Chapter 6

Damn, we needed more people. Three people just were not enough to build a comfortable life style. There was just too much to do. With an infant to care for, Jean was not able to carry one-third of the work load. When Angie's baby came along, we would really be in trouble. Oh, well, we had no choice, so we would just try to cope.

This was a wonderful day trip for the senior girls of Ms Lofton's championship highschool softball team. They had been promised an extra special treat for winning the state championship and this was their reward. There were 12 girls on the team, the equipment manager, the trainer, the assistant coach, and the coach, Ms Adel Lofton.

The 16 females on this trip were a real handful for Capt. Williams. His boat was Coast Guard certified as being large enough for 20 passengers, but his mate had gotten very sick that morning, so Capt. Williams had to do everything himself. He had to call on the teen-aged girls for a lot of the trivial jobs normally handled by the mate, and the girls were thrilled to be doing real work in making the trip possible.

The boat was diesel powered and had plenty of fuel for the projected trip to and through the Gulf Stream out toward Bermuda. Of course they weren't going that far, but they would be well past the continental shelf before they had to turn around and head back to port. Capt. John Williams was highly experienced and had a reputation for reliability, safety, and fun. Ms Lofton was pleased that his boat had been available when she had arranged the charter.

All the girls were wearing their bikinis and oceans of sun block and were having a ball! It was noon and they had reached the limit of their trip. Capt. Williams had throttled back on the engines, and they were just making headway while they paused for the luncheon sandwiches and Pepsis. Everybody on board, even Capt. Williams, was enthralled by the dolphins that played around the boat while they ate.

Unfortunately, their idyllic repast was interrupted by a sudden line of rain squalls. This was not a serious problem, since they were protected from lightening by the conductors on the mast, so everybody, but the captain, was enjoying running around getting rained on. He was in the bridge pondering his Doppler radar display, which showed some disturbing weather headed their way.

He counted 5, no 6, waterspouts surrounding his boat, and, in all of his years, man and boy, working on a charter boat, he had never seen that many at one time. The craziest thing was, these waterspouts were all moving in his direction! The wind just didn't move that way! All the waterspouts should have been moving in the same direction, not in different directions, causing the waterspouts to converge!

Well, he had been around long enough to know that you didn't argue with the weather. No matter what you did, you couldn't beat the weather, you just hoped to break even. Therefore, he pulled his rain hat down harder to make sure it wouldn't blow off and went out to tell Ms Lofton what he had seen and that he was going to try to run away from the strange waterspouts.

While he was making his way to where she was standing in the rain, the first of the waterspouts became obvious to his passengers. Amidst squeals of delight and screams of dismay from the girls, he beckoned her to follow him back to the bridge where he could show her the radar display.

He pointed out the 6 waterspouts on the display and said, "Those 6 waterspouts could mean trouble for us. Normally, only one water spout is not a serious problem for a boat this size, but 6, together, could be a problem for something as large as an aircraft carrier. I'm going to try to run away from them, but we might have to chance running through one, so I need for all of you to go below to the lounge and be seated. You will still be able to see what is happening through the glass, but I don't want to take a chance on one of you getting hurt or lost overboard."

"Certainly, Capitan, we will follow your orders. I'll see to it right away."

Adel left to round up the girls while John examined the weather display to decide on his course. He picked a route and revved up the engines. They ran for a few seconds and quit! Then, all of the electrical systems failed all together. And, finally, the hydraulic systems locked up. What the shit was going on?

By this time, all 6 of the water spouts were visible and seemed to be rushing toward the boat. In less than 5 minutes, they came together over the boat and merged into one weird looking storm. John looked out through his windshield and saw what appeared to be a monster tunnel leading into infinity.

Lightening was flashing from point to point around the wall of the tunnel. The tunnel, itself, had taken on a metallic reflective sheen which certainly didn't look like water any more. At the far end of the tunnel, he could see a monster ball of white light heading toward his boat. Was it lightening? What difference did it make? There was no way to avoid it, and it was traveling so fast that it would reach the boat in only a few seconds.

The ball of light hit the boat in a flash of energy which seemed to tear John's body into its individual atoms. There was a burst of extreme pain, and, then, nothing! John fainted, ceased to exist, died, or all of the above! His consciousness was there and a moment later, it wasn't!

He had no idea how long before he regained consciousness; it could have been moments or years, he had no way of knowing. However, it seemed like only moments, and, suddenly, he could hear screaming coming from the lounge. His first thought was for his boat, but he was completely befuddled!

