Island Jumper 3

by M H Ryan

  “There’s a million of them,” Benji said with a big smile, looking over the railing.

  I reached out and felt the tsunami of the fish school’s emotions. They were moving with a single thought of needing to migrate, just getting from one point to the next.

  Then I felt something larger—a predator fish swimming with them. No, a school of predators. I tried to connect to one of them, to see what it was, but I couldn’t get through. Then I saw one. A silver fish, a bit bigger than Moshe, swam next to the smaller fish. It snapped at them, biting, killing and eating the lesser fishes.

  More of the predator fish swam close to the boat, slowing down as they did. I wasn’t sure why, but they seemed to be curious about it, and soon, a dozen or more were now circling under the boat.

  “There’s some predator fish below us,” I said, looking into the water. “They’re the bigger, silver ones.”

  “You hear that?” Benji said, raising her hand and looking at the deck.

  “Hear what?” Aubrey asked, looking confused.

  “It’s like a grinding sound,” Benji kneeled down, placing her hand on the wooden deck. “It’s coming from under the boat.”

  I reached out to the spot below her and found that there was something down there, right under us. There were many of them now, more than I could count through my senses.

  “They’re chewing on the boat,” Benji said. “I can hear them.”

  Aubrey and Eliza got down on the deck and listened.

  “Shit, she’s right,” Aubrey said and crawled to the edge of the boat, leaning over. “I can’t see them.”

  “Oh, hell no. No fish is going to eat this boat,” Sherri said and climbed over the rail while holding a spear.

  She stood on the small ledge on the other side of the wall and leaned over, holding onto the top with one hand. She threw her spear, catching it near the end of the pole and yanking it back up.

  “I can’t get to them,” Sherri said. “They’re just out of reach.”

  I leaned over the back of the boat and saw the tail of one of the fish, but more disturbingly, a small chunk of wood floated out from under the boat.

  “We’ve got wood chunks coming out the back,” I said and closed my eyes.

  The fish were attacking the bottom of the boat. They were an aggressive, territorial fish, and believed us to be a larger predator attacking the school of fish they fed on. They weren’t organized or really having much of any thought besides attack and feed. I felt the vibration of the boat as they tore another chunk from the beam below my feet.

  “They’re killing Luna,” Benji said, trying to find a space on the deck wide enough to fit an arrow through.

  I tried to make a connection, but it kept slipping from my grasp. I wanted to force them to leave us alone, to send an idea that there were better things to do, but I couldn’t hold onto one long enough. This wasn’t going to work.

  More chunks of wood floated behind the boat. What the hell were these things, beaver fish?

  “Sherri, can you do anything with the water to get rid of these fish?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, standing on the ledge next to the wall. “I don’t even know what to do.”

  The whole boat vibrated with the chewing fish, and I thought of videos I had seen of piranhas eating a whole cow that had fallen into the water. With the steady flow of wood coming off the boat, it wouldn’t be much longer until we were in the water with these little monsters.

  “We’ve got to get them off the boat and quick,” I said, “or we’re not going to have a boat much longer. Eliza, what’s your gut say?”

  “I don’t agree with it because I don’t want you to go down there, Jack.”

  I picked up the spear next to me, grabbed the rope connected to the lifeboat, and jumped into the water. The cool water sent a chill over me as I heard the girls screaming. The biomass of fish rapidly swam by me. The current pulled on me, but I had a grip onto the back of the boat. I sucked in a breath and went under. The sound of the school swimming by made a constant whoosh sound, while the chewing and breaking of Luna’s underside was much more pronounced.

  I spotted a larger fish attached to the bottom of the boat, chewing on the wood.

  I thrust my spear, stabbing it through the belly. Blood poured from it, and I used the spear to pull it off the boat. It slid off the spear and floated right by me. That’s when I saw one of the fish swimming right at me from the side.

  Its mouth opened, and a mangle of teeth appeared, jammed into its jaw and going every direction. A spear from above slammed into the top of the fish and went through it. I pulled myself up to the surface to see Aubrey holding the spear.

  “There’s more of them,” I said, sucking in another deep breath.

  “You’re crazy!” Sherri yelled. “Don’t—”

  Once I submerged, the water muffled the sound of Sherri’s voice. I felt the nearest one chewing on the bottom of the boat and speared it. I pulled myself back up and took another breath.

  That’s when Sherri landed in the water next to me, holding a spear. She grabbed onto the back of the boat with one hand and held a spear with the other.

  “I’m going under,” I said and sucked in another deep breath.

  The sounds of the chewing and breaking of the raft lessened, and I felt why. The fish were swimming under the boat, now aware of me and my intentions. They were pissed off and saw me as another predator in their territory.

  One fish rushed at me, and I stabbed it with my spear, sticking it straight through its mouth.

  Two more were coming though. I tried pulling the spear from the fish, but its teeth had a hold on it. With no time to dislodge it, I let the spear go and pulled my knife out. The urge to breathe pressed, but these fish would be biting my balls by the time I took a gasp.

  As they got closer, Sherri thrust her spear and stabbed one below its jaw and into its gut. More blood spilled into the water. Sherri struggled to get her spear free of the fish as the other one swam by its dead brethren and headed straight for me.

