Dark Waters

by Lucas Pederson

  Miles smiles. “I’ll get you some water.” He rushes between the rows of seats to the rear of the STAV, finds the steel crate containing the water bottles, opens it using his thumbprint and grabs a bottle.

  Before he has a chance to turn around, Jakob spouts, “I’m pretty thirsty too.”

  He sighs, gets another bottle, and gives Emma and Jakob their water and says, “If anyone else is thirsty, you know where the water is.”

  “What if our stomach is eating itself?” Guether asks.

  “You packed this thing,” Miles says. “Go look for food.”

  Guether puffs out his cheeks. “Well, that’s messed up. Give them water but won’t get me food?”

  “You’re a big boy.”

  Guether lifts a blond eyebrow, “And?”

  Miles shakes his head and returns to the cockpit, a little grateful to be away from them again. He doesn’t remember them being so…needy. Three years ago, Guether would have already been digging into the food stores. Jakob would already have water. Because, back then, they were self-sufficient killing machines.

  Time changes people. Sometimes little by little. Sometimes all at once. Apparently, most of his team changed all at once. Or close to it. Only one consistent is Sylvi, who never even acknowledged his presence besides glancing at him.

  “How they doing?” Jenna asks.

  “Hungry and thirsty, but okay.” He sits. “Anything popping up?”

  She shakes her head. “Nothing besides a few smaller blips.”

  “Good. Let’s go home.”

  “Let’s go home…what?”

  He sighs. “Let’s go home, Captain.”

  “Damn right. And we’re aimed in the right direction. At this speed, we’ll make it in two hours.”

  A breath, too heavy to be a sigh, issues out of him. “Make it an hour.”

  “I can’t push it too hard if you want to make it without being dead in the water.”

  “Okay, just get us there.”

  “I will,” she says.

  He leans back in the seat, wanting to sleep, though afraid to close his eyes.

  CHAPTER 20

  A few minutes after Miles shuts the door, Geri lowers the crystals. She shudders. Then slumps forward a bit.

  “Don’t tell me she just died on us,” Jakob says.

  “Foolish…boy,” Geri says in a low tone.

  Jakob makes a show of twitching, eyes all wide. “Zombie!”

  Guether lightly punches him. “Idiot.”

  Emma places a hand on Geri’s shoulder. “Do you need anything? Water?”

  “Water…”

  Emma hurries to get the old woman a bottle of water, bringing it back and twisting the cap off. “Here you go.”

  Geri straightens, takes the bottle and drinks deeply until the bottle is about half empty. She gasps for breath for a moment, then hands the water over to Emma. “Thank you.”

  Emma caps the bottle and places it next to her own in her lap.

  Out of the blue, Geri asks, “What is your last name, dear?”

  It takes Emma a full four or five seconds to realize the old woman is talking to her.

  Shaking her head, Emma says, “Oden. Why?”

  The old woman turns in her seat, twisting enough to face Emma fully. “You have a variation of a traditional Norse name. I assume you spell it with an ‘e’ rather than ‘i'?”

  “Yeah. O-d-e-n. But I’m not Norse as far as I know. Dutch/Irish.”

  Geri smiles. That same grandmotherly smile that stole Emma’s heart in the first place. “Our origins are all mottled, dear girl. Your last name is a key to your ancestors, even if it seems silly.”

  It takes her a couple of seconds to process this. “You think I’m related to the god Odin?”

  The old woman rattles out a chuckle. “No, no, dear girl. But you are of Norse descent, which might serve us later on. Jörmungandr will return, and I might need more strength to push her away next time.”

  “You think she has some kind of power?” Mike asks out of nowhere.

  Geri’s eyes close. She draws in a slow breath through her nostrils and blows it out in a whistle. “We all have a bit of power within us. All we need to do is hone it like a fine blade.”

  “Oh,” Mike says.

  It seems he’s lost his bully attitude. Now he sits, eyes lowered, as though in a deep thought. To Emma, he has this strange sadness about him, like a gray shroud. No doubt he’s lost a lot and been through a lot. She wants to talk to him, despite how he’s treated her. She wants to help, it’s in her nature, after all. To help. Be it other humans or marine life.

