Movement caught my eye and I looked up, expecting birds—shocked instead to see a chaotic swarm of flying predators—sinister batlike creatures covered in thick brown fur, endowed with eighteen-foot wingspans and sharp talons. Bulbous opaque eyes scanned the surface as the hunters flew in swooping circular patterns, jockeying for position in the sky directly overhead.

I nearly jumped out of my clothing as my bare feet stepped on something sharp. Looking down, I could see a school of fish—dolphin-size creatures racing six feet below the surface like a brownish red current.

A surge of adrenaline jolted me into action. Paddling and kicking down the side of the uplifting swell, I lunged for the raft’s trailing towline. Clutching it in my left hand, I dragged the hexagon-shaped inflatable close enough to hoist myself headfirst through the opening of the raft’s inflatable tent.

Swiveling around, I zippered the nylon door behind me and collapsed, my chest heaving with each hyperventilated breath.

Blood pooled around the bottom of my lacerated feet as my shell-shocked mind caught up to the moment. This is nuts, this is crazy! Where’d these giant bats come from? Where’s Omega’s crew? Why’d they abandon the habitat without waking me? What kind of nightmarish hell …

“Oh.”

The realization dawned on me, punctuated by a crooked smile. “I’m dreaming. This whole thing—it’s an Omega-wave dream. I’m still asleep … frozen inside the pod where those bastards left me.” I touched my feet, wincing in pain. “Goddamn, this feels so real.”

I unzipped a window panel, the scene incredible.

Giant bats were nose-diving like gulls into the sea, emerging thirty seconds later clutching bizarre eight-foot-long gilled porpoises in their talons. Each fish possessed an array of twelve-inch needle-sharp spikes set along its dorsal spines like porcupine quills.

So incredible were the sights and sounds and smells that, for a moment, I actually contemplated remaining in the dream just to see what might happen next.

To hell with that. I was shivering from the cold and my feet were in excruciating pain, not to mention the monstrous swells, which were making me nauseous. And besides, this wasn’t exactly the sexual fantasy Jason Sloan promised.

“Time to wake up, Ike. Vanilla—”

The sea dropped beneath me, forcing me to grab on to the inside of the blood-drenched raft.

“Vanilla sway! Vanilla sway! Vanilla sway!”

Nothing happened.

“What the hell? I’m vanilla swaying, Jason! Wake me the fuck up!”

A dark shadow crashed against the top of the tent, a pair of sharp lead-gray talons puncturing the vinyl. Before I could react, the tent was shredded from the raft and the massive bats were fighting greedily a hundred feet above the roiling sea to claim their share of the feast.