Chapter 109-A ship worth more

Chapter 109: 109-A ship worth more

Sarah stormed down the narrow corridor, tears of anger burning behind her eyes. She had barely taken a dozen steps when Dylan’s voice came from behind her.

"Sarah, wait!"

She stopped but didn’t turn around. "What now?" she asked coldly.

Dylan approached, his expression troubled. For a moment, he seemed ready to apologize but the words never came. Instead, he glanced toward the windows, where the merciless sunlight beat down on the ocean.

"We can’t afford to keep fighting like this. We have bigger problems."

Sarah let out a bitter laugh. "Of course. You only remember that we’re supposed to be a couple when you need something from me."

"Can you stop making everything about yourself?"

She turned sharply. "And can you stop pretending you’re a good man?"

Dylan’s face darkened, but before he could respond, a violent impact shook their vessel.

BOOM!

The entire corridor lurched sideways. "Aaargh!" Sarah screamed as she crashed against the wall.

Dylan stumbled, grabbing a railing to keep himself upright. Somewhere below them, metal groaned and the sound was followed by the unmistakable sound of water rushing into the ship.

"What happened?" Sarah shouted.

The hull had suffered damages as something had crashed into them.

Dylan’s face drained of color. He rushed toward the nearest window, and what he saw made his blood run cold.

Something enormous was circling their ship. Its dark, scaly back occasionally broke through the surface, revealing jagged spines that glistened beneath the blazing sunlight.

A long, muscular tail swept through the water, sending waves crashing against their weakened vessel and then the creature raised its head.

Sarah stumbled backward. It looked like a monstrous cross between a shark and a reptile, with a gaping mouth lined with uneven rows of teeth. Its eyes glowed a sickly yellow, and thick strands of dark seaweed clung to its armored body.

"What the hell is that?" she whispered.

Dylan couldn’t answer her as he too had never seen anything like it before. He had encountered mutated fish before, but this creature was on an entirely different level. Its body was almost as long as their vessel, and the force of its movements sent their ship rocking violently.

Just then, another impact struck the hull. A section of the lower deck buckled.

CRAAACK!

"Get away from the windows!" Dylan shouted.

They barely managed to scramble toward the central corridor before the creature rammed the ship again and this time, the lights went out.

Sarah screamed in the darkness. Water began pouring through a damaged section of the lower deck, and the sound of the vessel’s failing machinery filled the air.

Dylan fumbled for his flashlight, his hands shaking so badly that he nearly dropped it.

"Start the emergency generator!" he shouted.

"I don’t know how!" Sarah shouted, her body in full panic mode.

"You helped install the damn thing!"

"That doesn’t mean I know how to repair it!"

Their argument was interrupted by another deafening crash. The creature had returned.

Dylan grabbed Sarah’s wrist and dragged her toward the upper deck. They stumbled through the corridor, slipping on the water spreading across the floor.

When they finally emerged outside, the heat struck them like an invisible wall. The sun blazed overhead, and the ocean shimmered with suffocating heat but neither of them had time to worry about the weather.

The monster was approaching again. Its head emerged from the water only a short distance away. It opened its jaws, revealing teeth large enough to tear through their vessel’s remaining hull plating.

Sarah clung to Dylan’s arm. "We’re going to die!"

"Shut up!" Dylan couldn’t handle her cries at such a time when they were at death’s doors.

"What do you mean, shut up? Look at that thing!"

Dylan’s mind raced. Their weapons were insufficient, their vessel was damaged, and their emergency communications were malfunctioning. Even if they managed to escape the creature, they had no guarantee that their ship would remain afloat. He felt genuinely helpless.

Sarah had thought that knowing the future would give her an advantage. She had believed that avoiding his previous mistakes would be enough to secure his survival yet here she was, facing death on a battered ship with almost nothing left.

Is this really how I’m going to die?

The creature lunged. Sarah screamed and covered her head but before they went down, a deafening burst of gunfire shattered the air.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The monster twisted violently as explosive rounds struck the water around its head. A second volley followed, forcing it to retreat beneath the waves.

Both Dylan and Sarah stared in disbelief. A large pirate vessel emerged through the haze, its deck crowded with armed men. Several mounted weapons were trained on the water while another group prepared additional ammunition.

The pirate ship maneuvered between the creature and their damaged vessel, firing another barrage until the monster finally disappeared into the depths.

For several seconds, Dylan could only stare. They had been saved. The creature wasn’t dead but it was gone. He sighed in relief.

A rope ladder dropped over the pirate ship’s side. "Climb up!" a man shouted. "Unless you want to stay behind for that thing to finish eating you!"

Dylan didn’t hesitate. He climbed first, followed by Sarah. When they reached the deck, armed pirates immediately surrounded them and forced them to their knees.

A broad-shouldered man with a scar running across his cheek approached. His dark eyes traveled over their soaked clothing before settling on their faces.

"I’m Captain Rourke," he announced. "You two are lucky we happened to pass by."

Dylan bowed his head slightly. "Thank you for saving us, Captain. We’re grateful for your help."

Rourke chuckled with sheer amusement. "Grateful? That’s a nice word. Unfortunately, gratitude doesn’t keep my crew fed," he gestured toward their damaged vessel. "Search their ship. Take whatever supplies remain."

The pirates obeyed immediately. They returned with several boxes of canned food, bottled water, tools, and the few valuables Dylan and Sarah had managed to preserve. Another pirate confiscated their remaining weapons and communication devices.

Sarah’s face paled."Please, those are all we have left!"

Rourke looked at her as though she had told him a joke. "Then you should have found a better ship and been better at safeguarding against the apocalypse."

He motioned for his men to bring the confiscated goods forward.

"Food, medicine, fuel, weapons, jewelry. Whatever you have of value, hand it over. And if you have useful skills, you’d better tell me about them."

Dylan’s stomach tightened. He had hoped the pirates might allow them to remain aboard in exchange for labor. But Rourke’s expression offered little reassurance.

"And if we have nothing else?" Dylan asked carefully.

The captain’s smile vanished. "Then you become dead weight," he pointed toward the ocean. "And I don’t carry dead weight. If neither of you can offer something useful, I’ll throw you back into the sea."

Sarah went cold. She looked around the deck, taking in the armed men, the intimidating weapons, and the dark ocean stretching beyond the railing. There was nowhere to run.

Dylan lowered his eyes, desperately searching for a way out and then Sarah remembered something. She thought of Aymara.

The name surfaced in her mind with such clarity that she almost laughed.

Aymara had everything they lacked: food, medicine, a powerful ship, and advanced technology. She had seen enough of Aymara’s preparations to know that her resources were far beyond those of ordinary survivors.

More importantly, she knew something that could make the pirate captain very interested.

Aymara’s ship possessed a communication system that worked independently of ordinary mobile networks and phone towers. Even when normal signals failed, she could still receive and send messages through her system.

If the pirates could seize that ship, they would gain far more than a collection of supplies. They would gain a floating fortress.

Sarah’s eyes shifted toward Dylan. Only some time back, he had practically admitted that he wanted Aymara back because of what she could provide. He had been prepared to discard Sarah if it meant recovering his comfortable life.

Why should Sarah continue protecting him?

If she wanted to survive, she needed to offer the pirates something more valuable than the few belongings they had already taken and she knew exactly what that something was.

"Captain," she said suddenly.

Rourke turned toward her with evident irritation. "What?"

"I know where you can find a ship worth more than anything you’ve taken from us."