For Those In Peril (Book 1): For Those In Peril On The Sea (4 page)

‘Careful, you’ll flood it.’

‘I know what I’m doing, Rob.’ Jon never liked it when I gave him advice, but there was a hint of panic in his voice.

I felt the rope separate and I pushed us away from the rocks. Jon was pulling repeatedly on the chord but the engine still refused to start. My eyes flicked upwards. While I couldn’t see the path, I knew the figure could appear at any moment and we were still within range of a machete. As Jon continued to fiddle with the engine, I grabbed an oar and started paddling, making short, sharp strokes on alternating sides of the bow.

We were twenty yards out when the engine finally spluttered into life and a look of relief spread across Jon’s face. Back on the shore, I could see the figure standing on the rocks just above the steps. He was a tall, black man, his white t-shirt soaked in blood. As we motored towards to the waiting boat, he waved the machete and screamed something I couldn’t quite make out. Without warning, he stopped and sank to his knees, his shoulders heaving as he sobbed. Jon shifted the engine into neutral; the man no longer seemed insane and dangerous, just broken and desperate.

‘Should we go back?’ Jon asked hesitantly.

‘I don’t know. I don’t think we should risk it. What if it’s a trap? I mean, he’s covered in blood.’ While he no longer looked threatening, the man still frightened me.

All of a sudden, with a speed that was unsettling, the man leapt to his feet and sprang round to face the path. A new shape was outlined on the crest of the hill. I couldn’t tell if it was human or animal, or even if there was more than one, and almost as soon as I’d seen it, it was gone. The man looked desperately left and right, as if trying to decide which way he should run but, before he made his choice, two shapes shot out of the bushes. He flailed the machete wildly as they flew towards him but it made little difference. When they reached him, they attacked and, within seconds, the man was on the ground. Even from that distance, we could hear his screams of pain and the guttural growls of the creatures. He struggled frantically, trying to throw them off, but despite his size they were too much for him. His movements slowed and eventually
ceased as the life drained out of him, but the creatures kept up their assault, tearing at his body, ripping him limb from limb.

‘What the fuck are those things?’ There was a look of abject horror on Jon’s face.

‘I don’t know. Let’s just get the hell out of here. Now!’

Jon slammed the engine into gear and we skimmed over the water at full speed, trying to resist the urge to look back. We tied off the dinghy and scrambled onto the catamaran. Bill was standing in the cockpit staring towards the shore with the binoculars,

‘For a minute there I thought you were going to go back. Just as well you didn’t.’

‘Could you see what those animals were; the ones that attacked him?’ I wanted to know. I wanted to understand how close we’d come to being attacked ourselves.

Bill looked at me and said nothing as he handed me the binoculars. I aimed them towards the shore and could see two huddled shapes crouching over what was left of the man. As I watched, one of them stood up and I could see what it was. It was a young boy, no more than thirteen. Blood dripped from his face as he stared straight at me. His eyes bored into mine, unblinking, so wild, so animalistic, and yet so human. He knelt back down and started tearing at the carcass again. I watched as he clawed at the man’s stomach, opening up his abdomen and pulling out his intestines. He plunged his head into the man’s body, reappearing a second later with a large piece of liver in his mouth. I lowered the binoculars and stared at Bill, not believing what I’d just seen. As I did so, CJ came out onto the deck.

‘What’s going on?’

‘Don’t know,’ Jon shot back at her as his eyes shifted from Bill to me and back again. ‘Can I get the binoculars?’

I passed them to him and watched as he raised them to his eyes.

‘They’re eating him.’ Jon was appalled.

‘What d’you mean they’re eating him? Who’s eating who? Give me the binoculars,’ CJ held out her hand but Jon didn’t give them to her.

‘Trust me. You don’t want to see.’

CJ scowled at him but there was something in Jon’s voice that suggested he was right and she didn’t push it.

As we pulled the dinghy out of the water and hauled up the anchor, Jon told Bill and CJ what we’d found up at the lighthouse. He sounded almost excited but it was probably just the after-effects of the adrenaline from his body’s fight or flight reaction. I was certainly feeling a little shaky for the same reason.

Jon was just finishing. ‘Jesus, there was blood everywhere … I mean, a lot of it.’

I felt the need to say something. CJ had a terrified look on her face and Jon needed calming down.

‘There wasn’t that much really. I mean maybe it was all from one person …’ Even as I said it, I knew in my heart it wasn’t true.

