The villagers watched from the shore. Not with hope, but with the kind of pity reserved for those already half gone. As the engine rumbled to life and the coastline began to shrink behind them, Elias looked over his shoulder once.
The chain glinted faintly under the surface, running toward the deep like a promise he wasn’t sure he wanted to keep. Elias kept one hand on the wheel, the other on the sonar monitor. A faint green line flickered across the screen, the chain, unmistakable, running straight and unbroken beneath them. “There you are,” he muttered.