The ship they rode on was sizable, there was plenty of space for all of them, and the seas were calm for once. Yet even with all that he was still uncomfortable. William lay on a cramped cot in a hot room next to the engine room and he seemed to always be sweating. He was dirty and had no clean clothes to change into. The rest of his pack was in various stages of consciousness.
Nicolas was sleeping soundly in a hammock that he conned someone onboard out of. His thick, blond hair had grown long in these past months, it draped over his shoulders. He had said when he got to a place ‘with people that knew how to use a pair of scissors,’ he would get it cut and not before then. William’s hair was no better, but he was used to having long hair and as long as it had been clean it never bothered him. But now he was covered in grime and dirt and all he could think of was getting it chopped off.
Charles was reading a book that he had managed to borrow from one of the crew members. The book was called “The Life of Pi” and his friend had told him it was about a boy on a raft with a tiger, and something about a chimp and a hyena. William was interested in it, especially since the story apparently starts on a cargo freighter, something that they now found themselves on.
Katherine was sleeping on a cot at the far side of the small room. She was just as dirty and grungy as he was. Her once long wavy brown hair was even longer and matted heavily with grime and sweat and grease.
Even with Charles’ subtle influence to keep them all safely onboard this vessel there was a price that they had to pay. The price was free labor wherever they were needed on the ship, which is why they now found themselves crammed into a room that was little more than a storage closet. They worked in shifts. Katherine had been the target of some of the crew members. She could handle herself, but it took both himself and Charles to make the crewmembers back off and leave her alone without incident. He was pretty sure that if they had injured any of the crew members the captain of the boat would have them all thrown back into the ocean. And that was not something he was sure they could survive.
Aceso had been allowed to stay as well. Charles had convinced the crew that the dog was the only surviving member of Amanda’s family and that the unconscious girl would be devastated if her dog wasn’t there when she woke up. He had smelled the gentle hint of pheromones as Charles spun the lie. He didn’t know how he felt about Charles and the other Trackers abilities. He remembered all too well what Tasha had done to him, all that time ago. But they were in a desperate situation and the crew and captain had let them stay.
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Amanda and Ansuya had not woken up yet. They had been unconscious for a little over a week. They breathed easily and there were no physical wounds that they could find. They didn’t thrash about in nightmares, like they would from a fever. They just slept, completely unmovable and unaware of anything that was happening around them. William gazed at the incredibly young looking brown woman. He just wished she would wake up. They needed her strength, guidance, and experience. He just wanted to see her brown intelligent eyes again, and hear her soft voice.
Kicking himself for such juvenile thoughts he swung himself out of his cot. He checked his watch and grimaced. The galley wouldn’t open for the crew for another hour which meant that it was time for his shift in the engine room.
He nudged Charles on the shoulder and threw his chin towards the door. Charles looked disappointed and weary but nodded and stood up. Aceso raised her head off her paws and watched both of them stand up. Her bright gold eyes followed their every movement. Charles carefully put the book under the folded blanket at the foot of his cot. They both nodded to their wolf born alpha. Aceso returned the nod, and the two men moved silently out the door.
The outside passageway was loud. The room they were allowed to stay in was cramped and there was no such thing as noise insulation on a ship like this, but the room was much quieter than out here. The incessant, unrelenting noise of the gears and the machinery that kept this ship going was oppressive this far down in the bowels of the ship. But it was what they had to deal with.
Charles led the way for both men as they stepped over a hatchway and into the engine room. The engine room was not the massive coal burning kiln that William had first thought it would have been. It was a fairly modern looking space that was run with electricity, not coal. However, the engines were not the reason he and Charles were there. The upkeep on the ship was constant hard work. The machines had to be constantly monitored, greased, repaired, and maintained. And that was the laborious work that William and his pack had been allowed to stay aboard to do.
Even though everything was electric, the noise was insufferable. After a few days it was a constant hum that he was sure he would hear in his sleep till the day he died. He had to yell at Charles who only stood a few feet from him to have himself be heard. They reported to the engineer in charge.
The man was a fat, squat man who through his girth there was power in his arms. The man was some form of Asian ethnicity, but William had never bothered to ask what county he came from. The engineer spoke English passably and that was enough. William couldn’t get off this ship fast enough and he wasn’t here to make friends.
“Ah Blacky and America have decided to come to work and earn their space aboard. I thought maybe you had all jump overboard. That would have been shame, you Blackies work so hard.”