Journey into the Deep

  She was starting to breathe better and I relaxed at the sound of it. The girl mattered to me. She mattered an awful lot!

  I didn’t want to ever lose her. In my heart she’d become mine, but there was yet a battle to face.

  I was momentarily distracted by the realization of how far up the raggedy edge of her dress had slipped up. The desire to push it higher was overpowering for a moment, but that wasn’t the plan right now.

  Reluctantly I tugged the worn edge of her dress down to mid thigh and rolled off of her to lay on my back beside her. Not wanting to, but feeling a need to I glanced over to her to see if she had noticed my silent war against going too far.

  Her head was turned to me and she said smiling, “I wish you would’ve.” Her voice was kind of hoarse sounding, but her meaning was clear.

  I lay one of my arms across my eyes and said, “I wish I would’ve too.”

  Suddenly I very much wanted to survive a battle that before I might have mercifully used as a means of putting an honorable end to my life and the pain that it had brought me to keep on breathing. Life wasn’t such an empty emotional vacuum anymore.

  Unwittingly my mind dwelled on my companion’s luscious form and how badly I had wanted to take things further a moment ago.

  First the battle. Kill the giants. Rescue the slaves. Escape the island and then…… then I would lift the hem of that dress as high as I wanted to!

  I still felt guilty inside, but not enough to keep from making a new life with Keturah. Laura had been a special person and so was Keturah. How did I rate having two such women in my life?

  Keturah’s fingers grasped my arm and pulled it aside and pressing closer she kissed me. She drew back quickly from the kiss with a horrified look and pressed one hand to her mouth.

  Curious at her reaction to the kiss I asked, “What’s the matter?”

  “I was just throwing up! I’m so sorry! I……”

  Reaching up I speared the fingers of one hand through the beaded mass of her hair as I pulled her hand from her mouth with my other hand and roughly said, “Like I care!”

  I pulled her head back down to mine for a kiss that reflected all the passion that I felt for her.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Something of Value

  It was hours later now after my passionate exchange with Keturah and faced with the current situation I wished that time with her had not ended. Flynn and Matt were undergoing a face-off of sorts. I let my gaze slip over to Keturah only to find her watching me hungrily. I stifled my own groan of yearning and focused on the task at hand.

  In a tone that had no bend in it Flynn said, “I call dibs on the big battle wagon!”

  “Well that’s fine! I don’t want that one anyway.” Matt stated with equal tenacity.

  Flynn appeared shocked and it was reflected in his tone when he asked, “You don’t want the big one?”

  “And give up speed and rotational calibration I think not! No the smaller battle wagon as you put it will fit my needs quite nicely.” Matt said.

  I spoke into the setting before anything else was agreed upon, “Well then that settles it. Flynn captains the big gunner. Ortega you man the boiler. Jim will manage the gun crews. Matt will take the smaller ship, while Serena and Christina will accompany me and the Whale People on their boats. Now I suggest that you practice your gunnery crews for at least some length of time before we ship off tomorrow.”

  Everyone nodded in consensus and the large group broke up into smaller divisions. I managed to navigate a surprised Keturah quickly out of the eyes of the others into a hidden doorway.

  Pressing her back up against the door I asked, “Could you please explain this intoxicating effect that you have on me and the need to always have more that you so innocently inspire?”

  Her mouth split wide into a grin as she leaned back against the wooden door my all too willing captive. Her eyes were a tease as her hands rose to encircle the back of my neck.

  “It’s a secret, but come closer and I’ll give you the solution.” She said seductively.

  Husky voiced I said, “I do believe that you’ve graduated.”

  Her eyes implored me for more than just a kiss but I shook my head negatively and said, “Soon.”

  She sighed, but then rose up on her toes to say against my lips, “Then if this is all I can have for now then this I will take, but I want more Eli! So much more!” She breathed out as her lips pressed over mine with renewed passion.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Matt caught up with Elizabeth as she was making her way towards the center of the village platform, “Elizabeth could I have a word with you?”

  She turned back to him, “Why certainly! What is it?”

  Matt looked around, but no one was listening, “I was wondering if there were those among the Whale People who don’t have much of anything to live for. People who might not mind dying too much if you know what I mean.”

  Elizabeth swallowed and looked deeply into his eyes for a moment before asking, “Why would you want such people?”

  “I need them for my crew. I don’t want people who have families or obligations to others. Understand?”

  Elizabeth nodded slowly and said, “Several months ago we had a bad disease break out on one of the platforms. Several families lost their children and a few men lost their wives as well.”

  “Could you send them to me Elizabeth?”

  She nodded and started to leave, when Matt restrained her arm and said, “It would be best if you didn’t say anything of this to anyone.”

  Elizabeth nodded, as a single tear made its way down her cheek.

  “Oh and before I forget again I need you to send all the pieces of metal that you can find to my ship. I need anything small enough to fit down the barrel of a cannon. Knives, forks, tin soldiers, even pieces of porcelain or glass balls and beads will work.”

  “I’ll see what I can find.”

  Three hours later numerous satchels filled with metallic odds and ends were carried below the iron plated deck of Matt’s ship.

