D. MacHale - SYLO

“Look out!” Kent called.

Too late. We smashed into a chunk of floating debris that looked to be a hull section the size of a VW. We hit it hard and our boat rocked so violently that I thought we would capsize. I spun the wheel to my left and managed to regain control—in time to run head on into a massive gray wall. The impact sent us all tumbling forward. Kent and Olivia fell to the deck. I was thrust onto the steering wheel so hard it knocked the wind out of me. The only one who didn’t move was Tori because she was buckled in, but the sudden jolt was painful for her just the same.

The gray wall was the hull of a ship that was so monstrous I couldn’t see up to the deck. Gasping to fill my lungs with air, I spun the wheel hard to the right and we quickly came around until we were traveling parallel to the ship. But we were still so close that we scraped against the steel hull, creating a shrieking sound that made it seem as if our boat was being ripped apart.

“Pull away, Tucker,” Tori said coolly.

Her calm voice helped me get my head back together enough to steer away from the behemoth and end the torturous noise. It took another minute for my heart to stop thumping.

“Anybody hurt?” I called out.

Nobody answered, so I took that as a good sign. Tori gave me a smile. I looked at her bandage and was grateful to see that no blood was seeping through. Maybe Olivia had earned a gunshot-wound merit badge after all.

“I’m fine!” Tori yelled, as if annoyed by the fact that I had been looking at her for too long.

“Kent, go to the bow,” I commanded. “Check for damage.”

I expected him to complain and refuse but he immediately crawled forward, knelt on the seat, and leaned over to inspect the bow.

“The fiberglass buckled,” he called back. “There are some cracks but I don’t think it’s fatal.”

“Stay there,” I called. “You gotta be my eyes.”

Kent didn’t question and stayed where he was, his attention focused ahead.

Olivia crawled back to us and stood behind Tori’s chair, holding the back for support.

“Let’s not do that again, okay?” she asked sweetly.

“We’re headed north,” Tori pointed out. “We want to go west.”

“We’re still on the outside of the blockade,” I said. “The ship we just hit is between us and the mainland. We have to get around it. As soon as we clear it, I’ll make the turn west.”

The big ship seemed to be still in the water. As we moved alongside, I could hear the thrum of its engines and the occasional shudder as it launched another missile. This appeared to be one of the ships that had not yet been hit. Yet. I hoped its luck would hold out—at least until we got by.

The thick smoke was burning my eyes and making it hard to breathe. Both Olivia and I kept coughing. Tori did too and it was clear that the pain caused by each cough was excruciating. Olivia saw how much trouble she was having. “I’ll see if I can find you some water,” she said.

She never got the chance.

A shrill, screaming sound grew quickly.

“Hang on,” I yelled. “Something’s coming in.”

A moment later one of the black planes fell out of the sky and crashed into the water not twenty yards from our starboard side. The force from the crash created a wave that rushed at us and drove us into the big ship again. The violent impact threw Olivia onto the deck and nearly flipped us. I managed to hang on to the wheel since I already had a death grip on it.

Kent was sent sprawling to the deck and lay flat on his stomach.

“Are you hurt?” I asked.

He didn’t answer.

“Kent?” I called, more insistent.

“I…I’m not moving,” he replied.

Kent sounded shaky, as if the last near-miss had finally blown away whatever courage he had managed to find up to that point.

“You gotta get up, man,” I said. “I can’t see where we’re going.”

“I—I can’t. I won’t. We’re going to die here.”

“We’re not going to die,” I yelled angrily. “But if you don’t get your act together, we might!”

It wasn’t the most diplomatic way of handling somebody who had a legitimate excuse to panic, but I was tired of dealing with Kent. And I didn’t want to die. But my tirade didn’t get through to him. He lay on the deck, his face down, shivering.

It was Olivia who once again saved the situation. She crawled forward and sat on the deck next to him. She stroked his head gently and spoke in the sweet voice of a little girl. “I need you, Kent. Now more than ever. I’m so scared. Please don’t let me down.”

Kent slowly raised his head and looked up at her with frightened eyes.

“Please?” Olivia added sweetly.

Kent nodded. He wiped his eyes then managed to pull himself up and get back to his post in the bow.

Olivia came back to the console and gave me a smile and a knowing wink. She had totally played Kent.

“Now let’s get the hell out of here,” she commanded with confidence.

“I think I see the bow of the ship,” Kent called back. “Maybe another twenty yards to go.”

The smoke had momentarily thinned enough for us to see more than just a few feet ahead. Of course that meant we could be seen as well.

“Ten yards,” Kent called out. “Get ready to turn.”

I didn’t want to cut it too tight in case the ship started moving.

Kent called, “And…we…are…clear!”

I continued on for another two seconds for safety and was about to turn to port when the gunboat came charging from the direction we were about to turn toward. It was under full power with its dark bow riding high, appearing out of the smoke like some vengeful demon.

“Turn hard!” Tori screamed.

I spun the wheel, missing the speeding boat by only a few feet as it flew by. We must have surprised them as much as they surprised us, for as they sped by I saw a guy on its deck spot us, start with surprise, and then scream at his men to change course.

It was Granger.

In that one fleeting moment, the hope that we no longer mattered to him was shattered. From the very start he had proved that he was ready and willing to do his own dirty work and this was no different.

He wanted to be there for the kill.

Granger stood behind the wheelhouse with the mounted machine gun and the soldier who manned it. The soldier looked just as surprised to see us as Granger did. He quickly swung the machine gun toward us and began firing, but there was little chance of them hitting us as we were flying in opposite directions. They were traveling at a dangerous rate of speed, considering the bad visibility. I hoped they’d hit some debris and bye-bye Granger.

“They’re turning,” Kent called out. “And coming after us.”

They had been going so fast that making the one-eighty would take some time…time we desperately needed.

“Throttle up, Tucker,” Tori said calmly.

I jammed the throttles forward and the four mighty engines roared. It was still too dangerous to be traveling so fast, but at least the smoke had cleared enough for me to see several feet ahead. It was a chance we had to take because once Granger made the turn, he wouldn’t be moving cautiously.

Though the military ships were in disarray, they still made a formidable gauntlet that blocked us from an easy run to the mainland. We were trapped on the outside of a dozen foundering ships with Granger about to close in.

“Up there!” Kent screamed, pointing skyward.

I looked up to see a flaming black plane falling from the sky directly in our path. I turned the wheel to the right and banked the agile boat hard before the doomed shadow splashed down only a few yards to our left. This time we were gone before the surge of water could hit us.