He was disappointed to find nothing of value, at least nothing that he knew had any value. The boat had been well stripped by the diver whom made the vessel a near skeleton by all the things he had sold off of it. The person who got the boat back would be pretty upset when he found out that the boat he had leased had been so thoroughly tampered with. Duke let himself down off the fishing boat and got back into the small bass boat and began to slowly steer the boat back to the dock where his truck was. He felt better now by far than he had in the last couple days. All there was to do now was to get the boat to the docks, load it up and get the hell out of here. He didn’t think he would be visiting this little edge of the world anytime again soon.
Then the sounds came. Little plinking sounds like he was driving the small bass boat over gravel. They came regular and insistent. Worried that he might be dragging along or hitting something underneath, Duke shut off the engine and listened. The sounds were still there. Still coming even though he was only drifting through the water. He looked over the side of the boat and saw yellow-colored bodies moving below him. The sounds were coming faster now. He felt as if he were sitting under a metal-sheeted roof and listening to the pattering of raindrops. Small crab claws rose from the water. They were long, delicate and slender. The pincers on the ends of them were like thin daggers. He quickly got back into his seat and gunned the engine. The blue sea turned yellow all around him. The crabs were converging on him. In his panic, he put the engine at full throttle. The blade spun through the water like a salad chopper, slicing up crustaceans as it propelled the boat forward.
A claw reached out from the water and snapped onto Duke’s shirt. He spun around and hauled the crab out of the water and onto the boat. He screamed. The sound was so high-pitched and mortifying that it was able to come from his throat. The crab lay on top of him, covering him like he was trapped within a living geodesic dome. The crab scuttled, but was ungainly out of the water. Duke kicked hard and broke one of the crab’s armored legs. The crab’s free claw descended for Duke’s face. He grabbed it and pushed back against the creatures as they attempted to tear his skin apart.
Duke reached down and grasped his shotgun and put the barrel directly in middle of the crab’s body and fired. The blast was astounding. The buck of the gun wrenched his shoulder so bad he thought it might have dislocated. The gun dropped to the floor of the boat. Duke pushed the dead crab off of him with his feet and dumped it overboard. The water became suddenly alive with the creatures feeding off their fallen brethren. He wiped the white gore and crab meat off of his chest and stood to his feet, making sure to pick up the shotgun. He was screaming a torrent of garbled, cursing abuse at the horde that rose from the deep. He fired the shotgun several times, not stopping until every shell in the chamber was spent. More claws snaked over the edge of the boat. Duke swung the shotgun butt, cracking armored claws in half and breaking others at the hinge. Still the crabs came. There were so many of them that they blanketed the sea beneath the boat. Duke felt the boat rise from the water as the crabs pressed in close on him, looking to grab him and drag him underneath.
Duke swung the shotgun like a man insane. He felt the jagged claws tear at his clothes and pull him off balance. He looked up at the rocking teal fishing boat that he was towing and wondered if he could make the leap from the bass boat to the larger ship. It would be a reckless leap, but he was running out of options. Just before he lost hope and made the jump, he was knocked from his feet by a jarring blow to the underside of the boat. He landed hard on his back, the wind knocked out of him. He felt icy cold water drench the back of his clothes. He sat up to see the tip of a giant crab claw had punctured the bottom of his boat. It was sticking two feet through the hole. If that was just the tip of the claw, Duke had no interest in seeing just how big the whole creature was. This thing looked larger than the mother crab they had in the tank. Much larger.
