Behemoth

by Michael Cole

  “It must be her mother’s spirit inside of her,” Bondy said with a smile. “She’s telling you to do what you do best, man. Succeed and go after things. I mean, hell, I couldn’t stand the four years in college that it took to get me into law enforcement, so I can only imagine what it must’ve been like to go for almost twice that amount.”

  “It friggin sucks, Chief,” Napier said, sparking laughter from the two of them. The smile faded from Bondy’s face as the vessel began to approach the jagged island.

  “Okay, it’s supposed to be closer to the eastern side, so we’re gonna have to make a bit of a curve here,” he said, steering the boat around the island. The boat swung to the right as the chief turned the wheel. Napier stood at the railing, watching the waves splash violently into the razor sharp rocks.

  “Hey, Chief,” he called out. “I think Old Hooper was going to take some divers out here today. I guess some scientists are intending to get a look at the cave that’s here.”

  “Yeah, I already talked to him,” Bondy answered. “He won’t be coming here today. However, that might end up being pushed until tomorrow. Despite my wishes, I can’t cut this place off from the fishermen indefinitely. It is a safety hazard, but it technically is still legally fishing ground-- just very risky fishing ground.” He saw the deputy police boat, lined with white strips along its sides. The boat was docked between two deadly rocks, but spaced out well enough between them to prevent any damage. Napier and Bondy could see the deputy standing at the railing with a large pole with a round net on the end, scooping up bits of debris.

  “I can’t see too well from here, but it looks like Deputy What’s-his-name might have most of the wreckage collected,” Napier said. The Chief’s vessel slowed down as it neared the dangerous forest of rocks.

  “Oh, that’s Deputy Jones,” Bondy corrected him. “And you might be right; maybe they did dig up most of the wreckage. There were a couple other boats out helping earlier.” He steadily steered the boat closer to the deputy’s. With the grouping of rocks growing larger, he decided to drop the anchor. The hauling unit rattled as it lowered the heavy piece of iron to the ocean floor. With the vessel set in place, Bondy walked to the rail beside Napier, floating about fifteen yards away from the deputy’s boat.

  “Hey, Jones!” Bondy called out. The deputy looked up from scooping the net through the water. He had seen his boss arriving, but was very concentrated on his work. A few rough pieces of wood drifted in opposite directions around his vessel, but to Napier and Bondy, it appeared as if most of it had been collected.

  “Hello, sir,” Jones responded. Pushing and pulling the net was hard work, causing the deputy to look like he was in excellent physical shape, when in reality he was about average. Sweat sparkled on his forehead as the sun beamed heavily on him. His skin was beginning to turn slightly red, showing early signs of sunburn. “I’m hoping that I’ll be able to come in soon, Chief.” He was almost out of breath, since he had been out here for a few hours in the sun.

  “Well, it looks like you’ve almost got this thing finished,” Chief Bondy said. “I’m imagining that the other boats that were here had lots of debris on them.”

  “You would think so,” Deputy Jones said. “You see this pile behind me?” Behind the deputy was a stack of deck pieces and pipes that rose to nearly three feet.

  “Yeah, we see it,” Bondy said. “What about it?”

  “This is all we found,” Deputy Jones said. Bondy and Napier stood silent, trying to suspend their disbelief.

  “That’s all you found?” Bondy asked. “I thought the place was covered in wreckage?”

  “That’s what the guy who originally spotted the wreck told us,” Jones answered. “He met us back in port and after about an hour or so we came back out here, seeing maybe a fourth of what he thought he saw.” Bondy crossed his arms, feeling a bit frustrated. It wasn’t uncommon for civilians who reported a crime or accident to get some of the details wrong.

  “Well, that’s just great,” he said. “He got us all in an uproar over nothing.”

  “I don’t know, sir,” Deputy Jones said. “What has me worried is that there’s no sign of the main body of the vessel. In water this shallow, it’s usually easier to catch any sign of it.”

  “What kinds of signs would those be?” Napier asked, interrupting the conversation.

