"Don't worry," Hooper said. "I'm not going to spend time on what was probably a bit of floating seawood around...his...head." And it had been a dog eating that shark on the beach, of course.
Neither had much success with Larry, however, and the beaches would remain open on the fourth.
****
Nabiki watched the shark suddenly flail to the side, blood streaming from the harpoon wound as it sank to its death, only to be replaced by another which the little boy on the video game happily served the same fate. Her eyes glanced to the name of the game, "Killer Shark", and she snickered at the moderate hypocrisy considering which species was doing the most killing on the game.
She shook her head and looked about the crowded beach, wondering at the stubborn nature of humanity. Still, at least this time they had the precaution of having boats out in the water and watch towers.
These idiots, Florida dealt with shark problems all the time, and it hadn't lost tourists. Granted, Florida didn't often have one shark persistently hunting people in the area, but still the stupid cover up was going to do them more damage in the long run than the shark was.
She had her own way of reminding people what was going on. She'd gone out and bought another swim suit this morning, a two piece that showed her side, and thus her scar, quite well. The reactions to her were mixed as a result, especially considering the recent news.
It wasn't considered good form to be displaying such things so openly. A girl was supposed to be embarrassed by scars, not flaunt them. Nabiki smirked again at the reaction from some of the boys staring at her, as their looks turned from appreciative to shocked when a turn brought the large mark into view.
Nabiki looked about at the TV crews and the people they were interviewing one more time before she slipped into the mass of humanity on her way down to the water. She'd attracted the attention of a few reporters herself, thanks to her scar again, but she wasn't in the mood to be spending long hours in front of the camera.
She slipped into the water, one among many, and dived under as soon as there was enough water. A few more yards, as it got deeper, and her clumsy, human flailing became the smooth streak of her shark form as she head out past and under the bulk of humanity for the deeper ocean.
Nabiki enjoyed just idly swimming, occasionally snapping up an unwary fish that slipped too close. At the moment, her enjoyment of this casual pleasure was marred by the fact that she was swimming in what a much more dangerous shark was using as its hunting grounds.
As usual, she was far out in the water to avoid accidentally causing a panic among the swimmers, but in this case she was much further out than usual, because of the boats with their guns. The ones actually watching for any sort of shark. It was being so far out that brought her the warning signs so soon.
Like before, the shark had stopped to grab a few bites of fish on its way in, and the smell had reached Nabiki. She hesitantly turned toward the smell, which would usually have drawn her like a shot, and made for the smell.
She was getting very good at reaching attack sites after the shark was already gone, it seemed. This time, she caught a glimpsed sensation of it trailing away just as the panic started on the beach behind her. She paused to consider it, but, the shark was already fading out of her senses, and she didn't want to lose it again.
She followed, behind, in its sensory blindspot, deep and passed like a silent brown and tan shadow in the wake of the white, which she catching up to with hastening speed.
It came into view, a massive bulk of deadly muscle in the water ahead. It rose briefly to the surface, breaking the surface and sank again. It either hadn't noticed Nabiki yet, or else it didn't care about her, because it wasn't reacting to her presence yet. All of its attention was ahead of it, at what Nabiki had to assume was a small selection of boats.
She swished about and wondered just exactly what she was supposed to do now. That shark was starting to circle in on the boats and she didn't have much time to decide as it moved in for an attack.
Two of the boats were tipped over and there was meat in the water. The shark circled about, preparing to snap up the man Nabiki felt there, and she had to move.
****
People screamed as the water colored red about the overturned boats, and the water churned. Brody didn't stop running, his eyes on his son as the smaller shark's fin broke the water in its brief run from the blood and foam.
The great white followed closely behind, trailing blood, and the smaller shark up front jinked sharply to the side and downward. Both sharks were lost to view save for the brief signs of blood drifting to the surface.
****
Nabiki was faster than most other things that swam, but the sheer power of this creature had her shocked, and that power pushed it through the water with incredible speed. If she weren't so small and couldn't take turns so sharply, she'd have been caught in a blink.
As it was, she had the white chasing her about in circles, and the blood tainting the water was tempting her to try in for another bite. She wasn't anywhere near to being in control of the situation, the thing pressed her too close. Every time she thought she'd broken the pursuit, it turned about quick on her again.
She would have swallowed if she were human and thought about breaking for land, as much as she hated the idea of being chased out of the water (again!). Blood was in the water, and that was distracting her somewhat as well, which would be dangerous with the brute after her. But she couldn't leave yet, there were still people in the water. So whether it was safe or not, whether she wanted to or not, she had to stay.
And she had to do something dangerous.
****
The sharks broke the surface again, the smaller one slipping up over the white's back and snapping at its back, taking off the second, smaller, dorsal, before slipping back into the water, heading past the tail of the bigger fish, slipping under it as the monster fish's tail swiped out.
The boats still in the water picked up the passengers of the overturned boats and made for shore as the sharks turned out to sea. The chase returning to the unseen deeps again as the sharks submerged.
****
All the floundering in the pond was gone save for what was between her and the brute.
Nabiki wasn't going to win this fight, she'd gotten first blood, but she was tiring too quickly, and the white seemed to go forever. Eventually all the battering she was taking from the white's battering tail and body would build up to overwhelm her, and that would be the end.
It was time to leave.
Every jink and turn and dash she made aimed at the shallows, and, focused on just this one goal, she was easily able to outthink the brute to make for safety. She climbed up to safety out of the water and lay down, watching the shark trail off for the open ocean as she sat, bruised, scraped and tired, on the shore.
"At least this time there's no hospital stay," Nabiki muttered as she looked at all the individual injuries she sported. She took a deep breath and lay back down to recover.
She thought about the remains of yet another bathing suit that were probably floating out in the water somewhere, and grimaced at the idea of sneaking back to her clothes without being seen.
"Lovely day," she complained.
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(Posted Tue, 20 Jul 2004 01:36)
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