Sligger Island

by Michael Yowell

  It did not take long for the magazines to empty. The troopers ejected the spent magazines and hurriedly loaded full ones as the creatures advanced. Hands shaking, they continued shooting.

  The gun bursts were deafening in the hollow chamber. Denise pressed her hands against her ears to muffle the painful noise. Her heart was pounding now, watching the multitude of deadly creatures come after the group. It looked like there were thirty now.

  Mason clutched his rifle as tightly as he could. With the increasing number of beasts churning out of the water, he knew he would certainly die without it. He was not holding his flashlight anymore, but he did not need it. He could see the enemy just fine in the flashes from the rapid muzzle fire.

  A tentacle wrapped around Tanisha’s leg and ripped her off her feet. She was pulled along the ground. Shrieking, she vanished under a pile of creatures.

  “Shit!” said Vince. “She’s gone!” He continued to pump bullets into the mass of beasts to slow them down. But there were too many, coming too fast, too strong. Getting too close.

  Josh took a step backward. “Fall back!” he directed. The team moved back with him, staying clustered together. He noticed he could no longer hear gunshots from the other side of the cavern. It seemed Billy’s unit was gone.

  One of the monsters lunged hard enough to reach Miguel with one of its barbed tentacles. Miguel yelled in pain when the claw dug beneath his collarbone. He dropped his weapon and tried to pull the appendage out of his body. The beast yanked him to his doom.

  “Grab that gun!” Josh ordered. He knew every round of ammunition was precious to the squad. Vince plucked it up from the rock.

  Despite the large number of dead animals on the ground, more still kept coming. “I think we should retreat!” said Mason, fearing their ammo would not last at this pace.

  Captain Moody agreed. “Okay!” he yelled amid the gunfire. “Let’s go!” The eight people who remained began backing out.

  Then a cluster of creatures appeared from around the nose of the U-boat. They were undoubtedly the survivors from the group of animals that had attacked Billy’s unit. Seeing the troopers’ escape route blocked, Denise’s face went white with dread. The crew was trapped in the cavern.

  Mason, Vince, and Jayme fired at the bunch ahead to hold them back, while Josh, Clarence, Lamar, and Darrell kept slowing the pursuers down. At the rate the team was shooting, they would be out of ammunition before they knew it. And they were not stopping the waves of creatures that were closing in from both sides.

  They would be overpowered in less than a minute.

  CHAPTER 28

  “Get in the sub!” cried Mason. The last place he wanted to be was cornered inside the dead Nazi relic, but the protection of its metal hull was better than being so vulnerable in the open. “There’s a way in on top!”

  Denise immediately began climbing the U-boat’s hull, grabbing for any rusted hole that could be used as a handhold. She scurried up, and Mason went next. He hung the AR-15 on his shoulder, negotiated the short climb within seconds, and returned the rifle to his hands to continue firing. Several troopers scampered up the side simultaneously.

  The bullets were still finding home in the creatures, which kept their progress at a slower pace, but they were certainly not stopping. From the weathered deck of the U-boat, the mass of beasts converging on the group looked larger than ever. It seemed hopeless.

  It took but a minute for everybody to get to the top of the U-boat. They had already found the hatchway amid the teak planks and begun to disappear inside. Denise hurried down the steel ladder first, immediately followed by Lamar and then Jayme.

  “Go go go!” Mason yelled, although the crew needed no verbal direction. Clarence and Darrell descended through the hatchway, then Josh and Mason. Vince stood back, warding off the creatures with bullets from both his and Miguel’s rifles, until it was his turn to vanish with the others.

  As soon as Vince turned toward the hatch, a clawed tentacle pierced his calf. “Fuck!” he screamed in pain, anger, and horror. It penetrated the entire muscle, holding strong in the meat. Vince’s leg was whipped backward as the appendage pulled him. He landed hard on the deck and was dragged to the edge. He dug his fingers into the gnarled wood to keep from being taken from the U-boat. Then he felt more barbs, plunging forcefully into his back. He cried out from the excruciating pain of being torn open.

