Chapter 11: Fight for the Key
The key was wrapped tightly around my wrist. I heard my breath coming in gasps, my feet rustling the leaves and the angry shouts of Jack, Will, and Norrington. So far I had been running about five minutes. My legs were starting to ache and my lungs barely got enough air. I tried to ignore the pain and tiredness and kept sprinting through the jungle.
"Jason! Get back here, Barbossa!" Jack screamed. When I looked back for a second I tripped over a log. As I landed pain shot up my chest. "Jason!" Jack yelled again. I quickly stood up and kept running.
Before long the trees ended. I paused for half a second to look around. The remains of a church stood in front of me. The cobblestone was crumbling, the wood was rotting and the gravestones were weathered from rain and wind.
I looked behind me and saw Sparrow charging at me, a hell-bent fury in his eyes. I gave a startled yell and ran into the crumbling bell tower. Stairs spiraled around the rope used to ring the bell. I charged up the stairs. A few bits broke off and fell to the floor. When I looked down I saw Jack racing up the stairs. I increased my speed, taking the steps two or three at a time.
I had almost reached the top when I came to a sudden stop. A man was hanging from the ropes by the neck. The skin was rotting and the cloths were tattered into rags, but I could tell they were some sort of robes. Why would-
Jack interrupted my thought. He came up behind me and grabbed the key from my hand. "Oi!" I shouted and tried to grab it back. Sparrow grabbed my arm and the back of my neck and shoved me into the wall. He ran up the stairs. Norrington charged past me. Soon the two enemies were clashing swords. I ran to catch up.
Before I caught up Norrington grabbed the key and pushed Jack off the stairwell. Jack grabbed the rope and descended. The bell began ringing. It gave off a haunting tune that fit its surroundings.
Will must've been holding onto the rope when Jack fell. He shot up past me and snatched the key from Norrington's hand. "By your leave, Mr. Norrington!" he shouted smugly. Norrington sneered and charged up after him. I quickly followed.
Catching up, I slashed at Norrington's legs. He gave a quick grunt of pain and turned to me. "You are going to die by my hand, thief!" he spat the last word and lunged.
"My name is Jason!" I informed him and blocked. We fought on the stairwell. He was steadily pushing me back. Jack suddenly came up behind me and attacked me as well. "This isn't fair!" I shouted and drew my other sword to hold off the two men. It was bloody hard. I was doing different things with each sword. When I messed up I paid the price.
For a second I let my guard down. Norrington took advantage of that and kicked my stomach. I stumbled into Jack who pushed me off the stairwell. I fell and outstretched my hands, my swords falling as well. My hands grabbed hold of the closest thing, the hanging corpse. I almost let go from the shock.
I hung on as I fell to the ground. I jumped off just before hitting the ground and wiped my hands on my pants. "I could've gone my whole life without doing that." I looked at the corpse again. The mouth was hanging open. It almost looked as horrified as I felt. "Thanks for the lift, mate." I nodded at it then bent down to pick up my swords. "I just thanked a corpse. Not exactly the first time that's happened, but that corpse was technically living. Living dead, in fact." I looked at the rotting body again. "I should stop talking, shouldn't I?" it said nothing. "Yeah." I said with a nod "I really need some sleep." I shook my head and started up the stairs again.
I soon got to the top of the tower. Will, Norrington and Jack were fighting on the roof of the church. Actually Will and Norrington were fighting while Jack hung back and watched. He seemed to be trying to get the key out of Norrington's hand. I climbed down from the window and headed after them.
When I caught up Jack had managed to grab the key. Norrington turned around to attack him. He knocked Sparrow's sword away and pointed his sword at Jack's neck. "Do excuse me while I kill the man who ruined my life." Norrington told Will.
"Be my guest." Will encouraged.
Norrington started forward. "Let us examine that claim, shall we?" Jack said quickly. "Who was it, that when you had a notorious pirate safely locked behind bars, decided to free said pirate and take your dearly beloved all to hisself, eh? So whose fault is it really that you ended up a rum-soaked deck hand what takes orders from pirates?" I had to admit, Sparrow was a clever bird.
"Enough!" Norrington shouted and swung at Jack. He ducked, rolled off the roof, did a flip and landed with his butt on the ground. I almost laughed. "Unfortunately, Mr. Turner, he's right!" Norrington turned and attacked Will. I looked at Jack and saw him calmly strolling away. Will can look after himself. I ran down the roof, jumped, landed, rolled and kept running. Jack was out of sight. Where are you-the thought was interrupted when I fell into a hole.
Luckily I landed on something soft. "Get off me." my cushion mumbled. I immediately stood up. Jack stood up as well. His face was covered in dirt.
"You got a little something on your face." I informed him.
"What?" he asked.
I punched him in the jaw. "My fist!" Jack stumbled back into the wall of the hole, or grave is what I should really call it. "That sounded a lot cooler in my head."
"You have to stop punching me, Jason."
"You have to stop pissing me off." I punched him again. "Give me the key!"
"No!" I tackled him. We both fell over.
"Give me the key!"
"No!"
"Give me the damn key!"
"Get the hell off of me!" Jack kneed my crotch. I gasped and fell sideways off of him. Jack stood up. "I can't believe that worked."
