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September 9, 2000
From the Webmaster—
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BODY FOUND
Staff Reports
Delaware Herald
April 3, 2001
The remains of a twenty-two-year-old woman were found on the beach south of Dover by two joggers. The victim is described as a white female. Identification is being withheld pending notification of her family…
SWIMMER MISSING
Mark Westin
Myrtle Beach Gazette
August 18, 2001
A fourteen-year-old boy was reported missing today and is feared drowned. Aaron Severin was treading water fifty yards from shore with playmates when he suddenly went under. Despite attempts from an experienced swimmer to locate him, he remains missing. Lifeguards evacuated the beach and a search is now underway by the Coast Guard.
The lifeguard had reported strong rip tides one hundred yards offshore, and the Coast Guard had been monitoring them when the boy disappeared. A spokesman said…
SCIENTIST CLAIMS FOSSIL CATEGORIZED INCORRECTLY
John Burnham
Science Today
June 13, 2002
A mysterious fossil, discovered in Argentina twenty years ago, and once thought to be the biggest spider to ever walk the earth has been reclassified by a University of Manchester scientist, who claims the specimen is more likely a prehistoric crab.
Plaster casts of “Megarachne Servinei” are exhibited in museums worldwide, and it was even recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the “World’s Largest Spider.” Arachnid researcher Dr. Ian Sinclair, however, insists that its origins must be reclassified. In a report to appear in a scientific journal next month, Sinclair states the creature is more of a cross between a giant crab and a sea scorpion, than a spider. He believes the fossil may be a relative of the giant eurypterid (sea scorpion) and the Woodwardopterus, an invasive species from the Carboniferous Period, originating in Scotland with relatives in South Africa, including the extinct “Homarus Tyrannous”…
SCIENTIST DIES IN FIRE
Tim Clark
Manchester Herald
June 27, 2002
Dr. Ian Sinclair, renowned scientist and expert on prehistoric arachnids, died Sunday when his flat caught on fire. Sinclair, who was to report his findings on “Megarachne Servinei” next month, was asleep when the blaze erupted, according to investigators.
“It’s a total loss,” said one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Everything was incinerated, including his research…”
COUPLE FOUND DEAD, AUTHORITIES REFUSE TO DISCLOSE DETAILS
Nancy Kress
Ocean City Times
March 19, 2003
Authorities remain tight-lipped regarding the identities of and circumstances surrounding the death of two beachgoers found Sunday night. One eyewitness, who asked to remain anonymous, stated that, “the bodies were sliced up. Looked like crabs had been at them.” The witness professed that a cover-up was involved and declined further comment…
FEARS OF “NORTH ATLANTIC TRIANGLE” JUSTIFIED?
Bradley Tate
Boston Daily Herald
December 27, 2003
While it may sound like something out of a science-fiction movie, paranormal investigators, fishermen, and even seasoned commercial mariners are saying that the legendary Bermuda Triangle seems to have moved north.
In the past five years, over 200 vessels, everything from fishing boats to a Coast Guard cutter have vanished in the coastal waters of the northern Atlantic Ocean, stretching from the Bay of Fundy in Maine to Cumberland Island, Georgia. Very little debris has been found, and the internet is rife with cover-up speculation and talk of conspiracies…
MARINE LIFE THREATENED BY INCREASED GLOBAL WARMING
Frieda Sanchez
Washington Post
May 18, 2004
Accelerated global warming, along with continued over-fishing and coastal pollution, now poses an immediate threat to many marine species, two major environmental organizations reported yesterday (one of which is sponsored by former Vice-President and former Presidential Candidate Al Gore).
Scientists have documented worrying declines in all forms of marine life. The threat extends from coral reefs to polar-ice communities, and from tiny zooplankton to whale populations. They warn that the steadily warming waters could wipe out entire species, and that other species may migrate to oceanic areas where they are not normally found.
The report, released yesterday, was based on studies by some of the world’s leading marine researchers. It said that warmer surface air temperatures were also warming the world’s oceans. Human activities such as over-fishing have also contributed to the collapse, and destructive practices like bottom trawling have devastated the habitat of the sea floor.
Reef fish and inter-tidal invertebrates such as anemones, crabs, and snails are migrating toward the poles and coastal areas in response to ocean warming, the report said…
MAJOR HURRICANE COULD HIT AMERICA’S NORTH-EAST
David Burks
CNN.com
January 4, 2005
The 2005 United States hurricane season, which runs from May to November, will be more active than normal, experts announced today. The 2006 season is expected to be active as well, according to recent simulations.
Hurricane watchers from AccuWeather.com, based in Pennsylvania, also projected that the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic coastal regions will be hit by a major hurricane within five years. John Solow, senior meteorologist and director of forecast operations at AccuWeather, said that portion of the United States was “long overdue for a powerful hurricane” and the ocean’s weather patterns made it a question of when, not if.
