Chapter 129

#Day 40 — 22:09

The corridor was dark, narrow, silent. Victoria knelt at one end, her back against the door leading to the bridge. Maggie crouched beside her, rifle up, eyes fixed on the open door at the far end—the one that led to the outside platform near the main mast. Between them, Cecilia stood just inside the threshold, visible from the outside, her back to the open air.

Bait.

The plan was simple. Cecilia would stand where the creature could see her. When it came, she would run back toward Victoria and Maggie. They would fire. The creature would fall.

Simple.

Three hours had passed. The creature had not come.

Zhao sat on the floor of the bridge, his back against the bulkhead, his sidearm in his lap. Around him, the engineers huddled in small groups, their salvaged equipment stacked against the walls. Helene had set up the machine gun facing the door. Choi had her shotgun. Mellisa had her assault rifle.

Enough for a defensive position. But not enough to relax.

His radio crackled. Everyone jumped.

"Zhao." Vivienne's voice. Strained. "Situation report."

He pressed the transmit button. "Ambush set. Creature hasn't shown yet. We're holding."

Behind Vivienne, he could hear Aida and Mei-Lin—their voices low, worried.

"I'm glad to hear your voices," he said. "I miss you already."

A pause. Then Vivienne: "We're worried about you."

"Don't be. We have an ambush set. I'm confident."

"We're producing more of the specialized bullets. Sending them over soon."

Zhao nodded, then remembered she couldn't see him. "Acknowledged. Anything else?"

Aida's voice came through, closer now, as if she had taken the radio. "Come back soon. Stay safe."

"I will. I promise."

The radio fell silent.

Kim was beside him, her shoulder pressed against his. She put her arm around him, casual, warm.

"Must be nice," she said quietly, "having people to worry about you."

Zhao looked at her. "I worry about you too."

Their eyes met. For a moment, something passed between them—an almost-kiss, stopped by the crowd around them, by the tension in the air.

Kim smiled. "I know. I feel better already."

She settled against him, her head on his shoulder.

Across the bridge, Saanvi was still on the laptop, her fingers moving across the keyboard. Zhao stood, walked to her.

"Anything else?"

Saanvi shook her head. "Nothing of importance. Medical logs. Some findings about the virus—nothing we didn't already know." She paused. "But I found something interesting. The frigate made multiple trips south. Toward the tip of the continent. Back and forth."

Zhao's eyes narrowed. "Isn't that the area we're supposed to go after the hunt? The South Pacific route?"

Saanvi nodded slowly. "Yes."

"Can you send all the data about those trips back to the Oasis? Let Chen analyze it."

Saanvi reached for the portable communication terminal, connected the laptop. "Already doing it."

#Day 41 — 02:00

The hours passed. Zhao checked his watch. Two in the morning. Still nothing.

Is it hiding? Healing?

He looked around the bridge. Some of the engineers had slumped against the walls, asleep where they sat. The security team was struggling to stay awake—eyes blinking, heads nodding. Kim had fallen asleep on his shoulder, her breathing slow and even.

Zhao was exhausted. His eyes burned. His body ached. He wished for coffee, for an energy drink, for anything to keep him awake. But those things had been gone for weeks. He might never see them again.

He raised his radio. "Victoria. Status."

Her voice came back sharp, alert—military training holding off exhaustion. "Nothing yet. We might need to change the plan."

Before Zhao could answer, glass shattered.

A massive claw punched through the window—the cracked one, the one they hadn't replaced. The creature had noticed it. It had seen through their plan.

"Victoria! Back to the bridge! Now!"

Zhao drew his sidearm. Around him, the crew jolted awake, scrambling for their weapons. Helene opened fire with the machine gun, rounds tearing into the creature's arm. Choi fired her shotgun. Mellisa's assault rifle joined the chorus.

The creature squeezed through the window. Its body deformed—bones shifting, flesh compressing—to fit through the gap. One arm shielded its head from the gunfire, the grey skin puckering where bullets struck but not breaking.

Once inside, it crouched behind a metal panel, using it as a shield.

