Thank you to those who continue to read, review, and support this story, it really has come a long way! For those asking about my broken finger, it's almost healed now, thanks for your concern! I hope everyone enjoys xoxo
I followed the guys reluctantly into the jungle, watching little critters run into the trees to hide themselves. I wish I could join them; I wanted nothing more than to hide from Rafe and Simmons, and the inevitability that I was going to run into both men on this Godforsaken island. We kept walking as I heard the two brothers talk excitedly amongst themselves, well almost excitedly. I had the feeling Nate wasn't holding his breath about stumbling upon Libertalia. We climbed through what looked like was once the window of a house and continued our journey. I listened to the birds sing as I swatted bugs away from my face. Sam slowed his pace to walk beside me, and I felt myself stiffen.
"Feels good to find a clue, huh?" He said with a smile.
I smacked a fly that landed on my neck. "I guess. You know I don't want to be on this island."
Sam frowned, appearing taken aback by my dismissive attitude. I trudged along, my mood as icy as my expression.
"You can't tell me that you're not at least a little bit excited to be on the right track again?"
I didn't answer. I only followed Nate's lead. I didn't want to tell him how afraid I was of Simmons and Rafe, and how angry the two men would be when they saw me again (both for different reasons of course).
"Whoa, hang on-" Sam gripped my arm gently to pull me aside. "This treasure is going to save our lives-"
"I know that, Sam," I interrupted, "but what if it doesn't? What if Simmons wants more, or if we run into Rafe and Shoreline? We're outgunned and-"
Sam shushed my calmly. "It's going to be all right, Dani." He attempted to pull me into a hug, but I backed away.
"Sam, up here," Nate called from a distance.
"Comin'!" Sam called back. He turned his attention back to me, looking a little wounded from my silent rejection. "Dani, I-"
"We can talk later," I dismissed, brushing past him. I felt bad for treating him this way, but I was in no mood for a confession (plus I was still steamed at him for the spat he had earlier).
We followed Nate up a wooden structure and across a beam overgrown with forestation, and down an opening. As we dropped into the wooden structure, it was apparent that this used to be part of a small house as well. We crawled in the dimness for a minute until we found a piece of caved in wood we could lift. The damned caved in house was like a maze. The whole experience was claustrophobic and awkward; Nate was doing most of the talking, as Sam and I were quiet. I tried to focus on the burning pain of my muscles from squatting this long than the forlorn expression on Sam's face. As we climbed out of the house (which ended up being a giant house), Nate pushed down a crate for us to climb up on. Sam was the first one to reach the top. I saw his jaw drop open.
"You're gonna wanna see this!"
Nate and I exchanged curious glances as we climbed on top of the crate. As we pulled ourselves up I could finally see what had stopped Sam in his tracks. What appeared to be an entire town built in between surrounded mountains lay before us. I heard Nate gasp as he took careful steps forward, staring in absolute awe. The three of us inched our way up, slowly as if we were afraid we'd wake up from a dream.
"What do ya see?" Sam whispered.
Nate's eyes swept the old pavement. "No houses, wide street, clearly a commercial district of some kind…" Nate mumbled, still entranced.
Sam chuckled. "Yes, thank you for that, Nathan. C'mon, what do you see?"
"You just want to hear me say it, don't ya?"
"Really wanna hear you say it."
"All right… Libertalia."
Sam chortled excitedly, grabbing both Nate and my arm. "Libertalia! The long lost legendary pirate utopia discovered after three hundred years by one Samuel Drake."
"And-"
"And his younger, slightly less charming brother who happened to be tagging along for the ride. Y'know, I always thought you'd make something of yourself one day."
Nate paused for a moment, "just so you know, this isn't my first lost city."
Sam shushed him, "just enjoy the moment."
"So, where do you want to-" Sam turned around to ask both Nate and I, but he stopped.
I stood beside Nate as I gazed at Libertalia, tears streaming down my cheeks. These weren't tears of joy, these were tears of fear, relief, guilt, and maybe a teensy bit of joy. Discovering this city was only the first step, and I didn't have my phone to show Simmons how far we'd come.
"Dani, you okay?" Sam asked, his hand resting on my shoulder. "I didn't mean to exclude you from what I said, you helped discover-"
"No, it's not that," I replied quietly, wiping the tears from my cheeks, "I'm just surprised is all. Just thinking about Holden-"
"Holden? Who's Holden?" Sam interjected.
I froze, realizing the magnitude of the slip-up I just made. My lip trembled as I felt the heaviness from tears well behind my eyes again. This was all too much, I felt already like I was on the verge of a major break down, but doing it here after we made it this far seemed anti-climactic.
"It's nothing," I added quickly, hastily wiping tears from my cheeks, "let's just get down there and explore."
