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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.’

Tyler stared out at the water and listened to the waves lap against the rocks. It was just after dawn, and already hot. The day was going to be punishing to them with no protection from the sun. He stood and stretched, then headed away from them.

‘Where are you going?’ Nash said.

‘Checking this place out. There might be something you missed.

‘Trust me, there’s nothing to see,’ Liam said.

‘My days of trusting you are long gone,’ Tyler said as he walked away from them, intent on exploring the island.

The terms exploring and island both proved to be optimistic descriptions as the rock pile they were stranded on was too small to be able to do the former or be called the latter. It was essentially a large single rock jutting out of the ocean. A short ‘beach’ of smaller rocks and boulders was where Nash and Liam waited and watched him explore. The bulk of the rock was around fifteen feet tall and had become pitted and worn with exposure to the elements. Tyler looked at it and it was definitely scalable. For now, he dismissed it, instead picking his way around the edge, careful not to twist his ankle on the smaller loose rocks at his feet. The tide washed in, soaking his feet and ankles. It was only then he realised that he was both barefoot and still wearing his wetsuit. He picked his way around the giant rock, trying to ignore the lack of vegetation. The rear of the island was much the same as the front. A small depression had been partially eroded into the rock face, but not deep enough to provide them with any shelter from the elements. He stepped into it, checking anyway as the tide smashed against the rocks at his back. The depression in the rock was only two feet deep and seven high, and completely open to the elements. With some building materials, they might have been able to make a shelter. He chuckled a sharp bark that echoed from the rock at the idiocy of the thought. Building materials. Or a boat. Or a lifeguard. May as well wish for any of those things as they were just as unlikely. He ran his hand across the cool rock, hoping to find fresh water and seeing instead just a covering of moss creeping up the lower part of the wall. As desperate as the situation was, he wasn’t quite prepared to eat that yet, and so he moved on around the back of the island so that he was on the opposite side to where Nash and Liam waited. It was cooler here with the sun rising on the north side and not yet warming the stone. He stared at the upper portion of the rock face. This route looked easier to climb, but the penalty for falling was higher. Sharp boulders jutted like deadly daggers to await anyone who may lose a foothold or slip on the slick rocks. At best, it would be a broken ankle or severe laceration. At worse, death. He reached up and grabbed a jutting section of rock, pulling himself up onto his tiptoes, testing his strength. How long, he wondered, would that last with no food or water and exposed to the burning heat of the day? It was then he knew that there was no other option. He would climb whilst he still could, otherwise, he knew it would nag at him that he hadn’t explored every option. There was, however, a flaw in his plan. He looked down at his feet, his bare, wet feet and knew attempting to climb was madness. Nash had shoes on, or one at least, and as much as he didn’t particular want to wear someone else’s footwear, he decided he would ask to borrow them when he returned to the front of the island. He carried on, every step confirming what he had been told. There was nothing there. Just rock and crashing waves. He came back around the other side of the island, passing Liam on his way.

‘Seen for yourself now?’

Tyler glared at him. ‘You don’t have to be a dick all the time. We’re in this together.’

‘You do what you want, man. I’d have saved my energy if I were you. You’re gonna need it.’

‘We all are. Don’t talk to me like this is my fault. This was your show, not mine.’

‘You don’t know how lucky you were back there. You should be dead now.’

‘That’s enough, Liam,’ Nash said, glaring at his son. ‘Bickering isn’t going to help anyone. We need to figure out a plan.’

Tyler turned to Nash, the anger threatening to boil over. ‘You have something in mind?’

Nah frowned, one good eye refusing to focus on Tyler. ‘No, but… it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. You really don’t remember what happened, do you?’

‘I told you. I remember hitting the water when the shark hit the boat. Everything else after is a blur.’

‘It might come back to you. Just your brain flipping the circuit breakers and maybe threw a short circuit. It’s been a tough time.’

Tyler offered no reply and looked out again at the undulating ocean. ‘What the hell are we going to do?’

The lack of answer worried Tyler, although it didn’t surprise him. It wasn’t just that their options were limited; they were non-existent. He turned to Nash, watching as he touched the edges of his leg wound.

‘We can’t just wait here to die. We have to try something. You guys know the area and these waters. We need some options.’

‘You know as much as we do. You also know what is in these waters. We can’t go in there.’

‘We can’t stay here either. With this heat and no shade, we’ll be dead within a couple of days.’

‘That’s not even the worst part. Without water, we’re fucked,’ Liam said, still defiant, still trying to be the big man. Tyler didn’t want to get into another shouting match, and so he turned away and stared at the ocean. As he watched, the immense fin resurfaced. It made its way from right to left, slow and calculating around forty feet offshore.

‘It’s back. The shark. Are you seeing this?’ Tyler said, turning to look at the other. However, neither Nash nor Liam seemed surprised.

‘We know,’ Nash said. ‘He’s stalking the edge of the shallows. It knows we’re here.’

‘Sharks don’t do that. They don’t do grudges.’

‘This isn’t a grudge. We’re in its territory. Every twenty minutes or so, he’ll swim on by just to remind us he’s still there.’

Tyler watched as the fin sank beneath the waves. ‘It can’t come any closer?’

‘No. The water here is too shallow for him. We’re safe enough.’

‘Trapped more like,’ Liam said.

Tyler sat down hard, staring at the ocean. Everything that had happened was finally starting to sink in and the gravity of their situation was becoming more and more apparent to him with every passing moment.

Despite the intense, burning heat of the day, the night brought with it cold as the sea breeze assaulted their island. With no protection from the elements, they each tried as best they could to conserve their energy. The south side of the rock, where Tyler had found the hollow, was being relentlessly smashed by waves which made sleep difficult. Nash struggled, too, moaning in pain as his leg continued to weep blood as he drifted in and out of sleep. All day, the shark had continued to sweep past their island prison, making them aware of its presence. Tyler was glad for the dark just because he couldn’t see the dorsal fin sweeping passed, first right to left, then the other way. He lay on his side, curled against the rock face, knees pulled up to try and keep warm. He drifted in and out of sleep, on the edge of consciousness. Memories drifted in and out of his mind as he ignored the hunger and thirst that was already starting to become a problem. He thought of his childhood, long-forgotten snippets of memories that were completely meaningless. He remembered playing in the street with childhood friends when the worries of adulthood were so far away. He remembered excited gift opening on Christmas morning, the security of the family unit around him bringing his troubled mind some comfort. He also dreamed of drink. Precious alcohol. Now the shock had subsided, and the monster in the water was no longer a threat, the other monster, the one that lived inside him, was raging and desperate to be fed. Telling himself there was nothing he could to about it was no help. It still thrashed and raged, demanding alcohol.

Across the island from Nash and Tyler as they struggled to sleep, Liam sat on a rock staring at them. There would be no sleep for him. Not under the circumstances. He sat and stared at his father and the stranger they had brought with them and considered the possibility that in order to survive, he may have to go to extreme lengths. There was no loyalty. No family, not now. It had become a battle for survival. Liam stared at the two other men and listened to the sound of the waves crashing against the rock. He was still there when the sun started to rise.

Tyler snapped awake. The dream had been vivid and frightening, and for a moment he lay there and let his heart slow to something akin to normal. It was early, and the sun had only just started to touch the rock that was their new home. The heat on his back was already intense and he knew the day ahead was going to be a long one. His throat was dry, and he opened and closed his mouth to try without success to generate some saliva. The dreams that had plagued him through the night had intensified, the worst of which was about the dive. He had replayed it in horrific detail in his mind as the giant shark had appeared out of the dark and changed their lives forever. Something about the dream had troubled him. There was an aspect to it which didn’t fit or seem right yet he still couldn’t place what it was. He sat up, squinting at the sun. It was a glorious morning the sky pale and cloudless. It would have been beautiful if it wasn’t for the dire circumstances. Liam was sitting on a rock, staring at him.

‘How long have you been awake?’ Tyler asked.

‘Not slept.’ The answer was robotic and without emotion.

‘Oh,’ Tyler replied, rubbing his shoulder. It had gone numb where he had been sleeping on it. He turned to Nash, who was also awake and sitting upright, ravaged leg stretched out in front of him, the wound already attracting the attention of flies.

‘You don’t need to say it. I know it’s bad.’

Tyler looked away. ‘It will be fine. We’ll get help.’

‘Do you have a plan?’ Nash replied, his voice full of hope.

Tyler shook his head. ‘No, no I was just saying. We’ll be fine.’ He turned his attention to the ocean and the spot where their boat had been. ‘Maybe it’s moved off now. I still think we can try to get out of here.’

‘He’s gone nowhere.’ Nash replied, wincing as he shifted position. ‘This is his territory. His place. We’re trapped.’

‘You don’t know that. You can’t know that. Maybe it realised it couldn’t get to us and moved off to feed elsewhere.’

‘Then why not swim for it? See what happens,’ Liam said. Despite everything that had happened to them, the arrogance was still there and was growing.

‘Maybe I will. We’ll die if we stay. At least that way we’ll have a chance.’

‘“We?” No, not we. You. We’re staying here,’ Liam snapped.

‘For what? You said so yourself, there isn’t any help coming. For whatever reason, we’re stuck here. I don’t know if you noticed, but that leg injury of your fathers is serious and not getting any better. We can’t just stay here.’

‘Then go. Swim for it. We’ll watch and see how far you get before you either drown or get eaten by that fucking shark.’

‘Enough both of you,’ Nash shouted. He was staring at them both, his face slick with sweat. ‘Stop bickering. This shouldn’t have gone down this way, we know that. All we can do is deal with what we have. We’ve got no food, no water, and no way off this rock. Maybe he’s right, maybe the two of you should try it and leave me here.’

