22Disclaimer: Don't own POTC.
Yeah…I am SO sorry for not updating. I finally got a super-popular story and devoted myself to it and its sequel with a side production in the Twilight category and I completely forgot about this story. I'll try and finish it up at the same rate as the others.
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"To the back! The back! Push!"
Out over the gorge they swung in the cage made of bones. Lexus tried not to look down as she moved as fast as she could in the condensed crowd of men to the back of the cage. Her bare foot slipped on the bone of the floor and she clutched the wall bones tighter. Her thin frame could only too easily slip through a gap between the bones and fall to its untimely death.
"Now! To the front! Look lively, men!"
Gibbs' cries stirred the men into a frenzy once more as the crowd rushed to the front of the cage. A hundred feet to their right, a second cage of men mimicked them. A score of arms thrust themselves up to the shoulder between the gaps in the cage as the cliff rocketed towards them.
Their hands grasped plantlife and the men scrambled for a more secure hold before the momentum turned against them. Too late. The weak leaves and limbs broke away in their hands as the force of the swing drove them back out over the gorge.
One more try; one more swing…
The cliff rose before them again and this time it did not fall away as the hands grabbed clusters of secure vines and grooves in the sheer rock face. Lexus was gritting her teeth as she hooked her legs around the lower bone bars to make sure the cage stayed with her in case all of the other men let go at once, which was an unlikely possibility in itself, but she was not taking chances.
"Put your legs through! Start to climb!" ordered Gibbs, turning his head so that the other cage would hear too. They began to make a slow and painful ascent.
Lexus could see Troy's teeth straining against each other as he clenched his jaw with the effort. Clay showed no strain at all, but that was most likely from his constant weight lifting back in the future. Lexus had never envied him before, but now those bowling ball-sized biceps were looking pretty useful as her own toothpick arms struggled to pull her bodyweight up a vine.
"Come on, men!" shouted Will in encouragement. "It'll take all of us to crew the Black Pearl!"
"Actually, you won't need everyone! 'Bout six would do," came a shout from an Indie man in the other cage. All movement stopped as the two prisoner crowds looked at each other. "Oohh dear." Gibbs gave a short nod to Will.
"Hurry!" shouted the blacksmith. The cages began to ascend with renewed speed now, racing against each other for the means of escape off of the accursed island of cannibals. Something caught Lexus' eye and she turned her head in time to see a skinny native walk onto the bridge. Her mouth went dry as she punched Troy and Clay in the shoulders, hissing. They passed on the message in a whisper. Will looked over to the other cage, which had not seen the threat.
"Stop!" he hissed. They looked at him in confusion, then back over at the bridge. Movement ceased. The native was now almost halfway. The Indie man hushed his group and nodded up the cliff face, motioning with his hand. They resumed climbing.
"Stop!" hissed Clay through the bars. "He'll hear you!"
They did not heed him. Lexus felt her stomach sink as the other half of the crew gained about ten feet more in silence. The Indie man met her gaze and sneered, reaching for another handhold, but instead of a vine, he grasped a red snake. His sneer soon turned to horror as the creature bared its fangs. He yelped and dropped the snake back into the crowd of men, who lost their handholds in shock. The cage fell back down into the gorge with a force that snapped the vine holding them up. Lexus looked away as the screaming cage of men dropped out of sight, The damage was done, however. The native had stopped, staring at them.
"Move!" yelled Will.
Faster they climbed, grabbing hand over hand up the vines at three times the speed they had exhibited only moments earlier. Finally the cage curved over the top of the cliff and the men sank to the ground in exhaustion. Will was the quickest to recover.
"Cut it loose! Find a rock!" he commanded.
The pirates complied, wrenching sharp stones from the dirt beneath their grubby fingers and grouping at one end of the cage to hack away at the rope compiled of surprisingly strong vines that bound them to the bridge above the gorge. Lexus watched her fingers begin to bleed as she cut them against the sharp edges of the stone she had found when it fell to the vine rope.
It broke and the men began to push at the bones' bindings, combining their strength to break the cage. Distant shrieks and shouts that sounded nearly inhuman to Lexus' ears began to echo their way through the trees. The men's movements became more rushed. The distant bushes began to move and rustle as calloused, native feet covered them in a mad dash for the cage.
"Roll the cage!" shouted the blacksmith, running to the other end of the sphere. Lexus stood within the small gap in the bones and turned to run as well when the cage suddenly lifted up on that side. The men were rolling it already. Her feet were through, then her hips. Her chest passed between the bone restraints; her spine curved and her arms clasped together above her head to avoid being hit as the cage rolled off of her completely, covering ground at a surprising pace in the opposite direction. Her wits took a moment to register what had happened.
She looked over her shoulder. The cannibalistic Pelegostos were running towards her now. Her eyes widened in fear. She looked back after the bone cage. It was nearing a short cliff.
"Clay!" she screamed. The cage tipped. The gentle, hazel eyes of the muscular bald man met her own grey ones for a split second. They widened in sudden fear. The cage disappeared over the cliff.
Lexus looked back once more before her legs gave way and began to run. She remembered where the bridge the native had crossed had been in relation to the cliff. She sprinted through the underbrush and out onto the wooden planks. Acrophobia struck her in a heartbeat, freezing her in her tracks. There were no handholds. She looked down. Bad idea, it was an endless drop beneath her.
