Chapter 23: Jailbreak!
I glanced at the clock…twelve minutes to go. There were a few butterflies humming around in my stomach but there was also the excitement, the thrill which always came before doing something daring. My fingers twitched, desperate to start their work but I quietly told them to wait.
I had been planning it since I got the letter, ok so it wasn't the cleverest and cunningest of plans but I was sure it would work. Every ten minutes a guard would walk past my 'window', if you could call it that anyway. It was a long shot but somehow it was the only way I could come up with and I was determind to make it work.
I looked at the clock again out in the square…eleven minutes. One minute and my plan would go into action.
I waited.
The long hand on the clock slowly moved onto the 10 and my fingers snapped into place. Sure enough as my hands swept onto the dusty street they came into contact with a bright red trouser leg of the guard. I pulled on it hard, hoping beyond might that the man was wearing a belt and the trousers wouldn't just slip down. But sure enough the leg of a very surprised man came flying into the cell and I latched the bit of cloth I was holding onto a broken nail that was randomly sticking out of the stone wall. So far the plan was working.
The poor man groaned as his crotch came into contact with the hard metal bars and his other leg crumpled out of place. He was right where I wanted him and I could see the small flash of his sword as it glinted in its sheath.
There was no one about in the courtyard, which was lucky, as most of the peasants were at home taking a siesta. I turned away from the unconscious man and yelled towards the steps outside the cell door,
"HELP! HELP!! THERE IS A MAN HERE WHO NEEDS HELP!!"
And sure enough I heard the scuttle of feet and the scratch of a lock. I turned back to the man, trying to look casual. He was young, maybe a few years older than I, and had a perfectly shaped face. It made me blush and I looked away immediately thinking about Jack and what he might say…which made me grin.
There was the scratch of the lock being done up again and the jingle of the keys being passed back to the man who stood watch outside it. And then the scuttering of feet again down the stair way. I managed to wipe away the smile just as three men turned around the corner, all dressed in bright scarlet clothing.
"What the bloody hell…?" one man began, his mouth hanging wide open in amazement at seeing the man dangling half through the bars from the street outside.
"Get away from him!" another yelled at me as though it was all my fault…which of course it was.
I took a step back from the young unconscious man and gave them my most innocent looking face. "He must have slipped," I said quietly as the other men opened the door to my cell. I noticed one of them stayed near the exit encase I was to try some daring escape. I had to take my hat off to them, the navy had improved on prisoner settings.
The man who entered the cell went straight to the poor man and began talking to him, trying to wake him from an unstoppable sleep. The other, however, came and stood guard over me, his sword brandished. They weren't letting their suspicious guard down for anything. It was turning into a game…who would be the first to die?
The man in front of me tightened the grip on his cutlass and I realised I had been smiling. Suspiciousness had just gone up a notch on the suspicious counter.
Our eyes were locked like some war of the glares. I kept mine innocent and emotionless but his was riddled with anger and hatred. What had I done to him? Oh wait, yes, I was a pirate ergo the scum of the universe ergo you don't need a reason to hate us.
So I waited for him to break the staring competition. It is a law unto pirates to never give in. Finally he gave in and glanced at the man, who was still unconscious. I took the opportunity to take a fleeting look at the clock…there was less than 3 minutes to go, I was running late.
The man was back staring at me when I started my next move.
I gasped and looked at the window. It worked! The two men looked at him but by the time they had looked back I was fully stuck in my plan.
My left knee had come flying up into the groin of man in front of me and as the other watched in horror as he fell to the floor my hand swooped right and grabbed the blade I had seen earlier. Pulling it out I held it to the other man's neck who froze and looked at me with petrified eyes.
But it wasn't over yet. The man guarding the door said calmly, "Release him or I shoot."
He was standing with an incredibly steady hand pointing a gun in the direction of my head. My mind flurried, I only had two minutes.
My eyes lowered and I loosened the grip on the cutlass letting the man in front of me feel relieved. But inside I was buzzing with a nervous excitement. Like I would give in that easily! The man holding the gun blinked and I resumed my position thrusting the blade through the man's neck and dodging just in time to miss the bullet fly straight past my into the wall. But I wasn't quick enough to miss the ricochet which bounced off the wall in a thousand pieces and planted themselves deep in my right hand.
"Holy cra…" I began shaking out the bleeding hand, but there was no time to worry.
The man advanced towards me and tried vainly to stab me in the heart which I narrowly missed by blocking it with my cutlass. Ducking another blow I exchanged hands, the right was too painful to fight with and although I had had no training fighting left hand I was ready to try it.
I blocked another attack and lunged forwards which went terrible as my hand didn't have a tight enough grip on the sword and it wobbled left. The man gave an evil grin as though he knew something I didn't. But every pirate knows that trick, it's the old "I know I'm going to win" look, of course just because they think they are going to win doesn't mean they will.
Getting a firmer grip on the cutlass I slashed left, right, left, right again and again to make him dizzy but his eyes remained focused. He thought he was a toughie but to me he was still just another baddie in the game waiting to die.
He lunged again, I blocked again, I slashed, he blocked, he slashed, I ducked. And that's when I heard metal on metal. His cutlass had hit the bars and for that fatal moment he was giddy with the vibrations so I stood up taking my blade with my and spearing him through the middle. The blunt metal on muscle tissues allowed my body to run crazy with excitement and as the man slumped forwards still held up by the cutlass I felt pride.
I really was part of the dirty scum of the universe, and loving it.
