Loch (The Zone Unkown)

by Paul Zindel

  Dr. Sam signaled Randolph again that he was going up. He had started away from the center beam when he heard a high-pitched cry like that of a small land animal or seabird. Randolph began backing toward Dr. Sam, as two more small creatures darted in and out at the edge of the light beam. The only frame of reference Dr. Sam had for such animal behavior was on the few occasions he had swum with very young seals and penguins.

  “Come on,” Dr. Sam said.

  “Wait,” Randolph insisted.

  Another of the little creatures came fast by Randolph, then scooted quickly to disappear out into the blackness again. Randolph got a good look at it this time and knew it was smaller than the creature that had been with the kids when he and his men had chased them in the grid. It was younger, maybe only days old. His mind began to spin with the possibilities of how Cavenger would reward him if he could bring the carcass of one up to The Revelation.

  “By God, I’ll go up without you,” Dr. Sam threatened, reaching out to Randolph’s shoulder to turn him.

  “No,” Randolph said.

  If there was one thought creeping into Dr. Sam’s head, it was the realization that there was a family of plesiosaurs in the lake, maybe as many as eight or ten, including the young ones.

  The creatures’ cries grew more piercing, excited now. Randolph shook off Dr. Sam’s hand and raised his speargun.

  “No,” Dr. Sam yelled, the air of his shout bursting out to block the view beyond his mask. When the bubbles cleared he saw a few of the creatures flying at them, each on a slightly different trajectory like atomic particles in a cloud chamber.

  Randolph let loose the spear.

  The spear sped forward beyond the light before it struck something. The explosion from its tip was small, a slight shock wave of sound and light.

  Dr. Sam thought about hitting Randolph, about putting his arm around his neck and physically dragging him up to the surface.

  The cries stopped.

  Randolph smiled at Dr. Sam. Then he signaled that he was swimming forward under the hull to retrieve the specimen. Randolph got only a few yards before the cries returned, this time in a rush that was earsplitting. There was only a moment to be aware of the painful, angry sounds, before five of the small creatures flew straight at Randolph. They hurtled themselves at him like missiles, their cartilage-rimmed mouths opening to reveal the gums of their jaws and their oversized, needlelike teeth. Like a school of piranha they struck Randolph’s body, first tearing away dozens of small pieces of his rubber suit and then, finally, his flesh.

  Dr. Sam started to swim toward Randolph to drag him away from the creatures. But the wounds were too deep now. Blood streamed out into the water as if from punctures in a large, struggling doll. Finally, as the creatures pulled their attacker down, deeper, away from the light, one of Randolph’s arms was bitten free of his body.

  The last Dr. Sam saw of Randolph was the halo of creatures surrounding his head like a scarlet wreath as they plunged him into darkness.

  13

  IN THE CUTTING ROOM

  The vibrations from beneath the boathouse grew stronger. Sarah froze in the armchair, looking to Loch to see what their next move would be. They heard Zaidee calling to them from the end of the dock.

  From the picture window Loch saw her still wearing the radio earphones in the boat. She was waving at him. “Hey! Something’s happened on The Revelation! I can hear what they’re radioing,” she shouted.

  Loch wanted to cry out to Zaidee, to warn her—but he didn’t dare make a sound. Somehow he felt the creatures would know she meant them no harm.

  “Dad’s quit!” Zaidee shouted happily. “Cavenger wants him off the boat immediately. I think a helicopter’s lifting him back to the base. …”

  Zaidee’s voice suddenly cracked and she went silent. Loch watched her lift her hand and point toward the boat slips beneath him. She was seeing something he couldn’t. All at once Sarah’s and Loch’s eyes opened in terror as the monstrous head of the Rogue lifted into view, filling the frame of the window. The massive yellow eyes of the beast fixed upon them behind the glass.

  Sarah screamed as the shadow fell over her.

  “Don’t move!” Loch told her, but she was out of control. She leaped up from the chair. Her hand reached out, and she grabbed a heavy ashtray from the table.

  “No!” Loch shouted, rushing toward her—but it was too late.

  Sarah hurled the ashtray toward the Rogue.

