Chapter 30

I’m A Better Pirate Than You

Our little convoy of boats now consisted of three. The large ferry, the medium tender, and a smaller personal yacht. The smaller yacht was one claimed from a nearby dock. Since the two boats that the other group came in were damaged it was deemed safer just to grab another one. As we headed out of the docks Sally pointed off to north. “There is a boat approaching.” I took a look through the binoculars, SUNSET SKIPPER. Great the pirates that had messed with the other group are now heading in our direction.

Luckily I had distributed weapons and ammunition to the new group as well as my entire group being armed. I am actually quite curious as to what this Pirate Phillip thinks he can accomplish against three boats full of people. I mean his “pirate yacht” was about the size of our tender, but we also had the much larger ferry in our group. Just from the size of the boats I would think that he might skip trying to rob us. Unfortunately, my wisdom was not shared by pirate Phillip.

“Unidentified vessels this is the United States Coast Guard. You need to stop your engines and prepare to be boarded for inspection of contraband.”

So he was going to try to pretend to be legitimate and then rob us. I guess that might actually work against stupid people, but any normal person should realize that the US Coast Guard does not travel around in yachts. I decided to mess with him and see what would happen.

“Ahoy U.S. Coast Guard Vessel. You are talking to the sovereign flotilla of the Islands Alliance. According to the treaty of 2006 you have no authority to board our vessels once we have disembarked from the mainland. Any attempt to do so will be seen as an act of war by my nation and we will respond accordingly.”

Let’s see how he is going to play this one.

“Islands Alliance Vessels, due to the emergency state of the union decree all treaties are null and void until stabilization of the situation has occurred. We suspect that criminals have infiltrated your crew and respectfully request you stop your engines and allow us to inspect your crew and remove any criminals that might be hiding amongst them.”

Oh so now they were doing me a favor. I was starting to get tired of this banter.

“Hey Phil enough of this. I know you’re a pirate and if you get any closer I will open fire and then loot whatever is left when were finished.”

“If you know who I am you should stop your boat before you regret it later.”

I have had enough of this. I got on the radio to the other boats. “Captain Bob, have your group go to the top level and shoot down at anyone on the deck. The height advantage means your group should be safe. My group will target the cockpit. Captain Jo of the yacht Summer Waves please hold your group in reserve. Don’t stop shooting until you run out. Reload then wait for further instructions.”

The next 30 seconds to a minute were awesome. It was like some low budget action movie. Bullets were flying, glass was breaking on the other ship, and there were definitely wails of pain. I don’t think that the pirates even got a shot off. After our group emptied their magazines a silence fell across the water.

“Hey Phil, you still alive.”

No response.

“Is anyone alive over there? Speak up or we will start firing again just to be safe.”

With that statement I finally get a response.

“Stop shooting please. You killed Phillip. This is Justin, I don’t want to die can we just leave please?”

“Stop your engines and prepare to be boarded.”

I was going to punish the pirates in the only way I knew how, take all their stuff. I have Trika pull the tender up beside the pirate boat and cross over. “I will make this quick and easy. Anyone still alive can get in the dinghy and make for shore. You have ten minutes. Don’t take any weapons or anything else with you. Just get in the boat and leave.”

“You can’t do that. Without weapons we will be k………” Before that pirate can even finish I shoot him in the chest.

“My patience is limited. You now have only nine minutes.”

I watch as four people scramble to help two others into the dinghy and leave. Once the boat was clear I signal the yacht Summer Waves to pull up on the other side of the boat. We start looting everything we want and need from the pirate vessel. Thirty minutes later I splash almost ten gallons of fuel all over the deck of the pirate boat. I cross back over to the tender and we all start pulling away. I take a flare gun I stole from the pirate boat and fired it at the pirate boat. WHOOOSH!!!

The flames that start are much larger than I thought they would be. I have never really set something large on fire before. It kind of feels good. I mean everyone enjoys a good fire, there is just something primal about it. How many of us though can say they set a really large one, a car, boat, or house and then watched and enjoyed it? I knew that this was probably one of those unique moments in my life. I really could not see a reason for me to set large scale objects on fire in the future. This might be the only time.

