The rain was falling even harder now, drenching all of them. Rulio blinked the cold water out of his eyes.

“With two against three?” Roland scoffed, glancing at Marek. “You don’t ever seem to learn, Captain. Do I need to kidnap another of your crew, perhaps?”

Rulio kept his face calm, refusing to let Roland get a reaction out of him. “I think you’ll find I’ve learned quite a lot from our last meeting,” he replied. Now it was his turn to relish the advantage he possessed. He racked the Thompson’s slide. “You see, I have you surrounded.”

Roland chuckled. “Oh, really? A taste of my own medicine, is it?”

Rulio raised his hand, and a moment later Seren fired a shot from the jungle behind Roland. Elayna fired off her gun a few seconds later.

Roland tilted his head around to look in the direction the noise had come from. “Surrounded…” His eyes narrowed. “No, I don’t think you do.”

Rulio knew he needed to push his bluff to keep the situation in his favour. “I really don’t think you want to find out.”

“I saw your little poster at Port Authority,” Roland said venomously. “It was there when I arrived, and there when I left. Something tells me you didn’t get a lot of interest.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, actually, there–”

“Enough!” Roland snapped. “I don’t care if you have two dozen of your useless people scattered around this jungle, it’ll make no fucking difference to your chances.” He spat the words, his face a storm. “Are you really going to persist in challenging me?”

Rulio scowled. “I am.” This was it; he had moved across the threshold. The rain was running down his face, leaving icy pinpricks in the corners of his eyes. He glanced to either side of Roland, at the men standing there. The skinny one, Daziel, and the hulking one, Jonny. He didn’t want to have to kill them.

“And you’ve thought through the consequences?” Roland asked.

Rulio nodded. There was no backing down now – not when Beck needed him.

Roland smiled. “Well, alright then.”

Only now, seeing that smile, did Rulio consider he might have made a miscalculation.

Roland’s smile disappeared, and his gaze narrowed into a scowl. “Here’s the first one.” He drew his gun in a blur, swung it up, and fired at Marek; there was a clap of thunder and a mist of red sprayed outwards from the boy’s side as he stumbled backwards and then fell down into the mud.

There was a still, silent moment when nothing happened.

Then Rulio heard a sharp crack from the trees behind Roland; a fraction of a second later the back of Jonny’s head burst out through his face in red chunks of brain and bone, leaving only a splintered crater above his grin. The heavy machine gun dropped into the mud as the dead man toppled over and thudded to the ground.

That broke Rulio’s stupor; he ran to Marek, who was lying with dazed eyes in a growing pool of blood, grabbed him by his arms, and began to drag him away from the path as fast as he could, carving a ragged line through the mud towards the trees behind them.

Another shot rang out from where Seren was hidden. Rulio glanced up; both Daziel and Roland had begun to dart evasively towards the jungle. Roland was smiling at him as he moved backwards into the trees, dark smoke wisping up from the barrel of his revolver. Rulio felt his adrenaline spiking as a thick surreality began to skew the world. Not again, he thought, as he crashed backwards through the jungle underbrush, desperate to get Marek out of sight.

Not again.

Rulio heard no more shots, yet still he dragged Marek towards the beach in an adrenalized frenzy.

One bullet – that’s what Marek had been hit with. As far as getting shot went, that was the best it got. With luck, it would be a clean wound, straight through.

Suddenly realising there was no more jungle around him, he stopped and looked around. They were back on the beach.

He let go of Marek and fought to get his breathing under control. It was ragged, frantic.

Once his heart had stopped pounding so hard and he could catch a few clean breaths, he bent down and slapped Marek across the face. “Hey!”

Marek groaned and opened his eyes. They were darting around, unfocused.

“You’re alright.” Rulio told him. “You’re alright.”

“What happened?” Marek asked weakly.

“You were shot.”

Marek’s eyes widened, though they were still far-off. “I’m going to die?”

“No,” Rulio said confidently. He didn’t have the heart to tell Marek anything different.

“Okay.” Marek’s voice sounded like it was arriving from somewhere far away.

There was a hole in Marek’s shirt. Rulio yanked it up and saw a corresponding hole in his side, about halfway down. A rather big hole, too – that was one hell of a revolver Roland had used. At least the wound was close to Marek’s side, away from his center of mass and vital organs.

