Shock and fear filled him as the creature’s reek enveloped him.
Will fell on his butt, and frantically scooted backward until his backbone was against the wall. He still kept pushing into the wall as the shark charged again at the bars where he’d been standing, and Will could see straight down its throat, just past the teeth, right before he closed his eyes instinctively to the stinking breath. He heard it hit the bars again, and the ground under him shook.
He opened his eyes. Two fins now rose high from the red mess of water, one a little shorter than the other, and Will could imagine them just under the surface in front of him, swimming side-by-side, trying to figure out best how to get through those bars and to Will’s sweet, small snack of a body.
His heart pounded, and even though it was chilly in the cave, he felt sweat all over his body like he had a sudden fever, and his skin flushed hot. He had one thought—run.
Chapter 10
As long as Will could remember, Ellen had taken care of him. His father was often at sea, and when the kids weren’t in school, he took them on every sailing trip he was hired for. Their main home base was a two-story white house on the coast in Virginia where their dad could get quick jobs during bad weather seasons in one of the planet’s hurricane favorites.
Ellen had always been good to him, but she made him do everything for himself from a young age. “If I can do it for myself, you can do it for yourself. Come on. You’re not an idiot.”
It taught him to make decisions more quickly than most kids his age, and perhaps many adults never learn this skill.
His decision to run from the gargantuan, sharp-toothed, reeking mouth shaking the floor of the cave in its bashing attempt to get him was instantaneous, but some other thing took hold of him. He couldn’t move. He was actually scared stiff, unable to make his body follow the run command.
Two green-suited men were in front of him in seconds, shooting from two sides into the Megalodon’s gills with the dart guns.
The shark swung its head from side-to-side, exposed to the air and filling it with its putrid smell, as though fighting the zombie dust, somehow knowing…and then it submerged into the murky and bloody water of the enclosure.
And then Will ran.
Everybody was in the main hall. They’d seen what happened on the cameras. Will dashed past all of them, not looking, not caring. He took the stairs two at a time, and went into a random room all the way at the farthest point in the hallway of rooms. It looked unused.
He climbed into the lush bed and pulled his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them. He couldn’t believe he’d frozen like that.
He also couldn’t believe he’d found something that absolutely terrifying in the world, and it had happened to him.
Will didn’t know how long he sat like that, nor when he began rocking back and forth like he was trying to keep warm. Those teeth…that god-awful smell of the Megalodon’s breath. If those bars hadn’t separated Will from the giant prehistoric shark, he would have simply been so scared stiff that he would have been shark food.
Those teeth crunching him up like he’d seen them do with the fish…like with Nancy…the unbearable pain he would have felt, begging for the end as the Megalodon chewed him to pieces alive.
He ran a hand through his short hair, then down his face, ever so slowly. He wasn’t going to allow what happened earlier shake him, nor would he fail to react if anything like that happened again. What if something out there on Elephant Island went wrong and they all were at the mercy of the water giants? Will had to grow some balls in the face of the magnificent and deadly Megalodons.
He didn’t know how long he’d been sitting upright and fetal, rocking back and forth, but the door to the bedroom opened and he snapped his head up, heart pounding all over again.
It was just Ellen.
“How did you find me?” he asked her.
She closed the door behind her, went to the windows, and opened the drapes. Blinding white light of a daytime snowstorm of the coldest degree filled the room, making Will squint. She turned to him with her hands on her hips. “I saw what happened to you on the monitors. A bunch of us did. Why didn’t you stop when we called out for you?”
Will looked at his knees and didn’t answer. It had been a childish way to act when he so wanted to prove he wasn’t a kid anymore.
Ellen came to the bed and sat down next to Will, stretching her legs out in front of her. She gently rubbed Will’s back with her fingernails. “It looked terrifying.”
“Yeah.”
“I mean, it was so close to you. I was really afraid. I knew nothing could happen, but for a split-second, I was sure you were…you know. Just a split-second, like I said.” Ellen pushed her hair out of her face with her free hand, looking at her feet.
“Sorry I freaked. I should have stopped when I heard people calling for me. I just…needed to be alone, needed to think.”
“It scared the shit out of you, didn’t it?” She turned her head to him, and he reluctantly met her eyes.
“Yeah, yeah it did. But don’t tell Dad. If he thinks I’m freaked, he’ll ship us all out. I’m okay now, though. I had to think about it, figure out what I would do if it happened again.”
“You just sat there for so long.” She frowned.
“I know, I know. I froze up, couldn’t think, couldn’t move. It won’t happen again. I know what to do now.”
Ellen sighed. “You don’t have the instincts to change your natural reactions, that’s something you have to learn.”
“Well, I think I just had a crash course.” He grinned at her, trying to lighten the mood, but it didn’t work.
In a soft voice, Ellen said, “They scare me. Ever since Nancy, but the first time I saw them feed, all that blood. I mean, so much freaking blood. Those big, poor fish were massacred. I don’t know, maybe I’m squeamish, but I actually have started hating them, this whole expedition.” She looked back to her feet. “Don’t tell Dad.”
“I don’t feel that way.”
“How do you feel?”
