Pressure Read online

  Carrie nodded, blinking back tears. She was afraid that if she responded, her voice would crack.

  Abhi steered with one hand and tried the radio handset with the other. But after several attempts at hailing the mainland, he frowned, staring at the radio in confusion.

  “What’s wrong?” Carrie croaked.

  “The radio. There’s some kind of interference. I don’t understand. I checked the hell out of it before we left, and it was working fine. Now, it’s acting up.”

  Carrie suddenly felt very cold. “What kind of interference?”

  Abhi hung the mic back on the receiver. “Like what your radios were doing underwater. But you said that happened at a certain depth. I don’t understand why it would be impacting us now, up here on the surface.”

  Carrie glanced behind them, scanning the waves. Then she turned back to Abhi.

  “I think—”

  Before she could finish, something slammed into the bottom of the boat, knocking them both to the deck. Carrie glimpsed the creature’s broad shadow moving beneath the surface. Abhi screamed, flailing around wildly. Carrie grappled for a handhold as Paolo slipped away from her and flopped into a pool of bloody water. The boat spun in a wide arc, going off course and running parallel to the coastline. The motor whined like a wounded animal.

  Carrie pulled Paolo from the water and checked to make sure he was still breathing. The creature rammed the boat again. The frame shuddered beneath them. She spotted Abhi clambering to his feet. Blood trickled down his face from a small gash on his forehead, but his eyes were clear and the panic and terror were absent from his expression, replaced with a grim determination.

  “Hang on tight!” He struggled to right their course. “I just saw it go under. The size—I’ve never seen anything so big in these waters!”

  Carrie was about to respond when something punched through the bottom of the boat, piercing the hull just inches from Paolo’s leg. The segmented appendage was long and thin, brown in color, and covered with fine hairs and warty knobs. Its end tapered to a javelin-like point. To Carrie, it looked like some obscene cross between a crab and a spider. Spearing through the metal had wounded the creature. Blood streamed from several cuts around the joints. The beast incurred more injuries when it yanked its appendage back through the hole, leaving torn bits of meat dangling from the shredded metal. More blood spilled onto the deck, steaming in the sunlight.

  Another appendage punctured the hull a few feet away from where Carrie crouched, and the creature further bloodied itself in the process. Given its reaction to their torches, Carrie had thought this animal was afraid of sunlight. But now it attacked them, seemingly without concern for the light or the damage it was doing to itself. The leg withdrew. It left behind a second hole, and the boat began to take on water. As a result, their speed slowed.

  “Can’t this fucking thing go any faster?”

  “If it punches another hole in us, we’re not going to be going at all,” Abhi shouted. “I need you to bail!”

  Carrie dragged Paolo over to the cabin, which was really nothing more than a raised platform with an awning to protect the pilot, controls, and the navigational and communications equipment. She shoved the ice-filled cooler aside and laid Paolo’s still form on a bench, hoping he was out of reach from any danger below. Then she quickly returned aft, grabbed a bucket, and began to bail. The bloody water smelled sharply of brine, but there was another stench—an alkaline, chemical tinge that made her eyes water.

  “I think its blood is toxic,” Carrie gasped. “Try not to get it on you.”

  Abhi’s eyes widened. “You mean like acid? Or poison?”

  “Not acid. I think it probably could have the same effect it had on us underwater. If you start to feel numb, try to focus before the hallucinations begin.”

  “Wonderful,” Abhi moaned. “That’s all we need.”

  Crouched on her knees, Carrie dumped another bucket of red water over the side. As she did, she glimpsed a dark, massive shape disappearing beneath the boat.

  “It’s coming around again,” she warned.

  This time, instead of a segmented leg, the creature attacked with a tentacle. The appendage was thick as a telephone pole, and erupted from the water on their starboard side, weaving back and forth for a second before darting forward like a snake. It struck at Abhi, who, with a frightened squawk, sidestepped the flailing arm. He ducked low, grabbed his machete, and swung at the tentacle as it felt along the boat, searching for something. The blade parted the rubbery meat like margarine. Blood erupted from the wound, spraying the boat. The stench was horrific. Carrie took a deep breath and held it. Gagging, Abhi backed away. The injured appendage disappeared back into the ocean. The severed end curled and uncurled on the deck, jetting blood, and then lay still. The blood slowed to a trickle.

