“Passengers!”

Rob turned his attention to the stern of the boat. Captain Harris stood before them, visible as only a silhouette but no less of a commanding figure for it. His booming voice echoed through the eerie silence that had overtaken the Wily Avarice.

“Listen very carefully!”

“Escúchame!”

“écoutez-moi!”

Various crewman repeated the phrase in several languages. Harris continued:

“We’re nearing the end of our time together. It’s very tragic, I know.”

There was a stuttering of nervous laughter from all of the English-speaking refugees. The crewmen standing next to the captain simply refused to translate.

“But this is the most perilous wing of this whole trip.”

Rob mused that the Captain had the uncanny ability to go from joking to serious in half a heartbeat. As the translators finished speaking, a tangible tenseness set in on deck. A man not far from Rob held his wife and children close, murmuring in Latvian. Rob felt an all-too-familiar sharp pang in his chest from the sight.

“In groups of 20, we will be ferrying you across the Glass Sea to the Untouched Coast. Once we land, and everyone is accounted for, we will be leaving you behind.”

A gust of icy wind swept across the deck, and the refugees huddled together closer for warmth. Rob could hear Denise’ teeth chattering as she leaned against him.

“We’re just outside their legal border. Technically, we’re safe… until we start to move across. But this is extremely important. You must not make a sound. You must not produce any light.

Parents, keep your children quiet. Or they will find us.” Rob felt himself inhale sharply.

 “…and they won’t leave anyone alive.”

The words and their translations sent a ripple of panic through the refugees. Denise whimpered and Rob put his arm around her shoulder, for his own sake as much as hers.

“You can’t leave us like this!” A large bearded man with a little girl clutching to his arm stood up. “We… we can’t do this!” Though not everyone understood him, none could mistake the note of fear in his voice.

“Captain Harris, please!”

“There are children with us!”

“I’M SPOOKED!” shouted Flo
 (This part won’t make it to the final draft)

“Settle down!” Harris’ voice boomed over everywhere else’s, and an ominous, fragile quiet broke over the boat. In a calm, even voice, he spoke:
“I don’t know why you’re come here. I don’t know what has driven you to this.” A hint of pity seemed to infuse itself into his words. “But we’ve come this far, and I don’t intend to let any of you die. Not when we’re this close.”

Rob hadn’t eaten in at least 12 hours, and the ice wind cut right through his worn out downy coat. But he felt a peculiar warmth in the Captain’s words, a sense that there was another human being who genuinely cared about him. Judging from the reaction his speech was having from his fellow passengers, he knew the feeling wasn’t his alone.

“The Untouched Shore is only a mile away.” Rob felt sure that Harris was smiling as he spoke. “One last effort is all I ask, from any of you.”

Whether it was adrenaline, a newfound confidence, grim determination, or a mix of all three, the assembled refugees of the Wily Avarice stood up together, nodding respectfully. The next half hour was spent in a rush of activity, as crewmen carefully directed families and individuals to their respective boats. Rob did what he could, helping pulley boats down into the water and handing down long oars to the crewmen waiting to push off for the shore.

“Alright, Mr. Hunt, steady as she goes.” Harris called down, as the second to last boat on deck departed. “Slow, strong strokes.”

The young crewman below them nodded back, slowly paddling away until his boat and its passengers were lost into the inky blackness of night. Harris turned to Rob, nodding in approval.

“Thank you.” He said, holding out a hand. “This is always the hardest part, especially when we’re undermanned.”

Rob shook his hand, nodding. His mind was already occupied with the thought of what lay ahead.

“Alright, who’s left?” The captain strode around, gathering together the last remaining individuals. “This way ma’am… that’s it. I’ll be rowing this one…”

 Rob felt a tapping on his shoulder and turned, surprised.

“Denise? You’re still here?”

“Well…” Rob could just make out a white toothed smile shine at him through the dark. “I figured my chances were better if I had a strong young man helping me. My joints, you know?”

A dry chuckle escaped him. “I see. Well. This way, Miss Fitzpatrick.” He said, holding out an arm for her to take.

Denise laughed. “And well-mannered too! Oh, if I were 60 years younger!”

Across the deck, Harris and his remaining crew carefully pulled the last boat down from its rigging, and Denise’ joking grin disappeared.

“Do you really think we’ll make it, Robert?” She paused. “Will it really be all that people say it is?”

Rob had no answer for her.













