The Guillotine

by Lucas Pederson

  Minutes inch by like hours and his mind drifts to his beloved Ky. His baby girl taken from him not so long ago.

  He had planned on taking her to see her first ocean right before that bastard kidnapped her. Before he…he…

  Ash growls, shakes his head and glares out the mech’s visor.

  Letting go is harder than people say it is. He knows that if he lets go, he won’t be releasing her memories like a cluster of balloons in a mild breeze. He knows he’ll always have the memories. But there’s too much anger. A score he feels he needs to settle with the sick son of a bitch who took her life, even if he blew his own brains out. Perhaps that’s exactly why he can’t let go. No closure, or something. Or is it more like he doesn’t get to watch the sick bastard rot in prison or see the life drain from his eyes as the lethal injection takes hold. Smile as his eyelids droop shut forever…

  “You needed to suffer,” he says, voice choked within the mech. “You deserved to suffer.”

  Tears trickle down his cheeks. Tears he can’t wipe away.

  Ky’s face drifts before his mind’s eye. He sighs. “I miss you, K-Bear. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you. I’m sorry I—”

  It rams through one of the pillars holding the facility up, snapping it like it’s nothing, and speeds directly for him, maw open wide.

  Ash sucks in a breath. Tries to turn and enter the passageway, but the mech merely flails.

  “F-Fast!”

  The mech responds immediately. He spins, to the passageway, glances over his shoulder. Shit, not enough time to get in there and safely hide. Instead of entering the passage, he surges straight up seconds before the dunkleosteus collides into the side of the small hill. Sand and dirt and rocks explode through the water under him.

  Using his arms like pectoral fins, Ash glides above the massive, old fish as it chomps away at the hill. Doing this, a random idea strikes.

  “Laser.”

  The armor of the mech parts and a thin barrel rises out. He points the barrel at the dunkleosteus’ back…and squeezes the trigger.

  A bright, red stream slices through the water and cuts deep into the monster’s back, shearing off a portion of its dorsal fin. Its tail whips, entire body bucking. Rumbling shakes the water. The dunkleosteus bashes itself against the hill, spins and goes after the facility. It bites into the side of Infinity Moon, ripping through the metal. Bubbles erupt as it breaches the inside.

  “No,” Ash says. Julia and Kayla and everyone in there. God, he hopes they’re sealed away from the area it just penetrated.

  Ash aims the laser and pulls the trigger again. The beam stabs into its side, though he aimed for its head. The monster fish bats away, shakes, then attacks the facility again.

  “You son of a…” He aims both laser and gun at the bastard and pulls the triggers. Both bullet and laser beam strike the monster at about the same time.

  It rears, maw wide. It bashes its head into the facility over and over then stops. For the longest time, it simply stares at the damage it created. Watching the fish, it’s as though the thing is just waking up from a horrible nightmare and trying to figure out where it is. And, in all reality, that’s probably close to the truth. It woke up to a changed world and has yet to adapt.

  He can’t blame it for going a little mad. In fact, he can’t blame it for any of its actions. Everything is so different from what it knew. He’d be just as messed up.

  Even so…it needs to either find an ocean where it will be more at home…or die.

  The last thing he wants to do is kill it, even though it should be. The oceans are great for such a beast, but what will it do to the ecosystem? Maybe it won’t affect it at all. Maybe it’ll be eaten by a gargantuan mutation like the leviathan from years back. At least it has a chance in an ocean rather than starving to death in Lake Superior.

  Then, very slowly, very deliberately, the dunkleosteus pivots, turns, and glares directly up at Ash. And, even from this distance, he can almost feel the beast’s rage. He can feel it like bright, hot lava geyser. Lava that completely spills over and consumes him.

  He aims both the gun and laser at the massive underwater tank.

  Shoot it, he thinks. Before it moves. Shoot it right in the eye.

  But as much as this makes sense, he can’t force himself to pull the triggers. As it bobs, glaring and snapping its jaws, he can’t kill it. Even if killing it will end the nightmare. They can all go home…

  No. He has to play out his plan fully first.

