by Russ Elliott
Kate was appalled. “But that’s illegal.”
“You might want to tell them that.” John lowered the binoculars, “Take her down over top of them. Let’s have a look.”
Descending over a forty-two-foot Sea Ray, John peered down through the chopper’s side window. The glaring light illuminated the bloodstained deck. At the stern were two men in gory jeans—one man was thick and muscular, the other thin. They both looked up with a friendly wave. A young blonde in a purple bikini was sitting atop a closed bait bin. She looked up into the glaring light, waving with the others. Even at this height, she was breathtaking. It wasn’t just her shapely figure, but the way her blue eyes seemed to glow in the light. It took a conscious effort to look away. Then, beside the bait bin, John discovered the source of the blood. Two large yellowfin tuna were sprawled out on the deck, one with its head and tail severed.
“Okay, you can take her back up,” John said. “Looks like they’re just fishing for tuna. Boy, filleting those warm-blooded fish really makes a mess.”
Kate cringed. “That’s disgusting. Just the same, I’d say they’re lucky the signal we picked up is eight miles from here.”
Raising altitude, John gave a final glance down at the boat. Turning back around, he found Kate looking at him. She rolled her eyes.
“What?”
“I know what you were looking at . . . that purple bikini.” She returned her attention to the windshield. “Like those were real!” With a twist of the throttle, the chopper dipped forward and headed for shore.
~~~
Leaning his fishing rod against the rail, Lewis watched his wife head farther along the deserted dock toward the shoreline. Eventually, her footsteps became muted by the crashing waves. After she faded into the shadows of the beach Lewis turned his attention back to the water. He leaned his forearms against the wooden rail and felt a sudden stinging. “Ouch! Last time I’ll ever fall asleep in the sun.”
He stared straight down over the railing. Eighteen feet below he saw the water’s glimmering surface. For a few minutes, he watched a small fish swim playfully around the submerged light that illuminated the water beneath the pier. He closed his eyes to ease the tension, hoping his headache would go away. After rubbing the bridge of his nose, he reopened his eyes to find the light had gone out. But it hadn’t––it was being eclipsed by an enormous gray head. Red eyes spaced ten feet apart stared up at him from just beneath the surface. The shadows of the giant nostrils pulled even with the edge of the pier. Lewis grabbed his fishing rod and stepped back. “Wow! What kind of bait am I using?”
~~~
The black sea flashed below as John Paxton stared intently through a pair of binoculars. “According to Nathan’s last signal, the pliosaur is still headed for shore.”
Kate said into her headset, “But that signal went out fifteen minutes ago. Hope the creature’s still in the same area. Think we should call the admiral yet?”
John lowered the binoculars, taking a look with the naked eye. “Not until we pick up a visual. He’s so doubtful about this tracking process, I can’t risk giving him a false alarm. Besides, we still have depth charges and chum. That’s all we need.” He glanced down at the flashing waters.
No way am I going to miss again.
~~~
Lewis stepped back on the pier without breaking his gaze from the massive form. His eyes followed the glittering back. It stretched out from the end of the pier and seemed to extend all the way to the horizon. The beast slowly rose. The jagged frill along its armor-plated hide broke the waterline.
“No one’s gonna believe this!” Lewis muttered. He reached down to the camera lying beside his tackle box without taking his eyes off the mammoth back.
The creature slowly glided closer until its tooth-studded jaws disappeared beneath the pier. Red glowing eyes shone just below the rail.
With a nervous right hand, Lewis picked up the camera and flipped off the lens cap. And that’s when the muscles along the massive back convulsed. The head arced. With a powerful upward thrust, the giant’s nose crashed through the pier behind Lewis, catapulting him into the air. Soaring thirty yards out across the water, he slapped the surface hard, his camera splashing somewhere behind him.
He broke the surface, gasping for air, groggy at first, then absolute terror settled in. Feeling nothing from his waist down, Lewis struggled to tread water with his arms, slowly turning around. He tried to kick with his legs, but his lack of buoyancy told him they weren’t moving. Desperately, he swung his gaze, but could see only darkness and shifting fog.