Nate glanced over at me, concerned. I ignored them both (feeling too self-conscious with them staring at me), and hopped down into the streets of Libertalia.
Holding off on my mental breakdown didn't last too long. As we were exploring the ghost town of Libertalia we were winding in and out of a lot of houses. Some of the old shops (or what we perceived to be shops) had upstairs lodgings where the families would live. As the guys when to look at monuments in the streets, I found a room that looked like it had once been a nursery for a baby or small child. As I walked carefully around the old wood floor, I stepped on something small and lumpy. I picked it up to see that it was a very old doll. Hundreds of years of erosion had done damage, it was so fragile parts of the limbs fell off in my hands. The doll was crudely sewn together with patches and button eyes, but the sentiment of love was still there.
That had been the final straw for me; I collapsed to my knees and wept. I clutched the doll to my chest as if it were a real child. Holden had a plush puppy that he slept with for comfort every night. I imagined that this little doll helped calm a child down hundreds of years before, and was a loved treasure. I couldn't take it.
After a few minutes I stayed inside the ancient house to compose myself. I didn't want Sam and Nate to see me in my vulnerable state. I couldn't talk about Holden, not to them, not to anyone. Talking about him only brought up the pain like an old wound that never healed properly. I knew my face would be red and my eyes swollen of evidence of crying, but maybe they would think it was from when we first discovered Libertalia.
I caught up with them outside, they were ready to head toward the massive building with the guard tower (presumed to be Avery's mansion), but there was some distance and drop offs that between it. We traveled underground, made our way back up, and had to swing across from a steep cliff side to get closer to our destination. It was scary, but we discovered more of the colony, hidden behind trees and uneven parts of the mountain. As we landed, we saw Shoreline stomping around one of the caved in buildings, we immediately took cover.
"Fuck…" I mumbled.
"Okay, we gotta spread out and take them down quietly, there's too many so we don't want to draw attention," Nate whispered, he glanced over at me, seeing his pity instantly made me become angry. "Dani, the drop offs are steep, and there's going to be a lot of jumping and climbing, do you th-"
"I'll be fine, I'm a pretty damned good fighter, remember?" I cut in, my tone venomous.
Nate's brows furrowed as Sam bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from a retort. I was just so fucking tired of this island, and running into Shoreline, and sticking out my neck to risk living just to get hurt by Simmons.
"Stick to cover from the overgrown leaves, we'll be fine…" Nate added slowly.
Be broke off, not straying too far but also not clumping together. We picked off Shoreline quietly one by one as we climbed higher into the decaying, wooden buildings.
I let my pent-up anger fuel my combat, but didn't fully unleash like a raging psychopath. I jumped and slid beneath one Shoreliner, kicking out his feet from under him. I stood up and leapt at him with a sidekick. As he fell backward, dropping his gun, I pummeled him with punches and hammerfists until I was certain he was down, then retreated back to cover. I was in no mood to take shit from anybody today. I made a rookie mistake and didn't notice another Shoreliner creeping up behind me.
"Fucking c$%#!" He grabbed a fistful of my hair and pulled back harshly. I could feel some strands being ripped from my scalp. He also made a rookie move, he chose to grab me instead of shoot me. Big mistake.
I spun toward my rear and elbowed him squarely in the nose, his grip loosen enough where I could kick him in his shins. He buckled to his knees, groaning in pain and irritation as he finally released my hair. I brought up my leg and front kicked him right at his chin. His head and neck whipped backward as he fell to the ground, but he still wasn't unconscious. I rammed my knees into him, now sitting on top of his torso. I chambered my fist back, bearing my teeth as I prepared to knock his light out.
The soldier laughed weakly, spitting up blood and a broken tooth as he did so.
"What's so funny?" I demanded, digging my kneecaps into his ribs.
He coughed instead of laughing this time, struggling under the discomfort I was causing him.
"You're Rafe's ol' bitch…" he sputtered, his tone so raspy I could barely understand him. He coughed again, more blood dribbled down his chin, "he's waiting for you."
I slapped him with my open palm, "don't lie to me, you bastard!" I roared at him.
"You think he doesn't know you're here?" He chortled again, this time strained, "it's no secret you're on the island with the Drake brothers."
I stood up abruptly. I lifted up my leg and stomped into his face with my combat boot, feeling his nose crunch to the left. Now he was unconscious (and with a broken nose). I wiped sweat off my face with a trembling arm, now feeling horrified knowing that the cat was out of the bag.
I went back into cover, finding more Shoreline soldiers to take down. Weeding out Shoreline was more strenuous and time consuming then we originally planned. There were dozens of them scattered throughout the area, and even with Sam and Nate taking them down, it still felt like our progress was stalled. It took about an hour to get rid of the Shoreliners in that particular area.
