Mother Kraken

"No," she said, out loud.

She was not sure what she was refuting. The situation, perhaps, or just life in general. Whatever it was, she would not accept it. She knew what to do: find Alan, then get Mei and Sandra, and then get away. She was not yet sure where they should go. Just away.

People were walking out of their homes and going to the beach, many leaving their doors wide open. They would not come back, she knew. She heard the shower running and ran to the bathroom, almost slipping and breaking her neck on the wet floor. The shower door was open and the nozzle poured onto Alan's back as he huddled, rocking back and forth under it. Ronnie drenched herself picking him, then cried out when she turned him over.

He still looked human, but the signs were unmistakable: His skin had taken on a smooth, rubbery texture, and his face was oddly long, with wide black eyes. His hands, she saw, were becoming webbed, and it was difficult for him to stand because his feet had changed shape, becoming wider at the ends, like flippers. He was not yet in the same state as Boyd, but he was well on the way. Is it too late, she wondered? How long has this been happening to him? The last few days were a blur in her mind. She couldn't place when the process started or how fast it was taking effect. She just knew that the song had done this to him.

She tried to pick him up but his rubbery flesh was slippery and she almost dropped him twice. Finally she gave up and just took his face in both hands, turning it to hers. "Baby," she said, "I need you to listen." He seemed dazed but he at least looked at her. "You have to stay right here, okay? I'm going to bring help. Whatever you do, don't leave the house."

There was no way of knowing if he understood, but he seemed to nod. It would have to do. She didn't bother locking the door as she left. The streets were full of people but they paid her no mind, glassy-eyed zombies marching toward the waves. Ronnie did her best not to look straight at anyone. She kept her head down and walked east, away from the ocean, toward 19th Avenue. She hoped she was not too late. She kept her head down; judging from the squelching noises most of the crowd made when they walked, she did not want to look too closely at anyone around her. The stink of seawater was everywhere.

Mei's door was hung half open and the outer corridor was wet with puddled water. Ronnie ran but skidded to a halt as Boyd came out, holding little Sandra in his scaly arms. Sandra was not crying but instead looked passively up at her father, who himself seemed on the verge of tears, though there was little recognizable human expression left in his face.

Now, in the open, Ronnie saw fully what she had only glimpsed back at her house, saw the unspeakable, twisted thing that Boyd had become. He retained a basic human shape, though his back was bowed and his head elongated, and his hands and feet webbed into flippers. The rest of him was difficult to describe or distinguish: not entirely like a shark, an eel, a stingray, a porpoise, or a seal, but some awful amalgamation of all. His rubbery flesh gleamed. And yet, somehow, he still looked like the man she knew. All the others this far along must have taken to the water already, but she knew why Boyd hadn't. Even now, he couldn't forget his little girl.

Ronnie was between Boyd and his escape. He seemed unsure what to do. He looked away with something like shame. He tried to talk but it all came out a garbled mess. His mouth was no longer the proper shape for speech. Ronnie took a step forward and held up a hand. "It's okay," she said. Boyd looked ready to run—either away from her or at her. Ronnie advanced one slow step at a time. "Everything's going to be all right," she said. "You know me. Let me help."

Boyd made a wailing sound. "I know," Ronnie said. "What happened isn't your fault. But you don't want to bring Sandra into this. You don't want to hurt Mei." Where was Mei? Ronnie pushed the thought aside. There was no time.

"Look at your girl, Boyd," she said. The baby giggled and squirmed happily in Boyd's arms. "You don't want her in this, do you?" Ronnie held her arms out, "I'll keep her safe."

Boyd wavered.

"I'll take her and Mei and we'll go far away from all this. I promise." Ronnie took another step forward. They were almost touching now. "I promise."

Hands shaking, Boyd put Sandra in Ronnie's arms. The little girl had somehow fallen asleep. Ronnie backed away. Boyd slouched on the steps, watching her, looking at the empty place in his hands where his child had just been, and then he cried out. He darted forward, trying to grab her back. "Boyd, no!" Ronnie said, but he rushed at her, arms outstretched, and Ronnie flinched, hugging Sandra and praying she wouldn't be hurt in the collision...

A sound like a firecracker right next to her ear stunned Ronnie. Then there was another, and another, and another. Sandra woke with a shriek and Ronnie dropped to her knees, huddling over the baby. When the noise finally stopped she looked up and saw Boyd, facedown on the ground, covered in blood. Behind him, still half-concealed by the open door, was Mei. Boyd's gun smoked in her hand.

Mei was placid as she stepped over Boyd's body and took Sandra from Ronnie. She shushed the baby and rocked her back and forth until the crying stopped. Ronnie stared at Boyd's corpse, paralyzed. Boyd was dead. Boyd was dead. Boyd—

As the ringing in her ears dimmed Ronnie heard the siren song again and reminded herself that there wasn't any time to waste. Trying not to really think about what had just happened she stood up and took Mei by the shoulders. "Mei, can you hear me? Are you okay? Are, you know, all here?"

Mei looked perfectly tranquil. "Yes," she said. "I'm fine."

"Do you have the car? Is there gas?"

"Yes," Mei said again, now looking at Sandra and cooing to her. "We can leave right away."

"Good," said Ronnie. "We have to get Alan. We have to get Alan and—"

And then she stopped. She looked at her hand on Mei's shoulder. She went cold. She felt herself screaming inside but pushed it down. No time. No time.