The bass boat was sinking fast. The crabs were close to being able to scramble over the side. The giant claw ripped out from the bottom of the boat, nearly taking the vessel with it. Another blow from that claw would rip the boat right in half. Duke stood, ready to take a last ditch leap to the fishing boat when the mass of crab bodies suddenly vanished down into the sea. Duke felt icy water soak the bottom of his jeans. He took one last look into the water to make sure the crabs were gone and leaped into the sea. He swam hurriedly, taking hold of the tow rope he had tied off to the fishing boat. He pulled himself along the side of the ship and hauled himself up onto the fishing boat by the back ladder. He collapsed onto his back on the deck, breathing hard and shallow, pushing the frost out of his lungs. The fishing boat pulled forward. The hull began to sink. Duke stood up on trembling legs. He jogged unsteadily to the front of the fishing boat and slashed the tie rope in two with his boot knife. The bass sank down to the murky depths. The fishing boat rebounded up. Duke fell onto his back and stayed there. He had no idea why the crabs left him when they were so close to bringing him down, but he didn’t care. He was too exhausted to care about anything. He closed his eyes and fell asleep almost instantly.
Chapter – 30
The vagrants brought their boat out to the outcropping of rocks that rose from the sea. These marked their safe passage through the jagged undersea caves below. The last thing they wanted to do was founder their ship and end up being the crabs’ lunch. They had death on their minds, but not their own. They came to fulfill their singular purpose in life, to save the people of the town from the imminent attack of the crabs. Now that they had taken over the crab fishing operation, they set their sights on quelling the attack. Once they did that, they assured themselves of another couple generations of riches and peace. Their children’s children would have to deal with the next attack. But that was the future, this was now. It was their turn to fight.
A group of eight men and women jumped overboard and swam until they could easily walk along the rock, the sea only lapping up to their knees. They were laden with boxes containing explosives and fuses. They kept these high in their hands and even up on their shoulders, trying to keep them from getting wet. They came to the rocks where not too long ago another charge had been set. They looked down the hole, but couldn’t see much in the tepid illumination. They set to work putting the explosives in place. Their methods were crude, but would effectively do the job. As soon as they blew out a large part of the cave, they could attack, kill the crab and assure their safety for years to come.
A vagrant woman smoothed back her unruly mop of brunette hair. The water had washed away the dirt from her hard-lined face. She had cut the shirt sleeves from her arms, revealing the contours of her thin but rock solid muscles that roped down to her calloused hands. She looked up away from her work laying explosives. The sun caught off the water in a beautiful way, splashing the sea in a yellowed hue that she had never seen before. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she saw motion in the yellow mass. The smile left her face and she went back to work, her pace quickened to the point of carelessness.
“Take it easy,” a woman next to her said. “You’ll set that off if you’re too rough. I don’t want to fucking die out here.”
“We have to hurry,” she said, shoving as much explosives as she could into the hole and setting the wires. “Look at the water.” The other woman looked up and saw the oncoming mass. She cursed and quickened her own pace. They didn’t have to tell the others. They had already seen the oncoming horde for themselves. Their voices raised in fear. They cursed each other and ran about the rocks setting up the charges. The vagrant woman didn’t know if they would have enough time to set the charges and get the hell out of there. The crabs were so damn close.
“You have to hurry,” Henry said. He was in charge of their group. The vagrant woman was sleeping with him, but she was sure that she wasn’t the only one. Henry was the closest thing they had to a handsome man in their group and he took advantage of that for all he could. His line of, ’there aren’t many of us left. We have to do our part to k
eep us alive,’ had been enough to get himself laid on many an occasion. He also liked his girls young. Some had been a little too young and she told him that if she ever caught him with an underage girl she would chop off his testicles. He just smiled at her, but he knew she was serious. He made sure his conquests were old enough to decide for themselves. Henry wasn’t smiling now. His skin pale, like all the blood had been drained from his face.
“Are the wires connected?” he asked. The women nodded. “That makes all of them.” The yellow mass of crabs had hit the rocks fifty feet from where they were kneeling. They could see them easily now. They looked like a giant carpet of pincers and legs. The vagrant woman wondered how they would ever get away. The crabs were blocking the way they came in. She looked down the hole where the explosives were set. She thought about diving down in there, but there would be nothing there except burning fire and falling rock in a couple minutes. She looked back up at Henry and absently smoothed the hair out of her face. Henry took a walkie-talkie out of his vest pocket and put the receiver to his lips.
“The charges are set,” he said.
“Do you see all those fuckers?” the static voice sounded over the line. “You have to get out of there.”
