Circumnavigation (99+56) The Belly of the Beast

[C James]

• Posted 141st December 2012 - 04:20 PM

The Belly of the Beast is up! (it might take a minute after this post to appear).

 

 

 

 

Okay, we've got a chapter up at long last. I sincerely apologize for the delay.

 

 

This chapter was originally called "Hellbound", until I was made aware (thanks!!!) than I'd used that one before. Sorry for the confusion.

 

I'm now positive; after this chapter, we have ONE more (and an epilogue) remaining. This is the next-to-last chapter.

 

 

Posted 141st December 2012 - 04:20 PM

[MikeL]

YAY!

[C James]

Heh.... It took longer to prep and upload than I thought. Also, my internet connection failed moments after I hit the post button and I just now got back online, so for a while I was stuck wondering if it had posted or not.

[mickey1952]

It posted and boy, was it worth the wait. I sat on the edge of my chair during the entire read. It was as though we were right there on Atlantis, sharing every nervewracking moment with Trev and his "crew". It was as gratifying to see Shane survive as it was satisfying to see Bridget not survive. Good riddance. Now the wait begins to see just how our heroes survive Dean. Just amazing work, CJ! Once again, thanks for sharing your talent and imagination.

[jacksf]

Bridget is dead. DEAD. Thank you! Now if you can only get our heroes to safety. Thank you CJ for another amazing journey.Your talent and imagination are definitely something to be admired. 

[ltc_fireman]

Ding dong the witch is dead!   Another great chapter CJ!   And..... cliffhanger free

[bayoudreamn]

yea......cliffhanger free.....kinda like the eye of the hurricane is free of ANY winds....

 

quite a predicament to be in, they are. I wonder.........there is this little thing that could happen, it wouldn't get you 'out' of something but something may put you where you want to be.....and good ol' Frank Tittle.......I like the way he thinks!!!

Edited April 21, 2013 by bayoudreamn

[bayoudreamn]

Thanks CJ. Another well written chapter!! Pretty intense. I think it's amazing that you can take a story to the edge of reality and balance it on the precipice. You have an awesome talent........taller than a 30 foot wave!!

[Benji]

...........I have another take on it, yes Bridget is dead but it was an unsatisfying death in my take on it. She only exprienced a short time of torture, from what she has delivered to others, her anguish was sort and sweet compared what she imposed on others. I was not sated to her demise here.

 

The fact that Trevor can maintain speed to match the hurricane, I thought maybe he could make landfall while in the eye of the storm and escape the wrath of the backside.

 

It seems that Frank Tittle has already used up a promissinary note to evacate the crew from another cartel submarine. This is a chance he takes, but given the 'perks' the other catel can get, I'm sure Trevor and crew are safe.

 

Nice chapter, long overdue but well worth it!  Cannot wait for the finish!

[C James]

It posted and boy, was it worth the wait. I sat on the edge of my chair during the entire read. It was as though we were right there on Atlantis, sharing every nervewracking moment with Trev and his "crew". It was as gratifying to see Shane survive as it was satisfying to see Bridget not survive. Good riddance. Now the wait begins to see just how our heroes survive Dean. Just amazing work, CJ! Once again, thanks for sharing your talent and imagination.

 

Thanks!!!!

 

I will endeavor to finish up the final chapter promptly; no more long waits. I really do feel bad about the length of time it took for this chapter. I had it drafted out as of three years ago, but it took a lot of reworking - far more than I'd thought. The plot was basically unchanged, but in this case, the detail work took me forever.

 

 

Bridget is dead. DEAD. Thank you! Now if you can only get our heroes to safety. Thank you CJ for another amazing journey.Your talent and imagination are definitely something to be admired. 

 

Thanks!!!

 

Yep, Bridget is dead... Trevor and Atlantis got her; the damage he did with that rifle was fatal to Sea Witch, and thus Bridget. It just took a bit longer than he thought.  

 

Ding dong the witch is dead!   Another great chapter CJ!   And..... cliffhanger free

 

Thank you!!!!

 

And absolutely cliffhanger-free. And tension-free at the end as well; I did promise that the chapter ending would not be tense in any way, and it isn't.

 

 

yea......cliffhanger free.....kinda like the eye of the hurricane is free of ANY winds....

 

quite a predicament to be in, they are. I wonder.........there is this little thing that could happen, it wouldn't get you 'out' of something but something may put you where you want to be.....and good ol' Frank Tittle.......I like the way he thinks!!!

 

Absolutely cliffhanger-free! I'm delighted to see that we all agree there!

 

Their situation is a little bit of a conundrum, isn't it?

