Dystopyum (The D-ot Hexalogy Book 1) (22 page)

That was exactly where Dom was now heading. “Hold on,” he yelled,
“Yah, Yah, Yah!” and with another crack, they hit the first ruts in the
narrow old road. It went up steeply and was close enough to the edge of
the cliff in parts to see the river below to the left.
“What the hell is going on out there? I’m taking the blinds down!”
Lep yelled from below.
“Knock yourself out!” Jan yelled down to Lep.
We’re fucked, anyway.
He was busy now trying to keep things from bouncing off the stagecoach.
Where are we going?” he yelled to Dom.
“I don’t know yet!” shouted Dom.
“Well, they’re catching up to us,” Jan hollered back. There were four
wagons coming after them now. The stagecoach took a really big bounce,
and when it landed, the front wheels both broke off, leaving the front
dragging.
“Shit!” yelled Dom. “I
knew
I should have bought factory!” The
contisses kept rolling. The gunfire was a great motivator.
They were bouncing more than ever, and as they approached the crest
of the hill, there was another huge bounce, and Jan yelled, “The back
wheels broke off,” as he watched the wheels rolling back towards their
pursuers. The road came close to the edge of the cliff, and Jan could see
the river a quarter mile down below them now. He could see the boats up
ahead. “I can see the boats!” he yelled to Dom.
“Damn!” Dom bitched. “Do you see those mounted troopers over
there to our right? I don’t think we can outrun them!” Then he said, “Jan!
Unlatch all of the latches on that box you’re sitting on!”
Jan yelled, “What is this?”
Dom screamed, “Just do it!”
Jan started unlatching the heavy latches on the box.
“Leave the middle one latched!” Dom yelled. “Shit! Shit, shit, shit!”
All of a sudden, mounted troopers on contisses appeared in front of
them coming from the opposite direction from over the peak of the hill. A
bullet went through a box of syringes from the right, and others were
whizzing by or hitting the side of the stagecoach. Jan looked to the right
and the mounted troopers numbers had increased, now coming even
closer.
Dom saw them too. “Unlatch that last latch, and hold on!” Dom
yelled, and when Jan did, he was knocked backwards onto his back by
what came out.
“What the hell is that?” Jan yelled while still on his back, as the box’s
contents were expelled from their container.
“I said hold on!” screamed Dom.
Jan’s next question was an incredulous, “What are you doing?” as he
felt the stagecoach make a hard left at full speed toward the edge of the
cliff, with a multitude of bullets hitting the stagecoach and whizzing by as
well.
Then there was nothing. Nothing but weightlessness, as Jan lay on his
back looking at the sky — and very aware of the side of the cliff rushing
by in the wrong direction. The weightlessness was accompanied by terror,
as they were now in a free fall.
Lep was screaming like a little girl down below. As Jan rose and held
onto the big latches of the anchored metal box, Dom was still guiding the
screeching contisses, and they had their leg shrouds stretched out, starting
to glide in the air. This was causing the back of the stagecoach to drop,
and boxes started falling off. Then the thing that came out of the box
completely opened up above. It looked to Jan like a humungous,
rectangular leathercloth umbrella. It caught the air, the stagecoach lurched
upwards, and suddenly Jan could feel his weight again.
“We’re flying!” he cheerfully yelled to Dom.
Dom hollered back, “Actually, we are gliding!” Dom then shouted,
“Come up here, and grab the contisses and guide them the best you can!”
Jan jumped up and took over the reins. Then Dom went back to the
gliding device he had made. He grabbed the weighted ropes dangling
from each side of it, and headed for the boats. “We just might be able to
land this thing!” Dom yelled.
“Where?” Jan hollered.
“On a boat!” Dom shouted.
Lep had just climbed up from the back, holding on to everything for
dear life. “What the fuck?” What? What’s happening?” He was in shock,
and looked delirious.
“Just relax, buddy, it’s all downhill now,” said Dom, grinning, luxuriating in the wind rushing by them.