“There’s no way,” Henry said. “Blow it up.”
“No way,” the man over the radio said. Henry angrily depressed the receiver button and screamed into the radio.
“Blow it up! We have no time!”
“Two minutes,” the static voice said. Henry turned off the mike. The vagrant woman didn’t quite know what to think. Shock washed over her, but only for a moment. It quickly turned to anger.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“There’s no choice,” Henry said. “We’re dead anyway.”
“We’re not dead!”
“Goodbye, baby,” Henry said. “You were always my favorite.”
“Shut the fuck up, Henry,” the vagrant woman said. The crabs were close now. She thought they would be upon them before the charges were set off. Henry sat down, cradling the other woman’s head in his lap. The others seemed to have given up hope too. They sat and watched the ship or the colors of the sun playing along the endlessly moving waves of the sea. She wouldn’t have it. She didn’t come out here to die. She dove headlong into the dark hole, her body scraping along the puttied explosives as she did. The ground came up fast. She landed on solid rock. Her arms broke at the elbows where she tried to block her fall. Her face smashed into the rock, fracturing her skull along the middle. She turned her ruined visage toward the light above. She felt like she was in a dream. She was seeing double. The blow from the rocks had turned the right side of her skull to the side, moving her right eye to the side of her head, giving her the vision of a bird. Then all was fire. She felt the skin melt away from her flesh from the brilliant blast of white overhead. Rocks rained down upon her. A sizeable chunk of rock mashed her upper half into gelatin. She felt no more.
Chapter - 31
The crab’s claws drew from the hole, pulling its bulk up from the cave. The vagrants watched it come, under the strict command to wait until the crab’s body was out of the hole before they attacked. The crab’s claws were dusty from the debris of the explosion. Parts of its armored frame were broken or burned, but in all the crab was whole. The vagrants didn’t want to kill the crab. The goal was to capture, and keep the beast as undamaged as possible. The crab moved with purpose, dragging its unwieldy body out of its underwater home. The carapace emerged from the hole in the rock.
The vagrants screamed in fear and awe. Many rushed to garner weapons, ignoring their leader’s pleas to stand down and wait. As soon as the armored hulk of crab was in view, the vagrants unleased their most powerful weapon – arrows the size of small trees were launched into the soft underbelly of the crab. The arrow shafts were looped with rope which extended back to the ship and tied fast as soon as the vagrants saw their shots were true. The crab reeled backwards, flailing its legs and claws in the air. The vagrants let out a roar and charged, firing a barrage of bullets into the trapped beast. Next came a wave of axe-carrying men and women who chopped into the crab with a frenzy akin to a serial killer carving his latest victim.
The vagrant leader screamed for his followers to stop. He knocked people down as he tried to spare the crab. Their blood-lust was too strong. It wasn’t the loss of the beast which scared the vagrant leader the most, for there was always another mother crab to be found, it was the size of the crab. The vagrant leader hadn’t been born the last time they went to war with the crabs, but from the stories he heard the elders tell, this one wasn’t big enough. This one wasn’t nearly big enough. The thought that the elders might have been telling ‘fish stories’ crossed his mind, but he didn’t really think so. The crab that was being chopped to pieces in front of him, and against orders, was big, but the stories of huge monsters that wreaked havoc and killed twenty people with one swipe of its claw didn’t seem like the crab they had here. This one died docilely. It seemed hurt and confused at the attack. It didn’t fight back. This was a baby. A baby that was looking for its mommy for protection.
The crab died in a horrible thrashing of limbs, clear blood poured from a hundred rents in its body. The vagrants pulled back to the ship, breathing hard from the battle, some shaking their heads to void the violence that clouded their minds. Many realized their error in killing the beast, but it was too late. The vagrant leader gathered them all together on the ship and was about to speak to them when the ship was rocked as if by an earthquake.
