Chasing The Cure: Age Of Madness - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (The Caitlin Chronicles Book 5)

by Daniel Willcocks

  She felt around in the darkness, finding a wall that was damp to the touch. She shinnied away from view of the hole above and tucked herself out of the way behind something that felt like a barrel.

  “Where’s the other one?” a panicked voice asked Tucker.

  “I don’t know,” he replied sullenly.

  “Buuullshiiit.”

  Someone slapped Tucker.

  “Ow!”

  “Come on, Tego, even you’re not that obtuse, surely?” The second voice was softer. The voice of someone with a brain cell.

  “What? Why did you hit me?”

  A face appeared at the hole, blocking more of the light. This one had no beard, which seemed out of sorts for the pirates Caitlin had seen so far. His hair was combed back in tidy rows, and his eyes shone like obsidian.

  Caitlin hoped that they wouldn’t be able to make out her shape in the darkness. “Because your question was stupid. There’s a fucking hole here. Where do you think the other one went?”

  Tego chewed on this. “Er, down the hole?”

  “Good boy.” The dark-eyed pirate sat at the edge of the hole and dangled his legs down. He dropped and landed near-enough silently. Caitlin could smell whiskey and the musk of stale sweat.

  Tego’s face now blocked the hole. “Locke? Hey, are you okay down there?”

  Locke ignored his companion.

  Caitlin had a horrible feeling that this guy could see pretty well in the dark. He pinned his eyes open and scanned the area, allowing his eyes to adjust. He clicked his tongue and kissed the air, calling out like a pet owner summoning a cat. “Here, kitty, kitty, kitty…”

  Locke’s hand was on the hilt of his cutlass. He crouched slightly, straining to see around him. He dipped his free hand into his pocket, drew a match, and struck it against the side of a barrel.

  His face lit up in a ghoulish light, all color draining as he saw the woman standing right in front of his nose.

  “Naww. How did you know my nickname?” Caitlin punched the pirate square in the face. She felt warmth on her fist as his nose exploded in blood.

  Moving quickly, Caitlin twisted a leg behind the pirate and shoved him hard. He tripped and fell backward, knocking his head against the floor. She took the chance to drop on top of him and bat his hand away from his sword. She tugged it free from its sheath and held it to his throat.

  “Locke? Hey, is everything okay down there?”

  Caitlin lowered her voice an octave, doing her best impression of the pirate. “Everything’s fine. It’s just dark, and I tripped.”

  She shook her head, haunted by what a terrible impression she’d just done. She had known people who were great at mimicking others, but it definitely wasn’t her forte.

  Yet, somehow, it seemed to have worked. “Oh, okay. I would come down and help you, but I’m too big to fit in the hole.”

  Locke’s eyes were wide, a mixture of fear and hatred in his glare. Caitlin smirked and blew a kiss at him. She waved her fingers, then turned and fled into the darkness, but not before grabbing a few spare matches from his pocket.

  As she disappeared into the darkness, she heard Locke rising suddenly to his feet and calling to Tego. “Sound the alarm, you moron! The bitch is loose on the ship! All hands on deck!”

  Caitlin blindly stumbled toward a door, found the handle, and found herself in a long passageway, punctuated with tiny slivers of light which leaked from above.

  How the hell do you get yourself into these situations, Kitty-Cat? she wondered as she slowed down enough to not bash into things but remained fast enough to put distance between herself and Locke.

  As she walked, she kept her ears open to the action above her. She could hear a bell ringing and the sound of frantic footsteps as attention was called to the situation. Her heartbeat doubled in speed.

  At least I’ve now got a weapon, she thought, weighing the cutlass in her hand. She practiced with a few test swings, and her wrist protested under the weight of the metal. She looked at the blade with disdain. Even if you are considerably shitter than Moxie.

  She sped through a series of small passageways that smelled of moss and damp until she found her way into a room that was even darker than her first foray into the underbelly of the ship.

  There she withdrew a match and felt for a dry surface to strike it. She had never come across matches before, and so hesitated before running it along what she presumed to be a wooden beam.

