The Surface by A. J. Scudiere

Author:A. J. Scudiere [Scudiere, A. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Thrillers, Suspense
Google: vzHKDwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B083XLJ8CF
Publisher: Griffyn Ink
Published: 2020-05-12T05:00:00+00:00

39

“Well, there's a sight you see right before you die.”

The words were whispered a little too sweetly into Cage’s ear.

He felt more than heard Holly stop rowing behind him. They’d been rowing for forever, it seemed, and had shifted positions several times. Sky and Gabby were now navigating and bailing the boat, the two designated non-rowers. Cage had filled that position for a time, and it hadn’t been the break he’d hoped it would be. They were all wearing down.

When people got tired, they made mistakes.

Kimura had even joined in rowing, and they'd recalculated their weights and how they should be distributed between the two boats. They’d switched sides, to at least allow some muscle groups to relax for a while. But none of it had changed the fact that they were moving slowly, the work was hard, and they were all on their last wind.

Cage looked up to see what had stopped Holly, and what had made her say that. It only took a moment for his eyes to focus on the water in front of him. It was more gray than brown out here, but it was choppier, too. He hated it. Still he saw the fins in front of him.

They cut the surface of the water with no provocation. Just sharks. Circling.

“What does that mean?” Gabby asked. They’d all stopped now, supposedly to check their surroundings, but everyone was breathing a little heavy and they needed a break. If he was worried that they might not have the strength to get out of the water before the sharks got them, now he knew they wouldn’t. They’d be too exhausted to climb back into the boat.

Around him, his friends put their heads together to look forward at what appeared to be sharks waiting for them.

“Good sign, bad sign,” Kimura told them. He'd been sharing his knowledge and little pieces through the rain and the murk. They've been rowing for quite a while and getting a little bit of a marine biology education.

Cage could only assume they were making really crappy progress. They were constantly held back by the weight of the water in the boat, despite all the bailing they did. The odd and shifting currents of the floodwaters created a need to navigate around buildings, parking garages, trees, and—they quickly discovered—telephone poles and power lines.

Sometimes the lines showed above the surface of the water, but sometimes they didn’t, and the group couldn’t tell if they were dangerous or not. So they'd been going out of their way, cutting a bizarre, snake-like pattern while trying to stay aimed in the right general direction.

“Bad news?” he prompted the professor.

“Lots of sharks, hungry sharks. The circling behavior is restless. They are waiting for bait, and then they’ll fight over it.”

Cage felt his stomach clench. From the looks on the faces of his fellow rowers, they felt the same. “Good news?”

“Shallower waters,” Kimura murmured to himself, seemingly not catching on that he was upsetting nine-tenths of the boat’s occupants. “If they're here and they're not openly in a feeding frenzy, it would indicate they know this is a food source.

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