Janiel stared at the silent headband interface and felt something inside her go cold. They were cut off from Julian.
Behind them, water surged through the hold like a living tide. In front of them was five hundred meters of flooded deck—and no one could walk that far against a current like this.
If they stayed where they were, the cargo hold would fill and drown them.
Carlos splashed up beside her, grabbed Linneya in one arm, and shouted, “Back to the cargo lift—now!”
Janiel nodded hard. “Yes. Up to the upper decks first.”
They were only fifty meters from the lift. If they sprinted, they might make it before the water swallowed the whole bay.
“Tyson!” Carlos yelled over his shoulder. “Move! Cargo lift!”
Tyson had beaten the robot down into the water. It had gone still. Water was at his waist. He answered once, dropped the hammer, and turned to run.
Linneya screamed from Carlos’s shoulder. “Behind you! Run!”
A huge shape erupted from the water behind Tyson in a burst of spray.
Tyson spun—and saw the hammer head swinging toward him, carrying a shriek of wind.
Linneya screamed again and twisted away, burying her face so she wouldn’t see what came next.
Even with the roar of water and the ship’s groan, Carlos heard the sound clearly: bone cracking.
He risked a glance back.
Tyson’s body was collapsing into the water. Above the jawline, his head was simply gone.
The machine giant stared at the hammer. Wet scraps of flesh clung to the metal.
Then it raised its gaze, locking onto Carlos and Janiel.
“Dad, run!” Linneya sobbed. “Janiel—keep up!”
Carlos and Janiel pushed forward with everything they had. The ship’s tilt worsened by the second, and the water climbed to their chests.
Behind them came the heavy, relentless splash of pursuit. The giant waded after them, hammer in hand.
Carlos turned and fired into the sparking chest. The robot angled its body and used an armored forearm as a shield, barely slowing.
Carlos knew the rifle wouldn’t hurt it—not enough, not in time.
Along the wall ahead, a neat stack of cargo crates had been strapped down with rope. Carlos pivoted, emptied rounds into the bindings, and shredded them.
The ropes snapped. The crates toppled as one, collapsing onto the giant in a roaring, wooden avalanche and burying it under a pile of freight.
“Move!” Carlos shouted.
The cargo lift was close now. The rushing current did them a cruel favor, pushing them forward faster than their legs could manage. They started swimming.
Linneya slipped free of Carlos’s grip and struck out on her own. For a child, she moved with startling speed—an ocean kid’s instinct—keeping pace with the adults.
Twenty meters.
Ten.
Linneya reached the cargo lift first and ducked inside. Janiel and Carlos followed a heartbeat later, the water already at their throats.
Janiel slammed the button. The doors closed, and the lift began to rise.
For one breath they thought they’d made it.
Then the lift rose half a meter and shrieked—a grinding, metallic scrape, like something had wedged it in place.
Janiel hammered the controls. The car shuddered a few times, lifted a fraction—
And the lights died.
Power was gone.
Darkness swallowed them. The water kept rising. They floated upward, pressed closer and closer to the ceiling as the remaining air pocket shrank.
Janiel’s arms locked around Linneya. Linneya sobbed into her shoulder.
A sudden burst of gunfire erupted beside them, impossibly loud in the tight box.
Carlos fired into a single panel on the ceiling until the rifle clicked empty.
There was almost no space left. He threw the rifle aside, drew back his right fist, and punched the perforated steel with everything he had.
Once. Twice. Again. The blows thudded through water and metal.
Underwater, he couldn’t brace properly. The panel only dented.
The water was about to take the last air.
Carlos pressed his face into the thin gap above the surface—barely enough space to breathe—dragged in a lungful, and roared.
With a brutal wrench of strength, he tore the weakened panel open.
Janiel shoved Linneya up through the gap. Carlos hauled himself after her, then reached back and pulled Janiel onto the roof of the elevator car.
The moment Janiel cleared the opening, the lift below filled completely.
They lay there gasping, water dripping off their faces.
They had less than ten seconds.
Water spilled over the roof and swallowed their boots. The level rose faster and faster as the ship’s angle steepened.
The elevator shaft creaked and groaned. Metal warped somewhere deep in the walls. The tilt was close to thirty degrees now.
“Up,” Carlos said. His voice was tight. “We can’t stop here.”
Janiel nodded.
The shaft was pitch-black. Only the faint glow of Carlos’s wristband and Janiel’s headband gave them any light at all.
They began to climb, Carlos above, Janiel below, keeping Linneya between them.
The angle made climbing easier, but every movement felt like slipping on glass.
They reached the next floor opening quickly—only to find the elevator doors positioned on the wall that had tilted toward them. Carlos crawled across and tried to force them.
He couldn’t get leverage. The wall was too steep, the footing too slick. He almost fell back into the water.
The water was already close again. They had no choice but to keep going.
Carlos’s thoughts spiraled: if he couldn’t open any doors, and the shaft wasn’t long… the water would catch them.
From below came a series of dull, repeated impacts, followed by the sickening sound of metal deforming.
Carlos and Janiel looked at each other. They saw the same terror mirrored back.
The giant.
“I-it’s that thing…” Linneya whispered, her legs shaking.
“Linneya—quiet,” Carlos hissed. “Climb.”
They forced themselves upward, but the shaft walls were smooth and offered few handholds. They couldn’t go much faster.
The ripping sound came again, louder this time. The central cable began to tremble violently.
Then—snap.
“Move! Cable!” Carlos shouted.
He shoved himself sideways and shielded Linneya. The broken cable whipped down like a steel lash, striking the spot where he’d been an instant before.
Janiel couldn’t see its path in the darkness. She followed Carlos’s movement on instinct.
She avoided the cable—
And her foot slipped.
Carlos lunged for her hand and caught only air.
Janiel shot straight down the slanted shaft and hit the water below.
Linneya started crying again—until she saw Janiel surface.
“Janiel!” Linneya shouted. “Climb! Hurry!”
Janiel swam to the wall and found the edge—then screamed.
“No! Let go of me! Let go!”
She thrashed, splashing wildly, but she couldn’t free herself, as if something in the water had clamped onto her with an iron bite.
In the next heartbeat, Linneya watched the faint light of Janiel’s headband vanish into the black beneath the surface.