by Jake Bible
“Where are we going?” Ben cried.
“The hold!” Nick yelled. “There’s a lifeboat in there we can use to get the hell off this boat! Yacht! Dammit!”
The ceiling behind them exploded into a thousand fragments of teak and oak and mahogany. Wooden shrapnel pelted their backs as they reached the next corner and hurried around. Ben felt blood trickling from his shoulder, but he didn’t dare stop to inspect the wound. And after having his eye gouged out with a knife and his fingers sliced off, a big splinter wasn’t exactly on his pain radar.
Nick led them down one more set of stairs, a set that was thankfully stable and not about to come unbolted from the wall, and shoved open a door that Ben recognized. It was the door that he and Maggie had come through from the other side when they’d first entered the yacht. Except now the hold held only one speedboat and it didn’t look too sea worthy.
“Ouch,” Nick said as he stared at the cracked and broken vessel. And what was strewn across it. Bodies. Dozens of them, their limbs twisted and tied together.
“Found the Carls,” Nick said.
“That had better not be the lifeboat you were talking about,” Ben said.
“What? Oh, hell no,” Nick said, turning away from the grotesque sight. “The lifeboat is through here.”
They walked along the hold’s small platform and came to a wide hatch. Nick grabbed the wheel in the center of the hatch and struggled to turn it.
“You’d think they’d make this easy since it’s for emergencies,” Nick said.
“You’d think it would be kept up above since it’s for emergencies,” Ben mocked.
“That would be ugly,” Nick replied. “Rich people hate ugly more than they hate death. Come on, man, you’ve met my mom. She’d rather slit her wrists than wear last season’s outfits.”
“Move,” Maggie said as they heard the sound of shearing metal echo down from above. “No time for you two to blabber on.”
She pushed Nick out of the way and yanked on the wheel. It protested, but then gave and turned freely. She yanked open the hatch and revealed a small space barely big enough for six people.
“I guess the crew has their own lifeboat?” Ben asked.
“The crew goes down with the ship, dude,” Nick said. “Haven’t you seen Titanic? Of course, the crew are all a bunch of bloody pretzels right now, so they aren’t going anywhere except out a monster’s asshole when it returns and eats them up. You think the thing will dip them in mustard?”
“You are not as funny as you think you are,” Ben replied. “That is just bad taste, dude.”
“I don’t care,” Nick said. “I’m scared shitless and just trying to keep going, man.”
“Get in,” Maggie ordered.
The two men complied and she followed them inside. The space was pure white with two long, red benches. The walls were covered in ocean survival gear, none of it looking like it had ever been touched except for maybe a yearly inspection. There were small portholes along the top of the walls with a single, small windshield at one end of the lifeboat just above a wheel and console of controls.
Nick pointed at the benches. “We strap in and I hit this button here and the lifeboat gets ejected out the ass end of the yacht. My ship poops safety.”
“Where’s the radio?” Maggie asked.
“There,” Nick said, pointing to a panel by her head. “I think it only broadcasts on emergency channels.”
“Which are wide open,” Maggie said. “I can’t use those. The helicopter will just have to be looking for us in the general area.”
“Your people, the helicopter,” Ben grumbled. “Handler, asset. Is James Bond going to pop out next and offer me a martini?”
There was a loud crash from somewhere in the yacht and Maggie turned around, facing back towards the hold. She glanced over her shoulder at Ben and Nick.
“You two get settled,” she said. “I’m going to take care of something real quick.”
“You do that,” Ben said.
“Dude,” Nick snapped at him. “Knock it off with the pouty dick thing. That is still Maggie out there and she still totally loves you. You gotta understand that. Whatever else there is going on, happened after she met you. All this shit is only because you and I are friends, man. Don’t blame her, blame me.”
“I’ll do both,” Ben said.
“Dick,” Nick said. Then he started and began to pat his pockets. “Shit.”
“What?” Ben asked.
“I had something for Maggie,” Nick said. “Found it on that other ship. It’s gone now.”