  “Anything giving a clue where the boat may be,” Bondy said. “Usually in my experience, a fuel leak is one of the most common ones. In areas like this, especially really rocky places, the boat may actually end up lodged against something like a big ass rock, exposing some of it. Usually from damage like this one supposedly had, there would be a clear sign.”

  “Yeah, but there’s not,” Deputy Jones said. “I don’t know. If there really were more pieces, then it’s like something came up from under the water and plucked them.”

  “Like anything here would do that,” Bondy said. After watching the few remaining pieces of wreckage floating on the glassy ocean surface, he decided that there was nothing here for him or Napier to do. “Okay, well this is the plan: I’m gonna head back to port and I’m gonna get a hold of the U.S. Coast Guard and have them investigate the area for a sunken vessel. You just try and get what more you can and then come back in. Who knows, maybe I’ll be a nice guy and let you have the rest of the day off.”

  “Ha!” Jones laughed. “Like you’re ever that cool of a chief!” Bondy laughed as he hauled the anchor up, generating another annoying rattling noise that lasted for a few seconds until the large weight was pulled aboard the white police vessel. Bondy then stepped up to the wheel and throttled the boat backwards, away from the rocks. As soon as the water became empty of the hazardous traps of nature, the chief throttled the boat forward, sharply curving it to the left, taking it back to port.

  “Fuck this,” Deputy Jones said aloud to himself. “I’ve been out here for long enough. Hell, it took me long enough to squeeze this boat into a good position to collect this shit.” He swept his net out into the water, centering another busted piece of wood into its center. He pulled it towards the vessel, allowing himself to hook the net under it to scoop it. He lifted the wood out of the water and swung it onto the deck. Tipping the net downwards, he dropped the piece of wreckage onto the pile before setting the net down on the deck. He stretched his arms outward, attempting to relieve some of the tension. He was ready to leave. He reached into his grey pants pocket, pulling out a set of keys to start the boat engine. With a strong, exhausted exhale, he took another glance at the island bay. Just as he was about to step into the ship’s cabin, a strange bubbling in the water caught his eye. He stepped to the railing to get a closer look, lightly grasping the bar. The bubbles were about ten feet away from him, coming up as if someone was releasing oxygen from down below.

  “What the hell is this?” he whispered aloud to himself. He knelt down, trying to reach for his net without taking his eyes off the bizarre phenomenon. His hand scrambled aimlessly as it searched for the wooden handle, eventually locating it. He stood up and positioned his hands on the pole to prepare to scoop up what may have been surfacing. After a few more seconds, he could see a white object a few feet under the surface. Suddenly, the net dropped from his hands as he stood in pure shock after witnessing a human forearm emerge from the water. It was severed just above the elbow, drained of blood which gave it a fleshy white color. The skin was hamburger-like, wrinkly, worn, and full of rotting holes where fish had taken bites out of it. A clean, white piece of bone stuck from the center of the meaty wound at the end, appearing chipped at the end where it dislocated from the rest of the body. Bits of muscle tissue dangled in small strands at the large open wound at the end, swaying back and forth like light-pink seaweed. The pinky and the upper half of the middle finger were missing, while the other fingers appeared as if they were boneless, wrinkling with each ripple of water. The arm itself was like a noodle, appearing very flexible in and of itself; the bone within the forearm was busted at n
umerous points, causing the limb to be held together by skin, wobbling in the water.

  Deputy Jones felt as if his stomach was doing somersaults around the rest of his body. His face turned vampire pale as he rushed towards the other side of the boat and hung his upper body over the railing, puking up everything he had for breakfast. Dizziness and nausea overtook him as he held himself at that same position for several minutes. A strong headache pulsed in his skull and his stomach continued to feel as if it had exploded. Steadying his breathing, he slowly backed away from the railing and made his way into the boat cabin, inserting the key into the slot and turned it. The engine roared as he put the floating vehicle into reverse. He looked back to make sure he wasn’t backing the boat into any of the rocks, completely ignoring the area of the wreckage to avoid enduring the awful sight of that arm.

