CHAPTER 14: THE LOUD RIVER AND USOPP’S BIG CHIPS

The camels didn't want to run as fast on the way back. Matsu, the one Vivi was riding, kept shaking his head and trying to bite at the dry gray thistles on the side of the track. The sun was right above them now, a big white hole in the sky that made everything look bleached out and flat. You couldn't see the sand dunes very well because the glare made your eyes water if you didn't look down at the saddle leather.

"Hurry up, duck!" Luffy yelled. He had crawled up from the tail of his camel and was now sitting right on top of its head, his long red legs wrapping around its furry neck like a pair of suspenders. "The boat is gonna get broken! I hear the big bangs!"

The bangs were getting louder. BOOM. THUD. They sounded different than the wind from last night. They were sharper, like someone hitting a hollow log with an iron hammer.

Sanji was ahead on Karoo, his black trousers all gray from the dust that the duck's webbed feet were kicking up. "Usopp used the iron balls first, Nami-san! But the river has three big barges from the lower coast! They have those long brass guns that shoot the lead spikes!"

"Why didn't you tell us they had brass guns before we left the well?!" Nami shouted back, her fingers gripping the reins so hard her knuckles looked like little white pebbles. She looked back at Leo. "Leo, how many extra shells did we leave in the small box near the food cabin?"

Leo shifted his weight in the seat. His left boot was sticking to the leather flap because some of that old black well-grease had dried on the brass teeth. He reached down with his thumb and pushed the side metal until it locked into the next notch. Click. Click. Click. Three dull little ticks that didn't sound very loud over the thumping of the camel pads. "There are twelve blue ones left, Nami. But three of them got wet when the giant catfish hit the front pipe yesterday. The powder might be like gray mush inside."

"We're going to lose the kitchen," Sanji groaned, his cigarette falling out of his mouth as Karoo jumped over a big chunk of red stone. He didn't stop to pick it up. "If those brats put a hole in my spice jars, I'm going to kick their ears off."

Kaelen looked toward the side of the ridge where the river valley started to open up again. He felt a bit dizzy from the heat.....no, it wasn't just the heat, it was the way the sand kept sliding under them, making it hard to tell where the hard ground actually was. "I think... if we go down by the old iron post, we can get behind them. The river bends left there. The barges are probably facing the front hatch because Usopp is loud."

"Just hit them," Zoro said. He had his white sword out already, holding it flat against his thigh so it wouldn't bounce against the camel's ribs. His green hair looked almost gray from the sand dust, like he had grown old in the last two hours.

They came over the final ridge by the shallow cove around one o'clock.

The Going Merry was still there, but she didn't look very good. The big white sail had three small round holes through the middle, and the sheep head on the front was completely black on one side from smoke. Usopp was standing on the front deck near the anchor chain, holding a long wooden pole with a burning rag tied to the tip. He didn't have his shoes on, and his long nose was covered in black spots from the powder sparks.

"Stay back, you river dogs!" Usopp shrieked, waving the burning pole in a big circle. "The great Captain Usopp has fifty more torpedoes in his pocket! I'll blow your flat boats right into the trees! I'll make you into soup!"

Out in the middle of the shallow channel, three long gray barges were tied together with thick hemp ropes. They looked like big iron baking pans floating in the mud. Each one had twenty men in green coats holding short wooden oars, and on the front of the middle barge was a long brass cannon that looked like a fat yellow trumpet.

A man with a very big blue hat and a white number '9' on his chest was standing next to the brass gun. He had a small iron spyglass pressed to his eye. "He's lying! He hasn't shot anything but old nuts for ten minutes! Get the long ropes! We're taking the kitchen box before the supervisor gets back from the city!"

"Hey! Number nine!" Luffy yelled from the top of the gravel bank.

The man in the blue hat turned his spyglass toward the hill. His face went completely white, his small mustache twitching like a dead caterpillar. "The straw hat! How did he get back? Mr. 11 had forty men at the well!"

