Reyes Albert, Prisoner, Ch. 9
Reyes was working on his boat, preparing it for defense against the vicious jawed terrors that seemed to be all over the lake. He needed a good way to defend himself, and that included a weapon capable of killing a shark if he had to go head-to-head.
It also needed to have long reach. He saw that Z-sharks had a habit of crawling onto land slightly while trying to eat him. That meant everything from his weapon to his boat needed to take that into account.
Reyes started to get the materials together to make a crude hacksaw.
He needed more small strips of sheet metal, but couldn’t use his arms still. That meant no smashing things. He used a chisel to cut a piece of sheet metal into smaller strips, to attach to a crude hacksaw.
As he was working, night fell, and he had to wait to finish the hacksaw.
His boat needed more work. It was getting heavy, too heavy to row by oars alone. The choice now was whether to build it out as a full boat with sails, or strip it back down to basics.
From here onwards I’m using a ReShade preset I made. It’s like a group of filters you can apply to how the game is displayed. I set up a topic for ReShade here: ReShade - add visual filters to your game
If he was going to build sails, he could retain most of his work, and make it closer to what he had originally imagined. That meant he needed to find some sheets.
Being sail-powered meant Reyes would be free to wander around the ship while it moved. He could fight off Z-sharks, cook, or work over his gear while in transit. Moving would take very little energy.
However, the ship would be limited to move only in the direction of the wind. That certainly made pushing off from land more difficult, and he’d need to make sure the area he landed his ship was always clear.
Reyes took stock of the food left in the prison kitchen. He still needed to get back to the lighthouse, which had lots of food in addition to what he had at-hand here. But for now, he had just a few days left.
Water was also important. The prison’s toilets had lots of water still available. This island fortress remained a good place to stay. He ate some coconuts. It was still early. 8:39AM.
He hoped to get the boat ready, by the time the wind turned westwards.
Reyes took apart some more desks, as he found them to be the best sources for nails. He’d seen there was a desk in each watchtower, watching over the prison. He took each of them apart. The day turned into night as he worked away.
Soon night fell, and he went to the cafeteria. He boiled up enough water to fill every plastic bottle and jar he had. There was no reason not to have as much clean water available as possible.
Reyes re-hydrated and cooked some lentils on the oven fire. Using the light, he crafted a few small things like more lockpicks, and hammered some steel into spikes.
He awoke to his alarm, at 5AM. He wanted to get started more than he wanted to sleep in. He needed to finish up his boat, and head off the island.
He still needed more nails. Anything that was pinned down, he un-pinned and took the pins. He turned over beds, and took apart the bedframes for nails. Doorframes were also great sources, and had a dozen nails each.
The boat still needed walls before it was fully secure. That meant a lot more work still needed to be done. At least a few more days.
The base of the boat was done. It was a flat surface, with a door at the back that he intended to add walls to. He put the oars in the boat. In case the sails stopped working, maybe he could swap them. He also put up a cloth roof over the seat, to protect him from the sun.
He may have to take the boat out sooner than he hoped. His food looked to be running low, and that meant he needed to get to the lighthouse within the week.
At least Reyes had been putting on weight. All that pesto made him fat, which would be spent if he had to go hungry for a while. But losing his fat was a last resort. His plan for now was to wait, and keep working on the boat for as long as he had food left. Worst-case, he could try rowing.
He knew there were sharks between him and the lighthouse, so the walls were a necessity.
The Lowrider was really coming along. After he finished the hull, and started on the walls. This ship was now even faster than his original design, with twice the top speed. This would jet him around the lake very quickly, so long as the wind was cooperative.
He set up curtains in the windows on his doors, to prevent sight. If he had to camp somewhere, the less chance he was spotted the better. By that logic, he decided to wall in the sides of the ship to prevent lateral vision.
It certainly became a tank. A small pillbug where he could be somewhat safe. He used some doors to make three windows at the front, for him to see through, and he installed curtains on each which could be pulled closed.
He’d been working so much that he had lost some of the weight he had put on in his pesto-eating days.
Nightfall came, and Reyes headed back inside the prison to rest. There were just four essential pieces left before the ship would be seaworthy.