The Changing Earth Series (Book 3): The Walls of Freedom

by Hathaway, Sara F.

  “Oh, real funny,” Erika cursed under her breath.

  “Eyes on the door,” Vince told her as he went to open the cubby door.

  Erika had her composure back in a moment and was all business as Vince cracked the door open. The air filled with a foul stench immediately. Vince peeked in holding his breath. His eyes widened and he turned around dry heaving, because there was nothing in his belly to throw up.

  Erika’s curiosity got the better of her. Her stomach turned from the fierce stench emanating from the cabin. Then she saw it, a woman and a child wrapped in each other’s arms. Their bodies had taken longer to decay without the exposure to the elements that the man’s body received. The flesh was rotting off their bones and maggots ravaged the decay.

  “What’s in there, Mom?” Star wondered curiously.

  “You don’t want to know,” Erika answered.

  “That is freaking nasty!” Vince exclaimed, catching his breath. “I’m outa’ here.”

  “I’m going to check it out,” Erika replied. “There could still be food in there.”

  “I don’t know, Erika.” Vince was concerned. “Who knows what they died of, and you know disease loves death. Maybe you should just leave it alone.”

  “You started this, Vince.” Erika didn’t see the sense in not checking for supplies. “I would have been just fine munching on leather,” she added sarcastically.

  “Really?” Vince replied. “Well, I’m not going in there.”

  “It’s cool. I’ll go,” Erika assured him. She had always had much more of an iron stomach than Vince.

  “Star, grab me some medical gloves and a bandana,” Erika ordered. The she remembered she was no longer officially in charge and added a, “please.”

  “Got it,” Star replied. She ran into the cubby and returned with the items Erika had requested. “It’s that bad?” Star asked as she handed Erika the goods.

  “Oh yeah,” Erika replied as she tied the bandana around her face and put on the gloves.

  She passed Vince and gave him a thumbs-up. Then she cautiously descended the stairs and started looking through the cabinets that lined the hallway. There was a can of food but the can had bloated and exploded, adding to the horrible smell and fly population. She was just about to give up and retreat from the nauseating smell when she noticed the cushions that the bodies were on lifted up.

  “Erika, no!” Vince said, watching her from the doorway.

  Erika didn’t listen. She lifted up the cushion and the bodies rolled over to the side, except the decomposition was so far along that half their skin stuck to the cushion while the other half peeled away. The squishing sound of the separating bodies and the stench they released sent Erika to her knees but then she saw inside the compartment. There were guns, an M1 Garand, two .22 long rifles, three 9mms and ammo for all of it. Plus, there were three five-gallon tanks of gasoline. Much to her dismay, there was no food.

  She handed the weapons and ammo to Vince and he passed them off to the kids. Then they loaded the precious fuel. When Erika exited, she carefully removed the gloves she had on and threw them into the water. She hugged Vince in a cling of desperation. She wanted to cry. She couldn’t watch her family starve to death like these poor folks had.

  “Come on, let’s go,” Vince said reassuringly. “We’ll find something.”

  They re-boarded the boat and continued on. One day blended into the next. Daniel was so weak, he would rarely emerge from the cubby. Now their water supply was running out too. Vince and Erika knew, all too well, that once that happened, their days were numbered.

  *****

  Erika floated along on a small raft in the middle of a toxic lake in a destroyed city. She was swirled into a water cyclone that sucked her into a building where she saw bloated faces in the water. Their eyes opened and their hands reached out to her. She tried to grab them but as she pulled on their hands their arms tore from their decomposing bodies. They screamed for help and started to sink her raft. She felt the intense burning of the toxic water all over her body.

  Erika screamed and sat up. She was in the cubby with her emaciated family sleeping around her. It had been a dream, a horrible nightmare. As her senses came back to her, she heard the wind howling, and a tapping on the wood they had put over the back of the boat. She quickly grabbed her pistol, thinking that someone was boarding their boat. She went out with her gun drawn and hallucinations turning her mind into a ball of fuzz. She whirled around, pointing her weapon at the shadows. The boat rocked furiously and she lost her balance. She fired the 9mm wildly into the air as she stood up to find the hidden threat.

