Most of our equipment and supplies were still floating in the water when morning broke and by then we were still sat down on the beach, exhausted and somewhat shaken up by our encounter with a forty foot long shark. It was not until the sun broke through the clouds that we started getting our equipment out of the water. Luckily, we had managed to get everything out of the dingy before the Megladon had struck, enough food to keep us going for the next couple of days and communication equipment that was still functioning. Unfortunately we had almost exhausted nearly half our ammunition supply fighting that overgrown shark and we knew full well it was still out there, circling the island like wounded prey waiting for it to die so that it can strike. We knew that we were not going to be getting off the island in a hurry but hopefully there we would find some other means by which to escape.

We got ourselves changed from our wetsuits into combat fatigues and spent the next hour assessing how much food and ammunition we had and then packing them into our own individual napsacks. Each of us had our own signature weapons, Putrov his chain gun, Dietriech his grenade launcher and assualt rifle, Drieber and myself standard AK47 assault rifles, Lana with her two Uzi 9mm Ebony and Ivory and Takeshi with his sniper rifle, not to mention the stacks of grenades that we carry.

"I nearly had that fucker," Dietriech tells Putrov and Drieber. "If I had gotten in a bit close to that shark I could have fired a grenade straight through it's mother fucking mouth and blown its fucking brains out!"

Putrov laughed as he hoisted his chain gun across his shoulders. "And you would have been fish food my friend," he told Dietriech. "You would have had to have been extreamly lucky to even get a shot like that".

"Well next time, I'll take that fucker out. We got it running scared dudes," Deitriech said. "Didn't know who it was fucking with".

"I pray that we don't run into it again," Lana said butting in. She shethed one of her knives and strapped her guns across her shoulders. "We were extreamly lucky last night. We could all have been in the belly of that beast. The Megladon was the apex predator of its time". She walked up close to Dietrech until she was in his face, her eyes piercing his. "So Dietriech," she began "Next time you boast about taking out a beast of that size and ferocity, try to remember what point on the food chain you are".

Dietriech grumbled and turned away. He carried on loading his backpack.

"You said that something brought it here," Takeshi said to Lana. He affixed a target scope to his rifle. "The Marianna Trench is a long way from here. You think that it has something to do with the experiments they are conducting on this island".

Lana shrugged her shoulders. "Could be. Who knows what manner of stuff they are doing here," she said to him. "I don't mean to sound pessimistic, but I do think we are in way over our heads here. This is something we are not ready for".

Both Drieber and Putrov nodded as if in agreement. In a way I kind of agreed with what Lana had said, even though it pained me to do so. "Alright people, enough with the talk. We got a job to do. Round up all the ammo and supplies we got left and lets scout this beach".

I look up at the overhanging cliffs that stand before us, jagged, rugged and virutally impossible to climb. The stand at over one hundred feet and atop of the cliffs I can make out a long fence, man made that is fifty feet high and stretches out along the cliffs. Even though we have a grappling hook and the appropriate equipment to scale the walls, I can see just how difficult it would be, even though myself and my team are all expert climbers. I figure the fence is electrified and designed to keep whatever is beyond the fence, firmly where it is.

"What is it that we are looking for?" Drieber asks me.

I take out the computer table and call out files that contain the blue print plans of the island. The GPS tracking device that is built in, traces our position.

"According to this, there should be a cave opening, two miles from our position," I tell Drieber, reading the information on the plans. "The cave is man made and if we follow it a quarter of a mile in, it will take us to a station that has a train which runs a further three miles under the ground to the base that is right at the centre of the island".

"Shit, they built an underground train system?" said Dietriech, strapping his backpack on.

"Makes sense to travel underground," Takeshi remarks. "With all those big beasts running amok above ground, travelling beneath it would be the safest thing".

"I'd still like to know what happened to Sadler and his men," Dietrech says. "I doubt they would have wanted to take a tour of the island".

"We will know soon enough," Putrov says to Dietrech. "But for now, we focus on staying alive".

I nod in agreement and point in the direction where the cave is. I am surprised to see Lana heading in the direction a few yards from us. I am surprised by her determination, but I do know that Lana has remarkable tracking skills which is why I sometimes allow her to take the lead.

