Dead Man's Hand
Chapter Seven
Last Call
"Miranda. The ghost town where Captain Blood played his game with Death. That's where the cards are." Sly Winkum said as we sat at the bar of the Desert Rose.
"Sabatini tried to destroy Blood's cards during his mutiny, but they ended up scattered all over the town in the confusion."
"Beware, Matthew. Miranda is a terrible place. When Blood cheated Death... terrible things happened. The place is cursed - watch yourself."
"Thank you, I will." I said as I stood up to leave, leaving some money and an empty glass on the counter for the bartender.
Within the hour, the Aquila was ready to set sail for Miranda in Haunted Skyway, and we soon dropped anchor at the docks of the ghost town.
I shivered from the cold touch of death on Miranda as I stepped off the gangplank onto the dock, and I turned to address the two gunnery officers, David and Richard Clutterbuck. "If we're not back within an hour, take the others back to Skull Island and leave a rowboat for us."
The two brothers reluctantly nodded, and my trusted associates and I walked into the ghost town. As we stepped onto Main Street, blue mist seeped out from cracks in the dusty ground, and it took the form of a ghost standing in front of us.
The ghost took the form of a teenage Chicken wearing a fancy dress, so she probably came from one of the wealthier families that lived here long ago, and she introduced herself as Annabelle.
"Oh Captain, thank heaven you've come along! Do you have a ship? Something terrible is happening, and I need transportation away from here at once!" Annabelle said.
"We do, but where are Blood's cards?" I asked gently, and Annabelle thought a moment, putting a dainty finger up to her chin.
"Cards? I'm sure I don't know anything about cards or card playing. The dealer down at the Old Sipping Saloon could help, but..." Annabelle said, and her eyes suddenly widened, as though she sensed something behind her. "Oh no!"
Annabelle vanished in a puff of smoke, and as the smoke cleared, we saw a group of skeletal cowboys armed with revolvers running towards us. "There! It's more o' them pirates! Get 'em! Get 'em all!"
Drawing our guns, I summoned a Valor's Shield to protect us from the electrical bursts fired from their revolvers, and we retaliated with our own salvo. WIth no cover to protect them, the skeletal cowboys were soon just piles of bone and clothing.
"Where'd the lady go?" Bonnie asked as she reloaded her sniper rifle, and Ratbeard answered. "Never mind her! Let's get to the saloon, and quick!"
"The angry dead stand between us and our goal - we must fight them all! Follow me!" El Toro said as he pointed to an angry mob of skeletal corsairs coming towards us with his foil.
Armed with my sword and pistol, I engaged the lead corsair, and sweeping his legs out from under him, I got up and shot him in the skull. The bones shuddered before they finally lay dead upon the floor, and I turned to face my next opponent.
Our swords clanged against each other, and kicking the skeletal corsair in the ribs, I knocked him down onto the ground and stabbed his eye socket, his bones shuddering as they were laid to finally rest.
I couldn't see the others in the confusion, so I hacked and slashed at the nearest skeletons, lopping off bony limbs as I went.
A skeletal corsair near me suddenly stumbled backwards as he collapsed into a pile of bones, and I knew Bonnie had hit her mark. Smoke rose from one of Rena's smoke bombs a few yards away, and I could heard El Toro shout, "FOR JUSTICE!"
Soon, all of the skeletal corsairs were defeated, and we stood exhausted in the middle of the street, catching our breaths. "Come on, there's bound to be a few drinks at the saloon."
We stumbled inside the saloon and helped ourselves to the drinks behind the unmanned bar. In fact, the entire saloon was empty, except for a slender olive-skinned man dressed in a top hat and a suit sitting at a card table in the center of the room, but he didn't seem to notice us.
As I drew closer with a glass of Yum in my hand, the slender man looked up at me with a gaunt face and bulging eyes. "Sorry, stranger, but this table is still occupied - the game's not finished."
He swept his arm over the card table, which was empty except for a hand of cards laid down on one end of the table, which I assumed to be Death's. "Well, how about I finish the game for Captain Blood?"
"You want to finish the game? Very well. You'll need to bring Captain Blood's missing hand of cards back and play them. I know where they are. All of them." The slender man, presumably the dealer said.
"To find the first, head back to the general store at the edge of town, and find Father Ryan. He holds the first card." The dealer said, and I nodded as I placed the glass of Yum on the table. "Here. You've earned it."
