by A J Newman
“Well we will move the village at night, so we go undetected as long as possible.”
The Captain laughed and said, “You don’t think motoring around the bay in my big assed ship won’t get their attention.”
“I forgot. We have to drive the ship to train the men.”
“Yes, but it is steering the ship.”
Later I told the Captain about losing my memory, and he filled me in on what he knew. I then asked the Captain if he had heard anything about South America and the USA and Canada moving into some of the countries.
“Matt, what I hear is all good for the USA, Canada, and Israel in South America and horrible for the people who were there before the shit hit the fan. They either complied with the invasion or were eliminated. Millions were killed during The Flare, and the USA has killed a million more taking the land. Hell, Russia, and China have done the same in India and the Far East.”
“Thanks for the update.”
“Now what happened to you? You are limping and have a large bandage on your arm.”
I told him the entire story, well except the wet pants story and he was amazed that I was able to get untrained men to attack a superior force.
I answered, “Captain, I never let them think the criminals were superior to them.”
***
Manuel and I drove back to the village in a cargo van with a load of food from the Russian ship to show the villagers that good times were ahead for them. I wanted the larger truck, so we could bring a load of villagers and their possessions back on the next trip. They saw the food and descended on the cases like a pack of wolves, pushing and shoving.
“Dejar de hacer algo! Stop!” Manuel yelled.
Everyone stopped while Manuel continued to talk in a loud voice. I only caught a few words, but the drift was that they should be ashamed of themselves and to act like humans in front of their guest. They calmed down and allowed Maria to hand out equal shares of the food to everyone. Then they all filed past me and begged my forgiveness and to excuse their bad manners.
After supper, Manuel held a village meeting and explained the potential new adventure and trip to a warmer home further south. All but two families wanted to go on the boat and were thankful to Manuel and me for finding the ship and its captain. We all agreed to start moving people two days after the meeting so the villagers could sort through their possessions.
***
That night I couldn’t go to sleep thinking about these two women’s faces that kept popping up in my mind. Random memories flooded my thinking, and it took hours to process. I remembered all of my home, job, and an ex-wive back in Tennessee. I remembered Patty helping me find a house in Wyoming, but couldn’t remember much new about Mary other than driving with her for a long time in a truck with my dogs.
Holy shit! I had dogs. Their names are, err. Damn, I can’t remember my dog's names. In my mind, they are a black and white and a liver and white Springer Spaniel.
For some reason that thought reminded me to look deep into the storage under the front seat of my boat for my gold, silver, and jewels. I had to find that treasure and make sure it came with me.
I fell asleep and soon remembered Mary snuggling up one night against me, and she felt good. I was hoping for more about that memory, but nothing came to me that night, and I fell asleep thinking about Mary.
We took fifteen people and their goods with us to the ship on the first trip. We drove most of the way with our lights off and avoided main roads. There were no issues that night and the Captain had prepositioned an extra launch to help speed up the trip to the ship. The two 20 foot boats took three trips each to get everyone and their goods aboard ship.
The Captain about shit when he found that we had 12 dogs, 10 cats, and 4 parrots that were traveling with us. After negotiating a doggie poop area and guaranteeing that we would feed the animals with caught fish, did he consent to the menagerie.
The next several relocation trips went better each time. Manuel and I knew the roads by heart, and we knew how to handle the issues with people trying to sneak contraband on the ship. One idiot tried to bring his pet Boa Constrictor to the ship. The Captain would have shot him and me for that breach.
We were just passing below Sandino when Manuel spotted something ahead. He pointed and said, “Cigarillo.”
I strained and saw several glowing red dots about a quarter mile up ahead. Then I saw a flash, and they had started a fire. I pulled off the road and into the woods to hide the truck.
I told Manuel to stay with the truck while I went ahead to scout the men and see what they were doing. Before I left, I told him that if I flashed my light twice that he should slowly approach the men, but if I flashed it twice and waved it around to come at full speed and run the blockade. I told him that I would catch up later.
“No! My friend.”
“Yes, Manuel. I will be okay. I go now.”
I slowly walked along the road in the bushes until I was within twenty feet of the men sitting in the truck. I snuck up behind them and listened to them discuss how they were going to rob the Gringo and his followers.
I moved a bit closer, got even with the driver, slowly moved my hand with the knife closer to his throat and I stabbed him in the throat and shot the other man in the head. Both crumpled to the floor of the pickup. They never knew I was there and died so quickly; they didn’t react or scream. I quickly pulled their bodies out of the truck and then flashed my light at Manuel to advance towards me.
When he arrived, I told him,” Follow me to the ship. I’m taking the truck that this mucho malo hombre gave to me. They are dead.”
We arrived at the ship without difficulty, and since that was our last trip, we never went back to Manuel’s village again.
