S. Welles - To Ocean's End

This just couldn’t be. I raised my hands and threw my will at the water but one push on it and my head spun. Bile rose in my throat and my vision swam. I gave up and pushed to my feet, and just stared, taking in the impossible scenario my mind and heart didn’t want to accept.

As the base of the wave began washing over my feet, I shifted to my aquatic form and rolled forward onto my belly, then charged up the crashing wave like a surfer, then plowed through the crest. I turned around midair and sped down the wave, using my command over water to propel myself forward and carry a chunk of water with me. I had no choice but to make good on my promise to Jessie.

I threw water ahead of me and the tsunami, and used it like one massive feeler to locate my scattered crew. I poured water into one rubble pile after another, feeling for familiar faces and bodies. I found Jacobi huddled inside a demolished home. He panicked and cried out when water enveloped them. I pulled it away and scooped them into my arms.

Jacobi swung his sword at my arm but stopped in time. “Captain!”

“Where are the others?” I said urgently.

“I don’t know. We got scattered the minute that guy started attacking.”

I rode water to Sam’s home next, filling up a rubble pile and finding him, Scully, a wife, and two kids. All of them were beat up. I added them to my armload and bolted for the Pertinacious on a cushion of water. I didn’t see any other humans scrambling for cover; just monsters fleeing the incoming water. I grabbed the smaller creatures with water hands, yanked them into the roiling water, and ignored the bigger ones as I made my way to the wharf. I also used my command over water to tote all living local I came across in attempt to save as many lives as possible. I deposited my three crew members and Sam’s family on the bow, along with the locals, then assessed their physical state real quick. They were all conscious and in one piece, but all of them were dinged up, covered in dirt, and soaked. Jacobi was coated in my blood.

“Stay here.” I swam off for more as the tsunami began to swallow the southern end of town. I found Ed, Ted, Mido, and Jessie, and dozens of survivors where the hospital used to be. I grabbed my crew and as many strangers as I could carry, despite their screams, and delivered them to my ship as well. I’d left behind more people than I wanted to put a number to. Guilt weighed me down as I swam off to find my last four crew members. As much as I wanted to keep the whole town alive, the safety of my crew took precedence over theirs. It was nothing personal. O’Toole was still alive and hiding in the cargo hold. I’d managed to not flush him out earlier.

The tsunami steadily swallowed Newport, filling the gaps between debris piles and slowly washing over them as it clawed inland. Thousands of people were about die or have their lives changed forever. I collected many more strangers who were fortunate to be close to my crew when I found them, but other than that, I couldn’t play the real hero. I had to return to my ship to keep it afloat, otherwise the tsunami would capsize it, hole in the hull or not.

I found Cancer, Sam, and Rammus together in the northeast. They were near where monsters were seeking shelter from the water thundering inland. I picked up a few dozen more survivors, then finally found Sauna way the hell north. He’d somehow climbed onto the wall guarding the naval base. I scooped him up and bolted for my ship, which wasn’t where I’d left it. The water was pushing it deeper into the harbor, along with every other vessel that’d been tied down. The entire wharf was underwater.

I added the rest of the crew and more locals to the deck, then shifted back to having legs and crouched over the bow, one hand held out to help me command water. “Everyone hang on!” I guided water out of the hold and rode out the tsunami as we continued to get sucked inland. I was dead tired, hurting all over, and having a hard time holding my arm up. Willing such a small amount of water to do my bidding made my head hurt anew. Still, I helped the ship stay afloat as Jessie, Ed, and Ted held Mido down, and Cancer limped from person to person in need of medical attention. Sam, Rammus, and Scully helped Cancer as they could, holding people down, tearing off chunks of shirt to create makeshift tourniquets, and speaking soothing words to frightened landies.

The tsunami rolled in, one wave after another, roaring in our ears and pushing us inland. Debris piled up everywhere, splashing over what remained underwater, until all eleven square miles of Newport looked like one massive network of rapids. Trees got uprooted and the ocean rocketed through the harbor from getting bottlenecked between two landmasses. A few landies got seasick all over the deck but I didn’t care. They were alive. They would hate me forever, but they were alive. My crew was alive, and they squeezed everyone on the stern since I was dripping blood all over them.

And my hometown was gone.

By the time the tsunami finally lost momentum, we were probably halfway to Providence. I dropped to my hands and knees to catch what breath I could, until the ocean began pulling everything out to sea. I stayed on my knees and use both hands to direct the water to swing the boat around. I needed to see what I had to deflect from putting more holes in my hull.

Within minutes, the tsunami receded, laying bare a featureless landscape that was now Newport.

My heart broke. That was it. Everything was gone in minutes. Thousands of lives changes forever, including my own. I reached over and pierced a wheelhouse window with a claw, then released the anchor once we were where the Wyndham Wharf was supposed to be. I was shaking all over and aching with the need to revert back to human. I was spent, emotionally and physically. My hometown was gone, my last link to my humanity. So many people had lost their lives because of me. This day was all my fault. And I’d even transformed in hopes of things turning out better than this.

The anchor found the bottom of the debris-choked harbor and I waited for enough rode to be released before locking the line, and then I collapsed on the deck and watched Newport wash away, just watched while my mind numbed with shock. The sea monsters departed with the water and debris.

Several pairs of footsteps drew closer. I dragged my head around. Jessie, Ed, Ted, Cancer, and Rammus approached me, their faces forlorn. They stopped near my snout, which was surrounded in a pool of my own blood. “Cancer, don’t bother patching me up. Just throw me in my lockdown container. I’ll see all of you after I revive, and we’ll have a lengthy discussion about what we’re going to do from here on out. I don’t want to put any of you in harm’s way like this ever again.” My body began to steam and tingle, and I began to shrink back to human. I looked at all of them and my eyes stung with tears. Their injuries and my destroyed home left me so thoroughly brokenhearted. I looked at each of them in turn, Jessie last. “I’m so damn sorry.” I closed my eyes as the pain of my injuries set in. Shortly after I was back to human, I passed out and died again.

When I came to, I was back in the cave full of nereids and naiads. I was floating in the pool again, lying face-up, with a greenish glow filling the empty space. I was wearing the scaled skirt thing Poseidon had conjured for me the day I’d spoken to him. At least that would be easy enough to grow out of once I built up the will to escape.

My home was gone. My town was gone. The last link to my pure human past was gone. I’d done everything I could and it hadn’t changed the outcome Amphitrite had aimed for.

Strangely, the water around me was completely still, the air full of pregnant silence and the smell of plants and moisture. I lifted my head, started treading water, and waited for them to attack, but they didn’t. They did nothing but watch me forlornly, sitting on their haunches or treading water at the pool’s edge, all of them saying nothing. I wanted to ask them why they weren’t torturing me, but I quite honestly didn’t want to goad them if they were going to give me a reprieve. I deserved their torment, though, after all that happened.