A mist of salt water gently met her face as the woman stood at the bow of the boat, looking ahead.  There wasn’t much for her to do, she didn’t know how to sail, and the constant rain of dark ash made cleaning pointless.  So, she looked ahead, watching for anything at all to appear in the distance, if only to keep her mind busy.  The girl came up behind the woman and took her hand.  Are we there yet?  she said.

Not yet.

How much longer?

I don’t know.

The woman didn’t look down at the girl through the entire exchange, she just kept staring straight ahead, desperately hoping for something to appear through the haze of dark clouds.

They heard a loud bang behind them.  One of the life boats had broken it’s rigging and smashed into the hull of the ship.  The captain barked orders at his two men to pull the boat back up, but they just stared back at him.  They did nothing as the life boat broke free and floated away, saving no one.

There were five people aboard the Pájaro de Esperanza.  There were twenty when they set sail from Tenerife, headed across the Atlantic.  They were hoping to find something better in the West.

, anything other than the dead world they were leaving behind.

Two people fell overboard during a harsh storm and were lost, six died of dehydration, five more died of an unknown disease, and two were murdered.  The captain, the two crewmen, the woman, and the girl were all that remained.  There wasn’t much talking among them.

This wasn’t the first time the crewmen had disobeyed the captain’s orders.  He was losing their loyalty, they just didn’t care anymore, they’d given up.  They sulked around the deck all day, doing the absolute bare minimum to keep the ship moving.  The captain could be found at the helm most of the time, keeping the ship on course.  The woman could not remember the last time she had seen him leave his post.  One particularly cold night, when she couldn’t sleep, she came up on deck to look ahead, and he was still there at the wheel.  She never saw him sleep.

On they went, with the sun setting straight ahead, breaking through the choppy, black waves, not quite knowing what they were headed for.

It’s time for bed, the woman said to the girl.  Go below and get ready, I’ll be down in a few minutes.

Already?  Do I have to?

Yes.

But why?

You need your sleep to help you stay strong.  Who knows, maybe we’ll be there by the time you wake up.

Really?

Really.

Alright.  You promise you’ll come down soon?  I don’t like it down there alone.

I promise, the woman said, I’m right behind you.

The girl turned and went below deck while the woman turned her attention back to the horizon.  The clouds in the distance looked darker than usual.  She feared another large storm was racing toward them.  The captain always said that in all his years on the oceans, he’s never seen so many storms, of such huge sizes, so frequently.

The woman felt afraid as she descended the small steps to comfort the girl in the complete darkness below deck.  They crawled into their hammocks and drifted off to sleep with the gentle rocking of the boat on the waves.

The woman awoke to the sound of rain pounding on the deck above her.  It was not a soft rain, it was the kind of rain that hurts; with the wind so strong, it almost looks like it’s falling sideways.  She then felt the ship swaying, much more than usual.  So much, she felt sick, which hadn’t happened in months, since their first week on the ship.  This was a bad storm.

Wake up! the woman yelled to the girl.

What’s happening? the girl asked and rubbed her eyes awake.

It’s a storm, a bad one.

The girl knew what to do, they had been over it a thousand times but had only had to do it twice before.  The girl met the woman in the middle of the room and wrapped her arms and legs around the main support beam.

Good girl, the woman said, as she did the same, with the girl pinned between her and the beam.  It was the best plan they could come up with.  As long as they held on tight, it kept them from being tossed around the room and getting hurt, but also kept them loose enough to escape the hull if the ship sank.

The next five hours were hell.  The ship rose and fell again and again, the waves seemed to get bigger each time.  Water came pouring into the hull, the woman really thought they might go down.  She closed her eyes and held on as tight as she could, she held on for the girl’s life.

The storm finally passed.  The woman and the girl stood in the hull with a bunch of debris floating around in about three feet of water.

Stay put, the woman said as she waded over to the steps and climbed out onto the deck.  The girl didn’t argue.

The sun was just beginning to rise, and the damage of the storm was revealed by the daylight.  The two masts had snapped in half and the sails were gone.  The last lifeboat was nowhere to be found.  Everything that wasn’t tied down had washed overboard, including the captain and the crewmen.  They were nowhere in sight, even the captain’s wheel had been ripped off and taken by the sea.

The woman shrank down on the deck and started to cry.  Their last hope was gone.  Even if she could have figured it out, there wasn’t enough of the boat left to sail.

, and that would be the end.  The woman’s hope was almost gone.

The girl heard the woman crying from below.  She came up to see what happened.

What’s wrong? the girl asked.

Everything, the woman said through tears.  I don’t know what to do now.

Are we still going to make it there?

I don’t know.

The girl turned away and walked up to where the captain normally stood.  Look! she yelled.

The woman looked up in the direction of the child’s voice.  Out there on the horizon, she saw it, land.  The tide carried them in and a few hours later, they run aground.  The woman fashioned some packs and filled them with as much food, water, and other supplies they could carry.  They left the boat and found themselves in a world just as bad, if not worse than the one they left behind.  The sky was dark, the air dirty, and ash covered the ground.  The woman was disappointed but held back her emotions for the girl’s sake, she still refused to lose hope, they would keep looking for a better place.  There had to be a better place somewhere.  Was the whole world gone?

The woman and the girl left the boat behind, made their way up the beach, and began their long walk down the road.