by Jake Bible
Then she sighed and stopped moving.
“Five minutes,” Kinsey said as loud as she could. “Everyone stop swimming and rest for five minutes. Float on your backs and link arms with someone next to you in case you fall asleep. Try to form a chain so we stay together.”
There were mumbles of thanks to many deities.
Kinsey felt Lucy’s arm lock through hers then Gunnar’s through her other side.
It felt good to rest. Too good. Kinsey was terrified she’d pass out and never wake up again. Or she’d wake up in the belly of a shark and her last thought would be what it would be like to be shark shit.
“Kins?” Lucy asked, bringing Kinsey’s mind away from the many other drifting thoughts that threatened to pull her deep down into sleep. “Kins? Do you see that?”
“I can’t see shit,” Kinsey replied.
“No, look,” Gunnar said.
“Oh, dear,” Ronald said from somewhere in the group. “The waters are stirring.”
“Fuck,” Kinsey said as she got free of Lucy and Gunnar. “Here it comes, people!”
Everyone started to call out to each other. Those with weapons locked and loaded got as set as they could in open water while the rest began their exhausted journey towards the island once more.
“Hold the hell on,” Kinsey said as she stared at where the water was beginning to churn. “Sharks don’t make light.”
“Oh, that’s not true,” Boris said from the darkness. “Some actually have bioluminescent skin. Isn’t that remarkable? They glow in the dark.”
“This is not bioluminescence, Boris,” Ronald said.
The water churned harder and the light grew brighter until somewhere in the dark Moshi cried out, “Toyshop!”
Out of the water burst the Toyshop. It launched a couple feet into the air then settled and bobbed a few seconds before the top hatch opened.
“I can only hold a couple dozen,” Carlos said, a very large weapon held in his arms. He swept it back and forth, the light bouncing off the ocean making him look like some panicked ghoul. “We have to do this in shifts. But hurry your asses! The shark dove deep and will be back soon!”
“Moshi can pilot the Toyshop, so we can kill Carlos, right?” Lucy asked.
Kinsey didn’t respond right away.
“Kins?” Lucy pushed. “I’m not fucking kidding.”
“I know,” Kinsey said. “But let’s tackle his execution after we get everyone safely to shore.”
“Nothing is safe onshore of that island,” Delana said somewhere at the fringe of the group.
“Come on, you idiots!” Carlos yelled. “We don’t have all day! If you want this to—”
Lightning flashed and the water exploded. Carlos screamed as he and the Toyshop were lifted more than a hundred feet into the air. The creature that did the lifting had the Toyshop clamped in its massive jaws. From what little light there was, Kinsey could see huge gouges running the length of the mega shark’s body. She also could see oozing holes and complete hunks missing from the thing.
“Go!” Kinsey yelled. “Swim! Swim! Goddammit, swim!”
No one waited past her first plea. Everyone began paddling as fast as their worn-out limbs would allow. Weapons were dropped and friends and colleagues forgotten. It was every man and woman for themselves as the group surged away from the falling shark as fast as they could.
Carlos was screaming the entire time until the shark fell back in the water and was lost from sight. The wave it created plunged half the group down into the depths, Kinsey included. She rolled with the tumult, her eyes and body desperate to orient so she could get back to the surface.
In the few seconds she was under, Kinsey caught a glimpse of the Toyshop still in the shark’s jaws. The hatch was closed. Either Carlos had gotten back inside and closed it or the impact with the ocean’s surface had forced it shut. One of those options meant they still had a chance if Carlos was conscious and able to fight. The other option meant they had maybe a couple of minutes before the shark realized it couldn’t crush the Toyshop and it turned its attention on the fleeing group.
***
Lake yelled as Darren bumped his leg.
“Fucking Hell, D!” Lake shouted. “Are you trying to start the bleeding all over again?”
“Sorry,” Darren said. “Still shaky on my feet, Marty.”
