by Russ Watts
The monster barked as it fell, crashing back into the water right beside the boat. Don grabbed the railing as the boat was tossed furiously on the wave, and almost pulled under as the creature disappeared beneath the surface. Don watched as the monster’s tail followed it, sending a massive wave of icy cold seawater over him.
“That all you got?” he shouted. “That it?” Don began reloading his gun quickly, vaguely hearing shouting from Amanda and Hamish. With the gun ready again, he pointed it out to where the monster had been. The water sloshed around, but there was no sign of it. He stepped up to the edge of the boat, looking all around for it. Then he saw it. About a hundred yards out to sea, it was coming at them head on. Its snout was pushed to the surface of the ocean, and Don could see its telltale yellow eyes above that massive jaw bearing down on him. It snaked through the water elegantly and quickly, flicking its tail from side to side. It would be on them in seconds.
Don sneered and raised the Colt to sea level. “Come and get it, you fucking bitch.”
When the Ocean King was no more than fifty feet from the trawler, Don fired, but the monster did not slow. If anything, it sped up and Don knew it wasn’t going to stop, no matter how many bullets they put in its head. Its mouth was agape as it descended on them, its jaws spread wide in a sinister smile.
“Brace!” He saw Amanda and Hamish grab the railing, and managed to get one hand on a length of rope as the monster hit. The tremendous impact sent the trawler hurtling across the water and everyone was knocked off their feet. Don saw Hamish cling to Amanda as they fell to the deck. Ryan had been standing on top of the steps leading to the wheelhouse, and when the monster smashed into the boat, he was sent flying through the air. Don watched as the boy somersaulted through the air and landed at least a hundred feet away in the water.
The Ocean King had rammed them head on, and then dived underneath the boat, leaving a hole in the side. Water gushed onto the deck and Don struggled to bring himself upright, as the trawler slowed. He had dropped the Colt, and felt for the C4. Thank God, he still had it. Luckily, he had the foresight to put it with the detonator in a pouch and tie it to his belt.
“Hamish, Amanda, you okay?”
They nodded as they got to their feet.
Don grabbed a life preserver and threw the rubber ring toward Ryan. “Quick, get to it and we’ll bring you in,” he shouted.
Ryan was treading water and had lost his gun in the ocean too. He began swimming towards the ring, his dazed expression turning to panic as he realised where he was.
Hamish tried to manage the water flooding onto the deck, but the gaping hole was too big to patch up, and with Diablo still tethered to the deck, there was little he could do. He knew they were going down.
“Don look.” Amanda pointed beyond Ryan. The water was rising, and then the two golden orbs appeared as the Ocean King turned around and headed back to the boat.
“Ryan, swim. Don’t look back,” shouted Don.
“Hurry, Ryan!” screamed Amanda.
“Do you still have your rifles? Either of you?” Don looked at them frantically, but they had both dropped them when the boat had been hit.
Don looked around for another weapon, but there was nothing left apart from the C4. He ran to the chest that lay on its side. He fished around inside, but the grenades had gone, lost in the battle. There was the HK MP5 and Don stuffed it into his waistband. He didn’t even know if it was loaded and then he saw the tip of a gun near Diablo, and grabbed it. It was the AK47 and there was half a mag left. Don raced back to the railings. Amanda and Hamish were up to their ankles in water now, and the boat was beginning to keel over. It would take some time, but the Mary-Jane had been dealt a lethal blow.
The Ocean King was a full ten feet out of the water now, following Ryan back to the trawler. Don fired a couple of shots at it, trying to warn it off, but they had no effect. He could see it was too late. Ryan was still trying to get to the life preserver and Don fired the AK47 again, but they had no effect on the Ocean King. Just when it looked like it was about to swallow Ryan, it dove under the water out of sight.
“Where did it go? asked Amanda.
“I don’t know” said Don. “Ryan, hurry, it’s gone. You can still…”
And then Ryan was gone, just like that. The Ocean King zoomed up out of the water like a rocket. A towering inferno of rage, it flew from the ocean and Ryan disappeared in a huge plume of water. He hadn’t even had time to scream. Seawater cascaded down from the beast and Don knew the boy was gone.
