Redemption

Exploration

"Pete-er Pipe-er Piked Ah Pat-ch Of Pike-lled Pipe-ers... Pipe-ers. Pep-ers. Peppers."

As I went about practicing my new-found ability of speech by reciting some of the many tongue twisters I had learned during my time spent in active service, each word spoken echoed back in my newfound ears from within the space of this dark and empty hall I found myself in, repeating in time with the tapping of hardened rubber against rusted steel.

The act of bandaging my wounds had proven easier than I had first thought it to be, the process of which really helped in getting me intimately familiar with the other aspects this body had hidden. From beneath the ragged tatters of once vibrant clothing, a surprising amount of open wounds and scars covered nearly every inch of this person's body. The extent of the injuries actually made me question for a second whether or not there was enough of the wrappings to cover all of these gashes, but luckily not only did the bandages in the medical cabinet prove sufficient but I had also managed to find three other spare rolls in one of the drawers next to the cooler beneath it.

These were also in slightly better condition so once I had managed to acquire the means of cleaning my wounds, then I could replace my current wrappings with its better pair, I had also decided that walking around barefoot on a floor of rusted metal, sharp steel, shards of glass and other such detritus wasn't exactly a good idea in itself so I took some shreds of cloth from the nearby cots to wrap around the exposed skin and create a kind of temporary shoe.

Although I suppose, the term 'walking' is being used very loosely in its description, truthfully, I was more stumbling around since I still had yet to fully become accustomed to having legs to walk around with just yet. Thankfully though, the surgeons ward had also been stocked with a small number of crutches meant for sailors recovering from a broken leg or something the like and while many of them were either broken or unusable, I was able to pick out two from the stash that would suit my needs.

It was because of them that I wasn't currently falling down onto the floor or shuffling with a shoulder pressed against a wall and was instead making my way steadily yet albeit slowly through these darkened corridors without much difficulty.

That said though, it was still incredibly slow-going what with every step having to be carefully calculated before being put into motion and the parts of the crutches where my arms rested against it pressing into the limbs almost... I'm still not entirely sure what it's like to use them but if I had to put a word to it, I'd say it was almost... uncomfortable, at the very least, they were not easy to use.

But in the end, it was all I had to help aid me in my goal, not in helping me to learn how to properly speak but to accomplish something else much more... difficult.

You see, in order to make sure that my history didn't end up repeating itself for the person who's body I now seemed to occupy, I would need to get the radio working meaning that I would have to head down into the engine room in order to get the generator fully operating again so I would have the power I required to send out a distress signal.

Of course, one would assume that after all that had occurred the night before my sinking, what with the kidnapping pirates and terrified hostages and all that they did in an effort to escape my floating carcass, that the radio would still be inoperable considering that it had blown its fuses after being used to send out one last signal but judging by what I could see from around me, it would seem as if that was no longer the case.

Whatever had happened to awaken my consciousness in this form and raise my vessel from the depths had apparently done much more than just that, my structure almost seemed to be... reset to a certain point, it was still very much in a dilapidated and horrid state of disrepair but one could notice the lack of rust from the wall, the aged paint that hadn't yet flaked off onto the ground, the lightbulbs overhead that hadn't burned out or smashed to bits and the railings that remained sturdy under one's hand.