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Hunter said, “So we can high point them. Then we’ll charge like John Wick, right?”
“Right. Let’s just hope the cavalry shows up to go with us.”
They could see the pier ahead, and Hunter said, “Could John and Ariel be there?”
“No. I’m just hoping they’re still alive at this point. Being on an airboat in a Cat 3 is so scary I don’t want to think about it.”
~*~
The gust of wind caught under the front and lifted the airboat high into the air. Ariel screamed as it started to go over backward and the big python slid to the back of the boat and bumped its coils against her feet. Another swirling gust turned the boat to the side and it glided sideways down through the air. The port side hit an open patch of water hard enough to send a fan of liquid ten feet in the air, and the python slid across the metal floor to shoot out of the boat and disappear under the water.
The airboat resettled upright. The wind blew it backwards until John worked the throttle and pushed into the storm once more. Ariel touched his arm, “We’re still okay?”
“We are still okay. I feel better now that the python’s gone, too.”
Ariel said, “So do I.” Suddenly, a band of clarity in the air magically formed about six feet from the ground, and then the rain and clouds closed it again. She said, “I think a saw a road.”
“Where?”
Ariel made a motion with her hand indicating a line right across their path.
“How far?” John asked.
“Maybe a half mile? I only saw it for a moment.”
John patted her shoulder and forced the airboat into the teeth of the storm.
Twenty minutes later they touched the bow of the airboat to the shoulder of the paved road. There was no rope to anchor the boat, and the constant force of the wind pushed it back into the everglades, away from the road.
John said, “Hold on, I’m going to drive it up there.” He pointed at the pavement. Ariel nodded, and grabbed the chair struts with both hands. John pushed the throttle and the airboat shot forward, tilting to go up the shoulder and roaring forward where it slid to a stop on pavement.
Ariel and John got out of the boat and stood on the road. It was hard to stand in the wind, and Ariel staggered several times. There had been a little protection in the sawgrass, but on the asphalt there was nothing to stop the hurricane’s full force from beating them down.
John brought Ariel close and hugged her to him to help the woman keep her balance. He said, “I think this is twenty-seven, the road that runs up by Belle Glade, but I don’t know where we are on it.”
The airboat caught a staggering blast of wind and went sliding off the road, sailing across the water like a sailboat, finally coming to rest against sawgrass and cattails a hundred yards distant.
Ariel said, “Don’t go after it.” The wind suddenly knocked her several feet to the side, and only John’s fast grab to catch her wrist kept her from going in the water. She said, “I feel it, something in the water is watching us. If you go in, you won’t come out.”
As if on cue two black heads rose twenty feet away so the eyes were above the water. Alligators, large ones.
John said, “Ten footers. Thanks, Ariel.”
“What do we do now?”
John looked both directions on the road as he leaned into the hard wind and peppering raindrops to keep his balance. “I think we need to go to the right. That should be south.”
“And if you’re wrong?”
“We’ll at least be on land instead of water.”
Ariel took his hand to remain steady and said, “Don’t let go or I might fly away.”
They started down the road, which they saw was one side of a four lane divided road. As the wind increased even more, they staggered like drunks.
John said, “Keep a lookout for anything out there that sticks up above the ground. Like a palm tree, or if we’re lucky, a power pole. They could be where others are waiting this thing out.”
Two hours later they were still on the road, staggering ahead as the storm continued to increase to frightening levels. Ariel was battered and numb, almost incoher
