Dangerous Shores: Book Three; The End of the Road

by Christine Conaway

  Matt went up to a tan colored building and rapped on the door. The windows had been painted black and there was no seeing inside. The door opened and they filed in behind Matt. The warmth hit them like a sledge hammer and they all began unbuttoning and zipping. The difference from inside to out was remarkable.

  “Where do you get the heat from?” Alan asked. He couldn’t fathom how good it felt to be warm. “My God, would Hannah and the girls like this.”

  Ellen had taken her jacket off and tied it around her waist. “I wish we had of been more sure of the reception and brought them with us. It would have been a great opportunity for the girls to get off the boat. They’ve been locked up for a long time.”

  Matt opened another door and stood aside so they could enter ahead of him. Frank hesitated and encouraged Matt to go first.

  “Don’t trust much do you,” Matt said loud enough that only Frank heard him.

  “Nope and neither would you.”

  Matt chuckled softly. “You got that right. I’m a good judge of character and you folks seem okay to me.”

  “You can’t trust everybody though. You got lucky with us. May not happen next time.”

  “We’ve made a couple mistakes but we learn as we go. When we can’t offer our hospitality to folks who show up right after a blizzard and offer them warmth and a hot bowl of soup, then I guess there is no point in being here.”

  Matt had removed his coat, hat and shoes and walked to where several people were sitting on pillows in front of an old fashioned potbellied stove. The room must have been the main dining area of a restaurant and all of the identical tables were lined up around the outer edges of the room.

  From somewhere came the aroma of fresh baked bread and the soup that Matt had mentioned.

  Frank put his hand on Matt’s shoulder. “Matt are you sure our boat is secure at the marina?”

  “I’m positive no one will bother it unless they come in by the water. You see that fence down there? So far you are the first people we’ve seen in weeks and we knew eventually you would show up here. Or maybe not. The radio didn’t say for sure. We suspected you wouldn’t get into Neah Bay. We tried going there by road and were turned away.”

  “You’re right there. They fired a shot at us and we left. No sense going where we aren’t wanted.”

  “They fired on you? That can’t be. They lost all of their firearms too. We had some contact with them up until a couple of weeks ago. When we tried to take them some beef they were either in hiding or gone.”

  “Well they aren’t gone anymore.”

  “What you don’t understand is all those people out there are Native Americans. They have been back to the basics of life for longer than this thing has been going on. Whoever took that shot at you wasn’t them.”

  “Well I guess we’ll never know. When we leave here we’ll head right up to…well crap. We’re just heading north.”

  “Don’t blame you if I was going somewhere else I wouldn’t say where either. However, while you’re here you may want to try our radio. Let those other people know where you are. We can’t talk direct to them but there’s a guy up Arlington way who reaches out farther than we can. You might get a message passed on up there.”

  “Well you’re right we wouldn’t mind sending a message if we could. But first and seeing as you have assured me the boat will be safe on the dock, I’d like to send the boys down and get our girls off the boat and bring them up here. I figure they are about frozen by now.”

  “Oh Lord, you have more people and you left them out in the cold? Shame on you. Of course they’re welcome to come up. The ladies have enough food fixed for an army.”

  “Rob, do you want to go with me back to the boat. We’re going to bring the girls up. Give the kids some time off the boat.”

  “I’ll go too!” Alan announced. “Just let me grab my things.”

  Five minutes later they were on their way back to the boat. Rob and Alan walked side by side with Frank walking behind. They passed a gray cement building.

  Alan stuck his head in the door. “Hey! Can you guys wait for me?” His voice echoed and sounded like he was talking from inside an empty room.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Wait a minute.” He said. “You aren’t going to believe this. Listen!”

  To their surprise the heard the unmistakable sound of a toilet flushing.

  Rob and Frank looked at each other. Both wore a huge grin.

  “Aw, the sound of modern conveniences. I believe I will take a pause too.”

  Alan came walking around the side of the building with a bucket in his hand. “I wonder where they get the water from?”

  Frank pointed to a visible worn path down to the water edge. “I would think right there.”

  They had been reduced to using a bucket for the toilet and throwing it overboard. Ellen had called it the bucket and chuck it method. Paper products went into a metal bucket and were burned when needed.

  Ellen had a black water tank, but not the ability to pump it out. The macerator was electric and she had not thought to have a spare because she had just replaced the tank and the unit. They had all agreed they didn’t want to travel with a full holding tank. Especially after Ellen told them how bad they smelled if they weren’t pumped out on a regular basis.

  They finished with the bathroom and headed back down the dock. They were talking and laughing about their lives in general. Alan and Rob thought having a real bathroom was something they were looking forward to until Frank burst their bubble with talk of an outhouse.

  They expected to see Maggie and Hannah sitting huddled in the cockpit or at least one of them. The cockpit was empty.

  He began to run his feet thumping on the dock. Rob nor Alan knew why he was running. They followed behind at a jog.

  “Hannah! Maggie?” Frank bellowed. “Girls!” He jumped down into the boat expecting to see them below.

  The hatch and doors had been left open. The girls were gone.

