Benton angled the Zodiac between the waves, the boat bouncing along the surface as it neared the rock outcrop. He was at the rear, sawing at the wheel to try and keep the boat on course.
‘It’s choppy out here,’ Oxley said from the front, shouting to be heard above the engine sound.
‘We shouldn’t be out here. I don’t like it,’ the older man shouted back as the wind ruffled his beard. He knew well enough the stories of the waters they were in. He knew of people who claimed to have seen the monster shark that supposedly made its territory there. People he trusted and knew who wouldn’t make up fanciful tales. The Devil’s Triangle wasn’t a place to be. They shouldn’t even have been there. They had heard a rumour about a missing boat owned by two brothers and had been hired by their father to search the area and look for them. Ordinarily, it was a job they would have rejected, but a poor fishing season and a broken engine that cost the better part of a hundred and fifty thousand dollars to repair meant that Carrington had to make up as much cash as he could, even if it meant entering the Devil’s Triangle. Ordinarily, he would have suggested the family contact the Coast Guard for assistance or the police, but according to the father, one of the missing brothers had recent troubles with the law and he wanted them found privately. Carrington asked no further questions, deciding the less he knew the better, and they had taken the job. Benton liked Carrington a lot, thought he was a good man. But this was one instance where he wished he wasn’t so moral and had simply called the Coast Guard to report the survivors after finding the debris. They were fishermen, not a rescue crew. Another couple of hours likely wasn’t going to matter to the people on the island either way. On the flipside, he knew the captain really had no choice. He had to perpetrate the rescue. These could well be the people they were looking for and they had been paid to do a job. Benton looked over his shoulder and saw the bigger vessel following them in, keeping as close as it could to avoid running into the shallows. It was as he was looking back that he saw it.
At first, he thought it was a submarine, so immense was the slate-coloured mass that was rising out of the depths. It was only when he saw the six-foot dorsal fin break the surface that he realised what was happening. The fear didn’t have time to register, as a split second after the fin broke the surface, the Zodiac was flipped into the air, sending its occupants crashing into the ocean. Benton was the lucky one, as he was thrown off to the side out of the path of the Megalodon. Oxley, however, landed directly in the path of the shark which rose partially on its side, dagger teeth crunching down and extinguishing Oxley’s existence before he truly understood what had happened. The water came alive with blood and sent the Megalodon into a frenzy.
Carrington saw it happen.
He had just come off the radio to the Coast Guard and arranged for a helicopter to come pick up the survivors when he saw the Megalodon explode from the water. Disbelief was quickly followed by horror as he watched the shark devour Oxley. He throttled back, bringing the boat to a halt and stared at the scene unfolding in front of him. He could see Benton treading water. The shark had gone with its meal, the bloody surface of the water the only sign it had been there. Carrington grabbed the shotgun he kept in the wheelhouse and ensured it was loaded, then headed out on deck.
Neither Liam nor Tyler had noticed the attack. They were still fighting, rolling around on the rocks and trying to get an advantage. They separated, staring off under the hot sun. Both men were bloody, and Tyler’s eye throbbed and was swelling closed where he had been hit in the scuffle.
‘What the hell are you doing? We’re saved,’ Tyler said, spitting blood onto the rocks. The sun was unbearably hot, his throat dry.
‘You were going to take it. My food. He’s my father, not yours. You want to feed on him too, don’t you?’
Tyler glanced at the rotten, bloated corpse on the ground. ‘You’re insane. Why would I want that? Just look out there there’s a boat it—’ Tyler glanced to sea as he said it, noticing how close the boat was to them now. It had stopped in the water, its hull glittering. He also saw the overturned Zodiac and what looked like a man trying to climb onto it. He also saw the blood on the surface of the water and suspected what had happened. Liam looked too, and in that instant, the aggression and tension of the situation dissipated. They both stood and stared at the scene, breathing heavily and drenched in sweat.
‘Now do you understand?’ Liam said. ‘We’re never getting off this rock. That thing will never let us.’ He turned his back and walked away, sitting cross-legged next to the remains of his father. Tyler didn’t understand how he could do that. How he could cope with the smell. He stayed where he was, facing into the wind so he didn’t have to handle that stench. He watched the scene on the ocean, hoping rescue would still get to them.
The morsel of food hadn’t satisfied the Megalodon’s perpetual hunger. It circled in seventy feet of water, massive head swaying from side to side as it scanned the ocean for anything else in its territory. It was not used to having its dominance challenged, and as a fiercely territorial creature, it knew only to react with aggression. It returned to the sight of its kill, the bloody water like a homing beacon. It cruised close to the surface, dorsal fin out of the water. Benton sat on the overturned zodiac, numb with disbelief. Even though he believed the stories of the giant shark were true, seeing it was something else entirely. The slate-coloured fin was just twenty feet away. It sliced through the bloody water, then angled towards him. There was nowhere to go, nothing he could do to defend himself. He was going to die and knew it would be a horrific death. A gunshot echoed through the silence. Benton watched as part of the dorsal fin was cut away in an explosion of blood. At first, he was unsure what had happened, then realised it was Carrington. He was standing at the bow, shotgun smoking as he stared at the scene in front of him. Angered by the attack, the Megalodon turned towards the boat and readied itself to attack. Carrington realised what was happening and sprinted to the wheelhouse, throwing the boat into gear and turning away from the shark, which gave chase, locking on to the churning vibrations from the boat’s propellers.
‘This is our chance. We can get out of here,’ Tyler said, for the first time feeling hope and excitement. Liam said nothing. He sat by his father, eating another hunk of rotten flesh.
‘What are you waiting for? Come on, the shark is moving off,’ Tyler repeated, watching as the man who was sitting on the overturned zodiac slipped into the water and started to drag it towards the island. Tyler knew he had to do something to help and was about to charge into the water when he felt the sting of pain on his back. He spun around to see Liam standing there, scalpel in hand. Tyler touched his back, fingers covered in blood when he looked at them.
‘What the fuck?’ he grunted as he stared at the younger man, a dishevelled and broken wreck who he no longer recognised. ‘You cut me.’
‘You can’t leave here.’
‘What the hell are you talking about?’ You’re insane. You need your medication. You’re sick.’
‘I need you. You’re still fresh. My father… he doesn’t taste so good anymore.’
‘Don’t you get it? This is our chance. We can both get off this rock and back to civilisation.’