Serpens Marinus

I had fun with this.

 

 

 

 

Hawks lifted his head and switched his weight from the ball of his hand to his closed fist, revealing the arc of reddened flesh underneath his chin. Tonight had been an especially long shift. His favorite website was down and Rawlings insisted on telling his Singapore hooker story.

            “And then some buddies, of mine, you know, tried to get prices or whatever, but she didn’t speak any English, you know? Hell I wasn’t even sure she was even a hooker until the b***h grabbed my belt when I pulled out my wallet…” Hawk’s eyes trained in on the sonar.

“Sir, we have a pod on the screen.” Rawlings leaned over Hawks to look at the screen, only when he saw the four black silhouettes did he stop his Singapore hooker rant.            

            “Hey, look at that! Those are some big beauties out there, aren’t they?”

            “They aren’t called ‘gentle giants’ for nothin’, sir.”

            “Don’t be a smartass, Hawks.”

            “Better than a dumbass, sir.”

            They watched as the screen refreshed, and the spots had moved half an inch to the right. Both men sat in silence, eyes glued to the screen, as it refreshed and appeared yet another half inch to the right.

            “Never seen that before.” Hawks commented.

            “I’ve never seen a pod in a hurry like that.” Rawlings confirmed. “Have they past the shelf yet?”

            “Yeah they’re in the shallows now, way past our grace period, we need to shut down the sonar now, or they’re goin’ to beach themselves right on top of Greenpeace.” Rawlings stood to give the order to cut the sonar when Hawks grabbed his arm and pulled him back to his seat.

            “Sir, what is that?” Hawks exclaimed; touching the screen for the first time in his military career, as though the contact would dispel what the screen was showing him.

            “I don’t know, but call the tech guys in.” Rawlings said, his voice held the power of a man that had turned off his mind and fallen back to his training. “Because that has to be a glitch.”

 

          

            Cindy sped along the overpass, hoping to beat the five o’clock rush. A semi-truck towing a flatbed made an appearance in her rearview mirror, the inverted M A C K letters prominent on the truck’s front grill. Cindy tilted the rearview mirror to realign it with the lane behind her. She pushed it a little too far, and her doe-like hazel eyes gazed back at her from under her neatly trimmed blond bangs. She smiled at herself, and then replaced the mirror. A day in the classroom always left her feeling old. She subconsciously tapped the beat of Paralyzer on her steering wheel as she began to approach the top of the hump. She hated this part of her drive the most. The protesters would be on the other side of the bay, picketing the military base on the opposite side of the overpass. Cindy often marveled about why they did not protest on the same side as the military base. The base stood facing the ocean; it was on its own. On the other side was what tourists called ‘The Strip’. Six restaurants, four hotels, five gas stations, and seven topless bars helped populate ‘The Strip’. Nothing finishes a day of protesting better than a cold beer and a pair of breasts.

            As she approached the hump, Cindy glanced over toward the ocean, as she was her custom when she reached the epoch of the bridge. She looked in the water. The sunlight caught the light on each ripple of the ocean, except for five contrasting shadows. The shadows were moving toward the overpass. Cindy squinted against the setting sun; rising above the crest of the water was the giant head of a blue whale. Its right flipper rose above the water, and though Cindy knew nothing about whales, but she got the impression that it was trying to make sharp right turn. This seemed like an impossible maneuver for so colossal a creature. Cindy’s heart pounded in her chest. She felt like something was wrong as the blue whale cleared its blowhole. Soon she knew exactly what that feeling was.

            Behind it a giant maw opened, the sunlight glinted orange off its scales as the saltwater glided off the giant head. The bright white soft flesh of the mouth opened wide over the awkward whale. It clamped the whale’s body, the other shadows swerved from it, moving parallel now to the overpass. With an audible splash, the maw clamped tight around the body of the whale, hastily dragging it under the water.

            Cindy looked ahead a moment too late. The passenger side bumper of her car caught the cement barrier of the bridge. With a sudden crash she struck the barrier. Her airbags deployed, the loud pop summoned a scream from her that instantly muted when the airbag struck her face. The airbags blew out her back two windows, she put her hands over the airbag to try to restore her view of the road, but the white smoke and the cumbersome airbags obscured any vision. She heard the water splash to the passenger side of her, the side of the inlet. Cindy’s heart stopped, how could she be hearing a splash several stories above water?

            Ok. Move. Cindy thought, and salvaged her courage enough to open her driver side door. She stood up as close to her car as possible, and turned to look over the roof of her vehicle. Her eyes widened and bile settled in the back of her throat, as she stood, frozen. She could easily see now that it was a serpent, its head was higher than where she stood and its body continued at an unviewable length below the surface of the water. The blue whale’s head craned forward in an effort to free itself, the front flippers jutted from either side of the maw, helplessly flapping against the snake’s jaw.

