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I walked to the divider and heard the boys playing, so I plopped into a chair at our table, ready to hear about Sam’s adventure. Sam reached out his arm, gesturing for me to sit on the bed. I gave him a sideways smirk and complied.
I wiggled in between Sam and the wall and covered myself with the sheet. I had a full stomach and hours to rest before I visited with Lori. I had a feeling that relaxation was going to be short-lived soon, so I took advantage of it. “So, they took care of you? Helped you have less pain?”
“Hell no. I thought they were trying to kill me.”
My eyes narrowed in confusion, and I reached for Sam’s arm. “What do you mean?”
“Your friend Dean, he came in saying something about going to get medical treatment. And treat me, they did. But there’s no anesthesia, nothing to numb the wound.” Sam swallowed hard and cracked his knuckles. “Silver lining is I passed out quickly from the pain, and when I woke up, it looked a lot better.”
My intense grip on Sam’s arm caused my knuckles to go white. I tried to keep my fury hidden, but Sam knew. He reached his hand over mine and unclasped my fingers, interlacing them with his. “We can’t have my arm bruised up too.”
I softened and murmured an apology, folding my arms across my body. “Sam, you need to be careful with Dean. Don’t, um, touch me around him. He’s not someone you want upset.”
“He’s certainly a peach. I hope I won’t be seeing him too often. It’s nice he got me fixed up, but he watched the show at first. Seemed like he got some amusement out of it.”
“Oh, I’m sure he did, but you won’t be getting your wish. We will all be working together on the decks in agriculture. We report to Dean.”
Sam’s face turned from shock to a wide smile. “So, I’ll be with you all day and night?”
“Not exactly. Our shifts won’t align. We will be together overnight for a bit, but that’s all. But at least you aren’t cleaning toilets.”
Sam chuckled. “Right, that would be awful.”
I remained expressionless and nodded. “Oh, God. He was going to have me do that, wasn’t he?” Sam gasped.
“Again,” I said. “Be careful with Dean. We want to keep him happy. He needs to feel like he’s in control.”
BeLew made crashing sounds on the other side of the divider. Their laughter could brighten any situation, even the prospect of cleaning thousands of toilets.
“We’re in this together.” Sam glanced toward the divider. “Whatever you say, Row. We’ll do what we have to, okay. What do we have left, three hundred or so days? That’s nothing in the scheme of things.”
I exhaled and flopped on the bed at that thought. None of us knew how long we would be on the vessel with nothing to see but the ocean. I didn’t even know the name of the ship and cursed silently, hoping that wasn’t bad luck. I knew there were about two dozen island jumpers, but who knew how many people made it aboard or if they all survived the first few storms.
We had known the weather was getting worse for years, but no one could have imagined what the storms would bring. It seemed the coasts around the world were getting battered again and again from the unrelenting hand of God or whatever you believed. Just when we thought there was a break in the onslaught, we saw the line of hurricanes coming up from the Atlantic. The typhoons and cyclones were eating up the other side of the world at the same time. They were relentless in their attack, each one bigger than the last. No one would survive in the end, so people fled inland, hoping for refuge. They had said we had done it, the people of Earth. We’d changed the natural order of things.
After the first storm hit, the tornados and floods proved no place was safe from the devastation. People designed several escape plans and safe havens. Underground cities, civilizations carved miles into mountains, and ships to dodge the weather patterns and deposit souls in a new home.
I considered myself lucky we landed anywhere when millions had been left out in the dangerous open. Dean had gone to the ships, so that was where we followed.
One year.
One year and the earth had a reset.
One year and no one left on an island would have survived.
That’s where these ships would go. A place to rebuild and restart. Chances were, some people would endure on the continents, but what would that look like? Those left would ravage our supplies. Survivors would take our weapons and our food, killing anyone in their way. Island hoppers isolated those that were left. There was safety in that isolation.
“Three hundred or so, yes,” I muttered. “You will need to trust me for all of them. Every damn one.”
Sam turned on his side, letting out a groan as he moved to rest on his elbow. “We’ll trust each other. How about you start by telling me who Dean is to you?”
I turned to Sam, mirroring his position, propping up on my elbow and letting my hair fall to the pillow. “How about you start by telling me your real name?”
A silent standoff. Or would it be a lay-off as we both were chest to chest in the small bed? I could feel Sam’s breath on my forehead as he gazed slightly downward into my eyes. His Adam’s apple rose and fall as he swallowed and let out a rough breath.
“I would like to be Sam, but my last name is Rivera.”
“That’s enough for me, for now.” I lowered my elbow and rolled onto my back. Sam cleared his throat, waiting for my end of the bargain.
I inhaled sharply. “Do you remember when I said I was engaged once, and it didn’t work out? Well, Dean is my ex-fiancé. And we need to be careful around him.”
