Voyage (Powerless Nation #2) (15 page)

“Maybe they were smuggling a nuclear bomb and it malfunctioned and blew up their ship,” she suggested.

“No,” said Ted. “If this area had been hit by a nuke, we’d be able to tell. There’d be dead fish floating in the water, and the cargo would have been completely destroyed. At this distance, we’d have seen a mushroom cloud and felt the shock wave too.”

Sena nodded her head slowly, thinking it through. It seemed like she’d just been talking about mushroom clouds and shock waves. If she could only remember.

Suddenly she remembered Mr. Stoddard’s lecture about EMP’s, and everything made sense. “I know what it was!” Everyone turned to look at her. “The container ship was carrying the nuclear bomb that caused the EMP. They must have launched it from their ship.”

“Then why was their ship destroyed?” asked Claire, eyebrows drawn together in thought. “Did something malfunction?”

“I don’t think so,” said Sena. “I think someone tracked the source of the launch and hit them with a missile. That would explain why they were burned, and why all of the containers were blown open.  Captain Crane must have been heading in this direction and picked them up in the lifeboat.”

“Why didn’t they just kill him and take his boat?” said Kade.

“I’m not sure,” said Sena with a shrug.

“I have a guess,” said Lydia. “They saw an opportunity to get medical care and supplies.”

Ted said, “I think they had darker intentions—they wanted to see the effects of their attack. Once they saw what they’d done, they decided to destroy as many more lives as they could.”

“That’s horrible!” said Claire.

Ted nodded, a pained expression on his face. “Horrible, but probably true. I wonder if it was our military that hit them.” He added, “I hope so.”

Sena realized with a start that she had photos of two of the men on her camera. If they ever got back to land she’d give it to the police. Maybe it could help in the investigation, if there was one.

A sound from Danny made her look up.

“What I wouldn’t give for a doody bag right now,” he moaned, clutching his stomach. 

All of them had eaten too much food, too quickly. Their deprived bodies couldn’t handle it. Sena felt a gurgling in her own gut and was mortified about what was coming next. 

The look Claire gave her was somewhere between compassion and amusement. She gave Sena’s hand a squeeze. “Don’t worry, it can’t be worse than dealing with the aftermath of bad chicken salad and I managed that once. I’ll be right here with you.”

The next few hours were some of the most agonizing, and possibly the most embarrassing of Sena’s life. Of one thing she was certain—she’d never look Kade or Danny in the eye again.

As the occupants of the life raft recovered from the side effects of introducing food back into their diet, Sena slowly became aware that the days were getting warmer and the nights weren’t as cold. 

When she mentioned it, Ted nodded. “I think we’re going to see land soon. Don’t get your hopes up though.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Kade. 

He and Ted had never repaired the rift between them, and Sena wasn’t sure they would. Ted thought Kade was a spoiled, entitled teenager, and hadn’t ever forgiven him for drinking their water. Even though Sena couldn’t really blame Ted for having such a low opinion of him, she wished they would at least
try
to get along. 

“If you must know,” said Ted, “just because we can see it, doesn’t mean we can get there. We’re still at the mercy of the currents. Plus, depending on where we come in, we could be in for a rough landing.”

Ted didn’t say more. He didn’t have to. Sena pictured their life raft being pounded into the surf at the foot of a rocky cliff, and from the looks on the others’ faces, they were thinking it too. After everything they’d been through, they could still lose it all, and within a few yards of their goal.

When they finally did see land, it was just like Ted had predicted. They were at the mercy of the currents, and the currents didn’t seem to want them ashore. They floated along within sight of land, but the green smudge in the distance didn’t get any closer.    

One night, Lydia asked if anyone knew what day it was.

“Monday, maybe? Or Tuesday?” said Danny. “Hey, I’ve got a one in seven chance of being right.”

“No, I mean the date.”

“Well, my odds are considerably worse on that. Maybe we can narrow it down.”

They argued back and forth about the order of events until they finally decided they’d been on the raft for a little over five weeks.

Five weeks.
Saying it made it sound so insignificant. Five weeks wasn’t anything. It was shorter than summer break, or a typical science unit.

