Megalodon Riptide

by Watts, Russ

  “That’s where Gills is,” I said calmly to Weir. “Decomposing in the belly of that fucking beast. And that’s your fault.”

  CHAPTER 15

  I didn’t even see it coming. One moment I was watching the world’s largest predator show off its aquatic skills, and the next I was lying on my back nursing a bruised jaw.

  “You’re dead meat, monkey. Stand up. Get up, right now.” Weir stood over me like a hungry grizzly bear, his fists balled up ready to go again.

  “Weir for Christ’s sake, leave it alone,” demanded Manny.

  I saw Manny attempt to drag Weir away from me, but Weir simply pushed him back.

  “Stop it. This isn’t helping.” Pippa tried next, as I slowly got to my feet. “You’re supposed to be our captain, Weir, so try figuring out how we’re going to get out of this mess.”

  As soon as I was on my feet Weir hit me again, and once more I found myself on my ass with stars circling my vision. I had no problem fighting Weir, but the condition I was in hardly made it a fair fight.

  “Stop it!” yelled Chelsea.

  I saw Manny wrap his arms around her and hold her back as Pippa prepared to intervene.

  “Stay there,” I said, as I dropped to my knees. I was utterly drained and taking on Weir was the last thing I wanted to do, but I didn’t want anyone else getting involved. I wasn’t about to back down despite my sluggish body defying orders from my brain.

  “Weir, you need to listen to me. I know you’re scared, but we can work this out,” I said, getting to my feet. Weir’s face danced in front of mine and I tried to focus on his piercing blue eyes. I felt dizzy and sick. “You have the knowledge of this area and without you, we—”

  Weir sent a hard punch to my gut and I was too slow to react. I tried to dodge it, but he still landed a decent blow and I reeled back, doubling over.

  “We were doing just fine. You and your pathetic excuse of a family don’t deserve my help.”

  I looked up to see Weir advancing on me.

  “I’m going to show you what it takes to survive, monkey. You have no idea.”

  “Weir, stop this.”

  Ava reached for him, putting a hand across his chest, but he pushed her back. He sent her tumbling over the wet sand and I heard her cry out in pain as she landed. As I regained my breath, I realized he wasn’t going to stop. He was seeing red and nothing we said was going to stop him.

  Weir reached me and grinned. “You’ve destroyed my crew, my boat, and—”

  I’d had enough of his garbage. If this went on he was liable to kill me or hurt one of the others. I lunged at him, catching him off guard, and with my arms wrapped around his waist pushed him back until we lost our footing and collapsed on the sandbank together. With Weir underneath me I had to move quickly and take advantage of my position. I grabbed his hands and pinned him down beneath me.

  “Get the hell off me,” he yelled.

  “Quit it, Weir, just stop it.” I found my strength again and though my arms ached, I had enough energy left to hold him. He was built like an ox and I wasn’t entirely sure how long I would be able to control him. “Listen to me, nobody cares about blame. Nobody here wants to be in this situation, but we have to deal with it. We have to figure out how to get out of here.”

  Weir pursed his lips and looked at me. Freckles ringed his lips and I noticed the creased lines around his eyes. I remembered how old Jonah was and suddenly I felt pity for Weir. He had spent his life on the ocean, on the Tukino, and suddenly it was all gone. Jonah and Gills were dead, and the boat was sinking. He had nothing left to lose. I relaxed my grip on him slightly. “Weir, just calm yourself. You’re still the captain, right? So take charge and help us.” As he looked at me I thought I was getting through to him. The rain was soaking through the both of us and I was aware of how close we were to the water’s edge. I wanted to stop wasting what precious little energy I had left, and focus on what to do next. “There’s no need to fight. We can—”

  Weir slammed his forehead into my nose, whipping his head up with such force that I felt my brain rattle around my skull. I yelped in pain and let go of him, putting one hand over my bleeding nose. Suddenly Weir was slipping out from under me, pushing me onto my back.

  “Fucking city boy.”

  I felt Weir’s boot smash into my ribs and I doubled over, wincing and coughing with pain. It was all so quick that I didn’t know what to do.

