CH - 21 [ Losing your shit ] part - 5

Grey was awoken by the sound of shouting. Something had scared somebody. Grey bolted up out of bed and looked about, confused. What the heck is going on?

Then he dashed out from the bunks to the deck of the ship into the morning light. He was temporarily blinded so he put his hand up this face to shade his eyes. There. He saw Kazuki at the end of the dock, so he raced to meet him. Surely there was danger. Grey clenched his fists, ready to brawl. But ahead of them, he didn't see any danger. "What's going on, Kazuki? Why are you shouting?"

Kazuki pointed up.

Above them, across the sign for docks, was strewn a dead body. It was nailed up in pieces. They looked like some kind of beast had had their fun with it, then tossed the remains aside. There were all kinds of tear marks all over them. The gnarled mess was dripping blood down on the ground in front of the two men. It had already formed a decent sized pool.

Grey gazed upon the mess in horror… and then he recognized the body. It was Lenny, the man that Grey had forced to give them information. His body was recognizable not only by the size of the chunks, but his head had been perfectly preserved, with the fear he had felt in his final moments frozen on his face. Whoever had done this wanted them to know how terrified Lenny was while he was being butchered. This was a message. This was what happens to those that defy the Bear God. This sick son of a bitch.

Grey turned to run back to the ship, rampaging through, inspecting each bunk to make sure that there was nobody else missing. But there was: Halcen. Grey couldn't find him anywhere. Halcen, where the hell are you at a time like this? Don't tell me they got you without me noticing… Grey scanned the immediate area. He noticed one of the boats was missing. You little prick.

Grey gathered the crew. "Halcen went on ahead. We have to make a plan to make sure we can get to him before something happens. He went off to rescue Valentina without us. I doubt he's gonna be able to take care of this all by himself. So we need to prep, and leave." He nodded to Bailu, "You need to get this ship ready, now!" Then he turned to Kazuki. "You're gonna stay here and protect these three." And then he came to Bo. "You're gonna come with me. We're gonna take one of these boats and get over to the other side as fast as we can." And he turned back to Bailu. "And you guys are gonna come get us when this ship is ready. Got it?"

They all mumbled in agreement.

Bailu wasn't happy though. "So I have to work faster and probably hurt myself because our dumbass captain ran off to get himself killed?"

Grey got close to Bailu and stared into his eyes. "I've given you your space so far because I thought all your bitching was harmless, but now I'm done. You do what you're told to do because you're paid to do it. I don't care what your problems are with Halcen, or me, or anybody else for that matter. You do this because it needs to be done. Do you understand me?"

Bailu nodded. "Yes, sir."

And then they began getting ready to leave. Grey got some supplies packed for the trip, and Bo got his weapons ready.

Grey went back to the bloody mess and looked up at Lenny. I'm sorry. Grey was truly sorry to have gotten Lenny hurt, but he had no time to give the man a proper burial. I hope I can come back soon to make amends.

"Wait…" Bo whispered.

"What?" Grey looked to Bo, standing there next to him, looking around like he was trying to place something.

"Do you hear that?"

Grey silenced himself and closed his eyes. He could feel it before he could hear it. His hearing wasn't as great as it once had been like the young man next to him, but his sensory Haki wasn't half bad. He could feel it. "There's a horde of people heading toward us." And they all felt very aggressive. They were hyped up on something, but Grey couldn't figure out what would set off that many people all at once.

"What?" Bo asked.

"We're under attack."

"Oh, really? Yay," he said sarcastically. "Just one thing after another with you people, isn't it?"

"It seems that way," Grey admitted, unhappily. Grey stormed back toward the Black Tail. "Change of plans!" he announced. "A horde is headed our way. We need to put up a defense! Kazuki, Bo, and I will fight them off. Loyola, Jory, I know you're hurt, but I need you to try to help Bailu as much as possible in fixing this ship."

"No," Jory said, standing up. "I'm gonna help you."

"Jory, you're hurt."

"Then there won't be any problem in me getting hurt more, will there?"

"Now's not the time to play hero."

"Hero? How many people are heading our way?"

"Not sure. It felt like the majority of the town though, so maybe fifty."

"And you think you three can handle that yourselves? Cause I don't. At least let me be of some use. Then we can go back to your plan when the fight is over."

"Are you sure?"

Jory nodded. He had a brave heart. Grey admired that.

Grey sighed. "Alright, but don't get anymore hurt. If it's too much for you, let me know."

"Yes, sir." Jory went to grab his sword, then he came out to step on the dock with the others.

Bo and Kazuki were already armed, so they went to find the best spots to make themselves most efficient. They took advantage of the fact that most of the town was abandoned and most of their buildings were empty. The roofs of these abandoned buildings on the lower level street provided perfect sniper positions. Bo took one on the right of the docks and Kazuki took one of the left. Grey was as ready as possible. They all just had to get mentally ready.

And then they could see the mass of humans hurtling down the levels of the village down towards the docks. Bo and Kazuki could see the actual people. They could see no children, just men and women seemingly spanning from their twenties to their later years. Grey and Jory could not see the individuals yet, just the cloud of dirt billowing from their stampede.

This is going to be intense.

And then the bullets began flying. The snipers took their jobs seriously. While the mob was still heading down the levels towards them, Bo and Kazuki were able to start picking them off, one by one. But with how far away they were and how fast they were moving, not all of their shots were headshots. And with how many there were total, they didn't have the ability to take their numbers down enough. But at least they were doing some damage. They counted eleven down by the time the horde got to the lowest level.

And now it's our turn. Grey saw them coming finally, and he was even more confused. They all seemed to be carrying weapons of the like that they could find. Since the island was void of weapons as the woman at the store had told them, these people had found things like rakes, shovels, kitchen knives, and similar items that they could find around the house. But the most confusing thing was that they all seemed to be in unintelligible rages. They were acting like ravenous beasts, rampaging because it was the only thing they understood. These quiet townspeople had been induced into mindless violence. Nothing was going to stop their spree, unless they themselves were put down.

Grey charged at the mass. He couldn't let them get to the docks, the Black Tail, or the rest of the crew. They needed to be kept safe, so Grey was going to put his life on the line. He ran in, fists flying first. And then he went at it.

They all attacked like monsters and Grey had had plenty of experience with monsters. He made sure his left arm was always in shield position as he began to throw punches with his right. This old-timer packed quite the punch, as one strike threw one person into the crowd, knocking over multiple behind him, clearing a path. The punch wasn't enough to kill, but it was for sure enough to break their ribs and cause a movement hindrance.

Then with his left arm, he swung back across the few that were trying to cling to him, throwing them as well into the mass they came from. He took advantage of this and jumped over their numbers into the middle, dropping a few more with his legs. He began punching them with multiple throws. Grey could hear their bones cracking with each of his attacks. He was doing more damage than they could handle.

They began encircling Grey and taking swings at him with their individual weapons. Some landed, but they were with the strength of regular humans who had never trained. They did little damage, so Grey began to feel a little more confident. They were encircling him, but he was keeping up a steady pace with his punches.