The Last Spade Chapter 20
Vincent, Maka, Barry, and Karry walked into the town. Karry was the first to speak "Something is wrong with this town." Vincent stopped walking and turned to look at her "What?" "Something is very wrong with this town. No one is walking the streets, no one was at the dock, you can't even hear anything." Responded Karry. It was true everyone stopped to listen. Nothing, they could hear nothing. Suddenly a door just down the street from them opened making all of them jump. A slender young woman in a simple brown cotton dress stepped out and asked them "Have you brought the food?" Barry, ever the gentleman took off his top hat and said to the young woman "Madam I believe you have mistaken us for some other group. You see we have only just arrived on this island." The girl's eyes opened wide in surprise "Quickly get inside before you're seen!" she said gesturing for them to enter the house she was at. The party decided that it would probably be in their best interest to listen to her, so they all entered the house. "Hide in the basement!" the girl said to them as they were passing.
The basement was little more than a hole in the ground with a house overhead. The group had entered the basement just in time. Shortly after they had reached the basement a man astride a very large lizard came into town and stopped outside the house they were hiding in. The basement had windows so they could look out and somewhat see and hear what was going on. They saw the young girl waiting outside the house for the man to approach her. The man got off his lizard and walked up to her holding a small sack about the size of a small duffel. "Looks like you all get food for another day. Looks like your parents still love you. Gyahaha. Remember there is always more food in it for you. As long as you are willing to have some fun!" said the man with a hungry look in his eyes to the girl. To her credit the girl stood her ground. "No thank you. The food in that bag is just fine." "Hmph suit yourself. Hope you enjoy starving." Said the man tossing the bag at the girls feet. The man quickly got back on his lizard and rode out of town. A minute later the girl shouted down the stairs "it's safe to come up now."
When the party came upstairs the girl was already in the kitchen preparing soup at the stove. "What was that all about?" asked Karry to the girl. "That man was making the weekly food delivery. Now, who are you people?" asked the girl as she turned around holding a butchers knife in her hand. "We are just some travelers who don't know what is going on or even where we are." Replied Making holding up her hands in a peaceful gesture. "If you were proper travelers then you would actually be at the trading port not our villages fishing port. I won't ask you again. Who are you people and where do you come from?" "We come from the east blue, our ship was wrecked against the edge of the Calm Belt. We managed to get our life raft and cross the Calm Belt, now we are here." Replied Barry, also holding up both hands to show her they mean no harm. "Fine. I'll believe you for now, but I'm not done asking you people questions. I've got to tell the kids that there's food anyway." The girl pushed past the group and walked over to the stairs. "Oy! You lot! Food!" She shouted up the stairs. Suddenly a stampede of children came running down the stairs into the kitchen, followed by the girl. As the children rushed past everyone in the group noticed how skinny they were. The girl ignored the party and walked up to the counter and grabbed the first of a stack of bowls that were beside the stove. The girl filled two bowls up and handed them to the tallest boy there "Make sure that Billy and Madeline get these." The boy took the bowls and walked them upstairs. "Um. Excuse me are the ones that couldn't come down sick, by any chance?" asked Maka to the girl as she scooped out bowls of soup to the rest of the children. "What's it to you?" replied the girl "I am a doctor. I can help if they are sick." Said Maka. The girl looked relieved "You are? Good. I will take you to them after I finish with this lot. It didn't pass anyone's notice that the soup was watery and that each bowl was not even half full. Even with that rationing the pot was still emptied before all of the kids could get soup. The girl didn't get any soup either. "All-right this way" said the girl leading them upstairs.
The girl led them into a room with even more kids only these ones looked even worse off than the others. Most of them were sleeping, but the ones that were awake looked like they wanted to be. Each of them were thin as skeletons. All except the two that were drinking the last of their soup looked like they had no life left in them. As soon as they walked into the room Maka went over to the nearest one speaking softly to the child as she inspected him. "What happened here?" asked Karry shocked to see all of these parentless children. "It is a long story, miss." Replied the girl. "well if anything else we have time. Why don't we go downstairs and talk while Maka does her job." Said Vincent.