  “I’m getting the fuck out of here!” he roared, still feeling lightheaded. His heart pounded rapidly and his hands shook as they grasped the throttle and wheel. The boat cleared the rocks and Jones quickly turned the wheel to the left, causing it to swerve away from Mako’s Edge. He throttled forward, making his way to port. He took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm his brief panic. His shaking hand grabbed the radio that laid on a shelf to his right. He pressed a button to get in Chief Bondy’s frequency and held the radio to his mouth.

  “H-hey Chief! You there?” He waited for a moment as the radio buzzed.

  “Yeah, this is me, Jones. What‘s going on?” Bondy responded through the radio. Jones took a couple more breaths.

  “S-sir? Y-you won’t fucking believe this.”

  ********

  A breeze of wind brushed toward the west though Mako’s Center, causing numerous small waves to splash to the sandy shore of the northeast side of the island. The sand warmed in the summer heat except where the cooling water splashed onto it, bringing its color from a bright gold to a muddy brown. Several yards from the beach was a grassy hill, where a large white lighthouse stood to provide light for vessels during the night. About a dozen meters north of the lighthouse was a small brown house, resting on the same hill, looking out toward the bay.

  Dr. Miranda Sanders sat on a chair on her front porch, holding a pair of binoculars to her eyes as she looked out into the ocean with great interest. A marine biologist for thirty years, she never once lost her fascination for the sea and the secrets it contained. After obtaining her doctorate in Marine Biology when she was twenty-seven, she traveled tirelessly throughout several islands along the Caribbean as well as the south Asian islands, exploring sea life and helping endangered species. A certified instructor, she would return to the United States once in a while to teach a college course for a semester or two. However, being on the mainland was never a typical life for her; she needed to be traveling. She also did some work with film companies; hosting documentaries on underwater sea life in the South Pacific, as well as deep sea life in the Mid-Atlantic. During her travels, she would spend much of her time scuba diving, collecting footage and research for environmental agencies that were concerned about endangered species. And, like many other scientists fascinated by the ocean, she would always wonder about the deep abyss of the ocean; what life existed in those massive bodies of water that man didn’t know about?

  The front door opened as her twenty-two-year-old son, Ryan, stepped out, dressed in jean shorts and a plain white t-shirt. Pursuing her studies and dreams didn’t fare well with her attempts to have a personal life. Dr. Sanders had married twice, but each marriage barely made it over a year. Since her divorce with her second husband, she had Ryan live with her at her island home in Mako’s Center during the summer times.

  “What are you doing?” he asked, seeing that his mother was looking through some binoculars. “I mean, what are you looking at?” Dr. Sanders gave a small smile as she glanced up at her son before looking back at the binoculars. She appeared very interested in what she was looking at.

  “Here!” She said, quickly handing the binoculars over to Ryan. “Take a look out there. Just ahead of us there’s a small red fishing buoy. Look about fifty meters ahead of that.” Ryan lifted the binoculars to his eyes, scanning the wavy blue water for the buoy.

  “I can’t see…wait. There it is!” he said.

  “You see it?” his mother asked, excitedly. Ryan shook his head.

  “I meant I found the buoy,” he said. He always did have a fascination of his own for the ocean and nature in general, but it was nothing compared to his mother’s. She would write a report on anything from hermit crabs to ancient megalodon sharks.

  “Okay,” Dr. Sanders said. “Like I said, look about fifty meters beyond it.” Ryan went ahead and scanned the scopes up from the red, balloon-shaped buoy, seeing nothing but water at first.

  “I’m not seeing what you want me to see,” he said, continuing to search. His eyes caught nothing but clear blue water that brushed towards the beach with the tide. He searched the bay until finally his eyes caught a glimpse of a movement that wasn’t caused by the waves. He steadied the binoculars as he watched a large, blue dorsal fin slowly cut across the water, followed by a second massive fin that swayed steadily from left to right. He suddenly became interested once he realized what it was.

  “You see it?” His mother asked.

  “Yeah! I see it!” He said, continuing to watch as a large whale shark slowly swam barely a quarter mile from Mako’s Center. From afar, it looked nothing more than a huge bluish shadow moving across the surface of the water. However, with the binoculars, Ryan could see the large white spots that covered its blue skin. Its mouth was open, implying that it was feeding on a group of plankton. Water crashed against its fins and back as the waves rolled over it.