  Nothing happened on the first strike. Nor the second.

  It was on the third attempt, when she increased the velocity of the strike, that the match hissed into life. She almost dropped the small stick as fire emitted from the top, illuminating the space around her.

  When she saw the words etched onto the barrels surrounding her, she was instantly glad she hadn’t dropped the flame. The legend “GUNPOWDER” was etched on several of the barrels in an untidy scrawl.

  “Wow. Close call,” she murmured to herself before hearing the voices above her and clapping her hand to her mouth.

  “I don’t care how drunk you are, just get your ass down there and find her!”

  A flurry of slurred speech followed, as well as a smack around the face. Caitlin realized with a sudden panic that there was a ladder in the corner of the room that led to another hatch.

  The hatch lifted open.

  Caitlin blew out the flame and hid behind several barrels, holding her breath. Three pirates came down one after the other, and stumbled around the room, holding the barrels to maintain their balance. One of them hiccupped, waved the other two over, and they disappeared the way Caitlin had come.

  Caitlin waited a few extra moments for them to pass out of sight before rising and sneaking over to the ladder. She tentatively worked her way up the ladder and poked the top of her head out of the hole, finding herself looking into a room lined with shelves and boxes containing various ingredients and liquids.

  Must be where all the booze and grub are stored, Caitlin thought, easing herself quickly from the hole. She tiptoed across the room and ducked behind the door just as it opened inwards and a burly pirate with short sleeves and muscles straining against his clothes entered.

  She managed to keep out of sight as the pirate rubbed his neck, muttering, “What was I thinking? Leaving the drunkards to do the damn work. They’ll be asleep before they reach the other side.”

  “Plus, there isn’t much light down there. Trust me.”

  The pirate whirled on Caitlin, surprise on his face.

  Before he could utter any words, Caitlin sank her boots into his chest and sent him flying backward. He landed with the bulk of his body across the hole, his ass half-sunken into the other room. He looked as if he was about to cry out for help.

  Caitlin pointed her cutlass at his throat and wagged a finger. “Uh-uh-uh. You shout, you die.”

  The pirate grumbled. “This is the thanks we get for—”

  “For locking me in a room with a shit-riddled goblin?” Caitlin demanded. “Thanks for that, but now you can try it.”

  And with that, Caitlin stamped her foot on his chest and sent him down the hatch. When he hit the floor, she closed the hatch door and shoved several boxes over the top, her heart pounding at the same rhythm the pirate’s fists pounded the ceiling.

  It worked out in her favor that the majority of the crew was piss-drunk. Caitlin headed in whichever direction her feet would lead, looking for any way off this damn ship. Although she wasn’t the greatest swimmer, she figured the lake would be a damn sight better than risking her life with these cut-throats.

  She entered into a corridor and snuck away from two pirates walking in the other direction. She rounded a corner, saw another pirate, and ducked into the nearest room.

  She waited a few moments with her back against the door, eyes closed as she prayed that the pirate hadn’t caught a glimpse of her.

  Footsteps worked their way down the corridor, paused at the door, then the handle turned.

  Caitlin pushe
d back, eyes screwed shut with the effort. After a few seconds, she heard a voice mutter, “Locked? Must have been my imagination.” Then the owner of the voice wandered off down the corridor once more.

  Caitlin breathed a sigh of relief and sank to the floor. She held her head in her hands and tried to clear her mind enough to work out a plan to escape the ship.

  “You okay down there?” a familiar voice asked.

  “She’s probably had a long few days,” another replied.

  Caitlin looked up at the two people sitting at the table in the center of the room.

  Kain and Mary-Anne grinned back at her. They sat across from each other, elbows on the table with a number of playing cards fanned out in their hands.

  Mary-Anne looked from her cards to Caitlin with a guilty expression. “So… You’re probably wondering what’s going on, right?”

  Chapter Seven

  Unknown

  The whole ordeal seemed absurd to Caitlin.

