by Weston Ochse
“They?” Charlie asked. “How long do any of us have?”
“Right.”
“Less than an hour, probably. New York and Washington are gone. The rest of it’s just a matter of catching up.”
“Can’t believe they’re nuking everything.”
“Hey, if it kills those things….”
“Right.”
For the first time, Ray felt a sharp flutter of nerves in his stomach. Angie had said she was on her way, that she had to pick up Davey and Tara but that she’d be there soon. She hadn’t shown yet, though. Looking over his shoulder, he saw his footprints in the mud, winding from the shore through the trees. He hoped she remembered the spot, but she’d only been out once or twice. Maybe she could follow his tracks.
Breathing deep, he told himself it would be fine. Angie would arrive soon, and he wouldn’t have to spend his last hour searching frantically for her. A part of him felt guilty. Why hadn’t he been with her all day?
“She’ll be here,” Charlie said. “They all will.”
“Hope so.” He watched the river’s waters. It still flowed along lazily, its black surface unaware the world was ending. For an instant, he wondered if he should be scared, but he laughed off the idea. What was the point of fear, anymore? One more hour, at most, and it wouldn’t matter. None of it.
“You think we’re doing the right thing?” he asked.
Charlie shrugged. He shook the beer can in his hand and then tossed it when he realized it was empty. “Compared to what? Wait a year? Two? What if it doesn’t kill those things? What if it does but there’s nothing worth coming back to? I don’t like the odds, man. Might as well call it a good run and check out.”
“Yeah,” Ray said. “You’re probably right?”
“Probably?”
“Think that’s the best I can do right now.”
“Hey!”
Ray turned to find Angie leading the others through the trees. She wore a wool cap and scarf, as though preparing for a long, cold winter, and he couldn’t help but laugh at the visual. When she saw his smile, she blew him a kiss. Then, she handed off the twin six-packs in her hands to Charlie.
“You found beer?” he asked.
“I’m resourceful. If there are good times to be found, I will find them.”
He threw his arms around her. “I was afraid you wouldn’t find us.”
“Not a chance. Kiss me.”
He pressed his lips to hers, and he felt the heat of tears in his eyes. One hour. Less than that, probably. So many years with the world point guns at each other, arguing over race and religion and politics and money, no one daring to shoot first. Then something bigger than all of it had arrived, and everyone had decided to start firing at once.
“Want a beer?” Angie asked.
Blinking away the water in his eyes, he gave her a smile. “Several.”
***
As Ray neared the end of his second beer‑‑warm, but still strangely tasty‑‑he felt the start of a buzz. His last buzz, he knew. Might as well try to savor it some.
He stood at the river’s shore, his arm around Angie’s waist as they watched the water navigate the bend before them. “I used to come down her to watch tug boats,” he said. “Me and my dad.”
“You miss him,” she said, and her arms tightened around him. He’d mentioned his father a lot over the past few years, and he’d hoped, as everything came to an end, he could maybe forget the man for a while. But the old man crept into his mind, standing in the corner, arms crossed and a smile warming his face.
“Yeah, but…y’know. Other things going on.”
“You can say that again.”
He gave her a grin. “I’d rather not.”
“Hey!” Davey said. “Got an update.”
Ray turned, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear. What did an update really matter? They were down to minutes, maybe. Certainly no more than twenty. His stomach churned, and it wasn’t because of the alcohol. The world was ending, taking him‑‑taking all of them‑‑with it. How many people had died knowing they only had minutes left to live? What would be left for those who made it? Anything?
“You got online?” Charlie asked.
“It’s spotty, but yeah.” He read off his phone while Tara and Charlie peered over his shoulder. “Dallas, Chicago, Denver. They’ve been hit. Looks like…Vegas, too.”
“Is there even water in Vegas? It’s the desert.”
Gotta be thorough, I guess.”
“Aw, man. I was gonna check out the Luxor this summer.”
“Rooms’ll be cheap.”