They were coming upon the group of boats now, and Jan spotted one
of the empty ones that were floating freely. It was spinning very slowly
behind the rest as it followed the current. He called out to Dom about it,
and Dom agreed to aim for it.
“This is the greatest moment of my life!” Dom beamed, as he continued to steer the gliding hulk towards the boat.
Jan and Lep looked at each other. Neither was convinced completely,
yet. The contisses were screeching their lungs out.
As they made their approach, they noticed two things. One was the
roar of the crowds on the boats as they greeted their arrival. The other
thing was the realization of just how fast they were really going as they
approached the boat. The boat, being unguided, had a slow rotation to it,
greatly complicating Dom’s inexperience. As they came within fifty feet,
Dom swiftly pulled down hard and far on the ropes, and the glide stalled,
but the momentum and lift that the contisses provided caused the forward
travel to continue.
Jan pulled back on the reins. For an instant, they had a perfect hover
above the boat, and dropped down onto it, in an oblong orientation.
Lep was sitting, wide eyed, beyond speech. Dom was grinning from
ear to ear, and the crowds on the boats were cheering a cheer that nobody
had ever heard before. It was the cheer from free people, for something
wonderful.
The boat was leaning slightly to the Jan’s right. Dom didn’t seem to
be concerned, until the left side of the boat unfortunately bumped hard,
into a big rock abutment. Jan was watching Dom as his smile faded along
with the level of the boat. The river current was pulling down on the right
side of the boat.
“Hold on!” Jan yelled. The stagecoach tilted and skidded to the right,
and along with the boat, conspired to tip the boat acutely to the right and
spill the whole stagecoach and team into the river. The contisses were
screeching again, but quickly gained their rhythm, and began paddling
quite efficiently. While Lep was screaming again, Dom seemed quite
composed as the stagecoach leveled out.
Lep looked at Dom with astonishment, “This thing floats?”
Dom said, “Hey, I like to plan.” He started laughing, and then decided
to jump up and do a quick jig. Jan laughed, and Lep managed a grunt.
Then Jan and Lep sat down just because they simply had to. Lep sat up
front with Dom, and Jan headed to the back of the stagecoach/boat…flying thing.
The contisses were paddling furiously. Dom guided them towards the
other boats they were fast approaching.
Jan was sitting on the back of stagecoach now, arms propped behind
him, legs spread, leaning back far enough that his tail came out perfectly
between his legs. It reached almost to his feet, as he studied it, still
catching his breath. Then he looked up. He was not facing forward, at the
boats of cheering people in front of them. He was looking backwards, up
river.
Nobody is going to follow us where we are going. We are free.
He
listened a moment.
It’s going to be quiet out here,
he realized.
No city
lights. No NOV.
Neither Dom nor Lep were talking now either. They were all feeling
rather knocked out, exhausted, thankful, and now, finally, they had a
chance to soak it all in.

small crew took control of one of the least damaged vacant
boats that were floating freely behind the others, and secured it
beside an outlying flattish rock formation on the left, (eastern,)
river’s side. Dom was able to direct the contisses to drag the

stagecoach “boat” ashore at that point. From there, they unloaded all the
vaccine equipment and supplies from the stagecoach and carried them
onto the awaiting cargo boat. As they did this, the other boats slowed
down to wait for them.

They brought the contisses on last of all. Dom had mentioned his
concerns regarding them, primarily the fact that eventually the contisses
were going to get hungry. Contisses preferred to eat blogs or tacks, but
fish would have to do for now. Two of the boats ahead had already begun
casting nets to catch fish, and more were setting up their own nets.
Altogether, over two hundred contisses had been loaded onto the boats.
The escapees did bring ample food, but it was prudent to use as much
wild food as possible, and preserve their stores.