In the distance, he spotted the glowing water at the end of the pier. At that moment, his field of view divided as the massive frill rose in front of the light. Two blazing eyes appeared behind a pressure wave, then submerged. Lewis clawed at the sky as if reaching for an invisible force to pluck him from his fate. But his fingers found only the empty sea air. Then on either side of him long, glistening white scalpels swept up from the water, and the sea collapsed beneath him.
Without a sound, the saber-like teeth interlocked, curling over pink gums as the giant maw closed and sank into the sea.
~~~
“Well, I hope he likes it. I know diet soda’s not his favorite, but it’s all they had. Can’t be too picky at this hour.” Walking past the last light on the pier, Katherine’s eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. In the distance, she saw the jagged planks where the end of the pier was supposed to be. She did not see Lewis anywhere. “Lewis? What’s going on?” Her voice trembled.
Katherine stepped closer to the edge. Through the missing section of pier, she saw a red reptilian eye staring up at her from the water.
Clank. The Dr. Pepper can hit the pier, cool brown liquid disappearing between the planks. She turned around and made for the shoreline.
Half jogging, Katherine glanced past the railing and saw the creature swimming beside the pier. The luminous gray body tilted, the red eye gliding above the water. It stayed even with her every step.
Her pace increased.
The beast continued to match her pace while staying as close to the pilings as its massive paddle fins would allow.
Katherine broke into a sprint. She looked ahead. The piers entrance and the shoreline was still so far in the distance, it seemed to her. Would the water soon be too shallow for the creature to follow? She said a prayer, then glanced again to her right. The eye was still there . . . watching her.
She adjusted her course and ran closer to the left side of the pier, distancing herself from the other side as much as possible, hoping to drop out of the monster’s field of view. She saw the creature slowly move away from the pier and adjust its distance.
It’s keeping me in its sight!
Katherine began to tire, but also knew with every stride the water below was growing more shallow. She had to stop anyway—she had reached the toll area. Her already rapid pulse quickened. She knew there was only one way past the small wooden shop: a narrow walkway that ran along the right side of the structure.
The walkway that would force her to within inches of the right side of the pier.
The pliosaur glided in closer.
For a moment, she paused in the shadow of the building, wondering if she should wait it out.
No way, she thought. That thing could be down there for hours. I’ve got to get back and get help. Lewis could still be alive out there in the water.
She knew if she could only make it past the toll area, the water would soon be too shallow for the giant to follow.
Warily, she stepped onto the narrow walkway that forced her closer to the rail. She dared a glance over the side. Eighteen feet below at the water’s surface, she saw the creature’s back glistening in the moonlight. The size of the gray body was much greater than she could comprehend. Her fifty-seven-year-old heart raced faster when she reached out and opened the swinging gate. The yawning of rusty springs pierced the silence. Slipping through, she closed the gate softly behind her. Once past
the narrow toll area, she raced toward the center of the pier.
The great beast lunged from the water, and its lower jaw slid beneath the rail. The side of the pier bowed up in front of her then exploded beneath her feet in a surge of whitewater. Katherine was in the air, weightless. She rolled across the creature’s nose. Its jagged hide tore her pants as she free fell eighteen feet into the cool black water.
Beneath the surface, Katherine bumped something and realized it was one of the pilings. The cool, slippery algae slid beneath her hands as she moved around to the opposite side of the piling and worked her way up to the surface.
Instantly, the monster had her in sight.
Kicking off her remaining shoe, Katherine swam back farther beneath the pier. The massive head closed in, broken planks sliding off its back. As the creature drew nearer, she realized the distance between the pilings was narrower than the beast’s head. The creature slowly pressed its snout between the pilings. The red glowing eyes stared directly at her.
She heard the sound of a helicopter. The thumping in the sky grew closer.
Someone is coming!
