Ocean Waves

The Rescuers

Hours went by and Luca and Giulia haven't seen Alberto nor Maria. "Where are they? Are they ok?" Giulia said worriedly "I don't know! I'll go check!" Luca said and dove into the water and swam out towards the island Alberto was heading. A few moments of swimming, Luca saw a trail of blood coming from the side of the island and followed it. As he followed the floating blood trail, more blood started appearing as if something was bleeding. Luca looked down and saw Alberto at the bottom unconscious. "ALBERTO!" Luca yelled and swam towards him. "Alberto! Wake up! C'mon, please wake up!" Luca cried. Alberto groaned from the pain in his head and started waking up from a long blackout. "Ugh... What happened?" Alberto said sitting up and rubbing the wound on the side of his head. "You tell me, why is there blood everywhere? Where's Maria?" Luca asked, then Alberto remembered what happened "OH NO! MARIA! Ercole stabbed her through her shoulder and took her away!" Alberto cried, "What!? Ercole!? What for?" Luca asked "A competition! In Genoa!" Alberto said, "The train! He's gonna be on the train!" Luca cried and they both started swimming back to town.

Giulia was pacing around the dock waiting for Luca and Alberto to return. Luca and Alberto started coming out the water and ran to Giulia, "Giulia! Have you seen Ercole!?" Alberto asked worriedly, "I saw him carrying something under a blanket and headed to the train station." She said "That was Maria!" Alberto shouted then ran over and hopped on his Vespa and started racing to the train station before it took off, Giulia and Luca got on their bikes and started racing behind. "C'mon, c'mon!" Alberto said nervously as he was almost there to the train. Giulia and Luca caught up to Alberto, "Alberto! The train's leaving!" Said Luca, "Look! There's Ercole!" Giulia said pointing to Ercole hopping onto the train carrying a bloody humanoid-shaped blanket. "There's Maria!" Alberto said and sped up faster, Giulia and Luca followed behind. As the train was moving away, Alberto, Luca and Giulia started riding on the train tracks trying to get as close to the train as possible.

"We're not gonna make it!" Luca said, Alberto looked to his left and saw a rocky ramp then grabbed Luca and Giulia hands and had them sit with him in his Vespa, 

"You guys hang on!" Alberto said as he started riding up the rocky ramp and jumped onto the top of the train losing the Vespa and struggling to stay on top as they started sliding off. Giulia started swinging back and forth hanging off the edge of the train and hopped in the end of the train where there was a door and railing.

"C'mon guys! Jump down!" Giulia shouted and Alberto and Luca started doing the same thing she did and jumped down to the end she was at. 

"Now let's find Maria!" Alberto said as he opened the door and they went inside viewing a lot of people in the passenger seats. 

"Let's be careful, and keep an eye out for Ercole and Maria." Giulia said as they started walking through the seated passengers looking for Ercole.

After a long while of strolling through the train to find Ercole, a conductor caught them. "Hey! What are you doing? Do you have a train ticket?" The conductor asked, Giulia laughed nervously, "Hehe, it's a funny story..." she said then started running and Alberto and Luca followed running after. "Hey!" The conductor shouted and started chasing after them. The three started running through the train cart to cart until they bumped into Ercole.

"You three!?" He said, then the conductor caught up. "It's ok, Amico. These three are with me." Ercole said, "Well... Ok, next time they should have their tickets." The conductor said and walked away. Ercole pushed the three into a cart that had no seats or passengers, but it was dark and only had two window left to right. "Where's Maria, Ercole?" Alberto said standing up and walking towards Ercole. "Relax, fishboy. She's fine, we managed to stop the bleeding and get the harpoon out." Ercole said. The three sighed in relief, "But that doesn't mean your gonna stop me from having her make me a winner!" Ercole said and snapped his finger and his mates grabbed Alberto and his friends and put a clothe over their noses that had a sleeping chemical on it and the three started falling asleep, "By the time you wake up, this will all feel like a bad dream." Ercole said, his voice starting to fade away as everything faded to black.