by Hunter Shea
“What are you doing?”
Henrik has his back to me, fiddling with something I can’t see.
Austin looks down and says, “Holy cow.”
“Holy cow what?”
When my brother catches my eye, he looks both excited and nervous. “You’re probably not going to like it, but it has to be done.”
“What has to be done?”
At this point, I’m thinking the only thing that has to be done is for us to get the hell away from Loch Ness and let the military handle the rest.
Because when I look around, I see we’re not alone.
Under slate skies and teeming rain, the shores of the loch are filling with people. Dozens and dozens of people. All of them drawn by the barrage of gunfire and explosions. And quite possibly the unearthly cry of the monsters.
They’re gathering around the bodies on land. Everyone seems to have a phone in their hand, aimed at the dead Nessies.
So far, they don’t seem to notice us.
I have a feeling that once Henrik is done, that will change in a hurry.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I’ve never had a migraine before, but I think one is starting to blossom in my skull now. It feels as if someone’s trying to pry my cranium apart with a rusty can opener. A burst of nausea hits me so hard, I clamp my hand over my mouth to keep my gorge down.
I don’t even know that Henrik and Austin have climbed back on board the cigarette boat.
“There she goes,” Austin says.
Through the haze of pain, I see Vindicta cruising out to the deeper part of the loch.
‘What did you guys do?”
Henrik cuts the engine of the cigarette boat. “I want your pontoon boat to have their undivided attention.”
I look to the shore.
It appears we’re starting to get some attention as well. I point our audience out to Austin and Henrik.
Austin deflates. “Damn. We have to get them away from here.”
“Short of tear gas and a riot squad, that’s not gonna happen. They’re standing near the bodies of Loch Ness Monsters. Even those who never believed aren’t going to just walk away.”
Henrik has a rifle in his hand again, scanning the water for any creatures that decide they’d like to get up close and personal with the onlookers. “We’ll all have a lot less to worry about in a little over two minutes.”
We see the rising and falling backs of the Loch Ness Monstrosities as they sail toward Vindicta, slithering lake snakes of destruction.
Henrik says, “I’m hoping their intelligence will be their downfall.”
Austin grips my hand. “How?”
“At first, they were attracted by the food. As Natalie has stated, the loch is being depleted because of their return, or maturation. But the food is gone and they are still here. Normally, elusive creatures do not go counter to their conditioning. Unless, in this case, they have the intelligence to hate. They want us dead. They will not leave until they’ve tasted our blood. And they think we’re on board Vindicta.”
I see something out of the corner of my eye that deadens my soul.
I ask Henrik, “What did you do?”
“I set a time controlled bomb that will go off just about the time they make their attack. And then we can…we can.”
He sees it too. Austin squeezes my hand so tight, I momentarily forget the pounding in my head.
“Fucking tourists.”
One of the Loch Ness tour boats, a double decker that cruises up and down the loch twice a day, pointing out historic sites and talking about, of course, the monster, is heading right into the trajectory of Vindicta.
I gun the cigarette boat to life and hit the throttle hard.
Henrik stumbles to get next to me. “What are you doing?”
“We can’t let Vindicta blow up near that tour boat!”
“How are you going to stop a boat that big?”
“I’m not. We’re going to push Vindicta off course.”
Austin is now on my other side, the wind and rain slapping our faces. “But you’re going to have to ride right into those things to do it!”
“I’d rather that than have all those lives on my conscience.”
The Loch Ness Monstrosities are right behind Vindicta, like dogs chasing the mail truck. I can barely hear the loudspeaker on the tour boat, the guide going on about sonar readings of the loch and to be on the lookout for anything mysterious.
If one person spots the approaching creatures, soon they’ll all see. And then there will be screaming. I’m glad the cigarette boat’s engines are so loud I won’t be able to hear them.
I am appreciative of the fact that Henrik isn’t talking me out of doing what I know is insane, at least in terms of going against out natural inclination toward self-preservation. Austin is another story. I know he feels the same way. We didn’t set out for things to go down like this. Not by a long shot.
Vindicta rolls right along. I can only imagine what Henrik has locked and loaded on her. If he thought he could take most of these things out with it, it must be huge.
The tour boat cleaves through the rocky loch. It’s so big, changing course will not be easy. Even if they see the writhing creatures, they won’t be able to avoid them or my unmanned boat in time to be spared from the upcoming blast.
“I need you guys to hold on.”
I jam the cigarette boat to another gear a second before we enter the pod of beasts. We hit the hump of one and take to the air. I can feel the blades of the engine tear through its flesh.
The boat slams back down. My teeth clack together so hard, I’m sure I’ve cracked a couple of molars. It reignites the stabbing in my skull. I’m close to passing out.
Shit. Not now.
We ride over the backs of the creatures, going too fast for them to react. I shoot past Vindicta on my left, the tour boat on my right. The captain lets his horn bellow.
“Yeah, I can see you.”
I make a tight turn so now we’re facing Vindicta and the Loch Ness Monstrosities. There’s quite a bit of blood in the water. If Henrik is right, it’s only making them madder.
