Blood Water

CHAPTER 33

The creature would have seen Waites if it had turned its head, but it was focused on its objective. It had only seen part of the study centre, but James knew the area well, so the creature was able to combine the mental map in his memory with the information he had read in Holland’s diary. It was like having a treasure map and a list of clues. Navigating in the dark would be difficult, but the creature knew roughly where to find the place Holland had mentioned – the place where, after thousands of years of solitude, it might at last be reunited with others of its kind.

James sprinted across the muddy car park, spray exploding around him, and through an open gate into the long grass beside the lake. The torch beam waved around like a searchlight, illuminating the sodden ground and the surface of the lake, which looked alive under the constant downpour.

Sean retrieved the torch from Morrow’s office and would have left immediately had he not noticed something out of the corner of his eye. It was a small Dictaphone, lying beside the slim PC monitor – innocent, lifeless, yet somehow significant. Or was Sean just imagining it? Time was of the essence, so he picked up the small tape recorder and hurried back towards the main entrance.

As he did so, he pushed the rewind button, then depressed ‘play’.

‘… clear that whatever it is, it is outside our generally accepted evolutionary path. This creature may have been around for millennia, possibly since the dawn of time. It shares characteristics with marine life found in prehistoric waters, but aside from that I am completely lost—’

Sean stopped the tape and glanced into the first laboratory. A thought had just struck him. He slid the Dictaphone into his pocket and rushed over to the cabinets, trying not to look at the body of his headmaster. He found the shelf with the jars of water, but James had smashed the only one containing sea water. How had James got the creature out of him? It was all so hazy now. Sean looked around and spotted the container of sodium chloride standing on top of one of the benches. Of course.

‘Sean!’ It was Waites, no doubt eager to follow James. But Sean wasn’t ready to do that until he had some way of saving his brother first. He grabbed the sodium chloride, which was now only a quarter full, rushed over to one of the sinks and filled it to the top with water. Screwing the lid back on, he shook it well, then headed back towards the entrance hall.

Waites was growing agitated. ‘Come on, we have to go now!’ he said as he led Sean out into the wet and dark towards the open gate.

Sean pulled his hood over his head, switched on the torch and held it up, illuminating the path ahead. He could feel the weight of the container in his pocket with the liquid sloshing about inside. Would it work, or would it be too little too late?

‘Can you hold this?’ He passed the torch to Waites, who took it with a slightly puzzled expression. ‘I found this tape recorder in Morrow’s office. There might be something important on it.’

‘You reckon?’ Waites asked doubtfully. ‘Besides, you’ll be lucky to hear anything in this storm.’ He shone the beam round the edge of the lake; on the hillside ahead he glimpsed another light.

Sean took out the Dictaphone and held it to his ear, pressing the ‘play’ button once more.

‘… in trying to find an explanation for it being here. I don’t know how it could survive so long unless it has been completely dormant, asleep somehow for millions of years. If so, why wake now? I am sure this creature is intelligent. It moves cautiously, with deliberation. When I study it I am sure I can see it calculating, predicting. It never acts or reacts instantly. It considers, like a human being would. What if this thing and man are from the same original organism that swam around in the primordial ooze? Could it have evolved to our level mentally, if not physically?’

Sean shuddered. The implications of what Morrow was suggesting were sickening. The idea that the creature could think like a man seemed ludicrous, but then hadn’t it already shown itself to be clever, devious?

‘There!’ Waites said, shouting over the din of the rain. ‘On that rise over there.’

Sean followed the torch beam and saw the other light, bobbing up and down above the lake.

‘There must be a path that leads up away from the water. Come on, this way.’ Waites limped off through the mud.

Two questions kept circling around in Sean’s head. What if they were too late to stop that thing? And what if they were too late to save James? Tears rolled down his cheeks, but he didn’t care. Even if Waites turned round and looked at him, the tears would have been indistinguishable from the drops of rain.

Then, suddenly, the rain abated, then ceased altogether. Sean and Waites stopped for a moment and looked up at the sky, as if waiting to see if it was too good to be true. An incredible silence surrounded them, a strange sense of peace that was horribly misleading.

It was laughing again, but more from the excitement and anticipation than anything else. The exhilaration it felt extended out into its host body, fuelling it with adrenalin, helping it move faster and faster towards its goal. It wasn’t too far now – maybe half a mile, then a bit of searching in the darkness. But they were so close now, within reach after so many years…

It climbed over a rock and slid down a small slope towards a ditch. It had barely registered the fact that the rain had stopped; it could now just about make out the entrance to the system of caves. It grinned. It inhaled air into its host body and strode forward, never once taking its eyes off the entrance. To think that the others had been so close all this time. The years had clouded its memory, wiped the reason why it had been separated from them in the first place. But it would find out soon enough…