"A Plague Of Teeth" by Tara Quint

Hundreds of people stampeded toward the water in celebration of reopening. The prior summer had been full of confusion and isolation due to a virus outbreak and now everyone was set with their vaccines to trample the beaches. Thrusting their towels into the sand, placing their umbrellas to assist with shade. Trash bins already overflowing, allowing the breeze to lift a mess everywhere. Lily Quint picked up and dropped a few seashells as she walked the shoreline with her professor.

"Dr. Hooper? Do you think it's wise for people to play in the water after so much inactivity?

Adjusting his glasses, Matt Hooper let out a chuckle. "No. It's hard to convince people of possible danger, seeing as how many won’t even wear masks during a pandemic, but there are plenty of lifeguards and a lot has improved in to monitoring shallow water since Amity."

"But my great uncle, would he agree..-"

"Your great uncle believed...and did.. a lot of crazy things, as you know, but it was his pride that got him. He never much agreed to anything from others."

They stood quietly for a few moments. Lily shook her head at the many surfers and swimmers playing as if nothing had changed in a year. People are afraid of a plague they can't see but fearless of the uncontrollable sea.

Hooper tilted his head and smiled at his student. "I think though, that he may agree you're smart enough to know better than some of these people."

Giving the biology of the shallow water time to adjust after absence of humans may have been an essential move but it was too late. The scream was worse than can be imagined. Matt and Lily ran toward the direction of panic.

"Stupid stingray!" a teenage boy was gripping his leg as he waded toward the dry sand and fell flat into it.

"Dude, you gotta pee on it to get the sting out!" one of his friends laughed, pretending to undo his trunks.

"That's for jellyfish!" someone screamed.

"Both wrong!" Matt shouted into the air of open noise which may as well been the equivalent under his breath.

"How bad is it?" another asked.

They were crowded by so many people looking at the wound, wincing expressions & piss jokes.

Lily shifted through her fannypack for a pair of tweezers but Hooper grabbed her arm. "We can't get through that crowd, leave it to the lifeguards."

The uproar deafened all but the attention of Lily, Hooper and those still by the waves. As they looked at the water, they couldn't hear the screams, all they saw was blood. The boy with the stingray wound had garnered such a group around him that even people who saw what was happening in the water couldn't get the attention of the lifeguards.

Hooper and Lily continuously screamed the word "SHARK!" as masses of people ran from the water toward their cars.

As if another panic had taken over, crowds covered the boy with the wound, with only Matt aiding him and the lifeguards.

"My friends left me!" he cried, ignorant to what was happening outside his own pain.

"Get away from the water!" the shouts and screams became louder.

"It was only a stupid stingray! Relax you guys!"

Matt Hooper grabbed the boy and turned his head, "There worse things than stingrays in the water today." The boy passed out, unconscious and was arm lifted away.

The beach closed signs were up again. Many lost their lives during the first post-pandemic feeding frenzy. Just the first.