“It’s a fact,” Mr. Solow said at a Philadelphia news conference. “Current models and statistics lead us to believe this event will happen within the next five years…”
BIOLOGIST DOWNPLAYS INVASIVE SPECIES CONCERNS
Sarah McCoy
Baltimore Sun
August 3, 2005
As evidenced by the recent Asian northern snake-head population found here in Maryland two years ago, and the European zebra mussels found in the Gulf States last summer, invasive aquatic species from across the world are moving into North American waters.
Central European freighters pump their internal ballast tanks full of water from their homeports, drawing in potentially invasive life forms. When changing water at ports in North America, the invasive species are released. But the fear of these species is being overblown by the media, according to one marine biologist.
“If you’re asking me if we should take it seriously, then yes,” said Dr. Jennifer Wasco, a marine biologist and researcher working at the National Aquarium in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. “But it’s not the doomsday scenario that the media suggests. When a species such as the northern snakehead manages to successfully invade an ecosystem, the ecosystems’ native species are usually already in decline…”
HURRICANE WARNING IN EFFECT
Associated Press
July 1, 2006
The National Weather Service and Hurricane Center have issued a hurricane warning from the Florida Keys to the coastal areas of Georgia. A hurricane warning means that hurricane conditions are expected within the warning area, generally within the next twenty-four hours. A hurricane watch remains in effect from South Carolina to Morehead City, North Carolina.
At 4 PM, the eye of Hurricane Gary was located about 370 miles south-southeast of Florida. Gary is moving north-northwest at 18 mph, and this general motion is expected to continue for the next 24 hours. Maximum sustained winds are near 140 mph, with occasional higher
gusts. Gary remains an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 100 miles from the center, and tropical storm-force winds extend outward up to 250 miles. Rainfall amounts of 9 to 14 inches can be expected in association with Gary, along with the added threat of flash floods and mudslides.
Evacuation procedures have begun in the effected areas. Florida State Police have implemented the contra-flow of traffic out of the coastal cities. All lanes on all highways move traffic west. Coastal residents in both states are heeding evacuation orders. Many are taking to the roads, and long lines are reported at gas stations. Flights at most metropolitan airports have been cancelled…
Part One:
The New Wave
Chapter One
July 3, 2006
Atlantic City, New Jersey
12:00 PM
Robert Fegley stood at the window in his corner hotel room on the seventeenth floor of the Resorts Hotel on Atlantic City’s boardwalk, looking through his binoculars at the hotel room across the street. Last night, the young couple staying in the room directly across from the room he and his wife were vacationing in were fucking like bunnies. He’d watched them go at it for over an hour, totally absorbed in his own private porno movie. It was the number one reason why he brought the binoculars with him whenever he and Carol went on vacation. You never knew what people were going to do.
Robert was trying to get a good view of what might be going on in the couple’s room this morning when he heard a noise outside.
He trained his binoculars down on the beach, looking out over the sunbathing people lying in the sand. He couldn’t place the noise; it sounded like a scream, but that couldn’t be right. People came to Atlantic City to gamble, get shit-faced, and get laid and they were doing it now, even while Hurricane Gary threatened the southern part of the country. Why should they worry? That was the south. This was the north. It was far away. No reason to let a hurricane get in the way of fun.
Robert had been coming to Atlantic City every summer for more than fifty years. When his wife was at the pool or at the beach or in the casino playing slots, he was usually either at the bar or the roulette table. But last night he had been looking through his binoculars, trying to see if there was some action going on in one of the other hotel rooms along the Boardwalk, when he’d seen the young couple screwing their brains out in their well-lit room, the drapes wide open.
Carol had a new name for him now: a dirty old man. She’d always called him a dirty pervert, but now that he was officially a senior citizen, with the wrinkles on his face and his hair snow white, that moniker was of no use. A dirty old man was what he was, and it tickled the shit out of him. As long as people were going to do shit like what the young couple in the room across from him were doing, for everybody to see, Robert felt he had a right to watch with his binoculars. There was so much you could see. People did all kinds of crazy shit. Mostly what he saw was people fucking in their rooms without a care in the world that they could be spied on from the hotel across the street. Just because they were up ten stories or more didn’t mean they had privacy. The dumb fucks. It amused the hell out of Robert, hence the binoculars.
Robert adjusted the vision on the binoculars and scanned the beach. One time he was scanning the beach and came upon a little take-out restaurant with a little patio. Robert had watched as a young couple ate their meal on the patio, then the woman had stretched her leg out and started rubbing the guy’s crotch with her toe.
They’d carried on as if everything was normal. Robert had giggled, amused.
“Nothing going on here today,” he said. It was true. Nobody was doing shit. Nobody was getting or receiving a blowjob, nobody was playing with themselves, and nobody was getting laid. He moved the binoculars away from his face, wondering where to look next. Carol was at the beach with their daughter and grandchildren. His son had gone to the store for more beer, and Robert was bored as shit. Now what?
