Apocalyptic Pirates 3 -- Chapter 2

I couldn’t believe my eyes. I stood stunned and transfixed as I watched the orange flames lick up into the sky from Key Largo Island. The fire was everywhere, it engulfed every inch of the island in an inferno of destruction.

The wind whipped around me as it carried the acrid smell of burning wood and an overwhelming sense of despair. I could nearly feel the heat emanating from the flames as they consumed everything in their path.

My heart pounded as I realized what was happening right before my eyes. There was nothing left but smoldering ruins and a growing cloud of smoke. I was unable to move, unable to look away from the horrific sight of the once tourist filled island completely overtaken by fire.

Looking at it now, it was hard to believe that it was once filled with retired old couples and young spring breakers.

As our boat got closer, I pulled out my phone and hit record in order to capture the moment. It was a sight I knew I would never forget.

As I continued to record, I could hear something in the distance. It sounded like dragons screeching and roaring. I zoomed in with my camera to see if I could spot any, and it didn’t take long for one to appear.

It was at the top of one of the taller buildings on the island, and it looked half panicked and all too menacing as it flapped its wings and screeched loudly.

“Drew, look,” Ally said, and she pointed to the water between us and the island.

I turned my camera down and found the dragon corpses she had pointed out. They were fairly large creatures, but they couldn’t have died that long ago. We’d already seen that sharks didn’t mind a dragon feeding frenzy, so the fact that the corpses were still there gave us a rough estimate of when they died.

I turned the camera back to the island and found a few more corpses among the burning buildings and cars.

Then Letty coughed again, and I quickly shut the camera off and slid my phone into my pocket.

“Come on,” I said. “We should get moving. Letty’s asthma is going to flare up in these conditions.”

“Yeah, why don’t you go into the cockpit?” Ally suggested. “It should be a little less smokey there.”

“I think I’ll do that,” Letty coughed, and she retreated down the stairs into the small area.

Ally followed her, but Shannon stayed on deck with me while the boat drifted further south.

The two of us watched The Keys as they burned into oblivion, and I took a few more videos of the fiery islands and the dragons carcasses in the water all around so I could post them to our YouTube channel later.

Then I looked up the fisherman hospital my mom had told us about to see how close it was. The islands were all ablaze, but from the information I was able to find on google maps, it seemed like the hospital was near the bottom of The Keys, which meant it could still be intact. There was no way of knowing until we got there, but if it was still standing, then it may be worth it to make a trip to shore.

It looked like we’d have to go around the bottom of The Keys and into a marina to get there, but getting medical supplies would definitely be worth a detour. The state of the world lent itself to having very few hospitals still worth raiding, and if we found one, we needed to take advantage of it.

Not only would it put us in a good long term position in case anybody currently had a medical condition or developed one, but it would give us excellent trading power.

Being the boat with fuel, and being willing to trade it had made us extremely popular as we traveled along the Florida coast, so maybe it could do the same for the rest of the journey. And best of all, nobody fucked with us.

I guess they figured if we were willing to trade, they’d find something to trade instead of attacking and taking it by force. There had been more than one boat that approached where I thought that was about to be the case, but they’d always been far more pleasant than I expected, and they’d been willing to haggle back and forth to come to an agreement.

After I did my research on the fisherman’s hospital, I opened YouTube. We had at least a thousand notifications since our videos had gotten so popular so quickly, but I ignored them and selected the most recent videos in my camera roll so it could get started on the upload process.

When I first uploaded my videos, I hadn’t expected them to gain so much traction, but they’d quickly received thousands of views, and then hundreds of thousands. There were a few of us on the platform who uploaded videos of that nature, and we’d all climbed in popularity on the app over the past couple of weeks.

People all over the world wanted to know what was really going on, and we were providing that information. Some of the news stations had even been showing clips of our videos as well as uploading their own helicopter views, though I wasn’t sure how much longer that would continue. The government backed stations had already started to say that things were going back to normal, so I figured it was only a matter of time before they went after the small indie stations as well.