"That really hurt." I whimpered, still lying on the ground. "Wait, why did you think that wouldn't work?"
"I thought you were a eunuch like Will." he gave me a mocking smile and started climbing out of the grave. I was still in too much pain to follow after him. All I could do was shout "Jack-ass!"
There was a weird creaking and rumbling noise. Jack had his head and shoulder out of the grave when suddenly he was pulled up. Some wooden object broke over his head and lifted him out of the grave.
I stared with my mouth open in awe. Slowly I stood up and started climbing out of the hole. I was still in pain but it was easing off gradually. When I finally managed to climb out of the grave I saw a giant water wheel rolling into the jungle. There were two figures sword fighting on the top. After pausing in confusion, I bolted after it, ignoring the pain in my groin.
Because it was, in fact, a wheel, it was hard to catch up. Luckily the terrain was flat so I was able to run faster than the wheel. I still had it in sight. Will and Norrington were fighting on top. Jack was nowhere in sight. Then a figure fell out of the wheel and onto the ground. It was Jack. Spoke to soon.
I ran up to the pirate and towered over him. "Give me the key."
"I don't have the key." he groaned. His hand was on his forehead like he had a headache.
I balled up the neck of his shirt in my fist and pulled him up. Our faces were inches apart. "Where is the key?"
"I don't have it! It's on the wheel." he said again. We both looked where the wheel was heading towards. I looked back at Jack as he looked back at me. I could tell we were thinking the same thing. I dropped Jack and ran after the wheel. Jack's footsteps pounded the ground behind me.
I caught up to the wheel and jumped in, careful to dodge the metal bar as it came past. I assumed that was why Jack had a headache. Jack stepped in behind me. We were both running to stay on the wheel but I felt ridiculous. I was staying in the same spot as I run and so did Jack so it looked like I was trying to run away from him and he was chasing me. It probably looked hilarious.
I spotted the key hanging from a rusty nail. It was coming my way so I got ready to grab it. Will appeared suddenly. His eyes widened and he grabbed the key. Jack cursed behind me. A thought popped into my mind. I turned round, grabbed a bar and held out my feet. I kicked Jack in the stomach.
He made an 'oof' sound, but didn't fall off. He grabbed a spoke and hung on. I was now upside down. My feet were on the underside of the wheel and my head and hands were on the metal bar. My feet swung and I kicked someone in the face. It was Norrington. "That worked out better than expected." I said cheerfully.
Norrington grabbed my foot and pulled me down. He drew his sword and swung to attack me. I drew my sword and blocked the attack. We fought as the wheel turned. I had to constantly change my position to stay on. There some sort of a pattern to it. First you attack, change your position, attack, change your position and so on.
As we fought the wheel was speeding up. I didn't care about fighting anymore; I clung tight to a spoke and prayed. Will and Norrington did the same. Jack, I noticed, was not on the wheel. I didn't have time to even think about it. The wheel kept getting faster and faster. I started screaming and so did Will and Norrington.
Finally, the wheel started slowing down. It came to a stop and fell over. I landed back-first in shallow water. How did we get on the beach? I felt completely sick and the ground wouldn't stop spinning. When I tried to crawl out of the wheel I fell into the water again. Will did the same thing next to me. Norrington seemed to have recovered the fastest. He was running towards the longboat.
Will tried standing up again but fell back down. I slowly stood up, using the wheel as support. "Can someone please stop the spinning ground?" I asked dizzily. My stomach felt queasy and my legs were wobbly. When I had finally regained some of my balance I helped Will onto his feet.
We both stumbled over to the fighting fish people and regular people. I drew my swords and walked up to a random fish person. "Long time no see." I said with a smirk. He turned around, huffed and attacked me. I blocked and ran my other sword through his gut.
"Jason!" I turned around and saw everyone gathered by the longboat. Jack was there with a oar in his hand. Elizabeth had one sword, Pintel had another and Ragetti was weaponless. Norrington was also weaponless. Will was unconscious over the side of the boat.
I ran over and turned to face Jones' crew. "How many minions does Jones have?" I asked.
"I thought you were the expert." Pintel remarked.
"Spending two days on the Flying Dutchman doesn't exactly make me an expert."
"We're not getting out of this." Elizabeth commented. She was right. We were surrounded the mutant creatures. They were sneering at us and laughing. I spat in one of their faces.
"Not with the chest." Norrington put in. He grabbed the chest from the longboat.
"You're mad." Elizabeth said.
"You just noticed that?" I asked with a smirk.
Norrington gave me one last glare. "Don't wait for me." he dashed off past the fish people with the chest under his arm. The fish people charged after him.
"I say we respect his final wishes." Jack said.
"Aye!" we all agreed and hopped into the boat. I pulled Will in with Elizabeth's help. Pintel and Ragetti got the oars ready. Jack was clinging to his jar of dirt.
I, for one, was confused as to why Jack would let Norrington have the heart. We had just spent an entire sword fight over who gets the heart. What's your plan, Sparrow?
Thanks for reading. Kraken scene #2 is next! Please review!
BTW I kind of added a deleted scene. It was about the history of Isla Cruces. That's where I got the hanging corpse from. If you can find it I suggest you watch it because I found it quite interesting.
