Broken World

43. Attacked

That evening Clara took me to the main deck, the sun was already down and darkness covered us. The ship’s lights showed us the way. It felt nice to get some air after being locked in a windowless and compact room which stinks of oil. 

“Why did you bring me here?” I asked.

“This area of sea is filled with pirates, keep an eye out for them, if you see something strange, report it to me,” she ordered and went away. 

I walked towards the front of the deck. To have no flesh-craving monsters around you is an extraordinary feeling, but the ship made me a little seasick. 

I’m left all alone? Well, what bad can happen in an open sea? Better than rotting ghouls.

As I was thinking nothing bad could possibly happen, I mean, the probability of being attacked by pirates in this vast ocean is very rare. I saw a flickering light coming from the right side, before I could do anything, they were so close to the point that I saw him pointing his gun at me, I ducked before he could shoot and made my way inside. 

Clara came running from the lower deck along with her men. Slowly those pirates boarded the ship, upon counting there were ten of them. 

“Damn it. We are outnumbered,” Clara said, aiming. Before she could shoot, a bullet from the opposite side hit one of her men, and soon the peaceful surroundings got filled with chaos.

This is the time.   

I ran to the lower deck to get them, but to my surprise, the ship was bigger than I expected. I ran here and there aimlessly. 

“Amy, Kevin, Finn… where the hell are you guys?” I shouted. 

“We are here!” I heard Amy’s voice from one of the cabins near the staying compartments.  

I followed the voice; the door was locked. I searched for something hard to break open the lock, and to my surprise, I found our melee weapons in one of the closets. I let out a sigh of relief and hit the lock. The moment the door came open, all of them jumped over and hugged me except Jane, who just looked at me and turned her gaze to the other side. 

“You are alive,” Amy said in a low voice. 

I handed them their weapons and told them about the situation on the deck. We slowly made our way towards the deck, near the entrance was the dead body of Clara. Ivan took her gun, I peeked outside, the whole deck was filled with dead bodies. 

“Be here, let me see if any of them is alive,” I whispered to them and came outside. 

“Let me come with you,” Ty said and followed me. 

The moment we came out, one of them pointed his gun at us and shot down Ty, the bullet pierced through his chest and he fell on the ground, drop dead. 

“Ty!” Finn shouted at the top of his voice. Ivan and Kevin stopped him from coming outside. 

He then pointed his gun at me, but it was empty. 

“You bastards! All of you are dead!” saying that, he took out three grenades and with his last bit of energy he threw them at us. 

***

I flew and fell in the water, I tried my best to stay above the water, but the more I struggled the more I was going down.  

Damn it, this doesn’t look good. 

From behind someone grabbed my waist and slowly pulled me up. I took a deep breath. “Calm down, don’t panic or you will drown,” it was Jane.  

“Erik! Jane! Where are you guys?!” we heard Ivan’s voice and followed it. 

“Damn it, our ship’s gone,” Kevin said, panting. 

“Look, there’s land, maybe that’s where the pirates came from!” Amy exclaimed, pointing at a small chuck of land. 

“T-that is so far,” Kevin replied. 

“Let’s go, we don’t have time,” Ivan said, swimming towards it. 

Jane dragged me along with her. After swimming for some time, we somehow managed to reach the land. All of us fell to the ground, panting. I was the happiest, someone like me who can’t swim properly this is a great miracle.  Before we could gather our strength back, ghouls started coming at us, we escaped from there and took cover under a tourist hotel. 

***

NEXT MORNING

“We are stuck on a tourist island,” Jane informed. 

“Island? We are done for this time,” Kevin replied and groaned. 

“If this is an island, then there must be boats we can use to get back to the mainland,” I suggested. 

“Well, there weren’t any boats on the shore,” Amy replied. “We can check the port, there must be something to get us out of here.” 

“Alright everyone, we don’t know what lies in this island or if it's inhabited, let’s not find out and leave this place as soon as possible,” Jane said. “Amy and Kevin get back to the shore and try to find any boat which is in good condition, I and Erik will search for food, Ivan… keep an eye on Finn for us.” 

Finn was silently sitting in another room motionless looking outside through the window with undivided attention.

“Ty disappeared so suddenly, we didn’t even expect that to happen,” Amy said in a low voice. 

Kevin grabbed her hand. “Come on, we have a job to do,” he said with a smile and took her with him. 

 ***

After that, we came outside to inspect our surroundings. The tourist island had very less vehicles and the roads were narrow with very small number of ghouls walking around. It seemed like a nice place to stay but the lack of supplies will hit us sooner or later. After walking for some time, we sat in a five-star restaurant with a nice view of the island. It was quite windy and the surrounding was very warm.   

“If only I listened to what you said… we wouldn’t have been here,” she said in a low voice and lowered her head. “If only I trusted you, maybe Ty would have been still alive.”  

“Huh? It’s not your fault. What can you even do in a dilemma? I guess, anyone in your position would have done the same, instead of regretting… let’s find a way to get out of here.”   

She turned towards me and looked straight into my eyes. “I even got you killed; I hate myself. I want you to slap me so hard that I get my senses back!” she shouted and closed her eyes. 

I grabbed her shoulder, she slowly opened her eyes, and I gave a smile. “I can’t hit you on your beautiful face,” she blushed a little. 

“I- I guess, we should get going, we have a lot of work to do,” she said, stammering and walked before me.