Apocalyptic Pirates 5, page 2
The yacht was almost at the bridge.
My palms were sweaty, and I carefully wiped them on my shorts so I didn’t drop the binoculars. The women were crouched low on deck with their eyes fixed on the dragons.
The yacht sail snapped and cracked in the wind, and I held my breath as we passed directly underneath the bridge.
The shadow of the huge structure fell over the yacht, and I couldn’t stop the shiver that ran down my spine. Not seven hundred feet above us, there were three slumbering monstrosities that could rip our heads off without blinking.
The urge rose up inside me to burst out laughing, but I clamped my lips together so no sounds could escape. It was like standing on top of a cliff and having the urge to jump, or waiting for the subway and feeling the need to throw myself onto the rails. I was pretty sure I’d skim read an article about it where they described it as a phenomenon named “the call of the void”.
Well, I wasn’t about to answer the call of any damn void today, thank you very much.
I glanced around at the women, and I saw that Dia had her hands pressed tightly over her mouth. Ally’s lips were pressed into a thin, white, bloodless line.
But then the shadow passed. The yacht sailed out from underneath the bridge, and we were on the other side.
I trained the binoculars on the dragons and froze when I saw one of them move. But it was only the twitch of a sleeping animal, and they didn’t move again.
I let out my breath very slowly and felt relief flood my limbs.
“Oh, my god,” Letty mouthed.
I nodded and widened my eyes to show that I agreed with her.
We stayed motionless and silent as the yacht carried us further away from the bridge.
I heard a faint splashing noise, and I peered over the edge of the yacht to see if maybe we’d run into a shoal of fish. Then the water parted as the biggest fucking crocodile I’d ever seen exploded out of the Canal’s blue waters.
Holy fucking shit.
I wanted nothing more than to release a round into the creature’s face, but I reversed my gun and thudded the butt into the croc’s nose.
It snapped and slammed into the side of the yacht, and the whole damn thing rocked as water sprayed up all over the place.
The motion sent us skidding around on the wet deck, and I lost my footing, slid, and crashed with a thud into the guard rail.
Shannon landed almost on top of me, and as we struggled to our feet on the rocking deck, the crocodile surfaced right nearby. It was a fucking huge thing, and must have been over fifteen feet long. Its thick, enormous body was covered in old scars and marked with fresh wounds that couldn’t have been more than a few days old.
I caught a glimpse of a furious yellow eye before the crocodile launched itself at the boat again. Its snout struck the side, and we clung to one another as it dipped and rocked in response. The bastard’s huge body churned the water into white froth as it threw itself back at us two more times.
The yacht groaned, and the wet deck bucked under my feet as I slid and fell. My boots scrambled to find purchase on the wet wood, and I managed to grab hold of the right-hand rail above my head and hung there.
I looked around frantically for the women, but they were all safely clinging onto the railing in the same way I was.
The crocodile’s yellow, slit-pupiled eye stared at me with a dead, animal instinct. Then its eye closed as it moved to strike again.
This fucker must’ve been starving to give us this much shit.
I let go of the rail. Gravity sent me skidding across the deck, and as another firm strike from the animal rocked us, I realized what would happen next.
We were listing too far.
And sure enough, as we rocked back, the damn crocodile was able to latch onto the railing.
But I was sliding right at it now.
I slammed into the guard rail, raised my knife, and stabbed it into the crocodile’s snout. It held on, but I stabbed again and again.
Shannon was suddenly there by my side with her Bowie knife drawn. Her momentum almost sent her flying over the edge of the boat, but she caught herself in time and used the momentum to lean over and bury her knife deep in the crocodile’s jaw.
She was aiming for its eye but missed.
Even so, it was enough to make the beast let go of the rail. It was bleeding from the cuts that I’d opened along its snout and the underside of its jaw, and as it sank down into the water, the froth turned pink and red.
The yacht rocked back to center, and Shannon and I stumbled along the edge of the rail and scanned the surrounding water to see if the crocodile was going to make another attack.
But the Canal was silent and still. There was a dark cloud in the water, and a few pink-tinged bubbles still floating on the surface, but the crocodile had gone.
We all looked at each other with wide open eyes.
I looked carefully around, but we’d left the Atlantic Bridge behind, and it looked like we were out of earshot.
“Shitttttt.” I let out my breath in a long exhale.
“What the fuck…” Shannon breathed.
“A fucking crocodile,” Dia hissed. “That was like something out of a fucking horror movie.”
“It was so damn huge,” Letty whispered.
“I can’t believe that just happened.” Ally’s face was pale, and her hands were shaking so much she almost dropped her knife.
“Did you see how scarred it was?” Shannon said. “It was already pretty beat up.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I saw that. I wonder if it had tried to take on a dragon.”
“No,” Letty gasped. “Surely it can’t have done that and survived?”
“I don’t know whether you noticed or not,” Dia said, “but it was pretty fucking huge. And if the Canal is its normal hunting ground, it’s going to try and defend it.”
“That’s what I thought,” I agreed. “If a creature that big got hungry, it might just be desperate enough to challenge the other apex predators muscling in on its territory. Hell, it was hungry enough to fuck with us as persistently as it did.”
