by M H Ryan
At the front of the boat, I lay down and hung over the front. Scooping water, I splashed my face and neck and the rest of my reachable body, trying to get the vomit and residue of death off of me. Then I looked up at Yang Island.
“Oh shit,” Aubrey said, seeing it at the same time as I did.
I jumped to my feet, dripping, still not quite clean, but I didn’t care about the dead bird on me or the near-death experience we’d just had on the island behind us.
A long, deep blast of the horn confirmed it. Parked right at Yang Island was the big ship, the Veronica.
Chapter 24
“Get to the paddles,” I said as I backed up into the mast. I worked my way around it to the back of the raft.
The ship was back, and my girls were in danger. We had to get there as quick as we could, because if it left and took the women I swore to protect, there was virtually nothing I could do to catch it. It had mechanical engines that were of this time, while we were paddles, poles and wind, technology as old as recorded history.
Aubrey and Benji jumped to the sides and paddled. I used the pole and pushed off the back, and we all propelled the raft forward. The wind blew against us, slowing us.
“Did we bring the scope?” I asked.
“No,” Benji said. “Are they going to be okay?”
“We’ll make sure they are.”
The fog still covered the island and even spilled out past the shores and partially around the ship. The cover of fog might help the girls hide but it might have also hindered them from seeing the boat. It hadn’t blown its horn until the moment we got onto the raft. Eliza was with them though. She had to have known about this ship, like she did last time, and would have moved the girls to safety.
Cass would make things more difficult, but not impossible with the three of them able to move her. They were strong women, and they could carry her to the falls. They could hide.
The three of us paddled and pushed hard. We got to decent speeds, but it still felt as if we were floating through tar. I needed to get to the shore.
I reached out, but we were too far for me to feel anything on the island. In a few more minutes, we were getting closer to the ship. It seemed massive and was partially covered by the fog of the isle.
I pulled up my pole up and told the girls to stop paddling. The raft moved forward on its own momentum. I slid my pole into the water and pushed us ahead.
“What are we doing?” Aubrey whispered.
Many things were going through my head, and I reached out again, trying to sense the thing from this ship. It wasn’t on the ship. I felt its hunger and knew it was on the island. This was the second time this thing had been to our island in a few days. It wasn’t going to stop. It knew of us, and even if the girls did hide and evade this thing, it would only be a matter of time until it caught us off guard and took us. I couldn’t allow that.
“It’s not going to stop,” I said. “We’re going to have to stop it.”
“Hell yeah,” Aubrey said, gripping her spear.
“If we can deal with the octopus, we can deal with this… kidnapper,” Benji said, referring to how the thing took Eliza’s mom. Which was a strange thing to think about, as the ship was captained by the very person that kidnapped her. Or at least that was a theory.
We got closer to the Veronica, or what I thought was the Veronica. It was the same type of ship, but the back of the boat that held the name had been burned off and covered in black soot. Much of the ship had been scarred with flames, and it looked much older than Veronica. Rust showed in areas, and the paint had faded to a slim resemblance of the boat I had been a deckhand on. I had spent hundreds of hours on that ship, but sailing up to it on the raft, it seemed massive.
Our raft felt like a log in the ocean compared to this vessel. If it had a captain in the bridge, they could have run us over, and there would be little we could do about it. The steel hull would rip through our lightweight wood and bamboo like nothing. The propellers would chop us up and spit us out the back.
Getting on the boat appeared impossible as well. The walls around the boat were a good ten feet high—too slick to climb and too high to jump. Well, at least for us. Sherri might have had a chance. Fortunately, I knew where the ladder was. We just needed to get around the back side of the ship to get to it.
I scanned the island, looking for the girls or the shadowy figure, but I didn’t see any movement in the thick fog. I gasped as I felt the shadow man’s mood change to one of excitement, and there could only be one thing that excited it in that way—it had found them.
We could rush the island and fight it on the shores, but I was afraid the thing might slip right past us and get on the ship. Once on the ship, we were done. We weren’t going to see the girls again. If we got on the ship, we might be able to intercept any attempts at it taking someone. Hell, for all we knew, all the girls were already on the ship, and it was just collecting more now.
“We’re getting on the boat,” I said.
“What?” Benji asked. “That’s insane. There could be more of them on it.”
“It’s alone,” I said. That much I knew. The boat was empty.
The raft glided up next to the large ship, and I pushed off the ship, making sure we didn’t collide. Looking up at the hull, all the way to the railing, I realized that if we could procure this ship, we could sail right off these islands and back to the regular world. With this ship, we’d have a real chance of getting back home.
Moving along the boat blocked our view of the island. I used the pole mostly to push the raft down along it and to the stern while pushing off the metal hull as needed to keep us from colliding. I wasn’t worried about damage to the raft, but if we hit the boat, it might sound like a bell going off. The sound could alert the creature to our presence. The best thing we had going at the moment was the element of surprise. I didn’t want to give that up.
“There’s a ladder on this side,” I said, using the pole to push the raft around the hull.
