by Watts, Russ
I gripped the cold rope and took a step back. It was an odd feeling and a strain putting my body weight on my arms. We hardly ate well and I immediately felt weak. I could only imagine how Pippa felt. She ate even less than me and our muscles hadn’t had a good work out in months. I saw Manny look at me and then suddenly there was a rushing sound from behind him. The weather was calm and I couldn’t figure out what it was. Mr. Johnson yelped and he broke away from Manny. I saw water surging through the open door then, pouring from the stairwell and onto the rooftop. It was like a flash flood as the torrent of water knocked over buckets and the tarpaulin we’d set up to collect rainwater. I saw Mr. Johnson lose his footing as the water washed over him and I called out to Manny. He was struggling to stand as the water began to fill the roof. It was already up to his ankles and would soon reach the ledge. If it came over onto us as we abseiled down the side of the building we would have difficulty holding onto our makeshift rope ladder.
“Hurry up. Get over here!” I hesitated, wondering if I should go back up to help. I hated myself for doing it, but I had my own family to think about. I continued my downward trajectory slowly, carefully, until I heard Chelsea call out from below me.
“Wait, Uncle. Hold on.”
“What is it?” I asked. I lowered my head to see, but my arms were aching and I was focusing on saving my energy for the descent. I managed to get a clear view of Chelsea, finally. “What’s happened?”
There was a terrible cracking sound before she could answer. It reverberated around the whole building and I knew it was going to collapse. I still had a few feet between me and Chelsea so I lowered myself down a bit more. There was a window in front of me and I saw the contents of the room beyond it floating in six feet of water. The whole building was flooding. I began to feel a trickle of cold water running down the nape of my neck and I glanced up to see Manny clambering over the side of the roof. Water was trickling around him and I suspected the rooftop had been flooded. There was nowhere left to go. There was no way back.
“Chelsea?”
“It’s okay. I’m okay. I thought I saw something in the water. It’s okay. It’s nothing.”
She began to lower herself and I twisted my neck around to look for Jonah. His boat was almost within reach now. The trawler was on our street, barely fifty yards away. It looked as if he had made it to us in the nick of time.
I kept going, the trickle of water hitting my head and splashing over my shoulders. I daren’t look up for fear of seeing the water become a raging river, yet I daren’t look down for fear of seeing how far I still had to go. So, I kept slipping down the rope, using the intermittent footholds and holding on for dear life. The building continued to lurch as I climbed down, swaying as if it was caught in a hurricane. My fingers ached, and the skin on my hands was sore from gripping the rope so tightly. I kept seeing visions of the Stamford collapsing, of all those people sucked down into the water. I didn’t want to go the same way. I didn’t want Pippa or Chelsea to die, not when rescue was so close.
“Ouch!”
I stopped as my foot connected with Chelsea’s head. We’d reached the end of the rope.
“Hold on a second.”
I heard Pippa’s voice and then the rumble of an engine. The trawler was right beside us. I pushed my feet back against the wall and turned myself around. I saw Jonah looking right at me.
“You going to hang around all day, Luke, or are you going to come aboard?”
CHAPTER 3
Relief washed over me as I planted both feet onto the deck of Jonah’s trawler. Pippa and Chelsea helped me down and I looked around me. Two of the crew had hold of the rope and had it stretched out so it hung over the boat. I saw another man in the wheelhouse, but that was it. I’d assumed it took a lot of men to operate the trawler, but there was only Jonah and three others.
“Luke.” Jonah shook my hand and I instantly felt safer. His hands were thick and strong, and the skin was calloused. He smelt of the ocean and he looked briefly at Pippa and Chelsea. There was no malice in his eyes, but I sensed a certain uneasiness. I put it down to the fact he wasn’t used to having strangers on his ship, least of all a teenage girl and her mother. “We’ll save the introductions for later. You good to go?”
I looked up at Manny. He was still halfway down the building and the water rushing over him made it look as if he was underneath a waterfall.
“Almost. Manny’s still up there.”
