In his haste to escape the two armed men he had gotten a bit lost. He knew that he couldn’t just leave these two out in the open. There was no telling how many crewmembers were still alive and walking around. He hoped once again that the sound he had heard earlier, if it was gunfire, he hoped his pack was ok.
He found a room that looked like a bunk room, or at least what was once a bunk room. It was mostly empty with a few tables and a few benches around them. Maybe this was a rec room of sorts? William didn’t know and he didn’t particularly care. This place only had the one door so it was as good a place as any to stash his two assailants.
Using another dose of natural adrenaline he hauled the two crew members, one by one and dumped them unceremoniously behind one of the tables as much out of sight as he could. He then closed the door to the room and shoved the portal latch locked. With those two taken care of he felt a little better and he was able to find out exactly where he was in the ship.
He had to get to the bridge, if there was any place to start taking over this ship it would be there. He hoped that if any of his pack mates had survived, they would also try to make their way there.
He felt a sudden wave of fatigue. The adrenaline surges that he had been flooding his body with were starting to catch up with him. But he couldn’t rest now, he had to keep going and he had to be alert. He pushed more chemicals into his body. When this was over and his pack was safe then he could sleep, right now he needed to move and be alert.
He passed quickly through the passageways and through ways. He strained his ears to hear any footsteps either in front of him or behind. He moved up a stairwell and slowly peeked over the deck plates. The coast was clear and he slid up and around the metal hatch smoothly trying to look in all directions at once.
He finally came across a map. He wasn’t too far away from the bridge, just two decks below. There was a stair well that would take him straight to it. Smiling, he moved silently up the nearby stairwell.
He heard footsteps clanging on the deck plates close behind him. He ran up the remainder of the stairwell and moved back around behind the hatchway at the top of the stairwell. He retreated into the shadows behind the stairwell hatch as the footsteps grew louder. A few short moments later the footsteps thundered up the stairwell and William ducked down deeper into the shadows.
He saw the top of one of the crewmember’s head, followed by three more. They had no caution and ran full tilt down the passageway. William had a feeling they were heading to the same place he was. And by their attitude and speed, things were not going their way.
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William stepped into the passage way with rifle raised, “HOLD IT!”
The four men stuttered to a stop and turned around. The last in line raised his weapon quickly but before he could shoot, William let a burst of gunfire issue from his own weapon. The accuracy of the rifle was horrible. He did manage to hit the crewman he was aiming at, but it only grazed him, most of the bullets bounced off the walls and deck plates.
The man cursed in his native language and raised his rifle again. William gripped the rifle hard against his shoulder and let a longer burst ring out down the hall way. The weapon didn’t allow for accuracy, so instead of finesse William choose to go with volume.
When it was all over, the four crewmembers were dead. William wished it hadn’t taken so many bullets, or that the crewmembers had just surrendered. But there was nothing to be done now. He stepped over the bodies collecting their weapons as he went. He then moved on to the bridge.
He found two dead crewmembers in the passageway in front of the hatch to the bridge. He opened the hatch, not sure of what he would find. He shoved his weapon in front of him as the hatch opened and he moved inside, looking at once for cover and any possible enemies in the room. What he saw was a very shocked Charles with a rifle raised at him from the center of the bridge.
Heaving a huge sigh of relief William slung his weapon and walked over to his friend as they hugged each other with a single arm.
“I wasn’t sure there was any one of us left that hadn’t been drugged,” Charles began.
“Drugged? They gassed the room after you left.”
“Gas? Then how?” Charles looked a bit confused.
William smiled answering, “Hey, you have your tricks, I have mine, biofeedback remember?” he tapped his temple and heart. “I just flooded my body with adrenaline and testosterone. It still took a bit of an effort on my part. They were not taking any chances.”
“What happened after?”
“Three or four guys came in and took Amanda and Ansuya. They left me and Aceso and locked the door.”
Charles nodded, “That is not unexpected.”
“Where is Catherine and Nic? They were with you, right?”
Charles shook his head, “I’m sorry. I didn’t recognize the drug they put in our food until it was too late, both of them succumbed and fell asleep. It was a close thing that I got away at all.”
“We have to find them,” William began.
“I think my guest may be able to help with that,” Charles answered with a smile. “Thankfully for both of us I have a way with people.”
William smirked, “Are we showing off now?”
“William please, this is hardly the time for boasting or something so trivial as ‘showing off’,” Charles hooked his thumb back towards the small broom closet at the back end of the bridge. “If you’d like, you can bring my guest out of his waiting room.”
William went to the indicated closet and with a small effort he was able to push the broom out of the way and opened the small closet. As soon as he unlatched the door an older man tumbled to the ground in a heap. William didn’t know who this guy was, but it wasn’t someone he recognized. He guessed he may be the captain. Without letting the man compose himself, William hauled him up by the scruff of his shirt collar and held him with an arm pinned behind his back as he slowly walked him to the center of the bridge.
