Chapter 34: Chapter 29

Jumping into the surf, Bill sped off.

As soon as Bill had seen the shore, he rushed to Captain Hina, protecting the person most qualified to have expertise to their current situation.

As she had still been weak after getting hit by the wave, Bill softly dropped her on the sand then went into action.

He knew many people must be hurt but he hadn’t had time to look below deck.

The large frigate now lay on its side on a sandy beach with the main deck facing inland.

They were in a bad way, but where those who survived the disaster on land may have time, Bill knew the ones he seen fly overboard did not.

The entire ordeal had happened in just a few minutes, caught in the cross-hairs of two megalithic-sized monsters, the men reacted the best they could.

Now, Bill could only do his best to save those he could find.

Using the Air Jump for the first time had fatigued him but using the technique underwater would not.

So, Bill speed through the water faster than ever before to the areas he thought he saw men fall.

Pulling nearly a dozen sailors to shore, as the giant monsters fought in the near distance, Bill handed them off to whoever he could find that was alert on the shore.

After combing through the local water for many minutes, despite his efforts, he knew at least a dozen or more had fallen from the ship that he’d probably never find.

Marines worked on one of three rotations but during combat, except for select personnel, all hands would be called to deck.

Bill reckoned that there had been eighty sailors on deck when the ship was flung backwards, now as he crawled back on shore, he saw fifty men either sitting or lying still on the beach with just over ten others trying to use make-shift pulleys to get into the ship.

As for himself, he was tired but not so much so that he had to rest. So, jogging over to the men climbing into the boat he said: “Where’s the Captain?”

To his voice, the men jumped slightly, but upon seeing the speaker they fell at ease with many of them claiming at once that she had jumped in the ship to help those left inside.

Nodding his head, Bill grabbed the ropes the men where fiddling with. He didn’t need to use any technique and directly jumped the hundred or so feet up towards the stairwell leading to the lower decks.

Once he was up, he tied the ropes off to the sideways staircase railings, and after giving it a good tug he shouted back down: “The rope is secure!”

With that done Bill navigated his way through the overturned ship.

Due to everything happening to fast, barely over half of the sailors onboard had made it to the deck.

That meant, not including the Science Division members, there was at least seventy Marines somewhere on board, with their conditions unknown.

The first survivors he came across were in rough shape. While trying to get above deck they formed a line.

Miraculously they had all survived, but the severity of their injuries mostly determined by their order. The unlucky man who was at the end of the line was surrounded by those at the front who could move freely.

Bill relayed to them that others were coming and to hold tight.

Over this last month Bill hadn’t got to know the crew very well, he had only met one of the crews Surgeons. Besides that, and the cooks, he had been too focused on his and the Science Division’s affairs.

He told himself, this was not a mistake he’d ever make again. He had to at least know the skilled men working with him.

Leaving to continue forward, one of them called out: “Lieutenant Ox!”

As Bill stopped and turned the man continued, though Bill could hear the pain from the man’s chest: “Ca.captain Hina went to the sick bay, sh… she told us to tell whoever came after her to g.go to the mess hall. pu.ll out whoeve.r you can out as quick as pos.sible.”

In fact, that was where Bill was headed. He had last seen the MCU Recruits was in the training room, but he saw the biology researchers in the cafeteria as soon as he heard the commotion.

Unconsciously he had assumed Marron and the others would be mostly fine, while Tom, Jerry, and Samantha would need help.

Nodding his head in response, Bill started back down the sideways path.

With the ship on its side, there were weird drop off angles.

Unfortunately, after dropping down into the next hall Bill found himself both in the nearly-pitch black, and face-to-face with the first fatality.

At the end of the long hallway, there were a group of what seemed to be several men crushed to death.

In either life, these were the first non-natural deaths he had ever scene.

There was a lot of blood, but the bodies weren’t mangled, Bill couldn’t see exactly how they had died due to the darkness.

Gritting his teeth, Bill pressed on.

The last thing he thought about them was that those men must had come from the bunks, as he thought so, Bill worked his way over in the darkness to where the mess hall would be located.

On most Marine ships, and practically every seastone-haul ship, the bottom most level held jail cells.

