The crew members quickly unsheathed their cutlasses to attack the intruder as soon as she came out of the crate. Pretty much everyone had their weapon in their hand except Michael and Ross. Michael really didn't think that whoever was inside the crate posed a threat, hence he still seemed calm. On the contrary, Ross's face had shock and confusion plastered on it.
"Don't attack" Ross declared, his voice contained a tinge of anger as well as anxiety. Since Ross was the captain, the crew nodded as they slowly stepped back a few steps from the crates. Marcella though still kept her crossbow aimed at the crates.
Soon afterward, the top of the wooden crate slowly opened as a young girl in her late teens stood up from the crate. The girl had black hair, a beautiful oval face, round lively blue eyes, and smooth silky skin. Although the girl wasn't a kingdom toppling beauty or something like that, she would attract many youngsters' attention.
"Maria, what the hell are you doing here?"
Marcella turned her gaze towards Ross, she was surprised. Not only Marcella but everyone on the ship was surprised by Ross's words.
"Ross, who is she?" H asked with a deep frown on his face. His voice was not as friendly as before. The girl just stared at Ross's face, expecting him to answer the question instead of introducing herself.
"She's my daughter and she's leaving" Ross tried to grab her by her elbow but she swatted away Ross's hands before he could touch her.
"Daughter?"
"Ross has a Daughter?"
"What is she doing on the ship?"
The sudden appearance of Ross's daughter made the crew gossip as the silent atmosphere of the ship disappeared.
"How did she get into the crates?" Jessie, the thief, opened his mouth, directing the question at Ross himself.
"Maria, whatever the reason you have for being here, I don't care. You need to leave" his words were like that of the father, caring yet strict.
"I'm not going anywhere. I'm coming with you to the undead island. Whether you like it or not" the girl folded her arms against her chest, refusing to listen to Ross. For a few moments, no one could hear a sound except for the sound of waves hitting the ship's hull. Everyone was stunned listening to the girl. Many wouldn't dare to look in the way of the undead island yet Maria was trying to go to the island for some reason.
"Come over here" This time, Ross didn't let her swat his arms away as he grabbed her by her elbow. Everyone saw Ross dragging the girl to a corner of the ship, away from prying eyes and ears.
"You" Marcella called out one of the crew members staring at Ross and Maria. Her shout immediately brought back the crew member to his senses.
"Huh?"
"What was supposed to be in those crates?" Marcella asked,
"Aw shit," the crew member cursed as some of the crew members began to sweat bullets.
Seeing their reaction to her question, Michael's curiosity piqued,
"Food, we were keeping two days worth of ration in those crates"
Right after the crew members answered, even Michael's calm expression changed. The ship at least contained fifty people including the team, if they didn't have food to fill those bellies, they would be in big trouble before even reaching the island itself. A big person like Logan would have to eat an ample amount of food to sustain his body except that they seemed to be lacking food.
"Tell me you keep extra ration somewhere here" Marcella gritted her teeth. The crew member was shivering and walking backward in fear.
"We...we...do" Her anger somewhat lowered down by his answer,
"It could only feed everyone for a day," another crew member said. They were short on rations as the journey to the island would take two days, if the wind was on their side rather than against them. Maria had already compromised the mission by throwing away their food, even Michael had to eat if he didn't want to use precious Arch Energy to sustain his body.
H and Ross were busy talking to Maria while the rest of them looked at each other's gloomy faces.
"You idiots!" Marcella lost her temper. She yelled at the crew members,
"what were you doing when she was throwing away the food?! How about I throw your useless asses off the ship?"
"Calm down, no one's thrown anyone off the ship" Logan interfered before the situation escalated into a fight.
"We'll just have to manage with the ration we have and try to-"
"Try to do what? You want us to fish or magically create food for all of us" Marcella rebuked,
"If we could divide the ration into-"
"Shut up, glasses" When Jonah tried to offer a solution, she shut him up with a shout. She was really pissing off Michael. Instead of thinking of a solution to their problem, she kept throwing temper tantrums. In other words, she was being an A grade bitch.
