Megalodon In Paradise

by Hunter Shea

  Lae was almost out the window, Lenny close behind and Tara now balancing on the rickety crate staircase.

  “Take my hand, Ollie,” she said, reaching down for him.

  He went to grab her hand, coming up short.

  Damn you, alligator arms!

  He’d never once called himself the derogatory name. He’d always left that for the insensitive jerks around him. At this moment, he hated his genetics more than all the morons he’d ever come across combined.

  “Take the rifle,” he said, shoving it toward her. “I’m coming.”

  The water level touched his chin. He started paddling, finding purchase on the submerged crates.

  He scrambled up the crates. Tara slipped through the window. There was a heavy splash.

  A splash?

  Lae was screaming.

  Ollie felt the crates shift under him as the water nudged the pile sideways. He jumped toward the window. His fingers grabbed onto the lip of the sill the moment the crates tumbled away.

  He tried to pull himself out of the window but his muscles wouldn’t obey his command. Instead, his arms shook like they were attached to a man in the throes of the DTs.

  Lae continued to scream.

  “What the hell’s happening?” he shouted.

  His only reply was the howling wind and pounding rain.

  The water in the room buoyed him up as it inched closer and closer to the window. Freed from his hanging body weight, Ollie was able to flop through the window like a sea lion skipping across a rock.

  He dove into an ocean that had devoured his island.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Tara sliced her arms through the turbulent water, kicking her legs furiously.

  Where the hell had terra firma gone?

  The entire island had disappeared while they were in the lab. The storm was too much for Grand Isla Tiburon, inviting the ocean to claim it for its own.

  “Lae!”

  She heard the woman screaming but couldn’t see her.

  Lenny had managed to paddle his way onto the roof of the lab, Tara helping him up. She’d lost the rifle in the process.

  And where was Ollie?

  “Lae, where are you?”

  Something tugged on her leg.

  She gave a wild kick, panicking.

  It touched her again.

  She splashed toward the building, forgetting all of her swimming skills. “Lenny! Help me!”

  A hand grabbed her shoulder.

  “It’s me,” Ollie said, coming up for air.

  “Jesus, I thought you were the shark.”

  “Aaaaiiieee!”

  “Where’s Lae?” he asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “And Lenny?”

  He dogpaddled as best he could, his head slipping under every few seconds. She remembered that he wasn’t a good swimmer. If he kept this up, he’d drown, his body exhausting itself.

  “He’s on the roof. You need to get up there, too.”

  “Not until we find Lae.”

  And what happened to Steven? she thought. He had left to find a way out. Had he been swept out to sea just as the island was swallowed up?

  Tara still believed in things like Heaven and Hell. For Steven’s sake, she hoped he was in Heaven now, holding Heidi’s hand, free from the pain and madness that had been the final day of their lives.

  The gray-black skies made it seem liked the dead of night.

  When is this fucking storm going to end?

  It felt as if it had been pummeling them for days when it only must have been a couple of hours at the most.

  “Don’t make me have to save two people,” Tara said. “You can’t swim. Now get on the roof.”

  They spotted the dorsal fin thirty yards away. Pointing at the shark, Ollie sank under the water for a moment.

  When he surfaced, Tara was reaching for him.

  “We have to get out of here,” she said, gasping and spitting water.

  They reached the edge of the roof at the same time, pulling themselves up and flopping onto their back.

  Ollie tried to catch his breath as the rain hammered his face, snaking into his mouth.

  “Lenny?” he called out feebly.

  His friend stood over him, wavering.

  “Did you see it?” Lenny asked.

  “Is it still there?” Tara said.

  She sat up. It took Ollie a few seconds to muster the strength to do the same.

  Lenny said, “It dipped below the water just as you were coming up here. I don’t know where it went.”

  Ollie took in the carnage. Everywhere he looked, there was water. Only the tops of the lab buildings were above the ocean now.

