Apocalyptic pirates 3, p.8
Apocalyptic Pirates 3, page 8
“You sure?” Letty eyed the dragons warily.
“Seventy-five percent?” Shannon shrugged.
“Oh, swell, that’s very comforting,” Letty scoffed.
The red dragon seemed to have figured out its method and was now leaping from boat to boat like an ungainly Saint Bernard having the zoomies. It wasn’t graceful, but it was building up momentum. The boats were docked here to accommodate for the curve of the marina, and it was getting worryingly closer.
The green dragon seemed to have worked out what the red was up to. It followed suit and began hurling itself from boat to boat. It crashed onto the decks, and even from our position I could hear the sounds of breaking glass and the groan of ripped canvas.
“Shannon,” I said. “That seventy-five percent?”
“Yeah.” Shannon raised her rifle. “That estimate might have been off.”
“You think?” Letty chided.
The yellow dragon appeared to not like the idea of being left behind and joined its friends in attempting to hop from boat to boat. It was even worse at it than the other two because of its wounded leg.
The red dragon had reached the end of the line of boats by now, though, and with a triumphant squawk it flung itself into the air.
The green dragon wasn’t far behind.
“Come to Mama,” Shannon murmured and took careful aim.
A thought occurred to me.
“Are you both okay with taking care of these guys?” I asked.
“Sure thing,” Letty said with a toss of her head.
Shannon eyed her with an amused look. “I thought we weren’t out of the woods just yet?”
“Maybe I just said that to break up that display back there,” Letty said with a grin.
“Why, are you jealous?” I teased.
Letty just winked at me, and it made my blood fizz.
Was Letty coming on to me?
I wouldn’t say no, that was for sure, but it seemed so unbelievable to me that not one, not two, but three gorgeous women would be so interested in me. Hell, I still had a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that Ally and Shannon both desired me.
The thought of Letty being jealous of the other two women was enough to momentarily make me forget what I was supposed to be doing, but as the beautiful woman thrust back her dark hair with one hand and took careful aim again, I took out my phone and opened up the camera.
I pointed it at the pursuing dragons and started filming.
As if they recognized what I was doing and felt determined to make the most of their fifteen minutes of fame, the dragons screeched in an unholy, discordant trinity of noise.
The marina was still visible in the background of the camera video, which gave a good perspective of how far we were from land.
The women started firing again, and I took a few steps away so the noise of gunfire wouldn’t be too deafening on the video.
One of Shannon’s shots took the red dragon in its left shoulder, and it dipped sideways as it was thrown off balance. Its left wing dragged down and hit the surface of the water, and the force pulled it under.
It shrieked in outrage, and the flapping of its wings created a small storm of waves that spread out and broke against the side of the yacht. It struggled for a few moments, but it was clear that this was the end.
“One down!” Shannon whooped.
The green dragon was already moving more and more slowly, and I reckoned if we could keep ahead of it for long enough, it would fall victim to the water and drown in the same way that the red dragon had.
The yellow dragon was an even more pathetic sight. It had reached the end of the line of boats and attempted to follow the red and green into the air, but it must have been injured somewhere else, as well. It took off, gave a few panicked flaps, and then tumbled into the water, screeching all the way.
Shannon took aim at the struggling green dragon but then lowered her rifle.
“What are you doing?” Letty demanded.
“Look at it,” she said and shrugged. “It’s not worth it.”
Letty raised her eyebrows. “I’d still feel a lot more comfortable taking it out for sure.”
“You just want to even the score,” Shannon teased. “You got the yellow one, I got the red one, so we’re even.”
“We should get Ally in on this,” Letty said with a grin. “Hey Ally! How do you feel about coming back here and takin’ out this last little bastard?”
“I’m good, thank you,” Ally called back.
She probably didn’t mean for it to sound so prim, but Shannon and Letty looked at each other and burst out laughing.
I hid my chuckles in an attempt to keep the phone camera steady, but the show was almost over.
The green dragon’s wings were moving slower and slower, and now it was so low that its back legs almost touched the water. As we watched, it made one last desperate effort to gain altitude. It flapped frantically, but it was no good, and it sank into the waves. One clawed green foot broke the surface of the water, and then it was gone.
“I almost feel sorry for it,” I remarked as I finished filming and turned off the camera.
Letty and Shannon swung around to stare at me in disbelief.
“Uh, excuse me?” Shannon inquired.
I tried to keep a straight face, but my grin broke out all the same. “Yeah, no, not really.”
“Jesus, Drew.” Letty put a hand over her heart in mock panic. “I thought you’d been taken by the body snatchers for a moment there.”
“The what?” Shannon queried.
“The body snatchers,” Letty repeated. “You know, that old movie? Invasion of the Body Snatchers?”
Shannon shook her head.
Letty sighed and rolled her eyes. “I’m surrounded by uncultured fools, ain’t I?”
“Hey,” I protested, “I’ve seen it. Donald Sutherland, right? These strange alien pods take over people’s bodies.”
