Operation 002: 'Night Angler' (Part II)
"Oh, hello there. Can I serve you somethin', eh?"
(Queue 'Gutted' by Bella White)
As Dack and Polly entered through the bar doors, they were bombarded by Canadian kindness and Bluegrass country music blaring through the small establishment, as the bartender greeted them with a warm smile, and the locals almost immediately offered to pay for their drinks. Dack and Polly, two hardcore cynics, were completely shocked by this development and thus became compliant to the exciting merrygoing they were introduced to.
Hours passed as the night stretched on, time beginning to fly by the drunker the gathering got. Eventually, there were only a few left (partially) conscious and standing at the bar, including Dack, Polly, and a few of the locals- An older fisherman, a young auburn-haired gal in her 20s, and the town's resident priest.
At least, that was the information Dack could gleam at the moment- he was intensely smashed, nearly at the cusp of blacking out; The only thing that held him together was his aggressively competitive spirit. He had (barely) noticed Polly keeping more of a postured demeanor, suggesting either that she was not as drunk or that she was better at maintaining her posture under intense inebriation.
And there was no fucking way in HELL he was gonna let this potato-farming leprechauness get the better of him!
"S-Sho…" He attempted to formulate words, only to find that his mouth was incapable of properly communicating with his brain. Luckily for him, those listening were in just as desperate of a state as he was, and through a drunken synergy, they were able to discern what he was trying to say.
"I… wuuuus wunnderrrinnnn…" He slurred his words greatly, and yet it was almost crystal clear to the audience-
"I was wondering if any of you have been fishing recently?"
A very subtle, yet efficient way to broach the underlying topic he was trying to reach- information on the missing persons reports, and any potential ideas of what they may be dealing with. In the report that Alpha Six had given them, there were apparently 'erroneous' movements in the lake area around here. Hopefully these locals would have some knowledge that could help him form a conceptual idea.
Argh!, He thought in mental agony. It's such a fucking pain trying to think when I'm this drunk!
He was relieved as he heard the resident priest respond, though he had half-expected the… fisherman to be the one to give an answer.
"Well, yes, actually." He said, his slurred words conveying a somewhat-northern British accent.
Oh, god, it's another Clef, Polly thought in despair.
"The other day, my daughter and I went fishing near the docks. It was quite lovely, but we had run out of the good bait almost immediately! Those crafty fish, just slipped it right off the hook somehow. It's been happening… Though, I'm not sure how they weren't caught on the hook-"
"Yes, yes," Polly interjected casually, trying desperately to move their objective forward without spending hours listening to drunken ramblings. "This lake is very nice, actually. I remember seeing my friend, Liam Roberts, fishing around here a while ago…"
That previous statement was a lie- She would never be friends with a Liam. The name she had just uttered was one of the most recent people to have gone missing in this town, and she hoped to garner a response to the name.
(Queue 'Far Away' by Jose Gonzalez)
And she did; The faces of the three locals next to them contorted in anguish, then frustration- As if they were having trouble trying to recall something.
"I… Liam… I know that name. I… God, is this beer potent, or something?" The gal muttered.
"Mr. Roberts…" The priests mumbled, his shoulders noticeably slouching. "Yes… he was… he went into the… the…"
"Liam… was my friend." The fisherman whispered, his face quivering as tears welled in his eyes. "I… we went fishing every Tuesday… I remember… He'd bring the six-pack of… Michelobs… And then, he… Why can't I recall?"
"It was the same with those… officers." The young gal said with a forlorn expression. "We couldn't… help them… it's just so hard to… remember anything…"
The atmosphere had become miserable, and Polly was feeling absolutely horrible about having ruined the merrygoing. She took another swill of her beer, feeling a newfound hatred for her job.
Dack, however, felt a festering excitement in his chest. This was effectively his first 'information gathering' mission, and he had nailed it- Albeit in a drunken stupor.
"Well, then." He proclaimed, trying to steady himself against the bar counter as he attempted to stand up from the barstool. "I think me and my friend here are going to catch some sleep."
He moved his hand to pat Polly on the back, but instead slapped it by miscalculated strength; She grunted in displeasure, glaring at him. However, she also rescinded from the bar, albeit reluctantly, following his lead.
"Yeah… it was great drinkin' with you all. Maybe we can do it again at a better time."
And with that, they exited the bar silently as the others continued their drinking.