“Whatever,” Ben said as he turned his back on Nick while the man continued to search his pockets.
Ben took a deep breath then grunted and moved towards the hatch. He looked into the vehicle hold and saw Maggie messing with the damaged second speedboat working her way around the entangled bodies.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Cutting the fuel lines,” Maggie said. “Emptying the diesel tanks into the hold.” She looked back at him and frowned. “Get back in the lifeboat.”
“Yeah, you’re not my handler,” Ben said.
There was a shudder and thump above. They both froze. When it didn’t happen again, Maggie pointed to a coil of rope hanging on a hook by Ben.
“Hand that rope to me then,” Maggie said. “Since you won’t be smart and go sit your ass down.”
“What do you need the rope for?” Ben asked, grabbing it and tossing it to her.
She caught it easily and then held it under the fuel lines she’d severed.
“I’m making a fuse,” she replied. “It’s not exactly safe since diesel-soaked nylon burns fast, but it’ll have to do.”
“You’re gonna blow this whole ship up and kill the thing?” Ben asked.
“That’s the plan,” Maggie said. “You know of a better one?”
“I’d think you’d want the thing alive,” Ben said. “Then your operation wouldn’t be a complete failure. Why not try to trap it?”
“I don’t think it can be trapped,” Maggie said. “Not on a ship like this. It spent most of the time hiding in the ventilation system. Out of water for hours. That didn’t kill it. I fired I don’t know how many rounds into the thing and it wouldn’t die. It wiped out an entire NCDC cruiser filled with men and women, many of whom had almost as much training as me. Still alive.”
“I understood twenty-five percent of that,” Ben said.
“The bottom line is that we are food and if it is still alive then it’s going to just jump in the water and come pry that lifeboat open, eating us like anchovies straight from the can,” Maggie said. “I don’t want to die, I don’t want Nick to die, and I especially don’t want you to die. So I am going to blow this boat up with the monster on it.”
“Yacht,” Nick called from the lifeboat.
“Shut up!” Maggie and Ben yelled.
“Sorry,” Nick said.
“Take this end and walk it back to the lifeboat,” Maggie said as she held out the end of the fuel-soaked rope. “Don’t take it through the hatch, we don’t want diesel inside there.”
“Yeah, I figured that out on my own,” Ben said.
He took the end of the rope and walked back towards the hatch of the lifeboat, taking time to choose his steps carefully since his field of vision and depth perception were completely shot. It only took a few seconds to cross the hold, but even that exertion nearly wiped him out. Ben rested next to the hatch, his head leaning back on the cool metal of the hold’s wall.
“You good?” Nick asked, leaning out to help Ben inside.
“No,” Ben said. “But I can take care of myself, Mr. Asset.”
“Screw you, dude,” Nick said. “I wanted to tell you a million times. Maggie wanted to tell you a million times. Neither of us could, man. Everyone has a boss and her bosses are scary. Like send you to a hidden jail in Lithuania for the rest of your life scary.”
The hold shook and the ship rocked to the side as th
e sound of chaos erupted around them.
“Shit!” Nick shouted. “What the hell is it doing?”
The ship rocked again and the noise got louder, making the pain in Ben’s head quadruple in intensity.
“Get in there!” Maggie yelled at the two men as she jumped from the speedboat and rushed towards them. “Get strapped in and ready to—!”
Her sentence was cut off as the hold’s outside door was ripped away. The massive octopus jammed all legs into the hold opening and pulled back, warping and peeling the ship’s hull like it was an old tin can. It hesitated when it caught sight of them with its huge, black eyes.
“Maggie,” Ben whispered as he saw the woman lying unconscious near the dock. Her body was draped across a pile of bumpers and heavy tarps. He started to move towards her, but Nick grabbed his shoulder.
“No,” Nick said. “This shit is my fault. Get her inside the lifeboat. I’ll take care of this.”
“What are you talking about?” Ben asked.
He didn’t have time to wait for an answer as a tentacle shot across the hold and slammed into the wall next to his head. He screamed and jumped out of the way, moving in the complete opposite direction of where he was supposed to go, adding distance between him and Maggie’s prone form.