“No.” Don stepped back from the railing. “No, not Ryan.”
The Ocean King dominated the sky as it hung over them, watching the three tiny figures on the boat below it. Hamish dragged Amanda back from the railing and gave her a life jacket.
Don strode over to Diablo and pulled the tarpaulin off its head. The animal was still barking and yapping like a terrified dog. Don pointed the AK47 at Diablo’s skull. “Is this what you want?” he screamed. He looked up at the Ocean King. “Is this what you came for?”
Don unloaded everything he had into Diablo at point blank range, obliterating its face. Pieces of green skin and brain covered him as he blew Diablo apart. The Ocean King roared and then belly-flopped into the water, sending a tidal wave to the trawler. Don slipped on the deck as the wave hit, and he grabbed hold of Diablo’s jaws to stop himself from slipping into the ocean. With its last ounce of life, Diablo seized Don’s left arm and crunched down. Don cried out in pain and tried to free himself, but his arm was encased in the monster’s jaws, and its teeth were firmly embedded into his bone. The AK47 was empty, and Don pulled the HK MP5 from his belt. He fired into Diablo and only stopped when the chamber was finally empty. The pressure on his arm lifted, and Don could feel Diablo going. The monstrous body jerked, and then lay still. Diablo was dead.
Don tried to prise apart the dead creature’s jaws with his free right arm, but he was too weak. Hamish joined Don and pulled on Diablo’s upper jaw, allowing Don to wriggle free. When he finally retrieved his left arm, it was a mess, a tangle of flesh and muscle, splintered bone and nerve endings.
Amanda walked up to them holding a serrated cobalt knife. “This is all I could find.” She drove it into Diablo’s mangled skull, right between its eyes. She screamed as she unleashed her pent up emotions, screaming and cursing, as she smashed the knife repeatedly into Diablo’s disintegrated skull and bloody mashed brains.
Hamish grabbed her arm and she dropped the knife, collapsing into him. “It’s over,” he said.
Amanda kissed Hamish and looked at Don. She grabbed a torn piece of tarpaulin and wrapped it around Don’s shoulder. Blood rapidly soaked through the makeshift tourniquet and then Hamish removed his shirt, tying it around Don’s shoulder and pressing down to stem the bleeding. Thankfully, at some point between being released from the monster’s vice-like grip, and Diablo dying, Don had passed out.
“Hamish, we have to get Don to a hospital.”
Hamish rested beside Amanda on the bloody deck. The water lapping at the hull was still, but the trawler was slowly going down. “You think it’s safe? You think it’s gone?”
Amanda looked out at the mainland. The sky was hazy and lights twinkled in the distance like stars on the horizon. She nodded. “Its baby is dead now. I don’t know where it’ll go, but it’s not our problem anymore. I think it’ll either head home, or back to the city. It knows it defeated us. We failed. Let the military find it. We need to get Don to a Doctor.”
Hamish looked across the quiet ocean. “I’ll check on Jay and then radio for help. The Mary-Jane is going nowhere.” He got up and leant on the railings, looking down at Amanda holding Don. “I think you’re right. It’s gone. There’s no sign of it out there. Maybe it’s headed inland now.”
Amanda wiped Don’s brow, and swept his hair from his face. He was coming round and she was going to need to get him to the first aid kit inside. She looked up at Hamish to ask for help, and screamed. Behind him, the Ocean
King had silently risen from the water and its evil face blocked out the sun like a dark planet. Its teeth lowered themselves over Hamish as it towered over the boat.
Hamish looked up in awe and then the Ocean King snapped its jaws once. As the monster grinned and hissed, Hamish’s decapitated body took two steps forward. A fountain of blood gushed from the headless body as it crumpled. Hamish’s dead body twitched and then slipped into the water, out into the ocean.
Amanda screamed again as the monster’s jaws latched onto the trawler and it started to pull at it, trying to drag it under the water. The trawler started moving backwards, and the deck began to fill rapidly with more water.
“Amanda!” shouted Don. He had awakened to see Hamish killed, and knew Amanda was hyperventilating. She was going into shock, desperately clinging to Don, as the beast continued munching on the trawler’s hull, as though it were made of nothing stronger than cardboard.