“Luke, we ain’t got much time, you know that, right?” Jonah licked his lips and looked at me. “That building of yours is on its way out and when it goes we need to be far away from here. I can’t risk it hitting my boat. The Tukino has been through a lot. She’s seen off hurricanes and squalls bigger than you could imagine, but I’ve never had a building fall on her. I don’t intend to start today.”
“Just give him a chance, please,” I implored. “Manny will make it. He’s almost here.”
“And what about him?” Jonah raised an arm and pointed to the roof.
At first I couldn’t see who he was pointing at. Then, at the corner of the building, holding onto the building, I saw Mr. Johnson. The old fool hadn’t followed Manny and I’d forgotten about him. It looked as if he had got himself cornered.
“Damn it,” I muttered. “That stupid old man.” I didn’t mean it. I was just frustrated. I should’ve gone back to help when I’d had the chance. What could I do from down on the boat?
“There’s no way we’re going to be able to get up there and help him,” said Pippa. “What can we do?”
“Manny, hurry up,” shouted Chelsea. “The boat’s right beneath you.”
The trawler listed to one side and I felt the water tugging at it. I heard glass breaking and looked up to see one side of the building cave in. Every window shattered as the walls buckled. Masonry began to tumble down and I was grateful it was far enough away not to affect us. I knew what it meant though. The building was sinking.
The man from inside the wheelhouse called out. “We gotta go, Captain!”
I saw doubt on Jonah’s face. It was a face that usually held nothing but happiness. He was old enough to be my father, but as lively and spritely as anyone half his age. He wore traditional fisherman’s oilskins and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in anything else. Jonah scratched at the white stubble around his chin.
“Time to go,” he said abruptly.
“But—”
“Sorry, Luke. We have to go or this damn building will take the whole boat down with it. Then you and yours are done for.”
“Manny!” I shouted to him and he stopped descending. He looked at me as the window next to him shattered. “Manny, jump!”
He was still several feet above the boat, but I was sure he could make it. The rope was beginning to sway and he was struggling to hold on. His hands and clothes were wet, and even as I looked up at him I could feel the boat turning away.
“Manny, please.” Chelsea ran to the railings at the boat’s edge. “There’s no more time.”
I felt like I was watching it on television. It felt surreal, as if I wasn’t even there. Manny let go of the rope and pushed himself away from the building. His legs and arms swung through the air and he fell quickly. I waited for the impact, for him to land on the deck, and just hoped he wouldn’t break anything. None of us had any medical knowledge and even the most innocent of accidents had lethal consequences these days.
Then something happened that none of us expected.
The boat suddenly swerved away from the building and I turned around, cursing at Jonah for not giving us a few more seconds.
“Hold on!”
Jonah was inside the wheelhouse, standing next to the man I had seen earlier. It was only a few feet away and quite small. Both men wore the same sort of oilskins, but the other man was a lot taller and fairer in complexion. Both men also wore the same look of confusion on their faces and I realized they hadn’t turned the boat at all. They were trying to keep the wheel st
eady, yet it was being forced out of their hands as if an invisible force was steering the boat.
“Weir, full throttle, you bastard,” shouted Jonah.
Whoever Weir was and whatever he was supposedly doing, nothing happened. The engine whined and roared, but the boat refused to budge. I heard Chelsea scream and turned back to see a shape flash by the boat and hit the water.
“Manny?” I raced to Chelsea’s side just as Pippa began to pull her away.
“He’s in the water, he’s in the water,” shouted Chelsea, as Pippa dragged her kicking and screaming to the safety of the deck.
I peered over the wooden railing and saw nothing. The water was churning all around us, but I couldn’t see Manny anywhere. Pieces of glass and parts of the building were falling now, splashing into the water.
“It’s pulling us down!” screamed Pippa.
The building let out one final breath. More windows exploded and I searched the water desperately for Manny. I heard another voice, faint and pleading for help. I heard Pippa and Chelsea crying, imploring me to get away from the edge, but I couldn’t leave Manny like that.
