The strong wind blew against our uniforms,the storm roared and the tide was fierce. We have already been on this trip for a day,shipping containers to another country,although this felt longer than normal.
Me and my coworkers were at the break room,eating some quick snaps and sipping coffee before going back to work,as our schedule was very busy. After leaving the room,i stood outside watching the great dark ocean waves splash with force against the hull,causing a lot of water to get into the deck,although that kind of thing is common for workers in ships,especially cargo ships like this one or fishing boats.
At some point,our supervisor called us to the control room. After arriving inside,i could notice some of the crew there as well,so it must be some big thing to discuss. He started by saying that we have to contact help,as the ship’s compass was malfunctioning,and the communication was constantly halting,and God i wish he was just playing a prank. I checked over and it was true: the compass was switching directions non stop,and the comms line only worked for a moment before shutting off by itself and vice versa.
Of course,there was panicking,we got lost,didnt know where we headed to and didnt know what to do. The radar somehow seemed to be working fine,and the sonar picked up a huge object. I rushed to the deck and it was just a whale,however,at a certain point while it swan,it abruptly turned around and went the opposite direction. As strange as it was,i couldnt shake the feeling that something was off.
Two hours later and we still dont know where the hell we were,nor did we know what to do to get help. Some workers were agitated,others prayed and hoped for some miracle,and i along some others were not really thinking there was much to do. The only maneuver that was done was turning around to go back the route we came from,as that was the only logical solution to probably at least return somewhere we knew…but nothing,just the vast and seemingly endless ocean,dark as the night. As i wad again on the deck alongside a coworker seeing if we could light up a cig,he noticed something unusual and pointed to me: the water seemed too dark,even with the ship lights flashing out bright,i almost thought it didnt seem like water at all,then a noise. Something probably crashed into the hull but we couldnt tell what due to how hard it was to see.
Eventually people gathered around the deck while some remained in the control room. We were trying to see what was going on and communicated with the people in the room,but even that was a bit difficult considering the constant interference on the radio. Then someone yelled “The sonar is picking up something,something heading towards the ship!”. As we kept watch to see what was approaching,the ship shaked slightly,an impact against the hull,then it happened again…and again…something is purposefully hitting the ship and we dont know what it is or why.
Then something jumped out of the water,a large fish,it had a large body…but…it had limbs,if it were to stand up,it would probably be around 8ft tall,but what was worse is that its body was strong enough to crash against the hull repeatedly. Then its claws dug into the metal and it started climbing the hull to reach the deck. We panicked and screamed at the radio to get help,even if just to get weapons. We got hold of some kitchen knives,but even then we werent sure it was even gonna be enough. On the control room,someone called:
“Theres more of them! A lot of things are approaching the ship!!!”
We saw from the window as we went upstairs,the next thing to attack was some kind of giant eel,it seemed to be as big as a bus. Then more mutated sea creatures,along them multi headed fishes,sea snakes with legs and then worse: some kind of two legged creature,taller than a house,stars climbing the rail and bashing containers.
We could do nothing but watch as they tried to tear the ship. We tried to go at full speed and even shake the ship by maneuvering it,but most creatures were smart enough to cling and stay aboard. Just as we thought it couldnt get worse,something caught the ship,tendrils bigger than the two legged creature starts wrapping into the front of the ship,whatever it was,it was big and probably heavy enough as it started to try and drag the ship underwater. We evacuted and headed to the back,preparing to launch the lifeboats to get out,for there was no way we could escape alive of this. On the way,some creatures barged through the doors and started chasing us,another was literally punching against the hull and tore a hole,using it to get inside the ship. An eel surprised us by a window,taking a chunk of a crew member’s face off,another grabbed the captain’s leg and pulled him as the group started devouring him alive.
In the end,only 5 of the crew including me made our way to the boat,but then it dropped 4 to as another aberration followed us. That worker,lets say he was a madman and a savior,as he pushed the lifeboat with us away to distract the monster and made sure we escaped as he purposefully let himself behind. As we paddled it,we watched as the ship was torn apart by the giant tendrils,that we faintly saw it belonged to a giant type of nautilus or cephalopod. The last thing we saw before going as far as possible was the sight of thr ship,bent till the metal snapped,containers and creatures alike falling back to the sea until the ship could no longer be seen,either due to us being far away in the darkness or it was already sunken down. We barely slept as we tried to find our way back to land,and the food was barely enough to ration. When we finally were found after 2 days by fishermen,we looked like we just returned from an ongoing war,desperate,miserable and traumatized.
We never knew what really got us like that,we dont know what those things were,we dont even know if those were really animals or demons released on Earth,and to this day,while i havent returned to work on another ship yet,i still have nightmares about being in the ship and witnessing these events again.