Pressure

01:34

They licked their wounds, lying inside the beast’s mouth—each to their own.

-"You think the whale's just messing with us?" he said, while lying on its tongue.

-"We’re fucked, you know that."

-"SO YOU THINK IT'S GONNA EAT US" he shot straight up.

"No—well, maybe. But I meant in more of a general consensus."

-"Oh, we’re always fucked. Or homeless. Or in debt. Mostly all of the above combined," Max droned on.

-"I’m serious," she said, uncertainty in her voice.

-"So am I... we always fuck up—well, mostly me... and then you unfuck it, and everything’s jolly."

-"You do remember the part with the nukes, right?"

-"Oh, as if this world can get any more fucked up. Honestly, I wonder why the fascists didn’t use them already."

-"He’s a scientist. I’m pretty sure."..."Why blow up the world?"She pondered to herself.

-"Mad scientist—remember? The accent’s on the mad part... I mean, why do anything in this world?it’s just survival."

-"When the fuck did you get this rational?"

-"When that one took everything from me."He pointed at one of the Russians.

-"That’s not even the same guy you pointed at twenty minutes ago."

-"FUCK me for not being able to distinguish a rock from a fucking stone."

-"Is... is that a metaphor? Holy shit, you’re evolving."

-"Go fuck yourself."

The whale’s stomach rumbled beneath them like thunder.

-"Well, shit."

Max looked around.

-“Well. That’s probably bad.”

Captain Richard, minding his metal arm and patching his wound, lifted his head up

-“The beast it speaks,” he said.

The child started jittering and jumping in the air. The whale began to rise out of the ocean, muffled sounds of explosions started becoming more noticeable.

They lifted from the water, riding side by side with a military vessel soaring through the waves, the whale opened its mouth, water splashing all around them.

-“How the fuck does this whale know where to go?”

-“I think Twinkle Toes speaks whale,” Max said, both of them glancing at the child standing with great self-admiration.

-“Or… we’re really lucky.”

A man in a dark leather coat paced impatiently on the bridge.

-“YO! Fascist guy! Give us a hand, will ya?” Max shouted.

The man turned in complete shock, rubbing his eyes several times in total disbelief.

-“You’re alive?!” he yelled from the side rail.

-“Really? That’s the surprising part? Not the fucking whale.” Maeve added, dryly.

-“What do you want from me? Go die for your country! You were given orders!”

-“Yeah—well, the whale’s on a lease, so we gotta give it back!”Max jokingly yelled back-“THROW US a rope!”

The man muttered something under his breath and gave the signal. A thick rope was tossed their way.

Max caught it, looked at Maeve, and grinned.

They all stumbled on to the bridge, a large central console displayed a holographic feed of the skirmish outside. Water dripped from their soaked clothes, the stench of whale tongue clinging to every last one of them, giving off an unpleasant odor barely tolerable by the rest of the crew.

The officer in the dark leather coat wrinkled his nose as they approached, glaring at the dripping group with utter disgust.

“Well, you made a mess of things,” he said flatly. “Not only did he show up, he got here ahead of schedule.” he muttered, straightening his posture.

“I’m guessing you didn’t recover the codes as arranged… so there’s pretty much nothing left for you to do.”

-“So what— the captain’s just supposed to die because you don’t have a plan?” Fred snapped.

-“Die?” he repeated, tilting his head. “Oh, yeah, that lethal dose of poison… well, I guess so.”

“HEY! That wasn’t the deal! We get you the codes, we get the antidote!” Max barked.

“And you failed. Now you die. You’re criminals—what else did you expect?”

“We’ll get you the codes,” Max insisted.

“There’s no need. He won’t be able to break through our defenses anyway,” the man scoffed. “I have personally prepared us for the oncoming attack.”

He gestured proudly to the crew as he admired himself, completely unaware of the looks of disgust and shock he was receiving.

Suddenly, the room was bathed in red light emanating from the table console.

A voice came through the comms: “Sir… they’ve penetrated our defenses.”

The man’s smug expression froze.

-“THE HELL IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!”

-"Land this godforsaken ship!

"Get this forsaken ship on the ground—NOW!" he barked, his voice tight with fury. "I want every marine in this sector, all of them to the central control system. We’re heading there ourselves. If it moves, you shoot it! I don’t care if it’s a civilian, a robot, a dog, or a goddamn child. —I want it gone from the face of the Earth!

