Michael Bray - Feed

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.