The Problem With Immortality Ch. 13

"Come on, we have to keep moving. We'll sort things out when we get to the boat. Please, keep moving, keep moving!"

Anson looked at Jessica. Both of them were unharmed. But immediately, they both thought the same thing: there was now no way they could recommend this to Francisco Odour.

Disaster struck again, less than a mile later.

An electric eel leapt out of a hole in the ocean floor and ambushed Shasta, Ellis's granddaughter by way of his daughter Molly.

"Mom, help!" Shasta screamed. They all saw the massive electric eel wrap its body around her. It gave off a brilliant burst of light as it discharged energy, intending to stun its victim. Shasta screamed with every discharge.

"Shasta, hold on!" said her father Garrett, vigorously swimming to her.

But the electric eel was too quick. It relentlessly dragged Shasta's wiggling body down, down, down to its hole in the ground as it pulled her into its hiding hole. The last thing they saw was Shasta's fishlike face as it was pulled into its hole. Shasta gave one last scream, and then said no more.

"Shasta!" "Shasta!" they cried.

But Shasta was silent.

"We have to get in there!" said Garrett, swimming vigorously around the hole. But there was no way in. Fish were not build to swim vertically down narrow holes.

"There's no use. If she stopped transmitting, she's dead," said Mindy.

"You don't know that!"

"She's dead!" said Mindy. "And if all of you don't want to end up like her, you'll follow me to the recovery boat NOW."

She turned tail and started swimming vigorously, not even looking back to see who was following. After a moment's pause, they all followed, with many of them weeping.

This isn't looking good, Anson thought.

"No it's not," said Jessica, causing Anson to realize he had accidently transmitted. "I thought the sea would be fun. Whoever thought it would be a deathtrap?"

"You should have known, Ellis!" said Paula. "You dragged us all on this insane voyage! You're responsible for Declan's death, and now Shasta, Shasta, your very own granddaughter!"

"I know, I know," Ellis sobbed.

********

Their next casualty came ten minutes later. A giant sea squid came out of nowhere, out of the blackness of the ocean floor, and swept up and grabbed Molly's other child Luke in its tentacles.

"Mom, help!" Luke cried, as he was caught in its grip.

"No!" Molly cried, swimming towards her son. She had just lost her only daughter a few minutes ago. She couldn't bear to lose her other child.

"No, don't get close, there's nothing you can do!" Mindy cried.

But Molly paid her no heed, charging right into the squid. In seconds she was caught too, and crying for help.

"Help, help," she cried, along with Luke.

"We have to help them," said Paula.

"There's nothing we can do!" said Mindy.

"Mom, help me, help-" Suddenly Luke's voice/thought was cut off, as a strong tentacle snapped his head off.

"Luke!" Molly screamed, still in the monster's grasp.

"I'm leaving," Mindy declared. "If any of you want to live, you'll follow me!"

"But we can't just leave Molly behind! She's still alive!" said Paula.

"Stay and die then!" Mindy snapped.

They reluctantly swam away, even as they heard Molly pitiful cries for help, her voice getting fainter and fainter, until it faded entirely.

"Do you feel good, Ellis, do you?" Paula snapped. "Your son in law Declan is dead. Your daughter Molly is dead. Your grandchildren Luke and Shasta are dead. Are you satisfied, Ellis, are you?"

"No... no," he sobbed.

"This is all your fault!" said Paula. "And I will hate you forever for it!"

********

They continued to swim vigorously for the next twenty minutes.

"We're making good progress," said Mindy. "We're only six miles out from the recovery boat now."

"Can't you call them to come to us, so we can be rescued faster?" said Ellis's mother Roberta.

"No, I have no way to communicate with them," said Mindy.

Ahead of them they saw a giant, dark shape. In the dim light, it looked like a giant area of blackness. What was that?

It was only when it was right on top of them that they recognized it.

It was an Orca.

A Killer whale.

It sped at them so fast that they didn't have time to avoid it. It's mouth wide open, it swallowed Ellis's mother Roberta whole.

"Mother!" Ellis cried.

It was so fast, that Roberta didn't even have the chance to scream.

"Swim! Swim for your lives before it turns around and comes back for the rest of us!" said Mindy.

They all swam as fast as their tails could move, screaming to one another. This experience reminded Anson of one of the earliest experiences they had tried, where they exposed themselves to death defying situations to make them feel alive.

Well, Anson felt very, very alive right now. But he wasn't enjoying it.

Neither was Jessica, who was thoroughly terrified.

********

"We're almost there," said Mindy, trying to keep their spirits up. "Four miles to the boat."

"Four miles? It might as well be four hundred miles!" Paula raged. "We're being massacred left and right!"

"I don't understand," said Mindy. "This has never happened before. No one has ever suffered so much as a scratch!"

"A scratch? Is that what you call being eaten whole by a whale, zapped by an electric eel, or having your head snapped off by a giant squid?" Paula raged.

"I'm so, so sorry. I'm sure Mr. Benito will give you a full refund when we get back."

"A full refund, you hear that, Ellis? We can put it in the bank, and that will be a good substitute for all the children we lost today," said Paula bitterly.

There were no more incidents for a while, and it seemed like they were going to make it, but then, when they were only two or three miles or so from the recovery boat, they heard one of the grandchildren, Alec, shout, "Ow! I'm stuck!"

"What's wrong?" said Gabrielle, his mother, looking down. Then she saw it.

Alec had gotten stuck in some kind of giant underwater fly trap. It grasped his tail. He tried furiously to flip away. He pushed more and more intensely, and with one ripple of muscular fish energy, got away.

