Chapter 306: An Unlucky Vacation (5)
Lying on the ground was a strange fish about the size of an adult’s palm.
Its body was long and flat, and its eyes were cloudy white, making it impossible to tell whether it suffered from cataracts or had simply been born that way. Its entire body was a dark brownish-black, with no scales to speak of. Instead, it was coated in a thick layer of slime. A row of spiny dorsal fins stood erect along its back, giving it the appearance of a sea cucumber covered in upright spikes.
The most horrifying feature, however, was its mouth.
Like a typical predatory fish, its lower jaw protruded beyond the upper one. Rows of long, needle-sharp white teeth jutted menacingly from both jaws, fully exposed. Just imagining the force of its bite was enough to make one’s skin crawl.
“Y-you… you ran into them too?” Orff asked, staring at the fish in disbelief.
“Mm-hmm,” Everly replied calmly with a nod.
As she lowered her gaze, she happened to see the stranded fish lash its tail violently.
Its fins, half-submerged in the shallow rainwater, swept backward like a pair of oars. In the next instant, its body sprang into the air as though powered by a coiled spring, shooting straight toward Everly’s face.
Acting on instinct, Everly swung her shovel with all her strength.
Crack!
Water splashed everywhere as the fish was cleaved cleanly in two.
Only after the two halves hit the ground—still twitching as bright red blood seeped from the severed flesh—did Everly realize that the creature possessed astonishing jumping power.
Catching the fish had been pure coincidence.
The torrential rain had continued without pause for an entire day. Massive amounts of rainwater had merged into knee-deep currents rushing through the drainage channels. While clearing them, bits of floating debris would occasionally be swept between people’s legs by the current.
Normally, that was nothing unusual.
But during the time Orff had been away, Everly had repeatedly felt something circling around her legs.
She immediately sensed that something was wrong.
If it had merely been floating debris, it should have drifted downstream with the current.
It shouldn’t have been swimming circles around a person.
So she bent down and waited.
The next time the creature brushed against her rubber boot, she reacted instantly. She plunged her shovel into the water and flicked it upward in one smooth motion, sending whatever was lurking below flying onto the bank.
At first, she had assumed it was just an ordinary river fish.
Instead, it turned out to be a species she had never seen before.
The three of them had been huddled together examining it when Orff came running back, shouting all the while that there was something in the water.
Well, that solved the mystery.
The “something” in the water was clearly this bizarre fish.
Orff said, “The one who screamed was a middle-aged man. He was clearing debris in one of the drainage ditches when something suddenly bit his foot and tore off a huge chunk of flesh! He jumped onto the bank immediately from the pain. Whatever bit him fell back into the water before he could catch it. He only got a glimpse of it—it was a strange fish with white eyes… But it only happened a moment ago. How could it have already swum all the way here?”
Everly climbed onto a higher spot and looked toward the commotion. After a moment, she jumped back down and shook her head at Orff.
“I don’t think the fish that attacked him is the same one I caught. These two drainage channels aren’t connected. Unless that fish somehow swam out into the ocean and then came back upstream through another drainage outlet, it couldn’t have reached this side.”
“You mean…”
“That’s right.” Everly nodded. “I don’t think there’s just one of these things in the water.”
The words had barely left her mouth when another scream erupted from a drainage ditch on the opposite side.
“AAAH! It hurts! Something bit me!”
“Ah! There’s one here too! Something’s circling around my feet!”
“It must be the monster fish Thompson was talking about!”
The screams from the neighboring ditch seemed to trigger a chain reaction.
No sooner had they died down than cries of pain and alarm began echoing from every direction throughout the villa community.
The four exchanged glances, their expressions turning equally grim.
If the only problem was a few carnivorous monster fish in the water, it actually wouldn’t be too serious.
After all, every villa in the neighborhood had been built on top of a terraced hillside, with the beach stretching out at the foot of the slope.
Once rainwater flowed down from higher ground and reached the villas, it would quickly drain into the sea via the sloping terrain and the drainage channels. No matter how heavy the rain became, the water around the villas would rise to only a few inches at most. Unlike some inland regions, there was no danger of floodwaters submerging half the house.
The problem was that these monster fish had extraordinary jumping ability.
From what had just happened, Everly estimated they could effortlessly leap to a height of over 1.7 meters (5 feet 7 inches). That was roughly the height of an average adult’s face or neck. If one of the fish managed to sink its teeth into a person’s vital areas, the victim would likely collapse from the injury and become easy prey.
For now, the fish were confined to the drainage channels. As long as people stayed away from the ditches, they posed little immediate threat.
But today was only the first day of the torrential rain.
As time went on and the rainfall intensified, the drainage system would eventually reach its limit. Once the channels overflowed, floodwater would spread across the entire neighborhood.
When that happened, the monster fish would follow the water onto land. Using the shallow floodwater and their incredible jumping ability, they could travel in every direction—even wriggle through pipes and drains into people’s homes, attacking any living creature they encountered.
The mere thought of such a scene sent a chill down everyone’s spine.
“We should get more sandbags and fortify the villa first,” Old John said after a moment of silence, making the decision.
No one knew how many of the monster fish lurked in the water. Until they had a clearer picture of the situation, continuing to clear the drainage ditches was simply too dangerous. Reinforcing the villa was the only sensible option.