  “That should do the job I’d say Elizabeth. Thank you!” Matt said.

  “Wait!” Elizabeth said.

  Matt turned to the older woman questioningly.

  She struggled for a moment to pull something off one of her arthritic fingers. It came after a moment of tugging and she quickly put it into Matt’s hand.

  “I can’t blow your wedding ring out the barrel of a cannon Elizabeth! It wouldn’t be right! Here take it back! Please!” Matt exclaimed.

  Elizabeth wouldn’t take it back, but instead she hugged Matt tightly for a long moment before drawing back and wiping at the tears on her face as she said, “It isn’t right for one to stand by and offer nothing of value when there are those willing to give everything. May God keep you!”

  Matt in return hugged her to him for a long moment.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Fire!!!

  If I kept up with these underwater breath holding contests I was going to get lungs of steel!

  It felt like it had been ten minutes instead of the two my watch’s luminescent dial recorded to have passed by. Thirty seconds later the whales stopped just below the surface of the water, as we all felt the rhythmic action of the waves.

  I glanced at Keturah and she nodded. This was as far as the whales would take us.

  Glancing down to the sea floor I could see that they had taken us in pretty far. There was no more than ten to fifteen feet of water below us.

  I let go of Dimbo’s tusk and floated up to the surface with Keturah. Thirty some others floated away from their whales and up to the surface with us.

  I felt the swish of the underwater movements that signaled that the whales were leaving without ever having surfaced except that is for Dimbo, who still waited below for Keturah. We were about three hundred feet out from the beach. Treading water I glanced at Keturah and was taken aback momentarily by the raw emotion being expressed on her face.

/>   “Hey! It’s alright!” I exclaimed trying to calm her.

  She latched on to me with one hand desperately and said, “Please come back to me!”

  “I will!” I said in firm response to ease her fears.

  I really didn’t have the authority to either know, much less claim that I would return, but above all I wanted to allay her fears at all costs.

  She surged out of the water briefly to give me a salty kiss, a kiss that didn’t last nearly long enough before she let go and sank beneath the waves to her trusted whale companion. Dimbo would take her back out to where the entire fleet of the Whale People were congregated together in the fog bank waiting for the signal.

  The swim to shore went quickly and like some special forces team we slid out of the surf and sprinted across the beach to the cover of the forest. We paused just back from the forest’s edge to catch our breath. Once done I motioned to a man, who had been a slave up until a year ago, when he had escaped, to take the lead.

  Three of the thirty of us were as black as I was. The rest of them verged from brown cream to white, but we all appeared black as the whiter ones had been rubbed down with a black tar resin.

  We were on a mission to save a people who were oppressed. Color had nothing to do with it.

  We started out after our guide through the foreboding stillness of the forest. I had once been in awe of these strange majestic trees, but now all I wanted was to be free of them and this island with a dark history that had come to life once more.

  A fantasy flashed across my mind’s eye for a moment. It was simple and yet profound in its meaning.

  The fantasy was of me and Keturah sailing along across this inner sea beneath the world above. Just sailing. There was something so peacefully fulfilling about the imagery of that fantasy.

  Oh to God did I pray that it became my reality!

  Our guide suddenly stopped and held up a hand to us in a sign to stop as well. We stood crouched over as only our eyes moved as we listened for a sound, any sound.

  My head jerked off to the side as I heard what the guide must’ve sensed. Somebody was in the forest and it sounded like they were crying.

  The others looked to me silently and I made an inclusive hand gesture to indicate to scatter out and surround the source of the noise.

  They nodded and filtered out to the sides silently as I approached the noise head on. A few carefully silent minutes later I found myself standing behind a man who looked to be one of the plantation owners.

  He appeared to be alone and completely petrified. He was crouched down next to a hollow in a tree stump as if he was prepared to dive into it at a moment’s notice. He was making a lot of noise as he shifted from whimpering to carrying on a cryptic conversation with himself.

  I slipped an arm around his throat from behind and clamped down. He tried to scream but couldn’t. The others closed in quick and we had the man restrained on the ground in a matter of moments.

  The man actually looked relieved to see us. Well me anyway.

  I took my hand from off his mouth and he was instantly babbling, “Please take me with you back to the surface! Oh please don’t leave me here in this cursed place! Please I……”

  I held up a fist to hit him, “Shut up!” I whispered out sternly.

  His rambling pleas came to a halt as he fearfully swallowed down his latest calls for mercy.

  “Now what’s been going on since I left the island?” I asked softly.

  The man swallowed hard and looked as if he was accessing a memory of unimaginable horror, “The giants came. We’d always heard the stories about the sculptures in the ancient ruins, but never did I expect to see such creatures brought to life. They’re beyond horrible! The very sound and sight of their faces is enough to kill one from fright!”

  “What happened?” I said interrupting him.

  “They came to the colony. They laughed at us as we ran in fear from them. Those who resisted like the Governor, they ate. Their hunger seems to know no bounds! All they do is eat it seems!”

  On a sob the man said, “They ate my fiancé! Pulled her apart like she was a play toy and then ate her like she was candy as they commented on how sweet her flesh was.”

