CH 49
The merman who'd found and followed the colorful tail to begin a mating ritual with her swan home in shock. He knew how well they swam, and how helpful they were. What he'd seen upon getting close to land made him stare in disbelief. She was walking with two legs! He beautiful tail was hanging over her shoulder.
That wasn't possible! Two legs weren't friendly, they couldn't swim like a Mer! They rode in things on the surface and used long thin lines to catch fish. They couldn't stab fish with a stick deep under. If a two legs got under water, they drowned. What he saw wasn't possible, but he'd seen it! He had to tell his clan about this.
.
Victoria Winters called the sheriff as soon as she got home. Besides Daniel coming, she'd found out Barnabas would be here and little Jackie was born with a weapon in her arm!
"Hello?"
"Yes, sheriff, this is Miss Winters. I found out I have a student that comes into class with a weapon."
"Tell them to leave it in the office, that is standard procedure," he replied.
"She can't, it's part of her arm."
"Who's this?" he asked.
"Jackie Connor I saw it today. Her forearm turned into a weapon, just like her mothers'."
After a pause he asked, "Has she ever shown it in the school?"
"No, the only reason I saw it was I was up at their house. This thing is part of her body," she explained.
"There's not much can be done about it then. If she's not showing it in school and behaving herself, then there's noting to worry about, is there?" he asked.
"I just ... how can someone be born like that?" she cried.
"Calm down, Miss Winters. If you haven't had any trouble with her, I'm sure you won't because you happened to see what she can do. The Connors are different, but that doesn't mean they are trouble makers. Quite the opposite in fact. Take a deep breath and relax."
"I watched their eyes turn red too when they were talking about Barnabas. They intend to cure of destroy him when he gets here."
"Miss Winters, do you drink?"
"I'm not drunk!"
"Didn't say you were. Sit down get yourself a drink and relax. In fact, go get your drink, then come back. I'll wait."
"OK, hold on." She went and poured herself a brandy then came back to sit down and pick the phone back up. "Sheriff, today has just been ... very difficult."
"I understand. Why did you come to Driftwood?"
She paused. "I wanted to get away from things."
"That's why many people come here," he said gently. "To escape. To be someplace where they feel safe, to know their neighbors and feel relaxed. The Connors came here for the same reason, and if anything, they help us remain safe. Not everyone in this town is human, but they are all here for the same reason. They want to live a quiet life. I doubt you have anything to worry about."
Victoria picked up on something. "Not everyone here is human?"
"Doesn't matter what they are," he said firmly. "You'd be surprised at the mix of ... I guess the proper word is species, that's here. Like I said though, everyone came for a peaceful life. They are all good people. No one wants to be called out, be hounded by press or looked at differently. Please keep that in mind."
"You almost make it sound like we're in that space bar in Star Wars," she said vacantly.
The Sheriff laughed. "Not that bad, but we do have quit a mix. Miss Winters, things aren't as simple as you'd like to believe, but do believe there is no one, Connors included, that have any ill intent towards you or anyone else here."
"OK, Sheriff. You know I never heard what your name is."
"I'm just the sheriff. You OK, Miss Winters?"
"Yeah, it's just strange. Thank you, Sheriff."
"Any time, have a good night, Miss Winters."
"You too, Sheriff."
Hanging up the phone, she sat back and took a deep breath. Could Barnabas be cured? She did know that he was a good man from what he showed her and if there was any hope for him, she did want to help. She decided she would get a hold of Cameron and do whatever she could to help cure Barnabas.
.
Joan was having trouble. She found she didn't want to sleep alone now. She wanted Bob here with her. After a less than restful night, she stumbled up in the morning and got herself ready for school and went down to breakfast. This morning sitting down to eat, she noted everything looked red.
"Joan, what's up?" John asked.
"Yeah, why the red eyes?" Jackie added.
"I just don't feel very good this morning," she offered.
"You're irritated about something," John concluded.
Joan nodded. "It's nothing anyone can do anything about ... so, I'll deal with it. It's something I brought upon myself."
John raised an eyebrow. "Last night when you got home you were lighting up the whole house with how happy you were. What happened between then and now?" he asked.
Joan shrugged. "I think I might have grown up a bit."
"That's always a good thing," John offered. "You can't go to school like that. You have to turn those eyes way down."
