Rig

by Bryan Alaspa

  Down the tunnel the roar grew louder and there came the sound of rending metal. This was followed by a horrendous shrieking noise that did not end but mixed with the endless scream and pierced their ears. The creature was coming down the tunnel and the blades and barbs on the ends of its arms were scraping along the metal walls of the tunnel. The metal was bursting and bubbling from the size of the thing.

  “It’s coming,” Karmen said.

  “You guys get in,” Mark said. “Let it come for me.”

  “What are you talking about?” J.D. said. “Get inside and strap yourself in.”

  “Mark,” Karmen said, “let’s not fuck around here. Get in.”

  “You first,” Mark said.

  Karmen spared a look at J.D. and then shrugged. She stepped inside and made for one of the chairs. She sat down and dropped the harness around her shoulders and secured a belt around her waist.

  “Get inside, Mark,” J.D. said. “I can try and hold this thing off until you’re in there.”

  “And if you get killed, what happens to us?” Mark asked.

  Mark stepped forward and grabbed the detonator out of J.D.’s hands. With surprising strength and force he bent down and shoved his shoulder into J.D.’s chest. J.D. let out a gasp and a yell and stumbled backwards. His heels hit the small lip around the door into the escape pod and he fell into the capsule on his back.

  “Mark!” Karmen screamed from inside. Mark heard her start to unbuckle her belt.

  Behind him the creature roared again, the scraping and bending and tearing sounds getting closer. Mark reached out and gripped the door as J.D. got to his knees. He swung the door shut and spun the wheel. He heard J.D. pound on the door from the other side. Mark walked over to the wall and pushed the button that filled the escape chamber with water. The sound of water filled his ears, momentarily drowning out the sound of the screaming creature and the scraping metal. He pushed the second button and a red light began to flash and an alarm began to sound. Mark heard J.D. scream something from within the capsule but the words were lost beneath the screaming and the creature and the siren. Mark pushed the final button and a roar twice as loud as that of the creature behind him vibrated the floor beneath and knocked Mark to he ground. Even the scraping and scratching down the tunnel ceased. The roar faded and Mark was left in the pulsating red light and silence.

  Mark stood and felt his knees shaking. He grabbed the bag of explosives and walked over to the edge of the catwalk. He dropped the bag and saw it tumble the rest of the way through the darkness. He hoped it reached the bottom of the leg so that when the bombs went off at least one leg would rip apart from bottom to top.

  The creature roared again. Mark began to climb.

  * * *

  J.D. pounded on the door and felt the stinging pain in his wrist and hand when flesh struck metal.

  “Mark!” He screamed. “Goddamit, Mark!”

  The sound of water flooding the tube caused him to back away from the door. When the sound began to diminish he resumed pounding.

  “Sit down!” Karmen yelled. “He’s not listening! Sit down before he launches us!”

  “He’s going to die!” J.D. screamed back and pounded again.

  The pod lurched forward suddenly. J.D. was thrown off of his feet and he slammed into the far end of the capsule. His head collided with the wall and he saw stars and his vision dimmed. He heard Karmen scream but the roar of the launch filled his ears.

  The capsule rocketed through the tube and emerged underwater beneath the rig and the raging sea. The force of the launch was meant to carry the capsule a long distance from the rig since it was assumed if the capsule was being used then the rig was in such danger being anywhere near it might be a risky venture. They traveled like a torpedo for about a hundred yards and then the momentum slowed and the buoyancy of the capsule took over. The pointed nose of the capsule tipped up and rocketed them to the surface.

  Inside J.D. slowly slid down the wall to the floor. As they neared the surface the pounding waves and raging sea began to rock the capsule. It was now like being inside a huge clothes dryer. The capsule reached the surface and shot out of the water like a submarine with all the ballast tanks blown. J.D. was thrown against the back wall again, then the side wall and then the opposite side wall as the capsule began to bob and rock and undulate in the raging sea. Each wave crashed over the capsule and sent it back underwater only to have it rocket back to the surface again. Karmen was no help as she was forced to hold on to the harness just to stay in her chair. J.D. was battered against the walls.

