Author's Note:
It. Is. Time. At long last, let the carnage begin! Will your favorite survive this first onslaught? Let's find out!
As a reminder, don't forget to vote on the poll on my profile on who you think will survive!
Now, as the Joker would say: And here...we...go.
Gwen was woken from her slumber by a loud BANG that echoed throughout the ship.
"What the hell?" Bridgette also had woken up from this.
"That was a gunshot," Gwen realized, jumping out of bed.
"A gunshot?" Bridgette repeated. "Who would be firing guns on this ship? For that matter, who would bring guns on this ship?"
"Chet Hatchet," Gwen explained quickly. "He's got two bags filled with them."
"Why?"
Gwen was about to answer when Chef's voice began to boom out from the lounge. "Everyone get above decks now!"
Gwen opened the door as her classmates around her did the same. "What's going on?" Beth asked, yawning.
"No time to explain," Chef grunted. "Just get your asses to the top deck!" He waved his rifle around as he spoke, checking in the shadowy areas of the lounge and as the teens started running for the stairs.
"Chef?" Gwen asked as she ran out of her room.
"It's here," Chef told her. "That damn thing's on the ship!"
Gwen paled, her heart leaping from her chest. "You're kidding."
"Do I look like I'm kidding, pasty?!" Chef snapped. "Now get above deck!"
Gwen shook herself from her stupor and bolted for the stairs, joining the rest of her classmates in the sunlight above. They milled about, talking in panicked voices.
"What's going on?" Courtney was asking.
"The psycho chef has gone nuts," Heather replied.
"Clearly something happened that spooked him," Noah commented dryly. "My guess is that there's an intruder on the ship and he wants all of us to be up here so we can escape easier."
"I don't think it's that," Cody commented. "Besides, if there were bad guys aboard, where's the rest of the crew?"
"And Harold, for that matter," Tyler added suddenly. "Anybody seen the guy?"
"Not since yesterday," Geoff admitted.
"What the hell is going on out here?!" Captain Blompkins appeared, flanked closely by Mayor McLean, Blaineley, and Duncan. For some reason, Gwen's heart skipped a beat upon seeing the delinquent. "Why do I hear gunshots on my ship?"
"Blame the psycho over there," Heather told him as Chef emerged from the stairs, gun raised.
"Who, me?" Izzy asked.
"Not you, psycho. That psycho." Heather pointed a finger at Chef.
"Mr. Hatchet, why the hell—" Blompkins began.
"Shut it," Chef ordered. "It's onboard."
"What's onboard?" Sierra asked.
"The shark that's been hunting us."
"You mean that story Weird Goth Girl's been rambling on about?" Heather scoffed. "Puhleez."
"She's telling the truth about it," Duncan told her. "I saw it too."
"A more likely scenario is that the two of you are trying to prank us," Alejandro guessed.
"Enough!" Blompkins ordered. "Where's Lokheart? He'll sort this out."
"He's dead," Chef answered coldly. "Now get a grip before that thing attacks."
"There is no thing on this ship," Blompkins argued. "Everyone go back to your rooms. That's an order."
"You're not the one giving orders around here," Chef growled.
Blompkins turned red in the face. "This is my ship!" he yelled. "You'll do what I say or I'll—"
The door leading to where the crew decks were burst open and the shark leaped out, gnashing its teeth. Everyone screamed upon seeing the beast. DJ jumped back in alarm, knocking into Chef and sending both tumbling to the deck.
"Wh-what the hell is that?!" Lindsay squeaked.
Blompkins could only watch as the shark ran at him. Being only a few feet from the door, he had no chance to run as the monster opened its jaws and chomped him in half. Blood sprayed everywhere, splattering McLean, Duncan, and Blaineley. The shark then turned its eyes on McLean, growling in rage.
McLean backed up slightly. "H-hey, big guy," he said. "Let's talk about this." But the shark clearly showed no signs of wanting to talk as it stalked towards him.
McLean turned to Blaineley, who was frozen in fear. "Thank you for your services, Blaineley," he told her. Before she could react, he grabbed her wrist and shoved her in front of the monster. The shark looked down at her as she screamed. Then he grabbed her head, yanked it off her shoulders, and popped it into his mouth like it was a piece of candy.
As Blaineley's headless corpse dropped down, McLean began to back away in fear. But as the shark moved towards him, a volley of gunshots rang out, bullets hitting the shark's snout and close to his eyes.
Chef had regained his footing and was firing everything he had in his rifle at the beast. It roared in rage, but his well-aimed shots eventually did their job. The shark turned and leaped over the railing, splashing down into the water.
It was then that Gwen realized that she, too, was frozen in shock at what had just happened. She stiffly turned her head to see her fellow classmates freaking out. DJ was curled up in a ball on the deck. Geoff and Bridgette were holding each other tightly, as were Lindsay and Tyler. Sierra had Cody clutched in her arms, though it was obvious that he wasn't happy about it.
"What was that thing?!" Courtney cried.
"It—it just ate Blankors and Beverly!" Lindsay screamed.
"We're all going to die!" DJ squeaked.
Chef fired his rifle into the air. "QUIET!" he boomed. Surprisingly, everyone followed his directions, silencing their panic and focusing on him.
"I need you all to calm the hell down," Chef ordered. "That thing's still out there."
Beth moaned slightly. "I don't feel so good." She suddenly ran to the railing, holding her mouth closed with her hand, before vomiting into the ocean below.
"What do we do, Chef?" Trent asked. Gwen suddenly realized that he was next to her. This fact seemed to calm her nerves slightly.
Chef pulled the clip out of his rifle, examining how many shots he had left in it before sliding it back into the gun. "First thing we got to do is send out an SOS. We need to get backup here ASAP."