We begin following her, examining our surroundings as we go. The beach is quite rocky, with pebbles and stones strewn about everywhere and the sand is surprisingly hard, sunbaked. Parts of the cliff and the rocks on the beach have seaweed strewn about them, an indication of how submerged the place can be. Even though the sun is out in force, bearing down on the ocean, the overhanging cliffs shield us from the worst of its rays. The sea itself is relatively calm and the waves lap gently against the shore. There is a gentle breeze and it's quite relaxing hearing the ebb and flow of the waves.

About five minutes into our walk we see that Lana has stopped. She is examines what appears to be strange tracks in the sand. They don't look like human footprints, more like hoof marks and they are everywhere. Lana looks quite bothered and she raises her guns, looking round her as she does.

"What is it?" I ask Lana.

She looks at me, her eye's saying it all. "This beach is not safe," she tells us.

Almost immediately we all draw our guns, looking around us as if we were expecting an ambush of some kind, even though there is nothing present on the beach but us. The hoof mark tracks appear to stop at certain points in the sand which makes me wonder what sort of creature makes them and then just dissapears, unless they burrowed in under the sand. I tell Dietriech to take out a bio scanner reader, the only one we have on our mission. Its no bigger than your average smartphone and it can trace movement from anything living from a mile radious.

The young American hot head quickly takes out the device from his jacket and switches it on. Almost immediately we begin to hear a series of pings, the indication that there are lifeforms nearby.

The surprised look on Dietriechs face says it all. "You aint gonna believe this captain, but we got lifeform readings everywhere, dozens of them?"

"Where are they?" I ask Dietrech.

Dietrech looks at us all, confusion written all over his face. "Everywhere," comes his single reply.

I take the device off him and look at the readings myself. Overlaid on the backdrop of a black screen there are a couple of dozen flashing white blobs which indicate lifeforms and as Dietrech said, they are all around us which I find impossible as there are no sign of life anywhere on the beach other than myself and my team. Most of the readings are out to sea, and some almost a few yards away from us. My team looks on with suspicion as the pings from the device start getting louder.

"Maybe the device is broke," says Drieber. "Damm piece of junk probably got wet when we free fell into the high sea".

"It's waterproof," Dietrech reminds Drieber. "And I'm telling you that the readings are everywhere".

"The tracks indicate that something is on this beach with us," says Lana. "And it's big".

Its only then that we hear a noise, faint at first, but getting louder with each passing minute we stand there, confused over the readings the scanner was giving us. Whatever lifeforms it was reading, appeared to be closing in on where we were standing. I quickly switched the device off and handed it back to Dietrech who pocketed the device before loading in an explosive grenade into his assault rifle.

Clickety-clack. Clickity click, clickity clack

We all looked out in the direction of the ocean as we heard the noise. It sounded like a series of gunshots going off, but we knew that they were not bullets being fired from a gun, but something else entirely. I signaled for my team to move, and we headed further down the beach in a short, but brisk jog, our senses alert, our guns pointed in all directions. It is not long before we come across a grisly sight, one that almost makes my stomach churn.

"What the fuck!?" exclaims Dietrech.

"Sweet Mary of Jesus," gulps Drieber.

Directly in front of us, scattered about the sands are various human body parts, an arm, a leg, part of a torso. It looks just like a massacre, and I figure from the amount of body parts littering the beach there must have been a couple of dozen or so people here and from the pieces of clothing still on some of the various body parts, I figure them to be soldiers, perhaps Sadlers men?

Blood is spread everywhere, discoluring the sand, making it look as if whatever had done the killings had dragged the bodies across the sand.

Lana leans down next to a severed hand, examining it. Unlike the rest of us, she seems less shocked.

"What is it?" I ask her.

She looks up at me, concearn in her eyes. "Whatever had done this had not torn these people apart," she says to us all. "The points where the body parts had been severed on all of them look clean, almost as if they had been cut off".

"What?" exclaims Dietrech. "You tellin me someone with a sword came and hacked these people up?".

