Chapter 16
The massive isleman gasps, towering over the diminutive team on their platform. Its pasty eyes, vacant and blind, twitch and rotate as water falls against them. The teal lights framing its gaping mouth twinkle against the dark green body. With a labored groan it angles its body, listening.
In slow silence Bella turns from the creature and looks in the vicinity of Observation. The rain trickles off her hair, into her eyes. Too intimated to speak, she screams in her mind;
Get us out of here.
Edward barely makes out her movement, but understands the deliberate quiet coming through Observation's speakers. The entire situation is in his hands.
Fuck you, Edward thinks, sensing the judging eyes of the Colonel behind him. A boil of resentment burns in his core. How dare you threaten my team? How dare you force me to fail?
Another loud groan shakes him as the isleman shifts again. Edward watches, hoping for any semblance of strategy to make itself known. Big, blind, and stupid. Emmett's description of the monster echoes in his head. Big, blind, and stupid. He focuses on his tiny Davids standing on the soaked platform below. He radios down.
"Bella, raise your hand."
She does, an intentional motion Edward sees through the rain.
"Great," he answers, the first sense of accomplishment he's had since this began. "Go ahead and put it down. Don't say anything. If the answer is yes, raise your hand. Got it?"
Below, the ability to communicate calms Bella as she answers, deliberately lifting her arm.
"Okay," Edward says to himself. He studies the churning water, the spacing, the violence of the waves crashing against the isleman, against the walls. The walls. The panels lining the room shift independently, mechanically causing the ebb and flow of the water. Their movement creates gaps between them that never close. He activates the radio. "Your weapons work, correct?"
A raised hand.
"Look at the walls. See how the panels cause the waves?"
Again, Bella's non-verbal yes.
"Let me know if they close completely."
The drizzle of rain fills the air as Bella and Emmett watch the walls. The seams nearly close but always leave a six-inch gap between each other.
After about a minute, Edward radios again. "Did they close completely?"
The intense Emmett meets Bella's eyes and shakes his head, confirming her observation. She doesn't move.
"There are continuous gaps in the panels?" Edward asks.
Her hand goes up.
Perfect, Edward thinks. A broad smile crosses his face. The platform isn't the only avenue of attack. A strategy, terrible and fool-hearty, forms in his mind. The only thing he can think to do. Big, blind and stupid.
"Gamma, listen closely." He pauses, gathering his thoughts. "I'm sorry how fucked up this situation is, but I have an idea how we can at least put up a fight."
In the miserable rain, Emmett rolls his eyes.
"Emmett, Bella," Edward explains, "You two will split off and flank each side of the isleman. Grab on to the wall panels to brace yourselves." As he explains, he fights the sense of ridiculousness filling his mind. "At my command, all three of you will just unload on the thing."
Edward leans back in his chair, embarrassed and drained. It's a stupid plan, based on a naive hope to overwhelm the creature with noise from all sides. He rubs his face. It will work, he thinks. Please let it work.
Still numb from the size of the isleman, Alice watches the weary Edward with a hint of satisfaction. With no options and no chance, he's making a decision. Placing a hand on his shoulder she turns away from the window. She glares at the Colonel as she returns to the couch.
The forceful shift of the isleman's breath makes standing on the platform difficult. With the radio silent, Emmett and Bella kneel beside Jacob.
The team always discusses strategy, even if it means ignoring their leader. For Emmett and Bella, after decades of experience, it's vital. But with the sensitive hearing of the massive beast it's frustratingly dangerous.
Intent on Emmett, Bella thinks. She doesn't want to be here. The team, Edward especially, is getting fucked. Only the desire to get out of the Pen supersedes her anger.
She shakes her head and shrugs. Droplets of water hop off her tangled hair. There's no other choice, she thinks. For Edward.
Emmett looks to the isleman, scanning its height. A hundred scenarios run through his head: Climbing the monster for close-range hacking; diving underwater, attempting to take out its legs. Edward's solution doesn't take advantage of the team. Jacob can still turn. The team can still be healed. Colonel Cullen will still abort the scenario. This plan is audacious, simple, and needlessly risky.
There's no point in arguing though. Resigned, Emmett shrugs and nods.
Bella taps Jacob, shivering on his stomach between her and Emmett. He turns his head slightly, keeping his body centered on the SAW. She holds out a thumb parallel to the platform. Jacob nods. She turns her thumb upward and Jacob nods again.
