Nightriders The Kidnappings Part 18

    Selena awakened from her dreams still finding herself chained in the dark, dank freighter. She found Slade awake gazing into space as if deep in thought. She released a loud yawn, alerting him that she was awake.

    “Good morning, Slade!” said Selena, teasingly.

    Slade chuckled. “If that’s what you want to call it.”  Selena smiled as she gazed at the young swamp lizard. He definitely had the profile of Axl with his attire and body structure. Despite his youthful, naivety, she found him to be a likable character, who seemed to have his heart in the right place. He reminded her of the young boys from the swamp back home, trying to be 'manly' and 'adult' but still quite unsure of themselves. It never ceased to amaze her just how far, the lizard boys back at the swamp would go to impress the opposite sex, often resorting to the most outrageous of acts. Whether it was riding a Bull Hog, diving headfirst into the bogs from the highest tree, or playing a prank on a grouchy miser, there was no limit to what a young lizard boy might do, even if it ended with a trip to the hospital. Unbeknownst to these boys was the behind the scenes laughter of the girls toward what they perceived as ‘typical stupid male behavior.’ In the end, most of the girls were unable to resist their male charm, and could not help themselves from finding a scaled man to fall in love with. True to her independent nature, she prided herself in being an exception to this rule, but that all changed once she met Axl…

    Slade glanced over at her noticing that Selena was still smiling at him. He smiled back before bashfully looking away. Yes, Slade was a young man in search of identity and affirmation in life, she thought to herself.

     “You know, I’ve been thinking…” said Slade, staring into space.

     “Yes, Slade?” “Selena replied.

    “What do you think about coming up with an escape plan?”

    Selena leaned forward toward Slade, flicking her tongue once into his face. “I thought you’d never ask…”

    The door swung open as Pog and Slop entered, carrying a food tray containing something which reeked of being ‘last week’s lunch.’

    “Supper time!” sang Slop with a snort. Pog chuckled mischievously as he stirred the brown mush with a spoon. Slade tailed whipped the tray right out of Pog’s hands splattering it onto the floor.

    “I’m not hungry, but I’m sure you hams could always use the extra fat!”

    “How dare ye!” scolded Pog, angrily wiping the mush off his face.

    “Just let the lizard be,” advised Slop. “If ‘rock star’ here wants to waste his only serving of food for the day, it’s fine by me.”

     Pog grabbed a nearby club and began to approach Slade. “Yeah, well I won’t be satisfied until I’ve beaten some manners into this walking piece of leather!”

    “Come and get some!” taunted Slade, threateningly waving his tail.

    “Pog, no!” shouted Slop. Pog swung the club slamming it on Slade’s right shoulder. Slade managed to grab Pog by the neck with his tail, yanking him forwards. In retaliation, Pog began pummeling Slade with blows to the head and upper body.

    “Get em,’ Axl!” cheered Selena.

    Slop lunged forward to intervene, prying Slade’s tail’s weakening grip. Once Pog was free, they both proceeded to inflict a heavy beating on Slade with their clubs.

    “Stop!” screamed Selena. “Please stop!”

    Once appearing satisfied with punishing Slade, Slop helped his sore necked friend limp away from their reptile prisoners, glaring at them with rage. “Let that be a lesson to yah!”

 After the pirates had left the room, Slade released a long miserable groan. “Please tell me you got it…”

Selena’s tail curled from behind with Slop’s keys dangling from the tip. She then proceeded to carefully twist the key into her right arm lock. Once having freed her left arm, she freed Slade as well.

“Oh, my shoulder,” groaned Slade cradling his aching upper arm.
“Better man up, and arm yourself” advised Selena handing Slade a wooden board.

    “Great,” muttered Slade. “I can’t wait to see the look on the pirates’ faces when I come against their guns and swords with a stick.”

     Selena shrugged. “We have to start somewhere. Besides, if we play this just right, they may not even know what hit them.” Once reaching the door, they placed their heads directly against it. Hearing nothing but silence, the lizards exchanged shrugs before bracing themselves for entering the next room. They swung it open and charged with their boards only to find a hippo pirate guard slumped on the floor with a bottle of spilled rum by his side. A loud snore could be heard gurgling from his snout.

