Splinter heard the boat’s engine rev, and smoke billowed from the craft as it entered the shoals and ran aground. A dinghy dropped from the boat’s side and two men jumped into it. An outboard screamed to life, and the Zodiac skittered and jumped across the shallow sea, the creature still rocking the bigger boat. The apex predator nudged the vessel with its snout, trying to tip the boat over, and it tilted sharply but came back upright.
The dinghy screamed through the shoals and a smile spread across Splinter’s face.
“Will!” Lenah yelled. She ran forward, then realized what she’d done and stepped back onto the rocky shore covered in a foot of tidal water. The Zodiac’s outboard cut off and the inflatable nudged into the mangrove trees.
Lenah leaned over the Zodiac’s gunnel and hugged Will, who said, “I can’t believe I found you.”
“In the nick of time too. You got any water?” Splinter said.
“Here you go,” said the other man who Splinter didn’t know.
Lenah did know him. “Thanks, Donny. I owe you one.” She took the water bottle Donny held out to her and uncapped it. She drank half the sixteen-ounce bottle with one pull and handed it to Splinter who drank the rest greedily, water spilling down his chin.
Will said, “Splinter, this here is Donny Peso. He’s a charter captain out of Vero Beach.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Splinter said.
“Yeah, thanks for looking for us Donny,” Lenah said.
“The Parker?” Will said.
“Gone,” Splinter said.
Will turned and looked out across the shoals toward Donny’s boat. The beast had given up nudging the vessel and circled outside the wave break.
Splinter said, “Where you been? What happened?”
“Is this really the best time to catch up?” Donny said. “How the hell are we going to get back to the boat? And you guys are standing in the water.”
The fisherman had a point. The day was fading and soon the sun would sink below the horizon. He was starving and thirsty and tired. He wanted nothing more than to get off Seagull Island and go have a steak dinner with all the trimmings, but they still had a long way to go before that could happen.
“I still don’t believe my eyes. What the hell is that thing?” Donny said.
“We have no idea,” Lenah said.
“What did the cops say?” Donny asked.
Nobody spoke.
“OK. What’s the plan here?” Donny said.
Splinter looked out to sea. “That’s a nice rig you got there, Donny. It OK to run?”
“Yup. It has a Caterpillar C-7 diesel that pushes 460HP. That thing rips. The boat’s light for its size and has hydraulic steering. We can outrun the thing.”
“Can we distract it somehow so we can get aboard?” Will said.
“That’s how we got here. We bought time with a couple of decoys. What are you thinking?” Lenah said.
“One of us acts as bait while the other three make a run for the boat. Once we’re aboard we can pick up whoever stayed behind as the decoy,” Will said.
“You’re saying one of us should swim out there and offer ourselves up?” Lenah said.
“Not exactly, but yeah,” said Will
“And I’m the one, I presume?” Splinter said.
Wind rustled through the mangroves and seagulls cried.
“Will, give me your shirt and toss me that lifejacket,” Splinter said.
“What are you going to do?” Lenah said.
Splinter said nothing. He took Will’s offered shirt and stretched it over the lifejacket. Then he reached into the water and drew out a broken shell with a sharp edge and pricked his finger with it. Deep red blood dripped onto the shirt, Splinter squeezing the digit to make the blood flow.
Lenah winced, and Donny said, “Will said you were hardcore.”
“You have no idea,” Splinter said. A red stain was forming as the blood dripped.
“Oh, I have an idea,” Donny said.
Splinter looked at Will, his face twisting.
“Don’t look at me. Blame WPTV and dumb and dumber.”
“No worries,” Donny said. “I was a marine, myself. Two tours in Afghanistan. I know how it goes.”
Splinter nodded.
Once there was a stain the size of a baseball on the shirt, Splinter tore off a small piece of fabric and tied off his wound. He said, “I’m gonna go to the east side of the island by that sandbar and swim out with the decoy. As soon as you see the thing moving, make a run for it. Be ready and we’ll hope third time’s the charm.”
