Hey everyone! Before all the sad and serious stuff starts (sob sob) I have a question: Do you want me to go beyond AWE or leave it there? Coz I do have ideas for further stories. I just wanted to get that out of the way before the serious stuff.
nineteennitytwo: The latter, I'm afraid.
bmdrose: Clearly, you are a nicer person than she is.
callieandjack: I know! First her brother, then Jack! In the same day! What a crap day by anyone's standards.
Fairy Skull: Yeah, that is what happens, but Izzy doesn't know that.
keiraliz: And i shall tell you, I tell you now.
SaveroftheSun: Like Jaws music! Oooh, gives me the creeps!
Valor: Well, he may cat--tt--t-tt-tch the st-t-t-t-t-tut-t-t-t-er! It is cont-t-t-tagious!
klutzygal12: Same! I'm in floods of tears by the end. My friends hate watching it with me coz I'm sobbing for the rest of the day!
After the moment of silence that felt longer than it was the realisation that we were all in danger hit home. Everyone sprang into action. "To arms!" Will shouted, handling the situation better than the Pearl's supposed Captain. He was doing nothing to save his crew.
"Load guns!" Gibbs yelled. "Defend the mast!"
Everyone looked to Will. He'd know it was the Kraken, he'd know how to get us out of this. "It'll attack to starboard, run out the cannons and hold for my signal!"
I wondered how Will knew this and where he'd seen it before, but I didn't ask. We wasted no time in following Will's instructions. Nobody aboard the Pearl was ready to die just yet, not with out a fight. Everyone armed themselves, ready for whatever the Kraken threw at us. Men below deck loaded the cannons and waited for the beast. All of us above deck armed ourselves with bayonets and guns. We kept our guns trained on the sides of the Pearl and we waited. I could hear the Pearl creaking around me as we waited with bated breath.
My heart plunged into my stomach as the tips of the Kraken's slimy green tentacles wriggled their way up the side of the Pearl. More came into view and I suddenly realized the size of the beast we were fighting. I remembered Gibbs's fearful description of it on the way to Tia's. It hadn't done it justice. The Kraken was far bigger and far more terrifying than any of us could ever have imagined.
"Easy boys," said Will. I was too scared to point out that Elizabeth and I weren't boys. We stepped back a bit from the rail as the Kraken's tentacles rose further into the air.
"Will…" Elizabeth whimpered.
"Steady… steady…" Will cautioned.
"Will…" there was a note of desperation in her voice.
"Hold… hold…" Will instructed. This was beyond ridiculous. We had to act fast or it would be too late.
"WILL!!" Elizabeth screamed as the tentacles rose almost as high as the mast.
"FIRE!!!" Will shouted. Everyone aboard the Pearl shot at the Kraken. The tentacles were blasted back and they slipped back into the water below. There was a moment of celebration, but we all knew this wasn't over.
"It'll be back," said Will, confirming what we already knew. "We have to get off the ship."
All eyes turned at once to longboats, but they weren't there. The Kraken had smashed them on its way down. "There's no boats," Elizabeth spoke the horrible truth out loud. We were going to have to fight our way out of this.
"Pull all the grates! Get all the gunpowder onto the net in the cargo hold," Will ordered. He then turned to Elizabeth and handed her a gun, "Whatever you do, don't miss."
"As soon as you're clear," she promised, but her hands were shaking so much it made me nervous. As the gunpowder we being rolled into the cargo net Elizabeth and I ran about the ship grabbing what we could. After she handed a gun to Cotton I heard Elizabeth mutter, "Oh, you coward!"
"What?" I turned to her. She was looking out to sea.
"Not all the boats are gone, Izzy," she said.
One lifeboat was bobbing on the waves far out at sea and sitting inside was the small, but unmistakable figure of Jack. "Well, what do you expect?" I said bleakly. I didn't feel anything. Not shock nor disappointment… nothing. Something crashed into the side of the Pearl making her jolt and I turned my attention back to the task at hand. The Kraken was attacking us again. The barrel of gunpowder and, as we'd run out of gunpowder, rum was being hoisted into the air. Elizabeth took her position as two tentacles began snaking their way up into the air. The net was being hoisted alongside it. The Kraken's other tentacles smashed through the Pearl grabbing anything and everything that they could.
"Isabel!" Elizabeth's voice was shaking as much as her hands. "I… I can't…"
Will was caught in the net, screaming for her to shoot anyway at the same time as trying to cut himself free. Of course she wasn't going to shoot with Will in the way. That would kill him, but if she didn't shoot then we'd all die. There was a scream from beside me. Elizabeth disappeared with a thud. The gun flew into the air. I grabbed it, willing Will to get out of the way. It was only in my hands for a few seconds before it flew back out again. I hit the deck. A screaming Elizabeth grabbed my ankle as she was dragged backwards by the Kraken. I tried to find something to grab onto that would save us both, but everything was ripped from my fingers. We were pulled backwards with unimaginable strength. Then suddenly, it stopped.
I looked around to see why it had stopped. There was a bloody, lifeless tentacle wrapped around Elizabeth's leg and a surprised Ragetti was holding up a blood stained axe. Elizabeth scrambled to her feet. "The gun!" she shouted, running from the room we had been dragged into. There was a huge, gaping hole where the Kraken's tentacles had smashed through the windows of the Captain's cabin. The cabin was full of blood and debris and corpses. I ran back out onto the deck where the situation didn't look anymore optimistic. Will was free, but where was Elizabeth? There wasn't much time left. The Kraken was going to rip the Pearl to pieces and us along with it.
Just then an explosion rocked the Pearl. We were thrown to the ground and the air was full of the smell of burning. I looked up through clouds of black smoke that was also filing my lungs and making me gag, to see burning, rotting chunks of the Kraken's flesh falling onto the deck around me. I got to my feet as the burning tentacles splashed back into the sea. I looked around at the damage. There were very few crewmen left.
"Did we kill it?" Marty asked, peering cautiously over the edge.
"No… we just made it angry. We're not out of this yet. Captain! Orders!" Gibbs shouted. I was about to tell him that his Captain had not only abandoned his ship, but also his crew when Jack came down onto the lower deck. I was almost happy to see him. Almost.
"Abandon ship," Jack ordered. "Into the longboat."
"But Jack!" Gibbs was shocked. "The Pearl…"
"She's only a ship, mate," Jack replied.
"He's right, we have to head for land," Elizabeth agreed.
Pintel looked out to sea, "That's a lot of open water."
"That's a lot of water," Ragetti gulped.
"We have to try! We can get away as it takes down the Pearl!" said Will, determined to escape the Kraken.
"Aye," Gibbs sighed heavily, "Abandon ship. Abandon ship or abandon hope."
People began to climb into the longboat. I turned to find Jack blocking my way. His eyes were intense. "If we don't get out of this, love, I want you to know..."
I pushed past him. I didn't care what he had to say to me. I climbed down into the longboat. Will climbed down after me. As I sat down he stopped on a rung of the ladder.
"Come on Will! Step to!" said Gibbs impatiently, trying to climb down. Will clambered shakily into the boat and Gibbs followed. Elizabeth was last to climb down.
"Where's Jack?" Will asked her.
"He elected to stay behind to give us a chance," she replied. I went numb with shock. What was she talking about? Jack had to come with us! Everyone else was just a shocked as I. When nobody responded Elizabeth got very agitated. "Go!" she shouted.
To my amazement and disgust Jack's crew responded.
We were going without him.