Rulio rolled Marek over and felt for an exit wound. His fingers quickly found it; a torn, wet cavity larger than the entry wound. So, the bullet had gone through. That was one thing less to worry about, although Marek’s blood was turning the sand beneath them ever redder. He needed a hospital as soon as possible. And to make it to a hospital, he needed to be bandaged. Rulio reached to his belt, but his medical kit wasn’t there. He must have lost it somewhere in the jungle.

He squinted up at the sky in frustration. The clouds were a bright white, shifting into borders of darker grey. Somewhere behind them was the afternoon sun. He wished he were anywhere but this beach. He wiped his forehead, and his hand came away with little pink pieces of Jonny’s head stuck to it. He shook his hand, though it seemed like someone else’s, but the sticky globs wouldn’t budge.

Somebody burst out of the trees.

Rulio dropped Marek and fell back, scrambling for his pistol, but it was just Seren, who came to a halt and stared down at Marek. “Is he dead?”

“No.”

“Where was he hit?”

“Right side, lower ribcage.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.”

“Clean?”

Rulio nodded.

“Good.”

Rulio gestured rapidly with a hand. “Medical kit.”

Seren unclipped it from his belt and tossed it to Rulio.

“You see where they went?” Rulio asked as he grabbed a small bottle of alcohol and a bandage from the pouch, before sliding out his knife and cutting a small square of material from his stormcloak.

Seren shook his head. His eyes darted around. “We’re too exposed here. Where’s Elayna?”

“I know.” Rulio poured the alcohol into the hole in Marek’s side, placed the piece of waterproof fabric over it, and then wrapped the bandage around his torso a few times before tearing it off and tucking it in. “And I haven’t seen her.”

“You should get Marek on the ship,” Seren said. “I’ll wait for Elayna here. She can’t be too far behind.”

Rulio spiked a syrette of morphine into Marek’s side, then threw away the flattened tube and grabbed the boy’s arms.

He hadn’t dragged Marek more than twenty metres when Elayna gracefully stepped out of the jungle, as cautious as a cat.

Her eyes widened when she saw Marek, and the red traceline he was leaving behind him on the beach. “What happened?” Her voice was higher than usual; borderline shrill. “Is he dead?”

“No,” Rulio said. Then quieter: “Not yet.” He jerked his head towards the Steel Turkey. “Let’s go.”

Seren slung his rifle over his shoulder and ran to help Rulio carry Marek the final distance to the ship.

After they were all aboard, Elayna and Seren went about getting Marek settled in for the voyage. Rulio went straight to the wheelhouse, anxious to get underway. His hands were trembling as he fired up the engines. Once they were sufficiently warmed up, he eased the ship away from the shore, set a heading for Port Authority, and then gunned the throttle. Outside, the rain, which had been streaming down the windows, was beginning to ease.

He took a deep breath, and told himself that this time would be different.

When he returned to the bunkroom, Marek had been laid on his bunk, naked from the waist up. The thick belt of white bandages around his lower torso was already turning red where the bullet had passed through him. He was asleep. The morphine must have kicked in. He looked white, although Rulio couldn’t say whether that was from blood loss, shock, or just the cold. Probably all three of them, to varying degrees. Muno was on the bunk as well, fretting and trying to get comfortable, pushing himself as close to Marek’s body as he could. When he lay down, Muno’s head was cradled against Marek’s neck, while his back legs prodded into Marek’s waist.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“He’s as settled as we can get him,” Elayna said. She threw a blanket over Marek, and carefully tucked it under his body. Muno disappeared beneath it.

“Thanks.” Rulio said. “It looks worse than it is,” he added after a few seconds. “I hope.”

“Well, chances are he’s not going to die.” Seren was studying Marek intently. “From the bullet, anyway – the bleeding is mostly staunched. But if there’s any damage to his organs, or infection…”

Elayna was holding the torn shirt. “If the bullet took any fabric in with it and left it inside him, it’ll fester.”

“They’re going to sort all of that out at the hospital,” Rulio replied, trying to sound convincing. “And if he was shot anywhere really serious, he would have died already.” He took his hat off and brushed at it idly while he looked down at Marek. “He’s made it this far. He’ll make it the rest of the way.”

