The End (25 page)

Conway wakes up everyone, giving them an hour
to prepare and have breakfast, they should get back to work as soon
as possible, if it did start to rain heavily then all were allowed
to return and work will continue the next day. Conway and Martin
however, didn’t join in to help them; no they were looking for
decent scuba gear, it was easily found, after returning they were
confronted by Emma and Ashley.

“What’s going on, why are you guys running
around doing nothing?” Emma asked.

“Why do you have scuba gear?” Ashley
asked.

“Well this morning while everyone was still
sleeping after I woke you, I went to go sit outside, you know
simply to relax and then there was a helicopter hovering not far
from us, I immediately called out to it, Martin woke up and we were
jumping and waving to insure they see us, then they dropped a crate
and we believe it’s a supply crate,” Conway said explaining
everything very fast.

“That’s absolutely right and now we need to
go fetch it, we also found the gear we needed,” Martin said
smiling.

“Hun, you know you’re not a very good
swimmer,” Ashley said.

“I don’t swim very well either, I hate the
waters, scared of sharks but if we are together, then it will be
fast and easy,” Martin said laughing.

“All we are going to do is tie down this rope
to the boat, dive and hook it up to the crate, then start pulling
it back up,” Conway said.

“You know, by the time you get back up, the
boat could have drifted away,” Emma said as a joke.

“Really, it’s really going to drift away?”
Conway asked.

“Yes it is, since you can’t swim and Martin
is scared of sharks that will most likely not attack you, I shall
go with you, I am a very good swimmer and have done some fair
amount of diving in my time for fun and to explore the ocean,” Emma
said.

“There is no way you are doing it, its way to
dangerous,” Conway said.

“Don’t tell me that bull, I live here in
Florida and if I don’t go, then you won’t get the crank William
salvaged from a boat, attach the rope to this and you will be done
in no time,” Emma said.

“Fine just let her come, let’s just get going
before it starts to rain,” Martin said.

“All done, it should work just fine now, give
it a try,” Martin said, after struggling several minutes just to
mount it on the boat.

“Took you long enough,” Conway said as it
works perfectly.

“Hey, if you could do it any better or
faster, than you should have stepped up and done it,” Martin said
laughing.

“I would do it much faster, though I highly
doubt I would have done it any better, I would simply tie it down
and be on my way,” Conway said.

“Shall we go then?” Emma asked, all suited
up.

“Yes, let’s go,” Conway said.

“Get back soon!” Ashley said shouting as they
were already distant.

We arrived at our destination, the crate
should be over there where the bright red ball floats, Conway
explaining as they get closer.

“This hook is pretty heavy, so you won’t have
any problem, just hold on to it and I am sure you will sink with
it,” Conway said.

“Don’t worry, I will simply follow the line
to the crate,” Emma said.

“How long will this take?” Martin asked.

“Well it’s not as far as I expected, so for
starters it’s not deep, so not long at all,” Emma said.

“Just be safe, we never know what might be
going on in these waters,” Conway said as he ties down the hook
against Emma.

Emma opens her oxygen tank as she fall
backwards into the water, both Conway and Martin being worried
about her. The water is dark since it’s so cloudy, least the flash
light they found in the diving store is really good quality it
shines pretty far. Emma is surprised how deep its getting, she
didn’t figure it will be this deep since its rather close to Fort
Jefferson, she could easily swim this far.

The water only gets darker the deeper she
goes, but she is relieved to see the bottom with the crate exactly
where it’s meant to be, terror and fear strikes as she can see a
shark that must be at least 7 foot if not 8.

Emma goes down slowly, it looks a lot like a
Bull shark as she gets closer to the crate, she can see clearly
now, it’s a Bull shark, it must be dead, everywhere along the fins
and around the mouth it already started to decompose, poor thing
Emma thought to herself as she continues toward the crate.

Struggling to untie the hook, she sees the
water is murky, it looks like an entire sand cloud where the shark
used to be, she freaks out and pulls on the hook desperately to get
it lose, managing to do so fairly easily.

She looks over to where the shark was, the
sand is still residing, she’s not scared of a carcass, though she
does fear for other sharks that might be feasting on the dead one
this very moment, she leans towards the crate, hooking it, trying
to stay as close and flat against the crate as possible, she pulls
on the line attached to the ball.

Conway sees the ball bouncing up and down and
starts to turn the crank with Martins help it goes rather fast,
unaware that there is sharks in the water, Emma stares into the
dark water, using her flash light it works well but not well
enough, almost having an heart attack when one just went past her
slowly.

She hopes and prays that staying close to the
crate will actually work, but before she could even see it coming,
one came crashing into the crate right next to her, not hard, but
hard enough for Conway to feel it on the boat. Emma looks up and
can see it swimming right over the crate it’s still far, trying to
think of a plan to avoid this thing.

Thinking maybe if she was beneath the crate,
it wouldn’t notice her, still it might not be the best idea as if
it did decide to swim deeper then it will surely notice her much
easier. Before she could think of a valid plan, the crate gets
bumped again, Emma noticed the hook is holding the crate just
barely, looking back up, she can see that she is getting closer and
soon she will be out of the water in no time.

Believing everything will be fine, the shark
passed her again, bumping slightly into her left side; she loses
her grip with the impact, floating beside the crate, slightly
dazed, it took her only seconds to realize that she needs to swim,
as she starts swimming, already knowing it’s too late, feeling
three painful crunches on her leg with one yank deeper into the
water before it let go.

She doesn’t look down, in shock she struggles
to swim, managing to reach the top she yells out to Conway to help
her, Martin held onto the crank as Conway immediately took the boat
over, arriving alongside her, she gets yanked under water again,
immediately to surface again with a pool of blood surrounding
her.

