*****
Koke looked around, but there was little to be seen in the stale darkness of the ship's hold. While there was little to be seen there was a lot to be heard.
Miserably Koke listened to the muttered prayers, wails of grief, and pained groans from those held within the hold of the ship. From what little coherent conversation he'd managed to elicit from the group held within the ship's hold he'd discovered that none of them were from the plane.
Instead as incredible as it was they all claimed to have arrived here to this sunken realm via a luxury cruise liner. They had all been busy enjoying their vacations, when their voyage had taken a hellish turn for the worse.
Besides him there were fifteen others in the hold. There had been some others, but the Pirates had come for them a while back and those taken had not returned.
Those in the hold though had heard their screams. Koke could well imagine what their grisly fates had been.
Koke considered himself to be a peaceable man, who got along well with his fellow man. He had believed in the criminal justice system in regards to equal representation before the law, but that was in the past. Right now he wanted these pirates dead!
Anybody who could perpetrate such crimes against humanity deserved nothing but death. He was scared. What man wouldn't be in his predicament?
The scene that awaited him made the infamous prison shower scene pale in comparison in terms of harsh treatment. He wasn't submitting to that tortured future quietly.
Vainly he searched around in the dark for something to help him make a good account of himself when the time came. He found nothing of use and quite a few times he'd drawn back in revulsion upon touching the remains of some bygone rotting individual.
Defeated he leaned up against one of the dry rotted sides of the ship's hold, as cold murky water swished about his ankles.
"God?"
A moment passed before he asked out softly again in question, "God?"
"Why?"
Still there was no answer and a quiver of anguish swept through him and in desperation he said, "I need help! I…….don't want what's going to happen…… to happen."
Koke shook his head, before saying with a hint of bitterness, "Thy will be done. God help me!"
Koke slid down against the side of the hull in the smelly dungeon. His hand fell on something. He fingered it in the darkness as to ascertain what it was. It was a bone.
Koke fought against revulsion for what he held. He felt the bone out carefully in the dark. The bone was a small broken off fragment with one round end and one jaggedly sharp end. It wasn't much, but it was something. What was he going to do with it?