The Onyx Seed - A Story of Survival by Clifford Beck - HTML preview

Chapter 19

Morning arrived with the sun already beating down on the glassy, motionless sea. The air was still and the sky a clear, cloudless blue. After the previous day’s lessons, everyone was still stiff and sore but Julie informed Marty and Lucas that the only treatment for this was to simply get up work out the kinks. Breakfast was brief and simple. Coffee, pancakes and canned peaches. As everyone sat down at the table, Lucas momentarily stared down at his plate in amazement.

“Pancakes?!” he said. “I thought we only had canned food.”

“We’ve got pancake mix,” Julie said between mouthfuls. “Just add water.”

“So,” Marty began. “Where are we, exactly?” A moment went by as everyone continued eating. “Well,” Julie replied. “I’ll have to check the navigational display but I’m pretty sure we’re just off the coast of Galveston.”

Lucas looked up from his plate inquisitively. “So, how far did we actually go?” he asked. “Not very far,” Julie answered.

“But you guys are still learning. Today will be different. Once the wind picks up, we’ll weigh anchor, raise the sails and keep going. Oh, one more thing. If my guess is right, it’s the beginnings of hurricane season, so I’d like to be on the other side of Florida. Sooner, rather than later.” As if on cue, Marty and Lucas paused at the same time with a frozen expression of panic on their faces. The only thing they heard was the words ‘hurricane season’.

“Hurricane?” Lucas asked. “As in Katrina?”

“Luke,” Julie replied.

Her voice took on a slight tone of sternness.

“Most hurricanes aren’t that big and all we have to do is pull into the nearest port.”

Marty and Lucas still sat with wide-eyed expressions of fear and anticipation. Neither of them had ever experienced truly threatening weather and Julie found the look on their faces somewhat humorous. “God, look at you two,” she began. “You guys are such pussies. Look, hurricanes move really slow. So, if we see one coming, we’ll get out of its way or head into the nearest port, okay?”

Marty and Lucas maintained their anxious silence while trying to comprehend something that could be as large as the entire state of Texas. “Guys,” Julie continued. “Everything’s under control, alright?”

She looked at Marty, who was beginning to appear a bit more relaxed with the understanding that even a hurricane could be dealt with, as long as they kept their heads together.

“Marty,” Julie began. “When you were in Iraq, did you ever go through a sandstorm?”

“Yeah,” he answered. “A couple of times.”

“Well, a hurricane is a lot like that but with a lot of rain,” she replied.

While Marty was satisfied with Julie’s description, Lucas was going from anxiety to genuine fear. “Is it possible we may end up having to ride one of these out?” he asked.

Julie looked at him with a slightly impatient expression. Unless one had been overtaken by insanity, the one thing no boater would ever consider doing was riding out a hurricane. The rain would be torrential as waves rose up into mountains. The sea would take on the temperament of an angry, vindictive god. If it can be said that the ocean is a living creature, then the worst thing one could do is to defy her. When she speaks, even in a whisper, ignoring her could easily become one’s demise and failing to listen has always been the fatal flaw of humankind.

“Luke,” Julie said. “Hurricanes don’t always hit the gulf and if one comes in, we’ll see it before it gets here. Now, calm down already.”

She had grown frustrated at having to repeat herself about something that would likely never happen. However, it was something that had to be considered and in the event they found themselves faced down by a storm, everyone had to be prepared for the worse. It was agreed that showers would be taken every other day and for only five minutes at a time. Not knowing how long they’d be at sea, it was important to conserve as much water as possible. But if the situation called for it, the water filter Marty had obtained from the camping store back in L.A. could remove the salinity from seawater as well. The early morning winds were calm and Julie saw this as an opportunity to review what Marty and Lucas had done the previous day. On deck, they raised and lowered the sails as quickly as possible. In an emergency, speed would be essential. Two to three hours later, Marty and Lucas had reviewed nearly everything and learned as well as a few other skills. The ocean seemed to be warming up a bit as it awakened from its regular nightly slumber. They wouldn’t weigh anchor until there was enough wind to fill the sails and the heat from a warming sea would soon accomplish that. But until then, everyone stayed below deck. On a boat, there were usually only two activities: working and being bored. With nothing to do, Lucas was becoming a bit agitated and tried to spend some time reading. But he found the swaying of the boat distracting and quickly began to feel a dull ache forming just behind his eyes. “Shit,” he said in frustration.

He got up, tossing his book on the dining table and started toward the cabin door. This got Julie’s attention as she sat reading the southeastern U.S. coastal charts.

“Where are you going, Luke?” she asked. “I can’t read while the boat’s moving,” he answered. “I’m going up on deck for some air.” Still, with her eyes studying the charts, Julie gave him a word of caution.

“Luke,” she began. “Be careful up there. The deck can get pretty slippery.”