"Jonah, go and figure out how we should divide the rations," Brownie said, giving a friendly pat on Jonah's shoulder.
"If anyone has prior experience of fishing, get to work. I assume you keep fishing equipment in the ship"
"Yeah we do"
On top of being an expert on the undead, Brownie seemed like a guy with good leadership skills. After the crew members ran to the lower decks, Marcella returned to her quarters uttering no words.
"Do you know how to fish on a running ship, David?" Logan asked, rubbing his temple.
"Nope, how about you?"
"I was kinda hoping you would lend me some fish" Logan chuckled, regardless of their current situation.
*****************************
"What were you thinking Maria? The undead island is not a place you would go to despise your father"
"I'm going because of you, to fix your mess"
Ross was stunned as she continued,
"I told you not to do anything when you found the weed in my locker but what did you do? Interrogated Johnny like he's some kind of criminal and informed him to the academy '' she was shivering in anger at her father. If it wasn't for people standing nearby, she would have shouted to vent her anger.
"Every time you enter into my life, you fuck up everything. Why can't you just be a normal father for once?" her voice broke at the end,
"I don't regret my actions, Maria. But you will if you come to the undead island. You're gonna jump onto the boat and go home, end of discussion"
She stomped the wooden floor in anger, "I can come with you and you can keep me safe or I'll go to the island by myself and probably die. Either way, I'm going after Johnny"
After Maria's mother died because of Netherel Bite, he always drowned himself in work, commanding a spartan unit of Gisel. Maria always blamed Ross for killing her mother instead of locking her in a room until someone finds a cure for Netherel bite. Coupled with her anger and Ross's separation from Maria distorted their relationship.
"Johnny is not the right guy for you Maria. He's not worth this risk, please for once quit being stubborn"
Ross begged her to reconsider going to the undead island yet she seemed resolute in her decision. Since this was the hunting season, there would be many ships approaching the undead island in the next few days and he knew she would be able to get into any of those ships to reach the island. He would never forgive himself if he let her go alone and die, hence he reluctantly decided to bring her along with them. At Least he would be there with her to protect her.
The island already took his wife away from him, he would never let the island do the same to his daughter.
"You stay with me all the time" Ross took a deep breath and spoke.
"Do you have any idea where Johnny might be on the island? We'll be much safer with the team and they won't come looking for Johnny with us"
She retrieved a map from the bag hanging on her waist,
"My friend took this from one of the crew members of Johnny's ship"
She handed over the map to Ross. The moment he opened the map, he was stunned because the 'X' mark on the map was the location of the artifact he's looking for. This meant that another team is looking for the same artifact as he is.
"He's going to the island's center"
She frowned looking at her father's serious look on his face,
"What does it mean?"
"It means he's with the team that searching for the exact thing as we are"
While they were in the middle of the conversation, H came back. Ross handed over the map to him. H too had the same look on his face as Ross when he laid his eyes on the map,
"Another team is hunting for the artifact H, do you know about this?"
H shook his head,
"Thanks to your daughter we have no food to sustain for more than a day. Now this, we have to sail faster Ross" H handed over the map back to Ross before looking at Maria,
"What are you gonna do about your daughter?"
"She's coming with us"
"You kidding me? She's a civilian, not to mention a liability. She's already compromised the mission by throwing away the food, I won't let her jeopardize the mission further"
"This is my operation and my decision H. If you don't like the way I do things, you can report me to the senate and we both know who they gonna support"
H knew his words were nothing but the truth. Until they could find the artifact, H knew he had to rely on Ross's skills. The senate leaders personally appointed Ross for this mission, the last thing H wanted is to piss off the senate leaders which would piss off his employer.
"This is a bad idea," H said before walking away.
"This is" Ross said to himself. Whether he likes it or not, Ross knew H is right but because of his daughter's stubbornness, he had no other choice.