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Chapter 14: Hunger

"How long has she been gone, sir?"

"All day. I haven't seen her since she left early this morning with William."

Back on Port Royal, Governor Swann was getting very worried. It was now evening and he had not seen Elizabeth all day. By sundown he decided to report this to Commodore Norrington, who did not seem happy at all. There were two reasons for his unhappy mood: One, he thought the Governor was worrying too much; Elizabeth was probably just out somewhere with Will. And two, he had been very ill the past few days and was not in the mood to deal with something like this. Then again, he was not in the mood to deal with anything.

"Governor, with all due respect,night has fallenand I wish to get some rest. I'm sure Elizabeth is fine."

"I don't know," said Swann. "I don't like it. I mean, after all, that pirate was here-"

"Governor," said Norrington sharply. "I thought we agreed not to speak of that. Sparrow was never here."

Of course, the truth was, Jack Sparrow had come to Port Royal, as we all know. But at the time, the Commodore had been dreadfully ill and in bed. He told his men to act as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. He would deal with Sparrow himself, when he was well again. In fact, when he had heard of Jack's appearance, he had attempted to leap out of bed and go after him, but had fallen to the floor in his dizziness. This was the second time he had let Sparrow slide, and it was most certainly the last.

"Sorry," said the Governor, glancing around to reassure himself they were alone. "But what if something happened to her?"

"Governor, I assure you, if Elizabeth doesn't return by tomorrow, I'll have my men search for her, but let's leave it here for tonight."

The Governor, being a worried father, was not happy about leaving it at that, but decided to follow Norrington's judgment. He just hoped nothing had happened with that dreadful pirate…

Will opened his eyes. He looked around. The sun was up. He guessed it was about nine o' clock. He looked at Elizabeth, who lay next to him, fast asleep. He looked on the other side of the fire and saw Jack sprawled on his back, snoring quietly. Ana Maria was on her side on another side of the fire, and Gibbs was on his stomach, snoring like Jack.

Will stood up. He had never been on this island before, and decided to have a look around. Hopefully there was some type of something edible. He walked through the palm trees, his feet sliding through the sand. He came upon an area full of burnt boxes and broken bottles. He picked up half a bottle and sniffed it. It stunk. He smiled. Elizabeth had told him about this. The time she had burned the rum to make a signal so that she and Jack would be rescued. He frowned. He had never admitted it to anyone but…well…Elizabeth was very fond of Jack, and Will sometimes wondered whether or not it was only platonic. He trusted Elizabeth, but…she certainly gaveJack a lot of attention…He pushed the thought out of his mind. He was just being jealous. And anyway, he was in no position to wonder about Elizabeth; when he'd had 'man time' with Jack, he still felt maybe he'd done something he shouldn't have. If only he could remember…

After finding no food, Will wandered back to the little camp. He didn't want to disturb Elizabeth, she looked so peaceful, and he decided to leave the others alone. But he thought maybe Jack could help him find some food, as he'd been on the island twice before. He kneeled down by Jack and put his face a few inches away from his ear. Then he whispered,

"Look, Jack, it's Norrington."

Jack sat bolt upright and looked around wildly.

"What! What!"

"Shh," Will smiled, standing up,"Only joking."

Jack frowned at him and flopped back onto his back.

"You would've done the same to me, you know," said Will.

"Maybe I would've," said Jack, "looks like I'm rubbin' off on you, boy."

"I've been thinking," said Will, "why don't we just make a signal out of any wood we can find?"

"I was thinkin' o' that myself," said Jack. "But I think we oughta use that as a last resort, jus' in case it doesn't work."

"Right," said Will. Now that he thought of it that sounded like the best thing to do. "Is there anything edible on this island?" he asked.

"No," said Jack. "But we might as well make sure. That might've changed since I've been 'ere. An' we'll need t' look fer water as well." He stuck his arm into the air. "'Elp me up." Will took his arm and pulled him off the ground. They walked around the island together. They had no luck finding food, nor water. The sun rose and set on a long, hot, quiet day on the island.

The next day, everyone slept the morning away. No one wanted to wake up and feel that horrible emptiness in their stomachs, or the horrible scratchy dryness of their throats. Jack and Gibbs both had a flask of water each, but that was hardly enough for five people. They had all had a sip, but no more. Slowly they all began waking up.

"Lis'n," said Jack, "Our only chance o' gettin off this island is if we're seen by passing ships. We should station ourselves around the island and watch fer some, an' if we see one, we c'n signal to 'em, savvy?"

The others agreed. They spent almost the entire day sitting and watching for ships, each person sitting in a different place on the island.

Later, the sun was beginning to set. Will was pacing. He didn't want to sit still, as he'd been doing most of the day. He could see Elizabeth sitting at her post, gazing out at the water. Will abandoned his post to go and see her. He sat down next to her.

"Feeling alright?" he asked her.

"Yes," she said. "Just…hungry."

Will looked at her with the utmost concern. Of course she was hungry. She had to eat for two. She saw the look on his face and smiled.

"I'm not all that worried," she said. "The Royal Navy is probably out looking for me, Will. There's a chance they'll find us here."

Will smiled back at her, but he was still worried. About her, about the others, about himself. About whether or not they really would make it.

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