Apocalyptic Pirates 5, page 9
“I can’t understand you,” Ally said as she delicately sipped her fruit tea.
“I can’t understand you, either,” Dia retorted. “You’re basically drinking hot berry water.”
“Better than black coffee last thing at night.” Ally shook her head. “I shudder to think of what your cortisol levels are like.”
“They’re better than that stick up your ass…” Dia grinned and held up her hand for a high five.
“No one high five that,” Ally commanded.
“Aw, c’mon,” Dia pleaded. “Don’t leave me hanging. Drew?”
“Drew,” Ally warned.
“Sorry, Dia,” I said with a grin. “You’re on your own here.”
“Fine.” The Latina rolled her eyes and buried her nose in her mug of coffee.
The internet had finally connected, and I passed my phone to Letty, who looked up several videos on self-defense moves.
We all took our hot drinks into the lounge area and sat around to watch the tutorials.
The first video opened with a guy in a bright red polo shirt walking down a busy street.
“Hey guys,” he said. “Welcome to Self-Defense With Trey. I’m Trey, and here are five basic self-defense moves that everyone should know.”
Trey walked down the street for a couple more beats before turning down a side alley where he was joined by another guy in a bright blue polo shirt.
“Wow,” Letty breathed. “It’s so weird to see people just walking about down the street like normal.”
“It was normal,” I said with a twinge of melancholy. “Bet this guy never dreamed his video would be used to keep people safe in the wake of an apocalyptic event where radioactive dragons hatched from meteorites that fell from the sky.”
“Now I’m going to show you a simple technique to quickly disable your opponent,” Trey continued. “We’re going to do a simple, quick strike to the neck, like so.”
He demonstrated on the guy with him.
“That looks so brutal.” Ally winced.
“That’s the point,” Shannon reminded her. “You’re doing it to protect yourself. And if protecting yourself means hurting the other person…”
“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Ally sighed. “I just feel too soft to actually go through with it.”
“You’ve shot dragons before,” I pointed out. “And you’ve battled cartel members and thugs of all kinds.”
“Yeah, but that was with a gun in my hand.” Ally wrapped her arms around herself. “It feels different like this.”
I knew what she meant. I had no problem with taking out anyone who was posing a threat to my family or the people I loved, and I wasn’t shy about using weapons or my fists to keep my loved ones safe.
But I would be lying to myself if I didn’t acknowledge that it was a very different experience defending myself with a gun and defending myself unarmed. Using a weapon put a distance between myself and my opponent, and when it came down to fists, that distance was taken away. It felt much more primal. It made me feel dangerous. Powerful. It was reassuring to know that I could handle myself even without the tools that civilization had given me.
“Once you get started, it won’t feel so alien,” I promised her.
“I hope so.” Ally sipped her steaming mug of tea, and I wanted to tell her how adorable she looked, and how much I needed her to take this seriously because we were in a dangerous environment and I couldn’t bear to lose her.
But I didn’t want to put any more pressure on her than she already felt, so I just smiled at her and pushed her red waves back behind her ear.
We watched more of the videos, and Letty made notes of the moves that she thought would be good for us to practice in the morning. I didn’t want to freak Ally out, so after a few more videos, I suggested we call it a night.
Everyone agreed, and Ally settled down on the couch with an out-of-date magazine while Shannon and Letty fired up the iPad and put on an animated film that I’d never heard of but sounded like it involved a lot of colorful musical numbers. I fished out the gaming consoles and offered them to Dia.
“Want to play?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah!” Dia’s face lit up, and she threw herself down on the couch next to me.
I handed her one of the consoles, and she leaned against me and rested her head on my shoulder as the devices powered up. It was very comforting to feel the soft, warm weight of her body against me, and I turned my head to kiss her smooth forehead.
She glanced up at me with a faint smile hovering around her lips.
“This is nice,” she said in a soft voice.
“It is,” I murmured back. “It’s very nice.”
“Until I kick your butt at Super Smash Bros.” Her smile spread and crinkled the corners of her eyes in a way that was utterly adorable and fantastically sexy.
“We’ll see about that,” I told her and gave her a playful poke in the arm as we settled down to game.
The rest of the evening passed peacefully. Once the sun went down, Ally anchored the yacht just off one of the tiny islets that we’d passed. It was one of many random little strips and spots of land that gathered in clusters around the lake, and while it was too small to be sheltering any dragons, the few palm trees and bushes covering the islet were thick enough to afford us some cover so the yacht wasn’t as exposed as it would have been if we’d anchored in the middle of open water. It was secluded enough that I reasoned we could afford to keep one of the yacht lights on throughout the night to help us avoid any surprises that might creep up on us in the dark.
There were a lot of birds that had made the islet their home, and although the more colorful specimens had tucked themselves away in the trees once the light started to fade, it seemed that there were still some nocturnal birds who were out and about in the night.
As usual, I took the first watch, but this time I was on deck with Letty. We sat and listened to the sounds of the creatures fluttering and skittering around the inlet. Suddenly, among the perpetual hum and buzz of cicadas and other insects, we heard a strange, flute-like cry.
