As Hayes followed the rest of his group down the hall, he thought he heard something out of place. A moment later, the rest seemed to hear it, too. Eventually, Tom stopped, and the rest stopped with him and listened. Finally, Tom spoke up. "Is that... singing?"

Sure enough, Hayes could make out what sounded for all the world like a freaking pirate dirge. One of the old ones from the movies. As it approached, it slowly got louder, and lights went out, replaced by green flames that started popping into existence along the walls.

"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest—

...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

Drink and the devil had done for the rest—

...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

The mate was fixed by the bosun's pike—

The bosun brained with a marlinspike—

And Cookey's throat was marked belike—

It had been gripped by fingers ten

And there they lay, all good dead men—

Like break o'day in a boozing ken—

...Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum."

The last word was accentuated by all the green flames extinguishing, leaving them all in total darkness. Guns were drawn, and a few men started to switch on their lights when suddenly, an explosion of green flame beside the group heralded the appearance of someone or, perhaps more accurately, something. It was halfway between a corpse and a skeleton dressed as an old earth pirate, wreathed in green flames, and it was laughing. "Yo-ho me maties! Welcome to my humble abode! I guarantee you, you'll all remember this day for the rest of your lives!"

Of course, several men began firing into the apparition, but it was clear their bullets did nothing. The corpse pirate tilted his head as if considering their paltry attempts to harm him before barking out with a laugh in his voice. "It's good that you got some fight in you, lads, but in the interest of fair play, I think it only fair to warn you: You should look out behind yerselves!" He then disappeared, and the room went mostly dark again, only lit slightly by a faint green light that seemed to dance above their heads and the few men who'd managed to get their lights on.

Hayes turned and saw the faint outline of a figure with a gun drawn that was briefly lit up when it started firing. As a couple of his companions fell beside him, Hayes took aim and fired, only for his aim to be interrupted by the flailing limbs of the man who'd been hit by his side. He took aim again and, this time, got off three shots, hitting the figure at least once before getting hit in the right shoulder and falling to the ground.

Everyone was shouting, shooting, and falling around Hayes. The problem was half the men were shooting at the ghost, and the rest seemed to be firing in a blind panic. He even saw one of the men shoot Tom.

Hayes switched his gun to his off-hand and took aim over the body of someone whose face was obscured in shadow and got off another two shots. The figure stopped firing, and Hayes waited, listening for any movement beside the groaning of the dying men beside him.

Eventually, Hayes grabbed one of the lights that had fallen to the floor and turned toward where the figure had been. There was a blood trail leading back around the corner.

Not wanting to let whoever had been get away, Hayes dropped the light and silently stalked forward. As he neared the corner, he envisioned the man ready to take a shot at anyone who chased after him, so Hayes got low and dove around the corner so that he was lying on the ground, aiming up at where the man would be waiting. However, as soon as his head was around the corner, he could see the man also lying on the ground, aiming up.

They both rushed to correct their aim and fired at each other.

-

Carter took a moment to process the fact he wasn't dead before looking up and seeing where the pirate's bullet had ricocheted off the wall right above his head. Just an inch or two lower, and things would have ended very differently.

The pain in his side reminded Carter he'd been shot in the left arm. He cursed as he pulled out some bandages and shouted at the pirate. "Damn it! Did you really have to warn them I was there?"

The pirate appeared and laughed before speaking. For once, Carter wished he was real rather than AI so he could stand up and punch the smug bastard's face! Or better yet, shoot him! "It wouldn't have been sporting to shoot them all in the back without warning! Besides, what are ye complaining about, lad! That's only a flesh wound! A little grog and a sleep, and you'll be fine!"

As Carter tightened the wrapping in place, he cursed the pirate. "Yeah, maybe, but I had to use a whole magazine in that firefight and one more bullet beside to finish the straggler. Now I'm down to two bullets with five more pirates on board!"

The pirate finally seemed at least a little contemplative. "Aye, I can see how that would be a problem..."

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Carter looked at the pirate like he was an idiot. "Ya think?"

Too angry to say anything else, Carter started searching the dead pirates. Thankfully, this group hadn't used up every shot like the last. The man he'd killed last still had one bullet remaining, and he found another corpse that had two shots in his gun. At least he had five shots for the last five pirates, but the problem was that they were split between three different calibers.

As Carter tucked the other two guns into his pants, he realized the odds weren't in his favor. Still, at least he had a chance.

-

Carter considered his options as he followed the girl's map toward the last group of pirates. He had five shots, just five, and five pirates left. Should he go for headshots? Even with all his time and experience working as security aboard merchant vessels and all the time in the shooting range that allowed, the odds of him missing two or even three of those shots were a near certainty. But shooting center mass also left the question, what if the shot wasn't immediately lethal? He'd seen plenty of people shrug off getting shot as a minor inconvenience. Hell, he'd been shot just a bit ago and still killed the man who'd shot him.

