Make Sure They Never Take You Alive

Make Sure They Never Take You Alive Chapter 3

The spot where Brandon had previously been working had been near enough to the captain to hear her muttering about the approaching pirates.  He smiled when, almost as soon as her comment came off her tounge there was a sound of cannon fire.  Every single person on the ship was obviously very alert by now.  He felt like he jumped nearly a foot into the air when Lexi, who was standing almost directly beside him, shouted, loud enough to be heard over the murmuring on the ship, the sound of the waves, and the approaching cannon fire, "What you waiting for?!?! Get to your posts!" 

Then there was a pounding of feet as the men who operated the cannons ran below deck.  Within seconds, the first cannon ball flew from the Ocean's Mistress.  He smiled.  The smell of gunpowder was enough to get his blood pumping.  The other ship, which he could now see was called Neptune's Dream, was nearly close enough to board by now.  Brandon smiled.  This was where he thrived.  He was no sailor.  He most definitely wasn't a worker.  But fighting?  That came quite naturally.  The two ships were now directly side-by-side.  Cannons were being fired at point blank range.  Both vessels were suffering heavy casualties.  Ropes were being thrown across the gap between the decks, pulling them closer together.

Brandon knew from experience that neither ship would be able to sustain this for very long.  He could still see the holes in the hull of Neptune's Dream.  He figured that the Ocean's Mistress looked just as bad, and probably a little worse.  It wasn't a comforting thought to know that they could all very well be standing on their death bed.  He looked around and saw that none of the others on either crew had registered this, as they were all in the middle of a heated stare down.  This was it.  The battle of wills that led up to most fights.  The test to see who was going to throw the first punch, so to speak.  As it turned out, one of his fellow crewmen, who he thought was named Nathaniel, pulled out his pistol and fired a shot into the air.  About that time, something greater than all of hell broke loose.

The roar of the opposing crews was deafening as they charged at one another.  The air was filled with the sound of daggers and cutlasses and swords being unsheathed.  Gunfire came from every direction at once, the owners of said guns not bothering to aim at specific targets, lost in the unrestrained frenzy of battle.  Even the cannons seemed to fire louder and faster.  But Brandon quickly forgot all of these thoughts as he had to duck under a sword stroke that he was sure must have cut off at least an inch of his dark brown hair.

"See ya in hell, ya sick cur!" He shouted loudly, as the man raised his sword again.  Brandon parried the stroke this time, and took a step back.  Now it was his turn to go on the offensive.  He stabbed at the man's abdomen, but his stroke was casually flicked aside, so he then tried to slice into the man's neck.  This attack was just barely blocked, and the two went to circling one another, swords raised, each looking for an opening in the other's guard.  Apparently, the other man, whose expression was mostly obscured by a thick brown beard, raised his sword up, as it to use it like a cleaver.  Brandon heard the loud swoosh as the sword fell towards his head.  He just managed to get the flat of his own sword, between the blade and his head. As the two swords were locked in place, Brandon pulled out his pistol and quickly shot the other man, clear through the heart, and stepped aside, watching him fall with a final thud.

Brandon then replaced his old flintlock in its holster, turning around to find another opponent.  He saw a pair from the other ship running towards the cargo hold of the Ocean's Mistress.  He picked up the sword of the man who he had just defeated, so that he was no wielding a weapong in either hand, and charged off towards the door.  It was a good thing he was fast, because he only just made it to the door and positioned himself between it and the two attackers.  He was saved from having to fight one of the men, when he was shot in the back.  Brandon couldn't make out where the shot came from, as so many guns were going off, but he was thankful for the mystery gunman, who may well have saved his life.  The other man, who froze with a look of extreme shock on his face, became easy enough pray for a blade to pierce his throat.

Brandon noticed that the cannons had stopped and, looking around, he saw that all of the burly men who manned the cannons had come up to the deck on both ships and joined the fray.  All around men who had been too badly injured to keep fighting, and just wanted to end their misery, were throwing themselves into the ocean.  Even some men who just wanted to escape the madness were hurling their bodies overboard.   He stepped over to the Neptune's Dream and began weaving his way through the fighters, occasionally taking an elbow to the stomach, or getting his feet stepped on, but overall remaining largely unscathed.

A group of about three men made it to the door of the cargo hold just before he did, and forced it open.  He followed them in and began to open boxes.  Most of them contained things such as rope, spare material to for sails, some wood, a few tools, and some nails.  But some of them contained delicacies such as fruit and one box even had some bread in it.  The whole group smiled to each other.  These would make a great addition to the usual rice and fish. Each person grabbed a box and they charged back up the stairs.  As they reached the top, Brandon noticed that the crowd had thinned considerably, and the fight seemed to be going in the favor of the Ocean's Mistress.  He smiled as they all made it back to their ship with no trouble whatsoever and sat the boxes into the cargo hold.

Brandon run up the stairs to where Lexi was standing and said "Cap'n, we got four boxes of food, three with fruit in 'em and one with a few loaves of bread."  Lexi just nodded, allowing a small smile, and looking off into the distance.  Brandon followed her gaze, only to see the crew of Neptune's Dream cutting the ropes joining the two ships and sailing away, badly damaged.