Deep Trouble II (3 page)

My lungs were ready to burst. I couldn’t hold my breath much longer.

Closer, closer…

Aha! My fingers closed around Sheena’s flipper!

I tugged. Hard.

Harder.

She started to move.

No.

Oh, no!

Sheena’s flipper. It came off in my hand.

I let go of the flipper and reached up a little higher. I grabbed her foot.
And tugged.

Sheena slipped down a little.

I yanked on her foot again. Come on! I thought. Move!

But this time Sheena didn’t budge.

The sticky pink skin tightened around us. My insides felt as if they were
about to explode!

The jellyfish squeezed us tighter and tighter.

It was squeezing us to death!

I couldn’t move. My mind raced.

How can I get out of here? How?

There was no way. We were doomed!

I’m going to black out, I realized. Another second without air, and…

Suddenly, the jellyfish loosened its grip. With a horrible sucking noise, it
peeled apart.

It opened!

I didn’t waste time. I grabbed Sheena and hauled her up. Up, up, to the
surface.

We burst out of the water, gasping for air.

We made it!

I sucked in a huge gulp of air. Aahh. It was great to breathe again.

The blue faded from Sheena’s face as the color came back to her cheeks.

“Are you okay?” I asked her.

She nodded, still struggling to catch her breath.

“You sure? Can you talk?”

She nodded again. “Yes, Billy. I’m just great. I’ve never been better.”

I knew she was fine. Her old smart-mouth was working perfectly.

“What happened?” I cried. “Why did the jellyfish let us go?”

Sheena shrugged. We peered down through the clear water.

The jellyfish floated a few feet below us. And as we stared down at it, we
saw why it forgot about us.

We saw
another
enormous pink shape slither and slide toward the first
one.

It stretched out in the water as if spreading its wings.

And then it tried to wrap the other jellyfish inside it.

The two ugly creatures slapped together. The collision sent up a wave that
tossed Sheena and me back.

When I gazed down again, they were wrestling. Folding into each other.
Slapping and twisting. Struggling to fold the other inside. To swallow it whole.

Another sticky slap. Another.

As they struggled, the water churned and swirled.

The jellyfish monsters broke apart and slammed into each other again. Huge
waves churned up around us.

“We’ve got to get back to the boat!” I yelled.

A wave slapped the side of my head. I choked and spit out a mouthful of
seawater.

We struggled to swim against the waves, but they kept knocking us down and
pulling us out to sea.

The water was so white and foamy, we couldn’t see the jellyfish fight
anymore. But we could feel them.

Another wave crashed down on us. I glanced around. “Sheena!”

She was gone!

I frantically searched through the foam. “Sheena!”

Had she gone under?

CRASH!
Another wave.

“Sheena, where are you?” I wailed.

She popped up at last, sputtering and choking. I grabbed her and battled
against the waves. I fought my way out of the wake of the jellyfish fight.

A few seconds later, Sheena and I dragged ourselves aboard the
Cassandra.

“That was so weird,” Sheena said after we both had caught our breaths. “Those
jellyfish—they were as big as cars!”

“We’ve got to tell Dr. D. about this—right away!” I exclaimed.

We ran down to the lab. No sign of Dr. D. there.

“Dr. D.!” I called. “Where are you?”

“I’ll check the galley,” Sheena said.

I hurried to see if my uncle was in his cabin. No. The tiny room stood empty.

“He’s not in the galley!” Sheena cried. “I don’t see him anywhere!”

“Dr. D.!” I shouted. “Dr. D.!”

No reply.

Sheena’s chin quivered. I knew she was scared.

It was impossible. But true.

“He-he’s gone!” I cried.

A pang ripped through my stomach. Dr. D. had just—vanished!

Sheena and I were alone in the middle of the sea!

“What are we going to do?” I asked softly.

“Don’t panic,” Sheena said. But her voice shook. “Think. Where could he go?
Know what? Maybe he just went for a swim.”

“A swim? A swim?” I cried, my voice rising. “We probably would have seen him!
Besides, since when does Dr. D. just go for a swim? Never!”

“Well—there’s always a first time,” Sheena suggested. Her eyes darted
around nervously. I could see her thinking, trying to stay calm.

