by Jake Bible
“Holy fuck!” No whisper that time.
The wave hit the lifeboat and flipped it over, sending Darren into the water. He caught an oar to the head, was momentarily stunned, and floated beneath the surface of the ocean, his head bleeding and his eyes trying to make sense of what he saw.
Under him a shark that was easily 90 feet long, had half of a lifeboat in its jaws as it dove deeper and deeper. It took the broken craft, and the men inside, down into the darkness and was quickly lost from Darren’s sight. He felt his lungs start to burn and he snapped out of his daze.
His head broke the surface and he gasped, taking in air that smelled of diesel fuel and blood.
“Darren!” Bobby yelled. “Swim here!”
He turned about and saw the lifeboat she rowed only a few feet from him. His lifeboat was nowhere to be seen, having sunk quickly. He swam hard and reached up to her as he got to the side of her lifeboat.
“Thank God for two, right?” Bobby said.
“We could use God’s help right about now,” Darren said, as he climbed into the boat, “because we are fucked if we don’t get a miracle. Did you see that?”
“The international space station could see that thing,” Bobby said. “I didn’t think a shark could be that big. It was larger than a whale.”
“Not quite larger,” Darren said, “but close.”
“You’re really going to argue with me right now?” Bobby said. “You’re a piece of work, Chambers.”
“Sorry,” Darren said, “can’t help it.”
“We can’t get any closer to the Beowulf II,” Bobby said, “it’s going down fast and it’ll pull us under.”
Darren looked up at the ship and saw the faces of Gunnar, Mr. Ballantine, Lake, Popeye, and Cougher, staring down at him. He looked around and saw men trying to swim towards them, and towards the last Beowulf II lifeboat left. He calculated the space and realized they were going to be at capacity.
“Jump!” Darren shouted up at the men still on the Beowulf II. “Get down here now!”
“Shark!” Popeye yelled.
“It dove!” Darren replied. “Took the boat down with it! Hurry before it comes back!”
He could see the men struggle with their reality. Even with the ship sinking, it was still several meters from the rail to the water. The ship was rolling, so they could at least slide along the hull part of the way, but still… The alternative was to wait until the ship sank further and they could just hop right in the water, but the pull of the sinking ship would easily drag them under. He doubted any of them had the strength to fight that.
“Now!” Darren yelled. “MOVE!”
Lake was the first to go. He swung his legs up over the rail and pushed off. His ass bounced along the hull, then he was airborne, flying out over the water, his arms flailing. He slammed into the waves and went under.
“Where is he?” Bobby yelled. “Do you see him?”
Lake came up sputtering and immediately began to swim towards the lifeboat. Darren grabbed him and yanked him up inside. Voices calling out made Darren turn his head and he saw five men swimming towards the lifeboat.
“Come on!” Lake shouted up at the others. “Don’t be pussies!”
Cougher and Popeye both jumped quickly. They hit the water, went under, then came back up and swam as fast as they could to the lifeboat. They reached the craft just as the other men in the water did. In seconds, the lifeboat was nearly full.
“We’re taking on water,” Bobby said, “we can’t wait here.”
“GOD DAMMIT, GUNNAR!” Darren shouted. “JUMP!”
He did, followed right behind by Mr. Ballantine. The two men were hauled into the lifeboat, pushing the waterline almost to the top edge of the craft.
“I think we have some help coming,” Cougher said as he pointed at the other lifeboat that had turned around and was motoring to them.
“ Idiots,” Lake said, “they need to save themselves and get to the ship. It’s the only safe place.”
“I’ll take their stupidity right about now,” Mr. Ballantine said. “The craft we are in doesn’t have long to last.”
They all looked at the water that was spilling up over the sides and came up through the old, weathered planks.
***
“Even powered down, the pressure is too much!” Jennings yelled to Lucy over the whining and whistling of the massive diesel engines. “I really fucked these things!”
“How?” Lucy said. “I don’t understand. If the engines are off, then how can there still be pressure?”
