She woke up to a irritable migraine.
She shut her eyes tightly, but the pain was still there. Both her head and her heart after all that happened.
She felt sick, the longer she stayed out at the research station, the more guilty she felt. She inhaled sharply, whipping her head upwards when her door knocked.
She dragged herself off and went over, peeping into the peephole to see who it was.
It was Suyin.
Reluctantly, she opened the door to see the latter holding two bottles of pills and a bottle of water. "Evelyn, I'm so sorry about last night," she apologized, "I just got so angry about losing Toshi that I took it out on Jonas and assumed that you both were cowards."
"'S alright," Evelyn slurred, her eyes trailed down to the two items, "whas dat fer?" "Jonas told me to check on you after I accidentally walked in on him being naked," Suyin explained, "he said you looked feverish last night so he just wanted to ensure that you were okay. And we'll be having a meeting in the conference room in a few."
Afterwards, she gave her the three bottles and smiled a bit, but she could tell it was forced. "Ssangs," her tone was still slurred, an after effect of sleep.
She closed the door and leaned against it, studying the two pill bottles. One was for a possible fever and the other was painkillers.
She decided to take both, tossing the bottles into her bed and washed it down with a swig of water, letting the bottle join the other two on the bed.
She blinked to get the sleep out, wandering about her room for a few minutes until she decided to take an early morning shower.
As the water trickled down her bare body, images of sharp, deadly teeth flashed in her mind, torturing her for her inability to save everyone. She held the wall of the shower to keep her balance, panting heavily as the steam from the shower rose up to fog the glass surrounding the shower.
Heavy jaws chomped onto the Origin, biting into the thermal vents and blowing up the sub. Her life flashing before her eyes, she'd failed to save one person.
She shook her head, trying to get her senses back.
She will not let that break her.
Finishing up, she wrapped a towel around her body and got out, shuffling through her duffle bag for clothes to put on. She chose to wear a red oversized woolen sweater and baggy jeans, wearing her platform boots once more and her glasses.
She left her room and made her way to the conference room, gaining the attention of almost everyone present, as she sat down on one of the seats.
"Great, now that everyone's here," Mac motioned for Jaxx to start.
She tapped on her tablet and a picture of a giant shark's skull was visible on the TV in the room, "this is what attacked us. A megalodon."
"How big is that thing?" DJ asked, eyes glued to the screen.
"Between 70 and 90 feet. 21 to 27 metres," Suyin explained, "the megalodon was the largest shark that ever existed. It feared nothing. It had no predators. Its jaws were stronger than any other animal, ever. The meg could bite a whale in half, crushing through the bones."
She tried to pay attention to their findings but her eyes drooped in on themselves for as she was still exhausted for not sleeping for a week straight, too worried for Lori's health, leaving her semi conscious, but conscious to hear bits and pieces of their conversation. Her head lolled to the side before resting upon the top of the chair.
"I cannot begin to express my sadness for Toshi's death. We have the discovery of a lifetime. This is what Toshi worked for...It's what we all worked for. But we're going to have to proceed slowly."
"Yeah, that's really not going to work for me. What is Mana One?"
"This station?"
"Yes and what's it doing? Hmm? Right now?"
No one answered.
"Exactly. Nothing. Twenty million rover, gone. Thirty million dollar sub, gone."
She felt a gentle hand on her shoulder, lightly shaking her awake. She inhaled as her eyes snapped open to see Jonas standing over her and all she did was let a lazy smile draw on her lips.
"You are now sitting in the most expensive underwater marine biology day camp in human history. And now that we've actually found something amazing, we can't proceed slowly. You don't quit trying to get to the moon because you lost an astronaut. You charge forward, or someone else will get there first."
Evelyn blinked, repressing a yawn until Jonas spoke up.
"I said you seemed to like it."
"Canned wait t' ged yer hanns on dah' thin', huh," she spoke with the same lazy grin, despite not having any idea what they were talking about.
"I'm sorry," Morris rudely remarked, "are they part of this team?"
"You're damn right they're a part of this team."
She started dozing off completely after that sentence, unknowing to the Mana One crew even though Jonas was right behind her while he was telling them off.