Cameron and Delilah came in with the food. "Joan?" Cameron asked.
Joan looked up at her. "I'll calm down, Mom. This is my fault."
"I see," Cameron said flatly. "After breakfast, get a pair of sunglasses on before you go to school."
"OK, Mom."
The day wasn't even sunny out. Joan felt weird wearing sun glasses. Getting on the bus, Allison asked, "What's up with the glasses?"
Jackie grinned. "Joan has a serious case of red-eye."
"So what's bothering you?" Allison asked.
Joan wanted to tell her, but there were too many others around. "Later, OK?"
"Mad at Bob?" Allison asked quietly.
"Mad at myself. I just never realized..." Joan then stopped talking.
"OK, back of the bus," Allison said and grabbed Joan's hand. Joan let Allison pull her back to the last seat then sit down with her.
"So, what's this about?" Allison asked quietly.
Joan frowned. "Yesterday Bob and I had ... a really good time."
"And?" Allison prodded.
"I didn't want it to ever end. But I had to go home."
Allison looked at her expectantly. "So, what's the bad part?"
"Allie, It... I ... don't ever want to be apart from Bob, ever for anything!" Joan whined.
"You went all the way with Bob?" Allison asked.
"More than that ... it felt like we were ... it was fan-fucking-tastic!" Joan cried a little louder then she meant to and everyone turned to look at her.
Allison giggled. "I'm still waiting to hear what went bad. Did you get caught?"
"No, it was perfect, I didn't want to ever leave, and last night I didn't get much sleep because I wanted to be with Bob," Joan said in a hiss. "I want Bob here with me all the time, and, it's driving me nuts that we have to just ... go on like nothing happened."
"So Bob sends you into orbit, and you want to stay there forever," Allison said in a musing tone. "It doesn't work like that. you should know that."
"I do, but ... Ughh!" Joan ended in a grumble and slapped her face down in her hands.
Allison patted her on the back. "Joan, You get the joy you can, when you can. How about just feeling good that you and Bob were able to do that?"
"I am, but I don't want to be without Bob, ever."
"I got that. That is not practical, is it?"
"No," Joan said in a grumble.
"We're coming up on Bob's stop, you better go play nice with him," Allison said and got up to go back to her regular seat. Joan did too.
Joan got seated just before Bob got on. She got up so he could have the window seat. Sitting down, they clasped hands.
"Morning my sweet," Bob offered. "Why the sunglasses?"
"Let's call it a hangover ... from yesterday."
"A hangover?" he asked.
"Yeah."
Bob grinned. "As long as you're happy, that's fine."
Sitting here with Bob, Joan felt much better. She was happy again. She had to wonder if she was addicted to him.
.
Miss Winters greeted her class as usual when she came in. Jackie who was talking to a couple other girls asked, "Miss Winters! Allison had alligators in her hair, didn't she?"
"She did, baby ones. They were all taken out."
"See, I told you!" Jackie said triumphantly.
"How did she get them in her hair?" Peggy asked.
"They latched a hold before Allison got out of the water."
"Why was she swimming with alligators to begin with?" Ben asked.
"If you want to swim in the lake, you have to watch out for them," Jackie told him.
"You swim with alligators? Like all the time?" Jerry asked wide eyed.
"Yeah, you just have to be quicker than they are."
"You're crazy!" Jerry proclaimed.
"Actually, I think that's very brave," Ben said, beaming Jackie a smile.
"To the point of crazy." Jerry insisted. Ben was looking at Jackie and realized something. "Hey, Jackie, you're one of the mermaids!"
"I am," Jackie said proudly.
"Everyone, time to take your seats," Miss Winters announced.
Ben and Jerry did. Ben announced, "Wow, we have a mermaid in our class!"
"Two, Louise is a mermaid too," JJ told them.
"Yeah! Last Halloween, that really was your tail?" Ben asked.
"It was," Louise told him.
"Awesome!" Ben cried.
"Time to start class," Miss Winters said again. She started a normal day of school and Jackie's canon didn't come out once.
.
The order of tridents came in. Cameron and Delilah took them down to the dock with their tails. Each holding a handful of five tridents, they dove in and headed for the Mer cave. On the way, they saw a Mer fishing with his stick. Cameron swam down to him. She got his attention and separated one trident to give it to him. He looked at it then her. She separated another and thrust it a couple times at a few fish. He got the idea, dropped his stick and went after the fish with the trident. He skewered one.
