Dangerous Shores: Book Three; The End of the Road

by Christine Conaway

  “Alan maybe you can go up on the head-walk and watch for anyone headed this way. And don’t confront them just get back here on the double.”

  Alan was happy to keep watch. His mouth still tasted like diesel from the last jug. He never failed to swallow at least a taste. He scanned the area from the top of the berm separating the marina from the parking lot. He studied each abandoned car and the buildings across the road. To him, it looked like everyone had just left. Windows were left open and car doors too. The street light at the intersection remained dark; cars sitting as if waiting for the light to change. He wondered with all of the cars, what had happened to the bodies. There were so many abandoned cars; the people had to have gone somewhere. He couldn’t imagine how people had felt after the lights went out. Had they panicked or simply climbed out of their cars and walked home? Had they ended up joining gangs to survive or had they reached their homes only to get sick and die?

  On the hill far to the west he could see the mansions of the well to do. Spanish style adobes with tile roofs, long driveways up probably to a gated community he thought. Had they survived any better than the people in the smaller communities of the working class? Had their money bought them immunity from the horrors others had to have faced, or were they hunkered down in their private sanctuaries alone and afraid, or were they all dead too? He wished he knew. Sometimes he wondered if Ellen was right. For a time, she had speculated on her conspiracy theory and after they arrived at Garden Key and meeting the Major he was convinced she might have a valid point. Since they had seen no sign of an invading army, he wondered if the guy had simply lost it and was envisioning his own rise to greatness. Or maybe he was as loony as a bat. For some unshakeable reason that idea didn’t feel right.

  He was sitting staring up at the hills when he felt the end of a gun barrel pressing into his back. He hadn’t heard or sensed he was in danger, just like the last time he had put his life in jeopardy. He didn’t turn to see who was behind him; he just raised his hands. He remained facing the hills his hands in the air for several minutes until he heard Frank laugh from behind him. He dropped his hands and turned. He felt his face flush in embarrassment.

  “That’s twice. Next time it may be the last time. I don’t want to have to explain to Hannah or Ellen how you got yourself killed.” Frank’s voice had remained level, but if you weren’t looking at him, you could imagine him forcing the words from between clenched teeth. “I don’t know how else I can make you see that you can’t sit and daydream. You can’t sleep. You have to be on guard at all times. You better decide to make this a life choice right now or you won’t make it. Next time it won’t be me who walks up on you. It’ll be the bad guys and he’ll either shoot you or as pretty as you are he’ll make you his bitch and you’ll wish you were dead.”

  Alan knew Frank was right. Two times Frank had come to his rescue. He didn’t even have words to defend his actions. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t tell me you’re sorry. Tell it to your sorry ass the next time you decide to daydream. I am only going to say this one time, so hear me…If your daydreaming hurts either one of those girls, you won’t have to worry about getting killed by anyone else but me.”

  Alan stopped walking and looked at Frank. “You’d kill me?”

  “Try it and see. I don’t know what else I can say that will open your mind so my words will sink in. Those three girls back there on the boat are depending on us to keep them safe. If you’re walking around with your head up your ass and something happens to one of them…You may as well kiss it goodbye.”

  “But nothing happened. I didn’t see anyone.” He didn’t see why Frank was making such a big deal out of it.

  “This time nothing happened but what about next time, or the time after that? Scratch that, we don’t get second chances. You’re either dead or alive, there’s no in between. It’s all about being aware of your surroundings at all times. If I was a bad guy you would already be dead.”

  They walked back to the dock in silence. Frank hoped his words had sunk in. Alan wasn’t a bad guy, he just needed to wake up. If he didn’t he wouldn’t live to see Olivia grow up let alone be much of a father to Hannah’s baby. Besides, it would be up to him to have to take the news to them if Alan got himself killed. Frank knew he was the one who would bear the brunt of their anger, because sure enough they would hold him responsible for Alan’s life or lack of it. He knew he’d been rough on the kid, but he didn’t know how else to impress upon him the need to pay attention.

  “Look, I was a little over zealous back there. I don’t know how else to put it to make you see. It will take all of us to get to Ellen’s farm.”

  Alan considered his words. It wasn’t an apology, but it was probably about as close as he would ever get from Frank. He vowed then and there, there wouldn’t be a need for them to have this conversation again.

  “I guess I’m not going to hear the end of this am I?”

  Frank laughed, “You won’t hear another word from me on the subject, unless I happen to be throwing dirt in your face when I have to bury you. And trust me…it isn’t something I want to ever have to do.”

  Alan joined him, but he didn’t feel like laughing. The picture of Frank covering him in dirt did not appeal to him at all. The way he’d acted back there all safe and snug because he hadn’t seen anyone. He did understand that unless he changed his ways regarding his own safety and theirs, it could very well become a reality.

  “Don’t dwell on it. Learn from it and we’ll all be fine.”

  They walked back to where Robert stood guard by three loaded dock carts.

  Chapter Twelve - Will it run or not?

