Monsters In Our Wake

by J. H. Moncrieff

  “And then what? Are you going to hold it over your head while you spin around and fly us away from here? There’s no bloody way I’m letting you get into that water again.”

  “I still think it can be done, if we keep our shit together and stay quiet. Flora has a point. Nothing attacked while I was down there. The creature didn’t strike until the fighting broke out on deck. And George was yelling the loudest.”

  Apostolos shook his head. “I won’t hear any more about it. My decision on this is final, Anderssen. You’re too valuable. Now that Lashay is gone, you’re our only engineer. We’d die without you.”

  “You’ll die with me too. You know there’s a good chance we’re not going to get out of this, Apostolos. At least let me try.”

  The big Greek rubbed his bristly chin and gave what was left of his crew a pained look. “Augh. I need some time to think. I have to plan a strategy.” He stood, his chair creaking alarmingly. “I’m turning in. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  The remaining three said their goodnights. Flora waited until Apostolos was out of earshot before she spoke. “He’s right, you know. I can’t believe you would even suggest it.”

  “What other choice do we have? We have to do something, and I know I can fix the engine. Once the cable’s been repaired, it’ll take me fifteen minutes, tops.”

  “Did you see what happened to George? How long do you think that took?” Why are men so dumb? Why are they always so damn willing to die?

  Archie gave her a sympathetic smile. “Sometimes a man needs to take a risk. Often the risks are foolish, yes, but without them, life wouldn’t be worth living.”

  “This is not an extreme sport. This is a creature that’s hell-bent on killing us. If you’re going to take a risk, at least make it a calculated one. What you’re talking about is suicide, and that’s not going to help anyone on this ship.”

  Both men stared at her, silenced. She forced herself to meet their eyes without blinking. Someone had to speak the truth. Someone had to point out that stubbornness was one of the reasons they’d gotten into this mess. If Liam hadn’t been so headstrong, so determined to take photos of the creature, he’d still be alive.

  “Okay, Flora. What’s your suggestion? What do you think we should do?”

  At Thor’s question, the fatigue of the past few days hit her.

  “Can I tell you in the morning? I’m too tired to think right now.”

  * * *

  The two men insisted on walking her to her cabin, even though it was across the hall. She was touched by their kindness. George’s death had been terrible, but with his absence, the mood on the ship had lightened considerably. Now that Apostolos was on her side, there was no reason for her to feel threatened anymore.

  And yet she did.

  Chapter Twenty

  My wife spent the next twenty minutes gargling salt water.

  Draugen always did have a flair for the dramatic.

  “Blech.” She spat, expelling a great gob of ichor that sizzled on the rock walls. “I forgot how juicy they are. Disgusting.” She peered at me, expecting sympathy most likely, and I quickly moved my head to hide the reprobation in my eyes.

  Too late.

  “Don’t you dare look at me that way, Nøkken. You know I could snap your neck in a second flat.”

  Keeping my head averted, I attempted to swim past her. The night had been ruined. I figured I might as well make the best of it and sleep for a few hours, but she cut me off, blocking my path.

  “You’re sulking. Actually sulking, like a child. I swear, between you and our son, sometimes I don’t know which needs raising.”

  “If you are ever in doubt, I can clarify it for you, dearheart.” I forced the endearment from between clenched teeth, which had the desired affect—my wife paused. She rarely saw anger from me, so when she did, she usually respected it. At least, I hope she respected it. I’d always assumed that’s the only reason I’m still here.

  “This isn’t about the humans, is it? Whatever is this obsession with them? I’ve never known you to be so single-minded.”

  I lunged at her, roaring in her face.

  “We discussed this. We agreed. There was to be no killing of humans. Thanks to you, they’re going to have the entire Navy here within a few days.”

  “That’s a bit like the sky calling the ocean blue, isn’t it, Nøkken? I recall you killed the first one.”

  I swallowed hard, trying not to picture what had happened to the young engineer. It hadn’t been my fault, but I’d been nauseous with guilt ever since. “That was an accident. What you did tonight was murder.”

