Breakthrough(100)

Alison almost couldn’t move. Half frozen, she forced herself to the side of the cabin and looked outside. Sally was next to her with her head sticking out of the water. “Oh my god!” she cried and ran for the door. “Wait!” She suddenly stopped when her hand grabbed the handle and turned around. The display said forty-seven seconds. In a flash, she rushed back to the keyboard and typed as fast as she could. Sally danger. Must leave fast. Get Dirk. She hit the enter key and waited what felt like an eternity for Sally’s reply.

Dirk far now. Has gift.

“No no!” Alison moaned. She quickly typed again. Must leave. Gift much much danger.

She hit the enter key and looked at the display. It passed ten seconds. She could hear the server making noise preparing to shut down. “Nooooo!” she yelled.

And then it was off. The screen went blank and all of the lights on the server disappeared.

“Dammit!” she shouted. She turned and burst through the door into the open air. Sally was watching her and making a series of clicks and whistles, but Alison no longer had any idea what she was saying. She looked out over the water and then to the dark flat line on the horizon which was Bimini. How far ahead was Dirk? How close was the ring? Her hands were shaking. The explosion could come any second.

Alison looked off to the south and could see the tiny island of North Cat Cay a few miles away. She then looked down at Sally and in desperation jumped from the side of the boat and into the water. She passed Sally and began swimming in the direction of North Cat, but she did not get more than ten feet before Sally bumped her from behind.

Alison shook her head. “We have to leave, Sally!” Sally remained quiet, watching her. Alison gave her an exasperated look, frustrated at her inability to communicate, and started swimming again. But she knew it was futile. Even an Olympic athlete could not swim that far in time. It was all she could think of.

Sally bumped her again from the back, momentarily pushing her underwater. Alison sputtered, coughing water out of her mouth, and again began swimming. Again Sally bumped her. “We have to GO!” she said spitting more water out.

She turned away again and felt another bump, this time harder. Alison realized she was not moving. Instead she felt Sally’s nose and mouth dig into her back, grab the life jacket strap, and rip it free. The life jacket suddenly came loose around her neck and she scrambled to keep it on. Sally then bit the jacket around Alison’s neck and pulled it off.

“What are you doing?!” Alison screamed, trying to tread water.

Sally gave another series of clicks and whistles. She then flipped the jacket around keeping the neck area in her teeth. Alison stared at her trying to understand. She looked at the white nylon straps hanging on either side of Sally.

Suddenly Alison’s eyes opened wide. She quickly swam up behind Sally and wrapped her arms around Sally’s thick neck. She gave her a giant kiss on the back of the head and then reached for the straps, wrapping them around her wrists. “Go Sally!” she yelled.

At once, Sally bolted forward with Alison hanging on behind her. Her powerful tail pumped hard behind them and the water surged past. Alison laid her head against Sally’s neck and closed her eyes, trying to keep as much water out of her face as possible. She felt Sally’s whole body move back and forth soon reaching a smooth rhythm powering through the water.



Dirk did not know where Sally went, but he could now see the distant bright blue glow from the ring. He pushed forward excitedly and descended deeper and deeper toward the bottom.



Alison was struggling to keep from choking on all the water. She tried to lift her head for air. They were getting closer to North Cat. Suddenly Sally accelerated. Alison began to slide side to side from the motion and fought to stay on. The pressure on her wrists was cutting off her circulation and she could barely feel her hands, now white and losing blood. Alison lifted her head and could see something ahead. It looked like… rocks. Did Sally see them? Were they going to come all this way just to smash themselves onto the rocks by accident? Sally’s pace suddenly quickened even more.

Alison looked up again. It was a giant breakwater! And it was made up of thousands of giant boulders.

“Sally stop!” she yelled, but Sally seemed to move even faster. “Sally, rocks!”

At that instant, behind them and deep underwater, the nuclear material inside the bomb fused and the atomic detonation was unleashed. In a fraction of a second, billions of tons of water were instantly vaporized. The giant explosion lifted a massive amount of water over twenty feet above sea level before falling back down again into the giant vacuum created in the center. The shock wave was enormous and traveled out in every direction, hitting Bimini first. Trees, cars and buildings were instantly flattened as Bimini’s two islands absorbed much of the impact headed westward. The rest of the shock wave quickly rippled outward into the Atlantic, to the northeast and southeast.