Mark awoke with the dawn for the first time in two days. He was still lying on the beach of some incredibly small island that could probably qualify as an overgrown sandbar in the middle of nowhere. His eyes opened for the first time dry and painful. Going to rub the discomfort out of them, he raised his hands only to breach them with lots of sand. The feeling of glass shards were everywhere as he screamed. So was the pain.
“Owwwwwwwwwwwwww” he screamed.
The pain wasn’t only from his eyes. He was still lying in almost the same position as he was when he first awoke days earlier from his exciting escape swim and shooting from the original pirate take over. It was the scene made for movies, no doubt, and he actually survived such a climatic episode…well at least til now.
His pain was all over his body. And it was that pain that probably knocked him back out for the two days he lay there after originally becoming conscious after his fleeting swim.
He had trouble moving. He had issues thinking. And well, although now awake once again, he truly wished at the moment that he wasn’t.
Slowly he moved each limb. If his muscles weren’t all knotted up, then it was the extreme sunburn he had on his exposed skin that got him. But at least he was beginning to function once more, and even though his head wasn’t necessarily in it, his heart was all about being alive.
Just as slowly as he physically recuperated, the memory of what happened on the boat reappeared. He analyzed what happened as he moved his weary beaten up body into the water, using the warmth of the sea therapeutically to energize his muscles. Stretching each limb cautiously wary of spasms, he thought about the events that led to his current standing.
Were there really pirates?
Did he actually make those moves on the yacht?
Did he really kill Ratface?
And did he swim unmolested by sharks and barracudas to this tiny island of sand?
Or, was this all just a nightmare?
He looked down at the blood trails on his clothes.
“Nope…no nightmare…this is reality.”
He snickered, and then winced with some pain as the water washed into his injuries.
“Shit.”
•••
Dyane made it uncontested through the opening of the fence to the captive’s compound. How she accomplished that, she didn’t know. But with all of the commotion still almost one hundred feet away from the entrance, it could be understandable. It wasn’t as if she was sneaking around in the dark. Dawn had come and her body could have easily been made out.
She ran right to the doorway of the sleeping quarters. Dyane didn’t bother to stop by or signal Elaine or Karen who were further into the camp along the fence. Both of them were taken up by the excitement created between Rusty, Katmandu, Briggs and the guards.
She also didn’t go towards Alan and Hunter who had moved in a different direction outside the hut. In her mind, it was all about getting out of anyone’s possible sight…and finding the sight of her husband Jim.
As she entered the large room with the beds, she was almost completely out of breath. She doubled over with hands on both knees to try and catch her breath, but that didn’t work. She raised her head to see if anyone was awake and about, but she didn’t come across anyone recognizable immediately. The light in the quarters was minimal, and most people were nothing more than sleeping or snoring lumps on their wooden slabs.
She took both her arms and reached for the sky as her breathing was still heavy and mostly out of control. Reaching up with arms over head was helping to open her lungs up, but more importantly, it gave her some stable sightlines as she walked around the room looking for her husband.
Dyane walked right by the bed being shared by Gianna, Eryan and Jewel and witnessed the hushed whimpering by Jewel, though did not stop to investigate. All three were still silhouettes in the somewhat darkened room. She continued to slowly walk.
“Jim…Jim” she called out in a whisper.
Other than the whimpering, she heard nothing.
“Jim…Jim” she repeated as she continued her tour around the room.
Still nothing was heard. There was no movement in the beds.
Without warning, Elaine and Karen bolted into the room.
“Oh my God, they’re coming!” shrieked Karen.
Both women just about walked straight into Dyane.
They looked at each other with squinted eyes in a shocking stare for a few frozen seconds.
“Oh my God…Dyane?” Elaine queried.
“Dyane?” Karen echoed.
Before Dyane could answer, both women hugged her.
The hug was short lived.
“They’re coming” Elaine said.
Yes, the commotion continued outside and it was getting closer.
“Where’s Jim?” was all Dyane could muster.
“Jim? He’s over here” Elaine replied.
Jim had a bed all to him and was struggling to breathe.
“What’s wrong with him?” Dyane asked as she look on in horror.
She grabbed a hold of his hand.
“What happened to my Jim?”
“You don’t know?” answered Karen.
“No.”
“Oh…” Karen said with much sorrow.
Dyane’s look went towards going hysterical.
“Oh my God, from what I can see…what’s wrong with him? What happened? Please tell me!”
Elaine and Karen looked at each other. Elaine took the lead.
“Jim responded to the takeover on the boat by going after their captain. He sexually assaulted Mandy and was laughing about it when he raced into him with his shoulder.”
“What?” Dyane shrieked in disbelief.
“Well, before that he was sliced pretty good by the sword, remember Elaine?” contributed Karen.
“Yeah, that’s right. And then he got cut up some more by another sword. The gashes are deep” said Elaine.
“Oh my God” replied Dyane as she put both hands over her cheeks and open mouth. “Oh my God…Jim…”
“Summer has been watching over him with Alan. Those two can give you a more detailed accounting of the facts as well as his current condition…” Elaine continued.
Dyane started crying. The tears increased quickly.
“All we know is that he is in really bad shape” finished Elaine.
Through the tears, Dyane asked “How bad?”
“From what we know…” Elaine started as she hugged Dyane’s shoulders “a step away.”
“A step away? From what?”
Dyane gasped.
“Oh my God” she answered her own question through the silence and tears of Karen and Elaine.
“Rusty sewed him up on the boat…” Elaine pointed out.
“Rusty?”
“Yeah, Rusty.”
“Who the hell is Rusty? How does he know Jim?” said a startled and confused Dyane.
“Rusty is a woman…”
“A woman?” Dyane interrupted.
“Yeah…the captain’s wife.”