All the people, over six hundred of them, were making a tumultuous
noise. There were happy sounds and raucous laughter, as they were all in
high spirits. One of the groups brought a sound system along, and their
boat blared illegal music as they traveled through the night. The newbie
captains were now guiding the boats with the river’s current, and the
volunteers doing the rowing below the deck were dwindling in number, as
their job was done for now.

Jan and Dom took one of the onboard lifeboats to go and find Jan’s
mother and the girls. Lep wanted to stay with the vaccine equipment. Jan
and Dom paddled their way from boat to boat. As they passed the boats,
the people cheered for them, occasionally yelling, “What
was
that?” in
reference to the amazing gliding stagecoach they had observed.

As they approached the fourth boat, Jan sputtered, “What? — Buz?
Look! There’s Buz! Hey Buz!” He was waving his hand wildly as he
anticipated Buz’s reaction.

Buz heard someone call his name, turned, and seeing Jan and Dom
approaching in the lifeboat, started waving and yelling himself. They
pulled up alongside his boat.

“Boy, am I glad to see you!” declared Jan, smiling from ear to ear. “I
can’t believe it!”
Buz laughed and said, “Well, sometimes it pays to obsess! I was
wondering where Tama went off to, and then I saw that you all had left,
so I followed.” He paused, “I’m sure glad I did. They are all goners back
there since the vaccine lab is gone.” Then he gave a hurt look at Jan,
“Were you going to just leave me there to die with the rest?”
Dom chimed up, “No, that was me!”
Buz took a strange look at Dom, then back to Jan, and Jan tried to
explain, “We didn’t plan to destroy the lab, Buz. Dom here just got
creative, and something went wrong. We didn’t mean for anything like
that to happen.” He paused, and with satisfaction said, “I’m really glad
you made it, buddy. You don’t know how bad I felt to lie to you tonight,
but the NOV —”
“— DeathBT, I know,” Buz admittedly interrupted. He looked back
up river, and gave a sigh. “I understand — you couldn’t risk it. I get it —
it’s OK.” There was a short silence, and then Buz chided, “So you’re a
fucking love-lover! That’s why the girls like you!” He gave a questionable smile at Jan, and then leaned over to lend him a hand to come up on
board. “Your mother is here, down inside helping.”
Dom had been securing the lifeboat, and came on board too. He said
to Jan and Buz, “What’s all this love-lover stuff?”
Jan looked at Dom, puzzled. Surely, Lep would have told him that it
was the escape of LERN. “You know this is a LERN escape, right?”
Dom didn’t believe him, “LERN? No way! Love-lovers? Ughhhh! No
— you’re kidding, right?”
“I’m not joking, and there’s no escape for you now, buddy,” Jan
laughed as he slapped Dom on the back. Zak looked at Dom and shrugged
his shoulders. Zak was not sure how emotional the reunion below deck
would be, so he avoided it by staying up on top.
Jan and Dom made their way downstairs, and there was Martha,
busying herself with Rebecca and Rachel, doing triage on packages and
boxes that had been hurriedly dumped there during the escape. They were
looking for hunting, fishing, and cooking equipment for now. There were
other people below deck as well, gathering useful items for the rest of the
evening.
Wow, she doesn’t look very happy,
Jan thought when he saw his
mother.
Martha turned her head to see whose footsteps had just come down
the stairs. The box she was carrying dropped out of her hands when she
realized who it was.
“Jan!” she screamed as she ran over to him, and she wouldn’t stop
squeezing him.
“Hey, what about my turn?” Rebecca remarked, as she and Rachel
followed Martha’s lead.
They got into a group hug, as Dom stood there looking awkwardly at
them. The ever-social Rachel said, “Come on, Dom, you can join in!” She
could see that he would not easily do this, but no male could resist her
charm. She grabbed Dom by the arm and pulled him in with them so that
he had no choice.
After they released each other, Dom was smiling oddly, as if he had
been hit in the head with Cupid ’s bow. Dom thought to himself,
that was
scary, but — OK, I guess. Love-lovers, I dunno. Wait until I see Lep, I’m
gonna nail him good!