“She is coming,” the vagrant leader said as his followers picked themselves up off the deck. “The mother is coming.” His mind reeled as he began shouting orders to his people. “Get this ship turned around and head back to land! We need to regroup. Send another boat at once to warn the townspeople. They have little time. Tell them that the mother crab is coming. Get them to the docks. Tell them to bring as many people and guns as they can. If they don’t mobilize, we are all dead. Go now!” Five of the vagrants took a lifeboat and began rowing desperately toward the docks. The vagrant leader put his people to work, turning them back to shore so that they could regroup in the woods.
“Let the townspeople die first,” the vagrant leader yelled to his followers as they worked the boat back to shore. “We’ve spilled enough of our own blood already today.”
Chapter - 32
The mommy heard the cries from her baby as it died. From the deep she came. She rose slow, ponderous, but with purpose. She heard the cries of her dying children and came to vanquish the foe that was bringing about their annihilation. For almost a hundred years, she lived far below, choosing to dwell in a bowl the size of the Grand Canyon that had been carved of an undersea mountain by a crashing meteor in eons gone by. She came from below to kill those above.
The townspeople had heeded the warning of the vagrants. Many didn’t believe, but they all came out to fight. They too had grown up hearing stories of the war with the crabs. Even though they lived much different lives than the vagrants, they had this much in common, their forefathers had fought and died fighting the crabs. The townspeople may have lived better than the vagrants, but they were held captive by the black guards just the same. Nobody who knew the secret of the crabs was allowed to leave. They didn’t set the alarms off yet to warn the surrounding towns about the threat. It didn’t make sense to scare everyone if the vagrants were wrong. In another moment, they wished they had called everyone to help as soon as the warning was given.
The crab’s shell broke the surface of the water. Its armored back reflected grey and green off the harsh midday sun. It scampered forward, moving closer to shore, raising its lengthy claw arms. The people of the town stood along the dock, all armed for bear. All were present except for children too small to shoot and the elderly who were put in charge of them. They were locked safely in the Methodist church at the center of town. There were some children that refused to be left behind. Don Ray, only ten years old and his ol
der brother Tim, were with the group, holding their youth rifles pointed at the monstrosity with trembling arms. They were braver than many. Several of the townspeople cut loose from the line and ran the moment the crab crested the water’s surface. The people who remained stood still and quiet as the crab came on.
The monster ponderously snapped its claws onto a yacht and cut it in half, taking one end of it and tossing it at the line of people. They didn’t move as the ship crashed several yards in front of them. A couple shots were fired but several of the people shouted at the shooters to lay off. The crab was too out of range to hit yet, though several of them worried that a little hot lead would mean nothing to a beast who would hurl a boat at them.
The monster moved forward, its body seemed unsure of its steps as it rose further and further out of the water. The crab thrust its claws forward and pierced two more ships and flung them behind him to smash and sink beneath the ocean waves. Its next move grabbed ahold of the dock and pulled up an entire twenty foot section of it, upending benches, lights and several boats that were tethered to it.
“Should we fire?” a wizened man asked.
“Let him come in another ten feet or so,” he was answered. “We can’t waste any ammo.” Don Ray and Tim took the safety off their rifles and put their fingers on the trigger.
“NOW!” a man roared and the docks came to life in a blaze of fire and deafening roar of guns. The crab twitched backward as the bullets and shells slammed into it in a fury. Most of the shots just dented the crustacean’s armor and fell harmlessly into the water, but some were true. The crab was monstrously huge, and the creases in the armor were plenty. Many shots found their way into the soft flesh of the crab. Blue blood began to slide down the beast’s body from a hundred different wounds. The crab lost interest in destroying the docks and went straight for the line of people. Its left claw swept an arch that slapped four people backward, instantly killing them as their bodies smashed into pieces against the parked cars behind them. Car alarms blared, adding to the mass of noise from the gunshots and tearing of steel and wood from the dock. The crab grabbed a man with its right claw and slammed him down along his armored back, impaling the man on the myriad of rock-hard spikes which dotted its back. The claw whipped out again and again until several people were screaming as they dangled from the crab’s spiny back, slowing bleeding out, their red blood mixing with blue.
Takaashigani Page 12