  “Isn’t it beautiful?” Dr. Sanders asked, smiling happily. Ryan lowered the binoculars.

  “It’s pretty neat,” he said. “I didn’t think they would get too close to an island like this.”

  “Oh, they’ll go wherever the dinner is,” Sanders said. Watching from the long distance, they could see the dark shape that was the whale shark. From this particular view, they couldn’t see any real movement in the creature because it was so far away and so slow moving. During her scuba-diving trips, Sanders had had the pleasure of swimming along one of these ocean giants. They were peaceful creatures; the only danger they ever possessed was an unintentional strike with its tail. Ryan handed the binoculars back to his mother.

  “How big do you think that one is?” he asked.

  “I’d say it’s about as big as they get; about fifty feet,” she answered.

  “Oh, wow,” Ryan said. He took another long glance at the faraway sea creature. “Pretty neat.” Thirsty for a soda, he turned and walked back inside. Dr. Sanders remained on her porch seat, bringing the binoculars back up to her eyes. The shark continued to feed on the plankton, waving its large tail slowly to push water through its gills. Finally, the creature’s back dipped under the water along with its huge dorsal fin. Sanders continued to watch, seeing the tip of the dorsal fin break the surface every few seconds. After a few minutes, Ryan stepped back out with a blue can of Pepsi in his hand.

  “Is it still there?” He asked.

  “Yeah,” Sanders answered, bring the binoculars down from her eyes to look at her son. “It’s gone under, though.”

  “Awe, damn!” Ryan said. “I was hoping to get a picture of it.” His mother chuckled.

  “I don’t think you’d get a good photograph from way out here,” she said. She looked through the binoculars once again. To her surprise, the dorsal fin had reemerged. “Oh, it’s still there! I see its dorsal fin.” She stopped talking for a moment as she noticed that the fin was strangely moving left and right, rather violently. “Or maybe it’s the tail.” However, that thought did not last long after she panned right and saw the tail fin behind it, strangely moving left and right in the same bizarre manner. Both fins dipped under and emerged again at rather fast speeds. Sanders held her breath as she tried to understand what m
ay have been happening. Ryan noticed his mother biting her lip in confusion.

  “Is everything okay?” He asked, slightly concerned.

  “I don’t know,” she said. She gasped suddenly as she witnessed the creature causing some large splashing in the water. It was twirling its body in a strange manner, as if it was struggling. Its tail rose completely above the surface, flapping violently in every direction. “Son-of-a-bitch!” She said.

  “What’s going on?” Ryan asked, thoroughly concerned.

  “I don’t know,” Sanders said. “It’s behaving funny. It’s like it’s being…” she took a sudden, long pause. “What the hell was that?!” Ryan stood next to her, almost afraid of whatever it was she was witnessing.

  “What?”

  “I saw something! I didn’t get a good enough look at it. But, I saw something.” Ryan tried to look hard without the binoculars, but his vision was already impaired because he didn’t have his contacts in. “I don’t know what it was!” Sanders continued. “It was like a big snake or something. A big octopus tentacle or… I don’t know what that was. It came out of the water and went back in… Oh my God!” Like a massive humpback whale, the whale shark breached the water, exposing its flat head and soft white belly. Sanders’ jaw dropped in awe, seeing that the shark’s underbelly had been slashed open, exposing its red inner stomach and intestinal regions. The shark crashed down into the water, creating a monstrous red splash. The biologist shrieked as she saw a sudden spout of dark red blood erupt from the chaotic mess of splashing like a giant fountain of death.

  “What the hell is going on over there?” Ryan asked, managing to notice even from this far distance that the water was turning red.

  “I-- I don’t really know,” Sanders answered, almost frightened. “The shark-- I think it’s being attacked by something.” She held her breath once again as the bloody splashing steadily came to an end. The bloody water was quickly dissipating in the bay, bringing the reflective bright image back to the water. Sanders lowered the binoculars and quickly wiped her eyes and took another look at the situation. In the middle of the now calm water was a strange bubbling.