"How bad is it further inland, you think, if things look like this on the coast?" Ben asked over the roar of the outboard.
Jo shook her head, holding her sodden campaign hat against her chest, and tried to wipe the tears from her face “It ain't right…it ain't right," she said to herself.
"There,” Reese said, pointing ashore. He’d driven them north, looking for a way through the debris on the beach, then drifted back south toward Trenton. Just north of the highway connecting Mount Desert Island with Trenton proper, Reese spotted a clear stretch of beach, maybe 20 yards wide. He turned the throttle and goosed the engine, lifting the bow up out of the debris and surging forward.
“Whoa!” Jo exclaimed.
"Don't stop—the trash is just getting thicker and thicker," Ben announced from the bow. He turned to look back at Reese and made a chopping motion, directing Reese forward.
"Everybody hang on!" Reese hollered as he sat down. He turned the throttle wide open and the powerful outboard changed its roar to an earsplitting pitch. He would never be sure, but it felt like the boat tried to take flight as they slammed into a handful of trees floating just off shore. Everyone found themselves on hands and knees, pitched forward as their momentum suddenly stopped. The zodiac crashed through the last few pieces of debris and skidded to a stop on the rocky shore.
The motor sputtered and coughed, then died in a cloud of black smoke. Reese lay in the bottom of the boat, tangled on top of Jo. Ben had disappeared. For a moment no one said anything. Seagulls cried overhead, and the rushing sound of water cascading over higher ground to tumble back into the ocean was the only thing Reese heard.
Then Jo cursed. "Why don't these things come with seatbelts?"
Reese laughed and clambered to his feet, helping her up. He stumbled over the side, landing in shin deep water, and splashed ashore to find Ben a dozen feet in front of the boat, on his back in a patch of seaweed. The crutch lay tangled up in what was left of a pine tree, about six feet away from him.
When they’d all regained their feet and found purchase on dry land, Jo embraced Reese in a bear hug. "Well," he grunted as she squeezed the air from his lungs, "I don't need to see the chiropractor now.”
They all shared a laugh and congratulated each other on having survived the crossing and making it to dry land. "Now what do we do?" Ben asked, looking around.
"Looks like a bomb went off around here,” Jo commented, taking in the devastation.
“Where is here, anyway?" asked Reese.
"Boys, I think this is what's left of Trenton." Jo shook her head and pulled out a soaking wet phone from her pocket. She held it up, letting the water drip from its case and squinted. "I had all kinds of maps on you, didn’t I? Ahyup, you’re not going to do us any good now."
Reese searched his pockets, but his phone was gone. He looked frantically in the zodiac, but it wasn’t there. He looked up to see Jo and Ben watching him. “My phone…it’s gone—Cami…”
Ben pulled a crinkly package from his pocket. He’d wrapped his cell phone in a Ziploc bag, from which he removed it and held it up like a trophy. “The bag of ice you gave me melted, so I used it to protect my phone. We can text Cami with mine, dude—relax. Here, I’ll disable the passcode so you can use it, too.”
"You little devil," Jo muttered, grinning.
Ben leaned on his remaining crutch and pulled up the maps app on his phone. "Yep. That's Trenton, all right. Cell service’s down, but GPS is still working just fine. See? Here we are.”
The others gathered around and looked down at the little glowing screen. True to his words, Ben pointed at the blue circle representing their location on the beach just north of Trenton. They all looked up as one and stared across the shortened beach, past the clumps of seaweed and downed trees. Trenton had been stripped bare, down to the foundations. Only one building remained standing, and that was simply four concrete walls. The only other structure still recognizable was a heavily damaged sign proclaiming the Trenton Bridge gas station.
"There's nothing here," Reese said, walking toward the road. They picked their way carefully through the debris and wreckage littering every square inch of ground until they made it to the relatively clear asphalt. "Why are the roads clear?"
"Don't know," Jo said. "Don't care much either. It's easier walking, I ain't lookin’ a gift horse in the mouth."
"Maybe because the road was smooth, so it allowed wreckage and stuff to move over it easier?" asked Ben as he stumped along on his crutch.
"Whatever the reason, I'll take it," Reese said with a sigh. They stood in front of what remained of the gas station and picked through the debris. "Look for anything useful. Food, maps, rope—anything," Reese said as they spent several minutes poking around.
"I kid you not, if I find a snake, I’m gonna lose it…” Jo announced.
Reese looked over at her out of the corner of his eye. "I don't think anyone would hold it against you, but I have to say, I kind of expected more from a Texan.”