  Suddenly, she was grabbed from behind. Her arms were pinned down and the pistol dropped to the deck.

  “It’s me, baby,” Vince yelled at her, trying to break through the heavy fog occupying her mind. “It’s me,” he whispered, hugging her tightly.

  Returning to reality, she turned and hugged him. He was her savior. For him she could come back from hell itself, and she had before. She sobbed in his arms, but the dehydration prevented any tears from flowing.

  “It’s just a storm, baby. It will pass.” Vince felt as delirious as his wife but her wild gunshots had kept him bound to reality.

  “What’s going on?” Dexter wondered, emerging from the cubby. He was paper thin.

  “There’s a storm out there. A big one,” Vince told him.

  The family huddled together in the safety of their cubby while the storm raged on. During the night, the boat rammed into the unforeseen and Erika had to wonder if there would still be a boat left in the morning. Hell’s fury raged outside but the family slept. They just couldn’t maintain consciousness for very long. They needed some nutrition.

  “Mom...Mom, come check this out!” Star screamed.

  Hearing the screaming in the back of her mind, Erika struggled to come back to reality. Erika stirred and saw Daniel lying motionless as her eyes opened.

  “Daniel!” Erika screamed, checking his chest to make sure he was still breathing.

  His chest barely moved up and down. She felt his pulse. It was weak.

  “Oh my God! No!” Erika screamed out furiously, watching his life drain from his body. “No, God. No,” she chanted over and over, pleading with her maker to keep her son alive.

  “Where’s Dad, Star?” she questioned the girl, who was still trying to get her attention. “And where’s Dex?”

  “They went up there,” Star declared, pointing upward. “Like I’ve been trying to tell you.”

  “Up where?” Erika was confused. She gathered her young son up into her arms and left the cubby to look. She gasped as she saw a huge battleship looming overhead in the sunlight. There was a rope connecting it to their ship. She surveyed their own boat and saw it was little more than a raved hull floating in the water. The storm had taken its toll. She wondered how long she had slept and how close to death she herself had been.

  “Star, coming down with water and mangos,” Vince yelled, looking over at them from the battleship. “Hi, baby,” he said, noticing his wife was alert next to his daughter. “How’s Daniel?”

  “In need of that water!” Erika yelled.

  Vince lowered a five-gallon bucket on a rope into the fractured craft. Erika immediately grabbed a plastic bottle of water out of the bucket and poured a little over her son’s lips so he could taste it. She took a slow, long pull off the bottle and then began trying to slowly and steadily get the liquid into Daniel’s frail body. He had licked the liquid off his lips and roused more and more as Erika continued dripping drops into his mouth.

  “Here, mom,” Star said, handing her a slice of mango.

  Erika had never cared for mango in the past, but right now it was the most delectable thing she had ever tasted. Her mouth watered for more. Star handed her another slice and Erika sank her teeth through the juicy orange fruit.

  Vince was back at the edge of the battleship, high above them. He lowered down a stretcher. “Put Daniel in and I’ll bring
him up,” Vince commanded.

  “Okay,” Erika agreed.

  Erika looked down at her frail child. His brown eyes had sunk deep into his soft skin, and when he licked his lips for another drop of water there was a noticeable line down his tongue. Erika had to wonder how much longer he would have lasted without this stroke of luck.

  Erika’s neck hurt as she craned it to watch Daniel’s body float up the side of the steely, gray hull. U.S.S. Missouri was written on the side. As Erika and Star watched the stretcher clear the side of the ship, they ate another mango and drank the last bottle of water that Vince had sent down to them. Soon the basket was back and Vince was yelling at them over the edge of the boat.

  “You’re next, super Star,” Vince insisted to Star. He knew Erika would raise a fit if he asked her to come next.

  Erika watched Star grip the rope with the grace of a dancer. She floated up to the ship like an angel taking flight. Her beautiful golden hair was a sharp contrast against the steely gray hull of the ship.

