Darkest Night

by James Cherry

  Without offering an apology, Marty said, "Miserable country you have here. I think I am allergic to the air."

  William reached deep into his pocket and retrieved a small bottle. Opening the bottle he removed two small pills and he handed them to Marty. He said, “Take these. You should really see a doctor for that allergy, tis a nasty reaction to something you ate.”

  Marty shook his head in disagreement. “I don’t have any food allergies.”

  “Shellfish?” William asked.

  “Nope.”

  “Peanuts?”

  “No, I told you that I am not allergic to any foods," retorted Marty.

  “Bah, you are allergic to something, you just don’t know what it is. When did the symptoms start?” asked William.

  Marty sneezed again and wheezed. Seeing that Marty was unable to catch his breath, the doctor offered, “The day we set foot in this country.”

  William rubbed his chin thoughtfully and nodded. He waited patiently for Marty to catch his breath then asked, “What did you eat that day?”

  Marty replied, “Airline food, just the normal shit that I eat every day. You know chicken, rice, and a coke. After we left the airport, we stopped at some bar in Edinburgh and I ate some potato chips. That’s all.”

  William grinned with understanding and said, “Ha, you stopped at a pub.” The man’s eyes seemed to twinkle with mirth as he asked, “By any chance did you take a swig of some of Scotland’s famous ale?”

  “Yes, it was pretty good, why?” replied Marty as he squinted in apprehension.

  “And have you continued to drink ale to this day?”

  “Yes, why?” Marty’s eyes grew wide in understanding. “You don’t think that I am allergic to the ale?”

  William chuckled and slapped Marty on the back. He said, “Lad, it seems so. Our brewing techniques are different from your American beer. We use slightly different ingredients as well. It may be that you are allergic to one of the ingredients."

  Marty blanched at the thought. “No, I can’t be allergic to the ale. Just what the hell am I going to drink then?”

  “Well, there is always water,” William offered. He laughed and slapped his leg with his hand.

  “I was told not to drink the water in Scotland, that it would give me diarrhea,” replied Marty.

  The doctor was growing tired of Marty’s continued argumentative attitude. He put a firm hand on the young man’s shoulder and said, “Marty, the water here is safe to drink.”

  William added, “Did you know that every time I go to America, I get diarrhea from drinking your water? It is all based upon what your body is used to. My body is not used to ingesting fluoride that you Americans use in your water."

  The doctor added with a playful grin, “Besides, which would you rather have? Mild diarrhea or a runny nose, aching head, sneezing, wheezing, vomiting . . .“

  Marty cut him off with a chopping motion of his hand. He said, “I get the point. No more ale for me." He winced as he made his proclamation.

  William patted Marty on the shoulder and turned away.

  “What medicine did you give me anyway?” asked Marty.

  William answered without turning around, “Breath Mints. Your breath was really rotten me lad.”

  Chapter 10

  Marty took a sip of his cola and belched loudly. The swelling in his face had subsided, and he sneezed a lot less often. As much as he hated to admit it, William had been correct about his allergy to the local ale. This had been a great blow to him, as he loved to drink and American beer was not readily available in Scotland.

  He shivered at the crisp air and took one last look at the clear night sky before turning to enter the observation post. The makeshift observation post was a small flimsy wooden building they had hastily erected upon the shores of Loch Ness, in an effort to conceal their whereabouts from any lake monsters.

  Marty shook his head and scowled as he brooded over the fact that they were hiding from lake monsters that didn’t exist. He ducked inside the low doorway and joined the team, who sat huddled upon a floor made from wooden pallets. No one gave Marty so much as a glance as he entered as most of the group peered intently through the observation slits built into the sides of the building.

  Marty watched as William tapped on a laptop keyboard and checked the readings from the radar terminal just outside of the observation post. Joseph sat next to William and intently watched with the thermal image on the left side of the monitor.

  “So William, anything happening?” Marty asked.

