by M H Ryan
“You’ve got to go,” I said, feeling the tears in my eyes.
Benji went to digging under me, screaming as she clawed at the stone. She moved to her back and then pushed against the rock above us. I wanted to tell her to stop, to get free and back on the raft, but then I heard the rock above us crack and the opening around me widened just a bit.
Sweating and breathing hard, she grabbed my hands. Benji pulled me so hard, she fell backward, and I slipped out of the cave and right on top of her, between her legs. We paused for a second and then scrambled to our feet and faced the cave opening. I could hear the birds screeching from the hole, and I dared to get down near the sand and look inside.
“Yes!” I said. “They’re too big. Suck on that, you stupid birds.”
I gave Benji a high five.
“How did you do that?” I asked.
“Do what?” Benji asked.
“I don’t know, you just moved a hundred tons of rocks.”
“Hey, there you guys are!” Sherri said. “We heard such a clatter of birds on the island, we thought you might be in trouble…Then we heard Benji screaming…how did you get here?”
“We’ll tell you all about it on the way out of here,” I said and started jogging toward the raft.
Chapter 25
With pole in hand, I watched Food Island’s shoreline and the rocky ridge above. I kept expecting the sky to fill with the colorful winged demons, but with each passing second, the sky remained blue and clear.
We got the food, but it was close—too close. I knew we were going to have to be more careful moving forward. We were going to have to make better weapons, but for now, we were going to have to get away from the birds and make it across this ocean.
“That was incredible,” Sherri said. “Next time, I’m going with you, Jack.”
“We nearly died,” Benji said, looking mildly appalled.
“But you didn’t,” Sherri said, and dipped her paddle into the water, pushing it back.
“Can we just please get back to Yang Island?” Kara asked. “I don’t like it out here.”
I couldn’t blame her. Back on our island, it felt more like a home. Or at least, we’d make it a home until we got rescued. Each hour and day that passed, the hope of rescue seemed to be slipping further away. We still hadn’t seen a plane in the sky or even a jet trail from one we missed, and there certainly wasn’t killer birds like these back in Florida.
Where the hell are we?
I didn’t like not being able to answer that question. If we didn’t know where we were, what were the chances of someone finding us?
In the water, a glint of gold passed by my pole. I pulled the pole up and saw more golden streaks move by in the water.
“You guys see this?” I asked.
“Whoa, so cool,” Sherri said.
“Probably going to kill us,” Aubrey said, watching a few more pass by. This girl was like Eeyore, I swear.
“They’re fish,” Benji said.
“Yeah, maybe tuna? Or some variant of one,” Sherri said as she kept paddling.
We all kept moving the raft along at a good pace, but we watched the water and the island we just left. Soon, what was one or two golden fish swimming by became ten, then twenty.
“Wow,” Sherri said. “Look at them all.”
I’d lost count as a steady stream as the streaked by the raft. They seemed to be attracted to the raft instead of repelled like the rest of the water creatures. We slowed down some as the girls and I took in the wonder swimming under and around our raft in an increasing number.
Moshe, curious about what we were looking at, went to the edge of the raft. Her head whipped from side to side as she tried to track an individual tuna. She slapped at the water, maybe thinking she could yank one right out of the water, even though they were ten times heavier than her.
Then I heard a release of air and water and spotted the source: a large whale had breached the surface a few hundred feet from us. I stared at it through the mist of water it had just sprayed. Its mostly black body rolled over the surface of the ocean, showing off its large dorsal fin and then its tail lifted from the water and the whole thing dipped under the water.
The water bulged up from the massive whale as it gently breached the water again with its mouth open. A golden fish launched out of the water near it, flying through the air for a moment, the sunlight reflecting from its shiny skin. It crashed back into the water behind the whale.
“It’s coming straight at us,” Kara said.
“You got to be fucking kidding me,” Aubrey said. “A freaking whale?”
