Those…creatures. Things the old monster hasn’t encountered before with their sharp bites and all the pain they bring. They don’t even taste good.
Chomp them to bits. Destroy them. It’s the only way to stop the pain.
The old monster, rage flaring through its massive body, whips its great tail faster and faster. An inferno of rage fueling every movement, every thought.
It rushes through the water, water so different, yet the same, barreling toward these new monsters. Its jaws unhinge, ready to devour. Ready to end the pain once and for all. To be free to feed without these new creatures interfering.
The old monster roars a rooster-tail of bubbles as it blasts forward like a living torpedo.
It ends now…
TWENTY-FIVE
Using the Mach setting, they race to the passageway opening dug into the side of the hill.
They slow, then hold.
Ash turns as the dunkleosteus rushes by the remains of the Moon Pool.
“This is insane,” Kayla says, voice trembling. “You know that right?”
Ash releases a pent-up breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding and manages, “Yeah. When I say, Mach away from the opening.”
“But if it’s as smart as you say…”
“Now!”
Ash and Kayla shout Mach at about the same time, blasting away in separate directions three seconds before the monster barreling at them crashes into the passage’s opening in an explosion of rock and sand.
He’s about thirty feet away when he tells the mech to slow and hold. Facing the passageway. Is it in there? How deep did its momentum take it? Questions with no answers as the debris creates a dark cloud around the area.
Can’t wait for it to clear, he thinks. Do it.
“Ash?”
Kayla floats about the length of a school bus above the passageway.
“Cave it in,” he says. “Shoot above the passage with everything you have. We’ll trap the fish in there so it has no choice but to swim to the ocean.”
“But—”
“Now!” He aims at where he assumes is the top of the passage and shoots both gun and laser. He pulls the triggers as fast as he can.
A few seconds later, Kayla follows suit.
More rock and dirt and sand cloud the water, creating a thick, dark wall. And still, he keeps pulling the triggers.
He doesn’t stop until the mech beeps at him that the laser barrel is too hot and at its melting point. It glows red on the mech’s arm.
“Okay,” he says. “Let’s see if it worked.”
“It’s going to take an hour for all that to clear on its own,” Kayla says. “Maybe we—”
It erupts from the wall of debris, mouth open wide, like a demon unleashed from Hell.
“Kay—”
It’s all he manages before those sharp bone plates shear her in two. Blood spills, mixing with the dark cloud wall, creating a morbid stew.
In his ears, he listens to Kayla gurgling her final breaths, the top half of her body tumbling, the mech’s arms flailing and jerking.
Ash screams, points the gun at the monstrous fish and pulls the trigger. Several bullets plunge into its side as it snaps up the rest of Kayla. He keeps shooting at it until it darts into the deeper murk of the lake.
“Get back here you motherfucker!” He’s roaring, tears washing over his vision. “Mach!”
He jets forward in a spray of bubbles, both arms out like a flying superhero, fingers curled around the triggers. Rage is liquid fire running through his veins like magma. All he sees through the blur of tears is red. Red that soon morphs into an image of the man who murdered his beloved Ky. The man who stole everything from him.
The murk clears just enough and he comes upon the dunkleosteus in mid-turn. No doubt it wanted to get great speed before taking him out too. And when it notices Ash jetting at it, the old monster almost appears to be surprised. Its tail whips, its maw snaps, silvery eyes roll in their bony sockets.
Ash, still roaring, pulls the triggers.
TWENTY-SIX
This is not how it’s supposed to go.
The old monster was always the largest of its kind. The strongest. It could sneak up to beaches, pretend it’s a boulder, then snatch its land-prey right off the sand and drag them into its world to feed. It has lived a long time. Longer than most.
And never in its long years has it encountered such prey as this new creature.
Never before has the prey fought back.
As tiny things plunge into its flank, as something cuts off a portion of its pectoral fin, the world is nothing but pain. Pain never ending. Its own blood swirls, getting thicker as more and more spills out of its body.
