AWAKENED FROM THE RIFT, PART 2: (Patreon)

The fear of being eaten alive, adrift in the water and waiting for the inevitable; too horrible a fate. Together the fishermen share an understanding, to throw the body overboard, readying the paddles and mangled corpse. With a quick heave, they sacrifice the remains to the school of hungry Bone Snappers, who surface and latch onto the viscera before it even hits the water. Just as the command is given, so do the paddlers begin, and with great haste they start to frantically propel themselves away. They can only hope to reach the land in time, lest the fish consume faster than they can paddle.
 

A frenzy of teeth eviscerate the corpse, layer by layer of skin and flesh, down to the bones. The fishermen nearly expect the skeleton itself to be gnawed into a fine powder. They are ever so close once they realize what a distance has been made between themselves and the snappers, now nearly finished with their feast. Hurriedly, they neglect to tie down the raft, but to leave it without care, as they care not to ever return to this place. 

Rupturing through the water and wrapping itself around the raft, the group turns to meet yet another monster from the deep. The elongated slimy body of spastic fins tightens its grip like a vice, crushing the vessel and knocking a few men off balance. Many run for their lives, others try to pull the struggling ashore, but ultimately another soul is lost to the horrors from below. The rest are saved only by the sudden turn of fate, when the eel creature reels back in pain as the cloud of razor jaws return for a larger meal. 

Rejoining each other, safe on land at last but not yet home, they run for the longboats. Originally kept safe and tucked away in the sea cave of the island cove, are the now half-sunken watercrafts, weighed down by the collapsed rock. Whatever caused the quakes earlier did not only awaken these things, but also disturbed the caverns to inadvertently sabotage their escape. It is beginning to feel as if the island itself is trying to kill them, but there has to be a way off. 

POLL: 

-Build a signal fire. 

One large bonfire on the island's edge, a desperate plea for help. Nothing is certain, but if they used what sparse materials that do exist here, it might well be enough to get the attention of scouts on the mainland. 

-Construct a new boat. 

Not willing to risk the cavern waters, they will instead put efforts into a new boat. As mentioned before, the island only has so much to offer, but possibly enough to rig a makeshift sailboat. Unless the fish start crawling to the surface; they have the time, but will the vessel hold all of them, and will it hold up to the waters? 

-Dive and salvage the longboats. 

Although the volunteers are few, they are desperate to leave this island immediately. If they can manage to remove the rubble and bring them ashore, repairs can be made, and the sooner they can brave the sea. What lurks below is unsure, but if it is anything similar to the things they have seen only moments before, it most certainly will not be easy.