Chapter 15: Chicken Bakawk

A few select members of my crew stared at the dock in cofusion, others immediately on guard. Zane stooda bit straighter and his mouth opened.

"Mizuki, take discreet aim from the crow's nest, Xavier go watch Korona. Kitsune stand at guard and Chansee stand with captain." Zane's orders were absolute, giving no one any room to argue or protest.

Everyone ran quickly and efficiently across the deck.

I was honestly a bit affronted as to how well they all obeyed the first mate- whereas I was standing in place gawking at them all.

The ship docked and I ran past Chansee to the main deck where Kitsune was lowering stairs. I stood next to Zane, defying his silent glare that told me to stay back. I crossed my arms and squared my shoulders, trying to make myself look larger than I was.

Up closer, it was easier to see the details of the chicken-person that awaited us. He was a forty-something dude in a matted, dirty, dulled one-piece yellow chicken costume. He wore a pristine marines shirt over the suit and had a standard issue marine rifle slung around his back on what looked like an old shoelace.

"Good evening, sir Bakawk! How's your evening so far?" I grinned pleasantly at him, ignoring the annoyed man next to me.

"How do you know my name?" The overgrown face of the marine twisted into confusion and surprise.

"We're here on orders for a reevaluation of the necessity of this base and a regular health check." Go me! Not even a stutter.

"One order of who?" His expression turned into one of suspicion.

I mentally flailed and my thoughts wetn straight to ohcrapohcrapohcrapohcr-

"Commander Waren of mediation and routine offices."

Everyone looked at the first mate.

"Commander Waren?"

"Present, sir." A young man gave a salute and stood at attention.

Hawk-like eyes glowed fuschia as they examined the young marine before him. They narrowed almost imperceptibly and the young man standing at attention flinched at the intensity as he waited.

"Report!" The shout from his commander surprised the poor boy.

He shook so hard in the knees he nearly collapsed, "Sir, yes, sir! Three crews on the coast-"

The breath left my lungs as I stared at my first mate as he spoke. Something cold settled in my gut at the sharp glint to his expression and I decided that for just this once I would let the man charade as captain. I shivered briefly as I shuffled back a step or two.

"We're here for an inspection at orders of Commander Waren and it would be much appreciated if you would step aside or lead us to your commanding officer so we may ensure this base is up to regulation."

Bakawk looked a little suspicious, "What are you doing here now of all times? It's been years since we had a routine inspection."

"Well I hope you've stayed up to code, or you'll be receiving a mountain of demerits on your doorstep before the month is up."

Daaaaang, dude. Zane is a scary guy.

The man looked about ten years younger than usual and with more authority and presence than he's ever held. The man in the chicken suit- or was he the chicken?- looked significantly more pale when he whipped around and began power walking away. Zane shot me a look I couldn't interpret and began down the ramp.

Of course I followed him to the dock. What else was I supposed to do? Stay on the shipe?

The boards of the dock creaked ominously under my feet as if they would collapse at the slightest harsh movement. I turned up towards the crow's nest to Mizuki and mimed eyes looking at the base. His face scrunched up in disdain, but he nodded and leaned against the railing.

As soon as I was within jumping distance from the dock, I leapt from that sucker and left that crealy crap behind. No way Jose am I gonna walk on some collapsing crap. If I fell through that I could get a splinter and no matter how many time I relived that pain, it never got better. Splinters are, like, the worst pain, up there with stubbing a toe and stepping on a lego. Just a little above the horrible sounds like nails on a chalkboard and ice rubbing together.

Ierghk. Bleg. Terrible just thinking about it.

Anyways, no need to worry about that anymore. Besides, I probably looked pretty cool with my cloak flapping behind me. Zane glared heavily when he looked over his shoulder. I felt thoroughly ashamed and stopped my skipping. Bakawk wasn't paying any attention to me, instead he was droning on about damages to the base- all of it was monotone and very hard to listen to. Besides, it was kinda obvious what was wrong with the base.

Being shot full of cannonballs and all. Like, really, the big, blue "Marines" was barely legible as it was.

I wonder where Ace and Luffy are right now.

I jerked a bit and felt a surge of confusion. What the flip, brain?

Sure, yeah, let's think about that, then.

Ace was probably having a blast with his new fam clan and Luffy was having a blast with the old fam clan up on mount Columbo with Dadan and the crew, killing trees and creatures alike. The answer was obvious, so why did I feel like something was wrong?