  Each wave began to move the capsule closer to the rig.

  * * *

  Mark moved up the ladder. His arms and legs were screaming. His breath was ragged and he felt faint. Blood ran down his arms and legs and made the rungs of the ladder slippery. Behind him the monster roared and the roar reached the escape capsule chamber.

  Mark looked down and saw the creature. It was three times as big as it had been in the previous chamber. It was amorphous with tentacles flailing everywhere, some of them as thin as fishing line. Metal ripped to pieces at its touch. The face in the middle of the roiling mass of tentacles was a giant mouth rimmed with row upon row of teeth. Behind the teeth a tongue at least four feet long and also lined with spikes flapped and rattled against the sides of the mouth. Atop the horror of a face were two enormous eyes swimming with black and red. From inside the mouth came the sounds of the sound screaming in torture and these sounds were mixed with the creature’s own endless screaming.

  “I see you,” Mark heard the creature say and realized it heard it in his head and not in his ears.

  Mark moved faster, finding a reserve of strength he didn’t think was possible. His foot slipped from the rung slick with blood and he nearly fell. He caught himself with an elbow. He pulled himself back onto the ladder and started to climb. Beneath him the creature began to change.

  The sound was like listening to bones breaking and re-breaking. The skin ripples and twisted and changed. The arms and legs contracted within the form. Legs appeared and then arms. Finally a human shape stepped forward from the shadows and the last of the flailing barbed arms disappeared. Amy stepped forward.

  “You can stop this right now, you know?” She said in a perfect imitation of that voice he had so longed to hear on so many nights.

  Mark froze in his climbing. He clung to the rungs of the ladder. He felt tears spring from his eyes and they were hot and burned against his cheeks.

  “Goddamn you!” He screamed.

  “Come to me, Mark,” she said, “you know you want to, even if it’s just an illusion. Let your last moments at least be ones of pleasure. I’ll even tell you I love you like I used to. I’ll let you touch me like you used to and I’ll touch you. Remember how I used to touch you?”

  Mark lifted his head and screamed. The scream rebounded off the metal walls in the tight space and slammed back into his eardrums. For a moment the sound of her voice was gone. Then it was back, drilling into his head, confusing his thoughts. He could smell her. He could stick out his tongue and almost taste her in the air. He was so very tired. He stepped down a rung. Then he stepped down another.

  “Just bring me that detonator, Mark,” she said and from the sound of her voice he could tell she was smiling that smile he loved to look at in the picture he always carried. “Just come to me and we can always be together just like you wanted.”

  Mark descended.

  * * *

  J.D. managed to regain consciousness but all he became conscious of was pain. He was hurled against the roof of the capsule and noticed the Karmen was upside down with her hair hanging straight up away from her forehead. She was screaming but J.D. couldn’t hear it. His head was ringing.

  J.D. reached out a hand and grabbed hold of one of the harnesses. He hung there for a moment until the capsule righted itself. His legs fell and he tried to stand. The capsule bucked immediately and sank beneath the surface. His legs gave out and he tu
mbled past Karmen and into the nose of the capsule.

  “Grab my hand!” Karmen screamed as the capsule rocked the opposite direction.

  J.D. reached for her and his fingertips brushed against hers. The capsule rocked and he fell away from her. His head struck one of the empty seats. His hands reached for the harnesses and felt them go past. His fingers were weak and closed upon nothing. He slammed against the smooth far wall.

  Consciousness slipped from J.D. again. He saw the edges of his vision grow gray and then black. He was looking down a narrow tube at the interior of the capsule and that tube was getting narrower. He knew at that moment that he was going to be battered to death inside this space and with that knowledge he drifted back into unconsciousness.