Something tugged at Ray’s chest. He gave Angie another squeeze and then kissed her forehead. “Hey, guys. Let’s do a toast, real quick.”
Charlie shot his hand up so fast, beer sprayed into the sky. “To the end of the world!”
“Maybe something a little more serious?” Angie said.
“What’s more serious than that?”
Ray stepped toward his friends, he and Angie closing a circle with them. “I’ll think of something.”
“Better hurry,” Tara said.
“Right.”
For a moment, he closed his eyes. He tried to gather everything he felt into a tight knot, something he could manage and describe. When he opened his eyes, he found everyone looking at him, waiting. Again, Angie hugged him.
“None of us….” The words died on his tongue, and he took another second to breathe new life into them.
“This…none of us expected it. We didn’t think something like this would ever happen. How could we, right? But we’re here. It’s out last night together. Out last few minutes, even.” He gestured at the ashes surrounding them. “It’s already started, but it’s going to end soon. I’m not happy about it, and I know none of you are. But I’m glad we’re all here. I’m glad we’re doing this together. If they have to blow up the world to save it, there’s no one else I’d rather be with when they light the fuse. Cheers.”
Cans touched with a flat, percussive sound, and Ray knocked back the last of his beer. In the darkness, something groaned. Again, he heard something break through the water’s surface. Once he kissed Angie’s lips, he gave the group a smile.
“Let’s go swimming.”
“You’re not serious,” Davey said. For the first time, he looked a little scared.
“Not even a little.”
Tara stared past him, watching the rippling blackness with frightened eyes. She took half a step back from the river. “It’s the whole reason‑‑”
“I know. We all know that. And now…minutes? What’s the point?”
“Screw it,” Angie said. “I’m in. Let’s go.” She kicked off her shoes one at a time, peeled off her shirt.
Ray followed. The buzz running through his system was electric pleasure, a crackling numbness that pulled his lips into a smile and drug laughter up from his belly. As he climbed out of his jeans, he made sure he didn’t look at the river. Already, he could hear the water churning somewhere beyond their laughter. The things under the surface knew they were coming. And those things were happy. And probably hungry.
“Are you sure?” Angie asked. They stepped to the river’s edge.
Cold water lapped at his toes. His hand found Angie’s, their fingers intertwining. He gave her hand a squeeze. “Yeah. Let’s swim.”
“Whoo!” Davey let out a second joyous cry as he charged into the water, his splashing loud and celebratory. Charlie and Tara followed. Together, they released a chorus into a sky.
Ray and Angie entered more slowly. One step at a time, the walked into the river. He felt the waves lap at his ankles. Then, his calves. More than once, his fingers tightened reflexively. Before them, the river churned.
“Do you think it’ll hurt?” Angie asked.
“It all hurts,” he said. “At least we get to pick.”
“Good point.” Beneath their feet, rocks gave way to soft soil, sloped down as they found themselves waist-deep in the river.<
br />
“Oh, shit,” Davey said. He tread water a dozen yards in front of them. “I can feel them. Sliding past my legs.”
He disappeared in a sudden rush, yanked below the surface before he could draw breath to scream. The surface rippled a little and then fell still.
Tara managed a scream. Then, her breath came in a series of sharp burst. “Here it comes,” she said. “Here it‑‑”
Something yanked her under.
Angie released his hand and started treading water. Ray followed. “Look at me,” he said. “Nowhere else.”
“I’ll try.”
Something rumbled in the distance. A bright light bloomed over the horizon.
“This is it,” she said.
“I know.” He peeked past her shoulder. Charlie was gone. In his place, the water slid over itself. Something pale and slick broke the surface, a large piece of something even larger. A light like fire shimmered off its surface, and then the thing dove beneath the river’s plane.
Ray listened to the coming rush of fire and destruction, and he wondered if the thing in the river would take them before the wave of pure oblivion. All the world ending, a terrible race toward the finale.
