Chapter 23

A few hours later, Paul was relaxing in the lounge, smoking as the ship sailed across the waves.

"How are you feeling?" Paul asks, seeing a radiant Chris with a wide smile plastered on his face that could be written off. It seems he just had sex.

"Good," Chris says, a little complacent. "I was a little shaken, only, you know. I was actively doing it."

"Yeah, well it's like that the first few times. But hey, I never cared about the life and death of Reed and what happened in between," Paul says, dropping the rest of the cigarette into the sea before intending to move into the cockpit.

"Try to rest and don't think too much about it," Paul advises.

"Alright," Chris says, still with that smile plastered on him, not bothered at all now about what happened earlier on.

Inside the cockpit, he found his mother, Strand, and Luis.

"How's this gonna go?" Madison asks, seeing the patrol ships on the border. After all the magical things that happened a few hours ago in that room, life still goes on.

"Luis will take the Zodiac over to the boat up ahead of us where his contact..." Strand says and stops at the end.

"Miguel," Luis completes the phrase for him.

"Miguel will accept payment, and then we'll be on our way to beautiful Baja," Strand explained as if that would be all and easy.

"Okay, stop. Stop here. That's close enough," Luis was cursing Victor inside seeing how he put it like it would be that easy. But he continued with the plan, having no other choice.

"Good luck," Madison says, but he just looks at her for a second dismissively before leaving.

"How do you say 'asshole' in Spanish?" Madison asks Strand, seeing how he was an ass.

"You don't. You grin and bear it," Strand explained with a smile as he kept focused in the distance with the Mexican Border Patrol Guard Coast boats.

"No, no. Luis, get back up here." Strand yells to Luis after seeing with the binoculars that a rapid action patrol boat left the side of a larger navy ship and was coming to the Abigail.

"What's going on?" Madison asked, disturbed by his alarmed tone as she kept looking in front.

"There is an incoming boat towards us, instead of us going to them," Paul says to her. "Anything could happen now."

"Why are they coming towards us?" Strand quickly asks Luis when he goes back into the cockpit.

"What do you mean, they?" Luis asks while taking the binoculars.

"There are two of them. Tell me one of them is Miguel," Strand says as he points at the two men in the boat.

"Yeah, the one at the wheel is. The other guy I don't know," Luis says after observing them. Already knowing that this is going sideways.

"Madison, get everyone down below deck. You need to hide," Strand says quickly to Madison as Paul and Daniel also listen to it. He was already thinking about his next move.

"Luis, give me your gun," Strand strangely asks Luis for his gun as the group is leaving the cockpit. No one commented anything about it.

"We have a problem. Engine room, now," Madison tells everyone in the saloon. The girls were playing cards, while Liza was with Chris, being intimate in the lounge outside.

"Let's take the guns with us, just in case things go south," Paul says to the group. If worst comes to worst, they will need to open a path with brute force, but that would be dangerous.

"What's going on?" Alicia asked doubtfully. She thought that everything was going to be fine now that they were about to enter Mexico.

"A boat is coming toward us that wasn't expected," Paul answered his sister, handing the girls and Daniel guns.

"Where's Nick?" Madison asked her daughters about her brother's whereabouts.

"He went down below," Alicia calmly replied.

"Come inside," Madison tells Chris and Liza, who were outside. Their new situation has changed.

"Can it wait?" Liza asked, blushing.

"No, it can't. Company's on the way," Madison says sternly, quickly denying her from having more fun.

"Nick!" Madison yelled as the group descended down below.

"Are we there yet?" Nick exits the bathroom, looking confused as he sees everyone armed.

"Not even close. Come on," Madison instructs her son to enter the engine room.

"What's wrong?" Nick asks, surprised as he moves inside nonetheless.

"We have to hide," Madison simply answers.

We all go inside the engine room, filling it completely. We are expectant and nervous, unable to see what is happening outside. We have to trust Strand during the following key moments.

After a moment, men speaking in Spanish board the Abigail, talking loudly enough to hear in the engine room below.

"One of them is saying he likes the boat. He's impressed by Strand's wealth and wants to know how much it cost. Strand says he'd prefer not to discuss money," Daniel begins translating for the group as he listens to their conversation in the saloon.

"Careful, Victor," Madison quietly says, worried about everyone's safety.

"Let's talk about gold, then, shall we?" Daniel continues translating the talk.

"Two bars, one per head. Luis is making the payment," Daniel continues narrating what he is hearing outside.

"Just take it and go. Take it and go," Alicia whispers nervously, and Paul takes her hand to comfort her.