With nothing left to say Splinter headed off through the tidal water carrying the decoy.
“Splinter.” Lenah sloshed up behind him, and when Splinter turned she pecked him on the lips, and whispered, “Be safe. Remember the fog. Don’t let it take you.”
Splinter nodded and continued on. He made as much noise as he could, lifting his feet and stomping them into the outgoing tide. Dead leaves and other debris pushed through the mangroves as the tide went out. This was the first piece of luck Splinter had had in a long time. With the tide going out he wouldn’t have to go too far out to set his trap.
After ten minutes of trudging through foot high water he no longer saw his companions. He walked on until he came to a section of shoreline with a narrow shoal running almost due east like a lone tooth. The sandbar looked solid and the current flowed fast at its tip.
Splinter eased out into the water, cutting around an outcrop of mangrove trees and making his way to the sandbar. The sea rose to his waist, but his footing was solid on the hardpacked sand as he stepped onto the sandbar.
The narrow shoal extended into the Atlantic 200 yards. The water got deeper as he went, and when he reached the end of the sandbar, he could barely touch bottom with the tips of his toes. He floated out to sea, gently kicking his legs and pushing the decoy. When he’d gone fifty feet he released the bloodstained lifejacket-stuffed shirt into the current. The outgoing tide took it and Splinter swam back to the shoals.
He’d gone thirty feet when he heard the tiny outboard roar to life, and then the steady moan as the motor pushed the three adults and one cat toward Donny’ boat. Splinter stroked hard, the decoy wasn’t far from him. A surge of water cut through the waves, heading for the bloody decoy. The creature’s head breached the surface, its mouth opening.
The dino-croc snapped down on the lifejacket and arced in Splinter’s direction, chewing as it locked on him as a new target. A mound of water rose above the surface. Splinter’s feet hit ground, but he kept digging with his arms and legs.
The beast roared, and a wave of whitewater lifted Splinter and pushed him toward shore.
24
Splinter sucked in air and dove, arms and legs stroking through the turbulent water, riding the wave caused by the monster’s breach from the sea. He pushed air through his nose and opened his eyes, but saw only white and bubbles. He was back in his Olympic fantasy, and he’d just made a turn at the poolside, flipping over and surging up to the surface, sprinting to the finish.
The monster roared, and the sea trembled like Jell-O. Splinter lifted his head from the water and spared a glance over his shoulder.
The creature swam in the deeper water on the northern side of the sandbar, its caudal fin knifing through the sea, its massive body just below the surface.
Splinter’s hand hit the sandbar as he stroked. He’d run out of water.
He pushed off and got to his feet, the water up to his waist. He sloshed forward, fighting through the ocean, his muscles burning from lack of nutrition and rest, his knee throbbing. Seagull Island was still a hundred yards off, and the beast glided on the northern side of the sandbar.
Saltwater burned his eyes, pain seized his joints, and his stomach growled. The afternoon sun was stifling, the breeze a faint fart that smelled of low tide. Scattered clouds slid across a clear sky from the west, filling in the blue. Thicker clouds marked the western horizon, and they looked fat with rain.
The water was at Splinter’s knees when the creature bellowed, and the sea rose. To his right the monster swam along the edge of the sandbar. The knot of water broke the surface and a cone of teeth below two cold gray eyes launched from the sea.
Splinter dodged left and dove into deeper water. He heard the monster breach behind him, and a massive surge of whitewater and sand pushed Splinter like a feather. He tossed and tumbled, hitting the sandy bottom and bouncing back toward sunlight.
He broke the surface. The creature was hung-up on the sandbar, its flipper-claws digging into the sand, but not gaining purchase. Splinter put his head down and made one final push.
He rotated his head to breathe and heard an engine rumble to life. Not the bicycle-motor of the small outboard, but the big diesel under Donny’s main deck. Then his head was underwater, and he was swimming for his life.