They were silent for a while. No doubt all of them were thinking of the same possibility, but none were willing to give voice to it – Rulio least of all. “Elayna, stay with him,” he said.

Elayna nodded.

He turned to Seren. “You and I will take shifts at the helm. We’ll make it back to Port by dawn.”

Seren nodded. “Right.”

Despite the unrelenting air of tension and anxiety, the afternoon quickly passed into evening, and then the evening settled into a night scattered with streaks of rainless cloud. Beyond the agitated atmosphere inside the ship, the world outside seemed to continue on calmly, thoughtlessly.

Whenever he wasn’t in the middle of one of his two-hour shifts at the helm, Rulio felt the urge to check on Marek, but something was also stopping him. To see the wounded boy on his bunk like that would perhaps make it all too real and immediate – even more than it already was. There was nothing he could do, anyway, except keep sailing for Port, and get Marek to a hospital. What good would it do to keep reminding himself of something he couldn’t change?

And so he sailed, and he paced, and he sailed again, and the hours of cold darkness continued to pass as the Steel Turkey crashed on through the moonlit sea. A few hours before dawn, he shot the stars with the sextant. Then he resumed his waiting.

The night had seemed to stretch out in front of him forever, but at last a red glow began to sweep upwards from the horizon. The long dark was almost at an end.

“How’s Marek?” Rulio asked Seren when the man came to take over the helm.

Seren was rubbing at his eyes as he walked. “He’s stable,” he replied through a slow yawn. “Holding on well enough. Elayna’s been tending to him all night.”

“That’s good.” Perhaps it was time to pay Marek a visit. “Let me know if he wakes up.”

Seren nodded.

Rulio left the wheelhouse, went to the hold, dragged out some gasoline canisters, and topped up the fuel tanks. Then he consulted his sea maps in the chartroom, comparing them with the asterial measurements he had taken with the sextant earlier. By his reckoning, they were just over fifty kilometres from New Caledonia’s southern end, and therefore only a couple of hours away from Port. Seren would sight land soon.

Having done that, Rulio walked outside, rolled up his coat, threw it onto the deck, and promptly fell asleep.

The next thing he knew, there was a foot prodding him insistently. He gazed up through blurred eyes.

“Sorry,” Seren said. “But he’s awake.”

The bunkroom smelled of alcohol and damp cloth. Marek was still white, but not any whiter than he had been yesterday. His eyes looked more alert, and brighter. He stared at Rulio with a pained expression.

There were several things Rulio had the urge to say, but he couldn’t voice them. “We’re almost there,” he eventually said quietly instead. He laid a hand on Marek’s shoulder. “You’re doing well.”

“Thanks.” Marek’s smile was faint. “Time to visit Keresi?”

Rulio returned the smile. “Yes.” He turned to Elayna and gave her a nod, and her head dipped in response. With those two motions, they communicated everything they needed to.

“We’re within range?” Seren asked.

“We should be,” Rulio replied.

Hoping to alert the hospital before their arrival, he switched on the radio, and it burst into life with a torrent of fizzling static. He dialled into the hospital frequency, but the stream of static persisted.

“Odd,” he muttered to himself. He jiggled the dial a little each way, but it made no difference. It seemed the radio was not going to cooperate. They would just have to arrive and hope for the best.

He and Seren went and stood at the prow, willing the ship onwards. Both of them held an arm up across their faces to ward against the wind, which had picked up considerably. It lashed at his cloak, sending it cracking out behind him. He had left his hat inside the ship, lest it be blown irretrievably into the sea.

They were so close now.

When Port Authority finally rose over the horizon, it sent an immediate wave of relief through him. Once again, the high concrete walls of the port, and the drab buildings lurking behind them, greeted him as a rock of stability in a world that seemed determined to spiral out of his control at every turn.

Not long after, they slipped through the Port’s entrance, and back into safety. Rulio guided the Turkey to a berth as close to the hospital as possible, then went into the cabin to help Seren with Marek.

“How are you feeling?” he asked. “We’re going straight to the hospital. Think you can walk?”

“I think I can walk,” Marek replied softly, “with a little help.”