“I can’t believe it.” Ally shook her head. “The thought of another predator managing to fight a dragon. I know we’ve seen sharks attacking dragons, but that’s different. Dragons are at such a disadvantage in the water.”
“The crocodile could have ambushed them from the water and dragged them into the Canal,” I pointed out. “I’m sure I saw something like that happen on a nature documentary. Of course, it wasn’t a dragon on the other end.”
A slow smile spread over Ally’s face.
“What?” I asked her.
“I don’t know.” She shook her head, but she was still smiling. “Is it weird that I find that reassuring? The crocodile attacking the dragons?”
“Uh, well,” I began.
“I just mean…” Ally thought for a moment. “Nature reasserts itself, you know? For ages, it’s seemed like this was it, Earth was the dragons’ planet now. But this shows that it’s really not. I know we’re doing okay, but we’re humans, we’re smart, and we have tools. The animals don’t have anything except their natural strength and instincts. And that’s still enough to take on a dragon.”
“I think I know what you mean.” I nodded my head slowly. “Things are readjusting. Now that the dragons are becoming more of a part of life, the local wildlife is adapting to their presence.”
“And dragons might not be at the top of the food chain forever,” Ally finished.
I kind of doubted that, but I didn’t want to take away the excitement in Ally’s voice, so I just smiled at her instead.
“We still need to be alert.” I scanned the water and the surrounding jungle. “The crocodile might come back, and don’t forget, we know that there are definitely dragons around here. So we still need to keep noise to a minimum and be wary.”
“We should be approaching the first set of locks soon.” Dia pointed to a spot on the horizon.
We went to stand at the front of the boat, and we watched as we sailed closer to the Gatun Locks.
The greenery was still lush and vibrant on either side of the Canal, but I could see buildings and some other unfamiliar structures coming up ahead. A narrow length of land stretched out into the water and divided the Canal into two lanes. The trees were growing extra thick here, and we heard growls and the sounds of a scuffle coming from their dark recesses.
There was still a shit-ton of dragons here, even in the more developed areas of the Canal.
I hadn’t wanted to worry the women, but I’d been dreading every second that we got closer to the locks. Because once we reached them, we would find out exactly how easy the next bit of our journey would be.
I wasn’t exactly a sailor. Before the apocalypse, I’d only been out on fishing trips when I was a teenager. I’d never navigated a lock system before, and I was pretty sure none of the women had, either.
The best case scenario I could think of would be for the locks to be working on an automated system. Everything was done by computers these days, wasn’t it? Robots were always putting humans out of work, so why would one of the most important waterways in the world be any different?
“Dia,” I said quietly. “Do you remember learning anything about the lock system here?”
“Um…” Dia wrinkled her brow. “Not really. I remember we were going to learn about them in school, but, uh, I’m pretty sure I played hooky that day. Billy Grayson had managed to get hold of his older brother’s car, and we went and did donuts in the Starbucks parking lot.”
That was such a Dia answer that I could only chuckle.
“I’m sorry that’s not very helpful,” she added.
“No, don’t worry.” I sighed. “It would be different if we could just get a damn signal. Then I could Google all of this.”
“I do vaguely remember something about an expansion?” Dia chewed on her lower lip. “We watched a video about how the Canal was going to be widened or something. And there was a clip of a control panel with a lot of levers and handles.”
“So it’s not an automated system?” My heart sank.
“I don’t think so,” Dia replied. “I’m pretty sure it’s like the original analog system.”
“Okay.” I sighed. “Well, we’ll just have to see when we get there.”
We didn’t have to wait long. The yacht was almost at the opening of the lanes that led into the locks, and I could see the little, red-roofed buildings that were set up on either side of the channels. They must be the control rooms.
And as we sailed into the channel with the scuffles and growls of dragons filtering through the rainforest all around us, I realized the worst thing about all of this.
There was no way we were going to be able to make it through the Canal like this. Someone was going to have to go ashore to try and operate the locks.
Chapter 2
There was a thin stretch of land that started just before the lock chambers and divided them into two lanes. I guessed this was so several boats could enter the locks at the same time.
The locks were deserted, and aside from the occasional dragon noise that came from the treeline, the whole place was eerily quiet. There were plenty of abandoned vessels that had been left behind, and some of them looked like they had been damaged by dragon attacks. There was a yacht about the same size and type as ours, but it was slumped low on its side in the water with its sail hanging in tatters and snapped cables dragging over the side. It wasn’t a reassuring sight.
Ally dropped anchor just before the yacht came into the first lane. I went below to get the drone, and I settled down on the deck to do a little reconnaissance of the area. The women peered over my shoulder to watch the screen as I flew the drone carefully over the locks.
It was a ghost operation, but a surprisingly tidy one. For all the abandoned vessels listing in the water around the locks, the place itself didn’t have the chaotic abandoned look that I’d come to expect from scenes like this. There were no tools or equipment left haphazardly lying around, and I even spotted some neatly-coiled ropes that looked like a prop for a model workspace rather than a scene from an apocalyptic wasteland.
