Darkest Night

by James Cherry

  Doctor Burch felt a little foolish and replied sheepishly, “Yes, I remember now. With all the pain, my mind is not working very clearly."

  “It’s quite understandable,” said Ayako.

  The doctor smiled in appreciation. Softly he said, “Remind me to thank that boy for what he did.”

  Ayako nodded and said, “I will be sure to remind you. We are all grateful for his quick thinking. I guess he ended up being useful for something after all."

  The doctor paused for a moment as he tried to recall the events of the night that he had been injured. He asked, “How long have I been unconscious?”

  “About twenty hours,” answered Ayako

  “When am I getting out of here?” asked Doctor Burch.

  “Relax, you are going nowhere for at least a week.”

  Despite the pain, the doctor sat up quickly and said, “A week? No, that’s not good. I have to get back to work.”

  A plump nurse stuck her head into the room and her eyes widened in alarm. She hustled in, her thick body bouncing and giggling as she rushed to the doctor’s bed.

  The nurse gently pushed him back down and scolded, “Mr. Burch, lie down and refrain from moving. You don’t want to aggravate your wounds any further, now do you?" She turned in a huff and exited the room.

  Suddenly she stuck her head back in the room and said, “Now, Mrs. Burch, please keep him from moving." With that, her head once again disappeared into the hallway.

  “Mrs. Burch?” asked the doctor. He would have arched one eyebrow, but one was all he had.

  “Well, they won’t allow any visitors except family, so I told them I was your wife, and they believed me,” replied Ayako.

  “Oh,” was all the doctor managed, as he wasn’t sure what to say.

  Ayako kissed the doctor on his forehead and said, “Now get some rest."

  ***

  It had taken a couple of days before Doctor Burch was moved out of intensive care, and was allowed to have visitors other than family. He waited expectantly for the team to arrive as he had much to discuss, plans to make, and data to review.

  And soon, everyone except Marty and Ayako crowded into the small room. They each offered their half-hearted support on his speedy recovery, but their mood seemed to be dark and sullen. The doctor contemplated their mood for a moment, and then dismissed it as just sadness over his injury.

  The doctor told his story with as much detail as he could remember, and the group listened in rapt attention. No one bothered to interrupt him during his recount of the events. As soon as he finished, the team just stared in uneasy silence for a long moment.

  William finally broke the silence and shouted, "Do you think we are daft? That story is a load of shite. We know of the broken battery,” he pointed to the doctor’s face and continued, “and of your doctored data from your Mexico expedition. I should have known better than to trust an American, especially someone of your notoriety." He spun and stalked out of the room.

  Doctor Burch stared dumbfounded at the retreating Scotsman. He called out, "William! What . . ."

  Joseph cut him off, "Doctor, this is obviously a scam on your part. I never thought that you were crazy enough to harm yourself in order to prove a theory. As a scientist, you are supposed to gather real and credible data, not make it up." He, too, walked out of the room with his head shaking in disgust.

  Doctor Burch looked to Ron and opened his mouth to speak but Ron coldly turned his back on him and followed Joseph out of the room.

  Only Bo remained, standing uneasily at the foot of the doctor's bed. He glanced about the room, unwilling to look into the doctor's eyes.

  The doctor was completely stunned at the team’s reaction to his story. He looked at Bo and said, "I swear to you that I made nothing up. You don't believe that I hurt myself in some elaborate hoax, do you?"

  Bo set his jaw in determination and replied, "Doctor, you know that I believe you. I don't question what happened to you one bit."

  Doctor Burch said softly, "Then why do you look so nervous?"

  "Because this whole situation reminds me of what happened back in Afghanistan. The military reacted in much the same way, like I had made everything up,” Bo replied.

  Bo slowly walked to the side of the doctor's bed and lightly patted him on the uninjured shoulder. "Doctor, I am with you. I believe you. Don't worry about those fools." He turned and quickly walked out of the room.

