Chapter 46 - Reid
Julian stays close beside me as we start swimming again.
I have no idea what that tornado of water was but I’m grateful for it.
Jules would have drowned if it hadn't shown up and pulled the water back.
I glance over at him with every third stroke of our arms. The questions bouncing around in my mind will have to wait. Right now, we just have to keep moving.
A splash to my left has my head turning that way in time to see one of the floating bodies being pulled under. Panic and terror creep into me at the thought of what could have pulled that body under the water.
“Jules, we need to get out of the water,” I tell him in a quiet voice, worried about drawing attention to us, but he keeps swimming. “Julian!” I yell this time to get his attention. “We need to get out of the water! There’s something under us pulling down bodies.”
He stops to tread water and slowly turns in a circle, looking for threats and a direction to go.
He jabs a finger toward an office tower with smashed-out windows and we start swimming toward it.
We're almost there when a pressure wave in the water moves me to the side and something large brushes past. My heart skips a beat and then begins to race as my breathing becomes frantic. The word ‘shark’ is on repeat in my terror-soaked brain as I stumble over the metal windowsill into an office of some kind and go under the water that’s half flooded it.
Jules hauls me back up and screams, “Get up on one of those desks!”
I wade through the water, going right while Julian goes left, and kick things out of my way under the water that threaten to trip me up until I crash into a desk and haul myself up onto it.
Julian has climbed onto his own desk and as soon as I see he’s safe, my eyes drop to the water to try and see if anything has followed us in.
It's hard to see around the partially submerged, debris-strewn room; water laps at the edges of desks with scattered papers floating everywhere.
Julian steadies himself on top of his desk and calls out to me, “It’s OK, Reid. Everything is going to be alright!”
I know he’s just trying to reassure me but I’m feeling borderline hysterical when I yell back, “Pretty sure that’s a conspiracy theory at this point, Jules!”
My gaze lifts from the rippling water to look his way just as his head whips toward a splashing noise near the open window.
His eyes open so wide it would be comical if I wasn't so scared.
Then I see it. 'Shark!' My mind screams at me again when I see the dorsal fin and my body goes straight into flight mode. I kick over a computer monitor in my haste to get further away from what I saw entering the building. I jump to the next desk and then haul myself up on a metal filing cabinet so I’m completely clear of the water.
The sound of rushing water and creaking metal fills the room while Julian yanks a desk lamp into his hands and holds it over his head.
What on earth does he think he is going to do with that?
"What the hell is that?" Julian barks out, his tone shaky.
We both freeze in place, our eyes glued to the black dorsal fin that makes another pass by the window and then slides under the surface.
That fin, something about that fin. Suddenly, the fin disappears under the water and it clicks in my brain.
That fin was black and glossy, not gray – and the back edge wasn't curved!
"Jules! That isn't a shark, I think it’s a killer whale, an Orca!"
"Is that any fucking better?"
My mind races, trying to dredge up every tiny piece of knowledge I’ve ever heard about killer whales.
I don’t think the whales usually go after people – don't they like seals or something?
Fuck, I hope I don't look like a seal. I do know that this is a predator circling us right now and with all the other fucked up shit that’s been happening, I don't think I like our odds on this thing behaving normally.
Just then, I see the whale surface, its giant head pointing right toward us and I could swear it's looking at me. After what feels like the longest stare off of my life, it blows a mist of air out of its blowhole and bobs in place.
“Are you food?”
I jerk back and almost fall off the filing cabinet that I’m crouched on when those words ring out in my head, followed by a chirp and squeal. I didn't hear the words, they were just in my head. WHAT…THE…FUCK?
Before I can think about how absurd this is, I yell out, “NO! Not food!”
Julian is yelling my name but I can’t take my eyes off of the beast in front of me that I swear just talked to me in my head. The whale swishes its tail, and it's close enough now that it sends waves throughout the room.
“Want to play? Swim?”