  Everything he’d dreamed of, washed away.

  All that was left was the damn Megalodon or Lotano, waiting patiently for them to jump in its pool.

  “How much longer you think we’ve got?” Tara said.

  “Not long,” Lenny said.

  Ollie wondered if he meant them or himself. He saw dark tendrils snaking up Lenny’s arm like some kind of tribal tattoo.

  Lae’s urgent screaming stole their attention.

  “Where the hell is she?” Tara said.

  Three pairs of eyes scanned the turbulent, watery horizon.

  “There!” Ollie shouted, pointing to their left.

  A sideways palm tree bobbed on the surface.

  Lae clung to the side of the tree, screaming for help over and over again.

  “I’m going in for her,” Tara said.

  “No fucking way!” Ollie said, getting ahold of her before she could dive off the roof.

  He spotted a long metal pole on the roof. It looked like the old fashioned rods they used in his grammar school to open and close the windows. It even had a small metal nub like a hook on the end.

  “The tide is pushing her this way,” he said, hefting the pole. “I’ll try to hook the tree and get her closer. Then we can pull her up. Tara, hang onto me.”

  He leaned over the roof. The water was only a couple of feet below him, but he was terrified of stepping into it for even a second. He wasn’t sure if there was enough water to conceal the Megalodon, but he wasn’t going to take a chance.

  Tara latched onto his waistband. He angled out as far as he could.

  “Help me! Help me!” Lae screamed when she saw him. “Mr. Ollie! Help me!”

  “Just hold on,” he said.

  He swung the hook toward the tree. It missed by a foot. The tide swelled. He tried again.

  Thwack!

  The nub buried itself in the sodden trunk. He pulled with all his might. Lenny used his good arm to help Tara rein Ollie in. They tugged hard, drawing him, and the tree with Lae, closer.

  His feet back on the roof, Ollie used the pole to keep the tree beside the lab.

  “See if you can grab ahold of Lae,” he said.

  Tara and Lenny reached down.

  The second Lae saw them, she let go of the tree and waved her hands wildly.

  “Lae, you need to calm down,” Ollie shouted over the storm.

  Tara and Lenny kept missing her as she fought to both stay afloat and get rescued.

  “Ms. Tara, Mr. Lenny, help!”

  Fuck this, Ollie thought. He let go of the pole and jumped in next to Lae.

  She struggled against him and for a terrifying moment, they both went under. Ollie held on, but he couldn’t tell which way was up.

  Somehow they broke through. The first thing he saw was Tara and Lenny’s petrified faces. They thrust their hands out to them.

  “It’s okay, Lae. It’s okay. They’ll get you on the roof.”

  He wrapped his arms around her waist and guided her to them.

  Lae went limp. Lenny and Tara each took a hand and pulled.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Lae was as heavy as an old time safe. Tara was strong, having spent the better part of her unemployment at the gym, but she was no power lifter. It didn’t help that poor Lenny only had the
one good arm and that poison running through his system.

  “Pull!” Tara shouted, straining until she saw spots dance at the corners of her vision.

  She felt Lae’s body break from the embrace of the ocean and dared to look down.

  The woman’s face had gone from raw panic to absolute serenity.

  Then something red and wet fell from Lae onto Ollie’s face.

  “Oh my God!” Lenny screamed.

  Lae’s legs were gone. Where her waist should be was just a jagged mess of torn flesh and ropy bowels.

  How the fuck was she still alive?

  Ollie struggled to stay afloat while her gore rained down on him.

  “Hurry, hurry,” Tara said to Lenny.

  Lae slipped over the lip of the roof. They quickly turned her onto her back.

  “Thank you,” Lae said, her mouth going slack. Tara watched her life drain from her body, her eyes going milky as her chest deflated.

  “Ollie,” Tara said, running back to the edge. He was still there, the blood washed away by the rain and ocean. She helped him up.

  Lenny lay on his side, next to Lae.