The Captain began our training almost as soon as our feet hit the deck. I impressed him with my not so vast skills at navigation and leadership, so he promoted me to be the navigator and second in command. Manuel and a friend of his knew the most about engines, so they were trained to operate the engine room. The other men filled in where the Captain placed them. Manuel’s wife, Maria, became the head cook, and she was placed in charge of the ladies cleaning the ship and quarters.
Our meals were the best I’d had since I left my home in Wyoming. We had ham and eggs for breakfast, sub sandwiches for lunch, steak and potatoes for supper, and plenty of soft drinks and beer to wash the meals down. Maria had been an assistant chef at a nice hotel a few years back and could work wonders now that she had all of the best foods, spices, and condiments.
The Captain was a tough taskmaster and hated mistakes. He would curse in Russian at every mistake, but he was our biggest champion when we executed our training as we progressed. He called us his half-assed crew and trained one part of the crew or the other 16 hours a day.
On the fourth day, we practiced raising the anchor and fire drills, then on the fifth day Manuel started the engines and placed them in drive for short periods. The Captain had him practice forward and reverse for hours. The morning of the sixth day, we cruised around the harbor and attempted to dock at the refueling station.
Well, what I mean is we docked after a small crash into the dock. Half of the wooden braces that passed for bumpers were torn loose, and the concrete dock scraped the side of the hull without any major damage. The Captain was surprisingly happy with our results.
He yelled to all, “My Half Assed crew docked my ship! Now let’s put some fuel in her belly.”
The Captain later told me that tugboats were usually used to get a ship that large close to the dock. Our men did it the old fashioned way with no experience and only a few days training.
We had a small team scrounging through every trailer, warehouse and shipping container in the area and we loaded everything they found that was useable. We even got a crane working and loaded several trucks, my sailboat, and another larger sailboat onto the top of some shipping containers. They were secured with chains and made ready for our voyage.
; We spent another two days filling water tanks and practicing cruising around the bay before the Captain ordered, “Steer for the ocean.” I changed the course and headed for the channel that ran up the middle of the slot to the ocean. The gap between the two sides is only a thousand feet wide, and we saw people rushing to get closer to the ship.
Hell, I didn’t know there were that many people left in all of Cuba. Many waved, and I could see their mouths moving, but it was too far away, and the ship’s engines were too loud for me to hear what they were saying.
Damn, suddenly bullets began bouncing off the bridge and several other places on the ship.
“I picked up the intercom and yelled, “Duck, they’re shooting,” to our crew.
Apparently, many of these people weren’t happy we were leaving or wanted to go with us. Well, tough shit my dad always said when someone complained about something they couldn’t have.
I looked over at the Captain and said, “I think we need to have some drills to prepare to repel boarders.”
“I had planned to do just that my friend. This will be just like navigating past Somalia in the Gulf of Aden. We have guns, flash bangs, and water hoses, but I don’t think they will be enough. Can you and Manuel come up with some novel ideas to help keep pirates at bay? You have a complete machine shop and can use anything that doesn’t move or steer the ship.”
The Captain told me to steer slightly southwest and not bother him or hit anything for the next seven hours while he slept. That would take us close to our turn south, and he wanted to be at the helm after dark until he trusted me a bit more.
“Matt, we also need to find two more to train to navigate the ship or we will be worn ragged in a short time. None of the autopilot or fancy electronics survived the solar flare.”
“I’ll give that some thought. Where exactly are you heading? The Cubans just want a warmer climate.”
“I plan to go to Georgetown in Guyana, Cayenne in French Guiana and then on to several ports in Brazil. I hope to convince you and the crew to stay with me to help me start a transportation and trading company based on my ship.”
“I know I won’t stay long term and I wonder about the crew.”
“My plan is to seek out an experienced crew at first port if the Cuban’s want to stay on shore.”
“I know I’m preaching to the choir, but be careful and don’t bring on a crew that wants to take your boat from you.”
“I know, and that’s why I chose you and the Cubans. You are good people and aren’t seamen.”
***
Thanks to the Captain, providing IV antibiotics all of our wounds were healing, and soon my pain was almost gone.
The Captain’s comments made me think more about our voyage and where I wanted to go with my life. I was at the helm for the next seven hours with Jorge, who Manuel thought would make a good pilot. Jorge picked up the mechanics of steering the ship and holding a compass heading, but that was about it for the day. He wasn’t much of a talker so as he kept the ship on course; I had time to organize the memories that had flashed through my mind over the past few weeks.
I saw Nuns, kids and a bus in the back of my mind, but couldn’t connect or make sense of any of them. I had flashes of a rustic mansion close to the mountains and suddenly remembered my house in Wyoming, the attacks, me killing a bunch of assholes and Mary patching up my ass, several times. My dog's names were Tina and Gus; Patty was kidnapped, Mary and I saved some kids, I shot and killed an asshole on a tractor were the type of memories that came spontaneously back to me at night as I tried to go to sleep or had long hours at the helm.
I tried hard to think about where I was going or where Mary and Patty were headed when I lost my memory, but the harder I thought about a topic the less I remembered about that topic.