No.
It has survived much and will not let this small, evil creature keep creating agony.
It will not be defeated by its food.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Gun and laser blasting, Ash grins. I got it now. I got this son of a—
The dunkleosteus dives so suddenly, Ash speeds right by, blinking. Its blood still swirls where it once was.
“Slow,” he says and the mech slows gradually while he turns, looking down. But he’s at least two hundred feet from the floor now and the water is too murky. He can’t see a damn thing. “Hold.”
As the mech stops moving, Ash stares into the abyss below him.
“Where are you…?” He keeps the mech’s arms pointed into the murk, fingers on the triggers. He’s not sure how many bullets are left. Next shots need to be aimed better. He hurt it this time, he knows. Saw the pain practically ripple through the giant fish. And now that it’s in pain, maybe he can get the upper hand and kill it.
You went a little crazy back there, man, a low voice whispers in his head. Need to be careful of that.
Static crackles in his ears and he hisses with how loud it is. But…very faint, “Ash? You there? Ash?”
He blows out a long sigh of relief recognizing Julia’s voice. “I’m here. Kayla’s dead. I’m…hunting it now.”
Static crackles, then, “Got the people in the pods. I’m coming to help you.”
“No,” he says. “I can’t risk losing you.”
“Too bad.” A wall of static crashes into his ears. Then…nothing.
“Julia? Jules? You better not—”
It’s like being hit by a damn train when the dunk emerges from the side and slams into him. He spins, tumbling and turning through the water. Pain laces around his chest and the mech blares some kind of wobbly alarm.
“Slow,” he manages and the mech quickly stabilizes him. Just in time to gape into the maw of a biological guillotine.
Screaming, Ash lifts his right arm and blasts the beam into the dunkleosteus’ wide mouth.
The monster thrashes away, jaws snapping shut.
Its tail smacks into Ash, though not hard enough to do much damage. Not saying his chest still doesn’t hurt though. And the mech still blaring that annoying alarm. On the right inside of the visor is a flickering diagram of the sub-mech. The chest blinks red. Under the diagram he frowns at the short message there.
MECH COMPROMISED.
On the left inside of the visor is another message: MECH FAILURE IMMINENT IN FIVE MINUTES.
What the hell does that mean? Will the mech shutdown? And if it shuts down, does that mean the intakes will stop working too? For shit sake, why didn’t he at least ask a few questions while Frost was around?
The alarm whines and wobbles and he can’t think. He doesn’t know what to do, nor even if the dunkleosteus is dead or not.
The facility isn’t far. Maybe one hundred yards or so. If he can make it there, strip the mech off and join Julia in a pod then everything should be okay. Should be…
“Fast,” he tells the mech, not wanting to push the thing too much now that it’s damaged badly. Even so, the pulses sputter. He dips. The mech shakes. Something behind him rattles.
By all accounts, it’s like being inside a 1960’s truck with all i
ts rust and rattling panels and coughing exhaust. Maybe with a broken tie-rod too. And clunky wheel bearings.
The fish hit him damn hard to create such damage.
He’s around seventy feet—telling the mech to slow down—from the facility when a tendril of scarlet snakes in front of him.
“H-Hold.”
Very slowly, he looks down, and his bladder lets go because directly below him, pacing him, is the dunkleosteus. Barely six feet under the mech’s feet. Six feet and, perhaps sensing he stopped, swishes its tail and darts forward until it’s at the facility. It makes a lazy turn and swims back to him. Level to him. This old monster. And for the fourth time, they stare at each other face to face. No more than seven feet away.
It dwarfs him so severely, he knows what an ant must feel like when a mouse stumbles into its path.
It’s much larger than what he assumed a dunkleosteus to be. Comparable to a juvenile sperm whale, perhaps.