I almost choke at those words sounding in my mind and thrash my head from side to side. Is this really happening right now? Is a fucking killer whale really talking to me? The only logical explanation here is that I’m still drunk and high from yesterday so I decide to just roll with it.
“No, we’re stuck. We need to get to land,” I tell it like this is an actual conversation here.
“Help? Pod help land walker?”
I scrub the water from my face and then shrug - because what else am I going to do?
“Sure! Can you help us get to land?”
Another blast of air gets blown out from its blowhole and chirps ring in my mind as it spins around and starts swimming away.
I crouch down even lower and wrap my shaking arms around my chilled body and then I start to laugh.
Not a funny laugh. More like a deranged laugh that has Jules yelling my name over and over again.
When I finally turn my head to look his way, he’s already jumped back into the water and is wading in my direction.
“Come on! It’s gone. We need to get deeper into the building before it decides to come back.”
I laugh again, causing Jules to move faster toward me. “Nah, we should stay here. My new whale friend is going to get his pod to come help us get back to land.”
He shoves the desk closest to my file cabinet further away and reaches for my arm with a look of wariness.
“Reid, what the hell are you talking about? Come on, we need to move.”
I let him pull me back down into the water as I try to explain. “Pretty sure I’m still wasted because that fucking whale just had a conversation with me in my mind.”
Julian pulls me through the water, deeper into the office without replying to that crazy statement. “Seriously, in my fucking head, Jules. It asked if we were food and then if we wanted to play. It said it was going to get its pod to help us. What the hell is happening right now, man?”
He sends a concerned look at me but keeps pulling me with him toward a bank of elevators. I assume he is looking for stairwell access.
“You’re fine, Reid. You’re just tired and cold and we’ve had some major shocks in the last few hours. We’ll be fine once we get out of the water.”
Julian’s grip doesn’t let go until we’re through the stairwell door and up a few steps.
I grab onto the handrail to steady myself and it feels like my legs are barely holding me up.
My heart’s trying to break through my ribs, but the fear doesn’t come with it.
Not the usual kind. This is different. I feel weirdly calm now, like everything buzzing in my frantic brain has gone quiet.
I look back through the door at the water still swirling between desk legs and filing cabinets, toward the window. The whale is gone, or hiding, or maybe never real at all. But I still feel the echo. That voice. That chirping question. "Are you food?"
My skin hums like I’m a tuning fork struck against something massive.
“Okay, we need to climb these stairs and go up to higher ground. No more flooded floors. You good?”
No. Not even close.
“I think it talked to me,” I say quietly.
He looks at me like I’ve cracked. “Reid…”
“In my head. Not words exactly. Kinda like feelings shaped like words. It asked if I was food. Then it wanted to play. Then said it was gonna get its pod to help us.”
Jules exhales hard, running both hands over his drenched face. “Fuck me sideways.”
“Right?”
I try to laugh, but it comes out like a cough and a whimper. I lean against the cold wall and slide down until I’m sitting in the water again. It laps against my ribs, trying to remind me this isn’t the time for existential breakdowns.
“Don’t sit in the fucking whale water,” Julian snaps, grabbing my arm again.
“Too late. I’m bonded for life now. Maybe it’ll bring me a fish for lunch.”
“Reid.”
“Jules.”
He stares at me, his eyes softening just a little. “You’re not losing it. If you are, then so am I.”
That helps more than it should. I nod and climb back to my feet, dripping and heavy and weirdly aware of everything.
The scrape of my soaked jeans. The flit of a bird outside the broken windows.
The soft buzz of something I can't name inside my head. This isn’t over.
Whatever it was that just happened - it opened something up in me and I don't know how to shut it.
Julian and I climb the cement stairs up to the next level.
My soaked clothes cling to me like a second skin, and I’m starting to shake, both from cold and what-the-fuck-is-my-life exhaustion.
We reach the next level and for the first time in what feels like hours, my feet squelch on dry tile.
We walk deeper into the floor of cubicles, closer to the windows where the lighting is better.
“Okay, start talking,” Julian says, panting. “What the hell was that down there?”