Liam sighed and stood. He had tied the wetsuit around his waist and took one of the arms and wiped the sweat from his forehead. ‘I won’t leave you here to die alone.’

Tyler was only half-listening. Something had caught his eye in the water off the island, although he couldn’t tell if it was a trick of the light. Whatever it was out there was only thirty feet out. Easily swimmable under ordinary circumstances. He turned to Nash. ‘There’s something out there in the water.’

Liam joined Tyler at the water’s edge, cupping his face to shield it from the glare of the sun. ‘Where?’

‘Right there,’ Tyler said, pointing to the spot off the coast.

‘That’s the Zodiac, or what’s left of it. Junk.’

‘What if we could use it? What if we could repair it? Wouldn’t that give us at least half a chance?’

‘Repair it with what? Besides, that looks pretty close to where the shark was stalking. Maybe too close,’ Liam replied, still staring with his hands cupped.

‘He’s right,’ Nash added. ‘We’re safe here because it’s definitely too shallow. Out there, you’re right on the edge. You won’t be able to tell from the water if it’s shallow or deep. Too risky.’

‘I’m prepared to try it. We need to at least try,’ Tyler said, driven more by the burning desire for a drink than any sense of bravery.

Liam glanced at his father, then at Tyler. ‘I still say it’s a risk. Are you feeling brave enough to try or are you just talking shit to look like the big man?’

Tyler had reached his breaking point. The desire to hit Liam was strong, and as frustration and exhaustion set in, he was finding it increasingly hard to hold it back. Without another word, Tyler turned back towards the water and waded in.

He had done it as a way of proving that he wasn’t scared, but now that he was in the water and knew what was out there, he was much less confident. Even the little voice he thought of as his monster with it’s never ending craving for booze was silent. He swam, forcing himself to be calm and not splash too much. He thought it was unlikely that the Megalodon was still stalking the island and waiting for them. A creature of such size would need to feed on more substantial meals than they would provide. He believed that, as he had said to the others, it had likely moved off after realising they were unobtainable prey. Even so, he couldn’t escape the feeling of powerlessness and just how small he was. He risked a look back, and the island they were marooned on seemed even smaller. He focussed on the task at hand, swimming to the orange glow he could see just beneath the surface of the water and trying not to think about what could be below him. The Zodiac partially deflated, bobbing just beneath the surface and retaining enough buoyancy to keep it and the outboard engine from sinking. He tried not to get too excited at the idea that this could be their way out, but still felt a mini surge of adrenaline. He dived, kicking towards the part deflated boat and pulling it towards the surface. It was heavy, but the buoyancy helped. He resurfaced, gasping and treading water. Now there was no hiding his elation. This could be it. Their way back to the real world, their—

He was broken from his train of thought by something moving underneath him, the current caused by its wake pulling him a further ten feet away from the island. He stopped moving, partly through fear, partly through recollection of the book Nash had given him saying that kicking and splashing attracted sharks. He clutched his prize, determined not to let it go. There was something beneath the surface, an immense shape coming towards him.

Death.

It would find him first before the others and he could live with that. It was better than the alternative, the slow painful expiration that would come on the island if the Zodiac wasn’t repairable. He flinched as the water exploded beside him and waited for the huge jaws of the creature to close around him and crush him. Once again, though, luck was with him. Instead of being crushed, Tyler was looking at a humpback whale. It had breached the surface, massive eye staring at him. Unlike his encounter with the shark, there was no sense of threat, just one of wonder at being in the presence of such a huge and graceful creature. Tyler was once again reminded that he was a minuscule part of the machine that was nature, one that would go on without him. He had read stories about whales helping humans. Even now, science was still learning about the incredible majesty and intelligence of the species. Tyler stared at it and wondered if this was some kind of sign that everything was going to be alright. He clutched the semi-inflated raft closer to him, treading water and wondering if the others could see what was going on. As he contemplated this, the whale lurched out of the water, emitting a high-pitched whine as it was attacked from below by the Megalodon. For a terrifying second, Tyler couldn’t move and only watch the savage display as the whale was decimated. The wake from the attack pushed him back as the water bloomed with blood. It was this that spurred him on his way. He started to swim, desperately clinging on to the raft and listening to the sounds of the whale being savaged at his back. He made it back to the island, dragging the remains of the boat with him and wondering if it had all been worth it. Liam and Nash were waiting. All three of them were silent as the destruction continued, the cries of the whale and thrashing in the water an awful soundtrack to the devastation. When it was done, there was little evidence that any attack had taken place apart from a slick of blood on the surface of the water. Both Megalodon and remains of the whale were gone.

Tyler was still sitting at the water’s edge, clinging to the remains of the inflatable. ‘We’re stuck here.’

‘I told you we were,’ Liam replied. ‘No way we’re leaving this place now. You just risked your life for nothing.’

The afternoon heat was unbearable. Nash was talking to Liam about trying to catch fish, although Tyler had noted there was little enthusiasm. There were no tools to make a net with. Tyler had made another lap of their small island, hoping to see something new he may have missed the first time around, yet there was no such luck. The rock was as barren as it had been the previous day and offered little in the way of provisions. This time, there was no second thought and he ate the moss without hesitation. Hunger and thirst had come much quicker than he ever anticipated. Even the monster that lived in him would settle for water now. It was as if the energy he had was being drained by the heat of the sun. Part of him wished he hadn’t expended so much of his reserves retrieving the raft. Although potentially repairable, there was nothing to patch the hole in the rubber, and so it was useless. His lips were starting to become cracked and his tongue felt shrivelled in his mouth. When he returned to the front of the island, Liam was cleaning his father leg wound. He glanced at Tyler, the look in his eye saying that the prognosis was not good. The discolouration was increasing rapidly and infection had definitely set in.

‘Bad, isn’t it?’ Nash said. Both Liam and Tyler were surprised how jovial he was considering the situation.

‘Yeah, it’s not looking too good, Dad,’ Liam said, covering the wound with the makeshift bandage made from part of his wetsuit. ‘We need to keep it clean.’

Nash chuckled and shifted position. ‘I wouldn’t worry about it. We’ll be gone long before infection sets in. Couple more days and… well, that’s us.’

‘You don’t know that.’

‘I know enough. This isn’t how it was meant to go down, that’s for sure.’

An image flashed into Tyler’s mind of the dive and the attack by the shark. It was as if the missing link in his memory had been found, and everything fit together exactly how he knew it should. ‘Just how was it supposed to go down?’ he said, glaring at Nash.

The older man stammered and looked away. ‘I just mean we were unlucky.’

‘No. That’s not it. I remember when I was down there. How those drones of yours that were supposed to give us light. They moved towards the shark when it approached. As if someone were guiding them.’

‘You’re confused, it’s just your brain playing tricks, that’s all.’

‘No, for the first time it’s clear. You moved them towards the shark, didn’t you?’ Tyler recalled what happened the way the drones had exploded. At first, he thought it was because the shark had attacked them, but now as he replayed it in his mind, he knew that wasn’t the case. ‘You put explosives in the drones, didn’t you?’

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Nash grunted.

‘Hey, leave him alone, what the hell is wrong with you?’ Liam stepped between his father and Tyler, but there was no stopping him now. He needed to say it.

‘You used us as bait. You knew that thing was down there and would come for us. It was never about gold, was it? It was about revenge for what happened to you all those years ago.’

‘Shut up, just shut up. It’s not true.’ Nash was flustered and agitated.

‘It all makes sense. What was supposed to happen? We go down there to draw it out, you send your explosives-filled drones to kill it and get your revenge for what it did to you then we rake up the treasure at the end? Or were we supposed to die down there, too, leaving it all for you?’

‘You’re not making sense, the sun is making you crazy,’ Nash screamed.

‘Why don’t you just admit it? The plan you had failed and now we’re all stuck here. You fucking killed us.’

‘I’m not admitting anything. You’ve got sunstroke or something. Don’t you try to put this on me.’

‘You heard him. Leave him alone,’ Liam said, glaring at Tyler. The anger was still surging through him, but he knew well enough that getting into a fight would expend more energy than there was to waste. Instead, he went to the place he now referred to as his on the rock and dragged the deflated raft with him; he had, after all, earned it and so it was his. Not wanting anything more to do with Liam or his father, Tyler pulled the raft over his head, giving him a little respite from the sun. As he lay there on the hot rocks with anger surging through him, he was more determined than ever to get off the island and to freedom, even if it meant doing so at the expense of Nash and Liam.

Night.

Without the burning heat of the sun and the alarming hunger and thirst, it could almost be paradise. Countless stars were painted across the sky which was cloudless and crisp. Tyler lay on the deflated raft, one end rolled into a pillow of sorts. He was on his back, staring at the sky and wondering if life out there was as cruel and brutal as it was on earth. He hadn’t spoken to the others since the argument earlier, and even though his anger had cooled, he was just as certain that everything he had accused Nash of was true, even if there was no way to prove it. He tried to clear his throat, but it was too dry. He would have given anything for a glass of water, just to clear away that dryness.

‘Hey.’

Tyler looked to his right. Nash was staring at him in the gloom of the moonlight. Beyond him, Liam was on his side, sleeping.

‘I’ve got nothing else to say to you.’

‘Then just listen,’ Nash said, his voice a near whisper barely audible above the crashing waves. ‘You were right.’

‘About what?’

‘Everything. I wanted it dead. That bastard thing ruined my life.’

Tyler turned to face him. ‘So why deny it? Why the denial earlier?’