Dom continued smiling, and now he was chuckling
to himself.
Martha’s face fell again as Jan looked at her.
“What’s going on? What’s wrong?” he asked.
Martha, with an anguished look said, “Jan — your father — died
tonight.” Then her face broke into an ugly spasm as her words turned into
choking sobs, “Griswolt — Griswolt — gave his — life — for us.”
Clearly distressed, she looked at Jan and told him, “All three of us would
have been shot.” Martha put her face in her hands, “I abandoned him, and
he died for me-e-e-,” and started crying, hard, with deep, deep sobs. “He
wanted to come with u-u-u-u-u-us! He could be here right now, alive!”
she wailed, and was now crying hysterically.
They all waited awkwardly for Martha to slow down. She eventually
did, then looked at Jan again with a very intense yet forlorn expression
and continued, “Jan — he said that he — loved — me-e-e-e —” and she
broke down again into a torrent of tears.
Both of the girls were caressing her shoulders and back, Rebecca
saying, “Martha, there was no way you could have changed this. You
couldn’t risk the escape — all our lives.”
“I could have trusted him!” Martha wailed, and she started crying
again.
Dad’s dead.
The thought was beginning to be absorbed.
He’s gone.
Jan felt Martha’s grief — they did after all abandon Griswolt.
Jan hung his head, not knowing what to say or do as he juggled his
opposing cerebrations
— I never did give it much thought — why? It was
something we had to do — Dad couldn’t know, could he? He said he
loved her? I can’t believe it — he said he loved her.
Dom had become clearly uncomfortable with the scene as it had been
unfolding. He said, “Hey Jan, why don’t we head back to the vaccine
boat?”
Jan looked at his mother, then at Dom. “No, I think I’ll stay and help
out here for now.”
Dom shrugged his shoulders and replied, “OK. Well, I think I should
get going.” Then he looked at Martha with sympathy and said, “I’m sorry
to hear about your husband, Martha.” She was still sobbing, so he backed
his way out of the group, went up the stairs, and headed on back to Lep
and the vaccine equipment.

The occupied cargo boats, thirty-six in all, slowly made their way
down the river that night. Most of the boats were loaded on the top deck
with three wagons and six contisses, meant for the land travel ahead.
There was no hurry now, indeed, they did not want any nighttime
accidents. Some of the escapees slept, others could not, and simply
hanged out up on deck talking. Some just worked all night. The boat
crews took turns piloting and sleeping. The plan was to travel until
daylight, and then gather everyone together for a meeting on land.
Cleaning up after the contisses was easy — they just dumped it into the
river.

The next morning was pleasant, with low winds, and sunny skies.
“Over here!” called Winoni. He was a big Aletian, standing at nine
feet and four inches tall, and weighing in at five hundred and ten pounds.
Winoni was a Chief Smelt Engineer who could manage anything from
mining ore to refining to smelting it, machining, and producing many of
the everyday tools and items that these people would be needing. He had
brought his entire library with him, and the New Aletians were very
fortunate to have him. He was not in LERN, but his wife had told him
about the escape. She knew he was tired of all the NOV rules, laws, the
harsh punishments, and the constant intimidation.
“Anywhere would be
better than here, even if I am stuck with a bunch of love-lovers!” was his
reply when she brought it up.
“No! I said over here!” Winoni was now hollering at the pilot of the
next boat that they were now attempting to anchor against the shore.
Jan rubbed his eyes, and took a look around from the edge of the boat.
There was nothing but the river and the landscape of the hill to the right,
looking west. On the left, it appeared that the terrain was more flat, and
lower. Looking back to his right again, to the hillside against the river, he
saw a number of holes of various sizes in the ground, particularly at the
bottom of rock formations.
What’s living in you?
he pondered, as he
looked at one particularly big hole, silently black and hollow, halfway up
the same hill.