 

Thanks CJ. Another well written chapter!! Pretty intense. I think it's amazing that you can take a story to the edge of reality and balance it on the precipice. You have an awesome talent........taller than a 30 foot wave!!

 

Precipice? Sorry, but that I could never do... I could never go near the edge of a precipice... that's the edge of a cliff!

 

@Benji, I see your post but it appeared after I began mine, so me reply to yours will be along in a few minutes.

[prklux]

Posted while I was out walking my dogs ( 12 to 16 hours ahead of readers in the USA )

Just had to read it could not wait any LONGER

Well worth buggering my days planned activities Was going to work on my car now 38 and getting hotter and the sun is shinning on it  Oh! well tomorrow is another day

Guess I will just have to open a COLD BEER

So glad you all think that CJ does not write cliff hangers must revise my definition a bit it does not seem to match????????

Another great chapter (even if it is not a cliff hanger)

Sorry the WITCH had such a quick death most disheartening

Now eagerly waiting for the next chapter

Just going to open that beer then check cyclone oops hurricane Dean's track and possible ways out

Would not have thought of a drug runners sub (interesting) is Frank more involved than being their Lawyer

[C James]

...........I have another take on it, yes Bridget is dead but it was an unsatisfying death in my take on it. She only exprienced a short time of torture, from what she has delivered to others, her anguish was sort and sweet compared what she imposed on others. I was not sated to her demise here.

 

The fact that Trevor can maintain speed to match the hurricane, I thought maybe he could make landfall while in the eye of the storm and escape the wrath of the backside.

 

It seems that Frank Tittle has already used up a promissinary note to evacate the crew from another cartel submarine. This is a chance he takes, but given the 'perks' the other catel can get, I'm sure Trevor and crew are safe.

 

Nice chapter, long overdue but well worth it!  Cannot wait for the finish!

 

I happen to agree that Bridget's demise was not as bad as she deserved... especially not after what she did to one of my all-time favorite characters, Henry Wesson (eaten alive). However... had she not died as she did, Trevor would not have the opportunity he now has to utterly destroy the entire cartel. The cartel is far more than the force off Jamaica; there's Bridget's operation in the Bahamas, the cartel's heart in Colombia, etc. If the cartel survives, Trevor and Shane do not.

 

Good idea on Frank Tittle and a sub from a cartel, except it can't work. The narration says there are no subs within range, and also, the smuggling subs tend to be very basic affairs and can't dive past 60 or 70 feet. To survive a passage to the eye of a major hurricane, you'd need to be at 200 or deeper. Plus, the cartel subs are very basic diesel, and run via snorkeling. They can't dive deep. There is also the speed issue; even the most advanced diesel electric subs can't move fast while below snorkeling depth, so the only way to reach the eye (assuming they could dive deep enough) would be to position itself ahead of the hurricane track and then dive to await the eye.   

 

But, that pesky line of narration rules it out; there are no subs within range.

 

Trevor and Shane are wounded, so wouldn't be able to move fast on land, and they wouldn't have long once beached before the eye moved off the beach (and Dean will landfall as a high Cat5, a true monster). They also have no idea exactly where the eye will make landfall. We can know that, but they can't... not until they get there; the forecast track has variances in it.

 

What Dean is... is a bit of a conundrum. However... it's not a tense ending, because they are totally safe in the eye; nothing and no one can get to them.

[Danny707]

As I see it they can still be rescued by a sub. I highly doubt the US Navy is the only one with subs that would help. I also doubt that the US Navy would know the location of all subs owned by other nations. Highly unlikely but maybe possible?

[C James]

Posted while I was out walking my dogs ( 12 to 16 hours ahead of readers in the USA )

Just had to read it could not wait any LONGER

Well worth buggering my days planned activities Was going to work on my car now 38 and getting hotter and the sun is shinning on it  Oh! well tomorrow is another day

Guess I will just have to open a COLD BEER

So glad you all think that CJ does not write cliff hangers must revise my definition a bit it does not seem to match????????

Another great chapter (even if it is not a cliff hanger)

Sorry the WITCH had such a quick death most disheartening

Now eagerly waiting for the next chapter

Just going to open that beer then check cyclone oops hurricane Dean's track and possible ways out

Would not have thought of a drug runners sub (interesting) is Frank more involved than being their Lawyer

 

"So glad you all think that CJ does not write cliff hangers must revise my definition a bit it does not seem to match????????"

 

It's absolutely, positively not a cliffhanger. As is often said here in this forum, I never, ever use or write cliffhangers. Just think of Dean as a new character, one that's, as you down under might say, a bit windy.

 

Dean's track... hrmmm!! Let me see what I can do....