I tucked that information away in the back of my brain for later. It looked like there could still be people around here. But why would they be concerned with keeping their workspace clean and tidy? There couldn’t be many boats making the Canal crossing these days.
I zoomed the drone low over the spit of land that divided the Canal into two lanes. There was a walkway along the spit that led to one of the red-roofed, white-walled buildings. Through the drone’s camera, I could see that there was writing above the entrance. I flew in closer and read: GATUN LOCKS PANAMA CANAL 1913.
It was crazy to think that this place was that old. The Canal had been built in an entirely different world. In 1913, humans hadn’t yet gone to the moon, we’d only just mastered airplanes, and the world was about to be hurled into its first world war. And now here we were, over a century later.
Our world couldn’t be more different to that of the Panama Canal engineers, but I would bet that our everyday worries and concerns were still the same. We still wanted food, shelter, love, to feel like we were making a difference in the world.
“Well, that’s wrong.” Dia’s finger jabbed down on the screen and pulled my thoughts out of the past.
“Huh?” I asked.
“Didn’t the Canal open in 1914?” she queried.
“I thought you were too busy playing hooky to remember any facts,” I returned.
“I remember that much.” She rolled her eyes. “Which is, like, the best example of how dumb schooling can be. What use is that fact to me in my everyday life?”
“Well, it gave you a chance to be obnoxious right now,” Shannon pointed out.
“I’m sorry.” Dia held up her hands in mock defensiveness. “I didn’t realize it was obnoxious to care about historical accuracy.”
“You know, I think it was probably that this part of the lock was completed then,” Letty said in a clear effort to smooth things over. “Maybe this building was finished in 1913, but they finished all of the work in 1914.”
“That was very diplomatic of you,” Ally told her.
“Thank you.” Letty grinned.
“You two need to quit squabbling,” Ally said to Shannon and Dia with her finger raised to wag at them. But as soon as she noticed the grins the two other women exchanged, her cheeks flushed pink, and she quickly put her hand down.
“Alright…” Dia said.
“Don’t say it,” Ally warned.
“… Mom,” Shannon finished, and she clapped her hand over her mouth to hold back her giggles as Ally turned on her with an outraged glower.
“You two are impossible.” Ally folded her arms in a huff.
I smiled secretly to myself as I listened to them banter. I flew the drone closer to the control house and looked through the windows to see if I could make out any signs of human activity. There didn’t seem to be anyone at all inside the building, and when I flew the drone a little further along the walkway to reach the end of the lock, there was still no sign of anyone.
“It’s pretty deserted,” Shannon noted.
“Which could be a good thing.” Ally nodded.
“No one to attack us,” Letty agreed.
“But also no one to help us,” I muttered.
I piloted the drone back to the yacht and landed it on deck. I took it below, stashed it away safely, and came back up to try and figure out exactly what our next steps should be.
“We’re going to have to go ashore,” I began. “And from there, hopefully we can figure out how the system works.”
“I honestly didn’t think it would be this complicated,” Letty confessed. “I guess I should have. Isn’t the Panama Canal like one of the most important inventions in human travel history?”
“If I’m honest, I thought that would have made it easier.” I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “I expected a busy waterway to have an automated system.”
“Nope.” Dia shook her head. “It’s old, it’s ancient, and it’s apparently good enough the way it is. I think I remember my teacher saying it was a marvel of Victorian engineering, but I’m pretty sure he said that about most things, so I didn’t really pay much attention.”
“You’re a walking cautionary tale, you know that?” Shannon told her with a grin.
“Oh, and I suppose you always paid attention in class,” Dia challenged.
“Shannon the nerd,” Letty teased.
“I paid attention to the important stuff.” Shannon grinned even wider. “But to be honest, if I’d had a lesson about an old canal, I’d probably have zoned out, too.”
While they were bantering, I pulled out my phone and tried again to load up the internet. I walked up and down the deck, and finally I managed to catch a bar.
I immediately typed “Panama Canal” into the search engine. After an eternity of waiting, the search results finally loaded.
There were some articles that came up right away from websites that were devoted to explaining all about how a person could go through the Canal. Most of them advised finding a local guide who had been through the Canal before and who could help the boat go through safely.
Well, that wasn’t exactly an option for us. I clicked through to more articles and read on.
The Canal was forty-eight miles long. Crossing it could take up to ten hours, and that was with all the help and assistance that boats normally received when going through. The Gatun Locks, where we were at now, was made up of three lock chambers that would raise the yacht eighty-five feet above sea level and release us into the manmade Gatun Lake that connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. We would have to sail across the lake and reach the Miraflores Locks on the other side, which would then lower us back down to sea level. From there we could make our way across Panama Bay to the Pacific Ocean.
And once in the Pacific, we would have a clear path to Hawaii, and I would finally be able to see my daughter again.
I took a couple of deep breaths as I realized how close we were getting to finally reaching our destination. Ever since the first meteorites fell in the storm all those weeks ago, my only thought had been about getting home to Sam. And now that goal was almost in reach.
