Seabound (Seabound Chronicles Book 1) Read Online Free

was already buzzing with people chatting about the storm. She
couldn’t see Judith, but she wanted to avoid the inevitable lecture for as long
as possible. She took her breakfast topside and lingered on the main deck for a
while, breathing the salt air and watching the pure blue breaks in the clouds.
The sky seemed clearer lately, she thought, but immediately pushed down the
hope that rose with the thought. There was no going back. Better to focus on
the practical, tangible things.
    But Esther felt
restless. She wanted more than the same routines, the same worries, even the
same seaweed breakfast. The frying gave the food a satisfying crunch, but
inside it was the same rubbery texture as most of their meals since the last
canned vegetables had been cracked open. Esther spit out a shell fragment that
had made its way into her roll and watched it fall until it was indistinguishable
from the white foam beneath her.
    She glanced back
at the sloping edge of the Catalina and
spotted Judith emerging from the starboard entrance. Rust. Esther ducked behind an exhaust vent and darted portside.
She’d hide out with her friend Neal until her shift began. Judith wouldn’t
bother her while she was on duty.
    Neal’s perch was
in the broadcast center jutting above the bridge. From here, he managed
whatever communication was possible with ships around the New Pacific. They depended
on radio because the satellites in the earth’s atmosphere no longer functioned
reliably.
    She climbed the
ladder past the bridge to the broadcast center, which everyone called Neal’s
Tower. A few flakes of white paint still clung to it like barnacles. She pushed
open the trapdoor.
    “Made it through
the night?” she called.
    Neal jumped back
in his chair and yanked his headset off his ears. There was a permanent dent in
his mousy brown hair from the band. “Esther—gotta go, adios—hey,
Esther. Yeah, all’s well up here.” A pink tinge spread through Neal’s cheeks.
    “No need to look
so surprised.”
    “Oh, I was just .
. . glad to see you, Es.”
    Neal tapped a
switch on his control panel and swiveled from side to side in his chair a bit
too casually. Neal was perpetually laid-back. From his faded T-shirt down to
his orange bowling shoes, he always looked casual, but today he seemed
distracted.
    The broadcast center had a wide desk filled with
now-defunct computers facing the tall windows. Neal slept on a cot in the
corner, and he’d removed some of the broken equipment to make room for a few
belongings. A handmade mobile hung from the ceiling with cutouts from old magazines
featuring extinct sports, and a small collection of maps were scattered across
the floor. This was Neal’s sanctuary.
    Esther hoisted
herself onto a long-silent computer console and sat cross-legged. “Nice rider
that was,” she said. “Had a bit of drama with the old pump. Cally managed to
screw things up, but fortunately I checked up on her.”
    “What?” Neal said.
“Oh yeah, the storm. Wasn’t too bad. I got good intel on that one and knew it
wouldn’t be a drowner.”
    Neal swiveled
around in his chair to adjust a knob.
    “Missed a chance
to get some extra parts, though,” Esther said. “Judith’s on my case.”
    Neal frowned.
“When did things get so bad between you two? You used to hero-worship her.”
    Esther shrugged.
“Not my fault she turned out like this.”
    She jumped off the
console and paced across the floor—three steps forward, three steps back.
    “What did she do?”
Neal asked.
    “I almost talked Manny into giving me some
of the salvage, but then Judith turned up, chirping about duty and community.
Now she wants to have a talk about my probation. She better not put me on bilge
duty.”
    “It’s a shame she
doesn’t mean all that duty stuff,” Neal said. “She just wants to control
everybody.”
    “Well, I’ve about
had it.”
    Esther leaned on
the console and looked out to sea. The horizon was distinct, a rare separation
of sea