Singing Parasite [On Hold]

3.5

Duston and Tyce sat on the couch in the bridge. For Duston, the need to fiddle with his cap was getting harder to resist. At last, he couldn't take it. He snatched his cap and started playing with it.

He wanted to ask Tyce an important question. But Tyce had told him to keep his questions to himself and try to lose the tail.

"Do you think it will follow us?" Duston had asked.

"It followed us all the way from the island," Tyce told him. "So. Yes."

So, Duston had kept his mouth shut.

Now, it was well past midnight, and a waning moon and stars were now scattered all over the black sky.

They had been on the lookout for that strange sea creature but didn't sight it. As if after twilight, the creature had ceased to exist. How much time had passed since the attack? Five hours? Six hours? Seven? Duston didn't know. He felt restless. He just wanted to get this question out of his system as soon as possible.

"Mr. Mani," he managed to mumble.

Tyce's head was slumped down and both his hands were propped against his head. The rifle lay lifelessly on his lap and the room lay in darkness, only light coming in came from the stars and the moon above.

"Mr. Mani," Duston repeated.

Tyce slowly looked up and grunted, clearly not in a mood to answers questions.

Duston thought about aborting the mission for tonight and retrying on tomorrow morning. But he knew, was sure, that sleep wouldn't come until he had his answers. So, he ventured with a question. "What should we do now?" Paused and added. "R-return?"

Tyce shook his head. "I want to return. But we cannot return."

"Why?" Duston asked.

Tyce straightened his droopy back and leaned into the couch. "If we tried to return. We would probably get lost."

Duston didn't understand what Tyce was saying.

Probably, that fact was obvious on his face, because Tyce sighed and said, "The GPS is not working. And I don't know in which direction our island wa--"

"I know," Duston said. "If went north-east from here--"

Tyce shook his head. "We just got attacked by a giant creature that altered our path several times. The island is big. But it's not that big. If we turn around, there is no guarantee that we would be able to make it. Remember we are in the sea, and a slight change in the nose of our boat will send us several miles away from our intended location. Looking for our island will be like searching a needle in a haystack."

Duston thought about it. He opened his mouth and shut it again as no good response came into his mind.

"I'm telling you," Tyce started. "That we--"

"You just said that the w-whale or whatever that thing was has already changed our path. Doesn't that mean that right now we are going in the wrong direction?"

"We are. But that's alright. Because we are now moving towards the mainland and the chances of us missing it and going past it are very, very slim. If you want to turn around, do it. I won't stop you. But I can't guarantee you that we would reach land before running out of fuel. And besides, Second Spero is on this side. We were sent to bring help. And after seeing this thing, I'm sure that help will not come on its own. It's all on us."

Duston started racking his mind. He had to convince Tyce. There was no way he was going to the mainland. If there was a monster like this in the water, he didn't want to imagine what would be there on the land. But nothing was coming. He felt like he was fighting a lost battle. Tyce had counter arguments for all his solutions which irritated Duston but didn't surprise him. After all, he had heard rumors that Tyce's IQ was among the highest on the island. Still, he can't give up. There must be some way. Then, suddenly a small spot of light appeared in this suffocating darkness.