Zhao saw it clearly now. The elongated arms. The huge claws. The hind legs developed into talons—like a chimpanzee, built for climbing, for crawling. Its body was twice the size of a human, covered in smooth grey skin that was almost human. Almost.

Its back was worse. Holes riddled the flesh, and from each hole emerged thin, worm-like tentacles, writhing slowly. Parasites. Or new organs. Zhao didn't know. He didn't want to know.

The smell hit him—rotten flesh, thick and cloying.

The security team wore gas masks. Zhao and the engineers did not.

"Evacuate!" Zhao shouted. "Everyone out!"

He opened the door behind him, ushering the engineers through. They streamed into the hallway, carrying what salvaged equipment they could grab. Kim and Saanvi stayed, firing their sidearms to pin the creature.

It ripped a dashboard from its mount and threw it. Zhao pushed Kim aside, twisted his body. The metal caught his left arm—sharp pain, then blood. He kept firing.

The creature ripped another panel from the bridge, held it in front of itself, and advanced on Mellisa.

She fell back, firing. The creature grabbed her leg, yanked. She screamed, dragged across the floor like a rag doll.

Then the first shot came.

A loud bang. The creature's metal panel split open. The bullet exploded inside, shrapnel tearing into its body. It froze, recovering.

Zhao saw the wound. The edges were white. Not healing.

It worked.

Second shot. The creature's torso opened—a massive wound on its left chest. It staggered.

Third shot. The right shoulder shattered. The creature's arm went limp.

Mellisa scrambled away, crawling toward the door.

Fourth shot. The creature's head—part of its skull gone.

Fifth shot. The upper half of its head disappeared.

The creature still moved. Slower, blind, but still moving. It thrashed, blood spraying from its chest cavity. The others kept firing, emptying their magazines.

Zhao looked at his bleeding arm. At his blood dripping onto the floor.

The milk bullets worked. My blood is better.

He drew his knife. Rushed forward.

"Zhao! No!" Victoria shouted.

He ignored her. He dragged the blade through his own wound, coating it in his blood. Then he jumped.

The knife sank into the creature's chest. He stabbed again. And again. And again. Shouting—not words, just sound—as he drove the blade into its neck, its chest, anywhere he could reach.

Victoria grabbed him, pulled him back. The knife stayed in the creature's chest, still embedded.

Zhao stood there, breathing hard, his arm bleeding, his hands covered in grey blood and his own.

Silence.

The flesh around the knife wound turned white. Spread. The creature twitched, gurgling blood from the hole where its head had been. The white rot spread to its limbs, its torso, its back. Steam rose from its skin as the weakened flesh began to fall apart.

It stopped moving.

Maggie lowered her rifle. "I think we killed it."

Victoria was already moving, pushing the engineers toward the door. "Everyone out. Now. Move."

The crew streamed out of the bridge, carrying what they could. The creature lay on its back, a white rotted corpse, steam rising in the cold air.

At the door, Victoria looked back through the porthole. The creature was still. Not moving.

She turned to Zhao. "How did you know? That your blood would kill it?"

Zhao looked at his bleeding arm. "It was just a hunch. Anything that keeps the Dawn Meter down should kill it."

Everyone stared at him.

Then someone clapped. Then another. Soon the exhausted crew was cheering, laughing, grabbing each other.

Zhao hugged Victoria, then Maggie. "Couldn't have done it without you."

He moved through the security team—Helene, Choi—then paused at Mellisa, who was rubbing her leg where the creature had grabbed her. "You okay?" he asked, his voice hoarse. She gave him a thumbs up and a tight nod, her face pale but determined. He continued on to Cecilia, thanking each one.

Saanvi pushed through the crowd, pulling out her medical kit. She grabbed Zhao's arm, examined the wound.

"Deep but clean. You'll need stitches. Hold still."

Zhao sat on a crate, let her work. Around him, the crew began setting up a new operating position near the main deck. The night was cold, the wind still howling, but the creature was dead.

Tonight, the Blue Oasis had almost lost its vector.

Instead, the vector had been the weapon they needed all along.