"Mr. 11 is under the porch!" Luffy shouted. He didn't wait for the camel to stop. He just jumped off the animal's head, his body stretching out like a long piece of red string until his fingers caught the top of the Merry's mast. He swung through the air in a big loop, his boots hitting the middle deck with a loud THUMP that made the whole ship roll to the right.

"Luffy!" Usopp wailed, dropping his burning pole right into a bucket of gray wash water. Sizzle. "You're late! They shot my tool box! The little brass screws are all over the river!"

"We'll get more screws," Luffy said, turning around to face the barges. His face was still black from the well soot, making his eyes look very bright and round. "Hey, you guys! This is our boat! Go away or I'll kick your little iron pans!"

The man in the blue hat didn't go away. He grabbed a long iron lever next to the trumpet gun and pulled it backward. "Fire the spike ball!"

The brass gun let out a terrible, greasy roar.....BLAM.....and a big iron ball with six sharp metal spikes sticking out of the sides shot across the twenty feet of water, heading straight for Luffy's chest.

Luffy didn't move his feet. He just puffed out his stomach until it looked like a giant red ball, his skin going very tight and shiny in the sun. "Gum-Gum... BALL!"

The spike ball hit him right in the middle of his ribs, but it didn't pierce the rubber skin. It just pushed him back three inches before his stomach snapped forward again with a loud PONG sound like a giant drum. The iron ball shot straight back across the river, hitting the brass trumpet gun right on the side of the barrel.

CRACK.

The brass gun didn't explode, but it bent sideways until it looked like a crooked banana, the iron stand snapping off the deck timbers and falling into the muddy water with a huge splash that soaked the men with the oars.

"The gun!" the number nine man screamed, his blue hat falling off his head into the mud. "The rubber boy reflects the iron! Get the long hooks! Don't let him jump!"

Zoro was already off his camel, running along the gravel bank toward the first barge. He had his two regular swords out now, the black one and the gray one, his boots clicking against the red stones as he reached the water's edge. The river wasn't deep here, only up to his knees, but the mud at the bottom was thick and sticky.

"Two-Sword Style..." Zoro muttered, his blades crossing in front of his belt. "CLAW REEFER!"

He slashed both swords upward through the brown water. A sharp wave of air shot off the metal, cutting through the thick hemp ropes that held the three barges together. SNAP. SNAP. The boats instantly started to drift apart in the current, the middle one spinning around in circles because the oarsmen on the left side were pulling harder than the ones on the right.

"They're separating!" Nami shouted from the steering deck where she had run to check the rudder. "Sanji! Don't let the left one reach the shore! They have the big oil tins!"

Sanji didn't use the ladder. He just hopped over the broken side railing, his right shoe looking shiny as he spun around in the air above the left barge. "Bad Manners... STRAWBERRY KICK!"

He drove his heel straight through the thin wooden deck of the first boat, hitting the big tin of cooking oil they had stolen from an old camp. BOOM. The tin burst open, a big wave of yellow grease splashing all over the green coats' boots until they were all slipping and sliding around like fish in a bucket. One man tried to swing his short sword, but his foot went out from under him and he hit his chin on the iron cleat.....clonk.....and went straight over the side into the mud.

Leo stayed near the front hatch with Usopp. The little long-nosed sniper was currently trying to find a dry match in his shirt pocket, his fingers shaking so much he dropped two of them into the anchor chain slot.

"Leo! Help me with the little pulley!" Usopp gasped, pointing at a small iron wheel that had come off the front rail. "If I can't get the rope tight, the sheep head is going to fall into the river! The wood underneath is all cracked from that big catfish bump!"

Leo knelt down by the chain pipe, his fingers touching the splintered gray wood. It was wet from the river spray, and he could feel the ship's frame vibrating every time Luffy bounced on the middle deck. He took the small iron pin from Usopp's hand and pushed it into the center hole of the pulley. It was tight, but it went in with a hard shove. He checked his boot strap again while he was down there. No sand inside. The brass teeth were holding up against the river mud fine.