“What’s with you people?” he said to himself, putting the binoculars to his face again. “Come on, let’s have a little action. It’s only twelve o’clock. People fuck at noon, you know. They’re called nooners. Hell, if Carol was here, I’d be getting laid now. Old people fuck, too, you know. That’s why God created Viagra.”
He made another sweep of the boardwalk. Nothing.
Then he moved the binoculars back up the beach.
Something made him stop and adjust the vision. He squinted, trying to get a clear picture. “What the hell is going on out there?”
Just as it became clear to Robert what the hell was going on out there, he heard the sounds again—yes, they were most definitely screams—and then he saw people running away from the ocean, their features contorted in fear, and then he saw the things coming out of the ocean, running up the beach after the people. He watched, momentarily spellbound, not knowing how to comprehend the scene below him. It almost looked as if some of the things—they looked like fucked up crabs or lobsters or something—were actually attacking people.
“Jesus Christ, what the hell are those things?” Robert exclaimed. He zoomed in for a closer look. “Am I really seeing this shit?”
The screams grew louder and the pandemonium spilled out onto the boardwalk.
Yep. He was really seeing this shit.
And they really were crab-lobster-scorpion things…
* * *
Jerry Barker was on his lunch break, enjoying a plate of tacos al carbon at Baja Fresh along the Shops On Ocean One when the shit hit the fan.
He’d just taken a bite and was savoring the spice-marinated steak, onions, and corn tortilla when screams interrupted his thoughts. He looked up, still chewing, wondering if the local security guys were finally doing something about the crazy homeless woman who had been causing so much havoc for the various small businesses that operated on this little strip jutting out into the ocean. Jerry had chased her out of the Sam Goody store he worked at twice this week when customers complained to him that she smelled, and she’d screamed at him like this, too.
He heard the shriek again and looked around, still chewing his food. Other Baja Fresh patrons who were enjoying their lunch looked around at the sound, too. A couple of people who were calmly walking along the boardwalk paused, looking around, trying to determine where the sound was coming from. And then a guy ran out of a T-shirt shop, his face white. “Oh my God, you gotta see this, you gotta see this, there’s some fucking shit going on down on the beach!”
Jerry put down his taco and frowned. A woman ran out of the T-shirt store, dragging a five-year-old girl behind her. A young woman ran out after her, screaming. A guy dressed in cook’s whites ran out of the hamburger joint at the end of the pier, followed by what looked to be the entire kitchen help. Their panic-stricken faces and screams spoke volumes to Jerry. He got up and turned around, wondering what was happening.
A mass of people ran out of Baja Fresh, pushing past him, and their fear spilled over to him. Jerry rushed over to the edge of the pier and looked at the beach.
He stood watching for a moment, his jaw agape, not believing what he was seeing.
Some fucked-up looking things that reminded him of giant scorpions or lobsters were literally streaming out of the ocean. There had to be dozens—no, hundreds—of them. They were coming out of the ocean and running up the beach on giant legs, chasing people and fucking eating them!
Jerry didn’t know how many people were lying dead on the beach. The entire beach was utter pandemonium. People were crashing into each other, stampeding over each other to get out of the way. It was chaos.
Those that had stopped to look out over the pier to see what was going on started running back toward the boardwalk.
Jerry almost ran himself, but stopped. He looked down at the end of the boardwalk. Some of the things were already there, skittering around, their scorpion-like tails jabbing at people.
“Holy fucking shit,” Jerry said.
Then he turned and headed back int
o the Sam Goody store he worked at and sought refuge in the rear storeroom.
* * *
Officer Lyle Strong had his firearm out the minute he saw the things—whatever the hell they were—and started shooting. He hit four of them, missed two, and then ran out of bullets. He dived for the front seat of his squad car, which he’d left running when he stopped to investigate why everybody was running the hell away from the beach, crowding en masse along the boardwalk, and grabbed the shotgun. He raised the weapon and took aim at one of the things, which looked somewhat like a cross between a giant scorpion and a lobster and was the size of a large dog, and pulled the trigger. Its upper half exploded into mush.
He ejected the spent shell and chambered another round and was about to take aim and fire again, when he heard dispatch calling him on the radio. “Unit ten, come in, unit ten.”
Realizing this shit was big and getting worse by the second, Lyle was in his vehicle in a flash, locking the doors and rolling up the windows. He laid the shotgun across the front seat of the car and started driving away slowly. He picked up the mike. “Unit ten here. We have a situation at the Boardwalk from South Florida Avenue and up past Belmont Avenue, probably even farther north. I need backup now!”
A trio of shirtless men flung themselves against his squad car, screaming in unison. “There’s a bunch of monsters eating people on the beach!”
Clickers II: The Next Wave Page 2