Admittedly, he wasn't totally alone. He had Sybil, though, as the pirate had recently shown, they weren't the most reliable partners. Their unstable nature could quickly get him killed. The girl seemed like the most put together, but according to her, she was the oldest of the personalities, which meant there was probably something deeply wrong there too that would definitely pop up at just the wrong moment with his luck. On the other hand, he only had five shots. It was time to take a gamble.

Looking at the map, he spoke up. "Hey, Sybil, got a question for you."

Thankfully, it was the girl who appeared. "For which of me?"

Carter nodded toward her. "You, well, all of you, I suppose, but you'll do for laying out the plan. Do you think your other selves can herd the pirates down this hall? The more panicked they are, the better. I don't want them paying too much attention to their surroundings."

The girl looked at where he was indicating and nodded. "I see what you're thinking. Yeah, that should be doable."

Carter grinned. "Good. Give me a chance to get into a position here, then run them my way."

The girl looked amused. "Okay, no problem. You sure you want to be that close, though?"

Carter nodded. "Yeah, I wanna make sure I herd them all into the exact right spot, and I think I can fine-tune that better than your Creepshow."

The girl shrugged. "Alright, it's your call. Just try not to get yourself killed with the rest. It would be a shame to lose you right at the finish line."

Carter rolled his eyes while shaking his head. "A shame, yeah, I suppose that's one way to put it..."

-

Carter waited, tucked just inside the room he would ambush the pirates from. He knew this was a stupid idea, but it was also the only one he had given his limited resources.

As the red dots representing the pirates made their way around another corner, Carter couldn't help but muse that they were making great time, meaning they were going at a full run. That was good. It meant that they'd be even less prepared for what was about to happen.

Carter could hear their yelling as the red dots rounded the last corner. Behind them, he could hear the obnoxious laughter of the vixen chasing them. Thankfully, he was just far enough away for it to only be mildly irritating, rather than the deafening sound he knew they were dealing with.

Waiting just a couple more seconds for them to reach the proper position in the hallway, Carter jumped out and fired two shots into the center mass of the lead pirate. The pirate fell dead before he hit the ground.

Down to three bullets, Carter dropped the now-spent gun, drawing the next. By that time, the pirates were already diving for cover through the door right next to their position. He fired off a couple of rounds in their direction, winging one in the leg and missing entirely with the next, but that was alright. He'd just wanted to make sure they all got into position, and that's just what they'd done.

With a quick tug at the bedsheets he'd wrapped around his waist to ensure they were still in place, Carter shouted, "Hit it, now!" even as he dove to grab onto the doorframe of the room he'd come out of.

It was immediately obvious that the outer door to the airlock the pirates had dove into was open as the air rushed out of the ship with a hurricane's strength. Carter couldn't imagine any of them surviving, but the force of the wind kept coming even as he could feel his grip slipping.

Carter shouted, "Uh, you can close it now!" but had no idea if the AI could even hear him as he couldn't hear himself over the tumultuous sound of the air escaping into the void. He was holding on by his fingertips now but was having trouble breathing in the wind tunnel and was getting more than a little light-headed. He knew that wouldn't last much longer.

Finally, despite his best efforts, Carter lost his grip and started tumbling toward the door. He gripped onto the bedsheet he'd tied to the bed frame, but when he reached the end of its length, it barely slowed him down. His knot on the bedframe must have failed, and he was pulled toward the vacuum.

Finally, the outer door slammed shut, and Carter fell crashing to the ground of the airlock. However, on his way down, he saw why the AI must have kept the door open as long as they had. One of the pirates had somehow managed to wedge themselves into what looked like a storage cabinet of some kind. They had a gun drawn and were taking aim.

As he hit the ground, Carter rolled and heard a shot he hoped missed. Trying to keep moving while reaching for his own final remaining gun, he heard another shot and felt a tug that probably meant he'd been hit in the leg, even if the pain hadn't registered yet.

Coming up into a crouch, still dizzy from the tumble moments before, Carter took aim and returned fire with his final shot. They both froze as the pirate registered what had just happened. In the brief pause, Carter could see the pirate was a woman and not entirely unattractive, though, at the moment, he wished she had a hole through her chest instead of a dent in the wall three inches to her left.

The pirate smiled and took more careful aim this time. Carter was rather proud that he maintained eye contact, though he did jump a little when she pulled the trigger. After all, he'd been expecting a loud bang, not the click of a hammer striking an empty chamber.

As they both registered what happened again, the pirate woman started to try and climb out of the cabinet at the same moment Carter charged forward. It looked like she was trying to draw a knife, but Carter wasn't going to give her the opportunity as he clocked her across the Jaw with the butt of his pistol.

The pirate fell limp to the ground as Carter did the same, the pain in the leg he'd been shot in just about making him pass out after he put all his weight onto it. However, when he looked over, the pirate wasn't moving. She was either out cold or dead. One way or another, he'd survived.

Carter laughed as he realized he was getting yet another chance at life, though that laughter faded quickly enough when he realized he may have gotten out of the frying pan but was just about to land in the fire. Standing in the now very crowded room with him were all three Sybils, with expressions ranging across pride, indifference, and disdain on exactly the faces you'd expect. His nightmare was really just beginning.