“Looks like a killer whale, sort of, but bigger, and look at the size of that mouth,” Sherri said. “I bet it could swallow this whole raft up.”
A killer whale? It didn’t seem pissed off at us; it had its mind on hunting.
“Let’s just keep paddling, it’s after these golden tunas,” I said, and shoved the pole into the deeper water.
The girls went back to paddling, and even Kara seemed to have some extra pep in her step. The raft picked up in speed, but the school of golden tuna swam around us and under us at the same frequency. It was as if the fish were following our raft. Another thing they seemed to be attracted to was the whale’s mouth. The fish were now launching out of the water in every direction like a golden fountain of scales and tails around the whale.
Those were the lucky ones. The whale’s mouth closed, sending a small wave out from it. It blew a stream from its blowhole and then opened its mouth again. Whatever fish had been in that mouth were now in that thing’s stomach, and Kara was right, it was still coming straight at us.
I glanced back to Food Island. I expected at some point the birds would be flying out, but I had only seen a few flying around the canopy, probably tending to their nests. The thing they weren’t doing was attacking us. With the fear of the birds diminishing with each second, I focused on the massive whale in the water, now less than two hundred feet away. The thing kept scooping up tuna-like popcorn. We wouldn’t be much more of a meal for such a monster.
The thing moved slow, but it seemed to be keeping trajectory with us. I knew for sure I didn’t want to confront the thing, so we had to come up with a way to get away from it. I once read a book about how to avoid large ships, but it didn’t mention anything about whales. This was some Moby Dick shit staring down at us.
“How far out can you hit that thing, Benji?” I asked.
She looked at me as if I was kidding. “I could hit from here. Just give me the word.” Benji put her hand on her bow and raised an eyebrow.
“Not yet, but be ready for my call. Aubrey, how far can you throw that spear?”
“Not sure on these, maybe fifty feet, with any real accuracy. Give me a javelin and I could hit it from here, no problem,” Aubrey said as she paddled, watching the approaching whale. “That thing sure seems to be moving with us.”
It wasn’t more than a hundred feet from us, and I could see its eyes and the teeth in its open mouth. Closer, the thing was just all the more terrifying. Its mood shifted as slowly as its movements, and I could feel something building in it like a slow fire. Each time we locked eyes, it notched closer to anger. I got a feeling that we were like parasites, like a barnacle attached to its underside and in need of being removed.
“Aubrey, Kara, stop paddling. Let’s turn the raft away from it, put it at our backs.”
It didn’t take long for the power of Sherri and Benji to turn the craft.
“Okay, now, all of us, give it all you got,” I said.
The girls groaned as they plunged their paddles into the water. The raft moved much faster than we’d ever achieved, and I suspected it was because of the modifications we had made. If we made it through this, we’d have enough supplies and water to last a week. We could change the entire raft around and make it seaworthy in these waters. First, we just needed to get this whale off our tail.
After a few minutes of paddling hard, I glanced back
at the whale. There could be no mistake now, the thing was coming for us. I knew then that no matter where we went, or how hard we paddled, we were not going to get away from this beast.
“Hold,” I said, pulling up my pole.
The golden fish had thinned out, but there were a few streaking by here and there.
“Shit,” Kara said, breathing hard and holding onto her paddle. “That thing’s going to kill us. I don’t want to die, not anymore, please.”
“We’re not going to die,” I said.
“Yeah, Jack’s gotten us out of worse. We got this, right, Jack?” Benji asked.
“Um, yeah, we got this,” I said just as the whale blew another stream of air and water from its hole. “Okay, let’s head straight toward our island, see if we can’t push it harder. This thing is getting more pissed off by the second. You ladies have anything left for me?”
“If we survive this, you better have something left for me tonight,” Sherri said.
I laughed and thrust my pole into the ocean, hitting the bottom. “Then let’s move!”