“Hold tight.” I heard Jonah’s voice and felt the boat begin to move slowly through the water. We were finally heading away from the crumbling building and then I saw him. Manny resurfaced several feet away. His sports bag was gone, lost forever in the water, but he was alive. I frantically looked around me for something to fish him out with. There was a life saver on the other side of the deck and I raced to get it, ducking under the winch and around the A-frame. The trawler was cold and buried in shadow.
“Let me help,” said Chelsea, as I sprinted past her.
“No, it’s too dangerous. Stay with your mother,” I ordered. I knew Pippa wouldn’t let go of her, and I grabbed the orange ring. The deck was slippery and I was grateful I had a pair of sneakers on. As I pulled the life saver free I felt a hand on my shoulders.
“I’ll help you.”
The voice belonged to one of the crew I had spotted earlier. I didn’t know who he was, but I was grateful for the assistance. I wasn’t sure how long Manny would be able to hold on. The water was churning and frothing as if bubbling atop a volcano. The man took the life saver from me and came back with me to the other side of the boat. He was a tall man, dark like Manny, and wore a tattered old green beanie on his head. His thick gray jersey smelt of the sea and I imagined he’d worked with Jonah for a long time. The sleeves were rolled up revealing tattoos that ran up both arms. I was intimidated for a moment, until I saw the kindness in his eyes.
“Manny, grab it. We’ll pull you up,” I shouted, as the man threw the ring into the sea. It landed barely six feet away from Manny.
“Grab it and—”
I heard the boat’s engine whining, as if it were being mangled, and felt the boat rise up. It actually rose up out of the water a full two or three feet and I heard Jonah shouting orders at his crew. He was yelling about the rudder and tacking, sensors and channels; I had no idea what he was talking about. The man next to me ran back to Jonah, leaving me with the task of saving Manny. I couldn’t understand why the boat was rising. The water level seemed to be the same and as I watched Manny reach for the ring I saw something in the water alongside him that made my heart skip a beat.
Beneath Manny there was something gray, shiny, and long, and it was moving. The skin was smooth like a dolphin. This was no submerged vehicle and I was sure it wasn’t part of the building. It wasn’t just beneath Manny, but the boat too. What was even odder was that there was no end to it. I couldn’t see a tail or a head. The thing was huge, longer than the trawler. I guessed it was a whale, lost in this new world and now stuck in the underwater streets of New York. Whatever it was, it had got itself stuck under the trawler. That was what was forcing us up out of the water and putting so much pressure on the engine. I had to trust Jonah would figure it out while I got Manny.
“There. I told you. It’s there!”
Startled, I looked up to see old Mr. Johnson standing on the corner of the building. He was pointing down at us.
“It’s come for us!”
I had no time for his delusional rants again, and looked back at Manny. He had his hands around the life saver thankfully and I began to pull him up. It felt like trying to drag concrete through quicksand, and it was slow work. Pieces of the building kept falling around us and I was all too aware of how perilous it was to be so close to it as it disintegrated. Our apartment complex wasn’t going like the hotel. The Stamford had gone quickly, pulled into its own foundations without warning. By contrast, our building was falling to pieces around us. I felt tiny shards of glass shower over me as another large window shattered. A balcony a few feet away broke free of its moorings and plummeted to the water below, landing worryingly close to Manny. He held on though as I continued to pull him closer to the boat.
The trawler suddenly dropped as the whale-creature disappeared. I lost my footing on the deck and fell on my ass, but I kept hold of the rope. I wasn’t about to let Manny go that easily.
There was an almighty booming sound and then I saw the complex, our home for the last twenty years, begin to subside. The whole thing was shaking and sinking.
“Quickly, Manny.” He was right alongside the boat now and as I tried to heave him around to where he could climb up, the crewman from earlier appeared next to me. He held a shepherd’s crook, and reached over the side of the boat. Manny grabbed it as the man pulled him up.
