Drowning Utopia

Chapter 29: Higgins Manor

The steam engine hissed and popped angrily as Tessa, Meriwether, and Diana fought to keep it pressurized. It guzzled their fuel far too quickly, to the point where they finally gave up on the engine altogether and lashed several makeshift oars out of the remaining wood that they salvaged.

Tessa tried to help with the rowing, but the repetitive motion was murder on her injured shoulder. Donny finally forced her to stop, setting her up on the forward gun, so she could help without causing herself more grief.

"How much farther?" Wooster asked from the rear of the ship.

Helping the others row alongside her brother, Lonny inquired, "Good question. Miss Le-Ren, you seem to be familiar with this route. Are we close?"

"We just need to follow this street a few blocks more and through the park," Diana panted with effort.

"This is ridiculous," Mr. Wooster murmured. "We are hardly moving."

"It's either this or scavenging for more things to burn," Gray huffed. His shirt was soaked with perspiration, "Besides, we are better off this way. It's far more clandestine than that blowhard engine."

"I don't know," Donny said with a mocking laugh. "The way you're wheezing, Mr. Meriwether, I should think you are just as noisy."

"Would you all be quiet?" Dem Xo-Xing seethed. He glanced about with concern, his gold cat eyes dilating as he searched the shadows. "What if the Boomers are watching us from those windows?" He nodded toward the blackened and charred husks of several burned-out buildings to their left.

"Yes, because they would so politely wait for us to slowly row on by before attacking," Tessa said, rolling her good shoulder. "If there were Boomers, I think we would know." Nonetheless, she traversed the Gatling gun to the left and trained it on the windows in question, just in case.

On they went, doing their best to keep a low profile as they made for Higgins Manor. After successfully navigating the flooded streets, they reached the edge of a large park. With its many trees appearing like oversized bushes, the group of survivors made a concerted effort to quickly make it through. It did not take long to find the manor's front gate.

The first thing Tessa noted was that the manor was lit. Torches hanging from the walls, and lamps illuminating several windows. The second was the silhouettes of armed men and women on the perimeter. They had set up and entrenched themselves in fortified positions above the water line. The water level was just high enough to encompass the front gates and the wall surrounding the manor property, but only to half its height, making for a prime blockade to the dry land further in.

Dem Xo-Xing asked as he hunched over in the boat, "Are they friend or foe?"

From their vantage point, shrouded in darkness and by the tree limbs, Tessa could not make out the details of the figures moving along the shoreline, whether they were other survivors or more of the Boomers. But, remembering her tool bag, she asked, "Gray, you still have my things?"

"Back there. Why?"

"I might have a spyglass in one of my bags."

Gray pulled up Tessa's toolbelt, which she quickly slid back on into place before rummaging through her things. "Ah, here we go," she whispered enthusiastically as she withdrew the eyepiece.

"Why do you have a spyglass in with your tools?" Diana asked, eyeing the unusual item. "Seems a tad odd to just have on hand...what? Isn't that a viewing station from the ballroom?"

Tessa paused a moment. "Maybe?"

"Give me that." Gray snatched the device away and trained it in on the fortifications.