Finches

Chapter 35 - Grand Escape

Colt walked past Jagger, heading toward the outpost. Or, what was left of the outpost. It was no longer the tall building it used to be, but despite the height loss it was now even easier to locate. All one had to do to get over there was follow the trail of smoke climbing toward the sky.

So that's what they did. Jagger followed behind as Colt made his way toward the outpost as quickly as possible. As they got closer, Colt made sure to steer clear away from the battlefield and the actual outpost itself. They went around the left-hand side of the outpost, away from the shore where the Bloody Manta had attacked, in order to not be seen by any of the currently-preoccupied authoritarian officers.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Jagger muttered.

Colt glanced back at him. "You know that I'm not, so stop asking me that."

They rounded the corner and came out right where Colt had wanted them to. He stared ahead, smiling, at the shipyard before them. Extending from the shore were several lines of wooden docks. Alongside each dock, floating stationary in the water, were the Authority's ships. There were nearly a dozen of them along the docks. Some of them varied slightly in size, but all of them bore the Infinite Authority's blue infinity symbol on the side.

Colt was used to mass panic breaking out when one of these ships were sighted, and he never thought he'd be here picking one out for himself. He always had imagined setting sail on his own for the first time in a large, intimidating pirate vessel. And perhaps one day he would have one like that. For now, though, he was going to have to settle for one of these.

Colt walked up perpendicular to the docks and paced back and forth. He analyzed each of the boats, trying to determine which one was the best fit for him and Jagger. Jagger was following along beside him, but seemed more focused on his reactions to the boats than the boats themselves.

Finally, Colt stopped in front of one of the ships. He tilted his head, which didn't really give him the better angle he'd hoped for. Then he made his decision, pointed at the ship, and said, "That's the one."

Jagger looked at the ship Colt was pointed toward, expressionless. The ship Colt had chosen was the smallest of the lot. In fact, it really couldn't be described as much of a ship at all. It was a small boat, not much bigger than the scouting ship on the side of the Bloody Manta. It was white with blue highlights, like the rest of the ships; it just lacked a majority of their surface area. It had a singular, very small sail and wooden oars in lieu of a wheel.

"That one? You can't be serious."

Jagger stepped up on the dock and walked over beside the boat Colt had picked out. He examined it for a moment, then looked back over.

"We won't make it very far at all in this thing," he said.

"Sure we will," Colt replied, joining Jagger on the dock. "It's small and easy to navigate, and it won't cause a lot of attention. For an authoritarian vessel, that is. It might even be faster than one of those big ones, if we sail it right."

"And I suppose you know how to sail it right?"

Colt waved him off. "We'll figure it out. How hard can it possibly be?"

"Very?" Jagger suggested.

"Well then it's a good thing we're not taking a bigger, more complicated ship then, isn't it?"

Colt hopped from the dock into the boat. It wobbled violently upon impact and Colt grabbed the side of the boat to steady himself. When the shaking subsided, he glanced up at Jagger. "You coming or what?"

Jagger lowered himself down from the dock and into the boat, joining Colt, which must have meant he was all out of arguments. He looked at Colt expectantly.