  Has to make sure he gives it all the chances. He…

  The old monster rushes upward.

  “Mach,” Ash says and the sub-mech jolts into action. He’s thrown forward many feet before gaining control and soaring by the dunkleosteus. It snaps at him, misses. He barrel-rolls without meaning to around the beast and finds himself directly under it. Merely three feet from its belly. It crosses his mind to slice its belly open with the laser, but he just can’t. Instead he darts in front of the creature. It lunges and misses him once again with those guillotine jaws.

  Need to get it into the passage…

  Ash turns, aiming directly for the passageway’s opening. If he can get inside and find a place to hide so the dunkleosteus passes by without noticing…it’ll all be over. It will continue on through the tunnels and either die or make it through. Not enough room to back up. It’ll be stuck.

  It’s the most humane way he can think of.

  Hell, it’s the only—

  Pressure crushes his right leg. He glances back in horror, seeing his leg pinched between those guillotine jaws. In the next instant his world is a tumbling mess of confusion.

  He cries, “Hold,” dozens of times before finally the tumbling stops and he’s bobbing in the water not even sure if he’s still alive or not.

  Finally, everything stabilizes and he blinks at the dunkleosteus as it rams into the passageway. Before long, Ash watches the tip of its tail slither into the old caverns, no doubt on its way into the tunnels.

  It’s over.

  A heavy breath blows out of Ash. He turns on the comms, catching Julia in mid-rant.

  “—the fuck is going on? I swear to all the gods that were ever made up I’ll kill him if he dies! The son of a—”

  “Hey, Jules.”

  The comms are so clear, he actually hears her draw in a sharp breath, as if slapped.

  “You…you! Don’t you ever cut me off like that again!”

  He chuckles. “Love you too.”

  “Don’t even try buttering me up with that love you crap.” She sighs. “But ditto. Did you kill it yet?”

  “No. It’s in the tunnels. I’m heading back. How’s Kayla?”

  “Um…we can’t find her.”

  “What do you mean you can’t find her? She was with you.”

  Julia clears her throat. “I know. And up until a few minutes ago, she was here. Maybe she had to pee or something.”

  “You’ve checked all over?”

  “Yeah. Well, kinda. I’m sure she’ll be around here somewhere.”

  He nods. “She took a hard hit, just want to make sure she’s not suffering from amnesia, you know?”

  “She seemed okay earlier. A little bruised and shaken, but nothing serious.”

  “Okay. I’m heading back now. Does anyone there know a way in?”

  There’s a short pause. “Ben says there’s a docking station on the north side for incoming materials. He’ll meet you there.”

  “Good. I’ll be—”

  Something slams into him so hard he knows absolutely nothing but the darkness that consumes him.

  TWENTY-THREE

  “Ash?” Static crackles in his ears. “Ash? You okay?” Static…so much static.

  He groans, eyelids fluttering.

  And somewhere in the static, there are two voices.

  “Ash? Talk to me, dude! Damn it, can we figure out how to run scans? I want to know where he is.” Julia…yes, that’s Julia. But…

  “Just stay sti
ll for a few seconds. There’s more going on here than a prehistoric fish.”

  Who is that? For the longest time, he can’t pin a face to the voice. Then…gradually it comes to him.

  Kayla.

  But what’s she doing out here? She couldn’t even pilot the sub-mech. Or…maybe she did know how. What if…she buried herself on purpose? But why? Why injure herself? Doesn’t make any damn sense.

  “We’re direct link,” Kayla says. “No one else can hear us.”

  Ash swallows, dry throat clicking with the effort. He can’t even remember the last time he drank some water. His eyes open and he blinks up at Kayla through the mech’s visor. They’re both still in their mechs. Both still in the water. But…

  “What’s…what’s going on?” His voice is nothing more than a dry croak.

  Kayla glances around, then bends over Ash again. “I saw it on the thousand feet scans earlier but didn’t say anything because I wasn’t totally sure. I saw it again right before we had to evacuate the Moon Pool.”

  Ash frowns. “Saw what?”