  “Is he…”

  Tara felt the pulse beat on Lenny’s neck. “He’s alive. He must have passed out from the exertion.

  They looked down at Lae’s ruined body.

  “You think the shark did that?” Ollie asked.

  “It had to. That damn thing could swallow us all in one bite. You think it could have spared her the pain.”

  “If this keeps up, we’re going to find out how merciful it is toward us soon.”

  He bent over and looked like he was about to vomit. She went to touch his back but he waved her off.

  “What just happened is going to haunt me forever,” he said, looking down at a cord of intestine poking out from Lae. “But I can’t let it overwhelm me now.”

  Tara peered over his shoulder and moaned.

  The dorsal fin emerged, closer than before. Only this time, they could see its massive body as it skimmed just under the surface, its tail fin fanning back and forth as it patrolled the sinking lab.

  Dozens of other, smaller shark’s fins swam about, keeping their distance from the Megalodon. They were as afraid of it as the humans.

  “What the hell does it want?” Tara said. “It has a whole ocean to explore.”

  Ollie dropped to his knees, eyes glued to the shark. “This is its home. It’s almost like it’s waiting for something.”

  Tara shivered just thinking what that something could be. The Megalodon had been resurrected for a very specific purpose. What the fuck had the crazy assholes who had done the impossible been thinking? Was it their goal to unleash it on Russian surfers during the Cold War? Or did they create this monstrosity just for the sheer fact that they could?

  If the story about Nazi scientists being recruited to better the American quest for military dominance was true, anything was possible, no matter how insane it seemed. History more than showed the Nazi’s penchant for the grotesque and absurd.

  “What do we do now?” Tara said.

  The waters were still rising, Lenny was dying, and there was no place else to go.

  “The only thing we can do,” Ollie said. “Pray the storm ends soon.”

  “Have you seen any sign of Steven?”

  Ollie shook his head, water dripping from his hair. “He’s gone.”

  Lenny groaned, but they couldn’t wake him up. Maybe he was better off that way. The black gangrene or whatever the hell it was had inched its way up his right arm, ending just past his elbow. Pretty soon, he’d be just like Heidi had been.

  Even if she had the proper medical supplies, it probably wouldn’t help if she amputated the entire arm. The poison was in him, racing through his bloodstream, killing him with each passing second.

  The Megalodon leapt out of the water as if it were some trained orca at Sea World. Tara grabbed Ollie’s hand, skittering back from the end of the roof.

  In the second or two that it left the bonds of the ocean, they were given a glimpse of its full, gigantic form. From nose to its tail fin, it had to be seventy feet . . . if not longer. She couldn’t help thinking it was a living, breathing battleship.

  If the American military could harness and control the Megalodon, just the sight of it would send any naval force in full retreat.

  Or was Lae right, and Lotano had come to set things right once again?

  She felt the concussion of the splash in her chest as the zombie shark slammed into the ocean.

  Tara realized there was no way out.

  The Megalodon’s dorsal fin pointed straight at the building. It sped toward them, heedless of the depth of water.

  “How does it know we’re up here?” Ollie said.

  “It can’t. It just can’t. Sharks can’t see well.”

  They braced for impact.

  Ollie’s grip was so tight, the bones in her hand ground against one another painfully.

  She hoped Lenny would remain unconscious and never know the agony they were about to endure.

  “Shit, shit, shit,” Ollie muttered as the shark came closer.

  And then it disappeared.

  The gray triangle sank beneath the water.

  “Where did it go?” she wailed.

  Ollie ran the perimeter of the roof, scanning the roiling ocean. “I don’t see it.”

  Tara looked down at her feet.

  She knew exactly where it had gone.

  The center building was to their left. The building that had housed the tank.

  The tank that was a direct pipeline to the ocean.

  It was the first time she was grateful they were stuck on the roof of one of the lower buildings.

  But how long would it remain down there in its private, murky lair?