  Apparently having waited until the room was finally empty, Marty slowly entered with an incredulous look upon his face.

  Doctor Burch, trying to forget what had just happened with his team, said, "Marty, it’s great to see you boy. I just want to say how much I appreciate what you did for me. I owe you one."

  Marty shrugged off the thanks and paced about the room saying nothing in response. After several long moments, he stopped, turned toward the doctor, and said, "So, Doc, just what did you see out there?"

  Doctor Burch answered, "Nessie."

  Marty shook his head and frowned. "You know what I mean, what did it look like?"

  The doctor quickly recounted the events as Marty listened without interruption. After Doctor Burch had finished his account of the attack, Marty again paced about the room as if he were deliberating something within his mind.

  The doctor waited patiently while Marty paced in silence. As if coming to a final decision, Marty finally stopped and said, "Doc, you failed to wake anyone and ventured out on your own. You had a camera, but failed to get a picture of the creatures.” He paused to let his words sink in before continuing, “Interestingly enough, the same thing happened during your Bigfoot encounter."

  Marty looked at the ceiling as if asking for help from a divine power. He rubbed his chin and shook his head slowly, and after a long moment’s pause he said, "Then you wake everyone with your screams after the creatures had conveniently left the area, and you are covered in mysterious acid burns. And we find a broken battery lying upon the ground. Something seems really fishy here, and it is not Nessie."

  Doctor Burch replied defensively, "I thought about waking the team, but I decided that there was no reason to do so just to change a battery. And I did start filming the creature when it spit on me. Check the SD card. Check the thermal images from the terminals, they should have caught something."

  "The location where you were attacked just happened to be in a blind spot and the thermal cameras filmed nothing. Of course you knew this since you are the one that set up the terminal units and staged this event,” Marty said accusingly. He continued, “And Ron found your damaged camera, and I found a busted battery on the ground, which was leaking acid."

  The doctor choked in shock and asked, "You think I faked all of this don't you? You are the one that convinced the others that I had faked everything."

  Marty stopped pacing and turned to stare at the doctor. He said, “Did you?” He shook his head and walked out of the room.

  The doctor sat brooding for a long while, angry at the young punk who dared to sabotage his mission, his career, and his life. Marty had been a thorn in his side for months, and would ultimately be his destruction if he couldn’t salvage some proof of his tale. He knew that his story had been unbelievable, but he had thought he had video proof when he first told his tale.

  A flicker of movement caught the doctor’s attention and he looked up to see Ayako standing at the door to his room. She entered and quietly sat in a chair next to the doctor.

  The doctor asked, “You believe Marty as well, don't you?”

  Ayako replied, “I was standing just outside your room when you and Marty were speaking and heard everything." She paused for a moment as if searching for the right thing to say. She continued, "The only data we have collected on this trip is your word." She paused again, as if contemplating what to say next. She said, "One thing that I am thankful for is that the night vision goggles covering your face protected your eyes from being burned by the acid.”

  The doctor leaned forward and sai
d, “You mean to tell me that I recorded nothing? Check the SD card from my camera. Even though the camera was damaged, the card should still be recoverable.”

  “The camera was not just damaged, it and the SD card were completely melted beyond recovery,” she replied. Gently placing her hand on an undamaged spot on the doctor’s arm, she said, “I did manage to collect some acid samples from the ground near where we found your camera. I sent it to Shelia at the University for testing.”

  The doctor nodded and said, “Check the radar data, there should be something."

  “There were no radar contacts, the data was clear,” she replied.

  The doctor was puzzled. That would mean that the creatures didn’t fly in that night and were already in the lake. But he also knew that there was no place for such large animals to hide during the day. So were the radar units working properly? He knew he should have performed a diagnostic test first, but he had forgotten in all the excitement.

  Perplexed, the doctor filed away the information in his mind to deal with on another day. He asked, “Marty had said that the thermal cameras on the terminal units did not capture anything on film, why?”