The only time she jolted awake was when the lab abruptly shook, followed by a child's scream. She sat up in her seat, suddenly alert as she looked around.
"What's that?" Mac asked. The room was flooded with a lethal stillness, the atmosphere so thick you couldn't possibly cut it with a knife, even if it was at its sharpest.
"My daughter," Suyin said. "Meiying," Evelyn got up to her feet almost instantly. They surged out of the conference room with Mac, taking the elevator up to the O level, meeting Jonas there. They ran through the corridors with speed. At an intersection, Mac went left while the other three went right.
Pushing through a plastic covering, they ran until they found a small circular robot and controller abandoned, the owner close by as she cowered behind a pillar.
Suyin hugged her daughter tightly, hearing her frantic breaths as she tired to calm her down. "There's a monster," Meiying had said, "and it's watching us." Furrowing her eyebrows, Evelyn didn't know what to do with that until she looked at the glass herself, seeing giant teeth marks that couldn't have been done but a normal shark. "What the..." The words died inside her throat when Mac joined them.
He went up closer to check it out, only to jump back slightly when a whale slammed itself into the glass, giving the group there a jumpscare. "It's okay," Jonas reassured, "it's just a whale."
Suyin then looked at the whale again, "wait where's Lucy?"
"Who?" Evelyn glimpsed back at her, then to the window.
"Where's the mom?"
A giant shark spawned out of nowhere and took a big bite into her, scaring the living daylights out of Eve as she stumbled back from the glass. Her heart spasmed a bit, watching with terror as the shark waved the baby whale around like a chew toy, colouring the ocean with red while she let out a sad song she knew she was going to sing for the last time as the monster finished her off, only leaving her tail as proof of her existence.
"That's...that's so fucked up," she accidentally slipped into Chinese not caring whether Meiying heard her curse or not.
...
"Alright team, initiate emergency protocols," Mac ordered, "nobody is to go near the water."
"Wasn't planning to," Evelyn sat herself down on a free chair as the other planned out what to do in these circumstances.
"You guys, take a look at this," Jaxx called for their attention as she showed a thermal scan on the big screen.
"When the glider came up, the thermocline was intact, so it was one degree Celsius, right?" She explained, "but a minute later, when the Evolution came up, the temperature increased by 25 degrees. A shark could come right through there. 20 sharks for that matter."
"Are you sure it was the Evolution that caused the rise in temperature?" Evelyn asked, gathering everyone to look at her, "because, I was there when the Origin exploded, with Toshi, God Forbid, and the explosion caused had sent up a torrent of fire towards the thermocline. Couldn't that have warmed up the water instead of us retreating, hence creating some sort of gap big enough for the Meg to escape through?"
"She's right," Jonas backed her up, "when the meg hit the Origin, it slammed into a thermal vent."
"Those can release millions of gallons per minute," Zhang added, "the heat from the vent cleared the path through the freezing cold layer."
"Are you saying we opened up a super highway for giant sharks?" Morris asked, albeit worried. "Not exactly," Jaxx interjected, "it seems like it was a transitory event. The temperatures are returned to normal and the gap is closed."
"Yeah. But not before a massive prehistoric killing machine decided to come up and say 'Hi'," DJ snorted sarcastically. "Hey, look," Jonas cuts in, a twinge of irritation laced his tone, "we're wasting time. That thing's out there. We need to find it and kill it."
"No," Suyin defended, "we can't. We should explore non-lethal options first."
"For the Meg or for us?"
"And let that bigger son of a bitch rule the seas, reigning on top of the marinal food chain with no possible predator to stop it? Thanks, but no thanks," Evelyn pulled up a leg on the chair, wrapping her arms around it.
Things were going way to fucking fast for her to handle.
"I've got an emergency locator beacon," one of the workers called, "20 miles, southwest."
"What does that mean?"
"It means a boat has gone down."
"Three boats," the man specified.
"That's the Meg, we need to get there. Now," Jonas folded his arms with a serious look on his face. Evelyn spared the chief marine biologist a glance, "still wanna go non-lethal?"
...
The CHARLOTTE skipped on the waves with a steady but rapid pace, the scent of the ocean brought both a sense of calm and an urge to vomit.
