No Ships
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by Abregaza
(Challenge Response No 4.)
DISCLAIMER: I don't own them, I know it, you know it, everyone knows it.
A/N: My answer to the Cape Haven Writers Group Challenge set by Alaidh. The challenge was to write a piece of fiction of any length that had was set during Season 1 where Max and Logan (who must be in his chair) went camping for any reason with a tent involved, and there was not allowed to be any 'ship.
Thanks also to Denise, who helped me finally write an answer to this that actually meets the challenge requirements, the other versions are all technically disqualified. They'll appear here shortly, once the last kinks are ironed out and the beta is finished. Enjoy.
"Logan," said Max, pushing a frustrated hand through her hair. "I don't get it, why are we here."
She gestured to the area around them. They were on a forested cliff top, overlooking the ocean. It had taken them two hours to struggle to the area, and another half hour to set up camp.
"Why are we here, in the middle of nowhere… camping? With an actual tent, no less! If you wanted to go on another Eyes Only Wilderness Retreat we could have borrowed your uncle's cabin again."
"I told you, Max, we're looking for the ship," Logan said, forcing his wheelchair over a patch of furrowed ground.
"What ship?" she asked, exasperated with this whole situation.
"Exactly, Max."
"Exactly what?"
Logan gestured towards the ocean, finally having crossed the clearing to the edge of the cliff top to park his chair beside her.
"We live in Seattle, a city which was once a major shipping point of the North American continent, yet do you see any ships out there?" He glanced at her and realised she still didn't understand his point.
"This is more than just the Pulse affecting things. Even a month or two ago at my cousin's wedding there were ships coming into and out of Seattle. Yet for the past three weeks not a single ship has come into or out of Seattle."
"And this requires us to go camping? What's the big deal?"
"Someone or something is stopping the ships from entering Seattle waters, I want to know who and why?"
"I still don't understand why we're camping," Max said, walking towards her backpack and pulling out a packet of marshmallows before grinning at him cheekily. "But let's make some S'mores while you explain it again.
Two days later they were back in Seattle, in Logan's apartment. Max was watching with awe as Logan hacked and cracked his way into a dozen secure servers to get the information he needed. She grabbed the pages that the printer spat out and read frantically.
"I've got it," they yelled simultaneously, turning to each other in their joy at finally having solved the mystery.
"It's Alaidh's fault!" they cried again simultaneously. "She declared Seattle a non-shipper area."
"Now the question we need to answer is 'why?'" said Logan turning back to his computer screen.
"It just doesn't make any sense," said Max. "She can't be making any money from diverting the ships away; why would she interfere in the natural order of things?"
"I don't know Max, I just don't know."
THE END.