PREDATOR ISLAND (Sea Lab Book 2)

CHAPTER 30

Hammerheads swam above Jake as he peered up from the bottom of the ocean. The huge predators swished along in a methodical manner on an invisible highway, their characteristic winglike heads, swaying side to side. The sight was mesmerizing and frightening all at the same time. As the school of sharks disappeared from view, a massive great white barreled through the murky water. The scarred and battle hardened shark clutched a fresh kill in its powerful jaws, blood lingering behind it in a cloudy trail of gore.

Images of dead park rangers lay in the brush, severed limbs scattered about.

Bodies hung from trees that towered over the jungle floor, their trunks big enough to drive a car through.

On a high cliff, Jake scooted along a ledge. He misjudged his next step and fell, got washed away in the mighty river's flow.

In mid-air, a pilot and his crew tried to escape a shadowy creature inside the fuselage of a cargo plane. The aircraft fell from the sky, careening toward the abandoned island, slamming into the thick canopy...wings torn off and slung aside, a path of death and destruction. Carnage.

And the creature escaped.

Jake remembered what Dr. Graham said about the legend of El Tunchi. Although they didn't have a campfire, the doctor sat next to burning embers as he told the ghost story. Everyone listened like preteens on a camping trip. The blaze lit in Graham's gaze as he repeated his encounter with the mysterious creature and its demon yellow eyes.

The creature, a black wraith, leaped toward Jake...

And he awoke with a start, gasping for air in the darkness.

"Are you okay?" Sarah asked.

Lying next to him, she touched his arm and tried to comfort him. Jake blew air from his mouth. "Define okay?"

"I think you know what I mean."

"Let's just say, sleep didn't come easy." He sat up and wiped his eyes. "But when it came, it was like a horror movie."

"Sorry to hear that. There's no need to worry, it was just a dream."

Jake replied, "But it felt real. Very real."

He'd had run-ins with fear in the past. He'd thought holding on to a keepsake necklace his mom gave him would help him combat anxiety. It was a gold cross and chain, the last gift his dad gave his mom before he passed away. She gave the necklace to Jake when he was nine years old. When they left Australia bound for Hawaii, the captain of the Atlantis research vessel, Jack Oliver, found an uncharted island in the South Pacific for a pit stop.

Jake dropped the keepsake in the water and laid the memory of his father to rest, who'd died aboard the Edmund Fitzgerald freighter which sank on Lake Superior with all hands on deck. He discovered he didn't need a good luck charm. He found another way to overcome his fears, by keeping his eyes on a certain redhead.

As his vision adjusted to the dark, he felt her hand slide from his arm to his chest, and he saw a tiny smile on her face. She leaned in and brushed her lips to his. In response, he pulled her close, returning the kiss. For a long moment, he melted into her, feeling the warmth of her body next to his. It was surreal. Calming. Peaceful.

Then movement skittered above on the slab of rock that had become a roof over their heads.

"What was that?" Jake said.

He looked on the other side of Sarah and saw an empty space on the ground. It took him a few seconds to realize what was missing. His backpack.

Jake jumped up and nearly bumped his head on the rock above. He leaned over, careful with each step, dodging those asleep as Sarah followed him into the open.

"What it is, Jake?" She hadn't noticed the fact that his backpack was gone, but she heard the noise above their heads. "Be careful. Don't go blindly into the dark. What if that creature is out there?"

Jake didn't think El Tunchi stole his pack. This was not the work of a South American legend. When he rounded the back side of the big rock, he froze at the sight of someone bent over at the waist, rifling their hands through his bag. Definitely not a monster with yellow eyes.

Jake scrambled onto the flat surface and rushed toward the culprit.

In a blur, he shoved the person to the ground, eager to see who'd taken his backpack. When the individual rolled over, the eyes of Dr. Hugh Graham stared up at him with a startled glare.

Jake cocked his fist back, ready to strike.

Graham flinched.

"What are you doing?!" Jake clenched his fist tighter. Heat burned through his cheeks as his face twisted into a snarl. "Your moxie is about to be your undoing."

The doctor held up a stick of beef jerky. "I was hungry." He grinned.

"Seriously." Jake blinked and tipped his head to the side. "Give me my bag." He yanked it out of the man's hand and stormed back toward the rock.

"The food supply on the island is dwindling, and I'm tired of eating fruit," Graham said. "You can have it back."

"Keep it," Jake replied and never looked back, longing for his spot beside Sarah and hopefully, a dreamless sleep.

He stopped at the entrance to the den under the rock and checked his bag, finding everything there, except for the jerky stick. But before he could lie down, something shifted in the foliage across the river. The shadowy movement caught his eye and shocked his heart into a flurry of palpitations.

Before Jake could react, Dr. Graham rounded the corner and saw it too. "Everyone," he whispered urgently, his body ridged and ramrod straight, "if you want to live, get up, get your things, and get into the river now...El Tunchi is here."