by Russ Elliott
Then her vision lightened and a rush of dizziness overtook her. Her mouth slipped beneath the surface and she tasted the bloody sea. She actually prayed for drowning.
Her mind raced, pondering her options. The frill headed away from her again, readying itself for another pass at her, she had no doubt. Can I do it? she thought. Facing a certain horrible death, a self-inflicted end had some appeal. There’s no time left. I have to do it now! This is the best way, if I can just make myself do it. Amy closed her eyes. She softly whispered, “God forgive me,” then drew her final breath.
She threw her head back, and the red-stained water closed over her. Beneath the surface, she forced herself to dive. Pretend it’s a dream, she thought, keeping her eyes clamped shut and descending into the cool blackness. The pressure around her intensified with every stroke. Soon it will be over. Once she reached a certain depth and inhaled, she knew there would be no going back; she wouldn’t be able to surface in time to save herself.
Reaching a depth of about forty feet, she forced herself to do the unthinkable.
Instantly, salt water burned through her nasal cavity. Her arms and legs flailed uncontrollably with a surge of panic, her scream muted by incoming water. God, no. What have I done? But she kept her eyes shut . . . she was far too deep to come back up. She inhaled more water. Her lungs were on fire.
She was jolted forward from a sudden impact to her back.
Seabed?
But then she heard the sound of crashing water. Opening her eyes, completely disoriented, she saw the full moon and black smoky clouds. Amy felt a pebbled coolness beneath her back. Coughing and spitting seawater, she rolled to her stomach. Her eyes and mouth widened in disbelief, though she couldn’t utter a sound. She was gliding across the night sea on this horrible creature’s head.
Amy rose up on one elbow, catching her breath. In the moonlight, she could see her bloody body glistening as it lay across the gray skin. Just in front of her hands was an enormous eye. Behind her, she recognized the dreaded frill, towering above her.
It’s keeping me above water, she thought in wonder. It won’t let me drown. Immediately, her mind went back to earlier that night, when the hammerhead came straight at her, and the way the creature had killed it.
She went back to her original hope that maybe . . . just maybe . . . the creature was protecting her.
Why? Why would it care? Why not let me die with the others?
Then it hit her.
She recalled a documentary she’d seen on killer whales. She remembered how the orcas would attack seal colonies. After having their fill of several seals, they would play with one “lucky” member of the colony and then bring it safely back to shore. Researchers had no explanation for the bizarre behavior, but the whales did it nonetheless.
Is it possible?
On all fours and remaining as still as possible, Amy looked ahead with yet another glint of hope.
But the beast didn’t appear to heading for shore, or anywhere in particular. It was still swimming in a huge circle.
With the night wind whipping through her hair, she felt life creeping back into her body. Gazing down at the behemoth beneath her, she caught a glimpse of herself as well. Her torn left breast, void of its implant, hung grotesquely low. Her left hip and thigh was a mass of tattered flesh. Her beautiful figure and flawless skin—her entire reason for being—was gone, yet it barely registered. None of it seemed to matter as she watched the water and froth divide before the massive head, dreading the horror to come, hoping . . . always hoping.
The pebbled skin dropped from beneath her suddenly. What? The creature is diving, dropping me back into the sea.
Swimming upward, Amy surfaced in the cool water.
It’s not done. Surely not . . .
The colossal head rose beside her, rising higher and higher until it eclipsed the full moon. The enormous maw opened wide and unleashed a bellowing roar. Again, the giant head cocked back and emitted another roar, as if calling out to the sea.
Then the towering head rolled back and slammed into the water in a mass of waves.
~~~
Inside the Sky Hawk, Kate stared forward, scouring the sea while John talked to Nathan on the walkie-talkie. “Good job, Nathan,” John said. “Let us know if the signal moves again. Out.” He lowered his hands and turned to Kate. “Nathan said the new signal is about—”
Kate cut him off, “We don’t need it! Look!”
John followed Kate’s gaze and felt his heart pound in his throat.
