Chapter 13

For a time there was only darkness in all around James with only sounds and the wall he could feel to guide him. Of course there was another sound James could hear as he moved forward: the sound of his own blood falling off his body. There should be no reason a person could normally hear such a faint sound but once he heard it once his ears focused. No matter how hard James held his shoulder where the deepest wound was he could feel blood slowly moving out of his body and falling off his hand.

I have to be getting close to the outside now

James knew this because he looked at the maps at Tom’s house and saw the exploded area around the town was abnormally small. [Perception] leveled up once from him straining himself to hear in the darkness and the focus on his body. After losing another hit point he finally started to see light from the moon and starts at the end of the tunnel. Exiting the tunnel and seeing what laid beyond caused his heart to fall along with him on his knees.

What the… how bad are things?

Before him was the seemly new wreckage of a ship broken and parts in flames, its sails had already been burned away and bodies could be seen from the beach to the ship. All the people he could see were dead and horribly killed with piece of people scattered. Seeing what was before his eyes caused James to throw up where he knelt.

[Fear Resistance] skill acquired

It came as a surprise to him that he such a reaction at the sight of all of this since James was not feeling much of anything at this point due to blood loss. His mind on the other hand could not handle the sight and did it on its own. After wiping his mouth with his free hand James went walking to the shore because he had no choice. If things kept going how they were he would die so the hope was to find something that would keep him alive.

There were more than a dozen bodies lying in the sand so James slowly walked over to them one at a time while trying to give himself tunnel vision so he would not see the random pieces of arms and legs no longer attached to their bodies. The first body was a total failure, shredded to pieces he could not even tell what the man looked like before. The same was true for the second and third after that but the fourth was different.

Dad?

James was surprised at himself since the body in front of him looked like Mark and his reaction to it. After a second, closer look the man was not mark and that fact relaxed his now light-headed mind. Unlike the others this body was for the most part undamaged besides for the number of stab wounds at the lower part of the man’s chest. His blonde hair flowed just for a second like it was in a gust of wind when the water flowed to reach it.

James took strength from seeing the man for a moment before ripping a piece of cloth from the man’s shirt from his shank and painfully securing it around his wound. Since the bodies did not have anything useful it was time to go explore what was left of the ship

[First Aid] skill acquired

That is good. Come goddess give me more skills or are you going to let a baby die!

At this point James was even willing to use guilt so he would not die and went into the water slowly. It feeling of pain came back strongly as he used his left arm to swim to the ship. In a way it was a good thing he was feeling this because it was keeping him awake. The distance the separate the wreckage for a burning ship to him was “close” but for a baby like him and his condition it would take serval minutes.

From his previous life James use to be a lifeguard and swim instructor for four years so the act of swimming was well known. The cold of the water was pushing him forward, looking down he could only see darkness and above bright, shining stars. Almost at the opening of a ship a wave come and washed over to him sending James underwater. Thumbing over and over he felt like tom hanks in Apollo 13 while he tried to keep the ship in focus.

[Swim] Skill acquired

Positioning himself correctly once again he grabbed onto a torn piece of a ship so hard he cut his hands but final mad his way on. Inside there were even more bodies, it seemed even if some attackers did die their bodies were taken with them. Getting to the point where it was becoming hard to walk James knew his time was coming up so the search for something to help got even more intense.

[-1 Health]

Going through one of holes in the wall that went through the rest of the ship James found what was left of a battle. Sailors went sabers seemed randomly spread in what looked like the dining hall. But as he made his way to the other side of the room the sailors seemed to have been trying to protect something. In the corner was the captain of a ship guarded by the strongest men yet, of course just like the others with a number of hole in all their bodies.

[Fear Resistance] leveled

This is it

Looking at the body of the captain now in front of it James noticed a nearly empty glass bottle in the corpse dead hand. Not knowing what it was and at this point not caring James pulled the bottle out of the dead hand and drank the pitiful amount that was left

[2 Health healed]

Yes today it not the day this baby dies!

James raised both his fist into the air in an act of defiance of death itself. While still bleeding looked to what else was around the captain and noticed what seemed to be a container for a letter but this was the first he noticed was actually empty. Going to the side where the container was allowed James to see an unopened box that the captain’s corpse was leaning on. Getting up he shacked it and to his joy heard a numbers of bottle sounds as the hit each other.

The box was not made out of wood but metal with a lock that made it impossible to get into but James refused to leave it. Pushing the body off the box James started to pull it with him. He struggled with its weight as he walked around the bodies creating a maze James could not afford to figure out. The small amount of healing potion that was left was not nearly enough to fix everything that was wrong with him and pulling such a weight was starting to reopen his deep shoulder wound.

Realizing that this would not work on the water James looked around until he found a piece of wood. First he dropped the wood onto the water then pushed the box onto the wood then finally himself. Doing that caused his light headedness to come back. This time James knew he would not be able to spot himself from passing out so he leaned on it just like how he saw the captains corpse.

James watched as the opening of the sewer where he came from and the wreckage of what was left of the ship became smaller in his view. This continued until he started to see only blackness and drifted to sleep as he drifted down the river to uncharted lands.