From there going up deck by deck was the storage pawn, gun batteries and training hall, medical bay, bunks and mess hall, and then main deck which often had the Captain and navigators’ quarters.

This pattern was held more or less standard, but the size of the ship determined proportions.

For example, a smaller Marine vessel may not have a full floor dedicated to the medical bay. The storage and jail cells may share the same space, but the bunk and mess hall were always located one floor below deck.

Considering his location, Bill thought the mess halls doorway should be where he was, but after feeling around he only felt hard wood.

Gently feeling around for the door banisters, it didn’t take long for him to feel his way to the correct spot.

‘Damn!’

There was something blocking the mess hall, a large enough object to cover the doorway completely

Pounding on the blockage, Bill did his best to hear any movement on the other side.

Before he tried to move the object, he wanted to make sure there was no one in the way.

He heard some noise, but it was all intelligible, so standing firmly Bill started to lift the thing up slowly.

“Hold on!”

Hearing a familiar voice, Bill stopped lifting and grunted out: “Samantha?!”

Guessing right, the girl continued on to say that they were moving people out of the way.

To this, Bill couldn’t understand why they sat people on the doorway, but soon this mystery was solved.

After getting the ok, Bill lifted the obstruction out of the way.

Pulling himself up, he heard two voices, but before he answered he first scanned the room.

The mess hall was a wreck with overturned tables, chairs, and other cooking utensils. Food was also mushed up in just about every corner, and the smell of cooking oil was very strong. There were several bodies covered or otherwise lying still.

Turning his head back, Bill said sharply: “Who here can be moved immediately?”

Under his urging, Samantha pointed called out to the ones who could just barely walk themselves. Then after a brief back and forth, it was decided that she would stay behind with the few uninjured survivors to make sleds.

Finally, with the ones who move while, Jerry and the others shambled down the mess hall’s doorway.

Helping those who couldn’t move easily, Bill lifted them down into the hallway, which thankfully now had a spot of light.

As he did so, Jerry spoke softly: “We were trying to climb out of the windows, but no one could make the jump… we tried to make a ladder but… well I’m sure glad you came when you did.

You are reading story The Marine Part One at novel35.com

Dr. Jonas… he…”

Now that it had been said, Bill realized he didn’t see the Science Divisions biology instructor. Surely, he had been one of the bodies covered, Bill thought to himself.

To Jerry though, Bill put on an encouraging face and said: “It’s ok, it’s going to be fine, the important thing now is to get off the ship.”

In a world where black powder was still used, the gun batteries were very unsafe. This is what spurred Bill on to not rest after saving the drowning men.

The hallway wasn’t that long and even with helping a few sailors the group reached the turned-over stairway in just a couple minutes.

The men who had followed Bill had worked fast, in under ten minutes they had set up the starting of a winch system, no doubt to be used as an elevator to get the injured down to the ground.

After helping the ones who needed it, the stairway turned hallway had become crowded.

“Ah! Lieutenant Ox!”

One of the men at the front called out to him.

“We need something to use as a base!”

Nodding his head in response, though Bill wasn’t sure if the man had seen, he shouted ‘ok’ and turned back.

The rest of the process happened rather quickly, after seeing the mess hall Bill no longer felt so good for Marron and the other MCU recruits.

Time was of the essence and so the first door Bill came across he directly ripped off its hinges, went back and gave it to the carpenters, grabbed and jumped down with several men who weren’t badly injured, and then finally made his way back to the mess hall were Samantha and the couple sailors who had stayed arranged ten make-shift sleds.

Now helping move the severely injured, Bill saw the worst damage had been done to the cooks who were in the kitchen. The head cook specifically had been splashed with cooking oil that had burned his face, giving it a waxy complexion.

Bill never wondered why such a scene didn’t cause him to feel sick. However, he was glad that out of the ten, only six had broken legs or other wounds that didn’t seem life threatening.

The entire process of pulling the sailors out lasted roughly fifteen minutes from the time Bill had jumped on the ship and set the rope in place.

He had confirmed a total of thirty-two Marines, twenty-one of which were either dead or wounded to some various degree.

These numbers were devastating, but that still meant there were fifty or so left who hadn’t made it on deck during action.

Thinking back to the bodies he had seen near the entrance to the bunk room, Bill stood still for a second.

