by Jamie Hawke
He slowed at the turn before the first X, looking at the map and wondering how he was going to fix this, what he’d actually do when the moment came. Because honestly, he didn’t have a clue.
15
A flock of birds took to the sky as Frank climbed the hill near the X on his map. It wasn’t a large hill, but the sides were steep and covered in jungle greenery. He appreciated the pirate clothes he’d gotten from the ship because the boots—while not as great on arch support—provided extra protection for his legs.
He was checking his compass, moving the map around to figure out what he was looking for, but as best he could tell it was simply some spot on this hill. Not much more to go off of.
“You’d leave us to fight the war by ourselves?” Milly said, finally breaking the silence. She ducked under a branch behind him, pausing to watch a slug as it moved along a branch.
“I’m not saying that,” Frank replied, checking the map yet again, growing frustrated that it wasn’t clearer.
“It seems like that’s what you’re saying.”
“The point is that he’s the key, or has the key.” Frank scanned the hilltop, looking to where it curved up to more hill to the left, but moved into a small valley ahead. “If we’re at the point where I’ve reached him, don’t you think that will have meant we’d made progress on the war?”
“But you’d leave us,” Esmerelda chimed in, having now reached the top.
“I don’t know!” he blurted out. “Can we focus on finding this?”
“We can do both.”
“It doesn’t have to be leaving us or not,” Keisha argued.
“What?” Mary glanced over, confused.
“Maybe we’d want to go with. I for one am curious about the future.”
“You…” Frank was trying to process this, head hurting as he also kept scanning the area, looking for anywhere a cache of weapon supplies might be. “Hold on. You’d want to come with?”
“I’m not sure, but maybe.”
“Why not?” Esmerelda said, sarcastically. “I mean, aside from our family and commitments here.”
“Let me get this straight,” Frank said. “You wonder why it would be weird to bring three—” he glanced over to Mary “—four? Four women, pirates at that, to my time?”
“Maybe,” Milly said, an uncertain glance shared between her and Mary.
“Regardless, you can’t begin to understand how risky that would be. The whole time-continue-thingy, whatever it’s called. You could totally mess up the future by leaving this time.”
“And?” Esmerelda asked. “Is your future so perfect that it couldn’t risk some change?”
“Well, no, but—”
“And by your admission, the Pirate King and your grandpa might have already messed it up pretty bad,” Keisha pointed out.
“Yes, but—”
“So it’s settled.” Keisha moved to a clump of trees, ducking under one and looking at the other side, searching. “If we want to come with you, we will. We’ll decide when the time comes.”
“Just a minute…” He really had no argument though, other than what had already been posited. In fact, bringing four awesome women who wanted to fuck the hell out of him wasn’t the worst scenario, as long as they behaved themselves regarding the whole pirate thing. And he had no idea where they’d be intimately by then, but he was already beginning to feel pretty damn connected.
“You have nothing,” Esmerelda said, and laughed. “At any rate, baby steps.”
“Baby steps,” he repeated. “Honestly, I’d fucking love to have you all there, if you’d really be okay giving up your lives here. I mean, I don’t get the logistics, like finding jobs without modern identification and—”
“Frank,” Keisha interrupted. “Baby steps.”
“Right.” He grinned, then pulled out the map again, kneeling to have a better look. “I’m not understanding why it’s not here.”
“I have one idea,” Mary said.
“No,” he said, seeing the look in her eyes. “I had the thought too, but… no.”
“It’s possible this is one of the spots your grandpa already hit. You can’t deny it.”
“Anything’s possible. I’m learning the truth of that.” He looked around at these four beautiful women, women so hot he never would have stood a chance with them back home. The fact that it was happening at all still very much confused him, but he loved it.
Keisha saw him looking and walked over, looking around for anything out of the ordinary. They knelt, moving shrubbery aside and checking the earth for patterns, and finally, he stopped, realizing she was kneeling there, staring at him.
“Got a leech on my cheek or something?” he asked.
She allowed a half smile but shook her head. “Thinking, is all. You’ve really done it, huh? Managed to get in with us, this whole crowd.”
“It wasn’t part of a grand plan or anything.”
“I’m not saying that.” She looked away, searching again, then added, “Teddy’s been like a brother, you know. And he likes you, I can see it.”
“I’m… glad.” Without Teddy’s approval, Frank knew full well where he’d be at the moment, and it wouldn’t involve being able to breathe.
“Seriously, he’s fond of you. Not in a weird way, but in a way that makes me think even more highly of you. It’s weird, isn’t it? How much we change in life.”
A glance around showed the others were still searching, and Frank wondered where this was going, but figured it couldn’t hurt. Maybe they’d spot something while chatting.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Teddy wasn’t always so… kind. Accepting. Some say he was going down a dark path until the Pirate King came along. It’s like, if you don’t have something worse than yourself, you don’t have a reference point.”
“It’s scary,” Frank admitted. “But… we’re all kind of pirates, right? Dark is relative.”
She arched an eyebrow, smile fading. “What skeletons are you hiding, Frank?”
“None, or none like that, I can promise you. I’m just saying, pirates are pirates.”
