Hey y'all! Hope you enjoy this chapter, it's the last chapter of the movie, but don't worry, there's still one more chapter to come!
Disclaimer: I only own Caroline!
As we watched the cage sink into the water further the water erupted as the shark began to swim towards the cage. I held my breath as my heart started to pound, and then practically stopped when it made contact with the cage. "Pull it up," I said breathlessly.
"Give him another minute," Martin said as he watched. "Maybe he can get the drugs into the shark.
"Pull him up." I shook my head. "Quint!" I spun on my father. "Pull him up!" He started to turn the winch's handle but nothing happened, the shark was too heavy, and was too twisted up in the cage and the chain. There was a low creaking sound before suddenly the arm holding the cage up snapped, falling and almost hitting Martin as it crashed down.
"Rig something!" Martin called as I grasped the edge of the boat. The collapse had given the line some slack and given the shark the opportunity to swim free. Quint grabbed the crank and hooked it to part of the splintered arm and started to wind it again. The cage started to come up and I gripped the edge of the boat, watching as it did.
"It's coming up," I said and Martin nodded.
"It's coming, keep going," Martin said to Quint as the cage came to the surface. The bars were bent and mangled, and the cage was empty. Quint let go of the crank and the cage sank back into the water slowly.
"Caroline," Quint put his hand on my shoulder as I watched the cage sink back into the water.
"Not now Quint," I told him. "I'll process it when we get back to land, but right now... I- I can't."
"He was a good kid. I can see why you liked him."
"I loved him."
"I know."
As he said that, and as I resigned myself to getting through this ordeal before mourning there was a loud splash before the shark, the bastard shark propelled himself out of the water and onto the transom, crushing it under his weight and making the ship start to sink under the weight of the monster.
For the third time I grabbed the ladder as things started falling towards the open mouth of the shark, and for a moment I thought about letting go, letting the shark take me, but living was too important. I still had Quint, and while he was never the warmest father, I knew he did the best he could and he always had my best interest at heart. I hooked my arms around the ladder and started to climb up it when Quint went sliding towards the shark.
"Quint!" I shrieked as he yelled in fear. Martin slid down and grabbed Quint's hand, but the slickness of the glove slipped through Martin's hand. "Dad!" I let go of the ladder and started to slide towards him, but Martin grabbed me, hauling me towards him as my dad tried to push his feet against the shark's nose, but the shark opened it's mouth farther, bringing it's mouth shut over Quint's legs.
He screamed in pain, and I gasped as Quint's gaze turned up to us, he screamed as the shark shook him around then got a bit more of a bit, breaking Quint's back. The screaming stopped and the shark sank back into the water. Martin's arms were still around my waist and I was suddenly aware that I was shaking.
"Come on," he said as he pulled me back into the cabin. I could feel the ship sinking further as we stood in the cabin for a moment and Martin looked at me. "Where's he keep the gun?" he asked and I pointed to the closet.
"Right there," I told him, my voice hoarse as looked around the cabin. My entire life I'd spend time in this boat, my entire life I'd slept on the cushions around the table, I'd gutted fish and made chum at the table or steered the ship when Quint was too drunk. And now it was gone. And Quint was gone, and soon Martin and I would be gone.
As if on cue the shark burst through the glass window, his black eyes staring at us as he tried to get towards us. Martin moved forward, grabbing the remaining compressed air canister and smashed it against the nose of the shark. I could see flesh and blood on the teeth of the shark and somehow, as I stared at the blood and flesh stained teeth it snapped me out of my shock.
I moved to the closet and grabbed the rifle before Martin grabbed my arm. "Come on," he climbed out of the window towards the foredeck before reaching back in and taking my hand. He pulled me out of the window, and I scrambled out of it, handing the gun to Martin.
"It's coming," I pointed to the fin of the shark that was coming towards us.
"I got a compressed air canister into its mouth," he told me and I looked at him before nodding.
"Yeah," I said. "Yeah, that could work."
"That's what I thought." he nodded before looking at the crow's nest. "Get up there, let's go." he pushed me towards it gently and I walked over to it, climbing the crows nest for the last time. Martin followed me, the boat sinking a little more under our weight on the crow's nest.
"If you can do this, if we manage it, we could make it back to land," I said in realization as I looked at the land. It was only maybe half a mile from where we were. We could do it, it would be hard, but we could do it.