Delilah had waited higher up, when Cameron and the mer headed for the cave, she swam down to join them. Getting up into the cavern pool, the Mer happily made his sounds and showed off the trident to the others with the fish still twitching on the forks. Cameron and Delilah passed their tridents out to the other mermen. They made what Cameron took as happy sounds.
An older mermaid came over to Cameron and made motions at her tail. Tipping her head slightly, Cameron tried to figure out what the woman wanted. She followed the woman to the rock shore and got up on it when she did. Mers gathered round her. Delilah watched close by from the water.
Watching the woman's motions, Cameron said, "I think she wants me to take my tail off."
"So? Take it off, we want to explore the cavern anyway, right?" Delilah replied.
Cameron made a motion to herself, then walked her fingers and pointed to the cavern depths. The woman pointed and nodded.
Cameron slipped out of her tail as the Mer's watched intently. She then helped Delilah up and out. Delilah took her tail off. They shouldered their tails and took a step. The Mermaid clasped her ankle and motioned to herself, then the cavern.
Squatting down, Cameron moved her tail to her arm then patted her back. The Mermaid hoisted herself up onto Cameron's back. Cameron carried her.
Going into the dry portion of the cavern, Cameron noted the floor had ripples in the stone, but it was fairly smooth. "This used to be river," she noted.
"Yes, that had to be a very long time ago." Delilah said.
Cameron activated her blue eyes to give them a better view. Infrared wasn't letting them see much. Everything here was an even temperature. Walking along, they came to a big skeleton. Big as in it looked to be at least 20 feet long.
"That used to be a pleasiosaur," Delilah said. "Not a real big one though."
"That gives us a rough time when the river here dried up," Cameron told her. "About 65, 70 million years ago, at least."
"Think the Mers have been down here that long?"
"After the river dried up, the only way out for them is the cave into the lake," Cameron said. "This alone would throw science on it's ear. Climate changes, the Mer's are forced into a smaller area." she then looked at Delilah. "From the current thinking of archeologists, humans descended from apes, yet there are DNA differences that don't add up. There are other things that don't add up as well with human physical makeup. For instance, human blood has the same PH and salt content as sea water. Apes do not have any part of their body that has long hair, the Mers do. The Mer's bones are thinner that ape bones, like human bones. I wonder if humans evolved from the Mers."
"That sound possible," Delilah agreed. "Mer speech is not understandable to us, but they do speak, no apes do."
"I think we found the missing link scientists talk so much about," Cameron said with a grin.
"No scientist would ever believe it, even if presented with evidence" Delilah said with a snort.
"They have their careers solidly tied to what the standard belief is," Cameron said.
They stopped at a five foot diameter turtle shell. "He was a big one," Cameron noted.
"Look up in the cracks," Delilah said pointing up. "There's moss up there. That must be the oxygen source."
"On the sides here too," Cameron noted. "Not much in any one place, but with a long cavern and a little air circulation, there doesn't need to be an opening to the surface for a supply of fresh air."
The Mer woman made a moaning sound and pointed down. Cameron squatted down so she could get off, then sat beside her. Delilah settled down across from them.
Delilah pushed a little dust around with her hand. "I bet at one time, this dust was bottom weed."
The Mermaid pointed to them, made some sounds and pointed back the way they came. Cameron nodded. "She wants to go back."
This time, Cameron put her tails over her shoulder and picked the mermaid up in her arms. "We go back."
The mermaid made moans again that sounded very roughly like, "We go back."
They smiled at each other.
"Cam, you think these are the last Mer's left alive?" Delilah asked.
"I don't know if they are or not, I do know we need to protect them. Also protect them from ending up in a zoo someplace."
"I wonder if any are surviving in the other lake," Delilah said in a mussing tone.
"If they were, I think commercialism has greatly reduced them, or let them die off completely. They are here due to the many fish and wildlife. The presence of alligators keeps most people away," Cameron concluded.
"Saved by the alligators!" Delilah said and laughed. Though she knew that was probably true.
.
Getting back to the cavern pool, the mermaid had Cameron set her down in the water. Cameron and Delilah got their tails back on, again as all the Mers watched. Back in their tails, they waved and dove in and swam their way home. On the way they surfaced and swam on their backs for a while.