As the Tukino pulled away from the building, a shadow flitted across my eyes and I saw Mr. Johnson leap from the crumbling building. He literally jumped into the air and said nothing as he fell. I felt so sorry for him, yet I had to remind myself that we had tried to help. He was going to hit the water with such force that I wasn’t sure he would make it. Could he even swim? There was every likelihood that he would hit the water with such force that he would break his neck and I winced as I watched him plummet to his death.
As Manny clambered into the trawler I heard Chelsea and Pippa rush to help him. I couldn’t take my eyes off Mr. Johnson though.
Before he hit the water I caught his eyes. I wish I hadn’t. I wish I could get rid of that image, of him looking at me so full of terror and hatred. I wish I hadn’t seen what happened to him next but I can’t deny what I saw.
It wasn’t a whale. It wasn’t stuck beneath the boat either. What rose up out of the water didn’t seem real. I had never seen anything like it. I recognized that same silvery smooth skin instantly. This time I saw its head. Mr. Johnson was right. It was a shark, only bigger. A lot bigger. The shark’s head had to be as big as a bus, its two black eyes as large as hubcaps; the creature’s jaws were wide open revealing two rows of razor sharp teeth. There was a scar on its head, a nasty looking cut about four feet in length that must have left it close to being blind in one eye. The shark rose up out of the water silently. Mr. Johnson never hit the water. He simply plummeted right into the gaping maw of that terrifying beast without a sound. I saw the shark snap its jaws shut and then disappear beneath the ocean.
“Jesus,” I whispered.
“Everyone, get back to the bridge, now!”
I was aware of Jonah shouting orders, but I couldn’t take it in. I was still trying to process what I’d seen. The shark had to be three or four times larger than any shark I’d ever heard of. I’d only ever seen sharks on documentaries or in cheesy horror films, yet I was sure this was not like them. It had to be related and it looked like a Great White. But how could it be so impossibly big? It had swallowed Mr. Johnson whole with ease. What kind of animal was it?
It was only when Pippa pressed her face up against mine and hauled me to my feet that I snapped out of it. Suddenly, I realized that we were pulling away from the building and I was sat on the deck with water spewing over me. Our apartment was gone. Where the building had been I saw sunlight streaming through the gap in the city buildings. The complex was gone and so was Mr. Johnson.
“You saw it, right
?” I asked her, as she led me to Jonah.
“Saw what? Our home collapse? Manny almost die? Yeah, I saw it. Stop messing around, Luke. Jonah wants everyone inside, in that cabin thing and off the deck. He said it’s too dangerous with all these buildings around us.”
“Okay, okay.” I let Pippa drag me toward the wheelhouse. Manny was there, safe, alive, and Chelsea was throwing a dark gray blanket around him, rubbing life back into his freezing joints. I saw the other crew members and made a mental note to thank whoever it was that had helped me. I never would have got Manny aboard on my own. I had to know that I wasn’t losing my mind though and before Pippa could pull me into the cabin I stopped.
“Wait. You saw it, didn’t you? You saw the shark?”
Incredulity was written across Pippa’s face. “What shark? We hit a truck. Jonah said we were caught on it and he managed to break us free just before the building came down. What are you on about?”
“The shark. Didn’t you see it? It was right beside us.”
Pippa shook her head. “No, Luke, I did not see any damn shark. I was too busy trying to help Manny like all of us were. Who cares if there was a shark anyway? The main thing is we’re all here, we’re alive; Chelsea is alive. And I want to get inside, so quit talking like an idiot and be thankful we’re all still breathing. Stop going on about sharks will you, you’ll just scare Chelsea and she’s been through enough today.”
Pippa left me on the deck and went into the wheelhouse. She was right. I couldn’t say anything to her or Chelsea. They had enough to worry about. It was true that they were all helping Manny, and maybe they hadn’t seen it. The only one who might have was Jonah, but he was trying to keep the trawler upright. If he hadn’t seen it then he had to know. He had to know what was in the water around us. Pippa held the door open and I followed her into the cabin. With all of us inside it was way too cramped. There was a small set of stairs leading down into the bowels of the ship, where I assumed we would find sleeping quarters, a galley and the hold.