  Her face twitches, eyes wide in apparent fright. “I don’t think the dunkleosteus was the only thing that got thawed out.”

  Heart thudding, he sits. “What—”

  It happens so fast, all Ash sees is a flash of sharp teeth and a smear of blue as Kayla is ripped away from him.

  In his ears, Kayla screams.

  Ash sucks in a breath, standing. And when he turns…

  “Oh my god…”

  “Ash? Ash is that you?” Julia, but he can’t talk to her right now, let alone move as the thing that has Kayla in its mouth shakes its crocodile-like head.

  It’s long, sinuous body is like some absurd mongrelized version of a whale/snake hybrid. The way it swims and moves is very serpent-like, but the way it tries to tear Kayla apart is very much like a shark, or even a crocodile as it rolls through the water near the facility.

  “Ash! Goddamn it! Answer me!”

  “Uh…I’ll get back to you in a second. There’s something else out here.”

  “What? What the hell do you mean there’s something else out there?”

  He lifts his left arm, aiming the gun at the creature. “It’s trying to eat Kayla.”

  “Wait, she’s out there? What is? I thought the dunk was in the tunnels!”

  “This isn’t that.”

  “Then what the hell is it, for Christ sake?”

  His finger finds the trigger as he finally recognizes the creature. “It’s a basilosaurus.”

  “A basilo—Those crocodile-snake-whale things?”

  “Yeah.”

  He aims at the space between the basilosaurus’ head and body, finger tightening on the trigger and—

  It surges out the murk, massive jaws slicing down like a guillotine, consuming all but the basilosaurus’ head. The head spasms, releasing Kayla as the dunkleosteus returns to the murk, disappearing once more. Blood swirls, clouding the waters.

  Kayla, grunting, speeds back to Ash. Her thrusters, or whatever propels the mechs, sputter and she half crashes, half lands beside Ash. Her mech is dented, the paint scraped off in most places, but otherwise she appears unharmed.

  “Holy hell,” she says. “I feel like a milkshake. What the hell was that?”

  “Basilosaurus,” Ash says, frowning into the murk where the dunkleosteus disappeared.

  “Well, thanks for blowing it up. I thought I was going to die.”

  “I didn’t blow it up,” He points at the basilosaurus’ head as it sinks to the bottom of the lake. “Our old friend ate it.”

  “Wait, the dunkleosteus? I thought it was in the tunnels?”

  “Apparently not.”

  “So…what do we do now?”

  Ash shakes his head, not sure if there’s anything they can do.

  “You still alive?” Julia asks. “Did it eat Kayla?”

  “We’re both fine,” Ash says to her. “The dunk ate the basilosaurus and saved Kayla.”

  “I thought that thing was in the tunnels!”

  He grunts. “I guess it missed us.”

  “You know no one likes your jokes but you, right?”

  “Yeah, yeah. How’s our little buddy, Giles?”

  “You know…I haven’t seen him in a while.”

  His heart thumps. “You might want to find him and keep him away from any comms.”

  “You think he might get Murdock to send more people here?”

  “Or Murdock will have an alternate plan and simply blow the facility up and kill everyone in it.”

  “I’ve told you your jokes aren’t funny, right?”

  “Not joking right now. Find him, if you can. Hold him down if you have to. I don’t trust that son of a bitch at all.”

  “Me either. I’ll go find him. What’s the plan now?”

  He sighs. “So far, there is no plan. I’m thinking.”

  “Gotcha. Let me know.”

  “Will do, Jules. Be careful.”

  “You too, jackass.”

  He faces Kayla. “So, were you faking it when you dive bombed the lake floor?”

  “Nope. I sank so fast, my brain kind of stopped working. Trust me, I wouldn’t do that shit on purpose. Hurt like hell.”

  “I bet.” He turns back to the murky lake. “Any ideas on how to stop this thing?”

  “Not at all. You?”

  “Nope.”

  “Well, look at us,” Kayla says, “A couple of geniuses.”

  Ash chuckles. “You wouldn’t think it’d be so hard to stop a prehistoric fish, but…”

  “Yeah, it’s like it—oh shit!”