“This ship is old, probably from back in the sixties,” Jennings said. “To maximize power, the diesel engines are used as the fire to fuel the boilers. For all intents and purposes, this ship is still run on steam.”
“Then release the pressure!” Lucy said. “There has to be a release valve, right?”
“Yeah,” Jennings said, “you’re looking at it.” He pointed at a twisted hunk of metal. “Like I said, I did a job on this. I didn’t know we’d need it.”
“Crap,” she said, “crap, crap, crap. What do we do?”
“I may be able to get some of the pipes loose and release the pressure that way,” Jennings frowned. “So you should get out of here.”
“What do you mean?” Lucy said. “I can help.”
“I know,” Jennings said, “and I could use the help. But…”
“What?”
“This room is going to turn into a sauna from hell once I open the pipes,” Jennings said. “The steam that is going to be released will boil the skin right off you.”
“That means it’ll boil you too!” Lucy said.
“I know,” Jennings replied, “but that’s my lot. I got this. Get topside and fill everyone in. Help with what you can up there. Prepare them if I fail.”
“Jesus, Jennings,” Lucy said, “you can’t be serious.”
“I am,” Jennings said as he painfully bent down and picked up a large wrench one of the mechanics had dropped. “Go. Please. I can’t do this with you here. I’ll lose my nerve.”
Lucy just stood there.
“Lucy?” Thorne called over the com. “What’s the status?”
She kept standing there, her eyes on Jennings as he limped to a large pipe and started working at the coupling with the wrench.
“Lucy! Come in!”
“Sorry, sir,” Lucy replied, “I’m coming up. Jennings has this in hand.”
“Good,” Thorne said, “because we have a situation up here and need you on your rifle.”
“Be right there,” Lucy said.
She walked over to Jennings and grabbed him by the shoulders. He turned to her and she hugged him tight, then quickly let go as he winced in pain.
“Thank you,” she said.
“Don’t thank me yet,” Jennings said, “I could still totally fail.”
***
The water below was coated in a sheen of red. Body parts were everywhere and Kinsey shook her head as she watched the two lifeboats that were left, rendezvous with each other. The lifeboat she was in stopped moving as it was winched into place. She was more than surprised by the faces that helped her, Shane, and Darby out onto the deck.
“Uh, hi,” Kinsey said to the men that stood before her.
“They’re cool,” Max said from a few feet away, his rifle trained on a group of pirates that were bound. “Those guys were conscripted against their will. Paying off debts or just kidnapped into service. Mechanics, cooks, slaves.”
“Damn,” Shane said, “think they could kidnap some clothes for me?”
“Here,” a man said as he took his shirt off and handed it to Shane.
“Thanks,” Shane said.
Another man took off his pants and handed them over.
“Uh, what about you?” Shane said as Kinsey helped him get dressed.
The man nodded at the many corpses that littered the deck.
“Why isn’t the ship moving?” Kinsey asked Max. “I don’t feel the engines.”
“Right, about that,” Max said, “There’s a little snag in that plan.”
“What kind of snag?”
“Max!” Thorne yelled from the bridge. “I need guns on the water before it comes back!”
“Right!” Max said. “What about these guys?”
Darby moved to him and grabbed the AK-47 he was holding. She leveled it at the men and nodded to Max.
“You sure?” Max asked. “You’re looking a little shaky.” Darby glared. “Fine. You got it.” He reached down and picked up his sniper rifle, then saw Lucy as she came up on deck. “Come on. We’ve got an overwatch to man.”
“On it,” Lucy said. “Hey.”
“Hey,” Kinsey said, “good shooting. Wait…where’s Jennings?”
“Below,” Lucy said, “working on the engines.”
“Good,” Kinsey said, “maybe he can get this thing moving.”
Max and Lucy shared a look.
“Probably not,” Lucy said, “we’ll see.”
“Keep your eyes peeled, Sis,” Max said, “you spot anything give a shout.”