Splinter surfed. He was used to getting pulled into the blackness, but the power of the fist of water that punched him in the back as he swam pushed the air from his lungs and propelled him through the ocean so fast water pushed through his sealed mouth and up his nose so hard his sinuses ached. He slammed into the seafloor and rolled like a broken shell, hitting the mangroves with a jarring crunch that sent a jolt of pain up his back. He reached out in his whitewater induced blindness and grasped the first branch he found.
The heaving water dissipated, and Splinter pulled himself to his feet with the aid of a mangrove tree. Seawater tugged at his legs as it receded, and another set of waves crashed into him. The beast was over the sandbar, and it lurched through the shallow sea, unable to swim.
A horn sounded on the horizon, and Splinter smiled. Donny’s thirty-four-foot Jarred Bay cut through the fading swells. The beast ignored the horn and came on until it was in three feet of water. It lifted itself on its flipper-legs, gray head swinging side to side, eyes rolling as it searched. Water surged toward Splinter as the creature jerked in his direction, jaws snapping.
Splinter climbed through the mangroves away from the shore, the outgoing tide inches deep inland. He’d gone about a hundred feet when the ground became dried mud. He heard the distant sound of splashing, but no crunching mangrove trees. Splinter figured the beast had gone back out to sea.
He worked his way to the palm trees at the center of Seagull Island and collapsed to the ground exhausted. His heart raced, and his lungs pumped double-speed as he sucked for air and exhaled as fast as he could. White dots danced before his eyes like stars in the clear blue sky.
He didn’t feel the fog seeping over him, or his nerves jumping. Hadn’t felt it at all. Splinter smiled. Could all this new trauma be pushing out the old? New wounds and all that rot? He lay on the ant infested sand for several minutes, listening to the trickle of the sea push through the mangroves, the faint whistle of the wind, and the distant thrum of Donny’s motors.
After fifteen minutes he sat up, rubbed his face, and got to his feet. When he first arrived on Seagull Island, he’d walked the entire shoreline. There was no other sandbar that provided such an easy and fast way to get out into deeper water than the one he’d just been on. Splinter decided to head back that way and flag down the boat.
There were three green coconuts still laying on the ground from earlier efforts and he stripped one and broke it open, drinking the water and eating some of the horrible tasting flesh. Then he plunged back into the mangroves and climbed over branches and spidery roots until he reached the shoreline. The tide was almost out, and half the sandbar stood above water. He waited within the tree break for Donny’s boat to pass.
He didn’t have to wait long. To Splinter, Donny didn’t appear to be rushing and was doing no more than twenty knots. The engines hummed calm and steady, and the boat threw minimal spray. The tip of the beast’s caudal fin trailed behind like the dorsal fin of a shark, except it wagged back and forth as the beast’s tail helped propel the creature through the water.
Splinter ran out onto the sandbar. He had to wade across the section where the creature had landed, but he reached the end of the shoal in good time, and as the boat came around the island, he waved his arms and shouted. Donny shifted course slightly, making straight for the sandbar. The creature wasn’t far behind the boat, and there was no way Donny could stop.
Donny killed the engines just as he cruised by the point of the sandbar where Splinter stood.
Will yelled, “We’re gonna drop the Zodiac for you next time around.”
The engines roared to life as Donny dropped the hammer and the thirty-four-foot luxury fishing boat leapt from the water, its prop clawing at the sea, sending seawater and sand bubbling up from below.
Splinter ran back down the sandbar and hid within the confines of the mangroves once more. Three minutes passed and the boat went by again, but this time they dropped the dinghy.
It bobbed on the water for a twenty count, then disappeared within the waiting jaws of the apex croc as the monster chomped on it like a dog snatching a rubber duck from a child’s bath.
“Shit!”
The creature swam on and Splinter heard Donny kick-up the Jarred Bay’s engine, and it whined as he pushed it. They were trying to get a lead, so they could stop and pick him up.
Splinter had had enough playing cat and mouse with this fish. He jumped like a long jumper when he reached the flooded gap, and just missed making it across. He landed in the waist-high water and scrambled forward onto the sandbar.
