Bug Out Boat Survival: The Post Apocalyptic Survival Trailer Pod (Aftermath Survival Book 3)

by Ron Foster

  That particular point had what it appeared to them at their distance of maybe four or five miles or so, to be one of the brightest lights they could see and that vexed their minds to no end because unless somebody had a bonfire down there, why was it so bright? Sam and Lori didn’t have any answers for that after speculating at first whether or not that mansion had caught on fire some way but that would have been an even bigger conflagration of smoke and fire that could have readily been seen especially with this moonlit might. Sam told Lori that had that big mansion had gone up the way the moon had tonight, they could have seen a column of black smoke going up that way as the fire consumed the contents of the building.

  All in all, they saw eight fires that night as they stood with their eyes adjusted to the darkness and the moonlight spotting for glimpses of metal or flickering flames across that great expanse of water.

  “Well, that’s more than eight people out there, sweetie, as you knows. I have no idea what that big mansion is doing down there with such a big fire going and it could be too we could double that number easily as for people sleeping on the beaches tonight if we take into account everyone like us that doesn’t have a fire tonight. I tell you one thing though, if we weren’t so well supplied with the bug spray down here, we would have us a fire and I would be throwing all the green wood and occasional foliage on it that I could.” Sam said wrapping his arm around Lori as they stood on the cool sand listening to what must be the tide coming in slowly as the waves picked up.

  “Yeah, there are plenty of mosquitoes around here, you can hear them buzzing around. I am for turning in and zipping up my mosquito net here pretty soon and calling it an early night.” Lori said, returning Sam’s hug.

  “That’s an awful crazy way we got those hammocks hung tonight, sweetie but I can’t see having to go to sleep twenty feet away from you because I couldn’t find any suitable trees.

  This arrangement that Sam had created was pretty cool because he had a classic bottom entry hammock versus Lori’s side entry hammock. This type of entry on Sam’s was what fascinated him about the Hennessey product line many years ago and when he found out he could just pop in and pop out at will through the bottom of his hammock which is this exceptional patented feature made it a must-have for his comfort and security. Because of his unique entrance to what he jokingly referred to as his ‘pea pod’ even though he had all the room in the world for him and the Jolly Green Giant too, he was relegated to being the top bunk due to his height. Sam could just walk up to his hammock and pop himself through the hole at the bottom and have a seat while swinging his legs into it and he was closed up and snugger than a bug in a rug whereas Lori would just go in the side of hers and wait for it to close and then zipper down for the night.

  Sam sometimes laughed at Lori for her choice in the side zip instead of the neat pop in pop out feature he had on his but before she saw an exhibition of that unique entrance and closure of Sam when he got his, she knew now that she should not have worried about it. Lori loved her side zip ……… hammock but when it came to a mosquito chasing you into your net for the night, the flying nags seemed to chase Sam all the way over to his hammock and then get out of the way while he was poking his head through the hole in the bottom to get in and the fabric was rustling around scaring them off before he was in and the closure snapped shut automatically under him.

  Lori on the other hand, in this instance, had all the mosquitoes that were chasing Sam plus all the ones that were chasing her to contend with and didn’t have that neat trap door closure that Sam had and instead swarmed her as she came into the side of her hammock. The side closes on hers automatically too but did not have the shooing effect that Sam’s had and after she got all settled in for the night Sam heard her wail “there’s a mosquito in here, I think more than one!”.

  “Don’t know what to tell you, baby< but it’s sure nice that we don’t have to holler across a small space of woods or a few feet of clearing! I kind of like this style of living but I would be glad to get to a place where we can pitch the big tent or find us an empty house at to spend the night in so I can snuggle you again! Don’t feel right that we’ve been sort of sleeping separate for this long, does it?” Sam said as he tried to imagine what Lori was doing as she shifted around in the hammock under him, evidently trying to squash a mosquito or something because she had her canopy light on.

  “Hey, sweetie, you know they are going to see that light even though you have your hand over it.” Sam said with a slight chuckle.

  “This mosquito is Not spending the night with me! I don’t care if it’s going to die eventually from the bug spray I have on me or the pyrethrums you got sprayed on this ground sheet is buzzing.”

  “Well don’t worry about that one, that a male that’s buzzing the females telling them there’s something over here to eat!”

  “You know, Sam, I ain’t got me no tarp over me and you are well within poking distance!” Lori said threatening to use that easy access into Sam’s hammock for ulterior motives.

  “OK, ok, I still don’t know what to do with the mosquito in your net. Goodnight sweetie!” Sam said as Lori considered seriously giving Sam a poke sometime tonight when he wasn’t expecting it.

  They hung in the trees, they enjoyed the breeze and as close as they were to the shore, the water made soft lapping sounds in the moonlight as they drifted off to sleep before starting a new day on this wild adventure. Lori started drifting off to sleep and then it came to her and her eyes shot wide open.

  “Hey Sam, you awake?” Lori whispered.

  “Yeah, I’m awake. What’s the matter that mosquito still bothering you?” Sam replied groggily.

