by Michael Bray
“That’s crazy. Even if we managed to get it out of the water, what then? The mission’s been aborted. It’s finished!” Morrison screamed, standing nose to nose with Russo.
“I know that. When I get out of here, I want to walk up to Tomlinson and throw that fucking things head on his desk just so he knows I did the job.” Russo whispered.
“Look, I was all for this. I wanted to come out here and hunt this thing and make a little bit of money. Pulling one out of the water using ropes is insane, no matter how you try to dress it up.”
Morrison stepped back, intending to head towards the exit, and then froze when he saw Russo. He had armed one of the underwater explosives, and was clutching it in his hand.
“Remember this. All of you,” he said to the rest of the team, who were watching intently. “I don’t have anything else to lose here. If even one person tries to leave, so help me God, I'll detonate this thing and kill us all.”
Morrison was pretty good at reading people, which is why he was so horrified. He looked Russo in the eye and saw he absolutely meant to do it if he had to.
“Okay, relax.” Morrison said, eyeing the explosive in Russo’s hand. “We’ll do whatever you say. Just calm down.”
“The sooner it’s done, the sooner we can get out of here. Use that for motivation. I don’t care how you do it, or how far you have to go, I want one of those things out here on the ice so I can personally cut its head off. Understood?”
Morrison didn’t answer. Sometimes situations went far beyond money and how much of it he could earn. Right now, he would gladly do without it as long as he could guarantee his survival. He turned to Mito.
“We need ropes. As many as we have. We also need to fashion a harness, maybe some kind of netting.”
“Those things are too big to pull out of the water.” The burly soldier replied.
“In open water maybe. If we can get them to the edge where it’s shallow, we might stand a chance.”
He glanced at the icy water, and felt his stomach roll.
“Let’s get to work,” he said quietly, before kneeling and unrolling the spare rope from his rucksack.
CHAPTER 62
They had managed to lure one of the young to the shallows, and against all odds, more in blind luck than any kind of skill, Mito managed to snare the head of the ten foot creature, and was wrestling along with the rest of Russo’s team to drag it from the water. Its agitated parent swam in furious circles, charging towards the shallows and breaching, and then retreating back to the deep. Unable to get to its distressed calf, the creature had taken to racing at speed around the perimeter of the bowl, slamming into the walls and causing the ice to crack and splinter.
“Pull!” Morrison grunted as he and the six other men dragged the juvenile creature further into the shallows, its slick body now exposed to the chilly air. In direct response, its mother breached the surface, and charged into the ice wall, the sound echoing around the bowl at incredible volume.
“That thing’s going crazy, we should let it go,” Mito said as he kept a close eye on the wake that raced around the lagoon.
“It can’t get to us here, it’s too shallow,” Morrison replied as he pulled harder. “Let’s get this thing out of the water and we can get out of here.”
The makeshift harness was hooked over the creatures head, pinning its flippers and underdeveloped tentacles to its side. The men pulled again, sliding the creature further towards land.
“That’ll do it,” Russo said, watching from the edge of the water.
He had deactivated the explosive and clipped it back onto his belt, and now grinned as he waded into the water to his knees, ignoring the cold bite against his flesh.
“It’s beautiful,” he said as he laid a hand on its thrashing body.
“If you’re gonna kill this thing, then hurry up, we can’t hold it much longer. By the way, the big one is reacting, she might bring the entire place down on us.” Morrison said through gritted teeth as he and the rest of the men struggled to hold the creature in place.
Russo grinned and unhooked the pickaxe from his belt.
“Just wait until Tomlinson sees you,” he said, rearing back with the axe.
“Stop!”
Russo turned to see Clara, Mackay and Rainwater as they made their way towards the edge of the water. Mackay was armed with the handgun he had borrowed from Andrews. Rainwater held the bulky backup T7500.
“I think you recognise this, don’t you?” He said, pointing the business end at Russo.
“I believe that’s mine.”