  She started the charter not exactly for money, but to inform the public of ocean life and how it is today, rather than how it was a decade ago. The oceans have always been dangerous places, but nowadays the dangers are more extreme.

  Case in point: The monster serpent thing attacking them now.

  Eventually Mike stands and gets a bottle of water from the back. He stands, not looking at anyone and drinks.

  “Yes,” Geri says, “we all have sparks of power within us.” She looks at Emma, blue eyes like marbles of ice. “When the time comes, I will show you what to do.”

  Emma nods.

  “Jörmungandr is frightened now, but she will return with more hatred in her soul. Until then, I must rest.”

  Again, Emma nods, not really sure what to say.

  Geri leans back in her seat and shuts her eyes. Before long, her narrow chest rises and falls steadily and a snore wheezes from her parted lips.

  “Damn,” Jakob says. “Wish I could pass out fast like that.”

  “You do, moron,” Guether says.

  Jakob blinks. “No, I—shut up.”

  Guether snorts. “Don’t get all butthurt.”

  “I’m not. And didn’t I tell you to shut up? Damn giants…”

  “You’re just jealous,” Guether says, grinning.

  Jakob straightens, flashes the big man an awed expression and snaps his fingers. “You’re right. Those floppy ears are pretty impressive. Like a big, pale bunny.”

  Emma smiles, welcoming the friendly banter between the two men and tries to get comfortable in the seat.

  It doesn’t take long for sleep to find her.

  CHAPTER 21

  “We have a problem,” Jenna says about an hour after they began speeding toward the mainland.

  Miles blinks, shoving his thoughts away for a moment. Mike is the same person, but…a little different now too. He has always been a jackass, but for some reason he’s more so now. Actually, he’s a bully now as far as Miles can tell. He needs to sit his little brother down and have a real talk. Figure out what’s going on.

  “What now?” Miles asks.

  Jenna stands, wipes a finger along the windshield, just below the small crack, which, he notes has gotten a little longer. She turns and holds up the finger for him to see. It’s wet.

  “We’re no longer airtight in here.” She wipes her finger on her pants and sits. “And we can’t dive anymore with it leaking like that. Glass will buckle and—”

  “I know what will happen,” Miles says and sighs. “Do we have any way to patch it up?”

  “Ma might have an idea.”

  He nods and walks to the body of the STAV. Emma and Geri are snoozing away. Jakob and Guether are playing some old card game and bickering over what they might and might not have in their hands. Mike is loitering near the back with the water and food. Sylvi is reading her book and ignoring everyone. Ma…she’s tapping away on her tablet like always.

  He steps closer to her and she holds up a finger. “One second.”

  She taps a bit more, then lowers the tablet and gives him her full attention. “What?”

  “I need to see you in the cockpit for a minute.”

  She opens her mouth, probably to ask why, then shuts it again. She nods, unbuckles and follows him to the cockpit.

  Once the door is closed, she asks, “What’s wrong now?”

&
nbsp; Miles slides around Jenna and points at the leaking crack in the upper curve of the windshield. “We’re leaking.”

  Ma’s lips press together, forming a thin, pale line on her otherwise brown face. “We can’t dive like that and as fast as we’re going, the pressure will only make the crack worse.”

  “So,” Miles says. “What do you think we should do?”

  Her gaze darts over Jenna’s monitor, then fixes on Miles. “If that thing isn’t around, we need to surface to make the repair.”

  “Haven’t seen a hint of it in an hour,” Jenna says. “I think it’s gone.”

  “Geri says it will come back, but I think I can repair the crack enough for us to at least increase our speed without being breached.”

  “Well, that answers the question if you can fix it or not, heh,” Miles says.

  Ma nods. “I can, indeed. It will be a quick patch because I am not aware of where the serpent is or how long before it attacks again, but it’ll hold well enough to get us home.”

  “You could’ve just said yes,” Jenna says, snickering a little.

  Ma smiles the tiniest bit. “You know simple answers are against my religion, Amazon Queen.” She leaves the cockpit and Jenna bursts out in a heavy fit of laughter.

