Megalodon In Paradise

by Hunter Shea

  “Wait until you see the library when it’s done,” Ollie said. “I even had Steven send me a list of your favorite authors and books so I could get the stuff you like.”

  “Did you get my stuff, too?” Lenny asked.

  “We can’t find Juggs, but your adult coloring books are on order.” Ollie was pleased to see Tara helping Heidi with her pack.

  “Ha, ha.”

  “And here’s the last of the funky bunch,” Tara said as Marco came from the other side, scrabbling down the small dune.

  “Everything good?” Ollie asked him.

  Marco still looked a little green around the gills. The bags under his eyes were still packed, though for a short trip.

  “Uh, yeah. Just have a few things to tie up later.”

  “Take a pack,” Lenny said, handing one over.

  “Thanks.”

  Steven came back wearing high-top sneakers and they were off. The walk to the lab was a little over a half mile, made to seem longer as they trudged over the soft sand. This side of the island was the hilliest, spots of grass browned from the sun and lack of rain. Ollie was still amazed by how most of the island still looked like man had never set foot on it. When the military was here, they must have spread out. Either they kept to the area around the lab, or nature had made quick work of covering their tracks.

  Walking alongside Ollie, Marco said, “I also gave Lae one of these.” He showed him a small walkie-talkie. “Just in case anything happens and we need help.”

  A shiver ran down Ollie’s back. “I thought you said all we’d find is paper and broken glass.”

  “My job is to plan for every eventuality.”

  “You’re handier than a clown at a rodeo, you know that?”

  They had to use their hands and feet to make it up the last dune.

  “It’s bigger than I thought it would be,” Steven said.

  “That’s what she said,” Lenny quickly replied. Tara punched the back of his shoulder.

  “Are we going to explore the whole thing today?” Heidi asked with a heavy dose of trepidation in her voice.

  “We’ll play it by ear,” Lenny said, the clear leader of this expedition. “It all depends on what kind of goodies we find inside.”

  All told, the lab consisted of a dozen connected solid blocks. There were four singular blocks on the perimeter with concrete walkways attached to buildings made of two blocks stacked on one another, with a central building of four blocks dominating the entire structure. It was big, ugly and utilitarian. In other words, pure military.

  “Looks like something my niece would build,” Tara said.

  Lenny led the way down the dune. “The military has great engineers, but they prefer function over form. I don’t think they were looking to make the cover of Town & Laboratory out here.”

  Ollie and Marco had been out here before, on their first day on the island. They had both noted at the time that there were no windows. In fact, a long steel door in one of the outer blocks appeared to be the only portal into the place.

  “Who the hell would want to work in such a place?” Marco said.

  “I think it looks like a prison . . . or a cage,” Heidi said.

  “For my money, it looks like a sand castle built by a giant kid who had one of those plastic hollow brick things to shape the sand,” Ollie said.

  “I think we can all agree it’s pretty ugly,” Tara said.

  “Which is why it’s going to be torn down next month,” Marco said. “So, Lenny, you better get your kicks in while you can.”

  When they got to the door, Lenny turned to Marco and Ollie. “Any chance they left you a key?”

  “Oh, sure,” Ollie said. He handed Lenny the collapsible pry bar he’d ordered. “I think this’ll work.”

  “Okay, before I open this door, you all need to put on your masks. I don’t know how well this has been sealed up, so I can’t tell what gasses might have been stored up inside. I’ll let it air out before we go inside, but even then, keep your masks on. I’ll bet good money that at least there’s asbestos in there.”

  He jammed the end of the pry bar by the door handle.

  “Oh yeah, and make sure you wear your helmets inside, too.” Everyone slipped on their masks and unclipped their helmets.

  Lenny gave them a thumbs-up. “Here goes nothing.”

  With a loud grunt, he tugged on the pry bar. The metal door moaned.

  Ollie felt Tara’s hand grip his arm. Her hand was like a vise.

  Pain never felt so good.

