by Jake Bible
More shrieks, more screeches. Closer and closer.
The men get to the edge of the ash covered lawn and sprint across Madison Dr. to the steps of the museum’s main entrance. Dark doors stare at them as they climb the steps.
“Don’t slow down!” Alvarez says, summoning up some hidden strength so he can sprint ahead between two stone columns and get to the doors first. “Get ready!”
Alvarez raises his nine iron, then brings it down against the first door he comes to. The glass fractures, but doesn’t break. Alvarez’s momentum takes him right into the door and his face hits it first, sending him bouncing back to fall on his ass.
“I’m slowing down!” Dr. Hall yells as he stops before hitting the door. “Get up, and try again!”
Alvarez shakes off the effects of the impact and stands back up. He raises the nine iron over his head again, then sees the look of pure terror on Dr. Hall’s face as the man turns towards the street behind them. Alvarez brings the nine iron down, but suddenly realizes the golf club is no longer in his grip.
He whirls around to see a crab claw above them, the nine iron between its pinchers. The crab monster connected to the claw shrieks at them in frustration, unable to get through the columns of the museum’s entrance. It lashes out with its claw and Alvarez dives at Dr. Hall, sending them both sprawling across the concrete as the claw rushes past and shatters the museum’s doors.
“Go!” Alvarez yells as he punches Dr. Hall in the ass to get him moving. “Get inside!”
Dr. Hall scrambles through the broken doors and keeps running through the rotunda until he is well inside the building. He slows, stumbles, then falls to his knees, his lungs burning and a deep pain in his side.
“You okay?” Alvarez gasps as he hunches over next to Dr. Hall, his hands on his knees, and turns back towards the entrance. “Jesus. They’re all out there.”
Dr. Hall looks back, pivots on his knees, then sits down on his ass. He stares as dozens of crab monsters fight with each other by the entrance, even though none of them can fit between the stone columns.
“Those should hold,” Dr. Hall says, his voice a harsh rasp. “They were built to last centuries.”
“Good,” Alvarez says. “Because we need a second to catch our breath. If those things are busy trying to get in through there, then that means the back should be clear.” He doesn’t get a response from Dr. Hall and looks over at the man. Dr. Hall is staring at the empty rotunda. “What? What is it?”
“You smell that?” Dr. Hall asks. He gets up and walks towards a wide, rock shaped pedestal. “More ammonia.”
“Where the fuck are you going?” Alvarez snaps. “Get your ass back here.”
“Look,” Dr. Hall says as he points at the pedestal. “The bull elephant statue that should be here is missing.”
“Maybe they moved it,” Alvarez says, his eyes locked onto the crab monsters outside, not on Dr. Hall’s preoccupation. “Not our problem right now.”
Dr. Hall moves closer, then stops and backs up a couple of feet. He looks down at something on the ground, then looks up at the ceiling of the rotunda and the broken glass dome above.
“Oh, shit,” he says. “Eggs.”
“What?” Alvarez asks. The word eggs gets his attention, and he straightens up and moves closer to Dr. Hall at the same time Dr. Hall backs up towards him. “What eggs?”
“There,” Dr. Hall says. “And there. They came through the dome.” He gulps and then starts turning in circles, his eyes madly searching the museum. “Do you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Alvarez asks. “All I hear are those things outside.”
In between the shrieks and screeches of the crab monsters, another noise pushes through, coming from deep inside the museum.
“Okay, I heard that,” Alvarez says, and fishes out the small key fob flashlight from his pocket.
He shines the light around the rotunda and notices for the first time a pattern of destruction going from the rock pedestal to the hallway leading into the main part of the museum. The new noise is certainly coming from that direction.
“You said there should be an elephant on that pedestal?” Alvarez asks.
“Yeah,” Dr. Hall says. “And I think one of the ooze eggs might have hit it, which means there could be an ooze elephant running through this place.”
“But it wasn’t real,” Alvarez says. “It was a statue.”
“It was a piece of elaborate taxidermy,” Dr. Hall says. “Most of it wasn’t real, but some of it was. Maybe the ooze doesn’t just take creatures over, but can recreate them from their DNA.”
