“Oi, oi, oi!

There’s sum’in shinning over there!”

“Welp quit yer yapping about it and haul the bloody thing up!”

“And here I was trying to be generous by showing you fellas my find!

If it’s sum’in valuable, I ought to keep it to myself!”

“We would just kill yerr and take it.”

“I’d like to see ya try!”

Splash!

A net is cast into ocean, the water thrust it about violently, but it finally manages to capture it’s target

“The sea has been ruthless as of late.

Errrghh!”

A large shiny object is being hauled out of the sea…

“Oi!

What is it, a glacier!?”

“Bloody hell!

There’s a fooking person inside!”

……….

******

(Light……Sunlight…….fish?)

Wiping my eyes open I find myself sprawled out near a pile of fresh fish,

My feet feel cold and numb, I struggle to maintain my footing.

Splashh!

I hear the sound of a wave

It makes me feel sick.

I’ve been knocked around by these for who knows how long,

“Ugng” grabbing on to a nearby guardrail for support, I take a good look at the surroundings,

(I’m still at sea, but whose ship is this?)

Up ahead is a massive gray cylindrical structure sticking up from beneath the sea, it’s still to far away to see what it is however….

“Oi you were actually alive?” A voice calls from the opposite direction,

Approaching from below the deck is a man dressed in baggy pleather trousers and overcoat, one hand remains behind his back where I assume he’s clutching his gun,

“Who are you, where am I?” are the first words that comes out my mouth

“None, ya business mate, we were using ya ice to keep our fish cool,

Now that you’ve err–thawed out, do me favor and hop off board, ya?”

From his demeanor I can tell there is no negotiating to be done here, he means to kill me if I don’t jump off this boat

(Unfortunate for him I need this ship to get back to land)

“……..

I have a question first,

Are you fishermen or pirates?”

“We’re fooking, mermaids,

Get off the ship before I put ya back on ice permanently”

(……..)

“I can’t do that,

Huhhyahhh!”

THWOMP!

Ripping the guardrail out of the ship I swing it like a bat the man, making a loud thud it cracks his skull open and he drops to the deck,

*Flash*

A camera on the ship’s mast beams down onto me

Scrambling to the dead man I hurriedly dig through his clothes for his gun

Footsteps from below get louder, as the other crew members make their way up,

Pop!

I fire a warning shot down the deck’s stairs

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrtrttttttt!

A stream of bullets come back as response but I had already anticipated that

“Ughhhn!” I shout out while pouring the blood from the man’s skull whom I thwonked, down the stairs,

…….

The bullets stop, the men below now thinking they’ve killed me…

POP!–POP!–POP!

The three headshots for the three men who emerge from below,

….

Making my way below is the small interior of the ships

Some cigars still alight are on a table along with boxes of ammunition, on the floors,

(The ship has stopped moving,

Either one of them was the pilot, or…)

……

……

…..

Pop!

A bullet goes through the legs of the pilot, he’d been hiding behind the door of the cockpit planning to ambush me,

But I had anticipated that,

“ehckk!” I grab him by the throat,

“Is there anyone else on this ship?”

The man shakes his head fervently

Pop!

My last bullet goes in his head.

(Now to start this ship back up,

I have to get back to Apollo,

How long has it even been?

Lyra….)

Bzzzt bzzzzt

A radio receiver buzzes on the control panel,

(Should I?)

“Bloody hell Kage, you didn’t have ta kill them all!” a woman’s voice cracks though

(!?)

“Who is this?” I pick up the receiver instantly

“Who does it sound like mate?”

“I don’t know this voice”

“Stop playing with me Kage, you’re nearby the Iron Lung, pull up already, been searching for ya for a while now”

(Iron Lung?

Does she mean that gray structure up ahead?)

“Who is this, seriously?”

“Ya know me Kage, now get over here, we finished the thing ya wanted.”

“What thin–”

The transmission disconnects.