“Then I don’t need to tell you what this is capable of.”
“You realise that isn’t an explosive device don’t you?”
“I know. If I fire it into the roof, the concussion blast will still bring this cave down and put any chance of you completing this mission at an end.”
“You intend to bury us alive?” Russo said with a smile, as the furious creature slammed into the wall causing a large chunk of ice to fall from the roof and crash into the water.
“We aren’t all as barbaric as you pricks,” Mackay said, glaring at Morrison who was still struggling to restrain the creature. “Anyone who wants to leave, now’s the time.”
“We don’t want to hurt anyone, but we’re sealing this cave. This creature is too dangerous to live in today’s world. We have to put an end to it.” Clara cut in, gawping at the restrained newborn still thrashing around in the shallows.
“I understand,” Russo said, unhooking the explosive from his belt and activating it. “Nobody’s leaving. I need these men to help me with this creature. As soon as I have my trophy, you can do what you will.”
“You aren’t in control here. Not anymore.” Rainwater said, looking Russo in the eye.
“I’m always in control. Always. You know why? Because when it comes to it, I’m prepared to do what you won’t.”
“The way that thing is smashing into the walls, bomb or no bomb, the roof is going to come down and we’ll all die here.” Rainwater said.
“You don’t have the guts. You can do whatever you feel you have to, but I’m going to kill this creature and take my prize.”
“Don’t! I’m warning you.” Rainwater said, turning the T7 on Andrews.
“You don’t have the guts to use that. You don’t even have the guts to use the family name,” Russo sneered as the enraged beast breached, leaping from the water and smashing down on its back, sending an arcing wall of freezing cold spray washing over them.
“I’ll do it, I swear I will,” Rainwater said, pointing the weapon at the roof.
“You drop those ropes now,” Mackay said to the men holding the creature in place, pointing the gun at them to emphasize the point.
“Ignore him, keep a hold of it,” Morrison said, flashing a cocky smile at Mackay.
“Last chance. Drop those ropes and get out of here. I won’t tell you again.”
“You don’t have the guts,” Morrison said with a sneer, readjusting his grip. “You don’t have what it takes to kill a man.”
“He’s right,” Russo cut in, his deranged smile growing wider. “You’re fishermen, not soldiers. Do you think you’d ever get away with the murder of a government official, or any part of his consultation team, you would-”
A gunshot echoed around the vast chamber, stopping Russo in his tracks.
Morrison fell to his knees in the water, the entry wound perfectly visible above his right eye. He fell against the creature, sliding into a sitting position, blood and brains dripping onto his chest and into the water. Mackay lowered the weapon, turning his cool gaze towards Russo.
“That makes me and him even. Now you just give me an excuse to put one in you too.”
Even Rainwater and Clara were staring at Mackay in shock, unable to comprehend what they had seen. Russo was about to respond with a smart comment, something about how Mackay should have come to work for him, when the furious creature breached the water, slamming itself aga
inst the outer wall of the chamber. Already weakened, a huge section of the roof collapsed onto Russo, narrowly missing Mackay. Russo lost his grip on the grenade, which rolled towards the edge of the water. Rainwater drew breath, and was about to tell Clara to run when the explosive detonated, and the world exploded into white light and pain.
Screams reverberated around the chamber.
Ice splintered.
Debris fell.
Searing agony in his chest and leg brought Rainwater’s world back into focus as he tried to shake off the intense ringing in his ears. He surveyed the scene. There were bodies scattered in and around the water. Some were incomplete. From his vantage point, he could see a severed leg bobbing across the surface of the water. Clara was on all fours, coughing and wiping away the blood, which now matted her hair against her cheek. She had been lucky. Mito was face down on the ice, his dead eyes staring into the floor from the pulpy remains of his face. One bloody arm hung out of the mound of ice that had landed on Russo.
Rainwater got to his feet. The air was filled with pained moans of the wounded and dying. Some of the more fortunate of Russo’s men had been out of the blast zone and were now helping their colleagues to safety.