The women paddled, but I knew it wasn’t going to get us away from the whale; I was just trying to get us closer to Yang Island. If that thing hit us, or worse yet, swallowed us, I wanted to be as close to the island as possible for a swim. At least there weren’t any sharks that I could see.
“Shark!” Aubrey yelled, pointing straight ahead of us.
“Freaking fraker,” I said. “Keep pushing. We’ll shove the pointy side of this raft through that shark if we need to.”
I glanced back at the whale; it had turned to match us. It was gaining, but not as fast as before. There was no doubt, it was holding back for a reason, maybe the tar, because it could cover the distance between us in seconds if it wanted to.
The shark in front of us was the same one we’d seen between Yin and Yang Island. I’d know that stupid, cloudy gray tail anywhere. I’d stared at it for long enough. I just hoped the thing still didn’t like our raft.
Our island was still too far away from us for a swim. We were past the middle point, but not by much. My pole went deep into the water enough that I had to bend down low to push off the bottom now, throwing off my rhythm. The girls, on the other hand, were machines. They grunted and groaned in sync, dealing measured strokes and sending us forward.
Over the next two minutes, we tried valiantly to get toward the island, and I think if we had another ten minutes, we could have gotten to the shallows and send this whale away with it. That wasn’t in the cards though, and as I stared back at the whale, not twenty feet behind our craft, it closed its mouth and spit from its blowhole, the salty mist covering my face.
“It’s going to kill us,” Kara said and dropped her paddle in the water.
I grabbed the paddle from the water before it got away from the raft.
Kara sat down and pulled her knees to her chest. She then fell over to her side and started rocking around, muttering about dying and whales and more shit I didn’t have time for. So, Kara was counted out, but the rest of us could handle this whale, this shark and…. Goddamn it, you have to be kidding me.
Moshe, the sea cat, paced near the back of the raft, hissing at the whale.
In the sky, I heard a squawk, and spotted two birds flying straight for us.
“Birds,” I said, pointing at them.
“Shit!” Aubrey said.
Kara went into a fresh fit of panic while Benji counted her arrows.
The whale had reached a new level of anger, and I could feel the plotting in its primitive mind. It was getting ready for an attack.
“Get ready, Benji. The next time Moby raises its head, shoot it right in the eye,” I said.
Aubrey and Sherri kept paddling on either side of the raft while Benji and I took up the rear. Kara lay in the middle, hands over her ears.
The whale moved in a steady pattern, rising up and falling in and out of the water. It started to rise up, and Benji pulled back her bow.
“Big ass titties!” Benji said and let the arrow go.
I didn’t have time to appreciate the Tropic Thunder reference as I watched the arrow fly. The whale rose, its black eye looking directly at us just as the arrow struck it. The whale blew out a burst of water, and I heard a deep call from it. It slapped the water with its tail and dipped below the surface. For the moment, the water behind us became calm. It gave us all the time to watch the birds approaching.
“Nice shot,” I said.
“Thanks,” Benji said, with another arrow nocked and ready.
“Shark’s gone as well,” Sherri said.
“Kara,” Aubrey said, smacking her ass. “Get up.”
Kara blinked and looked around at us. “It’s gone?”
“Yeah, Robin Hood over there hit the thing in the eye,” Aubrey said.
Kara glanced at Benji and then to the sea behind us.
“Kara, I need you back on your station,” I said, tossing her the paddle I pulled from the water.
Her eyes were wide and full of fear and confusion, but she nodded and took the paddle. Benji went back to her spot as well while keeping an eye on the sky.
I dipped my pole into the water and thrust it down into the blue water. I felt my pole move slightly at first, and I started to pull it up, but then it jerked away from me, and I used all my strength to hold onto it.
The blue water below the raft became darker, and I felt shock and anger bubbling up from below like a volcano ready to erupt. My eyes went wide as I spotted the beast swimming up, right under us, with its mouth wide open.