  He glances at her, then in the direction she’s staring.

  His breath catches in his throat as the dunkleosteus emerges from the darkness once more and crashes into the facility. It chomps through one of the composite glass tunnels. It beats its juggernaut head into everything around it. It bites into walls, ripping away strips and chunks of metal.

  Ash, breathing in shallow gasps, manages, “Jules?”

  “Hold on, Ash, things are kind of nuts right now.”

  “Get to the escape pods,” he says. “You hear me? Get everyone to the pods.”

  Static fills his ears.

  “Jules? You there? If you can hear me, get the hell out of there!”

  Only static greets him.

  “Jules?” Tears blur his vision. “Julia!”

  “Ash, she’s probably already moving everyone to the pods. She’s busy. Now…what the hell are we going to do about that thing?”

  He forces the tears away and tries to focus. His sight drifts away from the monster attacking the facility. Neither the gun nor laser did much to hurt the thing. So, what else is there? The sub-mechs aren’t equipped with rockets or missiles. Another flaw Murdock must’ve forgotten to upgrade.

  Ash sighs, shakes his head. “The tunnels. Give it another try.”

  “Why can’t we both shoot at the thing?” Kayla gestures at the Guillotine. “I mean it’s armored, but it has to have a damn weakness, right?”

  “The belly, probably. But we need to really bombard it and don’t let up until it’s dead.”

  “Either or, we should probably get it away from Infinity Moon.”

  “Good call.” He points his gun at the rampaging dunkleosteus and pulls the trigger.

  The old monster doesn’t even flinch and continues trying to destroy the facility.

  “Fuck,” he says. “We need to shoot it together. Aim for the belly.”

  “It’s moving around so much. I don’t know if I’ll hit it.”

  “We need to try,” Ash says, aiming both the gun and laser at the thing. “On three.”

  “And if it comes for us?”

  “Then we Mach to the tunnels. Ready?”

  “Ugh. Yeah, whatever.”

  “One. Two.” He takes a deep breath. “Three.”

  He pulls the trigger for both gun and laser and watches as his beam is joined by Kayla’s. Both beams and bulle
ts strike the dunkleosteus near the belly and this time it actually rears, mouth gaping. It dives toward the lake floor, then surges upward at the last minute until it’s above the facility. Here, blood clouding around it, the monster floats. It doesn’t move.

  “Should we…um…shoot it again?”

  Ash frowns. “It’s trying to figure out what hurt it. Once it does, it won’t stop until we’re fish food.”

  “It knows vengeance?”

  “This fish…it’s intelligent. I saw that in its eyes. If it spots us, it’ll stop at nothing to get us. I feel it.”

  “Well, we better get to the tunnels then, eh?”

  “Yeah, we better…uh-oh. Too late.”

  The dunkleosteus turns and stops as soon as it’s facing them.

  “You think we can make it to the tunnels before it gets us?”

  Ash shakes his head. “It’s what…about a hundred feet away?” He mulls it over. “We might make it. Use the fastest feature the mech offers. Directly to the tunnels, which are somewhere under us, I think.”

  “It’s not moving. Maybe it doesn’t see us?”

  “Oh,” Ash says. “It sees us.”

  “Why isn’t it moving?”

  “Calculating an attack, maybe? How am I supposed to know?”

  Kayla points at the massive fish. “Well, shit. I thought you two were linked or something.”

  “Hardly. Just thinking how a smart fish might.”

  “How smart are we talking?”

  He rolls this over in his mind a bit, then, “I’d say almost human level.”

  “Oh, that’s just perfect. No wonder it’s been so difficult.”

  “Exactly. We need to outsmart it.”

  “Why does that feel easier said than done?”

  Ash sighs. “Because it is. But in the end, it’s a fish. A creature driven mostly by instincts.” As the dunkleosteus glares at him, a sliver of an idea rises through the maelstrom of thoughts. “The tunnels. It has to be the tunnels. Get it in there, then close the passageway off.”

  “Um…how are we going to—oh shit, here it comes!”

  TWENTY-FOUR

  Everything hurts, and it’s their fault.