Chapter 2

They’d been advised to stay quiet, but Rob felt as though his heart would give them away at any moment. Captain Harris sat at the bow of the tiny rowing skiff, making calm, even strokes with both oars. Beside him, Denise had crossed her arms and maintained a stoic silence. Nearby, Rob could only just make out his fellow boats by the soft sound of displaced water. The Glass Sea was as mirror still as ever, but in the dark Rob tried not to think of the ocean’s more frightening creatures that he knew lay just out of sight.

This is insane he thought, for perhaps the hundredth time since they’d pushed off 15 minutes ago. We’re never going to make it.

The silence was maddening. Because they were the last boat to set off, only seven or so other refugees remained seated in the skiff with him, whereas the other boats had too. Rob could just barely make out a few features. The woman across from him was tall with darker hair, and looked to be biting her lip to keep herself from speaking. A man crouched at the opposite end of the boat with a teenage boy and a younger girl who both clung to him grimly. To Rob’s left, a young couple huddled together, inseparable. The seventh passenger was too far away for Rob to make out, but she sat poised at the edge of her seat, as though expecting to have to jump into action at any moment. Rob couldn’t blame her.
Minutes past. Perhaps hours, it was impossible to tell. Rob sat against the uncomfortable wooden bench in a pained trance, staring dead ahead at nothing, conscious only of the gentle sway of the oars as they drew closer and closer to the Untouched Coast. Would they ever arrive? How much longer would it take? He wished, desperately, that he had asked before they’d left.

Madeline danced on the Glass Sea, humming along to the song playing through her headphones, sporting nothing but a t-shirt and gym shorts.

“Madeline…” he reached out for her. “Stop…”

She turned and smiled at him, noticing him for the first time. It was her. The same mischievous glint in her eye, the same cute curls of hair that stubbornly hung over her forehead no matter how much she combed it.

“Maddie…” Rob stood up, the boat wobbled alarmingly, and he almost lost his balance…

She beckoned to him. She was so close. But she wasn’t looking where she was going, she couldn’t hear what was coming from behind- headlights coming closer by the second, bearing down on her, and her smile never changed until the last-

“Mmmph!” Rob’s shout was muffled by the icy hold hand cupped over his mouth.

The woman in front of him had face in a vice grip, and despite the darkness, Rob could see the look of incredulous fury in her eyes. She held a finger over her own mouth and let go of him, leaving behind stinging scratches where her fingernails had been. Rob shook, from fear or cold, he couldn’t tell. He’d almost gotten them killed, all because of…

Suddenly, light.

Captain Harris froze.  Rob’s boat-mates looked up in mute horror as, in a stream of red glowing sparks, a flare soared upward through the sky with a shriek that shattered the night air, before bursting into a multicolored firework. The lady across from him, who Rob could now clearly see was a young Slavic woman with auburn hair, whispered audibly.

“Bozhe, khrani nas…”

Not far away, a woman on one of the more crowded boats screamed, staring down into the Glass Sea. Rob gazed down into the depths and his heart nearly stopped. The ocean had cleared of all life. Not a fish, whale, or any creature of any kind remained, save for one.
 The shadow that he’d seen lurking along the ocean floor was rising fast. Very fast.

“ROW!” Harris bellowed. “Make for the coast!”

But his words were lost upon the wind. Panicked cries had overtaken the entire flotilla of refugees. Rob stood up, desperately searching for anything that could be used as a makeshift weapon, though he doubted it would make a difference against whatever was coming for them. The two children screamed while their father had gone white as a sheet, while the couple and Denise merely stayed where they sat, seemingly resigned to their fate. Rob heard a loud splash and looked to his right, to find that the seventh passenger had apparently lost her mind and jumped ship, swimming madly for the barely visible shore in the distance. The Slavic woman turned to Rob, enraged

“Debil! Ty ubil vsekh nas!”

“WH-what?”

She never had the chance to answer. With a terrifying splinter that turned into a cacophony of screams, the boat nearest to them simply smashed into dozens of pieces as the creature emerged from the Glass Sea, tearing the unfortunate skiff apart with an unnatural, monstrous strength. Blood, limbs, and splintered wood were tossed into the sea haphazardly. What Rob saw simply defied him. There was no word in any language that could describe the beast other than abomination. A glittering black carapace surrounded the leviathan, which breached the sea line and stretched high above it like a cobra preparing to strike at its prey. Massive black tentacles (I know you guys are going to make a tentacle joke so just DO IT! –Shia Lebouf) emerged from the water surrounding it, and before Rob could even react, the beast turned its triangular head towards them.

Its eyes were unyielding glass, radiating an orange glow. But it was no natural glow.

“Lights…” Rob whispered. “It’s a machine…”