Jake Morrison's Arc

Chapter 31 of 54

Three months passed. The island held fifty-five people now. The fences ringed the whole coast, and no creature had climbed ashore since the last gap closed. That morning Jake called everyone to the main cabin. Marisol stood beside him, two months from giving birth. Marcus and Sofia held hands near the door. Jake spoke plain. "We stop giving out our position on the radio," he said. "We'll help other survivors build somewhere else. But no one new lands here." Heads nodded around the room. The island was full, and full meant safe. That evening Jake walked the docks with Marcus. The boats sat quiet in the dark water. Jake studied the fenced shore. "We sealed every landing point," he said. "But the docks are open water. A boat can pull right in." Marcus frowned. "You're thinking about the thing that boarded the yacht." Jake nodded. Tentacles could grip a piling the same way they gripped a hull. The coast was locked. The water road was not. The answer came before the plan did. The water beside the dock broke open. A thing rose from it, pale and wrong. Its neck stretched long above thin shoulders. From its belly, tentacles uncoiled and slapped the planks. One arm hooked a piling and hauled the body up. Its mouth opened wide, and a single eye burned orange. "Marcus!" Jake shouted. He grabbed a boat hook off the dock. Marcus snatched up a gaff. The creature swung a tentacle and caught Jake across the chest. He hit the planks hard and slid to the edge. Water soaked his back. The thing dragged itself closer, mouth wide. Marcus drove the gaff into a tentacle and pinned it to the wood. The creature screamed and thrashed. "Get up!" he yelled. Jake rolled clear and came up with the boat hook. He jammed the steel point under the stretched neck and shoved. The head snapped back. Marcus wrenched his gaff free and buried it in the creature's skull. It shuddered once and went still. Together they rolled the body off the dock. It sank without a splash. Jake stood bent over, breathing hard. Marisol and Sofia ran down from the cabins with lanterns. "You're hurt," Marisol said. Jake shook his head. "Bruised. Nothing worse." He looked at the black water and the open dock. "It came in exactly where I said. Right through the boats." Marcus wiped his gaff on his jeans. "So we close it." Jake nodded slow. The coast fences kept things out of the shallows. But the docks were still a doorway. By lantern light the four of them walked the pilings, measuring. "A gate across the mouth," Jake said. "Bars below the water. Nets. Anything that comes up gets caught before it reaches the planks." He turned to Marcus. "We start the water barricade at dawn." The land was sealed. Now the sea itself had to be shut out.