Evelyn was out in front with Jaxx, keeping an eye out for any signs of the Meg or the three boats with their binoculars. She was wearing a blue and grey full bodied wetsuit with an oversized company branded hooded jacket thrown over it, just in case she has to dive in the water. "Mac!" Jaxx exclaimed, pointing out towards the sea, "I found something!"
The boat slowed down as it sailed towards a large pile of debris scattered all over. "That's a lot of water pollution," Evelyn peered down.
Heller took up something to prod around, turning over the dead sharks in the water. "These sharks have no fins," observed DJ. "They were killed by shark poachers," said Zhang, "they cut off the fins and throw the shark back to die. All for a bowl of soup."
"Looks like the Meg evened the score," Heller stated, lifting up an disembodied arm from the wreckage.
"Looks like karma was an actual bitch this time," the redhead shuddered at the sight, "hey Suyin. Still wanna go non-lethal?"
"One fish did all this?" Morris enquired. "Ask it yourself," Jonas gazed at the horizon, spotting the ginormous dorsal fin ominously lurking around.
She joined the others just as Zhang explained to Jonas what seemed like a possible plan.
"Woah, woah," Mac intervened, "it's gonna take at least 20 minutes to rig the cage. And that thing will be gone in two."
"Why don't you just put a tracker on it?"
The crew turned towards Jack, who was casually sitting down as if he wasn't on a boat in the middle of the ocean.
"Don't you guys ever watch Shark Week?" He continued, taking of his sunglasses, "you have one of those like GPS tracker tag thingamajigs? Keep an eye on the shark till the cage is ready?"
"We should be able to out a tracking dart in that dorsal fin," Wall decided.
"You're welcome."
"Yeah, but somehow we have to get this boat next to that meg," Mac argued. "No, we can't," Doctor Zhang inputted, "it's already proven aggressive towards boats."
"Plus we'll just look like a giant appetizer," the red haired joined Morris on the seat. "The safest way to approach is without a vehicle," Suyin suggested.
"Hold up. Hold up," DJ said disapprovingly.
"You want someone to swim out there?"
"To a prehistoric shark that ate our friend?"
"Oh hell no. If I go 20 feet of that thing, I'm gonna get a nose bleed and possibly jeopardize the mission."
"Actually one of us alone in the water is no threat," Suyin added.
"Okay, who the hell is going to make that swim?"
"Let's draw straws."
"I can't swim," Morris suddenly stood up, having everyone look at him with perplexity, "uh, sorry. My body made me say that."
"You sure about this?" Jonas asked Suyin. She nodded with a confident expression, before answering, "not really."
"If I get eaten, you're gonna feel really bad."
She showed him a small gap between her thumb and index finger.
He suited up and got harnessed to the cable of the CHARLOTTE, while Mac told him about the harpoon he was giving him.
He readied himself to dive into the water, sparing the chief marine biologist a glance and some words, then looked at the redhead who was on the roof with a little smile. "Please don't get eaten by that fucker," she called, "if you die, I'm not forgiving you. And I will steal your lifetime supply of beer back in Thailand."
He snorted at that, then plunged in, pulling the water with his arms in a slow and steady tempo.
She heard conversations taking place on her new intercom, watching as he ventured out further.
Her heart stopped once it went under, using her binoculars to see him putting on goggles and submerging himself, at least four times. She saw when he got a bit panicky the fourth time around, breaking the surface just as the dorsal fin showed up again.
He aimed at the beast carefully, intercepting where it as about to swim and shoot his shot. "He's done it," Jaxx said, "Mac, tracker is live!"
"Great, reel him in DJ!"
The cable suddenly yanked Jonas backwards, causing Suyin to yell, "stop, stop! No vibrations!" The shark suddenlt changed direction and turned towards the man in the water.
"It's too late for that now," the redhead called, "it's coming for him."
"Jonas, it's coming at you."
'You think I didn't notice?! Start the boat, start the boat!' He yelled into the intercom.
He ditched the harpoon and his googles and started swimming for it.
"Pull him in," Suyin commanded.