“Will do,” Kinsey nodded. She went back to the rail and scanned the water, her eyes drawn to the two lifeboats.
***
The two lifeboats pushed up against each other and the smaller one nearly sank as men began to climb from it and clamber up the side of the other. Darren shouted for them to stop and calm down or they’d sink them all, but the men didn’t listen. The air was ripe with panic and Mr. Ballantine shook his head.
“I believed myself a better judge of character,” he said, “I thought I’d hired top notch sailors, not selfish cowards.”
A few men slowed down, a few gave Ballantine the bird, but most kept rushing out of the boat. Bobby grabbed a tow line that was tossed to her and tied it to the bow of the lifeboat. The larger craft began to sink as it took on weight, but the water line was well below dangerous. Its motor surged and it turned and headed for the ship, towing the smaller lifeboat behind it.
Darren looked back at the Beowulf II, as did the others, and watched it slowly sink further and further until it was lost from sight. Churning water filled with debris was all that was left. Gunnar made a low groan and Darren turned to him.
“Sorry, buddy,” Darren said, “I know you lost everything.”
“We lost everything,” Gunnar said. “Without the samples and that data, no one will believe us.”
“Don’t lose hope, Gunnar,” Mr. Ballantine said, “the satellite uplink did save some data. At least what you were able to log and analyze.”
“Which was a fraction of what was needed,” Gunnar said.
“I think we have bigger things to worry about,” Lake said, “we’re still in the water with a monster.”
“Not for long,” Bobby said, “look.”
They turned and saw lines being thrown down to the Beowulf II’s lifeboat and smiled. Safety was so close. So close.
But others turned back towards the open water and saw different lines. Lines in the water. Lines that formed the wake of a huge dorsal fin.
“Oh, fuck me,” Cougher said.
“Lift! Lift!” men started shouting up at the ship. “Pull us up!”
“I could really go for one of those RPGs right about now,” Popeye said.
“Thorne!” Darren shouted into the com. “The RPGs! Blast that fucking shark out of the water!”
“On it!” Thorne replied.
The fin grew closer and closer as it rose in the water. Then the nose broke the surface and the massive mouth opened. It scooped up body parts that floated here and there and was gone.
“Where’d it go?” Lake asked.
“There,” Cougher said as he looked over the side of the boat.
The shark passed right below them and its dorsal fin scraped the bottom of the boat before it dove deeper and was lost from sight.
“Man, I hate that thing,” Cougher said. Everyone looked at him. “What? It had to be said.”
“No, it didn’t,” Lake said.
“We don’t have a visual any longer,” Max said over the com, “it dropped deep.”
“Shit,” Darren said, “then get us out of here.”
***
“The winch isn’t designed to bring up a lifeboat that size,” Kinsey said, as she watched the lines grow taught and strain with the weight. “The lines are going to snap!”
As soon as she said it, the winch motors began to buzz loudly and a line did snap. It whipped up over the rail, slashing a man in half as he stood on deck, just waiting and watching. Blood sprayed everyone that stood there and sent them into a state of panic.
“Stop!” Kinsey yelled. “We still have to get the lifeboat up here! Someone help me!”
She ran to the winches and shut down the motors. One was obviously fried, but the other was still functional. She leaned over the rail and saw the lifeboats below. And the terrified looks on the men’s faces.
“Hold tight!” she yelled, her hands cupped to her mouth. “We are going to have to bring you up in shifts in the smaller boat! Motor to the next set of winches!”
She could hear the protests and pleas from below, but there was nothing she could do. The winches couldn’t handle the strain. The men would have to be brought up in shifts, eight at a time was her guess. Any more than that would snap the lifeboat itself.
She hurried to the next set of winches several yards away and motioned for some of the men on deck to help. The brave ran to her immediately; the less than brave backed away, their eyes on their dissected comrade.
“If you cowards aren’t going to help with this, then grab those RPG launchers and take them up to the professionals!” Kinsey yelled and pointed at the crow’s nest. “Move!”