“The aliens make duplicates of people,” Letty corrected. “They’re identical to the real humans in every way but they act weird and don’t have any emotions or nothin’. The whole thing is this huge metaphor for consumerism and how jaded America was in the 70s.”
“Really?” Shannon mused. “I’ll have to see that.”
“We should do a whole movie marathon!” Letty clapped her hands in glee. “We can watch the original film from the 50s, and then the 70s version, and then the 90s version–”
“Wait, wait.” I held up my hand. “How many of these things are there?”
“Four,” Letty replied. “If you don’t count the homages and films that are inspired by it.”
Shannon shook her head. “I don’t get it. I don’t see the point of remaking the same thing over and over again. Why mess with a good thing? You’ve done it once, you don’t need to rehash it for every new generation.”
“But that’s the beautiful thing about it!” From the gleam in Letty’s eyes, I could tell that this was a special subject for her. “If y’all just leave things in the past, they just stick there and there ain’t no call for anyone to check them out. But if you remake somethin’ you get to update it, tweak it, make sure all the parts are working fine…”
She broke off, and her cheeks flushed.
“Sorry, I get all riled up about stuff like this,” Letty muttered more quietly.
“Letty,” Shannon teased. “Is this your secret? Are you actually a closet nerd?”
Letty crossed her arms across her chest defensively. “Well, I wouldn’t call a perfectly natural enthusiasm for works of genius being a nerd, exactly.”
Ally had joined us on the stern, and now she laughed and put her arm around Letty’s shoulders.
“Welcome to the club,” she told the other woman as she directed a playful glare at Shannon. “When Shannon’s found something to tease you with, there’s no escaping it. Maybe you’ll leave me alone now that you’ve found another target.”
“I doubt you’ll get off that easy.” I grinned. “Shannon is very talented at multitasking.”
“You know I mean it with love, though, right?” Shannon put her arm around Letty’s free shoulder. “If you really don’t like it, just say so and I’ll stop.”
“Why was I never offered this option?” Ally grumbled.
“Because I know you can take it, rich girl,” Shannon said with a wink.
“So what do you get teased about, Shannon?” Letty asked.
“Nothing.” Shannon lifted her eyebrows innocently. “Who could possibly find anything about me that they could tease me for?”
I snorted, and Shannon scowled at me.
I grinned and looked down at my phone as the women carried on bantering. I brought up YouTube, signed into my account, and started the long process of uploading the video of the dragons that I’d just filmed onto my channel.
The internet kept dropping out, and the progress bar faltered and halted several times, but eventually it made it, and the video went live.
I sighed and put my phone back in my pocket.
“Drew,” Letty called. “Get in here.”
I looked up and saw that the three women had formed a huddle with their arms around each other.
“Group hug!” Ally cried and reached out to pull me into the huddle.
I laughed and joined them, and we all stood together on the deck with our arms around each other.
The sun was warm on my back, and I was just as blinded by the sunlight overhead as the beauty surrounding me.
Ally’s green eyes sparkled like the most precious emeralds, and her red hair caught the light and glowed like strands of fire.
Shannon’s silky hair was like a wash of ink penned by the most talented of painters, and her confidence glowed like the sheen of sweat that highlighted her perfect cheekbones.
Letty’s dark eyes were layered with amber, and the wind caught her curls and tossed them playfully against her plump lips and perfectly rounded chin.
I gazed around into the faces of the gorgeous, amazing women pressed against me, and the enormity of everything that I’d gained in this time of loss rose up inside me and warmed every last corner of my heart. The world might be ending soon, and I had no idea what the future would hold, but I knew that no matter what, I would treasure the time I’d spent on this yacht with these incredible women I’d met.
The planet’s population might have been depleted, but I knew for a fact that I was the luckiest guy in the world.
My phone buzzed and broke the moment.
I laughed ruefully and pulled out my phone. I expected it to be a message from Sammy or from my parents, but instead it was a notification from YouTube.
“Huh,” I said.
“What is it?” Ally demanded.
“Someone on YouTube wants to send me a direct message.” I clicked open the notification, and it took me back to the app.
“What does it say?” Letty craned her neck to try and read the phone screen over my arm.
“I won’t know until I accept the invitation,” I explained.
“What’s the username?” Shannon asked. “Does it sound familiar?”
“Could it be Sam?” Ally suggested. “Or your parents?”
“Certainly not my parents,” I snorted. “It took them three months to learn how to operate Netflix. And I’m sure Sam would have told me if she was going to start a YouTube account. Besides, why message me on here when she knows I’ll be calling her later?”
“What’s the username then?” Shannon asked impatiently.
“DiaRojas,” I read out. “Does that mean anything to any of you guys?”
The women all shook their heads.
“Go on, then,” Shannon said. “Accept the invitation.”
“What if it’s a scam?” Ally worried. “You’re not meant to accept invites or messages from accounts you don’t know.”
“Ally, who’s going to be scamming us?” Letty asked skeptically. “We’re in the middle of the apocalypse.”
“This is the perfect time to do a scam!” the redhead insisted. “I bet normal controls have been relaxed, and all kinds of things are allowed through that would have been pulled before.”
