Waypoint Alaska Read online

  Megan swam faster, shining her light in all different directions and then slowly into the hole. She peeked first, building courage. The water was murkier inside, the particles that were floating in the water, shone brightly in the thick beam of her light. Lacey came to her side and placed her hand on Megan’s shoulder.

  “You ready? If you’re too scared, I can…” she choked back on the fear in her throat, “I can go in, if you want, ya know, if you’re too scared, I can go in by myself.”

  “No, we’ll both go in,” Megan watched her aunt’s face relax as she reassured her. “We’ll just need to be careful of our air hoses.” They both looked at the long hoses that connected to the back of their helmets; this reminded them that they needed to hurry, in the surreal environment of the shipwreck they had almost forgotten that a dangerous man was on the other end of their oxygen hoses, literally holding their lives in his hands.

  Lacey moved carefully through the hole in the side of the ship, she shone her light all over, making sure there wasn’t anything hiding within the ancient walls. Megan followed, slowly maneuvering her air hose as she positioned herself toward the top of the room.

  This must have been an engine room, she decided, as there were huge machines, with pipes that had corroded differently than the rest of the metal of the ship, these were a gorgeous green color, almost beautiful when the light hit them just so.

  Lacey began looking around the edges of what she figured to be large engines, as she did small fish emerged, from their dark hiding places. They frightened her at first, but soon she felt at peace when she saw them, at least something was surviving in this devastation. Finding nothing she motioned to Megan to come closer.

  “Do you see anything that could be the geocache?”

  “Nope, there’s a hallway through that opening though, do you wanna go into it, or should I?” Megan secretly hoped that Lacey would let her go, but didn’t want to seem to eager. Lacey pulled the cell phone from the small zippered pocket on her dry suit.

  “This phone is crazy, I can’t believe it’s still working,” she said almost to herself. “Well, this says that we’re in the perfect spot and the accuracy is within ten feet.”

  “Down here, ten feet is a lot, Aunt Lacey,” Megan looked around, “hey, wait, look over there, behind that metal beam, there’s a door.” She pointed to a thick rusted orange piece of steel, it must have fallen from the ceiling, and was now resting diagonally across the front of one of the smaller engines. The small engine had what looked almost like an oven door, with a large lever to lock it shut. They both moved closer. Lacey grabbed a hold of the steel beam and wiggled it, trying to move it away from the door. At first it wouldn’t budge, but then, suddenly it became loose and began falling into her. Even in the water the beam was extremely heavy. She tried to push it away, but wasn’t strong enough, its weight forced her to the floor, the beam, as if in slow motion continued its silent fall, and smashed into her helmet with a quiet thud. Suddenly a crack emerged in the glass in front of her eyes. She panicked, as she realized at any second the glass front of the helmet may shatter, leaving her breathless one hundred feet below the surface.

  Ben slowly opened his eyes, he was in terrible pain, and totally exhausted. The overcast skies created a glare, he could only see the feet of what appeared to be two men. Anytime he twisted his head to try and get a better look the glare made it impossible to see their faces. He recognized one of the voices; it was definitely the captain of the tour boat. Why was he here though, why wasn’t he in the water?

  “What happened?” he asked, his voice scratchy. Just moving his jaw to speak made his head pound louder.

  “Oh, he’s awake” he heard the captain say as the feet moved closer to him. Suddenly a hand was on his shoulder.

  “So, you’re awake now, huh?” The captain’s face was right above him now. Ben knew something was wrong, just by the expression on this man’s face.

  “Why am I up here? Where’s Lacey and Megan?”

  “They’re down at the shipwreck, they’re okay, so far,” he mumbled.

  “What do you mean?” The captain pulled Ben up onto his knees, suddenly Ben realized his hands were tied behind his back. He hadn’t noticed at first, due to the bulkiness of his dry suit. He struggled for a second and then realized there was no use.

  “Well, see, it all started when I saw you put this pretty little key in your pocket,” he raised the key so Ben could see it. “It got me wondering, why would this kid have a key? And why would this kid be taking said key down to the shipwreck? All’s I could come up with is that this must be the key.”

