The Unforeseen

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Chapter 26

Ace was here, on this ship. I knew he would come.

"Ace! I'm-" I tried to call, but the Captain slapped me and then shoved me against a wall.

"Don't you even dare." He hissed. His next movements were quick, quicker than I could have anticipated. With me still in tow, he bolted down the hallway and descended the flights of stairs to the bottom of the ship. He pushed open the door to the cell room and brought me inside. Unlocking a cell, he shoved me to the ground in it.

"He'll be wanting you back: let's make sure that doesn't happen." He said, slamming the door shut.

He ran out of the room, leaving me alone.

The first thing I did was take the cloth from my mouth. Afterwards, I tried to remove the rope from my wrists. Unfortunately, they were to well done for me to undo. Giving up on that, I stood and leaned against the cell bars. I had to get out of here.

I could hear the sounds of battle coming from above me, and began to wonder if my shouts could reach them.

"Ace!" I screamed. "Lyle! Max! Is anyone there?! I'm down here!" I did this for a minute or two, adding in names of other crew mates. My calls, however, seemed to do nothing.

My throat now sore, I searched for another way to get out. That was when a particular scent drifted down into my cell: smoke.

I could only smell it, but I grabbed the cloth that had been used to silence me and held it over my mouth and nose. Successfully, I managed to tie the cloth around my head, leaving both hands free. The fact that I could smell smoke meant that something was burning, and if something was burning, the whole ship would soon be engulfed in thick, smoke and ash filled air, and flames to burn with it.

The temperature was not changing at a noticeable pace, but I knew better than to think that didn't mean anything.

I scanned the cell once more to see if there could be anything of use to me. My eyes rested on the bucket in the corner. I ran to it, and held it up. The handle, if broken off properly, could help me pick the cell's lock.

I set it down, placing my foot on top of the buckets. Gripping the handle, I pulled as hard as I could. It creaked, but didn't break. I tried again, the screws starting to undo themselves. I tried one last time, and almost fell backward as it gave way. I grinned to myself and moved to the lock.

When I turned around, though, I stopped in my tracks. A trail of thick smoke was seeping its way into the room. I cursed and began working on the lock.

The handle wasn't broken off in the right way, and wouldn't even fit in the hole.

The air was thickening, and I was beginning to panic. I dropped the handle and grabbed one of the screws instead. I shoved it in the hole and began picking the lock. I don't know how long I worked on it, but the lock eventually gave a relieving click. I stuffed the screw into my pocket, just in case I needed to pick another lock, and jerked the call bars back. I stepped out and ran immediately to the door.

This one wasn't locked, and it glided back as I pulled on it. The second I entered the hallway, though, I was assaulted by thick, black smoke. Coughing, I dropped to all fours and began crawling towards the stairs. There were no flames to be found on this floor, but this smoke had to be receiving it's fuel from somewhere.

As I ascended the staircase, the air grew steadily thicker and hotter. My lungs didn't appreciate the air that was being given to them, so my breathing grew heavy. I kept pushing myself, though, and emerged in the hallway three floors up. This was as high as the staircase went, so I assumed I was close to the deck. I crawled through the hallway, but the air was too thick to see anything clearly. Blindly, I crawled through the hall. I found an open door, and entered the room.