TerrorTide: Wrath Of The Sunken Guardian

• Hayden Brown, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2019

Stranded! I’m marooned on the island of Naka-Nova: the once-glorious holiday destination, now a post-apocalyptic wasteland, brought to its knees by the infamous Kraken. The week’s events roll around in my brain, which I’m sure is coconut water in the heat by now. Despite the constant feeling of sitting in a frying pan, slowly melting, I curse that scoundrel Jasper Cosbanie. How I detest that pig-faced sea cucumber! First, he “accidentally” knocked the ice cream machine off the ship blaming me, then he sabotaged my go-kart brakes before the race and claimed it was “just a matter of faulty gears” when I crashed. Finally, he poked a gargantuan hole in my life jacket, causing a jet of air to blast out, banishing me over the side to where I am now!

As I sit and think about that idiot, something peculiar occurs. An almighty rumble echoes from the deepest depths of the ocean, rumbling across the sand, and knocking me altogether off my feet. Eardrums nearly shattered, I stumble towards the last hut: a straggling mess of wood, rock, and sand. The door immediately crumbles and falls away as I knock. The one survivor of the devastating Kraken massacre sticks his wild, scruffy, bearded head through the tattered doorway. A man who looks like he has lost his marbles and most of his body parts a long time ago, Jackson Magee eyes me suspiciously like a policeman does a criminal.
“Hello, Mr Magee, sir,” I cautiously enunciate. The man is silent, but I know he’s hiding something. An eternity passes, and he finally beckons me inside.

Wavering on his wooden legs, he directs me to a room that, apart from a couple of tree stumps, a crate, and a poster of the Kraken, framed in aluminium, is bare.
“Quite the collector you are,” I joke through gritted teeth. To my great surprise, the man grins at me like a mother handing her son a puppy.
“I’m sure you have many questions,” he enquires. “But first, I must tell you a story.
Long ago, in the freezing, black depths of the Pacific Ocean, the people of Atlantis made a monster. The beast was supposed to guard Atlantis, but the deep where it was created turned it cold and dark. It attacked everyone, then annihilated the city. Only the fearless Atlantean warrior, Aquanox, by using the Sceptre Of King Cromilion, saved them. It later reawakened and destroyed Naka-Nova. It still had the Sceptre embedded in its skin, so I used it to fight the beast.”
I am gobsmacked. My voice stuttering, I reply, “Will the Kraken ever come back?”
“Yes. In fact, he’s already here!” squeals Magee. The ground splits apart to reveal a squid the size of Surfers Paradise! The crate shatters to find the Sceptre inside. With all my might, I plunge it into its mighty flesh. With a terrifying screech, its eyes widen and it flops into the sea. Jackson looks impressed, but whispers, “Now for the others…..”.