Landfall: Islands in the Aftermath (The Pulse Series Book 4) Read Online Free PDF

de channel, mon?”
    “Yes, we have all the charts for the Keys. There are several passes with enough bridge clearance for our mast. We’ve just been staying on the Gulf side because the chart showed a lot more mangrove islands and places to hide here.” From what he could tell looking at the charts, the Atlantic side of the Keys looked a lot more open, with many of the inhabited islands built up on that side an few places to duck out of sight between them and the reefs farther offshore. It might have proven fatal tonight if not for Scully’s arrival, but until then the strategy had worked. But now it was time to go to a better place.  
    With the anchor up and the rode stowed in its locker, Mindy and Thomas got the sails up without Scully’s help and Intrepida began moving in the light nighttime breeze. The Montgomery did surprisingly well in light air and was reasonably close-winded. Thomas and Mindy had been sailing her long enough to know how to handle her well, it was just that they had not sailed offshore enough to build the confidence for longer crossings. But with a real offshore sailor on board, Thomas felt they absolutely could now.
    Scully had little in the way of possessions other than the long, two-man kayak that he said belonged to his best friend, Larry, and his weapons. In addition to the military-style rifle he carried, he had a long, razor-sharp machete and the pistol and rifle taken from the two attackers he killed. Thomas found a safe place in a locker down below for the dangerous blade and the recovered firearms but Scully insisted on keeping his personal rifle close at hand as long as they were in sight of land. As they were tacking away from the anchorage at the mangrove island, Scully answered more of their questions about where he had been and what he had seen since the pulse.
    “Lights out everywhere, mon. Dem out in St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, New Orlean. All de place I an’ I see. Mehbe all de world, got de lights out. Only Jah knowin’ mon.”
    Scully’s report only confirmed what Thomas and Mindy suspected; the damage to the grid was widespread. Some of the other sailors they’d met at the Dry Tortugas said the same. Most of them had come from other parts of the Florida peninsula: Tampa, Ft. Myers, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale… Scully was the first person they’d talked to who could verify the same conditions as far away as New Orleans and St. Thomas. If the situation was truly global, then it was far worse than he’d imagined. The damage was the same anywhere they could conceivably go, so would things be any better in the Bahamas? When he asked Scully what he thought, their new captain replied with the story of the attack from another sailing vessel on the Cay Sal Bank. Even in such a remote place, they’d encountered violence, so maybe no place was truly safe, but Thomas already felt better with Scully in charge. And now there were three firearms aboard as well. Thomas would have never thought them necessary before the collapse, but after what just happened, he felt good knowing the guns were close at hand. And when they reached the Bahamas, he intended to ask Scully if they could keep one of them, maybe the pistol, and if he could teach them how to use it. Never again did he want to experience that helpless feeling of knowing he was about to be murdered, along with the woman he loved, and that there was not a thing he could do about it. From this point forward, Thomas realized they were going to have to adapt to a harsh new way of life. The rules were different now, and the only authorities they had encountered had simply ordered them to go away. Thomas wanted to survive this, and he knew Mindy did too. With Scully’s help, the prospects of doing just that suddenly looked a whole lot better.

Five

    T HE LONGER R USSELL WATCHED , the better he felt about his new neighbors with which he now shared this tiny Bahamian cay he didn’t even know the name of. After seeing more of the crew from