‘I can’t let my son know. Just believe me when I tell you that neither of you was supposed to be in the firing line for this. You were supposed to stay still on the bottom. The explosives in the drones were supposed to kill the shark from safely above you. Remember I told you? I said stay on the bottom. If you had just done what I said, it would have worked.’

‘It was a crazy plan,’ Tyler hissed, too tired to get angry.

‘It could have worked. Even if the explosives didn’t kill it, then it would have scared the shark away, hopefully; left it disfigured like me.’

‘Unbelievable.’

‘I don’t expect you to understand. I just wanted to set the record straight,’ Nash grunted.

‘No, I understand perfectly. Your lifetime vendetta against this monster came down to revenge. When it went wrong, it put us all in danger to the point where it’s going to cost us all our lives. But at least you have a clear conscience, right?’

Nash frowned and looked out over the black waters. ‘It was about revenge. No point in denying that. But my conscience ain’t clear. Not by a long shot.’

‘Then why say anything? What does it achieve? Why not just keep quiet.’

‘Because we don’t have long left. Another day or so and we’re done for. We can’t survive like this. At least now it’s all out on the table.’

Tyler nodded past Nash to Liam. ‘What about him? Doesn’t he deserve the truth?’

Nash glanced at his then back to Tyler. ‘He wouldn’t handle it. He’s not calm like you. He gets… angry. Volatile. He has medication for his brain, but of course, it was lost on the boat. For him, it’s best he thinks this was all an accident. It’s important to keep him calm.’

‘And what if I decide to tell him otherwise?’

Nash shrugged. ‘I’ll deny it. A son will always believe his father over a stranger. Besides, soon enough, it won’t matter. Don’t tell me you haven’t felt it. The gnawing in your belly, the delirium, the need for water.’

Tyler said nothing. There was no need.

‘Thing is,’ Nash went on, ‘is that human nature will take over. Soon enough, when desperation takes over, we’ll see what the two of you are made of.’

‘What do you mean?’

Nash smiled, the expression ghastly in the poor light. ‘You know what I mean. When a man becomes desperate, all the rules go out of the window. It comes down to who wants to live the most and how far you are willing to go to do it.’

Despite the heat that was still embedded in the rocks, a chill surged through Tyler. ‘You mention the two of us. Why not yourself?’

Nash chuckled. ‘Isn’t it obvious? I’m the weak link. Old and crippled. I’ll be the first to die here, there’s no doubt about that.’

‘Nobody has to die here, Nash. There might be a way.’

‘Only… there isn’t. This isn’t some bullshit novel or Hollywood movie. There isn’t some third arc plot twist to get us out of the shit. The end is coming for us all; it’s just a matter of how long it takes.’

‘I won’t give in. I won’t just stay here and wait to die. You might and that’s up to you, but not me.’

Nash shrugged. ‘No, I don’t think you will. I wonder which of you will do whatever it takes to live a little longer?’

‘You sound sorry you won’t get to see it.’

‘I am. Both sorry and curious. I think you stand a good chance of survival all told. I just don’t think you’ll go as far as Liam will. That will be your downfall.’

‘Yeah, well, I don’t intend for it to come to that. I intend to do everything we can to make sure we live a little longer, together. There is always a chance.’

‘Not always. Not now.’

Tyler turned on his side and pulled the deflated raft over him like a blanket. ‘We better get some sleep. Save our energy.’

‘You do that,’ Nash said, staring out into the dark. ‘You get your rest and save your energy.’

Tyler ignored him, and despite what he said, he knew that sleep would not come easily that night. On the opposite side of the rock, Liam lay with his eyes open, having listened to everything that had been said. He stared out to sea and imagined the waves were whispering to him and telling him what he had to do.

The hunger and thirst woke Tyler before dawn. His body felt as if it had shrivelled, and he was wasting away hour by hour. To his surprise, when he woke, Liam was in the water. He was standing there up to his waist. Tyler could see ghostly shadows where his ribs were showing through his skin. Tyler sat beside Nash. ‘What is he doing?’

‘Fishing. He’s had this crazy idea he saw on a film once to just stand there and be still until a fish comes close then he says he’ll snatch it out of the water.’

Tyler glanced at Nash then watched Liam. ‘Is that possible? It seems unlikely.’

‘I told him that already. He won’t listen to me. He does crazy stuff like this when he’s off his meds.’

‘He’ll burn out there in this heat.’

‘He’s stubborn. Best to let him do it. I’m too tired to argue with him again. Like I said, he won’t be all that rational now.’

It was the first time Tyler had realised how old and tired Nash looked. He seemed to have aged impossibly in a short space of time. He decided it was as good a time as any to try to talk to him about what happened during the dive without Liam’s short fuse threatening to explode at any given moment. ‘I want to talk to you about the dive,’ he said, unsure how things would play out. To his surprise, Nash only sighed and wiped the sweat from his brow.

‘My throat is so dry I don’t know how much talking I have in me. Still, I suppose I owe you an explanation. After all, you were nothing to do with this. Wrong place wrong time.’

The nonchalant way he said it made Tyler angry, but he wanted answers and pushed his frustration aside. He waited, staring at his long, skinny shadow on the rocks in front of him.

‘You have to understand,’ Nash said, looking straight out to sea, his scars visible in horrific clarity. ‘That thing ruined my life. I wish it had killed me.’

‘No, you don’t. You wouldn’t have fought on for all these years dealing with those injuries if you thought that.’

‘It’s because of the way I look that I wish I was dead. You don’t get it. You weren’t there. It’s bad enough dealing with how I look. It’s the memories. People I knew, my brothers who were taken by that fucking thing. It savaged them. Every time I see this… mess that’s left of me, it reminds me of them. It’s like an open wound that can never heal. In some ways, I’ve never been away from the day I first saw it.

‘Why now? Why wait until now to get your revenge if that’s what this was all about?’

‘Because I wasn’t sure.’ Nash glanced at Tyler then immediately looked away. ‘Not until I heard about that gold being found. I suspected, of course, I did. Why do you think I chose to come and live out here? I was waiting for a chance to get my revenge. I just needed help.’

‘And you chose me,’ Tyler said.

Nash shook his head. ‘Don’t make it sound bad. You wanted the gold, I get that. Nobody forced you to do this. We gave you the opportunity.’

‘No. You can’t try to sell that story, Nash. You sold this as a simple dive to get some gold.’

‘I told you the stories. The legend. I told you what was out here. Just because you chose not to believe it, that’s not my fault.’

‘Fine, that I’ll give you. Using me as bait, that’s on you, though. You can’t talk your way out of that.’

‘No, no I can’t.’

They fell silent and watched Liam standing motionless in the water.

‘For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. Like I said, this wasn’t how it was supposed to be. The drone was supposed to detonate when he bit into it and kill him. I never imagined… Well, you know.’

‘Yeah, I know,’ Tyler said, leaning his head back on the rocks and wishing for water. He didn’t want booze anymore, though. That was one relief. It seemed a slow agonising death was a fantastic cure for near alcoholism.

Twenty feet away, Liam stood in the shallows and stared at the shimmering ocean. He had detached himself from the world. The fear, the hunger. The thirst. All of it now felt as if it belonged to somebody else. The water lapped against his abdomen, the sounds of the water like voices telling him what he needed to do. He wasn’t religious by any mean, but now was silently praying to the god he hoped existed. Not only for a way out but also for the strength to do what he knew was necessary. The brutal, inhuman things he would be forced to undertake to ensure he lived. He had asked his questions and was still waiting for an answer yet to arrive. He was starting to consider that his lack of answer was enough of an answer to his query when something touched his cheek. He blinked and turned his eyes to the sky. This time, there was no mistake.

Rain.

Water.

The strength he had asked for and also the go ahead with the barbaric and brutal things he was going to have to do. The rain started to fall faster, pattering the ocean around him. He opened his mouth and let it land on his parched tongue.

Water. The biggest problem, the biggest drain on his strength was now given to him. As he heard his father and Tyler cheer and whoop as the rain fell, he didn’t smile or change his expression. The strength to do his job was now on its way. He just needed to find the will to do it.

Chapter Nine

The rain was ferocious, driven from the heavens with a fury unlike anything any of them had ever seen. They whooped and cheered, revelling in the unexpected lifeline. Tyler had made the inflatable into a container to collect the precious water and was holding it in place to stop it blowing off the rock. Nash and Liam had their faces turned to the sky, mouths open as they took in the precious life-giving water. Such a simple thing as rainfall had given renewed hope and energy after the punishment of the previous days. With the joy of receiving the precious water came also fear, as the tiny rock they were stranded on was pounded by waves churned up by the storm. They watched the storm rage above them, sky alive with lightning, the power of nature in evidence all around them it was both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.

Later, when the storm passed, they sat in contemplation.

‘That should buy us a few days,’ Nash said, looking from Liam to Tyler. ‘Now all we need is for it to rain food and we’ll be set.’

‘I was actually thinking about that,’ Liam said, shuffling closer to the others.

‘You’ve had an idea?’ Tyler said.

‘Not an idea as such, a suggestion.’

‘Go on.’

He glanced out to the black ocean, then at the others, his face milky in the moonlight. ‘I was thinking about you, Dad; more specifically, your leg. You know, how infected it is.’

‘Yeah, it’s not looking too good, is it?’ Nash said, staring at the discoloured appendage.

‘You need help, at a hospital, even then I think we all know the odds are you’ll lose it. That kind of infection isn’t easy to come back from.’

‘You’re killing my good mood here, son.’

Liam shifted position again, and now addressed Tyler directly. It was the first time he had seemed civil and without the chip on his shoulder.

‘We could help him. Cut it off, the leg. Stop the infection from spreading. If we catch it quickly, we might be able to save it above the knee.’