Conway held out his arm to grab her but it
was too late, it came back, surfacing partially as it snatched Emma
that was just out of Conway’s reach, he can hear her scream as she
gets pulled around, within a few seconds it was over, she was
dragged under. Conway still waited but the only thing that arose
from the water was blood, enough that almost surrounded the entire
boat.

Conway insisted Martin held on to that crank
for dear life as they have to get out of the water immediately,
Conway realized this after seeing the shark but mostly after he
realized the four extra fins.

Arriving, on the beach they quickly grabbed
the crate, they pulled and yanked on it, fearing their lives in to
process as they are still too deep in the water, deep enough to get
attacked, they managed to pull the crate on shore, just in time as
they can see multiple fins circling close by, Martin can’t believe
they made it, neither could Conway.

After opening the crate, they found wrapped
up blankets that was dry, pillows, canned food, fresh meat, coffee
a flare gun and a pistol, Conway was emotionally destroyed, he was
sad and angry at the same time.

“How could we let her die for this? For
pillows, blankets and some canned food? We have plenty of that the
only damn thing worth something in that crate was the pistol and
that’s by far not worth someone life,” Conway said loudly out of
anger.

“We didn’t know that, it’s not our fault,”
Martin said.

“You know, I will have to break the bad news
to her mother and daughter?” Conway asked, crying.

“I was with you and I will be with you when
you have to tell them,” Martin said.

“Then we better get to it! Waiting won’t
change a damn thing,” Conway said.

They share the bad news with the remaining
family Emma had left and they were heart broken, Conway couldn’t
stand it, he couldn’t get over the fact that he would’ve gone, it
wasn’t supposed to be Emma.

Conway gave everyone a break, simply some
time for him to get over the loss of Emma, he told everyone to take
a break, sadly no longer than a week, arriving at his room Conway
felt bad and unhappy enough that made him cry once more.

“Don’t cry, it’s not your fault, no matter
who went into that water at that moment, they would have all faced
the same death,” Ashley said.

“You don’t understand, I agreed she could go
into the water and she ended up dying for nothing,” Conway
said.

“It was her time, and no you’re wrong, she
didn’t die for nothing, she taught everyone to be aware no matter
how good things are going,” Ashley said with a few tears.

“Isn’t that what everyone teaches when they
die, especially in our time now?” Conway asked.

“Maybe, you know Emma told me that we
shouldn’t give up hope, no until it’s all over” Ashley said, as she
hugs Conway, feeling slightly better knowing that Emma would want
them to carry on.

“What scares me the most is the news was
accurate when all of this started,” Conway said.

“You know, we were told that animals can get
infected to but we came to believe they don’t since we don’t see
infected animals,” Conway said.

“Yes why?” Ashley asked.

“Because it’s true, when I saw that shark it
was clearly already decaying, it should have been dead, I saw it
all, the moment it grabbed Emma,” Conway said.

“It could have just been a few bad injuries,”
Ashley said.

“It wasn’t, not even a minute later there
were a total of 4 maybe even more, we saw the fins, and they didn’t
circle around her, they followed us all the way back. Best part of
all, it wasn’t four anymore we could see a lot more when we reached
the beach, now what normal shark shows that type of behavior?”
Conway asked.

“I don’t know, you should get some rest, we
can talk more about this later,” Ashley said.

Ashley begged him to sleep but Conway just
couldn’t, he was haunted by that fish, it was the scariest thing he
has ever seen, they are brutal killers and that’s no joke, Conway
decided that as of tomorrow no one will go into the ocean ever
again.

Three days passed, three days ago when they
put up a memorial next to Danny and William, Conway figured that it
would have been the right thing to do, her mother really stepped up
her game and is looking after her daughter. Conway and Ashley
already talked about it, when Emma’s mother pass away due to old
age or getting killed, then they will personally take care of
Sally.

Martin made a pretty grave stone for her,
with just paint and varnish with her name nicely carved out of the
small round rock he found, he also found her book that they have
all been writing in, like one big journal, he gave this to Conway
straight away. Since each person she knew and care for wrote pages
and was added to it secretly, without anyone knowing what another
wrote, it was already thick with just their writing including
William’s and Danny’s.

Martin suggested that they should do this to
and add it to her book or journal, each one can write their story
and put it in this book, it will be great for education if anyone
had to survive or if there had to be a next generation. Conway
agreed and thought it was a good idea, since mostly everything was
destroyed and many have been killed or infected, a new little book
of history will do any one good that happened to read it.

“I have a theory, about the shark that day,”
Martin said.

“Go ahead, please share,” Conway said.

“It’s almost been a year ago since the virus
went viral, across the world when everything stopped and time
almost stood still,” Martin said.

“It was dangerous but everything went so
slow, we learned things daily about those things and then all of a
sudden they will change and everything we learned was a waste of
time,” Martin said.

“As you know at start they were pretty much
weak, sick people walking around waiting to die any second,” Martin
said.

“We relied on this as a weakness and then
they could smell, we relied on this and then they could hear
changing every day,” Martin said.

“We learned the ones that get to eat are the
strong ones and the ones that don’t are the weak ones,” Martin
said.

“Now just a few days ago, we discovered
sharks that are infected,” Martin said.

“What are you trying to say?” Conway asked
staring at Martin.

“Well if you consider everything that has
happened up until now, is exactly how it was described by the news,
then I think its ok to say that this virus they made is evolving by
the day,” Martin said.

“Like bugs or any other living creature, they
evolve to be able to survive in their environments, if you give
them enough time to do so, so unless they researched this virus for
its entire life time, none of them could have ever knew what this
virus might turn into,” Martin said explaining.

“It could make sense in many ways, though
only time will prove your theory until then we can’t stop operating
daily,” Conway said.

“No we can’t, I was merely putting my theory
on the table,” Martin said.