The Chronological Man: The Monster in the Mist

by Andrew Mayne

  “We’re not going to take you anywhere,” said Smith.

  The man looked at the back door of the saloon.

  “Don’t worry, if those two goons come through that door, my mate, Mad Dog Capt. April will pop them where they stand.”

  “Yargh,” muttered April, still trying to stand in a manly manner.

  Smith turned to look at her. “Revenge on the account of what they did to his tongue.” He looked back at the man. “We need to know what happened on the John Jackson.”

  The man lowered his hands. “Why are you asking?”

  “Because we have to stop it before it takes anyone else. That’s why.”

  The man stood up and sat on a crate. “That’s what those fools are telling us we have to do. But I don’t trust them. I think they’d sooner put us face down in a ditch than pay us. We know it’s their bosses’ fault for that abomination. It’s a curse. No money is worth it.”

  Smith sat down on a crate opposite the man. April took a seat next to him.

  “Tell us what happened,” said Smith.

  The man looked from Smith to April and then over his shoulder. He knew they weren’t going to leave until they’d heard his story.

  Chapter 14

  “They said it was an oceanographic mission. Like the kind that the university does,” said the man named Broderick. The light from the green vial cast sinister shadows on his face. He shot a glance over his shoulder. “Only this wasn’t a scientific mission. When Mr. Reece stepped foot on the ship, we knew he was up to no good.”

  “Mr. Reece? I don’t believe I know him,” said Smith.

  “Tall fellow, blond hair. Looks like he might be Norwegian or Dutch. He works for a doctor in town. He was the one that charted the expedition. We were to sail far north of the usual fishery and find a sperm whale. Not as much call for them nowadays. But it wasn’t for the whale. They wanted to use it to catch something else.

  “Two weeks in we found a young sperm bull. Maybe forty feet. Took us two days to harpoon it, kill it and get it behind the boat. That’s when Mr. Reece tells our captain to head dead north. Close to the Arctic as we can. Way out of range from the sperms that time of year.

  “Dragging that whale, we head full speed north. Sharks, some whites when it got too cold for the bulls, would come along and pick at it. We’d take turns in the crow’s nest shooting at them with the rifle.

  “You’d see a fin poke out of the water and a white get close as it saddled up to the sperm to have a nibble. Pop, we’d go with the rifle. Shot one square in the eye and watched it hang loose like a black grape. It thrashed its tail and swam off like an angry pirate.

  “It was fun sport until it got real cold. Fewer whites came along to pick at it. The sperm was still mostly there. Its fins had been chewed when we couldn’t snipe at night.

  “We’d ask Mr. Reece what all the bother was about. Not much sport after a while in shooting at whites. He said that wasn’t the point. He and his society, as he called it, were interested in what would come after the whites, when we got real far north.

  “He had us sail in a wide circle for a week. Chumming the whole ocean with the body of the sperm. It seemed like nonsense to us, but it was easier work then actual whaling if you didn’t mind the cold.

  “On the eighth night of going in circles, it comes. We sees what Mr. Reece has sent us out for. I was below deck when I heard Jameson call out. I run up there and see what he’s looking at in the moonlight.

  “It had two glowing eyes like your little bottle there. Only these are orange. Orange like a flame. Its beak was nibbling on the sperm. Taking big chunks. Mr. Reece comes to the deck and orders us to harpoon it with the powered gun. He says that’s what we’re after.”

  “Architeuthis teuthoidea,” said Smith. “A giant squid.”

  Broderick shook his head. “No. That’s the thing. Some of us have seen those in the nets trying to take our catches in the middle of the night. This was different.”

  “Different how?” asked Smith.

  “Like a man to a monkey. This monster sat out there, its tentacles pulling away pieces of the sperm, feeding it into its mouth. Those eyes, they watched us as we ran on deck. It knew what we were up to. Jameson ran over to the harpoon and swiveled it over to the thing. He leveled it at it, pulled back the bolt. We all looked out at the beast waiting to see the harpoon go through it, snaring it. We waited and nothing. We shouted at Jameson to fire. Nothing. I turned to look at him to yell at the bastard and he’s not there.