Luke made it clear that he was only going to be sitting in the cockpit for a while. He had started to feel the walls closing in on him and the cockpit was open on one side and would relieve his feelings of claustrophobia. As Marty slept, Julie focused her attention on the charts. Between the two of them, the sound of splashing water seemed to go completely unnoticed, until Julie’s attention was ripped away by an eerie silence that suddenly overwhelmed her with a feeling that something was terribly wrong. A woman’s intuition is rarely wrong and as Julie got closer to the cabin door, that feeling of urgency became more intense.

“Luke?!” she yelled.

Ducking her head, she darted up the stairs to the cockpit to find the captain’s chair empty. She searched the deck forward of the cockpit and saw nothing. She came to the terrifying conclusion that Lucas had somehow fallen overboard. After searching the water from the stern, she ran back down into the cabin screaming for Marty, who reacted as though a bomb had exploded nearby as he jumped to his feet. His consciousness immediately broke the surface of his drowsy mind as he saw Julie running toward him with a look he’d never seen from anyone. “Marty!” she screamed. “I can’t find Luke!” She reacted with a terror that might be typical of someone who’d just witnessed a murder and was running for their lives.

“What do you mean you can’t find him?” he asked. Julie’s breathing became panicked as she began to lose the ability for organized speech. Marty grabbed her by the shoulders as she began crying and pointed to the steps leading to the cockpit. He moved her to the side of the aisle and ran up on deck, only to find Lucas’ clothes lying in a heap near the captain’s chair.

“Luke!” he yelled.

He turned toward the bow of the Stellar Storm, expecting to see Lucas sitting on the forward end. He quickly scanned the water around the boat for any signs of movement.

“Luke!”

Marty ran back into the cabin and confronted Julie, who was still in a state of hysteria. “Julie!” he said urgently. “Julie, what was the last thing he said?”

Julie spoke through panicked tears as she told him that Lucas’ only intention was to go up on deck for some air, as he’d begun to feel bored and frustrated. “Come on,” he said.

Grabbing Julie by the hand, he pulled her up on deck and told her to search near the bow while he remained at the stern. After a few moments, Marty saw something creep towards the boat. “Julie!” he yelled.

Julie hadn’t seen even a bubble come to the surface when Marty called her back to the stern. She looked in the direction Marty was pointing and was quickly taken over by the horror of realizing what had taken place.

“What is that?!”

Julie covered her mouth in shock as more tears streamed down her face.

“Julie!” he yelled. “What the fuck is that?!”

“Oh, my God!” she yelled.

It moved slowly beneath about five feet beneath the boat. Almost glowing an eerie off-white, it was roughly eight feet long, displaying a large head and tapered body. Through what had now become tears of hopelessness, Julie told Marty that he was looking at a Tiger Shark. The Gulf of Mexico was teeming with them, scattered through the ocean like ants running from a fire. They were smaller than Great Whites but much more dangerous, and there was something else that made it far more terrifying. It had begun shaking something in its mouth. Marty immediately recognized the shape as being human. “Luke!” he screamed.

He took off his shirt and prepared to dive in after him. “No!” Julie yelled.

She reached out and quickly threw her arms around him.

“You can’t go in there!”

He tried to pull himself away from her. “I have to go in after him!”

Julie stepped in towards him and held him even tighter.

“It’s too late, Marty!”

As they both stood at the rail, they stared in horror as the shark broke the surface and as if taunting them, displayed Lucas’ torn, lifeless body through a growing cloud of blood. During what seemed like a moment frozen in time, Lucas’ lifeless face appeared as the shark began to circle the stern. His eyes were wide and unblinking. His mouth was agape with the expression of a dreadful silent scream. A trail of bubbles releasing themselves from deep within his body. It was no more than mere seconds before the water swarmed with sharks, having been lured in by the smell of blood. They attacked, biting and ripping, as they wrestled Lucas’ limbs, one from another in a churning mass of teeth, fins, blood, and viscera. What little was left sank slowly, fading into the cold darkness of the unforgiving sea. Lucas was gone, leaving Marty and Julie standing helplessly at the stern, unable to intervene. Marty’s body suddenly released its panicked tension as he fell to the deck in a state of despondence. He cried inconsolably as Julie tried, unsuccessfully, to reason with him, that it was not his fault, that one can never fully account for the unknown. He remembered back to Los Angeles. Before the beginning of their journey, telling Lucas that everything would be okay. Now, he felt as though he had failed Lucas in the worst way. He had let him die. Marty was fraught with grief beyond words, while Julie held him in her arms, rocking him slightly in an attempt to ease his pain. His fractured soul would never completely heal. And realistically or not, he would carry the burden of his failure with him for the rest of his life. Like a small flame that can never be extinguished. They sat at the stern for hours, with Marty clutching Lucas’ shirt like a holy relic. In his shock and grief, he brought his hands up, grabbing his hair in both fists as his cries briefly turned to screams of rage.

“How could I let this happen?!” he yelled. “I was supposed to look out for him!”

Julie knew there was no convincing him of the fact that he couldn’t possibly be responsible for Lucas’ death. But she did realize that in time, Marty would come to sort this out himself and in spite of his grief, he might one day, absolve himself of the guilt of seeing his best friend parish to the pitiless depths of the sea.