  “She tells jokes now?” Miles asks, between chuckles.

  “Yeah, she’s gotten weird,” Jenna says. “Better check to make sure she hasn’t fried a circuit or something.”

  They both explode with laughter. Probably not really that funny, but stress can do strange things to people, Miles knows.

  Jenna brings the STAV to the surface. Through the windshield Miles stares at a blue sky melding into soft reds and pinks. First signs of dusk.

  “Alright,” he says, “let’s get this done.”

  The body of the STAV is suddenly a swarm of activity the moment he opens the door. Ma is gathering supplies for the repair while the others, besides Emma and Geri, are making sure their AT-40 rifles are loaded and ready. The guns won’t stop that monster, but if it helps settle their nerves, then so be it.

  “Okay,” he says as they gather close. Mike stands a couple of feet away, but he’s paying attention. “I want this to be quick. I want lookouts at every point on the STAV. Jenna will be monitoring from the cockpit as well. Geri and Emma, I want you to stay put.”

  Emma appears on the verge of a kind of rebut, eyes darkening and lips twisting, but Geri places a hand on her arm and all the steam visibly leaks away.

  “We will stay close to the cockpit,” Geri says. “The crystals may not work this time, but I have one last effort to sway Jörmungandr.”

  Miles smiles. “In your little black bag, I take it?”

  She straightens her posture, mocking a dignified woman. “It is a purse.”

  He laughs and tells the other to fall out. They move with the same efficiency as they always have. Everyone knows their job, even if he really never assigned anything to anyone, besides Ma and lookouts. One by one, they climb the ladder up the passage to the top of the STAV.

  Mike nudges him. “Can I talk to you a sec?”

  Miles frowns. “Yeah. Sure. Needs to be quick, though.”

  Mike leads Miles away from the others as they file out. “Okay, man, listen. I can’t go up there. Not with that thing still slithering around.”

  “It’s not even near us anymore. We—”

  “I never told you what it was like the days leading up to the final attack.” Mike shakes his head and levels his eyes on Miles. “The raft was bad, but those days before, man…I’ve never seen such insanity spill through every person in such a short period of time. There were murders. People just…killing each other for no reason other than a sacrifice to their god. And get this shit, those same crazies worshiped the fuckin’ giant snake in the water. It started out slow, whatever the hell went through my shipmates. None of them acted so weird until the thing started bumping us around.”

  Frown deepening, Miles says, “What are you saying?”

  Mike looks away, sighs, then returns his attention to Miles. “I’m saying this thing has strange powers. It turns people against people. We need to be careful.”

  “Is this why you’ve been acting like a bigger jackass than usual?”

  Mike huffs a breath. “I don’t know. Probably. Guess I’m still on guard and don’t want to get too close to your team here.”

  Miles nods. “Fair enough. But Emma is a good woman. A strong woman. What you did…”

  “It was wrong. I know. I guess I was just trying to lighten things up a bit and that thing came so fast I didn’t have time to take a crate out before she got out of that closet you call a bathroom.”

  “Make sure you apologize to her, then.”

  Mike visibly ruffles. “Why? It wasn’t that big of a deal.”

  “Are you fucking brain dead? She got hurt because of your stupid prank. It won’t kill you to say you’re sorry.”

  “It might.”

  “Don’t make me shoot you.”

  Mike chuckles. “Okay, okay. I’ll apologize. She won’t accept it, but I’ll say it.”

  Miles raises an eyebrow. “And mean it?”

  “Yes, for shit shake. And mean it. Calm your tits.”

  “Good,” Miles says. “But I need you up there. You know what to look for in the water.”

  “I…look, bro, I wouldn’t be any use up there.”

  “You have first hand knowledge of this thing,” Miles says. “If it gets by the sensors, your eye will come in handy.”

  “Dude,” Mike says. “What knowledge? Everything was chaos before the ship began sinking. Then it was all about trying to get off the ship. Whatever eye you think I have…man, I don’t.”

  For a brief moment, Miles wants to shake his brother, but, it’s only fleeting. He places a hand on Mike’s shoulder. “Okay. Stay down here and make sure to watch over Geri and Emma.”