  In a burst of speed, it shot toward me, sending a cloud of bubbles in its wake. I swung as hard as I could through the water, and the tip of my blade struck the fish right behind its eye. The blade went deep, sliding through bones. The blade went all the way into the fish and my hand slipped loose from the knife handle. In a flash, the current pulled the dead fish down and past me with my freaking knife still stuck in its head. I needed that knife!

  I let go of the back of the boat and heard Sherri screaming under the water. I swam down and with the current, keeping my sights on the dead fish. A thousand little fish pelting my body made the task near impossible, but I pushed through the river of sea life. I screamed out with my mind at the stupid fish, and in an instant, they moved away, giving me a clear line for the knife. With no breath left, I reached out for the fish, and grabbed its tail before it went into the deep. At that moment, I felt the psychic tug of massive thing I’d felt much earlier, still deep below me. It wasn’t biomass like I’d thought, but a single entity. But surely not.

  I pulled the fish and myself to the surface just as the lifeboat moved by me. I grabbed at it with my one free hand, slipping and clawing on the surface of it. Summoning the energy left in me, I jumped up and grabbed the rope leading around the boat. I braced as the leading vessel pulled the lifeboat and me along with it. I flung the fish, the knife still in its head, up onto the lifeboat. I landed with a thump and rolled over a few sticks of bamboo.

  With both hands-free, I shimmied along the lifeboat and got to the tow rope attached to Luna. The girls were frantically searching at the back of the boat.

  “I’m over here, pull me closer,” I said.

  The girls cheered and pulled the rope, bringing me back to the stern and next to Sherri.

  “There’s more of them,” I said, breathing hard.

  “Here,” Aubrey said, handing me another spear.

  “Let’s do this,” Sherri said.

  I
dipped under the water again, with lactic acid filling my aching muscles. I reached out and felt there were still many more of the wood-chewing bastards. They moved in a pack, a dozen of them, and it seemed as if they were waiting for us. I wanted to throw Sherri back on the raft, but we didn’t have time to flee. These things would be on us in less than a second, and at that moment, I knew I was going to die by a thousand bites.

  Sherri’s spear floated in the water near us and I turned to face her just as the fish neared. Her eyes closed, and she put her free hand out, palm out, as if giving the universal sign for stop.

  Just as the toothy fish were upon us, a massive burst of water boomed out in front of us. The pressure rocked my ears, making them ring, and sucked what breath I had out of me. Bubbles were everywhere, and I became disoriented

  I groped through the water and found Sherri’s arm. She had let go of boat, and by chance I had her. Her limp hand didn’t grip mine, and I rushed to the surface.

  “Pull us up!” I spat out.

  Many hands were on me, and they pulled me out of the water. My hand slipped on Sherri’s limp wrist and I gripped her with all my strength. The girls lifted me out of the water. They grabbed onto my shirt and shirt and hauled me to the deck. I kept my grip on Sherri, and Aubrey and Benji were quickly at my sides, and grabbing her arms as well. We all pulled her out of the water and then carried her body to cleared-off spot in front of the rudder.

  “There was an explosion,” Benji said in a panic.

  “That was Sherri. I think she killed the fish,” I said, frantically feeling Sherri’s body for a pulse.

  I listened to her chest as I pressed a few fingers against her neck. Her heart beat in a regular pattern, and I felt her chest rising with a breath. I put my ear to her chest and tried to hear her lungs. I breathed out as I listened to a clear breath from her. She hadn’t sucked in water.

  “Sherri?” I said, giving her a little shake.

  Sherri coughed and sat up. Her hand shot to her forehead, and she winced in pain.

  “Sherri!” Benji said, jumping and clapping her hands.

  “Thank God,” Aubrey said.

  “What happened?” Sherri asked, and coughed some more.

  “You save me. You saved us all.”

  “That water shit worked?” she asked, sounding surprised.

  “Whoa,” Aubrey said, looking behind the boat. “Looks like a fish apocalypse back here.”

  I glanced back to see hundreds of the smaller fish and many of the bigger fish floating in a trail behind us. Sherri had sent some kind of pulse out and killed the fish, obviously taking out the smaller fish in friendly fire.

  “Like an underwater nuke,” Aubrey said, clapping. “That was awesome!”

  “Guys,” Eliza said, standing near the front of the craft. “We’re getting closer to that island, and I see things moving there. They might be people.”

  Chapter 14

  First, I made sure Sherri was okay. I wouldn’t have believed what she’d done if I hadn’t seen and felt it. My mind tried to wrap around what this power meant and what it meant for all of us. I knew we could manipulate the world around us, but this was some next-level kind of shit.

  She paid a price for using this power though, and she slumped down next to Cass, hugging the ship shack. I tasked Cass with keeping an eye on her before moving to the next issue. We had a new damn island coming up, and Eliza thought it might hold people.

  We didn’t want to get any closer to that island until we knew what we were dealing with, so we pulled both sails down and got to the bow of the ship.

  We were too far out to make out details with the naked eye, so I brought out the telescope to take a look. They weren’t people, but I knew what they were, because of the familiar feeling I got from them. They were watchers, much like the fish-man creature we saw on the shore of the last island we were at.