  The door swung open so fast, Lenny lost his footing and fell on his ass. The pry bar slipped from his hand, looped in the air and landed with a sharp crack on his helmet.

  Everyone but Heidi couldn’t help but laugh.

  Lenny made a quick recovery, jumping to his feet. “And so ends my demonstration of why we need to wear helmets.”

  “Are you all right?” Heidi asked.

  “I’m fine. I have a thick skull under here.” He peered inside the dark laboratory. “That’s weird. The door wasn’t even locked. Maybe the locking mechanism rusted away.”

  “So it’s safe to just go in, right?” Steven said, his body filling the doorframe.

  Lenny tugged him back. “Same rules apply. I want some fresh air to flow in there first.”

  Ollie flicked his flashlight on and tried to pierce the thick gloom. “Look, there are steps going down. The inside is a lot bigger than it looks from the outside.”

  Tara sidled up next to him, their twin beams sweeping the room. It was hard to make anything out from this distance. She found a broken seashell and tossed it inside. It skittered somewhere in the darkness.

  “What’d you do that for? It can’t be that deep. We’re already at sea level,” Marco said.

  “That’s exactly why I did it. I wanted to hear if there was water down there. If there was, there’s no way I’m wading through that diseased soup.”

  Lenny nodded, only his eyes visible through the mask. “That was really good thinking. You sure you haven’t done this before?”

  “I just have a high level of self-preservation and a need to avoid infection.”

  A heavy splash behind them pulled their attention from the open lab.

  The ocean’s waves hit the beach, but not loud enough to account for the booming sound.

  “What the hell was that?” Steven said.

  “Dolphin maybe,” Ollie said.

  “Or a shark,” Marco said. “This whole area is part of the shark sanctuary. Sometimes, they’ll pop out of the water real quick if there’s something tasty looking near the surface.”

  “Okay, so swimming is no longer an option,” Tara said.

  “It’s all right to swim. Just not too far out,” Ollie said. “Marco and I have been in the water practically every day.”

  He didn’t get the feeling that brought Tara much comfort.

  They stared at the water for several minutes but saw nothing.

  “I think it’s safe to go inside now,” Lenny said. “Just follow my lead. And you may want to turn your headlamps on, too. The more light, the better. Keep a close eye on the ground. There might be all sorts of stuff lying around, just waiting to trip you up.”

  Heidi dug her fingers into the waistband of Steven’s shorts. “Make one ball and chain joke and you’re sleeping on the couch tonight.”

  Steven raised his hands. “I’m n-not saying anything.”

  Heidi visibly trembled.

  “You okay?” Tara said.

  “It’s all right. I’m just not a big fan of the dark. I know that sounds childish.”

  “Not at all,” Ollie said. “Here, let’s swap flashlights. Mine is a little bigger.”

  Lenny said, “That’s what she—”

  Tara punched him again.

  “Okay kids, single file,” Lenny said, taking the first step.

  There were three steps in all. The harsh narrow lights revealed a worn path through the dust.

  “You think t
hese are the footsteps of the people when they left here in the fifties?” Steven asked.

  Lenny shook his head. “No, this looks more recent. Guess we’re not the first people in here.”

  “But this island was deserted until this year. Who else would it be?”

  “No one lived here, but I’ll bet people still came ashore for day trips,” Marco said, wiping sweat from his brow and upper lip. “Maybe there was a storm and someone broke in for shelter.”

  “Any port in a storm will do,” Ollie said. To him, it looked like numerous footprints going up and down the stairs. He trained his light to the corner of the room and found a pile of crumpled paper bags. “Picnic lunch?”

  Lenny toed the bags with his sneaker. “They could have been here for decades. Hard to tell. If they were plastic, I’d say it was recent garbage.”

  It was as hot inside as Ollie had feared. It felt like stepping into a pizza oven. His own hot breath circulated back to him within the filtration mask.

  “Found the reception desk,” Tara said. She, Steven and Heidi were huddled behind a large, semi-circular desk covered in dust. She opened a leather bound ledger and paged through it, the brittle paper crackling. “It’s a list of names, dates and time of entry and exit.” She tucked it under her arm.