Once we were underway and had put some distance between ourselves and the lighthouse, we gathered in the cockpit. We were all badly shaken by what we’d witnessed and for a while none of us spoke, each lost in our own thoughts. It was CJ who eventually broke the silence.

‘What now?’

‘Very good question.’ Bill sat there thinking for a few seconds before continuing. ‘No matter what happened back there, there’s nothing we can do about it. In fact, I think you guys were very lucky to get back to the dinghy when you did, otherwise ... ’ I didn’t want to think what the otherwise might have been.

After a
moment Bill carried on. ‘We’ll need to report it, the only question is where. As far as I can see, we’ve got four choices.’ He counted each of them off on his fingers as he spoke, ‘There’s a small village marked on the chart just up the coast, but there’s no guarantee it’ll have a police station. Even if it does, it’s going to be a small one and I’m not too sure they’d be able to deal with this sort of thing on their own.’

Given what we’d just seen, I was amazed at how calm Bill was, at how clearly he was thinking. My own mind had frozen, able to do little more than replay the same shocking sights over and over again, yet Bill was able to think logically about what we needed to do next, just as he’d done in the storm. These were the times I was so glad it was Bill who was in charge and not me.

‘Two, we can sail south and report it in Nassau. Or three, we can continue west and report it in Freeport on Grand Bahama. They’re both pretty big cities, at least as far as the Bahamas are concerned, and both will have sizeable police forces. But it’ll take time for them to get themselves together and get over to Hole-in-the-Wall.

‘Four, we can carry on to Miami, and report it from there. The important thing to remember is that, no matter where we report it, it’s going to raise a lot of questions.’

Bill was silent for a second or two. ’Frankly, I’m not too sure people will believe us. We could get tied up in the investigation for days, even weeks. There’s nothing we can do for that poor sod back there, so if the rest of you agree, I’d rather report it in Miami than in the Bahamas. That way we won’t be stuck in a foreign country while this thing is looked into.’

‘It mightn’t be a fore
ign country to you ...’ I was concerned Bill had forgotten we weren’t all Americans.

‘Good point. But I think you and CJ would still be better off in the US than in the Bahamas. Whatever went on back there, it’s going to cause a big stir when it comes out. At least in the US you’ll have less of a chance of getting dragged into it. We all will. What do you think?’

Bill looked around at the rest of us.

Jon nodded his agreement, as did I, but with more hesitation. My mind was finally starting to work again and while I could see Bill’s point, I still didn’t like the fact I might get stuck in an unfamiliar country, far from my boat, while any investigation took place.

‘CJ?’

‘Erm ...’

‘Oh come on, Cammy, make a decision for once; not that it really matters what you think.’ Jon sounded irritated.

‘Shut up, Jon, that’s not helpful.’ I couldn’t
stop myself snapping at him. It annoyed me that, despite what we’d just witnessed, Jon still couldn’t resist needling CJ. It incensed me just as much that CJ made it so easy for him. Glancing over at her, I saw the resentment and anger that had been building up within her towards Jon throughout the voyage start to bubble to the surface.

Bill must have seen this too because he sat down and put a reassuring arm around her.

‘CJ, it’s important that we all agree on what we’re going to do.’ Bill’s voice was calm and comforting, ‘What do you think? Are you happy with us carrying on to Miami?’

‘I guess Miami would be okay.’

Jon opened his mouth to speak, but Bill held up his hand and Jon thought better of it.

Bill looked round at each of us again, ‘Right, Miami it is then.’

***

‘What d’you think happened back there?’ I was keen to hear Bill’s thoughts. Night had fallen and we were over the shallow waters of Great Bahama Bank, passing between the islan
ds of Great Isaacs and the Biminis. We’d covered half the distance to Miami and we would be there by daybreak at the very latest. Bill and I were alone in the cockpit and we’d soon be crossing the Gulf Stream, an unpredictable stretch of water that could be whipped up into rough pyramids of water at a moment’s notice, if the wind started pushing against the northward-flowing current. We were lucky, the wind had been strong enough to keep us moving along at a decent pace, while gentle enough not to stir the waters up too much. It would be an easy passage, the skies were clear and the stars were laid out above us, the silver ribbon of the Milky Way shining brightly in the heavens. This was the type of crossing I usually relished, but I couldn’t enjoy it because the events from that morning were still replaying themselves in my head.

It took Bill a while to reply. ‘I really don’t know.’

