Marcos awoke to the sounds of cannon fire and yelling, coming from outside of the hull of the ship. He awoke with a start, but was restrained by wraps around his wrists and ankles, bound up to a bunk. He looked around, seeing everyone else was in a startle as well from the sudden noises of battle. Either the ship was attacking someone, or it was being attacked itself. Either way, cannonballs were flying. As roundshot flew across the water, the hull was hit, making a couple of large impact holes, and a lot of debris. One of the large iron projectiles barely missed Marcos, but had hit his bunk, as well as other enslaved people. It was a very brutal sight, watching others get mauled by roundshot, not being able to do anything.

As his bunk was hit, the posts fell and he fell through the thin boarding, hitting the floor of the room. Marcos was not able to get up, so he just lie there, still bound up. And then, the ship started to tip. It tipped over because cannonballs had caused waves to hit the boat, causing it to rock back and forth. Marcos simply tumbled around as the boat rocked, sliding across the floor. Unfortunately, he slid to the edge of the flooring, faced with a hole in the hull of the ship. And, he was slowly sliding down. Before he was able to fall, the binding around his ankles got caught on the wood that was still intact. Marcos, now suspended upside-down, watched as the hull of another ship came closer and closer. He then came up with a spark of brilliancy.

He swung and twisted his body around, trying to loosen the wrappings around his feet, while wedging a piece of wood between the wrapping around his wrists. The wrapping around his wrists were the first to go. So, with his newly freed hands, he reached up and started to undo the wrapping around his ankles. Before he could untie it, though, some cargo had made it free and was speeding towards Marcos. He leaned backwards and barely missed being hit by the heavy cargo, but his feet were uncaught from the wood. Marcos braced himself as he hit the water. 

After quickly gaining his orientation again, he would start moving, swimming upwards, to the surface. And, when he breached the surface, he found he was faced by the hull of the opposing ship. Either climb on, or sink, he thought. He chose to climb on, grabbing the wood lining of the hull and climbing upwards, holding on for dear life. When there was nowhere else to grab, he simply held on, not wanting to go back into the water and risk drowning, or recapture. Marcos was prepared to face the crew of the new ship, deducing that it was not a slave ship, at least.