Leaving the dealer alone, my trusted associates and I walked through the dusty main street to the general store, where several ghosts were standing inside. Among them, I saw a bespectacled Chicken wearing a priest's robes and a wide-brimmed hat.
"Are you Father Ryan?" I asked, and the bespectacled Chicken nodded. "You... you're a pirate, aren't you? But not one of them. I can see the virtue in your heart."
"I don't know what black magic Captain Blood's snared us in, but it's clear his cards are the key. I'll give you the card I found if you help me." Father Ryan said as he brought out a playing card from the sleeve of his robes, and it was a nine of red horseshoes.
"Blood's pirates ripped my prayer book into seven pieces. Without those prayers, I can't give the last rites to these poor souls."
"The pages from my prayer book are scattered all over. Bring them back to me, and I'll give you this card."
I nodded as we turned to leave, and we began searching for the pages to Father Ryan's prayer book. The first few pages were atop the general store's sign, and grabbing the eaves of the porch roof, I pulled myself up and took the pages.
The second part of Father Ryan's prayer book was found by Rena as we searched the bodies of the angry mob we had defeated earlier, and the third was found by Bonnie underneath the steps of a house.
The fourth and fifth parts of the prayer book were found by Emmett and Jack respectively, and the sixth part literally landed on Old Scratch's dreadlocks as it slid down a roof.
Ratbeard found the last part of the prayer book, and we returned to Father Ryan with the prayer book, its binding sewn back together by Rena, who was surprisingly good with a needle.
"You're as good as your word, Pirate, and so am I - here is the card. Now I must pray. May you walk a righteous path." Father Ryan said as he handed me the card, and I put it in the pocket on the inside of my coat.
"There are four more cards to find. Let's get back to the dealer." Bonnie said. We returned to the dealer inside the saloon, who had finished the glass of Yum I left him. "Welcome back, stranger. You ready to play that card?"
"No Captain, wait! You will not play these cards. Captain Blood will." Old Scratch said as he put an arm across my path to stop me.
"We'll see about that. You have one card, time for the next. When El Toro defeated Captain Blood, he buried the pirate in a shallow grave." The dealer said. "Mr. Hockley, one of the mutineers, is waiting near that grave for you. He holds the second card you seek."
As we left the saloon, Bonnie found a trail leading out of town, and we stopped in our tracks as we arrived at Captain Blood's empty grave. Surrounding the grave were broken Clockworks, so the Armada must've gotten a hell of a surprise when they tried to dig up his corpse.
"Who are you?" A voice said behind us, and we turned to see a zombie dressed in a sailor's garb and armed with a cutlass. I held up a hand to stop him. "My name is Matthew Exeter, and these are my trusted associates. What happened here?"
The zombie slowly relaxed, and he introduced himself as Mr. Hockley. "I helped El Toro bury Captain Blood here. Then these... mechanical men set him free! You've got to stop him!"
"Cap'n Blood's cards - I've got one of 'em. I'll give it to you, but there's something needs doing first. When we organized the mutiny, I sent two o' my shipmates to wait in caves with supplies. I never came for 'em, and they died waiting for me."
"I won't have their souls trapped in this vile place. Give their bones a decent burial in the cemetery. I'll give you the card when you've finished."
We left Mr. Hockley to go look for the bones of his shipmates in the caves outside of town, and when we found them, we walked behind the waterfall to the cemetery, where we dug two graves in an isolated part of the cemetery and made wooden crosses to mark them.
"That's done, now let's-" Ratbeard began, but was cut off by another voice. "Well, me hearties, look what we have here! The captain told us to find more mutineers, an' here we find 'em."
The skeletal pirate then looked at the two empty graves we had dug. "What's this you're up to, burying your friends? There'll be no burial for you. Get 'em, lads!"
As more skeletal pirates appeared from behind the waterfall, I swung my shovel into the head of their leader, fracturing his skull and killing him. Drawing my sword, my blade passed through the ribcage of another skeletal pirate to slice his spine in half.
From behind the cover of stone gravestones, Bonnie and Emmett fired at the skeletal pirates, picking them off as the rest of us went in for close-quarters combat.
Old Scratch waved his staff, and skeletal hands erupted from the ground to pull the rest of their bodies out to fight the pirates. As one of Old Scratch's skeletons struggled against a pirate, it managed to twist the cutlass out of the pirate's grip before killing him with it.
