Megatooth: A Deep Sea Thriller Read online

  As Emily watched, this man’s mouth hung open in a soundless scream. Almost afraid to do so, Emily followed his gaze. Before her eyes took in the sight, she heard Steve whispering just beside her.

  “No…Oh God…”

  But she looked out and saw it anyway. The megalodon was coming up again, almost lazily this time. The top of its massive head came up above the water and then submerged again, as if it was simply checking out the scene. Perhaps it was the odd lighting or the night itself, but the thing looked evil as it surfaced. The man in the water started to panic and came swimming for the boat in a series of over-exaggerated strokes. Emily knew that this was the absolute worst thing he could do, but she was unable to shout out to him.

  “Trevor,” the man at the rail said, “you have to stop! It will see your legs moving and come after—”

  He was interrupted by a blood-curdling scream from the man in the water—Trevor, apparently.

  Emily was certain she saw the man go about ten shades of pale in less than a second. His screams became infant-like wails as the most basic part of his brain took over, awash in dread. Before she could understand what had happened to him, the shark’s head came up again from directly behind him. Its jaws opened quickly and when it closed down, its teeth punctured directly through the top of his head. The man died with a scream falling dead in his throat, his mouth stretched wide and his eyes filled with horror.

  In a violent jerking motion, the man was rolled over and under in a spray of dark fluid that could only be blood. When his body was pulled under, he was upside down. Before his corpse was pulled under the water, Emily saw what she assumed had caused his initial bought of screaming. His left leg was missing, chewed off in a grisly stump almost all the way up to his waist.

  The man with the rope from the life ring threw it into the water as if it were a poisonous snake. He then took a few ambling steps back, muttering a string of curses under his breath. When he collided with the Asian man, he let out a shriek.

  They both turned to look at Emily and Steve. She could tell that they were hoping they could provide some answers. It made her feel sorry for them and no safer than she had been out on the plank in the water.

  “Is that what took down your boat?” the Asian man asked.

  “Yes,” Emily said.

  “I’ve never seen a shark that big,” the other man said.

  “I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anything that big,” the Asian man said.

  Steve looked to the two men with the same sort of hope she’d seen in the strangers’ eyes moments ago. “So what can we do?” Steve asked. “What can we do right now to make sure it doesn’t destroy this boat, too?”

  “We’re going to get the hell out of here,” the man that seemed to be in charge said. “And we’re going to send out a distress call. Bo,” he said, turning to the Asian man, “can you put the call in? I’ll get our guests inside and situated.”

  “Sure,” Bo said. “But what do I tell them?”

  “That we’ve got survivors of a shark attack and at least two people are dead.”

  “And…well, what can we do if it comes back for more?” Bo asked.

  The man didn’t answer right away. He looked out to the water, among the boat wreckage and dark water. “I don’t know,” he said. “We just have to hope that doesn’t happen.”

  The nervous look on Bo’s face made it clear that he wasn’t a fan of this answer. Still, he dutifully went back into the cabin, looking back to the ocean before he did so.

  “Okay,” the other man said. “I’m Carl and this is my boat, more or less. Can I get your names?”

  “Emily.”

  “Steve.”

  “Good to meet you,” Carl said. “I wish it were under different circumstances. But let’s try to make the best of it, okay? Let’s get you inside, up to the cabin.”

  He offered his hand to Emily and she took it, getting to her feet. She also felt Steve’s hand at her elbow, helping her up. His touch was reassuring but still trembling. Carl led them into the cabin, which was much larger than the one inside the boat Cliff had rented. Everything was tidy, although some things had been scattered to the floor in the close call with the megalodon moments ago. Just thinking about it made Emily anxious beyond comprehension, sure that the monster would come up from the depths at any moments and hit the boat with full force from underneath.

  From the central cabin space, they went up a flight of stairs that Emily assumed would take them to the bridge. She took the stairs cautiously, her knees still wobbly and her nerves still feeling as if they were dancing on an electric wire.

  “You okay?” Steve whispered from behind her.

  “Yeah,” she said. “I will be.”

  In the cabin, Carl pointed to a bench-like seat along the far wall. It was bordered with a series of computer screens that filled the cabin with an eerie glow. Emily saw that the man was visibly shaken. She wondered if he had been close friends with the man that had just been killed.

  Bo was on the radio, scanning for a frequency and having no luck. “I don’t know what’s going on,” Bo said. “Maybe it’s the storm?”

  “It’s just rain, not a storm,” Carl said. “Keep trying.”

  He approached the helm and reached out for the gear shift. Before his hand fell on it, though, he gave Bo a worried look.

  “Did you shut it off?” he asked. “I thought it was in neutral when we stopped.”

  “It was,” Bo said, his voice flat.

  “What’s wrong?” Steve asked.

  Carl didn’t answer. He pressed a few buttons and then messed with the gear shift. Emily watched it all in a daze, feeling like she was in a bad dream. And even though she was nearly zoned out from the shock of everything that had happened, she knew what was going on before Carl spoke it out loud.

  “The engine is dead,” he said, slapping his hand hard against the dash that ran along the length of the helm.

  “Are you kidding me?” Steve said with a hysterical edge to his voice.