“Wrong, and maybe pirates isn’t the best word for us.” She looked defensive, so he held up his hands in surrender. At that, she chuckled, and said, “I know you don’t mean anything by it. But I’m serious—with everything attached to that word, best be careful when throwing it around. Maybe you get turned on at the idea of fucking a pirate, or maybe—”
“Hey,” he interrupted, frowning. “That’s not all it is for me. I hope you know.”
Her eyes moved across his, back and forth, and she nodded. “Point is, the things the Pirate King and his men have done to this world… they’re horrible. Worse ever than Edward would’ve done.”
“Edward?”
“Teddy, yeah. Maybe it’s not my place to talk about who he was before, but… with the way things are going, I’m sure he’ll give you the full story. I’m glad to see him on the right side, now. The man has charisma, can build a following. I see those same traits in you.”
Frank blushed.
She realized it was awkward, so glanced around and said, “Along with the fact that you’re determined. I like that. Come on, there’s got to be some clues somewhere, I’m not giving up so easily. Maybe on the compass, something we overlooked?”
He assessed the compass, looking at all the symbols and the two dials, turning it over and shaking his head in confusion. “Could be, but this thing’s confusing as hell.”
She leaned over his shoulder, looking at it. “Where’s it show your level?”
He indicated the spot. “Wait, no, here’s where it shows my weapons level—where the map and blueprints are affected.”
Instead of a Roman numeral like the other levels, this one showed a symbol that resembled a line with three dots above. Why hadn’t he thought of that? He’d assumed it was simply a counting method, but it was the most he had to go off of.
“We’re looking for a symbol
,” he said, showing her and then holding it up to the others. “This symbol.”
Turning to take in his surroundings with this in mind, he saw it almost instantly. The rock on the nearby hill had lines on the bottom of each, two on the rock to the right, one on the rock to the left. He glanced around, then had another thought. Maybe it was a message of sorts? He tapped the line three times, but nothing happened. He scrunched his face, and Esmerelda saw what he was up to.
“Found it?”
“Yeah, but now what?” He thought about it again, then said his thought out loud, “Maybe there are three lines, the center marking the spot?”
“It’s worth a try,” she said, standing and telling the others to spread out and look in a general triangle pattern. Soon they found them, and then the spot in the middle of them.
But the center, to his dismay, was nothing but rock.
“How are we supposed to crack through that?” Milly asked.
“We might not have to,” Frank said, racking his brain. “My grandpa had this favorite temple in Japan he visited, this place where if you walk from one stone to the next with your eyes closed, you’ll find true love or something like that. I mean, I have no idea how whoever made this would know of that, right, but… maybe?”
The ladies looked at him doubtfully, but watched as he started around, walking from one rock to the next. When he stepped on the first one, it clicked, moving down slightly. His eyes went wide and he went to the next, but the rock went up.
Holy shit—he’d played enough Zelda to get how this could work.
“I was wrong,” he said as he took his place back on the rock. “We need one person on each of the other rocks. Standing, just like this.”
Milly took one, and Esmerelda the other. Sure enough, all the rocks descended, followed by a low rumbling.
“Are you serious?” Mary said, eyes going wide.
“The love rock thing at the temple was a cute story though,” Keisha said with a grin, then pointed to the hill behind Frank. He turned, overwhelmed at the sight of a part of the hill that had given way. Milly started to get off, but he shouted for her to stop.
“Keisha and Mary,” he said. “Check in there, please? If we move, it might close.”
“Whoever set this up really wanted the finder to have a team,” Keisha noted as she and Mary went to the hole and knelt down, a moment later pulling out a large chest.
As they dragged it over, Frank looked at his compass, remembering the section that had looked like stick people. It now showed the middle one with two on each side. Like him and the four women! He didn’t know what it meant, except that she was right.
But why? The number of questions starting to pile up in his head was painful, but he had to keep them there and wait to find his answers. Someday.
“Frank, you’re up,” Mary said, and they turned the chest to show a slot the same size and shape as the compass.
He jumped off the rock, a clang sounding as the opening in the hill slammed shut. Moving over to the chest he knelt and put the compass in. It glowed as if scanning, and a moment later, the chest clicked open.
“Hot dog,” he shouted, earning him confused glances. “It’s… Oh never mind, just—this is amazing.”
Inside were parts that clearly resembled those of weapons he’d seen back in his own time, parts that he recognized from his blueprints. Grinning, he pulled up the map, indicating two more Xs they’d need to visit before going back if they wanted to make complete weapons and ammunition, and said, “Let’s get to work.”
They grinned, their plan working, all thanks to Frank. He wouldn’t have been surprised if they tried to jump his bones again right there, but honestly, he was damn exhausted and worn out, so said, “Well, load ‘em up and let’s hurry. I’d like to be back by dark,” and went to work. He felt a mixture of relief and being slightly let down, as they seemed too exhausted as well.
He didn’t fail to notice the turned-on glance from Esmerelda, though, or the way she whispered to Milly, “Taking control. Does that turn you on as much as it does me?” Their postures were losing their stiffness, their eyes getting that far-off look in them.
