Glancing down, Wendy grinned to see that Ryan had buried his face so the wind wouldn’t hit him. Tilting her head to see around Ryan to the instrument panel, Wendy saw she was holding around twenty miles an hour.
Feeling Sally’s arms relax around her, Wendy glanced toward shore and saw the high-rise hotels. Several had caught fire and they had watched a few, but none had collapsed. Quickly, Wendy glanced back and saw their ship anchored and getting smaller. Hoping she wasn’t making a mistake, Wendy turned her head back around and drove on.
Another reason Wendy wanted to go slow was she knew from experience that the faster these jet skis went, the louder they were. She wanted to go fast enough so if someone shot they would have problems, but not so fast that they could be heard from a long way off.
So, fighting the urge to gun the engine, Wendy just kept up a cruising speed. As she continued to monitor the shore, Wendy was amazed at all the tall buildings right on the beach.
The sun was well up when Wendy saw the channel that cut through the beach. Barely slowing, Wendy turned to guide the jet ski into the channel and saw Sandspur Island ahead. Driving under the bridge that spanned the channel, Wendy turned and saw bodies piled up under the north embankment.
Not even entertaining the idea to investigate, Wendy turned north to follow the sheltered bay behind the beach. Ahead, she saw a few boats in the channel but it was over three hundred yards wide, so she didn’t have to get close to any of them.
None of the boats looked manned and they didn’t see anyone aboard.
Reaching the drawbridges at Bella Vista, Wendy sighed with relief that she was on the right course. A nautical person, Wendy wasn’t and she knew it. Going under the bridges, Wendy looked ahead to see buildings on each side of the narrow bay. She’d known they would be there but from the charts, three hundred yards had looked wider.
Ahead, the channel narrowed to just over a hundred yards. To her left on a balcony of a six-story building, she saw a figure watching them. Staying in the center of the canal, Wendy couldn’t tell if it was a man or woman. She was shocked when the figure casually waved at them. Not knowing what else to do, Wendy waved back.
The person just watched as they passed. Feeling Sally tapping her right leg, Wendy turned to her right. A woman and man were walking along a walkway. Before she turned away, Wendy saw the woman double over coughing. “I see them,” Wendy shouted over her shoulder.
Looking ahead to Dumfoundling Bay, Wendy’s grip on the throttle lessened. Thousands of bodies bobbed in the water with dozens of drifting boats. “God help us,” Wendy gasped, pressing the throttle but staying at a cruise as she started weaving around the floating corpses.
Halfway through the body-filled bay, a body to their right was jerked underwater. The girls screamed as a shark’s tail splashed the water and Wendy felt Sally’s grip almost squeeze her in half. Reaching down, Wendy patted her arm and then reached back to pat Jo Ann’s leg.
“That was a shark! I watch Shark Week, I know!” Sally yelled. Wendy just nodded as she reached forward, gripping the handlebars. She didn’t have the nerve to tell the twins that she had seen dozens of sharks swimming below them.
Ahead, she saw the bay shrink back down to the narrow channel just over a hundred yards wide. On their left, huge, towering buildings reached for the sky and on the right, were very nice houses. Continuing her weaving around the floating bodies and boats, Wendy looked ahead at the bridge and saw people looking down at them.
Wendy knew there were over a dozen people looking down at her and all of them were waving frantically toward the shore. As she got closer to the bridge, several started pointing at the water and then over toward the shore. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that they were telling her to get off the water, but Wendy continued on. Like the people on the bridge, she could see the sleek forms around her under the water, but not as many.
On the bridge, the group could see hundreds of shadows of sharks swimming around with the bodies.
Coming out from under the bridge, Wendy saw a boat coming toward her and ‘boat’ was a light term. The yacht was over a hundred feet long and Wendy moved to the side, giving the craft the right of way. The yacht paid no mind to the bodies, but wasn’t going fast enough to produce a wake.
As they passed, Wendy saw a woman with six kids standing on the bridge with another woman at the controls. They all waved and Wendy returned the wave and then moved back to the center of the channel. Wendy smiled because the twins hadn’t unlatched their grasps since they’d started off.
Thankful for the yacht, Wendy used the path it had created through the floating bodies, but still had to dodge a large, drifting speedboat. Seeing splashes to her left, Wendy turned to see another body get pulled under and several shark fins splitting the water. “Well, they said sharks were endangered. They won’t be for long,” Wendy mumbled.
Seeing the houses getting larger, Wendy could only imagine what they would cost, but was sure she wasn’t even close.
By the time she reached the next bridge, the bodies had floated back out. Weaving around a body, Wendy glanced at the Hallandale Bridge