  Ayako replied, “The one terminal unit that could have captured images had a dead battery. The other terminal units didn't film anything as they were not in position.”

  The doctor thought for a while, trying to make sense of things. Murphy’s Law had struck in the worst way. The one camera that was in position to film the creatures had a dead battery and his handheld camera melted by acid.

  He suddenly thought of something and asked, "How is it that acid could melt a plastic camera?"

  Ayako scratched her ear apprehensively and said, "I don't know, but it was melted. The camera almost appeared to have been melted by fire rather than by acid as it was a blackened lump."

  The doctor filed that bit of information away as well. It was beginning to look like someone had deliberately sabotaged his mission. Someone could have very well altered the radar data, destroyed his camera, and placed a faulty battery into his terminal unit. It had to be Marty.

  The doctor thought for a moment, his anger building that Marty had sabotaged everything he had worked so hard for. The boy could very well ruin his life. But he remembered that he did have one piece of evidence.

  The doctor turned to Ayako and said, “We do have some evidence, we still have the CD William gave me, that at least shows something.”

  Ayako spoke hesitantly, "David that CD is missing. We have not been able to locate it at all. William says the original footage was saved on his computer, and his computer was stolen a few nights ago from his car. We have nothing. We still have no proof that Nessie exists."

  The doctor sat up and yelled, “The CD is missing? Just what the hell is going on here?" His murderous thoughts turned to Marty and the many different ways he could dispose of the kid’s body. But the thought quickly flittered away as he was not a violent man by nature.

  Falling back in the bed with a groan he said, "Well, Aya, we may not have the CD or any other physical evidence, but I saw the thing with my own two eyes. I know it is real. The thing spat acid on me for God’s sake. Don’t tell me that we don’t have anything from this trip. I am a witness to these creatures existence and I can attest to the fact that they exist."

  “David, you know as well as I that your word is not good enough for the scientific community. You need more than that to prove the existence of flying creatures,” replied Ayako in a stern voice.

  Doctor Burch sighed in resignation and added in a somewhat softer voice, “I am sorry, you are right.”

  Ayako smiled and said, “David, hurry up and get better. You are the glue that is holding this bunch of misfits together and without you, I am afraid that this team will fall apart."

  The doctor touched is acid ravished face and answered sullenly, "It seems that this acid, which has scarred me for life, has dissolved the glue. The team believes that I am a fraud and they will not follow me anymore."

  ***

  The doctor spent the remaining couple of days in the hospital sitting in silence and staring out the window, lost deep in thought. Only Ayako and Bo had bothered to visit him anymore, and he hadn’t heard anything out of the rest of the team at all.

  The doctor knew that Marty didn’t believe in his work, but he never thought that the young man would go to such lengths to destroy him. He had seen so much potential in Marty and had done his best to mentor and guide the kid to open his eyes to objective research. And yet the kid had set out to destroy him in return. Marty had persuaded the others that he had made up his story. He had tampered with and destroyed evidence. Marty had painted him as a liar. A hoax. A fraud.

  This realization stung the doctor like a hornet. His only hope was for the evidence that they had collected in Mexico to prove that he was legitimate. That he wasn’t a liar and charlatan.

  He slammed a fist into the wall and sobbed. What little credibility that he had left was gone at the hands of an arrogant little asshole.

  ***

  After the doctor was released from the hospital, he had attempted to bring the team together one last time in order to patch things up, but the team had already split. Joseph had left for parts unknown and William had locked himself away in his home in Scotland. Ron had taken a flight back to Texas days earlier and Marty had left for Milwaukee sometime after that.

  So with a heavy heart, the doctor made the flight back to Milwaukee with only Ayako and Bo to keep him company.

  They arrived on a rainy and dreary Monday afternoon, the weather seemed fitting as it matched his mood. The team said their somber goodbyes and split up, with everyone heading back to their respective homes.