  “Watchers,” I said, lowering the scope. “Shit.”

  “Eliza, is she on that island?” Benji asked.

  “Yes,” Eliza said. “And she needs our help. I have a strong urge that we need to act quickly.”

  I took a deep breath and looked through the scope at the island. There were a couple of huts and a small trail of smoke rose from near one. These weren’t primitives; these were sentient beings with an ability to build structures and maintain a fire.

  A thought dawned on me. If these islands were indeed cut off from the rest of the world, then these beings could have evolved into something like an aquatic man. I mean, every creature out here seemed to be a twisted version of the one we knew, so maybe these were that twisted version of us. Ones that took a woman from us.

  I watched them move across the sand with smooth steps that made it seem as if they had fewer bones or were made of something different. They stood upright with perfect posture and even from this distance, their muscular frame was noticeable.

  I counted only three of them on the island, and they were searching for something. One jumped around a hut, looking in and around it. It flailed its arms, and the other reacted. They seemed quick but spastic, as if they were driven by emotion more than logic.

  Even with the sails down, the wind at our backs pushed us and our craft closer to the island. Then I spotted a symbol one of their chests. A round marking, just like Danforth had drawn, I was sure of it.

  Two of them ran up to third and it pointed in different directions. The other two ran off, one into a small forest at the far side of the island and another to a hill that ran up to the back corner of the island. So, that was the leader. They had a leader, plus some form of communication. These were thinking beings, and that made things a lot trickier. We couldn’t assume we could outsmart them.

  Of course, we would be visible to them, yet they hadn’t looked in our direction once. I thought I recognized the feel of one of them, the one near the forest. They were too far for me to get a good feel of them, but I felt enough to know that it was the one that was watching us last night.

  The island itself was bigger than the avocado island and had a similar makeup, with palm trees dotting the island, white sand, and a sparse grouping of trees on one side of the island. The one distinctive element was that hill. It looked as if massive boulders had been stacked into the corner by some great machine, sort of like a waste pile at a quarry.

  I scanned the other side of the island with the scope. A smaller pile of rocks were stacked on the opposite side of the big pile. A woman moved from around a tan boulder.

  A woman! I spotted her. Or I spotted her bedazzled bikini. I remembered her from the ship. She had platinum blonde hair as big as Texas, and this southern accent that made you think of Dolly Parton, with a bust to match. She had the second most eye-catching bikini on the ship, covered with pink, glittery stones. She hadn’t spoken much beyond common courtesies with me, but I liked her. Just a fun, bubbly kind of woman, with broad shoulders and a muscular build. Maybe she was a wrestler for the college.

  “I see her,” I said, keeping my gaze through the scope.

  “No way!” Benji said and yelled back to Sherri. “We see her!”

  “I can hear him,” Sherri said with a wince.

  “Is she okay?” Aubrey asked.

  “I think they’re searching for her.”

  The fish man from the forest emerged and went on top of the rock pile she was hiding behind. It would only be a matter of time until that thing found her, and I didn’t want to think would happen after that.

  “Open the sails!” I commanded and ran to the line.

  Sherri got to her feet, reaching for the line first.

  “You okay?” I asked.

  “No, but there’s no way I’m not helping her,” Sherri said.

  We had the sail back up and the wind pushed the boat forward, heading straight for the island.

  Chapter 15

  I stayed at the bow as the boat picked up speed. Sherri went to the rear of the craft, steering it. Looking through the scope, I saw the watcher jump on
to a rock near the girl. She had her back to the rock, and at that moment, I realized she had spotted us.

  We were close enough that I saw the look of shock on her face. She stared at us, and then leaned forward, most likely thinking we were some kind of mirage.

  We’re real, and we’re coming for you.

  The watcher walked to the edge of the rock and spotted her. It let out a screech that carried all the way to us. Then it jumped off the boulder and onto her.

  She spun around, just in time to deliver a punch to the things face followed with a kick to the groin. The fish man fell to his knees and she ran out from the rocks but the leader watcher was right there as if he knew where she would be. He took the moment, grabbed her and held her in his large arms.

  “Shit, they got her,” I said.

  “We were too late,” Benji said, looking to Eliza.

  “She’s still alive,” I said. “We aren’t too late.”

  I hated seeing the things hands on her. She struggled, but soon all three of the watchers were on her. I lowered the scope to see the island with my own eyes. We’d be there in a minute, and that had to be enough time.

  Closing my eyes, I reached out to the watchers, but they were still too far away.

  “Shit,” I said, glancing back at the sail.

  “We’ll get to her,” Eliza said, reassuringly. “I know it.”

  We had to land, first. I searched the shoreline and found most of it, outside the two rock piles, was sand. We could sail right up onto the beach just as we did on tiny island.

  “We’re getting close,” Benji said. “Should we close the sails?”

  I heard her screams as they carried her toward their small camp and two huts.

  “No, we don’t have time to go slow,” I said. “She needs us now.”

  “She needs us,” Eliza repeated.

  “Everyone get ready,” Benji called out. “We’re going to be crashing into the beach.”