ONE MINUTE STUKE WAS FLOATING GENTLY IN THE water, and the next he was yanked beneath the surface by a hard tug on his leg. The pain hit him like a bolt of lightning. His head came up out of the water, and he screamed.

Stuke furiously kicked his foot, but something had hold of his leg and would not let loose. Worse, it was angrily shaking and writhing. Whatever it was, each time he moved, its teeth clamped down harder. The pain was excruciating. Still Stuke pumped his legs back and forth, desperately trying to free himself from whatever held him. He thought he heard voices calling to him, and shouts coming from the beach. But all his focus was on not passing out from the sudden, searing fire in his leg. If he didn’t stay conscious, he would certainly drown.

The creature yanked hard again on his leg. Stuke screamed as it pulled him underwater. There was no time to hold his breath. His mouth filled with seawater, and he choked on the salty taste. Feeling weak and woozy, he tried kicking at whatever was dragging him — probably a shark — but it was too strong. As he sank in the water, he watched widening billows of red swirl around him and realized it was his blood. Now he was truly terrified.

When he looked down, his fear and confusion only worsened. His goggles were full of seawater and he couldn’t see clearly. The creature holding him was big, but it wasn’t a shark. It looked like a giant snake or maybe a huge eel. Whatever it was, its teeth were like shards of broken glass slicing into his flesh. He worried now that if the thing bit him any harder it would break his leg. He was more scared than he’d ever been in his entire life.

Stuke struggled, but he was losing his strength. His lungs burned and when the creature clamped down again, he opened his mouth to scream but only took in a mouthful of seawater. This was it. His parents’ faces flashed in his mind, and he thought about how much he would miss them. He closed his eyes. With his last bit of oxygen and strength he gave his leg one more shake, but it was no use. He was going to drown, devoured by whatever strange beast held him in its grip.

The next thing he felt was hands under his arms, tugging him upward. He opened his eyes to see Calvin and Raeburn desperately trying to lift him to the surface. Calvin let go and swam right down to the creature, kicking out with his foot and landing blow after blow on its midsection. It didn’t seem to even notice. And as each kick connected, it shook Stuke’s leg and he writhed in pain. If anything, the monster clamped down harder. Stuke felt his body going limp. His friends could not save him.

Raeburn tore off her mask and snorkel, grabbing the hard plastic tube and holding it like an ice pick. She dived downward and stabbed it hard into the creature’s eye. The creature was determined not to release its prey and tried to wiggle its body away from the persistent girl. Raeburn stabbed again and again and again, annoying the giant eel and causing Stuke to silently suffer in pain. As each blow landed, the creature tried to pull him deeper into the depths. With one last mighty swing, Raeburn furiously jabbed the creature in its now-bloody eye.

Finally, Stuke was free. The giant eel backed away and floated motionlessly a moment, as if stunned by its own pain. For a tense moment, it looked like it was going to strike at Stuke again. But it dived, slinking along the sandy bottom, trailing a stream of blood behind it. Two other dark shapes darted from the reef and followed the bloody path through the water.

Raeburn and Calvin grabbed Stuke beneath the arms and pumped their legs furiously toward the surface. When they broke through, Stuke spat out a stream of water, coughing and choking.

Calvin turned Stuke’s head to the side. “Come on, Stuke! You gotta breathe, man!” he shouted. Stuke’s head lulled forward and another stream of seawater cascaded out of his mouth. Finally, he took a huge, gasping breath. Then he screamed in agony.

“Ahh! My leg!” he shouted.

By then Emmet and Riley had arrived.

“Come on!” Emmet shouted. “We’ve got to get him to shore. Riley, you swim alongside him and help hold him up. Raeburn, put pressure on the wound and help Riley push him toward shore.”

Emmet’s legs worked furiously as he treaded water. He looked toward the beach to find his dad and Dr. Geaux staring at them with their hands shading their eyes, trying to determine what had happened. Apollo, who had been leashed to the picnic table so he wouldn’t wander off, was in a full-on barking frenzy.

