“Can I get you anything?” I asked the man. He shook his head, not even looking up at me. His body shivered violently under the thick coat we’d given him. “Look…” I said with a sigh. “I understand you’ve probably just been through hell, but, we need to ask you a few questions… Get a picture of what happened.”
“…Are you the Captain?” His voice was barely a whisper.
“That I be.” I replied. “Captain Jackson, and you would be?”
“You need to take us to shore Captain.” He said, now looking up to meet my eyes. “You need to take us a shore, immediately!”
“Take a deep breath sailor, we’re working on that.”
“You don’t understand, It will-“
“Wow, slow down there.” I cut him off, doing my best to keep the man calm. “I assure you, we have no higher priority than returning to land. For the time being, try to relax, I just need to know what happened.”
He paused, but the panic stayed in his eyes.
“How long before we reach shore?” He asked.
I swallowed. “As soon as possible…” I said. “Now how about you start by telling me your name?”
“That wasn’t an answer.” He shot back, I could hear the anxiousness leaking into his voice.
“Look, sir, I promise you. We-“
“You’re the Captain, aren’t you? When are we going to be back!? What’s the ETA?”
I sighed. “We don’t know…” I said.
“What!?”
“Look…” I said, rubbing my head with my palm. So much for keeping the guy calm. “Before we found you, we where overtaken by a nasty bit of fog. Thought nothing of it at first, then… well, then the radar stopped picking up the shoreline. GPS is out. No one’s picking up on the radio. Hell, even our compasses are just spinning in circles…”
I did my best to sound calm, though truth was, we were desperate for any information the man could offer.
“Now look,” I said. “If there’s anything you can tell us. Anything at-“
“We’re all doomed!” He interrupted. his face had gone white as a ghost.
“Now now, let’s not say that.” I tried to say reassuringly, though I think he could hear the nervousness in my voice now.
“No!” he was shouting now. “You don’t understand. They… They did something… They took that thing out of the water at it was like…”
“What thing?” I cut him off. “This was your old crew I’m guessing? What did they pull out of the water?”The man was silent for a moment. He was shaking harder, I don’t believe it was from being pulled from the ocean anymore. He seemed to stare off into a spot on the table for a moment, his eyes were filled with terror.
“We were a fishing crew.” He finally said, not bothering to lift his eyes. “Our captain had made a special arrangement, we were being paid to ferry two passengers. They…”
“Where were you taking them?” I asked.
The man shook his head harshly. “Doesn’t matter, never told me, don’t believe there even was a destination. Captain started acting real strange when they showed up. They did something to him, I’m sure of it! They made us put out our nets, and then that thing! That-“
“Okay okay slow down a tad there friend.” I cut him off. Worried he may have a heart attack before he could finish. The man’s eyes were as wide as diner plates. “You haven’t even told me your name yet.”
“…Jerry.”
“CAPTAIN! CAPTAIN!!!” One of the deckhands suddenly yelled out, bursting through the door. “Captain! We spotted another one! They’re pulling him out now!”-
The newcomer looked around the room with curiosity. Like Jerry, he seemed uneased, though he was holding his nerves better so far. Jerry, stared at him with confusion in his eyes.
“Quite the rig you got here sir!” Said the newcomer.
“Aie,” I replied. “She’s a fine troller. Not built for long voyages though. I’m afraid if we don’t break this fog within the week, that will be the end of our fresh water.”
No point in being dishonest with this one, Jerry would rat.
“So, as far as I understand…” I continued. “You both came from separate ships?”
The pair nodded.
“And both of you encountered something… out in the ocean?”
The pair nodded again.
“It ate my fucking ship it did.” The newcomer said.
Jerry snapped his head towards him. “WHAT!?” He blurted.
The newcomer turned to Jerry. “Yeah. One of my crew threw me overboard. Probably trying to save my life! Heh… Poor Jackson… I remember watching it chase after them. Then the jaws opened up. It swallowed them whole, then dove back into the abyss…”
“….WHAT!!!!???” Jerry practically shrieked, I could see the hair on his neck standing up like a cat. “JAWS!? IT HAS FUCKING JAWS!!?? HOW GODDAMN BIG WAS IT!!??”
“Wait! Wait a second!” I interjected. “It ATE, your ship? What like is this thing some kind of animal?”
“That thing was no animal…” Jerry responded. “Whatever that thing was, God had no part in its creation…”
“It was a weird-looking boat with a face.” The newcomer added.
Me and Jerry both stared at him in silence.
“What?” I finally said.
“Yeah, like the bow of the ship! It opened up like a mouth, my ship went inside, then it closed its
mouth. Then went underwater.”
The silence resumed.
“Okay, this guy is just fucking nuts.” Jerry said. “Listen, the thing we pulled from the water, it was… something else, like something not from this world!”
“Hang on, I’m the one thats nuts? And what your saying you fished up some kind of alien or something? I’m telling you kid, I saw that ship with my own two eyes! It showed up as soon as the storm hit!”
Jerry’s eyes suddenly went wide.
“The storm….” He said, “God, Richard would have never made us fish in that gail…”
BOOM!
Dethening thunder blasted from outside the haul, the room was once again quiet.
“Oh shit…” Said the newcomer.
The door to the room burst open once again.
“Captain!” The deckhand called out. “The men have spotted another vessel through the fog.”
“Does it have a face?” I asked.
“What…? No why would it… Captain it’s fast approaching us!”
“Here she comes…” The newcomer muttered. Poor Jerry had gone white as a ghost.
I rushed out on deck, the fog at sea was still present, barely giving us maybe fifty yards of sight in any direction. In the distance though, through the mist, I could see its silhouette. It was massive, dwarfing our ship by nearly four times. The hair on my neck began to stand, when I realized the silhouette was growing larger.
“Try the radios!” I shouted. “See if there’s any way we can make contact! The rest of you, lights, emergency flares! Light em all up! We need them to see us!”
“NO!” Jerry shouted from behind me. “We need to try and lose it in the fog! Put this thing into gear! I don’t know what that thing is, but if that man isn’t completely nuts, I don’t think we want it to see us!”
“It already does…” The newcomer said, staring at the shape with almost a vacant expression. “That’s her alright.
A pair of floodlights suddenly flashed on from the approaching titan, beaming on us like a pair of eyes.A loud groan rumbled from its direction. Like a low broken call of a whale.
“It’s… it’s alive… isn’t it?” Jerry said.
“How should I know.” The newcomer responded nonchalantly. “Welp, this worked out for me last time. Good luck!”
“What?” I asked. Before I fully realized what was happening, the newcomer had climbed on top the railing and hurled himself into the water below.
“Captain…” The Deckhand had returned. “Captain we ummm, we have radio contact with the ship, but ummm….”
“But what!?” I hissed.
“I think you should hear it for yourself.”
I could hear it before I even opened the door to the wheelhouse. The sound penetrating through the thick metal haul. It became deafening when I opened the door. The crew stared up at me, fear and bewilderment in their eyes as what sounded like a thousand voices screaming in anguish blasted from the radio.
The beast of a vessel behind us let out another groan.
I remember being frozen for a moment. starring dead ahead as the rain began to fall onto the windows, subtly now, but the storm was just beginning.
“Captain…?”
“…Full steam ahead!” I nearly growled. “All hands on deck! Let’s get ready to fucking run…”