  “What do you mean the key?” Ben asked innocently.

  “Oh don’t play dumb with me boy, there’s only one thing that’s locked on that ship, and as far as anyone can guess it’s the safe that has all the gold in it,” he snorted, and rubbed his thick gray beard, “but you’re gonna tell me, that you’re bringing a key down to a shipwreck for something other than to unlock the safe?”

  “Wait, wait. What safe?” Ben asked genuinely. “We’re just geocaching, we don’t know anything about gold? We barely know anything about this shipwreck!” he struggled a little, but soon realized there was no point in wasting his energy.

  “He sounds pretty serious boss,” the other man said, Ben looked to him and nodded.

  “Seriously we’re just looking for a geocache, we found that key at the last geocache, it had the waypoint inscribed on the back, so we came here. We didn’t even know it was in a shipwreck until we saw the cross in Juneau,” Ben sighed heavily.

  “Well, we’ll just have to wait and see what your aunt brings back to me. If this key opens what I think it will I’ll be one happy man.”

  “What about us? What are you gonna do with us?” Ben asked.

  “Well, let’s just say this, don’t you worry about not seeing the shipwreck, kiddo, shortly after your aunt brings me the safe, you’ll all be swimming with the fishes.”

  4

  Megan swam over to her aunt. Her face was pale, shock was taking over. She saw the thick crack in the face plate of Lacey’s helmet, they didn’t have much time. “Don’t move” Megan instructed her. She then grabbed onto the thick steel beam and rolled it off of Lacey. As it landed on the ship’s floor a cloud of dirt, sand and algae rose and filled the space.

  Megan turned and moved through the murky water. She grabbed onto the lever of the engine door, wiggled it a bit, and then pulled as hard as she could. There was a sudden release and then the handle moved easily, she slowly pulled open the door, and peeked inside. She assumed this was once a coal burning engine, due to its oven-like appearance. Inside she could tell that someone had been in this boiler recently, it was a small space, only about five feet by five feet, it was rusted and covered with some sort of sludge, she assumed it to be oil or coal residue. She searched the inside of the space and then spotted something, there, floating in the back of the boiler was a small black box. It appeared to be made of thick plastic or rubber; she entered the boiler and slowly inched toward it. She peeked back to her aunt, she was sitting extremely still in the engine room, eyes wide with fear, she hadn’t moved an inch.

  Megan grabbed the box, it felt slippery with her neoprene gloves on, she looked at it for a brief moment, it didn’t seem to be anything special, but it did have a small lock on the front, this must be the geocache, she thought. She tucked it under her arm, turned and swam out. “Okay Aunt Lacey, this must be it.”

  Lacey wanted to reach for the case, but was too terrified of her face mask shattering. Megan saw the terror in her eyes and realized Lacey was too afraid to even speak. “It’s okay, we’ll slowly head to the top.” Lacey moved the slightest bit and suddenly small air bubbles started to form and creep out of the crack on her mask. She motioned for Megan to look. Megan saw the air bubbles and grabbed her aunt’s hand, they had to get out of here. They continued to swim slowly around the ship, over the top, around all the bright white sea anemones, as they moved thro
ugh the water, Lacey felt moisture start to enter her helmet, she again motioned for Megan to look, slowly drops of water were entering through the crack, any other change in pressure would surely shatter the mask. Quickly, Megan lifted her free hand and pulled her neoprene glove off. The icy water caused her hand to go into an instant cramp, she shrieked from the stabbing pain, but quickly regained her composer. Lacey watched as her niece removed the thick band that held a head lamp on her helmet, she handed the geocache to Lacey, then put the glove over the front of Lacey’s mask, in an effort to temporarily seal the small holes in the crack. Once she had it in place, she carefully slipped the thick band around the top of Lacey’s helmet and centered over the glove on the front of Lacey’s mask.

