When we reached the boarding area, I realized Noodle wasn't with us, neither of them were. Panic seized me, and I began running back to the beach. My lungs protested again but the adrenaline eased the pain as I came into view of the pirates hoisting the bloody, battered body of Noodle onto one of their horses.
"Hey!" I screamed. One of them turned and upon seeing me, took out a pistol and shot me square in the shoulder. I fell to my knees, my vision blurring, and they started riding towards me. The one carrying Noodle took the front.
He held a sword to my throat. "You are a very stupid man Mr. Niccals." He remarked.
"Jus' let the girl go, let 'er go and be leave 'er alone and I'll go with you." I promised, a promise I meant every ounce of.
The man smirked and picked the limp form of Noodle up off of the horse and threw her on the ground. She twitched and I tried to move to her aid but couldn't, one, because of the bullet in my shoulder, and two, the guns and swords pointed at me.
I thought about calling for the cyborg but that thought process stopped when I saw her crumpled figure a distance away with sparks flying out of it. I looked at one of them, eyes pleading. "Can I say good bye to her?" I asked, they all exchanged glances and shrugged.
Crawling to her, the pain from my shoulder blinding me, I planted a kiss on her bloodied lips. "I do it for you luv." I whispered to her before I felt myself being dragged to the boats a ways off on the shoreline.
I sent out a silent wish for Russel or 2D to find her there so nothing worse happened. I never took my eyes off her as they rowed me away, she didn't stir.
I growled at them as they moved me to face the ship where the Boogieman was waiting for me. I gulped and gritted my teeth, prepared for whatever was to come. We rowed in silence, the ghost horses walking on the water along side of us. The pain in my shoulder was occupying everything else in my mind. A pirate smirked at me and motioned to my shoulder.
"Sorry 'bout that mate." He said, I scowled at him and just tried focusing on something else, anything else to keep my mind off of the pain. I thought about Noodle, how she was going to survive, because of me, I felt lighter, I had never ever had a noble cause before and the thought was empowering. But a different kind of pain surfaced this time, the emptiness of losing her a second time. She was oblivious to my feelings as well.
That jus' means we 'ave to fight harder mate. A voice in my head said. I agreed with the voice. Our boat bumping against the hull of the ship jarred my attention back to the present moment and the pirates pushed me up forward to go up the ladder.
I saw an issue seeing as one of my arms was out of commission for the time being. But I managed to struggle up with one arm. The Boogieman hauled me up once I came within arm's reach. He grabbed my face and held it close to his mask, breathing heavily.
"A deal's a deal." It wheezed at me. I glared fiercely back.
"You 'ave me then mate. Go ahead an' do with me what you wish." I said, holding my head high. He looked at me with his expressionless eyes and took a knife out from behind his cape, brandishing it in front of me.
"I should kill you." It said. I winced at its wet scratchy voice. "But I'll see if Satan is still offering the reward for your head."
I opened my mouth to say something when all of a sudden the ship rocked violently, sending me down on my wounded shoulder, I cried aloud in pain.
"What is that?" a horrified scream sounded. I looked up to see a milky white set of eyes staring at me from the water.
"Russel..?" I said, incredulous. He winked at me before smashing the ship in half and grabbing me.
"WATCH THE SHOULDER! THE SHOULDER!" I screamed at him. He glared at me but began quickly moving towards the beach.
"After them!" the Boogieman's wheezy voice shouted. I shivered at the sound but Russ didn't seem to be in too big of a hurry.
I turned to Russel. "Where's Noodle? Where is she?" I asked, franticly searching for her body and not finding it on the shore.
"Snoop Dog has her in his sub. Do you really think I'd leave my baby-girl?" he asked rhetorically. I sighed happily, relieved that she was okay, but the pain in my shoulder was maddening. Russ noticed this and held me gentler, trying not to cause me further injury.
Russel wasn't moving fast enough and the boats were now firing at us, I saw the drummer wince as the bullets his him, like little thorns digging themselves into his skin. He stumbled, but kept moving as quickly as possible. Then, I spotted Noodle on the shore.
No, it was the android, she had her last resort weapon, a rocket launcher, and sparks were flying out of her head. She fired and it zoomed over our heads right into the midst of ships, she reloaded and repeated the process.
"Oh Muds!" Russel gasped as we reached the shore line, I looked down and saw my whole arm and back caked with my blood.
"Am-am I goin' to die Russ?" I whimpered, not caring if I sounded tough or not.
"Naw, we'll get you on the sub and someone'll fix ya up, here they come now." He pointed to a dark mass underneath the water and my shark submarine surfaced, 2D popping his head out.
"C'mon Russel!" he cried, eyes wide. "'E need to get 'im inside befor' the pirates come ov'r." Russ set me on the sub and Ache-Face helped me climb in.
Before I passed out I remembered one thing, that the knife the Boogieman had had in his hand, had been my dad's old knife…
Then I fell to the ground, feeling my blood pool out beneath me.