Fire in the Firehouse 22

Reviewing part 21... As he peered over the side, a puzzled look washed over his face. He saw some nylon rope and it seemed to be floating aimlessly. He reached for a hook and grabbed the rope, taut, much to his chagrin. He tugged on the rope, contemplated cutting it, but if it had become entangled, that would be useless. He called back for his two guests to help him, all the while explaining it to them. The three men grabbed the rope, hoping it'd only gotten hung up slightly. 

At first they tugged in one direction, but the rope would only go so far. Then they went the opposite way, that seemed to help some. Bryan gave a three count and they all pulled as hard as they could, Bryan being the front man on the rope. As they tugged, a conical snout pierced the water showing its dark gullet, pink gums accented with bright white, triangular, razor sharp teeth. The bottomless pit seemed to be calling for Bryan. The massive leviathan of the deep seemed to be summoning him in. Bryan dropped the rope in shock. His body broke out in a cold sweat, as chills ran all over his body. His face had grown ghost white. He stumbled back falling onto the deck.

Mitch and Colby were stunned at first. They tried to make light of Bryan falling. But when they were greeted by his face, they bore witness to his look of fright and terror. They both ran over to see what could've caused this look. They looked down and saw the reason for Bryan's terror. They looked at one another as if to say, not again. 

The two men stared intently. How could this be? Some can go an entire life never encountering a single shark, let alone the apex hunter of the world's oceans. As it turned out, these two had just encountered another one. The idea flickered across both their minds the odds of it being the one that devoured Marie, but there really wasn't a way to tell.

The two lovers took a step back and watched the sea below. They stood in overwhelming silence and awe. The shark had a mission and what it was wasn't exactly clear at this point. The one certain thing: this shark was bigger than the last one they encountered, voiding out the possibility it was the same as before. They managed to get a better view at one point and became convinced this one was much bigger. They estimated it to be at least 21 feet long. In the scheme of things, it wasn't much smaller than the boat they were on, it being 25 feet.

Colby suggested, "I think it best if we lie still. If we send no vibrations by walking on the deck, it might get discouraged and leave." It seemed logical enough.

Bryan offered as he ran his hands through his silken black hair, removing his fallen bangs from his piercing green eyes, "In theory that seems possible. But I realized something. See, with the Earthquake, my catches have been pretty shitty. So I had been using all sorts of bait. And, well, I think I forgot to remove some of that. More specifically, some bloody entrails. I wasn't expecting to lure a shark, just, I dunno, something. Never expected a Great White." He was disappointed in himself.

Mitch sat listening to both men and made it clear he'd be the voice of reason. "Regardless of how it got here, its still here. Facts are; this beast doesn't seem to focused on leaving just yet. And, judging by the fact the wharf seems a bit more out of view, I'd say Jaws here is making his or her intentions known that it feels there's more where its little snack came from."

The three men sat debating their next move. At some point in their lives, all three had tuned into 'Shark Week' on the Discovery Channel and all were attempting to infuse some acquired info into their dilemma. As luck would have it, nothing seemed to come on such short notice, on the spot if you will. Time was running out for them. The more the shark fought and won, the harder it was going to be to get to safety.

Bryan bolted from the deck to try the engine once again. It did spit and sputter some. Mitch tried Colby's cell phone to call for help, but he wasn't getting a good signal in this area. The rope was still wrapped up on the propeller. The shark became intrigued by the new vibrations and stopped tugging the boat via the rope long enough to investigate. 

At first the massive beast dove deep, waiting for this possible adversary to cease movement. The leviathan stalked the boat at a safe depth, convinced the noise wasn't a threat, it came closer to investigate, taking a small investigative bite to see if the propeller might be its prey, discovered it wasn't edible and began to stalk the boat again. 

The creature stalked the rope, recalling it had a connection to its meal and went after it again. In the meantime, the men topside were working frantically trying to devise a method of escape. True, there was an escape boat, a small row boat, but with this menacing creature lurking below in the depths, none were willing to take a chance and try to out run the thing to safety. 

The shark, after taking test bites on the rope and seeing it offered no resistance latched on to it again. This time something worked against the predator: another shark. This new visitor a bit smaller than the first. It was about 17 feet in length. He had come in having smelled the chum, but the other creature's scent had given off a more powerful scent. The bigger of the two was in estrus, and was unaware her scent was luring the male to her. 

Having detected the male advisory, the larger female took a stance to protect her prey. The smaller male was more interested in copulation than the blood trail the female was interested in. The female went into a defensive mode, trying to stave off the lesser male. She even lunged at the male, willing to kill if necessary. The smaller, more agile male darted out of the way in the nick of time. 