Frank focused on the job at hand, and mentally prepared himself for the inevitable moment when they’d take him again. He was so into what was going on with these ladies, but was going to need some sort of pirate stamina booster if he was going to survive this.
At that thought, he felt a strange twinge of energy in his leg, and suddenly felt like he had all the energy in the world. Curious, he pulled out his compass and opened it, then grinned.
Sure enough, the symbol next to stamina was glowing, as if it had just replenished him. That one was getting some upgrades for sure!
Finally, they finished up and set off on their way back.
16
The next two loot crates were uncovered much more easily, though marching across the island to their locations took time and energy. Even though Frank had his stamina replenished, it apparently could only work every so often and the women didn’t have such a gift, so were too damn tired to even try to hit on him again.
Soon the group was on their way back to the fortress as the sun cast orange lines interspersed with long shadows through the jungle. At the hideaway, Teddy gave him a back room to work in, and Frank set to with the ladies, showing them the blueprints and all of them following along. Some weapons worked fine as they were, others required older weapons and worked more as amplifiers or attachments.
He even got himself the scope he wanted so badly. Sure, it attached to a musket, but it was something, and since he’d modified the barrel and loading mechanism, it was getting closer to what he’d been hoping for. More levels might be the answer, so he made sure to focus on grinding in the next battle—taking out as many of the enemy as he could to try and level up.
“This stuff works?” Mary said, holding up a pistol that resembled something from the early twentieth century, but was still far ahead of what they were used to here and now.
“Compared to the compass, it’s fairly simple,” Frank said. “I’d say we can assume the answer’s yes, but…”
“We don’t have to assume anything,” she replied, grinning.
“Exactly.”
Frank took a pistol for himself, then a rifle. “Where’s that firing range again?”
The ladies grabbed weapons too, and when Ox saw them walking out, he grinned like a crazy kid and ran in to load up as well, telling two other pirates to stand guard and that he’d have their heads if anyone else went in there while they were out.
“What th’ fuck is all this stuff?” Ox asked when he’d caught up. He had a rifle in each hand, looking very much like Arnold back in the days—although, now that was in the future, a fact that made Frank laugh. If he started saying, “I’ll be back,” maybe he could get in the history books as a pirate who popularized the saying.
That thought in itself scared him. If he stayed here and was really part of all this, he could go down in history books as a pirate. Or be killed off before that was possible… and neither sounded optimal. Hence the need to get home, but only after ensuring this side was the winners.
“Victory, Ox,” Frank finally answered the large pirate. “Smells great, doesn’t it?”
Ox looked confused, smelled one of the rifles, and shook his head. “It lacks that beautiful gunpowder scent. I don’t think they’ll work.”
“You saw Teddy’s rifle work.”
“Did I?” Ox shrugged. “I still wonder if that was part o’ yer magic.”
Keisha chuckled at the reference to Frank being magic, and the others grinned. Apparently, this was some sort of inside joke now.
They reached the firing range and Esmerelda was the first to step up, holding two pistols. She aimed and pulled the trigger and—nothing.
“Ah, that one actually has a safety,” Frank said, stepping forward to help.
She was already moving on to the other, which didn’t have a safety and went off with
a crack that echoed through the hills. With her tongue running along her teeth, she aimed and fired again, letting out a whoop as this time the shot hit its mark.
“This one’s broken,” she said, tossing him the first pistol.
“First, it’s not.” Frank took off the safety, showing them how, and then fired. He missed, but only because he hadn’t bothered following his aim skill. “Second, you still have more shots in that one. Remember, we’re not just dealing with one or two anymore.”
She marveled at the pistol in her hand, then walked up and retrieved the other one, then held them out and let loose with both at the same time.
By the time she was done, she was laughing like a maniac.
“My turn,” Ox said, stepping up and trying the same with the rifles.
“Remember, we only have as much ammunition as was in the crates for now,” Frank pointed out. “Don’t go all Tank Girl on it like Esmerelda here.”
No laughs, but he didn’t care. He liked his references regardless of whether they understood them—if there really was a chance he’d be able to bring them back to his time, he made a promise to himself to quickly get them cultured. He didn’t mean wine and cheese, but marathons of Back to the Future and Lord of the Rings, pizza and beer while watching the Princess Bride, and maybe some of the good old-school video games like the classic Zelda games and some three-player Secret of Mana.
He laughed at the idea of Esmerelda and Keisha trying to figure out how to play video games and then lost it as the island filled with the noise of Ox letting loose with the rifles. The other ladies stepped up too, and watching them, firing and laughing and grinning, he wondered if they ever really could fit into his time.
Maybe they’d be able to start an international bounty hunter group or something if those actually existed. A vigilante group like Charlie’s Angels, but with time-traveling pirates? That idea made him laugh, but when he turned to see Teddy leaning against a tree, frowning, the smile faded.
“Save the ammo,” Teddy called out, and silence followed. He walked up and everyone was tense, wondering if he was going to chide them for being careless. Instead, he picked up a pistol, looking it over, and then nodded to Frank. “You did well. We might have a chance at winning this yet.”