  She snorted, and the resulting wake pushed me back a foot. “Murder? No more than eating a shark, and we’ve done plenty of that. Since when do we care about the survival of such miserable, destructive creatures?”

  Deciding to use the only tactic that might stand a chance of working, I appealed to her ego. “Slaughtering innocents is something they would do. We’re superior to them, remember? We’ve evolved past them, and yet tonight you acted exactly like they’d expect—like a monster.”

  Draugen pushed past me, slamming me into the rock wall so my ears rang. “This is ridiculous. I’m going to bed. I’m sorry to have embarrassed you in front of your wee friends, Nøkken.”

  “You don’t understand, do you? They saw you. They know what you look like now. Forget the Navy—they’ll have CNN on our backsides before we can blink. Remember Uisge? We’ll have to move.”

  My wife’s expression changed. We’d been on the verge of a battle that would have left our son without a father, but now she looked almost pleased. Happy, even. I didn’t have to ask why.

  “Are you suggesting I kill all of them, darling?”

  “No, of course not. You shouldn’t have killed one.”

  “No human is going to force me out of my home. If Uisge had simply eaten a bunch of them a long time ago, like I told her, she wouldn’t have the problems she has today.”

  “We can’t wipe out the species, Draugen. There are too many.”

  “No, not the entire species. Just the ones who venture into the ocean.”

  I pictured the bloodshed that would result if our kind engaged the humans in open war. There was no doubt we would prevail, but at too great a cost. The humans would use every weapon at their disposal, poisoning the oceans and slaughtering billions of smaller sea creatures without compunction. If they murdered their own kind without a quiver of conscience, they certainly wouldn’t trouble themselves over the suffering of dolphins or whales. Or the poor beleaguered shark.

  Still, it used to be a fantasy of mine, I’ll admit. Each time the sludge of yet another oil spill reached us—every time I had to bite through one of their miserable nets to rescue a dolphin pod—I dreamed of crunching human skulls between my teeth. I didn’t blame my wife for being puzzled by my recent reversal; I was confused myself. These humans had come into our territory for the sole purpose of polluting our home, and for that, they deserved to die. Another time I would have slaughtered them alongside my wife, relishing the crew’s screams of pain before I silenced them forever.

  I wasn’t sure why this particular ship was different. There was a female—that was new, but it wasn’t like I had some strange affinity for the women of their species. I had enough trouble with the women in my own.

  We’d had previous experience with what humans called ‘engineers,’ and to a one, they’d been dull, tedious men who used their brains for profit instead of the greater good. We detest short-term thinking.

  The same shortsightedness didn’t appear to be present on this particular ship, at least not in the female or the unfortunate young man I’d nicked with my tail.

  But after the engineer died, something had changed. I could feel it, and my wife could as well. She was extremely sensitive to conflict—always had been—but that wasn’t the only thing she had reacted to. I knew the arguing wasn’t the only reason she’d killed tonight.

  Perhaps I wa
s getting more fanciful as I neared middle age, but a dark cloud hovered over that ship. I’d seen this before, and it never ended well. Call me sentimental, but I didn’t want the woman stuck on a ghost ship, sailing through eternity with a crew of damned souls. I wanted her to escape and return to her son—for some reason, she felt a desperate love for that boy. It intrigued me, simply because I could not muster it for my own.

  In any case, I didn’t presume she’d return to the oil business anytime soon. If my original intent had been to issue a warning, that warning had been received. You might say my work here was done. Now I just needed to leave the humans to their own devices—let them prepare their little boat.

  Unfortunately, I couldn’t promise my wife would do the same.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The hand slammed over her mouth, grinding her lips into her teeth. Flora’s eyes flew open, widening when she saw the angry face leaning over her. She fought to breathe, forcing air through her nose and struggling to pull away, but she couldn’t move. The man’s body pinned her to her bunk.

  If she’d had any doubt as to his intent, it was gone as soon as he spoke.