Ratbeard swept his opponent's legs out from under him, and as he stabbed him, I shouted, "Ratbeard! Behind you!"
It turned out there was no need for my pistol to cover Ratbeard, as Jack grabbed the raised sword arm of the pirate and flipped him onto the ground to kill him with his own cutlass.
"Is anyone else getting the feeling that the rest of the cards aren't going to be easy to get either?" Bonnie called, and the rest of us said nothing as we retrieved our shovels to bury Mr. Hockley's shipmates.
As the last shovelful of dirt went atop the last grave, we heard someone coming and turned to see that it was Mr. Hockley. He nodded in approval as he saw their graves. "You've seen to me mates, and I thank you for it. Here's the card."
Mr. Hockley handed me the playing card, an eight of black swords, and I put it inside my coat along with the nine of red horseshoes.
"Three left. Let's see where the next one is." Bonnie said, and she led the way back to the saloon, where the dealer was waiting for us at the card table.
"Not all the cards ended up in friendly hands. Captain Blood's bosun found one and has kept it close to his dead chest ever since." The dealer said.
"Bosun Bud is hiding in the old mine near town. He's dead set on keeping his card away from anyone except Captain Blood - you'll have to take it."
We nodded as we left, and we soon found the entrance to the bosun's hideout in Miranda's mine. Drawing our weapons, we went inside, avoiding the patrols of skeletal pirates as we went.
Old Scratch stopped as we neared a passageway into another part of the cave. "An evil soul be near, Captain my captain. In the deepest part of this mine, we shall find what we seek."
I nodded, and we passed through to find an abomination that looked like it had been stitched from several corpses standing in the center of the room, flanked by two skeletal crossbowmen.
"What's this, another traitor come to try an' kill our captain? Ha! I'm going to have no end o' fun teaching ye the error of your ways!" The abomination, presumably Bosun Bud said as he hefted his club.
The skeletal crossbowmen raised their crossbows, but Bonnie was quicker, and a second later, they were just piles of bone on the dusty floor of the cave. Bosun Bud looked surprise at the sudden death of his shipmates, and Bonnie unloaded the rest of her ammunition into him.
Roaring with rage, Bosun Bud swung his club wildly at us, and as we kept him distracted by dodging his brutal attacks, El Toro snuck around to the back of Bosun Bud and stabbed behind his knee with his foil.
Bosun Bud fell onto his knees with a cry of pain, and as El Toro pressed the tip of his foil lightly into the bosun's flesh, Bud raised his arms and dropped his club. "Yield! I yield!"
Old Scratch stepped forward to search Bosun Bud, and he soon found the playing card, an eight of black skulls, which he handed to me. "Here be the bosun's card. Let's go find out where the next one be."
As a precautionary measure, we chopped Bosun Bud's club into unusable weapons for his meaty fists, and we returned to the saloon, where the dealer was waiting for us.
"Only two cards remain, strangers. To get the next, you need to find the only living soul in Miranda - besides you and your crew, that is." The dealer said, chuckling a bit.
"A gambler named Pickman wandered into Miranda a while back, drawn by the legend of Blood's cards. He found one - maybe he'll give it to you. Look for him in the old mill. He's close."
We left the saloon to head to the old windmill, its blades long since stopped functioning. As we stepped inside the dusty place, Bonnie's hunter eyes saw something move in the corner. "Pickman, is that you?"
"Stay away! No!" The mustached Chicken said as he waved his arms at us. He wore a red waistcoat over a red-and-white striped shirt, tan trousers, and a black derby hat with a monocle. "Oh wait - you're still breathing, like me! How the blazes did you get here?"
"We came here by ship to look for Captain Blood's cards." I answered, and Pickman shivered. "Captain Blood's cards? They're not worth it, friends! Have you seen the hideous things walking around in this place?"
"I managed to find one card, but then the dead... they trapped me here. There's no way I'll make it to the docks - I'm a goner for sure! Unless... You look a tough sort. If you can clear me a path to the docks, I'll give you the card. What do you say?"
I thought about it for a moment, and then asked, "Rena, how much time do we have left until the Aquila leaves?"
"We've still got a little less than half an hour." Rena answered, and I nodded. "Let's be about it then. Follow us."
We headed back to Miranda, where several skeletons had already assembled, and they jeered as they saw us.
"More citizens of Miranda? Give up now, landlubbers - I'll make it painless." A skeleton wearing a three-cornered hat and eyepatch jeered as he drew his cutlass.