I tried again, ‘Why would they do that to another person?’ I wanted an answer, any kind of answer, something that might explain what we’d seen.

‘I don’t know. Why do people do any of the cruel things that they do to each other?’ Bill stared out into the darkness.

‘But this is different. Even in comparison to most human atrocities, what happened back there was vicious. I’ve never seen anything like it. They were like wild animals.’ I stopped and thought for a second, ‘No, they were worse than that. They didn’t just kill him, they ripped him apart.’ Just thinking about it made me feel sick.

‘I know.’ Bill turned and look
ed at me, there was a pained expression on his face. ‘I know. I’ve seen a lot in my life, but I’ve never seen anything like that.’

Even if I’d wanted to I don’t think I could have slept that night. I couldn’t get the image of the young boy with his wild, staring eyes, out of my head, or the terrified screaming of the man as he was torn apart. I felt there was something deeply wrong with a world where such things could happen. I couldn’t wait to get back to civilisation and get so drunk that those images would be erased from my mind, at least for a few hours.

  Chapter Three 

Sometime in the night the wind shifted around to the west, and with it came a strange smell. It was barely discernible at first, but it grew stronger the closer we got to the Florida coast. Mostly, it smelt of smoke; not wood smoke but something thicker, more acrid, with an undertone of singed flesh. Bill had gone down to his bunk a couple of hours before, and Jon had replaced him on watch. As we discussed what the smell might be, CJ brought out a coffee for Jon and a tea for me.

CJ looked towards the front of the boat, standing on tiptoes to get a better view over the cabin.

‘Hey, is that the sun coming up?’

‘Don’t be daft, Cammy.’ Jo
n took a sip of his coffee, ‘We’re heading west. The sun rises in the east, doesn’t it?’

‘Well, there’s something going on over there,’ CJ retorted. ‘It definitely looks like a sunrise.’

She sounded so certain that Jon and I stood up to see what she was talking about. Sure enough there was an orange glow on the horizon.

‘Must be some kind of brush fire.’ Jon didn’t sound convinced, but it seemed logical.

We watched for the next hour. By then, we could make out flames leaping high into the darkness. The fire explained the strange smell, or at least it seemed to, but the smoke didn’t smell like a brush fire, it smelt more industrial. I scanned the horizon. The flames were strung out in loose clusters along a stretch of coast about half a mile long, and directly ahead of us. On either side there was nothing but darkness. That in itself was odd.

‘I can’t see any lights. Miami’s a big city. We should be able to see some by now.’ I looked over at Jon. ‘I think we’ve wandered off course.’

‘I don’t see how, I’ve been keeping a very close eye on the compass.’ Jon’s reply was defensive.

‘I’m not blaming you. Maybe the currents are stronger than we thought.’ I’d run through possible scenarios in my head and it was the only one that seemed viable. ‘Go get Bill and we’ll see if he can work out where we’ve gone wrong.’

‘CJ can go.’

CJ glowered angrily at Jon for passing the buck before she turned and stormed back into the cabin.

A few minutes later, a sleepy-looking Bill appeared. I handed him the binoculars and he scanned the coast for a minute, then went inside. He returned seconds later with his sextant. We watched as he worked away, moving back and forth between the chart table in the cabin, where he did the calculations, and the foredeck, where he measured the height of Polaris, the pole star, above the horizon. He took much longer than usual but, eventually, he came back to the cockpit, scratching his head.

‘I checked three times. We’re directly east of Miami. It must be something in the city that’s burning.’ Bill pulled out the binoculars and scanned the horizon again, trying to get a better idea of what it was. ‘It’s huge. I wonder what it is? Something at the port maybe? Fuel tanks, something like that.’

Bill’s tone sounded slightly lost and a worried look had crept onto his face. Jon, CJ and I glanced uneasily at each other. Even in the height of the storm Bill had given off an aura of certainty. Now there was something in his voice that made us wonder if he felt as confused as the rest of us.

After a few moments, Bill seemed to pull himself together. ‘Right, here’s the plan. We’ll carry on heading
towards Miami for now, but we might have to divert to Fort Lauderdale if it looks like the port’s closed.’ He looked at his watch. ‘Sun up’s in an hour. We’ll be able to get a better idea of what’s going on then.’