Amanda looked at Don, blinking away salt tears from her eyes. “What… Hamish…”
“Amanda, listen to me, you have to get off the boat. The life raft is right behind you. Just reach over and grab it. Get the hell out of here, as far as you can.”
“I can’t, I can’t leave Hamish, I can’t…”
Don grabbed Amanda with his remaining right hand, and ignored the pain coursing through his body. He looked her in the eyes. “Amanda. Hamish is gone. Go. You need to go, now.”
“If I get in the water with that thing, it’ll get me, it’ll get me. Like Ryan and Hamish and…”
“Trust me,” said Don as the trawler began to splinter. A wooden plank flew over their heads as the boat began to break up. Diablo’s lifeless body began to slip back into the ocean and Don watched as the Ocean King paused. As Diablo was swept into the Pacific, his mother watched silently. Don wanted to kill it more than anything. The Ocean King was gunning for revenge now. It had ruined so many lives that just killing its infant wasn’t enough anymore.
Together, they wrestled the life raft out from its holding straps and threw it over the side, away from the Ocean King that was quietly watching its young disappear beneath the surface. It had gouged out a huge part of the starboard hull and the trawler was listing.
“I’m not leaving you, Don. I can’t. I can’t lose you too.”
Don felt Amanda shaking and he put his arm around her. He pressed his face into her neck, his mouth next to her ear. “We don’t have long. Look at me, Amanda. I’m done. My left arm is gone. I’ve lost so much blood I wouldn’t even make it back to shore if I did get off this boat. The beast doesn’t want you. It wants this boat. It won’t even notice you. You’re too small for it to bother with. You saw it. Its focus is here. It wants to tear this boat apart. I’m going to make sure it’s the last thing it does.”
Amanda used the rails as support to lift Don up. She saw the life raft a few yards away in the water and prepared to jump. She looked back at Don questioningly. “Don, I can’t, this is too much. I don’t want to drown. I can’t do this.” She broke down and began sobbing. “I want Hamish. I don’t want to go without him.”
“Amanda, it’s time to go. I’ve got to go. She’ll come back in a minute, and you need to be off this boat when she does.” Don stepped back. “There are more guns in the galley. I stashed them down there earlier. I’m going to get them and unload them into her brain. Get out of here.”
Amanda put a foot on the rail and looked at the whirling ocean below. “Don…”
“Go!”
Amanda looked over her shoulder to see Don hobbling across the deck to the cabin door. He didn’t look back.
Amanda jumped and plunged into the ocean. As she slipped beneath the waves, the coldness caught her breath and she fought to control her nerves. The water felt like shards of ice plucking at her skin, and she frantically kicked out, trying to resurface. Her foot made contact with something solid and she looked down. The beast was directly beneath her, ploughing a direct line underneath her to the boat. Screaming, she kicked again and spiralled to the surface, choking out seawater as she did so. The slipstream of the beast almost pulled her under again, but she kept kicking and made it to the raft. She pulled herself up the boarding ladder and there was an awful groaning sound, as she saw the monster take another bite out of the Mary-Jane. The stern was caught in its jaws and the trawler was more below the water than above it now. The boat listed wildly as the beast thrashed around, shaking it like a toy. The waves created by the monster’s movements rocked the life raft, and its savage throes threw her back onto the soft rubber under the canopy. Amanda lay there as the raft was tossed around on the ocean, crying and spitting out seawater. She remembered Hamish’s smile before he was devoured. She remembered Don’s fierce determined face. There was nothing more she could do now, except hope and pray.
OCTOBER SATURDAY 18TH 14:16
The ship tilted alarmingly, but then righted. It was like riding a rollercoaster in a storm, yet, Don knew he couldn’t give up. Now was the time. He had to do what he had come here to do. Amanda should be safe by now, trussed up in the life raft, and he couldn’t wait any longer. The pain shooting through his body was telling unconsciousness to take over, to let oblivion drown out the pain, and slip quietly into the dark.
