Fat tears rolled down Ricardo’s face as he felt the sea breeze brush his black hair. Ricardo was feeling regret. It twisted inside him like an injured snake. He stared with his feet imbedded in the sand as he watched his friend die. Ricardo felt as though he were watching a train wreck happening yet he felt unable to do anything about it. Helplessness and regret all tied up into one strand. He regretted not turning back as he heard grace scream. He regretted whatever allowed this strange series of events to happen. He regretted…so many things. Deep in his mind he started believing that it was all his fault… that he could saved her from whatever horror was dragging her further out.

Through the crushing self inflicted pressure, Ricardo blinked his eyes and noticed something different. The red fin had gone away! The great change in events caught Ricardo completely off guard and he stared in wonder as Grace swam excruciatingly slowly towards him followed by a horrid trail of red. Ricardo stood there for a brief moment and then leapt into the water as fast he could. All sense of his usually calm composed behavior was left behind as he swam towards her and carried her to shore as best as he could.

Ricardo finally dragged Grace onto the sandy beach. The damage to her leg was pretty bad. Ricardo, the untrained doctor that he was, could only do a measly job of patching her up. Everything seemed to be happening way fast for him and he felt like he was moving in quicksand. Grace was unconscious, the sub was still stuck where they had initially left it, and there was a dreadful pool of blood soaking through the torn up shirt he had wrapped up around her wound. He had little to no experience surviving in the wild but knew the basics from watching any survival show. None of the basics mentioned an ideal way of saving your friend from a life threatening bite like the one currently on his friends leg. Ricardo decided to do what he could and arranged a series of immediate goals for himself in his head.

First he needed to find some way to stop her bleeding. At this rate she would simply die of blood loss in about an hour. Next would be finding or making a shelter… Most of his basics included this. The third goal included finding food and fresh water. He couldn’t do much without energy and they had already consumed whatever food they had in the submersible. In the mad swim for shore Ricardo had noticed that the ocean was actually fresh water as he accidentally snorted some water in. However unappealingly black the water seemed it would still let them get by.

While wracking his brains in an attempt to find a way to immediately stem the flow of blood, Ricardo eventually came up with the idea of burning her wounds closed. He knew it would hurt her but it would her lot less then dying. (Author note: Death is painless right? Ricardo: She’ll thank me later dammit!)

Who would of thought he would need a lighter now … He definitely didn’t bring one down in the submersible. In a race against time Ricardo carried the slowly bleeding Grace over towards the nearest tree. He carefully set her against the trunk upright and began gathering small pieces of driftwood that were scattered all along the beach. After quickly digging a pit and arranging the driftwood he had found into a tepee, Ricardo got to work twisting a reasonably sized stick against a torn up branch that looked like it would light easily.

Thirty minutes of fruitless fire making later and Ricardo was starting to feel even worse then he felt watching her almost die. Before he felt like he was powerless to save her and now he felt like he was still powerless to save her even though he knew exactly what to do and how to do it.

He looked over at Grace and noticed how pale she was compared to before which set off flames in his heart.

"ARRRGH!" In a fit of rage Ricardo spun the branch with every fiber of his being. His eyes lit like glowing embers as he concentrating deeply upon the rapidly spinning stick almost willing it to burst alight. Eventually, Ricardo felt something sickening lurch in his brain and the next thing he felt was his own hands burning. The stick was completely on fire!

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Author Note: Oops accidentally released too many chapters :p Anyways, here we are at the end of the promised mass release. If any of ya’ll have any tips on my writing or anything please comment. Honestly, if you have anything at to say I’ll happily respond to it. Hopefully the pacing of events doesn’t seem too drawn out. I just have read many fictions on this site and always noted the lack of detail and sense of realism. I also have always strongly disliked how some authors, when people when people were talking just write something like Sam- blah blah blah. For me at least it took away from the story. I can always change and edit it if need be. Also, in the future there will be more events per chapter instead of just a dude trying to climb up a ladder (also more blood.) I’ll need some help from the viewers for some things like any plot points I happen to have trouble in the future or paths I should take in the story. P.S: You might of noticed something off about chapters 3.5 and 4 and that would be because I pulled a George Lucas and wrote those two chapters even before finishing the prologue! P.S.S. My future release schedule isn’t yet certain… however I feel like 1-2 chapters every 3 to 5 days seems about right depending on the popularity of this novel and how busy I am IRL. I may even release more depending on my mood and motivation.