"We need to find out if there are any Mers in the big lake," Cameron said.
"We do. If they aren't doing well, we can bring them here," Delilah agreed. "If they are doing all right, do we leave them?"
"They may be discovered," Cameron said. "If they are, it's sure to be a media circus with people prodding at them in the name of Science."
"I think it's going to be a tough call if we find any."
"It is."
.
Sonya agreed they needed to find out of there were any Mers in the big lake. She went up to the house with Mark. They both agreed Wednesday to take the boat up to the big lake to and begin searching. On the weekends there was far too much traffic on the lake to deal with. Mark would leave them off early morning, then pick them up after he got off work. Sonya had enough people at the furniture factory where she could take the day off. Since they were going to be coming home late, John had to stay behind for when the kids got home from school.
Cameron got a topographical map of the big lake to show the bottom contour. The first thing she noticed was this was not a natural lake, there was a dam down towards the south. The dam was at a little higher elevation, so maybe there was a lake there, just much smaller that it was now. Following the contour lines, she did find it was another lake smaller than theirs was before the dam was put in. It was in these deeper parts she was going to search for Mers. at 450 feet deep, it shouldn't be much of a problem for them.
Wednesday morning came. At 5 AM Cameron and Delilah drove the pontoon boat over to the Tanner's house where Mark and Sonya were waiting for them. They put their mermaid tails and flashlights in the Excursion, then put the wheels on the boat down and extended the tongue and hitch. Mark hooked up and drove them out to the big lake.
Unlike the last times there were at the boat launch at the big lake, there wasn't a line of trucks and trailers waiting to get their boats in the water. Mark still had to pay the fee, but they pulled right up to the ramp and backed down to float their boat. Getting the boat ready and getting them and their things on, Mark wished them luck, gave Sonya a hug and kiss goodbye, and headed off to work.
Motoring out, the three Terminators watched the topography at the shore to determine where the original lake was. They had a decent triangulation and stopped over the deepest part of the lake. Cameron and Delilah got their tails on, Sonya stayed with the boat so if it drifted very far, they wouldn't have to go chasing it.
Flashlights in hand, Cameron and Delilah dove into the water and swam for the bottom. On the way down, Cameron noted there were very few fish here. She only saw a couple as they went deeper an the water became darker. At their lake at home, they would have seen dozens by now.
Getting down to see the bottom with their blue eyes and some light from their flashlights, one thing they found plenty of was human debris. Here and there were the required discarded tires. They found a sunken boat and on a slope there was the remains of a cabin. The bottom itself was mud. Even in places like the sunken boat and cabin remains that provided cover for fish, only a few were at each place. There were plenty of small crayfish. Moving along the bottom, they did see a large catfish that was working it's way along the bottom, eating the crayfish. There was some aquatic life here. Not enough to support a pod of Mers.
After a couple hours of searching the old lake bottom, Cameron and Delilah found nothing of even a hint of enough food to support a Mer population down here. If they were ever here, they moved.
The sound of air bubbles got their attention. It sounded like a pair of human divers. Lifting up away from the bottom, they saw the lights. Two divers were searching. They had spear guns. A light turned their way, one of the spear guns shot.
Cameron caught the spear. Angry and being shot at, she swam fast towards the divers. The other spear gun shot, she caught that spear too. The divers dropped their spear guns and tried to flee.
Cameron and Delilah were on them. The men produced their diver's knives, Cameron and Delilah took them away and let the knives fall to the bottom.
Delilah flashed her eyes in code : Kill them?
Cameron flashed back : Scare the hell out of them.
Turning the men over, Cameron grabbed one's breathing tubes as she glared at him. He was scared all right. Delilah tore the other one's swim fins off. Hmm, that was a good idea. Cameron tore the swim fins off of the one she was holding. they grabbed the men by the backs of their tanks and slowly went shallow as the men flailed. Cameron looked for a boat on the surface above. There was one floating in the direction the men had been trying to flee in.
Coming close to the surface, Cameron tore the straps off the man's air tanks. Holding him under, she pulled his air tanks off, then his weight belt and finally his mask. She pushed him towards the surface. He did surface and sucked in air then belted out a scream. She pulled him back under and punched him in the face.