The cries of the Pelegostos grew closer and she swallowed her fears, vaulting herself out onto the footbridge. She gained confidence the more ground she gained. Another cry sounded, but it was not from behind her. Much to Lexus's horror, more natives had accumulated on the other side of the gorge and were running towards her as well. She was trapped.
There was nothing else to do.
Heads turned to follow the petite body as it flew over the side of the footbridge and careened down the gorge. Of course Lexus hadn't planned on dying this early in the game. Her hands were out, trying to slow her fall as she set her squinting eyes on a bridge that lay across the gorge several levels down. Her legs kicked, trying to propel her forward a foot or two…
Her breath issued from her in a whoosh as her chest hit the sturdy wooden planks of the footbridge. Pain blossomed over her torso and she rolled over, curling up in agony. It took mere minutes to recover from the fall, though a nonstop stream of curses from the teenager's mouth seemed to speed the process up considerably. Soon she was back on her feet and running.
Lexus felt her leg muscles burn as she continued to run. A shriek called behind her and her head whipped around, though she did not stop running. A flapping ball of plumage caught her eye and she sighed in relief. It was only a bird. A freaky bird, but a bird none the less.
"Aye! Stop!"
Lexus turned her head in time to see two kohl-lined, cinnamon brown eyes widen in warning before the falling sensation was upon her again, though she was not alone. Her body had collided with the tanned body of her father and the two of them were now toppling over the rocky cliff down into another gorge.
Jack's yells mingled with Lexus's own screams as the walls of the cliffs rushed past them. The large bamboo stick that Lexus unconsciously noticed was tied to Jack's back suddenly scraped the stone walls, catching in the grooves and pulling her father to a stop. The rope suddenly began to unravel from Jack and his body was sent into a rapid spin as gravity exhibited its force on him. Just as the rope snapped around his ankle, holding him into an upside down hanging position, Lexus shot her arm out to grab his, bringing her own free fall to a stop as well.
Their combined weight was too much for the bamboo, however. It snapped in half under the pressure and they were dropped into free fall once again. Bridge after bridge gave way under their falling bodies, adding fragments of wooden planks to the number of things flying through the air.
Jack hit the ground first. His back hit the wild grass and he lay there, stunned for the moment with his limbs splayed. Lexus landed on her side two feet to his right, moaning softly. Half of the bamboo pole suddenly embedded itself into the ground not an inch from Jack's head. Lexus looked up for its fellow.
She threw herself onto her other side as the other half of the pole sank rapidly into the earth where her throat had been mere seconds before. A light fall of fruit ended the onslaught. The dreadlocked captain pulled himself into a sitting position, wincing slightly. His eyes turned to Lexus, who was lying on her back now, looking up at the sky and breathing hard.
"Watch where yer goin, lass!" he said sternly, running a grubby hand through his dreads. Lexus looked at him, uncertain of what to say. She didn't have to say anything, however. "Who are ye anyway?"
"Lexus," said Lexus.
"Funny, the eunuch didn't strike me as the type to carry small children to cannibal-infested islands," said Jack, brushing his knees off.
"I'm not a child!" argued Lexus, furrowing her brow.
"'Ow old are ye then?" asked Jack irritably.
"Just turned sixteen," said Lexus, crossing her arms over her knees and pulling them up to her chin.
"Sixteen, aye? Ye'll be ge'in it soon, then, aye? Or 'ave ye already?"
"What?" asked Lexus, looking up at Jack with an eyebrow raised. He smirked, showing several gold and silver teeth.
"Never you mind, Darlin'. Don' wan' to spoil the surprise for ye."
Lexus was about to reply when the sound of crashing underbrush reached them once more. Their heads turned in the same direction and soon they were both back on their feet running. They didn't need to look to know that there were tons of natives on their tail.
The plantlife grew sparser and sparser the further they ran along and soon it was sand slipping under their feet in place of dirt and sticks. They rounded a cliff and saw the Black Pearl floating on the rising tide, her crew surrounding her. Lexus saw Clay and Troy and began to run towards them. Jack was next to her, running for his ship.
Their strides were matched as the water lapped up against their feet, turning their footfalls into splashes and flooding the prints they left behind in the sand. The ground became harder to run on as the tide rose further.
Lexus took a step and then another, but as she tried to pull her first foot, it would not pull free of the sand. She fell into the salty water, feeling it fill her nose and burn her eyes. She pushed up and spat the ocean water from her mouth.
"Jack!" she cried. A strong grip encircled her upper arm and pulled her free of the sand and water, dragging her along as she resumed her running, though far more awkwardly than before. The salt stung her eyes whenever she tried to open them.
Then the hand let go and she was alone in the dark, rubbing at her eyes with sandy hands that did nothing but make it worse. Then two strong hands grasped her at the waist and pushed her up the side of something big and wooden. Two stronger hands clasped around her shoulders and pulled her from above. Ropes passed under her fingers and she grasped them, climbing up the ladder she assumed they made.
The ladder ended and she toppled over the side of a wooden banister onto a flat, plank deck. Clay's voice filled her ears as his familiar, large, strong hands brushed away at the sand that caked Lexus's face. But above Clay and the sea, a call echoed into her ears.
"Alas my children, this is the day you will always remember as the day that-" A wave crashed. "…Captain…Jack Sparrow…" the voice finished. Captain Jack Sparrow, thought Lexus. Her father, majestic and awe-inspiring as always.
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