But us single creators weren’t going to be silenced so easily. They weren’t going to be able to find us to shut us up, and I challenged anybody to come out here and tell me that I couldn’t upload the truth to the internet.

I’d hit the live button and reveal those bastards for all their corruption, and there’d be a damn mutiny. People already didn’t trust the government after some videos of Coast Guard ships had been uploaded showing the soldiers on board harassing people simply trying to survive. All it would take would be a couple more videos like that then not only would people not trust the Coast Guard, they’d probably actively go after them.

While the videos uploaded, I stood next to Shannon and watched the islands continue to burn. And as I did so, I couldn’t help but think of the island my own family was on.

Just the thought of the Hawaiin islands up in flames was enough to make me sick to my stomach.

And the heavy stench of smoke in the air didn’t help.

“Come on,” I said and I nodded for Shannon to follow me as I headed over to the cockpit.

We made our way down the small staircase and found Ally and Letty sitting on the little bench to the right.

“Hey,” I greeted the two of them. “How are you feeling, Letty?”

“Much better.” She smiled and held up her inhaler.

“Good.” I nodded and sat down on the bench.

“What’s wrong?” Ally asked, and her green eyes narrowed on me as she cocked her head to the side.

“I just can’t help but think of Sammy and my parents,” I explained. “Seeing an island up in flames like that really puts things into perspective. I mean, who’s to say Hawaii and all the islands around aren’t going to wind up that way?”

“Oh, Drew.” Ally frowned and leaned over to squeeze my hand. “They’re fine. We talked to them this morning.”

“Yeah,” Shannon added. “The Keys are really close to the area where the meteors were most concentrated. Hawaii is a whole ocean away. They’re safe.”

“I appreciate that,” I sighed and shook my head. “It’s just hard to see another island burning.”

“That’s totally understandable,” Shannon said with a soft smile.

“I can only imagine the pain you’re going through being that far away from your baby girl,” Letty tacked on with a sympathetic look. “It must be awful.”

“That’s an understatement,” I snorted and shook my head. “I’ve been solely responsible for that little girl’s well being since she was two. Just the idea of something bad happening to her is enough to make my stomach churn. I don’t know what I’d do without her.”

“I can’t even claim to understand what you’re going through,” Ally said. “But we’re always here for you, and we’re going to make sure we make it to Niihau.”

“I know.” I smiled at the redhead and then pushed my hand through my hair. “And it is an impossible feeling to understand. Unless you’re a parent, you can’t possibly imagine the turmoil just the mere thought of something happening to your child causes inside you. I thought I was handling it all pretty well, but seeing that island on fire just now made me realize just how much being away from her has been bothering me. She’s my entire world, and knowing I’m not there to protect her is killing me.”

“You’re such a good dad,” Letty sighed and smiled.

“You are,” Shannon agreed. “And Sammy knows it, too. But just think, your parents are there with her, and I’m sure they’ll protect her just as fiercely as you would.”

“You’re probably right.” I smiled. “I’m only a great dad because I had a great example.”

“I can’t wait to be a mom,” Ally murmured, and she turned to look out the windshield of the boat.

“Ohh, your babies would be soooo cute,” Letty squealed. “Tiny redheaded little things, I can just see ‘em now.”

“I always figured I’d wait until my career was established to have kids.” Shannon smirked. “But I guess that’s not going to happen now, is it?”

“Probably not,” I chuckled. “Sorry.”

“Eh, that’s alright.” She waved a dismissive hand. “I wouldn’t mind having kids earlier than I thought. Being a mom in a post-apocalyptic world is pretty badass if you ask me.”

“Being a mom at any given time in history is badass,” Ally noted. “Moms work so hard.”

“Wasn’t it just you and your dad?” I asked.

“Mostly.” She nodded. “Which is why I was always obsessed with my friends’ moms. I watched what they did for their children, and I was in awe. The worst part was that half the time my friends took them for granted. Their mom would do something for them, make them a cute lunch or try and wave when they saw us around town, and my friends would groan and tell them to go away. I could never imagine treating my mother like that.”

