//------------------------------//
// Chapter 15 
// Story: My Little Destroyermen: Walker on Water 
// by The Atlantean 
//------------------------------//

Sunset Shimmer rubbed her head to clear the horrible stench from her mind. A second later, it came back. After she failed a second time, her eyes shot open and she knew her surroundings really did smell. There was almost no light in the room apart from a dim lantern near a staircase and that which seeped between creaky boards that rose and fell. And the stench was overpowering. She had to plug her nose just to stay conscious.

Sitting upright, she saw several cages lining the walls--or hull, since she felt the rocking motion of a ship--filled with terrifying and terrified creatures. None of them looked like they had eaten properly in over a month. All had shed quite a bit of fur as well, which piled under their droppings. Their eyes were sunken and lost. Fear was the captain aboard this ship.

The deck was covered in slimy ballast stones. Oh, Celestia, I’m in the bottom of the ship. Her breathing quickened and her heart hammered in her chest. Inspecting herself, she found rudely bandaged claw gashes in her legs, and her clothes were tattered.

“You’re awake. I thought they’d think you dead and eat you,” came a fear-filled male voice from the back of her cage. He sounded like he almost couldn’t control his panic.

“Who are you? Who are they? Where am I? Why is everyone in a cage? And… wait, did you say eat me?” she bombarded.

“I don’t know where we are except that this is the hold of a sailing ship. We’re prisoners…” He suddenly got quieter. “And we’re rations.”

“Rations? Oh, Celestia, I think I’m gonna have a heart attack.”

They stayed quiet for a few minutes as she tried and failed to calm herself.

“But if we’re food, who’s eating us?”

“The lizards.”

“They’re not in here right now. Maybe we can escape.”

“No. it’s impossible.” He shakily pointed to the stairs. “We have to go through the entire crew, and when they’re hungry…” His eyes flashed to a beach of carnage.

Sunset sank into the back corner opposite the man. “So what do we do?”

“Nothing.”

“And who are you?”

The light she’d seen in him flickered out. “Captain David Kaufman, United States Army Air Corps, serial number…”

As she tried to make herself as inconspicuous as possible, she wondered how a shipful of lizards could break a man like Kaufman.

Ten minutes later, she found out.