With the team in agreement, Bella slides her legs into the water. It fills her boots, the uncomfortable warmth soaking her feet.
Emmet stops her before she leaves the platform. He holds up a palm, signaling her to wait as he watches the isleman. After a moment, he snakes his hand through the air, mimicking the roll of the waves. With his other hand, he points to Bella and himself before holding it up as a blade.
She nods, understanding.
Emmett returns his focus on the isleman as he pantomimes. He slowly lowers his bladed hand under his other hand and moves it sideways as the monster inhales. When it exhales, he raises his hand above the simulated waves. Just before the exhalation is finished, his blade drops below the surface and moves forward.
Brilliant, Bella think. Swim under the water to avoid making noise. Come up to breathe on the isleman's louder exhale. She taps the side of her head and smiles.
Still dour and intense, Emmett nods. Bracing himself against the sides of the platform, he lowers himself completely into the water. He grabs his rifle off the platform and disappears beneath the waves.
Biting the inside of her lip, Bella slides the rest of her body down. She grips the sides with both hands, shifting over to get Jacob's attention. She smiles at him. We're going to get through this.
A broad, mischievous grin crosses Jacob's face behind the water falling heavily from his brow. He lifts his head off the SAW's stock. 'Get'em,' he mouths.
Bella lifts her chin in mute laughter. Carefully grabbing her rifle, she waits for the end of the isleman's exhale and dips below the water.
The monster's groan is deafening in the murky water. Bella shifts her weight, pointing her rifle ahead and pushes blindly in the direction of the wall. Steadily kicking, she fights to remain under the ebbing waves. Her chest tightens. After a few moments, the creature falls silent and Bella prepares to surface.
They exhale together, Bella and the isleman. Bobbing helpless in the water, she takes her time in catching her breath. She's only a third of the way there, and much closer to the creature than she likes. A rumble surrounds her as the monster shifts, pushing her away in a wave.
Calm down, she thinks. Breathe. Sensing the isleman's breath slow, she kicks her legs back and drops her head back under the water.
Edward's voice comes over the radio. "Jacob, raise your hand when they're set." The sound of his calm, deliberate concern in Bella's head makes the swim easier.
She's forced to surface twice more before she reaches the wall's panels. They alternate and shift, pushing out and in and up and down. The water crashes, flying over Bella as she waits. She lifts her hand up, trying to perfectly time when to grab on while fighting the push and pull of the waves. Her other hand holds the rife away from the wall, careful to keep from making needless noise.
She gasps, a roll of water submerging her. The bottom of the wall's panel smacks her leg. Pain shoots through her hip. Grimacing, she forces herself up and grips the panel's seam. Her wrists strains and stretches as she's lifted from the water. Rotating to face the isleman, she shifts her body, bracing against the shifting surface. Riding the rolling wall, dipping into the water, she tucks the rifle under her shoulder and waits.
Looking out Observation's window, Edward sees Jacob raise his arm up. He takes a deep breath, glancing back at the Colonel, before activating the radio.
"On my command," he says. His voice is emotionless and routine. "Three. Two. One. Fire."
A long, low, pain-filled roar emanates from the isleman as the clapping barrage of weaponry surrounds it. The blasts echo through the Pen, multiplying the sound and volume. Twisting and shifting, the isleman turns in place unable to identify a single source of the ruckus.
Below, spent rounds fall around the team members, bouncing of the bucking walls, splashing into the water below. The cacophony of rain, bullets and the monsters cries are deafening.
The rifle's thick stock presses painfully into Bella's shoulder. Aiming is not a concern. Thinking is not a concern. She holds on to the wall and squeezes the trigger, ceasing her onslaught only when she's lowered into the water. The sensation of rain disappears in the noise.
For an eternal minute the bullets ring. The constant clacking of Jacob's SAW filling the gaps of Emmett and Bella's rhythmic blasts.
It takes Bella a moment before she realizes she is out of ammunition.
Shit, she thinks. She flings the rifle's strap over her head and allows the weapon to hang. Frantically, she drops the empty magazine and tries to reload as the gun bounces and tosses against her body. The wall drops, plunging her beneath the water. Blind and coughing, she focuses on the isleman. It's not turning. It's moving away from her.
Across the Pen, Emmett sees this same thing. He tosses his empty weapon aside and dives into water, swimming to the platform where Jacob continues to blast the creature with noisy gunfire.