Letty clutched my arm, and we listened to the weird, haunting notes sound throughout the warm night air. The noise was startlingly loud, and whatever animal was making it must be very close by.
“What is that?” Letty whispered.
“I guess it must be a bird,” I whispered back.
The sound came again in a descending pattern of softly piped notes, and as I strained my eyes into the darkness, I suddenly saw the creature making the noise.
“Letty,” I whispered. “Look.”
She followed my pointing finger.
On one of the tree branches jutting out over the water, we could make out a small, hunched shape. As we looked, it suddenly extended its whole body and pointed its beak at the night sky. Its beak opened, and the bird released another round of its soft, melancholic song.
“Its song is so pretty,” Letty whispered. “But it looks like a Muppet.”
I had to choke back a snort of laughter. The bird did indeed look like something out of Sesame Street. Its body was short and stumpy, but it had huge yellow eyes, and when it opened its beak to call out its song, I could see that its mouth was unnaturally wide.
“No bird has a beak like that,” Letty whispered. “That’s a hand puppet.”
This time I couldn’t hold back my chuckle.
The bird heard me, and its head swung around like an owl’s as its enormous, yellow eyes pierced the darkness.
Letty and I sat and held our breaths, and the bird eventually settled itself back down again on its branch. And after a while, we again heard it let out its eerie, sad little song.
We passed the rest of the watch in relatively peaceful silence. The bird calls were surprisingly therapeutic to listen to, and combined with the gentle splash of the water against the side of the yacht, the hours passed by in a soft, dreamlike haze. I was still alert and on the lookout for any dangers, but even the dragons seemed to have taken the night off, and the time went by without hearing any roars at all.
When our time was up, Letty and I headed down to the bedroom and woke Shannon and Dia for their shifts. My head hit the pillow, and I instantly fell fast asleep.
The next morning there was a white mist curling low over the waters of the Canal. The sound of the nocturnal birds had given way to the chatter and squawk of their brighter counterparts, and when I came up on deck, there was a toucan perched on the guard railing. It eyed me curiously for a moment before taking flight and soaring back to the islet.
“Good morning, Drew.” Letty came to stand beside me.
I put my arm around her, and she showed me something on Dia’s phone. She must have borrowed it to look something up online.
“What’s this?” I asked, but even as I spoke, I recognized the picture on the screen.
“This is the bird we saw last night,” Letty explained. “You’ll never guess what it’s called.”
“Tell me,” I said with a smile.
“The common potoo,” Letty giggled. “I said it was a Muppet.”
“You did,” I agreed. “Wow. It really is a funny-looking thing, isn’t it?”
“Apparently they’re related to nightjars,” Letty said. “Which is a funny thing, I think. Here we are, miles and miles away from home, and we’re running into cousins of the familiar birds we’re used to seeing. I used to hear whip-poor-wills all the time back home in my aunty’s yard.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard one,” I confessed.
“Really?” Letty tutted. “It’s such a cute song.”
“I guess I don’t really pay that much attention to bird calls,” I said. “It’s the kind of thing Sammy would be into, and I’d listen for the first eight minutes but start to zone out once she reached the fifteen-minute mark.”
“Girl’s a nerd, huh?” Letty chuckled. “All the best girls are.”
“Yeah.” I smiled fondly at the memory. “She gets so excited about finding out about things and discovering new pieces of information. I just love that curiosity she has.”
“You can’t teach that,” Letty agreed. “And it’s a rare gift when you find it.”
I was still smiling, but I was suddenly hit with such a pang of longing for my baby girl that I had to close my eyes to pull myself together.
We were making progress every day, I told myself. Today was a new day, and we were going to use it to take as many steps forward on this journey as we could. It wasn’t forever. I would see my Sammy girl again soon.
“Drew?” Letty was watching my face in concern.
“I’m good,” I assured her with a smile.
She gave me a tight hug and then looped her arm through mine.
“Come on,” she told me. “Let’s go and get some breakfast inside you.”
I felt a little less desolate once I had some hot coffee and biscuits inside me, and by the time we’d finished breakfast, the sun had started to burn away the mist from the water’s surface. Shannon ushered us all out onto the deck as soon as we’d digested our food.
It was another perfect day, with the golden sunlight sparkling off the dark Canal water and filtering through the lush green foliage on the islet. The light through the leaves made a shifting, fluttering pattern of light on the deck of the yacht. The air was warm and smelled of green leaves, blue water, and yellow sunshine.
Ally went into the cockpit and hoisted the sail, which filled and caught the wind, and she slowly took us away from the islet and back on course across Gatun Lake.
“Okay.” Shannon took up a position by the railing. “Letty and I have watched through the videos again, and we’ve narrowed down some basic moves to learn.”
“Why am I so nervous about this?” Ally whispered to me.
“Don’t worry,” I whispered back. “You’ll be fine. It’s literally just Shannon and Letty.”
“The first move that we’re going to demonstrate is how to escape if someone grabs you from behind,” Letty announced. “Shannon’s going to grab me, and I’m going to defend myself.”
