by Damon Novak
We were several docks away from where the altercation happened, so I figured it was safe enough. All the noise that might attract anything had come from where we’d been, not where we were.
I took the chance and dropped down to the dock, makin’ quick work of the lines – properly tied for a change.
I tossed both lines back up over the railin’ and jumped back on board. Runnin’ back to the steps, I took ‘em two at a time and dropped back into the captain’s chair.
“CB, Danny’s on his boat!” said Lilly.
“Are his mom and dad with him?”
“He hates texting like you do, so his answers are hardly more than a word.” Her eyes did a funny thing they do when she’s holdin’ back on me.
“What?” I asked. “What’d he say?”
She blushed. Actually full-face blushed. “He said he loved me.”
My eyebrows went up. “Man, this relationship is developin’ fast,” I said. “You love him?”
She nodded quickly. “Jesus, I think so, CB. He’s coming back.” Her smile said all I needed to know. I hugged my sister then. “That’s great, Lil.”
“I didn’t think I’d ever see him again,” she said, breaking the embrace and squeezing my arm.
“How far out is he?”
“Just off Naples. So, within an hour.”
I was really happy to hear my old buddy was okay, but I had other concerns. “Fantastic,” I said. “How’s your leg?”
“It didn’t break the skin,” said Georgina. “Just red, but not even teeth marks.”
“Thank God,” I muttered, as the bow of the boat slipped out and I turned the wheel until we pointed west. I gave it throttle, and we motored toward the fuel dock.
As I reached the turn-in, I pulled the throttle back into neutral and waited for a few minutes. The water that had been movin’ like a boilin’ pot was back to its normal amount of chop. I didn’t know how long that would remain true once we pulled in. I hoped those croc monsters had headed out to bloodier pastures.
The good part was, the pumps were on the left side of the dock, not the right side where we’d had all the turmoil before. I was glad, ‘cause that big, dead croc wasn’t goin’ anywhere, and with those massive teeth hangin’ over its jaws, it was scary just sittin’ there.
“Is it clear?” asked Lilly. Now Terry, Liam, and Roxy all came in. None of them sat; they all stood, their eyes scannin’ all around our boat.
“What’s going on?” asked Terry. “Did you get the fuel?”
I guessed he wasn’t aware of the plan. “Nope. I’m gonna pull the boat right in there, use the thrusters to keep the boat left, and we’ll figure out how to get the pumps goin’. Lilly, you said there’s still power?”
“Yeah, the backlights were on inside the pump.”
“Anyone got a credit card?” I asked.
“I do, if mom charged it up for me.”
“It’s a pre-paid,” said Georgie. “And yes, when I got off work the day that black rain started, I went onto my bank’s website and put $500 on it.”
“So, there’s still around $400,” she said, pulling it from her bag.
I’m so used to seein’ women with purses, I didn’t even notice she was carryin’ it when we’d rescued her. It’s crazy how women will cling to their purses in the biggest of disasters.
“I’m goin’ in now,” I said. “Lilly, Georgie, when I get us up against the dock, go down and move the lines to the port side cleats, then toss ‘em to the dock. When you get it, radio me and I’ll cut the motor and run down.”
“Want me to jump out and tie it off?” asked Lilly.
“No!” I shouted, louder than I meant to.
“CB!” scolded Lilly.
Shakin’ my head, I said, “Sorry. It’s just that I’ll do it, is all. But Lilly, you handled that DP-12 already. Grab Roxy, Terry and Georgie and arm ‘em with the other shotguns from our stock. While I’m down there tyin’ us off, I want all of you at the rail, aimin’ down at the water. Anything pops up, you kill it.”
“What if it’s a Navy Seal?” asked Liam, his expression serious. I had to check to be sure.
I shook my head, forcin’ a smile. “It won’t be a Seal.”
“How do you know?” he asked. “They’re badass.”
“Then we’ll give over control to them and let someone else take care of all of us,” I said. “Assumin’ it don’t involve a concentration camp or some kinda quarantine.”
“What do you concentrate on?” asked Liam.
“Huh?”
“In concentration camps.”
“I’ll explain later, bud.”