  “No. Something must have happened to it when that damn shark hit us.”

  Emily easily recalled the popping and cracking noises she had heard when the megalodon had breached to take Zoe down. It had been a violent shake even thought it had been accidental on the shark’s part.

  “What do we do then?” Bo asked.

  Carl took a deep breath and looked out to the ocean through the windows. He rubbed nervously at his head, as if trying to force away an oncoming headache. “Now I go down and see what happened to the engine. And you keep trying to place a distress call on the radio.”

  “Got it. Be careful.”

  “Yeah,” Carl said, but his voice had a tremor in it.

  He started for the stairs but stopped to look at Emily and Steve. “How many were in your boat?”

  “Four,” Emily said. “The driver was killed long before you guys showed up. Then there was Zoe and now…just us.”

  “We’ll get you somewhere safe,” Carl said. It was an empty comment, one that felt like a stirring of cold air within the cabin.

  He left them with that and then headed back down the stairs. Emily felt herself wanting to break and hated herself for it. More than that, she hated the fact that as she started to weep, she buried her head into Steve’s shoulder. When he put an arm around her for support, she sagged against him and cried like a baby.

  Through her tears, she could just barely hear the useless static of the radio as Bo tried to find a clear channel. Between that, the rain and the droning sound of the sea, Emily wondered if this was what Hell sounded like.

  11

  With her face pressed against Steve’s chest and the tears still streaming, Emily thought back to the first time she’d ever seen him. It was in an American Poetry class, something she had taken just as a breeze course to help keep her grades up. But Steve had been very much into the class, engaging in discussions during every single class. Emily had spotted him sitting in the quad on campus, sitting
alone with nothing but a book.

  Even now, she wasn’t sure why she’d approached him. Maybe it had been pity. It might have also been the vague interest she had in him. She was not attracted to him, but she had appreciated the way he cared so deeply about the written word. So she had approached him one day with a simple “hey.”

  He’d looked up with a nervous smile that spoke of inexperience in speaking with the opposite sex. “Hey,” she said. “Emily, right? From American Poetry.”

  “Yeah. Look, I just wanted to say how much I really enjoy your arguments with Professor Towles. It’s the highlight of that class for me.”

  “Thanks,” he said. “Not a fan of poetry?”

  “No. Honestly, I needed the grade. And it’s an easy class.”

  “It is,” he agreed.

  “Anyway, I just wanted to say hi,” she said. “I’ll see you around.”

  She took two steps before he stopped here. When he did, it was with a shaky voice. “Do me a favor?” he asked.

  “Maybe,” she said, turning hesitantly around.

  He reached into his book bag, sitting by his feet and pulled out a small paperback book.

  “What’s this?” she asked.

  “Poetry by a guy named James Tate. You won’t hear about him in class. Maybe you just need to read the right kind of poetry.”

  “Thanks,” she said, having no intention of reading it. Still, when she took the book from him, she caught…something in his eyes. Maybe there was something there…maybe there was some hidden chemistry between them. Or maybe she was just vibing on the quiet, mysterious guys that seemed to be pretty intelligent.

  She’d returned the book two classes later and had read some of it. She found it clever but, at times, a bit pretentious—which was funny because that’s how she felt about Steve when all had been said and done.

  Emily lost herself in that whirlwind of memories as the very same person she was regretting held her. As she realized the grim irony in this, she heard a crackle of static and then a voice that boomed loudly through the cabin.

  “We read you, but just barely.”

  Emily looked up and saw that Bo looked relieved. He pressed the button on the side of the mic and responded. “Thank God,” he said. “We’re on a research vessel about thirty miles off the coast. We’ve recovered two survivors from a brutal shark attack and need assistance fast.”

  “Roger that,” came the response. “Can I please have the vessel’s identifiers?”

  “Ah, yeah. Let me hand you over to the captain.” Bo cast Steve a helpless look and said, “Can you run down and get Carl?”

  Steve looked hesitant at first but, apparently understanding that this was a situation where he could actually be of use, got up and headed for the stairs. He looked back to Emily and said, “I’ll be right back.”

  She nodded, cringing internally at how sincere he was trying to sound. Still, she found herself standing up and looking down the stairs, waiting for him to come back. She stared down the stairs and could hear the rain intensifying against the boat. It rocked gently, barely enough to feel as she stood in the cabin.

  Less than twenty seconds later, Steve appeared, headed up the stairs with Carl behind him. Carl rushed right past her and took the mic from Bo. Emily tried to listen, but Steve was instantly in her ear, speaking softly.

  “I think this could be very bad,” Steve said lightly.

  “Why?” she asked, also talking quietly.

  “When I got down there, Carl looked like he’d seen a ghost or something. He’s scared. I think the engine is really messed up.”

  Emily said nothing. She tried to eavesdrop on the conversation that Carl was having with the people on the radio, but the fear of being stranded out here with that monster somewhere in the depths around them was just too distracting. She caught bits and pieces of it, her eyes constantly drawn to the unforgiving black ocean in front of them.

  “Hey.”

  Emily blinked her eyes in surprise, realizing that Carl was speaking to her.