This close, his gaze slips over all the scars, both old and newer, and the fresh grooves his bullets left in its heavy armor. Blood seeps from its right side. Its guillotine maw opens and closes, those bone plates serving as teeth sharpening themselves as they scissor together. It’s brownish in color, with streaks of heavy, black scales.
And its eyes, silvery, as they reflect the light spewing from the lights fixed in the mech.
A shrill beep startles him and across the visor is this warning: 60 SECONDS TO TOTAL MECH FAILURE.
He sighs as the warning flickers away and smiles at the giant prehistoric fish. “Well, bud, at least you got to see the future, right?”
The dunkleosteus stares at him.
“If it’s any consolation to you, it was an honor to see you alive. Typically, all I get are bones.”
The old monster’s mouth opens, closes, opens, closes.
Before he can say anything more, that massive mouth springs open wide. He closes his eyes, accepting his fate.
A rumble shakes the mech. Slight pressure. The alarm wavers and—
“Ash…can you hear me…go!”
He opens his eyes to a deep, storming cloud of crimson.
“I got it! C’mon, dude!”
“J-Jules?”
“Yeah…can’t…something…hurry.”
“What? You’re cutting out.”
Only static answers him.
The mech brays, sending his heart into an instant rampage in his chest. He sucks in a breath as all kinds of light flash along the visor, each with a different symbol. He tries to pick out the symbol that might mean the oxygen intakes, but they flash a couple seconds then disappear. The bray whirrs down to a low groan. Something clicks.
Finally catching his breath, Ash says, “Fast!”
The mech sputters forward a few feet, stops. The suit jitters and for one godless second, he fears it’s about to rip itself apart. But then it stills and surges forward a few more feet before quaking so hard he has to choke down vomit.
“You…help?”
“Yes,” he says, sweat trickling down his face as the cooling system in the mech begins to fail. “Help!”
Then she’s there. Julia smiles through her visor at him. “Gotcha.”
He smiles back as she turns and pulls him to the facility, then around the ruins of the Moon Pool to the other side.
“…hatch…” is all that comes through when Julia speaks.
And soon enough, he sees a small docking station. He’s not sure what it would have been used as before all this, but it’s the way to salvation. Already it’s getting harder to breathe. A strange pressure leans against his body. So, either it’s the pressure or the intakes have quit as to why he can’t breathe very well. Or maybe…
“Shit!”
She spins him just as it swims out of the gloom, half of its face wavering in bloody tatters.
“No,” Julia says. “I…it…I…blew it up!”
Blood swirls around the monster and Julia shoves him toward the docking station. Her face through her visor is one of sorrow…and love.
“Slow,” he says, but the mech doesn’t move. “Fuck.”
Julia lifts what looks like a grenade launcher and he suddenly realizes it’s not a grenade launcher, but the missile launcher Green was talking about. The one in her cabin…
Julia found it!
But…
He clunks against the dock’s door.
“Press the red button, dude,” Julia says, clear as day. “See ya in the next life.”
“What? No, Jul—”
The world is a fiery explosion so bright Ash has to look away.
When he’s able to look again, all he sees are floating pieces of blue mech and blood and shreds of brownish flesh and black scales.
It makes no sense, but somehow Julia blew herself up killing the dunkleosteus.
“No,” he cries, reaching out for the shards of mech. He catches an arm with her arm still inside.
With a scream, he tosses it away. Tears cascade down his cheeks. He cries for Julia. He cries for Kayla. He cries for Green. He cries for his long-lost daughter, Ky. He cries for all the fallen. All the dead.
He cries for Julia and Ky the most. Those he loved.
Still crying, he turns to the docking station and finds the red button near the door. Floating nearby is the missile launcher, he grabs it on impulse. Not like he needs it. But it’s kind of like a reminder. It’s the last thing Julia touched.
The mech stutters, so heavy as he grits his teeth to lift his free arm and slam his hand against the button. The door slides open and he spills inside with god knows how many gallons of water. The door doesn’t shut. Stomach a ball of knots, Ash manages to crawl toward the door. There’s another button on this side. A green one. Red is open. Green is close. At least…he hopes so.