"It's secure, Usopp," Leo said, pulling the rope until the sheep head rose back up by three inches. "But don't shoot any more of the heavy balls from the front. The timbers can't take the kick."

"The great Captain Usopp doesn't need heavy balls!" Usopp said, his confidence coming back now that his pulley was fixed. He pulled out a small green pocket sling from his belt and loaded it with a round red bean that looked like a cherry. "Hey, you blue-hat jerk! Look over here!"

The number nine man was trying to climb onto the last barge that was still floating straight, but Usopp let go of the leather string. TWANG. The red bean shot across the gap and hit the man right in the middle of his forehead.

It didn't break his head, but the bean instantly burst into a giant cloud of thick, purple smoke that smelled exactly like rotten eggs and burnt hair. "Agh! My eyes!" the man shrieked, waving his arms around until he tripped over his own green coat and went splashing into the brown water next to his bent gun.

"The Special Egg Star!" Usopp cheered, standing on the rail with his thumbs in his vest. "Nobody can stand against my smelly beans! The river belongs to the Straw Hats!"

The rest of the green coats didn't want any more of the smelly beans or Sanji's grease kicks. The two remaining barges turned around, the men pulling the oars so fast the wood was creaking, heading back down the south channel toward the big lake where the navy ships were waiting.

The square was quiet again, except for the sound of the Merry’s sail flapping in the hot breeze.

Chopper crawled out from under the water barrel where he had been hiding with Karoo. His pink hat was a little crooked, but his blue nose was bright. "Did we win? Is the kitchen safe?"

"The kitchen is fine, little doctor," Sanji said, walking back over the side rail and dusting off his black sleeves. He looked at the three holes in the big white sail and let out a long sigh. "But Nami-san is going to make us sew that cloth all night. The thread is in the lower locker and it smells like old fish."

"We're not sewing tonight," Nami said, coming down from the wheel deck with her map roll. She didn't look happy, but she didn't look angry either, just very tired. "Vuba is only ten miles from here if we follow the old river bed instead of the dunes. Vivi says the rebel army left their main supply wagons there. If we can catch them before they reach the coast, we can still show them the King's letter."

"The letter from the old dad?" Luffy asked. He had found a small piece of dry seaweed on the deck and was trying to use it as a whip. "Is it the one with the big red wax circle?"

"Yes, Luffy," Vivi said, her voice very quiet as she looked down the south channel where the barges had gone. Her blue hair was tied back now, but a few strings were loose around her face, looking dark against her pale skin. "If my father's letter reaches the young men, they'll know the rain wasn't his fault. They'll know Crocodile was the one buying the green powder."

"Then let's go!" Luffy shouted, throwing the seaweed into the river. "Camels! Get back on the camels!"

They didn't use the camels this time because the river bed was wide and flat here, the mud having dried into hard gray clay that was easy to walk on. Zoro stayed in the front with Luffy, his three swords clicking together in a regular, slow rhythm that sounded like a loose shutter on an old house.

Leo walked near the back with Kaelen and Chopper. The little reindeer was getting tired, his short legs moving twice as fast as everyone else's just to keep up with the long steps. Every half-mile, Leo would reach down and pick him up, letting him sit on top of his big green coat for a while until his breathing went back to normal.

"Leo," Kaelen said after they had been walking for about two hours. The red hills on the side of the valley were starting to look purple as the sun went down. "Do you think the King is still in the palace? Miller said something about Rainbase back at the cave. If the Baroque Works men have the towns locked down, the capital might be empty."

"The King is there," Leo said, his boots crunching against a dry piece of river reed. "He wouldn't leave the big clock tower. It's the only thing that keeps the time for the water wagons. If he leaves, the whole country forgets when to dig the ditches."

"I don't like the clock," Chopper muttered from Leo's shoulder, his little hoofs ticking against the brass buttons of the coat. "It makes too many loud noises. In the snow island, we only had the wind. You could tell when it was noon because the crows would stop sitting on the pine trees."