  “We ran over to the railing. Nothing. No Jameson. Never to be seen again. Another man, Kennedy, he goes over to the harpoon. Only some of us keep an eye on him as he checks the bolt and brings it to bear on the thing.

  “He’s ready to fire when we hear a shout behind us. We turn around and there’s no one there. Later on we realized it was Saunders that time. We hear a splash. No more Kennedy.

  “That’s when we realize it. While we’re watching the beast out there feed on the sperm, it’s mate is under the John Jackson. It’s under our keel feeding on us.”

  Smith felt April’s hand grab his arm through the leather armor.

  “Two of them?” said Smith. “Hunting together?”

  “Like a pair. Only these two aren’t just hunting together, they’re smart. Real smart. They know what a harpoon gun does. That’s why they’d take the man off it whenever he got close. As soon as one of us would get near, a tentacle as thick as a man’s body would rise out of the water and pull away whatever fool got close.

  “The captain shouted at Reece to let us cut off the sperm and sail out. He’d have none of it. He told us to lash ourselves to the deck and finish what we were paid to do. He had a nasty temper. He yelled at us for taking the money when all we had to do was take pot shots at the whites. Told us if we didn’t get the beast, we weren’t going to get paid.

  “Then he got wise and took the smart approach. He offered a hundred dollars to the man who harpooned the one on the sperm. We all have a price. I tied a thick anchor rope and say I’ll give it a shot. It was so cold I could barely tie the not. Cold rain was splashing in my eyes. But a hundred dollars was a hundred dollars.

  “I get two of my mates, Carnegie and Matheson, to tie off the rope to the mast and to hold to it themselves. I walk over the sloshy deck and grab hold of the handle on the harpoon. Matheson lets go and goes to the bow so he can peer over and tell me when it’s coming. I aim the harpoon at the beast out there on the sperm. Matheson lets out a scream. I don’t bother to look. I throw myself to the deck and hear a whip go past my ear.

  “Carnegie starts pulling on the rope. I slide across the deck on my belly. I feel something strike my leg and I let out a howl. Carnegie tries to pull me but I can’t move. I look down expecting to see the tentacle wrapped around my leg but it’s gone. Two other men help Carnegie pull. I scream as I feel my skin rip. That’s when I notice I’m pinned to the deck with this.”

  Broderick pulled a large curved amber claw from his pocket and held it up in the green light. It was nearly the size of his hand. “Some men say you can tell the size of them things by the size of the claw they have. Maybe so. These things may not be the biggest creature swimming in the ocean, but they’re the meanest and the cleverest.

  “But it was Mr. Reece who figured out how to get the one on the sperm. Cruel man. He talks us into lashing a ‘volunteer’ to the harpoon. He goes below deck and gets Old Webb. He’s so soused half the time he can’t piss straight let alone fire a harpoon. Reece gets the man good and drunk and convinces him to get behind the harpoon. Webb thinks it’s a joke. Like a child he was. He’s cackling that stupid laugh of his. Mop of hair hanging down in his eyes. Toothless grin. Reece is just carrying on laughing with him, pouring brandy into him as two other fools tie ropes around his wrists. Like executioners.

  “They carry him over to the harpoon and tie his wrists to it. Webb looks over at us with his dumb face and laughs his hoarse laugh. We smile at him. Tell him he can do
it, too ashamed to tell him what his real job is.

  “I was sitting middeck holding my loosed skin, tying a rag around the leg, but I knew. I was no better. I was part of it.

  “We all look over at Webb as he smiles at us. We see it behind him. Reece gives us a stern look, telling us to shut up. He looks over at Webb and cheers him on. The poor fool had been below deck and didn’t know what we’d already seen. Dumb when he was sober, stupid when he was drunk. He’d always been the butt of our jokes. Always eager to please. We once tripped him down a ladder. We laughed and laughed. His leg broke funny and he almost died of infection. We kept him drunk. All he did was laugh when we got him soused. Then cry to himself at night when the pain got too much to bear. No family, we were all he had in the world. And this’n how we treat him.”

