Shipbroken

Chapter 4 (1)

AN: Before reading this read the first 3 chapters in Shipbreaker, but instead of reading Chapter 4 start here. 

Entry in the Twist Fate contest.

Sloth glanced down at the dark pit and realized Nailer hadn't spoken for a long time. She brushed aside the copper lengths she was working on and peered into the dark oil. 

She caught her breath at how much there was. There was surely a Lucky Strike down there as long as she could get her hands on it before anyone else did. Sloth knew she couldn't tell her crew, they would hate her for it, but this was too huge, she couldn't share it with them.

Her eyes skimmed the top of the oil looking for any signs of Nailer. After what seemed like 30 minutes she decided he had drowned, not been able to escape. An awful death, Nailer was buried in money alive.

A pang of guilt seeped through her. She could have saved him but she knew it was too late now, she got back to work on the copper that was no where near the worth of the vat of pure black beneath her.

Sloth decided she needed some kind of cover for being down in the vents for so long and not returning with him. Sloth decided to head back to Pima and tell her of the misfortune that had befallen Nailer, that he had crashed through a broken vent plate and she found him dead, broken bones and everything at the bottom of a destroyed cargo hold and that she sat and cried for her friend, her crew mate. That's why she had taken so long. 

Sloth weighed her options. She knew how Lucky Strike made off with the oil but how would she? It would be a long process and difficult to keep intruders away from her gold mine. She debated setting traps and letting them fall down and drown as Nailer did but realized someone could escape and tell the others and she would be slashed, left on the beach without a friend in the world.

Sloth began to make the long journey back up the vents to the top of the boat and debated how she could keep the oil away from predators and still get the Lucky Strike she deserved.

The swanks up in the higher land wouldn't ever have to climb through tunnels like this just for a couple reds. Sloth thought angrily. They just had their lives given to them on a silver platter. It wasn't that easy for people like her just because she was born into one family or another and now she had to let her friend die to get a couple coins.

After moving quietly for a while she finally saw the sunlight. She made sure she had mostly rubbed the stench of oil from her skin and replaced it with whatever she could find. Sloth crawled out the opening she had come in through. The stench of petroleum had made her eyes water making it look like she had cried for hours. 

Her crew ran over to help her with the copper yelping at the amount she had brought until Pearly realized Sloth didn't have what she had really gone in for. 

"Where is Nailer?" 

The others looked around too, confused by his absence.

Sloth began to cry again in spite of her glee from being able to use her well thought out lie. "I-I found him dead, he, he fell through a plate and broke everything. I couldn't even reach his body."

Moon Girl wiped Sloth's tears. "Poor boy, he was too young."

"Nailer is more careful than that. He wouldn't get caught dea-" Pima cut herself off and solemnly looked back at the hole Nailer disappeared into and never came out of.

Sloth sighed and wiped the sweat forming on her forehead and off with it came her LED paint that she had smeared on there hours before. The crowd of concerned crew had mostly dispersed and Sloth returned to strip the copper wires Nailer had collected.