  “Here!” he yelled, seeing Mason’s head appear from the hatchway. Vince released one of his hands to push the weapons toward the sheriff. Mason quickly grabbed the AR-15s, and Vince was yanked out of sight.

  Mason dropped the rifles down to his colleagues. Taking a step down the ladder, he reached up to close the hatch.

  Suddenly a dark tentacle struck the hatch, and Mason’s hand recoiled. The limb hooked onto the inside handle, preventing Mason from shutting it. Knowing their survival depended on closing that hatch, Mason reached for the handle and used his body weight to pull it down with all his might. The hatch slammed shut, chopping part of the creature’s appendage. The tip of the severed piece, tangled on the handle, was still twitching. Mason turned the wheel to lock the hatch securely, careful not to touch the venomous claw while he did so.

  Mason climbed down the ladder, aided by the light from one of the trooper’s flashlights. Walking in a foot of seawater, he joined the others in the main compartment. In the meager light he saw the familiar room full of valve wheels and burnt paneling. Several skeletons were lying where Mason remembered. The group occupying the six-by-six chamber made sure not to lose their footing by standing on any of the Nazi bones. Twenty feet farther back, Mason spotted the dangling chains in the chamber that had been converted to the mysterious laboratory.

  “They just won’t stop fucking coming!” Lamar gushed incredulously. “There’s so many of them, coming from everywhere!”

  Josh gazed emptily at the watery floor. “I wonder how many they took down on the other side before they – well, you know.”

  “I’m sure they killed whatever didn’t make it over here to us,” said Mason. He then threw his hands in the air. “For whatever that was worth.”

  “Hey,” said Josh, “every one they killed is one less we have to worry about.”

  Then they heard rapid, violent clacks of something striking the steel hull outside. The beasts knew where their prey was hiding, and they wanted inside. The frenzied attack spread up to the deck above.

  “They’re on top,” said Jayme.

  “They can’t get in,” Mason declared.

  “So what now?” Lamar asked with a brittle voice. “We just stay in here?”

  “Will they give up and go away?” said Jayme.

  Mason shook his head slowly. “I don’t think so. Especially after we destroyed their eggs. I think they’re committed to killing us.”

  “But they might,” Josh stated. “All we can do is wait them out and see.”

  “Maybe,” said Mason, trying to entertain all possibilities. But he doubted the beasts would abandon their goal of getting to their enemy and tearing them apart.

  The scratching on the hull grew louder. The creatures seemed to be putting more vigor into their attack. Denise’s eyes were wild, darting all around the confines of the U-boat. Sensing she would not be able to hold herself together much longer, Josh set a firm hand on her leg. It got her attention, and she looked at him to see steadiness in his eyes.

  “We’ll be okay,” he reassured. “Just breathe.”

  She opened her mouth and drew a slow breath. Then she slowly exhaled, and she felt a little better.

  The captain’s words had the opposite effect on Darrell. The mention of breathing prompted him to realize a frightening detail. “We may not be able to wait them out in here after all. There’s not enough air in here with us.”

  “Yes there is,” Mason contended, remembering the hull breach in the laboratory. “Move to the back of the ship, there’s a hole where air can come in.”

  Darrell raised an ey
ebrow. “How big?”

  “Big enough for – oh shit.” Mason suddenly realized the breach was large enough for the creatures to enter through. “Come on, hurry!”

  The group rushed to the next chamber. With shaking flashlights they could see the laboratory table, microscopes, containers, more skeletons, and a hole that looked like it had been created by an unknown explosion.

  And then they saw tentacles discovering the opening.

  “Fuckfuckfuck,” Clarence stammered.

  “Don’t let ‘em in!” screamed Denise, with sheer terror in her eyes.

  Josh raised his weapon. “I gotcha,” he stated. The captain fired short bursts into the squirming mass that wriggled inside the U-boat. It fell dead. Another beast started pulling itself inside, and the group riddled it with bullets.

