Chapter 38 Invasion
Invasion
This large tugboat blowing its fog horn, tears back my veil of safety from the real world.
Slitting the encompassing shroud like a knife down a feather stuffed pillow.
It’s contents exploding all around it as it plows itself into my crumbling dock.
I do not recognize their flag or colors, it flaps lazily and ragged around a rusted pole.
But, at the pinnacle of its masthead, in slow palpitations, in-sync with with my own thudding heartbeat—an amber light blinks.
Evenly uniformed sailors all speedily shuffle across its deck, all yelling and running back and forth except for a man on the bow.
So set apart from the others, not only from being all in black, but in the way he looks almost attached to the ship itself, gazing directly at me through his scope.
I stand exposed to the elements and to my greatest danger, human men.
Flight finally beats out freeze and I run towards the tower, tripping over rocks and sand.
Scraping my knees on its unforgiving texture.
I can feel the whole island’s hospitality shift as soon as their dull black boots step foot onto the ground.
No longer am I protected by the miles and miles which isolated my refuge.
I run towards my steeple, desperate to find sanctuary within its walls.
Shouting behind me, their voices draw nearer as I fumble with the lock, it has become so coated in salt it will no longer turn, so out of practice in its function it has frozen solid.
As I run up the stairs, our collection from the sea shatters down the steps behind me.
Off one of the hooks in the hallway I quickly grab one of Lir’s woven blankets from a hook to wrap my stark panicking form.
My voice cracks as I call out from the radio room to no avail, scanning channels to only hear static.
Not only do I fear for my own safety, but of the reality of flags of an unknown faction appearing on my shore.
They did not seem like lost sailors, kissing the land after being turned around in a storm.
No, their intent is heavy, just like the steps I hear coming up the stairs, this is an invasion.
I wish there was something as fantastical, as interesting as Lir for reasoning that these men were doing here, but it’s just power and war.
I’m tired of power and war, it’s all so overdone. It’s practically cheap.
Across the microphone I call out, but I am answered with silence—nothing calls back to me across the waves.
I feel a presence behind me, a black glove reaches over my shoulder to slowly unplug the cords coming from my glowing lifeline.
Almost as if the chaos is happening in slow motion, my shoulders are grabbed and turned around to be pushed against the wall.
My head echoes the hard thump when slammed against the hollow brick.
They speak in code as one of the sailors recalibrates the radio to contact another dispatch to confirm their location. I recognize the man’s hissing voice and I whisper, “Jones.”
The operator of the radio whips around. His now even more numerous gold teeth glinting in a mean upturned scowl, but it quickly drops in confusion.
The short man looks at me puzzled. I wasn’t the lighthouse warden that hurt his pride, but his eyes grimace and I know he would take out his embarrassment from that day out on me either way.
I’ve already seen him run with his tail between his legs from mere seagulls though.
So even though right now I’m terrified—I’m not really scared of him.
My focus shifts and I look into the face of the man who is holding me against the wall, his skin worn away by the ocean’s wind to show his true soul.
Empty grey eyes examine my face, surprised at my feminine features, but more confused at my defiant stare back into him.
We survey each other silently for a long time as I watch side-eyed out the window where I see more men are unloading chests, equipment and weapons from the ship.
The radio speaker draws out a series of clicks and beeps. Down below us the trap door opening and mechanical banging echoes up the steps. Then a loud screech of interference that makes us all grasp our ears. Except for the captain, his eyes do not move from me, nor his hand from my throat.
One of the soldiers glances over his shoulder while holding a headset to his ear. “We’re just about in, Captain. Soon, all the messages are going to be decrypted and any new ones will be intercepted in real time.”
“The cipher.” I gasp under my breath.
The eyes and glove of the captain tighten.
With this accidental admission I have played my cards openly on the table, I can no longer pretend to be here simply by accident and oblivious to the beast in the basement.
As he drags me out of the room further up the stairs, I am able to run my hand stealthily across the brass switch that connects my last recording to the lamp’s output.
The recorded whale song is my last hope of getting some sort of message out of here. It will play over one of the radio frequencies and back down into the cipher which will blink over the bulb—I hope.
At least the Royal Navy will hear or see that something strange is happening here. Even if that Vice Admiral doesn’t actually care about my safety, I assume he cares about national security and a change in transmission will bring them back.
Kicking and screaming, the captain drags me up to the lens with a few men following behind. He pushes me into the burning hot glass of the lens. It runs frantically with the musical notes of whale speech translating into whirling patterned codes.
