Microfiction: The Ocean Turns
A 400 word short story of terror on the seas.
The warning siren jolts me awake. Its screaming howl resonates through the ship. I fall from my bunk, and the floor lurches underfoot, slamming my ribs into the bunk-frame.
In the narrow corridor, a shipmate called Marko shoves past me. I grab his arm, “What’s happened?”
“Sinking. Abandon ship,” he yells over the alarm and twists free of my grasp.
It shouldn’t be possible. The ship is barely two years old and perfectly maintained.
I stumble after Marko, balancing with my hands against the swaying metal walls. Greasy smoke floats in the air. Something is burning in the ship’s bowels.
On deck, the dozen crew line the railing, gazing open-mouthed into the water. Arrhythmic pounding makes the deck shudder. Reaching the others, I join them in staring into the boiling sea.
Foam flecks the water’s surface. Untold thousands of fish, from tiny specks to strange and enormous leviathans, crustaceans, whales, and tentacled creatures roil together and throw themselves against the side of our ship. As I watch, my blood turning to ice at the bizarre attack, a sheet of the vessel’s plating buckles under the onslaught. Water roars into the hole, tearing it wider. Looking along the ship, I see then this is only the latest wound in the hull.
I hold tight as the deck rolls beneath me. The lifeboats swing and clang against their cranes. Lowering anything into that water would be suicide.
Tearing my eyes from the sea’s hypnotic frenzy, I look towards the horizon, hoping to see a vessel nearby, someone to rescue us. Another container vessel sits in the far distance. It’s easy to find: a thick column of smoke billows from it. Beyond that, further along the shipping route, I see traces of more smoking ships. No help will come by sea.
An explosion from inside the hull sends a gout of flames exploding across the waves. The stink of burning oil and fish fill my nostrils. My vision blurs with the acrid smoke and I run towards the ship’s prow, clinging onto the railing for support and as a guide. My crewmates shout and choke behind, but their bodies are lost in the smoke.
At the front of the ship, away from the worst of the miasma, I’ve a clear view of the water all around. In every direction, it writhes and squirms. All the sea’s beasts swarm there, hurling themselves at us. Victory will be theirs through sheer mass and ferocity. Scaled muscles and shelled bodies cohere into living waves, determined only on our destruction.
The ocean has turned. The waves will never welcome us again. The ship rocks and the sound of raging water fills my ears, coming from the hollow spaces below. Inch by inch, we descend closer to the surface and all the wrathful things that will tolerate us no more.
The End
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Until next time, go be excellent to yourselves and each other,
Mata xxx
As a diver, I need to know so much more of this!