"Help!" the other man wailed when Delilah let him get to the surface. She too let him get air, then jerked him back under and slapped his face repeatedly, followed by a punch in the gut.
While they abused the men, they kept clear of the boat. Cameron noticed the boat coming towards them. Cameron broke one man's knee, Delilah chose to snap an elbow backwards. They then went for the boat. Cameron came up from under it to punch a hole in the bottom. Surfacing on the other side of the boat from where the now crying in pain men were, Cameron saw two terrified looking women .
"THAT is what you get for trying to kill us!" Cameron announced.
Both women turned to gape at her. Cameron dove back under. She and Delilah swam away towards their own boat.
.
The Sheriff got an emergency call. Two badly injured scuba divers and their girlfriends arrived at a hotel in a half sunken boat they'd manage to beach before it went down. An ambulance was in it's way. This was one of the few times he actually used his lights and siren.
When he got there, the ambulance had just arrived. The men were being loaded onto stretchers and the sobbing women were near them.
Seeing him, one of the bottle blondes yelled, "We got attacked by something! They beat the crap out of Gary and Edgar, ripped away their tanks, weights and spear guns!"
"Those men were spear fishing?"
"Yes, and this woman popped up to the surface and yelled that's what they get for trying to kill us!"
The Sheriff nodded. He found out where the men were being taken, then called the State Police. Spear fishing in this lake was illegal. So was shooting at other people.
.
At the hospital, the men were treated and put in casts under the watchful eye of police. According to the men, these two woman attacked them unprovoked at a depth of 430 feet. The women had no diving gear on, and beat and stripped them of their gear all the way back up to the surface.
"Sounds fishy," the Detective said.
"That blonde did say one female surfaced and yelled 'that's what you get for trying to kill us," the Sheriff told him. "She couldn't give a description except light hair and a wide fish type fin at the end of her body. This woman she saw went back under and swam away."
"They were attacked by mermaids?" the detective asked with a raised eyebrow.
The sheriff shrugged. "Rumor has it they are there. Never had a case of mermaids attacking anyone before, ever. Blondie also admitted those men were spear fishing. That's illegal first of all, and if they did shoot at, let's call them mermaids for a moment, then I'm sure those women would fight back. Actually, those men should be glad they weren't killed down deep. Whoever beat them let them live."
"This is some weird shit," the detective muttered.
"Whatever had those men, let them live. We don't have to go dragging the bottom for bodies." the sheriff noted.
"It doesn't make sense, even if they were free divers, being that deep and using the energy to strip and beat those men, IF they were women, they wouldn't have had the oxygen to do all that," the detective said in a musing tone. "I'm not saying what, but you do have something in that lake that's pretty intelligent."
"If they hadn't been spear fishing, none of this would have happened. Only another sighting would have been reported," the sheriff told him.
The detective frowned in thought, then said, "I think the best thing to do is charge them with illegal spear fishing and attempting to kill an engendered species. I doubt we can grab the ones responsible for beating on them, even if we had a good description."
.
Cameron and Delilah kept looking. Even where they found small populations of fish, they didn't find a single Mer. They had only covered a quarter of the lake by the time they had to leave, so they'd have to try again tomorrow.
While Cameron and Delilah searched for Mers in the big lake, a reporter managed to get a story from one of the girlfriends about two men spearfishing in that lake were assaulted by mermaids, and their boat having a hole punched in it from below, and their frantic attempts to get the men in the boat and stop the boat from sinking as they made for the nearest shore. They only thing she had seen was the men coming up and being pulled back under to be beaten more, the hole that was made, then one light haired head appearing to yell why this was happening.
The woman's head only appeared above water once, briefly. That was all she saw.
The papers ran with the story and it also got mentioned on the news.
That night when his wives got home, John told them, "Stop looking. People are now looking for you. Divers went down and found those men's gear and their spear guns. Only one broken spear was found. People and the media are taking the rumors of mermaids in the big lake seriously. Environmental groups are yelling for that lake to become a sanctuary for endangered species."
"So, maybe we did do some good?" Cameron asked.
"Maybe," John agreed. "The proprietors of the lake are now stressing no spear gun or archery fishing in the lake. They even promised to search every boat for those items before they let it into the water. scuba diving brings them too much money, so they allow that, but again the only weapon allowed is a diver's knife. With the media hype, I'm sure if Mers are found in that lake, the searchers will find them, then the government will protect them."