She decided to make a break for the shore. On her third stroke, the colossal head thrust sideways. The pilings snapped with the sound of a gunshot, and with a horrible rumble, the pier collapsed down on top of her.
~~~
As the chopper approached the coastline, John saw the distant pier in the windshield–its crumbled end drawing nearer.
Kate worked the cyclic control, lowering altitude. “That pier . . . look at the end of it!”
“Not just the end,” said John, peering through binoculars. “Past the toll area there’s a huge section missing.” John’s stomach dropped when he saw a plume of whitewater rise behind the missing section of pier, then an enormous paddle fin slapping the sea.
“I’m on it!” Kate banked the chopper into a dive, when suddenly they saw the woman in the water.
The pliosaur lunged, twisting through the debris.
John pressed against the window, keeping the woman in sight. She was beneath the pier, on the side opposite the beast. But she wasn’t moving. She was caught between two collapsed pilings.
The pliosaur thrashed madly. Pilings snapped like twigs as it charged beneath the pier after its prey.
Kate was frantic, “She’s trapped! Try to use the chum to divert that thing away from her . . . so you can use the depth charges!”
John was already at the cargo door. He hurled it open, the noise of the chopping rotors blaring in. “There’s no time!”
Kate looked back, eyes wide when she realized . . .
“What are you? Noooo!” she screamed as John hurled himself from the doorway and plummeted forty feet, into the black sea.
~~~
As the bubbles cleared beneath the cool water, John saw the long pilings silhouetted by the chopper’s light. Surfacing, he swam like a man possessed. The thumping helicopter echoed above.
Reaching the woman, he saw the jagged frill waving beneath the pier. The pliosaur charged, twisting through the pilings. Throwing an arm over her neck and shoulder, John ripped her away from the piling, tearing off part of her shirt in the process–just as the monster’s upper jaw slammed down on that same piling.
John fought to swim backward through the churning water, staring at the massive head. The jaws stretched open. The enormous maw flushed white as Kate swept down, attempting to blind the creature with the chopper’s light.
A deafening roar shook the night.
It is not happy, John thought.
The creature lunged, but stopped suddenly, shaking the pier. Evidently, its sprawling paddle fins kept it from passing between the remaining pilings. More of the pier crumbled into the sea.
A glance back toward shore showed John that they were approximately sixty yards away, but in this tumult and darkness, he couldn’t be sure. The monster paused beneath the mangled pier, staring in their direction. The colossal head rolled back, destroying another piling, and with an explosion of whitewater, the creature was gone.
Backstroking, John continued, the woman in tow. “Not sure if it’s given up,” he gasped, catching his breath, “but I don’t think it can get all the way through the pier.” He looked at the two rows of pilings that led to the shore. “We’ll follow those in.” It’s our only hope, he thought. Can’t let it catch us out in the open water.
Beyond the pilings, he saw the long frill rise, glowing in the light from the helicopter. “Atta girl,” he muttered, knowing Kate was trying to show him the creature’s position.
Keeping one eye on the illuminated back of the creature on the opposite side of the pier, John said to the woman, “Think you can swim on your own?”
Her terrified eyes locked on him through a tangle of wet hair. She nodded, her trembling lips unable to utter a word. John slowly released her, and they headed toward the shallows. Cautiously, they swam beside the pier, the twin rows of pilings supporting the east and west sides of the pier protecting them like bars on a cage.
The pliosaur moved in. With every passing column of wood, John could feel the beast’s frustration growing as the eye glared at them from just above the waves. John paused, treading water. He reached down with his left foot, but still couldn’t feel the sandy bottom.
Suddenly, the monster glided about five pilings ahead of them and pressed its snout between the east row of pilings on the opposite side of the pier. It was daring them to pass.
Keeping the woman behind him, John paddled farther back from their side of the pier, swimming behind the west row of pilings as he passed the massive nose. The creature inched forward until the thick pilings prevented its head from moving farther. The sound of jagged skin grinding against wood echoed beneath the pier.