He shrugged, trying to find the words. Finally, he said, “It’s the adventure, I guess. And they amaze me, even though one just about made me crap my pants. Even the feeding doesn’t get to me. At first, all the blood was weird, but they are giant sharks. Of course, they’re going to spread a bunch of blood into the water. There’s more, though. I think Dad thinks more of me. He likes to see some spirit in me, something we can relate about.”
“You think Dad’s into this?”
“Oh, yeah. Don Mack told me stories about him from when he was younger, before Mom.”
“What? Tell me!” she insisted.
Will gave her the rundown of Don Mack’s tales, including their father’s deadeye with a gun. Ellen oooed and ahhhed.
“There’s so much to him that we don’t know,” she told Will. “He’s all quiet, but there’s a lot under the surface. I’d always known he was a good sailor, but what he did when the Megalodons came was out of this world.”
“Yeah, it really was.”
They smiled at each other.
“They sedated the Megalodons after what happened to you. Sir Mallory said not too much, that they needed to feed later tonight. Dad insisted. I’m glad Sir Mallory listens to Dad.”
“Me too.”
She patted his arm. “Are you feeling a little better after a talk with your big sis who somehow psychically knew which room you’d hidden away in?”
“Yeah, I am. But I think I’m going to stay in here a little longer. I feel so tired.”
“Get under these fancy covers and sleep! You need it. You never rest on a boat, and your schedule is all wacky.” She got off the bed, smoothing her sweatshirt out. “I’ll let you get to it. Love you, Willie.”
“Love you, too.”
She left, and Will took her advice by snuggling up in the covers of the soft bed and almost immediately fell asleep.
Will had been pretty much all but dead, but
when the walls and foundation of his bedroom shook like lightning had struck, he popped out of bed, wide-eyed and breathing heavily. Sweat covered his body and he felt chilled, but he didn’t remember dreaming anything that would have his body in this state.
Had he imagined the shaking, pounding burst in his room? It was completely dark, even though Ellen had left the drapes open. What time was it?
Then again, there it was! Boom! Everything shook, and a couple framed paintings fell off a far wall.
Will shoved the covers off and jumped out of bed. He had to get downstairs and find out what was happening.
Once in the main hall, he saw everyone crowded around the computer room, except for Ellen, Don Mack, and some of the crew. He pushed his way to the front without asking questions because the smashing, shaking pounds hit again, and what was the point of asking when he could simply go see what had everyone’s attention? It was clearly something with the Megalodons, and it wasn’t good.
The biggest monitor’s camera hung overhead the entire shark enclosure, and Will saw the two enormous water beasts near the surface, but one was on the east wall, and the other was on the west wall. They swam in tight circles. God, they were big.
He watched as, at the same time, they both swam to the middle of the water, turned, and their tails moved harder and faster than motor blades, projecting them to the very walls themselves.
Everything shook again as the monster sharks struck the hard rock cave walls. Will heard trinkets and drinking glasses fall off tables in the black marble hall. He had to grip Mallory’s shoulder to keep from falling.
“Sedate them again,” Will’s father said, almost casually. “Storm’s still too much for signal.”
Mallory waited, thinking. “But they have to eat. And it would distract them from…this.”
James piped in. “I’ve noticed something. Watching them do this, it’s almost like they’re planning it out, looking for a weakness. Yeah?”
“Sedate them,” Will’s father repeated.
“They’ll get too weak…” Sir Mallory rubbed his chin.
“You have a way to feed them that doesn’t rely on what fits through your bars?” Will’s dad asked Sir Mallory.
“I have a stocked food supply for them in which food can be delivered through an entrance underwater in the enclosure.”
“Do that, then sedate them. They’re going to shake this place to pieces,” he replied, then shifted to the side and grabbed the doorway as the huge sharks hit the walls again. One of Nancy’s girls yelped. Will was smashed between swaying bodies and just went with it.
“Yes, that’s what we’ll do. I’ll lightly sedate them for the rest of the night. Can’t give them too much, as you know. It’ll be plenty to keep them from doing…that again. We’ll let them feed in the day tomorrow again, too.” He turned and hurried to the doorway leading to the enclosure.
Will couldn’t help himself. “I’m going, too.” He wanted to face the beasts again while they were aggressive, prove to himself that he could keep from getting scared to death.
“Like hell,” his father said.
Will shrugged at him. “Stop me.” He ran after Mallory, hearing his father follow with hard, heavy footsteps on the marble floor.
Once in the enclosure, Will caught up to Sir Mallory just as the enormous sharks bashed the walls again. This close to the action, Will had to fall back against the cave wall to keep his balance, not fall down. Mallory grabbed the steel bars as Will’s dad reached them, gripping the doorway with both hands as everything rumbled violently.
Sir Mallory wasn’t shaken. All four of the green-suited men were there with their dart guns. Did they ever sleep?
“We need to release food from the storage compartment,” Sir Mallory said to the closest green-suited man. He nodded and spoke into a walkie-talkie. Will couldn’t make out what he said.