~~~
It’s coming back it’s coming back it’s coming back . . .
Bathed in her own blood, Amy watched helplessly as the merciless beast closed in. Again, it glided by, scraping her cruelly with its jagged skin. It tugged her face below the surface, her hysterical screams transforming into gurgles.
Below the surface, more blood rose from her abraded body as she rolled off the passing flank. Her face rose, spitting and spinning in the monster’s wake.
Methodically, the creature veered back around.
~~~
Inside the cockpit, John and Kate stared at the spectacle below, foreboding growing in their hearts and minds as they watched the pliosaur brush by the woman as if teasing her, as if it were pushing her around for the sole purpose of heightening her terror.
Kate closed in, lowering altitude. “What’s it doing to her? I’ve heard of killer whales playing with seals before killing them, but never—”
John interrupted as he rose from the passenger’s seat. “It’s not playing with her . . . it’s toying with us.”
Kate looked at him in disbelief. “Come again?”
“It waited,” John said, sliding off his headset. “Somehow, that thing knows we can track it . . . just like at the pier. It knew we’d come.”
Kate stared at him like he was crazy.
“All right, then,” John stepped between the back seats, “you explain it!”
Entering the cargo bay, he reached the doorway. His hair blew back from the wind of the main rotor. Forty feet below, he saw the woman turn and look up at him—pleading, terrified . . . hopeful?
Immediately, John recognized the blue eyes glowing in the chopper’s light. The Sea Ray’s debris scattered around her confirmed that she was the young blonde he’d seen earlier. Clearly, the two men with her were nowhere in sight.
Dead.
John watched as the pliosaur brushed by the woman again, then headed away, only to circle again. The monster turned on its side, a red eye glaring up at the doorway.
The enormous jaws swung up from the water, letting loose a roar that could be heard above the rotor blades.
John met the creature’s gaze. “I get it. At the pier, you didn’t like how that played out. So you waited. Now you want me to try it again, give you another shot.” He backed up to a bundled nylon ladder.
As if in reply, another roar.
“That’s it! You expect me to jump in after her . . . like at the pier?” said John, sliding the ladder to the doorway. He saw his shot. The beast was still thirty yards away from the girl.
“Sorry to disappoint you!”
With that, he hurled the nylon ladder through the doorway. It fell, unwinding toward the surface.
The pliosaur kept its distance.
John’s heart sank when the girl reached up into the glaring light. It was a pitiful sight. Her torn open left breast hung grotesquely. Below her reaching arm, light glistened off her exposed ribs. The sides of her torso, hips and thighs were torn to ribbons. The merciless monster had literally skinned her alive.
He looked at the creature with a fury.
And then the beast dove.
“Hold on!” John screamed.
The moment her hand connected with the ladder, a luminous shape appeared beneath her.
It rose.
A mound of water pushed her upward, then exploded into a perfect black tunnel around her. The jaws slammed shut, and the ladder sprang up from a plume
of water. For a gruesome moment, John glanced a severed hand still clutching the bottom of the ladder . . . until the ladder whipped, sending the appendage off into the night.
John stood frozen, looking down at the froth of bubbles beneath the swaying ladder. Losing sight of the creature, he returned to the cockpit. His blood boiled. His heart ached.
Kate turned in her seat. “What happened?”
“You know what happened,” barked John, looking through every window in the cockpit. “You saw it, didn’t you?”
“But animals don’t think that way.”
“It could have taken her at any time,” John said, “but it waited. It knew we were on the way and would try to save her . . . like at the pier.” He looked Kate in the eye. “I couldn’t tell if it was trying to lure me back into the water, or if it just wanted to make sure I saw it happen. Either way, that thing’s pure evil!”
He crawled across the passenger’s seat, looking through the window. “Where? Where is—?” He paused when he spotted the tip of the frill. He pointed and Kate nodded, swinging the chopper around. The giant tail appeared in the glaring light. John ran to the cargo bay. Through the doorway, he saw a huge paddle fin pump beneath the swells.
