Nathan Hystad - The Survivors - Books 1-3

“From here it looks like a beaut. It’ll do just fine. If you guys want, I’ll go to that Walmart we passed a mile back to get supplies. Maybe two of you can load our stuff onto the boat? That little boat there is the tender. We have to use that to get out to the sailboat. Often these shores don’t go down deep enough to dock a sailboat this close, so they have a dinghy-type small engine boat to transport. If we’re lucky, the keys will just be under the seat or something,” Vanessa said.

“I’ll go with you, ‘Nessa,” Ray said. The two helped us load the bags out and onto the ground. We had a list of things we needed. A gas pump kit was high on the list, because we were sure that once we were in South America, we’d be siphoning on occasion. A new, better rope was needed, as well as socks and other essentials. Food was going to be key, and we planned on the easiest, most nourishing stuff we could get.

“Ray, would you mind grabbing a couple bottles of wine, and some beer? I think we might need an evening to take our minds off things. Oh, and maybe a nice fat cigar. I want to feel like the Cubans as we pass by them,” I added with a wink.

“Maybe see if they have a good portable GPS too. It’ll be more accurate than the cell phone’s mapping. See you guys in a bit.” Vanessa got into the SUV, leaving the two of us behind with an exploring Carey. I had no idea how he was going to take being on the water for two days; hell, I didn’t know how I was going to react. I hadn’t spent much time on the water either, short of the odd fishing trip to a lake. The ocean was a whole different can of worms, so to speak.

“Well, this is all happening, isn’t it? We should be well through Colombia in two days. I’ve heard it’s just beautiful down there. You know, if you don’t mind fighting drug dealers.” I was glad to see her smile at my joke.

“Machu Picchu is on my bucket list. Oddly enough, so is saving the world, so you know, two birds, one stone,” she quipped back. Mary seemed like a hardened soldier at times, then funny and sweet at others.

“It does look really nice there. I wonder what made them put the device there? I guess a few hundred years ago, there really weren’t tourists around, so they probably thought it wouldn’t be uncovered by man. As good a spot as any. With the exception of us having to take days to get down there,” I said.

We talked as we moved our few bags and foodstuffs we had left. Turned out the key to the little dinghy was in the ignition. I guessed they didn’t have much in the way of trespassers way out here. “I hope they get back soon. We only have about an hour until the sun’s down, even though Vanessa isn’t worried about night sailing. She sure is quite the character. Rock climber and sailor? Very nice, though,” Mary said.

“Yeah, she’s quite the woman. Who knows what other hidden skills we’ll get from her? Maybe she’s also a world-renowned juggler, or a master chef,” I said as I loaded the last bag onto the boat.

Carey was walking around the yard, and he started barking. I thought our other two must have been coming back. “That was quick,” Mary said, both of us turning to the driveway. A man was walking down toward us.

My heart pounded when I saw the stranger. It seemed so odd to see someone I didn’t know.

“Mary, where’s your handgun?” I asked quietly.

“On the dinghy,” she replied.

“Go get it. I’ll see who this guy is.”

She ran down the dock and onto the boat. Carey was backing up in my direction, and the man was crouching down, trying to get Carey to come smell his hand.

“Hello there!” he called. He was tall, brown-haired, and broad-shouldered.

“Hello.” I didn’t know what else to say.

Carey was still growling, but came and almost sat on my foot, putting himself between me and the new man. The first thing I looked for was a green pendant, ring, or anything else that would match up with our stories. I couldn’t see any.

“I know what’s going on, Dean. It is Dean, right?” His voice was sure of itself, and an accent I couldn’t place. Canadian, maybe?

How the hell did he know my name? It clicked. He was one of them.

“Stay back!” I called to him, and I could hear Mary’s footsteps approach from behind. “Who are you and what do you want?” I asked, voice raised.

He lifted his hand in the air and spoke softly. “I’m here to tell you something. I’m on your side, I promise you this. You’ve been lied to. You don’t want to turn off that device. Think about it, why would…” A gunshot rang out, and it hardly registered as I saw blood spray into the air. The man crumpled to the ground. I stood in shock and Mary rushed forward. We scanned the area and saw the SUV with the passenger door open and Vanessa perched on it with a rifle and scope. It had all happened so fast. I’d just been there talking to him and then he was dead. Mary crouched down and turned his body on its back. Half his face was missing. I turned and threw up, bile burning the back of my throat. The SUV pulled out and I could hear Mary yelling at Vanessa, but the words were lost in the ringing in my ears.

In a few moments, my head cleared, but I kept my eyes averted from the body.

“We need to get out of here. Now!” Vanessa called. “Where there’s one, there are probably more.”

“Why did you shoot him?” Mary pleaded.

“He had to be one of them,” she replied.

“Why? What if he was one of us, or trying to help?” she asked.

I stepped forward. “He wasn’t one of us. He was trying to convince me not to shut the machine down.” It burned to talk.

“Let’s get this stuff loaded and get moving. Vanessa is right; we better clear out of here.”

It took less than five minutes to get the boat loaded and untied. Vanessa pulled the body by the legs and dropped him into the water by the dock. She reached down and grabbed his shirt collar and tugged him under the dock, to be hidden from anyone that might come looking. She coughed, a violent hack, when she was done. I noticed Mary didn’t take her eyes off Vanessa.

O nce we’d settled onto the sailboat, we lifted anchor and ran the onboard engine to bring us out into the water a way. Vanessa had directed us on the sails, and just as the sun was setting in the western horizon, we were heading southwest.

We hadn’t talked about it, and near midnight, once we were sure we were heading in the right direction and everything was set, Ray, Mary, and I were in the underdeck, sitting around the small table. I’d never been below on a sailboat before, and it was quite cozy. It reminded me a lot of my parents’ tent trailer from when I was a kid. It had that same slightly musty, canvas smell to it. Everything was compact and folded up like the trailer too. The table had a ledge on it to prevent dishes and cups from sliding off in uneven water. Being down here was even stranger-feeling than being on deck, and my stomach was swaying in opposition to the waves. Part of that was the uneasiness I still felt from the murder of that man, or alien, or whatever he was. He’d breathed and spoken, and now he was nothing but a body under water.

“What the hell was that?” Ray asked through his teeth.

“I don’t know, but I don’t have a good feeling about it. Even if he was a bad alien trying to convince us to not kill the device, was it wise to shoot him?” I asked.

Mary leaned forward and kept her voice low. Vanessa was manning the ship’s wheel, so we thought we could talk openly, but you could never be too safe. “What’s with her? On top of all those other skills, she’s a frickin’ sharpshooter? That was some of the most messed-up shit I’ve ever seen, and I’m in the Air Force. Dean, what do you think about that guy? Why wouldn’t they have just killed us? It doesn’t make sense.”