  Kain and Mary-Anne explained their side of the situation between playing hands of a game which they had explained to Caitlin was called poker.

  Mary-Anne rapped her knuckles on the table, a signal to indicate something called a “check.” “You see, when you decided to just up and sprint off into the fighting band of pirates, we held back for a moment to see what would happen.”

  Kain nodded, his face passive. “There were so many pirates, there was no way we could have beaten them all. I mean, there were four of us and a dog, versus dozens of them. We couldn’t understand what you were doing running out there.”

  Caitlin’s brow furrowed. “I was helping them defeat the Mad. I figured if they saw us helping, then they might be more open to discussion.”

  “Well, all you did is scare them,” Mary-Anne continued.

  She told Caitlin how, after the pirates had surrounded the unconscious Caitlin, she and Kain had made themselves known and exited their hiding place with their hands up. The pirates had been more willing to speak, curious as to who the invaders were, and told them of their voyage back to their island.

  “They took us aboard without question,” Kain explained. “Offered us these quarters to wait in, but they were adamant that you be kept separated from us to learn your lesson for attacking their people.”

  “I didn’t attack their people!”

  “Either way,” Mary-Anne told her, casting a furtive glance at the door to make sure Caitlin understood to keep her voice down. “Either way, they don’t trust you. They actually don’t seem to trust humans at all. Rival humans, anyway.” The way she was talking was as if she was explaining a cooking recipe. There was no regret or wonder in her voice.

  “Why didn’t you come find me?” Caitlin asked. Her eyebrow arched at Kain. “Wait, why aren’t you throwing up? I thought you got nauseous on boats?”

  “I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I guess being on a ship is a lot better than riding in a teeny dinghy and fearing for your life. At least here they have legroom.”

  “And as for the finding-you-thing. Er, hello,” Kain waved his hands around the room. “Pirate ship. What do you think we’re going to do? Go on a rampage and kill everyone on the ship? No. We figured that, at least if we sit and wait to see where they’re taking us, we’d be making some progress onward. We’d be able to find another civilization, and maybe they’d have some answers for us.”

  “If we freed you, we’d risk all of that. They’d hate us as much as they hate you, and we’d all be fucked.” Mary-Anne fanned her cards in front of her. “Two pair.”

  Kain’s face soured. “You win.”

  Caitlin tried to process all she was hearing. It made sense, she supposed. It would certainly put everyone in danger if they tried to bust her free. And it’s not like the pirates had been cruel to her—besides keeping her in a room below deck. Would she have done the same in their situation?

  “Sometimes it’s about choosing brains over brawn,” Mary-Anne continued. “Playing the long game. It’s nearly over, though. According to Drayton, we’re almost there.”

  “Almost where?”

  Kain looked at Caitlin. “The island.”

  Caitlin waited for Kain to expand. He didn’t oblige.

  “Okay, what the hell has gotten into you two? Why are you so calm, and why are you talking like I should understand all the words coming out of your mouth?”

  Someone shouted somewhere on the ship, the voice sounding eerily similar to the pirate Caitlin had trapped down the hatch. “What the fuck is the island, where are Jaxon and Izzy, and what the hell are we going to do about the pirates who are currently hunting me?

  Mary-Anne sighed and placed her cards face down on the table. “I thought we’d at least have a little longer for peace and games before we reached the shore.”

  Kain nodded. “Me too. We’ll explain later.”

  They rose from the table and ushered Caitlin into a small cupboard at the back of the room. The crew was going crazy, whipping themselves into a frenzy. People ran up and down the passageways, their excited calls of sightings of the mystery girl ringing clear, and bells rang from somewhere above them.

  The door booted open, and several pirates choked the doorway.

  “Can we help you?” Kain asked, having resumed his position at the table and picked up his cards.

  “Your lady friend is missing,” a short, dumpy pirate growled. “We have a funny feeling you might know where she is?”

  Mary-Anne gave a faux chuckle. “You really think we’d rescue her and hide her somewhere in our room? Puh-lease. How stupid would we be to do that after the hospitality you’ve shown us?”