  He went down the ladder his eyes searching for any kind of a clue. He saw nothing out of place except the doors being left open and the boat was as cold inside as out. He turned and went back up the ladder and sank to the seat.

  “They’re gone.”

  Chapter Thirty-three - It’s not your fault!

  “They can’t be. They wouldn’t leave the boat. Hannah!”

  “Alan, don’t touch anything, but go down and see if you can tell what if anything is missing.”

  Alan went down and stood in the galley looking around. The girls must have been sitting at the table coloring. One of Ellen’s notebooks was laying closed on the table with a noticeable hump in the middle of it. Someone had left a crayon in the fold when they closed it. Other crayons lay scattered on the table top. Alan almost set the book aside without looking at. Something made him flip it open. He almost disregarded the drawing until he noticed a stick figure had been drawn in the middle of a picture of flowers. The number 3 was written beside the figure.

  He grabbed the book off the table knocking crayons to the floor. His eyes darted around to see what else could be missing. He threw the aft cabin door open just to make sure. The girls had made their bed and nothing was amiss but their jackets were missing from the hooks on the wall.

  “Frank take a look at this. I think three men took them.”

  He handed the notebook to Frank. Rob hunched close to Frank to see what Alan was talking about. They didn’t see until Alan pointed out the small stick figure and number. It was written in the same color as the flower one of them had been coloring and didn’t stand out.

  “Okay. Good someone was using their head. We know that at least three people came and took them. The question is where.”

  Alan jumped onto the dock. He began to stride up and down with his eyes glued to the dock.

  “What are you doing? We need to come up with a plan to get them back not pace like an old woman.”

  “Really Frank? I could ask why you’re just s
itting there on your ass. Do you think that’s going to get them back?”

  Rob stepped in, “Shouldn’t we be focused on figuring out who took them and where they went instead of all this name calling?”

  “Sorry you’re right. We know they were taken off the dock so maybe we can track them.”

  “How do we know that? Maybe they they’re on another boat. We weren’t gone that long.”

  Frank saw that Rob could be right. “Rob you start on one side and I’ll go the other way. Alan, go back up and get the girls and anyone else who wants to help us.” Alan just stood there staring off down the shore. “Alan! Go get the girls!”

  Alan started up the dock at a jog. He kept looking off to his right as if he could somehow spot them.

  When he had checked all of the boats on his side, Frank waited for Rob to jog back to the gate. Frank knew Rob had found nothing. His shoulders were slumped and he ran without energy. Then Frank remembered that whoever it was had taken both his mother and his daughter.

  He clapped Rob on the back, “We’ll find them. I swear if anything bad has happened whoever did it will pay.”

  He looked Frank in the eye, “Damn right they will.”

  Rob headed in the direction of their boat. Alan hadn’t returned yet so Frank followed. While he didn’t know where Alan had got to, he did know what Rob was up to. Before he reached the boat he heard running feet on the dock. A glance over his shoulder confirmed Ellen and Alan followed by several other people were headed his way.

  Rob had the duffel containing their long guns. He grabbed the Ar-15 and slid his arm through the strap. He looked up to see Alan about to claim it as his. Rob stared until Alan looked down. Frank already had his shotgun and was filling his pocket with shells.

  Alan grabbed the first rifle he had used in the Tortugas. He hoped he remembered everything he had learned the first time. Ellen had gotten her shotgun out from under the settee cushions. Matt was standing there with one of the hand guns Frank had traded him. Behind him was another man of an undetermined age as well as a younger woman. Both were armed with guns from the bag.

  Frank stepped in front of Matt. “You said there were only old people and young people. Who would take our women and girls? Where would they take them?”

  “Trust me when I say this. It wasn’t anyone here. We would have no reason. I’ve been giving thought to what you said about getting shot at in Neah Bay. A month ago we had some people come in and try to take over. We lost a good majority of our people that day, but we did run them off.”

  “You think it was the same people out there? What about the ones who live there?”

  “You have to understand; the Makah are a gentle people who have little more than the bare necessities. Their only income is tourists and fishing. It wasn’t them, but if the guys we ran off went out there, I think they would find little resistance.”

  “How do we get there?”

  Matt pointed up the road. “That way to highway 101 then take Washington 112. It’s 70 miles.”

  “They can’t have much of a head start. We weren’t gone longer than two hours so they can’t have gotten far.”

  He looked at his shipmates. “Are we ready to do this?”

  He saw there would be no stopping Rob or Alan and Ellen had already turned to leave. She flung over her shoulder, “We’re losing daylight so let’s go.”

  She was right the sun was sitting on the horizon and they would soon be travelling in the dark. He could only hope the ones who had taken the girls did not have transportation either. He counted on Olivia and Dana slowing them down if they were on foot.

  Frank hurried to catch up with Ellen. She had her head down and was stomping along as if she was mad about something. He thought he knew her well enough to know what was bugging her.

  He caught up and grabbed her arm to stop her. She shrugged it off and kept going.

  “It’s not your fault.”