 

 

 

 

 

BTW, the 175mph winds are the maximum sustained winds. Dean had gusts well over 200mph at landfall, due to vortexes in the eyewall (common for cat 4 or cat 5). 

 

It was a rare combination of events and geography (such as the towering cliffs of Lover's Leap to windward) that allowed Atlantis the chance to reach the eye. Now, if a similar set of circumstances (a mountainous running parallel and close to the eye's track) occurred, but to the left of the track, that might well make a break from the eye survivable. Maybe. However, drat the luck, there isn't one on Dean's path.

 

For anyone wondering what a Cat 5 landfall looks like, here's a pic from part of Florida hit by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 (the last cat 5 landfall in the USA - for comparison, Katrina was cat3),

though Andrew was small and weak (barely cat5, and only in a small area) compared to what Dean will be at landfall.

The cars, BTW, were tossed around by the vortexes in the eyewall - basically tornadoes.

 

As I see it they can still be rescued by a sub. I highly doubt the US Navy is the only one with subs that would help. I also doubt that the US Navy would know the location of all subs owned by other nations. Highly unlikely but maybe possible?

 

Sorry, but the narration says no subs within range (it doesn't limit the statement to US subs). That wasn't a character's opinion, that was narration, so it has to be true. Therefor, they cannot be rescued by a sub.

[xizor]

Awesome. I started by re-reading the last few paragraphs of 154 to refresh and get back in the moment. That was a good idea I think.

 

Pity about Bridget dying like that, when she was in the water and sppedboats racing to get her, I kinda hoped that one would run over her. HA! I'm so glad she's dead, Again, congrats on making a character I was truly able to loath.

 

My brain had thought about and dismissed the scenario of them getting into the eye of the storm. I didn't think it would be possible. So in reality, what would be the chances of this?

 

Another great chapter, thanks. When does it become appropriate to start asking for the next chapter? lol. Cause right now, I'm already wanting more to read.

[C James]

Awesome. I started by re-reading the last few paragraphs of 154 to refresh and get back in the moment. That was a good idea I think.

 

Pity about Bridget dying like that, when she was in the water and sppedboats racing to get her, I kinda hoped that one would run over her. HA! I'm so glad she's dead, Again, congrats on making a character I was truly able to loath.

 

My brain had thought about and dismissed the scenario of them getting into the eye of the storm. I didn't think it would be possible. So in reality, what would be the chances of this?

 

Another great chapter, thanks. When does it become appropriate to start asking for the next chapter? lol. Cause right now, I'm already wanting more to read.

 

Bridget actually had a slower death than if she'd been run over. She was in the water a while, many minutes, being battered and slowly drowned. She also got to see any hope of rescue vanishing as the boats turned away. But... not as bad as she deserved.

 

In reality, I think that under those specific circumstances, Atlantis, after ballasting (letting sea water into the bilges)  could have reached the eye. Remember, the wind on that side of the storm is from the north, so it's coming off of the mountainous coast, and they are due south of the thousand-foot-plus cliffs of Lover's Leap. They are well out to sea (almost 20 miles) but due to the wind being offshore the seas are nowhere near as severe as a cat4 on the open sea - not on that side of the storm at least. So the winds and seas are survivable for entry to the eye due to that set of circumstances - except a cat4 eyewall would likely tear Atlantis to bits. How likley is it that an eyewall replacement cycle would happen during Dean's close brush of Jamaica? I don't know, but I do know that it really happened, exactly as depicted, and I can prove it. 

 

Not only do we have the actual NHC archives for Dean, which mention the eyewall replacement cycle (a fairly commonplace occurrence for major hurricanes) I have a link to an animated pic showing it as it happens.

I'll try to insert the pic,

 

 

 

As the eye nears the southernmost point on Jamaica (Portland HEad) you can see a dark ring forming, and in the last frame the eye appears to expand. That's the start of an eyewall replacement cycle, and that temporarily reduces the storm's intensity in the inner core. I wish this sequence went about two frames further, but this shows the start of it as the eye nears Portland Head. Atlantis entered the eye when the center of the eye was just past due south of Portand Head. (a couple of frames past where the IR gif loop ends).

 

BTW, in case the moving gif does not load right for some, here's a link.

 

IMHO, it would have been one hell of a ride, but in very skilled hands and with a little luck, Atlantis could have reached the eye due to that combination of geography and circumstance.

 

CJ

 

Edit: Ah, here we go... The page that gif is from has a pic of Dean showing a concentric eyewall structure upon approach to Portland Head.

 

 

A concentric eyewall structure is the first phase of an eyewall replacement cycle.