Like, really, there was a tingling in the back of my head and the cold pitt in my stomach stiffened again from the wisps left after Zane. My limbs shuddered and I ran a hand over the gooseflesh from wrist to collar. I frowned and glanced back at Mizuki in the crow's nest. He shot me a lazy thumbs up so I shrugged and stepped a little closer behind Zane.

I have a bad feeling about this place now.

My brain worked overtime as I tried to reason my feelings of unease. I didn't really want to go inside anymore. I wanted to go back to the boat, really. Really.

Bakawk stopped in front of the missing doors and gestured with one hand, "Welcome inside, watch your step, parts of the floor are missing," he stared blankly at Zane.

The older man raised an eyebrow and looked into the shadowy entryway.

Our guide shook himself awake and cleared his throat, "I'll, uh, lead the way, actually. Don't want our totally intentional traps to catch anyone unawares."

He positioned himself in front of the threshold and made a jump over some darker shadows onto a patch of concrete that had a flashlight lamp sitting in the middle of it. Zane followed easily with a large step and I was close behind.

Big, shadowy holes with unknown outcome? I'd like to give you a big, fat, NOPE.

I looked uncomfortable at the large patches of wood and beams arranged as bridges over the uncovered gaps. I didn't want to be here anymore. One of my biggest fears was gaping holes and doors I don't know where they lead to. Like, seriously, one of those suckers could lead to hell and I'd be unaware.

Also, if there were some kind of, I don't know, Gollum-like creature down there that could stick to ceilings or jump really high, what was stopping it from reaching out to grab my ankle and pull me in?

Absolutely Nothing.

Ugh, creepy holes are not my expertise.

"Watch your step, sir and lady," Our tour guide stepped up onto one of the wooden beams going leftish and I think I had a small heart attack.

Before Zane could cross, I tugged his sleeve and pointed down. He followed the direction and gave me a "what-do-you-want" look that made me feel bad.

"What is below us at the moment?" He asked like a good first mate.

"Oh, just some storage space. We don't use it anymore, though, because there's nothing in there and too many rats."

I breathed a light sigh of relief. That wasn't near as bad as I thought. It could've been torture rooms or something. Or a collapsed underground tunnel that holds the souls of all those who've died there!

But it's not that, because it's a storage space. Still not ideal, but it's not too bad.

Ideal? What?

I shook myself and pulled myself lightly onto the wooden beams. I decidedly did not look into the murky depths as I crossed and kept up with Zane and Bakawk. We were led through a doorway and into a room that had an actual door. There was a five person table and six chairs around it.

Bakawk let us walk through the doorway on our own and waited at the door, "I'll go get my superior officer."

That sounded a bit odd. Something about his voice when he said that made me worried all over again. He closed the door with a scrrrrrsch clck and I heard his heavy footsteps as he left. Zane gracefully pulled a chair from beneath the table and sat down with one leg crossed over the other. I stood awkwardly next to him and shifted from foot to foot.

He looked up at me with a scowl, "Calm down and put your rear end in a chair, lieutenant!"

I reluctantly removed the chair from beneath the table and examined the room from my new spot. The walls were scrappy wallpaper over sickly blue paint and crappy drywall that was crumbling away from the wooden base. Speaking of wood, I didn't like the floor. It felt like the creepy, creaky dock from outside. There were no other doors in the room and the ceiling was uncomfortable low. If Kitsune were to come in, he'd be a little too tall for his own comfort.

I shook myself and looked over at Zane, "So, what do you think so far?"

He cleared his throat and sat up a little, "This place is obviously falling apart. It's not unfixable, but it will need some correction. I probably won't report all the issues and let them figure it out on their own."

I nodded in response and opened my mouth in response- all the hair on my arms rose and the back of my neck tingled worryingly.

THUNK!

Zane leapt to his feet a little too late, both of us already lunging for the door, but it was locked before we got there. We both straightened and made eye contact.

"Shi-"

Then the floor was gone and everything went black.

Wowza. That was crazy, dude. Whew. So many things were hinted at in this chapter, even though it was pretty short.

Edit: 10/7/18

Hey, everybody! I'm alive! In case you didn't go reread the first chapter, I finally got back from all that chaos over the past two years. I'm updating this story first.

I found this in my saved files with only the last two hundred words written in. This is because it was left over from when I had to type on a different computer before my laptop died, I filled in the blanks and changed pretty much the whole thing, but I kinda remember what I was going for and I worked out what to do from there.

Drop an opinion maybe? Stay Awesome!