Letty walked across the deck, and Shannon came up behind her and locked her arms around the Southern woman’s waist.
Letty grabbed Shannon’s arms and swung her hips to the side. Then she made a fist and tapped it against Shannon’s groin and stomach before swinging around, locking her hands around Shannon’s neck and bringing her knee– gently– up into Shannon’s groin again.
“Whoa, that looks painful,” I commented.
“Do you all see how I swing my hips to create space between my body and my attacker?” Letty looked around to make sure we were all watching.
I nodded, and Letty threw me a smile.
“You probably don’t need any of these tips,” she said to me.
“I’m always open to learning new things,” I replied.
“You can handle yourself just fine,” Ally protested. “You don’t need to learn anything new.”
“Hey, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared,” I said with a smile. “Besides, it’s more fun to join in than just watch from the sidelines.”
“That’s good, actually,” Letty said. “You can practice with us so we can get to try the techniques on more than one body type.”
“Good thinking,” I agreed. “So, Ally, do you want to give it a go?”
“Okay,” Ally said nervously.
Dia paired up with Shannon, and Letty stepped back to observe us.
Ally walked across the deck, and I stepped up behind her and grabbed her quickly. It felt a bit weird to be acting out the part of the attacker on a woman I loved, but I reasoned that it was an act of affection to help her learn to defend herself.
Ally froze in my grip.
“Um,” she said with an awkward laugh. “I can’t remember what to do next.”
“Pivot your hips to the side,” I suggested.
“Oh, yeah.” Ally swung her hips around in a very distracting way, and if it had been different circumstances, I would have quite enjoyed the feeling of her body wriggling against me.
“Grab Drew’s arms, Ally,” Letty called. “Use that as leverage to move your hips out of the way so you can punch the groin.”
“Fake punch the groin,” I corrected quickly. “I’d still like to be able to function after this.”
“Oh, yes, of course,” Ally giggled.
She grabbed hold of my arms, pivoted her hips to the side, and in the same motion, she brought her fist down toward my groin. Almost instinctively, I loosened my grip on her, and she was able to break free from my encircling arms. Before I even remembered what the next step was, she had her hands linked around the back of my neck and was bringing her knee up into my crotch.
“Whoa, Whoa!” I protested.
Ally stopped and planted her foot back down on the deck.
“That was easy,” she said in surprise.
“Yeah, that was scary,” I replied. “You certainly took me by surprise, even though I knew it was coming.”
“Can we try again?” Ally’s light-green eyes were sparkling with excitement.
“Sure,” I said with a smile, even though I was a little apprehensive about whether my balls were going to make it through the exercise in one piece.
We went through the drill again, at first slowly, and then more quickly. Then Letty demonstrated how to break a chokehold, and how to break free if someone grabbed her by the hair.
“Wow, Ally, you’re really good at this!” Letty exclaimed as Ally finished delivering the final blow that, if carried through properly, would have dislocated my elbow. I could feel how quickly Ally had taken to the steps, and even though it was just a practice run, I couldn’t deny that I was glad to take a break.
“I think it’s because you’re so slender,” I told her. “It doesn’t seem like there’s enough of you for this to work, but with these moves, you’re using my weight and strength against me. Because you’re so lightweight, and because you’re tall as well, you just kind of slip through my grasp.”
“It’s fun, too!” Ally’s cheeks were pink with exertion and adrenaline. “I really didn’t think I would have this much fun pretending to beat Drew’s balls to a pulp, but I am.”
“That makes one of us,” I muttered.
“Poor Drew.” Ally patted my shoulder. “You can take a break now, I think I’ve abused you enough for one morning.”
“I’ll take you on,” Shannon challenged.
“You think you can take me?” Ally cocked an eyebrow.
“Go on, Ally!” I called.
Ally flashed me a cheeky smile, and I winked at her. I loved this new confidence that had come out of her. It was true that most of Ally’s talents lay in areas outside of physical combat, but it was exciting to see how quickly and eagerly she’d picked up these self-defense skills.
I wasn’t going to lie, it was pretty damn hot as well.
Ally walked across the deck. I was sure she was swinging her ass in a way that was even sexier than normal.
Shannon suddenly ran at her and grabbed a handful of her hair.
Ally executed the move perfectly. She locked her hands over Shannon’s on top of her head, squeezed her elbows in, ducked underneath Shannon’s arm and swung up and around until Shannon’s arm was twisted behind her back.
“Got ya,” Ally panted.
Shannon’s eyes were wide. From the startled expression on her face, it was clear that she hadn’t expected Ally to be so quick and so intentional. But then a grin broke out on her face, and when Ally released her, she swung around and pulled Ally into a triumphant hug.
“Oh, my god,” she cheered. “You did it! Look at how cool you are!”
“Hey.” Ally winked. “I was always cool, you know that.”
“Of course, of course.” Shannon slung her arm over Ally’s shoulders and grinned at her. “You’re one feisty redhead, you know that?”
“I do,” she preened. “Let me at those knives, I’m ready to practice with them now.”
