Land of the Setting Sun
5/26/2007 - Rightfully Paranoid
I calmed myself down, trying to rationalize the situation. Nobody had a real motivation to harm Itaki, and he may have been a homebody, but if there was one thing he was desperate for, it was getting home. I decided to wait things out; if I was wrong, then the truth would come to light eventually.
I took count of all the photo ops I’d gotten instead: the Chinese customs, the Taipei shipyard, Bo firing his pistol and cackling as the crew fought off pirates, and Captain Li Qiang, both alive and dead. Those last ones would not be going in the newspaper. I planned out a sort of hidden eulogy for him instead, woven into my article seamlessly; nobody would ever know, except those who knew. Captain Li Qiang had been honorable in his demise, and I couldn’t help but see some of the beauty in war. I had him to thank for that.
I was jostled from my writing when Qara kicked at my feet.
“Hey, there’ll be plenty of time for writing when we get back home, come live a little.” she chastised. I groaned at first, but then she’d mentioned that they were playing Big Two again, and I perked up.
I’d become VERY good at Big Two during our five day trip, so much so that when the players spotted me walking over, a couple of them flaunted their cards in disgust.
“Here comes Little One! Here to ruin game again?” They’d started calling me that after I’d run the table against their best players on the second night, total luck. But even though I now had some skill to back it up, some things don’t change. I’ll admit though, for how little English they knew, “Little One” was kind of clever.
“Scoot over, and forget the game you were playing. It’s a new game now.”
We played deep into the night, until sheer exhaustion wiped us off the table one by one. I'd had a mediocre performance, maybe the swaying of the ship had been muddling the brains of the sailors somehow. Eventually we all nodded off; at one point I put my head on the table, and lacked the agency to even get back over to my sleeping spot. Oh well, the plywood pillow would do more than enough.
----------
Bo was gone, whisked away in the night like a leaf carried away in a gentle breeze. He wasn't the only one either, two other members of the crew were missing too. I woke to loud arguing and people packing their belongings in a hurry. Dr. Blythe quickly grabbed ahold of Qara, Aubrey and I, and took us to the side.
"We've got a serious problem. I'm not sure if any of you have heard, but the crew is in absolute chaos. Half of them want to cut their losses and head for Taiwan, and the other half seems to want to murder all the scavengers in cold blood. I'm not sure what happened to the missing men, but I'm going to need your help getting this under control, we can't afford to get stranded here."
"None of us can speak Chinese, hell, I don't even think Aubrey can speak." Qara whispered. If Aubrey heard her spoke, he didn't show it, staring straight into the hectic masses of the crew like he was gearing up for a fight.
"I don't think we really have a choice in it anymore guys. There's no calming down this crowd." I looked over Dr. Blythe's shoulder, gesturing to some of the walled off rooms, where the crew started to gather, banging the butts of their pistols against the doors. Some of them flooded out into the daylight, fully geared up and began eagerly heading back towards the ship. It was utterly disorganized, and there was no captain to lead them.
One of the doors to the metal rooms suddenly burst open, the hinges snapping and the door flying outward, crushing one of the men against the other side of the warehouse. Something twisted and fast crawled out of the room and grabbed the nearest man, slamming him against the ground with feral speed. Most of the men backed up at first, and then drew their weapons, melee or otherwise, and swarmed the creature.
"What the FUCK is that!" I yelled over the commotion.
"I'm not sure, but we're getting out of here." Dr. Blythe gripped my upper arm roughly, and began running towards the only exit. I shot a quick glance behind me at Qara and Aubrey, who'd whipped out his rifle again and was keeping pace behind us. The beast had shrugged off the assault from the crew, leaving one of them on the ground torn to a bloody pulp of sinew, his stomach having been messily eviscerated.. It was horrifying to look at, even more so than Captain Li Qiang's neck had been. Some of the crew fired their pistols at the beast, and the bullets hit, flying through its arms and legs, leaving chasing trails of dark blood behind him. The beast hardly flinched however, and it stood directly between us and the exit.