“So, just so we’re clear,” said Terry. “If it’s a Navy Seal, don’t shoot.”
“I like a crew that listens,” I said. “Go get your guns while I get us in position.”
Ω
Once everyone had shotguns in hand, Lilly and the others went below, where she went over how to brace ‘em on their shoulders, how to fire, and how to chamber a new shell. This was done without ammo. We didn’t need to call every gator, croc, and rotten piece of humanity to come runnin’ to us before I even got out there.
When they all came out, they left Nokosi shut in the main cabin, ‘cause we didn’t need her barkin’ like crazy if somethin’ went wrong.
They came back up top where I was just bumpin’ the thruster joysticks to move the Sea Ray to the left side of the slip, near the fuel pumps. The dead croc was stinkin’ to high Heaven on the opposite side.
“Okay, I’ll hold it here. You two get those dock lines to the other side and toss ‘em out. Just like we talked about.”
“Now?” asked Roxy, seemin’ kinda nervous.
“You got that credit card?” I asked her.
“Oh, sorry,” she said, reachin’ into her pocket and pullin’ it out. “It’s not a debit, so when you need the zip code, just ask and I’ll tell you.”
“Tell me now.”
“33124.”
“Yeah, I won’t remember that. Tell me when I’m down there. Everybody ready?”
They all raised their weapons.
“Okay, stay sharp. Liam, do me a favor and walk around the boat. Look for the fuel filler cap on the port side. Should look like a chrome circle, and it’ll say fuel on it.”
“Port?” he asked.
“Left,” I said. He nodded and ran down.
“And it’s a diesel, CB,” said Lilly.
I looked at her. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. I’ve been smelling it since we got on board. So use the card on the green pump.”
“Thanks.”
I drifted forward a bit more and engaged the thrusters, still tickled at how easy they were to use, and how damned easy they made docking a big-ass boat.
“I’m set. Toss the lines,” I said over the radio.
“They’re out, CB. Hurry up and you’ve got it.”
I ran down, and as my feet hit the deck, I heard Liam call, “Found it!”
“Good boy!” I said, headin’ right to the rail, opening the side hatch and jumpin’ down to the dock. Three shotgun barrels aimed down at the water.
Georgie said, “Liam, stay in the middle of the boat or go up to the flybridge.”
I quickly lashed the dock lines to the cleats, securin’ the boat. So far, nothin’ had come up from the water to attack.
“Hurry, CB,” said Lilly.
I slid the card from my pocket and stuck the chip end into the diesel pump’s card slot. It asked me for the zip code. “Zip?” I called, lookin’ up at Roxy.
“33124,” she said.
I punched the numbers in. LIFT HANDLE AND BEGIN FUELING came on the screen. I’m good at followin’ instructions, so I did just that.
The pump was fast, like so many marina pumps are. The numbers were rollin’ by, and I didn’t know if I’d be fillin’ that boat up or not.
The diesel was $3.05 per gallon, and I was already up to 110 gallons by the time I started to worry. I didn’t think t
he tank was halfway down yet, but it was startin’ to look like it.
“You almost done?” asked Georgie.
“I’m gonna max out the card before I fill it, it looks like.”
Just then it clicked. I looked at the read out. $381.25. I’d gotten 125 gallons on the button. I pulled out the nozzle, put the cap back on, and hooked it back to the pump.
“CB, heads up,” Lilly said, her voice a whisper.
I looked up at her and saw a man standing at the end of the dock, right where it hit the wider, main dock that led up to the marina stores and restaurants. He didn’t move. He just looked at me.
I pulled my .45 from my pants and held it up, my heart rate increasin’ by the second.
“You alive?” the man called.
I let out my breath, closed my eyes and said a quiet thank you to the powers that kept me from pullin’ that trigger when I drew it.
“Yeah,” I said. “Name’s Cole.”
“Saw you motor in,” he said. “Sun’s about to go down.” He spoke with a Hispanic accent of some kind. Might’ve been Mexican, but possibly Cuban.
He started walkin’ toward me and all four shotgun barrels swung his way. He stopped all of a sudden, sayin’, “I didn’t see you folks ‘til just now. I’m harmless.” He held up his hands.
