Blobster

This is my submission the the Whitix Summer Writing Contest
Amber was admiring the sunset as she walked along the beach. It was her nightly routine, a way to clear her mind from the events of the day. She was always an active person, so it had upset her when she had to take a job behind a desk. Not only that, but looking at a computer screen for hours made her eyes tired. It wasn’t until she could hardly stay awake on the drive home that she realized she needed to do something else. If she had known that being a marine biologist would mean sitting behind a desk so much, she would had chosen a different career path.

It wasn’t until she started doing her nightly stroll that she realized she was getting so tired because of looking at the screen. It introverted her, and a good long walk would normally pick her back up to where she wanted to be. Not always, there were days when it didn’t matter how long she walked, she would still be in a funk. But for the most part a walk was all that was needed for her to come to her senses. It was always at the same time too. She would leave the office at five, get home between five-thirty and six, eat, and then go for her walk around eight. In the summer months, she would be able to catch the last rays of the sun as it dipped beneath the waves. The sky would be painted with beautiful pinks, blues, purples and reds (as long as there wasn’t a cloud cover.) On those days she would enjoy the sky on her way out and the calming sounds of the gulf on her way back home. In the winter months, she would look at the moon reflecting off the churning waters, rippling with the waves and understand how beautiful the world really was.

Sometimes she would think about the events of the day. The times when the day was good she would seem to catch the beauty of the sky in her face. The bad days made her insides feel like the churning of the waves, and she didn’t really care to feel that way. But, for the most part, by the time she returned home she was in a state of relaxation; enough so that she could read or watch TV without thinking about anything other than the TV or book in front of her.

She was almost to her turnaround point, an old wharf that had been mostly reclaimed by the waves, when she saw something lying on the sand. At first she thought it was a huge pile of trash, but as she got closer she could tell it was some kind of organic matter. This caused her to jog over to it, fearing that it was a baby whale that had washed ashore. But, when she got to it, she was certain it wasn’t a baby whale, or anything she had ever seen before.

The thing was a huge mass of flesh, over twenty feet long. Thick black-brown skin encased it like an armor, covering every visible inch of the thing. There was no discernible difference from its body or head, it was just a large barrel shaped blob of meat and tissue. It was definitely organic though, Amber had no doubt about that.

Her heart started to beat like a drum, as she got close enough to touch the thing. This could be a perfect find, a find that propelled her career. And at only being in the work force for three months, she would really be making a name for herself. Her first reaction was to call Raoul, tell him what she found, and go from there. That was exactly what she had done, before she could think it through all the way.

“Hey,” Raoul answered. “Finally decided that going out to dinner with me would be a good idea?”

A smile broke across Amber’s lips. She liked Raoul, he was a good looking man that could make her laugh easily. But for some reason, she had always brushed his offers to take her out to the side. She always told herself that it was because he was only playing with her, but she knew that wasn’t true. The truth was that she enjoyed playing with men, she always had.

“No,” she said chuckling, “I think you could come over here, I have something I want to show you.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. You inviting me to your house already, but you won’t let me take you on a date? What’s up with that? I mean, I’m fine with it if that’s how you wanna roll, but I think we should get to know each other a little better first.”

“It’s not like that, you don’t have a chance.” She chuckled again to ensure he knew it was all in good fun. “I found something on the beach and I don’t know what it is. I was hoping that maybe you could help me identify it.”

“Is it treasure? I’ve always wanted to find treasure on the beach, but those damn pirates never hid their treasure where it’s easy to find.”

“No, it’s not treasure. At least not the kind you’re thinking of. It’s some kind of animal that washed ashore. I don’t know what it is, or how to deal with it. For all I know, it could be a new species.”

“Really? Sweet, I’m on the way.”

And with that they got off the phone with each other. Amber was thinking about how nice Raoul had been to her since she started working at the aquarium. He was her senior, but he never made the work she had to do boring or put too much stress on her. In fact, everyone in the aquatic health department had a good disposition, and Amber thought it was because of how Raoul treated his coworkers.