"They were soldiers," said Lana, examining the sands, and picking up used shell casings that had come from a weapon of some sort. "And they had been firing in all directions, almost as if there were many of these things".

"What things?" asked Drieber. "We dealing with another kind of monster here?".

"Many of them," came Lana's reply. She headed further up the beach, stepping over and examining the various body parts. The stench of death was almost unbearable, and the further we explored the carnage, the more blood and death we found. What was even more bizzarre was the various shell fragments we found, that were a pinkish red. The discovery we made was a long arm covered in this pinkish red shell with a pair of pincers at the end of it. The thing was big, almost as long as myself, and I am five foot eight.

"If my worst fears are correct, we need to get off this beach and fast," Lana said, lifting part of the clawed arm up with her hunting knife.

"What are we dealing with?" I asked Lana.

She stood up and readied her two Uzi 9mm's, looking like she was going into a war. "Crustaceans," she told me. "Many of them".

"Crustaceans?" repeated Putrov. "You mean Crabs?"

Dietrech made a large sigh. "You gotta be fucking shitting me! Fucking giant Crabs!? Gimme a break!"

Immediately I raised my gun."Alright people, stay sharp!" I told my team.

We began quickening our pace, hurrying down the beach. There was more blood and severed limbs, used up shell casings that had been fired from guns and even what looked like the dead body of a giant Crustacean. The outer shell had been riddled with bullets, but what was so shocking to us was the size of the creature. It was almost as big as cow and it's claw arms were as big as it's body. I could not even begin to imagine dozens of these critters and suspected that Sadlers men had somehow been ambushed by these giant Crustaceans.

By now some of my team were beginning to feel on edge, sensing that there was approaching danger. I felt it myself, that we were being watched and followed. We heard the familiar clickety click sounds, yet what was so frightening was that there were dozens of these sounds approaching from the direction we had just from. They seemed distant but with each passing minute they sounded closer. What became so unnerving was that we could not distinguish what direction the clickety clack sounds were coming from. It was like they were everywhere.

As we searched our surroundings, we discovered a few guns buried in the sand, the new standard M85 assualt rifle, used by American Marines. Most of them were unusable, some broken in half, probably crushed under the large pincer claws of the Crustaceans, but the magazines loaded into these guns were still usuable and could fit our weapons perfectly. We gathered up what we could and hurried on by.

Clickety Click, Clickety Clack.

It felt nearer then before and it was all around us. The cave was nowhere in sight, but I felt we were getting nearer. Perhaps if we got to the cave, to the train system that ran under the island to the base, we would be safe. But somehow, I knew that was not truth, that I would be kidding myself if I thought there was such a thing as safe on this island. Maybe Lana was right, that we were in way over our heads. Who knows what horrors there were on this island, what monsters they kept.

Colonel Sadler brought with him a small army armed to the teeth with the latest high tech weaponary, similar to our own, but if they came well prepared, why would they send us in?

I knew that it could only mean that they somehow failed, despite the firepower they wielded. Maybe the Council thought a smaller team of soldiers, the toughest crème del a crème of the secret military would fare much better. Personally, right now, I was edging towards blind panic.

We had not run far when the ground beneath us began to suddenly lift as if something beneath us was breaking the surface of the sand. I immediately leapt from the bulge that was growing in the ground and Dietrech, Drieber, Putrov and Takeshi did the same. A giant arm appeared with two long pincers, followed by a smaller on, and as the sand shifted from it's outer shell, the rest of the creature apppeared. This crab was huge, probably as big pickup truck. It's two slug-like eye's peered at us, almost blinking.

Lana was still on the thing but what followed next had me gaping in astonishment. She sommersaulted straight off the creature, landing swiftly on the sands in front of it.

The crustacean was still trying to climb itself out of the hole it had buried itself in, its giant pincers clicking. It swung one of its claws in Lana's direction, but she back-flipped out of it's range, and rounded her acrobatic routine off with a back sommersault before firing off her guns at the thing, the moment she landed on her feet.

Her bullets ripped into it's shell, piercing through it and into it's soft flesh. She blew out both it's eye's and within the fraction of a minute, the creature collapsed dead.