‘Are you insane? That’s not an option. It’s not possible. Tell him, Nash.’

Nash looked from his leg to his son, and Tyler could see it. The older man was afraid. He wondered if that had always been the case, that he feared his son and he had never noticed it before. Liam went on.

‘Think about it, we need food. We could take off the leg, save dad’s life and then… then we’ll have something to eat as long as we avoid the infected areas.’

Silence.

Nobody wanted to speak or knew what to say. The waves lapped at their rock prison and still, nobody broke the silence brought on by Liam’s words. Tyler cleared his throat, choosing his words carefully.

‘We’re all hungry, I get that. But this line of thought leads nowhere. This isn’t an option. Granted, the leg wound is infected, but we don’t know if the infection will spread or not. It could be isolated and saveable once we get out of here. Even if we needed to take the leg, if it was a life-threatening injury that meant it had to happen, we have no way of doing it. No tools, nothing to stop the bleeding, nothing to numb his pain. No means of stitching or sealing the wound. He wouldn’t survive. Even if by some miracle he did, the risk of infection would be even bigger with a fully open wound. And for what? A hunk of infected meat that you couldn’t cook or make safe to eat. It’s a non-starter.’ Even as he said it, Tyler tried to rid his mind of images of rare steak served with peppercorn sauce. Disgusted by the way his mind made the link, he swallowed the burst of saliva before he could start to drool.

He looked to Nash for support, but he was still staring at his son, a frail and frightened old man.

‘Take it easy,’ Liam said, breaking eye contact. ‘It was just… I wasn’t thinking. I’m so hungry, so so hungry it’s just…’ He stared at his father’s leg, then forced himself to look away. ‘I wasn’t thinking straight, that’s all. I get like this when I’m off my medication.’

‘I get it, but I’m telling you right here and now. Get that idea out of your head. We have water now and can ration it out which means we’ve bought a little time. We’ll figure out a way to get food. We’re surrounded by ocean that is full of life. We’ll figure out a way to get it.’

‘Yeah, you’re right, forget I mentioned it. I’m just… I don’t know. I’m not quite together anymore. This place is breaking me.’

They had all felt it but Nash was first to vocalise it.

‘You know, maybe it might be better to just end this. Just walk out into the sea and let that bastard finish us.’ Nash wouldn’t look at them as he said it. Instead, he stared out over the ocean with his one good eye. The shark had stopped patrolling the island, but they all knew it was out there.

‘We can’t give up. Not now. Look at how bad things were before we got water,’ Tyler said, not liking the dark thread they were following.

‘With no food, it will get worse. I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling weaker every day. To just sit here and die… It won’t be a good way to go.’

‘Look, I think we’re all feeling negative tonight. Let’s get some rest and save our strength. We’ll talk tomorrow.’

Nobody had the energy to argue. Nash settled down and made himself as comfortable as he could. Tyler did the same, his exhausted mind and body meaning sleep came easier than it should have.

Liam, however, didn’t sleep. He sat there in the dark and stared at his father’s leg. He started to drool.

PRE-DAWN

Nash and Tyler were still sleeping. Liam was too agitated and hungry to do the same and wanting to remove himself from them both, especially his father’s leg and the chance to survive it would have presented, he had gone to the other side of their tiny island, just so he could be alone with his thoughts. The hunger burned in his gut, which he was sure had shrivelled to something non-existent. Hungry eyes scanned the surface of the rock island, looking for something, anything to eat. He found the debris in the alcove. He presumed the storm had pushed it to the island. Liam crouched in the alcove, sifting through the floating fragments of fibreglass. There was half a soggy paperback, it’s cover missing. Alongside it was a few little pieces of polystyrene and half a plastic mug that was his fathers and was cracked down one side. He ignored all of it. The thing that caught his eye was the box. Designed to be positively buoyant in the event of falling overboard, he knew it was the sign from above he had been waiting for. He pulled it towards him, shaking hands fumbling with the catch. Eventually, he freed it and lifted the lid. Inside the watertight container was a medical kit. Liam pushed past the bandages and found what he was looking for at the bottom. He took out the scalpel, heart thundering. There were also spare blades in the box and flare gun. In that instant, everything changed. The opportunity that had, until that point, not allowed him to follow his initial train of thought was now there. Something wet touched his leg, and for a moment, he thought it was starting to rain. It was only when he looked at it that he realised he was drooling at the idea of finally getting some food. Now all he needed was the mental strength to do what he had to so they could survive. He rolled his sunken eyes to the sky. ‘Please, show me a way to do this. Show me a way to make it happen.’

He waited and listened to the water crash against the rocks, hoping for some kind of message from above. He was aware that the sun was starting to rise, and that he should get back before the others woke and found him missing. First, though, he would need to hide his new find.

When he had finished hiding the box under some loose rocks in the alcove and returned to the front of the island, the day was already starting to heat up. He arrived back at their makeshift campsite and found Tyler crouched beside Nash. At first, he thought they were just in conversation until he saw his father’s unblinking gaze staring at the sky.

‘It must have happened overnight,’ Tyler said. ‘It looks like he just slipped away.’

Liam approached, staring at his father, unsure why he didn’t feel anything. Tyler didn’t know what to say. Death made him uncomfortable at the best of times, but here on the hot, tiny island prison that had become their home, it was even worse. He had always held out hope that they would be saved and escape, but now as he looked at the empty vessel sprawled on the sand, the reality of the situation had shattered the fragile illusion he had built and with it reduced the symphony of questions in his mind down to just one.

How will we survive?

It was a good question. Hope was no longer enough. He looked across to Liam, wishing there were words he could say that would make a difference. He knew there were none. Liam, for his part, seemed to be taking the death of his father well. He was kneeling by the body, brow dotted with sweat, sunken eyes taking in the sight and trying to make sense of it.

‘Are you okay?’ Tyler asked, the simple function of speech becoming harder as his energy faded.

Liam had no answer. He simply stared, brow furrowed, sweat collecting on the tip of his nose.

‘Liam?’

‘How long has he been dead?’

There was no emotion in his voice. It was flat and almost disinterested.

‘I don’t know. I woke up and thought he was still sleeping. It wasn’t until the sun shone on his face and he didn’t move that I realised…’

Liam nodded, satisfied with the explanation. ‘You know this changes things for us, don’t you?’ He looked at Tyler, dark and bottomless.

Despite the heat, Tyler felt a flush of cold. ‘Changes things how?’

‘My dad is dead, but it doesn’t mean we have to go the same way. We have a chance now without him.’

‘Maybe now isn’t the time. We can talk about it later. You need time to mourn, to get to grips with what has happened.’ Tyler was shaken by the dismissiveness Liam was showing. There was no sorrow or mourning for his father. He wondered if it was nothing more than survival instinct kicking in or if the heat, thirst, and hunger had simply combined to throw a few switches into the off position in his brain. Tyler couldn’t really argue the point, though. His first thought after discovering Nash was dead had been that they might now be able to risk heading out into open water without worrying about Nash bleeding into it and drawing in the Megalodon. Despite what he had just said, he understood now was the time to act if they intended to try and escape the island. Every wasted second brought them closer to death.

‘Did you have something in mind? To get us off this rock, I mean. ‘

Liam looked out over the water, rocking on his haunches. ‘No. Not for that. Not yet. We’re too weak for that now.’

‘You just said you thought we had a chance.’

‘We do.’ Liam looked at him then, half his face cast in gold by the sun. ‘Way I see it, we need to get our strength before we try to escape. To do that, we need energy. That means food.’

There was nothing more he needed to say. A quick flick of the eyes towards his dead father said more than any words could. Tyler felt the shriveled up thing that was now his stomach tighten even more.

‘You can’t be serious. We’ve discussed this. We’re not that desperate. Not yet. ‘

‘I think we are. I’m not the only one who feels it.’

‘Feels what?’

‘The strength and energy ebb away by the hour. How long do you think we can go on like this? A day? A week? We need to do something now before it’s too late if we intend to get off this island and passed that shark.’

‘I can’t do that. I won’t do that. You’re talking about cannibalism.’

Liam shook his head. ‘No. I’m talking about survival. It’s different.’

‘That’s your father, not a slab of meat. Jesus, can you hear yourself?’

‘You don’t know him. This is what he would have wanted. He’d want us to live.’

‘He didn’t seem too sure on the idea when you first brought it up. If I remember, he looked as disgusted as I feel.’

‘He’d understand,’ Liam snapped. He was twitching and looked almost animalistic as he crouched there. ‘Besides, I’m not asking for your permission.’

‘I can’t stop you. Just don’t expect me to do it. Are things really so desperate you feel this is the only option? We’re not in that place yet where we need to do this.’

Liam laughed, a sharp sound that had no place in such a desolate place under such horrific circumstances. ‘You think I don’t know that? You think I want to do this? I don’t have a choice.’

‘There’s always a choice. Look, I know you and I haven’t gotten along during this trip. But your father asked me to come, and I’d like to think as the elder man here, you might listen to me when I tell you this isn’t something you want to do. It’s a mistake. It’s something you will have to live with for the rest of your life if you do it. Your father told me about your medication, and how not having it can make you think differently.’

‘What the hell do you know about it? It’s not your business. You don’t know anything about me.’

‘I know I want to help you. We need to stick together if we want to get out of here. The odds are already stacked against us.’

‘You say it like there is another choice. You think I want to do this?’

‘Then don’t. We’ll figure out a different way. This isn’t something you want to have to live with if you do it.’

Liam shook his head. ‘We’ll die if I don’t. It won’t matter either way.’