January 6th, 1992 | 12:43 AM
Days passed, and the team became complacent as nothing of importance seemed to be happening. The lakeside town was painfully serene; The birds chirped, the grasshoppers buzzed, the whole ensemble of tranquility in a remote nature town in Montana.
FUCK, it was infuriating to Clef!
"Clef, you haven't had a sip of your Bourbon yet."
(Queue 'Do Harm' by Greensky Bluegrass)
He slightly jolted from his deep thinking as Polly nudged his arm with her beer, a casual grin sitting on her half-drunken face. He looked down at his glass of liquor and sighed, gazing into the shifting, ethereal surface of one of the ice cubes. Unlike the others in his team, who liked to swill beers one after another and take straight shots in sickening succession, he preferred to sip iced whiskey and ponder. Unfortunately, he had a habit of downing his drinks more rapidly the more inebriated he was, which very often led him to pass out at the counter.
He tried to avoid that habit at public bars.
"If yer not gonna drink it, I'll have the rest."
"Fahk off, you parasite."
Sighing again -he found himself doing that quite often on missions nowadays- He shifted his gaze towards the open lake at the edge of the bar balcony. The view was beyond ethereal, and likely the only reason he was still staying on assignment.
"Aye, where you goin', Clef?" Polly asked, seeing Clef slide out of his chair and head towards the side door.
"Just going out for a few minutes."
"To piss?"
"No, Polly, not to piss, you crude wench."
"Have fun pissing!"
Once again, Clef sighed as Polly laughed raucously, and exited through the side door. He sidled a few paces towards a gathering of trees and bushes in the middle of the open shoreline, leaning against one of the tree trunks and staring out at the moon-lit lake. Sipping his whiskey, he felt a calmness wash over him, which softened his muscles and cleared his mind of doubt and worry.
Out in the countryside, the countless stars shone more brightly than the moon at occasion; There was a quiet, yet satisfying loudness to the comforting ambivalence of nature's night life. The cities were entirely ugly to Clef- what kind of being would ever want to give up this divine beauty, and surround themselves with gray walls and filth and cynical city rats?
He lowered his head, chuckling. Only 32 years old, and he was already adopting the habits of an old man. He considered the prospect of-
Huh?
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a person nearby, a few meters away, standing at the edge of the shore. Clef sighed, not wanting to chat with anyone at the moment, and spent a few more minutes casually sipping from his drink.
However, it was then that he noticed the man slowly inching his way down the shore, closer to the water. His movements seemed lackadaisical, as if he was completely out of it; Curious, Clef shifted his gaze towards where he was walking towards-
"What the…?"
It was hard to make out, but he could just see the outline of some kind of small, snake-like silhouette, which didn't look to be any bigger than a cobra; And yet, it was incredibly thin, like a garden snake. And despite being in the pale moonlight, the snake-like figure was completely black, its stygian scales glimmering ominously.
In this moment, Clef was enraptured with the sight; He felt as if he were completely disconnected from reality in that moment, because what he was witnessing was so surreal, so bizarre that he couldn't comprehend seeing this in anything other than a horror film…
(Queue 'Drivers License x Take me to Church' by 鹿鹿梦 x Somili)
The snake was… slithering back and forth on the surface of the water, in a rhythmic motion that was oddly hypnotic. Its piercing, beady gaze was focused entirely on the man walking towards the river. And it was then that Clef began to grasp what might be happening…
"Oh, god… Oh, god, oh, god-" Clef began to hyperventilate; Was this actually real? What was happening…? No, even before his eyes he couldn't fully grasp the… event he was witnessing. It was so incredibly out of place from his own life, his background and ingrained perception of reality. He felt like he was being drugged just from seeing this…
Faintly, he felt as if some slow, distorted music was whispering in his ears, as if the background symphony for this mortifying, otherworldly display of horror before his very eyes… he could feel himself being partially caught in this hypnosis, even from this distance...
"St...Stop..!" He tried to protest, his body quivering in abject terror; He felt an impending demise to the poor soul being dragged into the lake, by this… this… demon from Hell!
By God, by the Holy Trinity; or Allah and Muhammad, Buddha or Confucius or Vishnu, someone, somebody to witness this... this horrible, encroaching atrocity!
He wanted badly to depart from the tree in wrathful desperation, to drag this innocent man away from this demon! The incarnation of Satan manifested before his very eyes!
And yet, just from seeing the complete helplessness of the hypnotized man slogging through mud into the river, with no regard for his own well-being, Clef was terrified of being caught fully in this same trance.
