She made a mental note to find out what exactly had happened. Not what they had done to her physically, she would talk about that when and if she was ready. Ellen wanted to know how she had come to be on the boat with the mother’s boyfriend in the first place.

  She lugged the cooler out to the deck and carefully set it in the dinghy. She debated the merits of transporting the beer and decided what the hell. She would enjoy a cold beer and probably so would Alan. She didn’t know if Hannah was even old enough to drink, but the way their lives were taking a turn, it probably didn’t even matter. Ellen gathered the fishing poles, a tackle box and a set of filet knives and she was ready to go back to the Annie-C.

  By evening they were all exhausted, but the Annie-C had never looked better. Anything that could fall in transit was safely stowed or tied down. The food storage had been re-arranged and organized to accommodate sleeping quarters for Alan.

  All three sat in the cockpit, beer in hand discussing their coming trip.

  The Journal…Day Four

  I haven’t had time to keep up on a daily basis and I apologize. Things have really gone to hell in a hand basket. I can’t help but wonder if this is the real thing my parents and Uncle Jerry had always been preparing for. How ironic, they are not here to witness it and I am. I wish at this point; I had paid more attention to them. I know that somewhere on our property, Dad and Uncle Jerry had built some kind of underground bunker or something like that. A fallout shelter? I’ll have to give this some thought. There are only so many places on the farm to hide something like that. I guess it will have to wait until we get there.

  I say we, because I have picked up a couple of new friends. Who am I kidding, Alan is much more than a friend. Don’t even go there with that thought. He is a kid and I like him. He could be the brother I always wanted. However, I did want an older brother, but he will do. Being an older sister won’t be so bad. He did save some lives with his fast ball. Or should I say his fast highball pitch. You had to be there to appreciate it.

  That Mike sure turned out to be a skunk. I hope he is still waiting for the police to show up. I feel badly, well kind of bad for leaving him behind. What? No I don’t. Not sure what made me write that. I do hope Susan and Jessica are okay. I didn’t know either of them, but Susan would have been great to have around in a gunfight. She had that take no shit from anybody attitude.

  I am still not sure exactly what did happen. No one I have talked to seems to know either. The President had some bullshit story and then shortly after the lights went out. According to Dan, (one of the sailors we met in Pelican Bay - and a cop too) they made the announcement and boom the power was gone.

  I’d almost bet the message they put on the television was pre-recorded. Or maybe sent out from his safe little bunker somewhere. There is no way he would take a chance of staying in the White House. I wonder if we were hit by a high altitude nuke, (which I think is what happened) and did our military retaliate?

  Did we obliterate some of those Middle Eastern countries? I have no problem with immigrating to our country. We all came from somewhere else originally. The problem I have is, if you are going to come to America, be American. Otherwise what is the point of coming here? You see something you like here, so you pack your bags full of religion, dress, and beliefs. You re-open them when you get here and try to force us to change. You don’t want our prayers in schools, because it insults your beliefs. You don’t want our holidays celebrated, because they are against your religion. What the hell, why did you come? Then you have the Mexican illegals. I don’t even want to get started on them. But, “No abla español!!! See I can’t even spell it let alone speak it.

  I don’t have much daylight left, so I better tell you where we are going next. Tomorrow we leave for the Dry Tortugas. I am hoping the time we can spend there will take care of the situation at home. It may be a little hard assed of me to think like that but hey, I can say anything here. As sad as it is, the ones that are going to die, will have. The bad guys will have wiped out as many of the good guys as they can. The good guys left will have put their big girl panties on, and done whatever they needed to in order to live. If they use some of that bad guy potential, we all have buried deep under polite society rules, they will survive. Those are the people I want on our side.

  So far, life sucks right now. I am 3600 miles from home, but I do intend on getting us there. Through hell or high water, we will get home.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Hannah had made Ball Park and cheese omelets for breakfast. Ellen wondered why her omelets had never tasted like the ones Hannah made. Hannah’s were fluffy and not greasy at all. Ellen’s had always sat flatly in a pool of grease. Now that they had someone who could cook, and Hannah preferred cooking to boat chores, it left Alan and Ellen to share duties.

