The Murky Water Syndrome

Part 7: A Trail of Blood

Zeeltor, Yanei, and Kay sprang up from the stairwell entrance a few minutes after Elle and X.

"Where is everyone?" Yanei asked no one in particular.

"Looks like there might have been a shark attack." Kay noted, observing the bloody water.

"Fascinating!" Zeeltor exclaimed, taking a bit of the water into a small tube and holding it up to the flickering backup lights. "Hmm…this could be human blood but there's really no way I can say for sure right now until I run some tests."

"Well I think you're as mad as Dr. Opus himself!" Yanei hissed.

"Mad isn't the problem with Zeeltor," Kay replied, "With him it's cheeriness."

"I say we stay together and search for any survivors," Yanei said sternly, "that's our best chance with these creatures swimming around."

"Agreed." Kay nodded, patting Zeeltor on the shoulder to get his attention.

"Ah yes." Zeeltor stared down at the water, "the trail of blood seems to lead this way. Towards the shafts."

"Fine." Yanei turned and headed off in the direction that Zeeltor was referring to. She stopped abruptly when something large and white sprang up in front of her. "AAHHH!!!"

"Calm down Sergeant Yanei," Zeeltor chuckled. "I believe this shark is dead."

"What kind is it?" Kay asked absently as he stared down at the monster.

"Well, the square snout on the front indicates that this shark was what's commonly known as a bull shark, very rare for these waters." Zeeltor chuckled at his own joke.

Yanei scoffed and turned towards him, "You know your lab assistant probably met up with this beast while you weren't here! Dr. Yazmine may very well be in the belly of that animal right now!"

"Hmm, I suppose the best way to find out if that were true would be to make an incision right about here on the shark and explore it's stomach." Zeeltor purposed. "It's digestive system is fairly slow, whatever---or whoever, it's eaten recently is almost sure to be in there."

"I can't believe this!" Yanei shouted, her hands flailing in the air.

"Take it easy Sergeant Yanei." Kay insisted calmly.

"I will not!" she shrieked. "This mad man has absolutely no regard for the life of other beings! He acts as if this were all one big science expedition and we're just the bait to bring the specimen to him!"

"I assure you that's not what I meant by-"

"That's exactly what you meant!" Yanei snapped, "For all you care us and every other life form in this building could wind up as meals for those killers and all you'd be concerned about is obtaining samples for testing!"

"This isn't getting us anywhere." Kay informed them.

"But Agent Kay," Zeeltor continued, "Sergeant Yanei is completely mistaken about my feelings towards the value of life of these agents. I certainly don't delight in knowing that any of them could have been consumed by this animal. I merely wanted to confirm as to whether or not this creature had attacked and/or eaten any of them."

"We don't have time to do an autopsy on that fish right now," Kay said plainly, "if there were any survivors then they're probably still down this hall."

"I'm almost certain that there were survivors," Zeeltor happily explained, "You'll note the dart lodged into the shark's lower jaw towards the rim of his mouth right here." Zeeltor lifted the edge of the sharks mouth open to show Kay the dart. "The poison would've kicked in before the shark could've consumed more than one, maybe two of the volunteers."

"This sickens me." Yanei exclaimed and tore off down the hall.

"Better go after her." Kay muttered.

"Right behind you Agent Kay!" Zeeltor chuckled. Something about that chuckle gave even Kay the creeps.

******

"Yazmine?! Jay?! Val?!" Elle's cries went unanswered as she waded down the hall. What on Earth had happened to them? Three people disappearing like that sent chills down her spine.

"AGENT VAL?! Small Ears?!" X called out to the two humans.

"Jay's name isn't Small Ears, X." Elle scoffed, "I doubt he'll answer to that.

"Over here!" Jay's voice rang out.

"See." X grinned at Elle.

"Well, this is JAY we're talking about." she reminded him.

Elle and X pushed their way into the large office by the elevator shafts. They had to maneuver past floating furniture and filing cabinets before they finally spotted Yazmine, Val, and Jay sitting atop a huge floating desk on the other side of the room.

"Why didn't you wait for us at the stairwell?!" X demanded.

"We kinda ran into a little problem." Val sneered.

"LITTLE?!' Jay exclaimed, "We got attack by a bull shark!"

"What happened to your leg?!" Elle asked Yazmine as she approached her.

"It's nothing." Yazmine sighed, "The thing crept up and latched onto my leg. I got pulled under but Val here gave the thing a blow to the head and it let go before it had a chance to bite all the way through."

"Thing nearly made a meal outta Val then." Jay said hysterically, "Slammed her against the wall."

"They seem to be doing that a lot." X muttered, his arm around Elle's waist.

Jay noticed their odd position then and inquired slyly, "And what have you two been up to?"

Their faces reddened and Elle explained in a low tone. "I got rammed against a wall in the lab by a blue shark. It's dead now but I suffered a few broken ribs."

Yazmine went into her doctor mood now, examining Elle's ribs and gently easing her onto the desk. "I'm afraid you've got two broken ribs Elle, I suggest you don't do any unnecessary swimming."

Yazmine cringed a bit, having put weight on her hurt leg hadn't been the smartest thing to do. X saw Yazmine's pained expression and lifted her up beside Elle before climbing onto a file cabinet. "So what now?"

