He could not believe his eyes. Vane blinked a couple of times but the image in front of him did not change. There was Abigale Ashe in a blood soaked blue dress holding a dagger in her left hand and lying in front of her was a dead red coat with a gaping wound in his throat.
"You! What are you doing here?" he hissed at her in a low voice taking a step towards her. "I…. he… he was going to kill you." Seeing that she was close to giving into panic he closed the remaining distance between them. He grabbed her left arm and placed his other hand on her chin forcing her to look at him. "Miss Ashe! Abigail! Look at me! Look at me and listen!" She slowly lifted her eyes to directly look at him. The dark brown eyes meeting steely blue once again, "Are you with us? Or do you want to stay?" Her face hardened at those words. "No, I cannot stay. I do not WANT to stay," was her only reply. "Alright, then listen to me. We must find Flint and make our way to the harbour. Try to keep up, be alert and we might get out of this alive." With that he looked down at the corpse at her feet and then back up to her, "But it seems you don't have a problem with that." Abigail looked at Vane and with an impish smile replied, "No it seems I don't."
Having reached some sort of agreement of which the terms had not been written, yet Vane and Abigail set off towards the harbour. Even though their conversation only lasted mere minutes the situation in the town seemed to have changed. Most of the streets now were only inhabited by the corpses of its former residents and they encountered no resistance for a while.
Suddenly a pistol went off to their right and with a push that left Abigail breathless Vane manoeuvred them into cover. Looking through a gap in the fence they had taken refugee behind, Vane saw Captain Flint on the other side of the square they had come upon. He was pinned down by two groups of soldiers. They were so close to the harbour. This was likely their last obstacle. They had to make it somehow. Neither the soldiers nor Flint had noticed them. Vane let out a sharp whistle that caught Flint's attention. Flint gave a sharp nod, acknowledging Vane. Vane turned to Abigail and relayed the situation. "We need to get through these soldiers somehow. They are blocking our access to the harbour."
Both Vane and Abigail though about their situation for a few moments, but in the end, it was Vane who came up with a solution. Abigail would shoot in the general direction of the group of soldiers to the right while Vane circled around and approach them from behind. Hopefully her shooting would distract them long enough for Vane to take care of them. They quickly gathered the pistols and rifles that were scattered about haphazardly. Most likely belonging to the dead members of the group of the soldiers that had Flint pinned down.
"Count 'til twenty and then start shooting at the soldiers. It doesn't matter if you hit any of them though that would be preferable, as long as you distract them." Vane said to her before turning around and going back to where they had originally come from.
"One. This what it…", she thought. "Two. Three. This will forever… four. Five. Forever separate me from my old life! Six. Seven." She turned to the gap. "Eight." She grabbed the first pistol. "Nine." Only a few more seconds. At the count of eighteen she started to aim. She fired her first shot as soon as she hit twenty. It went off somewhere near the group of soldiers and they soon sprang into action, unloading their rifles in her direction. She dropped to the ground and grabbed the next available fire arm – a rifle this time. She sat up, took aim and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. Angrily she tossed the rifle away. This was bound to happen. Rifles and pistols were notorious for not actually firing when they were supposed to but for it to happen on her second shot ever was beyond infuriating. She quickly grabbed the next rifle, took aim and pulled the trigger. The recoil of the rifle was heavier than she expected, but one of the soldiers let out a cry. She had hit one of them. The thought made her giddy. Her maid, her father, the entire world even would be shocked at her behaviour but Abigail just smiled. Quickly she grabbed another pistol and fired in their direction – a miss. And other one that also missed. She scrambled to get the last rifle when she heard swords clashing. Captain Vane had already killed two of the soldiers and was fighting with the last one. The soldier was hopelessly outmatched and Vane dispatched of him very quickly.
After that it was easy for Flint and Vane to take care of the rest of the soldiers. It was three versus two, but the pirates had the distinct tactical advantage. The last soldier had not even hit the ground when Vane called out for Abigail, "It's safe." She speedily left their old hiding spot and was greeted by an incredulous looking Flint. "What the hell are you doing here, foolish girl?", he hissed at her. "Do you want to die?" Her only reaction, her only option was to look him square in the eye and so she did but before she could answer Vane replied, "Saved my life, and helped to save yours. She's coming with us."
After coming to her defence, Vane briskly set off down the road to the harbour. Flint and Abigail quickly went to follow him. The harbour and their ship was so close, so very close now. They had almost made it.