  Erika waited for a moment after she watched Star clear the edge and soon the rope was in her hands. She gripped it tightly, feeling the rough exterior of the thick rope. It began to lift her off the ground above the wrecked boat that floated gently in the water. She had to admit that she was actually glad to be rid of it but she wondered: What were they going to do now? This boat was far too big to row into the bay. And how far out into the ocean had they floated?

  She stepped onto the deck, her mind lit with questions, but she immediately forgot everything. The deck of the ship could hardly be recognized as a battleship. It looked more like a floating tropical island, complete with jungle grasses and fruit trees.

  “Wow,” Erika gasped full of surprise.

  “I know, right?” Vince recognized the same look of wonder he had when he had first laid eyes on this deck. “I guess the birds had a hand in this, because there sure are a lot of them.

  “This is unbelievable!” Erika just couldn’t believe how complete the jungle scene was. “Is anyone else here?”

  “Not that we’ve found so far, but this place is huge, and any doors I’ve found are locked from the inside,” Vince replied.

  “Well I don’t think we should stay here too long,” Erika countered nervously.

  “Why not, Mom? It’s like paradise,” Dexter chimed in with mango juice dripping from his chin.

  “I just don’t know. It feels wrong, and how long do you think it will take that helicopter to find it? How far have we floated from the shoreline? I can’t even see it anymore,” Erika panicked, gripped with her fear of the open ocean.

  “Slow down, Erika,” Vince interrupted her ranting and gave her a big hug. “There’s nothing we can do about it now,” he said, looking deep into her eyes. “There’s food and water here. Even vending machines. Who knows what else we can find. We need to repair our boat if we want to make it back to the coastline. Plus, we really need to recuperate. I know you hate the ocean but I don’t see what choice we have.”

  Erika took a deep breath and stared out at the horizon, calculating the reality of the situation.

  “She’s right about the helicopter though, Dad,” Star commented, munching on a Snickers bar Vince had found.

  Erika’s mouth watered at the sight.

  “Is that a Snickers?” Erika exclaimed, her mouth instantly watering in hopes of tasting the flavor again.

  “Yup, I told you, vending machines, still full!” Vince giggled with excitement. “Here you go!” Vince handed her the candy bar.

  Erika slowly unwrapped the plastic covering, savoring the moment. The chocolate inside was a dull grey, but it didn’t matter. She gently bit into the top of the bar, detecting the layers of peanut and caramel, and then she bit hard and broke off the part that used to be soft and chewy. She chewed, tasting the sweet sugars that had preserved it for all this time.

  “Star, if the helicopter comes by we’ll deal with that then, but right now we have no choice. We need food and a couple days to get ourselves and our boat back together... Look at Daniel, for God’s sake, “ Vince concluded.

  “Dad’s right,” Erika mumbled, still delighting in the chocolate-y goodness. “Trust me. I’m the last one that wants to spend any time out here, but Dad’s right. Let’s focus on the basics first.”

  “I’ll pitch camp,” Dexter volunteered. “I already have a great place picked.”

  “I’ll get wood,” Star volunteered.

  “Where do you have picked out?” Erika wondered, her curiosity perked by her son’s comments.

  “The gun turrets still stick out, we can put the tarp over one and voila, camp!” Dexter exclaimed.

  “Let’s just use that little covered area by the locked door we found. It will be easier to set up and there’s more room to spread out,” Vince countered.

  “Oh come on, Dad. They’re not that high. I’ll get it done. What if there is someone down there and they come out the door?” Dexter fought for his location.

  “No one is down there, Dex. Would the vending machines still be full if someone was on this ship? I don’t think so,” Vince countered, concerned that they wouldn’t have enough tarp to pitch the camp Dex had in mind.

  “Fine,” Dexter said, dejected.

  “I’ll help you with Daniel,” Erika said to Vince as she licked the last of the chocolate off her grubby hands.

  “What about the control room, Dad?’ Dexter chimed in again.

  Erika and Vince were about to pick up Daniel and paused to consider his suggestion.

  “That door was locked too,” Vince replied.

  “I bet we could break one of those windows and get in there.” Dex was full of ideas.