  Each invader was promptly greeted with enough rounds to kill it. And now, since they were only able to squeeze through the jagged hole one at a time, they could no longer overwhelm their enemy.

  “This might work!” said Mason. “They’re bottlenecked, they can’t swarm us!”

  Captain Moody felt a spark of hope. “Kill ‘em one by one then!” The monsters kept coming, and the troopers kept mowing them down. The sound of gunfire in the steel vessel was earsplitting, but nobody cared. The Nazi laboratory was rapidly filling with the bodies of killed creatures.

  It was working.

  The beasts had no intention of retreating. Instead of regrouping, the obstinate creatures lined up to enter the U-boat to get to their foes. And the troopers were ready for each one, disciplined and accurate with their shooting.

  “I’m on my last magazine!” the captain announced, realizing the others were likely facing the same problem. “Single shots, make each one count!”

  There must have been fifty dead by now. The lifeless bodies were plowed and crammed into every corner by the attackers so that more could come in. The troopers had to work backward until they were in the narrow hallway separating the two compartments. Cramped, some stayed high to fire their weapons while others went low to find room to shoot.

  How many more are there? marveled Mason. And will we have enough bullets?

  The .223 rounds did not last. The AR-15s were useless now, and the crew tossed them away. They had to resort to using their handguns. They pulled them and fired sparingly at the beasts that were still entering.

  The rate of creatures was slowing. There was now a five second break between the appearance of attackers. It was a good sign.

  “I’m out,” Josh declared. He backed away to join Denise behind the others.

  “Me too,” Clarence added a moment later. And then so was Lamar. Josh, Jayme, and Darrell remained in front to keep blasting.

  Jayme fired her Glock 37 at the midsection of a hissing beast, guessing at where its heart would be. Her last .45 round hit the mark, and the creature dropped. It was now up to Mason and Darrell to defend the rest.

  One more monster appeared. Darrell blasted its torso twice before he too was out of ammo. Mason held his sidearm tighter and with both hands. He could not miss the furious beast coming at him. Focusing on the creature’s head, Mason squeezed the trigger and fired the last 9mm hollow points he had. The rounds hit home, destroying the beast’s brain. The monster fell as Mason’s gun clicked empty.

  No more creatures were left to enter through the hole.

  After a quiet minute to be sure, Mason smiled victoriously to the others. “Holy shit… we made it.”

  CHAPTER 29

  Captain Moody tentatively opened the hatch and peered out across the deck. No creatures were waiting for them there. The seven survivors emerged from the U-boat and made their way down its side. Once their feet were on the flowstone floor, they took in the sight around them.

  Dead creatures were everywhere. Their carcasses littered the cavern, bodies upon bodies. It was overwhelming to see, and Denise could not help but start quietly weeping.

  “Fuck me, that’s a shitload of sliggers!” exclaimed Darrell. “Too bad they’re not worth eatin’.”

  “They’re worth a ton of studying,” said Clarence, and his captain nodded.

  Jayme noticed the emotional impact the battle had left on Denise, and she slid an arm around the marine biologist. “We made it,” Jayme said softly. “We’re okay now.”

  “I know,” Denise replied, “I just need a moment to process everything that happened.”

  “Of course.” Jayme pulled her in a little tighter. “That’s okay, I think I do too.”

  “I need some fresh air,” stated Mason. “What say we get out of here?”

  The idea was a good one. “Hell yeah,” said Josh. “I can barely breathe in here.” The air was thick with gunpowder smoke and sulfuric creature stink. The crew could use some time away while the cavern aired out.

  “We need to gather the others,” said Clarence, motioning toward the other side of the water. “That is, the ones we can find. We owe our brothers and sisters that much.”

  “Agreed,” said Josh. He took a heavy breath. “Let’s go see who we can recover. Then we’ll lay them somewhere safe for now, and get out of here for a while.”

  “We have to pull the dead animals from the water, too,” Denise instructed. “If any of their bodies get out to sea, the genetic contamination could continue along the food chain.”

  “Right,” Mason said. “Come on, y’all, and be damn sure to not touch their poison claws.”