When the four of them were situated comfortably in the living room the girl, whose name was Jamie, began her story. "This island is unique in the world. It has the only soil that can actually grow candy. Those trees and that mountain that you saw grew that way naturally. So obviously the main export of our island is that candy. It's what everyone on the island has done for generations. We have always had enough money to buy whatever we couldn't grow. None of us were rich but we were happy, until about six months ago. One day a large, bright red ship entered the port and sunk all of the other ships and boats there. We tried to call for help on our Den-den Mushi's but the signal was blocked. When the ship made port the people there tried to fight, but we didn't stand a chance against trained soldiers." "Wait, soldiers? Were you guys attacked by Marines?" Asked Barry. "No, not marines. They were mostly soldiers and a few royal guards from the kingdom of Hominis. The one who ordered the attack was none other than one of their princesses. It turns out that she had gotten tired of palace life and decided to turn pirate. Now she is trying to make an empire all her own."
Just then Maka came down the stairs. "I know what is wrong with them." She said referring to the children she was treating. "What is it? Can you help them?" asked Jamie suddenly focused hawk-like on Maka. "Just a Cold, coupled with long term starvation. As long as they get a few good meals in them, they will be just fine. Barry since you are the fastest why don't you go get the others from the port." Requested Maka. "If you will excuse me for just a moment Madam." Said Barry cordially as he was leaving. "It's wonderful that their sickness is nothin' serious but do you mind tellin' me where you plan to get the food from, if you haven't noticed were fresh out." Said Jamie to Maka a bit exasperatedly. "Leave that to me." Said Maka cheerfully as she walked into the kitchen. Jamie followed Maka into the kitchen and let out a yelp. She had seen Maka's devil fruit in work. In seconds various veggie covered the table. "Calm down, I can make food from my body, its' part of my power." Explained Maka to Jamie. "Why don't you guys come in here and help me prepare the food. Said Maka to Vincent and Karry. "I, uh, I'm not very good with food." Said an abashed Karry as she walked into the kitchen. "Well it's time you learned. Every young woman needs to know how to cook." Said Maka firmly, in a firm tone that brooked no argument. By the time the rest of the crew had gotten to the house all four burners on the stove were going at full heat, each had a large pot of vegetable stew on it. Every child in the house, who numbered a little over fifty, were standing outside the kitchen salivating. The whole house was infused with the smell of food. "All-right, line up! Everyone gets one slice. Don't worry the soup will be done in a bit." Said Jamie to the kids who all immediately lined up. She then began to pass out Watermelon slices to the kids, one at a time. Most of the children began to cry from happiness.
After a few hours, everyone in the house had gone after their third bowl of soup and Jamie and Maka had put them to bed. Everyone settled back into the living room. After a short explanation the other crew members were caught up with Vincent, Karry, and Barry. "So, you were at making an empire." Said Vincent to Jamie. "Oh, yeah. Anyway. She is planning on building an empire. She's succeeding too. What she does is whichever pirates enter the island she asks them to join her. If they say yes she makes the all tattoo her Jolly Roger onto themselves and use her flag on their ships. To guarantee loyalty she handpicks one crewmember from each ship and they stay with her, here on the island. The ones that say no never get very far. Anyway aside from pirates, from the outside this island seems even better than ever exports have gone up like crazy, so the money is flowing in. She is using this fund to improve her arsenal. She is getting everything from better weapons to new ships using this money. The reason she is able to export so much from the island is because she is using all of the adults as slave labor. She is clever, very clever. When she invaded the island she gathered up all of the adults and killed everyone who was elderly or didn't have a family. Then she separated everyone fifteen and older from the children, everyone but me that is. She took the children and me back to the village and said that if any of us leave the property, she will kill our family and send us back their heads. To the adults she said that if they did anything that they weren't told to do she would come over and kill their kid. Last month we learned that she was serious about that promise. Natalie was caught on the other side of town last month. The watchman brought her back without a word. The next day when the food was supposed to arrive instead three bags showed up on the doorstep instead. Her older brother and parents were in them, well part of them anyway. She still doesn't know, and I mean not to tell her. We just have to survive long enough for the Navy to find out and rescue us." And with that Natalie finished her horrific tale.