    Slade began to approach him holding the board over the hippo’s head as Selena stripped him of his weapons. “Sword for you, gun for me,” she said, handing him the cutlass blade. As soon as she had scavenged the hippo of anything that may be useful, Slade smashed the board down on top of the hippos head causing the pirate to briefly moan in pain before rolling over to his side motionless.

    “Slade!” scolded Selena.

    “Hey, I just wanted to make sure he doesn’t wake up!” explained Slade.

    Selena kneeled by the hippo feeling his forehead. “He’s not dead, but he’s gonna have a nasty headache to go with that hangover when he wakes up.” Selena and Slade flinched with fear at the sound of footsteps thundering down stairs. A wide-eyed, bearded possum stepped into the hallway.

    “What, the!” The pirate unsheathed his sword and charged towards Slade. Slade managed to repel a few of the attacks but grimaced after being slightly cut on the right side of his belly. Selena hit the pirate with the end of her gun barrel knocking him out cold before he could do Slade any more harm.

    “Well, that went fairly well,” said Selena still panting from the encounter.

    “Speak for yourself,” muttered Slade putting his hand on his cut. Selena grabbed the bottle of rum laying next the pirate.

    “Pour some rum on it. You’ll be fine.”

      Slade followed behind her as Selena stealthily began making her way up the metal stairwell. After climbing the stairwell in its entirety, they found themselves on a long narrow catwalk in an enormous cargo hold.

    “Psst! Over there!” whispered Slade, motioning toward two armadillos and a female tiger passing through the middle of the cargo. Selena nodded her head in acknowledgement. Slade held his sword in front of himself and laid on his belly while crawling along the catwalk.

    I don’t know about this, Selena thought as she reluctantly began to follow him from behind. They were about a third across the catwalk when she heard a voice echo from the other end of the room.

    “Hey!” Up there!” Selena watched in horror as the two armadillos immediately turned in their direction pulling out their pistols.

    “Drop!” shouted Slade as he rolled off the catwalk. No sooner had she joined Slade in rolling off to the side, the armadillos opened fire. The reptiles both landed with a crunch inside of a large open crate on what felt like a now broken pile of plastic. The reptiles listened as frantic voices sounded from outside the crate.

    “Where did they go? They’ve gotta be here, men! Keep searching!” The reptiles continued to lay motionless, completely silent. As the voices grew distant, Selena scooped up one of the pieces of plastic in her hands, curious to see what they had landed on. “CDs!” The large crate they laid in was full of sealed jewel cases containing Smooch albums.

    “Slade used one of his claws to slice through the shrink wrap of one of them “These aren’t stolen! They’re bootlegs!” Slade tore out the CD insert revealing it to be regular piece of paper with poorly printed smudged artwork.

    “What a cheap knockoff,” said Selena in disgust.

    “What would you expect from a bunch of scurvy music pirates?” scoffed Slade.

    Slade slowly returned to his feet trying to make as little noise as possible on the plastic cracking beneath his feet. Selena crawled over and joined him as they both prepared to gaze over the side together. Selena and Slade raised their heads to see a petrified baboon gasping back at them. The baboon and Selena screamed. Slade grabbed him by the head pulling the baboon into the crate of CDs with them. The two began to wrestle and exchange blows. At one point, the baboon managed to pull out a pistol, only for Slade to knock it out of his hands. Eventually, Slade was able to subdue him in a headlock, causing the baboon to pass out from a lack of oxygen.

     “We’ve gotta get outta here,” said Slade, still panting intensely from the struggle. Selena nodded as she helped Slade stand, handing him a pistol which he tucked behind his pants. They both manage to crawl over the top dropping to the floor on the outside.

Selena glanced in both directions of the long line of crates on both sides of them. “Which way do we go?”

    “That way!” said Slade, pointing towards her right. Following his lead, Selena dashed through the endless canyon of crates.

    “Freeze!” The reptiles froze as they found themselves surrounded by a group of pirates at an area where the line of crates intersected. The leader was a large grizzly haired dark brown canine, adorning a left eye patch. He was armed with what appeared to be a machine gun. “Hands in the air!”

    Selena glanced into Slade’s eyes finding them filled with fear just like hers. Slade nodded at her as he slowly raised his hands. Selena began to do the same until the dreadful thought of returning to their damp, dark cell, entered her mind.

    I can’t go back there! Not when we’ve gotten this far!