The guns weren’t in the galley. There was nothing. It had been a lie to get Amanda off the boat. Better that, than to have her die with him. Don grabbed an oil drum and shoved it toward the cabin door. It rolled down the short steps and into the pantry. He pulled on another drum and summoned up his last ounce of energy to send it tumbling down into the pantry to join the other. Don could see Jay on the galley floor. He had fallen off the table and probably never regained consciousness. Only his feet were visible now beneath the foot of water on the floor. It didn’t matter whether he had died of his injuries or drowned, he was just another poor soul killed by the Ocean King. Don felt the boat tilt and he lost his balance. Unable to hold onto the doorway for support with his only good hand, he fell down into the bowels of the boat. He ended up in the pantry and banged his head against one of the oil drums. His left arm didn’t hurt too much now. It was going numb and Don could feel his temperature dropping. It wasn’t just the fear, or the seawater. He was losing too much blood.
Synapses sparked in Don’s head, connecting the dots in his subconscious; random thoughts and memories collided as his hand reached for the pantry door. He couldn’t reach it, and kicked it shut with his feet. With a resounding snap, the door shut, enclosing Don in darkness. He nestled back against an oil drum and sat up. There were awful moaning sounds from outside. Some were from the Mary-Jane as she fought against the titan, dragging her down into the ocean, the others from the angry grieving Ocean King. Ignoring the cold and the pain, Don reached around for the pouch at his waist. He needed the C4 and detonator. His chest ached and he suspected he had broken a couple of ribs. His left arm was shredded, and the bone was exposed at the elbow. He was actually grateful for the darkness, so he didn’t have to see how bad he looked.
The ship tilted and he slid along with the oil drums until he crashed into the wall. This time the boat did not roll back.
Finally, Don thought, finally she’s going for it. She’s going to pull us under. Go for it bitch, I’m ready now.
A wave of happiness and terror filled him as the boat creaked and groaned. It tilted further and he felt it being pulled downward. Whether it was the current of the ocean, or the monster tearing it apart, it didn’t matter anymore. He had to do this, now. The monster was so close there was no time to think anymore. He could hear it barking, emitting urgent deep sounds that had no place or right to exist on Earth.
The C4 was in his right hand and he reached into the pouch for the detonator. He banged his head back against the oil drum and a metallic clanging sound reverberated around the small galley.
“Fuck,” he said. “Fuck!” He placed the C4 between his knees and began fishing around in the water that lapped at his legs. The detonator was gone. How could he not have
it? Had it fallen out when he’d killed Diablo, or when he’d tripped down into the pantry? His fingers came across a variety of useless instruments: cutlery, salt and pepper pots, canned beans and broken glass. His right hand began to bleed as he cut his fingers in the darkness, but he paid no attention to the pain, as he continued searching for the detonator.
Please God, let it be here. Let it be right here.
But there was nothing. He let his hand rummage around in the darkness a moment more and then gave up. There was nothing. The Ocean King was going to win. It would destroy the trawler, take Don, and then go back to the mainland for more. Don was surrounded by explosives and he had no way of setting them off. The C4 without a detonator was as useful as a lump of sodden earth. One of the oil drums was leaking, and the smell was irritating. It had a small hole in the base from when it had landed in the pantry. All he needed was a gun or a match, anything to create a flame and ignite it. If he did, then it might be enough to ignite the C4 too. If the monster was close enough, he could kill it. At the very least, the Ocean King was going to go away with a serious headache.
A tearing sound reached his ears and more water started to come in from under the pantry door. It trickled at first, soaking his legs and back. Then the icy water started to pour in through the whole of the doorframe. The boat was at such an angle now that Don knew it was almost completely submerged. The monster could’ve destroyed it in a second, yet, it was taking its time, as if it wanted them to know it held all the power. It was relishing in Don’s inevitable death, making him pay for its dead infant.
Do it, do it now.
Don heard another crack, another, and another, and the sea water began to fill up the pantry. He put the C4 on the oil drum over his shoulder and let his hand fall to his side. It was over. He had failed again. He was going to join the long list of dead created by this prehistoric monster. He only hoped Amanda had gotten far enough away to escape being pulled down with the trawler.