Raoul, had always treated his coworkers well, but he always favored the opposite sex. Of the six females that worked with him, at the same pay grade or below at least, Amber was the only one he hadn’t slept with yet. So he had given her favoritism for the time being, and she seemed to be loosening up around him. In his mind she would succumb to his charm before the end of the quarter. So, when she called him over to her house, he figured she would give it up well before then.

When he arrived, and she didn’t answer the door, he called again. She told him where she was, and he set off to meet up with her. By the time he arrived, the sun had completely faded into the sea, so at first he only saw the shadow of a massive thing, next to the shadow of a person. With their phones they were able to examine the creature on the beach a little before Raoul gave it a name.

“This is a blobster,” he said. “I’ve never seen one before, but I’ve heard about them. They are normally just the carcass of a whale that washes up on the beach. Although, this one is really big and it doesn’t smell like it is decomposing, like most of them are said to. I’mma call some other people and we’ll get this back to our lab. Looks like you and I are going to be doing something other than looking at bacteria tomorrow.”

He flashed her a quick smile then walked off to make his call. In minutes he was back with her, standing next to the body.

“I called Johnny, Rachael, and Dennis to come help us move this thing. Knowing them, they will show up with a group of people each and a couple of kegs. So, it’s fine if you come in late tomorrow.” He gave her a wink and she smiled.

They waited for an hour before the first of their coworkers, Rachael, showed up. She gave Raoul a hug, and for a brief moment, Amber thought she gave her a look of disdain before hugging her as well. She called back to the bank she climbed over and another three people came walking over the hill. Two of them were carrying coolers, the other had a flashlight.

“So, is that the carcass that washed up?” Rachael said pointing the beam of her own flashlight on it.

“Sure is,” Amber answered. “You want to see it up close?”

“Honey, I’m going to be helping you move this thing, I’ll have plenty of time to get a close-up look at it.” She changed her attention to Raoul once more. “So, who else is coming?”

Raoul reached into one of the coolers and pulled out a beer.

“Johnny and Dennis. So, like I already told Amber, we’re going to be making it into work late tomorrow.” Rachael smiled and clinked cans with Raoul then with Amber.

“Good find girl,” she said to Amber. “Anything that keeps me from working a full day and allows me to get drunk on a work night is a good thing.”

Johnny and Dennis arrived shortly after, and, as Raoul predicted, each had brought a keg with them. Not only did they bring more beer, which was a relief to Rachael because she didn’t have enough for everyone to get drunk on, but they also brought five friends with them. Bringing their total to eighteen people to move the blobster.

Johnny was carrying a huge canvas tarp, which he threw on the ground when he got to the party waiting by the blobster.

“What’s up guys,” he said giving everyone a hug. “I didn’t think I’d be partying with y’all tonight. Just thought it was going to be these guys.” He spun around to point to the people that came with him, his dreadlocks whipping around with his head.

Raoul told them the same thing about not being on time in the morning. Johnny and Dennis started laying out the tarp so the group could push the thing onto it. That was the best idea they had, and they had heard it worked before.

“That’s a big bitch, man,” Dennis said. “Do you really think we are going to be able to move this thing by ourselves?”

“Should be,” Raoul said.

Amber finished her first beer and was feeling ready for this. But before they got started they all decided that another beer would be best. That turned into two more beers, which turned into three. After their fifth beer they were ready to move the thing onto the tarp.

At first they tried to move the entire thing onto the tarp at once. Everyone was spaced so they could have the entire thing being pushed at one time. But after the first few tries of that, they decided it would be easier to try and move it by halves. So after another couple of beers, everyone moved towards one side of the thing and pushed. The water was lapping at their sneakers, which caused Rachael to complain about that.

Rachael had been complaining the entire time, people were drinking the only beer she really liked, the blobster was slimy, they were never going to be able to move this thing on their own. Everyone was getting tired of hearing her complain, so it was Dennis who spoke up first.

“Listen,” he said, “I understand you don’t like doing this. Hell, I don’t like doing this, but it is something that needs to be done. If we don’t get this thing out of here now, there will be a huge rotting carcass on the beach in the morning. That will be a feasting ground for all sorts of animals. And, I for one, don’t want to come back tomorrow and try to move this thin when it really starts to stink. Because you know who they’re going to call? Us.”

