Chapter 6: CHAPTER 4

It felt like they moved across the white substance for a long while before colors started flooding back into the world.

Jake blinked the tears away as he looked around the room. He saw that Zoe was doing the same. They were in a large wooden room. Jake noted that they had a lot of barrels and crates with them in the room but there was no one other than the three of them. As Jake opened a barrel, he noted it was full of a red liquid. ‘It’s probably wine,’ he thought.

“Alright, let’s get started,” Liam said, interrupting their observation of the room. “We are on a British merchant vessel inside the hold. This place is carrying all the cargo on this ship.”

“What’s our objective?” Jake asked.

“The Captain of this ship is on the quarter mast. That’s where the steering wheel of the ship is,” Liam informed them. “Your job is to climb up two levels of this ship without anyone noticing you, enter the captain’s cabin, and get the map of the journey from his desk. Then, you’ll return to this place and we’ll head back. Our first exit window is in two hours and the next one is two hours after that.”

Liam handed a pocket watch to both of them and handed a key to Zoe. “Make sure you keep a track of time. And this is the key to the captain’s cabin.

And remember, if you miss the exit window you’ll be stuck in that time period unless you get a message to the time mansion with your exact time and location. Now, get started. All the best.”

With those final words, Liam moved back and sat down, leaning against one of the barrels.

Both Jake and Zoe stared at him for a full minute before Jake finally shook his head and started planning the course of action.

“Alright, an average merchant vessel at this period has a crew size of about 200 people. Oh, don’t worry about it,” Jake said comfortingly seeing Zoe’s expression. “More than 150 of those would be the rowers who work in two shifts. There would be at least four cooks again in two shifts. There should also be a couple of traders on this ship. And since the ships were usually out for long periods of time there’ll be doctors and nurses here as well. This means that we’ll have to deal with at most 40 guards spread throughout the ship.”

“How do you know that?” Zoe asked.

“I loved reading about the various wars throughout history and this was just one of the random facts I came across,” Jake replied, rubbing a hand across the back of his neck sheepishly. 

“Anything else?” Zoe asked a smirk across her lips at Jake’s nerdy behavior.

“Yeah,” Jake answered. “Most of the rowers at this time were slaves, so chances are that most of the guards are concentrated with the rowers. So, if we cross the rowing deck I think we can easily reach the captain's cabin.”

“Slaves?” Zoe asked.

Jake nodded sadly.” Most of the rowers at this time period were slaves. They were chained to the oars and fed just enough food to keep them alive. They were thrown overboard if they were unable to row or died of exhaustion.”

Zoe looked sorrowful at this information. Even though they spent a small time together, Jake had noticed that Zoe was very compassionate. She had shown a lot of sympathy for the people who had died in her plane crash even though she didn’t know them.

Jake placed a hand on her shoulder “We’ll have to sneak through the rowers first, blending in with guards there before we move to the upper decks. Let’s go.”

And both of them moved towards the staircase. 

 

***

 

Both Jake and Zoe walked up to the next level, walking slowly. Jake was feeling like a bundle of nerves. A glance at Zoe showed that she was feeling the same way. 

As both of them were moving up across the deck, Zoe nudged Jake and indicated toward the group of people just ahead of them.

Jake cursed. He had hoped he was wrong but it looked like his knowledge was right.

The galley was being rowed by a large group of people bound in chains. Around them, was a large group of guards. Jake counted 15 in total. They were very relaxed, chatting and drinking while they should have been guarding the slaves.

Both Jake and Zoe dropped down behind a box.

“What do we do now? The way to the next level is blocked,” Zoe hissed.

“I know. Let me think.” Jake rubbed his forehead

They stayed there for a couple of minutes, running any possible plans in their heads.

“I have an idea,” Zoe announced in a low voice.

“What is it?” Jake looked at her. She had a light blush on her face. 

Instead of answering him Zoe pulled him towards her and tousled his hair. She rumpled his clothes and unbuttoned the top button. Then, she ran her hand roughly through her own hair and rumpled her clothes. 

Jake had an inkling of what her plan was, but he waited for her to confirm.

Zoe looked at him with a red face and said,” You sneaked out with me to the lower levels to have some fun.”

Jake looked at her with a cocked eyebrow. 

“Do you have a better plan?” Zoe asked him. “No? Then we are going with mine,” she continued with a determined look.