He knew he had to find Marron and the other MCU recruits, but he said to himself: “Captain Hina went that way…”

He also remembered Captain Sentomaru telling him over and over that his duty was the security of those members in the Science Division.

Bill also knew, that while younger, the MCU recruits were more physically capable than most of the Marines he had seen on the ship and their strength could potentially be put to better use.

‘But… the bunk room is closer.’

These thoughts weight in his mind and Bill made his choice.

Heading for the room where most of the fifty or so men left on board should be, he hoped Captain Hina could grab those on the lower decks.

Making his way to the bunk room was not hard, now that the hallway had a bit of light Bill could see clearly.

Getting to the doorway of the bunk room was easy, disregarding the group of four dead sailors a few feet away.

The hard part was that being on the opposite side of mess hall, the bunk room was now facing the ground while being pitch black.

Kneeling by the entrance and giving a shout, Bill had to pull his head back. The air was stale, and the room smelled like feces.

To his shout, Bill heard frantic muffling from several places, but due to the darkness he could only call out: “Wait, I’m getting a light!”

Besides the Captains quarters and medical bay, candles were not heavily used on board wooden ships. Hallways would have one or two weak flames to give direction at night. Training rooms would be completely dark at night, and the jail cells and storage pawn stayed dark when not unloading at port.

Still, the mess hall had some candles lining the walls and after a couple of minutes Bill came back with a handful of wax candles, with one being lit.

Careful not to let the thing blow out, Bill held it as close as he could to his chest with one hand and used the other to climb down.

Using the Moon Step in these tight quarters would have been an accident waiting to happen.

After climbing down for a couple of seconds Bill hit the uneven floor, or what would normally have been the wall. Then using his one lit candle he fired up the others.

The room was still very dark due to its size, but now with seven lit candles there was something to work with.

The entire time he had been climbing down, Bill had heard muffled yelling, now he could see that at least a dozen men had been spun around in their hammocks.

Trapping them in, but probably saving them injury or worse.

He could also see several sailors breathing but not moving, out of the fifty or so people left on board, he counted around twenty-five here. Almost the entire night rotation.

Getting to work, Bill first pulled down the men trapped inside their hammocks and sent them to distribute the candles further while looking at the conditions of the wounded.

Of the sailors here, they counted eight dead – all having been hit by sea chests.

The number was terrible, but with twelve unhurt and five only lightly injured, the night rotation did have something to be thankful for.

After Bill gathered up the seventeen survivors and reached out to the first one to jump up, on his side a metal half-fence dropped down.

Looking up, he could just make out long hair before hearing a familiar voice: “Hand them up, Hina has it from here. Good work, Lieutenant.”

Not needing his urging, the men quickly got into action and the using her Devil Fruit the Captain zipped them up one by one.

As the men were being lifted, Bill went around to collect the candles and put them out.

After the last man was up, instead of getting put in her ability, Bill chose to directly jump up.

Hearing footsteps into the long hallway, Bill asked the Captain: “What about the MCU Recruits?”

Walking in the dark, the Captain wasn’t rushed and so neither was he.

“Four deaths, two badly wounded. Hina has recovered everyone on the lower decks.”

Gritting his teeth, Bill kept quiet for a second. Out of the fifteen Science Division members who had come along, five were dead and three were wounded.

“How are Hina’s casualties?”

Answering more sharply than he meant, Bill replied: “At least thirty-five dead, probably double that number hurt. A few of them will definitely not survive without proper medical treatment.”

To his words, Hina didn’t respond. When they got to the stairway Bill found only the men from the bunkroom. After the Captain let them all down, he stood at the edge looking down at the scene below him.

It seemed like Hina had also went to the storage pawn because these things hadn’t been on the beach before.

Already there were tents going up, giving his rough estimate, out of a total crew of 195, including the Science Division members, there were barely one-hundred fifty people in total.

Of that one-hundred fifty, more than half seemed hurt or still in shock. About forty were lying on makeshift cots, not moving at all.

Bill hoped those in shock would come around soon, because at the moment barely thirty-five sailors were moving at a normal pace.

The idea that this crew could be nearly wiped out under two hours hit Bill hard as he jumped off the ship and went towards Marron and the others.