Free The Pit (The Bugging Out Series Book 4) by Noah Mann Page B

was charged with accomplishing, and, along with that, the pressures to perform that weighed upon her. Despite any societal changes, she was a woman in a man’s army, evidenced by the makeup of the unit she led. I didn’t know if that disparity pushed her to work harder, or be harder, but, so far, it hadn’t exposed any deep flaw in her ability to lead.
    And I hoped, for all our sakes, that it would not.
    For the next hour we all pitched in, carrying what had been salvaged from the Sea Stallion down to the dock and loading it on the Sandy . She was heavier now, with both more supplies and more live bodies aboard, which, we discovered, wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for a craft designed to operate with its tanks filled with caught fish. She rode more solid, I felt, as we pulled away from the dock and out into the channel.
    Ketchikan was just twenty miles away.

Thirteen
    I t was good to have others to pilot the Sandy . And especially good to have someone, in Acosta, who actually had experience on similar craft. He steered us expertly along the eastern shore, islands to our west. He’d commented after taking the wheel that it felt little different from his uncle’s cod boat in his birth state of Massachusetts. That was the home he’d left behind when joining the Army shortly before the blight made its first appearance in a Polish potato field. Now, like the rest of us, it was the home he’d likely never know again.
    There was another reason to appreciate having Acosta at the wheel, and the others to back him up. It gave us time. Elaine, Neil, and me. Time to sit on deck near the stern of the vessel and have a moment to talk. Away from any who might hear.
    “What if there is a radio they can use in Ketchikan?”
    Neil wondered that aloud, glancing toward the wheelhouse. Acosta was there, Lorenzen and Hart with him on watch. Schiavo, Westin, and Enderson were bunked out below, catching what rest they could before the sun rose.
    “If they can make contact with some higher authority, what about what we found?” my friend asked. “And the notebook?”
    “They could pass on what we learned,” Elaine said. “On how to beat the blight.”
    “Yeah,” I agreed. “They could.”
    Neil and Elaine both puzzled at my wariness.
    “But you don’t want them to,” Elaine said.
    “We may have the holy grail here,” I said. “What if we get to Skagway and this evacuation isn’t as innocuous as the good lieutenant makes it sound?”
    “Bargaining chip,” Neil said, understanding.
    “If our people want out, and someone doesn’t want to allow that, then we have something to give them,” I said. “Or something to withhold.”
    Elaine looked toward the wheelhouse, then back to us.
    “You don’t trust them?”
    “I don’t know them,” I said. “None of us do. I’m just not in the mood to blindly put my faith in someone because they wear a uniform.”
    “Ben wore a uniform,” Neil said.
    My friend’s gaze bore hard into me. I did remember that. And I remembered what Colonel Ben Michaels had done. What he’d sacrificed so that my friend could live. Neil knew I would never speak of that. I hadn’t with Elaine, and I wouldn’t even hint of what I’d seen. That was a secret I would take to my grave.
    “We were with him for a long time,” I reminded Neil. “We’ve been acquainted with these people for a few hours.”
    “I’m not disagreeing with you,” Neil said. “I’m just suggesting there may come a time when we need to trust them.”
    “They did save us,” Elaine said. “But I agree with you. We keep it—”
    She never had a chance to finish. The boat tipped severely to port as Acosta steered hard right, taking us into a small cove, the motion tossing us against the side rail, the low rise of its wooded structure all that kept us from tumbling into the black water.
    “What the hell...” Elaine cursed, getting to her knees as the boat straightened out and slowed, engines reversing to bring us to a