Finches

Chapter 5 - Goldtown

When Colt first awoke he was still stranded at sea. His back was laid across the wooden board that had kept him from drowning while unconscious. His chest wound hurt so badly that it was all he could think about, and made it so he couldn't move his body at all. The cutlass he had stolen was still in his hand. He had wanted to drop it at first, but he hadn't been able to move his fingers without adjusting his body so he just kept ahold of it. Then he got the idea that it might be useful as an oar to row with, if he ever recovered enough to row, which was rather unlikely.

So he just drifted along with the water, full of the pain that was causing a constant ringing in his ears. He tried to look up at the sun as a way to track how far and how fast he was moving. He found it hard to keep focus on it, however, and eventually he fell back into unconsciousness.

When Colt woke up for the second time, the sun was in an entirely different position. He had no way of knowing how much time had passed, but it must have been at least a day or two. He could tell that he was still outside, but he no longer had the sensation of floating.

That could mean one of two things. One: he had found land, and was safe. Two: he had died, and was currently resting in peace. Only it wasn't very peaceful at all. It was still very painful, in fact, signaling to him that perhaps it was the first option.

He was finally on land. However, as wonderful as it was, he wasn't in the clear yet. He was very far from it. He still couldn't move because of the pain, and he got the feeling it was only getting worse. Drowning was out of the picture, but there were still many ways he could die, especially from his current injuries and lack of treatment.

One thing was clear: he needed to move. He was probably laying on the shore somewhere, completely vulnerable. This wasn't ideal. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't bring himself to roll over, much less get up. He was barely able to fight the urge to go back into a long sleep.

So he laid immobile, staring up helplessly at the sky. He was there for at least an hour. Eventually his vision began to swim and he couldn't help losing consciousness once again. The last thing he saw before passing out entirely confused him greatly. The image of a man drifted into his line of sight. The man seemed short and had a face so red that it was the only color he could see. Or maybe Colt was just bleeding. He didn't know how, but for some reason he was sure it was an Authority officer.

Usually this would be the point where he tried to quickly strike the officer (to show him who's boss) before furiously running away for his life. He was in no shape to do this now, so all he could do was watch it play out.

The officer shouted something that was completely inaudible to Colt (probably "Pirate!") and then reached down to grab him. Before he could, however, the officer crumbled to the group beside Colt. Standing in the officer's place was the figure of another man, this one just staring curiously down at Colt.

Colt couldn't make any sense of any of this. He tried to say something, or perhaps ask a question, but at that point the pain had already overtaken him. Used to it at this point, he felt himself slip fully back into the world of unconsciousness.

---

By the third time Colt woke up, he was sick of this. He was going to get up and move, no matter what. He hadn't survived in the past by laying around and waiting for the time when he wouldn't wake up anymore. So he wasn't going to start doing that now. He had a sword wound, that was all. Nothing that couldn't be overcome with some bandages and willpower.

But when Colt opened his eyes he noticed that his wound had already been bandaged. He also noticed that the sun wasn't out anymore. He wasn't even outside. Instead he found himself laying on his back on top of a cot inside what looked to be some sort of shack.