I calmed myself down, trying to rationalize the situation. Nobody had a real motivation to harm Itaki, and he may have been a homebody, but if there was one thing he was desperate for, it was getting home. I decided to wait things out; if I was wrong, then the truth would come to light eventually.
I took count of all the photo ops I’d gotten instead: the Chinese customs, the Taipei shipyard, Bo firing his pistol and cackling as the crew fought off pirates, and Captain Li Qiang, both alive and dead. Those last ones would not be going in the newspaper. I planned out a sort of hidden eulogy for him instead, woven into my article seamlessly; nobody would ever know, except those who knew. Captain Li Qiang had been honorable in his demise, and I couldn’t help but see some of the beauty in war. I had him to thank for that.
I was jostled from my writing when Qara kicked at my feet.
“Hey, there’ll be plenty of time for writing when we get back home, come live a little.” she chastised. I groaned at first, but then she’d mentioned that they were playing Big Two again, and I perked up.
I’d become VERY good at Big Two during our five day trip, so much so that when the players spotted me walking over, a couple of them flaunted their cards in disgust.
“Here comes Little One! Here to ruin game again?” They’d started calling me that after I’d run the table against their best players on the second night, total luck. But even though I now had some skill to back it up, some things don’t change. I’ll admit though, for how little English they knew, “Little One” was kind of clever.
“Scoot over, and forget the game you were playing. It’s a new game now.”
We played deep into the night, until sheer exhaustion wiped us off the table one by one. I'd had a mediocre performance, maybe the swaying of the ship had been muddling the brains of the sailors somehow. Eventually we all nodded off; at one point I put my head on the table, and lacked the agency to even get back over to my sleeping spot. Oh well, the plywood pillow would do more than enough.
----------
Bo was gone, whisked away in the night like a leaf carried away in a gentle breeze. He wasn't the only one either, two other members of the crew were missing too. I woke to loud arguing and people packing their belongings in a hurry. Dr. Blythe quickly grabbed ahold of Qara, Aubrey and I, and took us to the side.
"We've got a serious problem. I'm not sure if any of you have heard, but the crew is in absolute chaos. Half of them want to cut their losses and head for Taiwan, and the other half seems to want to murder all the scavengers in cold blood. I'm not sure what happened to the missing men, but I'm going to need your help getting this under control, we can't afford to get stranded here."
"None of us can speak Chinese, hell, I don't even think Aubrey can speak." Qara whispered. If Aubrey heard her spoke, he didn't show it, staring straight into the hectic masses of the crew like he was gearing up for a fight.
"I don't think we really have a choice in it anymore guys. There's no calming down this crowd." I looked over Dr. Blythe's shoulder, gesturing to some of the walled off rooms, where the crew started to gather, banging the butts of their pistols against the doors. Some of them flooded out into the daylight, fully geared up and began eagerly heading back towards the ship. It was utterly disorganized, and there was no captain to lead them.
One of the doors to the metal rooms suddenly burst open, the hinges snapping and the door flying outward, crushing one of the men against the other side of the warehouse. Something twisted and fast crawled out of the room and grabbed the nearest man, slamming him against the ground with feral speed. Most of the men backed up at first, and then drew their weapons, melee or otherwise, and swarmed the creature.
"What the FUCK is that!" I yelled over the commotion.
"I'm not sure, but we're getting out of here." Dr. Blythe gripped my upper arm roughly, and began running towards the only exit. I shot a quick glance behind me at Qara and Aubrey, who'd whipped out his rifle again and was keeping pace behind us. The beast had shrugged off the assault from the crew, leaving one of them on the ground torn to a bloody pulp of sinew, his stomach having been messily eviscerated.. It was horrifying to look at, even more so than Captain Li Qiang's neck had been. Some of the crew fired their pistols at the beast, and the bullets hit, flying through its arms and legs, leaving chasing trails of dark blood behind him. The beast hardly flinched however, and it stood directly between us and the exit.