by J. B. Craig
Maria shook her head. “You need to rest,” she said. “Kelly’s going to need you when you get back. We can’t let Perry’s sacrifice be for nothing.”
“You’re okay to get us home?” Pete asked. At her nod, he looked around, noticing Bannon on the ground. “Ban?”
“Is okay, I think,” Maria said. “Took a hit to the leg, I dressed it. I’ve got it covered.”
“Then I’m going to do like him, and take a nappy nap,” Pete announced. He closed his eyes - and, with both of her passengers seen to, Maria reluctantly returned to the wheel.
The trip back was slower, because Maria didn’t have help and the wind was tricky. Fortunately, by the time she was pulling back into the docks at St. Mary’s, Bannon was up, if moving slowly. He helped her with the lines, and then carefully woke Pete. “Grab the medicines,” he said. “We need to get these over to Doc and Kelly.”
Pete and the Doc went through the various medications and picked the one they thought would be most effective, and got Kelly started on it right away. Bannon curled up in the bed next to her, and when Pete saw Bannon’s leg wound seeping, he put him on a mild antibiotic, and sewed him up after seeing that it went clean through. Much to everyone’s relief, the damage wasn’t anything permanent, but he wouldn’t be walking far, nor without pain, for a few weeks.
34. Resting, Repairing, and Recovering
With Bannon and Kelly seen to, it was Pete’s turn to get a more formal evaluation. It turned out that he had a more serious concussion than anyone thought, and he spent several days on limited activity, wincing through migraines as he recovered. Bannon couldn’t move around much, and he wasn’t going to go far from Kelly anyway, so Maria made friends around the campus and recruited Sgt. Spencer and a few others to make more permanent repairs on the hull of her pirated Bad Attitude.
Some of the utility guys who lived on the campus were able to round up some filler, fiberglass cloth and some fiberglass 2-part epoxy. They taught Maria how to fix fiberglass as they patched up the holes with several layers, making them almost as strong as the hull underneath them.The holes in the cabin roof were patched as well, and she ended up watertight from above and below. It ended up reminding her of captain Ronnie’s boat - seaworthy and butt-ugly.
Maria sanded down the extra epoxy and spray-painted the holes to hide them as best she could - in a perfect world, they’d put a marine paint over everything to make it shiny, but without the tools to apply it, she didn’t have that luxury. It wasn’t pretty, but it would get them home as soon as her crew was well enough to travel.
Maria tied the boat to the seawall and moved their supplies to the boat, eager to resume their journey to Rock Harbor - but her crew’s recovery was slow-going. She did start running with Pete again - and they continued to have vigorous aerobic exercise in other ways.
After consulting the crew, Bannon made it clear that he wasn’t leaving without Kelly - and when asked, she joyfully agreed to go with them, as soon as she was well enough. Bannon encouraged Maria to make the trek across the river to see her dad in the meantime, and some days she was tempted, but part of her was afraid that if they left without her little cousin, they’d never see him or Kelly again.
Slowly, life at St. Mary’s began to return to normal - though something seemed to come up every day, whether it was guard duty or minor assaults from packs of scavengers. The continued attacks were another deterrent - she and Pete might be fine on their own on a day with good conditions, but the risk of enemy sailors kept them grounded. Their chances would be much better as a group - even for something as mundane as needing to bail after being hit, as they had before.
The Chief and Stella showed up on a trade mission one day, offering fair trades for goods that each community had surplus of. Maria, Pete and Bannon went back with them to have a couple of bottles of - well, Stella, with Stella, while Kelly continued to recover.
The three ended up spending a few days getting to know the members of the community in Saint James - they’d passed through before, but hadn’t really been able to spare the time to meet the townsfolk. Maria also knew that they might be great neighbors and allies with Rock Harbor and any of her Dad’s friends he had across the bay, assuming that he was okay.