Rachael stopped complaining so much after that, but she started drinking twice as much. It took them a couple of hours to get the first half of the gigantic thing onto the tarp. Between people falling down, the breaks they needed to take, the breaks they didn’t need to take, and the size of the creature, everyone was happy with their progress. To celebrate, they took a break and finished off the first keg.

“This thing’s really impressive,” Dennis said looking at the massive body. “I mean, this thing seems to be fully intact. Most of the blobsters I’ve seen are either just a large piece of flesh that came from a whale, or nothing more than bones. But this, this is wholly intact. The only damage it seem to have taken is that one bit down the center.”

He was referring to a long scar that ran from one side of the carcass to the other. The hard skin seemed to fold inside of it, leaving a large scar. It was wide, but compared to the girth of the thing, it didn’t seem so big. Still, Dennis would be able to stick his fist into the crease if he wanted to, and in a way he did want to poke around inside of it. But that would be done in the lab, where he had all the light, instruments, and time he needed.

Dennis turned to Raoul and said, “You know, I don’t think this is a whale at all. I think this could be some new kind of creature. Like a giant sea slug or something.” The two men looked at the blobster and thought about it for a moment.

After they got to the next level of drunk, they decided it was time to move the other half of the carcass onto the tarp. Everyone was pushing as hard as they could, some were laughing as they tried in vain to gain purchase in the sand. But once it got moving, it didn’t seem to be as hard. Sadly, they only got it halfway onto the tarp before they needed a break.

“I take back what I said,” Dennis said between heavy breaths. “This thing isn’t impressive, it’s just a bitch.”

When everyone had sobered up a little, Raoul told them to hold off on the drinking until they finished the job, and caught their breath, they started to push again. It seemed to be going easier this time, until the thing moved. Everyone jumped back from it, fearing the huge mass of meat would fall on them.

“What the hell was that?” Johnny yelled.

“It just started rolling back, man,” Raoul answered. “We’re just lucky it didn’t come back too far.” “Nah, man. That didn’t feel like it was rolling. It felt like it came from inside. It felt like that thing took a breath.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Rachael said. “This thing is dead, it couldn’t have taken a breath. Not to mention, it lived in the sea, it hasn’t been able to breathe in hours. Don’t be stupid, you know that just as well as any of us.”

She wanted to sound smart and confident, but her face betrayed her. She felt it too, and it did feel like the thing took a breath. A long, deep breath.

“It could have come from inside this thing,” Raoul said. “If the bacteria inside had started to decompose the carcass, it would make gas bubbles, which could cause it to look and feel like it’s breathing.” Slowly, everyone agreed, or at least forced themselves to agree, that there was nothing to worry about. They did find enough energy to push the last bit of it faster than they had before. After another hour or so, the entire body was on the canvas.

“Dennis, why don’t you call a tow truck and get this thing to the lab,” Raoul said. “I’m going to walk Amber to her house and head over to the lab. We’ll meet you there.”

Rachael looked appalled for the briefest of moments. She hoped that Raoul didn’t notice, which he didn’t, but Amber did. Amber knew what Rachael was thinking, that Raoul was going to try and score with her. And, how Amber was feeling, he wouldn’t had had to try too hard. She thought he was attractive enough, and she liked his personality, so why shouldn’t she?

The walk home wasn’t as long as she thought it would take, and luckily they filled their cups from the keg before they left. By the time they finished their beers, they had arrived at Amber’s house. Rachael had had a right to feel that Raoul was going to try and get into her paints. He was talking smoothly to her the entire walk home, and by the time they reached the house, she was inviting him in.

If Amber was asked what happened, they made love. And it was great, he wasn’t too gentle, but not rough either. If Raoul was asked, he would say he got a piece of ass. He had better, and he had worse. He wasn’t sure if it was going to be a one night stand or not. He hadn’t made up his mind. She wasn’t bad enough to make him not want to do it again, but he also didn’t want to be tied down. There were always more fish in the sea.

By the time they were passing where the blobster had washed up, they saw the tow truck arriving. Its yellow lights flooded the dark street, almost blinding compared to the darkness outside their windows. Luckily, no one was near the street. Amber didn’t want anyone to know they were only leaving now.