  “Nothing as of yet," answered William.

  Joseph turned to pat William on the shoulder. “It is quite all right chap. The chances of Nessie showing again is bloody well zero. Doctor Burch believes that Nessie was here in the Loch to breed and that after breeding, Nessie would leave the Loch and fly back to its lair.”

  Marty watched the exchange curiously. He just didn’t understand why all these fools were so caught up in chasing myths. He piped in sarcastically, “Yes, but how will Nessie breed by itself? Wouldn’t it take two creatures in order to copulate?”

  Doctor Burch jerked his head up with a start and said, “You know, the kid has a point. Did you capture a second creature on radar that night?”

  William said, “Why no I did not. Either your theory of the Loch being a breeding area is incorrect, or the second Nessie has yet to arrive.”

  Ayako added, “The second creature will presumably be a male. If these creatures are anything like most animals, the female would arrive first and following the female will be one or more males ready to breed.” She paused before continuing, “That is if the female is in season and Doctor Burch is correct in his theory.”

  Ever willing to prove how ludicrous he thought the doctor and his theories, Marty chimed in, “Doctor, I thought your theory on these creatures was that they only came out on a new moon? How come you are searching for a creature tonight?" He pointed out of the small slit in the observation post and said, “Look, the new moon has past.”

  The doctor replied, “I said that only the chupacabra feed during the new moon or really dark nights. Nessie could either be an entirely new species or an adult chupacabra. In any case, Nessie may only be here to breed, not feed.”

  Marty waved away the doctor and said, “So how come no one has ever seen wings on Nessie?” He knew he had the doctor on that one. He grinned in triumph and demanded, “Explain that.”

  The doctor replied easily, “Can you see the wings on a loon as it swims across the water?”

  “That is irrelevant. We know loons have wings,” answered Marty.

  “You didn’t answer my question. Can you see the wings on a loon while it is in water?”

  “Not while it is swimming, but sometimes a loon will flap its wings while it’s on the water. No one has ever seen Nessie flap its wings,” answered Marty smugly.

  The doctor replied, “You talk as if Nessie really does exist. So you agree that people have seen Nessie, they just haven’t seen it flap its wings.”

  Marty sputtered, “No, I wasn’t saying that at all! Nessie is just a hoax, a way to increase the local tourism. I was just saying . . . “

  “If Nessie doesn’t exist, then why are you arguing whether or not Nessie has wings?” the doctor asked.

  Marty was stunned into silence. He really didn’t know why he bothered to continually argue with the doctor. He knew the man was a fraud and he would bring him down soon enough.

  Turning to the others, Marty said sarcastically, “Then the only way to know is to try and capture Nessie.”

  His comment had a sudden impact upon Ron as the man shifted from his seat, moved to a storage crate, and opened the lid. He extracted a bola gun and turned to Marty and exclaimed, “I am ready to get one of these critters. Let’s do this. If we capture one then we will know for sure if it has wings or not.”

  Marty stared incredulously at Ron and said, “I was speaking facetiously. You can’t capture something that doesn’t ex
ist.”

  Doctor Burch interjected, “We are not here to capture one. We are here to study only."

  Marty growled, “Study what?” If it weren’t for the fact that he still needed money to pay off his graduate loans, he would have never agreed to come on another stupid mission. Sitting back and crossing his arms, Marty rolled his eyes and sighed loudly.

  The doctor ignored Marty and said, “Besides, from what I have seen, these particular creatures are much too large to be captured by a bola gun.”

  “I think you forget who is paying for this expedition. I forked out the dough, and I say we capture one,” replied Ron angrily.

  The doctor said evenly, “Ron, we will attempt a capture at some future point. You must understand that we need to gather information about this creature before we even think about capturing one. We don’t know its size, its feeding or movement patterns, or even how to catch it."

  Marty sat up and listened intently, curious that the doctor didn’t want to capture a creature. Perhaps because the doctor really knew they didn’t exist and knew that even trying would be futile? He wondered just what the doctor had up his sleeve.