  “No.” Lori said drawing out the word because she was still a little bit miffed about Sam kidding her about it previously.

  “We didn’t talk about what to do tonight if we heard any sounds or somebody approaching. For that matter, we didn’t talk about what happens in the middle of the night if you decide to get up and take a whiz! Did you think about that at all before you climbed up there? I don’t want you to forget where you are at and come stepping down on me in the middle of the night.” Lori said as she heard Sam shifting about to sit up more straight.

  “Oh yeah, I hadn’t considered that one yet. What I was going to do was kind of just shove you over out of the way but I do have you strung pretty tight. Tell you what; you want to take a dry run at it?” Sam asked.

  “No, I just wanted you to remember I’m under you if you decided to come bailing out of that thing or jump like you do sometimes!” Lori said preferring to stay all snuggled in where she was at and enjoying how good her bed felt.

  “Tell you what; it ain’t a dry run after all. You mention taking a whiz and now I have to get up! So you might as well get ready for me to be coming off the top bunk now. Go ahead and tturn on your light but put your hand over to shield it from the water and I’ll be better able to see where you are at.” Sam said as he exited his hammock.

  “See that wasn’t so bad except I like to got myself on that line leading to that extra big Hennessey hex tarp I put up tonight to cover us both. “

  Hennessey Hammocks come with their own rain tarps as an integral piece of their complete shelter unit but they also offer the option of a larger hex tarp that requires it’s own set of snakeskins either as an upgrade for free with a purchase or as an add-on at a later time. It’s mostly about weight and weather and terrain conditions as to what somebody might choose. Generally speaking, Sam liked the all-in-one lighter weight original units.

  Sam went and did his business but couldn’t resist walking down to the shore one more time using the keychain light he had clipped to his vest to find his way in the dark to see what was going on with that big fire down by the mansion.

  “I can barely make out the fire down there, baby.” Sam said in a normal tone of voice so as not to be talking too loud next to the water.

  “WHAT! “ Lori said forgetting that she shouldn’t be talking so loud
at this time and then hushing herself.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t know if you could hear me or not back here. I was saying that that fire over by the big mansion was still burning kind of bright. I didn’t see but one other fire and that’s across from us so no worries there. But while we’re both awake, we need to be talking about something. What time are we leaving out tomorrow? We know Mr. Canoe is in back of us; I haven’t seen anybody that should be having fish cleaning fires except that bait station we passed but it could be boaters too. If you think about it Lori, we don’t have no patent on this idea of bugging out and there could be many people that have the same idea that we do to head down this way. It’s kind of like the Great Northwest Passage during the Gold Rush. People would take whatever passage they could on the steamboat to get up to Alaska to get to the gold or go the long way around heading west around South America to California because the overland route seemed too arduous. Tons of people back then, you have to remember, had the capability to build their own boats especially when you think of the ones that were going to the Yukon. The Canadian and the American governments both provided plans on how to build log boats as well as lumber based boats to take the prospectors down rivers to their destinations. Loggers and Boatwright’s as well as sawmills made a pretty penny back then providing the means for these adventurous souls that were forced to build a boat once they had already taken ship’s p[passage to their destination. How many people do you think, Lori, might have just got on any boat they could find and headed towards the coast like us thinking it was the best place to find food more readily in the waters of the oceans and bays.” Sam said trying to puzzle out if the Gulf coast will be more inhabited by people than he thought might be present.

  “I don’t know, Sam, that’s a hell of a point. But I think you already answered that question for yourself when you pointed out to me it’s the idea of transporting or finding fresh water that would be the ultimate argument to too many people being able to sustain themselves around brackish and salty water. Not many of those houses that we passed showed signs to me while I was scanning them of recent human presence but you can never tell. For example, I could tell you now that I was laying in my hammock all content until you decided that you had to get up, I got to thinking about it and you could see the trail in the grass between this pier going into a little stretch of woods and be coming out by the next pier in front of that other McMansion and back to that house but not the reverse to the big mansion. There must be another trail or something to the big mansion that I couldn’t see but walking from that pier directly into the field or I would have seen it. So that tells me that either that bigger mansion is empty and the neighbors are just walking back and forth to use the dock to fish from or the mansion is using the road in back of it because it’s closer to get to the smaller mansion closer to the water to go back and forth. Could be two families, could be one family, I don’t know. What puzzles me is we know that big fire is over on the point by the big mansion and that place wasn’t all tromped down like they were using that field for anything else but letting it grow wild and unmowed. There wasn’t even a garden on it.

  “Yeah, it bugs me too. Now you got me wondering what that other dim fire right across from us might be. If they are fishermen, and I’m not talking about the old kind that used to make their living parking their boats back here to escape the high rental prices for dock space but instead now possibly fishermen that will go to the bay in the early hours of the morning and come back right before or during dark, they might already have some kind of community based food infrastructure going on. I didn’t see anything of any boats coming into the river tonight except for that canoe that didn’t pass us by; I haven’t seen anything going out. Unless a few of those bigger boats still have gas in them, the only vessel I saw that would reach the Gulf and back today outside of those park runabouts or tender boats as they call them sometimes, was that big sailboat we saw moored at that big mansion. Could be they were using that to go out and fish with from what you told me about the way the grass is tramped down into trails between the two houses, it doesn’t make any sense to me. Well I’m not going to ponder it too much more tonight, I say we get up in the morning when the birds start chirping and either leave out of here before dawn puts its light on the water or we hang around to see who is coming sailing by. Sam thought as Lori watched him moving his foot around nervously looking to the left and the right of this big channel that they were on.

