Disclaimer: Yet again, in case you haven't noticed, I don't have permission to be writing this. Honest, I don't. I really don't like being redundant on purpose, but I feel this is necessary, just in case by some miracle somewhere some Disney official is reading this.

AN (10/7): Mmkay. Whomever can tell me what I'm poking fun at in this chapter will get a Jack Sparrow plushie...

Chapter 14: Rocks

"Eight 'undred fifty-three." The entire company seemed to step forward at the same time. "Eight 'undred fifty-four." The giant leaves of the peculiar looking branch bristled with indignation as each step was taken, the pull of the humans forcing said leaves to leap forwards and snap backwards. The bushes hadn't been so indignant towards the strange creatures walking on two feet for quite a long time. Sailors avoided this island like they avoided a woman during a certain week of every month.

Most of Jack's crew seemed to find the island fascinating as they trudged forward, though the closer they got towards their destination, the hungrier they became. A chorus of stomachs contracting violently to announce displeasure was building with each step. Most unusual, for they'd all eaten about an hour and a half ago. Perhaps the fragrance of the multitude of flowers had something to do with the state their stomachs were now all in. Even Jack's normally quiet stomach was feebly protesting about being hungry. By the time Matthew'd reached nine hundred, Kael, Rafe, and Black Bob could stand the hunger no longer. They fell out of formation, as it were, and quickly descended upon the berries growing on the bushes like a gaggle of starving geese, pecking at the red berries with their hands and stuffing them into their mouths.

The rest of the crew looked back at them enviously before glancing back at Jack. Jack's eyes had widened and his mouth had dropped. Hadn't he told his men not to eat the berries. "Don' move a muscle!" he commanded as he left Rebekah's side and went to where the three men were gorging themselves. Black Bob had a trail of sticky red juice down his front. It seemed almost the color of blood.

"They taste pretty good, Cap'n," Kael remarked worriedly. He didn't like the look in Jack's eyes at the moment. Rafe, always the silent type, merely nodded. "Kinda like caramel."

Black Bob nodded his agreement, and before Jack could say anything in reply, Dario grabbed a berry off the bush. He smiled and muttered something in Spanish, his dark brown eyes full of pleasure. Dario had been aboard the Abogado De Diablo, and Jack had graciously spared his life in return for Dario's pledge to be loyal. He'd needed a few more men to make it back to port, anyway.

Abruptly, Kael started coughing. The same moment, Black Bob started wheezing. Rafe merely collapsed to the ground. Soon all three were spewing out bloody red remnants of half-eaten berries mixed with blood. Jack watched in morbid fascination, unable to turn his gaze elsewhere. What was going on?

In a matter of moments, all three men were dead and Dario was starting to display the same symptoms. He pulled at Jack's overcoat, spewing the vile mixture of human blood, bile, and berries, whimpering, "No quiero morir," repeatedly as a hacking cough and seizures ripped his grip from Jack's coat and he fell to the ground.

Many an epithet was loudly proclaimed as the remainder of the crew surveyed their fallen comrades. Bootstrap looked about ready to lose his milk and Matthew seemed so white he could be mistaken for a nobleman's wig, if he had been shaped a bit differently. Rebekah seemed about to faint, and Jack stared at Dario's body for a moment. He shook his head lightly, wishing he could just turn back. But he'd never hear the end of that. "Come on, then. We've got doubloons t' find." After that bold declaration, he started walking again, mentally counting each pace as he grabbed Rebekah's arm and pulled her along.

"Captain Sparrow..." Rebekah said, still as white as bleached bones. "Did we really just see what I think we saw?" She gulped, not glancing down at the map at all.

Jack sighed and rolled his eyes. Sometimes her personality was annoying. This seemed like an innocent enough question, yet he was fairly sure she was still trying to work whatever it was on him that she was trying to work. Jack had the sneaking suspicion that not only did she like him, but she was determined to have him after her initial shyness wore off. While Jack wouldn't mind spending the night with her to please that side of her, he knew that she'd want a stronger commitment. And Jack really wasn't the type of man to seriously get involved with a girl again, since he'd vowed never to be as weak as he'd been with Meagan ever again. "Aye. They're dead. I tole them no' t' touch the berries. Clearly poisonous."

"How can you tell?" Rebekah asked, alarmed by how easily Jack was accepting the death of loyal crew members. Her eyes were mixed with primal fear and excitement for a moment, but that quickly changed to fear and uncertainty as she noticed Jack staring directly into her eyes.

"The color. An' the fact tha' I couldn' see any tha' appeared t' be pecked at by birds. Animals are smart enough t' know when somethin' is goin' t' kill them." He shrugged, glancing directly at her for a moment before glancing at the map in her hand. "Tis been about a thousand paces. Where now?" Jack asked, effectively changing the subject of their conversation as his crew mutedly fell in step behind.

Rebekah bit her lip, trying to keep herself from looking at the prostrated figures on the ground as she unfolded the map. "That way," she said softly, pointing towards the West. "For about five hundred paces."

