My Five Companions

by w.j.debi

Background
Chapter 1: Ava Revel frees herself from debris.
Chapter 2: Ava searches the ship. She finds herself alone except for neighing in the cargo hold.

When I stepped through the compartment door, four young stallions greeted me with enthusiastic neighing. They pranced in their stalls like I was the most exciting thing they had ever seen. There was also a billy goat voicing his greeting. The neighing and bleating sounded so beautiful I got teary-eyed. I grew up with horses around so they were welcome companions. I petted them each in turn through their stall doors, using my best horse-soothing tone as I spoke to them.

“Good to see you boys. You’re going to be okay. I’ll get you out of here. You’re such beauties.”

The goat? I rubbed the top of his head and frowned. Goats were known to be all sorts of trouble, but they were also sometimes used as stable companions for nervous horses. Since the goat was tethered outside the stalls, I wondered which horse was his stablemate. Maybe none of them. It could be a coincidence.

My voice seemed to reassure the horses so I continued talking to them as I investigated the compartment.

“Good thing the air conditioning is on to circulate the air for you. It’s stuffy enough down here with it blowing. You must have had quite a ride. I bet you got tossed around a bit. I only saw a few scrapes, but I’ll check for wounds later. First things first. How long have you been without water? I remember how thirsty I was this morning. Hey, we’re in luck. I see a faucet near the door. And here’s a hose. Looks like this compartment is set up to care for animals.”

Continuing a constant chatter, I filled each water bucket a quarter full. I had two reasons for partially filling the buckets. I didn’t want the horses or the goat drinking too much all at once; it could make them sick. It also allowed me to get water to each one more quickly.

They drained their buckets before I finished the first pass. On the second and third passes I filled the buckets halfway then gave them a bit of a break while I explored some more. I found a halter on the floor. Good. I would need it, hopefully, soon. The animals were still thirsty so I filled their buckets on the next pass and was happy to see they backed off from drinking after just a few gulps.

Next to the faucet there were three and a half bales of hay. If that was all the hay set aside for these animals, they were only meant to be going from one island to the next, and with only a day or two in between. As thirsty as they were, they had to be hungry too. Maybe I could use that hunger to entice them out of the compartment. I had promised to get them out of here, but I didn’t have any idea how I was going to do that yet.

I stepped out of the door and was immediately followed by, “Don’t leave me here,” pleas in the horses’ nervous whinnies.

I stuck my head back through the door. “It’s alright, boys. I just want to check out an escape route. I’ll be right back.”

An inspection of the stairs I had used previously confirmed what I already believed. The goat might be able to climb the narrow twisting steps, but the horses would never make it.

When I located the freight elevator and opened the doors, I was happy to see it was large enough to accommodate one, maybe even two of the horses at a time. A knot formed in my stomach. So much for my vow to not use the elevators. But this was life and death for the animals and I couldn’t see any other way to get them to another deck. My immediate plan was to get them to the main deck so they were out in the open. After that? I’d have to take it one step at a time.

The horses greeted me with excited neighs a few minutes later when I returned with a wheelbarrow.

I smiled. “You know, boys, I could get used to all this attention.”

When I rolled the wheelbarrow out of the compartment, they again gave me distressed whinnies. I’m sure they were confused as to why I was removing two bales of hay and leaving them behind.

“Just getting things ready. You’ll be out soon,” I reassured them as I left.

When I pushed the wheelbarrow out of the elevator and onto the main deck, I noted the position of the sun. It was mid-afternoon. I needed to work quickly to get the horses out of the compartment or they’d be spending another night there. I left the wheelbarrow next to the elevator and jogged to the back of the ship. What I saw made my heart skip a beat.

The ramp used by passengers to disembark from the ship for what was called “wet landings” was down. It was wide enough for a small car to drive aboard if needed and I’d seen some cargo wheeled up it when we left our first port. Even better, the end of it rested on dry ground. Though the ramp looked a bit crooked, the descent wasn’t too steep. I nearly burst into tears. I had a way to get the horses off the ship.

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