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He laid the piece of meat onto the empty bag, laying it there for a while. There was no way he'd be able to eat when he was this nervous. He looked back up at Alec to find his attention on the meat. Slowly, very slowly, an idea crossed his mind. It was desperation, but in the end he really would do anything to stop his madness, when the way to a cure was right under his nose.

Of course, some things had slipped his mind, including an important detail imbedded in Moreau's last announcement.

"Lisssten, Alec... let'sss make a deal. You're hungry, right?" He picked up the paper bag, balancing the chunk of meat on it. His tail had picked up speed again, swishing nervously. His voice became strained as he spoke. "Jussst agree to go out with Amaya, and do ssso. I'll give you thisss. I don't even care any more, jussst sssay you will. I'm begging you..."

"You won't regret thisss. The sssteak is yoursss. Enjoy it." He proffered the bag with the piece of meat toward Alec, looking immensely relieved.

Zach handed it over and beamed a little, hoping that the shark boy could be counted on to keep Amaya occupied. His tail swished happily behind him. It took about a minute and a half for Alec's words to be properly digested and connections made, and only then did his eyes bug out in alarm. He clapped both hands to the sides of his face roughly, miscalculating the location of his snout once again. His throat seemed incapable of making noise, so only a fearful wheeze came out.

"Shouldn't have done that..." he moaned, staring at Alec and the steak. He looked about ready to claw into the sides of his own face, and didn't notice when one of his claws did p***k into him. A tiny trickle of blood welled around the clawtip and down his face. His frill was fanned out completely. "Shouldn't have done that..."

Zach continued to mumble and occasionally hiss when he stumbled on the letter "S". There seemed to be no immediate reaction to what had happened, but immediate could mean anything from a second to five minutes. It made for unpleasant waiting, and Zach had stopped paying attention to Alec preferring instead to squeeze his eyes shut. It was evident that Zach and stress were not a good combination.

He opened his eyes to the odd-sounding question. His first impression was that Alec was looking a little sick. Had it been the meat? He pondered the question over, trying to remember the words that had echoed across the island. For all the grandeur in how they were spoken, there wasn't much to them that he could clearly recall.

"Ssstick me out here like you, I think. I hope they don't. Thisss was an accident. I forgot. I forgot..."

The sudden movement of the shark boy caught his attention. His mind raced, trying to figure out what he was going to do. Attack?

Oh, yes.

Zach wasn't focused or calm enough to react in a timely and life-saving manner. As before, his scattered ideas of what constituted a getaway had him flinging himself in a variety of directions with a variety of limbs. The result was him landing in a confused heap and still attempting to bolt with his arms and legs getting entangled in a mismatched quadruped's gait. He didn't make it more than a foot away.

Zach felt razor-sharp teeth sink into his arm and howled. Hunger must have come over the teen. He'd gone animal. Zach flailed some more and attempted to whack Alec in the face with his other arm, anything to get him to relinquish his painful jaw-grip. Finally, with enough thrashing he managed to pull away, though there were bloody lines across his skin where the teeth had tried to hold on.

He breathed heavily and clamped a hand over the burning bite, scooting backward until he could safely get up onto his two feet and run into the welcoming shrouded foliage of the jungle. He didn't look back once, and the steak was all but forgotten with pain clouding his thoughts. He needed to get away. Away from Alec, away from the river, away from his mistake and the senseless grey beast that the kid had been.