“Then sit your ass down,” Lake snapped as he sat at the helm on the Resurrection’s bridge, his leg propped up on a stool. “Or, if you won’t sit down, then go help Thorne and the boys. Or get in the way of the couple of deckhands we have left.”
Darren sat down at the navigation station.
“We lost that light,” Darren stated. “You sure this is the direction we’re supposed to go?”
“I made the best guess I have,” Lake said. “We only saw it for a few minutes.”
“A little cloudy out there to navigate by the stars,” Darren said.
“You think?” Lake replied. “I said I made the best guess I could.”
There were several flashes of lightning on the horizon, each illuminating the wide open ocean for a split second.
“There!” Shane yelled as he ran onto the bridge, binoculars in hand. He pointed out the windows at a forty-five-degree angle. “I swear to fucking God I saw something really big come up out of the water then go back in.”
“Max? Do you have confirmation of that sighting?” Darren asked. They’d gotten the Resurrection’s coms to work and each had an earpiece again. “Max?”
“Hold on, Ditcher. Jeez,” Max replied over the com. Darren growled. “Oh, stop bitching. Yes, I think I saw the really big thing Shane saw. Forty-five degrees to port.”
“Forty-five degrees to port,” Lake said as he spun the wheel and pushed the throttle. Lake grumbled. “This thing is a piece of shit. Doesn’t have anywhere near the oomph and maneuverability as the B3.”
“Ballantine was a ship snob,” Darren said. “He liked the best engines. Cougher didn’t exactly fight him on that.”
“Oh, Cougher fought me,” Ballantine’s voice interrupted over the com. “He fought me for better engines. He insisted I had the connections, which he was right, but by that time we were on the run and there was no pulling into port for upgrades.”
Everyone sat there, silent.
“Goddammit,” Lake said. “You fucking asshole.”
“Ballantine?” Darren asked. “Where the hell are you?”
“Where’s Darby?” Max interrupted. “Is she safe?”
“Is Darby ever truly safe, Maxwell?” Ballantine replied. “She is alive, if that helps. But, being Darby, she is taking care of some business that needs taking care of. Speaking of, hold on a moment,”
There was an audible click and brief squelch of static.
“Did he just hang up on us?” Lake asked. “Yes. Of course he did. Asshole.”
“Alright, Darby is still alive, although I believe her situation is about to get…violent,” Ballantine reported when he came back on the com. “She says to give you her love, Maxwell.”
“No, she didn’t,” Max replied.
“No, she didn’t,” Ballantine admitted. “But I thought it would be nice for you to hear. If Darby said such sentiments, then I am sure she would have said—”
“Shut the fuck up, Ballantine,” Thorne said, joining the com conversation. “Give me a sit rep. Where are you and what the hell are you up to?”
Ballantine described the events that lead to him taking the command center.
“I do have some visitors that have recently arrived and would like to get inside, but I believe Wire designed this room to be nearly impregnable,” Ballantine said. “Oh, and will you look at this. I found the security controls for the defensive measures put into the hallway. Anything I need to know from your end before I kill some people?”
“Christ,” Lake muttered.
“We’re heading to rescue whatever survivors we can find,” Darren said. “We thought we saw a ship on the ho
rizon and Vincent is convinced it’s Kinsey.”
“Oh, yes, that would be the Fallback,” Ballantine said. “The big secret part of this grand plan of mine. Always have a fallback, am I right?”
“There are so many reasons I want to shoot you right now,” Thorne said. “But I’ll wait until you least expect it. Right now, tell us everything.”
“Can you hold a minute? My visitors are being very persistent,” Ballantine said. The com went dead once more.
“I say we stone him,” Lake said. “With wrenches. We get the biggest ones we can find and throw them at his head.”
“Back,” Ballantine announced. “Well, there’s certainly a mess in that hallway now. Where were we?”
“Tell us everything,” Thorne demanded.
“Right. Yes. Everything,” Ballantine said. “I can’t tell you everything-everything because, well, that’d take too long. But I’ll fill you in on my… Wait, did you say you are going to rescue Kinsey? Is the ship no longer there?”