  “Stuck-up bitch,” he hissed at her, spittle striking her face. “You think you’re too good for me, don’t you? You think you’re too good for the whole bloody lot of us.”

  She tried to shake her head, but his hand held her fast. Along with the blood from her injured lip, she could taste bitter grime and the salt of sweat from his palm. Flora remembered how dirty Frank’s hands were, as if he never troubled to wash them. Her stomach churned.

  The man was nose to nose with her, his eyes blazing with hate. As she fought to free herself, a dreadful sound split the night air—Frank’s zipper. She pushed against him even harder.

  “I want to see how good you are. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a woman who wasn’t a twenty-dollar whore. Let’s see if someone as high-minded as you can teach me a thing or two. Why should you save it for the boy when you can have a man?”

  Flora’s mind reeled with the moves from every self-defense course she’d ever taken. She’d always promised herself that she’d die before she’d allow herself to be raped. But now that she was in the situation, death was the last thing she wanted.

  Frank shifted his weight as he attempted to pull his jeans down while keeping his other hand clamped over her mouth. It was a small movement, but just enough that she was able to get one of her legs free. She brought her knee into the sailor’s groin with all her strength, envisioning his testicles coming out his eyeballs.

  “You bloody cunt.” He slammed his fist into her face before she knew what was happening. She felt a strange pop, and the top of the other bunk swirled in front of her, interrupted by tiny starbursts that exploded in front of her eyes. Her head throbbed, and she felt something warm and wet run down the side of her face.

  It wasn’t what she’d expected. Frank hadn’t rolled off her, incapacitated and groaning with pain. She’d only succeeded in making him angrier. But when he’d taken his hand off her mouth to punch her, he’d forgotten to put it back. Though the roaring pain in her head was enough to bring tears to her eyes, she screamed.

  The door slammed open, and seconds later Frank was pulled away from her, cursing and struggling. Through swollen eyes, she watched as he took a swing at Thor before Apostolos tackled him. One punch from the Greek was all it took. Frank fell to the floor, as dead to the world as if he were in a coma.

  In spite of her pain and confusion, Flora was suspicious. How did they get here so fast? True, Frank’s yelling might have woken them before her scream, but it was almost as if the other men had been awake, waiting for something to happen. If they’d suspected she was in danger, why hadn’t they warned her?

  Someone bent over her and she flinched before she saw it was Thor. He reached out as if to touch her face, then drew his hand away. “Oh God, Flora. What did he do to you?”

  “Is she okay?” Apostolos’s accent was thicker than usual.

  “No…her face is covered in blood. Can you get me a towel?”

  “Bastard. Fucking monster.” Flora heard a dull thud as Apostolos kicked at something on the floor, something that was most likely Frank. “I knew you were trouble from the beginning. I should have gotten rid of you a long time ago, you perverted son of a bitch.”

  The Greek did as Thor asked, and soon her friend was carefully pressing a towel to her injured face. The ice water oozing from the terrycloth was so cold it made her gasp.

  “Shh…it’s okay now.”

  His words made her furious. His words, and his tone. He sounded as if he were talking to a child. She’d been attacked, but she was far from a baby. She struggled to sit up, pushing his hand away.

  “Flora, you need to keep this on your face. It’ll bring the swelling down.”

  “It’s not okay. How can you say that? It’s a million miles from okay. That asshole tried to rape me.”

  And he called me a cunt. She wished there was a male equivalent she could use for him, but sadly, the filthiest curse words were always female.

  “I know. Thank God we got here in time.”

  “I would have killed him before I’d let him rape me.” Now that the threat was past, it was easy to forget how terrified she’d been, how the weight of Frank’s body had prevented her from moving, let alone fighting.

  “I might kill him anyway,” Apostolos said, giving Frank another kick. He directed a flood of angry Greek at the man, and Flora knew they were curse words. She only hoped the Greeks had better options than the English. “I’m sorry, Duchovney. I gave you my word that you’d be safe here. I’ve failed you as a captain.”