The truck arrived at the aquarium, twenty minutes after them. That gave them enough time to get a large enough gurney to transfer the blobster onto and had the doors open for easy transportation. They would keep it in one of the freezers, the same ones they use to preserve the dead whales for study.

With the help of the driver, they were able to roll the thing onto the gurney from the flatbed in an hour and a half. The driver was by far the biggest of the bunch, so everyone was thankful he was willing to help out. Raoul gave him a fifty as a tip, and thanked him again for helping before he drove back out into the night.

Everyone helped push the gurney up the ramp and into the freezer. Even though the gurney had wheels, it was still a laborious task. It took almost all the energy everyone had left just to get it up the ramp. But by three in the morning, the gurney and blobster were safely locked in the largest freezer in the lab. Raoul stayed behind, bidding everyone a good night as they left. There was no way anyone was going to be making it in before noon the next day, so he didn’t feel the need to rush. Not to mention, he also had to take Amber back to her house, and maybe, if he played his cards right, he would be spending the night with her.

There was some paperwork that needed to be filled out, which he got halfway through and decided that it was a job for the next day. He also checked to ensure the temperature in the freezer was at a stable level. He decided that the most important thing that would be needed to be completed before they left, was to put in an order for more liquid nitrogen. The containers they had were already almost full of cells and genes, and they were going to be taking a lot of samples when they started cutting into that thing. The order was sent, and they left the lab.

Dennis arrived at the lab around three-thirty. Everyone else was either still sleeping or far too hung over to even start to make their way to the lab. Dennis didn’t really feel like being there either, and when he noticed that he was the only person who had showed up, he contemplated leaving. He decided that it was best to stay. He had no idea when anyone else would show up, he could call them, but if he woke them he would feel bad.

He would still be asleep, but his mom called him at noon just to catch up with him. They normally talked at least once a week, Dennis tried to call her on Fridays, but she was calling to let him know she was going out of town for the weekend. So, he was woken before he would had liked to have been, and once he was awake there was no going back to sleep until the night.

As he walked through the lab, he was thinking about whether or not he should had just stayed home. Seeing that he was the first one there, he thought that none of his coworkers would be coming in, so he would stay for an hour or so, then leave if no one else arrived. In his mind everyone had already worked their full week, with all the time and effort it took to get that thing off the beach.

His mind drifted back to the blobster. Maybe he would stay longer and do some tests, get some samples. That thing was just too damn interesting to be ignored. So the first place he went to was the cooler to get the blobster into the lab where he can start working on it. But when he opened the door his heart sank to his shoes; the blobster was missing. The canvas tarp was still on the gurney, but the creature it held was gone. It was far too big for someone to just carry it out of there. But why would they had left the gurney and tarp? Something was wrong.

Dennis spun on his heels, pulling his phone from his pocket. He needed to talk to Raoul about this, he would have some idea of what to do. As soon as he started searching his recent calls, a voice sounded in his head. It wasn’t a voice he had ever heard before, not his conscious or his own, but someone else. It was soft and calming.

Dennis looked around the room to see if he could identify where the voice was coming from, but there was no one in the cooler with him. In fact, he looked around the lab, but that was empty as well.

“You don’t need to call them,” the voice said.

Despite feeling the urgency of the situation, Dennis put his phone back into his pocket.

“That’s good. Why don’t you come back into the freezer? That’s a good man.”

Dennis was standing in the center of the freezer when he noticed the blobster. At first he didn’t know what it was, or if the thing was even real. It was massive, but it didn’t look like the barrel shaped mass they moved into the freezer last night. At seeing that thing, stuck to the wall and ceiling, Dennis regained control of his body. The first thing he did was move towards the back of the cooler, the blobster was near the door.

Dennis tried to clear his mind, but the voice was still impinging.

“You shouldn’t think like that. I just want you to help me. You see me and it frightens you, but you frighten me just as much. I can trust you to help me, and I can give you everything you want.”

Dennis couldn’t believe what was happening, the blobster seemed too had changed its shape and was clinging to the wall, sending thoughts to him even though its massive maw wasn’t moving.