I motioned to the girls and Terry to lower the shotguns. “Keep ‘em on the water, though. Any crocs come up, shoot first, ask questions … well, you know.”
“Do you know what happened? Where did you come from?”
“Let’s start with your name,” I said, walkin’ toward him. “You know mine already.”
He walked forward and extended his hand. When we reached one another, we shook. “Oscar Santoyo,” he said. “I live here, on my boat.”
“You safe here?”
“Fishing has gotten a little risky,” he said. “So I’m raiding boats for food. There’s a restaurant up there,” he said, pointing. “I haven’t had the balls to check it out. Some of those crazy people come down here sometimes, but I just close myself in my boat and I’m okay.”
“Any other food sources around?” I asked. “We’re headin’ north, so now that we’ve got fuel for the boat, we need more for us.”
Oscar laughed, then stifled it and checked around him. “I tell you what,” he said. “I’ll make you a deal.”
“I like to barter,” I said, figurin’ he’d want us to take him with us. “What you got?”
“Food. Canned tamales. Hundreds of them.”
“Hundreds? What kind?”
“Carne Asada, Pollo, some Carnitas, too.”
“On your boat?”
He shook his head. “No. I found them when I was searching. They’re stacked floor to ceiling inside the salon. I think he owns the company. Same name that’s on the can is on the boat.”
“And what’s your bargain? What do you need?”
He nodded toward my guards on the boat. “A gun. I have no protection. All I found searching the boats is a couple of spearguns.”
“The water workin’ here?” I asked.
“Yes. The power has stayed on here, but on the radio, I heard it’s out in many places.”
“You get in that black rain shit?”
“No, I stayed inside my boat when it came. That doesn’t help, though. So did many of my neighbors. Here, at the marina. They’re dead now. They changed into those things and I had to kill them.”
I looked the guy over. He’d have to stretch his neck to get to 5’6” tall, and his skin was droopy for a guy who didn’t look to be much older than forty. I figured he’d lost some weight, despite the supply of tamales. Either way, he didn’t look like much of a killer.
“With what?”
He turned and motioned toward a boat that looked like it’d been ridden hard and put away wet. “The fucking speargun and my baseball bat. It’s what I normally use for protection when I stay on my boat.”
“It’s a good idea anyway,” I said. “Bat’s quiet. I’d use it whenever you can. Anyway, sure. I’ll set you up with a … you prefer a shotgun or rifle?”
“Shotgun. I got lots of tequila, too. Easier shooting with a shotgun.”
“Okay, we got a good selection. I’ll get you a 12-gauge and a few boxes of shells. Deal?”
He shrugged. He wore black pants and a teal button-down shirt. “Take as much as you want. I have a lot of boats to go through yet. I’ll probably find more food. The gun will make sure I’m here to eat it.”
I went back to where Terry stood. “Hey, Ter. Hand me your shotgun, would ya?”
He did, lowering it down by the barrel. “Would you grab a sack or somethin’ and throw him in about four boxes of the 12-gauge shells? In the main cabin there, on the seat.”
While he did that, I ran over to where the hose was coiled. I pulled it over to the boat and found the water fill. Uncapping it, I stuck the hose in, and turned on the valve.
When I was done, Terry was back. “Here you go, as ordered.”
“Perfect,” I said, carrying both the gun and ammo over to Oscar. Before handing him the gun, I pumped it several times, emptyin’ the ammo out. I put the ejected shells in the sack and gave both to him. “Here you go.”
He smiled. “You’re not dumb, are you?”
“Oh, hell yeah I am, just ask my sister. But the fact is, I don’t know you, and there ain’t a stranger in the world I’d hand a loaded gun to these days. Now, you got a cart or somethin’ I can haul these tamales back to my boat with?”
He went right to one of the marina’s dock carts and swung it around so the handle pointed toward me.
“Well, then. Show me this boat and I’ll get ‘er filled up.”
Ω
CHAPTER SIX
When I was aboard the large cabin cruiser filled with stacks of various tamales – and the name on the boat was definitely the same as the name on the cans – I offered to let Oscar travel with us.