“Don’t worry,” I laughed. “Your own kid will do it to you eventually. I took Sammy to soccer practice one day, and she insisted I drop her off half a block away because she didn’t want her friends to hear my ‘old music.’”

“No!” Letty gasped. “Not sweet little Sammy.”

“Oh, yeah.” I nodded slowly. “Even the sweet ones have their moments. I can remember plenty of times where my mom embarrassed the hell out of me. I’m not proud of how I treated her in those moments, but I was a kid.”

“Yeah, same here,” Shannon agreed. “I’ve done the same thing to my own parents. But even still, I want at least two kids of my own.”

“Only two?” Ally asked.

“You want more than that?” Shannon asked, and her eyes widened incredulously.

“Weren’t you an only child?” Letty pushed.

“Yes.” Ally nodded. “Which is exactly why I want a big family. Three kids minimum.”

“Three minimum, eh?” I laughed.

“I think I’m alright with two,” Letty said.

“Same,” Shannon agreed. “Three is a bit much.”

“Poor Drew,” Letty teased. “He’ll have seven between the three of us.”

“Eight with Sammy,” Shannon snickered.

“That’s a lot,” Ally chuckled. “Are you sure you can handle it?”

“Eight kids?” I pondered. “May as well round it up to ten.”

“She can do that.” Shannon pointed to Ally.

“So now I have to have five instead of three?” Ally scoffed.

“You did say three minimum,” Letty pointed out.

“You did,” Shannon confirmed with a mischievous grin.

“Fine.” Ally straightened her shoulders. “Five it is.”

The women were being playful, of course, but I knew there was also some sense of truth behind what they were saying. And honestly, I didn’t mind one bit. I’d give them all the babies they wanted once we arrived in Niihau.

The three of them would make excellent mothers, and since the world as we knew it had already ended, I figured we should get a move on repopulating as soon as possible.

Ally would be so soft and kind with her children. But incredibly stern, too. She would have high expectations, and she’d make sure they hit every goal she set out for them. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if I had an eighteen month old who was reading basic sentences with her as a mom.

Shannon’s kids would be the physical ones. They’d be rough and tumble, and she’d show them self defense and how to use weapons by the time they were three or four. They’d be in charge of protecting their half siblings from Ally.

I imagined Letty’s babies would be somewhere in between. Where Ally’s kids would be incredibly intellectual and Shannon’s would be highly physical, Letty’s would be the dreamers that sat in the middle. They’d be smart, of course, but they’d be imaginative. They’d be the builders, designers, the ones out in the garden doing the dirty work, and she’d be right there with them teaching them how to cook what they harvested.

I couldn’t help but smile as I listened to the women talk about their children and all the things they wanted to do with them. It was astounding to think I’d barely dated since Sammy’s mom died, and now here I was with three beautiful and intelligent women who I was seriously considering having children with.

That thought hadn’t occurred with anybody else in the years I’d given dating a chance, but now I felt it with not one but three women. It was like the dragon apocalypse had happened just to bring us together.

And maybe it had. At least partly.

A small piece of me couldn’t help but feel that this was some sort of punishment for humans being such bastards for so long. We’d polluted the oceans and the ozone and who knows what else, and now we were being shown who was boss.

It was survival of the fittest, and while I mourned for the way life used to be, I sort of liked the idea of a simple life on an island with my family. We’d grow our own food, raise our own meat, and sit around the fire at night talking about our day.

Honestly, what could be better?

“It looks like the islands aren’t so bad down this way,” Letty noted with a point out the window.

“Oh, you’re right,” Ally agreed as she stood up to get a better look. “I see a few small ones, but these islands are much better off than Key Largo.”

“Definitely,” I said, and I thought about that hospital I’d looked up earlier. “Maybe the fire couldn’t jump the water quite that far.”

“I guess not,” Shannon said.

“We should check it out with the drone,” I said. “I looked up that hospital my mom told us about, and it’s not too far from where we are now. If it’s in good shape I think we should try and make a trip to shore.”

