Using the binoculars, I took a closer look.
What I saw made me groan. An emptiness filled my gut as I realized I was going to have to tell the others the bad news.
As soon as I climbed down the ladder and stood on the deck in front of them, they knew something was wrong by the expression on my face.
“What is it, man?” Sam asked.
“We can’t take the boat past the harbour,” I said.
They were silent, waiting for me to continue.
I said, “The army have barricaded the river.”
twenty-four
We took turns looking through the binoculars and we all came to the same conclusion. Our plan was dead in the water.
The army engineers had built a barricade that stretched all the way from the harbour jetty and spanned the river. It floated in the water, a ten-foot-high steel wall supported by huge plastic barrel-shaped floats. It looked like it had been put together in sections and the movement of the water made it undulate like a living, breathing steel snake.
At the harbour, army Land Rovers and personnel carriers were parked in clusters but none of us saw any soldiers. The area seemed quiet but from this distance we probably wouldn’t be able to hear any sounds that far away. All we could hear was the slapping of waves against the Lucky Escape’s hull.
We went into the living area and sat around the table to decide our next move.
“What do we do?” Tanya asked.
“We could go over land,” Sam suggested.
“Too risky,” Jax said. “We have to get past the barrier and take the boat upriver. There’s no other way.”
“We can’t get past it,” he replied. “And there might be even more barriers farther up the river. We’d be stuck, man. Easy targets for the army to blow out of the water.”
“I don’t see any soldiers,” Tanya said. “Maybe they’ve all gone away to turn into hybrids or something.”
“That is possible,” I said. “If the harbour was attacked by hybrids, the soldiers could all have wandered away to find a place to turn.” I thought about that a little more. “If that’s the case, we can get past the barrier by going around it on the jetty and getting into the river on the other side.”
“Dude, we have to get the Lucky Escape past the barrier too,” Sam said.
I shook my head. “No, we don’t. We can take the Zodiac. Carry it across the jetty and get into the water on the other side of that wall. If there are other barricades upriver, we can get onto the bank and carry the Zodiac around them too,”
“Portage,” Sam said, nodding. “I like it.”
“It will make us less of a target than if we were in the Lucky Escape,” Tanya said. “Let’s do it.”
“There’s just one thing,” I reminded her. “The harbour has to be empty of soldiers. Otherwise we’ll get captured as soon as we set foot on it.”
“Something else,” Jax added. “If hybrids attacked the harbour, where are they now?”
We all knew the answer to that; they were probably still there. Waiting.
“We’ll check it out closely before we leave the Zodiac,” Tanya said. “Everyone grab your weapons.”
We went out onto the sun deck and began to untie the Zodiac while Jax used the binoculars to study the harbour. “Plenty of vehicles,” she said as we carried the boat to the aft deck, “but I can’t see any soldiers.”
That was both good news and bad. Good because it meant we weren’t going to get blown out of the water by the army. Bad because there must be a reason the soldiers weren’t there anymore and that reason could still be lurking at the harbour.
We got the boat into the water and climbed aboard with our weapons. Jax started the engine and the familiar gasoline smell filled the night air. As we set off towards the jetty, I looked back at the Lucky Escape. She bobbed on the waves looking abandoned in the fading sunlight. I hoped she would still be there when we got back.
I hoped we would get back.
Tanya had the binoculars and she watched the harbour as we approached. “Looks clear,” she said. “I can’t see much because of all the boats but the place looks deserted.”
Jax guided the Zodiac between two yachts, heading for a set of stone steps that led from the water up to the top of the high jetty. Sam jumped onto the steps and held the boat steady while we clambered out. Between the four of us, we managed to hoist the Zodiac up the steps. The boat wasn’t too heavy for the four of us to handle but it dripped cold water over us as we carried it to the top of the jetty.
At the top, we set it down on the concrete and looked around. The barrier had been fixed to the end of the jetty by thick steel braces that looked like they had been embedded into the stone by some sort of huge drill. There was no way we could detach the barricade. It stretched out across the water to the bank on the other side. It was miles long and must have taken days to construct.
I assumed the army had built it to keep boats in rather than keep them out. The river ran all the way to Truro and along the way there were yacht clubs, small marinas and harbours. This barricade would make sure none of those boats sailed out into the channel. It looked like the military really was trying to control everybody.
As I stood admiring the technical work that had gone into erecting such a huge barricade, a sudden silence descended over the harbour. Even the birds stopped singing, just as they had at Mason’s Farm.
“No way should it be this quiet,” I whispered.
“What’s that?” Jax asked, pointing to the buildings on the shore.
I squinted at the place she had indicated. “I don’t see anything.”
“There,” she said. “Oh my God, we need to get out of here! Now!”
Dozens of hybrid soldiers erupted from the cluster of buildings like ants scuttling out of a nest. They ran towards the jetty, fixing us with their hateful yellow eyes. As the first half dozen reached the jetty, more and more came pouring out from between the buildings. I was reminded of a scene in a Matrix movie where thousands of copies of Agent Smith attack Neo.
The soldiers, although different facially, wore identical uniforms and their running bodies blurred into a mass of camouflage patterned jackets.
“Let’s move!” Tanya shouted, grabbing the Zodiac.
We all lifted the boat and headed for the steps that led down the opposite side of the jetty but it was obvious we weren’t going to make it. “Take it to the end and throw it over,” Tanya shouted, changing direction. We took the Zodiac to the end of the concrete jetty and heaved it into the water twenty feet below. The boat landed with a splash and took on some water but remained afloat.
The nearest soldiers were almost on us. Their boots thundered along the jetty.
We all jumped. In normal circumstances, I would have thought twice before diving twenty feet into the sea but with a horde of hybrids running towards me, I didn’t even give the jump a second thought.
I hit the water and went under, enveloped by cold and darkness. Struggling to the surface, I heard splashes as other bodies landed in the water around me. I had expected to hear three but there were many more.
I broke the surface and gasped for air. Splashing through the water to the Zodiac, I saw Tanya, Jax and Sam. They were almost on the boat, swimming strongly.
Splashes continued around me, some spraying me with water. I swam like a madman. I was so panicked I couldn’t breathe. The hybrids were in the water with me. As I swam for the Zodiac, I heard more of them hit the surface and go under.
My three companions were clambering onto our inflatable boat.