Near the back of the boat, the engine rumbled, and the smell of exhaust blew out from the pipes. It was idling and the propellers weren’t moving as the water was still behind the boat. The boat moved slightly up and down with the waves. How it wasn’t grounded was a mystery to me.
We were about twenty feet offshore now. As we rounded to the side of the boat facing the island, I spotted the long ramp leading into the water from the deck. The thick fog went past the ramp and all the way to the shore making the island trees hazy at best. The boat and ramp swayed with the ocean waves and the rocking boat. That’s when I spotted the shadow in the fog.
It carried a tall, athletic woman on its shoulder, jogging through the sand. I thought it might see us—we weren’t well hidden near the back of the boat—but it was focused on its prize: Cass.
“It’s got Cass,” Aubrey said, and Benji had an arrow pulled back.
“Too risky with it holding Cass,” I said, touching Benji’s arm. She growled and lowered her bow.
The thing jumped onto the ramp, and in a second, it was up and onto the ship.
“Shit,” Aubrey said. “It’s got her.”
“Not yet it doesn’t,” I said.
The ramp got yanked onto the boat in two motions, and a few seconds later, I heard a steel door slam shut. I pushed the raft up next to the ladder that was more like recessed rectangles on the side of the hull. I grabbed the first rung and started climbed as I heard the motor revving up. Behind the boat, the propellers cut through the water, kicking up sand and foam while pushing the ship forward.
Benji ran to the front of the raft and jumped, grabbing onto a rung below me. Her feet kicked out, and for one heart-stopping moment, I thought she was going to fall into the water. She held on, though, and pulled herself up against the boat and got her feet on the ladder. She looked up at me with terror as the ship began quickly moving away from the island.
Aubrey stood on the raft, watching our departure. There was no way for her to jump o
nto the ladder, and we were already too far and going too fast for her to catch us. I watched as the fog thickened around her, and I wanted to yell out to her. I had too many things to say to Aubrey, and I couldn’t say any of them. I knew she’d survive on that island. They all would. As she faded into the fog, it felt like a goodbye.
Chapter 25
The water rushed below. Benji looked up at me, a frightened but determined look in her eyes.
I climbed the ladder and got near the top. I slowly rose up over the edge of the deck to get a look. The deck had been cleared. The bolted-down chairs and boxes were gone. The deck had also peeled up in places and looked dull with age and neglect. The long ramp was the only thing on the deck. The bridge windows were coated with either a white film or blackened with smoke. If anything was up there, I doubted they would be able to see us.
The shadow creature wasn’t on deck, though.
I crawled under the railing and slid on my stomach onto the deck. I helped Benji and pulled her onto the deck with me.
“It went inside with her,” I whispered.
Benji nodded. We got to our feet and jogged toward the door under the bridge. This was the only door leading into the boat. I stopped at the closed door and noticed a bloody smear near the handle.
“Blood,” Benji whispered.
“It’s not hers,” I said. “It can’t be.”
Benji had an arrow nocked and ready.
“If I get a clear shot, I’m taking it,” Benji said.
“Okay,” I said and pulled my knife out.
I’d seen the way the thing cut through birds. It did so with speed and precision. The last thing I wanted was an up-close confrontation with it. Benji’s bow would be the ideal way to deal with this thing.
Standing next to the door, I hesitated and looked to Benji. She was taking slow breaths, holding an arrow in the string, ready to pull back and fire.
I turned the handle.
Chapter 26
The door creaked, and I winced from the sound. I only opened it far enough to fit through and then slid into the boat. I moved in quick motions with a knife if hand, prepared to stab as needed, but there wasn’t anyone or anything there.
The insides were as bare as the outsides, with only one light still working in the lower hall. I searched for the creature and felt it, faintly. I couldn’t tell if it was above or below. On the left was a set of stairs leading up to the bridge, but I had a feeling things were deeper in the boat.
The floor was wet, and the steel showing through the paint looked corroded, as if it might not hold our weight. It flaked and cracked as I took a step on it. The steel walls once had white paint over them, but now the steel showed more than the paint. The stairs leading up to the bridge had a handrail that had fallen off in several sections.
“This isn’t the Veronica, is it?” Benji whispered.
“No, I don’t think it is,” I said. “Or something drastic has happened to it.”
“Up or down?” Benji asked, seeing me look from one staircase to the other.
To the right of us was a staircase leading down into the boat. It curved and had walls on either side, blocking us from seeing more than ten feet down into it. I noticed a few drops of blood heading that way.
“Down,” I said and walked to the staircase, holding out my knife, which seemed to be sadly lacking in the weapons department, given what we were facing.
I wanted a damned machine gun down there. Plus, a hottie in a Sponge Bob bikini and a dude in shorts and a white button-up shirt didn’t elicit a response of fear from anyone.
The steps were steel, and the white paint had worn down through the middle of the steps. I took one step at a time, thinking this shadow thing might come around the corner at any second.