He was not religious, not by a wide margin, but in this moment, he could only hope to God that he had the strength to-
"Huh!" He gasped, his mind clarifying for just a moment- and he was wrought with anguish as he realized the most practical decision to make.
His hands shook with grim resolve as he wrenched his hands to grab the camera hanging from around his shoulder, feeling almost overcome by some mystical dread that assailed his body with paralysis. Clenching his teeth until his gums bled, he began recording the event before him.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, please don't curse me to Hell…" Clef sobbed silently, his eyes weeping in uncontrollable agony and sorrow; He could hardly take the waves of grief that washed over his body, like an unholy taint of being the vicious bystander to this atrocity he allowed to pass.
He felt his soul being convicted by the Holy Spirit, as he continued keeping the cold, disaffected lens of the camera aimed at the horrid event; Horrid, horrid, horrid beyond any measure of fairness…
Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Clef shook uncontrollably, agonizing over his inaction. There was no sane argument to justify his letting this soul die in such a miserable, creeping way… There was no good fucking reason for why they didn't come earlier, and save all those people who went missing, without a doubt from this alien monstrosity!
He could hardly contain the boiling, molten rage spewing through his veins and flesh; If he were going to be condemned to Hell for his mortal sin, he would DRAG THIS MOTHERFUCKER DOWN WITH HIM!
(Queue 'Terrible Resolve' by Sarah Schachner)
As the poor man's head dipped below the waterline, Clef dashed from the tree as quickly as his body would let him; Stumbling and staggering towards the bar in inexhaustible anguish and desperation; He wanted badly to get revenge for the man he let die!
Slamming against the back door, he was about to throw it open and begin shouting for everyone to barricade the doors and grab their firearms, when a daunting revelation came upon him; One impressed deeply upon him when he first met Alpha Six-
"We must operate in secrecy not because we have ill intentions, but because the public is too foolhardy to coexist with the knowledge and revelations that we may discover."
In that crucial moment, he realized the implications of making this horrifying threat known to these people, even a small gathering such as these countryfolk…
With immense will, he unclenched his fingers from the door handle, quickly deliberating on what to do- His mind was already breaking down from the mounting sorrow and guilt that assailed him, as well as the trauma of seeing someone, a fellow human being, being preyed upon by an alien demon…
Nonetheless, he formulated a quick plan of action. Trying his best to steady himself, he opened the door as calmly as he could, only to find more than a few pairs of eyes staring at him in question.
"You… okay there, feller?" One of the countrymen sitting at the bar asked him. "Sounded like ya took a fall there for a second."
A few people chuckled, and Clef clenched his teeth, forcing through a mild laugh; He could not risk giving away the threat. As it was now, he was beginning to figure out how that predatory alien monster was getting away with these murders. Furthermore, as far as the monster seemed concerned, there was no one that had caught its silent killings, which meant Clef could form a plan on what to do with knowledge of its movement and behavioral patterns as they were now; But if he informed these people of this threat, that could entirely change the pattern of behavior for the monster, which would undoubtedly result in far more wild variables occurring, which could end up making it a far greater threat than before and would make planning impossibly more difficult.
The attention on him quickly wore off as everyone fell back into their drunken stupor. Clef weaved through the crowded bar, desperately trying to find the members of his team; It wasn't long before he first found Polly, who was subtly eyeing up Dack drunkenly as he prepared himself to take a Smoker's Cough shot.
"I can't believe I fucking let you talk me into this…" He mumbled miserably.
"Come oooon," She teased him, her eyes more than affectionately peering at him. "You promised you would if you lost the bet, ya bitch!"
Clef wasted no time tapping her on the shoulder. Irritably, she snapped her head back.
"What?"
However, her expressions quickly changed into one of fright as she saw the morbid look on Clef's face; It was unlike any expression she'd ever seen him make before, on anyone she'd met in her life.
"Wh...What happened?"
"Get the others, and meet me outside as soon as possible! Quickly!"
The sheer urgency in his voice was enough to galvanize her from her inebriated trance.
"Okay!"
With that, Clef quickly exited the bar, incredibly desperate to get back to their cabin and show them the footage.
As he stood outside the back door of the bar, his gaze was intensely focused on the lake front; His eyes were playing tricks on him, and he swore he could see the snake emerging from the waterline once more, in that rhythmic, unnatural motion-
"Clef!"
