Isola Di Squalo - The Delmar Shark Chronicles
by Heidi Peltier
I raced from the sonar room out onto the deck. Terra and Delphine were leaning over the rail to watch Fedder swim in, both of them were laughing. Nobody knew what Karen and I had just seen. I climbed the ladder to the highest point I could get to on the boat. I scanned the water from there, looking in the direction I knew the blip had been. Terra and Delphine were watching me now, along with most everyone else on the boat. I couldn’t say anything, not yet.
"Karen!" I yelled, I knew she would hear me.
"A hundred and fifty meters, and closing fast," she yelled back as she was running to the wheelhouse.
Still scanning, I was squinting past the sun’s glare on the water. Then, there he was. Stealthy thing, coming out of that glare. He was just a couple of feet below the surface by then and headed straight toward the docks, straight toward Fedder.
I nearly jumped down from my perch onto the deck, my only thought being that Terra and Delphine were about to watch their brother be attacked by a shark, their own personal nightmare. I sprinted to the back of the boat, Terra calling to me in a worried voice as I passed her. No time. I dove into the water, unzipped wetsuit and all. I flew through the water. No race had ever been this urgent, no competitor as formidable. Fedder was his target, and he had not changed course. The only other thing in the water was me. Should I go for aerodynamics and speed to beat the shark to Fedder? And then what would I do? Or should I begin flailing and slapping the water to draw its attention to me? And then what? I heard screaming coming from behind me. The people on the boat must have finally spotted the shark. I decided to go for speed. I gave it all I had, everything in me began to burn, my skin tingled. I was beginning to feel like I was choking, my fingers and toes were going numb. Adrenaline, it had to be adrenaline. Finally, finally, he was there. Fedder was right in front of me. I grabbed his foot with my right hand mid-stroke and pulled as hard as I could. With my left hand I grabbed his arm as it reached back to push me off and pulled him to my left. I was looking at him the whole time, so I didn’t see the open mouth that must have been right next to me. I felt a force on my side that felt like I had been hit by a Mack truck. My body folded around the shark’s head, and I slammed into Fedder. I couldn’t breathe. Then, everything went black.
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