“Maybe?Maybe it can do that?” Alvarez growls.
A loud, warped trumpeting echoes from the corridor they face, and Dr. Hall shakes his head.
“I’m thinking maybe might not be accurate,” Dr. Hall says. “I’m leaning towardsdefinitely.”
Eleven
Lester rushes back up on deck, Lana in his arms, his eyes wild with panic and fear as the sailboat lists dangerously to one side.
“I need help with Krissy,” he says as he sets Lana down on the deck and turns to Terrie and Linda, who are both staring out at the water and yet another impossible creature. “Hey! I need help with Krissy!”
“Go,” Terrie says to Linda. “I can’t move the girl. Not with my sutures. I know I’ve torn a couple already.”
“Okay,” Linda agrees. “But then what? We just stand up here on deck and wait for the boat to sink?”
“Unless the thing goes away, and we can repair the breach in the hull, then yes,” Terrie replies. “I don’t know what else to do. There’s a dingy on the back, but it won’t hold us all, and it sure as heck won’t be any good against that thing out there.”
A massive blue and green dorsal fin slices through the choppy waves of the Sound, moving back and forth only a few yards away from the sailboat. Terrie keeps her eyes on it, tracking the pacing of the fin, watching, waiting, ready for the next strike.
The fin dips below the water and is gone from sight.
“Get ready!” Terrie yells down into the cabin. “It went under again!”
She hears a response, but can’t make out the words as she reaches down and lifts Lana to her feet, pressing the girl’s hands on a steel handle by the cabin entrance.
“Do not let go,” Terrie hisses. “I’ll be right here next to you, but you have to hang on.”
Lana nods, but doesn’t say a word as she grips the handle with both hands. Terrie sets her legs, pressing her body against Lana’s, and grabs the handle as well. Seconds tick off, and there is nothing but a couple of bumps and thumps from below, then the fin reappears in the same spot, moving back and forth, back and forth, once again.
“I see it!” Terrie shouts. “It didn’t go for an attack this…!”
She screams as the boat rocks violently to the side. The moist air makes it hard for her to keep her grip on the handle, and she has to struggle not to slip free and fall to the deck. Lana squirms up against her, one hand coming free, her elbow flying back and nailing Terrie in the wound in her abdomen. Terrie cries out and loses her hold, then twists and tumbles down the steps into the cabin.
“Daddy!” Lana cries out. “Daddy!”
Terrie looks up from her pile of tangled limbs and pain and sees Lana break free of the handle and fall to the deck. The sailboat is listing so much that the girl slides out of sight quickly, and Terrie is in too much pain to scramble up after her.
“Lester! Linda!” Terrie yells. “Help!”
Biscuit is up and barking, his head pointed at one of the portholes, his hackles up and lips curled back. He takes off up out of the cabin, then hits the slick deck and slides out of sight after Lana.
“LESTER!” Terrie yells.
“I’m here!” Lester shouts, an unconscious Krissy in his arms, wrapped in a heavy blanket. “Hold on!”
Linda is right behind him, her arms through the cloth handles of a duffel bag, turning it into a large backpack. She squeezes thro
ugh the bedroom doorway and helps Lester ease Krissy into one of the bench seats around the small table.
“Go,” she says, and pushes Lester towards the steps. “Get her!”
The boat shudders and Lana screams from above, followed by several loud barks, then the chilling sound of a splash.
“Oh, God,” Lester cries. “Lana!”
He rushes up out of the cabin and stands at the top of the steps. Terrie watches him look left, then look right.
“Lana!” he shouts. “Lana!”
“Daddy!” Lana replies, her voice far off. “Daddy!”
“LANA!” Lester yells, and turns to his left. “NO!”
“Go help him!” Terrie yells at Linda. “Go now!”
