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31.
The dark shapes below him in the sea at first glance resembled a pile of buoys.
Swimming down, he saw they were on the ocean floor below, and far too big to be buoys. Whatever they were, there were a half dozen or more and they were approximately the same size, 90 feet long by 20 feet wide, give or take, and roughly bullet shaped.
He came up for air, and then dove down again, about six feet. Yes, there was a jumble of huge cylindrical shapes down there. Could they be evidence of something manmade? Or were they just another cruel illusion, a hoax of nature played on his wishfully thinking mind?
He couldn’t get near them—their tips loomed up out of the shadows at least two fathoms down. They were heavily embossed with all sorts of sea life, and glowed uniformly dark blue-green in the sunlight that penetrated so far and no farther. Perhaps they were just giant rock formations.
As he dove down repeatedly, he noticed a shadow racing past him. The shadow flitted by so fast it was just a flicker. Alex stopped in the water, backpedaling with his hands and feet.
Now he spotted several sharks among the cylinder shapes. The sharks glided in wide circles, cruising, and he could see their dark eyes panning for targets.
Time to move on, thank you.
If even one of them took an interest in him now, he’d be finished. To speed his way, he dropped his knife and his belt, so that he was stark naked.
His heart beat rapidly, and he could feel a cold sweat breaking out on his torso even in the water. He thrust one arm forward, lay on his side, and crawled rapidly away on the surface in a smooth scissoring swim that he hoped would earn him as little attention as possible.
The band of sand looked far away as he kept crawling toward it.
Once or twice he looked back, noticing the sharks swimming in agitated figure eights around the colony of upright cylinder rocks.
Looking forward, he saw that the land was still agonizingly far away.
He kicked and stroked until he was exhausted, but in time he felt warm sand in shallow water gently melting under the touch of his hand, and he staggered ashore with a cry of relief.
He was safe from the sharks, but was unarmed and defenseless on land as well, and he quickly scanned about for signs of the rippers.
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