I slam back the glass of tequila, and bite into a salt covered lime, “Haaa, now this is how you drink. I told you guys it was good huh?”
Bheki just grins at me , while he has both hands on the table. I’m pretty sure he’d hit the floor if he took either hand off. Zijde on the other hand is just swaying as he pours himself a glass of tequila. Well, he spills more than he gets in the cup, but looking at the amount of bottles around us, I can’t blame him.
“You know, I think this is my new favorite way to combat scurvy. Doc Thomas insists citrus fruit cure it. I don’t know if it’s true, but I’ll take this treatment anytime.”
I laugh at Zijde as he sits/falls into the floor, spilling most of his drink. I look at the table to count the bottles, and I quickly find I have to close an eye to do so. One… two… three… four… damn that was a lot of tequila. Wait, there’s a broken bottle on the ground… so five? And Zijde’s is half gone… so five and a half? Jesus, that’s a lot of alcohol…
----------------------------------------
I wake up on the deck with a pounding headache. My mouth tastes like ass, and I feel very… sticky. I look down and see… a lot of blood, some dried, some still wet. I go to get up which wracks my body with pain. I check my body and find deep gashes on my thigh, stomach, back, and both forearms. I feel my face, and all of the stitching I had is halfway torn out, and my face as a whole is swollen like I had been boxing. I look around to see it’s just barely morning. I keep looking and see five bodies lying around me. All of them are white so Bheki is good as far as I can tell. I look again, but none of them are Zijde. I get up, barely, and walk towards the captain's quarters. The body closest to the cabin seems to have both of my kuhkris lodged into his chest. I pull them out, and I notice the body is cold. I look at the cabin door and try to steal myself for whatever I might find.
Which was pointless since it’d be hard to prepare yourself for what I see. I see Zijde on the right side of the room with two bodies lying beside him. He is covered in gashes much like me, but unlike me… he’s completely naked. Well, besides his tri-horned hat. He still has that on somehow. He has a random pistol in one hand, and his two wheelock pistols are lying beside him. His chest is still moving, so I guess he’s good for now.
I look towards the back of the room and see Bheki lying beside a broken chair that is covered in blood. He doesn’t seem to be cut, but the body beside him does seem to have had its head bashed in with that same chair. The large window at the back of the ship alsoo has two large holes in it. I see he’s still breathing as well, so I guess everything is good. Well, besides for the chest of silver that’s spilling its coins everywhere. I try to think back on what could have happened, but all I can remember is counting bottles.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Hey guys, wake up. Zijde, Bheki, wake up!”
Zijde starts to stir first. He looks up at me with bloodshot eyes, “Utah, please keep it down. I think my head might pop. What? What the fuck happened to you?”
He starts looking around, and the look of confusion keeps growing until it peaks with him looking down, “Why in the seven hells am I naked? Who’s fucking pistol is this? What in the shit happened to me? What in the fuck happened in here last night?”
“So you don’t remember anything either?”
“Uhm, let’s see… I remember knocking that empty bottle over and breaking it… yeah, that’s it. What’s the last thing you remember?”
“I remember counting the bottles.”
“How many did we drink?”
“Last I counted, five and a half…”
Zijde shakes his head, “Well could explain why I’m naked and my headache, but I have many more questions. Who were these fucking people? There’s four of them?”
“Five more outside. I think I killed them with these.” I hold up my knives. “I found these inside one of them.”
Zijde looks over to Bheki, “Bheki, wake up!”
Bheki sits up with a startled look on his face. The look quickly turns into confusion as he takes in the scene, “What did you do last night Cap’n? Utah?” He looks at the body beside him, “What in the fuck?”
I just shake my head, “Goddammit, none of us remember fuck-all. I’ll help clean this up in a couple hours. I need some water and a couple hours sleep.”
Zijde and Bheki both stand up. Zijde looks down at his naked body, “I’m sure this mess can wait. Let us all go below to recuperate.”
As we get below, I can tell all three of us are relishing the darkness. We gorge ourselves on one of the freshwater barrels we got yesterday. After that, we each find a hammock to lie in. As soon as I close my eyes I log out.
As I come to in my bed, I am shocked at the relief I get being in my real body. I mean, my hip and knee are aching, and I feel like I’m about to piss myself. But, it feels a lot better than being in my ‘other’ body right now. I get up to pee, and grab my phone on the way. It’s only been five hours since I logged out last. I get back to my bed and log into the NBP website. I figure the only way for me to find out what happen last night is to watch my feed. As I pull up the dashboard I see a few notifications.
You have been mentioned in 127 news articles.
Damn, 127 articles huh? I wonder what the first one says.
* Utah has a wild night last night, and the fans are surely both entertained yet confused. Here is what our analysts have to say.
Hmm, I promise guys, you know more than I do. Now let me see if I can’t fix that. I pull up last night feed and hit play.