He inched up to the bars. The Megalodons swam in those tight circles, making the surface water ragged and swirly. Foam sprung around their dorsal fins, which stuck high out of the water, white and gleaming, ready to be blood-stained again.
Will couldn’t see the food door open, but the sharks’ behavior changed quite suddenly. Will’s father joined him and Sir Mallory at the bars as the Megalodons lined up with their heads facing the back of the cave wall, fins straight and steady. Will could see their black, gigantic eyes were brighter, and perhaps madder from banging their heads against stone and starving.
The feeding instantly began when a school of about fifty large deep-sea fish became visible at the surface of the water in front of the sharks. Both of the monsters pumped their tails like they had when ramming the cave walls, and off they went toward the unsuspecting fish food.
The bigger Megalodon made the first kill by filling its mouth with two fish at the same time, rising its head out of the water, teeth popping out around them, and then crunching them to pieces. Blood sprayed through the air as the horrid scent of the Megalodon’s breath hit Will. He covered his nose. The Megalodon submerged again in a well of bloody water as the other shark struck, this time under water. It was a true savage, snapping at fish swimming in a panic, not bothering to kill and eat them one or two at a time like the other Megalodon. This one, from what Will could make out as the water got redder, wanted to damage and incapacitate as many victims as possible, and then gorge itself.
Finally, the wild surface of the now pitch-red water settled after what felt to Will like both a couple minutes and an hour. He saw nothing but two dorsal fins sticking out of the water, going in circles like before the feeding frenzy. The normally shining white fins were streaked with blood water, like the last time they fed.
And then, all at once, they both made dashes for the walls again, hitting them with so much force that Will fell down. The whole cave vibrated, making disastrous sounds. Will’s father grabbed him up, asking if he was alright.
“Yeah.” He was embarrassed that he’d lost his balance, but proud he could watch the feeding.
Will’s father turned to Sir Mallory. “Now you sedate them. Look at them. They’re still doing it.”
Mallory nodded, frowning. He signaled the green-suited men and they got their dart guns ready. The closest one called out, “Gonna be hard with the water this cloudy. Gotta get a gill.”
Mallory thought for a moment. “We’ll release a few more fish, and when they come up to feed, shoot them. But not with too much. They have to stay alive.”
More fish must’ve entered from the storage area, because the fins lined up, and soon they both were poking their gigantic heads out of the water, teeth popping out, and snatching up fishies. The green suit men were on it, and Will admired their skills. Two misses, but two dead-on hits to the gills from two men, and slowly, the sharks slowed down into swimming in big, lazy circles in the bloody water.
Once again, they were sedated.
Sir Mallory turned to Will. “You did well. I’m impressed. You had been scared earlier, and you faced your fears.”
“And you have blood on your cheek,” Will’s father grumbled while licking his thumb, and then wiping Will’s cheekbone. Will hadn’t even felt it hit him.
“You have some on your shirt, Dad,” Will said, noticing a red splatter pattern on his father’s plaid flannel.
Mallory grinned at them. “You two, why don’t you watch them together for a bit? Well, their lazy and giant fins, anyway. After all, the bond you share made all this possible.”
Will smiled at Sir Mallory as he winked and left down the cave hall and away. Suddenly, Will felt nervous being alone with his dad. This was, indeed, the most unusual situation they’d ever been in together, the whole trip included.
His father leaned against the bars and watched, breaking the silence with, “Sharks usually strike from behind. These, though, will go at anything from any angle. Some sharks drown their food before eating it, too, but these don’t. That little one, the way it ripped those fish up enough to disable them, and then going back for them…that�
�s not shark behavior. Not that I know of.”
“Do you know a lot about sharks?”
He nodded slowly. “I’ve even killed them. For sport, and for kill or be killed. They are sensitive at the tip of their noses. These two, I’ve noticed, ram the walls with the tops of their heads. Their noses must be sensitive like other sharks’. A crack off my whip on a shark’s nose can be enough to stun it solid. I wonder…if on these….”
Will said nothing and imagined a young version of his father with half a bottle of whiskey in one hand, and alternating firing off shots and waving his whip at sea sharks with the other. He didn’t want to know about any times his dad was almost killed by a shark, not particularly now right after seeing the Megalodons feed.
“You okay with all this, Will?” he asked, looking down at him.
“Oh, yeah, Dad. Nothing like this has ever happened to me. Nothing like it ever will. I feel…”
“You feel what?” He sounded genuinely curious, not ready to criticize. It made Will feel like he could try to express himself honestly.
“I want to be around them, see what they do. They’re so big! I mean, big. Even the feeding is exciting to me. I didn’t like it when they were pounding on the walls, but Sir Mallory fixed that. I think we’re going to be okay, that after this storm, we’ll make history and maybe even change the way people think somehow. Know what I mean?”
His father chuckled and gazed back at the fins rising high and circling slowly. “I do.”
The watched in silence together for a while, and then his father said, “We should eat. Then to bed. Maybe tomorrow the weather will be better.”
“Okay.” They both turned to leave, but suddenly they heard…something. It was as though something scratched on the other side of the back of the cave enclosure. Like rock being chewed by diamond teeth.
Megalodon: Apex Predator Page 7