Fortunately, I knew this ship well and pressed on, around the corner and down into the next floor. A few lights were on, but it was still dark and wet. The ship must be littered with holes, and the ocean spray from above leaked down into these lower floors. Rebecca would have never stood for such a lack of maintenance. A boat wouldn’t last long with this kind of deterioration, and I was surprised to hear the hum of the motor below. If they couldn’t bother with leaks and paint, I doubted they maintained the engine either.
The area ahead looked as bare as the rest of the boat. This area had been mainly the living quarters, storage, and kitchen. There used to be a table in the far back. Mario, Chef Frank, and I would play cards on that table and eat sandwiches. Now the area looked as bare as the rest of the boat.
I walked around the corner of the stairs and down to the hall with the living quarters. If I turned again, the stairs continued down to the next floor, leading into the engine room, fuel tanks, and more storage. On the Veronica, this floor mostly acted as a storage floor. I often wondered why she held so many supplies, but now it made sense—she was preparing for her and her daughter. Probably bringing every possible supply to help them live on these islands if they couldn’t get back out. This was sheer speculation, as I was never allowed to look into the storage bins.
A light in the hall crackled and then went out, further darkening it. I stepped into the hall, walking on my tiptoes, trying to make as little noise as possible. I sensed the creature somewhere on the ship, but I still couldn’t pinpoint it. Maybe the steel was messing with my ability, bouncing it around like an echo. I wished I could feel Cass, but she was blank to me, just like the rest of the women.
Benji had her bow raised and ready as she stepped off the last step next to me. If I had been properly trained in an assault on a ship, I might have known what to do, or how to clear a room properly, but I was a deckhand and former construction worker. Most of my knowledge came from fictional sources starring Tom Cruise or Dwayne Johnson. I neither had the looks or the Hollywood luck to pull off such personas, so I stepped forward, hoping the monster didn’t jump out and get me.
We neared the first door. Fear bubbled against my throat, and I found it hard to breathe. The soft drone of the motors became the only sound around me. Each step I took, I labored to make as quiet as I could. I anticipated the monster would be in this room. I moved to the open door, but the room was as empty as the rest of the boat. This room would have had a bed and personal effects. The single light showed the peeling paint and rotten floors. I suppose the creature could be hiding behind the door, but it didn’t strike me as the hiding type. If we ran into it, it would be a fight for our lives.
On the opposite side of the hall was a mirror image of the empty room, with varying degrees of white paint showing. We moved down the hall that opened up into a larger storage area. Here there were a few steel boxes that I thought were bolted straight down to the boat. Typically they held things the coast guard required, like extra lifeboats, life jackets, flares, and such. I didn’t know about all the regulations, but I remembered the coast guard doing a few checks on the boat, to the great annoyance of Captain Rebecca.
Beyond that was the kitchen and a small dining room. What I was interested in, though, was the boxes. The floor leading up to one of the boxes showed wear, as if there was a path to it. The lid looked worn from use as well.
I approached the box with Benji behind me, looking out for any surprise attacks. I pulled the metal latch up, unlocking the lid, and then pulled the lid up to its locking position over me. Inside the box were smaller boxes that looked like they were carved from single blocks of wood. They had symbols on them, like hieroglyphics, but I wasn’t sure. They could have been drawings of a satanic cult, for all I knew. Ancient languages and cultism weren’t part of my skill set. I took one box out.
“What is it?” Benji asked, looking at the box in my hands.
“It’s heavy,” I said, hefting the box in my hands.
Much more substantial than the wood would be alone. There was something in the box, like a lead brick. I found the edge of the lid; the seam was almost invisible. I wedged my fingernail in the slit and pried the top open.
Inside the box was a blac
k, shiny stone, shaped like a teardrop and about the size of half my thumb. It sat in a bed of red cloth. I reached in for the stone, and Benji grabbed my hand, stopping me.
“Don’t touch it,” she said, staring at the stone. “Set it down.”
I complied and set the box on top of the pile of other boxes. Benji, visibly shaking, moved her hand over the open box and the stone and then closed her eyes.
She jerked her hand back as if she had been burned or bitten, and her eyes went wide from terror. Her lips thinned as she bit them, and her face turned red, eyes brimming with tears ready to drop. She wanted to scream, and it was taking everything in her to stop that reaction. I took her hands, but she seemed unharmed. Confused, I stared at her, hoping for more information.
“Close it,” she said in a low, screechy voice. “Hurry.”
I shut the lid over the box and then closed the compartment as silently as I could.
I hadn’t felt anything from the stone, but Benji was connected to the earth in ways I wasn’t. Her ability let her see into rocks and stones. Whatever she felt from that stone had sent her to the edge of a panic attack. Her face went from red to pale, and she leaned forward, with hands on knees, breathing hard, as if she’d been holding her breath the whole time.
“You okay?” I asked, touching her shoulder.
She jerked away from me and straightened back up, looking terrified and pointing at the box.
“We have to destroy them,” she said. “All of them.”
Chapter 27
I had an urge to open the box back up to see what I missed.
“What’s in the box?” I whispered and retook her hand. This time, she let me hold it as tears welled in her eyes.