  She watched from the helm as Alan pulled up the anchor. He didn’t look so hot this morning and she wondered if it had been the beer they had before bed. He and Hannah had sat in the cockpit talking until Ellen reminded them that morning was getting closer.

  “Come on Alan; put some muscle in to it. We only had twenty-five feet of chain out. Maybe you should let Hannah help you?” He only gave her a dirty look and pulled faster. Ellen had shown Hannah how to raise the jib, and they were just waiting for him to get the anchor on deck before they could leave. Finally, she swung the helm to port and they began to move. Had they drifted anymore, they would have grounded in less than two feet of water. But again, luck was on their side. They safely made it in to the channel. There were still shallow spots that had to be watched for. She put Alan on the bow to keep a close eye out.

  To their surprise, a ketch was anchored off of the north-east corner of Cayo Costa. Ellen had debated anchoring there also, to avoid the shallows in Pelican Bay. They saw no movement on deck which meant they were probably not a threat.

  Ellen stared at the ketch, and for just an instant wondered how it would have changed all of their lives had they anchored out there. Likely, there would have been no Hannah and they would probably not have met Dan and his friends. She couldn’t think about what would have happened to the girl had Alan not heard her crying.

  “Alan, come take the helm and I’ll raise the main. We may as well take advantage of the wind while we have it. Hannah, can you give me a hand. We need to get all of the sail ties off before I can raise it.”

  “Um… sure. What’s a sail tie?”

  Ellen stared in disbelief and then remembered, “Come on, I’ll show you.” You may as well learn now.”

  “Okay,” Hannah said and followed Ellen up on top of the cabin. Her burns were already starting to heal and the bruising on her face was fading to purple. Soon she would only have the scars to remind her of her ordeal.

  Ellen watched as Hannah removed the last sail tie “Okay, good now stand back. This boom can swing when the wind hits the sail, right now it is not likely to but when you least expect it, shit happens. Whenever you are up here, keep one hand on something.” Ellen cautioned her and began to pull on the main halyard. Soon it was up with no incidents and their speed increased dramatically. She and Hannah scrambled back into the cockpit.

  “Where to boss?” Alan asked. He was looking a little better, almost eager to be on his way. Both hands were on the wheel, feet spread and practically bouncing on his toes. He looked like he was ready for the great adventure to begin.

  Ellen pointed to the channel marker, and explained about the red and green markers, more for Hannah’s benefit than his. “Once we make the point we are going out to sea. The green are always odd numbers and red are even. Keep the red ones on your left. When we get out to red two, we’ll set a course for the Dry Tortugas.

  “Wow! Really? But, why there? I didn’t think there was anything but an old abandoned fort out there.” As soon as the words left his mouth he seemed to realize what he had said. His eyebrows rose and his lips stretched into a thin line. He nodded as if he got it. “Oh, I get it. We are going because there is no one there.”

  “You know, for a guy that has the brains to become a doctor you’re pretty slow. That’s exactly why we are going there. But there will be other people. Dan and his group are headed there, and the park system has people housed there all year round. Some of the campers that ride the ferry out will probably still be there. If word gets out before we get there and I suspect it will, any boats anchored there may have stayed. It’s hard to say, but rest assured there will be people there.”

  Hannah’s face had blanched while listening to Ellen talk. She visibly started to shake and sank on to the seat behind her. “What about Joe and those other two guys? Will they be there too?” Her voice had grown weaker and was barely audible by the time she finished.

  Alan, behind the wheel tried to reach out to her but stopped with a look from Ellen, who had changed seats to sit beside her. Hannah had been exceptionally quiet since helping to raise the main and Ellen had wondered if she was alright. Maybe it was too soon for her to be up and helping. Now, she thought she knew what the problem was.