  She allowed her eyes to flash the slightest glimmer of red.

  Uncertainty ran through the pirates. They shuffled awkwardly and apologized, then headed off down the corridor.

  Kain and Mary-Anne breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Wait a minute!”

  The pair tensed as the pirate appeared at the door again. “If you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to worry about if we do a quick search, do you?”

  Kain and Mary-Anne exchanged a look.

  “I guess not,” Kain admitted softly.

  The pirates stalked in, leering grins on their faces. They divided themselves up around the room, the majority of the group stumbling and holding onto the wall for support. A few of them hiccupped.

  Kain and Mary-Anne’s noses wrinkled at the stench of alcohol that poured off them all.

  They ducked under the table, they checked inside drawers. When they reached the cupboard, one of the pirates reached out an arm for the handle.

  “Wait!” Mary-Anne called suddenly.

  The pirate looked over his shoulder.

  “My private things are in there.”

  A chorus of “Ooo” rang out from the pirates.

  “That’s right. Underwear. Makeup. Lady things.”

  The pirate dropped his hand, mind clearly wondering. He eyed Mary-Anne up and down greedily. “Sounds like fun.” He tore open the cupboard before they could stop him.

  He froze as his eyes found Caitlin’s.

  She held her cutlass in front of her, an inch away from the pirate’s stomach.

  The other pirates pulled their swords on the three. The room fell quiet.

  Caitlin grinned. “Hey.”

  “Hey,” the pirate replied, startled by the sudden find.

  Kain leaped up behind the pirate and tapped him on the shoulder. “Tag, you’re it. Now run and hide!”

  The pirate’s face broke into a gleeful grimace. “Oh, dear. The captain is going to be delighted when he sees we’ve caught you. You’ve caused quite the stir aboard this ship.”

  “I’m quite the ship-stirrer,” Caitlin told him.

  The pirate laughed. The next thing she knew, he’d drawn his own cutlass and knocked hers away from his chest. He raised his sword, attempting once more to bat hers out of her hand. Behind him, the other pirates erupted into a frenzy.

  Caitlin shove
d her pirate backward, affording her room to come out of the closet.

  Kain would have a field day with that one.

  Mary-Anne darted out of the way of several blades swiping for her throat. There were several cries of “traitor.” She used her speed to twist and turn, ducking out of the way before the metal could make contact with her skin.

  She was aware of Kain doing the same across the table.

  She turned a full 360 and kicked the chair into a nearby pirate, toppling him instantly. She took a step backward, spun on her heel, and elbowed a second pirate in the face. His teeth clacked as his mouth shut, and he let out a small cry as blood poured from his nose.

  Mary-Anne could smell it. Every iota of flavor wrapped in the deep chemical make-up of the blood. The iron tang which made her salivate. An instinctual desire that bore down on the basic levels of who she was and who she had become ever since her maker had made her more than human.

  Over the years since the Madness had come, she had learned to ignore this instinct. Like a smoker resisting the urge to light one up, she had learned to say no due to her fear of infection. But now…

  Now, something was changing.

  Her body moved of its own accord. Her eyes glowed an angry red, and her fangs drew down inside her mouth. She felt herself fight an internal war as the vampire within her fought for victory. Fought for the blood and satisfaction of that mouthful.

  The world moved in slow motion. She could hear the beating of his heart and sense the pulsing blood running through his veins. Almost taste the warmth of the liquid inside his body.

  No. You’re not this. You won’t become that monster.

  Mary-Anne blinked stupidly. She felt her hands grow clammy.

  The pirate tried to duck out of the way, eyes widening in alarm.

  No!

  Mary-Anne wrestled for control and punched the guy in the chest, the force of it sending him across the room. The world returned to normal speed, and she noticed Kain giving her a curious look.

  Mary-Anne turned away from temptation and focused on the pirate whose blade was arcing toward her shoulder. She grabbed his wrist. And with a simple tug, she flipped him around to land on his back on top of the table.