‘But what if we live? What if we figure this out or someone rescues us? What then? How will you handle it back home when it’s all you can think about? All you can… Taste. It will haunt you forever.’ Tyler knew well enough about need. His booze addiction which had been repressed by the need to survive, had been revived by the rain, and once it had tasted water, it now wanted something a little stronger and was thrashing around his gut again. He composed himself and continued. ‘I’m just trying to save you from that kind of trauma. I’m trying to help you here. ‘

Liam stared at him, then looked at his father. ‘I don’t know what I’m saying anymore. My mind seems like it belongs to someone else.’

Tyler shuffled closer, trying to ignore the fear, the heat and the thirst. Most of all, he was trying to ignore the images of steak, rare and bloody, that were flashing up in his mind. ‘I can help you. We can help each other. This isn’t the end. We still might have a chance to get off this island. If you do this, if you… if you do what you were talking about, then it’s over. You’ll have crossed a line you can never come back from.’

‘I don’t want this. That’s the part you don’t seem to understand. You keep looking at me like I’m a monster. I just… I’m so hungry. You must be, too.’

‘Of course I am. But this isn’t the answer. Please just think about it. Take some time.’

‘What else do we have but time,’ Liam muttered. Tyler had heard that before. He thought it might have been a quote from a TV show, perhaps an old episode of The Twilight Zone, but he couldn’t be sure.

‘Exactly. No rush to take action yet. We have all the time in the world. You’ve just lost your father. With the shock and the weakness… It’s no surprise things seem a little off. Please, just don’t rush into anything you’ll regret.’

‘I think you’re right. I need to take some time to think.’

‘Good. You do that. Take some time.’

Tyler watched as Liam stood and walked out of sight around the back of their rock prison. It was only then he could relax. He leaned against the hot stone and stared at the body of Nash. For him at least, it was over. Tyler thought maybe he was the lucky one.

Chapter Ten

Time enough at last.

That had been the episode of The Twilight Zone he couldn’t recall. He remembered it featured Burgess Meredith as the last man on earth after some kind of apocalyptic event. All poor Burgess had wanted was to be left alone to read in peace, something granted to him by said apocalypse and something he was happy about until the ultimate twist in the story resulting in the character played by Burgess breaking his reading glasses. With no optician available, the bittersweet irony dawned on him and left the viewer with a sour note as they wondered how poor Burgess would survive in the devastation without his ability to read (or see). Tyler was so set on remembering every aspect of the episode if only because it took his mind off the problem at hand.

His initial thought had been to float Nash’s body out to sea, in doing so removing temptation from Liam and stopping him from making a savage and life changing decision. The first reason he decided against it was the Megalodon. He didn’t want to bait the water and remind it that they were there. Although it had been a couple of days since they last saw it’s fin slicing through the waters on the edge of the shallows, he suspected it was still out there, just waiting to see if they would venture back into its territory. The other reason, and one that was much more disturbing as to why he was unable to go through with it, was the sick idea that Liam was right and their only chance of survival was to eat some of Nash’s remains. The idea terrified him but still didn’t rid his mind of those images of steak and mushrooms cut with thick cut fries on the side. An explosion of saliva filled his mouth and he swallowed it, with some effort, back down.

He couldn’t. He wouldn’t. He…

Did Burgess own a bookstore?

Was that part of the irony of the long ago watched Twilight Zone episode?

He couldn’t have been too old when he saw it. Maybe early teens. Why did it stick in his mind? Perhaps because he, too, was stuck and alone in a world that for all intents and purposes was empty. Nash was the equivalent of the reading glasses, and Tyler couldn’t decide if he should break them or make sure he took extra care of them.

Besides. He was hungry. Good sense went out of the window when it came down to survival. Could he bring himself to eat human flesh? To eat it raw? He didn’t think so. He wasn’t in that place yet mentally. But the idea was becoming less and less of a taboo with each passing moment. Maybe Liam was right. Maybe the rules that had always governed the world went out of the window when it came down to the basics of survival. He stared at Nash’s body and was already struggling to identify it as a human. It was a shell, meat and bones. Flesh.

Stop it.

The voice in his head was one of reason and served its purpose in derailing his morbid train of thought. Either way, he knew he couldn’t stand to look at Nash anymore. He retreated to the semi-inflated raft and cupped a double handful of water. It was running low and would soon be gone. Tyler leaned on the rock and closed his eyes, wishing he knew what to do for the best.

Later

Darkness had started to shroud their little slice of hell. Since leaving Tyler, Liam had been at the rear of the island in the alcove. The medical kit was in front of him, the scalpel clutched in a grubby hand. He stared at it, fascinated as it bent the light from the falling sun. He liked the way it warped and twisted, thinking it was similar to how he felt inside. He turned his senses inward, listening to his body and trying to decipher what it was trying to say to him. There was confusion in there. And fear. That, he had learned was the worst. It had eaten away at him, hour by hour, day by day until now it ruled him. He had come to understand that fear made people do things they wouldn’t normally do, and mad them behave in irrational ways. He thought of his father, a man with whom he hadn’t always seen eye to eye, and a relationship that was at times distant and filled with frustration. Even so, Liam had always loved him. He wondered why he didn’t feel anything now he was dead. There was sadness, true. But it was a different kind of sadness, similar to the kind when you see a celebrity death flash up on the news. There was surprise, a little shock, but no outpouring of grief. No agonising sorrow.

There was just the hunger.

That was ever present, and something which now ruled his entire existence. Feeding the hunger, satisfying that gnawing in his gut as his withered body screamed for sustenance.

It’s what he would have wanted. He’d want you to survive.

The voice in his head didn’t really even sound like him anymore. It had taken on its own personality, its own life. His medication usually stopped him from hearing it. It was designed that way to block out those dark things that spoke to him. Now, though, with that particular block lifted, it was free to converse as much as it wanted. The scalpel, it told him, was the answer. The answer to all his problems.

‘What if I can’t do it? Cut him… eat him… he will be raw,’ he whispered to himself.

You can do it. You’ll force yourself to keep it down because that’s what you need to do to survive.

‘He’s my father.’

No. he was your father. Now he’s just meat. A juicy steak or a nice piece of bacon.

Liam started to cry, silent sobs that were masked by the waves crashing against the rocks.

He knew the voice was right. He knew he had to act and ensure he didn’t die. Even if it meant doing something that was truly appalling. He started to inch his way back around the island to where his father was.

And what about Tyler? the devious inner voice asked.

‘What about him?’

What if he tries to stop you?

It was a good question. He didn’t think it would happen. He would be repulsed, that much was obvious, but he didn’t think he would interfere.

And if he does?

Liam stopped, letting the water rush over his feet. ‘If he does, I’ll kill him.’

The voice said nothing, but Liam knew it was smiling wherever in his subconscious it lived.

When he got back to their camp, it was almost total dark. He could see Tyler snoozing by the yellow inflatable, head on his chest. Liam was pleased. It would be easier with him asleep and not aware of what was going on. He moved silently towards where his father’s body still lay. In the glow of the moon, he looked like a shell, the shadows making him appear as a ghoul with black wells where his eyes should have been. Liam touched his father’s head, the rough scar tissue cold to the touch.

‘I hope you understand why I’m doing this,’ he whispered as he brought the knife out. His hands were shaking and he had to focus to steady them. ‘We have to live, we have to survive.’

With his free hand, he grabbed his father’s cold wrist and straightened it, touching the point of the scalpel blade to the meaty part of the forearm. ‘Forgive me.’ Liam said, then he cut.

The blood looked black in the moonlight. Liam cut a strip of flesh from the forearm, the tears streaming freely down his face. His mind was filled with static, the horror of his actions too much to bear, too much for him to handle. He had slipped into autopilot as he cut the lump of flesh loose. He held it in his palm, lip trembling.

‘What’s going on, what are you doing?’ Tyler said, sitting upright.

‘Just stay back, this is nothing to do with you,’ Liam said, the sobs getting heavier. He looked at the lump of flesh in his hand and knew what he had to do. His stomach churned and growled, then, in an event that repulsed him more than he ever anticipated, he started to drool. Thick strands of saliva hung from his chin as he looked at the grisly lump of flesh.

‘Don’t do it; you’ll regret it if you do,’ Tyler said, standing but not approaching. He had seen the scalpel shimmering in the moonlight and wondered dimly in the back of his mind where it had come from.

‘This is my business. I’m so hungry,’ Liam whined as the drool fell to the bloody rocks in front of him. ‘You keep out of it.’

Tyler watched, too stunned to do anything else. Liam lifted the lump of flesh to his mouth, caught between desire and disgust, hunger and repulsion. He was balanced there on a knife edge, when that little voice so silent and sly, whispered in his mind and encouraged him to do it.

Knowing he could delay no longer for fear he would change his mind, he put it in his mouth and started to chew.

Pork gristle sprang to mind, chewy and tough, resistant to his efforts to eat it. He could taste blood, and feel the fine hairs on what was his father’s arm tickling the inside of his mouth as he chewed on the cold, fleshy lump. He badly wanted to spit it out onto the rocks, but he couldn’t do it. The voice in his head wouldn’t let him. He chewed, trying to break up the fleshy lump as tears streamed down his beard-scruffed cheeks. He gagged, thought he was going to vomit, then gagged again but somehow kept control. The voice inside spoke up. Told him to keep chewing, to resist the urge to spit it out. Liam was breathing through his nose, rapid snorts as he came to terms with the decision he’d made. Somehow he managed to swallow, almost bringing it straight back up. He needed water, something to wash the vile taste from his mouth, and so he stood and stumbled towards Tyler, scalpel forgotten and still clutched in one bloody hand.

