Chapter 102: Chapter 100: Spectating Life and Death
"Miss Jiang is unwilling to let us on board," Dr. Shire said. "This is our only option. Otherwise, we’ll be stuck here forever."
These giant-toothed sharks were so ferocious. If they stayed here, they’d have them for company, and a single misstep could mean getting hit by a blizzard.
This was a prospect they could not accept.
Jack’s wife, her eyes red, asked Dr. Shire, "Dr. Shire, can’t we just beg them one more time? God will bless them."
Dr. Shire shook his head. "There are so many of us. Taking us onto the Icebreaker would consume a great deal of their supplies. Why would they be willing? The fact that they’ve already promised to take us with them is an incredible act of kindness."
"If we can’t get the yacht upright before tomorrow, they’ll abandon us. We’ll never see our families again."
"Even if this freakishly cold weather disappears, this cruise ship will never start again."
Dr. Shire’s words plunged everyone into despair.
Jack, who had little resilience, went berserk, screaming at the Icebreaker, "Why?! Why?! How can you be so heartless! You’re devils! This is hell!"
Terrified that Jack would completely antagonize them, Dr. Shire quickly signaled his students with a look, and they clamped a hand over Jack’s mouth.
Jack was thrown to one side. Dr. Shire looked at the others again. "Folks, it’s up to you. Do we wait here to die, or do we take a risk and fight for it?"
Their group was down to forty-eight people—ten women and over a dozen wounded. No one wanted to go down onto the ice. Someone quickly said, "But... but those sharks are terrifying! If we go down there, they’ll definitely show up again."
Dr. Shire looked toward the second deck of the cruise ship and said, "I have an idea. We can use food. Throw it from the cruise ship into the sea to lure them away. It might give us a fighting chance."
The cruise ship’s cold storage held a lot of meat—more than enough to temporarily distract the sharks.
Everyone agreed it was a decent suggestion, but even if they used food to lure the sharks away, there was no guarantee an accident wouldn’t happen.
No one wanted to go. The sight of the dark red bloodstains on the ice, a reminder of the terrifying scene from moments before, made their legs tremble uncontrollably.
They all looked at each other, but no one stepped forward.
Jack’s wife was desperate; her children were waiting for her. She stepped forward. "If we use ropes to secure the boat, it will only take ten people to pull the yacht back upright. Let’s draw lots to decide."
Drawing a lot could mean death, so many still hesitated. One man, who had no wife or children, was even more direct. "I’m staying on the cruise ship. Whatever you’re doing has nothing to do with me." With that, he turned and went back inside the ship.
Seeing him decide to stay, several other men quickly made the same choice.
To increase the incentive for going onto the ice to pull the yacht, Dr. Shire thought for a moment before saying, "Those who come back alive will get to take an extra share of supplies."
Everyone hesitated for a moment, but in the end, they agreed to the lottery.
They each had families. They had to get back.
Before the lottery began, Mike, the only doctor left on board, raised his hand. "I’m a doctor, I can’t go. If someone gets injured or sick, you won’t have anyone to treat you."
A doctor was indeed crucial, so everyone nodded. Besides him and the wounded, everyone else participated in the lottery.
Jack, having been beaten soundly by the others, had a broken hand and thus escaped the draw.
His wife, however, wasn’t so lucky. The red mark on the slip of paper was like a splash of blood, making her own run cold.
Tears in her eyes, she walked over to Jack. "If I die, you have to take care of the children. Protect them."
Jack hugged her, shaking his head. "No. We’re not going. We’ll stay on the cruise ship."
Jack’s wife pushed him away. "Our children need us more."
Dr. Shire sighed deeply. He immediately directed everyone to hurry, telling them to first move the meat from the cruise ship’s storeroom to the deck. Then, they had to figure out how to cut it into suitable sizes and find a proper catapult to launch it.
But when they got to the cruise ship’s storeroom, they found the main door had been locked by Mike and his people.
On a cruise ship this big, finding them wouldn’t be easy.
Time was short. They tried to smash the storeroom door open, but it wouldn’t budge.
Everyone grew frantic. Dr. Shire could only grit his teeth and say, "Go get the meat from the yacht."
Someone immediately protested, "Doctor, what will we do later!"
There were so many sharks; they’d need a huge amount of meat to keep the sharks’ attention diverted for any length of time.
If the yacht had no meat left, and we did manage to survive this, how would we regain our strength?
Dr. Shire looked at them, his gaze firm. "Have you forgotten? We’ve survived in Antarctica before by fishing."
In Antarctica, they had also faced all sorts of dangers—some even more perilous than their current situation, with no path for retreat. But they had all survived through sheer willpower.
Dr. Shire’s words dispelled the group’s panic about the apocalyptic changes. They nodded emphatically, some of their fighting spirit returning. "Alright."
They moved the meat from the yacht to the deck of the cruise ship. A gust of wind carried the scent of meat to the sharks’ sensitive noses.
Before they had even gone down to the ice, a school of giant-toothed sharks had already gathered beneath the cruise ship.
They were abnormally large and their bodies were rock-hard. They could smash through two-meter-thick ice as if it were nothing. With their sharp, giant teeth, chewing the humans to bits would be easier than eating a watermelon.
At that moment, everyone wanted to back out again. Dr. Shire forced himself to remain calm and said, "It’s a good thing they’ve come. Everyone, let’s see if we can lure them away."
Trembling, they lifted pieces of beef bone weighing more than ten pounds and tossed them onto the ice.
The moment they heard the impact, the giant-toothed sharks swarmed like competing tilapia. With lightning speed, they burst through the ice and snatched the beef bones in a single bite.
Seeing that the giant-toothed sharks could be baited, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Dr. Shire ordered, "Feed them a bit more now. The rest of you, get down onto the ice immediately and prepare to pull the boat."
Jack’s wife carefully climbed down the ladder. On the deck of the Icebreaker, Jiang Si and the others watched, their palms sweating with tension for her.
Jiang Linhai frowned. "She should be alright, right?"
Jiang Si shook her head. "It depends on whether these giant-toothed sharks are easy to fool."
Jack’s wife was the second one down on the ice. She had to keep moving further out to find a foothold, coordinating with the crew in the cockpit to pull the yacht.
But the giant-toothed sharks had already cracked the ice. She had to watch her step while being terrified of a shark suddenly bursting through.
The man in front of her was shaking so badly he could barely stand.
Watching his terrified wife, Jack’s tears streamed down his face. He clenched his fists, wishing he could tear Jiang Si and her group—the ones he blamed for all this—to pieces.
But even a plentiful supply of beef bones was far from enough to satisfy the appetites of the giant-toothed sharks.
Soon, a clever giant-toothed shark realized that compared to these beef bones that barely filled the gaps between its teeth, the food on the side of the cruise ship looked far more delicious.
