Locusts and Snakes

Man overboard

Pain. That's all he could feel. Pain in his shoulder, his arms, his legs but most sharply was the pain in his chest. His eyes were closed and he tried to open them. Sunlight flitting past shadows were all that he could see, and he closed his eyes almost instantly as the light caused pain even in his sight. Noises, he became aware of them as he became aware that he could hear. Muffled at the start, causing his eardrums to pound. It was getting louder, the pounding sharper, shouts, screams.

Uhh.

The shouting and screaming was mixed with clanging, of bashing and a deep thudding.

What?

He couldn't make out individual voices, it was as if a hive of bees had been unleased around his head and hit with a spade. He tried his eyes again, pain blaring as the light flooded in. The shadows had moved, the shadows were moving. The clanging and bashing coming with each movement. Some shadows moved away from his vision and more came in, jostling together in the middle, falling out of sight.

Wait.

The noise buried deep into his skull, the screaming, the clashing, the shouting, the shadows became clearer, they became solid, nothing like mist. The sunlight was beaming down from a clear blue sky. Colour came back. Half the shadows were black and red still, but the other half became lighter, greens and blues and yellow thread.

Clothes?

He tried to move, tried sitting up but couldn't move his legs, he tried to open his mouth, his mind not recognising the scene before him, but nothing came out. He focused more on the colours, and seeing through them, seeing the people wearing them.

People!

All at once, it was as if the beehive had been taken away and his eyes had finally opened up for real. People, in two different styles of uniform, wooden pillars down the middle, men with weapons. Swords, spears, knives. All bunched up and fighting. The man closest, with a thick black beard in red and black clothing, stabbed one man in green through the neck, jumped forward and kicked a running man in blue in the chest before pulling out a sword strapped to his waist and running through a third man in blue, then jumped back a step and looked directly at him.

I know him.

The man shouted something he didn't recognise at first, then he pointed to the other men in black and red and shouted again. "Get up!" Two words, that meant nothing. Another very large man in ripped green shirt barrelled forward, black beard sidestepped him and tripped the man. Green shirt stumbled forwards, stumbled towards him. His feet tangled on themselves and he feel onto the wooden floor beneath, one tooth flying out and blood flowing from his mouth. Green shirt looked up, looked into his eyes and began to crawl forwards, reaching to his waist before pulling out a long knife.

Ah.

Green shirt continued to crawl, one hand followed by the other, he got up to one knee, then the other, his legs bunched and he gave a feral grin. "Die!"

Shit.

"Die!" he heard and a sword came through green shirt's chest, dripping blood. Green shirt collapsed suddenly forward, black beard's foot still hanging in the air and gripping the bloody sword. "Get up!" he shouted again.

Up.

He tried, he moved his neck left first, seeing more black and red garbed men, flying through the sky beyond his vision to land on the wooden floor. Some held ropes as they flew, and pulled out vicious looking weapons when they landed. He moved his head to the right. Green, blue and yellow shirted men were coming up from holes in the wooden floor, dozens of them, all armed and running to join the melee in the middle of the ship.