Elena counted five other soldiers in the hall with her, each with the same dazed expression she knew was on her own face. They cautiously approached the twitching mass of dying flesh. Its slime-covered members slapped the water-lined floors and walls as though still seeking to latch on to something.
She recognized Sergeant Chen when he drew closer. His face was tense, his eyes fixed on the bullet-riddled carcass. “Good job, Private.” He kept his handgun aimed as he stepped past the thrashing limbs. Revulsion flashed across his face before his jaw clenched. His weapon fired repeatedly, each retort boomingly loud despite the blaring alarm that continued to wail. The creature jerked a few more times before it finally went limp.
“Everyone who can move had better get going.” Chen held his arms out for balance as the ship dipped drunkenly. A terrible groaning sound followed, as though the ship were some wounded animal losing a fight for its life. “The ship is going down. Get to the nearest lifeboats and follow protocol.”
Everyone scrambled to obey without argument, as though all recognized the need to flee from the madness that had just occurred. It didn’t matter where, even if it meant risking death in the heaving storm outside.
Chen gestured to Elena. “You and Ryder are coming with me. Get him up.”
She turned. Nathan sat in hallway with water streaming over his legs. His face was ashen, his expression shell-shocked. He didn’t even respond when a thick, translucent-skinned eel slid over his lap on its way to deeper waters. The severed limb that had seized him was a few feet away, the elongated fingers still twitching like spider legs.
She placed a hand on his shoulder. “Nate, let’s go.”
He jerked back before recognizing her. Exhaling a shuddering breath, he nodded and shakily stood.
Chen threw an impatient glance over his shoulder. “Time to roll. Watch my six, Ruiz.” He pointed at a nearby soldier. O’Hara, you’re with us. Take point.”
O’Hara wiped sweat from his face and nodded. “Where are we going?”
“There’s an armory in the bridge.”
Elena reloaded her weapon. “Shouldn’t we be abandoning ship?”
“Into the storm?” Chen shook his head. “We don’t stand a chance.”
Elena glanced at the creature’s corpse and shuddered. “We don’t stand a chance in here, either.”
“Look — every choice is a bad choice, Private. Maybe we can get to the hangar bay and jettison the motorized raft. But I know I’d rather be heavily armed than not if we’re going to run into more of those things. You coming?”
They wasted no time, sweeping the hallway as they rounded the corner. Muted sounds of gunfire and screams were audible from the lower levels. Elena’s clothes were sodden from the water, but what dampened her forehead and slicked hair across her face was sweat. Humidity from the damaged air system was bad enough to lift steam from the waterlogged floors, soaking them in perspiration. Her heart rattled in her chest at every jolt, every pitch of the dying ship, every muffled barrage of gunfire. Red lights flickered, and the alarm siren never ceased its dire warning.
“Here.” O’Hara gestured.
The wind greeted them as they entered, howling as it swept in from shattered windows. Gusts of stinging rain accompanied it, flooding floors already swamped with at least a foot of water. The once state-of-the-art information center was a disaster; consoles sparked from irreversible damage, and bodies lay on the floor half-submerged. Elena felt a stab of guilt at being relieved none of them were people she knew.
Nathan stared out the window. “Impossible.”
Elena followed his gaze. For an insane moment she thought towering black mountains were directly in front of them. Lightning flashed, transforming the angry rain into scattered diamonds. In that moment she saw the truth — the ‘mountains’ were colossal waves, dark and towering. White foam bubbled from their crests like saliva on giant, blackened tongues.
Even in that horrifying moment, her eyes drifted down to the ship’s deck, where long, slithering serpents crisscrossed the surface, constricting as though seeking to crush the ship’s metallic hull by sheer force.
No. Not serpents. They were tentacles — nightmarish in their impossible girth and length. Whatever was in the dark depths wasn’t a squid, not even one of the giant or colossal species rarely seen and rumored to battle whales. The tentacles were too enormous, far larger than anything seen by human eyes. It was something mythological, something medieval scribes might conceive of when spinning their tales of monsters and gods.
And it was tearing the ship apart.
Elena looked up. The black wall of water towered, higher than her eyes could follow. The sound that accompanied it was equally terrifying — a high-pitched shriek that sounded eerily human, if a million people wailed in agony at the exact same time.
“Brace for impact!”
Her words were drowned out by the outright fury of the storm and the roaring of the waves as they hurtled downward. Elena desperately looked for anything to secure herself to, but only saw the helpless faces of Nathan, Chen, and O’Hara. They were terrified; mouths open in screams she couldn’t hear over the deafening rumble of the storm.
Something punched her in the back. It was so powerful, so excruciating that she temporarily blacked out from the jolt of agony.
When she came to, she was underwater. Panic seized her, unsure of whether she was still onboard or in the sucking, terrifying waters of the tempest. But red illumination was faintly visible — emergency lights that fizzled more than flashed; dying as if aware they were no longer needed.
A pale face gazed up at her from a few yards away. It was O’Hara. His eyes protruded from his face, in terror or agony, Elena couldn’t tell. Bloody bubbles fled from his open mouth. A thick tentacle wrapped around his entire body like a monstrous anaconda. The glistening flesh rippled, and O’Hara was yanked downward so quickly that only whirling foam marked his passing.
Elena tried to scream, but water filled her throat and choked her. She flailed blindly; trying to find which way was up.
The bubbles. Follow the bubbles.
She exploded from the water and immediately cracked her head against a metallic surface. She fell down again, grasping her head as blood trickled through her fingers. She rose carefully the second time, treading water and sucking in air from the narrow portion that wasn’t underwater.
A voice drifted over from nearby. “Hello? Anyone there?”
Elena frantically searched the darkness for the source. “Nate, is that you?”
“Elena?” Nathan sounded as relieved as Elena felt. “I’m over here.”
She swam that direction as the boat shuddered and creaked around them. Nathan crouched on some sort of ledge. His face was bruised, his eyeglasses missing. Elena had no idea what area of the ship they were in. Everything looked alien, just metal and piping without any indication of direction or location.
Nathan seized her arms and helped her up. They braced themselves as the ship lurched. A sensation like a sudden drop from a colossal roller coaster preceded another impact, bowling them over.
Nathan gritted his teeth as he pushed himself to a sitting position. He looked at her with a resigned expression. “This is it. This is how we die.”
Elena couldn’t argue. They were only safe for a moment. The waters gurgled, rapidly filling any accompanying spaces. There was nowhere to go.
The shaking worsened. Elena and Nathan were tossed about like marbles in tin can as the ship buckled and groaned. They clasped arms, trying to hang on to one another as black water closed in. Elena was snatched away, yanked by an undertow stronger than she imagined possible. She thought she heard Nathan call her name, but the roar of the storm and churning water drowned everything out.