Barren Fields by Robert Brown

Author:Robert Brown [Brown, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Severed Press
Published: 2015-08-09T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Feeding the Sharks

Pacific Ocean.

The boat is skimming over the water with speed, and land is somewhere behind them. The coast disappeared beyond the horizon a while ago. After the attack at Acapulco the group looked at Carl and Ellen’s nautical map of Mexico’s west coast to discover what other hazards might lay ahead. The map is a portrait of a thieves’ and pirates’ paradise. Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlán, and Cabo San Lucas, all of those cities lie along the route back to the U.S. The fact that they were major tourist destinations and had homes of the wealthy means, like Acapulco, they will attract large criminal populations that would likely be stealing and killing as much as possible until they too are dead.

The destination they chose to try avoiding more criminal encounters is Isla Socorro, an island far to the west of the mainland, with a small Mexican naval station. It will take two days to zigzag their way across the ocean to reach the island. They hope to get any information they can about the situation around the world and in the U.S.

When they pick up someone that is still broadcasting on Carl’s world band radio, it sounds like panicked gibberish to them since they don’t understand Russian, German, or French. The little news they hear in English or Spanish is always bad and usually vague, speaking only about rioting and violence, but never with city names or locations.

*

“Should I bring us in?” Carl asks from the wheel.

“I wouldn’t recommend doing that, they’re all infected.”

The infection has reach Socorro Island. Several people are standing at the end of the concrete dock built into the small harbor next to the naval base. They are staring at the sailboat with anticipation as it sits in the mouth of the bay.

“We can’t land here, and there is no other port on the island according to the map.”

“We’re going to have to do something. Jack is getting worse, and we’re almost out of anti-diarrheal medicine.”

“What do you expect me to do about it?” George yells at Frank. “I’m sicker than you are and almost as sick as Jack. I know better than you what he is going through, but we can’t go on that island with the infected here.”

“But the base might not be infected yet, and they will have medicine.”

“Right,” he says with slow sarcasm. “And if the people on that base are alive, do you think they’ll let you walk through the gate and say hello, or shoot you on sight thinking you have the disease?”

Defeated, Frank sits back down.

“I don’t think we should land either,” Ellen says. “I’ve been trying to contact them on the radio ever since the island crested the horizon. If anyone was free of infection at the base, they would have responded either to ask our condition or warn us to stay away.”

“You’ve sailed this area. What’s our next option?” Keith asks Carl, who is looking at the map.

“Cedros or Guadalupe Islands. Guadalupe is farther away and has only a small population.

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