The Saint James crowd warned the group that the Homeland Security folks were going farther into the communities around the Naval Air Station - and, in September, they would begin to pull from Saint Mary’s. Any college exemption was going to be removed with the start of traditional fall semesters. They would let those with a 3.5 GPA average or better stay to graduate and become officers, but planned to take the rest of the healthy students. They wanted both men and, for the first time, women. Apparently, the military was losing more and more troops to death, disease, and desertion, and it was felt that they could no longer afford to exclude half of the population.
The Chief noted that they would shelter those from ages eighteen to thirty when the DHS came to Saint James - the town didn’t understand the purpose of sending their best and healthiest to dead cities to die, when they could stay behind and farm as they defended the towns and villages that had survived the worst of the violence. Meanwhile, Saint Mary’s and the surrounding communities convinced DHS that classes were going on as usual.
And classes were going on - it just so happened that the traditional ‘officer candidate’ writing-intensive and history courses were being replaced with more practical subjects, such as food cultivation, defensive obstacles, and hunting game. Some of the old courses still ran, but the subject matter had to fit into a new world order - chemistry students would learn to mix bombs, drugs, and food preservatives, for example. The trio returned to sit in on some, and eventually Kelly joined them, hoping to bring some of the knowledge with them when it came time to move on.
35. Happy Arrivals
By the first week of September, Bannon, Pete and Kelly were all mobile enough to risk a trip across the Potomac. The Bad Attitude took the four down the Saint Mary’s River and across the Potomac to Captain’s Point, with plenty of food, gifts, and other surprises in store. All four had their long guns of choice. Kelly treasured Perry’s AK, as she heard how he died trying to save her. All eyes were constantly scanning the river. After so long spent grounded and delayed, it seemed too good to be true that they would finally make it to their final destination - they hoped.
They sailed hot, eager to pass through the river as fast as possible. They only saw one lonely man in a rowboat way up the Nomini, and he didn’t appear to be a threat - his back was to them and they were running silently. Once they were free and clear of any potential followers, they made the tack towards Rock Harbor.
“Crew, this is may be the trickiest harbor we’ve seen so far,” Maria announced. “It’s only a few feet deep right in the middle, and it’s narrow, too. Pay attention and move quickly.”
“So we’re beaching on the sandbar?” Pete asked teasingly. Maria shot him a look, but he simply grinned unrepentantly.
As Maria turned the Bad Attitude into the narrow channel, her breath caught in her throat. She could actually see her family home, the waters she’d grown up on an achingly familiar sight. She concentrated on the wheel and keeping the sailboat between channel markers - both the formal markers and the PVC guide that the locals had made after so many inexperienced sailors got stuck.
The keel kissed the sand for a moment, slowing their momentum, but they’d come in with enough steam that the Bad Attitude had the momentum to break through its hold. Maria breathed a sigh of relief - she hadn’t wanted to be the prodigal daughter returning home, only to be stopped by getting stuck on the sand bar. Mission accomplished.
As she approached the family dock, she could see a group of men she didn’t recognize on both sides of the river, tracking her with rifles. “Don’t shoot,” she murmured to her crew. “Let’s come in slow.”[3]
Maria sailed up to the dock, and she saw a large woman with dark complexion standing at the neighbor’s house, and a very l
arge Hispanic man standing on her Grandparent’s deck with a rifle slung from his shoulder and binoculars at his eyes.
“You, in the sailboat! Announce yourselves and leave your weapons down! We won’t hurt you if you follow our orders, but you’re surrounded, and if you act with aggression, you will die. I promise you.”
Maria yelled to him, “I’m Maria Creighton. I’m looking for my Dad, Greg Creighton. This is our family house.”
The large Hispanic man laughed a belly laugh, as did the woman on the back deck. “Hola, Chica. Where the hell you been? I’m Esteban, that’s Leilani, and we’ve been waiting for you forever. Your dad is fishing, but we’ll get him back.” With that, Esteban rang the ships bell on the porch, and walked down the dock. “I assume you’re not going to shoot anyone until you see your Dad, right?”