Clef flinched from his trance-like state, shocked to find his hand clenching the grip of the Beretta in his side holster. He glanced up to see Polly, staring at him with concern, the others gathered behind her.
"Quickly, come." He beckoned them as he hurriedly walked around the bar, following the pathway to their cabin; The others, looking at one another with curiosity and slight worry, jogged to keep up with him. Clef could hardly focus on getting to his destination as he fervently darted his eyes towards the lake; Fearing the potential sight of that thing… Just the fact that it could render him helpless with its mere gaze… like some kind of demonic Medusa.
Finally, they reached the entrance of their cabin, and like a moth to a lamp, he flocked to the door, swinging it open and beckoning the others inside urgently. They grew even more concerned as they huddled in with haste, as he shut the door behind them. He knew that with every second he wasted, there was a growing chance that the monster would abduct another innocent person.
"Clef, what the fuck is going on?!" Vale demanded, hiccuping drunkenly.
"Why do you look so shocked?" Polly asked in concern.
"Are you doing well, Clef?" Dack inquired sarcastically, clearly not taking this seriously.
Clef had no time to waste on their questions, unslinging the camera from around his shoulder in a hurry and heading over towards the dinner table, placing it down on the table and playing the video.
"Look!" He whispered, a paranoid reaction from discovering a supernatural horror; As if it might be listening in. "Watch the fucking video! I took this outside, at the lake front! WATCH IT!"
Incredulous at Clef's erroneous and frightening behavior, the team members crowded around the camera and watched the video.
"What the… fuck?"
"This doesn't look real."
"I… I'm not sure what I'm looking at."
"..."
"What the fuck?"
Everyone was suddenly surprised to then see Griz hasten towards his room, coming out a moment later with a pair of binoculars. In a fit of paranoia and anxiety, he closed the curtains of the front windows on their cabin, then used the binoculars to peer through the slits, towards the lakeside.
"I think I see something!" He said, his voice shaking immensely. The others panicked noticeably more, gathering at the window and peering through to see for themselves.
Unfortunately, none of them, including Griz, could make out what exactly it was, and so Dack, summoning a mountain of courage, exited through the front door, much to everyone's concern, including Polly, who followed him out the door. The others watched in lingering terror as they silently made their way forward towards the lake, giving a wide berth away from the edge of the lake in caution-
They suddenly froze, and after a few moments they scrambled back to the cabin, launching through the front door in a frenzy of panic.
"HOLY FUCK! HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" Polly cursed and cried, her eyes filled with terror.
"What the fuck have we gotten ourselves into?!" Dack muttered, moving towards his room to arm himself with weapons. "There's a fucking pool of blood out there, in the fucking lake!"
The room erupted into pandemonium, and for a moment Clef felt as if he were going to get lost in the general panic that gripped every single one of them so tightly; Their entire reality was upended by this grim discovery, and they were the sole witnesses to this horrific revelation.
Such a feeling would upset even the most hardcore soldiers, and would send any resolute warrior running for the hills.
This was what one might call 'supernatural horror'. The body becomes clenched with abject horror; The mind is enraptured by the terror of the unknown- Not only that, but a predatory, alien unknown that was targeting humans.
And yet, despite the pit of overwhelming despair these six unfortunate souls were caught in-
(Queue 'Rising Threat' by Sarah Schachner)
"COMPOSE YOURSELVES!" He shouted amongst the carnage of sheer discord. His prominent voice temporarily drove away the atmospheric dread that had burdened everyone's minds, and as they directed their gazes to him, he was able to see the sheer desperation in their eyes; The gripping terror and dogmatic search for authority.
And they were all looking to him.
In this surreal new reality they were all forced into, he grinned madly- Finally, it was his time to lead. In the loud silence of the room, he walked over to the dinner table, grabbing the shoulder radio he'd left there, and tuning the frequency, before speaking through it.
"Alpha Six," He spoke, his voice instilled with grim new confidence. "We have located the Anomaly. How should we proceed in our course of action?"
A moment of silence.
…
…
...
Then-
"So, you have all learned something that separates you from the rest of humanity."
Alpha Six's voice projected through the radio, almost like a speaker.
"You have confirmed the existence of these Anomalies I speak of, and thus your reality's axioms have been shaken at your very foundations. Now, you are responsible for doing the job you were hired for- Moving forth as humanity's shadowed shield. Your two directives: Contain the anomaly! If it cannot be contained, then destroy it!"