Chapter 61. "Stars"
"Fuck! This guy is so noob. He can't even aim his disables. I died again!" the teenage boy complained and tossed his smartphone onto the couch in frustration.
The girl beside him had her eyes glued to the television as she pursed her lips together and scoffed, "You are the noob one, aren't you?"
Just then, the scene of an agitated king kong thumping its chest appeared on the television screen. The boy glanced at the screen and jibed, "Look, you are on TV again."
Enraged, the girl picked up a cushion by the side and aimed it at the boy. "Gao Zhiming! Take this!"
In an instant, their playful banter escalated into a cushion fight.
"Enough, both of you. Come and have dinner," a woman's voice called out from the living room and effectively put a forced truce between the two siblings.
At the dining table, the woman wearing an apron addressed her son, "You're not a kid anymore, can't you be nicer to your younger sister?"
"Why should I? She was stronger than me when we were younger, but she never went easy on me then."
Digging into her food, a grimace appeared on the girl's face, and she lifted her right foot to kick the boy under the table. The boy immediately retaliated with a kick.
Seeing the fight going on under the table, the woman shook her head and gave up on being the mediator. Her two children had been like this since they were young, and she had already grown accustomed to it anyway.
After eating a few more mouthfuls of rice, the woman spoke to her son again, "Why do you insist on taking a ship instead of a train to go out with your friends this time? Traveling by water is so much more dangerous."
"Mom, what era do you think we are in now? What's so dangerous about ships? Moreover, the ship belongs to Li De's father. It will be fine." Gao Zhiming reassured his mother as he continued stuffing food into his mouth with his chopsticks. Meanwhile, the foot-fight with his sister under the table was still ongoing.
"Didn't a ship sink a few years ago in Korea? You should take a bullet train instead."
"We've already bought the tickets. Don't worry! Nothing will go wrong," Gao Zhiming confidently reassured his mother once more.
Just then, he felt a chill on his ankle. Looking down, a layer of inky black water had flooded the floor and was rapidly rising.
By the time Gao Zhiming jolted out of his panic and wanted to stand up, the water had already reached his head, drowning him. A thought suddenly flashed across his mind—his sister couldn't swim.
As Gao Zhiming struggled against the water, he tried to reach out his hands to his family members. A look of pain was etched onto his sister's face. Something seemed to be pulling her away as the distance between them increased, and she drifted further and further away. He turned around to seek his mother to realize that she was already nowhere to be seen.
Gao Zhiming frantically searched for them in the waters, but he couldn't find even a strand of hair. As the air in his lungs depleted, a choking sensation hit him. Just before he closed his eyes, he saw a grotesque mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth swallow him whole.
"Whew!" Charles jolted out of his sleep, his eyes widened in terror. Hearing the sound of the waves crashing against the hull and feeling the rocking of the ship, he realized it was all but a dream.
"Bro, a nightmare? What did you see? Do share for my amusement."
Ignoring the taunting of his alter ego, Charles raised his head and scanned his surroundings. He realized he was not in his captain's quarters but rather lying on the deck in only beach pants. He held a transparent wine glass in one hand and wore a pair of sunglasses. He was dressed as though he was headed for a beach vacation.
"Why am I sleeping here?" Charles muttered to himself.
"It's my time now. I'm enjoying my suntanning session."
Speechless, Charles looked up at the dark expanse above him.
"Are you crazy? Suntanning in this darkness?"
"You don't understand. Embrace the beach with your heart, and anywhere could be Maldives. It's not about the place but the state of mind."
"How's the journey so far?" Charles seized control of his body and stood up.
"Same old. Not a trace of that island on the nautical map. I worked, alright? I checked our supplies before my suntanning session. If we still can't find the island in ten days, we'll have to turn back."
Charles placed his hands on the ship's railing and leaned outward, staring into the inky black sea. He was confident about the map's markings. However, he had been in a perilous situation when he chanced upon the map. Regurgitating the information from his memory in his half-dead state wasn't easy either. He couldn't say with certainty that there was no error throughout the process.
"Lighten up, bro! If we can't find it this round, there's alway the next. It's so tiring being you. Do you need a cheer-up pill? Why don’t I tell you a joke?
Charles ignored the voice and turned back. Lifting the glass in his hand, he intended to down its contents. However, just as soon as he tilted his head back, his peripheral vision caught sight of several distant dots of white light flickering in the sky.
"Stars? Are there stars underground? Or are we back on the surface?"
A couple of seconds laters, the stars started twinkling more rapidly. Almost immediately after, they abruptly extinguished and blended back into the pitch black darkness. Even with his enhanced night vision, Charles couldn't spot them.
Thud!
Suddenly, a small pebble landed on his face out of nowhere.
Charles' eyes narrowed into slits. He seemed to have noticed something as his face paled and he roared at Conor, who was behind the glass in the ship's pilot house, "Second Mate! Full starboard! Full throttle!"
As the ship turned sharply, the stones were already showering down over them like a heavy hail storm.
A clap of thunder sounded and under Charles' horrified gaze, a stalactite as huge as a mountain peak descended and crashed violently onto the spot where their ship had been just a moment ago.
Accompanied by a roaring crash, the stalactite's colossal impact against the water ignited a cascade of violent waves. They crashed toward the Narwhale like a tsunami, rocking the vessel wildly from side to side.
On the deck, Charles had hastily secured himself with ropes and didn't get swept away by the turbulent waves.
"What the hell! Since when are stars so bad tempered? We just took a few glances and they're raining down on us?" Richard made a couple of snarky comments.
Spitting out the bitter seawater, Charles replied, "They're not stars. Whatever they are, they are alive. They saw us and sent the rock showers."
"Fuck! There are things living up there? How the hell do they stick up there and not fall? Are they geckos?"
"That's not our concern now. Look! The stars are shining again!"
Overhead, the blurry white dots lighted up once more but swiftly dimmed into oblivion within a few seconds. Another mountain-sized stalactite hammered down, forcing the Narwhale to make a hasty retreat.
Another colossal wave crashed into them and Richard shouted, "This won't do! Those things are hot on our heels!"
As the stars illuminated the dark expanse once more, Charles quickly pondered over the situation and instructed to switch off the searchlights.
Plunged into darkness, Charles was left with nothing but the sound of his frantic breathing filling his ears. When he realized that the rain of stones was no longer showering down upon them, he let out a long, drawn-out breath of relief.
No matter what it was up there, it relied on the Narwhale's lights to locate them. As long as they turned off the lights, that thing—or those things—wouldn't be able to locate the ship.
In the dark, Charles communicated with his crew.
"Second Mate, don't stop. Keep moving ahead. We're not out of danger yet."
"But Captain, I can't see anything."
"I can. I'll navigate for you."
Shrouded in impenetrable darkness, the Narwhale continued ahead. Charles stood on the deck with the nautical chart in his hands. With a tense expression on his face, he tried to discern their direction and ensure they stayed on course.
Half an hour later, just as Charles lifted his head again to survey the sea before him, an excited cry from Richard filled his ear.
"An island! It's an island! We've found it!"
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