"Ha ha! Where do you think you be going to, mates?" Another skeleton wearing a green spotted bandana and a black eyepatch asked as he drew his cutlass.
"Gah!? I thought I told you to leave before sunset! Okay, varmint, draw!" A skeleton wearing a cowboy hat cried as he drew his revolver and aimed it at Pickman.
Pickman screamed like a little girl as the first shot was fired. Rolling my eyes, I fired back at the skeletal cowboy, and he collapsed into a pile of bones. As Pickman hid behind a barrel, my trusted associates and I engaged the skeletons.
"Shall we start?" Rena called to me from behind the skeletal pirate I was facing, and I nodded in agreement. "Let's!"
Slicing our blade through the ribcage of the skeletal pirate at the same time, Rena and I cut his spine into three pieces, killing him.
Bonnie and Emmett had made a sniper's nest inside an empty house, and they fired their guns from the open windows, stunning several of the skeletal pirates.
Old Scratch waved his staff and encased a skeletal pirate's feet in ice, and a mojo blade then appeared in Jack's empty hand. Nodding, Jack spun around and sliced through the spine of the skeletal pirate twice, killing him.
Ratbeard put two hands on his raised cutlass and brought it down hard on the skeletal pirate's head in a brutal strike, and El Toro thrust forward with his foil into the same pirate's eye, killing him. One final pistol shot ended the last skeletal pirate's undead life, and with it, the battle.
"Our virtuous blades drive back the darkness! The way is open - Pickman can escape." El Toro said as he sheathed his foil, and we ran back to the docks and to Pickman's small rowboat.
"Thank you, Captain, you've saved my worthless soul! Here's the card - my advice to you is to get rid of it as soon as you can!" Pickman said gratefully as he handed me the card, an ace of black swords, and I put it inside my coat as he hopped inside his boat to row back home.
We turned back to Main Street to walk back to the saloon, where the dealer was waiting for us at the card table. "You're almost ready, strangers. Only one card left. Captain Blood's last card lies buried under the ashes of a farmhouse not far from here."
"The end of this game's been a long time coming. Good luck, strangers." The dealer said as he nodded, and we left for the farmhouse.
The farmhouse was on the outskirts of Miranda, and it was a charred husk of its former self, with only a few empty red and white paint cans as a clue to its original state. We found spades sticking out from the ashes of the farmhouse, and we began digging.
"Aha! Here, deep under the ashes, it's the card!" Bonnie said as she proudly brought out the card for us to see that it was a sooty ace of black skulls.
"Time to finish Cap'n Blood's game, and for Death to take him due." Old Scratch said, nodding.
"Wait, what's that?" Ratbeard said as he pointed to blue mist seeping out of cracks in the dusty ground, and they took the form of ghostly Chickens and Cranes armed with revolvers and rifles. (Poultrygeists?)
Pirates! You will rue the day you attacked our fair town! Get 'em! Get them all!" Their leader shouted as he aimed his ghostly rifle at us.
"These poor souls should be our friends, but the curse upon this place has blinded them! Deal with them as mercifully as you can." El Toro said sadly as he drew his foil.
Drawing our weapons, the two sides traded gunfire, and I heard Rena cry out in pain as she was hit. "Oh no, Rena!"
Stunning a poultrygeist back into mist with my pistol, I ran over to her and slung her arm over my shoulder to get her out of harm's way behind one of the farmhouse's broken walls.
Reloading my pistol, I fired it and the other three on my person in rapid succession, stunning four poultrygeists into sub-mist-ion, get it?
Bad puns aside, as I reloaded my pistols, their leader aimed at Bonnie with his rifle and she did the same, and a crack of gunfire later, the leader fell onto the ground and dissolved into mist.
Despite their numbers, they were no match for our superior skills, I'm proud to say, but they were persistent, fighting until the last Chicken and Crane fell onto the ground and dissolved into blue mist to finally rest in peace.
Sheathing our weapons, we returned to the card dealer in the Old Sipping Saloon, Captain Blood's cards in my hand.
"There's a card game waiting to be finished here. You've brought the missing cards back to the tables. Are the players here?" The dealer asked, and emerging from the shadow of his chair was Death himself.
"One is. The other will be here directly, I expect. Captain, place Blood's hand upon the table." Death said, and I nodded as I held my hand out to Old Scratch, who had the job of keeping Captain Blood's hand inside his ribcage.