"Now he's saying it's a big vessel for two people," Daniel says worriedly, continuing the translation. Inside, he thinks this isn't looking good now when they switch their eyes to the yacht.

"Oh, come on," Nick exclaims in irritation.

"He wants to make sure there are no infected on board," Daniel says while fiddling with the MP5 in his grip.

Suddenly, they hear Strand talking in English.

"What's going on, Luis? They have the gold," Strand asks Luis, doubting what was happening with these men.

Luis then just a second later starts speaking in Spanish about dropping the weapons and asking which sides they stand on while insulting them.

They start hearing cocking gun sounds as the conflict escalates quickly with loud voices already unrecognizable. The noise from everything is combined.

"Wait," Madison says to everyone, seeing that they were preparing to fight.

The shouting continued, and then gunshots started sounding on the deck while cursing each other. Everything ceased after a short moment, and the engine powered up, prompting them to exit.

"What the hell happened?" Madison asks, seeing Strand with the situation going out of hand.

"Someone said 'asshole' in Spanish," Strand says shrugging and with a smile.

Nick asks, "Luis?" not seeing him around.

Suddenly, they heard a man speaking Spanish on a bullhorn to them from a rapid action patrol boat. Quite a group of boats were coming to their sides, some armed with a few machine guns.

"Reduzca la velocidad. (Reduce the speed)." The guard coast yelled from their boat. "No nos iremos sin negociar. (We will not leave without negotiating)."

Not waiting for a minute to pass, they began shooting at the Abigail. Strand got onto the cockpit to direct the yacht.

"Everyone stay inside," Daniel says after going outside and picking a knife from one of the patrol soldiers. He used it to destroy the brains of the dead bodies while being shot from a group of patrol boats near the Abigail.

Paul meanwhile climbed the stairs into the M2 and started firing back at the patrol boats with the last belt of ammo they had. He killed first the people on the boats with machine guns, wasting most of the ammo on them. Then he fired back at the other few boats with people shooting with rifles until the ammo was gone. After doing so, there was a lot less trouble from them. From the people left on the other side, the shooting was already a lot less and inaccurate, keeping their distance while still following them as they shot at the Abigail.

"Por favor, no! En la cabeza no. (Please, no! In the head no.)" Luis tried to talk with difficulty, spitting blood as he saw Daniel coming to him with a knife intending to put it through his skull. He was still alive, giving his last breaths as his body was like a strainer with a couple of bullet holes on him.

"Lo siento, no tengo alternative. (I'm sorry, I don't have a choice.)" Daniel answers him, not intending to slow his action.

"Esperame, esperame! (Wait, Wait!.)" Luis started saying as he could after Daniel was about to put the knife in his head.

"Wait, wait." Ofelia goes beside Luis and stops her father from ending him.

"Get back inside!" Daniel yells at his daughter, not liking her being in danger outside the saloon. There were still boats in the distance shooting every now and then.

"It's okay. Shh. Shh." Ofelia ignores what her father told her. Instead, she started trying to make Luis relax in his last moments.

"They almost stopped shooting already," Paul comments, seeing Ofelia beside Luis and Daniel. After descending onto the outside lounge beside the saloon from the outside stairs.

"Let me help you. Let me help you." Ofelia says to him, but he just gives her a coin with a weird and creepy sigil, asking her to give it to his mother. Luis already knew he was done.

"What is it?" Ofelia asks her father, seeing him looking in a trance at the coin.

"It is nothing," Daniel says and is about to continue finishing him.

"Whoa, whoa! No, don't! Let him be." Nick stops Daniel from killing him, intending to let Luis die without Daniel's help as he was asking with an intact head.

Daniel, seeing no choice with his insistent daughter and Nick, takes the coin and drops it on the sea before going away. Paul also went into the cockpit to see what happened.

"They stopped shooting," Madison says, finally taking a relieved breath. She relaxes her nerves from all the situation.

"They think whatever is on land will kill us," Strand says, pointing out why they actually stopped.

------------------------------

The group left the yacht on a coastal ravine while moving now on foot, packed lightly with backpacks and duffel bags, aside from the gear and weapons on their body. They walked and kept walking to where Strand was taking them.

"How are you feeling, Papa?" Ofelia asks, seeing him panting a little.

"I'm fine," Daniel says, visibly exhausted after walking for so long at his age under this hot sun.

"Strand, how much farther?" Ofelia asks Strand, worriedly seeing her dad's exhausted condition.

"We're close now," Strand says, as he keeps walking.

"How are you doing girls?" Paul asks, walking beside them.

"I'm tired and wet," Andrea says, while pulling her tank top showing him her wet cleavage.