“Or it could be the government,” I pointed out. “Maybe they don’t like the videos we’re uploading, and this is an attempt to hack the phone.”
Letty grimaced. “I didn’t think of that. You could be right.”
We all looked at each other for a long moment.
Shannon broke the silence. “But what if it’s someone who needs help? If Drew and Ally had ignored my distress call, I’d be long dead.”
“And if you hadn’t helped me and gone to find more inhalers, I’d be dead, too,” Letty admitted.
“I guess that settles it then.” I clicked to accept the invitation.
The internet chose this moment to crawl to a halt, though, and I waited impatiently for what seemed like years as the screen loaded with agonizing slowness.
“What does it say?” Shannon demanded.
“Hello,” I read out.
Letty rolled her eyes.
“That was anticlimactic,” Ally chuckled.
“I guess I’ll write back to them, then.” I thought for a moment, and then decided to follow this stranger’s cue.
I typed “Hello” into the message box.
Immediately a new message popped up.
“That was quick,” Letty noted. “Bet they were waiting for you to reply.”
“Come on, Drew,” Shannon urged. “End the suspense. What does the mystery stranger say?”
“Give it a minute,” I chided, “it’s still loading.”
I waited for the message to finally come through, and I read it with a furrowed brow.
“Weird…” I said.
“Drew?” Shannon pushed. “What does it say?”
For an answer, I handed the phone over to her.
Shannon squinted at the little screen and read out loud: “I know where you are.”
Chapter 6
“Oookay,” Letty said. “That ain’t creepy at all.”
“What do you think it means?” Ally worried her lower lip between her teeth and glanced at me in concern.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I mean, aside from the obvious.”
“We should tell them to get lost,” Letty announced. “We ain’t about to go pick up Dexter.”
“Dexter?” Ally blinked.
“It’s a TV show about a serial killer,” Letty explained.
Ally shuddered.
“But what if it’s not Dexter?” Shannon countered. “What if we’re taking this the wrong way?”
“What other way is there?” Letty demanded skeptically. “Seems pretty cut ‘n’ dried to me.”
“Ask them how they know where we are,” Ally suggested. “We should try and communicate with them, either way.”
“Good point.” I read the message out loud as I typed it in. “‘How do you know where we are?’”
Almost instantly the reply came back.
“They say they recognize the area,” I read out. “But they can’t get here because the bridge has been blown up.”
“Seems fair,” Shannon said.
“Okay, fine.” Letty nodded grudgingly.
“I’m going to ask them what they want,” I said and typed the question in.
The response was immediate.
“They want a ride,” I said.
“A ride?” Letty’s eyebrows shot up as her skepticism kicked back in at full throttle. “How did they even get here? Is it just one of them? Do they have a group? Why are they here?”
“Do you want me to type in all that?” I chuckled.
The humor helped to diffuse Letty’s tension, and she rolled her eyes and gave a little laugh.
“Sorry,” she said. “I know I’m being paranoid.”
“Too many scary movies?” Shannon teased and grinned when Letty gave her a death glare.
“Horror movies offer many important life lessons, okay?” Letty retorted and ticked them off on her fingers. “Don’t split up. Don’t be a dumbass. If something seems too good to be true, it usually is. Don’t investigate the spooky noise by yourself late at night.”
“Don’t have sex or you’ll die?” I grinned.
Letty pouted. “Okay, maybe not all their lessons are relevant.”
She gave me a long, intense look and smiled slowly in a way that made my stomach flip.
Letty had to know for sure what she was doing to me. It was the sweetest kind of torture to be so close to her and pick up on all the hints she was throwing at me and to be without any way of taking her up on them.
“I think if we followed that rule,” I said quickly to try and hide the arousal in my voice, “pretty much everyone on this yacht would be dead.”
Shannon chuckled. Ally looked bemused.
“I know one thing for sure,” Letty added. “I am not going to be the first one of our ragtag group to die, I’ll tell you that for nothin’.”
“What?” Ally gasped.
“The black character is always the first one to die in a horror movie,” Letty explained in amusement. “Girl, don’t you watch any movies?”
“I do!” Ally protested as her cheeks flushed pink. “I guess I just don’t watch many horror movies.”
“Me, neither,” Shannon admitted. “To be honest, I can’t remember the last time I went to the theater.”
Letty held up her hands in mock horror. “You two are killing me. Drew, what about you? What was the last movie you saw?”
“Do you really want Drew to run through his Top Ten Movies?” Shannon exclaimed in exasperation. “Or do you want him to actually find out more about our mysterious messenger?”
“Oh, okay, fine.” Letty rolled her eyes.
I’d been thinking about how to respond all throughout the conversation about movies, and I typed in my next message:
I don’t know who you are, and I have a crew to think of. Is there any way you can guarantee that you don’t mean any harm?
There was a longer pause this time before the person on the other end replied: I thought you were the good pirates?
“The cheek!” Letty exploded. “Where do they get off tryin’ to sass their potential rescuers?”
“We knew there were probably survivors on the island,” Ally pointed out. “This person might be one of them.”
