The Black Pearl drifted slowly through the dark waters, carefully avoiding the dangerous shoals. With a splash the anchor was dropped, and the wood creaked as the forward momentum stopped, leaving the vessel to bob lazily in the lapping water. Three longboats were hurriedly lowered into the water, and they made for the shore without pause. As the boats were tied up, the bedraggled crewmembers crept through the jungle brush, heading for the small village and its tavern.
For several weeks they had been fleeing from the naval ship that had been ruthlessly tailing them. Even with the extra hands the crew was run ragged; they had been working in shifts to stave off exhaustion, but sleep did not come easy, nor was it particularly restful. Not to mention that the stores had already been low when they set out: Wanting to leave as much room as possible for treasure, they had not resupplied much in San Juan, and now they were dangerously low, with starvation quickly becoming a reality. Jack often grumbled about how they ought to eat the monkey, but even he was loath to do so – the smaller Jack, as they learned that first night after finding him, had seemingly pilfered some of the cursed treasure before it was lost to sea, resulting in him remaining undead.
Luckily, they had managed to lose the other ship among the numerous tiny Bahama Islands when it missed avoiding some nasty shoals. They had escaped, temporarily, and bought a little bit of time, quickly making for the small pirate haven where they now found themselves.
As appealing as it was, the few crewmembers who came ashore did not indulge in the tavern's offerings. Their purpose here was to resupply and get the hell out. With Jack's reputation preceding him, Anamaria, Gibbs, and Marty handled most of the transactions. With that squared away, Marty returned to the longboats while Anamaria, Gibbs and Alice recruited as many hands as they could, which was quite a decent number. It took two trips to get all of the supplies as well as the new crewmembers on board, and they weighed anchor just as dawn was beginning to colour the sky.
As they headed for sea, Jack briefed the new crew, and assigned shifts to all aboard. Their new, shorter shifts would allow them more time to rest, something for which everyone was grateful. Alice headed belowdecks, desperate for some respite from her exhaustion. That, however, was easier said than done. As the new recruits filtered in to stake out bunks, the noise level rose exponentially, reminding Alice of the din of a busy cafeteria. She clamped her eyes shut and covered her ears, but it didn't help much.
To make matters worse, Alice was quickly reminded that she was one of only two females on board this ship. She hadn't really considered it much before now, seeing as Barbossa's crew was cursed, and couldn't act on baser urges, and Jack's crew was skeletal until now. She largely ignored the jeers and catcalls, difficult though it was, and turned over in her hammock restlessly. She found some quiet once most of the crew went on deck to work, and she managed to eke out a few hours of sleep.
Her rest, however, was rudely interrupted.
Alice awoke with a start, exhaustion still clouding her brain, which was crying out for more sleep. She shook off whatever it was and nestled down, trying to force herself back into slumber. But she quickly froze as she felt a hand begin massaging her breast and heard heavy breathing behind her. She rolled over swiftly to see one of the new recruits grinning at her, one hand still on her breast and the other in his trousers, stroking away in a fast rhythm.
Alice's exhaustion, paired with her disgust, sent her into an immediate frenzy of rage. Her hand was around the man's throat in no time as she scrambled to her feet. He didn't have much time to react before she had wrapped his long hair around her left hand and was half dragging the now screaming man across the room and up the stairs. All crewmembers in the vicinity stopped as they came onto the deck, Alice looking murderous. She dragged the man to the main mast, pausing only to wrench out a dagger that was stuck into a crate along the way. As she stopped, she kicked the back of his legs, causing them to buckle, and he fell to his knees with a loud wail, Alice still holding him upright by his hair. Jack ran towards her, but she stopped him with a deadly look. Most of the crew had now assembled around them, chattering to one another.
"SILENCE!" she bellowed, and a hush fell over the crowd. "Since you are all present, let us get something clear," she started, satisfied that all were now paying attention. "I am not, under any circumstance, your plaything. You are not to lay a hand on me, most especially when I am sleeping," she growled, pulling the man's head back sharply, and a murmur went through the crowd. She registered many of the men looking at her skeptically, and a few even winked and elbowed each other, nodding in her direction. She smiled at them maniacally. "If you disagree with me on this, then let this serve as a warning." She swiftly plunged the dagger into the man's exposed throat, wrenching it upwards before pulling it out and releasing him. Many of the crew gasped as the man lurched around on the ground, pained gurgles the only sound escaping him along with copious amounts of blood. Alice lunged at his back, digging the blade into his spine and twisting it. The man arched back, his eyes rolling as he thrashed around in pain. He dropped as she pulled it out again, his body twitching in feeble spasms on the deck as the others looked on in horror. She kicked him over on his back and brought her boot down hard on his face with a sickening crunch.