  The doctor caught a taxi and as he brooded on the long ride home, he took some comfort that Ayako had agreed to continue with the examination of the chupacabra evidence. She would attempt to prove the doctor's integrity to his friends. She was the only hope he had left.

  He stared out of the taxi window, lost deep in thought, as passing cars zipped by. He was feeling depressed and dejected, as if a black and rainy storm cloud hung over his head. The loss of credibility to his colleagues bothered him greatly, but the loss of trust to his friends bothered him much more. He wanted nothing more than to prove that he did not mislead them.

  The familiar sight of his neighborhood brought him to his senses and he knew he would be home soon. He sighed and reached up to feel the side of his bald head.

  Because of the attack, much of the right side had been scared and puckered from the acid. He had lost his ear entirely, with only a cauliflower-like nub protruding from his head. Because of the severity of his acid burns, much of the hair on the right side of his head would never again grow back. He had decided that the only prudent thing to do was to shave his entire head to match.

  The taxi pulled into the driveway of his modest home and he paid the driver, exited the taxi, and shuffled slowly to his house. He unlocked the front door, walked in, and turned to momentarily stare out into the street as if he were looking for someone or something. He slowly closed the door and isolated himself from humanity.

  The doctor walked dejectedly down the hallway and into his living room. He sat heavily into his recliner chair without bothering to turn on the lights. As he sat in the dark, the phone rang which caused him to jump in surprise. Reaching to the end table he picked up the phone.

  The doctor answered, “Hello?”

  “Davie. How are you my son?” said a thin raspy voice on the other end of the line. The doctor knew that voice well, it was his mother, Maribeth Burch.

  “Mom I am so glad to hear your voice,” he said. Even at his age, he still needed his mother from time to time.

  “What’s wrong, son?” asked Mrs. Burch with a touch of concern in her voice.

  “I am just having a bad day, nothing more. How are you doing?” replied the doctor.

  “Fine, fine. I just wanted to let you know that I am having some minor surgery o
n Wednesday. I will be at the Hospital in Nashville. Don’t worry yourself about me, it’s nothing really,” said Mrs. Burch softly.

  The doctor sat up in his chair and said, “Mom, what’s wrong with you? What kind of surgery?”

  Mrs. Burch said slowly, “Well, I really didn’t want to tell you because I know how you overreact. I have a mild form of cancer. The doctors are going to remove the tumor. It is nothing serious though. The doctors say that the cancer hasn’t spread too far and they tell me that I have an excellent chance of fully recovering, even with my advanced age.”

  The doctor was speechless. He sat stiffly in his chair, unable to move, as if frozen in fear. He closed his eyes in an effort to stem the inevitable flow of tears.

  “Davie? Are you there, Davie?” his mother asked.

  Doctor Burch swallowed hard and said, “Mom, I am here. How advanced is the cancer?”

  Mrs. Burch replied, “Not too advanced. My doctor said he thinks that he can get all of it in one surgery. After the surgery, some follow up chemotherapy should wipe it out completely. I am fine I tell you, just fine. Do not worry about me at all. I will call you after the surgery.”

  The doctor nodded as if his mother could see him and he said his goodbyes. He hung up the phone, slumped back into his recliner, and let his tears flow. He was a broken and depressed man and he couldn’t see how things could get any worse.

  ***

  Marty sat in his living room, pondering all that had transpired. Something had happened to the doctor, he was sure of that. He did not believe that it was a flying Nessie, as the doctor had told. What he really thought was that the acid burns were more of a self-inflicted wound.

  The acid that had been collected from the doctor’s ruined gear had been tested and was a form of hydrochloric acid in the 1.2 to 1.5 pH range.

  He had found the broken spare battery from one of the radar terminals lying on the shore, its acidic contents gone. And that particular type of battery cell used a form of hydrochloric acid instead of the normal sulfuric acid of most normal car batteries.