My little flotilla left Miami and the mainland while a pirate ship burned to the waterline behind us. It was beautiful, sad, and memorable all wrapped into one feeling. Who knew when we would be back to the U.S. It could be in weeks, months, or if everything goes well, maybe not for years. This bittersweet moment was interrupted by Michael when he reminded me I needed to call Gerald and report in. I had missed yesterday’s call so they might be worried. I was a few minutes late today, but I should still be able to get a hold of them. I quickly went up to the cockpit and picked up and turned on the satellite phone.

A few rings later and I indeed have Gerald on the line. “Hi Gerald, sorry about not calling yesterday. Things were a little hectic.”

“I understand completely. If you miss more than two nights in a row though I think your momma will come find you and beat some sense into you.”

“Yes sir, she probably would.”

I start catching Gerald up on everything our group had done and accomplished in the past 48 hours. He seems suitably impressed with our acquisitions, supplies, and new recruits. I let him know that our group should be at Andros Island some time tomorrow afternoon. Once we check out the situation we will decide on how to proceed from that point on.

Once I was finished with my update Gerald starts in on what the main group has been doing. They reached JAXPORT that morning and the situation was still safe and stable there. They decided that they would spend at least two days there transferring supplies and containers that we had staged for them. He was even cautiously optimistic that they might be able to get another small to medium container ship running to carry even more supplies. He estimates that they should be down to Andros Island with the rest of the group in no more than four to five days.

I also receive the numbers of survivors and housing needs from Gerald so we can try and have some things ready when they arrive. The main group now has 45 single males, 52 single females, 21 intact families, and 12 orphans, for a total of 200 people. Including our new friends that we helped from the pirate attack my group has 8 males, 14 females, and 6 children. I really don’t know how many of our group is family yet. So I am going to need housing for just over 200 people. There are two options here and I think I am going to have to go with one I have been avoiding.

I could find individual housing, possibly a motel, and definitely clean out some apartments. However, I think the safest option would be to have everybody in a centrally located area. I am aiming to take over the military base on the island. Andros Island is home to AUTEC which deals with testing and evaluation of several types of technology for the navy and other branches of military. There is a small base on the island and it would provide all of the housing and other materials needed for our group to establish themselves. I have been avoiding military bases due to the fact that people on them if they survived would be better trained than my rag tag group and may not be friendly.

With us needing housing and a central place to establish ourselves though the AUTEC base is ready made. If I remember from my research it has basic facilities, a gym, housing, and a variety of other things to help with not only starting a new life but keeping people entertained. Being a military base it should be on its own power grid and have back-up generators for essential areas. This should allow us to reestablish power quickly and have some of the comfort of the mainland. The base is also located on Fresh Creek, which is the largest fresh water source on the island.

Even if it is a small base it should have an armory which means we should be able to upgrade some of our weaponry and thus protect ourselves better also. It might even have other equipment that we can use. We should easily have food for six months for the 200 people we have and can raid ports and other areas for more. So if we can get a crop in within a month we should be set. If we slowly spread out from the base, we should also be able to contact any locals that survived and invite them into a mutual defense pact. I don’t want to come across as imperialistic and just assume that they will agree to what we need, but if we show them the benefits of working together they should come around. It would be nice to have local knowledge of the area.

Alright, I need to rank my priorities.

In bad weather the average human can only survive 30 minutes without shelter. That usually refers to cold or blistering heat. We will be in the mild tropics, but hurricanes and other weather phenomena do come through the area. Clean Fresh Water. A human on average can only survive three days without water. There should be enough supplies of fresh water on the island to support thousands of people let alone the few hundred we will have. Plumbing and sanitation will have to be monitored so as not to mess up our water supply. In the event of a worse case scenario we can fall back on the water makers that the various ships have installed until we locate a new source of fresh water. A human can last up to three weeks without food. They may not be in good shape, but they can survive. Between the two groups and every container we have loaded we should be covered for at least six months. I think we will have more than that. The variety might stink, but we should have the calories to get us through the first crop. If we go and raid more long lasting food from stores, and ports in the surrounding area we could realistically survive years on just canned and preserved food before we needed to source a local supply of fresh food. Entertainment and Government. I put these together just because I don’t know which is more important. We are trucking along just fine for now with responsibility split between groups, but I think the sooner we can get a system of rules and government in place the better. As for entertainment. If there is not some sort of entertainment or release than people start to get weird. It does not have to be complicated or dependent on technology. It could even be as simple as a day off to mingle and have a barbeque and talk to others. People just need social interaction and release.

That should take care of everything in the near future. All that is left is the actual landing on Andros Island.