  Lacey floated in pure darkness, the only peace she had was that she felt no more water enter her mask. Megan pulled her through the water, pausing every few feet to ensure they didn’t rise up too quickly and get “the bends.” She had heard so many stories of people who swam to the surface too quickly, the pressure changes would make them violently ill, and once they made it to the surface if they didn’t get treatment right away they could die. “We’re almost there. When we get to the top I want you to just wait in the water.” Lacey couldn’t tell what Megan was planning but she knew that she couldn’t ask, due to the eavesdropping kidnapper who was waiting in the boat above them.

  Megan slowly pushed her aunt to the surface, and squeezed her arm tightly, trying to tell her to stay quiet. Lacey instantly felt the change as she pushed through the surface, and suddenly a calming sensation overcame her, she had survived. So far.

  The oxygen hoses were becoming more limp in the water, Megan grabbed a hold of hers and made a big loop. She carried the case in one hand, the large loop of hose in the other and purposely swam under the boat to the opposite side of where the hoses dropped into the water. When she was about three feet from the surface she released the geocache, the trapped air made it rise suddenly to the surface.

  Ben heard a loud gushing sound of water, suddenly both men who stood above him moved toward the sound, quickly he rolled up onto his knees and then stood, his hands were still behind his back, but he was quickly forming a plan, he looked around the boat into the water and noticed aunt Lacey floating in the water about thirty feet from the boat on the opposite side. Where was Megan? Suddenly his question was answered. Both men were leaning over the edge of the boat, reaching for the geocache, just as Ben moved toward them Megan shot up out of the water and swung a loop of her oxygen hose around one of the men’s neck and pulled him down into the water. Ben knew they wouldn’t have much time. Just as the first man went over the edge Ben charged the second man, nailing him hard in the lower back with his shoulder, knocking him into the water.

  Both men flailed around in the water. Megan quickly swam circles around them, looping them in her oxygen hose. The only advantage she had right now was that the temperature of the water was making it almost impossible for the men to fight back. As she made one final loop she took her hand that didn’t have the glove on it and unlatched the thick metal clasp that connected her helmet to the rest of her dry suit, she slipped her head out as water rushed in, then quickly let it drop. The oxygen continued to spray through the mask, pulling both men all around as they wrestled to free themselves from the thrashing hose.

  Megan quickly popped to the surface, she squealed in pain as the icy water poured down into her dry suit, quickly she swam over to the floating geocache, grabbed it and returned to the boat. She threw it onboard then lifted herself up and over the edge. Her entire body screamed in pain. She felt as though she were being stabbed with a million knives as the freezing water circulated through her suit. The hand that had been ungloved for so long was bright purple, she moved it around, trying to increase the blood flow. Ben moved over to her, “Are you okay?” She didn’t answer, but turned him around and wiggled the plastic zip tie that was being used to cuff him.

  “Hang on,” she instructed. She quickly looked around, then saw the hose and remembered that Lacey was still in the water, as well as the men. She grabbed Lacey’s hose and started pulling her in, closer to the boat. She was now literally using the oxygen hose as a leash.

  Lacey felt the tugging and realized she could take the glove and band off her face mask, she slipped them off and began swimming, trying to help Megan as she pulled her in to the boat. Once to the side, she grabbed onto the edge and pulled herself over. “Where are the bad guys?” Lacey asked, Megan motioned to the other side of the boat where the men were still splashing in the water trying to untangle themselves. Megan then went to the front of the boat and grabbed a knife she assumed was used for gutting fish. She ran back to Ben, and cut off the zip tie that was around his wrists.

  “Okay Ben, where’s the key?” Megan almost yelled, her adrenaline was running full force.

  “Umm…” he turned and looked at the two men.

  “Oh no,” Megan sighed. She turned to Lacey, she was still taking her helmet off and undoing her gloves. “What should we do Aunt Lacey?” Lacey looked over the side of the boat,

  “HEY!” She yelled, “HEY!” the two men stopped splashing for a moment. “You gonna give us that key?” Lacey asked.