They had already tied his boat to the shore. Jan got off his boat, and
casually walked over to Winoni and asked him, “How are we all going to
gather?”
Winoni looked at him, “I can’t remember any more names for now,
so I won’t ask you. We’re going to gather over on that flat spot over
there.” He pointed over to his left.
“What about predators?” Jan asked.
Winoni said, “You see those guys?” He was now pointing to one of
the boats already anchored. “A few of them are official NOV Hunters
from the Hunter’s Stations, and the rest are professional private hunters.
They seem to know what they’re doing. They’ve been preparing to scout
the perimeter.” Then he paused, looking Jan over. “They’re looking for
volunteers, if you want to join ‘em.”
Jan looked over at them and saw that they were indeed in their hunting gear and they were departing their boat now.
“It looks like they’re leaving already,” Jan said to Winoni, and continued with, “I’ll think about it.” Then he had another consideration,
“How well armed are we? Is there any chance I can get a gun — for
protection?”
Winoni answered, “We have plenty of guns,
and
ammunition to last
for years, and my crew can make bullets from raw materials in no time.
You were supposed to bring your own though, you know.”
“I’ll check with my mom when I get back to her,” Jan said.
If we were
supposed to bring our own guns, I’m sure she would have brought ours.
Jan went strolling along the shoreline, observing everyone that had
come along. There were so many people, from all over the country. He
talked with some, and then moved on to others that had come ashore. He
recognized Ziba and her friends.
“Oh Jan! Come here, I want you to meet Jasma! I’ve told her all about
you!” exclaimed an exuberant Ziba.
Oh boy, a nest of old ladies,
Jan thought. Little did he know that he
was about to meet the most powerful LERN leader who had made it
through the escape alive. “Hello, it’s nice to meet you,” he said to Jasma.
Ziba chimed in, “Jan, Jasma has the largest collection of Platac writings that exist. I asked her if you could study them, and —”
“And I would be most happy to share them with you, my dear.” Jasma
said with a delighted smile. She came closer to Jan, and staring at his
crest, asked, “May I?” Before he could answer, she reached up to touch it.
She ran her fingers along Jan’s crest and said, “Your crest reminds me of
something — something I remember reading —” Jasma now held a
puzzled expression.
“What was it?” asked Jan, quite curious now.
“So many things I have are just loose pages — and the Platacs could
be quite cryptic.” She paused, then said, “I’ll dig it up, and show you
later.” She could not take her eyes of off Jan’s crest after that. Then she
said, “Ziba tells me that you can hear someone you call the ‘Guide’.
Would you tell me about that sometime?”
Jan felt a bit of embarrassment, thinking,
why did Ziba talk about
that? They’re all going to think I’m nuts!
Then he replied to Jasma, “OK,
if you promise not to tell anyone about it, we’ll talk about it sometime.”
As this conversation was going on, most of the people were on land now.
Jan looked around at them and said, “People wouldn’t understand, they
would just think I’m crazy.”
Jasma did understand, and said, “Fine, Jan, whenever you are ready, I
truly would like to hear what you have to say.”
Jan turned his eyes to the left, and unexpectedly barked to their astonishment, “What the
FUCK
?” He had recognized Sak, and immediately
dashed out of the females’ presence, heading for Sak, who was now
working for Winoni’s crew, broken rib and all. Jan surprised Sak,
grabbing him and violently throwing him to the ground.
“Hey, Hey! Hold on there! What’s going on?” Winoni bellowed,
running over to Jan and Sak. Sak was gripping his broken rib, and staying
in a guarded position on the ground.
“How did he get in with us?” Jan demanded to know, pointing his
finger at Sak.
“He asked me when we were loading. I could have just tied him up
with the other dock workers, but he begged me to take him with us,”
Winoni answered — “Why?” — and now
he
was eyeballing Sak.
“He’s a no-good, back-stabbing piece of predatory shit, that’s why!”
Jan barked as he went to lunge at Sak again.