Through the ringing in his ears, he could just about hear Clara screaming. He followed her line of sight, past the ice that had buried Russo towards Mackay. He was sitting in the water, leaning against the stranded juvenile creature, which had escaped mostly unscathed from the blast.
Mackay’s entire left side was a burnt, charred mass of flesh. He was holding his stomach, and Rainwater could see soggy entrails protruding from between his fingers. Rainwater knelt beside him, blinking away tears as he held his friends’ free hand.
“Hang on, Mac, we’ll get you some help, we…”
“Don’t.” he said, his voice calm and accepting. “It’s done. I’m finished.”
“We can get you out of here, and get you to a hospital...”
“Come on, lad, look at me. We both know I’d never make it. Besides, I killed a man. At least this way I won’t have to spend the rest of my years in a prison cell.”
Ice began to fall from the roof with more regularity as the agitated creature continued to race from one end of the lagoon to the other, slamming into the outer walls and causing the water to lurch in ever increasing waves across the surface.
“She smells the blood. We need to get out of here.” Clara said, finally able to hear again after the volume of the explosion.
She tried to help Rainwater to his feet, but he was still holding onto Mackay’s hand.
“Mackay, I’m sorry…”
“Don’t apologise.” He mumbled, looking at Morrison’s body, which was slumped next to him against the creature. “Maybe it’s what I deserve.”
“I won’t leave you here,” Rainwater said, his voice wavering.
Clara put a hand on his shoulder.
“We have to go. It’s not safe here.”
“Not unless we all go together.”
“She’s right, this place won’t hold much longer.” Mackay grunted.
Reluctantly, Rainwater released his grip on Mackay's hand as Clara helped him to his feet.
“You aren’t going anywhere!” Russo screamed as he staggered towards them. His face was a mess, his eyes wild and white as they peered out of his blood mask. His right arm hung limply at his side, in his shaking left, he held a pistol that he was pointing at them as he splashed through the shallow edge of the water.
“You ruined everything!” he raged. “I had this under control. I’d won!”
“Look around you, Russo. It’s over. You’re just making it worse.” Rainwater said as he backed away, pushing Clara behind him.
“Fuck you!” Russo screamed, lurching towards them and firing the gun until it was empty.
Searing agony exploded through Rainwater as one of Russo’s wayward bullets found their target and threw him to the ground. Clara screamed and stumbled, trying to back away from Russo who turned his attention towards the stricken creature in the shallows, grinning at Mackay as he passed.
“I came here to kill this thing, and that’s what I intend to do,” he mumbled, and then turned back towards Clara. “Lucky for you I’m out of bullets, but I still have this.”
He grabbed the pickaxe out of the bloody water at Mackay’s feet and approached the creature. Mackay grabbed his legs as he passed, and was kicked away by Russo, who glared at the wounded fisherman.
“Just die quietly. You don’t have long left.” Russo said as he staggered against the creature, wincing as his injured arm banged against it.
“Neither do you.” Mackay said with a bloody grin as he tied one of the ropes harnessed to the creature around Russo s ankle, knotting it securely. Rainwater saw him do it, and despite the agony that raced through his body from both explosion and gunshot wound, he got to his feet and charged towards the stranded creature, attempting to shove it back towards the deeper water. Mackay was too weak to stand, so he pushed his back against the girth of the creature. Russo realised what was happening and let out a high pitched scream, and then dropped to a sitting position in the icy water to try to untie the knot around his ankle.
“Clara, come on,” Rainwater said through gritted teeth, trying to ignore the sight of his own blood pooling against the grey blue body of the creature. Clara joined them, yet still, the creature didn’t move. Just as Rainwater was about to give up, some of the surviving soldiers came to help. Slowly but surely the creature began to move.
“What are you doing? You work for me. Traitors! You will all pay for this,” Russo shrieked as more ice fell from the roof as a result of the adult creature’s incessant assault.