“Now here comes the fun part. Austin, make sure I don’t go flying.”
He has one hand gripping a rail and now the other around my waist. I look over at Henrik and I think he’s praying.
Good. We can use all the help we can get.
I make a beeline for Vindicta. We close the gap in seconds. Our bows glance off one another. The shock is intense, but I hit the angle just right so it’s not a deathly head on collision. I can hear the fiberglass of the cigarette boat tear.
Vindicta makes a hard left, now heading way from where she and the tour boat would have collided.
I’m about to give a little victory shout when Vindicta goes boom.
And realize I didn’t get us far enough away.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
I’m pretty sure the explosion has shattered my eardrums. There’s a brief boom, then a feeling of being kicked in the chest, followed by silence and falling.
For the second time today, I’m thrown from the boat I’m on, and it doesn’t get easier with repetition. I don’t know whether the cigarette boat has gone to pieces or if a massive swell of water sent us flying in every direction. I see the sky, the tour boat, and hit the water.
I don’t want to go through that whole drowning bit again, so I immediately swim for the surface. The moment I pop up, I see Austin just a few feet away. There’s a splash, and Henrik has joined the swimming party.
Austin says something. I must not be deaf because I can hear. Of course, what I can hear is a high-pitched ringing, not my brother’s voice.
“What?”
I can tell by the look on his face that he’s having the same issue. So he points behind me.
The cigarette boat isn’t in tiny pieces. But it is taking on water.
Vindicta is nothing but flaming bits o’ boat scattered everywhere.
Henrik tug
s at me, guiding me to the boat. Austin is right behind us, swimming with sure, broad strokes. Me, I’m struggling to stay afloat. I’m exhausted and hurt and not sure my brain isn’t leaking from my useless ears.
I’m suddenly lifted up by Austin and basically tossed onto the boat. I land on my side. I think I have a cracked rib, and this little impact has done wonders for it.
“et…th…uns.”
Austin is standing over me.
“I can’t hear you.”
Wait. I could hear that! My ears are still whining like dog whistles, but something is coming through.
He puts his face inches from mine. “We have to get the guns before she sinks.”
“Billy Firth is not going to be happy.”
“Huh?”
“Never mind. Help me up.” He grabs my hand and pulls. The exertion feels as if I ruptured a lung. I figure I’ll be coughing up blood any second now.
The boat tips when Henrik scrambles aboard. “We’re surrounded. I think only a couple of them went for your boat. I see pieces of some, but I can’t tell how many.”
I grab a rifle in my numb hands. “Great. We’re on a sinking ship surrounded by vengeful animals. You think they’re smart enough to know what a white flag means?”
There’s no humor in Henrik’s eyes. For the first time, the thick ice of his cool demeanor is cracking. “No.”
Austin pulls the pin on a grenade and launches it toward one of the creatures circling the boat. “Good, because we don’t have anything white aboard.”
The grenade detonates, there’s a plume of scarlet water and the others retreat, but only for a moment.
“How many more of those have we got?”
Henrik does a quick count. “Nine.”
I sigh and it hurts like hell. “I was hoping you’d say a hundred. Look, we have to get off this boat or we’ll be in the water with those things in about five minutes.” I start waving my arms at the tour boat. There’s a return bleat of the horn. They see, and they’re coming. Everyone has moved to the front of the boat to watch the carnage.
The Loch Ness Monstrosities regroup and head back for us. Damn, they really do hate our guts.
It’s mutual.
I guess I can’t blame them, considering how much of their brethren’s guts are bobbing on the water.
Austin tosses another grenade and they scatter. This time when it goes off, it does so impotently. They learn awfully fast.
“They’re not making this easy.”
Austin has pulled the pin of another. His arm is cocked back and he’s ready to throw at a moment’s notice. “It’s not killing them, but it is scaring them off. We can use what we have left to keep them from attacking the tour boat once they pick us up.”
He’s got a point. I’m too fucked up to think straight.
“Here they come,” Henrik says.
The tour boat slips next to us just as the water has come to our knees. Two of the mates throw a ladder down the side of the boat and shout for us to get on board quickly. They keep glancing at the gathering of monsters.
Austin practically launches me onto the tour boat. I’m surrounded by people asking a thousand questions I don’t feel like answering.
He’s on board next, still gripping the live grenade, three rifles slung over his shoulder.
Henrik goes for the ladder and slips. He flops into the water.
Austin lets the rifles slide off his shoulder. They clatter on the deck, eliciting some terrified screams from the crowd. Do they think we’ve gone through all of this just to shoot them?
He leans over the side of the boat. “Take my hand!”
Whatever weapons Henrik had hoped to save are now sinking fast. The monsters, sensing one of the focuses of their ire is vulnerable, speed toward him.
One of them was swimming too deep for us to see. It comes up under Henrik, launching him in the air. Somehow, Austin snags his arm, and then they’re both flipping end over end.
The grenade falls from his grasp, landing on the deck of the tour boat.
I scream, “Everybody get the hell away! Go! Go! Go!”
