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Hunter’s breath caught when she heard someone scream, “It’s a ship!” Then she and her friends were knocked down by the freighter’s impact with the pier. They rolled forward as the pier itself seemed to shoot from beneath their feet towards shore. Hunter lost the rifle and saw it tumble off the edge of the pier.
John saw Marc and the others just as the freighter seemed to back away several feet, then slammed into the pier again. The floor tilted downward on one side, and Marc seemed to levitate to land on the more level area. Ringo and Young crawled there.
The freighter’s side rubbed up and down on the pier with each crashing wave, and everyone heard the concrete pilings cracking and breaking, being ground to gravel under the ship’s mass.
Ringo came off the floor and crossed the dozen feet between him and Randall just as the end of the pier collapsed to leave a steep ramp toward the sea between the freighter and what remained of that edge. Ariel staggered sideways from the collapse and Hunter dove to catch her before she went over the side.
Ringo and Randall slid down the decline toward the churning water, with Ringo further down than Randall. John yelled, “No!”
Marc and Young moved fast, with both going for John. No one wanted a pistol in their hand in case they had to grab something as the pier continued to buck and break apart. The freighter lifted and came down again on the pier, breaking it further.
As the ship backed away again, Ringo and Randall slid closer to the edge. They scrambled and clawed to keep from going into the terrible water below. Ringo grasped Randall’s leg and tried to climb up him. Randall kicked at him, hitting him in the face. It seemed to have no effect.
Ringo reached higher and caught a fistful of Randall’s shirt and tried to pull himself up, but only tore the shirt.
The pier shuddered and dropped another foot. Ringo slipped over the edge, but at the last minute he grabbed Randall’s foot and both men dropped from sight.
Ariel wailed and Hunter felt her own heart break, but had to say to the woman, “Hold on to my hand!” She pulled the sobbing Haitian away from the edge, and chanced a glance at John. He was in a brutal, deadly struggle with the two large men.
When Hunter moved Ariel out of danger, she ran to help John. Ariel alternately crawled and moved on her stomach to where Randall and Ringo disappeared.
They were both there, still alive. Randall hung from some cord that snagged on a broken railing post, and Ringo dangled by one hand from Randall’s foot. Ringo said to her, “Bring me the rope, or we both die.” He indicated the ropes and pulley sets nearby.
Ariel scooted to them, found one still attached and drug the unattached portion back to the men. She maneuvered it close to Ringo, and he grabbed it. He released Randall and swung below where the rope was anchored, like Tarzan on a vine.
Randall could move, now that Ringo’s weight was off him. He grasped the izze cloth above his head, right below where it had snagged on a railing post when he fell, then used his arms to pull as Ariel reached down and grabbed his wrists, helping him up to a better grip.
“Hurry,” Ariel said in a voice tinged with panic. She was crying very hard. She looked at Randall and said, oddly, “I hate to leave you.”
The hurricane pushed the ship toward the pier again.
When Hunter ran to help, Young Anson was behind John, slamming punches to his kidneys while Marc Dessaline, in the front, threw blows at his head.
Hunter was over a hundred pounds lighter than Young, but she charged him, going for the knees. She swung a roundhouse kick to the side of his knee, and it buckled as Young grunted.
He turned from Quick to face her. “I’ll kill you,” He said. He grabbed for her with both hands extended like claws, and Hunter dropped to all fours and kicked the same knee again.
Young fell to the floor, then limped to his feet again. Hunter said, “Surrender right now and this ends.”
“I surrender nothing.” He came toward her, guarding his leg. Hunter looked beyond him to John and Marc. Those two were hitting one another with frighteningly powerful blows, like two grizzlies battling for supremacy.
She circled Young, making him use the bad leg. When he came again, she feinted toward his leg, and when he flinched, she got in a good open-handed shot to his throat.
Young staggered backwards, and Hunter closed with him, throwing a second punch to his throat followed by a hard snap kick to his groin. He fell back against the railing, hurt and mad. Hunter circled him, but this time Young remained where he was, and waited, like a cornered beast.
Randall pulled up on the izze cloth again and reached the edge of the pier. Ariel helped him, then a large black hand clamped over her face and pulled her backward, out of sight. Randall scrambled up, hooking a heel on the edge of the pier, pulling and rolling himself on top.
Ringo had Ariel pulled close to him, like lovers in a slow dance. Randall quickly unsnagged the leather cord and shoved it in his pocket. The broken pier was slanted too much to stand, so he crawled up the incline to a place where he could rise to his feet.
Ringo had his mouth on Ariel’s neck, and when he pulled back, blood washed down her front as he chewed a mouthful of flesh and meat ripped from her with his teeth.
The sight shocked Randall, and he was enraged. He charged Ringo as the monster put his mouth down to Ariel for another bite.
Coming at him from behind, Randall held each end of the izze cloth and tossed the middle portion over Ringo’s head. It slid down to his throat. Randall pulled back hard and twisted his body in tight circles several times to tighten the cord.
Ringo fought it like a headstrong horse, snorting and shaking his head in every direction. Randall put his own back to Bazin’s and let his weight carry him down and forward so he was bent over. Ringo fell backward, off balance, and dropped Ariel to the deck.
Randall carried the choking man across the pier so the killer couldn’t regain his feet. Randall looked like someone with a heavy sack over his shoulder.
