I Will Find You | Pirates of the Caribbean

Nine

"Are we not shallower on the draft?" I call out to the dark-haired woman at the helm, whose hands clutch and turn the steering wheel around repeatedly, a short, "Aye" being the only response. I manage to haul myself up the stairs towards her against the thrashing waves, and shout, "then can we not attempt to lose them in the shoals?" I comment, pointing out front to where the ocean contains a lighter-green patch of water, compared to the deep blue stretched out as far as the eye can see. 

After Mr. Gibbs adds that we don't have to attempt the plan for long, he then swiftly turns around to address all those up on the main deck, barking that anything that we can afford to lose should be tossed overboard. Barrels, spare planks of wood, cannonballs and more are thrown away from the ship, collapsing into the water and piling up into a line. But it all comes to a dwindling halt, as the Black Pearl continues to gain on us, the woman still at the helm scoffing slightly at the failed plan. "It was a good plan, up until now," she adds, briefly turning her head to face my direction. 

"We have to make a stand," William exclaims as he joins the three of us by the helm, strands of his hair falling out from his low ponytail and brushing across his cheeks, "we must fight! Load the guns!" The woman steering questions what we should load the cannons with, seeing as how all the cannonballs were thrown off the ship mere moments ago. "Anything and everything," I answer, moving so I am stood beside William, "whatever we still possess, we must use." Mr. Gibbs shouts orders once again at everyone on board, who rush to the cannons above and below, grabbing whatever possible on their way to stuff inside them. 

Mr. Gibbs proceeds to run back up to the helm, warning us all of the danger that the Pearl carries, in that the ship will rake our own without ever even presenting a solid target. "Lower the anchor on the starboard side," I propose, turning around to look at each individual, "it will give us the element of surprise against the Pearl." As William agrees, with a light sparkle emerging in Mr. Gibb's eyes also, the woman at the helm adds an unhelpful comment that William and I are daft. "Daft like Jack," Mr. Gibbs adds, a smirk on his face as he barks out another order to the crew, who are slightly hesitant to proceed with it. 

I watch from the helm as the anchor is lowered and upon the intense sensation of it catching onto something below the ocean, the ship sharply pulls to one side and I feel my hand reach up for the nearest rope to clutch onto. "Let go of the wheel!" I exclaim to the woman holding onto the steering, who surprisingly immediately relinquishes her grip and with no one in control, the ship abruptly pulls around with harsher intensity that almost makes me stumble over my own feet. Once the ship finds itself back in a normal position, the Black Pearl has begun to move in front of us, so I rush down the stairs to join most of the crew on deck.

Shouting emerges quickly from either ship, and after exchanging just one look with William, the both of us shout aloud, "Fire!" Cannons immediately launch joint fire from the ships against each other, blowing apart wooden boards and occasionally blasting someone off the deck. As they continue, I move across next to William, who is firing from a hand-held bayonet alongside Mr. Gibbs, who asks if either of us have anymore tactical ideas. Upon failing to mention one, Mr. Gibbs acknowledges that they could use a Devil's Dowry to cease the fighting.

"We'll give them her!" The woman shouts, pulling back my hair sharply and aiming her pistol into my left temple, causing a small grunt of pain to fall from my lips. "She's not what they're after," William observes, and my heart sinks to my stomach when I look down to my chest to realise that the medallion is no longer there. It's underneath the deck in the brig, where the two of us were before. When I glance back up, William seems to remember that also and he immediately rushes down to find it, almost jumping over the bottom section of stairs. 

After barely a minute, a thundering crunching sound cracks through the air and as I look up with Mr. Gibbs, we watch as the middle sail tumbles down over onto the deck of the Black Pearl. The fighting grows fiercely as pirates from the Pearl start to clamber over onto the Interceptor, after which I realise that if I do not start to defend myself, I will either be taken hostage yet again or killed. The closest weapon my eyes fall upon is a sword, which I swiftly pick up and brandish in front of the first unrecognisable pirate before me. Remembering all and any past swordsmanship lessons, I begin to challenge the pirate in combat and manage to knock him away, before another pulls my arm to the side.

But then, another grabs onto their arm, a very recognisable pirate with dark brown dreadlocks. "That's not very nice," Jack comments, shaking his finger at the pirate, distracting him long enough that I am able to strike him with the end of the sword handle and knock him over into the ocean. Jack pulls me to the side and immediately questions where the medallion is, my eyes widening slightly with horror as a response. "Ah, then where is dear William?" He proceeds to ask, after which I spin around to see that part of the mast has collapsed over the brig entrance, disabling the ability to leave.

Immediately I rush over and as soon as my eyes fall through one of the several small gaps leading down, I see William struggling among a flooded brig, where there are several large slabs of wood pushed through at conflicting angles. "William!" I shout down, to which he looks up and shouts my name back at me, the water almost up to his chest. Desperately, I try to budge the wooden mast, but it proves far too heavy to move. "It won't move!" I shout down, still attempting to. Then suddenly, I feel my arms and entire body sharply pulled backwards, and I scream out William's name as I am tugged away. 

Failing to fight back, I struggle pitifully against the ever tightening grip on my body as I am dragged back onto the Black Pearl with the rest of the crew, who are being tied up to one of the masts. The Pearl has put some distance between itself and the Interceptor by the time Pintel starts to wrap the ropes around the crew, but I spot an opportunity and push myself out from underneath, just before the Interceptor is blown apart. I freeze completely in my spot for a moment, a shocked gasp leaving my lips at the sight of wooden planks being fired up into the sky and the thought of William being so brutally killed, but then I rush at Barbossa with fury and attempt to strike him several times.

But he swiftly turns around and grabs either of my wrists, clutching at them with his claw-like nails which dig into my skin. "Welcome back, Miss," he snarls at me, wafting his reeking breath into my face, "Ye took advantage of our hospitality last time, it holds fair now that you return the favour!" Then without hesitation, he shoves me backwards into a cluster of Black Pearl pirates, who envelop me and almost drown out my screams with their lusty exclamations. Hands grab and perv over my body, several reaching far down beyond the plum coloured dress until they find my breasts, which they instantly fondle and clench. 

As I scream, more of them tug at my hair and or my face, squeezing tightly and one even smothers over my face with his mouth; licking and kissing wherever he possibly can. "BARBOSSA!" I cough aloud slightly after the revolting pirates remove their hands and or mouths to observe whomever distracted them, which I see is William, clutching a pistol in his hand. "William," I whisper gleefully, a few tears trickling down my cheeks as I try to catch my breath. Holding the pistol up and aiming directly at the Black Pearl's captain, a soaked through William demands, "Release her this instant! She goes free!"