Blood Shattered Skies Book One: Revenge

Chapter 4

“I always knew the ocean was big but you don’t really appreciate it until you’re up close to it.” Mackenzie remarked as we stood on a somewhat crowded beach. Oddly enough even though there where signs of the foreign military’s presence there wasn’t near the mass pandemonium as there had been back in Iowa. 

“Now we just need to find a vessel that can take some sea battle,” Kyle said.

We got back into the truck and drove down the Vista Del Mar Boulevard. Beyond the beach we could make out boats and ships in the open water. Also oddly out of place. We pulled off somewhere on a cliff overlooking the ocean with those binoculars that you drop a dollar into and you get a minutes worth of the ocean close up. I dropped a dollar in one and scanned the ocean for potential targets. A large yacht caught my eye. From what I could see it had four, maybe five decks above sea level. It was difficult to tell from that distance. However it wasn’t the size that attracted my attention. What drew my eye to it was the fact that it had provisions of a military attack craft. Torpedo tubes, missile launchers, and machine guns were all evident. On the side was the name Admiral Johnson. 

I pointed it out to the others. Everyone took a look at the Admiral Johnson. 

“Yeah, it’s a great ship alright. But how do we get to it? Looks to be at least a half a mile away from the shore. Probably more.”

“Gonna need a motorboat,” I replied.

“Do we have the money to rent one though?”

Almost all of us except for Emily said that they were broke.  She said that she still had about a hundred dollars. So her and I walked into a motor boat rental next to one of the beaches. The clerk raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything as we walked in. We asked for a motorboat rental. She told us that one hundred dollars would get us one for twenty-four hours. 

That gave us more time than what we needed. So we payed for the rental, signed a couple papers, and she handed me a key and told us to go to pier number thirty-eight and we would find the boat at moor twelve. We thanked her and went to find the others.

“Well, did you get one?” Brandon asked.

“Yeah, and we have twenty-four hours to pull this off,” I responded.

“Did any of you plan on how we’re going to return it?” Miranda asked.

“No, but we can work on that later. First of all we need a plan on how to take the ship. I think we should only kill if we can’t avoid it. We could find a secluded island somewhere. For extra precaution we should probably pull this off at night while the crew is asleep,” I responded.

“Still doesn’t leave us with what to do with the boat,” Miranda piped up.

“Why doesn’t someone take it back then swim to the yacht,” Jonathan suggested.

“Neat idea,” Kyle said innocently, “But are you going to be dumb enough to swim in a shark infested area that you are not familiar with at night?” 

“Let’s get to that later.” I said, “For now lets get moving.”

We went back to the truck and started packing our things. I have no idea how but Jon managed to put the gaming system in his bag. As for me I hadn’t really unpacked much so I strapped on my bowie knife and stuck a pistol in my waistband. Some of the others where doing the same. Some checked the loads on their weapons. 

We abandoned the truck and trailer on the side of the interstate on the west end of town. We walked a back into the city from there. By the time we made it to the waterfront it was getting dark and fast.

I took a look through some binoculars to make sure the Admiral Johnson was still there. It was. We carefully made our way down to the pier. However we thought it wise to take a shortcut through a dark alley to save us from trying to go around the last block.

Thats when a voice called out from the shadows, “Now!”

Next thing we knew, seven kids about our age had us surrounded.  Instinctively the others reached for their guns but I said, “Only use those as a last resort.” 

One of the gang members stepped forward. Apparently this was the leader. He addressed me, “You guys ain’t from around here. A couple light jackets, and blue jeans I’d say midwest. You sure as heck ain’t tourists though with that kind of firepower though. What are you country people doing in our territory? We don’t like strangers.”

“We’re freedom fighters. Our territory is defined by where we are standing,” I retorted back at him.

“When you say freedom fighter do you mean gun for hire? One of the east siders hire you to run us out?” Apparently this guy really wanted to believe we were after his land.

“Seriously we don’t know any gangs. We’re just passing through and decided to take a shortcut.”

“Wrong answer pal,” He pulled a switchblade out of his pocket. “See this? Took this off of a rival gang leader that attempted to have his boys move in. You won’d find a better hand weapon in all of L.A. Better back off now before I use it on any of you.” The other members of his gang took out similar weapons and began to advance threateningly.

We where running out of options and waisting our time. I pulled my bowie knife from it’s sheath. I felt the others do the same with their melee weapons. “See this? Gift from my grandfather from when he served in Iraq. Genuine U.S. Military issue capable of cutting through flesh and bone like butter.” My attempt at bravado wasn’t working on them as I had hoped. “Now!” I shouted. 

Well charged outward. I attacked the leader and a bulky kid standing on his right who was hefting a large baseball bat. Our weapons where relatively equal to each other so we had to rely on skill. They had more experience with knife play while we where more used to using fists and guns. That didn’t mean we where going to give in though. 

I managed to disarm my opponents mostly through luck. Also due to luck that my own knife flew out of my hand and impaled itself in a wall next to us. “Okay we do this the old fashioned way then,” I said. 

Knowing I had broken their advantage I pressed a vicious attack. I slammed the large guy into a wall knocking him unconscious. The leader wasn’t so easily beat. He was fast on his feet and struck like a rattlesnake. He hit me over the head once and nearly knocked me out. I eventually got him back into the wall where my knife was. 

i pulled it out and pressed it against his throat. 

A look of fear went across his face, “Enough! You win! What now?”

The fighting around us stopped. 

I thought a moment, “Do any of you have parents?” 

He shook his head, “No we’re all orphans. The only family we have is each other.”

“I’ll make you an offer. You can let us pass and stay here. Or you can come help us liberate the world.” 

He looked around at his fellow gang members who all nodded. “I think we’ll all come with you then. Allow us to introduce ourselves first though. I’m Jared, the large unconscious one is Devon, the girl with the two butterfly knives is Olivia,” He pointed to two identical boys next to Kyle, “They’re the twins Jack and William, and the two in the back are Joe and Alex.”

I introduced my friends to the gang.

“So do you guys have a plan for getting out of town?” Jared asked.

“We’ve rented a speedboat and we’re planning on using it to head out to a military yacht anchored offshore,” I replied. 

“Well let’s see if we can bring Devon around and let’s get to it,” The one called Alex said.