Deluge: The Conqueror Worms II

CHAPTER 89

Something brushed against Sarah’s leg. She opened her mouth to scream, forgetting that she was below the surface. Cold, black water rushed down her throat. Gagging, Sarah reflexively tried to breathe, and more water flooded into her. She glanced around, frantic, but couldn’t see anything. She might as well have been swimming in ink. She shuddered, choking, as the unseen form pressed against her leg again. Then, something else seized her hair and jerked her upward.

Sarah broke the surface, coughing and gagging. Waves crashed over her head, threatening to plunge her below again, but the grip on her hair remained. She lashed out blindly, raking her fingernails across her attacker’s face.

“Stop it,” Novak yelled. “Sarah, it’s me. It’s okay. I’ve got you.”

She blinked water from her eyes and saw Henry and Gail struggling to swim toward them. Both were caught in the whirlpool’s current, and their efforts proved useless.

“Help!” Henry reached for her.

“Don’t fight…” Sarah coughed, hacking up more filthy water. Then she took a deep breath and tried again. “Don’t fight it, Henry. Simon says to go with the whirlpool!”

Nodding, the boy surrendered to the swift current, fighting to stay afloat. His eyes were wide and panicked. Gail dog-paddled next to him, her horrified expression illuminated by the light pouring from the center of the vortex.

A telephone pole floated by, spinning clockwise and trailing wires and cables like tendrils. Sarah reached for it, but Novak tugged her hair, pulling her back.

“Don’t,” he grunted. “It’s infected. There’s white fuzz all over the side. We can’t take that shit through the doorway with us.”

The pole zipped past them. Henry and Gail did their best to avoid it.

“You can let go of my hair now,” Sarah gasped. “I’m fine.”

“Okay,” Novak said. “I’m sorry. Just wanted to make sure you—”

His grip tightened and his muscles tensed. Sarah was about to ask him what was wrong when Novak screamed. Suddenly, he was jerked up out of the water. Sarah went with him, dangling by her hair, until the fistful Novak had been clutching ripped free at the roots. She plummeted back into the water and surfaced again in time to hear Henry and Gail shrieking.

Novak thrashed hundreds of feet above them, punching and kicking, caught in the grip of one of Leviathan’s tentacles. Even as she began to swim toward him, Sarah knew it was pointless. Already his struggles grew weaker as the teeth-lined suckers sliced through his clothing and feasted on his flesh. She paddled in place and watched, transfixed, as droplets of his blood fell with the rain. Novak gave one last strangled cry, and then went limp.

Three more tentacles snaked toward her, parting the water like eels. Leviathan loomed over the ship, dwarfing it with his towering mass. When the creature roared again, Sarah’s ears popped. She turned and kicked as the tentacles raced across the surface. Behind her, she heard the sirens screech. Henry and Gail’s expressions grew even more terrified.

“Don’t turn around,” Henry yelled. “Holy shit, just swim! Swim toward us!”

Even as he said it, Henry began paddling away. When Gail did the same, Sarah glanced over her shoulder. A dozen dorsal fins cleaved the water, pursuing her, as were a host of sirens, starfish creatures, and other denizens of the Great Deep. In their midst were Leviathan’s tentacles, leading the chase. But then, where Novak’s blood had spilled just seconds before, something strange began to happen. A red line appeared in the water, quickly growing in size and length until it encompassed the whirlpool. The first of Leviathan’s tendrils crossed the line and exploded. Seconds later, one of the shark-men and something that looked like a cross between a seahorse and a centipede both leaped from the water, intent on overtaking Sarah. Both disintegrated in a shower of gore as they crossed the line.

It’s Simon, Sarah thought. He’s doing this.

Indeed, his voice echoed in her head. It sounded strained and weak. But the barrier won’t hold long. Hurry, Sarah. And good luck…

Weeping, Sarah turned back to Gail and Henry, and swam toward them. When she’d reached them, the three held on to one another, arms around their shoulders, and kicked to stay afloat. The churning current grew stronger, sweeping them toward the center of the vortex.

“My God,” Gail sobbed, staring at the ship. “I just… my God.”

Leviathan had focused all of his rage on the vessel. As they watched, his tentacles encircled it, lifting the ship from the water. He flung it as a child might toss a bath toy, and the ship crashed back into the water, lying on its port side. Unable to cross the mystical barrier, the other creatures swarmed toward it.

“Look!” Henry pointed at the whirlpool.

Sarah and Gail turned back to the vortex. There, in the center of the light, they saw a beautiful blue sky with white, cotton-ball clouds. Below the clouds was a line of green treetops. It was then that Sarah realized what the source of the light was.

“It’s the sun,” she said, squeezing Gail and Henry’s shoulders. “That light… it’s been so long since we’ve seen it. I’d forgotten…”

“Know what else?” Henry flipped his wet bangs. “It’s not raining there. Look close. You see?”

“I can’t remember how it feels to be dry,” Sarah said.

Gail smiled. “You will soon.”

The current swept them forward faster and faster, making them dizzy. Sarah considered closing her eyes to ward off the vertigo, but instead, she continued staring into the sun. Behind them, Leviathan raised both massive fists and brought them down, smashing the ship into splinters. Leviathan roared again, and Sarah felt the pressure not only in her ears, but on her eyeballs and against her lungs, as well. Lightning split the sky, striking the ocean’s roiling surface in a dozen locations. The whirlpool increased.

“Hang on,” Gail yelled. “Oh God… the current!”

“We’re going to be okay.” Sarah did her best to reassure them. “Just stick together and don’t let go.”

The vortex swept them toward its center. Leviathan, the creatures, and even the rain seemed to fade into the background. Henry stared, blinking as the sun grew nearer.

“What happens next?” he asked.

“We start over,” Sarah said. “We get to start over in a world that’s still alive—a world where our loved ones are still alive.”

She smiled, thinking of Kevin and Teddy and Carl and all of the others she’d lost along the way. When she looked up at Henry, the teen was smiling. So was Gail, as the sun in the center of the ocean dried the tears on her face.

Together, they sailed over the edge of the world.

THE END