“No, Ballantine, it is no longer there,” Lake said. “We’re hoping there are people left, though.”
“Give me a moment,” Ballantine said. “I am dialing in long-range scanners. Can you give me some approximate coordinates?”
Darren gave him the coordinates.
“Almost outside the scan range, but I can give them a boost and…”
Everyone waited.
“Ballantine?” Thorne said.
“Okay, I have some good news and some bad news,” Ballantine said. “Good news is I’m picking up dozens and dozens of shapes that have to be people in the water. Might be at least a hundred.”
“And the bad news?” Thorne asked.
“Can I guess?” Max asked. “Because when there is bad news in the open ocean, it usually means one thing.”
“Shark,” Ballantine said. “The shark. The last mega. It didn’t die, apparently. I’m seeing it loud and clear on the scanner. Too big for it not to be seen.”
“Oh, come on!” Lake yelled.
Chapter Nineteen: Chickens Meet Roost
Darby collided with the tree trunk and all the air came whooshing from her lungs as the weapons she held fell to the ground. She bounced off the tree, landing on her face, and felt her nose crunch and break. None of that slowed her, though. She was back on her feet and dodging the incoming kick that would have crushed her skull into the ground.
“Stay still!” Wire screamed.
The woman was a manic tornado of violence. Darby hadn’t faced anything like her before.
Another kick came at Darby and she jumped back, Wire’s boot clearing her chin by a millimeter. Darby used her momentum to scramble around the tree she’d just been thrown against. Wire’s other foot hit the tree dead on and the sound of cracking wood echoed throughout the woods.
“You’re bleeding out, Wire,” Darby said as she leapt and rolled across the ground. She felt a blade whiz by the back of her neck. It was a feeling she knew well and hard to mistake. “Stop coming at me and we’ll get you some help.”
“You fucking lie more than he does!” Wire roared.
Darby felt pain and cried out as she came up out of the roll. She looked down and wasn’t too surprised to see a knife sticking out of her left shoulder. She pulled it free and slashed at the oncoming Wire.
The woman that was as much machine as flesh bent backwards at the waist, letting the slashing blade fly harmlessly past her chest. Then she was upright in a blink and sending a fist into Darby’s wounded shoulder.
Darby screamed and fell backwards onto her ass. She barely got her arms up to block another of Wire’s kick. Her shoulder protested and the block failed halfway through, allowing Wire’s boot to slip past and stamp down hard Darby’s thigh.
Again, Darby cried out as she felt bone crunch in her thigh. But she used the pain to build her rage and determination. Darby grabbed Wire’s boot and twisted with all her might. Her wounded shoulder didn’t allow much strength to come from her left arm, but her right was thoroughly pissed off enough that Wire’s entire leg twisted counterclockwise.
Wire went with the twist, flipping her body sideways, bringing her other boot around to tag Darby across the right cheek. Darby’s head rocked and she collapsed onto her side. Wire fell face first onto the ground, pushed up, then rolled and spun about to face Darby.
Darby scrambled as best she could to get into a defensive position. She crouched on the ground, her fractured leg screaming at her. It was considerably louder than the other injuries she had, but Darby ignored it. She could give in to the pain and die or use it as her motivation to destroy Wire.
It was an easy choice to make.
With every ounce of rage she could muster, all driven by the excruciating pain in her leg, Darby leapt into the air.
Wire leapt also and the two well-above-average women collided in midair, their hands reaching for each other’s throats. They both hit the mark and cried out in triumph. They both forgot about gravity.
The two connected women came down hard. They slammed into the ground and hands around throats were loosened. They each scrambled to regroup and attack once more, but their offensive attacks were so perfectly timed that they simply kept punching fist into fist.
When they tried simultaneous head-butts, resulting in stunned moans and weak punches, Darby knew she had to switch tactics.
She rolled backwards several meters until she was well out of Wire’s reach.
“HEY!” she roared. “Come and get us!”