Zoe stood up and grabbed Jake’s hand. Her hand was soft and smooth. It was small enough that it fits perfectly on his own. Jake’s face burned. He was pretty sure it matched Zoe’s at that moment. 

Steeling themselves, with their hand wrapped in each other, they walked forward towards what might be their deaths.

 

***

 

“Hey! What are you both doing here?” Jake heard one of the guards ask them. 

“You know you aren’t supposed to be down here,” another growled, stepping forward towards the pair.

“Just sneaked down there with this one to have some fun,” Jake answered with false bravado, wrapping his arm around Zoe’s waist. 

The guards guffawed at his answer. 

“Have some fun, huh?” The guard who had first stopped him asked. He had a nasty sneer on his face. “Mind if we join in?”

Jake’s eyes widened with rage at the guard's words. 

Zoe placed a hand on Jake’s back to calm him down.

“We need to get back before anyone notices that we’re missing and comes looking for us,” Zoe said in a faux sweet voice. But her warning was clear. If they didn’t let them go someone will come looking for them. “The captain won’t like it if two of his sailors were being held by guards.”

The slaves slowed their rowing and looked at the show, hoping for some entertainment from their constant torment. One of the guards noticed that and whipped one of the slaves.

Both Jake and Zoe winced at the guard's actions.

The guard who was talking to them stepped forward, uncaring of any consequences after being on the sea for so long.

“Jackson,” another guard called out. “Let them go. We don’t need the captain mad at us. And you two, if we see you two down here again, consequences or not, you won’t be leaving so easily. Now get lost.”

The first guard, Jackson, growled, but he stepped aside and moved out of their way.

Jake nodded stiffly to the guard who helped them and stopped Jackson. He walked forward, firmly holding Zoe’s waist, and led her towards the next level of the ship.

 

***

 

Jake and Zoe breathed a sigh of relief as soon as they got out of the room with the guards and the rowers. Jake looked at her and found that she was looking back at him.

“Are you alright?” Jake asked. “That must have been rough for you.”

Zoe nodded.

“Those guards were horrible, whipping all those people and laughing at them. I am glad you are with me here. I wouldn’t be able to deal with this alone,” she said, a dejected look in her eyes. 

Jake was again surprised by the empathy Zoe showed. He had thought that she would be angry at the way guards talked about her but here she was, more worried about the slaves than herself.

Jake gave her a sad smile and wrapped her in a hug, feeling her hands go around to his back and her head resting on his chest. 

“That’s why there are two of us here. No one person can go through this alone. And no matter what, I’ll always be here with you. You’ll never feel alone.” Jake said comfortingly. And he meant those words. ‘No matter what I’ll always be there for her,’ he promised himself silently.

Jake could feel her nod against his chest. 

Zoe slowly extracted herself from his chest and Jake immediately missed the feeling of her warm body. She looked up at him smiled softly and surprised him with a peck on the cheek.

“Thank you,” she simply said with a light blush on her face. Jake could also feel his face heat up at her kiss. 

“Uh, so yeah. Next step.” Jake said. Zoe smirked at his reaction to her kiss. “This stairway leads to the top deck. There will probably be a couple of sailors there. The captain’s cabin is on the other side of this deck. So we will probably have to move in the open for a short while. Once we’re over there one of us will have to keep watch while the other one will search the cabin for the map.”

Zoe nodded to his plan. 

“There are probably not a lot of female sailors on this ship so chances are that anyone who sees me will know that I am not one of the crew,” Zoe said. “So I should probably spend the least amount of time in the areas where I’ll be seen.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.” jake told her. “It’ll probably be for the best that I keep watch and you search the cabin.”

Both of them walked up the stairs to the next deck. Jake pushed open the door a little and looked around. The sun was shining in the sky and that lit up the whole ship. It reminded him of the ships he had seen in movies and documentaries.  

Jake promised himself that he would get a ship model for his room to remind him of his very first mission through time. ‘I might even start a trophy collection to keep a record of all the missions I complete,’ Jake thought to himself giddily.

His very own trophy collection. Sure, no one would be able to see it but he would know and so would all of his fellow TIme Knights.

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Jake looked around the ship to find that the area around the door was clear. So he gently pushed it open and both of them stepped out of the shadows and into the light. 

