Finches

Chapter 24 - An Evil Pirate

Colt did not enjoy his ride back to the outpost. He was loaded into one of many crowded ships in a small fleet that was headed to the other side of the island. Nearly everyone from the base was being sent to the outpost, since that was the direction the Bloody Manta was headed in. The Authority was ready to put up quite the fight for Goldtown, but Colt knew that Captain Rave's crew would be doing the same. He wondered who would come out on top. It didn't really affect him in the slightest, so he was genuinely interested to see if the Authority would be able to defend against the upcoming raid.

The return trip from the Authority base was not nearly as long as the journey to get there had been. The collection of ships navigated around the island to get to its other side. It moved fast and didn't have to worry about many obstacles, so it took hours to get to the outpost rather than days.

Despite the shortness of the trip, Colt was very uncomfortable during the ride. He was handcuffed and sitting in the middle of three armed officers, all of whom were giving him the death stare. He didn't really appreciate this, and thought it was a bit overkill. He wouldn't have tried anything anyway. Or so he thought. He might've considered diving into the sea if he'd had the chance, but a pair of handcuffs alone was enough to dissuade him from that idea.

Upon arriving at the outpost Colt's request for a front-row view of the action was denied. Instead he was taken down to the outpost's basement and placed in—you guessed it—a holding cell.

The cells at the outpost looked pretty similar to the ones at the base. The only difference was that instead of a long hallway of cells, there were only about three that Colt could see here in the outpost. He himself was in one, and the other two he could see were empty. Perhaps this was a temporary prison until the prisoners could be transported up to the base.

Colt looked around his new cell disappointedly. He'd thought that returning to the outpost would be pretty interesting. He thought that he'd at least get to witness some fighting. If only the outpost hadn't had any available holding cells. But it didn't really matter. He guessed he'd just have to sit back and wait for the fighting to be over.

"Hello?"

Colt called out into the dark basement of cells. There was no response. No one even came down to tell him to shut up.

So the service here was a step down from the cells at the Authority base. Colt hadn't thought that possible until now. But at least there was someone on standby to bring him food or shout at him. This place didn't even have that.

So he just sat down on a small, rough-looking bed that the cell contained and waited. He even fell asleep at one point, since the cell was so quiet and empty, but was woken by the deep sound of rumbling echoing across the walls.

He sat himself up and tried to figure out what exactly the sound was. Had the Bloody Manta arrived yet? Or was the noise just the sound of the Authority setting up camp and preparing for what was to come?

Either way, he knew that something big was about to happen. The town could be getting swamped with pirates right about now, for all Colt knew. Or alternatively, perhaps Captain Rave was discovering that he finally bit off more than he could chew. Maybe Colt was simply hearing the sounds of a standstill, with neither side able to gain any ground.

Man, he wished he were anywhere but rotting in a cell. In hindsight he should have left the island as soon as he'd left the fisherman's shack. He shouldn't have bothered doing chores for the man or trying to get information from the Authority. He should've just bolted and gotten away from the island as soon as possible. What in the world had made him linger so long on an Authority-occupied island? Dumbest decision he'd ever made, which was saying a lot, since he'd made a good number of dumb decisions.