Chapter 22

The High Seas

The next two hours I spent transferring everything from Betsy onto the new tender. After that I placed Betsy in a corner of the makeshift fort and covered her up with a tarp. I hope that someday that I can come back and retrieve her. Then I walk over to the moving vans we brought in earlier today and start taking a portion of ammunition we scavenged today along with extra clothes, tools, and food. I wanted enough for at least two weeks to a month for all of us. That would hardly even touch the capacity of the tender. I wanted to leave the rest for the big group. Our small scouting party will find it easier to raid for supplies along the way. I hope to fill up the entire tender before we actually reach Andros Island.

It was getting to dark to load anything big and most of the small stuff had been transferred. I decided to call it a night and head up to my cabin that I am going to share with Michael. There is not much space on these boats for crew members. However, as a toy for the rich the area was definitely bigger than it would be on a commercial boat. Just as I was about settled in and ready to read momma’s letter Michael came in and seemed surprised to see me. “Mark why are you here and not in your cabin?”

Now I was the one with the surprised look on their face. “I thought I would be sharing a cabin with you and the girls would be sharing the other one.”

Michaels face relaxed when I said this. “I forgot that when we cleared the tender you took aft and I took the bow.”

“What does that have to do with –“

Michael interrupted me. “There are several more cabins in the bow. These two cabins with space for two people are for the common crew. Up front there is a captain’s cabin, two medium cabins, and another split cabin like this one. This tender can hold nine comfortably if they are single or perhaps more if a married couple took one of the larger cabins.”

“Let me guess, Trika is in the Captain’s cabin, Olivia is in a medium, and I am supposed to be in the other.”

“Yep, you are the brains of the outfit so you get bigger digs.”

“Alright smart aleck then since I am the brains that makes you the brawn. You can help me transfer my stuff to the new cabin.”

I wonder what else I had missed. Michael was right. I cleared the back part of the boat which consisted of the engine room, a large storage room, the laundry room, and the two crew cabins. He had gone forward and cleared the rest. I trusted him enough that I did not follow up after he declared them clear and I did not explore the ship on the way back. I should have plenty of time to discover and explore the ship on our trip. I believe that this will become one of our primary raiding ships also. Its configuration is just too convenient towards what we need to do.

A couple of trips and about ten minutes later I was now in m more luxurious cabin. It was by no means large, but it was definitely noticeably larger than the crew cabin. It even had its own head with shower. The good news is that since I have lost all that weight over the last couple of years I can actually fit in and use the darn thing. If it was me of the past, I don’t know if I could even fit inside the petite little bathroom. With everything moved and taken care of I lay down and once again bring out the letter than momma wrote.

Dear Mark,

I want you to know that while I might never understand your dislike or even hatred of that family, I will always love you. You are my son and no matter what happens, nothing can change that. When you leave I worry about you and what you are up to. I know you are a grown man now, but you should understand. I bet you think of your daughter often even when you know she is perfectly safe or capable as an adult now. Speaking of which, the rest of the family is doing fine. I hope that you can forgive me for running you off this time. If it takes me breaking off ties once we get to the island with that family, I will. I think that you and the rest of my children and grandchildren are worth it. Speaking of grandchildren, when are you going to find a nice young lady to settle down with again. We used to joke around and you promised that you would find one if the world came to an end. Well guess what son, it has.

How about that nice young nurse Olivia? She seems like good people and seems determined to be by your side. You could do worse you know. I know that you have a lot of responsibility and things going on right now so I will cut this shorter than I would like. A couple of things that might help you though son. I think if you could get the Duck Tour from Miami it would help all of us out a lot and you need to call me soon. There must be a way, so figure it out.

With all my love,

Your Mother

That is a lot to take in. So momma wants me to hook up with Olivia. No surprise there, she has been trying to remarry me off for ages. Although that Olivia is really cute, and focus Mark. End of the world first. Romance second or even third. I am glad to know she is willing to compromise and drop that family once they get to the island. I would prefer they never come, but no contact is enough for me to reconcile with her. Now what is she talking about when she says the Duck tour in Miami. We had travelled Florida in the past when I was much younger. I don’t remember any tours about ducks. Did she think they would make a good animal to bring and raise on the island? Somehow that did not feel right. Think back Mark. When the family went to Miami what did we do? There was the Heat game, the beaches, the downtown tour, the tour of the city and the harbor in that funny vehicle. Wait that’s it. It was called a Duck Boat and momma’s right. That would be perfect. If I remember right it is a combination car/boat decommissioned from the army. It had six or eight wheels and you could drive it around and then directly drive it into the water and it would float and operate like a boat. That would make getting supplies from areas much safer.

