The Survivor Ch4 Pt 3

It really shouldn’t have surprised him that it wasn’t there, after all it was probably lost on the way down, but the gunman’s hand was still shaped like he was holding it, with the fingers curled around the grip and the forefinger threaded into the imaginary trigger guard. Peter pulled the night stick out and swept the floor with the flashlight sending shimmering waves of light up into his surroundings. Faintly illuminating a shadowy figure further along the walkway.

Peter turned and rested the beam on the man just long enough to see the mad grin under squinting bloodshot eyes, the bullet hole in the left shoulder, the shattered right leg, and the gun pointed at him. Peter chucked the nightstick with all his strength, the tip catching the man just under his left eye, throwing him off balance, and sending the shot wild, into the shark tank.

Peter dodged to one side as the man leaned back against the railing and started firing off more wild shots, trying to find his target again. He got off four shots before the hammer slammed down on nothing. Peter heard a cracking and looked over his shoulder to see three of the five shots in the same pane of glass. And just like before the inner pane shattered sending the water slamming into the outer pane, which shattered quicker than the one for the reef tank had.

Peter dove for the floor as the water came gushing out at him and the other man kept pointedly clicking the hammer on the empty firearm. The water came crashing down on Peter propelling him along the floor and under the railing, into the wall and down twenty feet to splash in the now rising water.

Peter thrashed to get above the water and get his injured arm out of the burning salt water. It took him a second to realize that there was now blood in the water. His blood. He started slogging as fast as he could through the water to the exit at the end of the narrow tunnel connecting the spiral viewing chamber with the underwater viewing area. He didn’t know how many of the sharks survived the fall and impacts on the way down, but he didn’t want to be bleed in the water with anything potentially man eating.

He made it into the viewing area and saw several bleeding bodies in the water with him. He turned for the exit, and ducked just in time to miss the fire axe singing through the air where his head had been only a fraction of a second before. He stumbled to the left and almost tripped over a dead body in the water.

The axe bounced off of the concrete leaving a dead gouge in the wall and sending up a plume of dust from the impact. Peter slogged through the water to the wall of viewing glass hoping to get around the axe murderer when he took another swing. The water rose up to Peter’s waist as he squared off with the man, finally getting a good look at him.

He was massive, an absolute bruiser, with more muscle than Peter knew what to do with. Peter thought to himself where did this guy come from, what was he doing in the aquarium? Peter backed up until his butt was against the low wall at the bottom of the aquarium glass.

The man turned and faced Peter with an almost humorous look on his face; one eyebrow raised mouth set to an incredulous grimace, as if to ask Peter why he moved. It would have been funny in other circumstances. Here it was not. The man rolled his neck and shoulders causing a loud popping sound to emanate from his spine.

Peter had time to wish that that popping was the man’s spine breaking, and then he was moving, sprinting through the water at Peter at a ridiculous speed. The man threw water to either side of himself in micro tsunamis leaving a deep depression in the water in his wake, all the while the axe was over his shoulders, behind his back threatening to split Peter down the middle given half a chance.

Peter didn’t have time to move like he had planned so he just dove into the water to his left. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the axe fill the space his head had been a mere quarter second before. And then he was under water.

Peter fought to the surface, sure that when he emerged from the water his head would be meeting the axe blade, and shot his hands up to clear his eyes of the salt water. He spluttered for air squirting water out of his mouth as he found his feet and rose from the water.

When he cleared the salt water from his eyes he saw the axe man just a few feet from him, struggling to free his blade from the glass. Peter felt his stomach sink not again and spun as fast as the water would allow, breaking for the door at speeds he didn’t know he could reach in over waist deep water. At least the water had stopped rising, for now.