Stupid fucking plan, he thinks. The waves crash around him violently as he strokes. His face remains submerged, ignoring the ache in his lungs. Finally, he hears Bella's voice in his ear.
"Cease fire," she screams.
Jacob instinctively lets go of the trigger at the phrase. The high-pitched ring of the SAW's steady hail of bullets wanes. The isleman bears down on him, its cavernous mouth wide. He grabs the gun and jumps into the water as the monster falls forward, engulfing him and the platform.
Bella's screams pour in to Observation. "Edward, I don't see Jacob. Tell me you see him."
Both Alice and Edward desperately scan the waves churning around the mound of monster laying face-down in the water.
"I don't see him," Alice whispers, her eyes wet with fear. Her small fists are white, trembling.
Fuck, Edward thinks. The word echoes in his head. In the violent gray and black he doesn't see Jacob either.
Like a ghost, Colonel Cullen appears at Edward's side. With a look of boredom, he watches out the window.
"Damn it," Emmett's breathless voice rolls out of the speakers.
"Emmett," Edward radios back, "Where are you?"
His grip slipping on the moist seaweed covering the isleman's back, Emmett pulls himself on the creature. The splash of water chases him.
"I'm on the damn thing," Emmett says. He unsheathes his sword and rushes to the monster's head. He swings the blade as he moves across the shifting mass, making shallow cuts into the isleman's hide.
"There's Emmett," Alice says, pointing at the glint of steel on the heap of green.
Reaching the isleman's head, Emmett slides across the slick surface to a stop. Wrapping a bind of kelp around his wrist, he reaches up and plunges his sword straight into the back of the creature's neck.
The whole Pen shakes at the monster cries. Emmett rips the blade out and repeats the motion. Contorting its body in pain, the isleman sends massive waves against the walls as it braces its arms against the flooded floor.
Bella, swimming to join Emmett on the creature, drops with the rolling water before being slammed against the shifting panels. Her body shakes as the air rushes out of her, every muscle vibrating.
With a quaking growl, the isleman presses against the floor. It regains its full height, the diminutive Emmett hacking. As quickly as its mass allows, it flails to get the nuisance of its neck. Its massive fins scrape against the Pen's walls.
"I still don't see Jacob," Alice says, her face inches from the glass.
Edward's stomach turns. He doesn't see him either. And the isleman's mouth is closed.
"Oh my god," Alice says. Her voice cracks. "It ate him. It ate Jacob." Her heavy breaths join with the noise of the monster and rain in Edward's ears.
The Colonel slides the keyboard in front of him and begins typing.
Edward goes numb. The clicking keyboard a ticking clock, counting down to failure. His fingers curl. His stomach tightens. Heat fills him as his vision blurs.
I let the team down, he thinks. I don't have enough to beat that thing.
His body relaxes as the solution comes to him, followed by an immediate wash of shame. He turns to Colonel Cullen.
"Kill switch protocol," he says, softly.
The Colonel stops typing and looks at him.
Edward frowns, sensing Alice's gaze.
"Jacob is inside the isleman," Edward explains. "The explosion should kill it from the inside." He feels nothing, the chaos outside disappearing.
Alice's head drops.
Pursing his lips, Colonel Cullen types the last few keystrokes and hits 'Enter.'
The Pen goes silent as the rain and isleman stop. The waves still. A moment later, a distant electrical buzz is heard. High above the calming water, Emmett grips tight to the creature's seaweed back, his sword planted firmly in its neck.
A splash. Another. Chunks of polymyth drop and sag off the isleman into the water below. As the creature's skin loosens, Emmett braces himself. He begins to slide, accelerating. As the chunk of monster falls, Emmett bounds off, flying twenty feet into the water. Like mud, the monster disintegrates.
Emmett sheathes his sword against his back and swims through the chunks floating in the water.
"Jacob. Bella," he calls.
"Emmett," Bella answers, not far from the wall. "Where's Jacob?"
"I'm here," Jacob says, coughing in the midst of polymyth globs.
Emmett swims over to Jacob as Bella radios Observation. "We're all here."
Edward's shoulders drop, the unrealized weight of the scenario lifted. He sighs, hanging his head while bracing himself on the desk. He feels the shake in his spine, the draining of energy. A reluctant smile forms. He got through it.
He looks to Alice who wordlessly walks away.
"Congratulations, Captain Masen," Colonel Cullen says. "You passed."