Linda takes off the duffel, tosses it aside, and rushes from the cabin after Lester as the man slides across the deck and out of sight. Terrie crawls over and pulls herself into the empty bench seat across from Krissy. The way the boat lists, Terrie is forced to lean against the wood panelling of the hull, her face only inches from a porthole. She tries to peer out into the night, but all she sees is her own reflection and the flickering light of the candle firmly jammed into a holder across the cabin, wax dripping freely everywhere.
The sound of Lester and Linda yelling, crying out for Lana, nearly breaks Terrie’s heart, sending her from waves of sadness to waves of anger at her inability to help. She tries to stand, but the angle of the boat, and the stab of pure agony from her abdomen, conspire to keep her in her seat.
She glances across the table at Krissy and is startled to see the girl watching her.
“Hey,” Terrie says.
Krissy doesn’t reply, silent under her bandages, her eyes all that are willing to communicate; they stare at Terrie with suspicion and fear. Terrie tries to smile, but she can’t get her lips to move right, the enormity of their situation too much for polite niceties.
“Are you thirsty?” Terrie asks, wincing at how inane the words sound considering there are two adults up on deck screaming their heads off to find a six-year-old girl.
Krissy shakes her head, her eyes never leaving Terrie.
The boat shakes violently, and there is a loud cracking from under the table. Terrie lifts her feet instinctively and stares down at the floorboards.
“We can’t find her!” Linda yells down into the cabin. “Terrie! We need your help looking!”
“Krissy’s awake,” Terrie replies.
Linda leans down and peeks her head in the cabin. “She is?”
Krissy’s eyes turn and look at Linda, and Terrie realizes that she misinterpreted the fear. There is plenty of suspicion, but anger is the predominant emotion ruling the stare from the teenager, not fear.
“Hello, Krissy,” Linda says. “I’m Linda. This is Terrie. We’re gonna leave you down here alone for a minute while we help your dad find your sister. She fell overboard. Okay?”
Krissy doesn’t reply, just keeps staring.
“I’m coming,” Terrie says, and pushes herself to her feet. The boat tilts even more and she falls back against the wall. She struggles to get her balance and climbs her way across the cabin, hand over hand, as she grabs onto counters, cupboards, the railing by the steps, then is finally up top with Linda. “We’re sinking. I heard it break through the bottom.”
“I know,” Linda says. “And the dingy fell loose. We have no way off this boat.”
“LANA!” Lester shouts from the railing which is getting dangerously parallel with the waves. Most of his body is hanging out over the water as he keeps shouting. “LANA!”
There’s a far off cry, and then the sound of a bark followed by a yip of pain. The adults try to see into the darkness of the night, but a fog has settled over the sound, and all they see is a building wall of grey. Lester turns, and his eyes glow in the dark, filled with pure terror.
“I can’t find her!” he shouts. “I can’t find her!”
“Hush,” Terrie says as she hears the sound of splashing. “Listen. That might be her.”
The splashing gets louder and louder, and Lester turns back to look at the water. The massive mouth, nothing but teeth, teeth, teeth, shoots up from the wet darkness and clamps down on Lester’s torso, tearing the man in half right there before Terrie’s and Linda’s eyes.
“No!” Linda screams, her feet going out from under her.
Terrie grabs her shoulder and pulls at the woman’s coat, keeping her from sliding down to where Lester’s bottom half rests against the gunwale. The sailboat is rammed again and again, but doesn’t tip any further. One more ram, and Lester’s legs tumble over the side and splash into the water.
“Did you see that?” Linda whispers. “That...that was a shark.”
“Biggest shark I’ve ever seen,” Terrie says. “Its mouth was ten feet wide, easy.”
Screams from the cabin rip their attention from where Lester had been just seconds before. The two women work their way down into the cabin, and Terrie notices the several inches of water that cover the floor. Then she sees Krissy trying to get away from the table, her eyes locked onto the porthole, her mouth open and screaming.
“What?” Linda yells as she gets past Terrie and splashes over to Krissy. She grabs the girl’s shoulders and pulls her from the table. “What is it? Oh, holy fuck.”
Lana’s face is pressed against the porthole, partially submerged as the boat continues to sink. The face bobs against the glass, moving in and out of view. Terrie swallows hard and gets to the table, then moves closer to the porthole.
