[Arrival of the New World] by Cortex2 & Dispiritor - The Dazzling Lads

“Alice, don’t worry, your brother will guarantee you get better, okay”

“Mathew, mom said this trip is dangerous…” She coughs twice. “You should stay here an-”

“Hey, I’ll be fine. The ocean can’t hurt me. I’ll be back soon.”

“But-”

“C’mon. Have I ever lied to you?”

I wake up from my dreams.

“Eat up kid.”

I turn and see the ship’s carpenter hand me a sack.

“Do you really have to wake me up so early, Vincent…?”

“Hurry, we got work to do. There’s an ugly looking storm approaching”

I reach for it. I sit and place it on my lap. I untie the knot to reveal a small salted fish, a piece of bread, and butter.

“Why’s a kid as young as you here anyways?”

“Why do you care?”

“You remind me of my son.” Vincent sighs, “he always tackled too much… well he used to…”

“Oh…” We stay quiet for a moment “I’ll be fine”

“I’ll make sure of it” Vincent pats my shoulder and moves to the deck.

Those were the last words I heard Vincent tell me. I lift my head from my knees as I sit on the beach. Two of the crew members pull Vincent away from a large wooden stake that impaled his chest. The others are hauling the supplies out of the wrecked ships, moving other casualties, and setting up a campsite.

“You’ve done enough sulkin’, get a move on or you ain’t getting nothin’ to eat. Go help bring out the weapons. If we’re in America, there’s bound to be some savages who’ll attack.”

I get up and wipe the sand off my trousers. Before helping them, I go to Vincent’s body. I remove the sword he had around his waist. He told me his son forged this for him. I don’t know much about swords, but it looks like a beautifully crafted blade to my untrained eyes. I secure the sheath to my belt and insert the sword. I dash to help out the others.

Soon the darkness encompasses the sky and most of the survivors are sitting around campfires. Out of six hundred passengers, roughly four hundred survived. Twenty-five researchers, a hundred of the crew, seventy-five of us are hired-help like me that the researchers needed, and the rest are other people going to America for their own reasons.

“If my father was here, what would he do?”

A group of men come back after being gone for four hours and enter the captain's tent.

“Captain, I don’t think we arrived in America,” I hear them.

“Whaddaya mean?” The captain asks.

“This may be an island. We found a town but we didn’t investigate because it was too dark. We can set out again early in the morning.”

“Alright, round up some of the crew and some of those researchers to investigate.”

My chest feels heavy. “My father loved to take adventures… I always wanted to join him… I’m afraid I can’t anymore.” I wipe a tear from my eye. “I guess I’ll tag along.” I lean on a crate and close my eyes to get some rest.

I open my eyes and see some of the crew getting things ready before the sun rises. I get up and make sure I have my belongings. Small travel rations, a container of water, and Vincent’s sword. I approach the crew as they’re gathering people.

“What do you want, kid?”

“I want to help out with the investigation,” I tell him.

The guy clicks his tongue, “sure, whatever.”

A few hours later we reach the last marker the small group left before coming back to camp. With the sun out we can see the town.

“There was no sign of light coming from the town last night. We’ll go check it out. If we find nothing, we’re going up that mountain to see if we arrived in America,” says the one leading this group.

Everyone nods their heads in agreement. The twenty of us walk down the hill to approach the town.

When we arrive in the town, there is no trace of people in the city. The more we explore, the more I wonder what happened here. It is a beautiful town. The plant life is overtaking most of the building walls which at first glance look like wild plants taking over. Upon a closer inspection, it looks like it was done for aesthetics. The streets are well paved despite being abandoned so it is really strange. What could have driven the people to leave? After a look around we discovered that every building is empty.

“Looks abandoned alright. Not a single soul in sight!” The leader of the exploration says. “Whoever lived here, packed their stuff and fled.”