By six we could see Miami, or what was left of it. All that remained of most of the skyscrapers were stumps of crumpled steel. Dense columns of smoke rose from them, twisting upwards and drifting out to sea. The few that were still standing were ablaze, flames licking from shattered windows. As we watched, one collapsed in on itself, sending a wave of debris sweeping across the rubble that surrounded it. If anyone had still been inside, they wouldn’t have survived and I hoped everyone had already got out. We stood in silence, taking turns with the binoculars, none of us quite believing what we were seeing.

‘What the hell happened?’ We were all thinking it but CJ was the first to put it into words, her voice cracking slightly as she spoke. Somehow hearing it said out loud made it more real.

‘Could have been a hurricane, or a riot ... or a terrorist attack … or an earthquake … or …’ I was clutching at straws, my mind searching for things that could consume a city so completely.

‘I don’t know.’ Bill’s voice wavered slightly. ’Let’s see if we can get a bit closer. God, I wish we had a working radio, even just an FM one. We could pick up a news channel, find out what’s going on.’

I closed my eyes, screwing them tightly shut, hoping it was a hallucination, but when I opened them again the devastation was still there. For a while none of us spoke, we just didn’t have the words to talk about what we were seeing.

‘Hey!’ We all turned to look at CJ. ‘I just remembered. I’ve got a radio on my mobile phone.’

‘You’ve had a radio all this time and you didn’t tell us?’ Jon was clearly annoyed at her. Then another thought must have hit him. ‘Hang on … your cell phone still works? You didn’t think of mentioning this before now?’

‘Jon, leave her alone.’ The wavering had gone from Bill’s voice, ‘We couldn’t have picked up a signal much before now anyway. CJ, go get it.’

CJ smiled at Bill and shot past Jon into the cabin, returning a few minutes later with her phone. She turned it on and we waited. After five minutes of trying every position on the boat, it was clear she couldn’t get a phone signal, and she turned to the FM radio receiver function. She scrolled through the frequencies, but there was nothing but static. She scrolled through them again with the same result.

‘Maybe we’re still too far out to pick up a signal.’ I could tell Bill didn’t believe what he was saying. ‘Let’s get nearer to shore.’

We pushed on for half an hour before CJ tried again, with the same result. Another half hour and we were about a mile from the outer limits of the Port of Miami. There was still neither a phone signal nor any radio station.

‘What now?’ CJ looked enquiringly at Bill. As a group, we looked to Bill for reassurance and leadership, but for the first time since we left South Africa, he looked not just worried, but unsure of himself. I couldn’t help thinking that if even Bill didn’t know what to do, we were in deep trouble.

‘I think we need to go right inside, into the port, see what we can see, see if we can find any one.’ It was Jon rather than Bill who eventually answered CJ.

After ten minutes, no one had come up with a better suggestion so we carried on towards the devastated city. We took it slowly, ready to turn round if it looked like there was danger ahead, but within the hour we were well inside the port. Around us, there were commercial vessels of all sizes tied up to the docks. Here and there, away from the main channel, smaller pleasure craft rode at anchor. I inspected each one as we passed but saw no one.

Further on, a large car ferry bumped against a loading ramp, its bow doors were raised but it was only secured to the dock by a single rope. Ahead, on the quay, the burnt-out remains of cars were lined up as if they were waiting their turn to drive on. I searched the cars with the binoculars but couldn’t see anyone inside.

Ten minutes more and we had gone as far as we needed, as far as it felt safe for us to go. I scanned the surrounding land. Thick smoke obscured the view for much of the time, but whenever it cleared, I could see nothing but broken, shattered buildings and smouldering heaps of rubble.

‘Bill, I don’t see the point of going any further. There’s nothing left. It’s all gone.’ Even though I could hear myself say it and saw the destruction that lay all around me, I still couldn’t quite believe it.

‘Yeah,’ Bill sounded despondent. ‘Let’s get out of here,’

At first, it seemed there were no signs of life amongst the ruins, but as we turned to head back out to sea, I spotted a small knot of figures hunched over the ground. They were so dirty they blended in with the ruins that surrounded them, and it was only their movements that drew my gaze to them. As I focussed the binoculars, one of them stood up, arms raised, holding something out of the reach of the others. My hands began to shake as I realised what it was. Held high against the smoke-filled sky was a human head. From the long hair I could tell it had once been a woman. As the people moved, I realised they were clustered around her body as if they were feeding on it.

‘Bloody hell!’ It was all I could think to say and, for a moment, I thought I was going to be sick. I swallowed hard and passed the binoculars to Bill. He scanned the shore briefly before passing them on to Jon. Jon stared for several minutes before passing the binoculars on to CJ. She glanced through them for a second and let out a noise that was half gasp, half scream. This was the second time in as many days that we’d seen people attacking each other like animals. We shuddered as a group, and wondered what had happened to the world while we’d been gone.

