Chapter 8 – Which Came First: the Chicken or the Max?

The eyes of the crew were glued to the window as they watched the end of one of theirs.

The Red October drove a straight, fast course for the base of a mountain.

Then it touched.

The world stood still.

The crew held their breath.

An empty boom echoed through the water.

Pebbles from the damaged mountain drifted through the water, to the ocean floor.

Little cracks spread over the sub’s body like a dropped eggshell.

The submarine’s nose crunched and compressed.

The world began to rumble.

The Nautilus crew could feel it too.

It was imminent destruction.

Chunks of concrete, fragments of metal, and shards of glass flew through the interior.

In the control room, the rubble triggered something: an electric energy that was surging through the entire sub.

There was a half-second of silence before all the energy was released as light and sound.

The generated heat dissipated into bubbles in the water, rising quickly towards the surface while pieces of the mountain hurried down.

One explosion triggered the next until nothing remained.

The Nautilus exploded in chaos.

“What the hell just happened?”

“The Red October…”

“Why did it suddenly…?”

“Pollak was…”

“I can’t believe he…”

“Alex is actually dead…”

“I have a feeling that wasn’t a mistake…”

“It wasn’t.”

“Somebody else must’ve killed him.”

“It was NAD.”

“Well, who is NAD?”

“Who would want to kill Pollak?”

“Cedric…”

“It wasn’t me, I swear!”

“We’ll you’re the only one who knows how to control the…”

“There are two other captains and Pollak is one of them!”

“Yeah, but Pollak wouldn’t kill himself…”

“If I could have everyone’s attention!”

Appropriately Named Handsome Stranger Ranon Cox was wearing his detective hat again.

The hall fell silent.

“We need to stop accusing each other,” he said, finally.

The crew looked puzzled.

“What?”

“Why?”

Ranon sighed.

Was no one else noticing this?

“All of the suspects keep dying.”

Ranon paced the hall, surveying the remaining crew.

“This NAD guy only kills who we think he is.”

“No,” Max pointed. “If that were true, I’d be dead by now.”

Ranon gave him a deeply pitiful look.

“I think I know who he is… And if I’m right, he’s just saving you for last.”

Max tried to keep that shiver from running up his spine.

Upset, he managed to stammer, “Who is it?”

“I don’t know for sure, but…”

“Who do you think he is?” Max demanded.

Ranon frowned.

“I don’t think I should say.”

Max frowned.

“Well, I think I know who he is too.”

He took a step forward.

“And maybe you’re next.”

Ranon looked at him now, eyes narrowed.

“Is that a threat?”

Max threw his hands up in defense.

“No, man! All I’m saying is be careful!”

“Why would I need to be careful?”

“You’re trying to crack this case.”

“That’s because I’m probably the most logical guy left.”

Aside, Cedric shook his head in protest.

“Your investigations are taking you where NevAlDe doesn’t want you to go.”

“And how would you know where NevAlDe doesn’t want me to go?”

Max and Ranon glared at each other, suspiciously.

“Hey, guys?”

The crew looked down the hall, where Max stood, near the escape chute.

“What’s going on? What did I miss?” he called.

Ranon was the first to look back to the Max he had been arguing with.

Of course, that Max was no longer there.

“What the fuck, Max?” V shouted.

“What did I do?” the real Max called, his voice cracking.

“And where have you been this whole time?” Cedric inquired, suspiciously.

“I was at… the Mess Hall,” Max stammered.

The crew stared at him in disbelief and Max stared back at them, wide-eyed.

“I was hungry!” he tried to explain. “I had all these chicken sandwiches I was going to eat and…”

“Fat-ass,” Cedric mumbled under his breath.

“… but I didn’t get to eat any of them! It was the earthquake! I fell down the stairs!”

“You fell… down the stairs?” Cedric repeated in disbelief.

“It keeps happening!” Max squawked.

Patrick erupted in frustrated declarations.

“I WARNED YOU, DOG! I TOLD YOU ABOUT THE STAIRS!”

Max whined.

“Eating chicken is hard…”

Ranon was deep in thought.

Too deep for you.

“This one’s the real Max,” he mused.

“What?” the Other Max squawked.

“But he--!”

“How do you know?”

Ranon was thinking too loudly to hear them.

“Now there’s only… I need to find…”

He walked off, too pensive to continue.

The crew watched him go, completely confused.

Max looked around, still baffled.

“So, guys?” he asked. “What just happened?”

NAD paced down the empty hall, shaking his head, miserably.

“An underwater earthquake?” he thought aloud. “How stupid is he?”

“I could take you in a straight up fist fight. Definitely.”

NAD turned to face El Mysterio.

“That was a nice move back there,” he congratulated him. “Crashing the sub, killing Pollak, being Max…”

El Mysterio was silent, confused, as if to say, “That wasn’t me; I didn’t do that…”

NAD chuckled pleasantly.

“I know, I know, that was me.”

He smiled.

“But I’ll let you take credit for it, though… if you want…”

El Mysterio still didn’t respond.

NAD figured he was here to talk about a fistfight and a fistfight only.

That was so typical of materialized electrical energies.

Unless their creator was manipulating them at the time, they couldn’t do anything more than what they were assigned to do.

El Mysterio, or EM (who NAD was tempted to call “Emma”)’s current task was to challenge NAD to a fistfight.

NAD resolved to give him a response.

“If you want to, I guess,” he smiled. “When are we talking?”

Emma didn’t respond.

Instead, he vanished.

NAD watched him go and wondered who this mysterious “el” was.

Actually, he wasn’t very mysterious.

He was more… strange.

And it’s too bad he was wearing a mask.