  “Y…you kidding? H…h…how stupid you think we are?” one of the men said as his full body shivers made him stutter.

  “Well, pretty stupid I guess.” Lacey turned and headed to the front of the boat, she started the motor, it roared to life, spraying the men. She looked back at them and nodded for Ben to ask again.

  “You sure you don’t wanna give it to us?” Ben asked.

  “Wh..wh…why don’t ya ja…jus…st come in and get it?” the man wailed again. Ben laughed.

  “They said no, Aunt Lacey.”

  “Their choice, hold on guys.” Lacey pushed the gear shifter into place and the front end of the boat lifted from the sudden inertia. All the sudden, the boat jumped and was speeding through the water. Ben and Megan held on tightly to the edge, watching the men being dragged by the oxygen hoses. They bounced along the wake. Every few seconds they could hear a muffled scream, and then it would be silenced by either the water or the sound of the motor. Suddenly the boat came to a stop. Lacey walked to the back of the boat,

  “You sure you don’t wanna give me that key?”

  “O-O-OKAY!” one of the men screamed, the other seemed to be unconscious.

  Lacey started to pull them closer to the boat. Ben grabbed the knife from Megan and held it defensively while the two men slowly and painfully climbed on the boat. They both collapsed as soon as they were out of the water.

  “Okay, so where’s the key?” Lacey demanded.

  “He…heee….he’s got it..” the man with the beard motioned to the other. Lacey leaned over the other man.

  “Wait Aunt Lacey!” Ben yelled. It was too late though the other man had slipped his foot behind her leg and knocked her feet out from under her, she dropped to the floor with a thud. He quickly jumped on top of her and held her down. The other man stood up and started toward Ben and Megan. Ben pushed Megan behind him toward the steering wheel, then he whipped the knife up by his ear. The man continued to advance, more slowly now that Ben was raising the knife. Suddenly, Ben’s hand whipped through the air, the man stepped to the side, clearly afraid of the knife flying at him. The knife flew through the air, end over end, and then finally it met its target as it stabbed the man holding Lacey in the hand. The knife went through his hand and literally pinned his hand to the floor of the boat. He screamed in pain and suddenly released his grip on Lacey to try to remove the knife. Lacey wiggled out from under her assailant, just as she grabbed the side of the boat, Megan threw the boat into gear. The instant speed threw the other man back onto the deck of the boat as well, and gave Lacey and Ben enough time to move closer to Megan.

  They all looked at each other, not sure what to do, Ben grabbed the geocache off the floor of the boat and handed it to Lacey. “What next?” he asked.

 
“I’m thinking!” Lacey shrieked.

  “Stop the boat!” a thunderous voice boomed over them. Megan turned in horror, Ben and Lacey stood leaning on the cabin of the boat with their hands up. Megan moved the shifter into neutral and slowly climbed out of her seat, a lump was growing in her throat. She turned and stared into the barrel of a large spear gun. The man who had fallen was pointing it directly at Megan, its sharp spear was only three feet from her face. She looked over to the other man, in one swift motion he pulled the knife out of his hand and the floor of the boat. Blood spurted from his wound, he quickly pulled his jacket off and twisted it around the wound. He took the knife in his good hand, and walked closer to Ben.

  “Now boy, didn’t I tell you what was gonna happen?” his words were still slurred from being in the freezing cold water and now the severe pain in his hand.

  “Yeah,” Ben sighed. He motioned for Lacey to hand him the geocache. Lacey passed it to him, her hands shook with fear. The man snatched it from her, he bit down on the knife to hold it in his mouth while he slipped his good hand into his pocket and retrieved the key. He slipped the key into the lock on the geocache. Lacey, Ben, and Megan all took a deep breath as the man opened the geocache. Inside were a black velvet liner, and another Ziploc bag. The man lifted the Ziploc bag out and hung it in front of Ben’s face.

  “What is this?” he looked to the man holding the spear gun. He put down the geocache box and opened the Ziploc bag; he slipped a piece of paper out, and then grabbed the brass key that was inside the bag as well.