“The captain’s wife?” she repeated. “What the fuck? I’m not following here.”
“Dyane, Rusty came up from below and found her husband and your husband with bad injuries bleeding on the deck of the boat. She blew away Scott with one shot, and then tried to fix her husband and Jim’s injuries. She stitched him up, but he developed a fever and infection. We have no idea how he’s been able to hang on for so long.”
“Oh my God.”
“Yeah. But now something’s going on outside and they are headed here…” said Karen.
Dyane snapped into reality for the moment.
“Oh my God. Jim is the one who hurt the captain?” Dyane asked to clarify.
“Yes.” Both ladies answered simultaneously.
“Oh shit. That guy is coming here to kill Jim.”
“That guy?” asked Elaine.
“Yeah. While I was looking for this place, I heard him leaving his house with those people and screaming about killing the guy who had just killed his brother, the captain.”
“Oh shit” Karen agreed.
Dyane knelt at the side of the bed and leaned into her husband’s side crying. She buried her face into his weakened chest and she blubbered uncontrollably.
Out of the blue, he moved his free arm from his heavily injured and infected side. He reached for her and laid that arm around her shoulder blades.
“Thank God” he whispered in her ear.
A moment later, Katmandu burst through the doorway still screaming with Rusty and Briggs in tow. He wasted no time.
He walked straight over to where Elaine, Karen and Dyane were. Dyane still had her head perched on Jim’s chest and he was still holding onto her. The three women were crying.
“Is this the son of a bitch?” he yelled.
He held his sword high above Jim’s ailing body.
The women standing gasped.
“NOOOOOOO!” screamed Dyane as she lay across Jim.
“Kat, don’t do this!” demanded Rusty. “He’s already dying! Don’t do this!”
“NOOOOOOO!” screamed Dyane again.
Jewel turned over in Gianna’s bed.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” she screamed at him.
Jewel got up from the bed and walked over to the disturbance. The look on her face said it all.
“WHAT ARE YOU, FUCKING NUTS? HASN’T THERE BEEN ENOUGH DEATH? UNCLE, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?”
Katmandu paused with all of the drama from the women. He lowered his sword temporarily. He looked around as the room lightened. The looks on everyone’s faces were easily made out.
To make everything even more chaotic, everyone started waking up on the slabs with the screaming taking place. With each passing second there were gasps and hushes and some horrifying shrieks.
Katmandu, in all of his urgency and impatience, cried out again “Is this the son of a bitch?”
He raised his sword over Jim.
Dyane didn’t move. She was still kneeling at his side and lying across his chest.
Rusty stepped in front of Katmandu, between him and Jim and looked him square in the eyes. She felt his rage all too well. He knew her stubbornness as well.
“No, this is not the son of a bitch” she said in a monotone that meant nothing but business.
She stared into his eyes and he returned the favor. They were at a standstill.
More rustling took place around them, but the focus was most certainly on Katmandu and his sword arched high above Jim and Dyane.
There were more screams.
“Hey asshole! Over here!” came the loud scream from the doorway behind him.
Katmandu turned his attention to the doorway yet said nothing. His sword did not move.
“That’s right asshole! I said over here…”
Katmandu became more agitated as he looked back at an ever weakening Jim and then over to the vocal Alan and silent Hunter. Alan had the look of fire all through him like he was energized from the almighty god Zeus himself.
“He didn’t kill your brother.”
Katmandu gave Alan his full attention…though stood there silent pondering his next move.
“I SAID…HE DIDN’T KILL YOUR BROTHER! ARE YOU HARD OF HEARING ASSHOLE?”
Katmandu was ready to attack. But being the shrewd warrior, he looked Alan over to ensure there was no trap awaiting his attack. There wasn’t as far as he could tell.
Rusty moved into his way once again.
“No Kat, no.”
Katmandu was breathing fire.
“Get out of my way” he commanded Rusty.
“No I will not.”
“Are you disobeying me woman?” he demanded.
“Yes. He did not kill Bones.”
“How would you know?”
“Because I know who killed him.”
“And which one is it? Which one Rusty?” he demanded.
She wouldn’t say. She stood like a statue yet filled with passion.
“Your silence is noted as is your loyalty. Get out of my way and I will kill them all!” he screamed.
“I am not moving Kat.”
“Rusty, move or die!”
“Are you threatening me with death…your brother’s wife…who is now in control of our destiny?” Rusty questioned logically.
Katmandu looked at her as he hesitated for his answer.
Obviously his rage had gotten the best of him as Rusty, with the passing of her husband Blackeye Bones, did assume the leadership role of the pirate family by their own charter. So he hesitated and quickly analyzed his next move knowing that there could be consequences.
Rusty stood steadfast.
“Lower your sword Kat” she firmly said again meaning business.
He stood there steadfast as well.
His voice much lower in tone, he warned her again.
“Move or die! This is family business! You know that!”
All eyes were on the power struggle, except Dyane’s, whose eyes were closed still buried in the chest of Jim. Even Jim’s eyes were focused as best as possible on Katmandu.
Rusty held her ground.
“Lower your sword. I will not say it again” she warned. “Don’t push me.”
Katmandu looked past Rusty to Alan. Alan was poised and ready for an attack. His stance was clear.
Katmandu then turned his attention to Jim. He saw how weak he was, and pretty much was convinced that he was his brother’s killer. His concern was why would Rusty lie to him outright? He was not backing down because he wanted revenge and he was not to be denied the retribution he sought.
He looked back at Rusty, and then alternated between Briggs and Rusty. Rusty was not armed but Briggs had one arm on the handle of his sword and another on the handle of a gun. Briggs looked calm, though ready to make a move if needed to.
Katmandu took one last look at Rusty.
He made his move…