“Oh shit!” I yelled. “Brace yours—”
I wanted to say more. I needed to say more, but the whale was moving too fast. I barely had time to fall to my knees as the creature struck the bottom of our raft.
Chapter 26
I wasn’t sure what happened in the seconds after the whale struck us from below, but I had a sense of floating, and the sounds around me lessened. The anger of the whale surrounded me as much as the water flying through the air with me. Then my face slapped the water and I went under, going down several feet. I opened my eyes to the sting of saltwater, and all I could see were the bubbles floating around me. A splash hit next to me, and I spun to see Kara sinking down by me. Her arms were loose at her sides, and she faced the surface with closed eyes.
Another crash hit nearby and a giant mass of the whale swam near me. Its tail moved and pushed the water against me, sending me further down. I used the burst and swam after Kara. In a couple seconds, I reached her hand and pulled her toward me, hard.
She opened her eyes and looked around in utter terror. I pulled her up toward the surface when I saw the whale swimming straight at us with its mouth open. Kara screamed, letting out a burst of bubbles from her mouth, and she swam just above me. I pushed her up, grabbing her feet and shoving her toward the surface, where I saw the bottom of the raft. Pushing her up had the opposite effect on me, sending me deeper into the water and the rushing whale.
I pulled out my knife and faced the beast. My lungs felt as they were about to burst, but if I could give the ladies a few minutes, it might be enough for them to get away. The arrow was still stuck in its eye, bobbing back and forth with the whale’s motions. I’m not stupid and knew I had no chance against this dinosaur of the sea, but I intended on doing as much damage as I could before I drowned.
The whale moved toward me, and that was when I saw a small thing that I took as a fish at first, swimming down toward the whale. As the bubbles cleared around its body, I realized it was Moshe. The water cat landed on the back of the whale, gripping it with drawn claws. Moshe didn’t look like more than a speck on the whale’s back, but she moved quickly to the face of the whale and right over the one good eye. Moshe pounced on the eye, producing a streak of blood as my vision blurred and my body shook from the need of oxygen.
The massive creature stirred and rotated, trying to get the cat off its back. I had no choice but to swim up and get to the surface. I breache
d and sucked in a deep breath of the sweet air. From there, I spotted Benji, Aubrey, and Sherri, pulling Kara aboard the raft.
After quick breaths, I plunged back into the water. I wasn’t going to let Moshe fight that thing on its own. I swam down, searching for the whale, but it was gone. The sea cat that was once covered in tar floated in the water, not moving. I tucked my knife back in and swam to her, grabbing her with my hands and swimming as quickly as I could to the surface.
“There he is!” Benji yelled as I breached the surface.
With one free hand, I swam to the edge of the raft and to Sherri and Benji’s grabbing hands. I sat the cat on the edge of the raft as they pulled me up and over the pointy defenses we had built.
“What happened?” Benji asked. “We couldn’t find you.”
Kara coughed near the center of the raft and looked up at me. “He saved my life. But how did you get away from the whale?”
“Moshe,” I said, kneeling next to her and picking her up gently.
It wasn’t any bigger than your standard house cat, but this thing saved my life. On purpose.
“Is she okay?” Benji asked, diverting her attention to the water cat.
“I don’t know,” I said, pressing on Moshe’s chest and then putting my ear near her mouth.
I heard her breath.
“She’s alive.”
“We’ve got incoming,” Aubrey said looking to the sky.
I glanced up to see the two birds circling above us. “I swear, this place just doesn’t let up, does it?”
“I think I could hit them, but I lost a few arrows in the…whale attack?” Benji said, holding the last two arrows she had.
“Those things are cautious. They might be leery of attacking us,” I said, still breathing hard. “If you ladies have anything left in ya, let’s make a run for the shore.”
The distance to the shore should have taken more than ten more minutes, but now we had a pissed-off whale, a creeper shark, and a couple birds flying overhead. I set the cat down on one of our bags and she let out a soft meow as she gripped the bag with her claws.