Misreading Liam’s approach for water as some kind of attack with the scalpel, self-preservation took over and Tyler met the perceived attack. They grappled, Tyler holding the wrist of the hand holding the knife whilst at the same time trying to wrestle Liam to the ground, but the younger man was physically stronger, and with adrenaline surging as a result of what he had just done, was difficult to subdue. Liam, thinking Tyler had attacked without provocation, fought back, the voice in his mind telling him this was now a battle over food, and that Tyler wanted to take it from him. He unleashed a scream of rage and drove Tyler back, the older man losing his footing on the smooth rocks. Knowing he couldn’t risk letting go of Liam and his knife arm, he clung on, both of them crashing to the ground. Tyler hit the edge of the inflatable, flipping it over and spilling the precious remaining water onto the rocks.

‘The water, we lost the water,’ Tyler said, trying to reason with Liam, but there was no way to make him listen. His eyes were wild, feral. He had stopped being a human and had taken on the traits of some kind of monster. Tyler realised how weak he was, and that the physical toll of their struggle was making him tire.

‘What are you doing? Why are you attacking me?’ he grunted, keeping his eye on the knife blade.

Liam blinked, and then a moment of clarity banished the voice and its commands back to where it lived. He understood then that a mistake had been made, a misunderstanding which had almost led to him trying to kill another human being. With such a sobering thought at the forefront of his mind, whatever had taken over him was gone. He rolled off towards the water, then scrambled back towards the body of Nash. Tyler sat up, breathing heavily as he looked at the overturned inflatable. ‘That was all the water we had. What are we supposed to do now? What the hell did you attack me for?’

Liam stared at him, a skinny wretch, a blood-smeared shell of the healthy man who he had first met in the bar. ‘I thought you wanted to take it from me,’ he grunted.

‘Take what?’ Tyler said, even though he suspected he knew the answer.

The food. Liam was protecting his food.

‘I was wrong. I understand that now. There is enough for us both,’ Liam said, hopping back over his father’s corpse and crouching again by the arm he had already cut a slice from. ‘Try some. It’s really not that bad. Look, I’ll show you.’

Tyler stared, horrified and sickened as Liam cut another strip of flesh from his father’s forearm. He held it up, showing it to Tyler by the light of the moon. ‘Have you ever had sushi? It helps to just pretend that’s what it is.’ He slipped the sliver of flesh into his mouth, the wet sound of his chewing incredibly loud. He gagged once, then swallowed it down.

‘What’s happened to you?’ Tyler said, not expecting a response.

‘Don’t you get it? We have to live. I’m not ready to die yet. This is the way it has to be.’

‘Without water, we’re fucked anyway. You realise that, right?’

Liam glared at him, then looked away. Tyler watched as he cut another slice of flesh off his father. This time, he didn’t even flinch as he swallowed it. ‘You’ll see. You might have already given up, but I haven’t. I’ll survive this. I guarantee it.’

Chapter Eleven

The next day was explosively hot and Nash had started to spoil. His flesh was bloating and starting to crack, and every time the breeze rushed over the island, Tyler was hit with the sour rot smell. He hadn’t slept, the combination of fear and his overactive brain making such a thing impossible to do. He had sat and watched as Liam had systematically eaten his father. By sunrise, the arm had been stripped down to the bone and Liam had moved on to the uninjured leg. As Tyler watched, he cut a slice of calf free and popped it into his mouth, resting one hand on his father’s bloated stomach. The two men locked eyes across the rock beach.

‘You sure you don’t want some? It’s starting to spoil,’ Liam said between noisy chews.

Tyler couldn’t help but notice how the terminology had changed. It seemed Liam no longer saw Nash as a person. Just food. Tyler would have said something, but he was too exhausted. He was sure he could feel his body wasting away and was almost envious of Liam who was rapidly regaining his vitality.

‘You really should eat something,’ Liam added. He grinned, his teeth bloody and covered with lumps of stringy flesh. ‘Seriously, you’ll feel better.’

‘Where did you get the scalpel?’ Tyler asked, the simple act of speaking taking a herculean effort.

Liam didn’t answer at first. He simply chewed, hands and mouth caked in dried blood. ‘Found a medkit from the boat washed up round the back of the island. Had all this stuff inside. Bandages. Antiseptic. The works. That’s what I tried to explain, but you didn’t understand.’

‘There’s nothing to understand.’

‘I prayed for this. I asked for a sign, some proof that this was how it was meant to go down then boom. The kit washes up with everything I needed. I was going to ask Dad about the leg, to explain to him why it had to come off and that we had the equipment to make sure he survived. Only I was too late. At first, I was upset, but then it occurred to me.’

‘What did?’

‘That his death was a sign too. Some higher power.’

‘You don’t strike me as the religious type.’

‘I’m not saying it was God. I’m not even sure if I believe in that stuff, but you have to admit it. Something has worked in our favour so far.’

Tyler laughed. He couldn’t stop himself. It came out more as a series of dry coughs.

‘What is it? What’s so funny?’

‘Worked in our favour? We are almost killed by a giant prehistoric shark, end up shipwrecked on a fucking rock with no food, you turn psycho and decide to eat your dead father, then to top it off, we lose all our fresh water. Oh yeah, someone is really looking out for us.’

‘This is what we have to do to survive. There is no choice.’

Tyler struggled to his feet, feeling dizzy. ‘And how do we do that? Swim for it? Call a taxi? How does what you’re doing help us? Fucking look at it out there there’s nothing…’ He stopped speaking, sure he was hallucinating. There was a glimmer on the horizon, a white speck which he was certain wasn’t there before. Forgetting all about Liam, he walked to the edge of the rock, cupping his eyes against the sun. He saw it again, a metallic glint on the horizon.

‘Fuck, it’s a boat, there’s a damn boat out there!’ Tyler shrieked, not caring as adrenaline surged through him. He leapt and waved his arms, shouting even though it was unlikely they would be seen. ‘Come on, help me signal for it,’ he bellowed over his shoulder. Liam, however, just sat there and stared, looking from the horizon, to Tyler, then to the bloated remains of his father. His mind was filled with static, like a radio struggling to find a signal. Nothing made sense to him anymore nothing was rational or seemed ordinary. The life he once had, the life before, was gone. It seemed like something he could never get back even if they were rescued. That was when it reappeared, the monster inside, the voice free to speak as it chose without medication to dull it. It told him what was necessary, what the implications were if he didn’t act. He knew in some distant, detached way that what he was being told was wrong, but also that things had already gone too far for him to ever recover from. He listened as the inner voice told him what he had to do and how to do it, and that the decision he was about to make was the best one under the circumstances. He tightened his grip on the scalpel, then lurched to his feet and tackled Tyler from behind, pitching him forward onto the hard rocks, his upper half landing in the water. Liam grabbed the back of Tyler’s head and pushed it under the water, waiting for him to die. Just like the voice had told him to.

II

Captain Adam Carrington might have missed the call for help if not sailing upon the debris field. He and his three-man crew had been leaning overboard the hundred and twenty-foot vessel, visually scanning the floating debris for anything that may be salvageable. His men knew of the legends of the area about the monster shark which supposedly roamed the waters, and to see the floating debris field had initially spooked them. It was only by chance as Carrington was scanning the landscape with his binoculars that he saw the man on the rock outcrop waving his arms. It was clear to him that they were once passengers on the boat which was now floating around their hull and it made him uneasy. The forty-five-year-old skipper lowered the binoculars and turned to his crew.

‘Get in the Zodiac and go bring them in.’

‘We’re too far out. Can’t you get closer?’ said Benton, a grizzled man of fifty with leathery skin who had spent more of his life at sea than on land said. He had seen it all, and yet his pale blue eyes glimmered with fear. ‘I don’t like it out here.’

Carrington didn’t like it either, but he couldn’t just do nothing. ‘I don’t like it either, but we have to bring them in safe.’

‘We could just call the Coast Guard,’ the third crewman said. He was the youngest on the vessel. Stocky and fresh, it was only his second trip.

Carrington considered it, then dismissed the idea. ‘We could, but people would ask why we didn’t do anything to help when we were so close. People out there might be injured. What if it was you out there, Oxley?’

‘I know,’ Oxley said, flicking his eyes to the debris field. ‘It’s just that… Those stories.’

‘Old tales; this is reality. There are people who need our help.’

‘Maybe those stories are true. I’ve heard things about this place, too,’ Benton said.

‘What do you both expect me to do about it? I’ll get as close as I can to the shallows, but then you two will have to go out there and pick them up. That’s the end of it. Get that zodiac ready.’

Benton and Oxley exchanged glances but knew better than to argue. They set to the task, each keeping a close eye on the water. They lowered the Zodiac—almost identical to the one used by Nash, Liam, and Tyler; it was fitted with a steel-framed wheel and throttle unit instead of just the outboard motor to control it—into the water, then stepped in. The fibreglass hull a wall of white at their backs, the ocean stretching in every direction.

‘Alright,’ Benton said, taking charge and moving to the rear of the Zodiac. ‘Let’s get this done.’ He fired up the engine, the motor driving them across the choppy waves. A mile and a half away in deeper waters, the Megalodon sensed the vibrations from the outboard engine and moved to investigate.

Tyler knew he was going to die. His face was completely submerged, nose pressed into the rocks as waves lapped over his head. He should have seen it coming. Liam was unstable and couldn’t be trusted. Now, his lack of foresight would cost him his life. He was too weak to fight, his exhausted body without the energy needed to fend off the attack. Unlike his attacker, he hadn’t eaten to replenish his strength and there was something absurdly funny about it to him in that moment. He would have laughed had his burning lungs not been screaming for air. His hands scrabbled underwater as he desperately searched for something that might help. His hand found a rock, palm-sized, and he picked it up and swung it towards where Liam’s hands were holding him underwater. The rock connected with knuckle, and he heard Liam scream and, more importantly, release his grip. Tyler pushed his head out of the water, coughing as he gulped great mouthfuls of air. Liam was coming back at him, knuckles bloody, teeth gritted in anger. For Tyler, there was no thought. The situation had changed. And it would mean he had to attack to save himself. He lurched to his feet and met his would be killer head on.