Winoni and the others held him back. “Whoa there, son!” Winoni
said.
“I was in a coma for
three
days because of him and his gang, look at
these scars!” Jan showed him a two-inch scar on the side of his head, and
the one on his neck. “They tried to cut my fucking head off!”
Winoni sighed, shaking his head, and looking at Sak. “Well he’s with
us now. What are we supposed to do, throw him to the yetas?” Winoni
countered. Sak was now getting up, brushing himself off, while still
holding his right side with one hand.
As far as Jan was concerned, “Yes, throw him to whatever. He’s bad
news, and he
will
cause problems here.”
Sak spoke up. “Listen Jan, I know you hate me, but you don’t know
what just happened. Look at me. Barab left me to be beaten by Kran and
his gang. He betrayed me!” Sak was looking for sympathy. He was not
about to let these good folks know that he also bombed Barab’s house,
murdering his mother and brother. “I came down to the river to drown
myself, and I ran into this. A new chance for a new life!” He paused,
looking on an absolutely unbelieving Jan.
Sak continued, “Give me a chance, Jan. I’ll show you, I’ve changed. I
want to help here.”
Winoni was studying Jan and could see he was hardened in his position. “We’ll just keep you two apart for now, and see how it goes, OK?”
Winoni suggested in his deep husky voice.
Jan just sighed. What else could he do? These people were not going
to send Sak to his death. They did not know him.
“Whatever,” Jan replied, and then he turned to Sak and said, “You
stay away from me and my family.” Then he left them and went up to
where the others were all gathering. He was thinking about his last words.
Martha and Rebecca were certainly family.
What about Rachel? She has
to stay with us, she’s having my baby. She’s family now, too.
They had all heard gunfire over the hill for the past ten minutes or so.
Jan mused —
I guess the hunters are doing their job. Good.
The crowd waited for the hunters to clear the area and come back.
When they did, they were carrying five dead splints, and six of the
hunters were dragging a fully-grown yeta. The hunters were all smiles.
“This is the easiest hunting I’ve ever done,” one exclaimed. “We’re not
going to starve out here!” They put their bounty, already gutted, over by
their boat, to finish cleaning and butchering later. The meeting then
started, with hunters standing guard around the perimeter of the immediate area.
Jasma was given the honor of being the first to address the crowd.
She stood up on a small, conveniently flattened boulder, and after the
initial greetings and congratulations, she said to them, “I know you all
have not yet been told of our plans. Well, we have old maps of this area
— they were developed over one hundred years ago when these areas
were still populated. We are heading for what was a major city of the
Platacs, near the ocean. Their living structures were known to have
excellent construction, so we may be able to find places there suitable to
clean out and move into. We will eventually need to leave the boats, and
travel by land to get to our destination.”
She went on to say, “Dr. Kalep’s advisors feel that we should start our
land travel sooner than later, but we won’t be deciding where or when just
yet. We do know that we will be on this river for about one month. Dr.
Kalep and his partner Dr. Brader believe that the closer we get to the
ocean, the more risk we have of being attacked by a molick or other large
sea creature.” Although Dr. Kalep was an archeologist, and Dr. Brader a
chemist, they had consulted other appropriate professionals on board, and
felt that they had good advice to go by. Although their relationship had
been kept ultra-secret before the escape, all was out in the open now.
Most who knew them were aware they were gandy all along, but this was
not a big problem within LERN. Prior to the escape, non-LERN folks also
knew about Kalep and Brader, but feared Dr. Kalep’s powerful connections, and would not dare to go against him.
They were primarily concerned with a molick attack on the boats. A
molick was a humongous fish that had hands with opposable thumbs —
on arms with very bony pointy elbows. It was also known to produce a
ghastly haunting smile from its eerily looking face when hunting,
capturing, and picking its meal apart — always a live one.