As expected in a neighborhood populated largely by middle- and upper-middle-class residents, plenty of other homeowners had reached the same conclusion.
The moment news of the monster fish spread, the heavy sandbags that everyone had been reluctant to carry suddenly became highly sought-after. Those who arrived early could still grab a few, but anyone who came late found nothing but an empty warehouse.
Everly and the others managed to secure only six extra sandbags.
Following Old John’s instructions, they used the sandbags, along with some furniture they could afford to sacrifice, to barricade every entrance to the villa as securely as possible.
The villa’s floor-to-ceiling windows and exterior walls were all made of blast-resistant materials. As long as the entrances were properly secured, it wouldn’t matter if the monster fish reached the front door with the floodwater—they wouldn’t be able to get inside.
Of course, besides the obvious entrances, they also had to consider less visible routes, such as the plumbing.
Everly had the villa renovated as soon as she bought it. The floor drains in places like the bathrooms and shower rooms had all been replaced with rodent-proof drains covered by metal grates, so those were safe for the time being.
The sinks in the kitchen and bathrooms, however, were fitted with removable metal drain stoppers.
Just to be safe, the four of them covered each sink with a heavy barbecue grill grate and weighed it down with bulky objects, effectively “sealing” every drain in the house.
That left only one concern—
The toilets.
The toilet pipes were connected directly to the neighborhood’s sewer system. No one could say for certain whether those pipes were still “clean.”
What if, like in one of those monster horror movies, the fish swam into the sewers, crawled all the way up the pipes, and then suddenly burst out of the toilet while someone was using it, delivering a fatal surprise?
None of the four had any desire to have their backside bitten by a monster fish.
After a brief discussion, they reluctantly hauled over more heavy furniture and, with great reluctance, sealed off the toilets as well.
Fortunately, the villa included a panic room.
Inside it was a state-of-the-art biodegradable toilet. Similar systems were commonly found in luxury RVs. A special blend of microorganisms inside the waste tank broke down human waste into water and carbon dioxide, achieving a decomposition rate of up to 99%. It could go one or even two months without needing to be emptied.
It was so convenient that it made everyone marvel at how technology truly could change lives.
Eliminating every potential vulnerability inside the villa took far longer than expected.
By the time they had finished, it was already 9:00 p.m.
The four of them collapsed onto the living room sofa, exhausted.
By then, news of the monster fish had spread throughout the entire city via emergency broadcasts from the municipal government.
Everly searched for the announcement and found that it had been issued at around 7:00 p.m.
According to the municipal government’s emergency notice, the tropical storm had caused widespread flooding and river overflow throughout the city. The floodwaters pouring down from the northern part of the state had brought with them an unknown species of carnivorous fish.
Residents were advised to stay away from flooded areas and remain indoors on dry ground whenever possible to avoid unnecessary injury.
From that announcement, it was clear that the villa district wasn’t the only place affected.
The entire city of Gilosha had suffered because of the flooding.
But that struck Everly as extremely strange.
Just last summer, Gilosha had experienced the radiation sickness and mutation incident. After a disaster of that magnitude, common sense suggested the city should have enjoyed at least two or three years of relative peace before another major catastrophe struck.
Or…
Perhaps these monster fish weren’t actually Gilosha’s disaster.
Because of the local geography, all of the floodwater had flowed down from the northern part of Yanifly State.
And what lay to the north?
Recalling the news report she had seen earlier that day, the name of a city immediately surfaced in Everly’s mind—
Chaohu City.
Perhaps the true disaster had occurred there, and Gilosha had merely been brushed by its aftereffects.
To test her theory, Everly opened her browser and searched for news related to Chaohu City.
She quickly discovered that the city had effectively been cut off from the outside world.
The earthquake that had struck in the early hours of the morning had destroyed Chaohu City’s communications infrastructure, leaving the entire area without signal.
Meanwhile, the torrential rains had triggered massive flooding that submerged vast stretches of land surrounding the city, making it impossible for outside rescue teams to enter.
The floodwaters pouring out of Chaohu City had continued southward, passing through several cities along the way.
By the time they had traveled more than two hundred kilometers to reach Gilosha, the flood crest had long since passed. Were it not for the monster fish hiding in the water, Gilosha would actually have suffered relatively little damage.
Everly then searched for the names of the other cities the floodwaters had passed through, using each city together with the keyword “monster fish.”
The results showed that every one of those cities had reported the same species of carnivorous fish that had appeared in Gilosha.
That all but confirmed the source of the creatures.
They had come from distant Chaohu City.
By now, that place had almost certainly become a living hell.
As grim as that thought was, it was actually good news for Everly.
According to the usual conventions of horror movies, if Chaohu City was the story’s primary setting, then Gilosha—merely an unfortunate city caught in the aftermath—was unlikely to suffer the worst of the disaster.
As long as they kept their defenses up for the next couple of days, the crisis should pass once the rain finally stopped.
With that conclusion in mind, Everly felt considerably less anxious.
She shared her findings with the others.
The four of them worked out a schedule, deciding that one person would stay awake each night to keep watch while the others slept.
Before turning in, they made one final inspection of the villa, carefully checking every room to ensure there were no overlooked vulnerabilities.
Satisfied that everything was secure, they left the first watch to the night owl, Orff, on the ground floor, while the other three headed back to their rooms for some much-needed rest.