The explosion was like being on top of a bomb. They were lifted in the air, and Cate’s stomach flipped as they rose higher and higher. Each of them was slammed back into the bottom of the raft, as the colossal Carcharodon Megalodon erupted from the water beneath them. Its huge jaws were opened and extended forward, but perhaps as Jack had hoped, the light descending had distracted it just enough, to throw off its aim by a few feet.

They were suddenly thirty feet in the air, balancing on the snout. The open maw was just to the rear of them, with their tiny raft threatening to fall in. Cate smelled the age old stink of the massive sea creature as they balanced momentarily at the apogee – it was probably only for a few slices of a second, but time seemed to have slowed as they teetered in space, just inches separating life and a bloody gruesome death.

The massive creature fell back to the sea. The raft, being light, hung in the air for another second before it, too, began to drop.

Unfortunately, it didn’t stay upright, and flipped on the way down. The turning raft allowed the occupants to see the titanic beast below them as it splashed back into the dark water – it was massively powerful, with jaws big enough to swallow a horse, and though they could only see the front half, this alone was a good thirty feet, meaning the beast was easily double that.

It is death itself, Cate thought morbidly. The dinner plate sized eyes had rolled back for the attack, but now they rolled down exposing the dark orbs. The shark thumped back into the water, creating a massive depression that quickly crashed closed, and geysered back up to meet them.

Cate struck the warm water, went under, and immediately panicked, clawing back to the surface, and only just managing to stop herself from sucking in a deep breath to scream her fear while under the water.

She breached, gasped and spluttered, and immediately heard Jack screaming for them to swim and swim hard. He pointed to the cliffs and the small jutting island that stuck out about three hundred feet from them.

Jack was a strong swimmer, and was moving fast, even though he pushed Abby before him. Cate followed, and she heard Greg coming up beside her, and already thrashing like the devil was on his tail – which in a way, it was.

The raft was now back on the water, and amazingly still afloat. It was a few dozen feet out to the front and side of them, and she was tempted to divert to it, as it was nearer.