He’s pulling me up the plank, my boots clunking hollowly on the wood. I turn back, fighting against him,

                “Ellie! Gus!”

                I see them round the side of the ship, both running flat out, sand spraying up behind them.

                “They’re coming!” Jasper yells, “now get on board!”

                He yanks me over the rail, and I tumble onto the deck, scraping my elbows and bruising my knees. I vault up again, leaning over the railing, screaming at Gus and Ellie, “move!”

                The ship’s engine wheezes to life, rumbling under my boots. Ellie and Gus are on the gang plank now, and the pirate crew is just behind them. So are the monsters, and I flinch when one of them snatches at a stragglers shirt, gets a handful of dirty fabric and yanks him down. The pirate hits the ground with the dead man on top of him, and the air is suddenly filled with shrieks and growls.

One less monster to chase us. I feel bad about the thought almost as soon as I think it.

                It fills me with relief when Ellie and Gus tumble onto the deck, panting and red-faced. There’s only a single flickering lantern on the ship, but I can see the whites of Ellie’s eyes, and how her hands are shaking violently.

                Boots clatter on the gangplank as the pirates stampede up it, in the darkness one of them slips and there’s a horrible cry as he falls off halfway up, his body hitting the sand with a muffled “thump”, quickly followed by a scream as one of the walking dead falls on him. The sound of ripping and tearing makes my stomach turn, and Ellie gives a little scream of terror and claps her hands over her ears. Gus grabs her shoulder and pulls her behind him, like he’s going to protect her with his body, or fight them off with his bare fists. I know he thinks of protecting her because she’s a hell of a lot more delicate than me, but I can’t help feeling a stab of jealousy that he thought of her first.

                I can defend myself and he knows it. That’s all.

                The thought makes me brave and probably rash, and I duck to one side of the gang plank as the last of the pirates jump on board. They’re followed by the dead men, their shambling limp making it hard for them to climb the plank. There’s only two of them left now, and they’re crawling up on their hands and knees, dragging their dead, blackening bodies up the wooden plank.

                I can handle this.

                Jumping up on the top of the gangplank, I brace myself, and when the first man crawls up I look him right in his half-rotten face…“Sorry ‘bout this, mate,”…and lash out with my left boot, kicking him in the jaw. My boot makes impact with a horrible, wet squelching noise, and the dead man flies backwards, his body rolling down the plank, arms flailing. He takes out the second man crawling just behind him, and they both tumble to the bottom of the plank in a tangle of black veined arms and legs.

                A few of the pirates let out a weak holler of triumphant, and now I can feel the ship lifting off, the hot steam hissing out of the cracks in the wood, blowing my hair into my face. I almost over balance, and panic shoots through me as I nearly tip forward and roll down the plank. Then I catch myself and jump back over the ship rail. I don’t fancy ending up on the ground with the dead men.

                We’re in the air now, and a few of the pirates run to the ropes, yanking on them, and the sails let loose with a crisp crack of the canvas whipping in the air. One of the men jumps to the helm, grabbing the giant wheel to bring the ship around.

                Jasper hauls himself up beside the man and calls out, “Everyone on who’s getting on? Good. Lets get the hell out of here.”

                There are grumbles of agreement, but mostly the crew stays quiet. Gus and Ellie and me stand of to one side, close to one another. Now that the danger is on the ground and we’re in the sky, there’s a moment to pause and think, and we find all of the pirates facing us. None of them look happy.

                “We should have left ‘em on the ground to get et!”

                I shoot a look over my shoulder. The speaker is a grizzled old man with a good sized scar on his left cheek. He glares back at me, his eyes eerily blue in his dirty face, “in fact, we should kick ‘em off now. Over the edge wit ‘em!”

                The growls of agreement from the crew around me makes my blood run cold. Jasper’s face hardens, but before he can say anything I step forward, place myself in the middle of the deck and say loudly,

                “Don’t you get it? You can’t just ‘get rid of me’. Me and Gus and Ellie, we’re not the problem, we’re the solution. We’re going to destroy this damn thing and put an end to it! If you throw us off the ship, the diamond survives, and those men that died will only be the first. The world will slowly fall in chaos as the plague spreads. The dead will be running around in packs,” I glare around at them, see their angry expressions falter and feel triumph. It’s working. I take a deep breath and continue,

                “look, all you have to do is drop us in London and then you’re part is finished. You’re helping save the world…”

                “Ain’t no gold to be gained from that.”

