Vanguard | Post-Apocalyptic YA

Part 34: Lone Survivor

After the shock has worn off, we get to work. Using the battery from the van, we're able to get the winch operational, which lowers the ship into the water. Having been under a roof for all these years has kept both the hull and sails in good shape, and although its probably the oddest mode of transportation we could have found, it turns out to be the most reliable.

There's nothing we can do about being seen, so we hope that the rain is keeping anyone who'd mean us harm away long enough for us to get across the inlet unnoticed. Yet even though the wind cooperates, it takes us a while to figure out how to both properly set and maintain course on such an unfamiliar vessel.

"And you call yourselves sailors," Dad chides when his rigging suggestion ultimately pans out instead of my and my sister's.

"Sorry for being born half a millennium after Sir Francis Drake," I mutter, recalling my maritime history lessons. I don't want to also point out how much practice piloting a Skipper takes, so afterwards I keep my mouth shut.

Finally setting foot on the island in the shadows of the twin cooling towers rekindles our excitement for the mission. Although the initial destruction of the bridges stopped the influx of cars, it didn't completely keep out unwanted visitors. There's evidence of attempted break-ins everywhere and we don't encounter a fence, wall, or door that hasn't already been opened—usually by force.

"How could you be sure that the nuclear material was left behind at all," I say as I climb through the third layer of the perimeter. "If I was in charge back then, that would be the first thing I'd take so it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands."

I'm expecting either Nelly or Jed to answer, seeing as they're the ones who are familiar with O-Town's intel and strategy. But instead, it's Dad who stops to explain.

"And you'd be right to do that, Will," he says. "The American military cleared all of the active plutonium from the cores in every single reactor in the name of national security."

"How do you know that?" Jed asks, looking suspicious of my father's certainty, and for what it's worth, I kind of agree.

Dad clears his throat. "I know because of the Vanguard project. Each lead engineer was briefed on the full evacuation plan. The shutdown of nuclear reactors was the last step before Vanguard was deployed. Afterward, most of the state fell into darkness. It was the beginning of the end."

"If you knew, then Dad knew, too," Nelly says. "So then why would he even suggest coming here, if there's no plutonium?"

Dad smiles. "There's none in the reactor, that's true. But there was no time or resources to get rid of the spent materials."

"Nuclear waste, you mean?" Ellen asks, also joining the conversation.

"Technically, yes. But it's only considered waste because it had become depleted past the point that it became inefficient here. It's perfectly suitable for our needs," Dad says.

"Cool. So where's this storage place?" asks Jed, anxiously hopping from foot to foot. Maybe he should have taken that 'vitamin'.

"It doesn't matter since Darren won't be there," Dad says, continuing to walk and wave him off.

"How can you know?" Nelly asks and I have to admire her restraint. Her dad's been missing for days*, we're likely just a few hundred feet away from where he might be, and she's not running ahead screaming for him. I'm not sure I'd be as composed if the situation was reversed. But then again, she's dealt with a lot more shit up here than I can even imagine.

"I can't be positive, that's true," Dad says, stepping over a pile of rubble that at one point may have been part of an exterior wall. "But he had to send that radio signal and there's only one place I can think of that could have come from. And if I were him, I would have stayed there until I was found."