"Any questions?" she asked, looking around at the crew. "No? Good. Now, clean this shit up."
The crowd parted as she made her way back to the stairs and down to the hammocks below. It took a while before she shook from the shock of what she had done. Many times in her life she had wondered what it would be like to kill someone, but she never imagined she could ever do it. It scared her how easy it had been, and she felt sickened by the fact that she felt little to no remorse for her action. She reminded herself that it was all part and parcel of the life she now lived, but that thought didn't do much to warm her as she curled up in a tight ball in her hammock, the dagger held close.
Alice awoke some time later from her rum soaked sleep. She sat up and stretched, looking around as she realized the room went suddenly silent. All eyes were on her, some wary, some fearful, and a few scornful.
"Good morning, gents," she crooned sarcastically as she stood. Satisfied that none replied, she grabbed up her satchel, deciding it was safest on her person, and made a show of grabbing the dagger as well. The men quickly looked away, returning to stiff conversation, and she smiled to herself. Sleep had definitely helped her feel more at ease with what she had done, disturbing as that thought was.
She was starting up the stairs when she heard someone murmur, "who the hell does she think she is?" She immediately stopped, locking eyes with the man who said it. He and the others fell silent once more, but he was glaring at her in a challenging manner.
"Who am I, you ask?" she began, her voice venomous as she walked back down the stairs and stepped toward him, dagger out. His eyes flicked to the dagger and then back to her face, but his expression didn't change. "I'm Dagger Alice. Wife," she emphasized, "of Captain Hector Barbossa." His eyes widened at name of the late captain, and she saw a flicker of dread pass through them. She raised her eyebrow. "Any further questions you'd like answered?" He continued to glare at her, and she twitched the dagger, causing him to wince. "I thought not," she said before turning and making her way back up the stairs.
"Sleep well?" Jack asked with grin as she walked onto the deck.
"Can't complain," she replied with a dark smirk.
"While I won't argue that you made your message clear, you didn't have to… you know…" he gestured in the direction of the main mast with both hands.
"Didn't I?" she bit out before making her way to the galley, Jack's silence behind her.
She grabbed some fruit and bread, and a small measure of water, and returned to the deck, wanting to eat in the nice air of early dusk. She sat atop the forecastle, gazing out at the surrounding sea, and Jack soon joined her.
"Any sign?" she asked after swallowing a sip of water. Jack shook his head and sighed.
"I know they haven't given up that easily," he replied.
"Sail, ho!" cried Marty from the crow's nest, and Jack sighed again.
"That'll be them, I suppose," he said as he got to his feet and made his way toward the helm.
Alice finished eating quickly, and got to work. It was, indeed, a British naval ship, but they still managed to stay ahead of her as they made for the Leeward Islands.
It was close to a week before they managed to shake the other ship once more, but she caught up to them again quickly. Jack suggested that their best bet was to head out to open sea, but they were loathe to do so without a full resupply of the ship. They weren't low on stocks, but they would be far from any land for some time, and didn't want to take their chances.
Two more weeks passed before they managed lose the Navy again, and they headed back for Tortuga, stopping once again at San Juan along the way. Some of the crew left there, but they were replaced by many more, and doubly so in Tortuga. The ship was now quite full – a good thing if they were to end up battling against the Navy, but that was about the only upside Alice could see to there being so many hands.
A tropical storm was moving in, and they considered waiting it out, but word had reached their ears that the Navy was headed their way. They supplied the ship as fully as they could before setting sail once more, deciding to head West, away from the storm.
They hadn't made it far before they were set upon from several sides – the Navy had been waiting for them, knowing they would seek to avoid getting caught in the nasty weather. Warning shots fired from several of the ships, but Jack was not intimidated. He turned and sailed toward the heart of the storm, much to the protests of many of the new recruits. It was slow going and dangerous, but they managed to avoid the worst of it while achieving their goal of escaping once more, and headed out to open sea.
