there would be some people with the same idea as them about getting out of the city. As he scanned the boat slips , he started to see that there were many open spaces. It was late in the day so David guessed that a lot of people had already made it to the marina and left by boat. He just hoped that they could find someone still here that would give them a ride. The thought of Mason in control of one of these huge boats filled him with fear. Panicking on the street was bad enough but if he froze out in the middle of the ocean, they would all die.
They pulled all three carts up to the walkway to the docks and shut the engines down. Mark ran over to the clubhouse and checked the doors but they were locked up tight. They all stood at the walkway scanning boats and then turned to look at Mason expectantly. When he just stood looking out at the boats, David shook his head impatiently.
“So what are we looking for Mason? Should we just start walking down docks looking for any one onboard?”
Mason didn’t look at him. Now that they had made it here , he was intimidated by all the different sailing craft that he only had basic knowledge of. His confidence had been rocked by how he had reacted on the street and he was afraid of losing even more face by making another wrong decision. He glanced at Mark and Lisa and tried to catch Emily’s eye but she wouldn’t look at him. Swallowing past the knot of uncertainty in his throat, he turned to David.
“Yeah, let’s just walk up and down the docks and see if anyone is around.” He started down the walkway when David spoke up.
“Someone has to stay with the carts. We can’t lose the supplies.”
“I’ll stay. I don’t know anything about boats anyway. Just hurry up and find us a ride. The sun’s going to be down soon and I don’t want to be here when the crazies come out to play,” Mark volunteered.
“Ok ay, thanks, man,” David said and pushed past Mason onto the dock and jogged down to the end.
There were lots of huge cruising yachts but no sailboats. David guessed that the fancy yachts would be just as dead as all the cars on the road with all their electronics fried. He turned back and headed for the next dock. They continued down each dock this way with no luck until they had reached the twelfth one and David heard banging and a muffled curse. Halfway down the dock he came to a stop at a forty or fifty foot sailboat. It was in between two cruisers and David could see piles of supplies and bags sitting on its deck. All the other boats had empty decks so David was sure someone was onboard. When he heard the bang come again , he closed his eyes in relief, finally, a chance to get help. He turned and waved Mason and the girls forward and pointed at the huge sail boat.
When they had all caught up to him , he said, “I’m going to call out to whoever’s on it. I’m going to be very polite and respectful. We need to try and convince this person to help us so everyone needs to put their best face forward. No attitude and no eye rolling,” pointedly looking at Mason and Lisa.
For once Lisa parked her attitude and nodded solemnly. She still hadn’t recovered from the close call on the street and was willing to do anything to get out of the city and away to safety. Mason was a different story. He immediately scowled at David and took a step towards him.
“Who put you in charge, Boy Scout?” He almost spat.
David stared him down and through gritted teeth told him, “Someone’s got to get us out of here and we all learned that running away isn’t going to work so just shut up and lose the ego and work with me here.”
Mason took another menacing step forward but before he could cut into David, Emily put her hand on his chest and pushed him back.
“That’s enough , Mason! I want out of here and David’s right. We have to sell this person on helping us so just be nice for once.” Mason looked at her with a hurt expression but finally stepped back and nodded
Lauren Barnholdt, Suzanne Beaky