Dead Calm: A Post-Apocalyptic EMP Survival series (Dark Waters Book 2) by Bruno Miller

Author:Bruno Miller [Miller, Bruno]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wordstream Books
Published: 2023-10-30T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Spencer, Rob, Natalie, Maya, and Finn all sat in silence, glued to the scene unfolding before their eyes. The crew’s movements on the larger sailboat’s deck had reached a fevered pitch with bodies running here and there, some of them with weapons, some manning the rigging.

A mild offshore breeze of at least several knots had been building all morning. Spencer was thankful for it. He’d been worried earlier; the air had been so heavy and still while they were loading the boat. But once they reached Seven Mile Bridge, the weather started to improve in their favor. And that was good if they wanted to save fuel.

He watched as the catamaran stalled for a bit, and her crew hoisted the main sail and let the jib out to full in order to take advantage of the tailwind. As soon as the main sail snapped open and filled with wind, the catamaran picked up speed again but continued running its engines as well to coax as much speed out of the vessel as possible. Minimizing their time under the bridge would be key in making the crossing.

“What if we…” Nat cut herself off with a shake of the head.

“Go ahead.” Spencer encouraged her to finish.

“What if we went through the channel with the other boat? I don’t know if that’s something that’s allowed, but it might help draw attention away from us.”

“I don’t think there are any rules anymore.” Rob looked back at the rising columns of black smoke darkening the sky over Marathon. The long, dark billows of pollution reached upward into the air, where they merged with one another, like a charcoal drawing smudged by a giant finger.

She had a good point. Spencer thought for a minute and considered Nat’s idea. Normally, he’d wait his turn. It wasn’t proper sailing etiquette to crowd another boat when it was navigating a tight channel like Moser, but as Rob had been quick to point out, there were no rules anymore. That was obvious with the lawlessness running amuck on land.

“I think it’s a solid idea. Divide and conquer, right?” Spencer eyed the couple, then used the built-in range finder function of the binoculars to measure the distance between their boat and the catamaran. The bigger vessel could outsail the Hunter any day of the week, but they were closer to Moser than the other boat if they cut the channel marker short. That wasn’t something Spencer would recommend, but he knew the bottom well here and had spearfished the area extensively. They’d have to act fast, though, if they were going to capitalize on their position and try to slip through Moser with the other boat.

The channel was less than a couple hundred feet wide at the entrance, which sounded like a lot, but with the jibing angle necessary to utilize the wind and the fast-moving currents that ripped through the deep-water conduit, things could go south in a hurry. The additional complexity of attempting the channel with another large boat only complicated things further.

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