Mega Worm Apocalypse

THREE

The captain's cabin was huge. How far back it went, Justin couldn't begin to guess, but judging by the conference table he'd seated them at, it went quite a ways. A lot further than Justin's cramped little room anyway, a water-stained 70s time warp in the abandoned Wooden Shoe Motel a mile up the road. The Captain even had candles sitting out. Maybe it was a dining table. Either way, it could seat 12 comfortably.

And still, Justin felt claustrophobic.

He sat beside Kayla who was perfectly still, back straight, like a CEO presiding over a board meeting. Her jaw clenched as the strangers sat across from them, watching through narrowed glares. Their ...er...creature, Dyer told them, a pair of armed officers walking up, would have to wait outside. The girl had smirked, as if the guns were adorable, not terrifying. And even now, sitting in Dyer's Cabin, she wore the same smirk, perpetually amused by everything about the Victory, Dyer and Justin and Kayla. 

"Well," sighed Dyer, reclining in his chair at the head of the table, "if you don't want to explain what you and that animal are doing here, then I'm not exactly sure where to start. Where'd you find that thing anyway?"

"I'm not here to talk to you," the girl said, rolling her eyes before looking pointedly at Kayla. 

Justin waited, watching the girl watching Kayla. But she didn't say anything more.

"If you have something to say to me," Kayla said, "then start talking."

She nodded at Dyer. "Not with him here."

"Now look it," Dyer said, leaning forward, "the town of Point Chester is under naval control. And these kids are under my protection so long as they are in my town. That means you too, come to think of it."

"You can't protect us," the girl snapped, and Justin felt a nervous tremor in his bones.

But not Kayla. "And you can?" she asked the stranger.

"With you."

"You don't know me."

"I know more than you think," the girl said.

Justin looked nervously to Kayla. What could this girl possibly know about him or Kayla? She wasn't even from Point Chester.

Kayla folded her arms. "I doubt that."

"Alright, fair enough. I'm a stranger to you, I get it. So how about this, Kayla--" she purred the name like a stalking cat and Justin shifted in his seat, bracing himself for whatever was coming -- "I know what keeps you awake at night. I know exactly what's in those memories that haunt your dreams at night." Justin looked to Kayla, and she didn't even blink. The girl leaned in. "Memories," she went on, "of what you saw when the parasite pulled you under."

Justin sat up a little straighter. How did she know about that? About how the parasite changed Kayla? About how he nearly lost her to whatever had taken the minds of the sharks? 

"What you saw," she said, "when you were lost inside yourself."

He remembered the moment, a lifetime ago, when Kayla's eyes drained of everything Kayla, when he could see the parasite looking back at him. A cold fear wormed its way up Justin's spine.

"I didn't see anything," said Kayla -- even, calm. But Justin could tell by the way her hands gripped the fabric of her jeans, she was getting nervous.

"Yes, you did," the girl said. "It's hard to make sense of, I'm sure. You were alone when the parasite took you."

Justin frowned. She wasn't alone. He was with her. Always with her.

"I can help you," the girl said. "I can fill in the blanks you've been struggling to understand. And then we can stop them."

"The sharks?" Kayla said.

The girl grinned. "Them too."

Justin wanted to reach for Kayla then -- pull her close and not let go until whatever was coming for them passed. And something was coming. He could feel it in the air. In the hard focus of this strange girl's eyes. In the nervous fidgeting of the guy she brought with her. Something was coming for all of them.

But Dyer wasn't having any of it. He threw his arms up, annoyed. "How exactly do you figure that? Now you listen to me Miss. Teen Angst My Little Pony. This is my ship. You can't just come in here and --"

"Dyer," Kayla said sharply. 

The Captain looked at her, stunned. Just as stunned as Justin. She was talking to the Captain. These were his cabins. No one got invited here. This was a privilege.

Dyer waited, and Kayla placed her hands on the table, her eyes on her interlocked fingers. "Leave us, please."

Justin swallowed. Kayla was giving orders now? 

Dyer looked to Justin, but all he could do was drop his eyes to his lap. If Kayla thought it was best the old man leave, then Justin had to support her. If she'd bothered asking, he'd have said he'd rather Dyer stick around. They didn't even know these people. And everything about them gave Justin a bad feeling.

Finally, Dyer stood up from the table, straightened his jacket. Justin expected a loud lecture unlike any he'd ever had before. But all the Captain said was a clipped, "You've got ten minutes," before he stormed out of the room.

And that was it. They were alone. Justin. Kayla. And the strangers who rode in on a unicorn.

The girl was smirking again. "Nicely handled."

But Kayla wasn't amused. "Start talking. You've come here. You know my name. Who the hell are you?"

"My name is Nat Wick," she said, then tilted her head to the older guy beside her. "This is Andres. And we're here because the Whole told me where to find you."

Justin reached out for Kayla's hand, and to his surprise, she let him. "What's the Whole?" she said, asking the question he didn't want an answer to.

"Your sharks," said the Andres guy. "Gasg...I mean our--"

"Your unicorn?" interrupted Justin. 

He nodded. "It's all coming from the same source."

 "That source," said Nat Wick, "is a hivemind that calls itself the Whole."

Kayla's grip was tightening, her hand felt hot and wet clamped around his. 

"What about it?" Kayla's voice was barely a rasp. Did she know about this? Did she understand what Nat Wick was talking about? 

"The Whole is on the move," said Nat Wick. "If you thought undead sharks and man eating unicorns were bad...it's nothing compared to what comes next."

Kayla closed her eyes, and Justin could see she was struggling to keep calm. How could she understand any of this? How much had she been hiding from him all this time?

When she didn't say anything, Justin spoke instead. "What comes next?"

Nat Wick looked at him, the first time she'd noticed his existence. Her friend Andres put an encouraging hand on her shoulder.

Finally, she answered. "The end of the world."