 

So, at least as far as the eyewall replacement cycle, not only could it have happened, but it did, exactly where we saw it happen. 

[KevinD]

I just don't know how the goat does it!  Another outstanding chapter as we come to the end of this great ride… Thanks to CJ and team for the great entertainment this story has provided.

[ninecila]

Oh my God, what a situation! I don't have much hope of them escaping Dean, but its impressive, that they at least made it to the core. I am going to keep on writing for an impossible mirracle.... But either way it ends, it is one hell of a story

[C James]

I just don't know how the goat does it!  Another outstanding chapter as we come to the end of this great ride… Thanks to CJ and team for the great entertainment this story has provided.

 

Thanks!!!

 

It's been a very long ride... I can't believe how long it has taken to get here!

 

One more chapter...

 

Oh my God, what a situation! I don't have much hope of them escaping Dean, but its impressive, that they at least made it to the core. I am going to keep on writing for an impossible mirracle.... But either way it ends, it is one hell of a story

 

Look at it this way; they couldn't be in a safer place. The cartel can't possibly get to them. (and neither can anyone else).

 

Trevor really didn't have any other option than to try for the eye. It was the one and only way to keep them all alive. Now though... they have a few issues. A bit of a conundrum, in fact.

 

 

Edit: I just wanted to make sure everyone knows; Dean was a very real storm, and in the story Dean will adhere exactly to the historical record in every way.

[Gene63]

OMG...what a great chapter!!! I am so glad Bridget bit it!!! It was like being there with them every step of the way!!! I love it and I hate there is only one more chapter and then the epilogue!!! Thank you for a great story whatever the outcome!!!

[KaimukiMan]

Encore!

 

Well done.  Maybe Bridget's death could have been enhanced by one of her people taking pot shots of her in the water, but that would have been too far fetched.  No one would get that close to her in those conditions except to collect the bounty.  There is no such thing as a long and painful enough death.  Her's was probably longer than the poor agent who was eaten by the alligators.  And who knows how long her brain was experiencing pain after she took the last fatal breath, not to mention the way time seems to expand when we are in pain.  And part of her brain also knew that in spite of all her cunning and brutality, all the money and time, that in the end Trevor and Shane beat her at her own game on her own turf.

 

As for the next phase, no doubt CJ has some surprises in store, he certainly does his homework in that.  So we know they can't exit the way they came in, we know there is no trap door in the floor to escape thru (submarine), and we know boats can't fly so it looks like the end of the line for Atlantis, even if our fearless crew manages somehow to survivie.  All I can figure is somehow up and over the top.  The cartel doesn't have a sub capable, does it have a helicopter or some other kind of plane?  And  how long will the eye of the storm be that large.  From what I saw of the eyewall generation cycle sometimes they will have quite a swath of relative calm, other times it's going to seem relatively tight, and probably rougher - but I haven't done my homework on that, although no doubt CJ has.

[MikeL]

...I have another take on it, yes Bridget is dead but it was an unsatisfying death in my take on it. She only exprienced a short time of torture, from what she has delivered to others, her anguish was sort and sweet compared what she imposed on others. I was not sated to her demise here.

 

 

Encore!

 

Well done.  Maybe Bridget's death could have been enhanced by one of her people taking pot shots of her in the water, but that would have been too far fetched.  No one would get that close to her in those conditions except to collect the bounty.  There is no such thing as a long and painful enough death.  Her's was probably longer than the poor agent who was eaten by the alligators.  And who knows how long her brain was experiencing pain after she took the last fatal breath, not to mention the way time seems to expand when we are in pain.  And part of her brain also knew that in spite of all her cunning and brutality, all the money and time, that in the end Trevor and Shane beat her at her own game on her own turf.

 

 

Does anyone find Bridget's death familiar in any way?  If so, you may find her death more satisfactory.

Edited April 21, 2013 by MikeL

[xizor]

Does anyone find Bridget's death familiar in any way?  If so, you may find her death more satisfactory.

 

After reading this I remembered that Trevor almost was drowned after being tossed overboard by the pirates, so its fitting in a way. 

 

So I'm wondering tho, CJames, do you have a background in all things nautical, boating, weather etc... or do you have to put a hell of a lot of effort into researching and learning stuff to write this? I love how you manage to include 'tidbits' so to speak of information about one thing or another that makes it all seem 'more real'

 

Cheers

[IanGf]

SHE IS DEAD!!! I am so glad she's dead. Can't wait to read how they all end up. Hopefully 'happily ever after'

[miketx8]

At least I know Bridget is dead. I thought this was the final chapter but it wasn't.

Please lets get the final chapter and epilog quicker than this chapter was.