I looked up with a crazy smile of pride and came face to face with a long missed face. Anamaria stood holding a bloody tipped sword and a large ring of keys.
"Ana!" I exclaimed drawing out the sword and casting it to one side without a sideways glance.
She smiled, "Glad to see your still in top form," she winked imitating the English accent of the Royal Navy.
"Damn straight!" I winked back.
Stepping over the body I listened as Anamaria explained quickly how they had entered and who was with her.
"…but we managed to take them out pretty easily and – is that your blood?" she asked pointing to the blood dripping from my hand.
"Aye, but it's nothing," I said nodding for her to go on. She looked at it for a moment before getting back into her explanation. We climbed the stairs at a run and met Gibbs who was standing outside keeping watch next to the body of the dead guard.
"Good to see yea!" he whispered patting me on the back, "Ok lets go,"
We sprinted down the corridor and cautiously turned the corners trying to keep volume down to a minimum. Left, right, up stairs, down stairs, left again, this place was a maze but Ana and Gibbs seemed to know it like the back of their hands. We dashed by the next corner and stopped off for a quick breather.
"So…when…are…we getting…Jack?" I panted clutching my sides, the few days on a starving belly with the clash of those deep steps had made me quite unfit and now my hand was throbbing quite unbearably.
"Jack's already out and waiting on the beach," she said keeping her eyes down the corridor.
"Oh…cheers…for getting…me out…first!" I panted huffily.
"You were too far down, to release you first would have caused to much of a stir to be able to get Jack out as well."
I didn't really mind at all, and they knew it. I just had to cause a fuss when the time called. However I was not feeling like running anymore. I had a stitch the size of a river, a desperately throbbing hand and the weakest feeling as though someone had starved me for a few days, which of course they had.
"Ok ready…?" Ana started,
"Wait Ana luv, I really don't think she's fit enough to go on just yet," spoke up the concerned voice of Gibbs.
"Me? Unfit? Nonsense!" I spat, "lets go," I nodded to Ana wishing I had just been big enough to admit I wasn't ready.
Ana glanced at me, "no I really don't think…"
"Lets just go," I said firmly, gritting my teeth. She nodded reluctantly.
"Go!" she whispered and once again we set of at a silent sprint down the stone embedded corridor.
I ran so hard my legs turned to jelly, my head turned to cotton wool and my hand turned into fire. I felt dizzy as hell but was determined to keep up with Gibbs and Ana just to prove that I wasn't as weak as Gibbs had said.
The corridors blurred into one rolling on and on for what seemed like miles. A mini maze in the middle of Jamaica. A maze of torture, murder and threat to all Pirates. My head was getting lighter and my legs became numb. Then I saw something, something through the dizziness. It wasn't in the corridor…it was like I was…dreaming.
It was a tall mansion, black as the night and dark with magic. No life lay near it, not grass nor tree. No birds flew by the stormy sky around it and no fish swam in the black treacherous waves of the sea. It was deserted, without feeling or knowing it stood alone. But there was something, something about it telling me that inside stirred an evil greater than hell itself. The Evil?
I blinked my eyes and the mansion disappeared, I was back in the dimly lit mouldy corridors. Luckily my feet had had the sense to follow Ana and Gibbs but I was still falling behind slightly.
We were slowing down.
"Alright," said Ana, "here we are!" She smiled at her cleverness for getting us this far.
"Here? Where is here when it has a name?" I asked slyly.
She sighed but managed to keep her smile fixated. "Here," she said, "is where we get out. It's a secret opening onto the wasteland behind the town. In other words it's where the washerwomen come to clean the guard's clothing."
"Ah!" I said, still panting, "that simple eh? And how would one know that it was here?"
She laughed at my posh English impression, "One's father used to work in this prison when one was little," she laughed.
Her father?! I didn't even know she had one let alone one which worked for the Red Coats!?! How she ever turned into a pirate I don't know. I watched her as she tugged the loose ring of a nearby door which just fell open. The afternoon sunlight gushed into the dark dank room and for a minute the flagstones swallowed in the temporary warmth, but only for a minute as we carefully slammed it shut safely on the other side.
I walked forwards a couple of paces, my palms outstretched, taking in the heat. It was glorious to be free again.
"Come on quick, before they find us," whispered Ana sprinting into the forest which surrounded us.
I legged it after her and we ran full pelt, once again, through the undergrowth. Splashes of sunlight managed to squeeze themselves through the thick leaves on the trees to nestle themselves in the luscious green grass. It was beautiful…for land anyway.
We ran for the next fifteen minutes before Gibbs refused bluntly to allow me to run anymore.
I collapsed on the soft velvety grass and gasped for air while laughing at my freedom. "Thanks," I said finally, which I seemed to have forgotten to say already.
"S'alright," said Gibbs getting embarrassed.
Ana smiled at me again and sat beside me. "How does it feel to be a free woman again?"
I laughed, "Absolutely FANTASTIC!" I yelled.
A/N: Hello again!! Wow I'm sorry I didn't post this up sooner! I thought I posted it up ages ago but when I got that review from Aurelia (thanx btw) I realised I actually hadn't! Oops! Well I hope you enjoyed the chappie…no Jack in it I know! Don't worry they will meet up in the next chappie and you guys can see him again :P
Thankyou so much to all my reviewers! Especially to VagrantCandy who has been with me pretty much since the beginning! Thanks I really really appreciate it!
Please review again guys!