“That depends.” Bannon said. “Tell me something about my family. You could have tortured that out of him.”
“I like you, Son. Based on what you said, you’re one of her cousins. Maria came from University of Pennsylvania. I don’t know who those two are, but they have hands off triggers, so we’re good. Your grandparents Tony and Eve owned this house. Your Uncle Greg lives here. He’s a veteran Combat Engineer who has saved our lives many times. Maria has a twin brother, Jared, and mom in Atlanta. Is that enough, Amigo?”
“Si, Amigo. Help us tie off and take Maria and Pete to the house. Kelly and I can get the gear un-packed. Gracias.”
Maria hugged her cousin, Bannon. “We made it, Cuz!” Maria and Pete left the boat with backpacks and side arms only, following this Esteban guy, who reminded her of her Godfather. She trusted him after the info that he shared. Kelly and Bannon went below deck to un-stow their most important gear: the radio and medicines. They took the time to make out, and one thing led to another. Eventually, the boat was a-rockin, as the old song sort of went, at least that’s what Maria noticed about the boat. It was not rocking in time to the waves. “Good for you, Cuz”, she thought to herself.
She walked up the dock, and was formally introduced to Leilani, whom Esteban introduced as “My love”. Leilani ran to her house to prepare “Pu-Pu’s”, or Hawaiian Happy Hour appetizers. Esteban stayed on the deck, watching the water with his binoculars.
“There he is, little lady.” He pointed, and Maria saw someone who looked like her dad, but thinner, rowing the family rowboat around the inlet she came through. He was rowing hard, somehow almost getting the rowboat up on a plane. He looked to be in great shape. She guessed six months of no booze and surviving did that to just about everyone. His beard was going to take some getting used to, but it was her Dad.
Pete walked up behind her, with this scorpion slung behind his back looking through the scope on Maria’s rifle, because her AR had better optics. He kissed her on the neck, and said, “Welcome home, beautiful. One man, two oars, no fishing rods. One pistol on hip. Looks like your picture of your dad, but beardly and a lot thinner.”
“I was thinking the same thing, Pete. Make sure you’re on safe. He’s not likely to shoot us. I’d hate to get this far and have you kill my Dad, or vice versa. I’ll turn off the breast toggle if you do that.” But she smiled at him, and grabbed his ass, so she was clearly happy.
36. Part 2 – Maria’s Homecoming
Greg saw a strange sailboat tied to the dock. It had to come from either DC, Point Lookout, or farther down the bay, because nothing passed him as the incoming tide and his rowing took him up the Nomini river. A few minutes later, as he rowed towards the dock he yelled out “Who’s that ringing my bell – you better have brought happy hour food, because I’m fresh out!” The figure on the deck moved away from the bell, and towards the deck rail. He saw a thin woman with long brown hair, probably around five and a half feet tall lean over the rail and put his binoculars from inside the back door to her eyes.
A young man came up behind her and pointed what looked like an assault rifle in the general direction of Greg, but not especially threatening him. He’d seen much, much worse in the last year, and this man wasn’t really a threat, even if he did look competent enough to handle what looked like an M16, or AR15 type weapon. Este clamped one hand down on the front of the gun and another on the man’s shoulder. Leilani stood behind the female, but was more comfortable, as they chatted. Greg’s guards were cautious, but still on guard duty, as the self-appointed bodyguards didn’t want to answer to Gunny or Ski for messing up. Annie was playing in the sandbox by the light of a lantern. There was still no sign of Jennifer, who hadn’t left her bed in the last week or so.
As he pulled up to the dock, Greg realized who it was, and could barely contain his emotions, as he cried out “Thank God, Maria! You finally made it!”