  She took a few steps more and then stopped. She turned and glared at him. “You’re right! This time it’s not my fault. We left them alone on the boat! It’s our fault those girls are out there right now. Who knows what is happening to them.”

  Her words broke up and Frank put his arm around her. “It’s no one’s fault. If it’s anybody’s it’s theirs. They were armed and should have done something to let us know something was wrong.”

  “I’m scared for them. This is the first time since leaving I am really scared. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to any one of them.” She stopped walking and looked at Frank. “We have to get them back! If they’ve touched those little girls or Hannah in any way…I will kill all of them.”

  “I’ll help you. Now let’s go.”

  “That’s my daughter and my Mother out there or did you two forget?” Robbie had caught up to them and heard every word they exchanged. “Do you really think we can sneak up on anyone with a noisy bunch of old people? I think only the four of us should go. We are vested in the rescue and they are not. I don’t feel good about involving them.”

  “Rob, I’m sorry, neither of us meant to exclude you. We weren’t thinking. Your Mom means as much to us as you do. We want all of them back and unharmed.”

  They stopped and waited for Alan and the three people from the restaurant to catch up. Rob was right, Matt the oldest was huffing as he drew closer. Of the other two people with him the man looked exhausted already and they had climbed only a slight incline. The woman, while she seemed to be in better health than the other two, looked cold. They were not equipped to be out in the weather and the guns that they had received in their trade would do little to help protect them even if they knew how to use them.

  Frank began, “As much as we’d like you people to go, I think it would behoove us for you to stay behind. You’re going to need the ammunition we gave you to defend yourself maybe sometime in the future. We don’t have any more to replace it. So, we think it would be safer for all of us if you stay behind.”

  Matt started to protest their decision, but you could see when he realized they were right. His shoulders slumped and his hands dropped to his side. He looked back at them, “Well I hope you know we would have gone with you. As much as I hate to admit this, but I’m getting too old to be traipsing 80 miles in this cold. We’ll be waiting when you get back here. Is there anything you need me to do that I can do from here? Maybe look after the boat for you?”

  Frank put his hand on Matt’s shoulder. “Watching the boat would be a great help. It’s our only transportation to where we are going and I’d hate to find it gone or destroyed when we get back.”

  “You got it young man. Now go bring those girls back here and be careful.” At the idea of staying behind his upright posture had returned and he wore a smile on his face. He placed his arm around the woman’s shoulder and off they went back down the hill.

  Ellen watched them for a minute. The three crowded together maybe finding warmth in walking close or maybe it was to present a united front to anyone watching them.

  “That’s the kind of people we’re going to need around us. I can’t imagine not having good people around.” She sighed and her breath showed as a cloud of vapor concealing her face. “Let’s get out of here.”

  They made the right hand turn on to highway 101 and continued for several miles. When 101 veered away they continued on Washington 112.

  Frank who had led them in silence held his hand up to stop. He studied the road in front of them. Even in the fading light they could see where people had made scuffs in the skim of ice on the road. The snow that had fallen earlier had dried with the frozen air, blown to the shoulder of the road and caught in the weeds and grass on the berm. At regular intervals someone had either dragged a foot or scuffed the frozen snow. The trail was easy to follow.

  They knew whoever had taken the girls prisoner had only a 2-hour head start, but they didn’t know if they’d possibly left the road and holed up somewhere or if they had another mode of transportation. They ha
dn’t seen any tire tracks or shoe prints from a horse. They could have driven or rode on the bare side of the pavement. All they had to guide them was the scuffed snow on the shoulder. Those had progressively gotten farther apart and then stopped.

  After a couple miles Rob who now led the group stopped in the road. He waited for the others to catch up. He stomped his feet and rubbed his hands together in an effort to return some feeling to them.

  “Do you think they stopped somewhere and we missed them?”

  Ellen answered, “I think it is more likely whoever was leaving the trail was either picked up and carried or they were caught doing it and were forced out to the center of the road.”

  Alan had continued past them, not stopping. There were no longer continuous houses lining the road. An assortment of tall evergreens grew close to the shoulder of the road interspersed by openings to small pastures and overgrown two-track roads. The road had narrowed and soon they were seeing caution signs advising drivers of the 20 and 30 mile an hour corners. It was impossible to see more than a half mile in front of them.

  Frank, Ellen and Rob shared a drink from the water bottle that Ellen had kept in an inside pocket to keep it from freezing solid. She thought they had been walking for at least four maybe five hours. Rob and Frank agreed.

  “Do you realize we can’t get there in a day? Or even by tomorrow even if we don’t stop and rest. We’ll be dead on our feet when we do arrive.”

  Rob was standing with his head down and he looked very much like he was asleep on his feet.

  “Rob?” She touched his arm. “Are you okay?” then she saw his lips were moving. “Sorry.”

  He finished his prayer and looked up. “It’s okay. I didn’t figure a prayer could hurt. Right now I’m ready to try anything. I feel like we are not doing enough to get them back.”

  “What else can we do? We have to find them first and walking is the only way we have of getting where we think they’re going. If it hadn’t been for the scuffs on the side of the road back there, I wouldn’t be sure we were headed the right way at all.”