Creature pt-3. A Creature from the Black Lagoon story. As always all rights to the storyline and backgrounds of the Creature belong to its creators. Story, The team made a startling discovery about the Creature. the Creature makes his first kill. Rated T for brief violence, and suggested violence.
The next morning the research team stared their investigation of the Gill-man. they only had the records of the team that initially discovered the creature almost 60 years back. Jim Ness made the first discovery. It was an partial skeleton buried in the mud.
"Do you believe this!" Ness exclaimed happily. "An arm and partial torso." the rest of the team ran over.
Cheryl asked "Can we get an age off this?"
"Absolutely, boss." Jim said "Give this to our geek, and we'll know how old our friend is."
Tom Westerfield stuck his head out of the tent. "And do I have something to play with?"
Cheryl strode over with the sample. "See if you can get an age off this."
Tom took the sample. "Let's see what Mass Spec has to say." He took the sample and went to work.
"It should take about an hour, depending on the age of the sample." Tom explained. "The older the sample the longer it will.." he got no further as the mass spec machine rang, indicating the test was done.
"What the hell?" Tom said as he read the printout. He stared at the paper for a few minutes, then ran the test again.
McWaters came into the tent as Tom ran the test a second time. Mac asked "What's on?"
Cheryl replied "We running a mass spec on the sample we found. Tom thinks there is something wrong."
The test ran its course and Tom took the readout, and shook his head in disbelief. Mac and Cheryl watched in curiosity. "Well, what is it?" Cheryl finally said running out of patience.
"Boss." Tom said rubbing his hand through his red hair. "This sample is not from a fossil. It is in fact about 15 to 30 years old."
"But that's not possible." Mac said. "There was only one of these creatures, and it was killed back in the 50's"
"At least, that's what everyone thought." Cheryl said. Thinking about the possibilities here. Turning back to Tom. "What are the chances of being able to find the rest of the skeleton?"
Thinking about the problem, Tom said. "Fair, if we can dig deeper into this bank we may find the rest of our friend here."
Practically dancing with joy, Cheryl said. "Ok, we'll start digging into this in the morning." Turning back to McWaters. "Mac do you think that we'll need some heavier digging equipment for this?"
"Maybe." he said. "If we hit anything hard in the bank, we will. The only way we'll know is when we start to dig.
Suddenly the conversation was interrupted by the boat's horn. McWaters told Cheryl and Tom. "Be right back."
As he made his way to the boat, McWaters started to take notice of what was going on around them. There was little to no sounds coming from the jungle. he knew that this was a sign of a problem. As he got to the boat, Max was on the stern scanning downriver with binoculars. McWaters also was quick to notice that Max had his rifle close by as well as his pistol.
"Do we have a problem here?" McWaters asked
"Hard to say, my friend." Max replied. "I'm sure you noticed the sound of silence out there."
"Yes I did notice. Care to guess what the problem is?"
"Maybe our shadows that are still down river." Max said, then looking toward the jungle. "Or maybe something else."
McWaters considered. "Let's find out."
He took Max's rifle and pointing downstream, squeezed off several shots. Some sound of birds taking to the air, then silence again. "Whatever's out there, they or it's not afraid of guns."
The rest of the team came racing to the river bank. Ness shouted to them. "What's going on?"
With a quick exchange of looks. Max replied. "Nothing my friends." We thought that we could pick something off for dinner"
Ness shook his head in disgust as he and Tom went back to work. Cheryl gave the two men on the boat a long questioning look, then went back to work.
Max looked down river "We may have a problem soon." He had no idea just how right he was.
As the night went by, the team discussed the day's events. "We have found a sample of the creature that supposedly was extinct and now isn't? Ness asked. "So are we saying that there may be a specimen that is actually out there?'
"It does make for an intriguing situation." Cheryl said looking into the night. "Just think, actually finding a living being. A bipedal form of life as different from us as night and day."
Max interjected a note of caution. " Remember the history of this animal. The last team that tried to capture this thing most of them did not come back alive." McWaters also spoke up. "To do that we would need a lot more equipment and bodies to do that."
Cheryl frowned at these statements. To be patient when they were so close to a breakthrough discovery was not part of her nature. But what McWaters and Max were saying was good advice and she knew it.
"OK." she said. " This is what we'll do. Get a hold of the lab in Chicago, and get a second opinion."
Ness nodded and went to his little tech cubby.
"And while he's doing that . I'll grab a quick swim before it get too dark out." Cheryl said as her grabbed a towel and headed for the outer side of the embankment.
Tom called out " Do you need someone to play lifeguard?"
"No. Tom." Cheryl replied as she walked away.
"How about washing your back?" McWaters added hopefully.
"Not tonight, Mac." Was her reply.
"Or how about a you tube show for the gang back in Chi-town?" Ness said slightly giggling at the very unlikely prospect.
"Bite me!" was her answer.
Shaking her head in amusement Cheryl quickly stripped off and dove into the water, loving how the warm water made her feel. She was clueless to the fact that she was at this moment in a considerable amount of danger
Under the cover of the brush, a man from the other boat was watching the young woman swimming with hunger.
Joao watched Cheryl from the jungle. He took in all of her beauty. From her blond hair to her firm breasts, narrow waist and well-formed backside. he watched her with undisguised lust. Then he glanced down river to where the others were waiting.
"Screw them!" he thought. "I will taste this one's sweet charms, now." And he started to move toward her.
Cheryl was unaware of the danger moving toward her as she continued to bathe. "It's a quiet night." she thought to herself, as Joao edged closer.
Joao had an evil smile as he quietly moved through the bush. But what he didn't know was something stalked him as well and was getting closer.
The boat's horn sounded, Tom was calling out to her. "Hey Boss." We got through to Chicago."
"All right." Cheryl called back. "I'm coming" As she quickly dressed, and ran back to the boat. Joao was disgusted as he glared down the path back to the boat.
"So close." he snarled. "But Joao is patient, you will know me well before this is done."
He turned to go back down the path, but found to his alarm the he was not alone. he froze in terror as he looked into the eyes of the Gill man. They both stared at each other for a brief moment. Joao in horror, the Gill man with primal rage.
Before Joao could move or even scream. The Gill man took what passed for his hand with claws sharp as razors and tore out Joao's throat.
His blood spraying himself and the creature was the last thing he saw.
The creature took Joao's body and returned to the water. Hs first kill, but not his last.
To be continued.