One of the lackeys grabs me by my hair, which I have been wearing down and wild, so exposed to be cruelly handled. “Make it stop fucking flashing like that!”
I can’t help but defiantly smile. Men behaving loud, panicked and crude only makes me want to resist them more. “I am but a woman. I don’t know how.”
“You said ‘cipher’ down there! You know somehow, you bitch.” The frustrated underling slams me back against the wall.
If I wasn’t so terrified I would laugh, and a jovial defiance still comes out with my squeaky muffled voice. His hands squish together my cheeks, my teeth throbbing beneath his grip. “How many of these men does it take to turn off a lightbulb?” I reply.
He slams my head back into the glass wall.
I hear a cracking noise and I’m not sure if it was the window or bone.
I don’t give a fuck about protecting this pebble in the sea, but I am scared for me and for Lir.
Should I pray for him never to return? I think he would come to my rescue faster than any other military vessel, but I squirm around at the thought of him captured, strung up like a prized catch, and even experimented on.
My fists clench and a tear beads upon the corner of my eye. I’m trapped here and whatever hope or option I have, even the worst ones, seem to only lead to me being parted from Lir.
The captain’s breath fills the room with a dense tobacco cloud, making the air thick and heavy.
It could wear away tarnish from brass and mud from boots.
He pulls me back from my slump and again into the glass wall with a terrifying tenderness that a child would use for a new toy, or a madman for a new victim.
As he speaks to me the first time, and I can tell why these men follow him.
A dark evil underlines his words. No questioning is in the consequences that float between his lips for not obeying his orders.
He calmly clasps my throat, his thumb rubbing disgustingly familiar lines across my jaw.
“I anticipated an easy acquisition on this outpost, what I did not expect is Starbron to be so foolish to occupy it with a little lady. I heard from that Mr. Fritz-something only an old man operated this barnacle-covered shit-hole, but this is such a better bonus.”
That traitorous bastard.
When that dreadnaught showed up unannounced, maybe Mr. Fritzguard was trying to, in the most convoluted way, give me an out.
An escape before all hell came crashing down on this place—but maybe, he’s just a double-agent asshole who saw me as minuscule loss, and easy write off on the books.
Just as my husband had been. I should have never given an ounce of my trust to a man who’s only moral compass was the weight of his own pocket.
He after all, wasn’t upstanding enough to keep the cargo boats docked that night even though there was a fifty knot gale.
I wonder how many coins it took him to speak—
“Maybe he had mentioned it, but we couldn’t understand him very well with all the blood in his mouth.“
Well, that’s understandable then.
The captain hand moves lower on my neck while pinning me into the window. “A little shoreside enjoyment for my men, a small reward after we’ve been out rocking between icebergs for months.”
Snickering crackles up from the radio operator along with chatter from the men coming up the stairs.
His voice cuts through it all. Contemplating over ever word, there is no hyperbole in his threats.
Even with a note of positivity in his voice, there are are no games.
“And, a great story for my commanding officer, I do always have a hard time finding dinner conversation. You’ll be the punchline to the unbelievable joke of a warden that you are. ”
He wraps his fingers around a little braid Lir wove next to my temple to precisely cut it with a knife. I scream out silently, gasping against his hand that compresses my jaw up into the joint.
His voice sounds sickeningly jolly after gathering his prize. “There won’t be much of you left love, it’s good to keep a little souvenir.”
Stealthily wrapped in my cloak, I thumb the knife Lir made me through the fabric. I pray that there will be an opportune moment for me to slash him with it for calling me ‘Love’.
He continues his one sided speech, “I wouldn’t want to be called a liar that we found a woman all the way out here.” He turns around laughing as he throws me to the floor with a hard thump. “Isn’t that right, boys? No matter how far we go, we can’t seem to escape from these nagging harpies.”
I try to get up, but he pushes me down with his boot.
My vision is shrouded in darkness as my head pounds, all the voices in the room mix together into a loud toxic cloud.
Creating a terrifying symphony as the rain begins to beat down against the windows.
Loudly echoing across the copper roof which separates us from the storm with only millimeters of metal.
The crescendo of the horrendous symphony is the metallic chime, the scariest sound women have all had their skin crawl from.
It pierces my ears and jolts my blood cold as I hear belt buckles adjust and open.
Hands rain down on me tearing my protective net, tearing through Lir’s woven armor as I scream out, “Help me, somebody help me!”