  * * *

  Mark reached the bottom of the ladder and turned to face her. She was short like he remembered. Her hair was brown and beautiful the way it always looked in his mind, his dreams and his memory. Her face was beautiful and smooth. Her smile broke his heart into a million pieces. Her eyes were the kind of blue that men dreamed of, but there was still that disturbing red and black that swirled and dipped into the color of the iris. It could never get the eyes right.

  “I love you,” she said through lips that weren’t real.

  “I love you too,” he said and hoped that maybe, somehow, some way the real Amy would hear him and know it was how he felt.

  “Come to me,” she said and opened arms that weren’t his and smiled through lips that weren’t hers.

  He came to her and let those arms encircle him. He gripped the detonator in his right hand and clasped his arms around her. He closed his eyes and smelled her and, for just that moment, he let himself believe he was holding her again.

  “You just never get the eyes right,” he said.

  He felt the body tense beneath his arms. The skin began to change and it was like trying to hold onto a bag of mercury. The screaming grew louder.

  Mark pressed the button.

  * * *

  The explosions started immediately around Mark and the creature. Mark’s body was blown to pieces in the concussion. He never opened his eyes. He felt nothing. The creature turned to shadow in his arms and let loose a scream as it flew down the tunnel and the world burst into flames around it.

  The explosions were powerful enough to rip apart the joints and seams that held the crossbar and escape tube in place. The salt water rushed in immediately. The metal tore like paper. The other explosives began to go off in quick succession. The joints around the escape tubes went first followed by the explosives connecting the supports to the rig itself. At the same time the waves from the storm battered at the slowly weakening structure. The entire rig began to tilt to one side. Metal screamed in agony. Tons upon tons upon tons of steel and concrete and equipment suddenly found itself without any means to support itself above the water line. The pounding waves took over where weakened metal left off. The final explosions were in the explosive’s Mark dropped down the leg of the rig. They nestled at the bottom and blew apart horrifically. The bottom of that support leg vanished.

  The rig did not drop straight down. The rig tipped to the side where Mark dropped the explosives. As it began to fall, the structural integrity of the remaining legs gave way and with a crash and squeal of protesting metal collapsed into the sea. The corner with no support hit the raging sea first. The crane on the deck flew off and fell upside down into the waves. The structure on top of the rig fell part as waves crashed into it and the momentum of its fall accelerated the speed into the water.

  As the remaining legs gave way the rig tilted back upright for just a moment. It lasted for the merest fraction of a second as then the rig sank beneath the waves. The waves still raged and the rig broke apart as it fell. Thousands and thousands of tons of oil rig sank into the waves. More explosions from gas lines and equipment within the rig rocked the debris and blew what remained apart.

  As the rig crashed into the ocean the wave it created was enormous. The small escape capsule, having been driven back towards the structure by the relentless waves, was suddenly tossed away from the area. Inside anyone or anything not tied down tumbled end over end as the capsule rolled and rolled and rolled within the waves. Once the rig sank the opposite reaction occurred. A gigantic whirlpool began to form, sucking in debris from all around the site. The capsule reversed course.

  Beneath the waves most of the structure managed to stay intact. It broke apart half way, splitting in half as something inside gave way and something else exploded. Even with this the largest section of the oil rig fell straight down and came to rest with a muffled crash and grown directly on top of the hole that had been drilled only days before. The debris came down on what remained of the supports and the weight was more than the stubs could bear. They crumpled beneath the weight and flattened beneath the heavy structure.

  Beneath the hole itself the creature screamed. The screams of the souls it had stolen grew in intensity as the hole from which it hoped to escape began to collapse from the impact of the structure and the weight of thousands. The walls of stone that created thee hole crumbled and fell in. Its screams became muffled and subdued. It raged and threw itself against the barrier of stone and steel but it would not budge. Darkness enveloped it again as it had for centuries.

  The structure that comprised the top of the oil derrick began to fall as the rig’s momentum carried to the bottom. The oil derrick and drill structure heeled over and came to rest at the bottom. The building containing the residences, control room, recreation room and kitchen fell apart and collapsed into pieces on top of the platform. Pipes burst. Gas leaked. There were more explosions, which caused a further collapse of the hole itself.