When we finally managed to make it to the large mansion-type building, we found that parts of the inside had also collapsed from years of wear. We had to swing on the rope to get across (something that I wasn't very fond of). I clung tightly to Sam as we swung across and toward an opening in the brick interior of the building.
As Nate climbed inside to what appeared to be a grand hallway, Sam took my wrist and gently gave me a tug to stop me. I pulled for a minute, but I didn't fully break his grip. He wanted to talk, but I wanted to avoid conflict.
"Dani, hold up for a minute."
"I sighed heavily, making it clear that I didn't want to talk.
"You've been really on edge today, and don't tell me that you're not because it's obvious. You've been crying on and off, your mood has been shaky, you absolutely thrashed some of the soldiers back there-"
"What? You want me to take it easy on Shoreline?" I interrupted, already getting defensive.
Sam waved my comment off, "something is bothering you, and whatever it is is taking a toll-"
I stomped my foot like a toddler throwing a tantrum, "I'm fine, Sam! Jesus Christ! How many times do I have to tell you? I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I haven't gotten much sleep, and, and…" I got it, the perfect excuse that shuts down men easily, "I started my period."
"Oh," Sam said awkwardly, scratching the back of his head. "So… is that what's got you all… uh…"
"Are you two done?" Nate called from inside the fortress. "There's a huge staircase leading somewhere."
"Comin'!" Sam hollered back. "After you," he gestured for me to go on ahead.
Another crisis averted thanks to the Monthly Gift.
Getting inside was a spectacular view. Seeing the remains of a battle that took place hundreds of years before was mind-blowing, and seeing the giant canons placed in front of another entrance to the building gave us a pretty good idea of what was inside. Something very important was being kept inside here, something Avery and his fellow pirates wanted protected. We opened a door covered in gold to an area that looked like a library, or somewhere for bookkeeping. Fallen bookcases and scattered remains of debris made it look like this place had been swept clean.
The three of us went to work scouring the area for any clues left behind. Portraits of the pirate captains that were vandalized with the word "thief" left us scratching our heads. Something went down in Libertalia, but we weren't exactly sure yet. I
I picked some of the yellow flowers growing out of the cracked pavement, twisting the stems together to make a crown. I felt at peace for a brief moment since landing on this island, but was growing agitated that we'd hit another wall, again. The only thing worth keeping was an old treasure manifest that Nate had found, but nothing else. There was a sheet of paper describing the treasure that was here, but still no legendary treasure. Just a bunch of empty cabinets, and skeletons of guards that have long since perished.
"Hey guys, check it out," Sam called, squatting on the ground as he investigated something.
"What do you got?" Nate asked.
Sam flipped a gold coin at Nate, "Libertalia money."
We inspected the coin, it was handcrafted with Avery's sigil, much like everything else around here. One scrap of gold wasn't even close to the equivalent of 400 million dollars.
"He must of melted down from gold, and made his own currency," Nate pointed out.
"So based on that and all the manifests on the shelves, the treasure was here," Sam explained. Even though the treasure wasn't here any longer, Sam still had that spark of excitement in him.
"So where is it now?" I wondered aloud, turning my poorly made flower crown in my hands.
Sam pondered for a minute, "okay so we know that there was fighting outside…"
"Then inside," Nate added.
"What, do you think the colonist stole it?" Sam questioned.
"I sure hope not…" I muttered.
"I dunno, maybe they were trying to reclaim what was theirs," Nate handed the coin back to Sam. "Look," he pointed to the vandalized portraits, "there's Avery, Tew, founders of Libertalia all marked with the word: thief. Not 'murderer', not 'tyrant'-"
"Thief," Sam said. "So by the time the colonist busted in here the treasure was already gone."
"Yeah because these guys had already taken it for themselves. Pirates will be pirates, right?"
"Yeah, pirates will be pirates," Sam echoed.
Now what? I waited for the brothers to say something more. We'd come this close, so the journey can't be over now, right?
"Huh… I know where they moved it," Sam said, having an epiphany.
"What? Where?" Nate questioned.
Sam pointed up. We both looked up at the ceiling, seeing an old painted mural at the top. I hadn't even noticed that was there.
"It's a map," Nate commented.
"Right there, that's our treasury," Sam pointed to one of the pictures of a large mansion nestled behind smaller houses.
"That's a map of Libertalia!"
"We just have to follow it to the other side of the island, right there. New Devon." Sam concluded.
"Avery was from Devon, England," Nate replied.
"Sure was. Man those are some seriously large mansions," Sam commented on the mural above.
"Each one has its own sigil, too."
"Because that's where they lived."
The two brothers chuckled as I waited to hear the final word. I had no idea what New Devon was, or how they were certain of all this, I was patiently waited and listened.
"Let's say we climb that watch tower," Nate pointed to one of the ways out of here.
"New Devon, here we come," Sam clapped me on the back.
