Surviving the Dreams

Chapter 16 - The Escape

Susan watched Greg as he headed out into the storm before dawn, hoping against hope that he could both secure the money and stay hidden. By seven am, he still had not returned and Susan borrowed a luggage cart from the hotel to carry their things to the pier. By eight she spoke with her manager, showing him the state of the company's computers before announcing she was leaving seven days early. To her astonishment, he agreed. The computer systems were all completely normal. Their planned post Y2K week of recovery wouldn't be needed because nothing had happened. Her services at the hotel were no longer needed, but he promised to speak to the hotel on Moreno Island personally on Monday to help ensure her position there was secure.

Susan thanked him and left.

At nine am there was still no sign of Greg. The hotel offices were now officially open, and he still wasn't back. That was her cue. It was time to leave before anything worse could happen to either of them.

Doing her best to blend in with the actual tourists that were there at the hotel, Susan pushed her readied luggage cart across the lobby, through the front doors, and down towards the pier where the holiday cruise liners were getting ready to leave. Local officials were everywhere, and while that should have been reassuring, Susan was well aware that those were exactly the kind of people the Wilsons would have told their story to. With that in mind, she did her best to avoid them, waiting in line at the ticket office to purchase their tickets for as long as she could. She put a deposit down on both tickets, and then checked their bags, watching as they were tagged and taken away to the plane and the ferry they hoped to board. Still Susan waited.

An hour passed, and then it was two as Susan anxiously peered through the slotted windows. Now there were uniformed national officials everywhere, adding to the local force that had been there earlier. The official word was that the gunmen suspected in the Missionary Massacre had been spotted here in Telleron, and the government was doing everything possible to ensure that the tourists visiting their city remained safe. That's when Susan spotted Greg, doing his best to get to the ticket office without attracting any unwanted attention. She waved him through an emergency entrance to the rear of the booth so they could pay the balance they owed on their tickets.

Greg and Susan sprinted nearly the entire length of the pier towards the sea plane that would take them to the port where they would board the passenger ferry for the Moreno Island Resort. As soon as they were aboard, an unsuspecting pilot took off, circling around the city as they watched armed gun men storm the Harbor Hotel just before noon. Greg and Susan drew a deep sigh as the plane flew higher and they left Telleron with all its connections to their past behind them.

c

The seaplane landed at in a harbor far from the shipping port and the piers used by the cruise liners and frequented by tourists and fishermen. Susan suspected it was actually in a different town, but on a different part of the island Telleron was on. Indeed, the place they landed was not properly a harbor at all, but only a marina in another bay which served inter-island vessels only. It pulled up to a pier and Greg and Susan climbed out amidst a crowd of Polynesian looking locals. The place they got off was busy, but it felt like a normal sort of busyness, without the sort of tension they'd witnessed in Telleron as they left.

"I don't think they are here," Greg told Susan.

"It doesn't look like it," Susan agreed, her eyes sweeping the clothing of the locals for any sign of police or other local officials. "So where do we go? Can you tell?"

"This way, I think," Greg said. He'd had slightly more practice making out the local signage, fewer of which were written in English on this part of the island.

Susan followed as they made their way to the pier serving the inter-island ferry service. As it turned out, there were several lines and it took them some time to find the correct one and to make sure they were aboard before it left, but they managed it. Susan checked with a porter before they boarded and was relieved to find out their checked luggage had been loaded ahead of them.