"Good," Delilah stated.
.
Joan was coming to grips with herself. Yes, she desperately wanted Bob again, and he was aching for her. They did decide to hold off, play but no more serious sex for a while. The sex was great, but not being able to be together after was too stressful for Joan. Bob agreed, not that he liked it, but if it was causing problems for Joan, they needed to abstain.
Joan told Allison that if Bob really needed it, she could have Bob. Allison refused. In their conversation while they were swimming together in the lake, Allison told her. "No way, Jose. I'm not doing that to you. Play with Bob when you're right there, sure. I'm not taking him behind your back. Bob is yours, Joan, period. I will not get in the way of that. I don't think Bob would like your idea either."
Hearing a noise, they turned to see Bob had his boat out. They swam over to have some fun and maybe do a little fishing too. Coming up on his boat, they split to either side, then jumped up in to land in the middle seat side by side.
"Hey, Bob," they chorused.
"Hey Joan, Allie. I was hoping I'd see you out here." he replied.
"No fishing pole?" Joan asked.
Bob shook his head. "Ahh, look, Allie, I know you're really great. The truth is, I do love Joan, very much. She is the only one I want."
Allison clasped her chest in mock shock. "I'm rejected?" she asked in a squeak.
"No, not rejected!" Bob quickly said. "You're a good friend, really, but I don't feel for you ... like I do with Joan."
Joan picked up on Allie's overblown rejection and giggled.
Allison grinned at Bob. "Actually, I'm happy to hear that. I want my sister's boyfriend to be loyal to her. We can play until I get my own guy, but it's nothing serious. OK?"
"Yeah, OK," Bob said with a sigh of relief.
"We will take care of my sister, won't we?" Joan asked.
"We will, and we wait before doing anything else ... serious. It is a little hard knowing we can't be together after," Bob said with a shrug.
"Yeah, it is," Joan agreed.
Bob perked up and asked, "So what you you wanna do? A ride around the lake, fish a bit?"
Joan looked off to the side and asked, "How about giving a Mer a ride?"
"Huh?"
Joan waved to the head sticking up out of the water to the side. The mermaid came over to the boat. Joan reached out and helped her in as she explained to Bob. "Real Mers live here. I'm sure this it the girl is the one I kept our alligator from chomping on." Joan set the girl on her lap. She pointed and said. "Bob."
"oob," the girl said, also pointing to him.
Bob waved. "Wow, they are real? This is amazing."
"They have a cave den near Allie's place," Joan explained, "So don't fish over there."
"Yeah, OK. The best fishing is on the other end anyway," Bob agreed. He couldn't help but notice the girl's nips were poking out.
"Yes Bob, she has nipples to," Allison said with a giggle.
"So you wanna see nips, Huh?" Joan asked.
The mermaid turned to Joan and motioned up and out. She did this a couple times. Joan got it. "She wants to dive out of the boat." Carefully, Joan got up then threw the girl over the side. She flew out with a happy sound.
Joan then took her bra off. "Flying nips!" She called, and dove out. Allison did the same, she shrugged her bra off and dove out into the water.
Bob watched his boat become a diving platform and chuckled at them. He also enjoyed the sight. The mermaid girl climbed back in, then helped Joan back in towards the front. Joan threw her off again, then followed. Allison got back in. When the mermaid climbed back in again, Allison waited for Joan. They each took a side of the mermaid a tossed her in the air. Arms spread out the girl flew a ways before splashing down.
Another head appeared with the end of a trident a fish wiggled on. He didn't come close but watched.
Bob looked at where they were. Mid-lake and drifting slowly towards Allison's place. Overhead, he heard a helicopter. "A chopper's coming."
Joan and Alison heard it too, They dove in and went deeper. The mermaids disappeared. Not long after, the helicopter flew over the lake not very far up and kept going. Bob saw it was from a news station, he waved. Someone waved back. Not long after it flew away, Joan popped to the surface beside him.
"Did they see us?" she asked.
"I don't think so. They were moving along," Bob told her.
The mermaid came up beside Joan then Allison appeared.
"Moms said people were looking for mermaids," Joan said "I thought that was just in the big lake."
"They could be just passing by on their way," Bob offered.
"I hope so," Joan said.