life as a professional yacht delivery skipper for the past 15 years. Larry had been just about everywhere it was possible for a sailboat to go in the Caribbean Basin and the Atlantic coast, as well as many ports on the other side of that ocean. He had some ideas where they might find safe refuge, all with trade-offs, of course, but most far better than remaining in North America and especially the United States. The problem in such highly developed nations was that the total failure of the grid led to almost immediate panic. With no trucks running to deliver food and other essentials in a complex supply chain that was only three days from failure anyway, practically everything was in short supply or gone before most citizens realized what was happening. Very few people were prepared to weather such an interruption and it was more than most could handle. When they couldn't go and buy what they needed to survive, many of them quickly began taking what they could from anyone who had it, using whatever force was necessary. It was a complete reversion to savagery unlike any Artie had ever imagined possible.

  He didn’t want to see it again, so he reached for a fresh sheet of sandpaper to put on his block so he could get back to work. But just before he knelt on the deck to get to it, he glanced to the north one more time and was startled by what he saw. A good-sized sailboat had rounded the point on the other side of the island, and was now heeled over in the afternoon breeze as it headed straight his way on a beam reach. Artie was sure it was one of the two boats they knew were anchored around on the other side. They’d seen them when they first arrived, but had not made contact. Now, it looked as though they were about to meet the crew of at least one of them after all.

  “Hey Larry! You’d better get up here!” Artie knew it didn’t pay to assume anything these days. Everyone they met was a threat until proven otherwise. He yelled across the anchorage as loud as he could to Casey and her friends, and then dashed below to get Larry’s portable air horn. He had to let them know to get back to the boat before the strangers arrived.

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  VOYAGE AFTER THE COLLAPSE

 

 

 
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