  The capsule was sucked backwards. The waves began to die down to normal levels almost as soon as the rig slammed into the bottom. The capsule stopped rolling over and over but it was still moving backwards. The capsule spun through the whirlpool and submerged. Water leaked through the seams of the covering and sprayed onto J.D.’s face. The capsule groaned as it sank in the powerful suction. The natural buoyancy of the capsule fought with the water and inside the capsule shuddered.

  As the rig settled the suction lessened. With the buoyant nature of the capsule it sank slower than the other debris and it didn’t have nearly as far to travel back to the surface once the whirlpool ended. The capsule began to rise. Fortunately for those inside the capsule did not sink far because when the whirlpool ended it rocketed to the surface yet again like a bar of soap squeezed through a wet fist. It broke the surface on now-calm waters and a brightening sky.

  All was now quiet.

  11

  Things got a lot worse within the capsule before they got better. The capsule rolled and rolled and rolled. Chaos reigned inside the capsule. Karmen’s body flung hard against the straps and harness. She screamed as the straps cut into her shoulders and stomach. She watched J.D.’s body fall and tumble around the cabin but was unable to do anything. As the explosions from the rig rocked the capsule and the suction from the sinking rig pulled them back and underwater, Karmen’s head struck the restraining bar and she was knocked unconscious. J.D. had lost consciousness a long time ago and his body flopped and fell around the cabin like something broken. Blood ran freely from his nose and his mouth.

  Neither of them felt the capsule sink or the subsequent surfacing. It was a long time before anyone was able to move and even then, it was only Karmen that opened her eyes and looked around. The cabin appeared coated with blood and J.D.’s face appeared covered with it was well. He lay in the middle of the floor just at the end of Karmen’s feet. Her head pounded and everything seemed to be spinning. At first she thought that the capsule was still being buffeted by the waves and then realized it was the blow to the head that caused the spinning. Water lapped against the side of the capsule but other than that there was no sound.

  Karmen slid the harness over her shoulders and undid the straps around her waist. Her legs gave out almost immedi
ately when she tried to stand. She found herself facing the floor next to J.D. and a wave of nausea ripped through her. She figured at that point she had a concussion. She wondered what J.D. had.

  She moved over to his body. He was still breathing and it was slow and steady. His eyes were shut tight and sealed with dried blood. Cuts along his forehead, cheeks and face had healed but coated his skin with blood that had since dried. There was no blood coming from his ears so Karmen figured that was at least a good start. His nose was broken and looked swollen and slightly twisted against his face. She wiped blood away from his eyes, nose and mouth. She noticed several teeth appeared to be broken behind his lips.

  “You’re quite a mess,” she said.

  Once she had cleaned J.D. and decided he was still alive for the moment she turned her attention to the capsule. It appeared as if the top of the capsule could be removed or perhaps opened in some way to allow fresh air in and rescuers easier access to those inside. She noticed the control panel near the back of capsule where the door had been. She braced herself for another fall and slowly rose to her feet.

  The rocking of the capsule in the water combined with the concussion nearly sent her back to the floor. She held her balance and rode another wave of nausea. Then she stepped toward the control panel.

  The panel was very simple with easy-to-read diagrams explaining what each button did. She pushed one and there was a hiss that made her jump back. The top of the capsule began to retract into the sides. Sky appeared above her head and fresh air flooded into the cabin. She marveled at the blue sky above her and realized not only had the storm passed but the sun had risen. She must have been unconscious for quite some time. The capsule now resembled a kind of boat albeit one with larger sides than normal and a bit more conical in shape.

  She looked back because instinct told her that this was the direction they had come from and would be the direction she would expect to see the oil rig. She saw only open water. She felt a moment of profound sadness at the thought that Mark was gone and then she clamped down hard upon her emotions. She would have time for all of that later. Right now she needed to bandage J.D. and see if she could figure out how they would be rescued.