“GET ME OVER IT!” he screamed toward the cockpit with fury. Pulling a depth charge from the crate, he carried it to the doorway. He stared down at the colossal back of the creature. “Come on . . . can’t miss. Not this time.”
He pressed the button . . . 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . and let it go.
The pliosaur rolled at the same split-second the charge exploded beneath the surface. A plume of water reached up to the doorway.
A direct hit. John couldn’t believe his eyes.
Without looking to see if the creature was still alive, John snatched the last depth charge from the crate. In a single motion, he activated it, hurling it through the doorway.
Kaboom! Another shot right on the money.
“Brrravooo!” Kate shouted from the cockpit, pumping her fists in the air.
For a long moment, John didn’t dare take a breath as he watched nothing but boiling bubbles rise beneath the searchlight.
Nothing . . . nothing . . . it’s gone. He sighed deeply, relieved, exhausted.
Then the frill broke the surface, the red orb of its eye almost winking at him. And just that quickly, it was gone, again. Alive.
Eventually, John made his way back to the cockpit and slowly took a seat, stunned. His last nerve fried. He stared blankly at the frothy swells and boat debris. “No way . . . there’s no way I missed. That first shot was square on its throat.” He raised his gaze to the full moon, and an eerie sensation crept over him. “Maybe they were right . . . something else is playing a hand in all this.”
“Look,” Kate said, “I’m not sure what you’re getting at, but that thing’s just a reptile . . . fifty tons worth, but still just a reptile.” She caught sight of the fuel gauge. “Wow! We’re at bingo fuel!” She gave a nervous glance through the side window. “I can think of better places to run out of petrol.”
Twisting the throttle, she flipped a switch on the instrument cluster. “I’ll call the admiral and relay the pliosaur’s last coordinates.” Glancing at John, she added, “It couldn’t have gone far; they can still find it.”
“Not tonight.” John’s vacant eyes stared down at the dark water. “It’s gone . . . it’s already proven its point.”
Chapter 9
THE NECALA
Moments after receiving the pliosaur’s position from Kate, the naval demolition team reached the site. Immediately, Admiral Henderson saw the boat debris sprinkled in a long chum line. He barked into his headset, ordering the helicopters to disperse and scan the area. When he raised his binoculars, there it was–about seventy-five yards from the debris, a huge splash. Closing in, he could make out the enormous shadow just beneath the surface. Playing the chopper’s spotlight over the creature, he saw the knotted back gliding above the waterline. It was heading into the fog bank.
The admiral motioned to the pilot. “Sit me on its back!” Instantly, the lead helicopter closed on the great silhouette. The cargo door slid open. Below, they could see the giant shadow gliding beneath the misty waves, part of its jagged back cutting the waterline. The fog grew thicker, obscuring the beast. Quickly, the first depth charge was handed to a man harnessed inside the cargo bay just inside the doorway.
With a splash, the gray cylinder pierced the surface then exploded beside the shadow. The blast dispersed the fog. Amidst walls of water, the enormous underbelly rolled to the surface. The second depth charge detonated beside the flank, spewing water up against the bottom of the helicopter.
The flight crew cheered as the vast underbelly rolled. Then without the slightest trace of movement, the great bulk descended to the depths of the sea.
~~~
Just as Kate’s helicopter touched down behind Simon’s Town airport, John received a call over the radio. “John, this is Tom Hayman with the Sharks Board. Do you copy?”
John eagerly responded, “I copy! What’s the latest, Tom? Over!”
“We’re a couple miles off Pearly Beach on our way back in. John, we got it! We saw the debris Kate described and picked up a visual on the pliosaur immediately. The demolition team dropped a couple depth charges near the creature—not direct hits, but the monster rolled over on its back and sank like a stone. Then they dropped four more depth charges in the same vicinity just to be sure. It all just happened . . . maybe just ten minutes ago. And you weren’t exaggerating about the size! That bloody thing was enormous!”
