BUaDS – Chapter 34 – Where Does the End Begin?

BUaDS – Chapter 34 – Where Does the End Begin?

Leanna O’Regan’s head bobbed as her eyelids started to close, jarring her awake and making her sit up straight on the shifting floor of the cone-shaped orange inflatable raft. In the dim light of the crescent moon in the clear starry night lighting the interior from the enclosed raft’s entrance and from it’s clear plastic windows, Leanna could see Lucretius across from her, fighting to stay awake as well. She shivered in the cool ocean breezes blowing in from the raft’s entrance, and her teeth started to chatter. Her slicked back, long black hair was still damp, although her white t-shirt and shorts had dried out. Lucretius had pretty much dried out, too and he put back on his officer’s jacket that he had taken off.
“Can you close the raft’s door, Lucky? I’m freezing,” Leanna said, pulling up her legs and holding them with her arms. 


Lucky crawled over to the raft’s entrance, and felt along the edges of its fabric walls. “I can’t seem to find the cords that release the flap, ah! There it is,” he said unrolling the door cover from the bottom and starting to run the zippers on each side up, muttering “Damn! The zipper’s stuck… I’m going to have to leave it open on the top.” He sat down again across from Leanna, barely able to see her now in the moonlight.


“That didn’t help much,” Leanna complained softly, her teeth now chattering loudly. Lucky took his jacket off and offered it to Leanna. When she didn’t take it, he sidled up to her and put it over her shoulders, and sat next to her. Leanna skooched over a bit, to keep Lucky from touching her, and she pulled the jacket closed over her chest. Her teeth stopped chattering, and she let her head rest against the fabric wall of the raft. 


Lucky leaned his head back, too, and said, “I never much thought about how my life might end, but I would never think that I would be lost at sea with you.”


Leanna didn’t say anything, and just took a deep breath. “I hope Rosa and Theo are doing OK,” she said, looking at the starry sky outside of the raft, through the half closed door.


“I hope they’re OK, too,” Lucky asked gently, “Where are they, anyway?”


Leanna just said, “I’m too tired,” and closed her eyes.


Lucky looked at her in the pale light, and then looked out into the star-filled sky. “This is not the way it’s going to end for me!” Lucky mumbled under his breath, “I’m not going to die in this stinking life raft!”


Leanna’s breathing become regular and deep, indicating that she had fallen asleep. Lucky carefully slipped his hand behind the young woman’s back, trying not to waken her. His hand slid down the side of the raft’s wall to a pouch near Leanna’s hip, and he quietly eased it open. He pulled a flare gun out of the pouch, and shifted his posture to be able to crawl away to the opposite side of the raft. He put the flare gun into the back of his uniform’s light grey pants, tucking the barrel into the waist. He sat on the floor again across from Leanna, and switched his attention between her and looking out the opening in the entrance.


The wind blowing across the ocean was starting to pick up, making the waves roll higher. The life raft began rising and falling deeper, and Leanna woke up after almost falling over after a particularly tall wave lifted the raft dramatically. She yawned and stretched her legs out and pulling up Lucky’s jacket that she was using as a blanket. “The weather is picking up, it seems. Wow, I’m starving. Do these life rafts come with anything to eat?”


Lucky pointed to the pouch behind her that he had taken the flare gun from and said, “There might be some water and freeze-dried food packets in that wall pouch.”


Leanna put her hand into the pouch and felt around in it, pulling out a small first aid kit. “Doesn’t look like it, unless these bandages are edible.” She put the first aid kit back into the pouch, and took off the jacket and rolled it up to put her head on it, laying down on the floor of the life raft. “I’ll admit the ocean scares me; we’re floating on a column of water taller than a skyscraper, and it would like nothing better than to swallow us up and let us fall to the bottom. How long do you think it would take to get to the bottom? We’d drown before we knew we got there.”


“I never want to know, Leanna. Don’t talk like that,” Lucky said angrily.


“My mother said dying was not about rising into into the air to harp music and glowing light, but rather it was more like slowly sinking into silence, coldness and darkness,” Leanna said. “As you can guess, she wasn’t terribly religious. Like Rosa’s parents, she was a member of the Cooperative.”


Lucretius stayed quiet as Leanna spoke, and then shushed her suddenly. In the distance they could hear the faint whumping noise of a helicopter. He jumped up to the opening in the entrance, and pulled out the flare gun concealed behind him. Leanna lunged at Lucky, trying to reach his hand holding the flare gun outside of the raft. Before she could grab his hand, Lucky was able to squeeze the trigger and fire the flare in a blaze of red light and sparks into the night sky. It arced high above the orange life raft, and brightly lit up the ocean around them.


“Where did you get that?” Leanna demanded, pushing Lucky down onto the floor of raft. He let go of the used gun, and let it slide across the floor to the edge of the life raft. Leanna jumped on top of him, enraged and screaming, punching and scratching his face. Lucky fought back, pushing her off of him.


“Stay away from me!” Lucky shouted at Leanna, and rushed over to the entrance to unzip it fully for a quick exit. The faint whump-whump of the helicopter blades was clearly getting louder now, and Lucky leaned out of the raft entrance to scan the dark horizon for the approaching helicopter. The flare was still falling slowing to the ocean and lighting the surrounding waves in a red glow.


Leanna pushed hard on Lucky’s back, almost sending him into the water. “Lay off! You’re going to thank me someday for this!” he yelled, turning to face Leanna with dark fury on his face, tinged with the red light of the dying flare.


Leanna matched Lucky’s fury with her own, and she screamed at him, her hair falling wildly across her face. She pushed him hard again, this time making him fall out of the raft and into the rising waves. He splashed around in the black water, sputtering angrily, “What did you do that for?”


“That’s for trying to save me by coming after me,” Leanna growled at him, leaning out of the raft. “Your stupidity has now not only condemned us both. Bringing Dante Valderez back to us will surely bring harm to Rosa and Theo!”


*** This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. ***

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