"We wait for the others to find us." Val replied, "We used up Yazmine's dart when she stabbed that shark and with only two darts left and three sharks to go it's doubtful that we'd make it to Zed's office without a few causalities resulting."

"Actually," X corrected her holding out two more darts, "we've got enough darts to take out those sharks."

"Alright!" Jay exclaimed, "And a spare in case we mess up!"

Everyone in the room eyed him, "What?"

"You're hopeless," Val groaned and slid off the desk, "If Yazmine hadn't stabbed the dart into that thing from behind I'd have been fish food and you'd be it's desert."

"Hey," Jay protested, "I was just keeping out of the way." Truthfully, seeing that shark slam Val into the wall had made frozen him with fear, but he wasn't going to let her know that.

"Uh huh." Val turned and leapt off the desk. "I'm gonna step out into the hall and see if I can spot the others."

"Be careful!" Yazmine cautioned.


"I always am." Val laughed, turning around but not fast enough to notice the door to the office eased open by some unseen force.

******

"I don't see anything!" W complained as she and U crept over the roof of the HQ building.

"Well keep looking, we've got our mission and we can't go back until we've spotted the aliens responsible for flooding the building." U replied.

"I almost wish we'd been attacked by one of those sharks." W muttered, "At least then I wouldn't have had to listen to you go on about regulations anymore."

"At least I don't play the radio at the highest volume level!" U snapped.

"It goes that high for a reason U!"

"MIB agents should be more concerned with their assignments." U mumbled.

"WELL IT'S NOT MY FAULT THAT THEY SHAFTS AND VENTS GOT SEALED!" a male's voice screamed from the other side of the roof.

U and w crept up to the two bickering aliens, watching them from behind some crates.

"If you had just found a way to get those pumps down into the shafts faster!" the other alien, Dr. Opus exclaimed.

"Hey don't blame me! I'm not the genius here, Einstein!" the officer insisted.

"No matter," Dr. Opus chuckled, rubbing his hands together, "the Men in Black are fish food by now."

"Wrong Frankenstein!" W shouted, leaping out from behind one of the crates and aiming her icer at the two dumbstruck aliens.

"I KNEW this would happen!" the officer groaned.

"Freeze, you are being taken into custody for the illegal flooding of MIB HQ, unlawful genetic tampering of sharks, the attempted murder of several MIB agents and aliens, and for the murder of a human female civilian!"

Dr. Opus and the guard had their hands raised high, "We give up."

"I don't think that was the order." W chuckled, pulling the trigger on her icer.

Both aliens gave a look of surprise as they were transformed into ice sculptures, "My partner said 'freeze'." she grinned. "Pretty cool huh?" she turned to U only to find him on his communicator with Zed.

"We've got the situation under control Sir." U said in what he hoped was a casual tone that someone like Agent Kay would use.

"Why don't I just staple your lips to Zed's butt right now and get it over with?!" W sneered.

"WHAT WAS THAT, AGENT W?!?" Zed's voice shouted from the communicator.

"Sorry Sir." W called. "Just tired of having a partner obsessed with the handbook. He needs to learn that you can't learn to be an MIB agent from a book. Skills like yours are purely instinct and years of trained professional know-how!"

"Well---that's true," Zed admitted, a little flattered. "U, you could learn a lot from that partner of yours. She's got a lot less seniority than you yet she seems to have this MIB field agent wrap down better. I'll send a containment crew up there as soon as Kay let's me know the sharks have been taken care of."

"You little kiss up!" U shouted to W after Zed had closed the line.

W pulled down her eyelid and stuck her tongue out at U. "See how annoying it is?!"

******

R and Delia made their way down the hall towards the elevator shafts, they sincerely hoped the air in their tanks was enough to last them while they were down there looking for sharks.

"I don't see anything yet," Delia called.

"Isn't that a good thing?" R asked nervously.

"Aw, getting cold flippers?" Delia teased.

"Who me? Never. I'm fearless." R replied, trying to sound bold instead of corny.

"I wonder what ever happened to that tiger shark?" Delia continued teasing him. "I think it had a taste for you."

"H-hey, there were more sharks than that set loose in here. We probably won't even run into it." R answered, trying to convince himself not to be afraid. "There was a Great White, a blue shark, a---HAMMERHEAD!"

"Geez R, not so loud! This radio's right in my ear you know!"

"No!" R grabbed her arms and pointed her towards what he saw coming at them, "A HAMMERHEAD!"

"Gee I'd love to stick around and chat but I've gotta swim for my pathetic life now!" Delia turned and swam past R towards the office that U and W had been working in earlier. R followed and slammed the door shut behind him.

He turned when he felt something run into the door. "I think we're safe."

"I'm getting you a dictionary for Christmas!" Delia squealed.

Suddenly there was another blow to the door. The metal bending and being knocked away from the hedges.

"It's gonna burst in!" Delia exclaimed.

"The air vent!" R shouted, pointing to the large grate on the wall behind the cabinets.

"We aren't waiting on me!" Delia yelled, scrambling past the floating folders that had been left on the table when U and W had went to elevator.

The shark rammed against the door again. Bursting through and swimming straight for R who was halfway into the vent.

He pulled his foot through just as the shark rammed it's head against the opening.

"Boy are you lucky that was a hammerhead," Delia snickered.

"Yeah," R panted, "that was close, too close."

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