  CRASH.

  The picture window exploded. The Rogue shook his head, startled by the attack. He let out a loud, shrieking blast from his nostrils, slime splattering across the living room as he thrust his head forward.

  The head and neck of a second beast, its snout thinner, coarser, ripped up through the center of the floor, blocking the door through which they had entered. Loch spotted another door, one off the kitchen. He grabbed Sarah’s hand.

  “Go!” Loch yelled, pushing Sarah ahead of him.

  In a moment they were out the door, running up the stairs of a breezeway. They burst through yet another door into a huge, empty warehouse with high, vaulted ceilings of corrugated tin.

  “Where are we?” Sarah cried out, her heart pounding in her chest.

  Loch looked at the cluster of machinery and huge blades at the far end of the building. “I think it’s the cutting room,” he said.

  CRASH. The entire building shook.

  Loch remembered the building was cantilevered out over the lake. “The creatures are hitting the supports.”

  There was another, stronger impact near the breezeway, this time with the sound of metal twisting, beams cracking.

  “Come on,” Loch yelled, grabbing Sarah’s hand and running for the far end of the building. Daylight streamed in through the cracks of what looked like a barn door past the huge sawing machinery. They swung the doors open, only to see a narrow walkway onto the elevated log sluice.

  CRASH. The entire building trembled, began to dip downward, shattering the wall of windows. The only way out was onto the sluice.

  “I hate heights!” Sarah shouted to Loch as he led her out and along the rickety gully. On both sides of the sluice was a fifty-foot drop.

  There was another shock to the building, and a wall of logs on the mountain began to waken.

  Loch looked back as the sound of the low, frightening rumble began to grow. There was a rush of water onto the sluice, and one by one logs dropped into the flow. The first log hurtled toward them.

  “We’re going to have to jump into the log pond,” Loch said.

  “I’m not jumping anywhere,” Sarah yelled.

  “Get ready!” Loch warned, holding her hand firmly.

  “I’m not jumping.”

  “Yes, you are!”

  Loch leaped, taking Sarah with him. They dropped down, down into the slim wedge of open water at the rim of the log pond, and surfaced quickly. For a moment they thought they were safe, but there came a rumbling noise from above.

  “Oh, my God!” Sarah cried, as they looked up to see the sluice breaking and a log hurtling down at them. It fell with all the speed and force of a huge battering ram. Loch grabbed Sarah, set his feet against a pylon, and pushed them both away. The falling log crashed into the water next to them, a single untrimmed branch tearing across Loch’s shoulder like a whip.

  “You’re bleeding,” Sarah gasped as they pulled themselves up onto the nearest floating log.

  “It’s nothing,” Loch said, standing. Beyond the levee of the log pond, he saw, Zaidee was at the wheel of the skiff.

  “Come on!” Zaidee yelled.

  Loch waved to Zaidee and helped Sarah to her feet.

  “Where are the monsters?” Sarah called to Zaidee across the landscape of logs.

  “They were heading for you!” Zaidee yelled back.

  Sarah’s eyes dropped. She saw the logs at the edge of the pond begin rising and falling.

  “Let’s go,” Loch said, leaping forward onto the next log in the jam
.

  WHOOSH. A large plesiosaur rose out of the water behind Sarah. Its neck pulled back, its mouth opened wide. Sarah leaped toward Loch.

  “Keep moving!” Loch ordered Sarah, pushing her on to the next log. By the time the creature lunged, they were running on top of the logs for all they were worth. Its teeth snapped at air; then it slid back beneath the surface.

  “Hurry!” Zaidee screamed to them, nudging the bow of the skiff against the bank.

  Suddenly, the log beneath Sarah started to lift up into the air. She fell across it and hung on as it balanced crazily on the massive head of a beast. The beast’s left front flipper crashed out of the water, slapping on top of another log to give it leverage. Loch ran straight for the creature as it raised its snout and thrust its lower bed of teeth forward. The rotting log with Sarah on it began to slide off the beast’s head. Loch tore off a branch and smashed it against the creature’s fin. The beast snapped at Loch, its teeth locking on the branch, cracking it into specks. The sudden motion set the creature off balance, and its fin slipped from the log. As the beast’s own weight pulled it back under, Loch grabbed Sarah and ran forward with her across the final stretch of logs to the bank of the levee and the awaiting boat.