Five weeks on a life raft was
forever
.

“If we’ve really been on the raft for five weeks, guess what we missed,” Danny said.

“Um, everything?” said Kade.

Danny shook his head. “The Fourth of July!”

“Big whoop,” said Kade. “God bless the frickin’ U. S. of ain’t nobody bothering to rescue us.”

“Whoa, you’re not bitter or anything.”

Kade shrugged. “Just saying what’s true.”

“You
were
listening when Mr. Stoddard told us about EMP’s, right?” asked Sena.

“So there’s a power outage, so what?” said Kade.

“We should probably talk about that,” said Claire, with a glance at her husband. “Ted and I have been talking, and when we get back on land we don’t think things are going to be the same as when we left. We could be facing total chaos.”

“Oh please,” scoffed Kade. “You’re trying to scare us. It’s not like there will be public lynchings or rioting.”

Claire said, “No heroics, okay? I want everyone to be smart and stick together after we land.”

If we land
, thought Sena.

The landing, when it happened, was anticlimactic. They floated between green rocky shores for almost two weeks before a large landmass loomed in front of them. Danny thought they might be near the San Juan Islands north of Seattle.

The water pushed them toward a wide, narrow beach on their right, so Ted used the paddle to close the distance. When the water was shallow enough, they all struggled to get out of the raft and pull it ashore, leaning on each other more often than not.

Sena walked a few steps and then fell to her knees on the pebbly beach. 

Danny laughed at her. “You’re such a cliché, you know that?”

“I don’t want to kiss it, I just can’t make it stand still,” Sena said. The ground seemed to move and roll beneath her.

“Don’t worry, it’ll wear off,” he assured her.

She noticed he couldn’t walk in a straight line either. “You better hope you don’t have to pass a sobriety check.”

The empty beach was surrounded by evergreens with a steep hill rising to tower over them. They were thankful it looked private and safe because they were too weak to explore. After more than a month of poor nutrition and inactivity, they could barely stand, let alone walk. They would have to spend the night there. 

The beach was thick with driftwood and dry beach grasses, and Kade and Danny gathered fuel. Though the day was warm, they all agreed a fire would be nice.

Danny was the only one in the group that had ever done much camping, and he showed all of them how to roll the dry grasses between his hands until they formed a loose clump of a bundle. He set that down on a flat piece of driftwood and made a pile of twigs and small sticks close at hand. He said the trick at first was not to overwhelm the tiny fire.

Ted handed him the matches from the emergency kit and Danny struck one. Nothing happened. He tried again and the match head crumbled. The matches were ruined.

There was a collective sigh of disappointment. “A fire would have been so nice,” said Lydia.

“Don’t give up the ship,” said Danny, and then cringed. “Sorry, bad choice of words. I just mean there’s more than one way to skin a cat.”

“Danny!”

Kade smirked. “If we had a fire and a cat, I’d skin it.”

“Then the cats had better watch out, because I’m going to get this fire started tonight,” Danny said determinedly. “Didn’t I see you with some reading glasses, Ted?” He squinted at the sun. “It’s a clear day, and we can use the lenses like a magnifying glass.”

“You can use mine,” said Sena.

“I don’t think so,” said Danny. “Aren’t you near-sighted?” Sena nodded. “Sorry, they won’t work. When light goes through your type of lenses it disperses or spreads out. Reading glasses focus the light and bring it in to a small point.”

“How do you know that?” asked Sena.

“My dad and I used to do some camping together. He was far-sighted.”

Danny gazed at the bundle of grassy tinder for a few moments longer than necessary, and Ted finally had to touch him on the arm to get his attention. Danny took the glasses and held them out so the sun shone through the lenses. Tiny pinpricks of light focused on the sand. “Yep, these will work.” He moved the lenses until one bright spot was on the bundle of grass, adjusting the height until the circle of light was as small as he could get it. Within thirty seconds, Sena saw wisps of smoke rising from the tinder.