“Man has made life difficult for me and my kind. All life in fact. So, we would like to make our lives easier again. If it wasn’t for man, the waters would be clean, the forests wouldn’t be destroyed, and the earth wouldn’t be unfit to sustain life as it once was. Humankind has been a blight on the world, and I need you to help me cure that.”

The blobster started to move, its wide wing shaped arms slowly started to peel from the wall. Dennis knew there wasn’t any time to delay and ran for the door. He made it three steps out of the freezer when a sharp pain shot through his body, so strong that it paralyzed him, causing him to become as stiff as a board. He looked down but couldn’t see anything, his hands groped behind him and felt a hard, slimy tube going into his back. A few seconds later that same tube protruded through his chest. In his last few seconds of life, as the tube was pulled out with enough force to spin him around before he fell, Dennis saw that it looked like a tail of some kind.

As Dennis’s mind was being invaded by the blobster, Raoul woke to the smell of eggs and bacon. Amber and he spent the night having sex and holding each other. Amber was holding him and he was sound asleep, whispering sweet things into her ear. She had no idea that he was asleep, if she had she would had stopped talking to him. Amber, although newest staff member at the aquarium, didn’t like to look foolish. She was the first in her family to make it all the way through college and find a great job doing something that she wanted to do. Although, she had never told her parents that she wasn’t happy with what she was doing, they were far too proud of her, she still felt that she was the smartest in her family.

Raoul put some pants on and walked to the kitchen. Amber was radiating that glow when someone feels like they are loved. Raoul saw this time and again, and she did look more beautiful than any of the others, at least as far as he could remember. He walked up behind her and kissed her on the nape of her neck. As he did, she nuzzled up to him and they stood there for a moment. He was feeling something more for this woman, something he hadn’t felt before.

They ate their breakfast, got cleaned and ready for the day, and Raoul started to call his underlings to tell them it was now time to head over to the lab. Everyone answered but Dennis. Raoul thought that was strange, he was the person that he thought would be the easiest to get ahold of. He tried calling again while they were driving to the lab, but still it had only gone to voicemail.

“Looks like Dennis isn’t going to be coming in today,” he told Amber. “Bastard’s probably too hung over to answer his phone.”

Johnny was getting out of the car when Amber and Raoul pulled in.

“Didn’t expect you to get here for at least another hour,” Raoul said as he stepped out of his car.

“Man, I’ve had a lot of crazy nights in the past, that’s just another one to add to the list. Besides, I want to take a look at that thing with a clear head in some good lighting. What Dennis said last night got me thinking, maybe it’s not a whale?”

As the three of them were walking into the lab, Rachael pulled in. They stopped and waited for her to get to the door.

“Okay,” Raoul said as they all stood before the door, “we all know what our focus is going to be on today, let’s try not to get too carried away. We will still leave at the same time, but try not to destroy the specimen. If it turns out to be something besides a whale, we would like to keep it intact so we can identify it. It would be great if we found a new species, so let’s keep our fingers crossed.”

After his little speech he opened the door. The stainless steel shined in the florescent lighting. Raoul frowned.

“I turned these lights off last night, didn’t I?” He asked Amber.

She nodded her head as she looked around the room. Everything seemed to be in place, then she noticed the tanks of nitrogen and pointed them out.

“It was probably the people who brought in the nitro.”

A smile broke across Raoul’s lips as he realized she was most likely right. But just as quickly as he had that thought, it fled from him when he saw the freezer was open.

“Who the fuck came in here,” he said as he ran towards the door. “If someone took our specimen I’m going to…”

He couldn’t finish his sentence when he looked on the other side of the door. Dennis’s lifeless body lay in the middle of the freezer, a trail of blood smeared on the floor showing where he was dragged.

“Amber, call the cops,” Raoul said without taking his eyes off the body.

When the rest of the crew heard this they ran over towards him. Amber was the first, and she gagged then started crying. Johnny and Rachael were right behind her, Johnny looked at the carnage and couldn’t take his eyes from it. Rachael saw the blood stain and didn’t want to see any more, so she walked with Amber to the phone.

