OGENUS EARTH 🌎 🌊 {Dystopian Sci-Fi Adventure}

Shoot To Thrill

The Black Marlin descended aggressively thrusting everyone out of their seats and scrambling to hold onto anything nearby that was welded down.

"...YOU WILL BE CAPTURED AND YOU WILL BE PUNISHED FOR BEING NOTHING BUT A TWO-BIT, PIECE-OF-SHIT CHARLATAN! I WILL TREAT YOU LIKE THE CONNIVING, BACK-STABBING, PEABRAINED..."

"You forgot son-of-a-Kraken!" Big Joe hooted.

"...SON-OF-A-KRAKEN THAT YOU ARE, YOU WORTHLESS JELLYFISH!"

"You weren't complaining about my Kraken last week!" Harrison taunted back, making Olivia gag.

"We're approaching." Big Joe warned. "I'm going to pull up!"

"Go for the first big building you can find in this muck," Harrison called. "We want to make some noise!"

The rest (save Meg, who was still dangling from the ceiling like a human piñata), listened to the action-packed radio play taking place at the front of the ship. 

The ship tipped until everything began to look right again, lowering Meg to the floor enough to gasp for air. When the ship pulled left, this time at a much more subdued speed, Meg had a few seconds to scramble to the safety of the bunks.

MAX remained connected to the ship but cut the cord that bound them, for safety's sake.

Up front, Harrison and Big Joe were painstakingly fitting the craft into the gaping mouth of a ruined building. Below them were the remnants of a once bustling metropolis, now a boggy ghost town of eerily preserved underwater relics.

"WHERE DID YOU GOOO?" The sagacious female voice chimed in through the walls again.

Meg fought against the biting pain in her arm to re-tie the knots of the sheet around her. Olivia had to take over when one of the blisters under her bandage burst, sending a fresh torrent of pain to drown Meg.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN HIDE, BUT YOU FORGET I CAN SCAN FOR YOOOU." The woman jeered in a sing-song voice.

"Tell that bot to stabilize the shields and cloak us!" Harrison called back.

"Its name is MAX." Midget replied, her brain still rattling around in her skull.

"Fine, MAX!" Harrison cried out.

"Recalibrating, please hold." MAX chirped back. A pleasant concerto began to play from a speaker in MAX's chest.

"Please don't tell me that thing has hold music!" Harrison yelled.

"Cloaks are up!" Big Joe narrated from up front.

"WHICH OF THE PRETTY BUILDINGS SHOULD I BREAK FIRST?" The woman's voice purred.

A thunderous shot exploded, making a frighteningly large popping sound with very real consequences. Around them everything began to rattle, shaking them so hard their jaws snapped open and shut.

"Woo-hoo-hoo! She's mad!!" Harrison crowed

"Is this person the reason you yelled at us for hitting the yellow button?" Olivia asked, leaning forward to make sure she was heard. "Are you some sort of wanted criminal?"

"I yelled at you for breaking one of my rules aboard my ship!" Harrison shot back, the humor dancing in his voice. "And because it's fun to see you squirm. Yeah, Chantilly wants me, but she probably would have found us regardless of that beacon."

"Ugh, her name is Chantilly? I don't even want to know!" Olivia called, hating that his inference of some kind of sexual relationship with this mystery woman, stung a little.

"HMMM, I KNOW YOU'RE STILL OUT THERE." The voice continued. "AND I ALSO HAPPEN TO KNOW YOU HAVE SOME EXTRA BODIES ON BOARD THAT RUSTED PIECE OF SHIP..."

"MAX!" Harrison shouted, a cockamamie idea coming to him out of nowhere. "Can you put me on the loudspeaker outside of the ship?"

"...WHERE ARE YOU TAKING YOUR LITTLE STOW-AWAYS?"

"Are you nuts?" Olivia cried out. "That bitch is trying to kill us!"

"And who reported us missing?" Arturo murmured to Midge as an aside.

"We need to keep her making noise!" Harrison answered Olivia's question. "MAX?"

"Recalibrating, please hold." MAX answered. "Any second..."

"C'mon!" Harrison goaded the bot.

"Now." MAX finished.

"Chantilly," Harrison cooed as if he were speaking with an old friend, his voice surrounding the ship and traveling through the waves outside. "I was just coming to find you."

"OH WERE YOU NOW?" The voice cracked like a whip. "SO YOU WEREN'T TRYING TO CUT ME OUT OF MY OWN DEAL TO KEEP THE SCORE?"

"Now, technically, it was my deal after I renegotiated the terms." Harrison countered.

Arturo cringed, squeezing his eyes shut for the woman's response.

"Oh, here we go." Midge squealed, enjoying this too much to register any fear.

"AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" The voice screamed at a pitch that shook the walls, forcing Meg to pinch her hand back from the tortured sound.

Another detonation rocked them back and forth.

"That one was close by!" Olivia screamed in protest.

"How can you tell?" Big Joe asked.

"Even the deaf girl could hear that!" Olivia yelled back, then, thought better of her statement and looked to Arturo and Midge. "It's ok, Omega and I are friends now."

"I trust that they have a plan," Arturo told her, his smile steadfast. "However stupid it might seem, right now."

"Thanks, Gramps!" Harrison called. "But don't put all your faith in me just yet, hold on! It's about to get bumpy!"

The ship careened again, chucking everyone about save MAX. The bot was securely attached to the ship and engaging proactive defense systems while the rest shouted incoherently.

"Head for that tunnel!" Harrison yelled at Big Joe.

Had the others been able to see, they would have been stunned by the unnerving beauty of the deep sea boneyard. 

All around them were enormous buildings looming up into the black waters, their busted windows and doors like the gaping holes of mouths frozen in thousands of screams. Harrison watched as Boj Joe expertly steered them through what used to be an open-concept office, now a safe haven for fish looking to avoid becoming a meal. 

The ship spun and dipped into a cavernous hole a few miles ahead as massive explosions discharged fitfully around them.

The ship came to rest, and everyone wheeled back up from where ever they'd landed to look around.

"Did we lose them?" Midge asked, holding her head to stop it from spinning out of control.

"No," Harrison answered, calling back so they could all hear him. "Now, we wait."

"Wait?!" Olivia shouted, untying her restraints to huff up front. "We're going to sit here in this cave so they can find us?"

"Nope," Harrison answered triumphantly, his masculine arm reaching out a finger to direct her attention to the front screen. "We're waiting for that." 

Haha, what do you think Harrison was waiting for?