  “You want to tell me what to do?”

  Another boot landed in between my shoulder blades and another around my kidneys. Another boot came toward my face and I tried to curl into a ball, too late. I held my hands over my face and I heard the crack of my nose break before the pain surrounded me. My failing vision became full of stars and I tried to crawl away from him. My fingers sank into the wet sand as I felt another boot land on my back. Pain shot through my whole body and my head felt like a balloon full of helium trying to escape my body. I opened my eyes and saw blood dripping from my face onto the sand. I kept crawling away, unable to summon up any more energy. I got a couple of feet before I collapsed, devoid of energy and still conscious only by the grace of God. No more kicks came my way. I expected Weir was about to haul me to my feet and throw me in the ocean. Yet as I lay there panting and trying to stem the bleeding from my nose, nothing happened. There were no more blows or boots in my face. I waited for the inevitable. Still, nothing.

  A hand finally touched the back of my neck and I wondered if he would just snap my neck and end it right there. The hand wound around me and another draped across my torso. The groping hands turned me over and I felt the cold rain hit my face again. It felt deliciously refreshing and I almost laughed. My nose was still bleeding and my back felt like it had been twisted into a corkscrew, yet that fresh rain felt so good on my face that I even smiled.

  “Luke?”

  I opened my eyes and through the falling rain saw Ava and Pippa kneeling over me.

  “Luke.”

  As Ava sobbed she put her face against mine, her warm breath brushing over my face like soft linen. She felt good. She felt alive.

  “Can you stand?” asked Pippa.

  My heart broke to see Pippa looking at me with such pity. Mom used to look at us the same way when we were sick. It was usually followed by a glass of milk, but I knew there would be no comforting warm milk this time. Pippa wiped away a tear and helped me up. Ava clung on to me as if she thought that by letting go I would collapse. It was probably true. When I was finally upright I looked around me. My fight with Weir had churned the sand up and the boat was still there, grounded and taking on water. I took slight solace in that there was no sign of the shark.

  “Luke, is it true?” asked Ava. “About Gills?”

  Blonde curls poked out from beneath her red beanie, and as I looked into her blue eyes I almost lost myself. Without her arms around me I had no doubt that I would crumple to the ground. It was as if she was transferring her strength to me. I had to remind myself that the others were still around. As much as I could’ve stared into her eyes all day, there was a lot to sort out.

  “Yeah. Sorry. The shark… it was so fast there was nothing we could do.”

  “Here.” Pippa handed me a damp cloth and pressed it against my nose. “Hold it there until the bleeding stops.”

  I took it and tried to ignore the pain streaking through my head when I touched my nose. “What about Weir? What happened?”

  We began to trudge back toward the others. I moved slowly as every step was difficult. Manny and Estelle were watching me carefully, as if I might turn into a zombie any second. I finally saw Weir on his knees with his hands clasped around his head. He was fuming and it was clear why. Chelsea was in front of him holding a flare gun. She had it pointed right at him.

  “Chelsea? What the hell?”

  She glanced at me quickly but resumed her watch over Weir. “I couldn’t just stand by and watch. He wasn’t going to stop, Uncle Luke.”

  As I looked at Pippa she just
shrugged. “He’s lucky she didn’t shoot him.”

  “Where’d you get the gun?” I asked. “I thought we’d lost everything.”

  “It’s probably wet and won’t even work,” muttered Weir.

  “You want to test that theory?” said Chelsea menacingly.

  “Washed up,” replied Pippa. “A few things came ashore, but nothing else of use. Jesus, Luke, what are we going to do?”

  I felt woozy, but there was no time for feeling sorry for myself. Gills had suffered far worse than me. I heard a splashing sound coming from close by, and as I looked at the ocean I thought maybe I saw something, just a flash of something dunking under the water. It was out there. Somewhere, it was still there, perhaps biding its time or waiting for the tide to rise and swamp our tiny sandbank. It knew these waters. It knew we were heading for shallow water and had chosen to attack when it did. It had miscalculated how much time it had, and that was the only thing that had saved us. Out there it was in charge. While my feet were on solid ground though, we had a chance.