  “Normally, when you do urban exploring, you take nothing with you,” Lenny said. “Whatever you touch, you make sure you put it back in the exact same spot you found it. But since the place is going to be demolished, it’s a good idea to save some of the history.”

  “Did you know this place had a name?” Tara said.

  “Not a clue,” Ollie replied.

  She trained her flashlight on the cover of the ledger. In gold inlaid letters, it said : DEEP SEA REBIRTH—OMEGA LAB

  “N-n-now that’s ominous,” Steven said.

  “More like creepy,” Heidi said.

  “Wonder what they were rebirthing,” Ollie said.

  “Maybe we’ll find something they left behind and find out,” Lenny said. “That’s the real fun of exploring places like this.”

  Ollie asked to see the book. The pages were almost all filled with impeccably neat handwriting. The year of the entries was 1954. “At least we’ll know who was on the island back then. I guess these are ranks. Wonder what WO2 means.”

  Steven looked over his shoulder. “It stands for Chief Warrant Officer.”

  Tara said, “How do you know that?”

  “Military channel. Oh, and all those books,” Heidi said. “If there’s a war in it, he’ll read it.”

  “What about this?” Ollie asked, pointing to a line that read ENS – Charles Duba – 1:23pm / 10:07pm.

  “That means Charles was an ensign.”

  “What were ensigns in the grand pecking order?” Ollie asked.

  “They were low-ranking commission officers. Better than being a grunt,” Steven said.

  Bang!

  “Ah, Christ that hurt!”

  All of their headlamps turned to Marco who was hopping on one foot, both hands clasped around his shin.

  It looked like he’d smashed his leg on a filing cabinet that had been turned over on its side.

  “I told you to look down,” Lenny said.

  “I looked up for one second to check out the ledger,” Marco snapped, hissing in pain.

  “Things can turn on a dime in one second in a place like this,” Lenny said.

  “Maybe we should come back after the wrecking crew smashes some holes in the walls. Then we’ll be able to see better,” Heidi said.

  It was impossible to tell the look Lenny was giving her, but Ollie could guess.

  “Where would all the fun be then?” Lenny said.

  A sudden gust of wind slammed the door shut, blocking out the little daylight that had managed to venture inside. They all jumped, Steven letting out a high-pitched yelp.

  Ollie couldn’t help laughing. “It’s okay, big guy. No ghosts here. Promise.”

  Steven made a big production out of clearing his throat. “Just took me by surprise.”

  Heidi said, “You should hear him when we find stink bugs in the house.”

  Steven looked down at her fingers literally attached to him at the hip. “This coming from the girl tethered to me.”

  Ollie scanned the spare room. “Not much else to see here.”

  Lenny tapped a steel door on the other end of the room with the pry bar. “Care to see what’s behind door number two?”

  “May I?” Ollie asked. Lenny handed over the pry bar.

  Ollie jammed it in the door and pulled. It didn’t budge. He tried again, grunting from the strain.

  “Here, let me try,” Steven said. Heidi shuffled on his heels as he approached the door.

  “As grand dictator of Grand Isla Tiburon, I insist I crack this baby open,” Ollie said. His short but now muscular arms bulged and shook as he pulled with everything he had.

  “I knew it,” Tara said. “Now he’s a dictator. We were brought here under false pretenses.”

  The last thing Ollie wanted to do was fail in front of Tara. He’d burst every blood vessel in his body with the effort before giving up.

  “Come on, you stubborn fuck.”

  For some reason, he thought of Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in The War of the Roses. The divorcing couple was so pigheaded and inflexible, they basically fought to the death. In this case, he was Michael Douglas and this damn door was his own private Kathleen Turner.

  Lenny said, “Just pretend it’s some ass-wad who made fun of you at the bar.”

  Ollie gave a last shove and the door flew open as if it had been blasted with dynamite. He tumbled into Lenny, the both of them going down in a heap. The door slammed into the wall, the noise echoing in the empty chamber so loud, it was like shooting nails into their ears.