“Get her!” Nick yelled as he cracked a flare, sending a fiery burst shooting towards the octopus. “HEY! OVER HERE!”
The man sprinted towards the hatch leading back into the ship, but skidded to a stop as two tentacles slammed into the platform, crushing the heavy duty plastic boards only a foot in front of him. Nick pulled a second flare from his waistband and fired it into one of the monster’s tentacles and it shrank back. The creature shuddered and the other tentacles flailed about before rocketing right at Nick.
But Nick was already through the hatch and yelling for the monster to follow him. The thing wavered, its tentacles undulating back and forth, then it took off, squeezing its body through an opening that was only a quarter of its size. The metal around the hatch warped and bent, but didn’t tear as the boneless creature jammed its entire bulk through. Then was gone from sight.
Ben stumbled over to Maggie and rolled her over. She had a huge gash across her forehead and blood poured into her eyes. Ben wiped it away with the bandage on his hand then started to laugh.
“Look at us,” he whispered. “Some vacation, huh? Blood and guns and a giant octopus.”
“Yeah…” Maggie muttered. Her eyes blinked a few times then fell closed again.
Ben tried to lift her up, to get her arm around his shoulder so he could carry her to the lifeboat, but he barely had the strength to stand. There was a huge crash from inside the ship and he heard the distinct sound of Nick screaming every epithet in the book. But he pushed those sounds away and looked about the hold for a way to get Maggie from the pile of gear she was on and into the lifeboat.
He saw a gear cart pushed up against a wall and he limped over to it, grabbed the long handle, and swung it around. The wheels protested and stuck, but he was able to manhandle the cart over and rest it right near Maggie.
“Now what?” Ben said to himself. “You can barely lift your arm. How will you get her in there?”
There was a crashing sound and a scream so loud that Ben thought it was his own voice. A second later, he watched in horror as Nick fell into the water just outside the ripped-open hole that used to be the sliding hold door. Ben stared at where Nick had fallen into the water and counted. Fifteen seconds later the man came back to the surface, spitting and coughing.
Nick looked at Ben then looked up. He dove out of sight as a huge shadow darkened the water from above. The creature landed right where Nick had been and water rushed through the hole and into the hold, splashing up over Ben and nearly knocking him off the small platform. But the force of the wave also lifted the tarps and bumpers Maggie was on, rolling her right next to Ben and the cart.
He grabbed her under her arms and in one heave lifted her into the cart. That about sapped his strength, but he dug deep and wrapped his good hand around the cart’s handle. He rolled it two feet before he had to rest. Another two feet, another rest.
The ocean outside the hold churned and the monster’s massive mantle rose from the surface until its eyes were visible and locked on to where Ben sat with his chest heaving and strength all but sapped.
“No,” Ben croaked as he took the cart’s handle again and scooted back on his ass, taking Maggie with him.
Tentacles reached into the hold once more and the creature pulled itself slowly through the water, its black eyes never leaving Ben. Ben’s eye never left the monster, either. The two beings were locked in a stare off that was considerably disproportionate.
Ben’s back bumped against the wall next to the lifeboat hatch and he risked a glance behind. All he had to do was get Maggie inside and slam the hatch shut. Then strap them in, hit the button, and hope the octopus didn’t decide to rip the lifeboat apart before Ben could eject it from the ship.
Easy.
Instead of pulling Maggie inside, Ben crawled around to the front of the cart, putting himself between Maggie and the creature, and leaned back, using his weight to push the cart right inside the lifeboat. Maggie moaned and Ben froze as the monster’s tentacles jerked and twitched at the sound.
He didn’t understand what it was waiting for, why it wasn’t attacking. Then a tentacle slapped a small buoy that hung from one of the many hooks on the walls. The buoy rocked back and forth and the octopus waited until it stopped moving before slapping it again.
“Oh, shit,” Ben thought as he kept pushing Maggie into the lifeboat. “It’s playing with us. This is a game now.”