  Mike nods. “I can definitely do that.”

  “You better,” Miles says, gives his little brother’s shoulder a squeeze and hurries to the passage leading to the top of the STAV.

  His team is positioned just as he ordered. Every point is covered. Ma is placing a thick film of what looks like plastic over the crack. He watches her use some odd tool, flattening the film over the film. Sounds like a hairdryer and walks over to Sylvi.

  “Hey, thanks for not killing Emma.”

  Sylvi flashes him a grin. “Mission is still young.”

  He chuckles, gently pats her shoulder and moves on to Guether.

  “Anything?”

  The big man’s gaze never leaves the ocean. “No.”

  He pats his shoulder and finishes at Jakob.

  “Your fly is open.”

  Jakob rolls his eyes. “I know, Jesus, dude stop looking at my package.”

  A stream of laughter rattles out of Miles. He pats Jakob’s shoulder and returns to Ma.

  “How much longer?”

  Ma glances over her shoulder. “Five minutes.”

  “Good. Thanks, Ma.”

  Returning to her work, she nods.

  He stands in the center of the STAV, sight drifting from the water to the sky. They haven’t been out here ten minutes and already the sky is darkening. Reds and pinks now merging with purples of various shades. It’s—

  “The fuck is that?”

  Miles turns in Jakob’s direction, noticing the giant V-shape spreading the water coming toward them, and shouts down the passage. “Something is coming! About three hundred feet out.”

  “It’s not our monster,” Jenna shouts. “Not even close. Looks like a whale.”

  Okay, but never in his life has he seen a whale create such a pattern in the water. It’s something a shark might make. Something with an angular head.

  And it’s huge. Three times the size of the STAV and coming in fast.

  “Everyone inside,” Miles says. “Now.”

  They jerk into action and rush toward the passage. Sylvi is the first one in when the thing s
lams into the STAV. The force knocks Miles off his feet and he lands flat on his back. All the air gushes out of his lungs in a single whoosh. He rolls onto his side, trying to breath and only managing thin grunts. Someone roars, followed by the wispy chattering of an AT-30 rifle. The relatively new model is supposed to be the best firepower a soldier can carry this day and age.

  “Man overboard,” Jakob shouts, this is also followed by more chattering of the AT-30.

  Catching his breath finally, Miles gains his knees and looks around. Sylvi and Jakob are kneeling at the front of the STAV while Guether blasts away at the water.

  Miles stands, readies his AT-30 and jogs to them. Doesn’t take him long to realize who fell in.

  Ma.

  She reaches for Jakob’s outstretched hand. Sylvi lays flat, reaching for Ma’s other hand when needed. Guether lets loose a thunderous roar, AT-30 cutting grooves through the ocean.

  Miles pats his shoulder. “I don’t see anything.”

  Guether pauses the shooting and glances at Miles. “Fucker is down there. Just waiting. It’s huge, man. I—”

  Echoing up the passage, Jenna’s voice. “Get your asses in here! We were tricked!”

  Jakob stoops lower, catching Ma’s hand and pulling her partially out of the water. Sylvi latches on to her other hand and together they haul Ma out of the water and onto the STAV.

  “Get below,” Miles says. “We—”

  The STAV is slammed again, this time lifting out of the water a bit. Miles stumbles, loses his footing and drops down hard on a knee. Pain slashes up his leg. He winces, but manages to stand and—

  “Guether!”

  Jakob blasts by Miles, skidding to a stop at the edge of the STAV. Miles limps in his wave, followed by Sylvi.

  “What the hell are you doing up there?” Jenna, sounding a little more than freaked out.

  Guether swims calmly toward them. As any good Seal knows, panic means you’re dead. And right now, the big man is showing the best example of that. Even with a monster lurking below him, he swims with confidence and ease. No floundering or splashing. Jakob, though, is panicking, he leans dangerously over the edge of the STAV. So far, Miles has to drag him back a bit. Miles kneels beside the younger man and reaches out a hand while Sylvi spots them from behind. Ready to pull either back in case shit hits the fan.