“And… shouldn’t we run as well?” One of the crewmates shivers “I mean, if they were scared, we-”

“Relax idget, did you forget about how much powder we have at the coast? We are the ones to be feared. Actually, it’s more like the residents caught a whiff of us and fled hahaha” the group leader jokes.

While they are discussing, I notice what, at first, seems to be a corpse, but after a better look, it is more like a human made of metal, broken and laying on the floor. It doesn’t have life, but is too complex to be just a statue. I approach and soon after, some of the researchers come as well.

“Someone come with me up the mountain, the rest, feel free to…” As the leader is speaking, he tries to understand what the heck they were doing to the creature “yeah, whatever”

I stay with the people looking at the unknown corpse wondering if I have discovered a new kind of creature. Alice will be so thrilled when I tell her our findings, An animal who has metal parts… I hope she is fine, mom too, I mean they are all alone now.

Time passes by while I am lost in my thoughts. Suddenly, the body laying on the ground wakes up. Despite his wounds and few broken parts, he quickly gets on his foot. Everyone backs off in freight, drawing their swords and pointing their guns. The creature, emitting some sort of steam from his back, draws a sword, but before he can attack, we all strike and put the creature to sleep… permanently

The others return quickly, to see what happened, only to find a completely destroyed humanoid thing on the ground. After some explanation, they also tell us what they found.

“What a spooky place to arrive in. An island with an intact town but no residents? And these metal things, c’mon” complains one of the crew.

“All hope is not lost yet boys!” yells the group leader. “They are killable, that is what matters. And also, it looks like there’s deers on this island so we got more food other than fish!” he says while pointing at a deer.

“Ohh boy! Let’s hunt it and bring it ba-”

When the second guy yelled, the deer looked up at us and immediately got shot by an arrow.

“What the hell!” a few of the guys shout.

One of the researchers points to the right where the arrow came from. “Another one! Shoot! Shoot!” 

I swiftly turn my head and like everyone, we draw our flintlocks and swords. I unsheathe Vincent’s sword and hold it in front of me. I hear a faint voice of a girl yell across the field.

“Thank God! More survivors!” I spot a lass roughly my age waving over at us. She runs towards our group with a large smile and is full of excitement. Her joyous laughter nearly made my heart skip a beat. It reminds me of Alice’s laughter. I did whatever I could to make her laugh, but now with her sickness she can’t do that anymore… It’s the reason why I took on this job, despite my mother being against it.

I snap out of my thoughts when she reaches us.

“Please put your weapons away. I know it’s a strange creature for you guys but this one is nice and helpful.” she explains.

“This one?” one of the researchers says. “These things tried to harm us?”

“There are many on the island, and most are evil… I’m the last of forty survivors. We were shipwrecked about ten months ago. Those things attacked every night and I would have perished too if not for Pechu.”

“Pechu?”

“Oh sorry. That’s what I named it after the noise it makes when releasing steam,” she explains while the creature walks over to us carrying the deer. It stops next to the girl and as she explained, a sharp noise ensues after releasing steam.

The girl introduces themselves, “this is Pechu and I’m Emily. He can’t talk but he certainly understands. He replies in yes with one beep and no with two beeps.”

The guys remained skeptical and didn't stand down. I don't know why, but I want to believe in what she's saying. I sheathe Vincent’s sword and extend my hand out for a shake. “My name is Mathew.” She firmly grabs my hand and shakes. I couldn’t help but smile.

“Are you guys the only ones shipwrecked?”

“Heavens no,” replies the group leader. “There were five vessels that got caught in the storm. There’s four hundred of us. The rest are back at the beach. Since it looks like we’re going to be stuck here, we may as well move into this abandoned town.”

“Oh okay, I was living in a house nearby, all alone, can I join you?”

“Sure thing” I reply without hesitation.

Emily followed us back to the beach where we heard terrible news. While away, a few of the others decided to explore. A group of fifteen men went out and one returned with the horrid news that the others were slain. The captain decided to move everyone to the town. We migrated to the town with all the supplies. The men set up defenses and did the heavy lifting while the women took care of the other tasks like cooking and cleaning.

