Hungry Darkness: A Deep Sea Thriller (7 page)

Chapter Twelve

Mariana was far from being the only girl her age living in her neighborhood and hanging out with boys, but she was the only one who could do everything better than all of them. Her superiority in everything was something her young male friends didn’t know how to handle. On one hand, they were angry that a girl could beat them at running, swimming, throwing, and everything else they did. On the other, they were in awe of her; completely amazed at how she quickly mastered anything new they threw her way.

Mariana, Sebastian, Roberto, Susana, Maikel, and Joselito were the regulars. They were a tight crew despite their differences. All of them were 12 years old and came from the same neighborhood, so they had more in common than kids who just meet at school. Their modus operandi was always the same: get together and hit the streets or the beach to see what kind of trouble they could get into.

This afternoon, Maikel had told them his dad was sick at home, hugging the toilet and grunting after apparently having consumed some shrimp salad that had been left out in the heat a tad too long. That meant he wouldn’t be fishing. That meant they could use his boat. No one would mind.

An hour after meeting at the beach, the six friends were all piled on a small boat and were halfway out to the reef. The tide was low, and they could try to catch whatever had been left trapped in the big puddles on top of one particular stretch of reef.

Mariana and Maikel were in charge of rowing, and they had gotten into a nice rhythm that put them at the reef in no time. There was a tiny motor in the back of the boat, but if they used up all of its gas they’d be in a world of trouble, so they opted for the oars.

They all knew they weren’t supposed to be out there by themselves. They were children of fishermen and tour guides, and their parents had told them time and again about the plethora of dangers that could be found in the ocean. From poisonous fish and the incredibly painful sting of stingrays and sea urchins to nasty cuts on the jagged rocks and cramps that could come at any time and put even the best of swimmers in danger in a matter of seconds, the group of friends understood that what they were doing was dangerous. The fact that they were doing something they weren’t supposed to do augmented the pleasure they received from walking around the top of the reef and taking the occasional dip on the far side of the reef, the place where their parents told them the ocean became a thing with no bottom. 

They were swimming around, unenthusiastically discussing the fact that the sun would soon start going down and they should start the trip back home. Then Sebastian heard Maikel gasp. He turned to his left, where Maikel had been a second ago and saw nothing. Sebastian waited for his friend’s head to pop up, but that didn’t happen. A few seconds later, the water turned brown.

Susana, always the most responsible one of the group, was on her way out of the water. Sebastian looked her way because her red and yellow shirt grabbed his attention. He was still caught between confusion and fear. Maikel wasn’t that good at holding his breath. He was going to tell Susana to turn around and tell him if she could see anything from up there, but his words caught in his throat. A gigantic tentacle flew out of the water and knocked Susana down on the sharp rocks. She screamed. Sebastian’s heart did a somersault. He looked at his friends. They were all looking at their screaming friend.

A second tentacle slithered up the reef with unbelievable speed and a reddish round mass began emerging from the water. Susana was trying to get up. Sebastian could see there was blood on the left side of her face. He could imagine the damage the reef had done to her hands.

The round mass kept growing. More tentacles popped up around it. The creature was using them to advance on Susana. Then Sebastian remembered something from school as the first screams erupted around him.

Mrs. Izquierdo had shown them a video of an octopus chasing a crab in a shallow pool. He remembered two things clearly: octopus had arms, not tentacles, and they liked to cover their prey with their body because they devoured them with a hard beak that stood in the center of their strange physiognomy.

As the impossibly large octopus continued to advance toward the fallen girl, all eyes were on her, and judging by the screams erupting from their mouths, everyone had either remembered the same things Sebastian had, or they were simply scared at the massive monster that was now covering their friend with its body.

The octopus reached Susana and made her disappear under its bulk. Thanks to the space between the monster’s body and the rocks, Susana’s screams could still be heard.

Mariana was the first to react. Despite every atom in her body telling her to move away from the giant octopus and toward safety, something deeper and stronger told her to get out of the water and help her friend.

Voices came at Mariana from behind. She could feel the panic they packed like buckets of cold water on her back. No, they said. Get away from that thing, they said. But she didn’t obey. She had to save Susana.

Then came a loud crack followed by the most bloodcurdling scream any of them had ever heard. The worst thing about it was not that it kept going or that it came from someone they all loved, the worst thing about it was that it suddenly turned into an unnatural gargle and then stopped.