  “I told you we should have gone back,” Abhi complained, “but no. We couldn’t go home. You had to do more science!”

  Carrie’s skin began to tingle. “Oh no…”

  The boat rocked back and forth. The sea roiled and churned.

  “Carrie,” Abhi coughed. “I don’t feel so good.”

  “It’s the toxin. Get us ashore, Abhi. Hurry. While we still can.”

  “I don’t think…”

  A massive wave broke over the bow, flooding the boat. Carrie blinked saltwater from her eyes and then blinked again in disbelief. The wave had deposited hundreds of tiny seahorses into the boat. Each one was no bigger than the tip of her pinky finger. They wriggled around in the red-tinged water, brushing against her knees and ankles. Awestruck, Carrie forgot all about their peril. Instead of bailing, she dipped the bucket into the water and scooped up dozens of the little creatures. Smiling with delight, she tried to touch them. When she did, the wiggling seahorses turned into bursts of multi-colored lights. Carrie laughed, amazed by the experience. It was like a miniature fireworks display taking place inside the confines of the bucket. She wanted to share this joyous discovery with Abhi, but when she tried to call out to him, she discovered that her tongue had gone numb. She turned to him instead, slowly, and was surprised to see him staring at her in alarm.

  “Carrie, the blood!”

  She tried to say “seahorses,” but instead could only slur. “Sheee…”

  “Whatever you’re seeing, Carrie, it’s not there!”

  Another wave crashed over them, drenching them both. Sputtering, Carrie glanced down at the bucket. The seahorses and their kaleidoscope of colors were gone. She heard Abhi screaming at her to bail, but he sounded far away, and the matter didn’t seem all that urgent. What she really wanted to do was sleep, or better yet, just dive into the ocean and slip beneath the waves. After all, that’s where she’d always felt the most comfortable, wasn’t it? Beneath the waves, she was in charge. She answered only to herself. Nobody could hurt her when she was down …

  Something whipped by her head. She looked up and saw another tendril waving through the air. This one was thinner than the tentacle that Abhi had chopped in half, but the sight of it brought Carrie back to herself. She smacked it with the bucket. The appendage recoiled and then surged forward. Shouting unintelligibly, Abhi appeared at her side. He grabbed the tip of the appendage with one fist. The tentacle coiled and twisted, fighting him, but before it could break his grip, he pulled hard and swung the machete, cleaving it in half. Abhi stumbled backward, still clutching the squirming tendril. The tentacle’s other half retreated, spraying blood like a fire hose all over the deck.

  Carrie watched as Abhi tossed the severed appendage into the water and struggled to retain his footing. The boat rocked savagely from side to side, and the deck was slippery with blood and water. She stared down at a pink pool, and gasped as more little seahorses appeared, splashing and frolicking amidst the gore.

  Then the illusion was shattered as Abhi grabbed her by the chin and tilted Carrie’s eyes up to him.

  “Listen to me, goddamn it. Whatever you’re seeing, it isn’t real. I’m seeing
things, too. Remember, it’s just the monster. We’re hallucinating. Stay focused. Okay?”

  Nodding, Carrie went back to bailing while Abhi lurched back to the controls. She noticed that he was moving stiffly, as if his legs and arms were sore. Of course, she wasn’t moving as fast as she should be, either. A stiffness had crept into her bones, and the entire effort just seemed unimportant. So what if the boat sank? They could just swim to shore.

  That’s the toxin talking, she thought with a sudden burst of clarity. Get back to work, girl, or none of you are ever going to reach land.

  The boat’s motor coughed, sputtered, and then roared to life. Abhi pumped a fist in the air.

  “Are you with me?” he shouted.

  “I’m better,” she managed to say. Her head was clearer, but it felt like her mouth was filled with cotton balls. “I’m okay. Just go.”

