Chapter 20
The Great Rite
"Captain says we're going to have to pull ashore tonight," Alex said.
"Why?" I asked. "Hold still, honey." Bee's hair was long enough to braid, if only I could keep her still long enough.
"One of the boilers stopped working. They don't want to attempt fixing it while everyone is on board. We'll camp under the trees – you know, like we used to." He nudged my shoulder.
One of the braids came loose. I sighed, brushing out her hair again then letting her go. I'd try another time. She squealed then ran off, circling the deck.
I glanced at the shoreline. "There are no trees." It didn't matter, I had missed camping ever since we’d gotten into the canoe in West Virginia, like I was homesick for solid ground.
"Oh, cheer up, Katie. I'll round up some trees for you."
I smiled as he walked away, busy sorting out which supplies would come on land with us in case of a catastrophe. I followed his lead, but on a much smaller scale. A change of clothes for me and Bee, my mom's charms tethered together by fishing wire, and a few blankets. All of it fit in the pack I had been carrying the past year. Hopefully Susan had the Chalice with her; maybe I could pay the Shades a visit again tonight.
Later that afternoon, I watched the shore go by as we moved from the Missouri River to the Platte. The captain joined me at the railing.
"How goes it?" he asked.
"Good," I said. "Will you be joining us tonight?"
"Part of it. I'll oversee some of the repairs but they'll kick me out eventually. I'm no engineer."
I laughed, and we both turned back to the shore. We passed a large building standing right on the bank of the river. Completely dark, the place looked abandoned, most of the windows broken.
"What is that?" I asked.
"Fort Calhoun's Nuclear Power Plant. It was shut down about a year before Daybreak because of some damage caused to the reactors during a flood."
I raised an eyebrow at him.
He shrugged. "I keep tabs on what happens on my rivers. And Arnold, Mr. Pro-Nuclear, keeps tabs on the plants closest to us."
"And those?" I gestured at two long boats with stacks of storage containers on top. They looked like miniature versions of some of the huge shipping barges that used to go up and down the river.
"That…is new," said Captain Carl. He put the binoculars hanging around his neck to his eyes. "There are people manning the decks."
I straightened, body going tense.
He lowered the binoculars and put a hand over mine on the rail. "Just relax. They are probably observing us, too. As long as we act natural, there won't be any problems."
I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath and opened up to the energy in the area. No Elementals in that direction; or at least no one using their powers. Still, we attracted some attention; the number of bodies on the decks of the boats doubled. Their movements remained steady; they weren't panicking.
We passed without incident.
Captain Carl scanned ahead. "I was going to pull over soon. What say we wait until the next dock, just to be on the safe side?" He winked at me.
The next dock turned out to be another abandoned facility; this time it was a ship storage warehouse – without the ships. The captain pulled 'The Spirit of Evansville' up to the dock and several people jumped off to tie it up. We waited until the ramp was lowered and then there was a mad scramble to find the best camping spots.
"We leave two hours after sunrise – with or without a complete body count!" Alex shouted after them.
"Hopefully everyone has watches," I mumbled.
Alex shrugged. "I've heard potato clocks are a thing again."
I stepped to the side with Bee, unwilling to thrust her into the melee of people leaving the boat. As we hit dry ground, dusk was approaching. I walked through the small pockets of campers already starting their fires and pitching tents.
"Hey, Kaitlyn!" Margie called, standing on the outskirts of the forming circles. "You and Bee can spend the night near us. Robert found a clear spot, no roots or rocks—"
"Margie! We need dry wood!"
Her shoulders sagged at Robert's rough voice.
"Thanks, we'll be okay." I smiled at her.
"He's not all bad you know, he's just—"
"Margie!" Robert shouted again.
"I'm coming, hold your horses!" She walked away, turning back to send an apologetic grin.
I walked to the opposite side of camp, stopping no less than ten minutes after I saw the last of the tents. Bee had fallen asleep on my shoulder, and stayed asleep when I laid her down on our blankets. As soon as I had a fire going with canned baked beans and corn heating over it, Susan and Alex came up behind me.