            The Mack truck that had been behind her came skidding to a halt. The loud squeal and the smell of the tires against the pavement jerked Cindy into action and freed her from her fear. The snake’s attention snapped onto the truck. The snake clamped onto the whale, once, and then opened its mouth and bit hard, its throat jerking with a swallowing motion. The head and front flippers of the whale separated from the rest of the body, tearing through the remaining attached flesh as the head lurched forward. Cindy watched as the head tilted down, blood and swollen blubber poured from the monster’s jaws. The head of the whale fell to the water. The one flipper waved like a clumsy flag, its mouth still open from the effort put into its escape.

            The snake raised its head, tilting a little to the left. Cindy had seen this maneuver before on the discovery channel. She watched the intensity of the glare, felt the stillness as the snake calculated, and it rose an ancient fear up into her stomach. The only reason Cindy was able to follow the movement with her eye was due to the sheer enormity of the snake. It moved with astonishing speed, its jaws clamped around the cab of the truck. The head of the monster snatched the front portion of the semi, and went through the pavement of the overpass.

            Cindy watched all of this motionlessly, afraid that any movement would bring attention to herself. The moment the monster’s head went through the pavement, however, she came across the realization that she was standing on that cement slab. Soon it would not be able to hold her. She turned to run, and saw the black Volvo screeching to a halt behind her. The pavement under her dropped, and knocked her to the ground. She rolled underneath her vehicle. The Volvo skidded where she had been standing, knocking her front door off its hinges with a loud snap. She crawled to the back of her car, the pavement scraping into the white buttons on her shirt. Her forearms scraped against the pavement before it dropped again, this time tilting the car forward. It rolled toward the hole in the pavement, Cindy moved to miss the back tires as her car rolled over her. Once again, she was out in the open.

            Cindy hopped to her knees, then to her feet, losing her tan heel shoe in the process. The pavement scraped through her pantyhose; she had no time to look back. She jumped for the cement wall barricade that bordered the bridge as another car rushed forward. She tried to gauge its course, but the bridge sunk a final time. The barricade lurched toward the falling pavement, at any moment it would give, and go plummeting to the ocean below. With or without her.

            Cindy didn’t look down as she jumped off the edge of the barricade. Her prudent A-line skirt hugged her hip as she considered how exactly she wanted to hit the water. As she jumped, she heard another crunch as the overpass gave way. The vibration of the tons of cement could be felt in her chest, just before the momentum of her jump gave way to the sensation of falling. She looked down at the water; she could see the head of the whale floating ahead of her, the opaque scales of the snake. She tilted her body so her knees would hit the water first, praying the fall wouldn’t break her legs. Her eyes tried to reach skyward, as though God would pay more attention to her if she were looking to heaven. She only had time to process the red helicopter hovering toward them before she hit the water, hard.

           

 

            Michaels stared ahead as the pilot navigated the Dolphin HH-65 closer to the visual. The snake’s body appeared to be winding between the overpass supports. One solid constriction looked like it might take the whole length of the overpass down on top of it. The snake had a Mack cab in its maw, the flat bed peeked out of the corner of its mouth, and the whole scene looked like a small child abusing its Hotwheels. The com system was up and running, but no one was speaking, who could? They were given the mission to fly out and get a visual on the sonar reading. They were under the impression that they were investigating a false reading; this was definitely not a false reading.

            “Report back, Hotel-six-four over.” The sound of control scratched over the com system. Matthews was happy he was not the one who had to report.

            “Roger that, this is Hotel-six-four, visual is confirmed, it appears to be a giant sea snake entwined in the I-96 overpass, the civilians on the bridge are in immediate danger and the integrity of the bridge has been has been breached approximately three miles south of land… at the hump Over.” The pilot’s voice was calm, and he only paused for a moment to shrug and answer, at the hump. Anyone who ever had to drive over the bridge knew the hump. There was an unfamiliar pause before control answered back.

            “Is this some kind of joke, Brandon over?”

            “That’s a big a*s negative, over.” Matthews wanted to look at the pilot to make sure his ears had not fooled him. He had never heard control break protocol before. However, looking at the sonar they would have a better knowledge of the size of the creature than they do from up in the Dolphin.

            Matthews forced his eyes down toward the water. He wanted to try to gauge the exact size of the serpent. He saw the head of the blue whale floating in the water, the blood pooling around the decapitated head stained the water a murky red. His first instinct was to avert his eyes; the profane sight of the floating whale head sickened him. Before he could look away, his eyes caught a small white movement near the whale’s head. He squinted his eyes, and watched the object as attentively as he could from the open back hatch of the helicopter.

            “We have a civilian in the water, Keirsch.” Matthews kept his eyes on the target. Nothing in the world was worse than seeing a person in the water then losing sight of them, hoping that each wave will return the target to you.