Jake looked around. They were standing near the quarterdeck. The ship was made up of a mix of wood and metal, probably steel. The room they’d just stepped out of was made of long planks of wood. He had noticed that the movement of the waves had become more prominent at the top deck and he hoped that the sea would remain calm and not start moving wildly. But he knew that was unlikely. The reason the ship went down was probably a storm. Jake just wished to get done with this mission before it started.

Take notice that the ship had three sails, the one in the front the longest. And standing near each of those sails were two sailors. 

As he looked out of the ship he noticed that the water was very clean, almost transparent. ‘That’s what it was before humanity sent everything to shit,’ Jake thought. He also notice there were birds in the sky. ‘Probably seagulls,’ Jake thought. He had never seen seagulls before but that was the only bird that went that far off the coast.

Jake and Zoe kept looking around to see the way to the captain’s cabin.

“There,” Zoe pointed out towards the other side of the deck, right past where the other sailors were working. Jake looked closely and noticed that she was right. There were rooms built on that side that could be nothing other than the sleeping quarters. And the captain’s cabin was probably there.

“Alright, we need a plan to get past those guys,” Jake started. “Any ideas?”

They both thought for a minute before Jake started with his plan. “Alright, first things first. We cannot allow them to see you properly, so you’ll walk to my right. That way I will interrupt their vision with my body. They are far enough away so they probably won’t call out to us. And as soon as we are out of their line of sight we’ll start looking for the captain’s cabin.”

“How do we recognize it?” Zoe questioned. 

“The captain’s cabin is generally at the end of the hallway with rooms for the crew on either side. It’ll probably be the nicest looking cabin on this ship,” Jake answered her question.

“Let me guess. You know that because you-” Zoe started.

“Saw it in a documentary. Yes.” Jake cut in with a smirk.

Zoe shook her head with a fond smile at his answer. 

“Alright, let’s move before someone sees two people standing in the middle of the ship chatting away,” Jake said. 

Both of them boldly moved forward towards the rooms where they thought the captain's cabin was, with Jake cutting the view between the sailors and Zoe. The sailors standing near the sails simply looked at them and then looked away, going back to whatever they were doing.

As soon as they both reached the rooms Jake looked around for any hint of the captain’s cabin. Noticing a room at the end of the hallway, Jake pointed it out to Zoe. 

As soon as they reached the room, they tried the key. It clicked.

“This is the one,” Zoe said, pulling it open. “Stand guard while I looked around and knock if you see anyone coming.”

Zoe pulled the door closed to search the cabin while Jake made sure no one saw them.

 

***

 

The search was completed without any incident and Zoe soon came back out.

“Do you have it?” Jake asked her.

Zoe simply showed him a rolled piece of parchment and nodded.

“Good. The next step is, we have to get back to the storage area.”Jake continued. “We can easily get off this level but any idea of getting off the one with the rowers and the guards?”

Zoe thought for a few seconds. “I don’t think we can get past so many guards at once. We need a distraction to get them out of that level and onto the deck.”

“What sort of distraction?” Jake asked. 

“What sorts of accidents happen on a ship?” Zoe enquired. 

“There’s man overboard, electric shocks, machine explosions, and fires,” Jake answered. 

They pondered for a minute. “Unless one of us wants to jump off the ship, the best way is to cause a fire,” Jake joked.

“Where can we cause a fire?” Zoe asked.

“There are only two places on a ship that can catch fire. Either the engine room or the accommodation rooms,” Jake informed her. “And engine room is generally in the bottom of the ship which makes it unreachable. The only possible place is the accommodation rooms.”

“But there are people sleeping in there. Do we really want to risk their lives?” Zoe asked, reluctant to put anyone in danger. 

“I don’t like it either but you have to remember that they’re going to die either way. This ship is going down whether we like it or not,” Jake said, his voice soft but firm. He knew that if they didn’t cause a distraction then they couldn’t reach the storage deck and if they were caught, who knew what the sailors would do? He certainly didn’t like the way the guards looked at Zoe and if his choice was between getting caught and killing so sailors a few hours before their time, Jake certainly knew what he was going to choose.

Zoe nodded, reluctantly agreeing with Jake. 

“There has to some alcohol or kerosine oil in the captain’s cabin. And probably some live flames. They didn’t have matchsticks in this time period so some flame was always kept going and every evening someone used it to set all the lanterns alight,” Jake informed Zoe. “We can spread the kerosene and alcohol around the captain’s cabin and accommodation rooms and set it on fire. This should cause a big enough distraction for the captain to call all the guards to the top deck and help control it, which will give us enough time to reach the storage deck.”