The soldiers ignored him, and knowing it was fruitless, Russo gave up trying to untie the knot and was furiously hacking away at it with the pickaxe as best he could with his one remaining useable arm.
The creature shifted slightly, and then all at once, slid into deeper water. Rainwater and the soldiers fell to their knees, Clara held onto Mackay and watched the creature swim towards its parent. Russo unleashed a guttural raw scream as he was dragged leg first into the water, eyes wide with defiance as he was pulled under. The furious beast continued to circle and slam into the sides of the walls, bringing more ice crashing around them.
“Is everybody out?” Clara said to one of the soldiers.
“Apart from us,” he replied.
“Then let’s get the hell out of here.”
“I heard that,” the soldier said as he and his colleague staggered for the exit.
Rainwater looked to the T7500, which was discarded on the floor.
“How bad were you hit?” she asked, looking at the blood seeping through his fingertips as he clutched his shoulder.
“It’s not too bad.”
“Can you move?”
“Yeah, we have a bigger problem though,” he said as he nodded towards the T7 on the ground.
“Remote was damaged by the blast.”
“Then forget it. We need to get out of here.”
“I’ll do it manually.”
“You can’t stay here,” Clara said, staring through the blood that covered her face. “Let it go, we need to get out of here.”
“We made a commitment to end this. That’s exactly what we need to do.”
“The plan was to remote detonate, which we can’t do now. Let’s forget it. You don’t need to become a martyr.”
“People are dead because of me. This is what I deserve.”
“Don’t give me that hero crap,” she said, glaring at him. “I lost someone too. We won’t do their memory any good if we stay here. There’ll be another chance.”
“There won’t, they’ll come in and take it if we leave now. We have to finish it. You know I’m right.” He said, looking Clara in the eye.
“I’ll do it,” Mackay gurgled. “We all know I’m gonna die here anyway. Let me go out my own way.”
Clara looked at Rainwater. They both kne
w Mackay was right.
“You know what to do?” Rainwater whispered, feeling nauseous at the idea of leaving Mackay.
“Aye, I know what to do. You two get out of here. Just get me out of this bloody water first. I can’t feel my legs,” he said, trying to smile but only managing a grimace.
Rainwater and Clara dragged him out onto the ice, propping him against a jutting natural ledge. The ground beneath him immediately turned red with blood, which ran towards the water’s edge. Rainwater positioned the weapon, helping Mackay get comfortable with it.
“Aim for the roof,” he said, choking back tears “This whole thing should…”
“I get it,” Mackay said, finding a smile. “Now get out of here, both of you.”
Clara started to help Rainwater to his feet, when Mackay grabbed him and pulled him close, whispering in his ear. Clara looked on as Rainwater listened, nodded, and finally stood, wiping tears from his eyes.
“I will. I promise,” Rainwater said, backing away to stand beside Clara as another huge chunk of ice fell from the roof and slammed into the water.
“Go, get out of here. I’ll give ya as long as I can. Got any smokes?”
Blinking through tears, Rainwater grabbed his half pack of cigarettes from his pocket and handed it along with the matches to Mackay.
“Mackay…”
“Don’t say anything. Just go. Remember what I told you.” He wheezed
”Come on, we have to leave,” Clara said, watching as the creature slammed into the wall, its impact sending a huge splintering crack towards the roof. She kissed Mackay on the head, and hugged him with her one free arm.
“I’ll never forget what you did for us today,” she whispered.
“You look after that lad. Make sure he stays on the right track,” he replied, now also crying. “Go on the pair of you. Get out of here.” Mackay said as he lit a cigarette with his shaking hands.
“Come on,” Clara said, hooking an arm under Rainwater’s and helping him climb towards the fissure where the soldiers were waiting to help them. As they neared the exit, they looked back one last time to see Mackay sitting amid a landscape of bodies and severed limbs, propped against an outcrop of ice and smoking his cigarette whilst the furious and agitated creature circled its young, protecting them from the carnage on the surface.
