161 Meters Down

Fucking Climb!

'I need to live and tell the management that the earthquake caused severe damage here!' Kristina thought as she swam. 

With Kristina's life depending on it, the moment her fingers touched the edge of the shelf, her willingness to fight for her life doubled. At this second, with the shark closing in, her fingers slipped.

The edges of the uppermost part of the shelves were too smooth that with Kristina's wet fingers, slipping was the next big possibility. But with a twelve-foot great white shark in two, which was also out for her flesh and blood, Kristina knew that the moment she fell back to the waters, she would be good as dead.

A couple of moments ago, Kristina did not want to die because she was a coward who was plainly afraid of facing her sister; now, the game changed. She was indeed a coward, but she was not irresponsible. She was one of the underwater patrol team that was in-charged of security, and the twelve-foot great white shark was a perfect example of a security breach for her.

'The hell will I die!' Kristina gritted her teeth as she screamed those words in her mind. 

The moment her right hand slipped from the shelf, her left hand made its way to compromise from the lack of support from her right hand. With a pounding heart that muted the alarming sound of Lucas's yells of warning at the back of her mind, veins protruded from Kristina's neck and forehead as she lifted her legs from the cold touch of water.

"Fucking raise your legs, you idiot!" 

Lucas, who was leaning at the edges of the crate with his knees down and palms hitting the water in an attempt to draw the shark's attention, screamed his lungs out when the twelve-foot great white shark closed the distance to the flailing woman.

The shelves shook from the weight that Kristina added from the other side. Under the water, the shelves' base trembled, eliciting a screeching sound due to the friction of the metal shelves' base against the tiled floor. Lucas saw the shaking of the frames, which Kristina failed to see. He knew that one nudge from the gigantic fish would flip the freaking shelves that she was hanging on!

"Are you a fucking worm, woman?" Lucas tugged his wet hair upon seeing the shelves waver. 

"Jesus! Stop moving your goddamn ass, or I swear I'll spank the living daylights out of you!" His fingertips barely touched the water as his left hand held his body in balance on the crate he was situated while his right hand splashed the water, a failing attempt to draw the attention of the twelve-foot shark away from Kristina.

Kristina was too focused on staying alive upon Lucas's frantic sound. She failed to see the ashen face of the man she dubbed as the devil incarnate in her mind ever since she met him and his minions.

She needed not to look behind her to know that the gigantic human-eating fish was out to strike her legs off. The sound from the quick parting of the seawater was a telltale sign for Kristina that the freaking fish was closing the distance between them.

"Ugh!" Kristina's face reddened when she raised her right arm and anchored her right arm to the other side of the shelves' edge to balance the swaying array of frames she was holding on to as if she was some Koala.

"Watch out!"

Lucas's yell made Kristina flinch as she raised both of her legs.

"Aaah!"

Kristina could not help but scream when she looked down and witnessed what had happened a few inches below her. The moment both of her feet escaped the clutches of the chilling water, the razor-like teeth of the enormous fish missed her feet by only a hairbreadth away; this scene elicited a gasp of horror from her.