  “So it’s going to be sail out early or sail out late?” Lori asked looking at Sam who was barely seen in the moonlit night.

  “Wall I don’t mind too much sailing out early when the birds chirp. Matter of fact if you’re up for it, we could get a couple hours snooze and break camp and get on the boat. That moon is pretty dang bright tonight and it looks like we have clear water so I’m not too much worried about us hitting something like I was back on the river before we came in here.” Sam offered.

  “Well I agree we’ve got some visibility but I think I still need to remind you how many times we like to got lost trying to find our way this far!” Lori cautioned.

  “Yes, Lori, you are right, that’s a big consideration. Let’s go back and look at the map again and see if we can guesstimate where the heck we are at.” Sam said walking back toward the hammocks shining his key light at the ground in spite of the moonlight in order to escape the creepy crawlies that might greet them on the way.

  “Ooo Lori, I don’t know about this. This map, this highway road map that is, just shows outlines of all this water around here and except for relying on that alarm clock and how far we travel today, if we are on the right branch, I’m guessing right here but all these twists and turns my mind is too fuzzy about to recognize. Look at the scale of the map, baby, that is a huge expanse of water when you got that many miles and traveling this close to the shorelines. Yea, in two places so far, I couldn’t see to the other side of this thing. You remember every time we hit one of those big expanses and I questioned you as to whether we should go left or right or straight and you had to consult the compass to try to guesstimate what the best direction was instead of going forward?” Lori asked noticing just how far you can go in many directions in that formerly new but tattered map Sam was shining his light on. Between Sam and Lori sweating on it trying to read it together and then the wet environment it was daily subjected to, the map appeared to be disintegrating at a faster rate than they could read it almost and it had to be treated gingerly because they had no way with them to shield it from the elements other than stuffing it in the dry bag. Unfortunately, the morning dew had gotten it once by being left out of the dry bag and Sam had accidently set it once upon the console when it was still damp and it got stored back in the bag without being thoroughly dried out and suffered greatly.

  “Well you’re right, we could sail for miles of open water, it looks like we’re there but we’re not and we could end up in quite a few places we hadn’t planned on. I’m not much good at this coastal/ marsh/estuary/bay flow and ebb of the tides but my non nautical scientific mind says that if we ride the tide out, we’re going to the ocean. Now I don’t know what time that will be but if we go off this clock over here I marked on my book we had incoming tide about six hours ago. I’m not quite sure of how this is suppose to work but my best guesstimation is the tide will be going out in the next three hours. So if we are going to try to surf out of here and use that for direction in the dark, we aren’t going to get as much shut eye or we can stay up if you want to.” Sam stated in a quandary as to what the best option would be.

  “In this moonlight, we will be visible to anyone looking out.” Lori stated watching the moonlight ripple on the waves.

  “What do you mean by that, Lori?”

  “I mean if anyone is up with the fires and they look this way as we leave out, they will see us pretty clearly because of the moonlight.” Lori said trying to picture how bright they would be on the water.

  “I think we would be more of a dark
silhouette and hopefully we don’t have anything to worry about anyway because we pulled in here to the bank before dark and if anybody could see us from across the channel, they already know we’re here and scoped us out. We didn’t even have any idea anybody was over there until we saw that fire burning over there tonight. I know I for one didn’t give it but a brief glance and even with the binoculars if we had bothered to study everything we passed today, don’t really know if what houses were actually occupied and which weren’t.” Sam sat down still trying to figure out how many people in this waterfront community could be still hanging on and subsisting just fine in spite of the grid being down. Most likely, quite a few of them. It doesn’t take much to insure you get a catfish on a trotline or a better tasting brackish water fish to get by in spite of not being seen by any passing boaters like themselves. Could be everyone still living here, could be only half of a population because a lot of retirees or others are missing their meds; no telling. It dang sure wasn’t like living on the end of that dirt road where they came from with small acreage and low game count but not near as bad as the sterile cities not having any natural woods to hunt in or rivers to fish. Of course, Sam could argue that point with you to the nth degree because he had proven many times when he was younger and the state didn’t license the hell out of catching and trapping so-called “nuisance animals” like a possum or such with a hell of a fine if you were caught doing it and say it’s on Mama’s backyard, to prove that oftentimes there is more game in the city living the easy life than trying to find food in the country. Animals are adaptable; and small living in the country don’t beat big living in the city when there are tasty treats to be found and garbage cans to raid. Housing in cities for animals is always easier for animals to find warm nice places in than it is in the cold woods that is of course unless you are next to a nice field of corn or a farmer’s barn full of feed grain.