"Do as I say! I know my ship well!"
After yelling at the vortex furnace, Charles looked down at the first mate on the ground, "John! Go unload half of the cargo on the ship!"
He knew that the critical moment was not the time to hesitate, and that being alive was more important than anything else.
"Yes!" The fat old man kicked open the cockpit door and rushed out.
Charles' heart bled as he listened to the splash of the cargo falling into the water.
Fortunately, the series of measures were still effective. After several collisions, the Mouse, which was lightly armed, began to speed up and slowly left the things behind.
When he saw the real navigation mark appear on the bow, Charles, covered in cold sweat, slowly let go of the rudder.
The boy lying on the ground crawled to Charles' feet tremblingly and hugged his thighs tightly.
"Captain, I just saw—"
Charles simply pinched his cheeks with his hands to stop him from continuing.
"Before you get on board, I'll tell you what the third sentence is."
"We can't look at or think about the monsters in the water. Unless they get close to our boat, don't say anything if you see them..."
"Very good. Now stand up and drop the anchor first, then notify everyone on the ship to assemble on deck. I need to take a headcount."
After Charles finished speaking, he let go of his hand and walked out of the cockpit. At this time, the deck was in a mess, with water everywhere, and the ropes binding the cargo were floating on the water and swaying left and right.
Charles waded through the calf-deep water and arrived at the stern. The spindle-shaped stern was dented as if it had been hit by a sledgehammer. Some unknown black mucus was stuck on it, and it emitted a continuous foul smell.
Looking at the shape, it was easy to imagine the size of the creature that had just hit the ship, but eight years of sailing had worn away Charles' curiosity, and he was now thinking about other issues.
"It will cost a lot of money to repair this thing..." Charles was a little annoyed. He was one step further away from his dream.
Just at this moment, the whispering sound in my ears sounded again, as if spreading from the darkness all around.
"ph... nglui mglw... nafh... "
"Fuck!" Charles, with a frown on his face, clenched his fist with one hand and repeatedly hit his forehead with the back of his hand. The pain diluted the irritability brought by the murmur.
When Charles saw the rest of the crew beginning to gather on the deck, he put his hands down and walked over.
Seeing their captain coming, several men of different heights quickly stood in a row. No matter what they looked like, their faces were as frighteningly pale as Charles'.
"John, the first mate, assists the captain and organizes various work plans. He is responsible for preparing cargo stowage plans and is the helmsman for 12 to 24 hours." The fat old man spoke first.
Standing next to old John was a tall and strong man with oil all over his blue clothes. He quickly took over after the first mate finished speaking.
"James, second engineer, responsible for maintaining the normal working order of the turbine boiler; at the same time maintaining the propulsion equipment and auxiliary equipment, boilers, lubrication, cooling and fuel oil."
Next to the tall guy was a thin guy, so tall and thin that he looked like a telephone pole.
"Frey, the cook is in charge of the crew's meals."
Following the chef was Dipper, who looked grim. He was a little shaky and seemed to have not recovered yet.
"Di... Dip, position one, responsible for cleaning the deck, and maintaining and repairing the anchors, cables, and loading and unloading equipment."
Charles quickly scanned the four people in front of him and immediately noticed that one person was missing. "Where is the boatswain?"
The four of them looked at each other and no one answered.
"Ahhh!!" Suddenly a tragic scream came from under the deck.
"Something is on board! Get your weapons!" Charles led everyone and rushed over quickly.
There were only two people in the dim cabin at this time. One of them was standing. He was the boatswain of the Mouse, with a terrified expression.
A man was lying on the ground. It was impossible to tell who he was because his skin had been peeled off. Without the protection of skin, every time his body touched the ground, the bloody man trembled in pain.
He lay on the ground in a blur, screaming and struggling desperately, his breathing becoming weaker and weaker.
"Jim! Go ask his identity!" Charles quickly took out the revolver from his waist.
The boatswain crawled over with fear on his face, got close to the bloody head and listened attentively.
After a few seconds, he turned around with a panicked look on his face, pointed his finger at Charles and said, "Captain, ... he said he is you!"
"I?"
Hearing the hurried footsteps of the crew behind him, Charles decisively pointed his gun at the boatswain.
"Charles, Captain of the Ship, responsible for the safe transportation, production and administration of the ship, ensuring the safety of the ship and the crew's life and property to the greatest extent possible, handling all matters decisively and steadily when encountering emergencies, 0-12 helmsman! Boatswain! Report to your position now!!"
"Kill him now! He is no longer your captain!" The boatswain pointed at Charles in horror.
"Bang!" As Charles pulled the trigger, a bloody hole appeared on the boatswain's forehead, and what flowed out was not blood, but a semi-coagulated dark yellow liquid.
Seeing that the truth was exposed, the boatswain who was shot began to twist and change his body. His mouth split to the back of his head, his limbs began to swell rapidly, and he rushed towards Charles with a weird roar.
"Bang, bang, bang!" Bullets quickly poured onto the boatswain's body, and his skin was torn like a torn sack, revealing the dark, rotten, and twisted torso underneath, which was like the skin of a toad.
After all six bullets were fired, the monster was not dead yet. It spread its limbs and pounced towards the human in front of it.
Charles seemed to have experienced this many times before. There was no panic on his face. He rolled to the side and avoided the monster's attack.
While dodging, his hands did not stop. He had already loaded the bullets into the revolver and fired six more shots with a flip of his hand.
Under the attack of twelve bullets, the monster's jointed legs softened and it fell to the ground helplessly.
Charles, panting, took a look at the corpse in front of him that made him feel nauseous instinctively, and turned to look at the terrified crew behind him.
"Don't just stand there, throw this damn thing overboard," Charles said, and walked towards the motionless blood corpse.
He ignored the smell of blood and used his hands to straighten his head. When he saw that the exposed teeth were missing a front tooth, Charles knew that this person was his boatswain and the one just now was a sea monster in disguise.
There was a trace of pain on Charles' face, but he quickly restrained himself, took out the bullets and put them back into the gun, then began to patrol his boat, looking for other fish that had escaped the net.
Dipper followed the first mate John and struggled to carry the body.
The boy said to his companion in surprise: "The captain is so amazing."
"Haha, of course, otherwise why is he the captain and you are just a sailor. In fact, he was the same as you when he first came on board."
"Really? What was Captain Charles like when he first came aboard?"
"It's been a long time, almost seven or eight years. I was still the third mate on another ship at the time, and Charles came over from the sea. When I first met him, he couldn't even speak."
"Really? Then how did he become the captain?"
"The old captain felt sorry for him and let him follow the ship from a distance. When we returned to the dock and found out that he was not a monster, he stayed on our ship. He learned to speak and be a sailor. Not long after he learned to speak, he announced that he wanted a ship of his own to lead all mankind back to the land of light. We all laughed at him and said he was crazy."
"and after?"
"Later, he was promoted from a sailor to a boatswain, and then from a boatswain to a third mate. When we all thought he would be promoted from a third mate to a second mate, he actually saved up money to buy a second-hand small cargo ship. Look, it's the Mouse under our feet."
(End of this chapter)