And somebody open a goddamn window!"

-"Sir, it’s sealed shut due to the speed," someone responded.

A vein popped on the side of his head His hand shot to his sidearm. Without a word, he fired at a side window. The glass shattered, sending a rush of air through the cabin.

-"There."

-"Now, for the rest of you—whoever can bring me the head of this so-called scientist gets to live!"

-"Umm… it seems we’re about to hit the side of the freighter, sir!" Bobby added nervously.

He scoffed. "Jesus, what century are you from?"

A gap opened instantly as the ship veered into a tunnel, locking onto mechanical tracks. The command center detached and connected to an elevator system, launching straight upward.

The smell of metal wafted through the window the darkened room opened to the sky, high above, launching them up the side of a skyscraper. It wasn’t a freighter—it was far too large for that, at least twice the size of the original New New USS. The structure’s white exterior glowed with sea moss scattered everywhere, illuminating the city in an eerie, aquamarine light. It felt like paradise, as though civilization had never been destroyed.

They descended toward a platform, the doors connecting to the building opened. On the other side stood the president, white-haired and smiling.

-"Ah, Mr. Deckard," he said with a nod. "You’ve arrived."

-"What the hell? Do you guys have like a teleporter or something?" Max said in awe

Deckard spoke, "My apologies, sir. These are just some vermin we picked up along the way."

-"Oh no worries," he spoke with a jolly smile, sending unease down everyone’s spine. "There’s no need for confusion. You must be talking about my younger brother, where few people know the fact that there are two of us, dominating each side of the planet, keeping the illusion of one unified power. I’m sure you won’t be long for this world, so there’s no point in lying."

“And I thought the whale would be the craziest part?” Maeve said to Max

As the two men turned, starting to discuss the matters at hand, the whole building shook.

The President chuckled. “Well, good thing this place is built like a goddamn fortress.”

A second later, every window exploded inward in a haze of dust and glass. The elevator groaned—and dropped a foot with a deafening CLUNK.

-“Shit!”

It plummeted, floor after floor, a gut-wrenching freefall before grinding to a halt between levels.

Everyone inside—Russians, the Captain, the suits—froze, eyes darting.

Maeve and Max shared a look—and a nod.

-“Every man for himself!” Max shouted as he grabbed Twinkle Toes, the two bolting toward the windows.

The Russians moved in quick unison, trying to pry the elevator doors open.

The Captain roared, twisting his harpoon arm as if it might do something useful.

-“You sure…?” Maeve asked, pausing.

- Max looked at her intensely. “Yeah, fuck it.”

They blasted the side window open and waited, jumping onto an oncoming Doombot. Descending in its attack, both grabbed one arm—it sent them crashing through the side of the building a couple of floors below.

Captain Richard hoisted his hand into the air—a once shining beacon of hope, now a scrambled piece of metal barely held together.

-"Give me a hand!"

The two crewmen lifted him up as he pried open the emergency roof hatch, plunging his hand through it.

His makeshift hook connected to the side of the building, barely making it a floor above. The two men clung to his legs, the elevator shaking once more.

-"Wait for it..." he muttered.

It trembled, preparing for its final plunge, the Russians waiting for the perfect second, the elevator doors pried open—stuck between floors.

-"NOW!" yelled the Captain. "Think thin, boys!"

The two men clung to dear life, holding onto the Captain as the elevator plummeted beneath their feet, the screams of the cabin crew echoing as it fell.

The Russians surged forward, leaping through the open hatch and into the building, just as the elevator screamed downward.

The three men were left hanging on the side.

"Huh… can’t believe that actually worked," before they climbed up to the floor above.

The Russian, groping around the door, reading the sign out loud: "Emergency Exit."Barely making any sense of it.

Below them, the three laid on the ground.

-“We need to hurry,” Maeve said, reluctantly.

-"When do we not?"

-"No, we need to get to the top."

-"Why?"

-"Because if we can't get the codes, let’s be where the codes are going to be."

-"I'm just gonna nod my head in the hope that you know what you're doing." he said, lifting Twinkle Toes off the ground.

"Yeah, let’s hope so…"