With some difficulty, I forcibly wrapped the fingers of Captain Blood's hand around the five cards, hearing his knuckles crack as I did so, and laid it flat upon the table.
"Time for the showdown." Death said ominously as he gripped his scythe, and suddenly, Captain Blood, along with the rest of his crew, appeared in a flash of black smoke, and he said "Stop! What's this? What's this?"
"Too late, Captain. The cards are played, by your own hand. Two pair: aces and eights." The dealer said. "Death's flush wins. And you, Captain Blood - you lose."
"My hand?" Captain Blood said, snorting. "Cheaters! Thieves! I'm not lost yet - someone still has to kill me. Who's going to do it? This pirate here? This whelp? Ha!"
"This 'whelp' did not come alone." El Toro said as he stepped forward with the others, weapons drawn and at the ready.
"El Toro! Is that you? You look... different." Captain Blood said as he looked closely at El Toro with icy blue eyes.
"If I look bigger, it is only because your evil has shriveled you down to nothing! Today you meet your end! Have at you!" El Toro said as he lunged forward with his foil. As the fighting began, the ghosts of Miranda's townsfolk appeared on the sidelines, cheering us on.
Grabbing empty bottles from the bar, I hurled them at the skulls of two skeletal pirates coming towards me, knocking them out, and vaulting over the counter, I drew my sword to face Captain Blood, who was armed with his cutlass.
As he lunged forward, I sidestepped to avoid his attack and then kicked him into a table, breaking it into pieces. As he shakily stood up, he swiped at me with his hook, which I avoided with a hop backwards before firing my pistol into his face.
To his credit, Captain Blood managed to shake off the burst of electricity and lunge at me for another attack. Grabbing a nearby bottle off a table, I deflected his cutlass off to the side and smashed the bottle onto his head as I kneed him in the face.
Sending him reeling backwards, I lunged forward with my sword, but Captain Blood managed to catch my sword in his hook and send me stumbling into a table.
Groaning as I stood up, Captain Blood loomed over me as he raised his cutlass, and our blades met in a clash of steel. As I struggled against him, I kicked him in the stomach to send him doubling over in pain, and I slammed the hilt of my sword into his head.
Growling, Captain Blood swiped his sword across my stomach, and I cried in pain as blood began trickling from a long horizontal cut. He then punched me hard in the face, and somehow, I managed to stay conscious as I hit the floor.
A second later, Captain Blood was on top of me, and his fingers wrapped around my throat to strangle me to death. Coughing as red started to fill my vision, my hands fell feebly from trying to pry open Captain Blood's fingers, and my left fingers landed upon a knife.
Summoning the last bit of my strength, I grabbed the knife and stabbed Captain Blood through the neck, and I could feel his grip loosening on me as he fell dead to my side.
As I rubbed my neck, I could feel several small bruises from his fingers, and I shuddered at how I was so close to death. Gasping for air, I felt soft hands gently lift me up, and I saw Rena's face smiling down on me, tears dropping onto my face. "I'm glad you're alive, Matt."
I gave Rena a small smile as I weakly reached up to touch her cheek and wipe away her tears. "Yeah, me too."
"Thank goodness all of that's over! Why these egomaniacs continually think they can hoodwink me, I'll never understand." Death said as he came over to me. "Thank you, Captain. Well done! You've done me quite a favor. Off you go then. Don't worry, we'll meet again. Take your time."
Ratbeard cheered as he waved around a golden skeleton key in one hand, and a bottle of Yum in the other. "We did it! We got the key to Blood's treasure! Ha!"
"We've done far more than that." El Toro said as he sheathed his foil, and Death spoke up again. "Do try to tidy up a bit before you go. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's a mess. Also, there's someone who wants a word with you."
Death then disappeared in a flash of black smoke, and as it cleared, the ghost of Sabatini, Captain Blood's first mate, stood in Death's place, and he now walked over to me and Rena. "You did it - you set us free. Thank you, stranger."
"Captain Blood is finally no more. His curse is broken, and my spirit is free now to rest in peace. All of Miranda is free. Thank you." Sabatini said gratefully. "You've got the key. Go to the Motherlode Mine, and you'll find Blood's treasure."
"Captain Blood be gone, my Captain, but I an' I sense him evil still remain. On the way to the mine, we must break him ghost ship fleet." Old Scratch said as he walked over to me. I smiled as I closed my eyes. "There'll be time for that later. For now, I just want to rest..."