Mariana was about six feet away from one of the octopus’s arms. It was as wide as a tree trunk. Its suckers on it were as big as plates. It sent a chill down her spine that followed the one caused by Susana’s last scream.

The sheer size of the animal in front on Mariana was enough to kill all her hopes of a rescue. With no weapons and standing on rocks that were digging into her feet, there was not a lot she could do. Her eyes were starting to water as she turned around and jumped back into the water.

Between strokes, she yelled at her friends, all of whom were apparently frozen in fear. They had to make it back to the boat and get the hell out of there before the octopus was done with Susana. Abandoning her friend was the worst thing she could imagine, but it was also the only thing that could help them stay alive.

Her broken instructions weren’t very effective, but seeing her move toward the boat was enough to make the rest of the gang snap out of it and start moving.

Maikel had a really hard time not looking back every two seconds. First, because the octopus had started moving toward them across the rock, and he knew that once it hit the water their swimming speed wouldn’t matter. Second, Joselito, the shortest and chubbiest of the group, was a really slow swimmer, and he could see his friend was getting left behind.

Maikel looked forward and saw Mariana had already reached the boat and was in the process of pulling the small anchor from the rocks where they had lodged it. Sebastian was almost out of the water as well. That left him and Joselito. Then he realized that the octopus would probably get to his friend first. That would give him more time. Guilt, happiness, pain, sadness, and hope all clashed inside him and made his head spin. He felt horrible and hopeful at once, and that combination was entirely new to him.

Mariana pulled the anchor out and took a few steps toward the boat. She watched Sebastian crawl out of the water and grit his teeth at the pain the rocks caused on his hands and knees. Behind Sebastian, she could see Maikel swimming toward them, and further back, Joselito’s tear-streaked face. The implications of not seeing anything on top of the protruding reef top behind Joselito’s head quickly registered. The octopus was in the water.

“Guys, hurry up!” she yelled while pushing the boat toward the opposite side of the reef. It moved a few inches and stopped. Mariana grunted and applied her shoulder, but the thing refused to move another inch. She was about to turn around and ask for help when Sebastian pulled up next to her and pushed the boat sideways. It moved. They both pushed together and didn’t stop until they reached the water.

“Wait for me!”

Maikel’s voice was broken and too high. Mariana and Sebastian held the boat next to the reef and yelled back at their friend to hurry. They knew running on the rocks was impossible, but Maikel was going to have to try, or get left behind.

Joselito felt like his lungs were about to explode. He couldn’t catch his breath. His head had already gone under three times. His limbs felt heavy. His friends seemed to be too far. He kept swimming, but a tiny voice in his head was telling him he was not going to make it.

The fourth time Joselito’s head went under he thought it was only because he was tired. Then he realized one of the octopus’s huge arms was wrapped around his waist. He felt his whole body spin twice, and then the arm applied so much pressure that everything inside him shifted. The world turned dark.

Mariana watched Joselito go down and knew the shadow underneath him was responsible. She screamed at Maikel who was now cursing up a storm and trying to walk fast on bloody feet. He had to hurry the hell up or be left behind.

“We have to leave him,” said Sebastian.

“Not yet,” said Mariana. “Get in the boat and get the motor going.”

Under most circumstances, Sebastian would have argued. He still had issues taking orders from a girl. This time, however, the fear constricting his lungs kept him quiet, and he did exactly what Mariana told him to.

Maikel was about ten feet away when he heard the motor start. They were leaving him. He looked up from his torn, bleeding feet and the ragged rocks right in front of him and saw Mariana. She had one hand on the boat and was signaling to him with the other. He still had a chance. He moved forward even faster, ignoring the pain that kept shooting up from his feet and threatening him with unconsciousness.

Mariana reached out to Maikel, grabbed his outstretched hand, and pulled him with all her strength. The boy flew forward, his upper body landing inside the boat. The hit knocked the air out of his lungs, but feeling that hard wood touching his body made him so happy that he smiled despite the horrific circumstances and the incredible pain coming from his feet.

Mariana jumped into the boat. Sebastian didn’t wait for any orders. Four long seconds later, the boat was jumping up and down on the open ocean. The water spraying their faces mixed in with the tears rolling down their cheeks 

Chapter Thirteen

Gabe’s understanding of the criminal world came, like that of most people, from what he’d learn from movies and television shows. Except for illegal fishing and his two trips as a mule, he was in the dark when it came to doing things that could put you behind bars. That morning would show him that most of his ideas were wrong.

