End of the Line (Book 2): Stuck in the Middle by Lara Frater Page B

one because it was moaning outside the port window.
    I got tired of reading after about two hours. I decided to take a walk around the deck. When I had watch in the fall, it hadn’t been that bad because you didn’t have to sit on the bridge, you could hang out in the cold crisp night air.
    Coming out of the warmer room, the outside seemed icy. A cold wind bit into my face. I wrapped the scarf around my mouth and walked the boat. It was pitch black but the weather was clear and every single star illuminated the sky. Even though I had seen these clear nights multiple times, like the whales they still amazed me. This was where you felt both the loneliness among millions of stars but you also felt like you weren’t alone.
    The deck had some lounge chairs. I laid on one and watched the stars, hoping time would go by and it would be dawn. Around 5am Jim bought me coffee. He was a morning person and hated overnights more than I did.
    Sometimes I wondered why we had watch on the bridge at night. In the pitch black you can’t see a damn thing. We could hear the floaters and I was sure no other idiots were on boats in the middle of winter. It was force of habit. We kept watch at Costking, but we had flood lights on the roof so Grace could shoot.
    After a significant time stargazing, I took a stroll around the deck. Looking out and seeing utter blackness wasn’t scary. Mark and I had gone on a cruise to Nova Scotia and there was a time where you looked out and saw nothing. It was spooky the first time but then you get used to it. Besides we were on a boat with lights, dancing, midnight cocktails, working bathrooms, and a radio if we needed help. Here we had nothing. Our rescue flares wouldn’t bring anything, no rescues, no help, no coast guard. We spoke to other survivors on the ham radio but Tanya and Jim were insistent: No one was to know about the boat. As far as anyone knew we were hunkered down in a house like everyone else. Jim didn’t even tell his father.
    I aimed my flashlight forward. It brightened the darkness, like a knife but nothing could be seen after the light faded. We were anchored a good mile from shore which we could see during the day. At night there was nothing but emptiness.
    I walked down the front of the ship where we stowed supplies. The solar panels were here and that gave us some electricity. Dave set it up so it went into an array that went into keeping the ship’s battery charged. We originally had two solar panels but one was on the other truck that got wreaked. At least the array was on the truck that didn’t crash. 
    I walked around the supplies stored in the front. The two bikes we haven’t needed to use were tied down and covered with a tarp. Tanks of fuel were next to them.
    The cold entered my bones despite the warm winter men’s jacket. I knew I should go back to the bridge and warm up, but I didn’t.
    I moved closer to the front of the ship. There was a smaller deck leading out that goes over the ocean. You could stand and feel the wind in every part of your body. Nice in the summer, but not so much in the winter. Mike discouraged using it except to hunt floaters and to fish and only during the day. It was slippery and would ice over. He said that no one should go out there in the dark and preferably not in the light either.
    I didn’t care. I was bored and tired. Probably not a good idea to do something dangerous. I still didn’t care.
    Mike put heavy boxes in front of it. He didn’t care about the adults who should know better, but he wanted to make sure the kids couldn’t go on. Dena might out of spite. Brie and Simon probably wouldn’t. Both of them hated to be away from other people and never went off alone.
    I didn’t move the boxes, instead climbed over them. Even in the dark it wasn’t hard so I don’t know how Mike was going to stop anyone. I shone the light on the ground to find the two steps up. I climbed them. Not slippery. The wood plank was a narrow but I walked