Maggie’s cart thumped over the hatch’s threshold and rolled into the lifeboat, coming to a stop against one of the long, red benches. Ben crab walked backwards after the cart, his eye never leaving the monster that was inching its way closer and closer.
Ben couldn’t help but think that the beast wanted him to close the hatch and eject the lifeboat. It wasn’t a rational thought because why would a giant, mutant octopus want him to escape? But rational thought had left reality a long time ago.
“It wants to play before it kills,” Ben thought again. “It knows we’re the last and it wants to drag it out.” He looked at the hatch then the big emergency button that would eject the lifeboat. “It wants to play chase.”
He looked back outside the hatch and saw the end of the diesel rope lying harmlessly to the side of the dock, only a couple feet from the monster that was slowly closing the distance between it and the lifeboat.
He took a deep breath, which hurt like hell, and then said out loud, “This isn’t a game. It never was.”
Ben got to his feet, took a couple more deep breaths, and watched the creature. It watched him. He reached out and plucked an emergency kit from its spot on the wall next to the hatch. He opened it slowly and smiled when he saw three of the four flares gone. At least Nick had tried to think ahead, taking more than just one flare. The man had also thought enough to leave one flare behind. One very important flare.
Ben put the flare to his mouth and pulled off the cap with his teeth, revealing a long pull string at the end. He stared at the pull string dangling from the end of the red and yellow stick. He had no idea how he would pull it and ignite the flare with his other hand basically useless. If he yanked the string with his teeth, he’d end up with a face full of flare and he was pretty sure his face couldn’t take much more trauma
“Shit,” he mumbled around the cap still clenched between his teeth.
He looked around for some place to wedge the flare, so he could pull the string with his good hand. But the lifeboat was all smooth and textured heavy duty plastic. Even the screws holding things together had been sunk deep so they wouldn’t pose a danger to anyone being tossed around inside. There was no place to hold the flare. Even if there was it would have to be a place that pointed out of the lifeboat
“Shit,” he mumbled ag
ain and spat the cap to the floor.
The octopus grew closer and closer then stopped. Ben froze, his mind torn between slamming the hatch closed and hitting the eject button or continuing to find a way to ignite the flare. That time was all the creature needed to get right in front of the lifeboat’s hatch. A tentacle reached in and plucked the flare from Ben’s hand, withdrawing it from sight, gone forever.
“Hey,” Ben managed to squeak out. “Uh… Octopus. Listen, okay? I’m just some guy that got caught up…”
He stopped talking as a tentacle slithered in and rose just in front of his face. Ben gulped hard as the tentacle hovered before his eye. Then it smacked him hard enough to send him flying against the wall. He fell to the ground, his hand clutching his cheek. He could feel blood trickling down and he tried to figure out how badly he was hurt when the same tentacle wiped its tip along his cheek. It withdrew with Ben’s blood dripping from its end.
Ben shuddered as he watched the octopus’s tentacle disappear into its beak while it closed its eye in what looked like ecstasy.
Another tentacle started to reach for him, but stopped as Nick’s voice echoed from outside the lifeboat.
“Hey, fuck fish!” Nick shouted. “I hate sushi! I like my fish cooked!”
Ben didn’t have time to groan over what Nick said as all the air was sucked from the lifeboat, and his lungs, as a massive WHUMP exploded from the hold. The creature shrank back from the lifeboat and Ben felt the intense heat that came from the rest of the ship.
Nick had lit the fuel.
Nick had lit the fuel…
“Nick’s lit the fuel!” Ben shouted as he scrambled weakly to the hatch and jammed his shoulder between it and the wall.
He shoved the hatch closed, his eye registering the growing flames that spread across almost every surface of the hold. He couldn’t see Nick, anywhere, but he could hear him. Hear him screaming in agony as the octopus’s body was wrapped around him, chomping down with its beak. Blood geysered up into the air and that was the last thing Ben saw as he hurried to the emergency button.
He didn’t have time to strap himself or Maggie in and just said a prayer that the ejection wouldn’t be too violent.
