S. Welles - To Ocean's End

Kill the others but stop destroying the town. She resent pictures of the rubble coupled with sadness. She felt indifference in response. Her eyes stung with tears and she turned back to Mido for solace she wouldn’t find.

He was unconscious, still breathing, heart still beating. One of his knees was bent at an odd angle. What could she do now? All her attempts to thwart the monsters attacking Newport hand’t made a difference, and she didn’t know anything about medicine. “ Cancer !” She doubted he was anywhere within earshot but she wouldn’t know, unless he showed up or not. People were searching the pile that used to be a hospital. They pulled out crying children, injured adults, and inert bodies. Two of the helpers looked up when she cried out, then broke from their search and ran to her.

Once they hit the dirt road, one said, “It is Jessie!” They sprinted over and knelt beside her and Mido. Ed and Ted, both of them bleeding all over and covered in dirt.

“Are you two gonna be alright?” Jessie said, soaking in their injuries. She couldn’t bring herself to ask them for help if they were in dire need of it as well.

“Better than Mido,” Ed said, looking at the cook’s broken legs and bite marks. He gingerly tugged at the cement block and looked at the metal rod buried in Mido’s back, then sucked in air through his teeth. “That looks bad, but I’ve seen worse. Lemme see if I can salvage a gurney.” He leaned over and kissed Jessie on the forehead. “Hang in there, hun.” He ran off.

“Where’s everyone else?” Jessie said.

“I wish I knew,” Ted said. He wrapped an arm around her and placed a hand on top of theirs. “Don’t worry about everyone else right now. Just stay strong for Mido.”

More tears welled and spilled down her cheeks. “I’m trying. I’m scared. I don’t know if he’s going to make it.”

“No amount of worrying is going to change the outcome.”

“I know, but I tried to get the monsters to stop attacking while he protected me, but there were too many. This is all unfolding so horribly. I don’t know what to do anymore.”

“Just stay alive and stay strong. That’s all we can do right now.”

It felt like we’d been fighting for ages. The milieu of injuries didn’t help. I was as in bad shape as the day I’d escaped, and so was Tethys. Our attacks were slowing, and time between bursts stretched out. I sent my thoughts out to Jessie after our latest stalemate of an outburst, both of us standing in the crashing surf.

How’s everyone and the town holding up? I’m trying to get back to all of you but I’m still stuck fighting Tethys.

Not good at all. Mido’s unconscious and badly hurt. Ed and Ted are beat up and we have no idea where the rest of the crew is, and Newport looks like a bomb went off. I don’t know what to do.

Just stay alive. Please.

We’re trying.

I needed to end this and salvage what I could of Newport and crew. I pulled my mind back to the fight at hand. Tethys still managed to look smug, even with one eye, and despite how much he was bleeding all over. “Tell me one thing,” I said, “how did you get cursed like me?”

His smirk broadened into a grin. “I’m not cursed; just reanimated. Pretty crazy stuff, but she came to the right person for the job. I’m here to bend you so you’ll break when she delivers the final blow.”

I began circling him so I could take in Newport’s destruction. We stood offshore of the southwestern tip of town, on the beach from my nightmare. Fires rose from various neighbor-hoods. The tallest things were rubble piles and trees for miles, my house somewhere in there. I badly wanted to run in and slaughter the monsters destroying everything. Tethys knew I wanted that, had to know. It had to be obvious, even with my draconic face. “What, you don’t get honors of the final blow?”

“To be brought back from death with power like this and a purpose so sweet and simple… she can have the final blow. You’re gonna have to try harder to get under my skin.”

“Was worth a shot, dickless.” The story pertaining to what Jessie did to Tethys’s male member had reached me shortly after my recovery from getting shot in the head. I circled back to shore, not wanting to watch my hometown burn.

Tethys’s smile waned. “That’s more like it,” he said humorlessly, lunging with pure ferocity. He was coming in for the kill. He wanted to send me back to that place where cursed souls go to get tortured between deaths.

I ducked out of his swipe and shifted to my aquatic form, then feinted darting behind him and let him spin in place for me. I clamped my arms around his torso, barely able to grab my own wrists. If I’d been as barrel-chested as him, this maneuver would’ve backfired. He tried to wrench free but I buried my teeth in the meat of his shoulder. He roared and reached for my face. I coiled my tail around his waist and twisted with all my demon might. Flesh ripped and bone snapped. The sensation of severing his spine sent a shiver up my own.

I reformed my legs as he began toppling over. His lower body bounced off mine, then fell over and began gushing blood all over the sand. I chucked his upper body farther down the beach, then grabbed his thighs in each hand and tore them apart like pulling a leg off a cooked chicken. The gore sickened me but I didn’t want to take chances. I blocked out what I just did, then chucked the separate legs onto the beach.

Tethys used his arms to flop his torso onto his back, then lay there with his arms splayed out, chest heaving, and spine and guts hanging out as he stained the shore with a stream of blood. He looked skyward and let out a weak laugh.

“So much for bending me,” I said emotionlessly. I didn’t care that I’d finally beat him. It hadn’t undone the devastation to Newport.

He laughed again, a little louder. “Oh, I have.” He gestured northward. “Just look at what happened to your home while I kept you busy.” His hand flopped back onto the reddening beach as a wave clawed at his pooling blood.

I tensed with rage. The reason I’d come here… I wanted to scream, cry, and have Tethys get up so I could beat him some more. I started towards the destruction, deciding to let the bastard bleed to death while I salvaged what I could.

“I wouldn’t bother. The final blow comes.” He pointed behind me, at the ocean, but like I was going to fall for that.

I stomped over and gripped his thick neck with both hands. He didn’t even try to fight; just smiled as my claws dug into his throat. I avoided making eye contact as I twisted and snapped his neck. His corpse ceased rasping for breath. I flipped him over and pushed him facedown in the sand, then turned around, curious but not quite sure I wanted to know what final blow was.

Far out in the water, barreling towards Newport, was…

Oh, god. A tsunami.

Jessie, find the rest of the crew and get everyone to higher ground! There’s a tsunami coming. I ran out into the water up to my waist.

She gasped. How long do we have?

I don’t know. Maybe minutes. Go!

Dyne, we have Mido on a gurney. It’s just him, me, Ed, and Ted. We have no clue where the others went.

Then start shouting for everyone to head to higher ground. I have to try to stop it from making landfall.

You can do that?

I held out my arms like I was bracing to catch the wall of water barreling towards me. I don’t know. I have to try. This is my home. I have to save it. It’s all I have left.

I understand. I don’t want you to experience what I felt when I saw Paphos. But, if you can’t stop it, please come for the others and bring them to safety. There’s so much debris to search.