The female had gone into a different mode. She was hell bet on claiming the prize she'd stalked. The male more interested in her reproductive organs. Even in the world of lesser beings, the male always seemed more intent on sex. 

Topside the three men were looking over the stern to see where the behemoth had escaped to. Much to their chagrin they saw the two animals locked in a fierce battle. They watched in awe at the display before them.

Bryan came to a conclusion,"Holy, shit! The larger's a female, the smaller's a male. He wants to get his lil sharky nut off!" The three men roared out in laughter. Sure there was still the issue of their plight, but they couldn't help but laugh at the joke and the mere thought the smaller of the two apex creatures wanted sex and, as far as they could tell, was getting rejected. All three men having had an experience in their pasts that reminded them of the same treatment.

In the stand off and confusion below, the larger of the two monstrosities had managed to pull on the rope and wound up having it wedge its way in her razored teeth. The hook attached to the rope was also buried in her mouth. 

The men worked frantically on a way to head to safety. If they managed to head towards the wharf, the large creature would have no choice but to follow, but with the looming male he'd either go in for his attempt at mating, possibly lunge for her as a meal, or any other scenario. The variables were stacked.

Neither creature had found the area to be too heavy with their normal prey of sea lions. It seemed they'd headed somewhere in light of the massive ground shaking. A daily meal was few and far between these days. Unaware the blubbery creatures had managed to pile themselves underneath wharfs or upon rocks closer to shore, they'd opted to avoid the water for now, only venturing in when the need arose to eat and stretch some.

Bryan struggled with the engine cursing it out. "Fuckin piece of shit! Don't fail me now, damn it! C'mon you bastard!" As if the inanimate object heard him, the engine turned over, finally it had come back to life. Mitch and Colby breathed a sigh of relief not realizing the new sound tore threw the larger shark's senses.

As Bryan bore down on the throttle, the immense female went crazy. Her fight or flight senses kicking in, her objective to survive dominated her mind. The male stalked her. He sensed her peril and wanted to use her situation to his advantage to go for his attempt to mate. The female sensed his intentions, mistaking his urge to mate and took it as a threat on her life.

The female Great White went ballistic. She began thrashing violently. She was tugging the boat with her, water cascading down on the deck. If this continued, she'd pull the boat under. Bryan screamed for one of the two lovers to take control of the wheel while he turned the pump on to remove the water they were taking on board.

He screamed out to the two sharks, "Look you two, just fuck and get it over with. I didn't ask to be part of sharks gone wild." He was part humorous, part pissed off. He knew something drastic needed to be done and soon. Bryan remembered he'd stowed some of his early catch in the boat's refrigerator for his dinner, better than that, he recalled he still had some entrails left. Maybe it would provide enough distraction to the male. 

Bryan shot down and grabbed the gooey mess and three fish. Once he was back on deck he quickly removed his knife, made a few slits on each fish, threw them in the bucket. He took out a pick from a storage compartment, punctured some holes in the bucket so the shark could smell its intended meal. He took the bucket and heaved it as far as he possibly could, allowing nature to move the object further out.

The weight of the bucket and the waves brought the bucket closer to the boat than he intended. The shark took to the bait coming close enough for any one of the men to touch it. The captured female smelled the meal, too. She went even crazier. She wanted part of it, it intoxicated her sensory system, her belly reminding her she hadn't been eating properly of late. But her senses kicked in, realizing she needed to take advantage of the male not pursuing her to attempt to make a break and then make a stand.

Bryan grew frustrated with the male shark and leaned over to attempt something he'd seen on Shark Week. As the male poked his conical snout out of the water to eat its meal, Bryan reached out touching its peppered snout. Its snout covered in ampullae of Lorenzini-dark jelly filled capsules attuned to electrical vibrations in the water. In this instance the shark's head was above water. He used a technique to calm the creature known as tonic immobility. With its senses cut off some, the creature became a bit more docile. 

The owner of the ship was hoping to ease the female's nerves so they could gain a foothold and head to shore. Thing was, there were little ideas how to keep him occupied long enough to head to shore. Options were few and far between.

Colby was pretty scared. He knew full well as did his companion ideas were being implemented in the spot. Then an idea shot through the young man's mind. He'd seen a small case labeled 'Emergency' hours earlier. He ran over, found a flare gun, grabbed it, ran out on the middle of the deck and fired a shot into the sky. The sun was beginning to bleed into the water as it was racing to meet the water's edge like it had for countless centuries. Precious moments of daylight were fading fast. Colby felt a chill from the cooler impending night air race down his spine. The thought of being trapped at sea as dark settled in was far from comforting to him.