The eighty-foot predator moved through the water, it’s immense body gliding with weightless efficiency. It had been stalking a pod of whales for the last four hours when it detected the signal from the Zodiac. The sound was associated with the pain of the explosion when Nash had tried to kill it, and thinking its previous attacker had returned, raced to meet its challenge. Millions of years of evolutionary instinct drove it forward, its body designed by nature to cut through the water with ease as it closed in on the signal. Enraged, and aware its prey was approaching the shallows where it couldn’t follow, the creature rose to attack.

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.’

Liam shook his head. ‘It’s too late for me. You were right. Things can never be normal. Not now.’ He slashed out with the blade again, gashing Tyler’s forearm. Blood spattered the rocks at his feet as he backed away.

‘You can’t leave now,’ Liam said, flashing a bloody grin. ‘You’ll bleed in the water and that big fish will come get you. Best you stay here with me and Dad.’

It was then Tyler realised Liam was beyond saving. There was no rational thought, no sanity left. In a way, it made his next decision easier. When every option led to death, there was no reason to fear. Without any hesitation, Tyler lurched into the water and started to swim for the overturned Zodiac.

Carrington realised two things in very quick succession. Firstly, that he couldn’t possibly outrun the shark, and second, that it was much bigger than he anticipated. His intention had been to lead it out into open water to give Benton time to flip the Zodiac and get to safety, but he knew now that such an option was impossible and would only serve to bring his own life to an end should the shark sink his vessel. Instead, he had started to angle back to the rock outcrop and the shallows. He knew that was his best chance of survival and the best way to use the immense size of the shark to his advantage.

The Megalodon chased its prey, compelled to attack. It increased its pace, angling up from under the stern of the vessel. It accelerated, striking the fibreglass hull just behind the propellers. The vessel lurched out of the water, for a split second its forward momentum slowing as its props spun on fresh air. Carrington was thrown into his instrument panel. Even though his speed control was at maximum, he pushed it harder anyway, using his right hand to steer the vessel. The shallow water warning started to flash on the instruments, and he could once again see the island in front of him. He could also see the Zodiac and Benton pulling it towards the rock outcrop island. Another strike from below caused the vessel to weave in the water. A light started to flash on the instrument panel along with a monotonous alarm sounded as the hull finally gave way and started to take on water. Knowing it was a race against time, he aimed for where the charts said was the shallowest point and hoped he could run the boat aground before it was swallowed by the ocean. Below the surface, the Megalodon moved in for the kill.

As Tyler swam to meet the Zodiac, he realised just how tired he was, how drained of energy he had become. It should have been easy, but every stroke was a monumental effort. His back and forearm stung as fresh blood seeped into the water with each stroke, but he had committed too much to turn back now. Even so, he kept waiting for that sting of blade on skin and expected at any time for Liam to grab him from behind and drag him back to the island. He didn’t risk glancing behind him, though and knew that every second he was in the water was a second closer to death. He was nearing the Zodiac now and could see an older man in the water trying to flip it over.

‘Help me with this,’ Benton grunted as Tyler swam closer. ‘I can’t flip it over by myself.’ Tyler reached the overturned inflatable, aware once again how alone and vulnerable he was. He could see Carrington’s boat coming towards them and the immense dorsal fin giving chase. The fear gave him a much-needed adrenaline boost, and he and Benton tried to flip the boat over, a task that wasn’t as easy as Tyler anticipated. It was difficult to get leverage of a solid enough grip to manipulate the rubber frame.

‘Wait, wait,’ Benton said. ‘We need to do this together. On three. Ready?’

Tyler nodded, aware that Carrington was bearing down on them at pace.

‘Alright, one, two… Three!’

They worked in unison, flipping the Zodiac right side up. Benton tried to pull himself over the edge, but the boat was light, and he almost pulled it back over. ‘Dammit,’ he said, letting go and treading water. ‘You’ll have to hold it on the other side until I’m in.’

They were both distracted by the scrape of fibreglass on rock as Carrington ran the ship aground in the shallow water. They watched as the Megalodon hit the rear of the vessel, tipping it onto its side on the rock plateau where it had come to rest. Inside the wheelhouse, Carrington was thrown towards the port window, unable to do anything as the ocean rushed towards him. The windows imploded, the glass shredding his skin. The vessel came to rest, half-filled with water. Carrington swam for air, feet treading water in the capsized cabin. Outside, the Megalodon sensed the blood in the water, and confident it had disabled and wounded its potential meal, moved in to finish it off.

Benton pulled Tyler into the Zodiac, both men exhausted as they sat in the small inflatable. They could see the fishing trawler on its side, then watched as the shark circled around it.

‘How can it do that?’ Tyler said, the adrenaline rush starting to fade. ‘We’re in the shallows.’

Benton shook his head. ‘Shallows here are different. It’s not just one landmass but lots of different underground islands spaced out in this area pretty much like the one you were on. Next to impossible to navigate so the whole area is just marked shallow.’

‘So there is deep water around it?’

Benton nodded. ‘Deep enough. Looks like the captain has run aground on one on of the little islands. Look, the shark is circling the boat.’

Underwater, the Megalodon swam around the rock island, the blood seeping into the water igniting its lust to feed. It scraped its snout against the semi-submerged bow, partially lifting it out of the water then letting it fall back to the rock platform. From his vantage point, Carrington got his first real concept of the scale of the creature and realised that his blood was attracting it. He tried to pull himself out of the water, climbing up the control panels towards the copilot’s chair. If he could get there and out of the window directly above him, he knew he would be relatively safe. He scrambled up, trying to haul himself out of the water, but he had damaged his shoulder when the boat capsized, and he couldn’t put any weight on it. He was about to try again when he saw a blur of movement a split second before The Megalodon struck the wheelhouse, giant dagger teeth clamping down on the steel frame which groaned in protest. Carrington screamed and flinched away, for a moment finding himself submerged and just a few feet from the immense jaws of the creature. The Megalodon shook its massive head and pounded its body against the rock outcrop. It was only then as the vessel slid forward and scraped against the rocks that Carrington realised what was happening. The Megalodon was trying to pull the boat back into open water.

Benton saw it happen and knew exactly what the Megalodon was doing. ‘We have to do something to help. Draw it away from the boat.’ He moved towards the outboard motor as he said it, checking the frame and control panel.

‘No, no engine,’ Tyler said, the fear now something impossible to ignore. ‘It will come after us.’

‘That’s what I want; we need to draw it off the captain.’

‘It’s not safe.’

Benton glared at Tyler as he pulled the chord to fire up the engine. It sputtered but didn’t fire up. ‘I don’t give a shit what you think. We came here to save you and now look what happened. We’ve already lost one man and I won’t let another die. If you don’t like it, feel free to get off the damn boat.’

Any further argument was pointless, as the engine spluttered to life. ‘Worst case, we can head into that island of yours and wait for the Coast Guard.’

‘No,’ Tyler said, glancing at the rock mile protruding from the ocean. ‘Not back there.’

‘Then help me navigate.’

Benton aimed the Zodiac towards the stricken vessel. ‘You keep an eye out for that shark,’ he shouted above the wind and din of the engine.

‘I don’t know what we can do to stop it if it decides to come for us,’ Tyler shouted back, the fear making him feel sick.

‘Trust me on that, I know what to do.’

‘And what’s that?’

‘That wound of yours,’ Benton said, nodding at the ugly gash on Tyler’s arm which was still dripping blood onto the floor of the Zodiac.

‘What about it?’

‘Hang it over the side, in the water. Let’s see if we can draw our fish in.’

Tyler shook his head. ‘No way. I’m not doing that.’

‘Do it, or I swear to God, I’ll throw you out of this boat and you can fend for yourself.’

That was enough for Tyler. He hung his arm over the side and let his blood drip into the water. At the same time, Benton brought the Zodiac to a stop less than thirty feet from the stricken vessel.

‘What now?’ Tyler asked, heart thundering as he scanned the water, trying to see through the sun glare.

‘Now we wait until he shows.’

The Megalodon had pulled the bow of the boat off the edge of the rock platform. It rocked precariously, the wheelhouse filling with water as the ocean threatened to swallow it. Carrington scrambled for something to hold onto, but it was fruitless. He was sure if his shoulder was dislocated or if he had broken his collarbone, and he didn’t have enough strength in his functional arm to pull himself to safety.

I’m going to die.

There was no panic in the thought, just an inevitability about the situation. The boat would be pulled into the depths and sink. If he was lucky, he would down before the shark managed to get to him and devour him. It was the photograph that changed his mind. He saw it bob along the surface of the water in front of him. It was his wife and two children. The photograph was sun-faded and one he had forgotten was pinned on the wheelhouse window. The thought of never seeing his family again gave him renewed desire to survive. Carrington used his good arm to try once more to pull himself out of the water, all the time waiting for the jaws to close on him and extinguish his existence. He managed to pull half his body out of the water, the effort making his good arm tremble. He looked down, expecting to see the gaping maw beneath him, but the water was still. The Megalodon was gone.

‘It’s coming right for us,’ Tyler said, pulling his arm back into the confines of the Zodiac, not that it would give him much protection when the shark attacked. They both watched the immense dorsal fin slide towards then, one edge bloody and ragged where the shotgun blast had hit it. ‘What are you waiting for?’ Tyler screamed, backing away from the front of the boat.