"Ouch, watch the scars…" I mumbled.
"Sorry, I just got overly excited," he apologized.
"So, this is it? You two know exactly where the treasure is hidden? You're positive it moved to this 'New Devon' place and that there is a guarantee that it wasn't already stolen and brought off the island?" I interjected, feeling a little carried away.
"Well, there's never a guarantee, but given the evidence here it's our best bet." Sam replied, still holding the coin between his fingers. "We'll know as soon as we climb out of here."
"After you," I gestured.
We were having a "lovely" climb as we hiked to New Devon when an RPG nearly knocked Nate off the building. Shoreline had spotted us, and literally brought in the big guns. Sam and I called up to Nate as stone started to crumble around us. Some giant boulders nearly crushed Sam and I as we jumped out of the way and into cover. More explosions and crumbling buildings knocked us down.
"They really like blowing shit up, don't they?" Nate yelled from outside.
"Nathan! Down here!" Sam called from where we were standing at the bottom of the crumbling structure.
Nate started to make his way down as the building literally started to crash down on us. To make things worse, the wooden parts of the building had caught on fire. We raced down the stairs. My ears were still ringing from the explosions that I couldn't even hear what Sam or Nate were saying. An explosion sent Nate sailing downward as Sam and I were still making our way down.
"Nate!" I cried.
We hopped down after him and made sure he was okay, but we didn't make it very far. Another explosion from an RPG separated the floor from the rest of the structure. We started to slide down.
"Shit! Dani!" Sam grabbed my hand and threw the rope to catch on the falling building next to us.
I screamed as I felt myself free-fall for a terrible few seconds until we finally caught. Now the fallen building was lying across two mountain peaks, and we were dangling fright in sight of the soldiers holding RPGs.
"This is bad!" I wrapped myself around Sam's back as we swung out of the way of incoming missiles.
"Shoot at them, Nate!" Sam couldn't pull out his gun as he held both of us up. He started to climb up as Nate did the same, blindly firing at Shoreline.
"This is insane!" I screamed, looking down at Nate climbing up the rope. He was so far behind us, and Shoreline wasn't being conservative with their ammo as they fired at him.
On top of the falling building offered little support, everything was still caving down and falling. This makeshift "bridge" wouldn't hold us up much longer. We sprinted across, merely missing rocks, debris, and explosions as we ran blindly into the dust.
"Don't look down, don't stop!" Sam chanted in a panic repeatedly.
We stopped briefly to help Nate up as he took a flying leap as the rest of the building gave way. Shoreline opened fire again as we stopped to catch our breath, but damn Shoreline was being extra relentless at this moment. We stopped at a door and rammed against it until it let us in. Sam and Nate used their shoulders, I kicked at it until it opened up.
"Keep running, don't stop!" Sam exclaimed as we ran to another closed off entrance.
"No shit, Sherlock!" I clipped back.
As we opened the next door, a grenade landed right at our feet. We all scrambled out of the way. The explosion left us dazed as we stood up, trying to find our bearings. The wooden structure gave way and Nate fell as Sam desperately reached out for him, but Nate was already sliding down a mudslide. I was so caught up watching Nate that I didn't realize that I was also standing on was also unstable. Sam started cursing out the Shoreliners who threw the grenade and was shooting at as I felt my foot break through the wood.
"Sam!" I cried in desperation, but I had already fallen all the way through and crashed down into the mud and slid down. I could hear Sam yelling after me, but I had already descending down the hill. The hill dropped off steep into the clouds so I had no choice but to leap toward a wooden frame that was jutting out the side of (oh wait, you guess it) collapsed building.
I pulled myself up with a groan. "Oh God, I hate climbing."
It took me forever to reach the top of the wood structure, but when I did I could hear arguing inside. I recognized the voices instantly: Sam, Nate, and Nadine… I tried to climb faster, but as I said, I've never been much of a climber. By the time I made it to the window they were already fighting. I peaked into the wooden house to see Nadine doing a spinning crescent kick to Sam, knocking him flat on his back.
"That's it," I muttered angrily to myself. I was SO FUCKING SICK OF SHORELINE, and that stupid message that one soldier gave me that Rafe was aware that I was on the island echoed fearfully inside my mind. I heaved myself into the window and charged at Nadine, glad she was distracted as she side kicked Nate into a table.
I struck the side of her head with a palm heel strike, crying out in satisfaction as I watched her stumble to the ground. She quickly got back onto her feet, shaking her head as her eyes adjusted. She glowered at me, and I glowered back, curling my muddy fingers into fists. Nate and Sam gained their bearings, both watching our silent stare-off from a safe distance. She stood up, brushing herself off as she began to circle me like a hawk.
I stepped back into an offensive stance, bringing up my fists. "You're dealing with me know, Nadine."