  “Hannah, you don’t have to worry about those guys ever again. You probably don’t remember Dan. He was the man with Alan, when he found you. Dan was a police officer and he and his friend Brian took care of them. They can’t hurt anyone else, ever again.”

  “Did they take them to jail? Will I have to…um….. will I have to press charges or anything?” Her eyes shone with unshed tears, and she was still vibrating with fear.

  Ellen reached out and put both arms around Hannah drawing her closer. “Honey, those guys were scum. Dan took care of them. They will never set foot around you or anyone ever.” She felt the tension drain from Hannah and she sat up straighter.

  “Those guys paid the ultimate price for holding you a hostage. You might say that they each paid something for the three days they had you.”

  Hannah’s head jerked up in surprise. “It was a week. Joe was on the boat when I got back from taking Mom to the airport. He got really drunk and then the other guy showed up. I tried to avoid them by staying in my room, but Joe kicked the door in. He had a glass of something he wanted me to drink. When I told him I didn’t want it, he got really mad. The other guy grabbed me from behind and while he held me Joe poured it down my throat. I thought I was going to choke to death if I didn’t swallow, so I did. I remember everything going in and out of focus and then nothing. When I woke…” She was trying to talk and cry at the same time. “He raped me,” She sobbed, “then the other guy came in…oh my God, it was so awful. I said no! He did it anyway. He started slapping me and told me to keep fighting him. He said he liked it that way.” She was crying so hard she was hyperventilating.

  From the expression on Alan’s face he wasn’t going to stay behind the wheel for very long. Ellen could see that hearing Hannah’s story was tearing him up. Ellen shook her head at him, showing she had it under control. She mimicked tightening the wheel on the pedestal, her eyes pointing it out to him. He did and Ellen gave Hannah one more squeeze and let Alan take over. She was actually surprised that Hannah could tolerate a man touching her after the abuse she has suffered from men. However, the way she had clung to him when they brought her aboard, said she trusted him explicitly. It is hard to know how she will react to the men on the island. Hopefully in the next few days, she will have enough time to purge her herself of the memories or at least to accept that what happened, happened and nothing can change it, but time can help bury it.

  Ellen wondered how you bury something, when you are reminded every time you look in the mirror. Her physical scars would take a while to heal, but Ellen worried about her mental scarring. She hoped Hannah would talk openly about it to either her or Alan. She thought the more open she was about it; the less shame she would feel.

  She now suspected that the guys, or at least the boyfriend Joe, had planned all along to include Hannah in their party. He just had to wait until the mother was out of town. Maybe Hannah was the reason, that the guy Joe was dating her mother in the first place. He had wanted Hannah all along, and by being with Mom, he could watch over Hannah until he had his chance. But why she wondered, had he included the other guys if he was so intent on getting Hannah? Maybe he hadn’t intended on it going the way it did, until after what ever happened… happened. When presented with the opportunity to act like an animal, he did.

  Seeing the way that Hannah interacted with Alan, told Ellen that Hannah was far stronger inside than she realized. Time would help.

  Ellen hadn’t realized how long they had been involved in Hannah’s story until she saw they were approaching the red marker two. They had perfect wind for their course to the Tortugas, if only it would last the rest of the day and overnight. The Annie-C was skipping through the waves at six and a half knots, and if Ellen had calculated correctly, they would get their first glimpse of Garden Key by two or three o’clock the next afternoon.

  If not sighting it by sunset, she would drop anchor and wait for daylight. The water surrounding the Tortugas is notoriously shallow, and she didn’t want to spend hours or days even, sitting captive on a shoal.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The wind had continued to build, but had turned around and now blew out of the east. She couldn’t know for sure, but she thought twenty or twenty-five knots. The waves had built to five to six feet with some much higher. For the past four hours, Ellen had tried to keep land in sight and on the port side, but with sunset and with no lights from shore, she was only guessing. Using her boat speed and time spent on course, she thought it would be okay to make a heading change.

