“Abandon ship!” he bellowed at the top of his lungs, hearing the call echoed by his crew as he grabbed a life jacket and ran for the gangway. As he ran onto the bridge’s port gantry, he scanned the deck, assessing the number of crew he had left. The Transom was sinking fast, and they needed to get off now to avoid being dragged down with it.

Seeing the doctor in the small crowd on deck, his eyes locked with hers once again, just as they had when they had sailed from Kodikkarai harbor not long ago, and a sadness filled him. They nodded, knowing they had brought this hell down on the crew of the boat. He had no idea how the information of their discovery had leaked out, but it didn’t matter now. He must try and save as many as possible.

* * *

A few minutes later, as they watched the ship finally go down, the drifting mass of floating people started to gather, organizing around the three inflatable life rafts they had managed to throw free before their ship sank.

As the crew helped each other aboard the rafts, a part of James told him that they were not out of the woods. His body continued going through the motions of helping his crew up and into the rafts, but in his heart he knew what must come next.

It started as suddenly as the first attack had, but the laser had no steel to contend with here, so instead it simply sliced straight across each of the life rafts in turn. Anyone already on board was cut cleanly in two, or worse, a couple of poor souls had their legs or arms partially severed, screams pouring from their mouths as the blood should have poured from their instantly cauterized limbs.

The panic and fear began afresh as everyone started swimming for their lives. But the harder they swam, the faster it found them, silencing them one by one. The beam was tracking down any movement, and the more frantic your flailing the sooner death came.

James and Laurie’s eyes connected one more time across the water before she saw him cut down by the unseen, merciless blade, his head simply exploding in white flame like a match being lit, steam leaping from around his still moving shoulders.

“Run, Neal, hide,” she sobbed into the night, as hell raged around her, “don’t ever mention this to anyone. They’ve come for us.” she said desperately, her eyes turning skyward as death found her.

Part 2

Chapter 17: The Other Shoe