  “Why not capture one now and you can study it while in captivity?” inquired Ron.

  Marty nodded in agreement and said, “Yeah doc, why not?”

  The doctor explained, “When you go deer hunting, do you just go out and try to bag the first deer you see or do you have to scout, research, study tracks, and examine sign so that you can gain an understanding of their behavior and maximize your chances of harvesting the biggest buck?”

  Marty patiently watched as Ron contemplated for a long moment and noted when the Texan’s face suddenly brightened in understanding.

  Ron said, “You know Doc, you are right. Let’s study these creatures so that we can snag the biggest buck from the herd.”

  Marty frowned as he realized that the doctor had done a good job explaining in such a way that even the simple Texan could understand. Seeing that he had lost his ally, and his chance to stir up trouble within the group, he did the only thing he could do.

  He laughed and placed his hands on top of his head in a mockery of a deer. Caught off balance by a sudden slap to the back of his head he pitched forward, face first, onto the floor. Looking up, he saw Ayako standing over him with a glare that could level a mountain.

  Marty, being no mountain, stuck out his tongue and laughed.

  ***

  The team had settled down and drifted off to sleep around midnight, leaving the doctor with first watch. Moving to the laptop he leaned forward and propped his head on his arm so that he could get a better view of the screen. The minutes seemed to drag on, and the chill of the night air got ever colder.

  Suddenly he remembered the CD that William had given him earlier so he inserted it into the CD-ROM of his laptop and began to watch. The film was distorted from the low light but he could make out a large object as it swam across the water. The long serpentine head bobbed up and down and suddenly plunged beneath the dark waters of the Loch. He pressed a button to replay the footage when unexpectedly an alarm sounded.

  Beep. Beep. Beep.

  He silenced the alarm on the laptop with a press of a button and closed the film footage window. Staring at the low battery alarm, which had popped up in a window, the doctor said to himself, “Damn battery is almost dead on terminal four.”

  Deciding that there was no reason to wake anyone over a matter of a dead battery, he quietly moved to a corner where the spare batteries were kept, and picked up a heavy cube shaped power cell by its flimsy handle. He started for the door, but paused by a stack of equipment long enough to retrieve a pair of night vision goggles, which he placed on his head. He also picked up an adjustable wrench and a small hand-held thermal camera, which he deposited inside his jacket pockets. He picked up one last item, a small LED flashlight, and pushed the button to light the way.

  Ducking through the doorway, the doctor moved with purpose, down the shoreline, towards terminal unit four. He trudged down the rocky shoreline for several minutes, and the heavy battery began to put a strain on his arm. He set down the battery, swapped arms, and began to walk again. A sudden loud splashing noise stopped the doctor in his tracks and he stood still to listen. After a few moments, he heard it again, coming from ahead, just around the bend. Quickly turning off the flashlight, he stuffed it into his pocket and turned on his night vision goggles in order to scan the area.

  Seeing nothing, the doctor moved forward slowly, walking on the tips of his toes as he strove to make as little noise as possible. A sudden disturbance in the water, just around the bend, caused the doctor to slow even further as he crept ahead.

  As he rounded the bend, what he saw completely and utterly amazed him. Two large serpentine figures were entwined, rolling lazily near the water’s edge. He realized that his theory had been correct after all, the creatures were mating, their dance unmistakable.

  A loud hiss from somewhere to his right propelled him to spin around in alarm, causing him to drop the heavy battery in the process. The battery crashed upon the rocky shoreline with a dull, but audible thunk, and the fluid leaked out in a steady stream. Ignoring the battery, he slowly scanned the direction from where he had heard the noise.

  The doctor froze in complete and utter terror as a large, snake-like creature scrambled from the trees and stopped to within ten feet of him. Its towering neck ended with a large head full of sharp teeth, and he could feel the creature’s hot breath upon his face.