  She set a course using her compass for 208 degrees. She had already reefed the main, to compensate for the rising winds earlier, so with few small sail adjustments, they were now headed for Garden Key…or at least that’s where she hoped they were headed. As small as the island was, it wouldn’t be hard to miss it.

  For the majority of her long trips - and she considered this long, she had always tagged along with friends, or friends of friends. While she had covered the helm a few times, she had never plotted the course; just followed the heading that had been set by the captain. Now, she wished she had paid more attention to the logistics of course plotting. Her abilities pretty much ran to line of sight or following the magenta line on her GPS. (Global Positioning System) Her course plotting was as simple as seeing where she wanted to go, touching the screen at a few waypoints in between where she was and her destination and hitting the done button. No brain work necessary.

  A wave hit the bow with enough force to turn them around and Ellen realized she had been asleep at the wheel. She wished now that she had filled a thermos with coffee. The knowledge that there were now unmarked towers along the route was sufficient to wake her up. Hitting one of them in the dark would be catastrophic.

  Her back was aching, her knees were burning with the strain of standing and adjusting to the boat action, and she was developing a headache from eye strain, trying to peer through the dark, but the sky was slowly getting lighter. They had made it through the night in one piece. Soon, they would hunt the horizon for a navigation marker.

  With the rising sun, the wind had died and the waves were beginning to flatten out. Earlier, Ellen had released the reef points in the main, trying to capture as much of the dying wind as possible.

  “Miss Ellen? Would you like me to make you some coffee?” It was Hannah, her long hair is a tangled mess and she pushed it behind her ears. Her face was less puffy and the bruising had faded more overnight. She smiled hesitantly, waiting for Ellen to answer.

  “Oh my God Hannah, you make me feel as old as my mother. Just plain Ellen will do, thank you and yes please to the coffee. Is Alan up yet?”

  “Yes ma’am. He’s in the bath…the head. I think he is washing up. Do you want me to get him?”

  “Nope…I have this, just the coffee please.” She tightened the wheel down and stepped around the wheel. To the port side of the doorway on the cabin roof was a small hatch. She banged her open hand on it several times. Obviously startling Alan, who let out a yelp.

  “You better not be using our fresh water for your face washing!” she hollered.

  “Dang it Ellen, you scared the hell out of me. I thought the roof was coming down. Do you know how hard it is to shave in cold salt water?”

  She laughed and went back to the wheel, satisfied he had paid attention when she gave the water talk. She did however wonder why he hadn’t heated it on the stove. It would have only taken a few minutes. Maybe she would continue to let him use cold water until he figured it out for himself. She chuckled, because she had tried shaving her legs with cold water one time and it had hurt.

  A few minutes later, Hannah came up the steps carrying a small serving tray. On it was a plate of scrambled eggs and what looked like cooked spam. Fried bread took the place of toast, but it looked wonderful. “Hannah, thank you. I can see where you are definitely an asset to have aboard.”

  Alan came up the steps close behind her and tried to grab a piece of the toast for himself. She twisted with the tray, holding it out of his reach. “This is not for you. You need to wait your turn.”

  He made his best pouting face and Hannah and Ellen both laughed. He had little pieces of toilet paper adhered to tiny blood spots. “What’s so funny? You know how much it hurts to shave with cold salt water? You try it and you’ll see.”

  Ellen laughed harder, because she did know. “Come take the wheel so I can eat, then I am going to rest for a while. I think you can handle the helm for a couple hours.”

  Hannah seemed to be thinking about Alan’s comment about the water. She had a puzzled expression on her face. She finally shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. “I don’t know why you didn’t heat the water first,” she said as she went down the ladder.

  Alan’s cheeks turned bright red. He folded his long legs and sat down. “Well shoot…I never even thought of it.” He saw that Ellen was trying to hold in laughter and if it was possible his ears turned redder. “Well aren’t we just the smart ass this morning.” He mumbled, as if he wanted to say it but really didn’t want anyone to hear him saying it.