âHold on Freddy!!!!â
Grandpa bellowed that out as the boat began swerving left and right as he tried to shake off our pursuer.
Even now we had no idea what it was, only that we could hear and see something making a beeline straight towards the boat.
We were weaving side to side as we tried to shake it and Grandpa was also having dodge all the debris in the water from various other wrecks. The situation was far from ideal.
âFreddy throw the bodies behind the boat!â
âWhat?!â
âThrow em off behind us Freddy!!â
I looked down at the two disfigured bodies and grit my teeth as I grabbed what I could from one of them and tossed it off the back of the boat.
Not waiting to see the result of the toss, I went back to do the same with the other one.
Blood that hadnât yet dried from the bodies now covered my hands, but before I could let something like that even distract me, the lack of noise drew my attention away from my hands and towards the scene behind the boat.
Actually it would be more apt to say the lack of noise trailing after the boat drew my attention away.
There was still quite a bit of noise, and in fact it had only grown in intensity as whatever was following us seemed to dig into the bodies with an almost disgusting amount of energy.
Ignoring the nasty feeling in my stomach, I went to wash my hands off before joining my Grandpa at the helm.
It seems for now we had escaped whatever it was that was chasing us and barring any more visits from giant flying birds we would probably make it back to land.
â¦Hopefully I didnât raise a flag with that thoughtâ¦
By the time the sun began rising into the skies that still had massive chains marring its beauty we could finally see land.
And what we saw was about what we expected to see when you considered how we managed to acquire the boat we now sailed on.
Billows of smoke continuously rose from the buildings bordering the beach and even further from the community behind them.
âFreddy.â
âYea?â
âRemember the plan alright. We park the boat and head straight for the compound. It sounds bad, but my mother used to tell me donât go out acting like a hero because heroâs die young.
âThat means we canât stop to save or help every single person we see. It just doesnât make sense.
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âIf we can help someone without deviating from our path or bringing more trouble on ourselves then weâll do it. But we wonât go out of our way and risk our lives to help anyone unless itâs friends or family.
âOnce we have our family secure and hopefully the compound secure as well, then we can talk about going out and playing hero. For now, we just focus on getting to the compound. Sounds good?â
This is the third time we were having this conversation since we escaped whatever was chasing us, and Grandpa wasnât usually one to repeat himself three times so it was very clear how serious he was.
Though I canât say I donât understand him.
There was a reason why on every single plane ride Iâve ever been on, they always said to put on your oxygen mask first before helping others. Of course, Iâve never actually had to do that, but the principle is the same.
Secure ourselves and once we are stable, then try to secure others.
We might end up losing our lives and whoever it was we were trying to save if we helped people willy nilly.
Shit, there was a chance it would be us needing the help too. It wasnât like we were suffering from main character syndrome and thought we were special.
And thatâs exactly why we shouldnât go out there playing hero like this is the movies. Get to safety, get secure, then act accordingly.
âSounds good Grandpa.â
We continued our advance towards the beach in front of us and Grandpa made no attempt to veer his course towards the boat ramp area.
There wasnât any time to be picky in where we parked the boat.
So Grandpa revved the engine a bit and simply rode up onto the beach itself and then we jumped out onto the sandy beaches of Lagia Beach, FL and immediately began making our way towards the City behind it.
Well calling it a City is kind of a stretch, it was effectively a really big town north of another City in Florida called Green Palm Beach.
But it was home.
As the sun rose, so too did our pace as we scaled the beach, jumped over a fence or two instead of looking for an entrance and eventually made our way onto the street.
There was something of an eerie silence as we observed the street in front of us.
No screams, shouts, or even any bodies could be heard or seen.
After a few more moments of observation we continued our journey until we eventually reached a main roadâ¦and there was no more lack of seeing anything.
Cars were on fire, buildings were partly destroyed, but most of allâ¦bodiesâ¦who knows just how many bodies littered the ground for as far as we could see.
My heart was practically threatening to jump out of my chest as I imagined the members of my family among them.
Grandpa probably sensed how I could feel and placed a firm grip on my shoulder.
âTheyâre alright Freddy. Theyâre alright. Letâs get home.â
I didnât respond and simply nodded grimly at Grandpa as we began a much more cautious approach now.
Although humans made up majority of the bodies scattered across the ground, there were others among them.
More red-skinned people were on the floor dead as well.
And from what me and Grandpa could observe, it appeared to be from bullet wounds for the most part.
Thatâs America for you.
Anyway, there were a few spears from the red people all over the place and both me and Grandpa helped ourselves to one each.
We didnât see any guns laying around and we didnât bother trying to look for any either.
Instead we kept up our current pace as carefully made our way forward towards the compound.
If we were driving and things were normal it would probably take us all of ten minutes to reach it, but in the current situation, it probably would be another two hours or so just due to the caution we were taking.
Speaking of the compound, thatâs quite literally just what my Grandpa likes calling it.
But practically almost everyone here in Lagia calls it the Lagia Castle.
It wasnât actually a castle, but there was a reason for the name.
Before I was even born, Grandpa somehow purchased an old middle school and all the land around it and then converted the entire thing into a compound for him and his family.
8 feet walls were constructed around the land and a few different houses popped up over the years as the family grew.
Anyway, it was one of the safest places in the area and it would be where all members of the family that was currently here would be headingâ¦which is practically everyone or at least everyone in the close and immediate family.
At this point, all I could do was hope that all of them had safely made it to the compound.