I was on my feet by then as was the rest of my team. Takeshi unstrapped his sniper rifle and loaded the gun with armour piercing shells. I did the same as did Drieber. Putrov readied his chain gun and Dietrech already had his shells loaded in his napalm gun.

The clickety clack sounds were now near and my jaw dropped when I saw dozens of these giant crustaceans scuttling their way towards us, their pincers snipping at the air. Takeshi fired off a few shot from his gun, dropping a few of the creatures as they approached. We noticed a few more bulges growing in the sand as more of them appeared from their hiding places. Almost simultaneously, we all started firing at the approaching hordes. Dietrech set off a few napalm grenades in their direction, blowing up two, to three at a time as we cut the rest down with short, well aimed bursts of machine gun fire. Bits of shell and flesh flew everywhere and within a matter of minutes we had killed all the approaching crustaceans. The sands surrounding us looked like a scene of total massacre.

We quickly reloaded and began backing way.

"Izzat it?" said Dietrech, loading up more shells into his napalm launcher. "Did we kill them all?"

His question his answered by a loud and clear Clickety Click, Clickety Clack.

We see more bulges in the sand as more of these gigantic crustaceans break to the surface. From beneath the waves more of them appear, some no bigger than a dog, others as large as an ox.

Dietrech shakes his head as if in dissapointment and aims his napalm gun. "Guess these fuckers never learn," he says to us all. "They don't know who they are fucking with!"

Putrov grins in agreement and what follows is a whole volley of machine gun fire and napalm grenades. Bulges in the sand are now forming all around us and we realise we are surrounded.

"Branch out!" I scream to my team, unloading a whole magazine of bullets at the nearest crustacean to me. My bullets cut through its tough outer shell, pounding into it's soft flesh as it clicks its large claws at me. Within minutes it is dead, but more smaller sized crustaceans crawl over it's dead carcess. It's almost as if they are appearing from all direction. A blast from my built in grenade launcher on my AK47 soon makes short work of them.

Putrov cuts through a dozen or so with his chain gun and combined with Dietrechs napalm grenades, whole hordes of them are blown apart.

Takeshi takes out most of the larger crabs with his sniper rifle from a distance. His bullets pass through openings in the crabs outer shell and most of them fall with one shot.

Drieber provides cover fire for him, preventing some of the nearer crabs from getting near Takeshi.

Lana is already on top of one that is as big as a pickup truck. With her serrated blade, she cuts out both it's eyes and then cartwheel sommersaults off it, firing her guns, Ebony and Ivory at it. The beast soon falls dead, but more of the creatures are upon her. She avoids the snapping claws of one of them, taking it down with a grenade and unloading on another approaching crustacean. For a human, I am amazed at how fast she can move.

I shout the order to retreat and we all head for the nearest clearing we can find, the giant crustaceans in hot pursuit. It soon becomes apparent that more larger ones begin appearing and that somehow, their outer shells seem more resitant to our armour piercing bullets. Dietrech unloads a few more napalm grenades into the approaching masses of crabs and the explosions slow them down. There must be almost a hundred or so now and with our ammunition supply running low, we know that our only hope is to find the cave and the monorail system to take us to the facility. Out here, on the sands, we are sitting ducks to these giant crustaceans.

Dietrech was going crazy, letting out one napalm round after another and loading each one with fast lightening quickness. Combined with the awesome power of Putrov's mini gun, they cut down scores of these beasts. But still they kept coming, out of the ground and out of the sea. The dead ones we killed provided cover for us and slowed the advancement of the rest.

"Over there!" shouts Takeshi, pointing to some caves that were several yards ahead of us.

If these were the caves that led to the underground train system, we were in luck. I didn't know how long we could last out here with the relentless hordes of attacking crustaceans. Dietrech lets loose a grenade into the centre of the giant crabs and we all make a dash for the caves, just in time as we hear what sounds like an almighty roar coming from the ocean. I look back and see a dark shape emerging from beneath the waves. It's another crustacean but this one is real big, its outer shell a dark black color, it's right claw alone, almost as big as its body, and this crab must have been as big as a school bus.

Always has to be a big one, I mutter to myself.