            “I'm certain we have many civilians in the water, given the circumstances, Matthews.”

            “Well, let’s get to it then.” Matthews heard his own insecurity on the com. Keirsch was a good pilot, and a good person, and his impassive response confused Matthews.

            “That is not our orders, we are to maintain visual on the snake until reinforcements arrive.”

            “We are in the Dolphin, a rescue helicopter, remember?”

            “I feel you Matthews, but we have our orders, and besides, if that thing gets the Dolphin, it won’t be able to save anyone once the threat is neutralized.”

            “We have the RIB, I can take that out.”

            “Yeah that’s a fantastic idea, why don’t sprinkle yourself with some salt and pepper before you go?” Keirsch yelled over the com, his sarcasm followed by an indignant chuckle.

            The snake lifted its head again, Matthews and Keirsch watched, holding their breaths as the serpent snapped its head back to the overpass, giving it another powerful blow. The concrete fell around it, and Matthews watched his mark sink into the water. A large concrete chunk crashed into the water near where the mark sank. Matthews knew that the giant snake would be affecting the current, there was just no earthly idea on how. The snake shook its head, stabilizing itself before diving for a bus, knocking two other vehicles off the overpass as it did so.

            Matthews’ eyes scanned the crest of each wave, holding his breath as he searched the water. Just when he was certain he had lost it, his mark resurfaced. It paused for a moment on the surface of the water, then began to slowly move for the head of the whale.

            “I think it’s a little preoccupied, Keirsch, lets go!” Matthews turned to the two men behind him; all eyes were on the sea serpent. “Hoist the RIB.”

            “Base this is Hotel-six-four Matthews will be deploying a RIB at this time to rescue civilians. The dolphin will stay in observation range, over.”        

            “Copy that, stand by.” Matthews kept his eye on his mark while the crew attached the motor to the inflatable raft. Keirsch maintained visual for the long seconds it took for control to respond.

            “That’s a go-ahead, Keirsch. Matthews, be careful, all right? Over.”

            Matthews did not hesitate; Keirsch dipped the helicopter to forty feet above the water. They hoisted the RIB down, Matthews close behind it. He revved up the motor immediately upon contact with the water, time was of the essence. From this distance there was no way for him to tell where his mark would be if it moved. He took the com off his head and steered the RIB toward the whale’s head.

           

            Cindy watched the helicopter dip toward the water with morbid curiosity. Although evidence and hope seemed to signify a rescue attempt, she could not believe that the coast guard would be so foolish. Exhausted from the effort to keep her fully clothed body above water, Cindy ducked underwater to attempt to swim to the whale. She took in a deep breath, absorbing the thick aroma of blood and salt before closing her eyes and diving under. The sounds of the surface muted almost instantly, and Cindy wondered then what drowning was going to feel like.

            Just as she thought about choking for her last breaths she heard a deep, longing moan. She stopped moving, feeling like if she were to do so she would alert the sound to her presence. She couldn’t imagine that the serpent was making this sound. As far as she dared to know, the snake’s head was still above the surface. The sound came again, and this time it was long enough for her to recognize that it was the surviving blue whales. She continued to swim toward the head, wondering if the whales were calling to mourn their dead.

            Cindy returned to the surface of the water, the sounds of the pandemonium above her killed the relief of breathing in oxygen once more. She was not far from the whale now, and awkwardly she swam toward the carcasses’ flipper. She looked at the head as she reached out and touched the flipper. The skin was just as she had imagined it would feel, and one glassy eye seemed to look at her. She had always dreamed of touching a blue whale. She wretched as her stomach lurched at this bastardization of her childhood wish. She closed her eyes, tried to ignore the thick smell of blood, and reminded herself that now would not be a good time to throw up.

            She turned and looked at the snake, from her vantage point she could see the serpent had wound itself around the overpass, but that was not all. The snake also seemed to wind down below her, then rise up above the surface of the water and then back into the inlet.

 

            Matthews swiveled around the visible part of the serpent and steered the RIB back toward its course. He kept eager eyes on the serpent as well, it seemed to remain fascinated by the overpass, each squeak, squeal, or scream would lead for another attack from the snake. Recognizing that people were too small a target, many were evacuating their cars and running back over the overpass. Any time the snake smashed into the pavement another three or four people careened off the bridge. This was going to be a long day.

            Finally, over the crest of the next wave he made out his mark, clinging onto the flipper of the whale. She looked in his direction, then lifted her body on the flipper long enough to wave. The flipper sank into the water as she did this, and she had to let it go to maintain buoyancy.

            Matthews reached Cindy, releasing a lifejacket from the inflatable dinghy as he approached her.

            “The whales!” Cindy yelled at him as he approached, the wind carried her voice before he could hear her. He cut the engine down low and pulled as close to her as he could before throwing her the jacket, which was tethered to the Dinghy.