Once I knew what to look for, I started spotting people everywhere. Most of them were shambling through the ruins or were staring blankly ahead. All were dirty, covered in soot and ash from the rubble that surrounded them. A few scratched at the ground, picking at things I couldn’t see. Occasionally, a head would snap in our direction but, for the most part, they seemed unaware of our presence. It was as if they’d been through something so awful that it had rendered them senseless.

‘Should we try to help them?’ I
turned to the others, trying to guess what they were thinking.

‘I’m not really sure what we could do. There’s so many of them.’ Bill was right, but it felt wrong not to try.

As we slipped silently past them under the power of our sails, I tried my best not to stare at the inhabitants of the ruined city, distraught at our inability to do anything for them.

By nightfall we were back out at sea, the devastated Miami still visible on the horizon. We’d barely said two words to each other since we’d left the port but, as a group, we needed to decide what we were going to do next. Bill turned the boat into the wind and let it drift on the currents.

‘Right, I think we’ve got two choices here.’ As before Bill ticked these off on his fingers as he listed them. ‘One, we can head north along the coast, try Fort Lauderdale or West Palm. Or two, we can head back over to the Bahamas and try Freeport, see what’s going on there. Personally, I think we should try going north.’

‘Maybe,’ I rubbed my eyes as I tried to think about what we should do next. ‘Maybe Freeport would be better. I don’t know, Bill. I’m too tired to think clearly.’ I hadn’t slept since we’d started our approach to Hole-in-the-Wall more than thirty-six hours before. Jon and CJ looked as run-down as I felt, and even Bill wasn’t looking too fresh.

‘Why don’t we anchor up for the night?’ The rest of us turned to look at Jon. Seeing the expressions on our faces, he carried on. ‘I mean, if we can get some sleep we’ll be in a better position to make a decision in the morning.’

‘Jon’s right. No point in trying to make a decision when we’re all so tired. We should leave it till the morning.’ Bill glanced across at me ‘What d’you think, Rob?’

I was so tired all I could do was nod.

‘CJ?’

CJ shrugged in answer to Bill’s question and I could tell she was barely able to keep her eyes open.

‘Right, we’ll spend the night here then.’

After the anchor was set, Jon, CJ and I turned in while Bill took the first watch. Tired as I was, I couldn’t sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I relived scenes I never thought I’d witness. At one in the morning, I gave up and went out to the cockpit to relieve Bill. At three, Jon joined me, shortly followed by CJ. By five, Bill was up as well. It seemed they’d had as much trouble sleeping as I had. Together, we watched as the sun rose and shone on the ruined city once more. Jon made a round of teas and coffees, a first for the entire voyage, and then went back to staring blankly at Miami’s smouldering remains.

‘I still can’t believe it. I can’t believe Miami’s gone,’ Jon took a gulp of his coffee. ‘I just don’t understand what could’ve happened.’

CJ was
playing with her phone, but no matter what she did, she was still unable to get a signal. She turned it off and tossed it onto the small table in the cockpit. ‘I wish I could phone home, let my parents know I’m okay, that I wasn’t there when whatever happened took place. They’ll be worrying about me. They knew we were supposed to arrive last week.’ She sounded glum.

‘CJ, I think this is a little more important than you not being able to call home,’
there was a note of distain in Jon’s voice, ‘An entire city has been destroyed and all you can think about is whether your parents are worried that you’ve not checked in?’

‘Jon, stop it!’ I was angry at him. This was not the time or the place to be picking on CJ.

Bill listened to us bickering for the next few minutes but didn’t intervene. That was unusual. Eventually, he spoke quietly and almost off-handedly, but what he said was so unexpected it stopped us in our tracks.

‘I wonder if it’s just Miami.’

‘What d’you mean?’ Jon looked nonplussed.

‘Well, I’ve been thinking about it all night. I can see why we can’t pick up any of the Miami radio stations, but we should be able to pick up something from Fort Lauderdale, or even Freeport. And there’s no sign of a rescue operation. I mean there’re lots of survivors but no one is helping them: no army, no helicopters, no naval ships, no coastguard. And then there was what we saw at Hole-in-the-Wall. I mean, you don’t think it could all be connected? That something really big has happened? Something that’s affected a lot more than just Miami.’