"I'm free," said Alec.

"Alec, are you all right?" Gabrielle asked.

"I think so," said Alec. "I just got a little scraped up."

"No, he's not all right," said Mindy, swimming near him.

"What do you mean?" Gabrielle said.

"He's bleeding in several places," said Mindy. "There's blood in the water."

"So?" said Gabrielle. "We're almost at the recovery boat. We can-"

"Shark!" Anson cried out.

A shark swam towards them, speeding through their group. Then it turned, and swiveled around for another pass.

Then a second shark appeared, swimming right through them. Then a third, then a fourth, then a whole pack.

One of them sailed through, and grabbed Alec in his jaws.

"Mom!" he screamed, bleeding a thicker trail of blood.

Mindy saw the pack of sharks descending on them. "Every person for themselves! Swim! Swim for your lives!" She abandoned them, never looking back, swimming as fast as she could.

"Jessica, to me!" Anson cried. He started to swim rapidly away. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jessica following, even as he heard her scream in panic. A shark jetted right in front of them, trying to intercept, but Anson swam aside at the last moment, barely evading it.

"We're going to get eaten!" said Jessica.

"Not if I can help it," said Anson. "Swim up! Swim to the surface!"

The water grew brighter and brighter as they swam upwards. Sharks were still flying around them. They could hear screams behind them.

"Iphigena! Iphigena, no!"

"Gabrielle! Gabrielle, look out!"

"No, swim away, swim away!"

As Anson and Jessica swam upwards, they could see a large object on the surface, nearby. As they got closer, they could see that it was a boat.

"The recovery boat!" said Jessica. "We're saved!"

They swam to it with as much energy as they could. But Anson realized it couldn't be the recovery boat. They were still too far away.

They swam up to the side of the boat. But suddenly, they found themselves immobilized, caught in some kind of force field.

An electronet.

Slowly, their bodies were lifted up, out of the water, along with a wide variety of other kinds of fish. They saw men, real human beings, staring at the on the deck of the boat.

This must be a fishing boat.

Anson tried to speak, to speak for real. But fish mouths weren't geared to speak English. Nevertheless, he did his best.

"Ple-e-e-e-e-ese," Anson said. "Don't e-e-e-e-eat me. Don't e-e-e-e-e-eat us!"

The fishermen looked at the giant, talking nine foot long rainbow trout with an expression of extreme bewilderment on their face.

********

"So of course, we will issue you a full refund," said Mr. Benito. "And I want to issue our most sincere apologies for what you went through."

The survivors of the Lindqvist family sat in his office: Ellis, his wife Paula, and his son in law Garrett, Molly's husband. All the others had been lost. Mother Roberta had been eaten by the giant Orca. Declan had been poisoned by the black coral. Molly and Luke had been eaten by the giant squid. Shasta had been dragged down the hole by the electric eel. Gabrielle, Alec, and Iphigena had provided much needed protein for a pack of bull sharks.

"A refund and an apology? That's it?" said Paula.

"What else can we do?" said Benito, spreading his hands.

"You should be arrested. You should be in jail for the rest of your life. For eternity," said Paula. "I am going to sue your ass off. I am going to sue you for every penny you have ever made, or ever will made."

"Oh, I'm afraid that's not possible, Mrs. Lundqvist," said Benito apologetically.

"And why not?"

"You signed a release, remember?"

"No, release I signed would cover this!"

"On the contrary," said Benito. "Page 23, paragraph 2, subparagraph 4, states, and I quote 'Signee specifically indemnifies and holds us harmless for any death or injury caused by undersea wildlife, including, but not limited to, death by squid, death by octopus, death by anti-social crabs, and death by homicidal porpoises."

"I didn't read that!"

"Well, it's not my fault you didn't read the release. It was only 39 pages," said Benito.

"I'm going to let the world know what you've done here!" Paula cried.

"Oh, I'm afraid you can't do that either. Remember the non-disclosure agreement you signed? It has strict financial penalties if you break it. It would bankrupt you," said Benito.

Paula looked at him for a long moment. "How many, Mr. Benito? How many people have died in the name of your 'ecotourism'?"

"And now our time is up. I'm sorry your experience wasn't what you hoped for. I've included a few half price coupons for the aquarium at Sea World, as a further gesture of sympathy. Thank you, and have a nice day," he said, walking out of his own office.

Paula and Garrett sat there, stewing in the implications.

"You bastard," said Garrett, turning slowly on Ellis. "This is all your fault. Molly and the kids are dead, all because of you!"

"I didn't know! I had no way of knowing," said Ellis.

"All because of your fucking love of the sea," said Garrett, getting up. He flexed his fists. "I should kill you. I really should."

"Garrett, I'm so sorry-" said Ellis, reaching out to him.

"Don't touch me!" said Garrett. "If you touch me, I'll kill you. In fact, if I ever see you again, if I ever hear from you again, I'll kill you. This is your first and only warning." He stomped out of the office, leaving Ellis alone with Paula.

Ellis started to weep quietly. "I didn't know... I just didn't know...."

"You should have, you arrogant son of a bitch," said Paula. "You were so obsessed with your fucking love of the sea. I tolerated it, for years and years, because it made you happy. But you knew absolutely nothing about it. If you knew thing one about the sea, you would have known how dangerous it could be. How deadly. Your presumption, your arrogance, has cost your entire family their lives."

"Paula!" he reached out for her, crying.

"Don't touch me. I'm filing for divorce. I never want to see you again. You fucking bastard. Do the world a favor and go drown yourself in the sea, asshole," she spat, getting up, leaving Ellis alone, very alone, in a very big empty room.