“Alright. That’s good. Seren and I will give you a hand.”

Marek winced as they gently propped him up and eased him down from the bunk. Then the three of them staggered out onto the deck, with Marek’s arms around their shoulders. Elayna had thrown down the gangway for them. The angled walkway slowed down their pace even more, and Rulio had to fight the urge to speed up. It was maddening having to go so slowly when they were so close. “Stay here!” he called out to Muno, who was lurking at the top of the gangway and meowing loudly. “We’ll be back soon.”

Once they had made their way down onto the dock, their pace quickened again, and they made their way steadily towards the hospital.

The hospital was busier than the last time he’d visited, when they had come to see Keresi before setting off after Graves, but it was still relatively uncrowded. A nurse in a pressed white dress looked up from behind the counter as they burst in.

“He was shot in his side-” Rulio began.

“Let me see,” the nurse said curtly as she got up and walked across to them. She gave Marek a once-over and then shouted “Stretcher!”

A few moments later some more nurses emerged pushing a stretcher, trailed by a calm-looking doctor. They eased Marek down onto the stretcher and then wheeled him away, disappearing behind a pair of swinging doors.

Rulio breathed out slowly. He’d done his part, now.

Elayna sat down on one of the thin chairs that littered the lobby and wrapped her arms around herself, looking forlorn.

“He’ll pull through,” Seren said. “Sorry I missed.”

Rulio squinted in confusion. “Missed?”

“The second shot.”

“Oh. No – you did plenty.” Rulio gave Seren a slight nod. “Thank you.”

Seren nodded back and then also took a seat. “Now we wait.”

Before he sat, Rulio decided to approach the nurse again.

“I tried radioing ahead, just after we passed through Canal Woodin, but I couldn’t get anything. Is the hospital radio out?”

“All the radios stopped working yesterday,” the nurse replied, without looking up.

“All of them? How is that possible?”

She looked up at him, blank-faced. “Do I look like someone who would know anything about radios?”

Rulio smiled awkwardly. “My apologies.”

He went and took a seat with Seren and Elayna, troubled by the nurse’s news.

Half an hour later the double doors opened, and they all looked up, roused from their daydreaming. A nurse was walking briskly towards them, gripping a clipboard.

“How is he?” Rulio asked.

“He’s stable,” the nurse replied. “We’ve gotten him cleaned up, and the doctor is preparing to perform some minor surgery now to clean up the tissue, remove the bone splinters, and close the wound.” She glanced down at her clipboard. “The bullet missed his vital organs. It impacted his eighth rib on the right side, fracturing it before exiting cleanly through the muscle. In effect, it’s a flesh wound. He was extremely lucky.” She looked up. “Still, it’s a good job you got him back here so quickly. He lost a lot of blood.”

“He’s going to be alright?” Elayna asked. She was looking up at the nurse with wide, anxious eyes.

The nurse nodded. “As far as gunshot wounds go, it’s really a best-case scenario. But it will take time for his rib to heal, and for him to regain full mobility again.”

Elayna nodded, looking relieved. Seren also seemed more relaxed.

Rulio silently thanked whatever god was overseeing this mad world. Of course, Beck was still out there – but Marek’s prognosis seemed to him like a small victory. Or at least, not a defeat. And he needed something like that.

He looked at Seren and Elayna and smiled. “Come on. Let’s go see Keresi.”

They had moved Keresi to another room. When they finally found him, he was looking bright and energetic, vigorously waving a spoon around while he talked to a nurse. On the table next to him there was a bowl of tomato soup and a mug of steaming black coffee.

“If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times. The dog was as big as a horse.” He nodded seriously. “It was. And there were three of them.”

The nurse standing next to the bed laughed, lightly and effortlessly. “But how can that be accurate, when every time you tell me the story the dogs get bigger?”

Rulio raised his eyebrows, and then cleared his throat to announce his presence.

“Ah!” Keresi turned to look at them. “Sarah, this is the very man himself, Captain Rulio Horrendous, and – well, I don’t know the other two.”

“Good to see you again, K. This is Seren, and Elayna,” Rulio said, gesturing to each of them in turn.

“New crew?”

Rulio nodded.

“You weren’t gone long,” Keresi said. “Did you get Beck?”