            “Grab it!” Matthews yelled, and Cindy could hear him. Cindy did not move with the panic and shivering that was prominent in most of his rescues. He watched her with respect as she grabbed the lifejacket, and calmly waited for him to drag her in. He grabbed her from under right arm but she resisted.

            “Listen to me!” Matthews lowered his face to Cindy. She seemed to have no interest in getting in the dinghy. “There are whale calls under the water, if we can get the snake to drop its head back into the water, it might be more interested in larger game.” Cindy looked at him expectantly.

            “Great! We’ll tell the pilot when we get back on the Dolphin.”

            “There’s no time! A lot of people are going to die.” Cindy was yelling for audibility’s sake only, her voice was surprisingly calm.

            “How do you propose we do that?” Matthews yelled back at her.

            “I don’t know, you know what you have, improvise.” Matthews thought for a moment, he did know what he had, and he could improvise.

            “It will mean losing the RIB; do you want to risk dying out here for this?” Just as he asked this there was a huge crack behind them. The snake had taken out a support beam, which twisted around toward the ocean as he constricted before it hit the water.

            “Yes. I do.” Cindy answered resolutely.

            “How the hell are you staying so calm?” Matthews asked, bewildered. Cindy looked at the giant serpent, listened to the screaming before looking up to Matthews and replying, “I’m a school teacher.”

Matthews nodded and turned the RIB back toward the overpass. He could see the cars lined up as far as he dared to pay attention. At this rate it would be a long time before the snake would be averted from the overpass. The base was just on the other side of the water, what was taking them so long to respond?

            He went full speed, which was a snail’s pace, the long body of the snake writhed around him, and he hoped he wouldn’t be knocked off the dinghy before he could complete his task.

            He navigated to under the head of the beast, and pulled from the rescue pack his secret weapon. He had five charges, but he hoped that he would only need one. He loaded the flare into his gun, and pointed it at the snake’s head. The waves arched him forward, and he tried to catch predict his movement for aim. This would be impossible with this particular weapon. Flares are intended to be randomly shot into the sky, not aimed at anything. Fortunately, his target was large enough that it shouldn’t matter. He pointed the gun and fired it at the snake’s head.

            Matthew expected a moment of confusion from the serpent, there was none. It jerked its head back, and then cast its gaze directly at the RIB. Matthew discharged the second flare on the RIB and abandoned he raft. He swam as fast as he could away from the RIB. The serpent struck at the water, swallowing the dinghy like it was a Lifesaver. Matthew was far enough away to escape the maw, but not the current. He was sucked back against the body of the snake. He struggled toward the surface until he was free from the water’s pull. He looked back at the snake’s head, and saw that he was parallel to the giant reptilian eye. The pupil contracted, and tuned in on Matthews. He froze in terror. The same ancient reptilian fear Cindy had known when she faced it. Matthews thought he could almost see the expression of the snake turn accusingly before him.

            Then the whales made their call.

            The sound of their deep cries penetrated the stillness of the water. The serpent cocked its head toward the sound. Matthews took this as his cue, and swam toward the whales head. The air in his lungs ached as it became useless in supporting him. Just as he reached the surface and gulped the serpent released its hold on the overpass and sped toward the open ocean.

            The waves rose slightly, and Matthews suddenly felt like a child caught in a crowded swimming pool. The different sections of the writhing snake crashed back to the ocean with a loud crescendo, each seemed set on releasing Matthew’s hold on the water’s surface.

            “HEY!” Matthew turned and saw Cindy, swimming dexterously with the lifejackets. He swam toward her, angry in his mind that she had left the whale’s head, happy in his heart that she was there.

            He swam toward her, and just as he put his hand on the lifejacket the snake’s body rushed underneath them. The current pulled around them and Matthews wrapped his arm around Cindy to make sure he didn’t lose her. Cindy and Matthews were helpless to the current created by the snake. From the Dolphin, Keirsch could see the water level in the inlet fall, and then rise suddenly. If any protestors had been left on the beach, they certainly weren’t there anymore.

            The water finally settled, and they found themselves to still be in the inlet. Matthews looked around at the building, trying to decide which way was closer to the shore. Cindy stared at Matthews, her mascara streaked down her cheeks.

            “So, what else are you doing tonight?” Matthews smiled at her, and Cindy threw her head back laughed.    

Reviews

[The Viking]

Let me guess, you were stuck in a commute across a bridge praying for something to break the monotony and this story came to mind. I've thought the exact same thing, stuck driving to or from work the same way every day and silently hoping for some great cataclysm just to break the rut. I liked this and I can definitely tell you had fun with it.

[Michael]

a not so usual day leads to a chance dinner though this lady's got quite a character about her. not exactly a damsel in distress either just happen to fall to the waters and meet her rescuer in those waters. a bad turn averted to a fun night.