‘Let me drop him. He’s unconscious anyway, it will be quick for him. Let me help you.’
Nash ignored him. He wrapped his good arm around Tyler’s legs and pushed as Liam pulled, together the two of them able to get the dead weight out of the water. Nash risked a glance behind him, hoping to see the shark, but it had gone along with the boat, which had slipped beneath the waves.
‘Pull me out,’ he grunted, his legs tiring. Liam grabbed him and pulled, but Nash’s clothes were waterlogged, the ocean reluctant to give up its grip. Nash could sense the shark below him. He imagined he could feel the pull of displaced water as the Megalodon circled, ready to launch its attack. It was this pure fear which made his adrenaline surge, and with a roar of defiance, he managed to swing one leg over onto the nine foot inflatable, Liam underneath him. They sat there floating in the debris field, both of them unable to do anything but stare as the six foot, slate-coloured dorsal fin broke the surface. Nash stared at it as it circled the inflatable, the current made by its wake pulling them into a slow rotation so that the fin was never out of eye contact. Once again, Nash went into a trance-like state, staring at the creature he referred to as his nemesis, any doubt he had imagined or overcompensated for the size of the creature dispelled. The Megalodon’s head broke the surface, a triangular wedge of horrific proportions. Nash had heard about this in white sharks who would lift their head out of the water to spot their prey. The shark stared at them with its black, lifeless eye, and Nash’s milky eye looked right back at it, the sense of helplessness in the presence of a superior predator complete and undisputed. Time lost all sense of meaning. For Nash, nothing else existed. He wondered if the shark remembered if it was able to recall the last time they faced off. The moment was broken when Liam pulled the chord for the engine, the outboard motor spluttering to life with a whine as the water churned.
‘No, don’t do that!’ Nash screamed, but it was already too late. The vibrations of the motor reached the Megalodon in seconds, causing it to go into attack mode. Liam swung the boat away from the shark, his eyes wild with fear as the Zodiac bounced over the waves. On the horizon, almost lost as the last of the daylight faded, was the shape of one of the small islands jutting out of the water. Liam aimed for it, powering the Zodiac at full speed. Nash was mesmerised, watching the immense dorsal fin slice through the water and closing the distance to them.
‘We’re going to make it,’ Leam screamed, his hair flapping in the wind, voice high and shrill. ‘We’re going to be fine, we’re going to—’ He was cut off and the lightweight raft was hit from underneath and launched into the air, it’s passengers with it. Before he made contact with the water and faced the certain death that awaited them, Nash found a split second to be jealous of Tyler. At least he was unconscious and would feel no pain. Any further thought was cut off as he hit the water and waited for his turn to die.
PART TWO: SURVIVOR
Chapter Eight
Tyler coughed, rolling onto his side and spitting up seawater onto the rocks. His face was hot, blistered by the sun as waves broke against the formation he was sprawled on, showering him with spray. He had no idea where he was, nor any recollection of how he arrived there. He sat up, squinting at the ocean, then over his shoulder. Nash and Liam sat further up the shale ‘beach’ before the small island transformed into boulders. Island, was, in fact, too strong a word. Tyler turned back to the ocean, then squinted at the gorgeous blue sky.
‘You’re alive,’ Nash said from behind him.
Tyler didn’t answer. He was trying to recall what had happened, to piece together how he had come to be on the island, but his brain was fuzzy and he couldn’t figure it out. ‘What happened?’ he asked, throat dry.
‘What does it look like?’ Liam said. He was sitting a little further away with his back to a large jagged boulder.
Tyler looked again at their surroundings. It was essentially a large mound of rocks. No vegetation that he could see and, more worryingly, no sign of their boat. ‘I don’t remember anything after I hit the water.’
Liam and Nash glanced at each other. ‘Nothing at all?’ Nash asked.
‘No.’
‘That will be the shock, I expect,’ Nash said. Tyler stood and looked at their bleak surroundings, then noticed that Nash was injured.
‘What happened to your leg?’
Nash glanced at it stretched out in front of him the ugly wound deep in his calf starting to discolour at the edges. The rock underneath it soaked with blood.
‘I had the Zodiac in the water just in case the shark decided to attack. I knew you didn’t believe me, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t ready.’
‘Zodiac?’
‘Inflatable motor boat. The reason we’re all still alive. Anyway, Liam and me got to the boat, saw you floating in the water, and fished you out just as our shark realised we were trying to get away. Son of a bitch chased us, cut us off from heading back to land and so this was the next nearest spot. It led us here then launched us out of the water a few hundred yards from this fucking rock. The Zodiac was destroyed, but we were lucky enough to be in the shallows so he couldn’t give chase. He’s still out there, though. He’s angry and waiting for us.’
Tyler glanced out at the water, sunlight shimmering off its surface, then turned back to Nash.
‘Anyway, when he knocked the Zodiac from under us, we went in the water and I cut my leg on the rocks. It’s deep and needs stitches but nothing I can do about it now apart from try to keep it clean.’
‘Alright, so what’s the plan? Do we wait until someone comes to save us?’
Nash and Liam glanced at each other again. ‘You don’t seem to understand our situation here,’ Nash said, shifting position and wincing in pain. ‘Nobody is coming here for us. Nobody knows we’re here.’
Tyler grinned, then realised it was no joke. ‘Are you kidding me? The world connected the way it is, it’s impossible to get lost or go missing. Of course someone will find us.’
Nash shook his head. ‘Nobody knows we’re out here. We kept it quiet for obvious reasons. You, of course, are also off the grid. This rock is miles from any shipping lane. The nearest land is a hundred miles away.’
‘Maybe we can signal a passing plane. Light a fire or something to get their attention.’
Nash looked around him. ‘How? With what? There is no vegetation on here. Nothing to burn or make a fire with.’
‘But we can’t stay here. There’s no food, no water. No shelter. We’ll die out here.’
‘At last, the penny drops,’ Liam grunted.
‘We could swim for it. While we still have the strength.’ Tyler said, desperately looking for a way out.
‘Don’t be stupid.’ Liam snapped, clambering to his feet. ‘Are you deaf? It’s at least a hundred miles to land. Do you think you can do that? Swim a hundred miles? You wouldn’t make it a mile. You know what’s out there. What’s waiting for us. You think it won’t attack the second my dad gets in the water and it smells the blood from his leg wound?’
‘We can’t just stay here,’ Tyler snapped, glaring at them both. And hoping that repeating it for the second time would make something change.
‘If you think of anything, feel free to let us know. It’s not like we want this or knew what would happen.’