  When they heard the first shot, Margret flinched and Ellen looked in the direction she thought it had come from. The way the hills surrounded the area, she couldn’t be sure exactly where because of the echo. It sounded small to her uneducated ears, but the second shot had been much louder but no way to tell where it had come from either.

  “That wasn’t close, so we can’t worry about it until proven otherwise. In the meantime, if you’ll keep watch I’ll see about your motor. Maybe we can find a way to make it run.”

  “It’s really not my motor. We don’t own this boat. We’ve been moving from boat to boat as the supplies on board ran out. Robert picked this boat to steal, because it was small and he thought we could sail home. But neither of us knows how to sail,” she confessed. “We only have a powered skiff, that we use for fishing.”

  “I can see where that could be a small problem. If I can get this motor running it could get you home.”

  She realized she didn’t know where home was for them and wondered how far they had to go. She hollered up, “Where is home for you?”

  “Cutten, but no one knows where that is so we always say Eureka. Northern California.”

  “So that’s what, six or seven hundred miles from here?”

  Ellen came up from inside the small boat wiping her hands on a rag. “There is no reason that motor can’t run. It took me a while to find the crank for it, but when they guys get back we’ll give it a try.”

  Margaret sank to the cockpit seat, “You can’t know how much it would mean to me to go home.”

  “Yes I can. That has been my intention from the start.”

  Once it had been determined by Ellen that they were in no danger from Margret or Dana, Hannah had gone back to the Annie-C to check on Olivia taking Dana with her.

  “Robert wanted to start walking last week after the cleaning crew went by, but he was worried someone would see us.”

  “The cleaning crew? Who the heck are they?”

  “From the ships, or at least that’s where we thought they came from. At first Robert was happy to see uniforms until he realized they weren’t any of ours. They went through those apartment buildings over there and from the sounds of it, they killed everyone they found alive. The ones who tried to escape, they just lined them up and executed them right there on the street. When they w
ere done, they stacked them up like cordwood and burned them.”

  Tears began to roll down her cheeks at the memory. She wiped at them with the palm of her hand. “Sorry, I can’t get that image out of my head. Women and children, it didn’t matter to the soldiers. There weren’t many left in the buildings, but they gathered the bodies from the cars too.”

  “Ships? Maybe you better start from the beginning. You lost me at the cleaning crew.” Ellen waited while Margret gathered her thoughts staring to the west where the top floors of condominium’s or apartments lined the street in both directions. Some windows were open, curtains hanging limp in the openings. Others had the glass broken out completely while others were smudged black around the window frames, suggesting fire. The building on the south end had suffered the most. It looked as if someone had dropped a hand grenade or two into it. The roof had partially fallen in to the upper floor and the bricks looked charred. The whole picture looked like a ghost town, abandoned. She could almost picture an empty Pepsi cup rolling down the street if the wind had been blowing.

  Finally, Margret began to speak, “A month ago, four naval ships and a freighter went past. They were out quite a way but you could still see they were military from all the big guns on deck, all except for the freighter. Robert thought they would put in at the navy base in San Diego. A week later he climbed on his bike and pedaled all the way there. He was gone a week and when he returned he acted scared. He didn’t say anything but you could tell something had happened that frightened him. That’s when he said we had to leave and try to get home. For the past two weeks we’ve been going through all the boats gathering anything we can use as well as trying to find one that would start.”

  They both heard the clang as the gate on the head-walk slammed closed.

  Chapter Thirteen - An unexpected swim.

  Ellen turned to face the gate and Margret moved as if to climb into the cockpit. The way the boats were situated prevented them from seeing the gate but the squeak of ungreased wheels moving their direction had both women looking for somewhere to hide. Margret waved her hand at Ellen. “Come in here,” she whispered and pointed at her boat. Ellen mouthed the word no and pointed up, hoping Margret would understand what she meant.

  Ellen crept to the boat. She worried that if they climbed on it their weight would make the mast sway catching unwanted attention as it has hers. She held one finger up and waved it back and forth while looking up the mast.

  Margret nodded her head in understanding. They could both see their only option was to slip into the water off the end of the dock and to do it as silently and with a little motion as they could.

  Without words Ellen sat on the dock, turned on to her stomach and slid silently into the water followed by Margaret. Ellen saw that Margaret was as shocked by the cold water as she was and almost laughed at the grimace of pain she wore. Ellen reached under the dock and found the plumbing for the docks water system. With hand signals she explained to Margret what they needed to do. Margret nodded and they sank under the water to get under the dock.

  They were hanging off of the plastic pipes that connected to the water faucet at each boat.

  Had their situation not been so perilous, they would have both been giggling. Nerves were playing on both of them and their situation made the impulse to laugh almost uncontrollable.

  Margret began to shiver and her lips were getting a blue cast to them.

  “Grandma? Grandma where are you?”

  “Oh my God Dana,” Margret exclaimed and looked about obviously try to see a way back up.

  “Dana, go back with Hannah.” Ellen said trying not to yell but loud enough to make the girl hear her.

  “Is my Grandma with you?” Ellen could see the bottoms of Dana’s feet showing through the cracks in the dock boards. She was standing almost over top of them.