The boat came around the island, and they were moving at least thirty-five knots, which was fast for a boat that big. As they got closer, Splinter saw Lenah standing aft with a round rescue ring in her hands. Will stood next to her holding coiled rope. They meant to throw him a life line.
Splinter ran his fingers through his hair. This was nuts. If he didn’t make it to the boat fast enough he’d be left dangling in the sea like a piece of chum. He was closing in on the end of the sandbar and the boat was 300 hundred yards off. He didn’t see the beast.
The engine slowed as Splinter reached the end of the sandbar. Donny didn’t bring the Jarred Bay to a full stop, but close. Lenah tossed the ring as the boat slid past, and she came up thirty feet short.
Splinter looked south. There was no sign of the beast.
He dove into the deeper water and swam for the life ring. The current was taking it away from him, but not fast. He’d reach it in thirty seconds. He took his head out of the water and saw Lenah and the others watching him from the Jarred Bay, the yellow line trailing to the red life ring splaying out straight.
He reached the ring and Will and Lenah started to pull him in. Donny kicked-up the Caterpillar C-7 and the lifeline tightened, and the ring jerked through the sea.
A loud thump rolled over the ocean, and Lenah screamed.
The creature’s head shot from the water, slamming into the port bow of the Jarred Bay. The boat’s tuna-tower rocked and flexed, and the motor sputtered, coughed, and fell silent. The tension on the life ring eased, and Splinter came to a stop. He tread water as he watched the beast peel off the boat and head his way.
The creature had gone the opposite way around Seagull Island, surprising the Jarred Bay head-on.
It was decision time, but Splinter didn’t have any good choices. He could swim for the island, which was 200 yards off, or stay where he was, and hope Donny managed to get the boat started.
The boat’s motor gurgled and popped, but rumbled to life. Donny revved the engine, and Splinter heard the thump as he slammed it in gear. The boat spun as the bow thrusters turned the craft and the engine drove it forward. Donny got on the creature’s ass, but it didn’t appear to daunt the beast. It came at Splinter, head rising from the water, flippers pounding the sea, crocodilian jaws opening.
The Jarred Bay hit the creature’s wake, and the pitch of the motor went up as Donny squeezed every revolution from the diesel motor. The boat was thirty yards behind the beast, and the creature was fifty yards from Splinter.
As Donny closed in, the monste
r rolled east, carving the sea and sending a three-foot wave rolling over the surface. The beast’s caudal fin disappeared as the creature dove, and Donny eased off on the motor and brought the boat close to Splinter as Will dropped a rope ladder over the side and Splinter climbed aboard and collapsed on deck.
The creature surfaced and came at them again.
Donny pushed down on the throttle and the engine roared. The boat jerked through the waves, picking up speed. The beast dropped into the boat’s wake, tracking the vessel as it bounced toward the west coast of Florida.
25
Donny’s boat was called The Day After, but that didn’t seem right to Splinter. The thirty-four-foot sport fisherman powered into the sunset, the tuna-tower casting a long shadow over the turbulent sea. The falling sun shone through the encroaching clouds and shimmered off the ocean, making it difficult to see. A dark line ran across the western horizon like a smudge, and distant cracks of lightning and the hollow booms of thunder echoed over the water as dusk settled over the Atlantic Ocean.
Poseidon sat in the fish fighting chair, curled in a ball, uninterested. Splinter rested with his knees pulled up to his chest, and Donny piloted the boat while Lenah paced back and forth across the deck.
The beast trailed after The Day After a hundred yards back, matching the boat’s speed and course.
“What happened to you? Splinter and I were worried,” Lenah said.
“Yeah, not a great time to go off the grid,” Splinter said.
Will sighed and ran his hand over his balding scalp. Will glanced to stern, and dug into a cooler filled with ice where their catch was supposed to be. Instead there was twelve cans of Miller 64, the low-calorie beer that Lenah and Will liked.
“One for you guys?” Will said, popping open his can as he stood over the open cooler.
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