"Wha' are those?" several members of the crew whispered, pointing towards a field covered in what appeared to be little sparkles of light glimmering in the sunlight. "Tha' would be a circle," someone sarcastically replied as another added, "An' those ones are rectangles."

Jack was glancing at said glimmers of light with avid fascination as they continued to walk. Shimmering rectangles? What made them shine like this? And why were they headed that way? Once the five hundred paces were counted, Rebekah decided it was time for a break. She promptly fainted right next to Jack, hitting her head on a tree root. When Jack noticed she wasn't walking next to him anymore, he called the others to a halt. They all seemed more than happy to comply, anxious to look at the glittering rectangles and circles beckoning to them in the field.

Jack, however, stayed by Rebekah's side, gently helping her sit up and splashing a small amount of water on her face from a canteen at his side. She awoke with a jolt, grinning slightly as she noticed who'd helped her. "Are ye savvy?" Jack asked, his eyes full of slight concern as he glanced at her head significantly. He'd heard the thud her cranium had made when it hit the root.

"I think so," Rebekah replied with a reassuring smile, lifting her hand up to tell Jack to back off as she sat up. "Guess that the whole berry thing just affected me more than I'd like to admit."

Jack nodded somberly. "Aye, tha' mus' be it." He stood up and put his hand down to help her up. After she'd grabbed it lightly, he pulled her back onto her feet, glancing at the shimmering shapes again as he tried not to notice her blushing. Honestly, Jack could tell the girl was obsessed with him. Rather annoying. "Wha' d' ye think those are?"

"Rectangles and circles," Rebekah answered seriously. She couldn't keep a straight face, however, and laughed slightly. "Actually, they're like this." Reaching into her bodice, Rebekah pulled out a necklace of finely polished sea shells. "Its some sort of illusion-they're not really glowing. Just the sunlight being..." she suddenly trailed off, her mouth down in absolute horror. "Stay away from the rectangles!"

Jack was supremely confused by what Rebekah'd said, for she seemed to be yelling at him. Pivoting around on his right foot, Jack's mouth gaped as well. Three of his men were now inside a net. They'd stepped into one of the rectangles and had set off a booby trap. Cute. "Stay away from the rectangles," he commanded, as though they didn't realize how dangerous it was to step inside them. His men obviously didn't argue as Jack slowly approached the three terrified men hanging in a very tall tree.

One of them happened to be Stout Sam. "Cap'n...get us down!" he yelled worriedly, stunning the whole crew as he did so. The crew were watching Jack's approach with anxiety-it just so happened that there was only one circle around where they'd been pulled up. The rest were rectangles, just waiting for something to set them off.

"Don' move," Jack commanded, stepping as near to the edge of the circle as he dared. Frowning, he wondered how in the world he was supposed to get them down without setting off more traps. Reaching down, he pulled a rock off the ground and threw it into one of the rectangles, not surprised at all when a metal claw snapped around the rock. At least the three hadn't decided to step in that one. Grimly, Jack threw another rock in the same rectangle. Nothing happened, so he figured it was safe to step on. Gingerly, he put his foot lightly on the rectangle closest to where the net was hanging. It seemed firm enough, so he let more of his weight down on his foot. That's when Jack received one of the few frights of his life. What appeared to be hands started slapping together near his foot, determined to catch him. Breathing heavily, Jack quickly pulled his foot back, a large metal trap snapping just seconds later where his foot would've been. How could he not have seen it? Breathing heavily, Jack decided that none of the rectangles were safe. So, he'd have to get them down while standing in the circle. Risky-almost too risky for Jack.

Of course, Jack couldn't just let his crew hang there. He didn't want his new crew members to think that he was cursed or something to lose members of his crew with every expedition, nor did he want to get more replacements. Frowning, Jack bent down again, trying to move one of the shimmering shells. It didn't work. Seemed to be cemented in place or something.

Jack didn't get the three men down until sunset. Once the shells stopped glowing in the sunlight, it was impossible to see rectangles or circles, so Jack surmised that the booby traps might not work. Thankfully, he was right. Using his unique logic, Jack managed to get all three men safely down. Once Stout Sam and the others got used to walking again, Jack walked over to Rebekah's side. She'd been watching him the entire time. "Do you think tis safe t' go in the dark?"

"No," was her simple reply. Her gaze wandered over to his eyes as she tilted her head slightly. "I can't read the map in the dark. We'd best stay here for the night. The next part of the journey is complicated."

"Right." Jack shrugged lightly, not knowing what else to say. Glancing around at his crew, he said, "Well, gents, we're stayin' 'ere t'night. Skip, I wan' ye t' get somethin' thrown t'gether so we can eat." Jack directed the last part of his comment to a rather average man with a slightly crooked nose and long, flexible fingers. Skip nodded, pulling a knapsack off his back and getting a simple meal passed out to the famished crew.

Jack ate in silence next to Rebekah, trying to ignore her numerous complaints about the hard tack. She was not used to the life of a pirate, after all, and couldn't be expected to be used to the rather dry hard tack. It took a few years until any person stopped complaining about said hard tack. Even Jack felt like he was eating limestone or something as he bit into the dry mixture that kept so well on ships. Bread would spoil far too easy, so pirates and sailors had to live with hard tack.