“No, amigo,” he said. “I’ve got everything I need here. Now that I have this,” he added, holding up the shotgun, “if I’m careful, I can get more. My boat is secure, and if things get very bad, I can take it off the dock.”
“Your call,” I said.
“Gracias. Take all you want of this. I already have twenty cans or so. I’ll be sick of them by the time I’m done.”
“CB?” came Georgie’s voice over the radio. “Everything okay over there?”
I unclipped it from my belt. “Yeah, Georgie. Oscar’s helpin’ me load up on canned tamales.”
“I don’t think that’s going to be much better than the beans, as far as your sister’s concerned.”
She had a smile in her voice.
“I’ll be back over pretty quick. Y’all get ready to take the cans when I hand ‘em up.”
“Oscar, you all alone? Got any family?”
We stepped out of the boat and I lifted the handle of the cart, stacked high with cans.
He nodded. “Si, many. They’re all in Texas, though. I’m going to try to get to them when I see an opportunity.” He waved his arm in a sweepin’ motion, indicatin’ the boats around us. “There are many boats, so maybe I will try to take one across the Gulf.”
“Get a weather radio,” I said. “Just in case that robot voice is still broadcastin’ somehow. Don’t need to get caught in a squall out there.”
“Gracias, amigo,” said Oscar. “Vaya con Dios. Go with God.”
“Well, gracias to you, Oscar. You do the same. Stay safe, man.”
He retreated to his boat and I did the same, the heavy cart rollin’ smoothly on large wheels. When I got there, Terry hopped out and started hoistin’ cans up to the ladies.
“Appreciate it, Terry,” I said. “You like tamales?”
“Mexican’s my favorite. I could eat it every day.”
“More work, less talk,” said Roxy, winkin’ at me. “That’s what mom always said when I was doing homework.”
“And lookie how smart you turned out,” I sa
id, winkin’ back.
“And gorgeous, too,” said Terry. “Like her mom.”
I looked up, and even in the waning daylight, I could see Georgie blushin’. “It’s true,” I said.
We handed the last four cans up to the women and I said, “Water full yet?”
“Oh, crap,” said Terry. “I forgot you put the hose in!”
I walked over to the filler and saw water was running down the side of the boat. “Okay, it’s overflowin’. That means we got fuel, food, and water. I’d say this was a good trip, aside from the zombie croc encounter.”
Terry had climbed back aboard and now stood with the ladies. Lilly said, “So we’re sticking with the boat for now, right? How far can we get on the fuel we have?”
“It’s full up, so about 220 miles.”
“You’re going to hate me,” said Lilly. “But since I don’t care, I think we should find a skiff to tow behind. That way we can anchor offshore and take the skiff in.”
“No need,” I said, pullin’ myself up and onto the boat. I closed the hatch gate behind me. “Danny’s center console will do just fine for that.”
“Oh, that’s right. He did say he wanted to keep his boat.”
“I didn’t even have to ask. He loves that boat.”
“Can we go?” asked Roxy. “I really don’t like being tied up here now that it’s dark.”
“I’m ready,” I said. “Lil, think you can drive this thing outta here?”
“Once you get ‘er started, I’ll untie us.”
“Sure,” she said. She went inside to the enclosed cabin’s helm.
A moment later, I heard the motor crank, then settle into an idle. I opened the hatch, jumped out, and quickly untied the dock lines, throwin’ ‘em over the rail. We’d never moved the bumpers over, because they didn’t touch the dock anyway.
Jumpin’ back on, I returned to the salon where everyone else sat. The boat was already slidin’ backward out of the slip.
Somebody, I’m guessin’ Lilly, had put a Waylon Jennings disc on, and when I walked in, Good Hearted Woman was playin’. It was the version with Willie Nelson. One of my favorites.
Lilly didn’t vacate the captain’s chair. The sun had almost dropped below the horizon now, and I checked my watch. 8:23. I wasn’t sure if runnin’ at night would be better or worse than in the day, or if it made any difference at all. The GPS would keep us on track, but anything floatin’ out there – like Liam’s boat – could become a dangerous obstacle we wouldn’t see until it was too late.
