“He is yours?” Ratface asked disappointedly. “Shit.”
“Yes, he is mine…all mine” Bones reemphasized loudly.
“But Captain…why not let me have this one? He would be fun to carve up!” Ratface answered as he used his sword to carve out an imaginary person in the air.
“RATFACE! Back down!” demanded Bones. “I will not say it again!”
With that Ratface backed down from the hovering attack position he held over a bloodied and looking defeated Jim Stowe. He stood a few feet back of Jim and was at ease, laying witness to Stowe’s sliced right side that was thoroughly covered in a deep red blood.
The wincing all over Stowe’s face was all anyone needed to conclude that he was indeed done with any heroics for that instance.
Captain Bones made it to his feet and took a step forward, balancing his wounded shoulder and his dizziness with his left arm not far from the doorframe that had been so boldly hit by him a few minutes earlier. He also struggled to regain his form and still had no idea of the foreign body that intruded and protruded from his shoulder.
Bones held his position for another quiet moment when Briggs finally spoke up.
“Aye Captain, will you be finishing this varmint off now?” he leadingly asked.
“Aye” was his response, thought it was considerably weaker than his previous vocal commands.
Then without notice, Bones took a baby step forward with his right leg and tumbled hard to the deck. That sixteen inch or so thick piece of plank resembling a splinter on steroids was suddenly visible to everyone as he tumbled due to weakness. More importantly, the Captain’s impressive sword went flying across the deck landing at the feet of Jim Stowe.
Stowe was in no condition to move towards it, but Scotty Mayes was. He was about ten feet away from Jim, and about fifteen or so away from Ratface. The angle in which the sword flew and landed spelt potential heroics for young man of thirty two. But was he up for the task?
Scotty had zero time to think. It was jump at it and see what happens, or it was stand still and continue on with this unique nightmare.
In grabbing the beginning of a deep breath, he lunged for the sharp instrument easily beating the reactions of Briggs and Ratface. He grasped the sword by the handle and lifted it in full control. He was surprised to feel just how heavy it truly was, but again, he had no time for analysis at this point. The control of the sword was his, no mistaking that.
His control lasted but a mere fifteen seconds. While surveying his options, a shot rang out.
Thud…clang…clang.
Everyone froze in disbelief.
They all turned left to see where the shot had originated. It came from behind the doorframe where Bones and Mandy had walked through earlier. The shooter couldn’t be seen as yet, but whoever it was, it was clear that they were a damn fine marksman.
It was a single shot.
That’s all that it took.
The sound of the thud was played by Scotty Mayes as he hit the deck with a finality. Considering a good part of his face and head was blown off, one could understand the finality aspect.
The part of the double clang was played by the sword of Captain Bones as it slowly dropped to the deck and bounced just once before settling down.
What a nightmare. People began to freak. There was screaming. There was yelling. People were running for cover. Chaos ensued from both sides. There were multiple bodies sliced up, wounded, even blown away…not to mention lying all over an area of the deck.
Briggs tried to restore order in the face of his leader being one of the bodies lying on the deck severely weakened by the overall happenings of the day thus far.
It didn’t work.
Alan Mayes, Scotty’s older brother, stood there horrified. All of the blood appeared to have drained from his face. He wasn’t the only one.
Then, another shot exploded through the chaos.
Everything stopped.
Everyone looked toward the doorway to the cabin. They looked away quickly to see if anyone else was going to fall to the deck in fatal horror. In complete syncopation, the fraction-of-a-second look around the yacht brought everyone back to the place where the shot originated.
In a scene reminiscent of a swashbuckling Hollywood adventure movie, out stepped a gun toting pirate from the door way blowing the smoke away from the end of the gun.
This was no ordinary gun toting pirate.
This pirate was female…and a definite leader. Intimidation was an instinct. And she wore that well on her sleeveless sleeves. Her look was young and all business. Moreover, for those who didn’t quite get with her way of thinking, the tattoos that ran up and down her arms of different pirate type hostilities and scenarios were convincing. The tattoos were colorful, though graphic, and continued across her shoulders and covered what could be seen in her front and back torso. Her legs were painted up as well.
While everyone else was quickly adjusting themselves to some sort of civility in the face of the surreal, she calmly walked over to Bones and assessed the situation.
“Damn men…” she began in a low tone while shaking her head, “good for nothing.”
She reached down for the thick wood splinter that was anchored in the Captain’s left shoulder area. She slowly moved it from side to side and top to bottom checking to see what the best angle for protraction would be.
Bones was oblivious as to what she was doing. He just lay there in painful agony.
She also looked over at where Jim Stowe was lying. The blood was puddling around his open wound.
“God, he looks just as pathetic…whatever happened to real men?”
she spun sarcastically. “Briggs! Go below and bring me some rags. Looks like I got some fixing to do!”
“Aye, Rusty.”
Briggs motioned himself urgently past her and the Captain.
She screamed at him again.
“After you bring me those rags, look and see if you can find some needles and threads.”
“Aye” he answered as he disappeared down into the large cabin area of the rental luxury yacht.