Momma comes through again. I had completely forgotten about that thing. I wish I could call her like she wanted but without cell towers, that was impossible. Or wait was it? Satellite phones don’t use towers. The satellites didn’t fall out of the sky just because the power grid turned off. I mean I even saw Captain Trika still using GPS. The satellites should still be good for a few years if nothing else. Maybe I could call momma. I will worry about it in the morning. It is time for some rest. I can figure out the details tomorrow.

When I wake up I feel refreshed like I haven’t been in a while. It must be a combination of a real bed and safety. I like living on a boat so far. It is 6 a.m. early enough for me to get some breakfast and make a quick supply run into town and still get back in time for my 9 a.m. cast off time. I head up to the deck and find Captain Trika already up and about and checking out her new vessel.

“Good morning Trika.”

A grunt comes my way.

“I am glad we could have this conversation. I am going for breakfast and then a quick supply run before we cast off. I am looking at a 9 a.m. departure will that be ok?”

“Yes.”

She is a woman of very few words.

“Do you need anything while I am out?

“Cleaning supplies and first aid supplies are low.”

“Ok I will work on that. Can you please send Michael and Olivia down for breakfast soon so I can give them some jobs before we go?”

Another grunt, I sure hope that meant yes.

At breakfast I finally complete one of my most important goals in life. I ate bacon. I don’t care what the doctors say, it is the apocalypse and dang it I am going to eat it while it is still available. Just as I am finishing up I see a bleary eyed Michael and a much more awake Olivia coming over from the direction of the tender.

“Good morning you two. Michael it looks like you could use some coffee or more sleep. Miss Olivia you are looking lovely today.”

I received some standard replies and I waited until they had dished up their breakfast before bothering them again.

“Olivia, I am going to make a special run into town for some medical supplies and I would like for you to come with me if possible. Michael, Captain Trika said the tender was low on cleaning supplies if you could help her grab some this morning. Also if you could help out with anything else she needs so we can cast off by 9 a.m. that will be great.”

They both nodded their acceptance and started eating faster. While they finished up I went to go and locate us a vehicle we could use for a quick supply run. I did not want to take Betsy as I had already store her away carefully and did not want to have to repeat the process. Fifteen minutes later I went and picked up Olivia at the food tent and we hopped into the cargo van that I had borrowed.

“We are going to loot a CVS pharmacy today Olivia. I will grab all the non-prescription stuff we need and you are responsible for identifying any prescription medicine that would be helpful. I am thinking antibiotics, prescription pain killers, and things of that nature that don’t take too much training to use or figure out what they are for. When you are done you can come out and help me.”

“What exactly is your target for today Mark.”

“Feminine hygiene products, toothbrushes, soaps, towels, Tylenol, batteries, chocolate, vitamins, and some other random stuff. I am also going to be looking for solar chargers and special phones, but I think I am going to have to hit a radio shack or something for those.”

“Do they even still have radio shacks?”

“I don’t think so. I probably will have to stop at an extreme sports store or a large cell phone outlet provider store. I say a Verizon store the yesterday when Michael and I were driving around.”

The CVS stop was really quick. We are able to get everything I want and more. Olivia and I work well together and I could definitely see why momma would think she would be a good match for someone. Head back in the game Mark. We have more shopping to do. I was able to find 6 satellite phones at the Verizon store. The most important part was that I found 10,000 minutes worth of prepaid phone cards. Without those the satellite phones would just be bricks. I grabbed several waterproof covers, USB cable rechargers and those smaller solar panel phone and electronic rechargers.

Hmm, that gets me thinking. One more quick stop before we go. We need entertainment. DVD players and t.v.’s don’t need anything but electricity and there are several electronic games that will run independently. Also card games, board games and other things of that nature would help pass the time and allow us to bond together. So we stop by a GameStop store and loot some stuff and then a quick run into a Wal-Mart for some DVD players and a wide selection of laptops and movies and we were done. We barely make it back to the sunshine marina with time to spare. My quick little jaunt had taken more than an hour and now it was 8:30 a.m. We need to get this stuff loaded and get going. I pull right up to where the tender is tied up and Michael and Trika help us unload. I carry four of the satellite phones over to Gerald and explain my thought process. We will have ours on every night from 7 to 10 p.m. if they need to contact us. I also ask him to give one to my mom so she can call me when she arrives. With everything taken care of it finally time to go.