Familiar People (blacksmiths, pirates, commodores, governors, etc.,)= not mine

Katrina= mine!

Lyrics (whenever they pop in)= not mine

/blah/= thought

music: //Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana//

Here's chapter 1! Don't forget to R&R! *Starved wheezing* Need reviews.....*coughs, sputters, and collapses*

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Chapter 1: What a Find!

Katrina Connor, a young archeology student of about nineteen, stood at the mast of her father's yacht, watching the ruins of a colonial town rise up from the mists. Her best friend, Rebecca, walked up behind her. "So, that's Port Royal." She pondered out loud.

"I wonder why the villagers decided to abandon this settlement." Katrina whispered.

"I heard it's cursed." Rebecca giggled.

"There's something not right about that town..." Katrina trailed off.

"Aw, lighten up, Kat! Think of this as the adventure of a lifetime here!"The girls climbed into the dinghy with the rest of the crew. Kat plugged in her headphones and turned on her discman.

//Load up your guns and bring your friends

It's fun to lose and to pretend

She's over bored and self-assured

Oh no, I know a dirty word//

Unable to help herself, Kat found herself singing along. Rebecca tapped her shoulder. "Wha?" She took her headphones out of her ears.

"You sing terribly."

"Becca!" She squealed and whacked her back. Becca's brown eyes squinted in the early morning sun as she put in one side of Kat's headphones.

//Hello, hello, hello, how low

Hello, hello, hello, how low//

Becca started singing along, pulling back her long, curly blond hair into a long pony.

//With the lights out it's less dangerous

Here we are now, entertain us

I feel stupid and contagious

A mulatto

An albino

A mosquito

My libido

Yay, a denial//

Kat rolled her eyes. /Why me?/

~*~

"I think we should start where the fort was and work our way from there." Kat's father said, roping off an area where the gallows used to be.

"Can Becca and I explore the area?" Kat begged. "See if there's anything interesting in the town?"

"Sure, punkin." Kat rolled her eyes again, tying back her long brown hair.

"Come on, Becca." They ran from the fort and into town, finding the blacksmith shop.

"Kat, were Blacksmiths supposed to have all of this?" Becca opened a trunk filled with modern-day weaponry.

"No." She knelt down and picked up a silver Magnum .45 and a few rounds. "Must be gun smugglers. It's in the trade routes." She took a gun and a handful of clips. Becca gave her a strange look. "What? You never know when something like this will come in handy."

"Whatever." The girls explored the ruined blacksmith shop. Kat moved some barrels out of the way, discovering a secret tunnel.

"What the hell?" Kat whispered, looking back at Becca, who was enamored with the tarnished swords. She entered the tunnel, following it a bit before dropping down a steep shaft. Screaming, she tumbled down the compacted dirt slide, landing flat on her face in an underground cavern before everything went black.

~*~

Kat came to, only to find a pair of brown leather boots standing inches from her face. "Eep!" She sat up and stumbled away from a tall man who dressed like a pirate.

"Will! Look what we got 'ere!" The pirate called out to his friend, who ran over. Kat looked frantically between the two, drawing the Magnum from her pack and loading it. Will had long curly brown hair, large brown eyes that showed what he was thinking, and a small, neat brown goatee. The pirate had long black hair with an assortment of braids, beads, and dredlocks, brown eyes rimmed with kohl, lips that curved into a smirk, and a braided goatee. Both stood about four inches taller than her. The pirate bent low and stared her in the eye. "Wha's an angel like you doin' here?" He asked

"I found your passage and decided to find out where it led." She stammered. "Waitaminute! How long have you two been down here?"

"Since the town was cursed." Will said.

"Damn!" She muttered.

"Why?" Pirate-boy asked. "What year is it?"

"It's July first, 2004." She answered truthfully, then, after doing the math in her head, gasped. "Shit! That would make you damn near 300 years old. How-?"

"KAT!" Becca shouted, still aboveground in the blacksmith shop. "THE TEAM'S LEAVING!!"

"Come with me?" She begged. Will looked to Pirate-Boy and shrugged.

"What do we have to lose?"The pirate started to climb up the slope.

"Jack, what about Elizabeth?"

"If it is 2004, like this fine lass said, then your bonny lass is gone." Pirate-boy, Jack, said.

"Wait ,wait, wait!" Kat screamed, both men freezing. "Will somebody tell me what's going on here? How the hell can the two of you be alive down here after almost 300 years with no food or water? What drove you underground in the first place? And who is Elizabeth?"

"There's no time." Jack grabbed her wrist roughly. "We have to get out of here before nightfall." He dragged her up the ramp, Will bringing up the rear.

"Why do we have to leave before midnight?" She gasped as she ran. She saw the blacksmiths was deserted, and Jack look around, a look that drained all hope from her.

"Will, grab a sword." Jack said quickly, drawing one himself.

"We've got better than swords." Kat said, opening one of the chests and taking an AK-47 from inside and loading it.

"How do you work this?" Jack asked, picking one up and trying to load it the way she did.

"You just snap it in like this." She took the gun and snapped the clip in place. "Now, you flip the safety off and pull the trigger." She handed it back to him. "Now will you tell me what the fuck is going on?"

"The town is under a curse, as are me an' Will. The Heathen Aztec Gods placed a terrible curse upon this town after Commodore Norrington destroyed the chest filled with the cursed gold. That placed the gold's curse upon all who were in possession of one of the pieces. They punished the settlement by bringing disease and madness upon all of them. Those who had any guilt or dark secrets were cursed to remain on the island as crazed undead, coming out only at night to wreak their vengeance on the living. The pure ones were spared the punishment with a swift death."

"What of the gold?"Her blue eyes searched him for an answer. Unfortunately, it never came, as the door began to buckle wildly under the weight of some unseen force.

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Ah! Evil cliff hangers! R&R and perhaps I'll continue. (Okay, I will regardless. I have to let Jack explain the gold's curse to Kat still)