  Something in the room hit the floor with a chest-thundering crash. Tara and Heidi cried out. Marco yelled, “Stay back!”

  A plume of dust, like the kicked-up detritus on the edge of a hurricane, billowed out of the room. Shiny motes sparkled under their lights as the roiling cloud washed over them.

  Ollie’s mask had slipped to the side of his face from the fall. He inhaled a lungful of the dust and immediately started hacking. It burned. He didn’t think he could take another breath.

  He began to panic.

  What if whatever was in the dust was toxic?

  I can’t breathe! his brain shouted. Spittle dangled from his lips, his ribs aching from coughing.

  I can’t breathe!

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “Somebody help me!” Lenny screamed.

  He held tight to Ollie’s spasming body, turning him over on his stomach and patting his back. Steven and Tara rushed over.

  “Just hold tight. I have to get his mask back on,” Lenny said.

  Tara grabbed Ollie by the shoulders while Steven looped his arm around his legs. Ollie was gasping and coughing. Tara’s headlamp revealed bulging eyes and blue lips.

  “What the hell’s happening?” she said.

  “He took in a ton of that crap,” Lenny said. He turned Ollie’s mask around so it was in the proper position. “Try to settle down and just breathe, Ollie. You’re getting clean air now. Take a breath and hold it in for as long as you can.”

  Ollie couldn’t respond. A tremor ran through his body.

  Lenny continued talking him through it. “You’re going to be okay. Just breathe, Raging Bull. Breathe. That’s it. Now hold it. There. Let it out. Again. See, I told you.”

  Ollie went still, his back rising and falling steadier now.

  Suddenly, he got to his knees and ripped off the mask. Before Lenny could protest and slip it back on, he projectile vomited over his friend’s shoulder. Lenny pulled him close, massaging his back as if he were a sick baby.

  “You get it all out?”

  “I think I just threw up my breakfast . . . from last week,” Ollie sputtered.

  “Good. Now put your mask back on and try not
to barf in it. You wouldn’t like that.”

  “What the heck was that all about, bro?” Marco said.

  “He just got a lungful of dust,” Lenny said. “He’ll be all right. It used to happen to me all the time before I wised up and got a mask.”

  Ollie gave a weak thumbs-up.

  They recoiled at the sound of another crash.

  Tara had kicked the exterior door open. She disappeared outside, returning seconds later carrying a big rock. She nestled the rock next to the door.

  “We have to keep fresh air coming in,” she said. “Ollie, you want to come out and grab some?”

  “I’m fine.” He smacked his lips. “God, it tastes awful. Like an old closet and . . . and something metallic.”

  “We can call it a day if you want,” Lenny said. “I can always come back tomorrow.”

  “No way. I’m in.”

  Lenny looked to his friends. “Anyone else want to go back for cocktails on the beach? I don’t want you guys to feel pressured.”

  Heidi, who had resumed being attached to her husband, looked as if she were going to bail. Then she shrugged and said, “We came this far. It’s not like Ollie was attacked by some creature. Just a ton of dust. I’m a scaredy cat, but not that scared.”

  When no one else objected, Lenny said, “All righty. Let’s see what we’ve got.”

  It was plainly evident that this inner building was once a hive of activity. Long tables, desks, overturned chairs and file cabinets with empty, open drawers were everywhere. All of the furnishings were made of metal and in varying degrees of rust.

  “Looks like someone left in a hurry,” Marco said. Their beams of light crisscrossed the room. “Maybe we should take their cue.”

  “Or an earthquake hit the place,” Steven said.

  “That’s more likely,” Ollie said. “There are volcanoes all around Micronesia. A tremor could have knocked everything around.”

  When Tara hovered over the cushioned back of a chair, Lenny said, “Don’t touch it.”

  Her hand recoiled.

  “Why not?”

  “Could be loaded with mold. You don’t want that on your skin. It’s also not a good idea to release it into the air.”