"But the closest backup is all the way back at Boney Island," Bridgette pointed out. "That's two days away."
"It's better than nothing," Chef grunted. "Because that thing can take on an entire squad of soldiers and come out nearly unscathed."
"How do you know that?" Alejandro asked.
"Because we saw it in action," Trent spoke up. "Me, Gwen, Duncan, and Izzy went to the Drama Corporation facility near the island. Turns out it was a lab where they were experimenting on that—that thing."
"Seriously?" Geoff asked. "Dude, that's totally not cool."
"Enough," Chef interrupted. He looked at Courtney. "You. Go to the bridge and try to call for help."
"I'll go too," Cody wheezed from where Sierra still gripped him tightly. "I know somethings about computers. Maybe I can even find a way to get the ship moving."
"There's no way I'm letting you out of my sight, Codykins," Sierra declared. "I'm going to make sure that mean old shark doesn't eat you."
"Fine! Just get moving!" Chef ordered, causing the three to scurry towards the bridge.
"Where do you think you're going?" Gwen looked over to see McLean, trying to sneak away towards the staircase to the lounge, only to be blocked by Eva and grabbed by Duncan.
"I think there's a few things we need to talk about, Mr. Mayor," Duncan warned.
McLean chuckled nervously. "I…don't know what you're talking about."
BOOM! Everyone stumbled around as the ship rocked as something hit it.
"What was that?" Heather asked.
Chef cocked his rifle. "The damn thing's ramming us."
"Impossible." Noah looked concerned. "A ship this big? There's no way it can make us rock around like this."
"It's a mutant shark with legs and bullet resistant skin," Trent told him. "I think it's probably best if we just assume anything's possible with it."
There was another BOOM as the ship was rocked again. "But why's it doing that?" Gwen asked as Trent helped her steady herself.
There was a cry from the railing. Gwen whipped her head around to see Beth, hanging on to the railing for dear life. In all the chaos, she had forgotten the farm girl had been over there, throwing up after seeing the violence and the corpses of Blompkins and Blaineley.
"Help!" she cried.
"Beth!" Geoff, Bridgette, Trent, and Gwen all ran at her, Chef close behind, but it was too late. With another BOOM, Beth lost her grip and fell over the edge of the ship.
Gwen reached the railing and looked down. Beth had just surfaced, gasping for breath as she treaded water. But then she shifted her head and saw, heading towards her, was a large shark fin.
"Beth! Swim! Swim for your life, dude!" Geoff called. Beth looked, saw the fin, and started paddling as fast she could, trying to escape. But the shark was much faster than her.
The last Gwen saw of Beth was her looking up at the ship, her eyes wide with fear. And then the shark was upon her, tearing into her. Her arm tore from her body as the shark feasted upon her, floating off briefly before sinking as the water stained red with her blood.
"Shoot it!" Bridgette pleaded to Chef, who had taken aim at the shark as it finished off what was left of Beth.
Chef just shook his head, lowering his rifle. "No point."
"No point!" Bridgette yelled. "But Beth—"
"Is dead!" Chef snapped in her face. "And unless you want to join her, you'll get the hell away from the railing before it decides to try that trick again!"
Bridgette took a step back, starting to sob in Geoff's arms. Gwen felt Trent's hand squeeze hers.
"Come on, then," Chef told them. "Let's see if those others managed to get through to the island. We need help and we need it soon."
"Please, you have to believe us," Courtney was pleading as Chef led the others into the bridge.
"Don't waste our time, kid," the voice of Sheriff Sanders replied. "We're getting a little tired of this "land shark" prank you kids are trying to pull."
"It's no prank." Chef pushed Courtney aside, taking her place in front of the radio. "We're under attack from some sort of mutant shark and need rescue boats or choppers here ASAP."
"Who the hell is this?" Sanders asked.
"Hatchet. Hunter. We need evac now. I've already got one kid dead, along with the crew of this ship, including Captain Blompkins. More people are going to die the longer you delay sending rescue. Can you really live with yourselves knowing that you let a bunch of kids die on your watch?"
Silence came from the other end. Then Sanders sighed. "We'll send out some rescue boats. Give us your coordinates and we'll come get you."
Chef turned to Cody. "You. Check the navigation records and give me our coordinates." Cody ran to do what he was told, Sierra close behind him. As he read off the longitude and latitude they were at, Chef repeated the directions back to the sheriff. As he did, Courtney moved next to Gwen and Trent.
"A kid's dead?" she whispered.
Gwen nodded. "Beth. Just now. Went over the railing."
Courtney let out a curse as Chef finished his conversation with Sanders.
"Alright. Hang in there. We'll be there soon." With that, the line went dead.
"What do we do now?" Sierra whispered, breaking the silence.
"Now?" Chef cocked his rifle. "Now we have a chat with our esteemed mayor. It's high time we learn what exactly is going on."
Alive: Alejandro, Bridgette, Chef Hatchet, Chris McLean, Cody, Courtney, DJ, Duncan, Eva, Fang, Geoff, Gwen, Heather, Izzy, Justin, Leshawna, Lindsay, Noah, Owen, Sierra, Trent, Tyler
Dead: Katie, Sadie, Blaineley, Beth
Missing: Harold
And boom! The death count goes up to four! Really, though, did anyone really expect to see those two alive at the end of this? And this is only the start. Get ready for more tragic deaths of your favorite characters. Some of them will come completely by surprise. But if you want to see these deaths when new chapters release, make sure you hit that favorite/follow button to stay informed on future updates, and don't forget to drop a review to let me know how I'm doing. Until next time, this is Guest 1138, reminding you to never look into the sun. Ciao!