“Maybe he went out in the dinghy,” she suggested. Dr. D. kept a small boat on
deck for short trips. “Let’s see if it’s gone. Maybe he went out to look for
us.”

“Good idea.” At least it was something. A little hope to cling to.

We hurried up to the deck. I crossed my fingers, hoping to find the dinghy
gone.

If the little boat was gone, that meant Dr. D. was probably okay. He’d be
back soon.

But if the dinghy was still tied to the deck, and Dr. D. wasn’t on the
Cassandra…

Then what?

I raced to the back deck and around to the right—

“Oh, no.” I sighed.

The dinghy sat in its usual spot. Dr. D. hadn’t taken it out.

“Billy, I’m scared,” Sheena whispered.

I was scared too, but I didn’t want to admit it. Not yet, anyway.

“Let’s check every cabin again,” I suggested. “Maybe he’s in the bathroom or
something. Maybe he didn’t hear us calling him.”

Sheena followed me down the stairs that led below-deck. Halfway down, the
railing rattled in my hand.

“Cut it out, Sheena,” I snapped.

“Cut what out?” she cried.

Now the whole stairway shook.

What was she doing? Jumping up and down?

I turned around to check. She stood perfectly still.

“See! I’m not doing anything!”

The boat shook and tilted.

I clutched the rail to keep from falling over.

“What’s happening?” I cried.

“It’s an earthquake!” Sheena shrieked.

“How can it be an earthquake?” I told her. “We’re on the water—remember?”

We ran down the steps. The boat tilted, and we both banged hard into the
cabin wall.

We passed the lab. The bottles of plankton rattled in the cabinet. Everything
rattled. I heard glasses breaking in the galley.

I turned down the passage to my cabin—but I couldn’t get by. Something
blocked my path.

Something…

“
YAAAIIII!
” A scream escaped my throat before I could stop it.

“What
is
that thing?” I cried.

Sheena caught up to me. “Huh? What thing?”

And then she saw it too. It was hard to miss!

“A monster!”

A big creature blocked the passage. It was shiny and black and smooth. And
almost perfectly round. It sat in a disgusting puddle of thick white slime.

I’d never seen anything like it before.

Except—something about it looked familiar.

“What
is
it?” Sheena choked out.

The monster stirred. It shook.

And then its head poked out. Long, dripping, and gray—like an enormous
slug. With two antennas sticking out of the top.

“Billy”—Sheena grabbed my sleeve—“It’s—I think it’s a snail!”

“You’re right,” I muttered in shock. “It
is
a snail. A gigantic,
monster snail!”

“How did it get on the boat?” Sheena demanded.

“How did it grow so big?” I added. “It’s blocking the entire passage!”

Slowly, slowly, the snail lifted its slimy head. It trained its big, sad,
watery eyes on us—and moaned.

“Help me! Help me!” it cried.

“
YAAIIII!
” Sheena screamed, and clutched my hand.

I screamed back. “It’s talking!”

“Kids! Help!” the snail moaned again.

“Nooooooo! It’s talking! It’s talking! It’s so gross!”

“Billy, calm down!” the snail scolded. “Stop screaming! I need… help!”

Sheena and I both gasped.

We both realized the snail wasn’t talking. It was Dr. D.!

“I’m trapped. Under the snail!” he choked out. “Can’t breathe. Get me out.
Hurry.”

Dr. D.’s hand waved weakly from under the big snail. His fingers were
dripping with the thick white slime.

“The slime—it’s as thick as shaving cream!” I murmured.

“Kids, hurry! Can’t breathe under here! The slime… going up my nose!”

“What should we do, Dr. D.?” Sheena asked.

He didn’t reply.

“He’s suffocating!” I cried. “He’s drowning in snail slime!”

A groan floated out from under the monstrous snail shell.

“We’ve got to hurry!” Sheena cried.

“I’ll tilt the snail over,” I told Sheena. “You pull Dr. D. out.”

“Okay.”

Dr. D. moaned.

“We’re coming! We’re coming!” I cried.

I pushed the shell. It was heavy. It didn’t move.

“Try harder, Billy.” Sheena stood nearby, ready to grab Dr. D. and pull him
out.