    Selena’s eyes began to scan her surroundings. Further down the line was what appeared to be a large stack of iron barrels. She squinted her eyes as she struggled to make out the black print labeling all the barrels.

    Amable? No wait! Flammable!

    Without any more thought, Selena grabbed the pistol tucked behind Slade’s back.

    “Hey!” snarled the canine.

    Pointing the gun in the direction of the barrels, Selena pulled the trigger. With a loud thunderous explosion, the barrels quickly became engulfed in flames. The pirates cried in fear, staggering to take cover as piles of crates began tipping over like dominoes. A deafening alarm began echoing through the large cargo hold followed by the activation of sprinklers.

    Selena felt Slade grab the pistol from her hands. “Let’s go!”

The reptiles ran in the opposite direction of the explosion, struggling not to slip on the now completely saturated floor. They could hear bullets whistling around them as the pirates shouted insults in the distance. Slade would occasionally aim the pistol in their direction, firing a few counter shots to throw them off balance. After the sound of another explosion, a large avalanche of crates fell onto the floor blocking the path of the pirates trailing behind them.

     Just when they thought they were in the clear, Pog and Slop jumped down from one of the walkways landing in front of them.

    “Yer goin’ nowhere!” shouted Slop, as he lunged toward Slade. Before Slade could aim his gun, it was knocked out of his hands by Slop’s sword. Slade grunted as he struggled to deflect the sword attacks. Defenseless Selena began backing away into a corner as Pog began to approach her.

    “You don’t know how to use that, do yah, lizard boy!” taunted Slop.

    Slade growled and began intensely swinging his sword only to have Slop inflict another wound to his chest.

    “Arg!”

“Give up, rock star!” taunted Slop as Slade staggered back, nearly slipping on the wet floor. His body as well as the pirates were now completely drenched from the pouring sprinklers. “Give up before I really give yah somethin’ ta sing about!” shouted Slop holding the tip of his sword near Slade’s neck.

               Panting from exhaustion, Slade glared at Slop as the sprinkler water continued to pour down like rain. For Axl! He thought as he prepared for his next move.

    “Let’s get, rocked!” he roared, mimicking Axl’s catch phrase. Ignoring the throbbing pain from his left shoulder, Slade slammed his blade into Slop’s cutlass, knocking him off balance. Suddenly, he felt himself on the offensive rather than the defensive as a look of worry grew on the pig’s face. Slop grunted as he now struggled to deflect Slade’s relentless attack backing away. Eventually, Slade managed to barely cut Slop on the side of his arm causing him to cry in pain. “Ow! That really smarts!” Slop dropped his sword to the floor, immediately fleeing the battle. Slade turned his attention toward Pog who still had Selena cornered against the crates, taunting her for a kiss.

    “C’mon, babe! Just a little peck on the cheek!”

    “Get away from her!” ordered Slade as he placed his sword to the back of pig’s neck.

    As Pog glanced behind in surprise, Selena bit her fangs into the side of his right cheek. “Ow!”

    “Is that a big enough peck for you?!” shouted Selena in anger.

      Slade punched Pog in the face, knocking him to the ground.

    “You guys are no fun!” Pog sniffled as he also retreated, slipping as he struggled to run on the wet floor.

    A frantic voice sounded over the intercom.

    “Warning! Fire near the artillery! All available hands needed!”

    Another loud rumble shook the floor of the ship, causing Selena and Slade to both painfully fall to the ground. “We’ve gotta get off this ship!” Selena cried.

    The crackling of the intercom again sounded throughout the ship. “Darn it! Cancel last order! Abandon ship! Abandon ship!” The reptiles felt the floor beneath their feet begin to tilt.

    “That might be a good idea!” scoffed Slade as he and Selena resumed their mad dash.

    How are we gonna find our way out of here! Selena wondered to herself as they continued running through a jungle of crates and barrels. A loud explosion thundered from the direction of the burning crate accompanied by the shaking of the floor. The top loading hatches had begun to open with the sound of hoses spraying in the direction of the fire. The voices of frantic men could be heard shouting from above.

    As they entered the hatch down the hallway, a stream of water began to rush through their knees. Another explosion rumbled shaking the interior of the ship. They heard the sound of spinning gears as a watertight door closed behind them. They found themselves in another open hatched cargo hold.

    “How the heck do we get out of here!” shouted Selena. Slade shook his head in uncertainty. Gunfire thundered from the hatches impacting the nearby wall.