  Before she could tell Dana to go back or get on their boat the girl said, “But Grandma, Daddy is coming back and he has two men with him.”

  As if they had planned it, Ellen looked at Margret, her hair hung dripping in her eyes and her chin was shaking with the shivers. She saw the same expression on Margret’s face that she knew she must have worn. They burst into laughter.

  “Mom?”

  “Ellen?”

  The two voices were coming from right over their heads. They looked up and both saw several pairs of feet. A blue eye peered through one of the wider cracks. Ellen splashed water up at the offending eye.

  “Hey! What was that for?” Alan knelt back rubbing the salt water from his eye. “Why are you even down there?”

  Ellen swam out from under the dock and helped Margret out. She looked up at Frank, Alan, Dana and a tall dark skinned man, obviously Dana’s father.

  “Are you going to just stand there or are you going to help us out?”

  Frank reached down and plucked Ellen out of the water as if she weighed nothing. “I don’t even want to know what you two were doing under there.”

  They used a little more care with Margret, but soon had her on the dock. Hannah came up with two huge beach towels. She threw one in Ellen’s direction and wrapped the other around Margret. She began to walk Margret toward the boat. “You need to get out of those wet clothes.”

  Margret walked with her for only a couple short steps then stopped and burst into tears. Through her sobs Hannah was able to make out her words. “I don’t have any clothes.”

  “Well we do and I bet we can find some to fit you. Come on with me.” She looked at Ellen who was standing dripping all over the dock. “You need some dry clothes too.”

  “Yes Mom,” Ellen turned and followed Hannah and Margret back to the Annie-C.

  “I’ll be right back.” Ellen said on her way past Frank.

  Frank watched them walk away, “That almost sounded like a threat.”

  “Yeah, well I notice you didn’t say it loud enough for her to hear you.” Alan remarked. At a glare from Frank he decided with the mistakes he’d already made that day, he would let it go. “Do you want me to put the fuel in the tank or on deck?”

  “Go ahead and fill the tank and give them to me. I’m going back to the trawler and refill them. This is one thing we won’t find a ready supply off.”

  He turned and looked at the Newport that Robert had picked out from the rest to claim for himself. He could immediately understand why he had chosen her. She was a sweet looking ride, other than needing a good scrubbing. She was small enough for two novices to handle and she had a full complement of sails. The dinghy lying bottom up on top of the house looked like it was new.

  “Did you look at the motor yet? It’s diesel right?”

  “I think so, but we haven’t figured out how to start it. It doesn’t have a starter button or switch that I can find. There’s a key, but nothing happens when it’s turned.”

  “Frank, I don’t want you to think I’m a coward by not staying and fighting these guys. I took it seriously when I joined the navy, but what can I do alone? There’s no one else left here. I went down to Diego to the navy base when we saw the ships but I swear to you, as sure as you’re standing here, those were not American soldiers. I don’t know where they came from, but I swear they aren’t ours.”

  “You went to San Diego? Were there any of our guys there? We left Panama with a boat load of American soldiers. They were headed for the base.”

  “The ships were all I saw. You can’t believe how many soldiers they had on that freighter, and the equipment they were unloading. I don’t know what one man could do to stop them.”

  “If it wouldn’t put my friends in jeopardy I would go down and have a look.”

  “I want to get Mom and Dana home first and foremost. Where we go from there, I don’t know. It has to be safer than here. At least at home we have food and firepower. Here I have this,” He showed the pistol to Frank.

  Frank took it from Rob, inspected it and laughed. He shook his head in disgust, “This is a Spanish pocket pistol. Where did you get it? It sh
ouldn’t even be considered a gun.”

  Robert laughed, “I know but when it’s all you have it’s better than nothing, and I found it in that big Carver on the other side.” He laughed and added, “It was hidden on a bulkhead in one of those shadowbox frames. Like it was a piece of art. I tore that boat apart looking for the shells for it. I found a box of fifty and about half of them were gone.”

  “Your Mom and Dana are going to stay with Hannah and Olivia until we get this boat of yours running.” Ellen said as she climbed aboard and went below. She had changed into a dry shorts and tee-shirt and wished she’d put long pants on. The colder water of the Pacific had chilled her to the bone. She figured getting the motor started would warm her up.

  Robert looked at Frank and Alan, “Can she…?”

  “She thinks she can do anything.” Frank said.

  “I heard that Frank! Just shut up.”

  Frank climbed aboard to see what she was doing. Anything mechanical was out of his line of expertise, not that he hadn’t tried to learn, it simply hadn’t stuck. Her being mechanically minded was one of her characteristics he found appealing.

  Frank stuck his head in the companion way opening to see what she was doing besides talking to herself.

  The front of the steps was missing and Ellen was squatted down in front of the motor. She had removed a pan off of the front of the motor and had a crank handle hooked on the end of the crankshaft.

  She pushed a lever back on the top, “Okay, pressure release off. Now what?” Her eyes travelled over the motor and she added, “Okay, now we crank.” She turned the handle and the motor turned over. She kept turning the crank until it was turning quickly. With her left hand she switched the lever back in place allowing the compression to take over.