Ash, grunting, drawing in weak breaths as he pulls the heavy, nearly dead mech along, reaches for the green button.
It crashes through the doorway, sharp maw snapping. Ash tumbles away, though not far enough. Those guillotine jaws clamp down on his right leg. The pain is instantaneous. The pressure so great he screams.
It thrashes, slamming him into the walls.
“You…motherfucker,” he breathes and points the missile launcher at the old monster.
Its mouth opens just enough. He yanks his leg out, jams the launcher into its mouth, and pulls the trigger.
All is bright. All is blood.
He blinks at the mess where the monster’s head used to be…then collapses. He doesn’t have enough strength to kick the rest of the fish out of the bent doorway. Doesn’t have enough strength to breathe.
Gray fog seeps into him while he lies on the floor of the docking station.
He gasps, struggling to breathe.
This is it.
This is…
TWENTY-EIGHT
“…breathe.”
Ash’s eyelids open to blurriness, then close.
“Just breathe, Dr. Barrington.”
Why does he know that voice? And why does he hate it?
“We’re getting you into a pod. Just breathe. Slow breaths. I have an IV going, you’re dehydrated.”
His head lolls from side to side as he realizes he’s being rolled on either a gurney or table.
He tries to tell the familiar voice to be careful because the monster might not really be dead…but all that comes out is a thin whine.
“We’ll get you some medical attention, Dr. Barrington. Here we are. Escape pod. There’s a team waiting for us at the surface. Murdock has taken care of everything.”
Murdock…
Ash’s eyes open, vision clearing from a gray blur to full, vivid color. And the first thing he sees is Giles’ chubby, wide-eyed face. This close, he notices the broken veins in the man’s bulbous nose. A hard drinker…
Something Ash hadn’t picked up before, though should have.
Ash swallows down a thick lump in his throat, coughs. “He’s going to kill us.”
Giles frowns. “Now, w
hy would he do that? We have provided unprecedented evidence and data for a year.”
“You’ve…been made a fool, Dr. Giles.”
Still, the chubby man shakes his head. “No. Mr. Jones wouldn’t betray me like that.”
Ash doesn’t have the strength to laugh.
He’s not sure how much long after, he’s being strapped into a pod and Giles is telling him not to worry about anything. He tells Ash he’s a hero. He saved most of the crew. For that, Murdock will reward him.
If only the portly man knew how that bastard Murdock Jones works…
He’s too weak to do anything and so he’s strapped in and the pod deployed. It’s a mere five minutes to breach the surface.
Still strapped into the chair of the pod, still hooked up to an IV, the pod hisses open as a skiff approaches.
Ash sighs. Everything hurts.
His vision blurs, weariness steals over him.
The last thing he sees are two men in black uniforms reaching into the pod.
TWENTY-NINE
It’s not your fault, Daddy…
His eyes open to a white so brilliant he’s forced to close his eyes again.
“Congratulations, Dr. Barrington,” Murdock says in his smooth voice. “You made it out alive.”
I love you, Daddy…
“Ky,” Ash manages.
There’s a long pause, then Murdock says, very near, “You’re not close enough to death to talk to your dead daughter, Ash.”
He tries opening his eyes again, this time succeeding as his eyes adjust to the bright light. Not only this, he soon notes he’s in a room that’s starkly white.
“You have been through an ordeal, Ash. Rest now and we can talk later.”
Ash rolls onto his side, grimacing as his body cries in pain. “N-No…now.”
Murdock is almost to the door to whatever room Ash is being kept in when he stops and faces Ash. “You need your rest, son. I will come back in a few hours.”
“My partner died saving me,” Ash shouts, albeit weakly. “You owe me, you bastard.”
Murdock chuckles a bit, though nods and gestures for Ash to speak.
“You knew about the dunkleosteus, didn’t you.” Not a question.
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