  Reece pushed the edge of his sleeve into the corner of his eye. “I watched and saw. Webb swung the tip of the harpoon around. His hands bound to it. The thing comes up behind him and Webb sees our faces. He doesn’t know what’s going on. But he knows something is wrong. He stops his damn cackle and the tentacle lashes onto his back. Webb let out a scream.

  “He doesn’t turn to look at the tentacle. He just looks at us. Waiting for us to explain the joke like when he laid there crumpled at the bottom of the ladder after we’d pushed him. Leg twisted, white pain so strong he couldn’t understand. He just looks at us like a dumb pup trying to understand.

  “Out there strapped to the harpoon, the tentacle pulls on him trying to take him away. He let’s out another scream. Still staring at us, not at the thing that has him. The tentacle pulls again and he starts crying. Not understanding. He shouts out names asking for help. None of us do.

  “Finally he turns his head and looks behind him. He sees the devil’s tentacle arched from his back going into the sea. He probably sees the glowing eyes under the boat. He lets out a shrill scream as the tentacle rips free. Bits of skin and muscle are stripped from his back. The tentacle slips out of sight.

  “A man grabs a knife and heads over to cut him free. Reece strikes him down with his bare fist and yells at him to stand still. Webb keeps crying out. Blood is seeping out of his back as he hangs from the harpoon gun by his wrists. His knees on the deck like he’s saying a prayer.

  “He cries like that for a minute that felt like an hour. Then we see the tentacle snap back on the deck and grab him around the waist. It starts yanking him in the air like a dog on a bone. The creature is angry, frustrated. Trying to get him free of the harpoon before it fires. Only it doesn’t realize that Webb was never meant to fire it.

  “The beast pulls and yanks. We can hear bones popping out of joints. The knots, good seamen knots, they ain’t going to give. The harpoon gun itself starts pulling at its plating. It’d dragged hundred-ton beasts, and it’s straining under the force.

  “Webb is pulled sideways. His white face toward us, he lets out another scream, only it’s silenced by his own sick coming out of his mouth. All that brandy we’d fed him comes pouring onto the deck and pooling with his blood, splashing toward us. The beast keeps pulling. Webb can’t even scream anymore. There’s no more air in his lungs. He just looks at us with white eyes. He drowns on his own sick as the tentacle squeezes.

  “That’s when we hear the sound of the backup harpoon gun pop. The one we’d kept below deck and used poor Webb to stall while we’d set it up. The harpoon shot right through the other beast as it kept carving up the sperm. It was Johnson who’d fired it. Right through the creature’s beak as it scooped in handfuls of flesh into its maw. The harpoon went through its gullet and probably through whatever it had for a brain. Its tentacles flailed around for a minute and then it went limp.

  “We heard a snap and saw as the other beast ripped Webb apart. His guts and blood flew across the deck as the tentacle shot beneath the waves with the lower half of his body. The upper half hung from the harpoon gun, intestines unspooling onto the deck. We’d thought he’d drowned on his sick when the thing had him in a vise. But he’d been too drunk or stupid to know to die then.

  “We looked away from the thing on the sperm and saw as Webb looked down at his body then back at us. His face was as white as the sperm. The blood and life draining from him. He looked right at me and the others and grinned. He let out a loud cackle. He got the joke. The joke was on us. The nightmare had only just begun.”

  Broderick looked at the back door of the saloon. “It followed us. We lost five more men on the decks as we raced back here. We kept thinking it would turn around and leave us. After we pulled the beast on deck, we cut loose the sperm. We thought it’d go after that instead.

  “We didn’t know at first that it had been following us. We laid the beast we harpooned on the deck and Reece took it apart like a butcher. Eyes, beak, tentacles, all packed away on ice below.

  “It wasn’t the largest one we’d ever heard of, but it was the broadest and maybe heaviest specimen any man could recall. Like I said, it was to other squid what man was to a monkey. Either a better version made by god, or the devil. The way it thought was what unnerved us.

  “Three days after we’d cleaned the last of Webb off the deck, Malloy went missing in the night. An accident we thought, then Kendricks went missing next. We figured out what was up.