The boat was healed over on its side at a sharp angle, as if it were lying on hard ground instead of supported by water as it should be. He looked out the windshield on the "down" side and saw dirt, instead of the water he expected! The other side showed nothing but tall trees! Fore and aft, there were more of the same weird looking trees. Where the hell had the ocean gone? The boat was certainly not going anywhere for the moment, so he better check on his passengers.

John struggled into the lounge to a scene of chaos. Anything that had been loose on a table or the floor was now unceremoniously piled on the down side of the lounge, and a couple of the girls were down there with it. One girl's leg was poking at an impossible angle; John could tell it was broken without need for further examination.

The other women and girls were struggling to stay in their seats, though Adel Lofton had regained her senses enough to be trying to get to the injured girl. She called to Margaret, the trainer, to join her at the side of Janice, the girl with the broken leg. John made his way there, also, and the three of them helped the girl to lie straight while they examined her leg.

Fortunately, it was not a compound fracture, so it would be relatively easy to set. John said, "Hold everything while I get the broken bone kit." He was gone only a minute and returned with an air splint. "Do either of you know how to set a broken leg or to use this splint?" Two negative head shakes told him all he needed to know.

"OK, I'll set the break. Ms Lofton, you set the splint in place when I tell you. It's easy to do, just follow the directions on the package. Janice, this is going to hurt, there's no way to avoid that, but I'll be as gentle as I can. I've done this before, so I do know what I'm doing. Margaret, you hold her shoulders and support her head. Thank God she's wearing a swim suit so that we don't have clothes to contend with.

John removed his shoes so that he wouldn't cause Janice any more pain than he could help. He sat at her feet and put his foot in her crotch. All of the women gave a hiss of indrawn breath. and Janice's eyes got as big as the proverbial saucers. "Please, ladies, I have to have some way to keep Janice from sliding toward me when I pull her leg to set it. This IS the approved method!" The break was about half way between Janice's knee and ankle, so John grabbed her ankle and gave a steady pull. Janice's bones popped into place and John said, "OK, the bones are in place. Apply the splint while I hold on. It'll hurt less that way."

Well, it may have hurt less, but less is a relative term. It hurt enough that Janice's bladder emptied and she almost fainted from embarrassment as she soaked her bikini and John's sock. She looked at him and he just winked at her. She grinned at that and the horrible moment passed.

John said, "None of you ladies should worry about any small injuries. I'm a registered EMT and RPN, so I can treat anything from ingrown toenails to childbirth. That brought giggles and some blushes, but it did lighten the atmosphere, and break the pall of fear that threatened to settle on everybody.

Margaret gathered up some cushions and they made Janice as comfortable as possible. Margaret and Sue, the other girl who had been thrown from her seat, were sent back to their seats and told to stay there until further notice. Adel said, "Capt. Williams, can I talk to you in private?"

"Certainly, let's go to the bridge. There's some things I need to do there, anyway."

At the bridge, John turned the main power switch and all the electronics came back on line. The first thing he did was query the GPS for their current location. The display reported "NO SIGNAL RECEIVED." What? That's got to be impossible! He had the trouble shooting guide committed to memory, and that error report meant that there were no satellites within range! John thought, "OK! Don't panic! The only thing we know for sure is that we are no longer floating in the ocean."

He had some very powerful binoculars which he took from the case and stepped outside. The trees were in the way for seeing the horizon, but maybe the sky would tell him something. He looked around and saw some black specks that must be birds, so he looked at them through the binoculars. "Oh, shit!" he exclaimed, loud enough for Adel to hear.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

Without saying anything, he handed her the binoculars and pointed out the black specks. She looked and gasped! "My God. What is that?"

"Those, dear lady, are pterodactyls! Living, breathing pterodactyls! Not only do I not know where we are, I am not sure of when we are. We better get back inside before we are spotted by something we can't handle."

"What do you mean you don't know 'when' we are?"

"Ms Lofton, I have an eidetic memory for what I read, and I once read a lot about dinosaurs. The pterodactyls existed from 228 to 65 million years ago. I can't put a more exact date on them until I see more detail, and I'm not anxious to do that. The important thing is that they were contemporaries to the dinosaurs, such as T. Rex, etc. I do have a rifle on board, but it can't possibly bother a T. Rex. In words of one syllable, we are in deep shit!"