Mac shuffled off to start the boat, driving away as quickly as he could while the cable dragged Jonas across the ocean. "Can't this thing go any faster?" The redhead urged. "It would if it could!" Mac yelled from downstairs.
Jonas was getting closer to the boat, but so was the Meg.
For a brief second, Jonas was pulled under. Evelyn held her breath, hoping and praying he'll make it out in one piece when all of a sudden, he lunged out of the water around the same time the giant Meg did, the shark's teeth barely missing him as he flew into Wall and Heller's arms, watching as the beast splashed back into the water and soaking the back of the boat.
Evelyn felt like coughing out in relief, calming down her palpitating heart and wanting to run down there to give the ass a big kiss on the lips for not dying.
Hey, he doesn't have a wife anymore, she could care less.
"You asshole," she laughed breathlessly.
"You might be a son of a bitch," Heller stated, "but you're sure as hell no coward. Good job."
...
"Remind me again why this was a good idea," Jonas asked as they lowered the cage into the water. "What? It's a shark cage," Jaxx replied smugly.
"Plastic shark cage."
"I'm gonna ignore that you just said that. This beautiful thing is polycarbonate, specifically designed not to crack, not to break, but to deform. And in this case, at this thickness, it would take 20,000 pounds per square inch. And if you're talking about breaking, that's eight to nine hundred thousand."
"I don't like it," Jonas finally said. "You don't like anything," the redhead rolled her eyes. Jaxx turned towards Wall, he only shrugged and repeated his words, "he doesn't like it."
Jonas then walked off, grabbing a harpoon to hand to Suyin and ended up sitting next to her while she got ready. The redhead sighed to herself, literall having nothing better to do so she joined them, perching on the other side of the diver.
"Your father has a lot of faith in you," he noted, which told her she missed something at the beginning.
Suyin scoffed, "I've done hundreds of shark dives." "Not like this," he stated calmly. "Not with the King of Manslaughter swimming freely in the ocean. I still think this is a bad idea," the redhead pointed towards the open sea.
"Yes," the biologist agreed, "but I know shark anatomy. And I know where this can penetrate through Megalodon's skin."
Jonas tried to convince her to let him do the dive instead, but she shot him down, insisting to let her do what she did best.
She entered the cage and watched as Heller closed it on her, locking it securely in place. The cage was fully lowered into the water, while in the distance, the Meg submerged...
The Wall threw chunks of chum with blood still dripping from it to attract the big one.
'Everything okay up there?' She questioned.
"Just a fresh round of chum, so you, you know, taste good," Wall replied, chucking more into the ocean.
'I'm so glad you're looking out for me,' the diver spoke sarcastically.
"Thank you. Bye-bye. Good luck." The response made her snort out a little as he tossed the bucket away.
"I still think this is a bad idea," Jonas voiced, even she could agree.
A short yelp ripped through the intercom, having Jonas asked worriedly, "what's happening down there? You okay?"
'Yeah, I'm okay. Just some teeny, tiny eight-foot sharks.'
"Teeny tiny?! Eight foot?! Not in the same sentence," Evelyn commented.
Her eyes stayed onto that one spot the cage delved into.
'Suyin, it's on its way. 50 metres.'
'30.'
'10 metres.'
'I'm going to try to hit it in the eye.'
Afterwards, a barely audible 'damn it' followed, which meant she wasn't able to get a proper target.
Suddenly something chomped on the cage, tugging it away from the boat while rotating the boat in the process. The cable reeled out to its finishing end, holding on strong to the cage. The boat lurched sideways, having Evelyn clench her fingers onto the railing to hold her back.
Due to the force of the pull, the crane crumpled and fell onto the floor, if only Heller didn't hesitate to push DJ out of harm's way. "Suyin!" A guttural cry escaped Evelyn's lips.
'Yes! The poison is in!'
"Okay, Suyin. Hang in there," Jonas spoke.
They heard a series of yells, followed by a, 'I'm trapped! I'm trapped in its mouth!'
"That cage will not break," Jaxx reiterated.
'That's the problem! The cage is being swallowed!'
