The spinning fat man flew too fast, hell-bent on escape and caring about nothing else.
At this range, intercepting a determined ability user mid-air was taxing even for a Logia user.
Forget those two trash.
Smoker ground his cigars out on the rail, sparks scattering on the sea wind.
He turned and strode to the wheel, his coat flapping behind him.
"Full speed ahead to the port of Iron Fang Island."
"But Captain..."
First Lieutenant Tashigi caught up, clutching her sword, worry written across her face.
"If a Donquixote Family officer was that terrified, something extremely dangerous must be on that island."
"Isn't charging straight in too reckless?"
"Reckless?"
Smoker snorted, arms folded at the bow, eyes fixed on the black smoke ahead.
"If it's pirates killing each other, we collect the corpses."
"If it's a massacre of civilians, the Marines have no excuse to watch from the sidelines."
He glanced sideways at the nervous Marines behind him.
"Any cowards stay aboard; the rest follow me."
"I want to see what kind of monster scared a Warlord's officer witless."
The warship cut through the waves into Iron Fang Island waters.
Once a booming den of vice, it was now eerily silent.
No shouting voices, no hawkers, not even the cries of gulls only the crackle of burning wood on the wind.
Half the pier had collapsed; pirate ships lay askew in the shallows, their masts snapped.
The sea itself was a sickly dark red, as if soaked in blood or some unknown dye.
"Dock."
Smoker gave the order.
The moment the gangplank touched the ruined wharf, a suffocating stench of blood rolled in.
Several rookies paled, gagging behind their hands.
Smoker scowled, relit two cigars, and drew deeply to mask the reek.
"Tashigi, take First Squad with me."
"The rest stay on board; stand by for artillery support."
"Yes, sir!"
They stepped onto the pier.
Rotten planks groaned underfoot, oozing thick black-red fluid between the cracks.
"Captain, look..."
A Marine's trembling finger pointed toward a stack of containers.
Bodies were piled there no, body parts.
Limbs and entrails lay in a chewed-up heap; many bore bite marks, and some bones were scored by teeth.
"A beast did this?"
Tashigi's knuckles whitened on her hilt, her stomach churning.
Smoker crouched beside a corpse in pirate garb.
Half the throat was torn away, the wound an unnatural ashen gray, with the surrounding veins black and swollen.
"Not a beast."
Smoker rose, his face dark.
"Beasts kill to eat; this is slaughter for slaughter's sake. Some lunatic's handiwork."
Creak.
A soft crack sounded from behind the containers.
Every Marine snapped his rifle up, barrels trained on the noise.
"Who's there? Show yourself!"
Tashigi barked.
A shadow shifted.
A lurching figure emerged: a sailor in a tattered uniform, his head hung at an odd angle.
His left arm ended in a jut of white bone; not a drop of blood dripped from it.
"A survivor?"
A Marine lowered his rifle instinctively and stepped forward.
"Hey, are you okay? We're the..."
"Don't!"
Smoker roared.
Too late.
The survivor jerked its head up.
What had once been a face was now gray, desiccated skin with clouded white eyes. Its mouth was ripped into a jagged grin, teeth ragged, with scraps of dark meat dangling from them.
"Grrraahh!"
With an inhuman howl, it sprang, faster than the eye could follow.
The good-hearted Marine was bowled over before he could react.
Crack!
A crisp snap of bone.
The thing tore a mouthful of flesh from his neck.
"Aaaaagh!!"
His scream shredded the silence.
"Open fire!"
Bam-bam-bam!
Bullets thudded into the creature, black blossoms of blood spraying.
It staggered, its chest caved in by a gaping hole but it did not fall, and it did not cry out.
It only shook its head, heedless of the pain, and charged again.
"What the hell is this thing?!"
The Marines recoiled, hands shaking as they reloaded.
"Out of the way!"
Smoker bellowed.
His right arm dissolved into white smoke, whip-fast, coiling around the monster's neck.
"White Snake!"
The smoke wrenched tight and slammed the creature to the ground.
Boom!
The pier cracked; the thing's spine snapped, its body bent double, twitching furiously.
Still, it lived, its jaws snapping at anything within reach.
Smoker strode over and crushed its skull beneath his boot.
Red and white splattered; the corpse at last lay still.
Silence fell, broken only by the bitten Marine writhing and screaming.
"What is it?"
Smoker stared down, brows knit tight.
No pain, rabid vitality, pure bloodthirst no human traits at all.
Yet this alone couldn't have terrified a Shichibukai's officer.
"H-help..."
The wounded man's voice turned hoarse.
Smoker looked: black veins crawled from the bite, racing across the Marine's skin.
His flesh paled to ash, and his pupils clouded over.
"Corpsman, stop the bleeding!"
Tashigi yelled.
"Don't touch him!"
Smoker yanked her back.
"Captain?"
"Look at his eyes."
Smoker's voice was ice.
The Marine's moan choked off; he rose stiffly, gurgling.
In the next instant, he lunged at the nearest comrade, his maw gaping.
Bang!
A single shot rang out; smoke curled from the tip of Smoker's jitte.
The zombified Marine dropped, a hole between his eyes.
Tashigi covered her mouth, tears brimming.
"It's contagious."
Smoker exhaled a dense screen of smoke.
If this trait was widespread... the thought detonated in his mind.
Iron Fang's den of vice held fifty or sixty thousand residents and visitors.
If the virus had spread... no one on this island was still alive.