“Hand me that candle,” she says, and Linda instantly grabs the candle on the wall and gives it to her. Terrie moves it closer to the porthole, then jerks back quickly. “Oh, Dear Lord, have mercy.”
“Can we get her?” Linda asks.
“No need,” Terrie says, and looks at Krissy. “We should get the girl up top now. This boat is going down.”
Terrie places herself in front of the porthole so Krissy can’t see the ragged neck of Lana’s severed head, her hair caught on the outside of the porthole, keeping it bobbing and bouncing against the boat.
“We need to get up top now,” Terrie says.
“Why?” Linda asks. “The ship is sinking.”
“And I’d rather have a chance to swim for it than drown down here in this cabin,” Terrie snaps. “So help the girl up there. I’ll get the duffel bag.”
Linda doesn’t argue and helps Krissy turn and work her way up the steps and out onto the cockeyed deck. Terrie picks up the duffel bag that sits in three inches of water. She feels lightning in her back and quietly curses the sutures she knows just tore.
“Nothing to do about it now,” she mutters as she heaves the duffel up the steps and gets it onto the deck before she loses her strength.
Linda and Krissy are huddled to her right, Linda trying to hang onto the rail as well as Krissy who stays wrapped in a blanket, staring, staring, staring.
The boat is slammed hard, and there’s a loud crack from the aft end. Another slam, and another slam, and then the main mast cracks in half, the sails falling into the water. A shape presses up against the sail then disappears. Terrie loops her arm in one of the duffel bag’s handles and scoots her way up to Linda and Krissy.
“We’re going to have to swim soon,” Terrie says, “and this damn bag will sink us both.”
“Life preservers,” Linda says, and points to a bench a few feet away. “They should be inside that. It’s a locker too.”
“Okay,” Terrie says as she crawls over to the bench and lifts up the seat. Several bright yellow and bright orange vests are stuffed inside.
Terrie pulls out a vest and painfully gets it on, then crawls back to Linda and Krissy with one for each of them. Linda nods and awkwardly gets hers on as she braces her legs to keep from sliding down the deck. Terrie crawls back to the locker and pulls out four more vests.
“What all is in here?” Terrie asks as she ties the vest to the duffel bag’s handles. “Half the galley?”
“I gra
bbed what I could,” Linda says. “Medical supplies, some food, a few bottles of water, clothes, blankets, candles, our face masks. I don’t know what else.”
Linda tries to get the life vest on Krissy, but the girl lashes out, refusing to cooperate. Terrie’s hand is swift and strong as it smacks Krissy across her bandaged cheek. The girl’s head rocks back, and her eyes blaze with anger, but she doesn’t cry out.
“We are trying to save you!” Terrie snaps. “So put that on or you are on your own, young lady!”
Linda tries again, and Krissy fights even harder.
“Let her go,” Terrie says. “We have to think of ourselves.”
“I can’t just let her go,” Linda says.
“Let her go!” Terrie yells, and grabs onto Krissy’s arm. She pulls hard, and Linda loses her grip. “You were warned, young lady.”
Terrie let’s go and Krissy starts to slide across the deck. She twists in her blanket, and that’s when Terrie truly sees the fear in the girl’s eyes for the first time. Terrie reaches out and just manages to snag Krissy’s blanket before the girl is out of reach.
“Ready to listen?” Terrie growls. Krissy nods. “Good.”
Terrie tries to pull the girl up, but the pain in her back and abdomen is too intense, and she nearly lets go of the blanket. She is about to ask Linda for help when the boat is slammed so hard that she is knocked free from her tenuous perch and slams against Krissy, sending both of them sliding wildly down the deck, against the rail, and tumbling into the water.
The Sound is freezing cold, and Terrie gasps, her lungs desperate for breath as the frigid chill hits her. She thrashes and turns about, trying to find Krissy, and sees the girl floating a few feet away. Then a scream from on the boat makes Terrie look up, and all she sees is Linda plummeting into the water, right on top of her.