  “Weir, how close are we to land?” I shielded my eyes from the rain and the wind buffeting us, but saw no land close by. The ocean appeared to be all around us. We were stranded on an island, and with the boat half submerged we had no way off. “What are the tides like? If the water recedes and this storm doesn’t get any worse perhaps we can walk to the mainland. Any chance more of this sandbank will reveal itself to us?”

  Weir glared at me and said nothing. Rain poured over his head, turning his golden hair into a soggy mess of spaghetti. Raindrops and sweat dripped from his nose. I wanted no apology nor did I expect one. Our captain had only one goal: self-preservation.

  “You know, Weir, if you help us, maybe we can help you?” I breathed heavily. Every breath I took made my body ache and my lungs burn. My nose was shattered and it felt like there was an invisible weight on my chest that I couldn’t shake. “You brought us here, so you must have an idea of where we are, where we can go?”

  Weir rolled his eyes and kept his mouth firmly closed.

  “Why don’t we just shoot him? Here, give me that.” Manny took the flare gun from Chelsea. “He got us into this mess. I vote we get a new captain.”

  “Back off,” said Weir. “You can’t do that.”

  I sensed that Weir suspected Manny might just kill him, even though Manny would never do something like that. I knew Manny well enough. He would go out of his way to avoid squashing a spider, and certainly wouldn’t kill a man.

  “Why not? What good are you to us now?” asked Manny.

  “Sounds like a fair question to me.” Ava stood by my side and slipped her fingers in mine. “No great loss if you ask me. Do it, Manny. Shoot him and I’ll throw his body to that shark myself.”

  “Woah, hold on, have you forgotten who you’re speaking to?” Weir threw his hands up defensively. “I’m in charge here. Maybe I was out of order earlier. Fine. But you’re taking things too far now.”

  “Shall we vote on it, Weir?” asked Manny, stepping closer to him and aiming the gun at his head. “What do you think the outcome will be? You think you’ve got anyone on your side? Estelle has only known you for five minutes and even she hates your guts. Give me one reason why I don’t blow your head off?”

  “Okay, okay, Jesus Christ.”

  Weir seemed to visibly shrink as he spoke to Manny. It was suddenly a different story when his own life was in threat. It was amusing to see him change, to see how he turned from the aggressor to a victim so quickly. I felt no pity for him anymore. He had brought it on himself. He had forgotten that without Jonah and Gills around he had lost all of his friends. There was no one left who would stand up for him now. He was on his own.

  “The truth is, there is no way off this sandbank. The whole area is littered with shipwrecks and we’ve just chalked another one up. The mainland is miles away. There’s no way of reaching it. The only way out of here is if we get lucky, someone passes by and spots us.”

  “That can’t be true,” whispered Pippa.

  Her lips trembled as she spoke and I could see she was shivering with cold. We were all drenched and the never-ending rain didn’t look like it was going to stop soon. The biting wind ran through our bones and the thought of waiting out here for someone to spot us was depressing. I didn’t want to put all my hopes on luck. I wanted to do something, to find a way to the mainland.

  “What about the shallow water?” I asked. “Do you know what direction we were headed in before we crashed? Maybe we can wade or swim to the next sandbank, make it to the mainland? If we avoid the open water we could—”

  “No. It’s too far. There’s no way of knowing what direction to go either. You take one foot off this tiny stretch of land and you’re liable to end up in deep water as much as you are shallow. Forget swimming anywhere. That shark will pick us off one by one.”

  “I want to go home,” said Chelsea quietly.

  She let Pippa run her hands through Chelsea’s fine, sandy hair, wiping it from her eyes. It stuck to her wet forehead and when she revealed her brown eyes I saw a despair and bleakness there that I didn’t want to see again. She was still young. There was still a chance for her to make a life, if only we could figure this mess out.

  “Me too, honey,” said Pippa, as she kissed Chelsea’s head. “Me too.”

  Had I done the wrong thing? The Tukino hadn’t been the answer, just a temporary home when our old one crumbled. There was no way they were going to live on a boat for the rest of their lives. I had to find a new home for us all, a dry one on solid ground. But first we had to find a way off this sandbank.