Shutting off the helicopter’s engine, Kate looked over at John, whose face could barely hold his wide smile. Kate whooped and tossed a high five. Suddenly, John’s smile vanished as a guarded thought popped into his head. “Tom, was there blood? Did they recover any part of the carcass?”
He looked at Kate, who frowned.
There was static, then Tom’s voice was clear. “It was hard to tell if the blood was from the creature or the chum already in the water. As far as the carcass, the pliosaur sank after they hit it, with no movement at all. We’re going back out tomorrow morning to recover what’s left of it. Oh, and to be on the safe side, we’re not releasing any of this to the media until we do find the carcass. Don’t want anyone to get to it before we do.”
“Okay, thanks,” John said quietly. “If there are any further developments, you can reach me on Kate’s cell. Out.”
Taking off his headset, John battled with this feeling of unease. He tried to recover his original sense of relief: they hit it! Even if they didn’t kill the creature, they had to have seriously wounded it. Right? The doubt wouldn’t go away, but he knew there was nothing more he could do. Just wait and see . . . again.
He reached over and cracked the door open, allowing Kate to exit first. She didn’t say a word. Then Nathan’s voice crackled over the walkie-talkie beneath the copilot’s seat. John picked it up. “Hey, Steven, I’ve got some pretty good—”
Steven cut him off. “I just picked up a signal on the monitor a minute ago. Wait . . . argh, it just went out again. But I’ve got the pliosaur’s new coordinates!”
“When? Exactly when did the signal go out?” Nathan hesitated at the urgent sound in John’s voice, and then said, “Uhhh, just now, less than a minute ago. Why?”
“I just got a call from Tom from the Sharks Board chopper. He said the demolition team destroyed the creature more than ten minutes ago. If that’s the case, the transmitter should have gone out then, not a minute ago.”
“That’s true,” Steven said, “but there is a possibility that the pliosaur is dead and the transmitter’s still sending a signal.” He paused, then repeated in a softer voice. “It is possible.”
“I don’t know,” John said. “If the depth charges didn’t do enough damage to take out the transmitter, I don’t think we can assume they did enough damage to the creature. I mean, they said the hits weren’t spot-on.”
�
�Wait!” Steven said with urgency. “It’s back on.”
“Did it move? Did it move at all?”
Kate grabbed John’s arm in a death grip as she listened to the conversation, her eyes wide with disbelief.
Steven replied, “Wait, it’s hard to tell. I’ve marked the last spot on the monitor. Let’s see . . . yeah, not much, but it looks like maybe two hundred yards from the previous transmission. Annnd, there it just went out again.” His deep sigh could be heard clearly over the speaker. Kate kicked the dirt with her boot, cursed a flash of angry words, and walked away from the chopper. She stood there, her back to John, head tilted back as if praying to the heavens.
“All right, I’m going to call the admiral!” John said, his eyes on Kate. “Do not turn away from that monitor, okay? Let me know if that signal comes back. We’ll refuel and probably stay here at the airport for the night. But I’ll keep the walkie-talkie close by. If I don’t hear from you tonight, I’ll call you in the morning. Out.”
John set the walkie-talkie down and walked over to Kate who now stared blankly through the chain-link fence and at the back of the airport office. He stared with her, both silent for a long while.
Kate spoke first. “Don’t worry. I’ll run into town and pick up another couple barrels of meat. While I’m out, I think I’ll pay a visit to an old mate.” She smiled, a newfound determination in her tone. “Maybe he can help us with something.” She slapped John on the back and winked. “If Big Ugly is still out there, I assure you this is his last party!”
John’s mouth hung open as he watched her walk away. A smile crept onto his face as he shook his head. The woman doesn’t give up easily. He walked after her into the building. I like it.
~~~
John smoldered as he hung up the telephone in Kate’s office at the Simon’s Town airport. He looked at Kate who was downing a sports drink in the kitchenette. “I can’t believe it! The Navy won’t admit even the possibility of the pliosaur still being alive.” He looked at the clock which read eleven fifteen. It had been hours since the demolition team had supposedly destroyed the creature, which John knew in his bones was not the case.