  The group dragged any beasts they found in the water to shore. It was no problem when the corpses were in the water, except for the creepy sensation they got from touching the squishy, slimy skin, but getting them onto the rock was a different story. The animals were quite heavy. The crew ended up having to partner up to pull each creature onto the flowstone. Denise took some pictures of the carcasses, the U-boat, and the empty egg pool.

  Then they walked the perimeter around the cavern to search the area for the bodies of their fallen comrades. They arrived at the site of the battle. There was an ashen pile of dead eggs, a number of creature carcasses, and a few of the deceased troopers. Out of the seven that were on that side, only the bodies of Billy, Frank, and Laura were found. They were shredded up pretty bad, and covered in blood.

  Captain Moody noticed they still had their handguns clipped on their belts. “Get their sidearms,” he said. “You know, just in case we need ‘em for anything.” He bent down and took one from Billy while Mason and Lamar retrieved the other two. They were also able to locate one of the semi-automatic rifles nearby on the ground. The captain picked that up as well.

  The group made sure all the dead creatures were out of the water, hauling them aground. Their bodies reeked of sulfur. Denise was curious to know what chemical the skins excreted that smelled so bad. She was actually excited about analyzing these animals and discovering everything about them. Finally, once nothing was left floating in the seawater, the crew made their way up the rock to the fissure that brought them in.

  They had never been so happy to see the sun. It poured soothing warmth over them, which rejuvenated their souls. So did seeing their boats on the beach.

  Captain Moody started down the short slope. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get to the boats and radio to shore. We need to get some crews over here right away.”

  “Yes,” said Denise, on his heels. “I’ll call the FWS to get someone out here to collect all the samples, and they can send along a team from the EPA to normalize the marine environment.”

  The captain glanced at the woods to the south. “And then we should make a sweep of the rest of the island, just to be sure.”

  Mason had no objection. “Works for me.”

  Josh and his troopers stepped onto the front panel of one of the patrol boats and walked to the console. While turning the radio on, he handed the retrieved AR-15 to Clarence. “See if there are any shots left.” The captain then broadcasted to the mainland and got hold of the people he needed to reach.

  When he was finished w
ith the radio, he handed it to Denise. Then he addressed Clarence. “Any rounds left?”

  The trooper shook his head. “Nope, all dry.”

  “That’s too bad.” The AR-15 now useless, Josh opened one of the weaponry cases to stow the rifle for passage home. Looking inside the case, he spotted the hand grenades that the marine biologist had not let them use.

  He looked at Denise while she contacted her people. She was right to prohibit grenades during the fight; scattering contaminated tissue everywhere would have eventually spread the mutations. But now that the group’s ammunition was limited to what was in the handguns, and they were going to search the rest of the island for more monsters, the thought of having grenades with him was appealing. Why not? he figured, reaching for the grenades and stuffing two of them into the cargo pockets of his trousers. Just in case.

  Mason boarded his patrol boat and immediately went for the cooler. He opened a bottle of water from within and gulped it down. The cold water soothed his stomach and revitalized his core. Then he powered on the radio. He reached for the microphone and called in.

  “Come in, Sweetboro, this is Sheriff Parker. Do you copy?”

  The answer was swift. “We read you, Sheriff. This is Deputy Johnson. Everything okay? Over.”

  “Hey, Demarcus. Yes, we’re okay. We might need therapy now, but we’re okay. The job’s done, mission accomplished. Over.”

  “Great news, Sheriff!” Cheers from the other deputies were heard in the background while Demarcus had the talk switch depressed. “That’s amazing, great news. Over.”

  “One of you call the mayor and let him know it’s done. Have him call whoever he needs to for cleaning this place up. Divers, too. Over.”

  “Will do, Doug’s on it. Over.”

  “Do me a favor, will ya?” said Mason. “I need you to get hold of Eaver and let her know I’m okay. Over.”

  There was a pause, and then Eaver’s voice came through the speaker. “I’ll be sure to tell her, Sheriff.”