  “I don’t know, Dex, this is a battleship. I bet that’s some thick glass and we’re gonna lose our light soon. Let’s just get set up for tonight and we can always check it out tomorrow.

  They ended up choosing the location by the door and setting up a fairly permanent shelter. The plan was to use it for a while. Daniel’s health was always in the back of Erika’s mind as they foraged the floating island ship and took steps to repair their shell of a boat.

  Chapter 8

  They never did find anyone else on the ship and this made Vince very curious. He knew this boat had been harbored in Hawaii and often wondered how it broke loose and what had happened to Hawaii. Since no one occupied the ship he could only speculate at their demise.

  Daniel was the major problem, though. He wasn’t getting better. While everyone else gained weight and regained strength, he was hard to rouse from his sleeping and barely ate.

  Erika slowly trickled water into his mouth as he awoke from his dreaming. “Slowly, baby, slowly,” she whispered, cradling his tiny body in her hands. Tears streamed down her face.

  “How’s he doing?” Vince wondered, as he slowly approached behind Erika.

  Erika shook her head at Vince and looked at him with sorrowful eyes, puffy from crying.

  “Hey, big guy. How ya feeling,” Vince queried the boy as he squatted down next to him.

  “Okay, Dad,” Daniel mumbled, managing a small smile.

  Erika laid the boy’s head back down on the small bundle of clothing holding it. The couple watched his eyes slowly close again and backed away into the opposite corner of the shelter to talk in hushed voices.

  “I don’t know what to do, Vince,” Erika sobbed quietly.

  “I don’t know either, baby. We have to get to that medicine lady,” Vince was desperate for answers.

  “But the boat, we are never going to make it in that thing,” Erika pleaded.

  “Yes we will. I’m almost done with the repairs and then we have to just go for it...I don’t know how much longer Daniel can hold out,” Vince said, gazing at his young son.

  “Don’t say that, Vince! Don’t even say that! He’s gonna make it. He has to. He’s my baby.” Erika was hysterical with the possibility of losing her child.

  “He’s gonna make it. He’s strong...” Vi
nce assured her.

  “Dad! Dad, come quick!” Dexter yelled to his father, interrupting their conversation.

  The couple hadn’t even heard him approach.

  “What’s up, Dexter?” Erika wondered.

  “I think there’s a boat approaching. Come on, Dad,” the boy begged.

  “I’ll go check it out,” Vince replied.

  Dexter raced to the rear of the ship with his father close on his heels. Star was there, staring out into the ocean with binoculars.

  “What’s up, Star?” Vince queried, catching his breath.

  “Look,” Star said pointing out at the horizon, handing him the binoculars.

  “What?” Vince said, unable to see what they were seeing.

  “See that spot out there. Looks like a boat headed this way,” Star explained, showing him the direction to look.

  “Oh crap, you’re right! It is a ship headed this way! Good eyes, Star,” Vince praised her, patting her on the back.

  “Dexter is the one who saw it first,” Star replied honestly, giving credit where credit was due.

  “Well then, great job, Dex. Now we have to figure out what to do about it. It’s obvious they have already seen the ship and are headed this way,” Vince explained. “Star, you stay here and keep out of sight, but keep an eye on them. Dex, come with me to get Mom and our guns.”

  “Okay, Dad,” Dex answered excitedly, the adrenaline fueling his youthful exuberance. He was off at a sprint. He found his mother still hovering over Daniel.

  “Mom,” Dex yelled to her.

  “What’s up, Dex?” she replied.

  “Dad’s coming, we need to get the guns and go to the back of the ship,” he urged her.

  “What? Okay!” Erika responded, knowing trouble must be headed their way. She was on her feet prepping the guns and packing ammo into pouches.

  “We got a boat headed our way,” Vince said, entering the shelter and grabbing the M1 Garand from Erika.

  “Oh man,” Erika exclaimed. She knew it was only a matter of time until someone else stumbled upon their treasure island.

  With their rifles and side arms, the three of them headed for the back of the ship. They crept in at a crawl as they approached, aware that the boat would probably be much closer now.