Choosing Love

Chapter Thirty

Ryan tightened his belt as he left the crew's quarters and started to make his way down the gangplank. The food barge had just arrived, meaning they were likely to have a doozy of a time cleaning up the trampled bodies that were a usual side effect.

Lately, though, the crowds have been bigger and bigger. Ever since that old bat had come to the Isle. It was as if the residents were expecting a change in the food quality.

Ryan wasn't exactly sure why they were expecting that. Twenty plus years hadn't changed anything about the food they ate, why would a new resident? But then again, there hadn't been a new resident in over twenty years with the exception of the babies born on the Isle.

Though Mal had been working hard to try get some decent food sent over to the Isle. Mal and Uma both in fact, from what they told the crew the last time they were over on the Isle.

"Hey, fair warning, it looks like it's a bad one," Nick warned him as they made their way to the barge. "Gods, how many people showed up this time?"

"It looks like a third of the Isle," Ryan sighed, though he knew realistically it probably was a lot less than that. "The hyenas are going to eat well tonight, that's for sure."

"Hell, the lions and Shere Khan, his girlfriend and son might eat well tonight as well," Jake nodded. "I don't think there are enough hyenas to eat all of these people before they start decaying."

"And on that morbid note, let's get started," Henry told them. "I'll talk to the barge attendants, see if there was any trouble. Well, besides the usual mess. You lot start clearing the bodies. Remember—."

"Our people and anyone twelve and under get a pirate burial. Everyone else is fair game for the hyenas," Derek nodded.

"I think I've given that order too many times," Henry shook his head, his red hair flopping into his blue eyes.

"It's the life of the Isle," Nick shrugged and the three boys split off to look over the bodies of the people who had simply wanted a chance to secure a month of decent food; Jake and Dustin going off in another direction in order to save time. Never before had it sunk in just how lucky Ryan was as when he had to clean up the barge after a delivery.

He was a Rat. He had the ability to access Lord Hades restaurant or Ursula's if for some reason he was bored with the Greek food. The other gangs didn't have that, and the Gods forbid you were a gang less guy or girl on the Isle...

Ryan paused as he came across a familiar teal blue coat, one that had been formerly Uma's before she outgrew it and added it to the storage pile in case they got any new girls to their crew. No...she'd been so certain she'd be fine. That she'd be able to weave in and out of the mob, that she wouldn't have been touched.

"Kristy?" Ryan whispered as he ran over to her, kneeling down by her body. "Kristy, come on. Stop playing around! You've got to wake up!"

He knew Nick, Derek, Jake and Henry were probably looking at him. He knew the hyenas were probably waiting for them to clear out so they could eat. But Ryan didn't care. All he knew was he held his little sister in his arms, her tiny body broken beyond almost all recognition. And she wasn't waking up.

"Come on! Kristy, come on! Please! Wake up!" Ryan urged, shaking Kristy a little in his quest to get his little sister to open her eyes. To give him a playful little smirk at the realization that he'd been worried about her. Yeah he'd be mad at her for a second for playing a prank like that but it wouldn't matter because she'd be alive.

Minutes passed and her eyes didn't move. Her lungs didn't fill with air and Ryan's ears didn't hear the melodious sound of her laugh. The sound that came from Ryan's lips as he realized his sister wasn't waking up couldn't exactly be described as human.