Word Prompt: Yargh! Pirate Zombies.
Word Limit: 600
“Row harder men, we need to get over these waves.” The first mate yells at us. We are all so tired but we keep rowing hard towards the shore of the small uninhabited island we happened across. Our muscles bulging as we pull our oars, taking us every further away from the blazing ship we have abandoned.
The longboats nose drags in the sand, I jump out and help pull her up further on shore. In the distance the burning mast finally snaps and smashes through the weakened decking. The fire rising into the sky creates what looks like a second sunset.
How did we get here I hear you ask? You will never believe me, but for the thousandth time I will tell the story anyway.
It was a normal breezy summers day, I was a manning the crows nest when I saw it on the horizon. A small ship, making great speed in our direction. I called out to let the captain know and he climbed up into the nest with me to see if he could see anything else.
It wasn't long before we saw the flag through our spyglass. The flag was black with white on it. We couldn't make out the imagery on the flag, but the colours could only mean one thing. Pirates.
The ship was making good ground against us, but there was still a lot of time to prepare. To their credit the men did prepare for the pirates as well as could be expected on a merchant vessel with no cannons on her. The men with personal flintlocks made sure their pistols were ready, and there was enough swords aboard the vessel for every man to have a cutlass in hand when they arrived.
When they did arrive it was quiet, with nary a shot fired towards us. The sun had set, but the moon was full and allowed us enough light to fight by. The schooner maneuvered well into position beside us. Then they came.
The first one swung across trailing rope behind him, someone fired their flintlock to no avail. There was a man on board, he dropped what he was holding and drew his cutlass. The hooks he had been holding onto slid across the deck and dug themselves into the planks. The ropes attached to them pulled taut and across shimmied the pirates.
An ungodly roar sounded from behind me as the captain opened fire with his blunderbuss, it took a man in the chest just as he climbed aboard and he fell overboard. The crew clashed fiercely with the pirates.
One came up upon me, he was clearly dazed in the confusion of battle and I neatly stepped forward and speared him in the gut with my cutlass. It sunk through to the hilt. I was now right beside the man, I could smell his breath, it was horrifying, the smell of death and decay.
He batted me aside and I fell to the ground. I watched as he pulled the sword from his gut, it made a squelching popping noise as it came free. He frowned at it, then tossed it aside. I couldn't tear my gaze from him, I watched as he proceeded to take a bite out of the captain.
I will admit, I don't know much about what happened next. I am ashamed to admit it, but I ran and hid until they were gone. There was a lot of shouting, it was sunrise by the time they left. I saw the flag whipping around as they cast off with most of our cargo and half the crew as food. The white devil piecing a red heart, the jolly roger of Blackbeard and his zombie crew.
Three days later we cast the ship free of anchor, doused in pitch and set alight. The wounded crew had all since passed away and begun to turn into zombies themselves. We tried to kill them all one at a time, but another crew member was bitten in the process. We just threw all the bodies in the hold, lit the ship on fire, and rowed to a nearby island.
Word count: 694 words.
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