“Raoul, we need to make sure that whoever did this isn’t still in the lab,” Johnny said. “If they are, we could all be in danger.”

Raoul nodded but didn’t move. His eyes drifted from the lifeless body of Dennis to the empty gurney which held the blobster. He could feel the heat fill his cheeks as anger filled his body. The cold air blowing from the freezer did nothing to cool him down.

“They took the specimen,” he said in a hollow voice. It was so soft that Johnny barely heard him. “What?”

“They took the specimen.” Raoul repeated.

Johnny looked back in and saw the blobster was missing.

“That’s not important right now, man. Dennis is dead. For all we know the person who did this is still somewhere on site, hell, they could still be in the lab. Think about the girls, man. What if that person attacks them? They aren’t in any shape to be fighting someone off. Shit, I don’t think we really are either, but we have to make sure it’s safe in here.”

Raoul slowly turned around and nodded again. They started walking through the room, Johnny grabbed a scalpel to protect himself if they happened to come across anyone. Raoul just walked through the lab slowly. His eyes were wide but he wasn’t really seeing anything. It was like he was walking through a dream, he could tell there were things in front of him, but he didn’t know what they were. He didn’t care either.

Amber and Rachael got to the phone. After a few deep breaths Amber grabbed hold of the phone and took it off the receiver. She started dialing 911, but stopped after the first number. She heard a voice, it didn’t sound like Rachael, but she knew it couldn’t had been anyone else.

“Put the phone down,” the voice said.

“What?” Amber said turning towards Rachael.

“What?” Rachael said. “Why aren’t you calling the cops?”

“I thought you just said something. I must be out of it, sorry.”

Amber turned back to the phone and heard the voice again.

“You don’t need to call the police. There is no one you don’t know in the room. If you call them, they will come out here and find nothing out of place besides a dead body. And who do you think they will question? You will be taken to jail if you call them. Put the phone down.” The voice became sterner as it kept talking to her.

Amber put the phone down.

“What the hell are you doing?” Rachael said.

“You didn’t hear that voice?”

“I didn’t hear anything. If you’re going crazy, you better let me talk to the cops.”

“No,” Amber said, urgency in her voice. “If you call the cops we will all be arrested. I don’t, I can’t be taken to jail right now. It would be just too much.”

Rachael looked at her, her eyes narrowing.

“Why would they take us to jail? Are you the one who did this?”

Amber wanted to shake her, to get her to understand how important it was to just leave the scene, but at the same time she didn’t understand why she was thinking like that. There was definitely a reason why she was scared of going to jail, even though she hadn’t done anything wrong, but she wasn’t sure why she was so worried about it.

“No…no I d-didn’t do anything,” Amber said. “I was with Raoul last night. He can verify that.”

Rachael looked at Amber, her distaste visible.

“She is going to try and blame you for this,” the voice said. “You should kill her.”

“What?” Amber shrieked.

Rachael slowly backed away from Amber, never taking her eyes off her. Johnny looked over, his eyes wide, but when he saw the two women, and only the two women, he took his eyes from them.

“Amber, I think you should just step away from the phone. I can call the cops, and you can just wait over in the corner while I do that.” Rachael’s voice was shaky, slow.

Amber shook her head. It looked like she was saying no to what Rachael had asked, which caused Rachael to run towards the men as they searched the lab. In reality, she was trying to figure out what she had been hearing, it was all too confusing and for the first time in her life she felt that the only way to clear he mind would be to shake her head. It did nothing but make her look even crazier to Rachael. Realizing that the voice in her head, which meant that something had snapped at seeing Dennis dead on the floor, or somehow, someone else had the power to invade her thought, was not safe.

Once more she lifted the receiver and started to dial the number for the cops. “You will rot in a cell,” the voice said as soon as she lifted the receiver. “Your life will never be the same.”

Amber ignored the voice. It was very hard to not listen to it, every word it said carried a weight that seemed to push her into a depression, the likes of which she had never felt. But slowly, as she had spoken to the dispatcher, the voice became panicked, angry.

“If you won’t listen, than I will have to handle you myself.”

