Escape From Tickle Tower

21

Perrine and Zac ran up to each other. They both looked at one another with panic in their eyes. "You don't think those were the pirates?" Perrine asked while taking multiple deep breaths.

"I'm sure of it. But what are we going to do? I doubt they only took us, plus there may be a lot of them." Zac asked as he looked around, noticing a lack of people around.

"I doubt waiting would be a good idea." Perrine said as she turned around, looking at the lack of people on the raft. "I want to go after them, but I don't know what we could even do."

"It'll definitely help that we have you. You can at least handle a lot of them, but I don't know if we'll be able to get to them before anything bad happens." Zac replied as he walked up to her. "Let's go search for them."

"And then what?" Perrine asked as Zac began to walk further into the raft.

"And then we get our friends back. I'm not letting them keep Alice or Rachel. I doubt you want to either." He responded as he kept walking. Perrine stared at him before walking after him, following him deeper into the raft.

As the two of them walked, they noted more and more about how the raft lacked people. Huts were broken into and a few looked burnt. The more they walked, the more destruction they saw. The two of them looked back at each other, sulking a bit as they walked further into the rubble and ash that awaited them. "Do you think they took everyone?" Perrine asked.

"Probably not. They would need to take them on boats somewhere else. That would be too many people." Zac responded as he looked around.

"Then let's head to where we landed. If we go around the perimeter, then we should be able to find them easily." She said. Zac nodded and they both began to walk towards the perimeter of the raft. As they walked around, they noticed a multitude of rowboats tied to the side of the raft. The two of them looked around the boats, noticing no signs of life by them. What they also noticed was a ship in the background. The ship looked larger than anything they've seen so far, but it was hard to tell due to the distance and the lack of light. "Is that the source of the attack?"

"Could be. Let's find the rest and see what we're dealing with." Zac responded as they turned around.

They began to walk away before hearing a multitude of footsteps heading towards them. The two of them hid behind a bit of rubble, watching as a group of pirates escorted a large group of prisoners. The prisoners got into the rowboats one by one, all with their hands tied behind them. Perrine was able to pick out their red-haired friend among the crowd of prisoners, along with Alice. "Ra-" She began to say, but Zac pulled her back slightly. He put his finger to his mouth, silencing the woman as the boats began to row off away from the raft. To their surprise, they saw a couple more pirates waiting on the raft.

Slowly, the two of them got closer, remaining behind the debris to make sure they wouldn't get caught. "Why are we the ones left behind?" One of the guys said.

"Stop complaining. We got everything we could. Just relax and wait for them to come back." The other said as he laid down, looking up at the dimly lit ceiling. It was then that the two of them heard something behind them. They turned to the rubble, slowly walking towards the source of the noise. "Who's there?" The man asked.

Suddenly, a tendril made of water came out of the water and wrapped itself around his waist. It quickly picked up the man before smashing into the raft, knocking him out. His partner stared in shock as Zac snuck up behind him and knocked him over the head with a plank of wood. Once both were knocked out, Zac and Perrine walked up to the edge of the raft. "So, what are we going to do?"

"All we can do is wait for them to come back. I doubt they'll take long." Zac said as he began to slowly drag the bodies away. He piled them up away from the water before returning to Perrine. "We should hide to ambush them when they get back."