  More waves broke over them, then receded as Abhi leaned on the throttle. The motor roared as the boat shot ahead again. Abhi laughed, and then said something that Carrie didn’t understand. He kept glancing to his left, and nodding, as if having a conversation with somebody else. She realized that while she was feeling more coherent, Abhi’s hallucinations were intensifying. The only way to negate them was to clear the blood from the deck, but doing so meant bailing, which only put her in further contact with the toxins.

  Why hadn’t the creature given up after suffering such serious injuries? What did it want? This type of determination went beyond that of a predator simply hunting for food or an animal protecting its territory. This was obsession.

  The egg, she realized. It’s after the egg. The tentacles were searching for the egg.

  The motor died with a small explosion of diesel fumes as the creature ripped the tail off the engine. Abhi didn’t seem to notice at first. He kept them pointed at the shore, but their speed was failing. Carrie’s pulse raced as she spotted the docks about one hundred twenty yards ahead.

  That’s the length of a football field. I can swim that. If my arms and legs weren’t so sleepy, I could swim that.

  “No, dear,” her mother said, kneeling in the bloody water next to Carrie. “You’ll never make it. It’s better to just give up now. It will be easier that way.”

  “You’re not real, Mom.” Carrie felt like her mouth was stuffed with cotton balls.

  “Stop being silly. Of course I’m real. You’re the one who’s being unrealistic.”

  “I can make it. Take the egg and let that thing follow me. Abhi and Paolo will be safe.”

  Her mother sighed. “You always were bullheaded, Carrie. Why can’t you be more like your sister? She’s so much more sensible than you ever were.”

  There was a screech of crushing metal as the creature battered and shredded the boat’s aft end. More of the beast had emerged from the sea, but Carrie couldn’t tell which parts of its bulk were a hallucination and which portions were real. It occurred to her that maybe the neurotoxins were what accounted for its seeming abilities to change shape. Maybe those shapes weren’t real at all. Then, as if to spite her and prove her wrong, the creature seemed to solidify for a moment. Before she could take it all in, the monster sank beneath the waves again, as if fleeing the sunlight.

  Abhi abandoned the cabin, grabbed the oars, and desperately tried to navigate them toward the docks. The engine continued to belch smoke and diesel fumes, which only added to the already toxic atmosphere on board.

  “I know,” Abhi shouted at someone who wasn’t there. “I know, so just leave me alone. It was all my fault. I’ll come back to her someday, if she’ll still have me.”

  “Abhi?”

  When he didn’t answer, Carrie realized that she’d whispered his name. She smacked her lips together, working up enough saliva to speak. Then she tried again, summoning all of her willpower for a brief moment of lucidity.

  “Abhi! We have to swim for it.”

  “I can get us there,” he argued, even as the water surged over his lap. He didn’t seem to notice that the boat’s aft end was gone. He simply continued to heave on the oars as the boat’s bow rose slowly into the air. “It’s just a matter of putting our backs into it.”

  Taking care not to slip, Carrie crossed the precarious distance between them and squeezed his shoulder.

  “Abhi, listen to me. We’re sinking. We need to swim. You need to take Paolo and head directly for shore.”

  “What about Marissa?”

  “There is no Marissa. We’re hallucinating. Remember?”

  “No.” Abhi shook his head. Tears welled up in his eyes. “There was a Marissa. There had to be. I haven’t seen her in so long. I need to tell her that I’m sorry. That it was all a mistake. That I should have told her what had happened. Why I did what I did.”

  “You can tell her when you get to the shore. They have phones there. We’ll call her. Okay?”

  “Okay.” He sounded unsure.

  A swarm of butterflies flitted around Carrie’s head, arcing up toward the sun. She gazed up into the glare, shielding her eyes with her hand. The sun had grown impossibly large, seeming to fill the sky.

  “It’s not real,” she said, and then glanced back down at Abhi. “Are you ready? Remember what I said?”

  “I need to take Paolo?”

  Carrie nodded. She glanced ahead of them, and saw that the boat had drifted another ten yards or so. Closer, but the shoreline still seemed so far away.

  “What about you, Carrie? What are you doing? And what about the monster? It will get us as soon as we go overboard.”