"It's this damn sun, it doesn't help at all," Claire chirps in, while removing the sweat from her forehead.

"I would love a shower," Amy says, tiredly like she was not asking for a lot.

"You sure can dream high Amy," Paul chuckles at that, a little more relaxed seeing them with no other problem than being tired and bothered by the sun.

"And you, babe, how are you doing?" Paul gets beside Alicia and asks his twin.

"I'm fine, don't worry," Alicia smiles at him, and gives him a little peck on his lips.

"Por un mejor mañana. (For a better tomorrow.)," Paul comments, seeing a wall painted with that and laughs. Seeing the precarious state of the households around them, that kind of shitty propaganda is all around in every country from Central to South America.

"What does it mean?" Amy asks, not knowing what he said.

"For a better tomorrow, but look at this place, it seems the mayor from here doesn't bother too much with that," Paul says, mocking the probably dead political public agent.

"What happened here?" Amy says, a little disturbed by the pile of dead bodies at the side of some buildings and some dogs eating them.

"Don't know, but to be safe, be far away from that dog Amy," Andrea says, pulling her sister closer, not letting her get near those dogs eating the dead. What could do a bite from them?

"Thomas!" Strand started yelling and running faster than ever after seeing a big black pickup parked outside one of the buildings that seemed to be a parish.

"Thomas!" Strand shouted again after opening the door and seeing nothing.

"Victor," Madison shouted, worried at him after seeing him go inside the parish.

"Thomas," Strand yelled inside, still looking for the man he was calling for.

Suddenly, the dogs eating the bodies started barking while snarling sounds started sounding all over the place.

"Hey!" Nick says, seeing a group walking over the road alerting the group.

The group began to shoot at them with everything they had, but there were too many of them coming from all directions.

When Paul used all the ammo left on him, he picked a machete from the ground and started chopping the head of any walker near the girls as they did the same as him, defending themselves with the melee weapons on the ground.

But they were spreading from him. "Don't go too far away from each other," Paul yelled to them as more walkers were coming and he kept killing anything that moved to their side.

"Mom!" Alicia yelled, making Paul look at her with a side glance. He saw a walker on top of her, about to bite her because she had sliced the walker in his chest with a machete instead of stabbing or chopping the head. Paul sent the machete in his hand flying into the head of the walker, killing him.

"Mom," Paul yelled. But he didn't see the walker about to bite him when Alicia suddenly killed it, protecting him from the bite. Others were about to go after them when Claire killed them.

Amy was disturbed by the dead kids walking to eat them, but Andrea just bashed the heads of anyone who got near them. A little disturbed about it, but she kept doing it anyway.

"Thanks, babe. I don't get to see it preoccupied with Mom," Paul said to Alicia after all ended. Then he saw Chris who was beside them with Liza, defending their ground also, as they killed the last one near them.

"Dad, are you okay?" Ofelia asked Daniel. She was also defending herself alongside her dad. But at some point, her dad froze against one of those dead kids, prompting her to kill it fast before he bit him.

"I'm fine," Daniel said as he got a hold of himself.

"We have to go, now!" Strand yelled, getting inside the pickup after they killed the walkers that had appeared. He didn't want to see if there were more around waiting to come.

"Nick! Nick!" Madison yelled, seeing him sitting around the bodies looking at them, a little girl in particular.

"We don't have enough space in that pickup for everyone! I will bypass one of these cars beside the road!" Paul yelled to Strand. He quickly went fast to them.

There were five cars - three two-door cars, and two SUVs. He picked the SUV that looked the biggest for more comfort. Tentatively touching the doors, he saw they were unlocked. Going inside, he checked if the key was inside but it wasn't. So, he pulled the cover under the wheel and the key lock. He cut the wires connecting the ignition lock cylinder and put them together, hearing how the engine roared to life, bypassing the key.

Seeing the fuel tank almost full, Paul yelled the girls. "Get in the car. We will follow Strand." Claire sat in front, while in the back sat Alicia, Amy, and Andrea.

Madison left with the pickup. She sat in the box with Nick and beside them were Liza and Chris. Madison dragged Nick practically from the floor, seeing his shocked state. Strand was driving in front and beside him were Daniel and Ofelia.

After leaving the place, Paul followed the pickup while driving the SUV. The day was too hot, and inside the car, they were burning with the heat.

"This damn heat," Paul commented while driving and trying to make the air-conditioning of the car work. As he looked in the back from the rearview, Alicia, Amy, and Andrea had little space from each other and were sweating in the enclosed space.

"It's awful. I'm covered in sweat," Andrea said while fanning herself a little beside one of the car doors in the back.