  “Fuck your fucking mother’s sister.”

  Tara and Ollie turned to Lenny, who was now sitting up and holding his right arm like a baby.

  “We’re not dead yet?” he asked.

  “I’m afraid not,” Tara said, checking his forehead. He had a low-grade fever.

  “Where’s the shark now?” Lenny said.

  “I’m pretty sure it’s under the lab,” Tara said. “It was coming right toward us before it dipped out of sight.”

  “Ollie, I want to thank you for a wonderful and interesting trip, but I’d like to go home now. If we get a plane today, I’m pretty sure we’ll be in town for the Mets season ender against the Marlins.”

  Ollie stood over Lenny with his hands on his hips, eyes on the sea. He smirked. “I promised you a lifetime in paradise, buddy. We’re not done yet.”

  “I think my new idea of paradise is Minnesota in the winter. Preferably somewhere not even close to water. I’m including ponds, too.”

  Tara rubbed his cheek. “This is what we get for bitching about the cold and snow back in college.”

  “I can’t believe I used to love those Sharknado movies,” Ollie joked. And why not? It was better to go down laughing than screaming.

  They broke into uncontrollable laughter, tears mingling with the rain as it poured down their faces. Lenny paused every now and then to note how the laughing was making his arm throb, then started all over again.

  A spray of water kicked up beside Lenny.

  Then another.

  He got to his feet, standing beside Ollie.

  “What was that?”

  Ollie’s head jerked to the main lab.

  A man looked down at them, his handgun drawn.

  “How in holy hell did he survive?” Ollie said.

  They couldn’t hear the gunshot, but they saw another small geyser of water explode in front of Tara’s foot. She skipped back.

  She looked around the roof.

  There was no place to hide.

  The man paused. It looked like he was reloading.

  ***

  Mofongo couldn’t steady his trembling arms enough to take a good shot. No matter, there wasn’t anywhere for those assholes to
run. Even if he closed his eyes, he’d eventually hit them.

  When the tank exploded, he’d been back near the entrance, making sure they hadn’t missed anyone lurking in the shadows during their mad dash inside. Nacho’s anger and bloodlust had left them vulnerable to an attack from behind. He’d heard the tremendous explosion, then the distinctive sound of Akara screaming. A heavy wave blasted through the building, slamming Mofongo square in the back. It pushed him right out the door, dragging him across the meager beach, the sand grating away several layers of flesh.

  Stunned, he could only sit and watch as the water poured out, knowing that everyone inside had to be dead.

  No crew. No coke. No boat.

  He was completely screwed.

  And out there was a killer shark so big, it defied logic.

  The Pacific ate the island rapidly as the storm raged.

  There was nowhere to go but back inside the building. If he could make it to the roof, he’d be on the highest ground. Maybe there was a chance he could ride it out.

  What he’d do after he survived was anyone’s guess.

  Praying that the integrity of the structure was still intact, he dashed back inside. He found a narrow stairway in the middle building with the demolished tank. It was set against the far wall on the opposite of the room. He trudged through water and concrete and steel that went up to his hips. He also assumed that bits of Nacho, Bami, Akara and Cambuulo were in the swill as well.

  Mofongo cried out with joy when he discovered the stairs led to the roof. Using the butt of his rifle, he smashed the lock and opened the trap door.

  And then he saw the three people on the rooftop below.

  How the hell had they survived?

  No matter. Whatever divine luck they’d had had run out.

  There could be no witnesses.

  ***

  “Sir, there’s something up ahead.”

  Captain Powell looked over his navigator’s shoulder. He had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep what he wanted to say to himself.

  “Something that big shouldn’t be able to move that fast,” his navigator said.

  “You just keep your eyes on it,” Powell snapped.

  Mother Nature had gotten her tits in a twist up top. That was nothing compared to what was pinging their sonar. That little asset gone rogue was the mother of all shit storms.