  “It’s not your fault,” she said, hating the weakness she could hear in her voice as the adrenaline wore off. She could feel the pain from her injured nose now, and she meekly accepted the towel from Thor and held it to her face, grateful she couldn’t see how much blood she’d lost. “You had no way of knowing he was a monster.”

  “I saw the anger in him. His temper was always a problem. But I never thought he’d do anything like this. I’m of a mind to throw him overboard.”

  “What’s going on?”

  The three of them turned to see Archie standing in the doorway. His eyes flicked from Frank, who was still dead to the world, over to Flora, who was using every bit of resolve she had to keep from weeping. Her hand trembled madly as she tried to keep pressure on her injured nose, but she wouldn’t let Thor help. Even though she knew the attack was no one’s fault but Frank’s, she couldn’t afford to let them see her as a victim. She didn’t have the luxury of being anyone’s damsel in distress.

  “Did you know anything about this, Tomkins?” Apostolos asked, surprising her. Archie had always been quiet and well mannered. She couldn’t imagine him having any part in what Frank had tried to do to her.

  “Know anything about what? I heard a lot of yelling and screaming, and I come in here and she looks like she’s been in a brawl—” Archie nodded toward Flora, “and Frank is on the floor.”

  “He’s your bunkmate,” Apostolos said, his voice low and dangerous. What the captain had done to Frank hadn’t been enough—Flora could see he wanted to hurt someone, and hurt them bad. She hoped Archie would tread carefully.

  “Hey, I’m not my bunkmate’s keeper. Frank often wanders around at night. It’s gotten so it doesn’t wake me anymore.”

  At Archie’s words, Flora felt her heart stop. She thought of all the times she’d been startled awake in the middle of the night, terrified, never understanding the reason for her fear. But now she remembered a sound that had consistently invaded her dreams—a familiar sound that made her want to hide.

  “Has he tried this before, Duchovney?” Apostolos sounded so ferocious she was afraid to answer, but she saw no reason to protect the monster in their midst.

  “I—I think so. I didn’t realize it until now, but someone’s tried to get in my room before. The sound of the doorknob turning always woke
me.” Thor’s cheeks were flushed as he mouthed a silent apology for not protecting her. She would have to tell him later that he had nothing to feel bad about. Frank had been cantankerous, and often misogynistic, but there was no warning he’d been capable of this. Even Flora, who knew her instincts were pretty good, hadn’t thought the man was dangerous. “I’ve always locked my door, but tonight I left it open.” Her voice sounded thick and muffled, as if she had a bad cold. In spite of Thor’s care, her nose was swelling, making it difficult to breathe. “I thought it would be safer.”

  She could see the shock in Archie’s eyes as the truth dawned on him. “Frank did that to you? But why?”

  “Because he’s a sorry excuse for a human being, that’s why,” Thor said.

  “I’m just glad you guys got here when you did. I thought I could fight my way out of anything, but nothing worked. I even kneed him in the balls, but all it did was make him angry. That’s when he hit me.”

  The men groaned in unison, startling her. Even Archie was shaking his head.

  “What? What did I say? I had to defend myself.”

  “It’s not that,” Thor said. “It’s just—well, movies and TV and even those self-defense courses give women the wrong impression. They tell you that if you’re ever attacked, you only need to knee the guy in the balls, and he’ll drop like a stone.”

  Her brain swam with confusion. That was what she’d been taught. “What’s wrong with that?”

  “It’s not true. Well, maybe once in a blue moon it’s true, but I wouldn’t count on it. For one thing, it’s not as easy to hit them square on as women think, and if you graze them, it won’t tickle, but it’s not going to incapacitate us, either.”

  “Go for the eyes, Duchovney,” Apostolos said. “Always go for the eyes. Jab your fingers at them, hard as you can.”

  “Or the throat. If you have the leeway, hit the guy here.” Thor pantomimed a punch to Archie’s Adam’s apple. “If you hit hard enough, you can kill someone. Game over.”