A Pirate's Life for Mei

Angry Volcano

Mei

It was intimidating to watch a large, athletic, and very dangerous man charge full tilt at her with a musket, one with a wicked knife on the end of it. Mei instinctively wanted to back down, to run, to beg for mercy.

But there was no mercy in those eyes. Only excitement. He grinned and moved so fast that he appeared to double in size, a giant coming after her.

The fear was nearly overwhelming. Her hand shook, and the barrel wavered from its target. She held off her shot, knowing she needed to wait until the last moment for the bullet to hit him.

The musket pointed and fired.

The bullet hit her in the side of the chest and it was like being kicked by a mule. She staggered back a step, eyes watering from the pain and shock. And then he was almost on her, so she hastily fired the pistol.

He twisted his torso and lowered his shoulder like a football player. The bullet hit him in the shoulder and bounced off, barely grazing him and not slowing him in the slightest. His grin widened, feral and full of teeth.

Her eyes widened and she tried to protect herself with her arm and the pistol. But he rammed into her with his whole body. The bayonet pierced her left bicep, the steel eerily scraping against the bone as it went in, a sensation that she wished she'd never experienced. The impact lifted her off her feet and then he slammed her to the ground. His weight and the bayonet pinned her to the ground, the blade going through her arm and into the soggy soil below. She cried out as the air was expelled from her lungs and gasped for breath.

The naval officer, who she thought might have been somewhat handsome if he hadn't looked so happy to murder her, pressed down on her even more, glee in his eyes.

She whimpered and closed her own eyes from the pain, back trying to arch yet unable to do so with him pressing down on her. Her arm felt like it was being torn off!

"Should have given up," he gloated.

She opened her watery eyes, his face a bit of a blur above her. "Why? So you can try to rape me again?"

He smirked. "This is a prison."

"And that justifies doing whatever you want to the people in here?"

"If you're in here, it means you deserve what you get." He cruelly twisted the bayonet.

She grunted but refused to scream, though every muscle in her body tensed. Panting, she looked him in the eye. "Maybe some do. But I don't."

"They all say that," he mocked.

"Read my file!"

"Yeah yeah. Come on. It's about time we ended this, huh?"

"You're just as corrupt as the rest of them. I'm going to kill you too."

"You wish." He smiled wide and lowered his triumphant expression until it was only a handspan over hers, close enough to feel his breath on her face.

A tremor rippled through the ground, vibrating the blade in her bicep. Mei screamed, in mind-blowing pain, her vision white. In the back of her mind, she felt her attacker roll away but was helpless to do anything about it. Tears flowed down her face faster than the rain.

She eventually came back to her senses and a dim part of her brain wondered where the marine had gone. She opened her eyes and saw the old Carib woman from the village charging him with a spear. No!

The marine contemptuously batted the weapon aside. With brutal efficiency, he punched her twice in the weathered face. Her legs turned to jelly but, before she could fall, his hands grasped her skull.