Chapter 7

The next day, we were heading south on the river with Sue driving our boat and Vivian driving the other one. I was up on the roof, make that "observation platform," and John was acting as lookout for Vivian. I don't recall which one of us shouted first that we were being followed by three speedboats. Hank had rigged us a switch to turn on a very loud alarm signal, and I hit mine immediately with John not far behind. It was a loud horn blast that could be heard for at least half a mile and certainly all over the two boats.

Nobody else but pirates could be stupid enough to waste fuel on speedboats, so it was pretty obvious who was chasing us. Our two houseboats were large enough to be juicy targets for any pirate, so there was no surprise that we were being attacked. I was too close to that damned alarm to be able to stand it any longer, so I switched it off. Again, John was not far behind. By now, everybody on the two houseboats had been alerted that there was some sort of danger in sight.

I had my M-16 loaded and ready. The selector was on full automatic and the safety was off. All I had to do was touch the trigger to send out a spray of lethal bullets. I didn't check, but I was sure John was just as ready as I was. Meanwhile, all of our other people were arming themselves and getting ready for a fight.

The lead speedboat pulled alongside about 50 feet away, and a second person in the boat stood up and fired a short burst from an AK-47. I have no idea whether or not he was actually trying to hit anybody with his bullets, but in response, he received two shotgun blasts and five short spurts from M-16s. Judging from the blood that went flying everywhere, that was the last time he was going to be shooting at anybody. Not only that, but the man driving the boat dove or fell to the bottom of the boat.

There must have been some sort of "dead man's switch" on the throttle because the boat quickly slowed to a stop when the man fell away from the steering wheel. That speedboat soon slowed to a stop and was passed by the other two speedboats as they approached us. One of them had to swerve to miss the boat dead in the water, and that may have saved the lives of the three men on board.

Both speedboats were receiving a lot of fire from our houseboats, and the two men on the other boat were both hit. I don't know if they were killed, but they fell to the bottom of the boat, and the boat slowed to a stop. Finally, the men in the third boat took the hint and ran like hell. We stop shooting after the other boat got about 200 yards away. We were pretty sure that we would hear no more from this boat, so we stood down from our action stations.

I was tempted to turn around and catch those two speedboats that were dead in the water, but then it dawned on me: what the hell would we do with two speedboats? I had to laugh at myself for what had been an almost automatic reaction. Fortunately, I had not said anything about this to anyone else, so I was saved that embarrassment. That was all of the excitement we had that day, but it was enough to give us plenty of substance for conversations for the next couple of days.

A couple of days later, we saw four people standing on the eastern levee. There was a man and a woman and two children standing there, and they were waving frantically to get our attention. Mindful of what had happened to us the last time Bill and I had tried to help someone on that levee, I used the radio to tell Hank, the driver of the other boat to cover us, but to stay well away from the shore.

I directed June, our driver, to head toward shore to see if these people really could use our help. She stopped our motion about 10 feet from the shoreline and I yelled out, "DO YOU NEED OUR HELP? WHAT CAN WE DO FOR YOU?"

The man onshore shouted, "PLEASE HELP US! SOME SLAVERS ARE CHASING US, AND THEY ARE ABOUT FIVE MINUTES BEHIND US!"

Okay, I had not heard that before, but I had no trouble believing it. I yelled out for the people to come aboard, and I told June to drive up to the bank. Bill was up on the observation platform and I told him to cover the new people with his rifle. Sue joined me at the bow with her shotgun to act as cover as I helped the people come on board.

Hardly had all four of the people got on board when a gang of men topped the levee. They all had guns, and they pointed them at us. June nearly dumped the four newcomers overboard when she accelerated to get us away from the shore. At that point, several of the men on the levee began to shoot at us, and a bullet whizzed through my shirt sleeve as I tried to pull the children to safety. Sue and Bill opened fire, and the people from our other boat joined in.

All these bullets traveling in their direction were enough to make the men jumpn back for the protection of the levee. I suspect that several of them, from the way they jumped, didn't stop falling until they had reached the bottom of the levee. Two of the men we had been shooting at were now lying on the ground at the levee top, and we were receiving some fire from men at the top of the levee.

All four of the newcomers were now lying on the deck and cowering from the rain of bullets headed our way. I didn't blame them and would have been doing the same had I not been firing my M-16 at those men who were shooting at us. The shooting stopped fairly soon as June got us far enough out into the river to be out of range.

June drove us close to the West Bank, and the other boat followed. We resumed our journey down the river while I talked to the man of the recent rescuees. "Please tell me who you are and exactly what is going on."

He said, "All I know is that a bunch of men broke into our house this morning and claimed that we were now their slaves. They had guns and pointed them at us, so we were not about to argue with them. Dammit, I knew what slavery meant to a woman, so I snatched up a kerosene lamp what was on our breakfast table and threw it at the man. The lamp broke and scattered burning kerosene all over the damn place. The men ran out the back door to escape the flames, and we ran out the front door.

"The clothes of a couple of the bastards were on fire, and that must've been what kept them charging after us right away. Anyway, this was the only direction what looked like it was clear, so we ran this way. Thank God we saw you when we crossed the levee, and you came to help us."

I said, "Wellcome aboard. My name is Joe Hillcrest. What yours?"

"I'm Jake Watson, and this here is my wife, Lucy. The two kids are Suzy and Eli. Can we stay with you folks for a while, at least until we get well away from them slavers?"

"You sure can. I'll introduce you to everybody else in a few minutes. Sue, these people look really bushed. Please show them one of the empty rooms where they can get some rest."

When Sue got back, she said, "The Watsons seem like nice people. What do you think about adding them permanently to our group, provided they want to stay?"

"I guess we'll give them a little while to rest and then have everybody meet everybody. We can decide what to do after that."

I let the Watsons rest for about an hour and then called them to wake up to meet all of our people. I radioed the other boat to pull alongside and tie up. We anchored what we thought was a safe distance from either shore and had a combination get-together and lunch. That's when I found out that Suzy was 7 and Eli was 9. The get-together went well, and everybody seemed to like everybody else. Therefore, I invited the Watsons to stay with us for at least a few days. That would let us know if we should make the arrangement permanent.

One of the previously empty cabins was assigned to Jake and Lucy. Lucy said it was okay to put Suzy and Eli in the same room, so they were assigned to the other empty cabin. Later that afternoon, I explained to Jake and Lucy how we had all gotten together and that we were looking for a place for a permanent settlement. Immediately, Jake and Lucy wanted to join us, and I told them to hold off until we saw how things worked out. They were agreeable, so that was where we left it.