‘Not yet, just wait,’ Benton replied, hand poised over the controls. Tyler couldn’t help notice how tacked together it looked. The small A-frame housing the steering wheel and throttle clearly wasn’t part of the original design and had been added later. Tyler only hoped there was no water damage from when the Zodiac had been flipped over, and that when Benton decided it was time to take action, everything worked as it should. Any hesitation, any fault would mean certain death. The fin was just twenty feet away now and they could both see the huge body of the Megalodon under the surface. Tyler was frozen, too terrified to speak. It was coming right at them side on. The Megalodon surfaced, jaws gaping, eyes rolling back into its head, ready to kill its prey.

Benton gunned the engine. The Zodiac zipped forward, the Megalodon’s jaws crashing down on empty space. Tyler expected Benton to move them away from the giant shark, but instead, he circled back towards it, waited until it started to follow, then changed direction again.

Due to its size, The Megalodon had a slower and larger turning circle than its smaller cousins. Combined with the network of shallow islands surrounded by deeper waters, the advantage it would have in more open waters was significantly reduced. Even so, it was determined not to let the intruder to its territory escape. It gave chase, every time it drew closer to the Zodiac, the Megalodon slowed, having to skirt around one of the island outcrops, increasing the distance between the two. It was the highest stake game of cat and mouse the world had ever seen. Benton kept just enough distance between them, hoping to buy as much time for Carrington as he possibly could. Tyler had realised that the plan was working, and was looking back at the dorsal fin cutting and weaving as it tried to give chase. ‘We’re doing it. We might well come out of this yet,’ he said to Benton, believing for the first time that an option other than death existed. He noticed they were gradually getting closer to the island. He could see Liam watching events unfold. He was about to tell Benton to be careful getting closer, as the water was shallow when a thud from the rear of the Zodiac almost tipped him out of the boat. For a second, he thought the Megalodon had caught up to them and their luck had run out. That, however, wasn’t the case. The Zodiac started to slow.

‘What are you doing? Speed up,’ Tyler said. He stared at Benton and saw fear.

‘We lost the engine. Snagged a rock too close to the surface and ripped the propeller straight off. We’re stranded.’ They both watched as the Megalodon closed in on them.

They had come to rest, much like Carrington on a rock plateau. It began just a foot below the waterline. The boat was light enough to stay on the surface of the water and was drifting dangerously close to the deeper waters surrounding the plateau. Benton scrambled to reach under one of the seats and tossed Tyler a paddle. ‘Here, you take that side.’

‘And paddle out of here? It’s impossible.’

Benton scowled at him. ‘That’s not to paddle out of here; it’s to keep us on this rock platform and out of the deep waters.’

The Megalodon circled, lifting its head out of the water and staring at them in the boat, yet knew it couldn’t come closer. It rushed the platform, turning away at the last second, sending a wake crashing over the rock plateau and driving the Zodiac away from safety to deeper waters.

‘Paddle, paddle now,’ Benton screamed.

He didn’t need to be told twice. He knew the implications if they drifted into deeper waters. He paddled, using the little energy he had left as the wake washed them perilously close to the edge. The Megalodon swam to the rear of the rock, waiting for them to enter the area where it could get them. Somehow, Benton and Tyler managed to keep within the confines of the shallows. Benton was breathing heavily; Tyler was exhausted. He had nothing left to give.

‘Catch your breath,’ Benton said. ‘He’s going to try again.’

They watched as the Megalodon swam away, then came back at them, its speed terrifying. It surfaced and turned away, sending another huge wake rolling towards them.

This time, they were prepared and paddled into it, the Zodiac lurching up over the wave but still being dragged back; this time, they didn’t stay within the confines of safety, and were pushed over the edge into the deeper water.

‘Paddle, paddle with everything you have,’ Benton said, furiously pulling water with the small black paddle.

Tyler followed suit, aware how sluggish he was, how little strength he had left. He was starting to feel dizzy, the lack of food and the trauma of the last few days finally making his body give up the fight. Neither of them dare look but could sense the Megalodon approaching. A flash of colour from the left and Tyler was sure their luck had run out, but they had done just enough to get back above the shallow rock and out of the reach of the Megalodon. Its jaws snapped down on open water. It lurched away again, soaking them both as it spun away, ready to charge again.

Tyler collapsed onto all fours at the front of the Zodiac. He was done. He couldn’t even lift his head.

‘Stay with me,’ Benton said. ‘He’s coming around again. You hear me? You have to do this or we’re both dead. Pick up that paddle.’

Tyler understood the implications, and desperately wanted to comply, it was just that his body refused to cooperate.

‘Come on. Here it comes,’ Benton shouted.

Tyler managed to push himself up, the world spinning and lurching. He reached out for the paddle, seeing double and picked it up. He leaned over the side, then dropped it, the paddle bobbing by the side of the Zodiac.

‘Here it comes,’ Benton said.

Tyler didn’t even see it. He felt the boat pushed back, off the safety of their platform, completing a lazy circle as the wake pushed them into open water. He could still see the paddle. It was thirty feet away and drifting in the other direction. Benton realised it was over and tossed his paddle into the bottom of the Zodiac.

‘I’m sorry,’ Tyler slurred as black spots started to dance in front of his eyes. He was grateful that he would at least pass out before he was devoured. Benton knelt next to him, watching the giant fin come closer and knowing there was no escape. Not now. They closed their eyes and waited for the end.

Nothing happened.

Benton looked around, confused. Tyler saw it too, ignoring the nausea. He watched as the Megalodon raced off towards the rock island.

‘Who the hell is that?’ Benton said.

Tyler didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer. He was too exhausted. He could only watch, unsure if what he was seeing was real or an illusion.

Liam knew what he had to do. He had asked for a sign and watching the Megalodon’s assault had made it clear. He was starting to understand that what he had done was wrong. Even the voice in his head which he had so relied on to guide him was silent and had left him. There was only one thing left that could possibly make things right. Liam dragged his father’s bloated corpse towards the water and pulled him in. The corpse floated, the buildup of gases making it naturally buoyant. He waded out, pushing his father ahead of him, knowing this was the only way he would find peace and silence the voices in his head. He went as far as he could walk and stopped. He leaned close and kissed the bloated, blue purple cheek of his father, realising only then that he was crying.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, ruffling his father’s hair. He watched as the Megalodon charged at the rock outcrop and managed this time to wash the boat into deeper waters. He knew there was no time to waste. He took the scalpel and plunged it into his father stomach, the nauseating stench as trapped gases erupted hardly bothering him. He sliced across the slippery flesh of the gut, pulling open the stomach then flipping the body over onto its front so the rotten contents spilled out into the ocean. When it was done, he took the blade and cut himself, slicing across the same path, mixing hot, fresh blood with the putrid mess in the water before dropping the knife into the water and waited.

The Megalodon was closing in on its prey when it detected the new and incredibly intoxicating signals in the water. Driven by hunger after expending so much energy chasing the Zodiac, it veered off, recognising the putrid smell of flesh as a dead or dying animal and an easy meal. It accelerated, the lust to feed overtaking anything else, even the danger presented by the shallows. Infuriated and determined not to miss another kill, the Megalodon closed on the kill, opening its mammoth jaws wide.

Liam saw it coming and ducked over his father, clutching onto his body as hot darkness engulfed him. He didn’t feel any pain as the Megalodon’s massive jaws crushed them both in a volatile explosion of blood and bone. The Megalodon’s momentum drove it up onto the shallow ledge surrounding the island, almost its entire body coming out of the water. For a moment, it didn’t care. It devoured its prize, shaking its mammoth head back and forth as it fed and turning the surrounding water into a bloody froth. Carrington had seen it happen, having swum out through the broken wheelhouse window. He was now at the Zodiac and was pulled onboard by Benton. The three sat there, watching the immense shark thrash, its enormous body becoming more stuck as it struggled.

‘Jesus,’ Carrington whispered as they drifted back towards the island. Benton paddled, making sure they were clear of the furious animal.

‘It’s shallow enough to walk here,’ Tyler said. They hopped out of the Zodiac and dragged it back on the rock island, a place Tyler never wanted to see again. The trio stood in silence, watching the power or one of nature’s most dominant creatures. Out of the water, the scars on its skin were more apparent. A map of the harsh life it had endured.

‘He’s an old one. He wears a lot of scars,’ Benton said.

The comment made Tyler think of Nash, and a wave of sadness swept over him. ‘Yeah, he is,’ he replied.

They watched as the giant thrashed and then, with a last effort, it rolled off the plateau back into the deep.

Silence.

They stood there, staring at the spot where the shark had been.

‘We tell nobody of this. Understand?’ Carrington said. ‘It would pose too many questions, not to mention damage my reputation beyond repair.’

‘What are we supposed to say?’ Tyler asked.

‘We’ll work it out. Just… not yet.’

Nobody argued. None of them had the strength. They remained there in silence until they heard the distant sound of the rescue helicopter approaching. Benton reached into the compartment under the seat of the Zodiac and pulled out the flare gun from the supply box and fired it into the air. They watched the red-orange flare arc into the sky, then the helicopter as it moved towards the island. The rear door opened and a crewman leaned out and gave the thumbs up.

Tyler fell to his knees, weeping uncontrollably.

He was going to live.

He watched as the survival basket was lowered onto the island, lifeguard coming with it, a saviour from the heavens. One by one, they were lifted aboard the waiting chopper. As the rescue helicopter made for the mainland and the hospital, Tyler looked down at the ocean, knowing that somewhere in the dark, a monster roamed.