The ocean was a noisy place, and Kayla was glad for it. Without the rumble of the old boat motor and the roar of the waves, the silence between her, Nat, Andres and Justin would have been unbearable. Not that she wanted to talk. About anything. She just wanted to watch the water. Watch for signs of sharks. Watch the world drift by as it did...without Maddie.

"This looks good," Nat shouted over the rumble. 

"What does?" Kayla asked, as the boat took a hard left, towards the shore. 

"Justin, hop out," Nat instructed, but Kayla held out her hand to stop him.

"What for?" she said. "The sun has barely started to set. We should keep going."

"We have to wait for her," said Nat.

Justin raised an eyebrow but Kayla knew what she meant. She nodded, and he took the rope. They had to wait for the unicorn.

Justin hopped out and helped guide the boat to a rocky abandoned beach, holding it steady as Kayla hopped out after him, salt water soaking her up to the knees. She heard a squeal behind her and turned to see the cowboy, Andres, hoist Nat over his shoulder, the two of them laughing as Nat pretended to try and escape. Annoyed, Kayla turned away and found Justin staring at her, his all-too familiar puppy-dog eyes watching her with longing. She snarled and trudged passed him. Did he actually expect her squeal and laugh and play at a time like this? To drape herself across his scrawny arms to let him pretend at hero and carry her to the safety of dry land? She was already soaked anyway.

Just a little bit of slack, Kay, Maddie's voice repeated in her mind. Why did he have to make it so hard?

She busied herself by gathering driftwood as the rest of the group tied off the boat. It felt good to have a task. Have something to occupy her mind. When her arms were full, she dropped the load in a pile where the others were unloading the packs, Andres readying a can of soup for supper. Their first together as...whatever they were. A team? Maybe. Win or lose against the worms.

"So where is she?" asked Kayla, dusting offer hands. "Your unicorn."

"She just got a bit held up," said Nat. "She'll be here."

Justin frowned. "Held up by what?"

"Her meal."

Kayla watched him pale and she suddenly felt less like eating. She looked down at the pile, deciding they could probably use more. Or maybe she just preferred gathering wood to talking, if she were honest with herself. So she left them, heading back the way she'd come, up the beach across the rocks to where a grassy bank peaked over the water. 

"Kay, wait!" Justin nearly tripped over himself, rising from the sand to join her. "I'll help."

"It's fine, I can manage."

But that didn't stop him. "It's okay, I don't really wanna be alone with them anyway."

"Why?" said Kayla.

He shrugged. "I dunno. The unicorn thing is...some of the stuff she says freaks me out."

"Who knew unicorns were blood thirsty."

"Right?" he laughed. But she didn't see anything funny about it at all. When he saw she wasn't smiling, his attitude shifted to grave seriousness. "How are you holding up?"

"We don't need to talk about it," she said, picking out the driest pieces of driftwood and loading them into her arms. 

"I know, I just--" 

"You said you wanted to help me," she said, shortly.

"Right, sorry." He set to work, loading up his own arms and they spent the rest of their time in silence as the sun set over the horizon. It was nearly dark by the time they headed back to Nat and Andres who had started a small fire.

They were kissing.

Again.

Giggling.

Nat curled up in the arms of her cowboy, his hands all over her thighs and ass. Kayla wanted to puke. Could they not keep their hands off each other for one minute?

She threw down the wood, expecting that to disrupt the PDA. Nat and Andres didn't even flinch.

The hairs on her neck bristled and she looked over at Justin, puppy eyed again, watching Nat and Andres with a sadness that made Kayla want to scream.

"Are you just gonna stand there?" she snapped.

Justin jumped, looking confused. "What?"

"The wood," she growled, pointing at the bundle in his arms. "You just want to hang on to it all night or are you going to put it down?"

"Alright jeez," he said, setting the wood on the pile as Kayla became aware of Nat and Andres watching. Sure. Now they break it up.

"Hey," said Nat, in no hurry to untangle herself from Andres. "Thanks for getting all that."

"How long til your unicorn gets here?" said Kayla. The sooner the nightmare horse showed itself the sooner they could leave, and the sooner they could leave the sooner they could find the boy, and the sooner they found the boy the sooner they could confront the worms.

And the sooner they found the worms, the sooner she could avenge Maddie.

"Not long. Probably before sunrise," said Nat.

"Sunrise!?!"

"You want to spend the night here?" asked Justin, aghast.

"Is that a problem?"

"Yeah, it could be!" he said. "You have any idea how many zombie sharks patrol this shoreline?"

Nat rolled her eyes, unconcerned. "How many?"

"Hundreds! Kayla, tell her!"

"He's right," said Kayla. "If they sense our presence, it wont be good."

"Welp," Nat shrugged, perched on Andres' lap like a doll, "we gotta camp somewhere."

"Yeah," said Justin, "somewhere not right next to the zombie shark infested waters."

"You'd prefer the man eating unicorn woods?" asked Nat. "Or the road crawling with saber tooths? Newsflash man, the world is infested with monsters."

"We could have at least waited til we got to a like an actual town," said Justin. 

"A nice safe motel?" said Nat. "How'd that work out?"

