Without Law 18 Eric Vall (reading well TXT) 📖

able to translate anything we come across.”

“Oh, good idea.” Paige nodded as she continued to follow me.

The hallway was still filled with dead bodies, and it smelled like rancid, burned flesh. I held my breath as we stepped over the deceased soldiers on our way to the Captain’s chambers.

The two guards Tara and I had taken out just a couple of days before were still there, so I kicked them out of the way as best I could and stepped into the room.

The Captain was still in the same spot near the bathroom door. Dried blood was splattered on the walls all around him, but I just stepped over him and walked to the side table near the bed.

I used the barrel of my gun to rifle through the contents of the drawer, but I was disappointed to not find anything that looked like orders of any kind. There weren’t any pieces of paper at all, just some cigarettes, a lighter, a half full fifth of Jameson whiskey, and a sock that I didn’t even want to think about touching.

“Anything?” Paige asked. The brunette stood by the small wardrobe and went through it with her hand over her mouth to keep the putrid smell of the room at bay.

“Nothing here.” I shook my head.

“Or here,” Minji said, and she popped her head up from where she’d been crouched down so she could see under the bed.

“We’ll come back and check again once the bodies are cleaned up,” I said, and I felt my nose wrinkle with disgust. “But for now, let’s head down to take inventory.”

“Sounds good to me,” Paige agreed.

We rushed toward the door, but just as we were about to step through, the ship jolted, and we were slammed into the doorjamb. I grabbed onto Paige and Minji to protect them, and my shoulder hit the wall with so much force it felt like I’d just tried to ram a door down, and unsuccessfully at that.

“What the hell was that?” Paige asked.

“Let’s go,” I said.

The ship was still moving quickly, I could feel that, but the jolt was over so I released the girls and tore down the hallway, over the dead men, to the deck of the ship.

“Something’s wrong,” Anna said as she, Tara, and Bailey ran over to us from where they’d been cleaning up.

I looked out in front of the ship and saw we were headed straight for shore. The ship was going at a much faster pace than it’d been when we were practicing.

Another jolt caused us all to fly into the railing, and I grabbed on to steady myself.

I used one hand to reach down to my hip and pull up my walkie talkie.

“Hammer!” I yelled. “What the fuck is happening!”

There was no response.

“Hammer!” I yelled into the walkie again. “Lieutenant, what is the status?”

Anna’s green eyes caught mine, and they were filled with fear. The ship felt like it was slowing down, but it was still headed right for shore.

“The controller joystick is stuck,” he responded after a few more seconds.

“Fuck,” I cursed and looked at the girls seriously. “Hold on.”

Chapter 5

“What the fuck does he mean ‘stuck’?” Tara squealed as she gripped the railing hard.

“The propeller must be stuck in one direction,” Paige explained.

“I don’t mean that literally,” Tara said. “I mean what the hell is he doing to fix it?”

“I’m sure he’s doing his best,” I said. “Just hold on.”

I trusted Hammer, and I knew he wouldn’t purposefully put our people in danger. Whatever had happened up there, he was working to fix it.

“It feels like the ship is slowing down at least,” Bailey noted.

“It is.” I nodded. “I feel it, too.”

“They must have released the gas to try and stop us that way,” Paige added.

“Anna?” Bailey asked. “Are you okay?”

I looked over to see the redhead with her hands wrapped around the railing like everyone else, only she had her head down, and her body sort of limply swayed with the motion of the ship.

“Just… peachy,” the redhead breathed, and when she looked up her mouth hung open slightly, and her eyelids were heavy with disorientation.

“Just breathe,” I called to the redhead. “You’ll be okay!”

Anna didn’t respond, but she nodded her head slightly, so I took that as acknowledgment that she’d heard what I said.

The boat jerked again, and I slid forward into the railing. I was able to brace myself so it wasn’t too bad of an impact, but if we actually hit the shore, it would be a lot worse. I imagined a few people would be thrown from the ship, or at least whipped around pretty badly.

We weren’t going at an extremely high speed, but the momentum of the ship would make everything a lot worse. The vessel was huge, and if it crashed into shore there would most definitely be some damage, though to it or the shore, I wasn’t sure.

“Fuuuuuck,” Tara groaned as the ship drew closer and closer to land.

I held my body in place against the railing and braced for impact, then the boat jerked one more time, and we finally turned away from shore. There was a huge ripple from the ship turning so suddenly, but I was just happy we weren’t hurtling toward land any longer.

“Oh, sweet baby Jesus, thank you,” Tara said, and she placed her hand on her chest and looked up to the sky as the ship started to even out again.

“We’re back on course,” Hammer’s voice said through the walkie talkie. “Sorry about that.”

“Sorry about that?” Tara asked with narrowed eyes as she steadied herself back on the deck. “Did he just say sorry about almost crashing our ship? Let me see that thing, I’m--”

Tara walked over and reached