It started with the phone call. He thought that he would have to wait until nighttime to get his guns because under the cover of night is when crime operates. Instead, his cell phone buzzed in his pockets a couple of minutes shy of 11:00 a.m. No one answered when he picked up and said hi, so he grabbed the money, all of which came from the check he had deposited the minute the bank opened that morning, and walked out of his apartment and down to the parking lot.

The man waiting for him was the second element that shattered his expectations. Gabe had expected to find someone dressed either like a classic rap video thug or a mafia wiseguy from a movie. Instead, an older man who looked like someone’s alcoholic uncle was waiting for him in a dilapidated blue LeBaron.

When the man saw Gabe, he grabbed something from the passenger seat and stepped out of the car without killing the engine. He had a blue gym bag in his left hand.

“You Gabe?”

The man was tall and had a face full of acne scars. He wore brown pants, a black t-shirt, and grey tennis shoes that belonged either in the trash or on the feet of a homeless man.

“That’d be me.”

“Got the money?”

Gabe handed over the envelope. The man reached for it. His right hand was missing its pinky and ring fingers. When he looked at the man and applied the context of their situation, the missing digits became the first thing that was in tune with Gabe’s expectations.

The man grabbed the money with his three-fingered hand and made it disappear into his right front pocket. Without a word, he raised the gym bag. Gabe took it. The man turned around, climbed back into his car, and pulled out of the parking lot.

Gabe was left holding a bag full of shotguns. He ran into his apartment, shut the door behind him, and dropped the bag on the sofa. He wanted to open it, but he also wanted it to disappear. Finally, curiosity won out.

The three guns were more or less the same, and Gabe didn’t know enough about guns to know what exactly was different. As far as he knew, two had wood on them, and one had not. There were two boxes of ammo in the bag. Since they were the same, Gabe deduced all three guns would use the same. He booted up his computer and looked up how to use the guns on YouTube.

After loading and unloading the shotguns a dozen times, he felt ready. Back when the idea occurred to him, he hadn’t thought about reloading. The damn things only held three cartridges. Reloading in a moving boat with a giant octopus trying to eat them would not be easy, but they’d have to make it work.

Chapter Fifteen

The second call Gabe received that morning was from Emanuel. The scientist was ready to get going. Despite his apprehension and his constant reminder that Gabe’s plan barely deserved to be called a plan, the man seemed eager to get in the water and see the monster with his own eyes.

The third call was not as great.

Suarez sounded angry. He kept repeating that he understood that he’d only contacted Gabe two days ago, but the problem at hand had to be dealt with immediately. Gabe felt the same way he’d felt every time a teacher had scolded him. He assured Suarez that he was going into the water in a few hours, and that he had a way to ensure that the animal would be dead if it came close to the boat. He also said he had some irresistible bait. There was nothing to worry about. Suarez’s response was as hard and cold as a knife pulled from the freezer: “There better not be after tonight. We have a couple of dead kids on our hands.”

The call left Gabe shaken up. Grown men finding a horrible death in the water was one thing, but when it came to kids, death just seemed unfair and wrong.

Two hours later, Gabe was sitting by the docks waiting for Emanuel.

The marine biologist finally showed up. He was riding in a small white boat with a rail-thin man with olive skin. Emanuel jumped onto the deck and tied the boat. Then he helped the skinny man step onto the deck. The two of them approached Gabe.

“Gabe, this is Martin. Martin, Gabe.”

The men shook hands. Martin was stronger than he looked.

“Martin is the guy I told you about. He saw the arm trying to get into his boat while he was out fishing with his son. I knew he’d be on board with anything that had to do with getting rid of that threat.”

Martin looked at Gabe and nodded.

“I make my living out there, and my boy loves spending time with me. I don’t want something that can eat my son and me inside our boat sharing the water we go into daily. The professor told me you were going to shoot this thing. I think that’s a bad, dangerous plan, but I’m in.”

Gabe decided not to argue. He led the two men to his apartment. He handed each of them an unloaded shotgun and showed them how to use them. Martin looked somewhat comfortable. Emanuel looked like he was handling a venomous snake instead of a weapon.

“Regardless of what you think of my plan, I’d appreciate it if you guys could take measures not to shoot my boat or me. I’d also appreciate if you didn’t shoot each other. I’d like for the three of us to come back in one piece. Deal?”

Martin and Emanuel nodded. They looked ready to go. Gabe wondered how long that façade would last once they laid eyes on the monster.