The Lookout. They thought they were safe there. Maddie thought they were safe. It was all a lie. And now she was gone. Nowhere was safe.

"Out here we're sitting ducks," said Justin. "Kayla tell her."

"Here's as good as anywhere." Nothing mattered to Kayla now. Nothing but making the worms pay for unmaking the world. And, she'd be lying if she said she wasn't, on some level, craving a fight with a zombie shark. Or a tiger. Or a goddamn unicorn.

"As good as anywhere?" said Justin, incredulous. "Kayla, what are you -"

"Jesus Justin!" she shouted. "Zombie sharks or giant fanged worm monsters. Who gives a shit? Just sit down already."

"Sit down? Kayla, you know what those things are like. You know how they --"

"Of course I know. I don't need you to remind me! If you're going to piss and moan about every dangerous thing that comes our way out here then go back to the Victory. I never asked you to come in the first place!"

Justin's voice was quiet now, seething. "Never asked?"

She knew what he was getting at. Knew what he wanted her to say. Or maybe, in some dark and furious part of her heart, she just wanted to say it. So she did. "Never wanted you to come."

The group went silent.

Kayla stared into the flames of the fire, watching the can of soup boil and hiss. She could feel their eyes, all three of them, watching her. She didn't care. They could think what they wanted. They could hate her for all she cared. All that mattered was finding the worms.

Justin cleared his throat, stepping closer to where she sat in the sand. "Can I talk to you for a second?" he said. "Alone."

Reluctantly, Kayla got up and followed him off into the dark, a little further down the beach out of ear shot from Nat and Andres. They were watching, she knew that much. Even if they couldn't hear, they could read their body language. What would they find in the stiffness of their backs, the tension in their gestures? 

"You never wanted me to come?" he said, and she could see the tightness in his jaw. He was furious, angry in a way she couldn't remember seeing him before.  Let him be angry. She told him not to come, and now what? He was surprised when she resented him for ignoring her?

"I told you that."

"Kayla...." He pressed his palms to his eyes, and doubled over, like he was fighting back a scream. Bit of slack, Kay, repeated Maddie. When he straightened to his full height and tore his hands away, she could see tears in his red-rimmed eyes. He scrunched his nose, mustering his strength before finally asking, "Do you not love me anymore?"

She stared at him. Did she? For whatever reason -- time, stress...growing up...these past few months, there was no one she hated more than Justin. But all the same, there was still a part of her, the part that belonged to before. Before the sharks. Before she lost her dad. Before everything changed. The part that still saw Justin Heard. Still wanted and longed for Justin Heard. But that was a different boy, the one inside her memory. So much different from the one standing before her now. So she told him the only thing she could. "I don't know."

*

Nat snuggled into Andres' arms. There was no better place in the world then there, lying against his chest, feeling his heartbeat and his warmth and his breath. Except maybe on the back of Gaisgeil. 

"If I ever start talking to you like that," she said, "I give you full permission to dump me."

He sighed. "Don't judge them, Nat."

She sat up. She hated when he said things like that, things that showed her just how terrible of a person she really was. Andres was good, through and through. Angelic even. And she was constantly disappointing him, she could feel it in her marrow. "Are you mad at me?" She hated more that his disapproval made her say things like that. How weak she must have sounded. How needy. But she was needy. She needed Andres. As sure as she needed oxygen. Without him, why would she be doing any of this?

"No," he said, gently.

"It's 'cus I was insensitive about her friend, isn't it?"

"No," he said again. "I mean, you were, I'm just.... I dunno, getting more nervous. The closer we get to facing this thing. It feels different now that we found her."

"What does?"

He thought for a minute, trying to find the words. "The world. The threat in it. It feels...closer maybe? Bigger. I dunno. Does it feel different, to you?" 

"My dreams are better," she said. She'd slept more peacefully than she had in months ever since that first day on the Victory where they spoke to Kayla. Like with just one thing on their doomsday checklist marked off, she could relax for just a minute.

Andres nodded. "Okay. So hat's good, then." 

But it was only a minute. She knew that. Because Andres was right. It was different now. And she needed him to know it. "But that feeling," she said, "that presence. Its angrier. I think its affecting Kayla."

"She's been through a lot, Nat."

"Its more than that." Sure, her friend was dead. Her home destroyed. Sure they were heading into what, until yesterday Kayla assumed was only nightmares. But the anger, that was more than the trauma of her experience. Nat was sure. "Whether she knows it or not. I obviously don't know her but...She's blocked it out for so long, suddenly paying attention to it again....it's gotta be affecting her."

"Affecting her how?"

"Like if she's not careful... they can pull her back under. Even without the worms."

Andres sat up, his eyes nervous. "Can that happen?"

"I dunno," she admitted. "They are part of us now. The Whole. Constantly whispering. Constantly there. If you start paying attention to it....i think they could."

And then they heard it -- Justin and Kayla, shouting from somewhere down the beach. Nat looked and could see them pointing. Pointing out to sea.

The ocean --  the water --

It was boiling.

And voices.

The Whole.

Nat could hear them in her mind.

The drones were coming.