Safe

Treasure Planet

The first thing your felt was your whole body was trembling. Something was rumbling beneath your bottom as you sat, making your legs feel numb. A familiar smell of dill and sweat reached your nostrils and you wrinkled your nose in disgust. Your mouth hurt from something rough tied around it and the inside of your lips were raw and tasted of metal.

You finally opened your eyes and was met with the backs of various creatures that obscured the view in front of them. It took you a moment to realize from the moving scenery that you were on a longboat and next to you was Silver and the familiar smell was coming from him. Your heart immediately hammered in your chest and in a panic, you let out a scream, but it was muffled by the gag. You tried to remove the gag but your hands couldn't move far enough to untie the pressing knot behind your head.

Your scream caught the attention of some pirates and they turned their faces to jeer at you. You recognized most of their faces and counted six of them. Only six. There was more than double that number. They must have stayed on the ship or the pirates killed the unloyal off...

"Calm down, lassie," Silver said. "Couldn't leave you on the ship cause we couldn't let you steer it away when you came to. We know how ye ain't a quitter."

You opened your eyes just as they began to water with tears. You were scared to die, no doubt, and possibly by the man you and Jim were close to. You tearfully kept silent, your throat hurting as a lump formed inside. You looked up at the blue sky and widened your eyes when you saw smoke billowing from above the mushroom trees.

Jim.

Your mouth tasted more metal as you fought hard not to cry out. It made you anxious once the longboat landed and everyone but you and one other pirate jumped off the longboat to look for survivors. You wanted to be among them.

When Silver hopped of the boat, you cried out through your gag to get his attention. You wanted to go with him. Not to run away, but to see for yourself if Jim was alive. Silver turned around and saw your terrified gaze, and a small flicker of emotion you caught and recognized as pity passed his face before he turned again and hopped off.

"Keep an eye on her, Mr. Onus," Silver said roughly, his voice sounded harsh and sadness dripped from it.

Mr. Onus, the short green creature with multiple eyes nodded his eyes and hopped back on the boat and took a seat in front of you with his back facing you. Then Silver cocked a gun on his automail arm and silently gave orders to the rest of his crew.

Your heart began to palpitate as you closed your eyes and heaved in large breathfuls of air. This can't be happening. This is all a dream--a bad nightmare. It has to be. One of your fears coming true. You didn't crash into a planet called Montressor and wake up from a coma and therefore there was no way Jim is gone--or Stygian and Delbert and Captain Amelia because you've never met them. This is all just a figment of your imagination. A distraction inside your coma as time flies in the real world.

Or maybe you're already dead and you're being punished by reliving this memory.

You shut your eyes tighter and clawed your thighs, hoping the pain would wake you, nothing happened when you reopened them. It only made the feeling that you were dreaming much worse. You calmed yourself and reopened your eyes and looked all around you.

It is all real.

This is really happening.

Jim is in danger.

You let out a muffled wail and sobbed. Everyone is gone. Jim didn't survive the crash. He couldn't have.

But then why are they taking so long to find them? The smoke is just ahead so the ship must be. Relief bubbled in your chest when you realized it was possible they have escaped long before you arrived. You just need to know for sure and then look for the locations where they would have gone to.