The first one showed up six weeks ago. It must have heard the outboard and become curious. I was cruising up Swanston towards the State Library and the sun was relentless overhead. It was a stupid time to go out but I remembered there was a Safeway in the old QV building and I thought if the water wasn’t too deep I could swim down with a line and scavenge some tinned food. I was getting desperate.

I saw the shadow shimmering on the water a few seconds before I heard the leathery wings beating in the midday heat. I froze for a second in shock and it was nearly my undoing. Twisting to see what it was, I inadvertently eluded its outstretched talons and fell hard over the side of the boat as one jagged claw raked across my shoulders. Blood seeped quickly from the stinging wound as I dragged myself back into the boat, fumbling for my rifle in a state of panic. There would be no diving for food now there was blood in the water. Every hungry denizen of the deep for miles around would come a-hunting.