"I'm all sticky. I want now more than ever a shower," Amy said while sitting in the middle of Andrea and Alicia. Removing the sweat from her forehead.

"Yeah, how is the AC? Does it work, brother?" Alicia asked. She too was bothered by the high heat.

"I'm trying, babe. Give it a moment, and we will see," Paul said, more focused on driving than touching the AC panel.

"Let me try. You keep driving," Claire said from the copilot seat. As she began fiddling with it, in a short moment, she started it. "It's starting."

"Nice, sis," Alicia smiled from the back.

"Good job," Andrea also cheered.

"Finally!," Amy also echoed, relieved, hoping some cold air would go her way.

"Nice, give it a moment until it starts cooling," Paul said, smiling, also happy the thing was working. Already feeling a little cool air leaving from the vents.

As they were driving, Paul was considering their current state. 'We don't have any more ammo in the magazines of the rifles and the submachine gun. We need to reload them with the leftover bullets we have and try to scavenge somewhere for more because they are just sticks without them.' Paul tentatively thought that maybe they had enough ammo left to charge five magazines in total of 5.56mm and even less for the pistol, more likely three 9mm or use them for the MP5, but they had the bullets still on the pistols.

He was left with no other choice back in the ship, leaving the M2. He needed to come back for it at another time and look for .50 cal ammo to reload the four empty belts he had. Also, he wondered how Jake and Alex were doing.

"Oh, my God," Claire exclaimed suddenly beside him.

"Look," Claire said, pointing in the distance at a big ranch with a wall covering all the land.

"It looks like a solid place to be," Paul commented, seeing the concrete walls. It could resist a big horde with no problem.

After entering the ranch, there were farm hands working the fields, horses in the stables, and cattle still alive. It seemed that the end of the world still hadn't come to this place.

"This place looks like a fantasy tale nowadays," Claire said, looking around.

"It looks peaceful," Amy happily smiled.

Paul doesn't comment, but was observing how all seemed too strangely normal to be true. The place seemed spotless, as if still working as usual as before the apocalypse. But what makes his mind tingle was seeing the personnel in clean white uniforms—it was so fucking disturbing for him. Were they in a mental facility or what? And why would they be dressed like that on a farm? He knew Strand comes from money, but to him, it was strange seeing this.

"Bienvenidos. Welcome." A short-height brown-haired woman speaks to them in both Spanish and English.

"Celia, tell me he's here." Strand in front talks with her.

"Come." Celia moves a little away from them with Strand to talk.

"Welcome." A black-haired woman dressed in the disturbing white mental facility uniform says to them.

"My name is Sofia. Nice to meet you all." Sofia smiles at them as she talks.

"Hi, I'm Madison," Madison speaks first for the group.

ES "Hola. (Hi.)" Sofia smiles.

ES "Juan, ven, ven a saludar a nuestras visitas. (Juan, come, come to say hi to our guests.)" Sofia speaks to a kid playing with a ball, not far away from them.

"Hola. (Hi.)" Juan says to them a little shy with the ball in hand.

"Hola," Ofelia says while smiling.

"Hey," Alicia also greets him.

"Hola," Paul greets.

Now if you'll follow me, I can give you a tour of the house. But first I have to ask you for your weapons." Sofia seeing that the introductions relaxed the group a little. She started now asking for the weapons we carried.

Liza and Madison surrender their weapons, so having no other choice, we all start dropping them too. As they gave them, they started moving inside the villa.

"Thank you," Sofia says seeing the pile of weapons.

Paul went with the group, but he still heard in the back Daniel chatting with the woman, not wanting to be unarmed inside this place.

ES "¿Por qué? (Why?)" Daniel questioned her.

ES "Aquí no le harán falta. (Here, you will not need them.)" Sofia explained while waiting for his weapons still with a smile.

"Las armas siempre hacen falta. (Weapons are always needed.)" Daniel answers, not convinced about it.

"Entonces, por favor quédesela. (Then, please keep them.)" Sofia says with a smile still plastered on her face.

"Muchas gracias. (Thank you very much.)" Daniel says and is about to keep moving inside the villa.

"Pero allá fuera, son las reglas de la casa. (But out there, those are the house rules.)" Sofia says standing in front of him, blocking his way.

"Papa. We're guests here." Ofelia says to her father, pushing him to surrender them. Wanting to stay in this place that looked nice.

Daniel, having no other choice as he hears his daughter and looking around the place, sighs while giving them.

"Gracias (Thanks)," Sofia says with a smile a bit more radiant this time, and steps aside to allow both of them to pass.