  “No, it won’t. I’m going to distract it while you get Paolo to shore.”

  “How?”

  A giant claw burst from the water and sheared more of the hull in two as easily as a pair of tin-snips would cut through a soda can. The sound it made was horrendous.

  “I’ll dive in and try to lead it off while approaching the docks at an angle. You get Paolo to shore!”

  Before Abhi could protest or try to dissuade her, Carrie snatched up the sample bag containing the egg, took a deep, shuddering breath, and then dove over the side. She cleaved the water and slipped beneath the surface, leaving behind the sounds of fury and destruction, and returning to the one place where she truly felt at home—at peace. Except she knew now that the peace she felt was just another hallucination, a by-product of the creature’s neurotoxin, lulling her into complacency. The beast had ruined even this for her.

  Despite the numbness that now engulfed her entire body, Carrie grew angry. Clenching her jaw until her teeth hurt, she swam hard. She spotted the monster behind her, so enraged and injured that it hadn’t yet noticed her. She didn’t stop to try and get a better look at its form. There was no time. The creature had been tearing itself to shreds while attacking the boat, and as a result, the water was even more shocked with toxins than their craft had been.

  Carrie darted ahead, knowing all too well that this was the swim of her life. Indeed, this swim would determine if she’d continue to have a life. She focused on pushing forward, resisting the urge to glance behind her for signs of pursuit. She also struggled against the creeping passiveness that settled over her again, fighting the urge to just give up and empty her lungs of air.

  Remembering that the creature had seemed to abhor the sunlight, she arrowed toward the surface, hoping that would give it pause. As she rose, the already murky water grew darker around her. A frigid cold seemed to radiate through the ocean. She glanced down and saw a dark shape rocketing upward.

  Then her muscles began to seize up. Excruciating cramps jolted her legs. It took every ounce of energy just to keep kicking. Her abdomen grew cold, and then numb. There was a roaring sound in her ears that belonged to neither the ocean nor her pursuer. Her vision began to blur—kaleidoscopic flashes of white and black dots danced and whirled.

  “See?” her mother taunted, swimming along beside her. “You should have listened to me. There’s still time to. Just give in, and stop this silly fighting. You were always so stubborn.�
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  Carrie refused to look at her mother. Instead, she gritted her teeth, fighting against the quickening paralysis.

  Her mother clucked in exasperation. “I can’t get through to her. You try talking some sense in her, dear.”

  Carrie’s father appeared in front of her, hovering just below the surface. A halo of sunlight crowned his head. Smiling, he stretched his arms wide, offering an embrace. Still clenching her jaw, Carrie swam through him. Her father dissipated like the seahorses, in a burst of colors. Then her head breached the surface. Carrie tried to catch a glimpse of the shore, but a wave smashed her back down before she could. When she surfaced again, her vision was blurry.

  The numbness crept into her arms. She knew she could cast the egg back—just let go of the sample bag and hope the creature would pursue it instead. If she did, there was a chance she could drag herself ashore with her half-paralyzed arms alone.

  No, screw that. I didn’t drag it this far to let go now.

  Steeling herself, she fought for the bobbing shoreline, tapping into her last store of willpower and determination. Another wave pushed her below, and she realized the water all around her had turned black. The cold was an almost physical thing, seeming to envelop her. Carrie’s legs stopped moving, and she began to drift downward.

  There was a sudden, excruciating pain as something speared her forearm, ripping and tearing, trying to force her to let go of the egg. Carrie twisted away, catching a glimpse of a talon as she did. It was attached to a thin, spindly arm. The serrated pincer gouged her forearm, digging a ragged trench. She watched her blood flow from the wound in the dim light, mingling with the churning water. Her arm burned. Her veins felt like fire was pumping through them.

  No way, Mom. I’m not giving up. I’m not …

  The dark form surrounded her, moving as if to engulf her, and Carrie knew she could no longer resist its frigid embrace. She saw legs, tentacles, claws, scales, and something that looked like an eye, but couldn’t have been, because no creature on Earth had an eye that big. It stared at her. Carrie stared back, refusing to look away.