Up on deck, order was restored and the group of pirates was back in control. After witnessing all of the violence, not one of the vacationers had even a simple thought about doing anything heroic. They still had the fresh impressions of Scotty Mayes’ death as convincing evidence to behave.
And after the entrance that Rusty had made into their lives, no one was sure to cross her…
No one.
She hovered over Bones, her muscular tattooed frame with the long ratty fiery hair intoxicating as well as intimidating. She seemingly played with the wooden chunk that was still lodged inside of the shoulder of Bones.
Then, with the ferocity of a lioness and the smooth velocity of a gazelle, she grabbed the thick chunk of wood and extricated it from him. No notice was given. One moment, wood…the next blood and screams.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGG! Woman!” Bones yelled at the top of his lungs. “What the fuck, Rusty!!”
She grabbed the towels that Briggs had just appeared with and pressed them hard against his raging wound.
“Shut up you big pussy!” she laughed. “Ya don’t shut up and I’ll put her back…”
The vacationers all kind of chuckled to themselves with this unexpected show of comic relief. Not to say that it was comic relief, though, but who would have ever expected this to happen? First off, a female pirate, and secondly, one that’ll blow a person away in an instant, and third, someone who would tell off the Captain? Call him a big pussy? And get away with that?
“Woman, how’d ya like to get that piece of wood buried inside of you?” Bones harpooned back at her.
“Like that would do anything to me? You’re such a pussy. I shit stronger men than you everyday before breakfast…” she laughed in response.
Rusty surveyed the deck.
“I see you have this in control…” she laughed again.
She continued to press the towels firmly into his shoulder to stop the bleeding long enough so she could stitch him up. She looked around the deck again, this time in search for some alcohol.
“Briggs!” she bellowed “Go back to the ship and fetch me some rum and tequila!”
“Aye” he answered.
He hurriedly left the yacht for the pirate ship. Less than ten minutes later, he was back. Those minutes seemed to drag on forever for everyone on the deck.
“Dammit Briggs, you trying to kill him?” she wailed.
“No, Rusty, why?”
“Cuz you’re slower than the mating period of two whales. Get your ass over here!”
He raced across the deck through the shocked, startled, and confused passengers to bring Rusty the bottles of rum and tequila. She grabbed them from him, quickly pouring some rum over the wound and then feeding some to Bones. She then took a huge swig from the tequila bottle and went to work stitching up his gaping mess of human flesh.
The screams were heard and felt throughout the boat. Fifteen minutes later, she rose from where Bones was now lying and stepped over to a very weakened and bloodied Jim Stowe.
She looked over his condition, then turned to Briggs and said, “Would you please get this body out of here?”
Briggs looked confused.
“Rusty, he’s still alive…”
“Not him you idiot! Him!” she screamed as she pointed to the deceased Scotty Mayes who was a mere few feet away.
“Aye, ma’am.”
“I can’t concentrate with a dead body next to me…”
While Rusty poured the rum into Stowe’s rib area, she again took another hit from the tequila bottle. Briggs and another mate disposed of Scotty’s body over the ship’s rail, and into the water. No one was happy about that, especially his brother Alan.
He quietly protested, knowing that any vocal moves from him could easily find himself the same way as his brother. Yet, with his subdued behavior and mannerisms, his message got across to every pirate as well as his friends on deck.
It took Rusty about ten minutes to sew Stowe’s wound up and douse it with more rum. She dried the area up and positioned him also lying on the deck on his side so the wound was facing up. She looked around at the passengers.
“Is anybody with him? Wife…girlfriend?” she asked.
No one answered.
She became testy.
“Is anybody with him? Does he have a wife?” she yelled.
Everyone looked at each other, minimally stirring about. No one wanted to answer. No one knew how to answer. They were afraid to speak. Finally, Alan spoke up.
“His wife is missing. We don’t know if she was tossed overboard by all the initial commotion or what. But that was Jim’s issue when all of this happened. He was looking for his wife.”
“How heroic” she said. “Ya can’t blame a guy for looking for his better half.”
She looked over at a group of women huddled together.
“Any of you know anything about taking care of wounds?” she barked.
“I’m in nursing school” someone spoke up shyly.
“Nursing school? Nursing school? What the hell is that?” she barked back.
“Training to be a nurse” she said with a shaky voice and a physical appearance to match.
“You have a name?”
“Summer.”
“Well, Summer, get your ass over here and look after your leader. Care for him. If he needs anything, you have permission to let me know, and if I’m not here, let Briggs know. Got it?”
“Yes.”
Summer walked slowly up to where Jim was lying, half conscious. She knelt over him and assessed his condition, then gingerly looked over at Rusty. Her look was a look of genuinely being scared.
“Look, Summer. I want you to look over him. Do not let him die. If he needs anything, help him. The same for Bones over here. You are to make sure these guys do not die. Understood?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Rusty then barked out directives.
“Briggs, you stay here. Razor, you come with me. Let’s take a quick walk around this ship and see what we have here…”
“Aye” answered Briggs.
“Aye” vocalized Razor.