  “Johnson, the man who shot the mate, was too scared to go on decks, but captain ordered him to. He got taken as well. But not before Reece. The bastard got his. He thought he was more clever than the beast. But he wasn’t. He didn’t realize what the difference was. He only got the one creature because he was willing to let a man die to do it. There’s no genius in making another man die in your place. It’s what animals do. Only these creatures thought smarter than animals.

  “Reece had called the captain and a few others down into the hull where he’d kept the parts. He wanted to show us something special. There was a foul mood on the ship and he wanted us to understand. He reaches into a barrel of ice and pulls out something with his hands. He proudly tells us no other man had ever seen these before. We were the first and we should feel privileged. The captain just turned on his heels and walked away disgusted with the man and himself. The other men crane in to look. I catch a glance.

  “At first I think it’s one of them glowing eyes. Reece reaches in and pulls out several more. Size of grapefruits, they look like giant squishy marbles. Inside something is floating. The stench is horrible but we lean in to get a closer look. Some of the other men run away and climb up the ladder to get away. They see what’s inside, tiny little glowing orange eyes. These are pups, or eggs or whatever, floating around inside. Tiny versions of their parents and they’re still alive.

  “Soon Reece is all alone admiring what cost almost ten lives at that point. He looks over me and grins. I don’t know what to say. All I can think about as I see one of them twitch in his hands from the warmth is that I think I hear something. For sure it’s the ice settling. But what it reminds me of is just the same. Goddamn Webb’s cackle.

  “Reece went missing that night. We were too afraid to touch the cargo. We just headed back to port and go our ways. To some like Carnegie, it’s another story to tell at the bar. For me and some others, it’s a nightmare that ain’t going to let go.”

  Smith looked at the masts of the ships that poked out through the fog. “Why are you still here, if it’s out there hunting you down and anything else it finds?”

  “Men been taken on dry land, fool. It’s not the beast out there that’s after us. It’s Webb. He’s what’s out there in the fog. I’d sooner set foot in the deep ocean than the middle of the street. Little difference.”

  Smith shook his head. “It’s not Webb. I assure you.”

  April squeezed his arm again. Smith looked over at her. “It should have been obvious to us. Especially me. What did all the locations have in common?”

  April nodded to Broderick.

  “It’s OK lass. I know you have a tongue,” he replied.

  “Oh my. The sewers. At least on one s
ide of every street,” said April. “Good god, it’s in the sewers pulling people down in there.”

  “And that’s where it’ll have to be killed unless we can drive it out,” replied Smith.

  Chapter 15

  Smith tried to talk Broderick into helping them, but the drunken sailor wanted none of it. April could tell the old sailor was afraid, but she sensed he wanted to do something, he just didn’t know what.

  “Can you at least help me find a harpoon gun?” asked Smith.

  Broderick looked at him cockeyed. “Are you mad? What good will that do you?”

  Smith shook his head. “It worked on the other one.”

  “It was a one-in-a-million shot, straight through its beak. And that was one that was distracted. This one’s a clever one. It ain’t going to fall for that trick twice.” He kicked the planks beneath his feet. “And down there? Madness.”

  Smith stood up and poked a finger at his chest. “Then what would you suggest we do? You helped start all this!”

  Broderick jerked back and rattled a crate of empty beer bottles behind him. “Don’t be blaming me. My score is with Webb.”

  “Webb is dead. There is no ghost. Just a creature. It’s not possessed. It’s not haunted. It’s not the devil,” said Smith.

  “What do you know about the devil?” reprimanded Broderick.

  Smith reached out a gloved hand and pulled Broderick’s face inches away from his own. “More than you’ll ever know in your pathetic short life, Mr. Broderick.” He pushed him away and turned to April. “Miss Malone.”

  April followed after Smith as he stormed out of the alley. She glanced back at Broderick. The man shrugged.

  Broderick watched them retreat into the fog. He reached down to scratch the itching wound on his leg and then shouted out, “There’s a harpoon gun on the John Jackson. Help yourself, there’s no one left there to stop you.”

  Smith walked down the gangplank to the stern of the John Jackson. April waited nervously at the top. She scanned the black water. Every wave and ripple looked like a tentacle rolling across the surface.