In the chaos, Owen managed to grab hold of something hard, halting his fall. He quickly realized it was the metal ladder inside the shaft—an iron rung ladder fixed vertically to the shaft wall, running from the bottom to the top.
Seawater continued to surge upward. Suddenly, a deep boom echoed within the shaft—something had gone wrong. The water level at the base began rising even faster.
Jason had been washed in by the flood and hit the lowest point. By the time he grabbed the ladder, the water had already risen over his feet. A great white shark darted toward him—he leapt just in time, narrowly dodging the snapping jaws.
The water kept rising. Jason climbed frantically upward.
Above, a falling Susie screamed as Owen grabbed her with one hand. The ladder shuddered. Avril landed right beside Owen.
Seeing Owen holding the ladder with one hand and Susie with the other, Avril's eyes flashed coldly. Suddenly, she threw her arm around Owen's neck in a chokehold.
Owen struggled. He anchored himself with his legs and tried to free himself with his remaining hand. But with only one arm, there was no escaping Avril's grip. To save himself, he'd have to let Susie go. Otherwise, he'd die.
Luckily, Susie flailed but finally managed to grab the ladder. With both hands free, Owen fought back, elbowing, punching, grabbing hair, even biting. Every desperate move he could think of, he used. But Avril had clearly decided to kill him. No matter how hard he hit, she didn't let go.
Owen's breathing grew labored. He'd suffocate at this rate.
Thump, thump, thump…
One hand holding the ladder, the other grappling with Avril, Owen began kicking the wall furiously. After a few hits, the ladder began to loosen.
Avril hesitated—just for a split second. Owen felt it and kicked even harder. If she was determined to kill him, he was ready to break the ladder and take them both down.
But Avril was as ruthless as they came. Her moment of hesitation vanished, and she choked tighter. Owen kicked harder and harder. Finally, a sickening metallic creak rang out—the ladder's rivets ripped from the wall, and the entire ladder collapsed inward, wedging itself between the shaft walls like a fishbone lodged in a throat.
"AHHHHH!"
Amid the shouts, everyone's descent was suddenly arrested. Owen clung to the ladder. Avril dangled from Owen's belt, and Susie clung to Avril's body. The three of them formed a human chain. Only Jason was separate, still climbing furiously from below.
"Help me… help me… I don't want to die…"
Susie kicked and screamed in fear, her body swaying like a twig in the wind.
"Grab on, I'm coming…"
Jason shouted as he climbed to her level, reaching out just as a massive shark's head burst from the water. With jaws wide open, it bit Susie cleanly in half.
The shark dropped back into the water with its prey. The surface turned crimson. Below Avril, Susie's upper body still dangled, eyes wide in panic—but lifeless.
Moments later, half a corpse fell, splashing into the water and once again dyeing the shaft blood red.
"Fuck!"
Even Jason, hardened by years of death and violence, cursed at the sight.
Avril was finally afraid. She clawed at Owen's clothes, trying to climb up. But Owen kept shaking her off, trying to dislodge her.
"Let go!"
Jason climbed higher to put more distance between himself and the rising water. The shark's leap had truly startled him. He joined Owen in trying to remove Avril. But Avril knew that letting go meant death. No matter how she was hit or pried, she refused to release her grip.
The water kept rising. Susie's remains were gone. The shark circled the narrow shaft below them, awaiting its next meal. If Avril had looked closely, she would have recognized it as the second-generation great white she'd once shot—the bullet wound on its dorsal fin still visible.
Owen kept fighting to shake her off, kneeing her in the face. Avril slid down, but still clung to his pant leg, determined to drag him down with her if she died.
The shark sensed movement, tilted its head, and clamped down on Avril's legs.
Her eyes widened in shock. Then came the despair.
Still, she clung to Owen. The shark refused to release her legs. Man and woman tugged against the predator in a gruesome game of underwater tug-of-war.
Jason stared, stunned. Then he saw it—Avril's expression changed. She knew she was doomed. But if she was going to die, no one else was leaving alive.
With trembling fingers, Avril pulled a grenade from her waist. She bit the pin with everything she had, a crazed smile spreading across her bloodied face. Owen panicked. This lunatic was trying to kill them both.
He thrashed violently, hitting her again and again. Even as blood streamed from her face, she kept smiling.
Suddenly, her expression froze. She looked at Jason.
Jason had grabbed her hand and broken her fingers.
She could no longer hold on. Avril plummeted.
The shark was still attached. A second later—BOOM.
Blood exploded in every direction. The grenade had detonated. But more than that—it triggered something deeper. Another muffled boom rang through the shaft. Cracks spidered across the walls. The water below bubbled violently like boiling soup. Then, a tremendous force surged upward. Owen felt himself rocket upward, propelled by compressed air and seawater like a cannon shell.
He was rising. They had breached the underwater base. The water darkened, but the light above grew stronger.
Whoosh—Owen burst from the surface. Blinded by the sun, he couldn't open his eyes. But that sunlight felt like heaven.
Beside him, Jason also surfaced with a splash. They had made it. The shaft had depressurized, and the ocean had blasted them to the surface. Their luck was nothing short of miraculous.
Around them, the sea was calm. The storm had passed. The ocean base, however, was in ruins. The fuel depot and control tower had collapsed. Everywhere else was wrecked beyond recognition.
The two men pulled themselves onto a metal platform and lay there, exhausted. After all that death and destruction, only the two of them remained.
In the distance, a seaplane miraculously still sat at the docking station, untouched by the storm.
A while later, the seaplane's engine roared to life—a sound that to them was the sweetest music in the world.
In the sky, Owen flew the seaplane toward the coast, the sun blazing before him. Jason sat silently in the copilot seat, staring blankly at the water below.
The coastline came into view.
Owen glanced at Jason. "We're almost back in the U.S. The Coast Guard is waiting for us. It's time for you to disappear…"
Jason turned to him. Owen added, "Also… thanks for saving my life."
"Don't forget—you saved mine too."
Jason smiled faintly, then opened the side hatch and jumped into the sea.
Owen looked at the now-empty seat and smiled knowingly. Then he closed the hatch and grabbed the radio mic.
"Coast Guard, this is a survivor from the ocean base. I will be landing at the shoreline in five minutes. Please prepare for recovery…"
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