  Regaining some measure of his wits and composure, he switched his goggles from thermal to starlight in order to get a better view of the creature. As he attempted to memorize every detail of the spectacular animal’s anatomy, he noticed that the graceful curves of the smooth neck and back were suddenly not smooth anymore. Spines seemed to knife upwards from folds within the skin, rising along the course of its back in a wave. The creature took up an obvious aggressive posture and its two wings, which had been folded tightly and almost invisibly to its sides, swept out wide. The rush of wind from the wings startled the doctor and he took an involuntary step back.

  He quickly estimated that the creature was over fifty feet in length from nose to tail and the snake-like body sported four stubby legs. Remembering the camera the doctor slowly reached into his pocket, brought it up, and hit the record button in one fluid motion.

  Suddenly the doctor was showered by something wet and warm. The thick viscous liquid drenched one side of his face and covered his chest and both arms. He realized that the creature had spit on him.

  His jacket offered some measure of protection against the spittle, but his face had been unprotected and the warm saliva quickly began to turn hotter. He screamed in agony, dropping the thermal camera in his haste to get to the water’s edge.

  Without hesitation, he dove in, the night vision goggles ripped from his face and sinking into the depths. As he recklessly thrashed about in the water trying to strip off his clothes to allow the cool liquid to wash away the torturous corrosive substance, he suddenly remembered the creature. He ceased his thrashing, the pain momentarily forgotten, as he glanced up and scanned the beach in the faint moonlight.

  The creature was nowhere to be seen.

  He quickly turned to his left and looked across the water. Even in the dim light, he could see that the two mating serpents were gone as well. A sudden sense of dread overtook the doctor as he realized that the creatures could be swimming his way.

  Vaulting out of the water, his skin began to burn in pain with a renewed vigor. He raced up the rocky beach toward the observation post but didn’t get very far. The pain finally overwhelmed the doctor and he fell to his knees, screaming in agony.

  A spotlight suddenly illuminated the doctor and a pair of friendly hands seemed to appear from nowhere to grasp his arm but quickly pulled back when he shrieked in pain. He was gently forced to the ground and a blur of motion and voices surrounded him.

  He heard Ayako scream, �
��What happened, David?”

  Doctor Burch opened one eye and choked out one word at a time, “Nessie. Spit. On. Me." That was all he could manage before the pain overcame him.

  ***

  Doctor Burch opened his eyes, and quickly shut them as bright lights flooded into view. He blinked slowly as his eyes gradually acclimated to the light, and looked about the room.

  Medical equipment and machines lined sparse walls, which were painted in a creamy off-white. He was in a hospital from the looks of things.

  Glancing down at his arms, which throbbed in pain, an IV jutted from his left arm like an angry giant mosquito having lunch. Both of his arms were covered in spots with thick white gauze and his face felt funny.

  He slowly reached up and gingerly touched the side of his face, grimacing in pain. The right side of his head and face had been covered with gauze and his ear, which was also covered, felt small and incomplete. He moaned in agony as he attempted to sit up.

  Ayako stuck her head into the room and her face brightened with pleasure. She said cheerfully, “David, you are finally awake!”

  Ayako rushed into the room and gently, but firmly, forced him to lie back down. The doctor didn’t resist, not having the energy to continue anyway.

  “You will be okay.” Ayako stated, as a single tear fell from her eye. She patted the doctor on his leg and continued, “The doctors say that the wounds are not life threatening and you have Marty to thank for that.”

  “Marty?” the doctor asked incredulously.

  “Yes, he recognized your wounds as acid burns and he poured baking soda on them to neutralize the acidity. His quick action probably saved you from more serious injury,” replied Ayako.

  “Where did he get baking soda?” asked the doctor.

  “We use baking soda in our ice chests to keep the odor down. We also use it in our clothes for the same reason,” she replied with a perplexed look upon her face. She patted the doctor’s leg again and said, “You know that."