“Really?” Ally asked, and her red eyebrows pinched together with concern. “Isn’t that dangerous? There’s got to be dragons around.”

“We’ll check it out with the drone first,” I reiterated. “But if we have a chance to get medical supplies, we need to take it.”

“He’s right,” Shannon said. “There’s no way we can pass that up if the opportunity arises. I mean, there’s probably a handful of hospitals left in the world. If we see one, we’ve got to raid it.”

“Yeah, I see your point.” Ally nodded. “I just know it’s going to be dangerous.”

“Don’t worry,” Shannon said. “Drew and I can handle it.”

Just then, a dragon screeched in the distance.

“Well, that’s reassuring,” Ally said dryly.

“We saw some hanging around the perimeter of the islands,” I explained. “But they clearly couldn’t fly far enough to get to the next one, and there’s nowhere else for them to go.”

“Yeah, they’ll either get swallowed by the flames eventually, try their hand at swimming, or die of starvation.” Shannon shrugged.

“And if there are dragons on the island you need to get onto?” Ally pushed with a raised eyebrow.

“Then we’ll do our best to avoid them,” I said. “And kill them if we have to.”

“Alright.” Ally nodded. “Should I pull us closer to the islands?”

“Not just yet,” I said as I reached under the bench and pulled out the drone we’d recently got in a trade. “Let me see what’s over there first.”

“Good idea,” the redhead agreed.

We all filed back out on deck, and I quickly hooked my phone to the drone and got it ready to fly. It was a bit nerve wracking taking it over such a large area of water, but it was a quick little thing and I’d become fairly proficient just in the couple of times I’d flown it.

“Easy now,” I murmured as I lifted the drone off the ground.

The small machine whirred up into the air, and I watched the view from its camera on my cell phone as I flew it across the ocean and over toward the island.

Pieces of meteors and dragon carcasses littered the water, along with a few other human indicators like torn up boats, soda cans, and clothing.

It seemed the dragons had gotten to at least a few people before the islands had gone up in flames. The idea of dragons eating people made me wrinkle my nose as I recalled the first time I’d witnessed it happen. The dragon had stopped traffic, ripped some guy’s head off, and swallowed his body whole. It was a sight I didn’t think I’d ever recover from.

Still, I pulled my head back into the game and focused on the task at hand.

I flew the drone past Boot Key and over to Marathon, where the fisherman’s hospital was, or at least that’s what I thought that part of the island was called. The map of The Keys wasn’t entirely clear on where one part ended and another began.

Oddly enough, this part of the island wasn’t quite as bad as The Keys we’d just passed. There were a few fires here and there, but the whole island wasn’t in flames, so that was a win.

Still, there were definitely more than a few dragons around.

I made sure to keep the drone up and away from them, but as I rounded the marina, I noticed something strange.

“Huh.” I squinted and leaned in to get a better look.

“What?” Letty asked. “What is it?”

“There’s something weird here,” I noted. “When I looked up the hospital earlier, I noticed there’s a huge bridge connecting some of the islands.”

“Seven Mile Bridge,” Ally chimed in.

“Right,” I agreed. “But… it’s not there. I mean, it is, but it’s not. Look.”

“A meteorite probably hit it.” The redhead shrugged.

“No.” I shook my head and pushed the camera toward the women. “Really look at it. If it was knocked down from a meteorite hitting it, then it would be destroyed, like a giant hole, not straight across like that.”

“What are you saying?” Shannon’s dark eyebrows pulled together as she eyed me carefully.

“I don’t think that bridge was taken out by a meteorite,” I explained. “I think someone blew it.”

“Blew it?” Ally asked. “You mean, like a demolition?”

“Yes.” I nodded. “I think so.”

“You think people did it,” Shannon clarified.

“Yes.” I nodded.

“But that would mean…” Letty started, and I nodded for her to continue. “There are people nearby.”

“They blew the bridge so the dragons couldn’t follow them.” Ally’s green eyes widened to saucers.

“Exactly,” I agreed. “There are survivors around here somewhere.”