Treasure Planet: The Real Treasure

Chapter 10

After about 15 minutes of swabbing, Jim angrily slapped the mop against the deck.

"Yeah, I got your Mr. Mop," he muttered scornfully. "This is unbelievable. I find a treasure map, and then I'm put on mop duty."

"I mean, what did you expect? Did you think you would just get to kick back and relax on our way there? This is a big ship, and everyone needs to do their part in order to keep it running," I explained.

"Yeah, whatever," Jim answered, realizing I was right.

A large crew member with four arms walked by, shoving Jim towards the side of the boat.

"Watch it, twerp," he threatened before walking away.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah," he answered, seeming distracted.

I turned to see what he was looking at. He was staring at a few other crew members who were whispering to each other. Then one of them noticed we were staring at them and motioned for the others to be quiet.

"What are you looking at, weirdo?" the largest asked.

His head then crawled off his body, revealing a face on his chest.

"Yeah, weirdo," the torso finished.

My eyes widened. Okay, that's creepy. Suddenly, I heard a hissing sound coming from above. I slowly looked up and saw a red spider-like alien crawling down the mast towards Jim and I.

I tightened my grip around my mop. This can't be good, I thought.

"Cabin boys should learn to mind their own business," the spider-thing said, moving in on Jim.

"Why? You got something to hide, bright eyes?" he taunted.

What are you doing? I screamed in my mind. I gave him a look that said he should shut up, but he wasn't looking at me.

The spider picked him up by the shirt collar with its claw.

"Maybe your ears don't work so well," the spider hissed.

"Yeah. Ahem. Too bad my nose works just fine," Jim grumbled, turning his face away from the spider's mouth, which apparently didn't smell very nice.

"Why, you impudent little..." the spider started before slamming Jim against the main mast.

"Jim!" I exclaimed. A sudden burst of courage caused me to run towards the spider instead of going to get help.

"Let him go!" I ordered as I tried to pry the spider's claw off of Jim, but it just pushed me away.

The other crew members were cheering and egging the spider on, so I knew they would be no help at all.

I looked around for something to use as a weapon. My eyes found the discarded mop on the ground. I picked it up and used it to swipe the spider's spindly legs out from under him. It fell over and dropped Jim. I hurried over to him to make sure he was alright.

I got down on my knees on the ground next to Jim, turning away from the spider. Big mistake.

Suddenly, I felt a searing, red-hot pain on my arm. I gasped, turning to see a bleeding gash on my arm and a red claw in my peripheral vision. Then it grabbed me and threw me up into the air. He shot his claw out and pinned me to the mast by my neck.

"I'll teach you some manners, you little wench!" he growled.

He tightened his claw around my neck, cutting off my airflow. I struggled, trying to get him to release me, but it was futile.