  “Sorry,” she said. “Zoned out.”

  “It’s quite alright,” Carl said. “You’ve been through a hell of a lot.”

  “So what’s the deal?” Steve asked from beside her. “I heard the guy on the other end mention something about the Coast Guard. Is that right?”

  “Yeah,” Carl said. “There’s a coast guard helicopter out running routine drills about eighty miles away from here. They’re going to contact them and have them re-direct our way. They should show up within half an hour.”

  “And what about the engine?” Emily asked. She was afraid to ask but she felt like she had to. She had felt herself slipping into a fugue sort of state—a state where she would totally blank out and becoming useless. She was not going to do that in the face of danger especially not with Steve here, jumping at every chance to be her knight in shining armor.

  “From what I can see, it’s cracked,” Carl said. “We’re also spewing gas out into the water. It’s essentially dead.”

  “So we’re stranded then?” Steve asked.

  “Yes.”

  The cabin fell into silence as that information weighed down on them. The four of them exchanged uneasy looks before Bo broke the silence.

  “So what do we know about this thing?” Carl asked. “This…shark.”

  “Well, I don’t think it’s a simple shark for starters,” Emily said. “The thing we’re seeing easily beats the length of even the largest great whites ever recorded.”

  “How do you know?” Carl asked.

  “I’m working on my Masters in Environmental Science,” she said. “I almost decided to minor in Marine Biology but decided against it.”

  “So you know about sharks then?” Bo asked.

  “Some, yes.”

  “So what the hell is that thing?” Carl asked.

  “Well, there have been rumors of a few megalodons still floating around. No one likes to talk about it, but there is some evidence, though it’s a bit sketchy.”

  “You mean the prehistoric shark?” Carl asked.

  “Yes.”

  “I thought that was just a fable…like science fiction crap.”

  “Most people do,” Emily said. “I did myself until about four hours ago. I don’t know what else fits. I can’t think of what else it could be.”

  Steve tried reaching out to take her arm gently, but she pulled it away. He looked at her, genuinely surprised. “You really believe that?”

  “You’ve seen what it can do,” she said. “You’ve seen how big it is. What else can it be?”

  “She’s right,” Bo said. “I’ve seen a few great whites up pretty close. This thing is something different.”

  Carl rubbed at his head. “Okay,” he said. “Assuming that we are talking about some kind of monster from the past, what do we know about it?”

  “I think it’s working on the same sort of principles a great white would,” Emily said. She was fascinated by how quickly she was coming around now that she could put her knowledge to use. With her brain kicking into gear and having strangers relying on her for some sort of hope of survival, the tendency to slip away into a catatonic state was gone.

  “What do you mean?” Carl asked.

  “Like, when it took out our driver, and Zoe, and your other crew member, they were in the water and swimming as fast as they could to get away. Sure, it’s never safe to be in the water with a shark but they are more prone to attack when they see you moving or hear a commotion.”

  “So stay quiet then,” Carl said. “I think we can manage that.”

  “Wait,” Steve said. “If that’s the case, then why’d the damned thing come after us in the first place?” He turned to Carl and Bo, explaining how things began; he told them about seeing a blip of the depth finder that they assumed was a blue whale, only to find the megalodon breaching and, soon after, attacking their ship.

  “That, I don’t know,” Emily said. “It almost seemed like it was hunting. Maybe if
it had killed something near here before, it just assumed anything of a large size is food.”

  “Well that doesn’t make me feel any better,” Carl said.

  “It would sort of align with that whale we saw, though,” Bo pointed out.

  “What whale?” Emily asked

  “We saw this enormous sperm whale floating on the water,” Carl answered. “It was clear that something big had taken it down.”

  Emily thought on this for a moment and then shook her head in disbelief. “We were out here looking for poachers,” she said. “An alarming number of dead whales were showing up and no one was sure why. The reports all just assumed it was poacher activity. Maybe it was this megalodon all along.”

  “Well, if that’s the case,” Carl said, “we’re floating right in the middle of its hunting ground.”

  “I suppose it makes sense in terms of survival,” Emily said. “Even in areas where sperm whales are known to live, their numbers are scarce. If there’s a megalodon that’s looking for meals in an area where its food supply is getting limited, it would go after anything it thought might be appetizing.”

  Again, silence filled the cabin. It was unnaturally quiet and even the rain seemed to have lost some its strength even though it continued to fall outside. Emily thought that it was like knowing a bomb might be hidden in the boat and could go off at any moment. Knowing that the shark could be lurking anywhere nearby and had the potential to strike at any moment made her feel like she could jump out of her skin.

  “So,” Carl said. “It seems like all we can do is to stay as quiet as possible until the Coast Guard gets here.”

  “Are there any weapons on board?” Steve asked.

  “There’s a single pistol stowed away in a safe under that bench,” Carl said, pointing to the seat behind Bo. “We have it on board in the event of piracy situations and, quite frankly, I don’t think it would do any good against the thing I saw in the water ten minutes ago.”

  “So we wait,” Bo said, his voice laced with nerves.

  “We wait,” Carl agreed, looking out to the dark water as if he feared that they might float off the face of the earth at any moment.