I’ve decided to spend a bit more time on the editing and polishing of my new book, so I won’t be releasing it until the end of July or the beginning of September.
But I realised that I hadn’t posted the second half of Chapter One, so here it is! Sorry it took so long!
Part Two
“Pick it up boys. We have a few hours of dark left, we cannot be out her once dawn breaks, we are it easy range. I want nice smooth rowing, no splashing the water. I want total silence.” No one answers. Karl pulls himself gently and slowly up to the bench watching the coastline with me.
“To your right.” Karl says. I follow along the coast back and forward. I can’t see anything. No movement, nothing.
“I can’t see it.”
“Straight ahead.”
“Slow down.” I say to Luca, realising what Karl is talking about, it’s in the water. All four oars drop down at the same time and we glide to a stop I hand the binoculars over to Luca.
“Look in the water.” I say.
He mutters something to himself. “Right, you are going to bring us in and around them.”
“There are too many, and there’ll be plenty more below.” I say, my hand twitches, wanting rub at my neck. I don’t want to be responsible if we sink.
“This is where we land. We have to get through it, guide us through. Quietly.” He winks at me.
I take the binoculars back and lift them quickly to my eyes. “Straight ahead there is a four foot rock. To your right there is a three foot rock.”
“To your left there is an eight foot rock, but you have a six foot wide clearance, the others are only four and we won’t fit.” Karl says.
“You heard them boys, round to your left. Keep it slow and steady.” He says quieter than the wind.
“Mark, turn there.” Luca says looking down into the water. “You’ve got inches, try not to touch the rock, we need all oars in one piece.” Luca nods at whatever Mark’s doing. “That’s it boys bring it through nice and slow. William where to?”
“Stay straight. There’s a few more big ones. Stop, stop.” I say urgently and too loud. My voice lifts over the wind, “stop.” I say quieter. “Underneath us.” The boat lurches as everyone’s heads drop to the side of the boat. I thought it was the wind moving the tops of the water, but its two dozen tiny razor sharp rock tips right beside us. There will be some touching the bottom of the boat right now.
Luca squints into the darkness. “Good work William, where do we go?”
I don’t know, we’re a quarter of a mile off the coast, and I can’t see anything but the sharp, pointed tips of wet, black ragged rocks rising out of the water.
“William?”
“Move back a little, then to the side.” I nod my head, confirming the plan to myself. “Move to the right, then hold your oar down and see what’s under there, move it around a bit under the boat, make sure we’re not riding on anything.”
The boat inches back toward the massive rock behind us, then gently to the right before Luca drops his oar and feels around in the water. “It’s clear.”
“Then run this way a bit. We going to need to check every little bit. I can’t see what’s under the water.”
High on the cliff light suddenly appears out of the night, illuminating a group of tanks sitting on the edge on the land, guns pointed out over the water, then it shuts of just as quickly. Faint gunfire is carried our way over the wind.
Luca holds up his hand just as Mark goes to dig at the water with his oar, held up high above the water to race to land. “It’s not at us. They’re not firing at us. We know what’s up there, let’s just carefully get to shore. We’ve got an hour, William, Karl, let’s get it done.”
“Sir.” We both whisper.
“We’ve got clear water twenty yards to the left, could be rocks under water.” Karl says, scanning wider than me.
“Left boys.” Luca calls softly.
I lean forward watching the surface. “I can’t see anything breaking the surface.” Luca keeps pulling, relying on me to watch behind him. Sweat trickles down my spine, my eyes keep flicking to the cliffs.
“Take it around a bit to the right, a group of little ones in the water.”
“Right.” Luca says without looking down.
“Hold up.” Karl says, holding his hand up. “The tops are smoothing out. I think we can lift the boat and walk across the rocks to shore from here.”
“Are you sure?” Luca asks, I check too.
“I think it’s better than try to row around them. We’ll have to go down a couple of hundred yards to get to shore if you don’t want to go over them.”
“What’s the best one to start from?” Luca asks, Karl and I lift our binoculars trying to make a quick choice.
“That one.” I say pointing.
“I think so too.” Karl drops his binoculars down.
“Are we close to where we are supposed to land?” Paul asks.
“It’s here somewhere.”
“Let’s get out boys.” Luca uses his oar on the rock to pull us closer, while John pushes the water away from the boat, sending us lightly into the rock. Luca climbs out and the boat shudders. He lies flat on his stomach and holds the boat, and one by one, we each climb out and onto the rock. Karl and I climb to a rock just ahead of the other.
Luca pushes the boat toward us, “up.” He says and the boat is out of the water, and we pick our way across the rocks.
“We’re going to have to get back in.” Luca says. There’s thirty, maybe forty yards of freezing water between us, standing on the last rock we can reach and the beach.
“I don’t think we can.” I say, “we’ll tip it.”
“Maybe.” He says, “But I’m not volunteering to swim, are you?”
“Not tonight Sir.”
“Good, then, you can be first one in. To stabilise the boat.” He smiles.
“Yes Sir.” I whisper. Moving all the way to the front, grabbing an oar, Karl takes the back corner and we load up the rest of the boat corner by corner.
“Right, let’s get moving.” I tug on the oar for the first time, it only takes a minute to pull us to the pebble lined shore.
“Put it up.” Luca calls. We stand three in a line and hoist the boat onto our shoulders, grunting softly as we walk it up the beach.
Luca stops, doesn’t move the boat, but pulls out a pistol and points it into the darkness. “Stop. I will shoot.” He says calmly. I freeze looking in the direction that he is. I can’t see anything. My hands shake under the boat, at least no one can see it.
I don’t understand the answer, but Luca puts the gun away and a short, stocky man steps toward us.
“Drop it in here.” He says and we follow him up the beach, until it changes to sandy dirt and then long grass.
We flick the boat off our shoulders, grasping the inside of it in one movement before sliding it in the deep hole. The man walks away and comes back with a shovel for each of us and we replace dirt and sand in the hole covering everything back the way it was before.
He walks over it, stamping down a couple of soft spots, smiles at Luca. “This way.” He motions with his head.
I keep hold of my shovel and follow last up into chest high grass. We move quickly through it, ending up in a small clearing of pine trees. An old pick-up truck is waiting for us.
“One in front, under the seat. Five under the deck.” The man says looking at us. “Your gear can go in the barrels, they are empty.” He turns to Luca. “I thought there was only four of you coming.”
“There was, but we needed two more.” Mark and I were last minute add-ins, we are by far the youngest and newest to the army. I was completely surprised when they asked us. Mark just thought it was because he’s Mark. I watch the man show Luca where we all need to go.
“Come on Will, ladies first.” Mark nudges me when the man pries up the last of the floor boards for us to lie under.
Karl swings himself up and over the side in one go. I pull myself over at the same time as Mark, John and Paul, leaving Luca to take the front spot.
The old man stuffs one pack into each of the barrels. “No, I need mine.” I sit up suddenly.
“It won’t fit.” The old man tells me.
“I need my pack.” I repeat and look at Luca.
“He needs his pack.”
“And where will you put it?”
“Here,” Luca says, “Move your feet Will, push them up against Mark’s.” I squish them over as far as I can and Luca shoves the pack firmly in place. “Try not to kick it.” Luca smiles and the old man lays the first floor board over John, Luca starts in from the other side, grinning at me when he places the final board over the top of me.
“Sleep tight.” He says tapping the wood, then barrels scrap over top and get secured against the sides.