Everything happened so fast after that. Even as it was happening, Amber wasn’t able to process it until it was far too late for a safe escape. Rachael was speaking with Raoul, who seemed to be dazed, which she thought was understandable. The dispatcher was asking for her location for the third time, and telling her to stay on the phone. Johnny had just gone into the freezer, and once he was in there he screamed and started running full speed for the door. Raoul and Rachael looked up from their conversation, it was the first time that Raoul looked like he was aware of what was happening since being seeing Dennis on the floor.

Johnny was running for the door, screaming so loudly that it was incoherent. It wasn’t until he was halfway through when something burst from the freezer after him. The thing was massive, a long tail dragged on the floor as it floated overhead. It had wings that resembled that of a manta ray, only much, much larger. Its body was bipedal, like a bird, but it also had hair that covered it from head to claw. It was hard to tell where the head started and where it stopped, because there was a mouth that ran vertically between the wings at about half their width. In the mouth were teeth that were at least three inches long, and about as wide as a steak knife and as sharp as a shark’s teeth. On the wings, suckers could be seen, and a large claw on the end of each wing.

Amber, Rachael and Raoul watched as the thing swam through the air like it was water. Amber froze, lowering the phone slowly as she watched the thing. Rachael and Raoul ran towards the door as they watched. Johnny wasn’t watching it at all. His eyes were locked on the door, and that was where he was headed. But the thing landed in front of it before he could reach it. Its massive wings only a few feet from Amber.

Johnny tried to stop running, but because he was going full speed, his feet slipped from under him, which caused him to land on his back. He slid to a stop not ten feet from the things open mouth. He scrambled to his feet and ran back towards the freezer. Amber followed suit, trying to put as much distance between herself and the monster that just came from the freezer before it noticed her. She made it to the group, and ran into Raoul’s arms and cried as he held her.

The blobster started to make its way slowly towards them, walking on those legs with knees that bent behind it as it walked. Johnny had just gotten behind Raoul as the blobster had gotten to the middle of the room. Raoul shoved Amber to the floor and told everyone to run. Amber looked up in horror as she saw Raoul turn and start to run away from the monster, but Johnny caught him and shoved him back. Causing him to trip over Amber and stumble in front of the blobster.

He didn’t even have time to turn around before those huge teeth cut into him. Cutting him in half, making it look like he was only standing in the threshold of a door, but the wall that hid half of his body was made of long interlocking teeth, not drywall. Amber made it back to her feet and ran to join the other two.

The dispatcher on the phone had heard the commotion and sent three squad cars to the aquarium. She kept yelling for someone to answer her, but everyone was too far away to even hear her.

Amber was in disbelief as to what just happened. She couldn’t believe that Raoul tried to just feed her to the monster that was chasing her. Everything seemed to be going so well between them, she had been happy when she woke, and thought that he was too. He even told her that he loved her last night, but then he just tried to kill her. Her head was spinning so fast, everything was happening so fast, and she couldn’t even pause for a moment to try and gather her thoughts or she would be eaten. Johnny was pushing her towards the wall, where Rachael was already hiding behind the nitrogen canisters. She couldn’t focus enough to even realize how much danger she was in, but slowly her surroundings were starting to make sense again.

“Move,” Rachael screamed at the two of them, tears streaming down her face.

Rachael was able to keep her composure a little better than Amber. She was aware of what was happening. The man she had loved for the past three years, the man she couldn’t let go, had just tried to sacrifice someone he was sleeping with to save himself. If Raoul had survived there would had been no way she could have still loved him after that, and she knew it. Still, it was a hard loss to take. Watching the death of someone she loved, even after a despicable act, speared her heart. It was a one two punch of heartache, and she wasn’t ready for it.

Johnny shoved Amber to the wall and Rachael pulled her behind the canisters as he picked up one. As he turned, the long tail of the blobster came darting through the air at Johnny’s chest. On an impulse, Johnny raised his hands, bringing the canister with him and the tail punctured the metal. For the first time, the monster made a noise, a noise that everyone in the room could hear at the same time. It was a high pitched squeal, so loud it made the three feel their ear drums would rupture.