  Zaidee was ready at the controls.

  “I take it all back,” Zaidee told Sarah as she helped her onto the boat. “You do have guts.”

  “Thanks,” Sarah said, collapsing into the boat. “You have guts, too.”

  14

  THE JUDGMENT

  Cavenger had been glad when the helicopter had  arrived to remove Dr. Sam from the yacht and take him back to the encampment. You don’t win the Grand Prix by stopping if someone crashes, Cavenger had to remind everyone. While all the other drivers are feeling bad about the flames and the wreckage and the burning corpse, that’s when you floor it!

  “What should we do now?” Emilio asked Cavenger when the fleet had finished the sweep of the lake.

  Cavenger swiveled in his seat at the control board. “We start back, sonar active.”

  Emilio transmitted the order to the fleet. Captain Haskell led the turnaround at the west end of the lake. The fishing trawlers clanked their way past each other in a wide semicircle, giving great berth to the nets and exchanging flank positions for the return search. Cavenger motioned Emilio to keep his eye on the sonar screens, got up, and went to the munitions chest. He lifted the lid to check the rocket launcher and grenades. If any creature came their way now, Cavenger wanted everyone ready for a kill.

  On the skiff, Loch took over the wheel and threw the throttle open. The propellers growled, pulling the stern deeper and lifting the bow as the skiff began to plow out toward the open lake. A hundred yards away from the levee, Zaidee spotted a small, sleek, black shape darting in and out of their wake.

  “Stop!” Zaidee yelled. “It’s Wee Beastie!”

  Loch turned, saw the creature, and cut the throttle. He shifted into neutral and rushed to the stern.

  “It’s really not a great time to be saying hello to our little plesiosaur friend, you know,” Sarah said. Loch and Zaidee hung over the rear railing as Wee Beastie scuttled through the remnants of the wake and swam right up to the boat.

  “Hey, fellah,” Loch said, reaching his hand down toward the water. Wee Beastie rubbed his snout on Loch’s hand, fluttering his front fins.

  “Where have you been, my little darlin’?” Zaidee leaned over, joyously stroking the creature’s head. “We’ve been looking for you!”

  CLACK CLICK …

  CLICK CLACK CLACK …

  “Don’t tell me, I know,” Sarah said. “He wants us to stay and be lunch.”

  CLACK CLICK …

  “What are you trying to tell us?” Loch asked Wee Beastie.

  Loch looked back at the twisted mill. A series of large waves flowed toward the rupture in the levee and out into the lake.

  “They’re coming out,” Loch said.

  “We’ve got to get Wee Beastie aboard,” Zaidee cried.

  “Zaidee,” Loch said, “I don’t think his mom’s really going to like that. Besides, there isn’t time.”

  CLICK CLACK CLICK …

  Loch pointed Wee Beastie to the starboard. “Move away from the props, fellah!” he yelled as he rushed back to the wheel. Wee Beastie scooted back, still clicking away as the disturbance in the water behind them got nearer.

  “Get us out of here!” Sarah shouted at Loch.

  Loch opened the throttle wide, and the skiff lunged forward.

  “He’s staying with us,” Zaidee yelled, watching Wee Beastie drop away from the gurgling props to dash in and out of the wake. Behind him the turbulence of the surface stalked them.

  “Uh-oh,” Zaidee said.

  “How many creatures are there?” Sarah asked.

  Loch turned from the wheel to look back. “From what we’ve seen, I think there’s five or six big ones,” he shouted. “I think it’s just a family.”

  “Enough to eat Greater Miami,” Zaidee said.

  “What are they doing?” Sarah wanted to know.

  “They’re not stupid,” Loch yelled over the roar of the engine. “They know the cover’s been blown on their den. There’s no place left for them to hide!” He turned the skiff west. Wee Beastie and the herd stayed with them.

  “Are we the only meal around?” Sarah asked.