Zoe quickly went into the cabin to search for the required material while Jake kept watch. She soon came out with a lantern, a bottle of whiskey, and some lantern fluid. They spread it around the area of the captain’s cabin and the rooms. Then Jake smashed the lantern on the lantern fluid spread on the floor and watched it catch fire.

 

***

 

The fire quickly grew and the hallway started filling with smoke. Zoe quickly handed Jake a cloth to cover his mouth and nose.

“Take shallow and controlled breaths. Soon someone will notice the fire spreading and call for help. When they cause a commotion, you and I will leave the hall coughing and they’ll clear a path for us. We’ll probably come across the guards but even if they recognize us, they shouldn’t stop us. We’ll go down to the storage deck and use the barrels to block the path so that even if they find out it was Arson and somehow figure out where we are, they won’t be able to reach us.” As jake was finishing his explanation they could hear someone shouting.

‘Looks like they noticed the fire,’ Jake thought. 

They waited until the commotion was very loud and the smoke was so dense it was getting difficult to breathe before they stumbled out of the hallway coughing deeply with a cloth around their mouth.

As Jake had thought, the sailors outside had all gathered around the smoking accommodation area and no one was watching the remaining space on the ship. Even the guards had come up and looked like they were getting ready to walk in to rescue others.

“Are the others alright?” one of the sailors asked.

Jake nodded and coughed deeply.

“Yes,” he answered in a raspy voice so the sailor doesn’t grow suspicious. “But they need help.”

The sailor nodded and quickly cleared the way for both of them to get some fresh air.

As soon as the sailors got distracted again Jake held Zoe’s hand and quickly led her to the door leading to the lower levels. When they entered the room, both of them paused and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Now that we’re past that, I can safely say that I didn’t think that was going to work,” Zoe told Jake with a tired smile

“To be honest, Neither did I,” Jake retorted. “But really, that was the only possible choice.”

“I just hope we didn’t burn anyone to death. That would be a bad way to go,” Zoe said with a bitter smile.

Jake also felt regretful. He knew that these people were all going to die in the Bermuda Triangle but still, being the cause of their death, especially in such a horrible way, left a bitter taste in his mouth.

“We had no choice,” he answered Zoe in a sorrowful voice.

Both of them were quietly making their way down the stairs and as they entered the door of the room with the slaves and the guards, they noticed that one of the guards was still in the room watching the slaves.

Unfortunately, the guard noticed them at the same time.

“What are the both of you doing back here?” He sneered at them. Jake noticed that this was the same guard who had threatened Zoe, Jackson.

“What are we doing here?” Zoe sneered right back. “The captain sent us to make sure that everyone was on deck. There’s a fire up there! What are you doing hiding down here?”

While Zoe was answering him, both of them walked toward him.

“I was ordered to guard the slaves, make sure they don’t try anything funny,” Jackson answered, looking down at the rowers.

“They are bound in chains,” Jake growled. “They can’t do anything funny. Don’t make excuse for your cowardice.” 

“Watch it, boy. I don’t care if you’re a sailor. You don’t talk to me that way.” Jackson retorted angrily.

But before the guard could continue, Jake had reached him. He balled his fist and jabbed it hard into the guard's stomach. As soon as bent forward Jake followed with a hard uppercut.

The guard jerked back and Jake quickly acted and caught him in a choke hold. Jackson struggled but soon the fight left him and he went unconscious.

Jake pushed the body away from him and smiled as the arrogant guard fell on his face and they heard the sound of his nose being crunched.

Jake looked back to Zoe to find her staring at him with shock. 

“How?” Zoe asked him, awe filling her voice.

“I took some fighting classes,” Jake answered, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.

Zoe continued to stare at him as if she was seeing him for the first time. Jake quickly grew uncomfortable at her staring and cleared his throat.

“Uhm Uhm, we should keep moving forward. The exit window is in 13 more minutes,” Jake said looking at the pocket watch Liam had given them.

Zoe shook her head to clear it and nodded. “You’ll have to teach me some moves soon if we are going to continue going on these dangerous missions.”

“Of course,” Jake agreed to her request. He firmly believed that everyone should be able to defend themselves. And Zoe learning some fighting moves would only help them out in the long run.

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