The Captain showed up exactly 10 minutes before he was due with two cups of hot steaming coffee and handed one to me as he said, “I see you have been training a new pilot.”
“Yes, I thought I’d waste no time in complying with your request, and Manuel recommended Jorge and Philip. Philip will join you in about an hour.”
“Thanks Jorge for joining us.”
“You welcome,” he replied with a big toothy grin.”
The Captain looked at me after Jorge left and said, “He is proud that we had confidence in him to man the helm. I have many uniforms in the crew’s lockers. Let’s give the crew the correct uniform for each job and allow them to be proud of what they are doing. The “Officers” will have the best quarters for them and their families. I’m going to get some hooks into them and perhaps they’ll stay with me.”
“You need to get creative on making the ship family friendly. A family needs more room, a playground, school rooms, a library, and a theater.”
“Da, you are right. One step at a time. The Cubans look up to you. Form a committee and turn the rascals loose to solve those issues. If they don’t use those ideas, my next crew will.”
***
Maria volunteered to lead the committee to help make life better on the ship. I told Manuel and her about the Captain’s hope that they would stay with him and how he planned to help by making life on the ship better than life on land. Manuel added one of his best mechanics to be a team member, but we left Maria to form her own committee. She was very happy to be the leader of such an important team.
After Maria had gone on her way, I said to Manuel, “We need to develop some weapons to help us stop pirates from taking our ship. We have the rifles, flash-bang grenades and high-pressure water hoses against potential attackers armed with machine guns and who knows what else since many of the governments have ceased to exist.”
“I think we could make a prender…err…fire thrower that burns bastards.”
“A flamethrower. Great. We would need four to cover the entire ship. Can you make them portable…err.. carry?
“Si. I make with help from amigos.
“Show me the first one before you build all four.”
“Si my friend.”
You get the picture; we were still talking broken English, so I began classes in Spanish and taught many of them English. Manuel made a good point that all of the warm areas on this side of the world spoke Spanish or Portuguese. I worked much harder after that fact hit me between the eyes to learn Spanish. Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that I won’t be trying to type broken Spanish/English conversations in the future.
Moving along, in one of my more lucid moments I asked the Captain if I could look through the manifest to see if there were any supplies or other items to help with his two projects. He gave me a paper print out, and I began a tedious search of the log to find useable things to make life easier or to protect us from pirates.
After researching what was in the hold and the shipping containers, I started a small team to find the items I thought we could use. Some items I wanted were buried too deep, so I had to settle for what could be found without rearranging the cargo. I gave each of my four-man team a container number or a crate number, and we set out on our treasure hunt.
Several hours later, I heard one of my team yelling for me to follow him.
“Matt, come see!”
Manuel was already there and pointed at several large crates that were marked in Russian and Spanish. I couldn’t read Russian, but the Spanish clearly said books. He lifted the top of one of the crates, and I immediately recognized a row of RPG launchers. There were eight in the crate, and he said there were three crates of the launchers. Then he opened another crate and showed me the RPGs themselves.
Manuel said, “Pirates go boom!”
“Yes, the pirates are in for a big surprise. Please bring them up to the deck and store them in the armory.”
“Look at the other boxes.”
He proceeded to show me a host of other crates marked in Russian that contained military field gear, rifles, pistols, and ammunition. We were well armed now, and the Captain had extra to trade.
Later that day the
search team met on the deck to tell us what they had found. Several brought samples to the meeting. My favorites were the RPGs, Russian Vodka and thousands of DVDs and CDs. We also had explosives, alcohol, movies, and music; what else could one want.
We were also told there was a shipment of playground equipment and toys in two shipping containers. The Captain asked Manuel to have a playground installed in a safe area for the kids.
The rest of the items ranged from machine shop tools to women’s clothing. The ladies were happy and I was happy to get a new pair of hiking boots. Mine had seen better days.
“Matt, I always thought the Russian Government was shipping arms and other contraband into Cuba but didn’t dare ask questions or probe too much. I know we had a government spy on board, but never figured out who he was. I’ll bet Rubles to donuts that we will find more surprises as we open these containers and the best is hidden where they couldn’t be opened until the containers were unstacked in port.”
“I think that is a good guess. I am glad we have the RPGs. They give us much better odds against attacks.”
“How is Manuel coming along with some surprises for the Pirates?”
“Very well. He will be ready to demonstrate a flamethrower tomorrow. He’s using compressed air to shoot a mixture kinda’ like jellied gasoline at the bastards. His trials have been promising, but shooting water a hundred feet across the ocean isn’t the same. He is a genius and can make something out of nothing. The main parts of the flamethrower are the propane tanks and electric sparker from a shipment of gas grills. He will demonstrate the small one that two men can operate tomorrow, and then in a couple of days, he should have a larger one that can shoot gallons of liquid fire over 150 feet. He plans to mount four of those around the deck and have four portable ones to move for close in action.”