Once the meal was finished, Jack's crew spread out so they could get some shut eye. Jack decided he'd sleep next to the small cave in which Rebekah felt she'd be the safest, just to keep an eye on his sometimes lecherous crew. Didn't want anything funny going on out in the open. That was just creepy. Sighing, Jack tried to make himself more comfortable on the slightly rocky ground he'd chosen, scrunching his rather dirty hair up in an attempt to make some sort of a pillow. His hand brushed against his hat as he moved, and Jack suddenly realized that it would make a much better pillow than his hair. Chuckling softly to himself for his stupidity, Jack grabbed the worn tri-cornered hat and put it under his head, thinking of vague memories of his mother as he drifted to sleep.

What seemed to be only a few minutes later, Jack sat up, nearly hitting his head on an outcropping of rocks as someone screamed. Judging by the pitch of said voice, it was Rebekah, so he quickly jammed his hat back on his head and leapt up, running into the small cave as fast as he could. She seemed to be in mortal danger, based on the scream alone.

Rebekah screamed again, though not as loudly, her face full of fear as she noticed Jack. Pointing towards a corner, she hissed, "There's a gigantic spider in here. It was crawling all over my face."

Jack had a hard time not rolling his eyes as he moved towards the corner where Rebekah was pointing. It was probably a small spider. Or a rodent. Honestly, women could be so squeamish. However, as his eyes adjusted to the dark little corner, he realized it was, in fact, a gigantic spider. If he'd known anything about arachnids, he'd realize that it was a tarantula and was a harmless tarantula, at that. It just looked like something big, hairy, and with too many legs. Trying to keep calm, Jack pulled out his pistol and shot the spider, satisfied as it fell to the floor with its legs twitching. The rocks next to the entrance didn't like this solution. The noise of the bullet seemed to be amplified in the small cave, and soon rocks started falling off the mountainside, blocking their way out.

"Great," Rebekah commented with a moan, apparently approaching hysteria as she glanced at the rock-filled entrance and started hyperventilating. "We're going to die!"

Jack glanced at Rebekah curiously-it wasn't like they were in the middle of nowhere. His crew would hear the rockslide and would dig them out. "No we're not," he insisted, walking the few short steps over to where the rocks were piled up, moving a few in an attempt to see outside. Unfortunately, it was a futile gesture-the ground on top of the cave had been littered with large volcanic rocks.

"We're going to die!" Rebekah repeated several times more, falling to the floor and sobbing for a while as Jack tried to get the rocks out of the way again. More just tumbled in to fill up the cracks. She lay in the fetal position for probably five minutes as Jack kept trying to dig his way out. He didn't want to be trapped in here with this madwoman. She suddenly stopped crying and stood, a maniacal look in her eyes as she grabbed stone after stone, throwing them backwards.

After Rebekah knocked Jack in the hand with one of the rocks she was wildly flinging around the small cave, Jack had finally had enough. "Would you stop tha'?"

"We're going to die if I stop," Rebekah answered, breathing heavily as though there wasn't enough oxygen. "This is too small. We're going to die."

"No we aren'," Jack replied confidently, rubbing at his hand. At least she was killing anymore spiders, though, with the rocks hitting random places on the floor. Spiders made Jack distinctly uncomfortable. Something about those eight legs freaked him out.

"Yes we are!" Rebekah protested, still pulling at the rocks near the door. She seemed to be very near tears again. Apparently the poor girl was claustrophobic.

Jack sighed heavily and grabbed her arms, pulling them away from the rocks. "No we aren'," he said calmly, twisting her so that she would face him. Then he did something very stupid as he saw her open her mouth to protest again-he kissed her.

Alteng: Well, you're right. We'll just say that Ragetti and Pintel were having a bit of an argument that day, which is why they were fighting much more than they should. Or something. Maybe Pintel is still learning where to draw the line...
Daisy: I did tell you, I square. And thanks for the stunning idea! Maybe she is...and that wasn't really intended to be taken as a foreshadowing statement. Bootstrap was just trying, in his own way, to admit that he'd done something wrong. But I like how it can be both! Thanks for the review! And what happened to you passing out hats?
Aliana Archer: I know. As I was writing this chapter, I had to keep telling myself that it couldn't be too supernatural. Or Jack wouldn't have ever gone after Cortez's treasure...hope you like this cliffhanger too! And he isn't allergic to kitties. Even I sneeze sometimes when cat hair gets in my nose.
Jack: Aye. I should send all of the boys in my school there too. They could have a party, eat some poisonous berries, and step in the shimmering rectangles. I hope the chapter with the crazy guy who wasn't really there makes more sense now...
sunkist3208: Well, I'm glad you remembered to review this chapter. And thanks for the fuzzy purple dice! They look smashing in my car! The lei ish pretty, and I plan to use the mardi gras beads this year. I'm glad you like the cliffhanger ending...I keep doing that, eh?