“Way to motivate, Sis,” Max said over the com.
“Shut it, cuz!” she snapped.
“Roger that. Shutting it.”
***
Max grinned from ear to ear as he set his rifle aside and picked up a RPG launcher. He looked over at Lucy and she just shook her head.
“You aren’t going to have the accuracy that you think you’ll have,” Lucy said.
“I know how to fire one of these,” Max replied.
“Really? At a moving target in the water?” Lucy asked.
“Did you see the fucking size of that thing?” Max asked. “If I miss, I’ll eat my boxers.”
“You wear boxers?”
“Will you two shut up,” Thorne barked over the com. “Get those rockets ready!”
Lucy and Max shut up quickly and stood up in the crow’s nest, the launchers across their shoulders. They scanned the water, watching for the monster, waiting for the next attack.
“If it comes straight up from below, then we won’t have much of a chance,” Lucy said. “We could hit the crew down there.”
“If it comes up from below, there won’t be anything of the crew left,” Max said.
“The com is on, assholes!” Darren yelled. “You want to keep the gloom and doom to yourself?”
“THERE!” someone screamed from the deck.
The dorsal fin was back. It looked as if it could slice the lifeboats in half just by itself; it didn’t even need fifteen foot jaws or razor sharp teeth the size of a person’s hand.
“I got it,” Max whispered as he sighted just ahead of the shark. “Come on, baby. Come on.”
The beast was a hundred yards out, but considering its size, that meant it was pretty close. Men from the lifeboats began to shout and scream, pleading to be pulled up. Kinsey was screaming back at them that they needed to shut the fuck up, and she was working as fast as she could, but it made no difference, fear ruled the day.
“Tag,” Max said, “you’re it.”
The rocket shot from his shoulder and down at the shark just as the fin started to sink. Everyone held their breath and watched, desperate for some good luck. Only the tip of the fin could be seen when the rocket hit the water. The explosion sent a shock wave across the water,
knocking some men from where they were perched on the Beowulf II’s lifeboat. The sea churned from the explosion and waves rocked everything and everyone in the water.
“Get them back up on that boat!” Darren yelled as the men called out for help. “Get them out of the water!”
“Did you just say ‘tag, you’re it’?” Lucy asked.
“Shut up,” Max said, “I hit it, didn’t I?”
“Did you?” Thorne asked from the com. “I don’t see any blood. No sign of shark chunks.”
Max and Lucy studied the water, looking for any sign of success. Success wasn’t what they saw, though.
“Holy fuck!” Lucy and Max yelled together as the shark burst from the surface, swallowing the men in the water in one gulp.
It rocketed up into the air like it was a massive, grey RPG itself. Everyone stared as it came fully out of the water, twisted, and fell back down. The wave it produced was ten feet high and slammed into both lifeboats, knocking everyone back into the sea.
“Shit!” Max shouted.
***
Darren fought to get to the surface. He could see the thing down under him, only yards away. He pushed any and all fear from his mind, his only thoughts were on getting up so he could take a deep breath of air. His lungs burned and he couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t making progress.
Then he looked down and saw the hand clamped to his ankle. Bobby. She had a hold of his leg and her eyes were wide with terror. She reached for him with her free hand and he bent in the water and reached back, hoping to pull her up with him. All he had to do was give her a boost, just something to get her momentum going. But he couldn’t get to her. Even with her hanging onto his leg, they were worlds apart as the water continued to churn about them.
He looked up at the surface that was so close and wondered if he could get his head above water and take a gulp of air, then dive and grab her. But when he looked down, that fear he had suppressed, roared to life and he froze.
The shark was right there, its gargantuan body just feet from him, its mouth wide open. Everything slowed and he could see hunks of bloody clothes and pieces of men wedged in the shark’s teeth. The leg from a pair of jeans flapped in the water, stuck in the corner of the shark’s mouth.