John cautiously proceeded. From twenty feet away, he slowly passed the enormous snout. The lantern eyes locked on him. The grinding noise stopped. He heard only the creaking pier and the waves washing over the massive head.
Daring not to make any sudden movement, John inched his way past the tip of the enormous nose. Then all around the colossal body, whitewater whipped through the air as all four paddle fins thrust in unison. The two pilings creaked, bowing outward until they snapped like twigs. The now-open mouth lunged forward, consuming the twenty-foot distance in a split second. With a thunderous crash, the creature’s upper jaw slammed into the surface between the second row of pilings. A small section of the pier collapsed.
The enormous head twisted, its snout ripping through falling planks.
God, no! John realized his mistake. They were too close to the pilings. He back-paddled, throwing an arm around the woman’s neck, pulling her back, knowing she couldn’t swim fast enough to get out of the way. Again, he heard the thumping in the sky as Kate tried to use the chopper’s light to distract the beast.
But this time there was no stopping it. The pliosaur plowed farther beneath the pier. The colossal head thrust upward, swaying above the surface, glowing in the light. It slammed down just in front of John, showering them with water.
Panicked, John kept back-paddling away from the pier, pulling the woman with him. He had to be twenty yards away from the pier, still he kept swimming back, not knowing if the beast could make it all the way through.
The creature’s forefins slammed angrily against the pilings, shaking the pier. John’s breath was coming in ragged spurts as he witnessed their good fortune. Despite the veracity of the pliosaur’s attack, its enormous paddle fins still wouldn’t allow it through. Just short of trapping itself, the monster swung its head sideways and rolled away from the pier. An enormous splash from all four paddle fins, and the creature soared off in the opposite direction.
It had finally given up the chase.
John slowed his movement to catch his breath, using every ounce of his strength to hold on to the woman. His arms felt like lead. They were nearing shore though, and he hoarsely whispered, “It’s all right . . . almost there.” He said it for the woman and for
himself.
~~~
Inside the cockpit, Kate raised altitude with guarded relief. Through the windshield, she watched John tow the woman toward shore. She then looked through the side window. Her heart sank. “God, please no,” she whispered.
~~~
Stroking toward shore, John noticed the helicopter dip. Again, the chopper dove toward the end of the pier and pulled up. Kate was driving erratically as if trying to tell him something. And that’s when he saw the jagged frill soar around the end of the pier. And the horrific realization hit him—he had played right into the creature’s plan. The pliosaur had no intention of plowing all the way through the pier. It only wanted to scare them out into the open water where it could reach them.
The creature barreled through the water with terrifying speed. The woman’s catatonic eyes sprang to life. She began paddling with her hands frantically. But the creature closed on them faster than they could possibly swim,
The head burst from the water, jaws swelling before them like a canyon.
John’s feet finally hit sand, and the water lowered to his waist.
WHAM!
The beach quaked, throwing John back as the pliosaur ground into the shoreline. The woman fell from his arms, and he lunged for her. The beast hurled its bulk sideways, and the huge jaws dropped closer, knocking the woman from his fingertips. The surging water hurled John backward.
Surfacing, he saw a wall of gray-striped skin. Looking higher, he saw the giant head rise above the woman.
“OVER HERE!” John shouted, splashing in the sea.
The huge eye froze.
Locating its second prey, the pliosaur turned toward John.
Wow! That worked!
The beast lunged and missed, pulling him beneath the surface with the force from its closing jaws. Brushing the sandy bottom with his body, John saw nothing but black water.
WHOOOSH!
The lower jaw flashed by in a haze of bubbles. The creature was swinging its head blindly, trying to work him through the water and into its mouth. John ducked and rolled across the seafloor, away from the thrashing water. His head broke the surface. Now in the shallows, John half ran, half crawled toward dry land. With every step, the beach shook as the enormous jaw ground into the shoreline, paddle fins splashing wildly.