Johnny turned sharply to run behind the canisters with the women, but he never let go of the tank, and as he turned, the end of the blobster’s tail was cracked, causing it to scream again.

The tail thrashed back and forth, ripping the canister free from Johnny’s hands and throwing liquid nitrogen all over itself and Johnny. The drops that landed on Johnny burned into his skin, froze his cloths and gave him an idea.

He picked up another tank, unscrewing the lid and walked towards the blobster. Rachael and Amber noticed what he was doing and tried to call him back, but he wouldn’t listen. So, instead of trying to get him to hide with them, they started to unscrew the lids of the other nitrogen canisters, so when he was finished with the one he had, he could quickly rearm himself with another. This, however, was what caught the blobster’s attention. It turned towards the group, its massive mouth opening as it did. Johnny started to lift the canister and was going to throw it at the monster, when the hook on its wing came down. It went into his collar bone next to his neck, and came out through his chest.

Johnny screamed as the wing lifted him off his feet, high into the air. The blobster opened its mouth and started to lower Johnny towards it. Despite how quickly all this was happening, Johnny was able to find the time to pour the nitrogen into the open mouth. The smoking liquid splashed down the monsters throat, causing it to convulse. Its wings fell to the ground, and Johnny tried to free himself from the claw. He wasn’t able to in time and the blobster fell on top of him, crushing him like a roach.

The women saw their opportunity and started splashing the open canisters of liquid nitrogen onto the body of the blobster. Quickly, a glossy sheen of ice started to form over the monster’s body.

“Stop,” the voice shouted, this time both Amber and Rachael heard it. “I can give you everything you want. I can help you achieve your dreams. Please, stop throwing that stuff on me.”

Amber didn’t stop, she emptied one canister and grabbed another. Rachael paused for only a moment, before she too grabbed another canister and started pouring the last of the liquid nitrogen onto the creature. Its entire body was covered with a layer of ice, and the women looked at it in disbelief for a moment.

“I’m so cold,” the voice said. “Please, I am the last of my kind. I only want to survive, just like you.”

“Fuck you,” Rachael said as she hefted an office chair over her head and slammed it down on the ice covered blobster. The ice and meat below it fissured into a spider web of cracks, revealing red meat under the thick brownish-black skin of the blobster.

Another high squeal resonated in their heads, but Rachael didn’t stop hitting the thing. Amber saw that what she was doing was having an effect on the monster, so she took the empty canister she was holding and started beating it.

“Stop! Stop! Stop,” the monster called to them.

It was at that moment when the police burst through the door to the lab, guns drawn.

“Shoot that fucking thing,” both Amber and Rachael said in unison.

They ran to the police, and they police heard the inhuman squeal, just as the women ran from it, covering their ears. Without hesitation, they opened fire on the blobster. The bullets ripped through the ice and flesh of the monster, leaving grapefruit sized exit wounds. All three of the officers had emptied their clips into the blobster, and it was a few moments after the last shots was fired that the squeal had stopped. With wide eyes, the cops each reloaded their clips and emptied them once again into the blobster.

Rachael and Amber were taken to the police station to be questioned. Their stories collaborated perfectly, and when the CSI team was done with their investigation, they were let go. The carnage was far too great for two people to cause that much damage, not to mention Johnny was still hooked by the blobster’s wing.

As the coroner was processing the dead bodies that were recovered from the scene, he was disturbed by the report of an animal that was able to create that much havoc. It was one of the worst cases he had ever taken. The cause of death was easy to determine for each of the victims, but he still had to process the bodies, or what was left of them. There was no way that Raoul was going to have an open casket funeral, so he would be the last to be examined. Dennis was the first. The cause of death, was the huge hole in his chest.

It wasn’t until halfway through the exam that the doctor notice something unusual happening. Dennis’s stomach was boiling. He moved his face closer to see what it was, pressing slightly on one of the bubbles as they surfaced. It was hard and wiggled under his gloved hand. As he took the notes of this strange phenomena, three baby blobsters ruptured Dennis’s stomach. They squealed as they latched onto the doctor’s back. He screamed as their sharp teeth dug into him. Slowly a few more came crawling out, the egg sack was still attached to the tail of the last one to free itself from the corpse.