  “If you’re telling me that we’re finished, that there is literally nothing we can do, then I guess I may as well just shoot you after all.” Manny pinched the bridge of his nose. “This is ridiculous, Weir. You can’t tell me you came here with no plan. What did you think would happen?”

  Weir shrugged his shoulders and looked at the trawler. “The plan was to sail right through. The plan was to get away from that shark.” Weir turned away from the decimated boat and looked at Estelle. “We might have made it too if we hadn’t stopped and wasted our time picking up that Goddamn puta.”

  Just when I thought Weir was starting to accept us and take on a more conciliatory tone, he reverted back to his old ways. Manny raised the flare gun and smashed it against Weir’s temple. Weir groaned in pain, but stayed on his knees.

  “You deserved that,” I said. “You forget that you were the captain of our ship. You were in charge. If you want to blame anyone for our predicament, I suggest you take a look at yourself.”

  Blood oozed from the cut on the side of Weir’s face. If he expected sympathy he was going to be sorely out of luck.

  “Shoot me. Better a quick death than dying out here, waiting for that bitch to eat us. Once the water’s high enough she’ll be back. She knows we’re here. She’s got the taste of blood now and I can guarantee you she wants more. That shark is what you should be worried about, not me. So, go ahead, shoot me.” Weir pushed himself up and lowered his arms. He took a step toward Manny. “Do it.”

  For a second I thought Manny was going to do it.

  “Why waste it on you?” Manny wasn’t scared of Weir. He stayed toe to toe with him. “Let that shark eat your sorry ass.”

  Suddenly, Manny raised the flare gun to the sky and pulled the trigger. There was a popping noise and then the flare shot up into the sky leaving a trail of smoke behind it. A few seconds later and the sky was lit up by a red light that arced away from us.

  “Like you said, we have to hope someone might spot us,” said Manny. “So, sit tight, Weir and hold on to your hat. Because trust me, if nobody comes for us, I’m going to make damn sure that shark gets you first.”

  Weir gritted his teeth and stepped back. “Whatever.”

  “You think anyone will see it?” asked Ava.

  “Well, it worked, so that’s one piece of good luck we’ve had. I didn’t think it would do anythi
ng. I guess we have to wait and see now.”

  “You okay, brother?” Manny approached me and tossed the flare gun aside.

  “Sure,” I lied. I could still see the shark, how it had devoured Gills and then circled back for me. I still remembered how it had felt, knowing it was beneath me as I swam to shore. “I just hope that flare works. If not—”

  “I know,” replied Manny. He looked at the ocean and sighed. “If it doesn’t work we may as well have stayed in New York and gone down with our apartment.”

  Cold rain pricked my face and I looked at the ocean. With Ava’s hand in mine I felt optimistic. I had to get Pippa and Chelsea home, wherever that was, and take care of Estelle too. All we could do now was wait, and pray.

  CHAPTER 16

  Manny had done the right thing using the flare. Remaining optimistic was difficult, but the alternative was giving up and I wasn’t ready for that. Somebody just had to see our flare. I refused to believe that this was it. We huddled together as the tempest thundered around us. Every time a huge wave splashed us I thought the sandbank would be submerged. We stayed close, using each other for warmth and comfort. The exception, of course, was Weir. We tried to coax him in, tried to offer him support even after what he’d done, but he stubbornly refused any help. He stayed away from us, muttering to himself and staring out at the ocean. I don’t think he felt any remorse or guilt for our situation. He just didn’t want to be part of the group. I guess losing his old friends, Jonah and Gill, affected him more than us. He felt like an outsider.

  Ava and Chelsea talked to Estelle, and got a little more information out of her. She was a sweet girl, looking for somewhere safe to go like all of us. She and her father had come from Florida, a place I knew had been decimated by the rising sea levels. The swamps had disappeared and the alligators had spread. That southern piece of paradise had become a watery grave for a lot of people. Her father had tried to get them north, unable to find any way inland. They had hung on until the end, until there was nothing left. They’d been adrift for two days and if we hadn’t come along when we had, then there probably wouldn’t have been a good ending for either of them.