In the next few days, we studied the dead contraption, how we named the creature, we found its weaknesses, and strengths. We'll probably fight against a few. Emily and Pechu really come in handy, in all sorts of labors. At first, most of us didn’t trust her, but she rapidly gained our confidence.

At night, basically only the patrol is awake, I am staring at the stars wondering how my family is holding up, thinking if my mom’s plan of working in the mines would have been better. At least I would be home. 

“Can’t sleep?”

I turn to my left and see Emily sitting up.

“Not really,” I reply.

“Still feeling uneasy?”

“A little, but not about being attacked really, these contraptions don’t look scary anymore.”

“Then what's on your mind?”

“I just can’t help but think about what my mother said before setting sail. I guess I should have listened to her instead of hopping on that boat.”

“Why did you join them?”

“I figured it was the quickest way to get money.”

“So you left your home in search of riches?”

“Not riches… But just enough to pay for my sister’s medicine. But now, I’ve arrived on a dangerous island with no clear way out. Now I see that even if I achieve my goal, It probably won’t make a difference“ A tear runs down my cheek. 

“Let’s get some sleep,” Emily tells me, not knowing how to comfort me.

In the middle of the night, I wake up with the sounds of screams and gunshots, the city is filled with contraptions, I quickly pack my things and run for my life. While I’m trying to survive, I see Emily being cornered, and apparently, Pechu isn’t around. For a moment, I think about not helping her, but the memory of my father haunts me

“You see this little girl? Is your sister, look how cute she is. One day, I may not be here, so you must grow strong to protect her. Actually, to stand up for all the weak who can't fight for themselves.”

I can’t afford to die here, but- forget it. I run towards them, my arms pull back and with all my strength I thrust forward. The metallic being moves its arms to defend itself but my attack is faster. My sword makes contact with its neck and impales it like a hot knife through butter. With the momentum of my running, the three of us fall down the hill.

“You could have ran and escaped… Why did you stay behind? Aren’t you people greedy and selfish?” Emily asks while trying to get up after the fall.

“You people?” My head starts spinning, I must have hit it during the fall

I hear Pechu coming and hear its arm transform into a blade just like the enemies.

“You had the opportunity to run away, why didn’t you?”

“What good would that do? Either way, I have no way off this island. I can’t return home and I can’t buy my sister the medicine she needs to live. I reached for the sky, but arrived in hell…”

I hear Pechu approaching me, about to slash me.

“WAAAAIT!!!” Emily shouts.

Pechu’s blade stops just before slicing my head.

“You’re not the savages I thought you were….”

“What are you talking about?” I ask.

“Almost everyone treated me so well, and now…,” she hyperventilates. “What have I done?”

“Calm down. Slow breaths,” I couldn’t help but say since I’m used to my sister hyperventilating. “Slowly now. One… Two… One… Two…”

Her breathing calms down. Tears flow out of her as she tries to talk, “T- the city w- was a trap, I'm so- sorry…”

Once again my instincts kick in. I wrap my arms around her. “It’s okay. There’s no need to cry.”

I start to realize what happened, and still keep hugging the person who caused it all, have I lost it? Probably, my head is hurting and everything is spinning.

Then, it looks like I’m back to when my sister was first getting sick. She was playing with her friends and collapsed from exhaustion. I had to carry her all the way home. 

“You really are the best brother you know,” Alice told me.

 “Why is that?”

“You always help me out when I need it. It feels like I’ll always be okay as long as you’re there. I bet you can even fight off death himself if he came for me.”

“I don’t know about that. Death is really strong.”

“Not as strong as you,”

“Alright then. Even if death were to come for you, I’ll fight him off with everything I’ve got.”

Alice… I haven’t given up yet. I’ll make it back. I’ll buy that medicine… and I'll kick Death’s ass!