Jonas turned away to take off his jacket but Evelyn stopped him. "No fucking way. Piss off Taylor," she threw her hooded jacket at him and ripped off her platforms and socks, "you had your turn to be the hero when you shot the tracker dart. Pass me those goggles and oxygen tank, Wall."
"But didn't you say you'll get a nosebleed if you go 20 metres near that thing?" Wall asked, tossing her the goggles as she passed. "I fucking lied, obviously," she took off her own glasses and flung them at Jonas, who struggled to catch them, slung the oxygen tank onto her back and quickly put on the goggles, "and I'll do it anyway if it means saving Suyin!"
"Evelyn, wait!"
She bolted for the dive, putting on the mouthpiece at the last second before hitting the water.
The first thing she spotted after rounds of bubbles was the Meg, and then the lit up cage in its mouth while attempting to swallow it whole.
She used the cable to guide her way to the cage, kicking her feet to propel her downwards, feeling her heart thundering for could have been her oncoming death.
She pulled herself down, getting closer to Suyin when the shark abruptly took off, swimming in the opposite direction, tugging her along with it as she held on tightly until her knuckles turned white.
The cable instantly snapped in half, jolting the shark's head for it to release the cage and swim away. She resumed her mission, growing closer to the now sinking cage.
'New problem. My mask is broken. I'm losing air.'
That caused her to swim faster, she kept on pulling herself down.
She had managed to make it, swimming up to ensure that she was going to be alright.
'No Evelyn,' the diver showed her her now empty oxygen tank, 'go! Get back to the ship! It's not safe for you!'
Since was it ever safe for anyone?
She collapsed mere seconds later, unresponsive when Evelyn tried to open the cage from the top.
The door was jammed by the cable looping around the lock, it couldn't budge and there wasn't enough time to untangle it.
'Eve, the crane's in the water! It's gonna pull her down to the bottom, hurry!'
She felt the water rush at her like a shock wave, resulting from something hitting the water behind her, knowing it was, in fact, the crane. But that wasn't the worst bit. Now, she had to deal with a sinking entrapment and to make matters worse, the giant shark must have felt it too and was probably circling back.
She looked down and had an idea. Sinking herself lower, she opened the bottom of the ship and caught the diver as she dropped out, watching as the cage sank to the bottom.
Not wasting anymore time, she treaded towards the surface, taking calmish pulls with her hands while supporting the unconscious diver with the other one. She was almost breaking the surface, if only her eyes hadn't spotted the beast swimming towards them.
Wanting to protect the diver, Evelyn spun her around to her other side, kicking up her foot as a reflex. The shark didn't come closer, it seemed to be held up by something as its jaws almost reached her. It wriggled and fought to be freed to snack on the two, but the chains were just as ruthless to keep it back.
She moved back a bit to distance herself, alert for when the chain breaks, leaving her to fend for both her and Suyin's lives.
But she will not go down without a fight...
But it never did...
The shark's movement became sluggish, before it stopped entirely with one last bite of water.
From there, it began to sink, its eyes finally closing shut.
She heaved out a sigh of relief. With two more pulls of water, their heads broke the surface and she ditched the mouthpiece. "Over here!" She yelled to get the other's attention, ripping off Suyin's defective mask, "throw a rope!"
She ensured that the diver's head was above the water upon getting closer, using the rope they had just tossed into the water to clamber out.
Suyin was placed on the deck, Heller performing CPR to get her heart pumping again while Jonas did mouth to mouth.
Somewhere close to the chaos, Evelyn coughed out harshly, her brief terror made it hard to breathe.
"That was quite a save, Evelyn," Morris patted her on her shoulder, pulling her in, "the only two people who are crazy enough to literally swim with that shark...would be you and Jonas, am I right?" He chuckled heartily at the end.
The tank slid off her back mere seconds before she crashed onto the floor, out of breath.
"Evelyn? Are you okay? Can you hear me?" A voice spoke, but her mind was too muddled enough to register whose own it was.
"Can't...breathe..." She'd managed to get out.
'Evelyn!?'
Her eyes blurred over and stung because of the sun, the sounds of the world transitioned into a muffled cacophony as though she walked through a thick veil of water, before they faded into white noises as her vision blacked out.
...