    “There they are, mates! Get em’!”

    Slade rolled his eyes.  “These guys never know when to quit.” Selena and Slade began exchanging gunfire as they dashed through the hold. Another explosion sounded causing a few of the pirates to scream in terror as they fell below. Water began to once again flood into the room past their feet. The ships incline became all the more noticeable as boxes began to topple over.

    “This ship sure is sinking fast,” said Slade observing the water level, which was quickly arriving above their waists.

    “Over here!” said Slade offering to lift Selena over his shoulder onto one of the crates. After Slade crawled on top of the crate, he motioned toward one of the loading cranes dangling through a top hatch.

    “Hope you’re good at climbing,” said Slade.

    “I was just going to say the same to you,” winced Selena. Selena dashed down the line of crates with Slade following from behind. Once they had reached the hook hanging from the crane, Selena immediately grabbed on and began the long treacherous climb. As the ship began to lean another direction, Selena noticed the rows of crates beginning to fall over one another like dominos.

    “Look out, Slade!” shouted Selena as a wall of crates began falling toward where Slade was standing. Slade gasped with fear managing to grab the hook just as the ground collapsed from underneath him. Selena grunted as she offered a hand to help Slade steady himself on the rope. Using their claws and nimble fingers, the lizards quickly began scrambling up the rope. The higher they climbed, the more odd the angle of the rope became as the ship continued to sink. Selena heard the sound of snapping wood and bending metal as they felt themselves again beginning to move. Selena and Slade let out a cry of fear as they began to swing quickly toward one of the ends of the ship. As soon as they cleared the cargo holds wall, they released themselves from the rope to feel themselves collapse on the deck. They immediately began to cough struggling for air as smoke poured from the other end of the ship barely visible above the water.

    “I take back what I said earlier about underestimating you!” said Captain Hopper scowling with his arms to his side. Selena and Slade found themselves surrounded by Hopper’s pirates including Pog and Slop.

    “I told yah we’d still get em’ cap’n!” gloated Slop. Slop squealed in fear as Captain Hopper grabbed him by the neck.

    “After you let him destroy my entire ship!” shouted Hopper throwing Slop into Pog. “I will deal with you two later! Take out Axl and Selena but don’t kill them! They’re our only chance at salvaging this expedition!” The pirates began approaching Selena and Slade with clubs and chains.

    “Careful!” cautioned, Slop, revealing his wounded arm. “They know how to use swords!”

    “The lass especially,” added Pog. “She bites!”

    “Would you two idiots SHUT UP!” snapped Hopper. 

    “Get behind me, Selena!” said Slade pulling out his sword. Selena caused Slade to flinch as she pulled out her gun and fired at one of the approaching pirates hitting him in the shoulder.

    “Ow!” Slade threw his sword toward Hopper slicing through his hat. Slade then briefly engaged Slop, quickly wounding him to the floor. One of the pirates wrapped a chain around his right arm only for Slade to pull it off and use it as his own weapon. Selena continued firing causing pirates to collapse in pain or run for cover.

    “Get the lizard and his lass!” shouted Hopper frantically. Slade continued his assault taking out pirates until Hopper hopped on top of the youthful lizard tackling him to the ground. Hopper began hitting Slade with multiple painful kicks to the face and chest.

    “Drop the gun, lass, or your boyfriend is dead!” Selena ceased firing to see a wild eyed Hopper holding his gun against Slade’s head.

    “You won’t shoot him because you need him!” Selena replied drawing her gun at Hopper.

    “I’m in a pretty bad mood, lass! Don’t count on it!”

    “He’s pretty angry, Selena!” Slade said nervously. Suddenly, another explosion rumbled throughout the ship.

    “What was that?” shouted Hopper to Slop who was laying wounded on the floor.

    “I think that’s the big one, cap’n,” groaned Slop.

    “I thought you said we already experienced the big one?!” cried Hopper.

    Slop nervously chuckled while rubbing his snout. “Sorry, my bad!” Fire erupted from the other end of the ship and began carrying over to their side at lightning speed. Selena felt Slade tackling her off the ship as it engulfed in flames. Both of the lizards fell into the watery abyss below…



Illustrations by Bluepisces97

  Thanks for reading!

 


Nightriders: The Kidnappings Part 19

 

Nightriders: The Kidnappings Part 1