  The man began to cry his eyes out again and I had to say that I could see why given such a sight one would have that reaction. I’d most likely go crazy too.

  “What have they done to the slaves?” I asked breaking into the man’s emotional outpouring.

  His expressed emotions of sorrow abruptly switched to something much more aggressive in nature, “The slaves!” He exclaimed.

  “They haven’t so much as eaten one of them! They make sport of us and yet the slaves haven’t even been touched!”

  “And why is that?” I asked, but I thought I already knew the answer.

  “Because they make the food. That’s all these monsters seem to care about is food. They’ll have everything and everyone eaten off the island within a year. They may be eating us now, but the slaves will be next, mark my words! It’s only a curse that they didn’t start with them in the first place!”

  The man then looked up at me pleadingly and begged once more, “You have to take me with you!”

  I stared at the frantic man’s face in contemplation. I didn’t like the man, but did that justify leaving him behind to be fed upon?

  The man abruptly gasped painfully and gazed at us in shock for a few tense moments before the life left his eyes. I let my gaze leave the wide-open staring eyes of the man on the ground to the knife slipped in between the man’s ribs and the hand of our guide who had put it there.

  I met his eyes and the question of why was in my gaze upon him.

  The former slave pointed down with a finger accusingly at the dead man, “This man begs for mercy and yet he was without mercy himself! He was one of the worst of the field masters. I felt the sting of his whip many times, but I could forgive perhaps that. But I cannot forgive what he did to the little slave girls!”

  A tear made its way down the man’s cheek as raw emotion shown out of the man’s eyes as he went on, “Little girls no older than four and five he carried off into the bushes to rape and abuse. Do you know what it’s like to hear the cries for help and screams of pain from those who are innocent and be powerless to do anything to stop it? This man deserved no mercy!”

  I nodded my head in understanding and got up.

  We headed off through the forest leaving behind the carcass of a man that had been as much of a monster in life as the monsters who were terrorizing the island even now.

  We met no one else along the way through the forest. It was trickier once we cleared the forest, but these were the sleep hours and no one appeared to be out and about.

  We reached the caves where the slaves were held, but drew up before stepping out into the open because of an unwanted sight. A giant was sitting up against the side of the wall just to the right of the cave that had iron bars running across the front of it.

  The giant’s loud snores rent the still air in an awful way.

  I looked from the giant to the iron bars and back again. It was apparent that the giants did not want a potential upcoming food supply to escape from them.

  I stared silently at the giant in contemplation of what the best way to kill him would be. He was liable to make a fuss, perhaps even overpower us before we could deliver a killing blow.

  It was best that we waited for the diversion to begin and I said as much to those around me. Hopefully once the commotion in the harbor started up the giant would rush off to investigate and leave his post wide-open.

  I felt that it was our best hope for success, because if we tried to kill the giant in his sleep and he was able to get out a bellow then all of the giants would be down upon us like a stampeding herd of elephants. I wanted the slaves to know what was up though before everything got started.

  As quietly as I could I crept up to the bars of the cave cell alone. It was dark inside and I couldn’t see anyone, but
I didn’t want to call out for fear of waking the giant. Then suddenly a figure materialized out of the darkness and coming closer I recognized her as Mandy.

  I breathed a sigh of relief.

  Mandy and some others pressed up against the bars to hear what I had to say, “Do you still have the keys Mandy?” I whispered out.

  Wordlessly she pulled them out of a pocket with a soft jangle.

  “Good. Now this is going to be difficult, but I need you guys to wait in here a little longer, because we have to get rid of him.” I said gesturing to the giant who could have sawed mature redwood trees in half with the force of his snores.

  I told them about the diversion that was going to take place in the harbor and I watched as the hope lit up in the tired avenues of their worried faces.

  “When he runs off to investigate unlock the doors and all of you head for the forest. You’ll all have to work together. The young will need to be carried and those unable to keep up will need to be helped along, because we have to be fast about this! Boats will be waiting at the shore of the old ruins when we get through the forest. Everything clear about as to what needs done?” I asked.

  The small group nodded as one.

  Hands that ranged from black to white reached through the bars to touch me with reverence as I watched their faces quiver with suppressed emotion.

  “Everything is going to be all right and soon you’re all going to experience freedom!” I said confidently before I crept back to the opposite end of the clearing where the men who’d come with me waited in concealment.

  Settling down in the bushes we commenced to wait quietly. It was all that we could do for now.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Flynn looked through the narrow wheelhouse window at the harbor ahead and smiled grimly. Just like old times. Recent times anyway.

  He was starting to become quite the pirate in his old age. He patted the wheel before him that still bore evidence of crustacean growth. She was old and damp from being drowned, but she was still a fine ship.

  They were heading into the harbor with a fine head of steam built up. There was just one more thing to do to complete the picture and put a seal on the best moment of his life spent at sea.

  He rooted around in his pocket and came out with the stub end of a mostly burnt cigar. He’d been saving this for just such an occasion. Taking his last match he lit it up and puffed on the cigar for a moment before rolling it to the side of his mouth.