Greg threw a line over the dock piling, and his daughter came running down the stairs, the man under Este’s watchful eye on the deck smiled and said “Dude, does your Dad always go fishing with only rocks and a pistol?”
Greg laughed out loud. The first laugh in a few weeks. As he hugged his baby – make that grown woman, as she was now 20 years old, tears of joy ran down his face. Then she asked a question that instantly turned his joy into anguish… “Dad, where’s Mom and Jared?”
Greg’s eyes filled with tears as he paused to gather his thoughts. “I think they’re likely dead, but we’re together again. The bad guys nuked Atlanta. Even if she lived, you know how she was so stubborn about eating her Glock if the air conditioning ever went out. I don’t think we’ll ever know, but I believe she’s gone. Jared was even closer to the airport that blew up. Some nights I pray that they just died quickly in the blast. Other days, I hope they’re still on their way.”
“What?!?! Why didn’t you go get her?” She demanded
“Baby, I’ve steeled myself to go every damn day. Then I’d plan my trip to your school. I was like a donkey between two bales of hay! The fact is, IF they’re alive, I could walk into a nuclear dead zone and pass her on the way there if I’m sleeping by day, and she’s walking. There are a dozen routes here from there. If, against odds, they are alive, we have to wait for her here. I waited for you, and here you are.”
Maria sobbed as father and daughter fell to the dock in the same spot they had taken so many happy fishing pictures in the past. Some of those pictures were mounted on the wall at home in Atlanta, and copies were in the house behind them. They were mourning and hugging each other, but at least they were together again, at last.
Because the day didn’t have enough surprises, Jennifer slowly limped out onto the deck, not looking her best, but still she stole Greg’s breath away. Apparently, her fever had broken while he was out in the boat trying to kill himself, as she looked more human than she had in a few days. “Your dad has told me a lot about you, Maria. Let’s get you some food. I, for one, am starving.”
Leilani took the cue and ran into the kitchen to finish up the food. Maria looked at Greg with a questioning glance.
“We’ve got a lot to get caught up on, baby girl. Let’s get some food, and you can introduce me to this young man.”
“And YOU can introduce me to these folks, who seem kind, but why are they living in our family house?”
“That’s a long story, but we’ve got plenty of time. I can’t tell you how many nights I’ve looked out over the water, hoping to see you. Tonight, you snuck right by me.”
Just then, Bannon, Greg’s nephew stuck his head up out of the hold, pulling on a t-shirt. Hey, is someone gonna help me unload this big-ass Ham Radio? I told Dad we’d call when we arrive!
“Bannon! Greg bounded down the boat to his Nephew and his megawatt smile. What a fantastic Surprise. You mentioned your dad.”, he paused thinking of how he might shift the mood immediately. “I’ll want to learn more about everyone else after we eat.”
“That’s okay, Unc. I know in my heart they’re both still alive, and we check in regularly. Reid joined the Marines to go find Mom in Baltimore.”
“Damn, a Marine? He’s wanted to be Army forever.”
&
nbsp; “Yeah, but the Marines drafted him.”
“Yeah, we have a lot of catching up to do. Now, Maria was called Captain? What does that make you?”
“Boat Thief.” He laughed, and then handed a Ham Radio transmitter to his Uncle, making sure that Unc had both hands on it, so it didn’t go swimming. “Let’s go find something to eat and catch up.
“Unc, do you know how many sailboats she’s wrecked in the last half of a year? All I can say is that she now knows what NOT to do with sailboats, as she has learned from her mistakes. You always said mistakes create wisdom, so she’s pretty sailing-wise by now.”
She said, “I remembered seeing others stranded on the sandbar, and laughing at them, so we waited for high tide. The wind was perfect.”
“Well, let’s let ‘Captain Maria’, eat, and you can tell me all about it.”
Just then, a stunning redhead came up from the cabin of the sailboat, buttoning up some Army Fatigues. She smiled at Greg, and then asked Bannon to grab her pack from the boat.