Something slipped past his leg, started wrapping around it.
“I love you,” he said.
Angie smiled. “I love you, too.”
She disappeared under the water, and Ray took his last breath.
The End
Read on for a free sample of Megalodon: Apex Predator
Prologue
The young boy stood on deck long after everyone had gone to sleep. He liked the rough seas and cold air of the Drake Passage. Even at the young age of ten, he was fascinated by experiencing actual exotic places in real life, and his father indulged his every whim.
The moon was near-full, stars bright and twinkling, and the boy could see the ocean lit up in magical silver and blue. He grasped the frigid handrails with bare hands and tried to see as far as he could into the night.
A slight, freezing breeze picked up, and the boy burrowed into his fur-lined leather jacket. On the wind, the boy could’ve sworn he smelled something like rotten fish parts. Specifically, the kind that already had bugs eating them, lying in the heat for days. But here, it was ice-cold.
Despite his thick coat, his arms brought a chill. He didn’t like that wind and the smell it carried. This wasn’t the ocean he knew. Then again, he had come here to experience a new sea. Right where the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans met, as far south on Earth as he could get. Maybe this was part of these waters, but the boy felt in his gut that smell wasn’t supposed to be there, and it especially wasn’t supposed to be so close and strong.
He wasn’t allowed to be out of bed in the middle of the night, and suddenly, he was so frightened that because he’d disobeyed, he was now going to be punished in a most awful way. Waves kicked up around the yacht and the boy’s tender stomach heaved. He puked right onto his hands, still grasping the icy handrail, as the boat shifted high and low in the now incredibly rough seas.
The boy heard yells, but when he tried to turn and run to the voices, his hands had frozen to the metal handrail. His vomit had stuck them stiff to the bar in moments in the sub-temperature Antarctic night.
“Dada!” he cried out, but his own voice was squeaky and weak. Nobody could have heard him. He turned to the handrail again, hearing more people onboard calling out. The boy yanked as hard as he could on his hands, but they wouldn’t budge. Panic gripped him hard as that god-awful smell hit him again, but this time, it was in a blast of warm air from seemingly nowhere.
The people on deck behind the boy silenced all at once, and he saw flashlights and torches turn in his direction. He started shaking all over, slowly, ever so slowly raising his head to see what the lights had fixed on.
The warm air blew again, bringing the dead scent. He stared right into the most enormous, gaping, pointed-toothed white mouth ever imagined by a boy in his most secret nightmares. Teeth so big they were the size of his arms. His whole body would fit four times over in that mouth…
He dropped his jaw and wailed, “Dada!” He yanked on his hands and freed three fingers, not caring a lick about the blood pouring out from under his grip.
The mouth came closer. It had seemed like it was right about to eat him, but the boy realized the beast was so huge that there was still distance between the boat and the creature. The mouth. The ever-so-sharp teeth. Its breath, so strong it made the icy air warm, and so putrid only death could be the beast’s insides.
He screamed now.
Arms grabbed him from behind. “Got you, son, now let go!” It was his dad. His dad would save him.
“My hands! They’re frozen to the rail!”
His dad wrapped his huge, gloved fingers around the boy’s bleeding hands and pried them off with a quick rip. The boy didn’t make a sound. His eyes stayed fixed on the beast bearing down on the boat from the water.
He let himself fall limp in his father’s strong hands, one arm under the boy’s tush and the other under his arms with his heavily beating heart pressed against his father’s own. His father dashed them across the swaying, rocking deck to the far side, back of the boat, away from the lifeboats and other people. The boy didn’t ask questions. His hands now ached and he peeked at them. The moonlight showed flesh torn from them in strips, and black blood soaked his palms and fingers. He’d left his father’s coat arms discolored from tops to elbows.
“What is it, Dada?” the boy whispered into his father’s ear.
“I don’t know. I just don’t know, but we have to get away from it.”
