Chancing Fate - Jack Sparrow x OC

Interlude - Chapter 3

October

By the third straight day of storms, exhaustion and fear had started blurring together badly enough that Lena no longer trusted herself to separate one from the other. A hard roll shoved water violently across the lower deck while the hull groaned somewhere deep beneath her feet, the sound vibrating through the beams overhead as lantern light whipped wildly across soaked walls and overturned buckets before Cotton caught one of the swinging lamps one-handed without even looking away from the flooding near the hull.

Farther down the corridor Gibbs shouted for the crates to be braced tighter before a violent crash overhead swallowed the rest of the command, and almost immediately afterward the Pearl lurched sideways hard enough to slam Lena shoulder-first into the wall beside her. Wet wood struck painfully beneath the impact before she managed to steady herself against one of the barrels while water surged across the floorboards around her boots again, soaking through her sleeves and trousers until cold fabric clung heavily against her skin.

Somewhere through the dark a sailor muttered something about Norrington finally losing their trail in weather like this.

"No such luck," another voice answered before the ship tilted sharply enough to send several unsecured buckets skidding sideways across the deck.

Lena lunged automatically for the nearest one before it struck the injured sailor braced against the storage wall nearby. He caught it from her with one exhausted nod before doubling over coughing seawater across the floorboards again while the corridor filled thickly with the smell of lamp oil, salt, wet wood, and sickness.

Above deck, boots hammered across the boards overhead before Jack's voice cut sharply through the storm. Almost immediately the movement above shifted. Men shouting over one another one second before moving again the next while the command still echoed faintly through the hull beneath them, Lena's fingers loosening slightly from the edge of the crate beneath her hands.

A fresh impact rattled through the ship, knocking one of the stacked barrels sideways before someone somewhere farther aft shouted about the Tripoli rocks and dying tired. Rough laughter answered overhead before thunder swallowed the sound completely.

Water slammed harder against Lena's knees during the next steep roll while she dragged another crate tighter beside Cotton.

"How long has it been?" she asked without fully meaning to.

Cotton only stared at her through the swinging lantern light while farther down the corridor another sailor tightened soaked cloth around his bleeding forearm until his knuckles whitened around it. "Too bloody long," the man muttered without looking up.

The Pearl pitched sharply enough afterward that Lena lost her footing for one sickening second before catching herself hard against the stacked barrels while another shout vanished somewhere above the storm.

Then Jack's voice again somewhere above the storm. His voice carried through the rain distinctly enough that Lena's grip loosened slightly from the lantern handle before another sailor shoved the metal frame harder into her hands. "Oil's nearly gone!"

By the time she looked up again, he had already vanished farther down the flooding corridor.

The next steep roll shoved half the lower deck sideways while Lena caught herself harder against the wall before forcing herself toward the stairs anyway.

Rain hit hard enough to sting the second she forced herself onto deck, wind tearing half the breath from her lungs before she fully reached the top step while black water crashed sideways across the boards so violently that for one disorienting second she could no longer tell where the deck ended at all. Figures crossed through the storm too quickly to separate properly, one shoulder slamming hard into rigging while lantern light whipped sideways across flooded boards before vanishing again. One sailor nearly disappeared over the rail before another caught him and slammed both of them hard against the mast.