  “No,” Loch said, “but Wee Beastie might have told them we’re their only chance. They’re not chasing us—they’re following us.”

  “What can we do?” Zaidee asked.

  “Try to get Dad on the ship-to-shore,” Loch said.

  “I don’t know if I can,” Zaidee said, scooting to the radio. “It receives, but I don’t know if this thing can send.” She put the earphones on and grabbed the hand mike. “The helicopter took him back to the camp.”

  “He’d clear out of there. Try the Volvo,” Loch said. “Let him know where we are and what’s happening.”

  “Boy, are we going to be grounded or what?” Zaidee wailed, pressing the send button.

  “I’ll do it,” Sarah said, reaching to take the mike.

  “No way,” Zaidee said, pulling away and shouting into the microphone. “Big Z to Dad … Big Z to Dad … ”

  Loch glanced over his shoulder. Wee Beastie still skimmed in the wake of the boat, leading the underwater herd.

  “Tell Dad to get to the grid! Get there and open it!” Loch ordered Zaidee. “He’s got to open that grid!”

  “What’s that?” Cavenger shouted, looking out over the bow of The Revelation. In the distance it had looked like a cat’s-paw of wind, but now they recognized the skiff heading for them.

  “It’s one of ours,” Emilio said, checking it through binoculars.

  “Who’s in it?” Cavenger demanded to know.

  Emilio adjusted the focus on the binoculars. “Your daughter and Perkins’ kids.”

  BLIP BLIP … BLIP BLIP …

  The sonar screens of the control room leaped alive with closing, black dots. A rush of electronic sounds caused turmoil with the speakers, and the styluses on the graph machines nearly shot off the charts.

  “What’s going on!” Cavenger roared, grabbing the binoculars. “What the hell do those kids think they’re doing?”

  The radio receiver lit up. “Everybody’s picking up the signals,” Emilio said, confused. “It’s the boat, but it’s … beasts. There are a lot of them.”

  “Tell the net boats to close!” Cavenger roared.

  “Close the nets!” Emilio shouted into the radio.

  “Faster,” Cavenger yelled, moving quickly across the length of the control console.

  BLIP … BLIP …

  There was too much data coming in for Cavenger and his men to process, too much to compute and calculate. The trawlers were pulling ahead, beginning to close their circle. Cavenger grabbed the mike out of Emilio’s hand and began bellowing into it himself. “Faster! Faster!”

  “They’re doing as much as they ca
n,” Emilio said.

  BLIP …

  Cavenger threw the mike back at Emilio. “They’re not going to make it!” he shouted with disgust. All his calculations had never considered the possibility of the fleet being rushed by a herd of plesiosaurs. He looked off the port side and was relieved to see the crew members of the PT boat ready with rifle butts held firmly against their shoulders. The new photographer—who hadn’t been told about Erdon—was at the video camera, following the action. Cavenger checked to see that the harpoon team was in position at the bow, then grabbed a pistol and ran out on deck. The skiff with Loch at the wheel passed swiftly between the yacht and the PT boat. Cavenger saw his daughter with Loch and Zaidee. And he saw the great undulations fast behind them.

  He fired a single shot into the air to alert everyone. There was no way he was going to come out of this empty-handed. If anything, he would err on overkill.

  “Slaughter the beasts!” he found himself shouting, his hand trembling as he pointed down at the huge passing shadows. “Slaughter them!”

  As Sarah passed in the skiff, she saw her father out on the deck of The Revelation. She didn’t recognize him at first; his face was distorted with hate and he looked out of control. She had never seen him like that, and she flinched when she heard him fire the gun.

  “What’s going to happen?” Sarah asked Loch.

  “I don’t know,” Loch said. “We have to keep going.”

  “What if Dad didn’t hear us on the ship-to-shore?” Zaidee asked. “What if he didn’t understand or won’t open the grid?”

  BAM. BAM. BAM …

  Terrible sounds of rifle fire echoed from the mountains like a cluster of firecrackers lit from a single fuse.

  “Where’s Wee Beastie?” Zaidee cried out. “I don’t see him!”

  “My father’s killing them,” Sarah said.