Danny leaned down and put his hands behind the grass and blew steadily into it. The smoke increased, until tiny fingers of flame appeared. Danny made a mouse-sized teepee of twigs around the fire, and when they were burning, he made an even bigger teepee, and then set bigger pieces of wood around the outside in a square, like a log cabin. “We’ll push those in as it burns. That ought to last for a while.”

Sena drew her knees up, rested her chin on them, and stared into the flames. It was good to rest on solid ground in front of the fire, listening to it snap and spark, and hearing the lapping waves behind her. She finally felt safe.   

Claire sat nearby, and Sena moved closer to her. A feeling of total contentment washed over her. There was nowhere else she wanted to be, nothing else she wanted to be doing. She was totally content to be safely on dry ground with her friends.

They spent a couple of days and nights on the beach, getting their strength back and discussing plans. Kade was angry at the delay, but he didn’t push. He was the strongest of all of them, and even he moved slowly. 

Everyone was anxious to find out where they were and the state of things back home. It didn’t appear things were good. Boats and jet skis should have filled the sparkling, smooth waters in front of their beach, but they hadn’t seen a single person. Sena felt a pit of dread in her stomach when she thought about what that might mean, and even Danny’s optimism waned.

Bit by bit, they became steadier on their feet until Ted announced they would leave the next day. Trying to decide what to bring was difficult because they didn’t have a good way to carry anything.

Sena’s backpack was filled with food, and although Kade offered to carry it, they decided it wasn’t a good idea to give him all of their food. Kade pouted and went to scout out their trail.

Claire said they’d need the winter clothing they’d scavenged from the container ship for the journey to Lookout Falls. It was hard to take her seriously though, with the warm summer days and temperate nights. Who wanted to lug around a winter coat in August?

At the point it felt like they’d be delayed until winter since everyone had a different opinion, Lydia came to the rescue. She took the knife from Kade and cut several square pieces of orange nylon from the life raft. Inside, she placed a thick jacket and pair of gloves, and then wrapped up the bundle and tied it to a stick.

“Like a hobo!” said Claire. “Brilliant.”

Soon everyone had their own hobo bags, and they were off.

In Kade’s explorations, he’d found a trail leading to a parking lot and a road, so they started there, following the deserted road north. Their progress the first day was slow, and they didn’t see any signs of civilization until evening.

They had just climbed to the top of a hill and Sena hoped Ted would call it a day and let them rest, when below them, they could see a large expanse of water and a bridge stretching from their side over to the other. Two run-down businesses huddled at the foot of the bridge, more like shacks than buildings. 

Signs in front of the first offered fresh blackberry pie, fresh eggs, cold watermelon and homemade ice cream.   The other business was a combination boat rental and antique store.

Sena’s mouth watered at the thought of warm blackberry pie and homemade ice cream, but her hopes were dashed when she realized both businesses were closed.

Danny hurried ahead. “You never know until you try,” he called back over his shoulder. He peered into the windows of the fruit stand and then shook his head at them. He wandered around behind the second store and a few minutes later he reappeared.

On a bicycle!

He rode around in the parking lot until they reached him, ringing the bell cheerfully. When they were closer he said, “There are more in back. It’s a rental place.”

Sure enough, there was a rack containing eleven bikes.

“I’m surprised they aren’t locked up,” said Claire.

“They were,” said Ted, holding up a chain. “Someone was here before us and cut them loose.”

Meanwhile, Sena made the best discovery: a water spigot protruded from a pipe outside of the store. They’d only had soy milk and diet soda for two weeks. She said a small prayer and pumped the pump handle up and down. 

Clean water came gushing out of the spigot and she laughed. She let it spill over her hands and splashed it on her face. Soon they were all standing around the spigot, taking turns pumping for each other and letting the water fill their cupped hands and loudly slurping it up.

Ted had made them save their empty soda bottles for this exact thing, and now they rinsed and filled them with water. “We’ll stay here tonight and get a good start tomorrow,” he said.

Even though the sun was too low for Danny to make a fire with Ted’s glasses, the night was warm and they used the clothes in their packs for bedding.

While everyone ate their ration of fruit, Danny announced, “I’m pretty sure I know where we are. We went right by this place on our way out of Seattle. I recognize the bridge.”