"Here it comes." Martin said and I looked as the shark came towards us. Martin had grabbed one of the poles on his way up and he was stabbing the shark in the nose and face as it tried to get to us. It finally backed off and swam a good distance away before circling back around. "Caroline get behind me," Martin said as he took the rifle and pointed it towards the oncoming shark. I maneuvered myself behind Martin as we sank lower into the water. "Alright, show me the tank. Show me the tank..." he said slowly as he watched the shark getting closer.
Martin took two several shots at the shark who advanced on us even faster, before it lifted its head above the water. "The tank!"
"Smile you son of a bitch!" Martin shouted as he took a shot, the final shot. The bullet hit the tank and it the results were more than Martin or I could have hoped. It was like our own bomb there in the water and the shark exploded, big chunks of flesh and blood scattering the top of the ocean as well as raining down on us. Martin let out an excited exclamation as I let out a small laugh.
"Oh god," I said in astonishment, watching the blood raining down around us before I wrapped my arms around Martin.
"We did it," he said as he wrapped his arms around me as well.
"We did it." I agreed and sighed as I started to tread water. Martin kept an arm wrapped around me as he leaned against the crow's nest, holding me out of the water as much as he could while we just sat there, absorbing the moment, trying to plan our next move before we heard the water break near us. I had my head leaning against Martin's shoulder, my eyes closed as he held me above the water.
"Oh," Martin said suddenly and I opened my eyes to see Matt swimming over to us. I stared at him for a long moment before pushing Martin's arm off of me and swimming over to Martin who grabbed onto the crow's nest and wrapped his other arm around me. I wrapped my arms around his neck, kissing him deeply as he tread water.
"Quint," he asked when we pulled apart. I shook my head and he sighed before putting his hand on the back of my neck and pressing his forehead to mine. "I'm sorry," he said softly and I gave him a small smile before nodding.
"Hey, can we get in on those?" Martin asked, nodding to the barrels. I looked over at them and nodded.
"We should be able to." I nodded before swimming over to the part of the boat that hadn't sunk completely. "If we can get this door off, it'll float and we can tie some of the barrels to it, it'll give us all something to hang onto." I told them before gesturing to Matt. "Throw me your goggles." He took them off and tossed them over to me and I slipped them on before taking a breath. I swam back into the cabin, finding some tools we kept in a drawer and swam back out, letting out my breath when I got back up. "I think this is actually doable." I told them as Matt swam over and Martin started to get a few of the barrels and some rope.
Martin and I worked on getting the door from the hinges, and when it finally was free from the hinges it floated just under the water before Martin came over with the barrels and the rope. The three of us bound the barrels to either side of the door, making a perfectly good raft before we each took a spot and started to kick towards land. It was a little hard at first, but once we got some momentum we were doing alright. After about five minutes Martin spoke up.
"What day is it?"
"It's Wednesday-"
"Tuesday." I corrected him.
"Tuesday." Matt nodded.
"I think the tide's with us."
"Keep kicking." Matt replied and I chuckled softly.
"I used to hate the water," Martin sighed.
"I can't imagine why," Matt sighed with a chuckle.
It took us a slow twenty minutes to get to shore, and when we were close enough to stand we trudged slowly up to the sand before collapsing onto it. I held the rope that was connected to the raft we'd created and tried pulling it onto the sand with us before Matt took my hands and gently pulled the rope from me.
"Let it go babe," he sighed as he collapsed onto the sand next to me. I sighed and looked over at him before hearing a vehicle on the sand.
"It's Hendricks." Martin said hoarsely. "It's our normal patrol." he explained before sitting up and waved his arms. Hendricks drove over to us and hopped out of the jeep before helping Martin over to the jeep. I looked over at the two as they talked before sighing and shutting my eyes.
Things went by in flashes, the EMT's were checking us out, loading us onto the ambulances, taking us to the hospital. I don't remember all of the tests they did, we had hardly slept in the past two days and when they finally stopped with the tests I just sank back into the bed they'd taken me to and fell asleep.
When I woke up I was in a room with Matt laying in the bed next to me. He was asleep and as he slept I looked at the window. It was dark. I lay there on the bed for a moment before it all hit me. The Orca had sank, the shark was dead, and so was my dad. I couldn't help it, all of a sudden I was sobbing. I covered my face with my hands and felt my body shaking as I cried, the image of my dad screaming, the sound of his screams as the shark dragged him underwater... It would stay with me for awhile.
I didn't notice Matt open his eyes or move over to my bed, but when he sat down on the edge of my bed I looked up at him and he smiled softly. "Come on," he said softly, wrapping his arms around me. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and buried my face into his neck, the sobs shaking my body as Matt kissed my temple and pet my hair while the tears rolled down my face.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
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