Moving her binoculars to the ship that had drifted closer, Wendy gave a startle to see two men standing outside of the bridge, looking at the lifeboat with binoculars. “People on the ship that got closer,” Wendy announced. “Look up at the bridge.”
When the radio squawked behind them, they all jumped. “Lifeboat that just passed between the two ships, don’t head for the city,” a female voice called out in panic. “We had a group put to shore two days ago and three were shot.”
“We have two that we sent ashore last night waiting,” a male voice answered. “There is a storm coming that could develop into a hurricane.”
Looking over at the monitor that showed a satellite image, Wendy saw the glob was closer but wasn’t kidding herself, she wasn’t a meteorologist. Watching the two men on the bridge of the ship, a woman soon joined them as they all watched the lifeboat slowly make its way to shore.
“Lifeboat, you had two people jump, why didn’t you help?” the female voice asked.
“All left on board are sick and anyone that’s sick is shot on sight,” the male voice responded.
“When do you think the storm will hit?” the female asked.
A few minutes passed before the male voice answered. “Two days but even if it doesn’t, it will send high seas here. That’s what pulled the Emerald out to sea last night.”
The female called out several more questions, but the man never answered. Jo Ann jumped off the chair and was heading for the door when Wendy ran over and grabbed her arm. “Let’s go out the other door, so they can’t see us,” Wendy suggested, motioning to the other ship that now had six people watching the lifeboat.
Grabbing the girls by the hand, Wendy led them out the starboard side to keep the bridge between them and the other ship. They raised their binoculars and followed the lifeboat. Wendy had expected the lifeboat to head for a marina to dock, but the boat just headed straight for a grassy beach.
From a mile away, they watched thirteen people get off the lifeboat and even though they were a mile away, Wendy could tell over half were kids. “That ship is bigger than ours and I didn’t count more than twenty people,” Wendy said, talking to herself. Lowering the binoculars, Wendy chewed on her bottom lip. “We had almost forty-five hundred on board. Let’s say they had five thousand,” Wendy mumbled doing the math.
“Shit!” Wendy gasped softly as the numbers filled her mind.
“What?” Jo Ann asked, finally lowering her binoculars.
“This flu has killed most of mankind, if it’s this bad onshore,” Wendy said and then looked down at Ryan as he woke up. “I need a bottle,” Wendy said, walking back into the bridge.
The twins followed and Jo Ann turned around and Sally dug inside Jo Ann’s backpack to pull out a bottle. “Here,” Sally sang out with a smile.
Pulling Ryan out of the pack carrier, Wendy sat down and fed Ryan his bottle as the twins moved back to the windows to look at the other ships. “I see people on the other ships,” Sally said.
“All the people from the ship beside us have gone inside,” Jo Ann announced.
Before anyone could ask anything, a loud thumping and clanking sounded over the water. Knowing that sound, Wendy jumped up in panic and looked at the consoles around the bridge. “What is that? I’ve heard it before,” Jo Ann asked, still looking at the ship beside them.
“They are pulling their anchors in,” Wendy panted, setting Ryan’s bottle down and touched one of the screens. When she found a touchscreen for the anchors, Wendy heard a deep rumble over the anchors being pulled in.
She turned to the ship beside them, praying it wouldn’t get any closer. “Do they know how to drive that?” Sally asked in a very worried voice.
“Girls, we head to the first lifeboat at the bottom of the stairs if that boat heads this way,” Wendy said, grabbing Ryan’s bottle as he cried. He stopped when Wendy put the bottle in his mouth.
They were all watching as two anchors were slowly pulled out of the water. The boat beside them was pointed to land, but black smoke belched out of the stacks as the ship pivoted, turning north away from them.
“Can we do that?” Sally asked in wonder.
“No,” Wendy said flatly. “If they hit something with their bottom, they’ll sink. If they run aground, the boat could tip over. Let’s stick to our plan.”
They watched the ship pull two miles further out to sea and head north. Before the ship was gone, they watched lifeboats from two other ships drop down and head to shore. When Ryan was asleep, Wendy put him back in the pack carrier.
“Girls, let’s get our stuff ready and then eat,” Wendy told them and the girls jumped off the chairs, putting their binoculars up.
After stopping in the kitchen for a snack, Wendy led them down into the hold to the onboard marina. The only light now came from the emergency lights, so they all carried flashlights just in case. When Wendy walked into the large bay, she sighed while looking at the rows of jet skis.
Jo Ann pulled a blanket out of Sally’s pack and spread it out and Wendy put Ryan down, then put her spear gun on the counter before moving over to the first jet ski in the rack. It was the same one she had driven already. It had carried her, Gloria, and Alicia
