CHAPTER 4:

TERROR OF THE DEEP

Justin was standing in the grassy field near J Base. The sky was thick with storm clouds, giving the field an ominous black covering. The tree that was once Gaia was towering above him. It no longer seemed beautiful and comforting. It now looked down at Justin menacingly, like a man-eating giant that had found it's next helpless victim. Suddenly, the ground shook, causing Justin fall to the ground. Then, the bark of the wicked- looking tree began to crack, as if some creature hatching out of an egg. A purple mist sprayed out of the cracks in the tree. The cracks grew larger, and a black tar-like slime seeped out of them, and ran down the tree's sides. The tree began to expand, as if something were pushing on to the walls of the tree from the inside. Then, the tree exploded, sending the tree's pine needles and shards of bark flying everywhere. Where the tree once stood, there was now a purple cloud of mist hovering in midair. When the mist finally cleared, a crater could be seen where the tree once stood. To Justin's horror, familiar looking tentacles then shot out of the crater in all directions. He then saw the ground splitting in front of him. He ran in the other direction, but ground then split beneath him, and he screamed as he fell through the ground and down into nothing.

Justin gasped, opened his eyes, and sat up. He was on Guido's ship again, under the blanket with Feena. He had awoken her.

"Justin, what's wrong?" she asked him, concerned. She had never seen him look so scared before.

"Uh, it's nothing, Feena. Just a bad dream." But, he was covered with a cold sweat. He kissed her forehead to comfort her. "I'm fine, really. Go back to sleep." However, it didn't seem to him like just another nightmare. It felt so real.

Just as they were about to fall back to sleep, a loud thunderclap woke them up again. They immediately looked up, and saw storm clouds all around them, emitting bolts of light quite rapidly. The wind began to howl, and the waves grew larger and larger.

Justin and Feena quickly stood up and put their tops back on, and Feena redid her hair. Then, the rain started to pour down...HARD.

This was no ordinary storm. This was a work of Mother Nature that even the bravest of sailors feared. This was the king of the storms...the mighty hurricane.

The gentle ocean quickly turned violent. A rogue wave ran across the boat, hitting Justin and Feena hard, and sending them clear to the other side of the deck.

Sue and Rapp came out on deck, and were knocked down by another rogue wave. "Justin!" Sue cried. "What's going on?!"

"This is a hurricane, Sue!" he yelled back. "Stay away from the ledge, and hold on to something!"

All of a sudden, a huge black something rose above the water, and dived back down. At first, Justin thought it was a whale. He was told that they were migrating at this time of year. But then, however, the black shape charged at the boat with such force that Justin was sent over the ledge and into the dark ocean.

Blackness enclosed around him as he felt his eyes sting with the salt water. It was now clear to him that the black thing was no whale. Whales usually don't charge boats unless they are being harpooned. Completely submerged, Justin soon spotted the huge black shape speeding through the darkness towards him. As the black silhouette came closer and closer, he felt hands grab him from under his shoulders as Rapp and Feena pulled him back onto the boat. Looking back, Justin saw a long pair of jaws with six- inch pointed teeth come shooting out of the water where he was submerged.

There was a thunderclap, and a bolt of lightning shot down from the sky and struck the mast of the boat, setting the sails ablaze. As they watched in horror, the fire quickly spread down the mast. Soon, the fire burned completely through the middle of the mast, and it toppled down towards them.

Everyone managed to run below deck just as the fiery sails came down. Feena grabbed the radio to send out an SOS, but all they could hear was static.

"Uh, guys," Sue began.

"Not now, Sue!" Justin scolded, trying to help Feena with the radio.

"Guys!"

"I said not now, Sue!"

"Will you just listen to me?!"

"Oh, fine! What?!," Justin screamed angrily, spinning around.

Sue pointed down. "We're getting flooded."

Everyone looked down. The room was flooded with water up to their waists. They were so busy fooling around with the radio that they hadn't noticed!

They ran back up on deck. The ship was sinking! The stern was raised high above the water, the propeller still spinning. The blazing mast had slid into the ocean, but the ship was still on fire.

"This is bad, guys!" Justin screamed.

"And, I think it's just gotten worse!" said Rapp, pointing into the ocean.

The mysterious black shape was speeding towards them, rose above the water, and slid onto the deck of the sinking ship.

For the first time, Justin had a good look at the monster. It was black, with a white underbelly. It looked like a 60-foot crocodile, except that it had large flippers instead of legs, no scales, and a short tail.

Rapp was right. Things did get worse. Now, when the ship would finally sink, instead of going into the ocean, they would go straight into the sea monster's waiting jaws!

The monster opened its huge mouth wide, and emitted a loud hiss that would chill anyone's blood cold. One snap of those jaws could effortlessly reduce a human to a bloody piece of meat.

Everyone held on to the railing as the ship tilted to a 90-degree angle, causing the ship to slowly slide down into the water, bringing the adventurers closer and closer to the creature's snapping jaws.

Justin knew that this would be it. They would eventually be close enough to the monster for it to wrap its jaws around them, pull them below the surface, and rip them apart.

They were now only fifteen feet away from the beast. Justin could feel its hot stinking breath, and barely see his reflection in its large, black eyes, black as death.

"Well, what are we gonna do now, Juss?" Rapp asked pitifully.

Justin began to lose his grip on the railing. His hands were too sweaty for him to hold on much longer. Another rogue wave slammed against the side of the boat, causing him to let go of the railing and slid down the deck towards the creature. Feena attempted to grab his hand, but she was too late. Justin pulled out his sword, but before he could use it, to everyone else's horror, he slid into the creature's jaws, which immediately closed with a loud 'snap'.

"J-Justin," Feena muttered in disbelief. Tears began to collect in her eyes as she thought of the only boy who had ever truly loved her.

However, Justin wasn't going down the monster's throat without a struggle. Everyone soon noticed that the monster stopped moving. Blood flowed out of its mouth, its eyes rolled back into its head, and it slid into the ocean. But, it didn't dive. It just floated in the water. It was dead. The monster's jaws opened, and Justin fell out and into the ocean. And when everyone looked back at the creature, they saw the hilt of Justin's sword sticking out of the roof of the creature's mouth. When Justin was inside the monster's mouth, he took his sword, and jabbed it through the roof of its mouth and through its brain. Justin swam back, and retrieved the sword. Once again, sheer luck had saved his ass. He was beginning to think that perhaps he had a guardian angel, or something like that.

Feena slid down the deck and into the rough water, where she swam up to Justin and wrapped her arms around his neck, her tears flowing like a river. She didn't care if he was covered with blood. All that mattered was that Justin was alive.

Justin held her tightly. But, then a rushing sound was heard from the boat, disrupting the romance. The fire had grown stronger, and it had spread to the inside of the boat.

"Hey, Feena," Justin began, pushing her away. "What's gonna happen if the fire spreads to the boat's fuel tanks?"

Feena's eyes opened wide. "Rapp!! Sue!! Get off the boat!!," she screamed.

Rapp and Sue quickly dived over the railing and into the sea.

What happened next was just what Feena thought would happen. The stern exploded, sending splintered rafters and flames all over the place. The propeller, which was still spinning at the time, was blown off of the boat and flew towards Justin's direction. He dived under the water just as the spinning blades flew over his head.

The hurricane raged on, and everyone grabbed the mast, which had floated towards them. Everyone held on, as the enormous waves carried the survivors away from the shipwreck and into the blackness of the storm.

TO BE CONTINUED