There’s a collective shout of terror and a stampeded to the other side of the boat.
I try to kick the grenade overboard before I join them, but it just bounces against the lip. When it goes off, the tour boat rocks to one side, to the point where I think it’s going to tip over.
Everyone is in a panic. I muscle my way through the crowd, rushing back to the other side to look for my brother and Henrik.
They’re gone.
Chapter Thirty
I’m too dazed to cry, too numb to even shout their names until my throat is raw.
The creatures are battering the tour boat. The air is filled with desperate screams.
And nowhere in any of the madness is my twin brother. Or Henrik.
Keeping in line with my current role as harbinger of death to anything aquatic, the tour boat is now listing to one side, the damage from the grenade fatal. I see the captain is heading for land, carving through the creatures who simply snap at the ship and hurl their bodies against the hull.
They know I’m here.
They won’t stop until I join Austin and Henrik.
I look back. There are children on board – wide-eyed, frightened boys and girls. I even spot a baby in a stroller, her mother staring out at the loch with an uncomprehending gaze.
We’re not going to make it. The ship is really struggling. When the captain eventually calls to abandon ship and people take to the lifeboats, it will only make easier pickings for the Nessies.
Unless.
Unless.
I step over the rail. No one is paying attention to me. I bet they’ve even forgotten I was the person shooting at these things who blew up her own boat. I’m the one who invited death to their tour.
A monster spots me and takes a swipe at me with its tail, just missing my legs. I don’t move a muscle. Let it have me if it wants me. If I give them what they crave, maybe the innocents aboard the tour boat will live.
My body starts to sway as the ship limps along. I’m going to fall any second now.
And I’m fine with it.
A hideous face pokes out of the water just below me. If Satan had an aquarium, that would be the face looking at me on the other side of the glass. I don’t know what the hell these things are. I’ll never know. But I know what they did to me. And now they know what I did to them.
Time to end it.
“Nat!”
I reach back to grab the handrail.
“Austin!”
He’s treading water. He’s firing a Bullpup rifle just under the water. A stream of bubbles is left in the wake of each round. Somehow, he’s managed to clear a path to the ship. Henrik is right beside him, looking pale as death.
“Help me up!” Austin roars. “I’m running out of ammo!”
I find a life preserver that’s tethered to the ship and toss it down. I don’t know if I have the strength to pull them up. Austin is double my weight and then some.
“I need help!” I scream. One of the mates, a young guy with longish hair and an oozing pimple on the end of his nose, rushes to my side. “We have to get them out of there.”
He turns his head and barks, “Ey, come over here!”
Another mate, this one not much older but broad as a barn, reaches to grab the rope.
“Just hold on, Austin.”
Austin has to drop the rifle in order to grab on to the life preserver with one arm and Henrik with the other. It’s a struggle, but we do get them on board, collapsing in a wet, heaving heap.
“I thought you…”
Austin flashes a tired smile. “Yeah, me too. Good thing Henrik didn’t drop everything.” He looks over at the gaping, charred hole in the ship. “Crap, did I do that?”
I shake my head. “No. The grenade did. Henrik, are you all right?”
His side is lacerated and leaking blood. He presses down on it with a slight groan. “No
thing some stitches can’t fix.”
Our happy reunion is cut short by a barrage of shrieks on the other side of the tour boat.
We get up to see.
One of the monsters managed to make its way onto the deck. It has a woman in its jaws, shaking her back and forth violently. I hear something crack like dry tinder. My stomach turns when I realize it’s her spine breaking in half.
Its tail swishes back and forth, taking people’s feet out from under them. It drops the woman and heads for a man blubbering on his back, hands held out as if they were an impenetrable shield.
I can’t take any more.
I hear some kind of wounded animal cry. It takes me a moment to realize it’s coming from me.
My feet are moving on their own. Not sure my brain is in charge anymore. I spy an oar hanging on a wall, grab it, and rush the monster. It lifts its ugly head to stare right at me. I smash the oar right into its unsightly mug.
The blow stuns the creature long enough for everyone to get out of the immediate area.
I look at the end of the oar and it sheared right off. Hell of a shot. And now it’s even better because it’s all sharp splinters.
The monster lunges for me, but I skip out of the way, knowing the tail is coming next, which I hop over as it whooshes under my feet.
“That’s right, we can learn, too!”
I try to stab its side with the broken oar, but it can’t penetrate the thick skin.
I’m off balance. The Loch Ness Monstrosity goes for my side. I feel its teeth pinch my flesh.
Oh God it hurts.
“Get…the fuck…off her!”
Austin is punching it in the face as if he were in a boxing ring. I don’t know if he’s hurting it, but he sure has it confused. It lets me go. I fall to my hands and knees.
Add a punctured spleen to the list.
Henrik is limping over. “Can you hold it by the neck?”
I know he can’t be talking to me.
Austin wraps it in a headlock. It lifts him off his feet.
Henrik waits for it to set Austin back down. When it does, I see he has a handgun. He quickly shoves the barrel in the creature’s eye and pulls the trigger.