"There aren't any crows here, Chopper," Nami said from the front. She didn't turn around, but her shoulders looked a bit looser now that the river was behind them. "Just those big grey vultures that sit on the stone posts. Don't look at them or they'll think you're a piece of meat."

"I'm not meat!" Chopper squeaked, pulling his hat down until his eyes were covered. "I'm a doctor!"

They reached the outskirts of Vuba just as the sky turned that dark, rusty orange color again. The town didn't have any walls, just a long row of empty mud brick granaries that had been built to hold the country's corn before the dry years started. The wooden doors were all wide open, swinging back and forth in the night wind with a dry creak-creak sound that made the place feel like a graveyard.

In the middle of the main street, sitting on an old upside-down water tub, was a young man with a long leather vest and a big iron spear resting between his knees. He had a white cloth tied around his forehead, and his face was covered in small black spots from the sun. He looked very tired, his eyes half-closed as he watched the trail.

"Stop right there," the young man said, his voice sounding thin and dry like the grass. He didn't lift the spear, but his fingers tightened on the ash wood handle. "The army has already marched to the coast. There isn't any food left in the bins, so if you're bounty hunters, you're wasting your shoes."

"Kohza!" Vivi cried, running past Luffy before Zoro could catch her sleeve.

The young man with the spear jumped up from his tub, his eyes going wide as the white cloth slid down his forehead. "Vivi? Princess Vivi?"

He dropped his spear into the dust, just like old Toza had dropped his shovel that morning. He ran toward her, his big leather sandals kicking up a cloud of gray clay dust. "You're... you're back? Your father said you went to the north cities to find the navy."

"The navy is no good, Kohza," Vivi said, her hands catching his leather vest as she stopped in front of him. "Crocodile is the one. He's the one who used the Dance Powder in the port towns. My father has the proof in the palace chest! You have to call the young men back before they reach the big gate!"

Kohza looked past her at Luffy, who was currently trying to see if there was any water left inside the old upside-down tub. He let out a long, dry laugh that sounded like he had sand in his throat. "It's too late, Vivi. The army is already at the three-mile ridge. Toto has the big flag, and the boys from the western wells have thirty wagons of black powder. Even if I blew the horn, they wouldn't turn around now. They're too hungry to listen to letters."

"They'll listen to me!" Luffy shouted, his head popping out from behind the tub. He looked completely serious now, the soot on his cheeks making his white teeth look very sharp. "I'm gonna hit the big sand guy anyway! If they don't turn around, I'll just hit them too!"

"You can't hit an army, rubber nose," Zoro said, leaning his shoulder against one of the empty granary doors. He looked down at his boots, which were completely covered in grey clay from the river bed. "There are too many of them. You'll get tired after the first thousand."

"I don't get tired!" Luffy yelled. "I ate four bean cakes this morning!"

"We need to get to the ridge," Nami said, her voice dropping into that practical, business tone she used when she was counting the berry bills. "If the army is only three miles away, we can catch the back wagons before midnight. Leo, check the camels. Are they still tied to the iron rock by the cove?"

"Sanji brought them down," Leo said, pointing toward the end of the mud street where the three big brown animals were currently sitting in a row, their long necks twisting around to look at the empty corn bins. He walked over to the first one, his left boot making that old familiar noise as he stepped over a broken piece of timber. Click. Click. Click. Three short ticks in the dark. "They're ready. But we need to move fast. The wind is coming from the south now, and that means the big dust wall is behind us again."

Kohza picked up his iron spear from the dust, his face going hard under his white forehead cloth. "I'm coming with you. If Toto sees the Princess with the Straw Hats, he might hold the flag for five minutes. It's not much, but it's better than letting the boys run into the navy's brass guns."

They climbed back onto the leather saddles, the giant animals moving out of the empty town into the wide, dark plain where the red hills were disappearing into the night. The sound of the river was gone now, replaced by the deep, regular thumping of the camel pads against the hard clay. The real fight was just over the next ridge, and the heart of the rebellion was waiting in the dark.