"Forget that," she said, "Just get in the car and go. Drive until..." She paused, "Drive until you get to Nevada. Get as far inland as you can,. And don't stop for anything."

"Aren't you coming?" said Mei.

"It's too late," Ronnie said, and held up her hand so that Mei could see the webbed fingers. It had happened just now, or perhaps it had been that way all day and she had somehow not noticed it.

Mei gave her a look of pity but nodded. She buckled Sandra into her car seat, packed all the food in the house that wouldn't spoil into the trunk and, without sparing a glance behind, she drove off.

Ronnie watched her go. The streets to the west were jammed with empty cars, but to the east the whole city looked empty. Ronnie wondered if they would make it. Was it safe to cross any of the bridges? Would they have to drive all the way down the peninsula? And had they, like her, already begun to change without realizing it? Ronnie shuddered. It was no use worrying now. It was out of her hands.

She did not want to stay here with poor Boyd. She did not want to go to the ocean either. She supposed she should go spend what little time she had left with Alan. Ronnie hummed along with the song as she walked back. There was no reason not to, now.

When she finally got back she already knew just by looking at the house that Alan was gone. Her heart sank, but she knew he must have held out as long as he could, she told herself. He couldn't hang on forever, she thought. No one could. But then she saw the shuffling wet footprints all over her floor, indicating the flat, flippered feet of a great many intruders. And she saw a handprint streaked through the muck, as if Alan had been dragged through the house, and out the door...

A floorboard creaked behind her. The stink of seawater rose up. Ronnie turned and saw three of them, crouched and waiting for her, their mouths full of pointed teeth and open in a silent whisper, ocean water still dripping from their rubbery hides. They came at her.

"No," she said. "Please. I don't want to go."

They didn't listen. She tried to run but they were fast, taking her by both arms and ignoring her as she tried to kick. "I don't want to go, I don't want to go!" she said. "Just let me stay here, please. It doesn't matter now. It doesn't—"

One clubbed her across the jaw. Her vision went blurry, and then she sank into unconsciousness.

***

The sound of waves woke her up. Ronnie was standing in the tide, her bare feet covered by wet sand. The sun was going down and the Pacific looked like a shining golden sheet. The waves splashed her naked body with brine. Hundreds and hundreds of shells dotted the sand.

Somewhere out there, a great shape basked in the waves, singing. What was it? It was alive, but too big to be alive, like a living island, or a reef that had swum to the surface. A dozen people stood with Ronnie, all in thrall to the song. Most of them were showing signs of the change. Many of them were already far along. The one next to her was almost completely finished, but somehow she still recognized him as the man from the bus last week, even if his voice was barely intelligible because his mouth was longer the proper shape.

"We all came from the ocean," he said again. "Everyone, everything, all descended from those first slimy things that crawled up out of the waves. Do you wonder what made them do it? Do you wonder why they left? I used to think they were running away from something, but now I think maybe they were sent. What if some great creature of the sea, some god or monster, sent them onto the land for a reason? To do a job? And what if, now that job is over, and she's calling us home? What if one day your DNA just wakes up and says, oh, right, it's time to go. And we all just go."

He smiled, or approximated one. Ronnie said nothing, but his words struck a chord. She knew it was true.

"The ocean is the mother to us all," the man said. "It's been nice up here, but I guess we couldn't stay away from home forever."

And with that he leapt into the water. Ronnie saw his legs and feet fuse into a tail, and then he was gone. He swam toward the living island and, one by one, so did all the others. Ronnie was the only one left.

She sighed. She hoped, even now, that Mei and Sandra made it. She hoped (though she suspected it was impossible) that the Sea Mother would not visit the other coastal cities around the world. But even as she did she waded out into the water, fighting the waves. For a moment they felt cold against her rubbery flesh. Alan was out there somewhere. I'm going to find Alan, she told herself. I'm going home to find him, and when I do everything will be all right. Somehow, everything will be all right. And then she swam.

Ronnie climbed up onto the part of the great Sea Mother that sat above the surface. The monster shuddered with the effort of its labored breathing. The Sea Mother had been working hard, staying close to the surface and calling out to her children for days and days. Now the last of them was here. Ronnie tried to look at what she was standing on. What was this thing? She saw something on its side that looked like a great yellow spotlight—but no, she realized, it was an eye, a huge, yellow eye, and it was looking right at her. Then the Sea Mother's limbs thrashed in the water, great, waving, graceful tentacles, the twining limbs that gave motion to the waves, and Ronnie knew what to call the beast: Kraken, the oldest of all living things, the god-monster of the seas.

It was carrying them all away. It prepared to dive, and Ronnie braced herself, waiting to submerge. They all clung to the monster's back. In her mind she saw images of a great sunken city where they all would soon live. Was it some ancient Cyclopean ruin beneath the waves, or was she seeing the future of this city, which they would reclaim when the sea rose up to take it? She wasn't sure. The sun was setting. They were going. The waves opened up to accept them. Ronnie held her breath, waiting for it.

Oh my God, she realized, a sudden thought striking her unbidden: I missed my period last week. I'm pregnant!

But there was no time to think about that now.

With a roaring of waves the Sea Mother dived. For a moment the surface of the ocean churned and roiled, as if it itself were some great, angry beast whose eons-long rest had been disturbed.

But then it was calm, and there was nothing.