“Dad! We need help!” Emmet shouted. “Hurry! Stuke’s hurt!”

“Go! Go! Go!” he shouted to his friends. The four of them kicked toward shore, moving clumsily, with Stuke thrashing and moaning in obvious pain. Dr. Geaux and his dad ran into the water fully clothed, splashing toward them.

“Calvin, you and I will guard the rear,” Emmet said. He pulled his snorkel free from his mask like Raeburn had done, and Calvin did the same.

“We’ve got to watch so they don’t attack us from behind,” Emmet said.

Calvin understood immediately, and they both took deep breaths. Diving below the surface, they swam backward, their bodies at an angle to the ocean floor. At first it appeared as if the creatures had all disappeared. But then Emmet spotted two of them swimming hard along the sandy bottom, and veering in their direction. The trail of blood streaming from Stuke’s leg was acting like a homing beacon for these creatures, and for who-knew-what else. Emmet remembered reading that sharks could smell blood in the water from great distances.

He and Calvin surfaced for air.

“Did you see them?” Calvin asked.

“Yeah. It’s like they’re circling. They’re attracted by the scent of the blood,” he said.

Stuke moaned in agony and Raeburn tried to comfort him. Riley was grunting with the effort of pulling him toward the shore. There were still about fifty yards between them and Dr. Geaux and Dr. Doyle, who were now swimming toward them.

“Okay,” Calvin said. “Let’s go under, find out where they are. I guess if they come at us, kick at ’em with our flippers. Maybe the splashing water will distract them. Better to lose a foot than a hand.” He said it like losing a limb was a choice between regular and diet soda.

“I don’t want to lose either!” Emmet said. But they both ducked beneath the surface. It was just in time. Two of the creatures were only yards away, and closing fast. All Emmet could see were wide-open mouths full of teeth the size of knitting needles. Both boys flipped onto their backs and kicked out with their legs, their swim fins thrashing through the water, causing it to swirl and surge around them.

It worked. At least this time. Unsure of what they were facing, the things broke off and dived toward the bottom again. The water was getting shallower as they drew nearer to the shore. Emmet realized he was getting tired. He took a breath and ducked back beneath the water, glancing all around, but found no sign of the eels.

“I think they’re gone,” he said, gasping as he and Calvin broke the surface.

“I don’t know,” Calvin said. “We better …” He stopped. Their feet had touched bottom and their parents were there.

Together, with Raeburn keeping pressure on the wound, they splashed their way to the beach. Each of them helped carry Stuke across the hot sand, until they could lay him gently in the back of Dr. Doyle’s truck. Emmet ran and gathered up Apollo, and everyone piled into the truck bed. Dr. Geaux started the engine and whipped open her phone, dialing while Dr. Doyle and the others worked on Stuke.

Dr. Doyle peeled off his T-shirt and handed it to Raeburn while he cradled Stuke’s head in his lap.

“Raeburn, keep pressure on it with the cloth. Calvin, I need you to kneel at his feet. We’re going to gently lift his leg and set it on your shoulder. We need to keep his foot elevated,” Dr. Doyle said.

“It hurts! It hurts!” Stuke cried out. Riley gripped his hand in hers. Emmet took the other one.

“Hang on, buddy,” Emmet said. “We’re going to be at the hospital soon.” Emmet kept talking calmly to Stuke as the truck zoomed over the road.

Dr. Doyle checked his eyes. “He’s going into shock.”

Emmet shook his hand. “Hey, Stuke! Come on, man. School starts in two weeks. You don’t want to miss that! Tater tots in the cafeteria! Homework! Hang in there, dude. We’re almost there.”

Stuke continued to moan, tears streaming down his face. Apollo wormed his way into the crowd around the wounded boy and gently licked the tears away, as if comforting him in the only way he knew how.

A few minutes later, the truck screeched to a halt at the ER entrance of a nearby hospital. A trauma team burst through the door, and several orderlies lifted Stuke onto a gurney. The six of them watched in exhausted silence as they wheeled him inside.

The hot dogs were left forgotten and burning on the grill.