“What are you doing?” Wire asked. “Calling my sentries? Oh, Darby, they are already on their way.”
Wire got to her feet and began to pace, her eyes locked onto Darby’s position. She held up her arms and did a quick pirouette.
“Do you think my very own creations will attack me? Have you lost your mind?” Wire said, laughing. It sounded like baby mice being ground into broken glass. “They won’t touch me.”
“You sure about that?” Darby said.
“I have it built into their code,” Wire said. “They recognize me as their master and leave me alone. I can walk amongst them freely without fear.”
“How do they know who you are?” Darby asked.
“I’m a singular entity on this island,” Wire said. “The tech I am made up of gives me a very individual signature. They see that and know I am friend, not foe. It’s all very basic.”
“Basic, indeed,” Ballantine said over the com. “So basic that it’s child play, Wire.”
Wire stopped pacing and cocked her head.
“What do you mean?” she snarled.
The sounds of breaking branches and rustling bushes began to fill the night. Darby glanced around, hoping she could see the dead sentries coming before they were on her. It was still too dark for her to make out the incoming horde. And she had zero doubt it was a horde. They’d been making enough noise to raise the dead if the dead weren’t already technologically risen.
“Wire, Wire, Wire,” Ballantine said. “Have you underestimated me? I thought of all people you would know what I am capable of.”
“Hey,” Darby said. “I have a pretty fucking good idea of what you are capable of.”
“My apologies, Darby,” Ballantine said. “Of course you do.”
“What have you done, Ballantine?” Wire growled. She patted her body down and found a small blade tucked away. She brought it out and held it down at her side. “Ballantine?”
“Hold on. I’m confirming something real quick,” Ballantine said then began to hum.
“You son of a bitch,” Wire said.
“Give up and let us take control of this island and you get to live, Wire,” Darby said.
“Your lies are worth nothing,” Wire said. “You’ll never let me live.”
“Yes, as I thought,” Ballantine said to himself then cleared his throat. “Okay, mortal combatants, here is your situation. I have destroyed the part of the code that controls the dead sentries’ recognition protocol. From now on, they wi
ll look at Wire as just another target. Nothing special anymore. Is there anything else I can help you with today?”
“Bullshit,” Wire said, but she did not sound very confident.
The breaking of branches and rustling of bushes got louder and louder until several dead sentries came rushing at both Darby and Wire. Darby was ready and leapt up to grab a low-hanging branch. She screamed as the flesh around her shoulder wound tore then screamed again when she flipped her legs up and wrapped them about the branch. Dead sentries below her clawed at the tree’s trunk, but none of them looked to be in any physical shape to climb after her. If they could even climb.
Darby scrambled onto another branch and then another, putting distance between her and the monsters below. Then she focused on Wire.
Wire shoved three dead sentries away, tore the heads of two more, broke the backs of three others, then punched her fist through the chest of yet one more.
Then she stood still, stared up at Darby, and grinned.
“I win,” she said as she drew the small blade across her own throat.
“What the fuck?” Darby yelled, completely taken off guard by the suicide.
Blood geysered out of Wire’s throat as the woman fell to her knees. She held up her arms as dead sentries pounced on her, her eyes locked with Darby’s.
Then Wire was gone. The life left her eyes and her body fell forward. The dead sentries tore at her until their programming confirmed she was dead. Then, one by one, they turned and joined the dead sentries at the bottom of Darby’s tree. They began pushing against the trunk and the tree swayed.
“Ballantine? Wire is dead. She killed herself,” Darby called. “And I’m going to be stuck here for a while.”
There was no answer.
“Ballantine? Wire is dead. I’m literally up a tree. Do you copy?”
“I copy,” Ballantine said quietly.
“Listen, I’m sorry she died,” Darby said. “She was your daughter even if what she’d become wasn’t any longer the girl you knew. It’s okay to be upset.”
“What? Oh, I’m not upset over that,” Ballantine said. “I came to terms with all this a long time ago.”