Jasma concluded her small announcement with, “My son, Asa, and I
are looking forward to a wonderful, loving life out here, and I am just so
pleased to be with all of you — out here, free at last!” Everyone cheered,
and then Jasma told them all that it was time get into lines to receive their
“wildlands” vaccines.
“I hope we’re not too late for the vaccines,” Jan muttered to himself.
He went over to where Lep and Dom had set up shop, and asked, “Do you
guys need any help?”
Lep said, “Here, take these to those two other tables,” and he gave Jan
two boxes of syringes. “Make sure you bring the needles back!” Dom
yelled to another group that was leaving with some vaccine supplies.
After everyone had received their vaccinations, they all re-boarded
the boats, and headed downstream again. There was not much for Jan to
do for the next few hours, so he found a fishing pole, and started fishing
alone from the back of the boat. It was not long before he saw a big ripple
in the water.
“What was that?” Jan asked aloud. The thing was at least seventy-five
feet long. “That has to be an ela,” he said to himself, studying the
slithering swimming style it had. Jan had heard that they could not get
into the boats. He saw it lift its nose for air, and go back under. “Our
guns!” Jan said aloud. He put the fishing rod down, and went below
where Martha and Rebecca were helping to prepare something for the
boat travelers to eat for the day.
“Hey mom, did you bring our guns?” Jan asked.
Martha stopped what she was doing, and said, “I have them over
there,” pointing her knife to a table on the other side of the cargo area.
“They’re under that table.”
Jan went over to see what they had, which was a shotgun, a rifle, and
two pistols. “None of these will stop an ela,” he said.
“An ela?” Martha responded. “Did you see an ela?”
“Yeah,” said Jan, “It looks like it’s following us. I heard they can’t
get into the boats.”
“Would you bet your life on that?” Martha asked. Then she said, “We
need a bigger weapon than those on this boat.”
“Here, I got what you need!” Bill Standish, a long-time LERN member, had a state-of-the-art Mach3b automatic assault weapon. It was their
biggest model, and carried bullets that weighed a quarter pound each. He
could barely lift it.
Jan walked over, and asked, “Can I hold it?”
Bill said, “Sure. Actually, you can just have it. I don’t know how to
use it, or even lift it. My brother-in-law is an NOV Hunter. He helped
himself to whatever they could grab at the armory, and gave it to me for
the trip.”
Jan was amazed at this person’s generosity. Then he said, “I guess we
are all family now,” grinning at Bill. He looked at Martha and asked,
“Can I give him one of our guns?”
Martha turned and looked at the weapon Jan was carrying, and said,
“Of course, he can have any one he wants.
Bill chose the shotgun.
“Want to watch?” Jan asked as he turned to go back up on the deck.
“No thanks, maybe next time,” Bill said. He had not been able to
sleep yet, and was heading back to the bunks, which were located towards
the rear of the boat within the big space they were now standing in.
Jan went back up to where he had been fishing, but the ela was not
there anymore. He sat down and studied the weapon. “This thing is
marvelous!” he said to himself. “I can’t wait to use it.” He fired off some
practice rounds, and it felt as if a contiss had kicked him in the shoulder.
After a while, he went back inside and took a nap, having had restless
sleep the night before.
Later in the evening, Jan was out on the deck with Rebecca and Rachel. Martha was resting below. It was much quieter now, and the air had
developed a light mildew smell. Clouds began to cover the sky, and it
became very dark. They were talking about the baby.
“I was thinking seriously about having an abortion,” said Rachel. “I
still can, considering where we are. There is at least one doctor here.”
“There is no good reason here to interrupt the flow of life,” Rebecca
said, continuing, “If anything, the one inside you has all the reason in the
world to be born into our new life!” She had become fond of Rachel, and
with the turmoil of the last day or so, a bond had developed. They were
becoming comrades. Rebecca knew Jan so well that she believed there
was no way he could have an affair and be able to hide it. Besides,
Rebecca was not actually interested in having a baby of her own right
now. “We will be a family, and we’ll all help with the baby,” she said to
Rachel.