                It was the same scar-faced man, and I whirled around and scowled at him,

                “Are you daft? What good is gold to you when your skin is rotting off your face? You want to die that way, old man? Because if you don’t take me and this diamond to the goddamn city of London, we’ll all die that way. Does that sound good to you?”

                He only grimaces and looks away, and I turn back to the crew, back to Jasper, whose grey eyes are locked on my face, an unidentifiable expression playing across his features. Maybe he doesn't like me making speeches to his crew.

                Well, to hell with him then. All I want is to get out of this mess alive. I’d rather not be pitched off the side of the ship while it's in midair.

                Jasper finally says into the uneasy silence, “we’ll take you as far as London, after that, you’re on your own.” He turns on his heel and stomps down the stairs onto the main deck, giving me one last even look before he descends the stairs down onto the lower deck. The slam of the captain’s cabin door is loud. In spite of the relief that rushes through me at this announcement, my stomach still drops a little.

                When Jasper had grabbed my hand like that while we were being chased, I’d thought for a moment….but no, he's obviously irritated that I’d put his crew in so much danger, that I’d got some of them killed. Who could blame him? And then here I was striding around on his ship giving noble speeches and taking charge of his men. Obviously he wants to get shot of me as soon as possible. I turn back to Ellie and Gus, and experience another lurch in my stomach when I see them standing so close together. Gus’ head is bent over hers, and I hear him murmur,

                “Are you alright? You’re shaking.”

                Nobody ever asks if I’m alright.

                Bad temperedly, I shove my rusty knife back in my belt. I am alright, I’m fine. I'm always fine.

                It takes a long time to get to London. This isn’t particularly surprising, but the ride is awkward. Jasper stays in his cabin for the rest of the trip, and Ellie and Gus sit together and talk in low voices. I can’t seem to sit down or relax, I walk back and forth across the deck, boots thumping on the boards, one hand shoved in my pocket, rolling the crystal between my fingers.

                I can touch it and nobody else can. Does that mean that the plague can’t touch me? So if one of those monsters attacks me, I won’t get sick? Glancing back at Ellie and Gus I feel guilty for thinking that, for feeling relief. They aren’t immune, they can get sick and become one of those things. Ellie catches me looking and gives me a weak smile,

                “Alright, Molly? That was a pretty spectacular kick back there.”

                Even with all the worried thoughts doing circles in my head I can’t keep from smiling at her, “Thanks. It seemed to work. Alright? You’re looking a bit white.”

                She pushes the brim of her hat back - the gesture is so familiar now - and tries for another smile, “I’ve never seen anything like those men before. They looked dead…but they weren’t.”

                “It’s unnatural,” Gus grimaces at me, “how they move. How fast they can run…”

                “It’s magic,” the thought is disturbing, “it’s not a normal sickness.”

                I wish I knew more, I wish the dying copper had had more time to tell me more about this crystal, about what was going on. Going into this without knowing more is scary and reckless, but I have no choice, do I?

                “So what happens when we get to London?” Gus glances around, his face is worried, probably nervous about the pirates who are all still glaring at us every time they go past, “I mean, what do we do once we get there? Catch a lift to Bristol? How are we doing that, since we haven’t any money?”

                Ellie clears her throat, and blushes a little when Gus and I both turn to look at her, “I might…I could help with that,” she lifts up one hand and peels the tattered lace glove off. On her ring finger is a gold band with a large white diamond. Her cheeks turn a more violent shade of red when Gus and I both continue to stare at it with our mouths hanging open.

                Gus’ voice  comes out in a sort of high pitched squeak, “Where…what…?”

                Ellie pulls the glove back onto her hand, ducking her head in embarrassment, “when I ran away from my arranged marriage, I didn’t exactly give the ring back. I decided I would sell it when I needed the food, but each time I went to do it I got scared. I was afraid people would think I’d stolen it.”

                One of the pirates had stopped just behind me, obviously he’d seen the ring. I whirled on my heel, still crouched on my haunches, and barked at him, “You like jewelry?” hand reaching for my pocket.

                He backed away hastily at the implied threat, nearly tripping over his own feet. The other pirates shot us black looks and muttered to one another. I turned back and murmured to Gus and Ellie,

                “I hope we get there soon.”