As they stood at the edge of the water, the boy couldn’t stand it, and looked over his father’s shoulder. He had to see how close the teeth were because the smell was worse than ever, and a burst of screams had risen up from behind them.
Now the boy saw the side of the thing, and it had to be some kind of great white shark. But it couldn’t be a great white. Great whites weren’t that big! The boy had seen them before. This thing was at least twice the size of one of those. Its gaping mouth rose high into the air above the boat, and it was as though it had neck bones because it turned its massive white head down to the deck, and the boy swore its teeth popped out of its mouth as it demolished the ship easily into a million pieces.
The boy flew off into the night sky and into the rough, freezing water, but his dada didn’t let go for an instant. His grip didn’t loosen in the slightest.
The boy couldn’t breathe once in the sea. He’d never felt cold like this, and it was as though he’d never be able to unclench his chest again to take another breath.
“Come on, son, we have to swim. We have to swim far and fast, so you climb on my back, wrap your arms under my armpits, and don’t be afraid.”
“I’m not afraid, Dada.” His weak voice shook from the lie and the air finally leaking into his frozen body. His father shifted him to his back and he gripped his father under his arms as tightly as possible.
The boy had to look back. The screaming was too much. He’d met these people and sailed with them for a week now. They were dying, he wondered, weren’t they? That giant thing was killing them, eating them.
Or they were drowning.
He hoped that’s what it was.
His father swam and swam, but the boy kept smelling the rotted fish as his hands burned in the frigid salty sea. Was this happening? Could this be real? He had to look again.
The boat was in pieces. The boy saw people in the water, but no sign of the giant beast…until the boy noticed a long, pointed thin fin sticking out of the water. It was so huge that to the boy, it seemed like the creature was inches from him and his father, and he screamed without thought.
“Shh, now, son. Quiet.” His father’s voice was labored from the icy and frantic, desperate swim.
The boy kept looking over his father’s shoulder. He simply couldn’t take his eyes off that fin—and then the giant creature’s head came out of
the water again. This time, the boy got a complete eyeful from the light of the bright moon.
Its pitch-black, gleaming eyes had to have been the size of cars each, and its awful mouth never seemed to close. The giant shark bent its strange head again, but instead of devouring a ship, it chowed down, hard, on passengers from the boat in quick, stabbing chomps. The boy finally closed his eyes right as he saw Ms. Engle, her shirt ripped off, disappear into the beast’s cavernous jaws, its head tilted up as though drinking her like a milkshake, and he heard her terrorized, pain-soaked but short-lived screams of horror as the giant thing chewed her to pieces in a few short bites.
“Hold tighter,” the boy’s father said. “There’s a piece of the ship ahead. We have to get out of this freezing water, but keep quiet. I don’t know what that thing is, but we cannot draw any, and I mean any, attention to us whatsoever. Do you understand me?”
The boy kept his eyes closed, wishing he could plug his ears from the wails of the others from the ship being eaten and gored. He nodded against his dad’s neck.
It could have been hours or minutes, but the boy’s father got them to a piece of debris, hauling the boy out of the water before pulling himself up next to his son.
“You can open your eyes now,” he said softly.
The boy didn’t.
“They’re all gone, son. It’s just you and me.”
“And it?” His voice was as weak as a baby pup offering up its first whimper.
“It’s gone. I promise. Open your eyes.”
The boy opened one eye. The sea had settled, and there was more ship debris floating all around them. He closed his eye when he spied what looked like the captain’s arm, still in its skipper jacket, floating a few feet away.
“Don’t you realize what we have just seen?” his father whispered. A freezing wind answered him before he continued. “That—thing. It shouldn’t be here. Did you see its skin?”
He opened his eyes. The boy shook with adrenaline, fear, cold, and pain in his hands, but his father didn’t seem to notice. His eyes gleamed in the starlight settling over the freezing sea, and for a moment, the boy allowed his father’s enthusiasm to sink into him. He had just seen the unbelievable. Yes, he had.