I lowered my shoulder and threw my weight against the snail. “It’s not
budging!”

“I have an idea,” Sheena said. “The slime!”

“Huh? What about it?”

“The slime can help us,” she explained. She stood behind the snail. “Let’s
both push the snail from behind. Maybe the slime will make it slide right off
him!”

I heard Dr. D. choking under the snail. He was swallowing slime!

I started to gag. But I swallowed hard. Held my breath. Forced the nausea
away.

Sheena and I planted our feet behind the snail.

“One, two, three, push!” she yelled.

We threw our weight against the snail. It slid a little bit.

“One more time—go!”

We pushed again.

The snail slowly slid off Dr. D.’s body. It hit the floor with a heavy thud.

Dr. D. slowly climbed to his feet. He was covered with sticky white goop from
head to toe.

He coughed and spat out a big glob of slime. “Not tasty,” he muttered,
shaking his head.

“Dr. D.—what happened?” I asked.

He smeared the gunk from his eyes. “I don’t know. All of a sudden, the boat
started shaking. I fell down. And the next thing I knew—
BOOM!
—I found
this giant snail on top of me!”

I glanced at the snail. It stood quietly in the passageway, oozing slime.
Where did it come from? And how did a snail get so big?

“It seemed to come out of thin air,” Dr. D. said.

“It looks a lot like the snail in my fishbowl,” I offered. “But
my
snail is tiny. It’s the size of my fingernail.”

“Dr. D.!” Sheena cried. “We saw two gigantic jellyfish! One of them tried to
squeeze me to death!”

“What?” Dr. D. turned to Sheena. “Giant jellyfish? What on earth is going on
in these waters?”

The boat lurched.

“Whoa!” I cried out as I lost my balance.

The boat rocked hard to one side. We all slammed against the wall.

“Now what?” Sheena moaned.

“Grab the rail, kids!” Dr. D. shouted. “We’re tipping over!”

The boat heaved to one side. The huge snail slid across the floor and crashed
into the wall.

Tables drifted across the floor. Pictures fell off the walls.

Sheena, Dr. D., and I were pressed against the wall. The boat tilted until we
were practically lying down.

“What’s happening?” Sheena cried.

Crash!
My cabin door flew open. Something thudded heavily inside.

“What was that?” I asked. “Something’s going on in my cabin!”

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.
I heard a heavy pounding sound from my room.

“What on earth—?” Dr. D. murmured.

Sheena gulped. “It sounds like some kind of monster!”

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.

“I’m going to check it out,” I said.

I tried to stand, but the tilt of the boat kept me pinned to the wall.

“I can’t get up!” I complained.

Sheena slid along the wall. “Try sliding!”

I inched along the passageway. Sheena and Dr. D. slid along behind me.

I came to a closed door—the door to Sheena’s cabin. I tried to step around
it, but the gravity pull was too strong. I leaned against the door…

“Whoa!” It flew open. I was about to fall in!

I grabbed the door frame. Sheena’s cabin floor tilted down behind me. It was
like being in the fun house at a carnival.

“Hold on, Billy!” Dr. D. said.

The floor tilted like a steep hill. If I let go of the door, I’d slide down
the cabin floor. Then I’d have to crawl my way back up to the passage—if I
could.

I clung to the door frame. The gravity pulled me into Sheena’s room.

“Help!” My feet slipped out from under me. I felt the wood giving way under
my fingernails.

“Pull yourself back up!” Dr. D. instructed. “Don’t let go!”

I hauled my body uphill and threw myself to the left. I felt my back slap
against the passage wall.

I made it. I made it past Sheena’s room. Now all I had to do was slide down
the passage to my cabin.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.
The pounding sound again, inside my cabin.

Behind me, Sheena and Dr. D. struggled past the gaping door to Sheena’s
cabin.

At last I reached my cabin. The pounding grew louder.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.

What was going on in there?

I peered through the doorway.

“My goldfish!” I gasped. “Oh, nooooo!”

My goldfish bowl had smashed to the floor. My two fish lay in a puddle,
flopping their tails.

At least they
looked
like my goldfish. But there was one difference—one
huge
difference.