Rulio lowered his eyes and shook his head.

Keresi frowned. “Where’s Marek?”

Rulio breathed deeply. Then he turned to the others. “Could I have a moment alone?”

Elayna and Seren walked out into the hall.

Keresi watched them leave, then looked back at Rulio, his face grim. “What happened?”

Rulio told him everything. He recounted their meeting with Seren, Elayna’s arrival, and then the gruesome events on Vanua Lava at the instigation of Graves. Keresi’s face progressively darkened as he listened. If his health had been sufficiently restored, then so too had his temper. There was no recurrence of the quiet resignation he’d expressed when Rulio first told him that Beck had been taken.

“The bastard!” Keresi yelled once Rulio had finished, before immediately glancing at Sarah in contrition. “Again, it’s him. Something needs to be done.” He turned, grabbed the bowl of tomato soup, and angrily spooned some of the steaming red puree into his mouth.

Rulio nodded, his mouth turned downwards. “Yes… there is little to recognise of the man I knew.” He took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled. “I don’t know how he can do what he’s doing.”

Keresi swallowed his soup. “Morally?”

“Yes, but also legally. Where’s the oversight? Or a tribunal, or something.”

Keresi considered it for a moment. “He must have someone backing him. He has to. Somewhere high up, giving him this leeway and confidence to run amok.”

Rulio sighed. “I’ve entertained the thought. But if that’s the case, then we’re really in trouble.”

Keresi nodded. “But the fact remains that Beck is still out there.”

“I know, K. Believe me – I know. But with you and Marek both out of action now…” He rubbed at his eyes with the backs of his thumbs. “I don’t know what I can do. I still have Seren, and Elayna, but that’s less than I had when I tried before, and Roland got the better of me then.” He looked away and scrunched his mouth. “I don’t think I’m cut out for this.”

Keresi gave a short, flat laugh. “Who would be?” He grew serious. “But you’re a good Captain. And a good man.”

Rulio looked back at him. “That might not be enough.”

Keresi had another spoonful of soup. “Hmm. Are you looking for sympathy now? Or a kick up the behind?”

Rulio contemplated the question. “I think I need the kick. And don’t hold back.”

“Carte blanche?”

“Carte blanche.”

“Well, then I would say that you need to stop feeling sorry for yourself. You get this way sometimes, you know. You should also realise that you aren’t the only one who fails, when you fail. By the sounds of it, young Marek is having a very bad day indeed. And the time before that is what put me in here.” Keresi paused for a moment. “Which is all to say that this has long gone beyond just you, and what you do or don’t want to do. Beck still needs you. If you really want to quit after that, then fine. But not before she’s back.”

Rulio leaned back and whistled softly. “Thanks for that.” Keresi had certainly seized his opportunity. “And yes. I know. Not before she’s back. Of course not.”

Keresi nodded. “That’s right.”

“So – what now, then?”

“We just have to wait. Until I’m healed. And then until Marek’s healed, if he still wants to be a part of this. And we hope that Beck stays safe, until we can all go and get her back.”

“Again,” Rulio added gloomily.

“Yes, again. But this time will be different.”

Rulio scoffed. “That’s what I told myself last time.”

“Well, last time wasn’t this time, was it? And you didn’t have me then.”

“I know.” Rulio sighed. “It’s just painful, K. Trying, and failing. Every…” he glanced at the nurse, and decided to watch his language, “every damn time.”

“Hey – what did I just tell you about feeling sorry for yourself? And so, we’re two for two now, and what? They say everything happens in threes.”

Rulio raised an eyebrow. “They do say that.” He smirked. “Which is to say that we’re going to fail again.”

Keresi frowned. “Eh – well, that’s not what I was trying to say. Stupid saying, anyway. Like I said, this time will be different.”

Rulio smiled, appreciating Keresi’s efforts. “I hope so. And I mustn’t forget that Roland is down a crew member now as well. Permanently. That should hopefully shift the odds in our favour when the time comes. Although, I wonder…” He stood up. “Rest up now, K. I’ll need you in action before long.”

Keresi nodded confidently. “Looking forward to it, Captain.”

With a final wave of his hand, and a surmising glance towards Sarah, Rulio departed.