10

Sometime about three in the morning Karmen shook J.D. awake. J.D. had managed to fall deeply asleep and went to full awake almost instantly. He shook off the last remnants of a dream he was having that he was back in the jungle. Bullets had been flying all around him and he had just turned to see Karmen’s head explode from the impact of a bullet. He was at first relieved to see Karmen sitting next to him and then immediately on alert.

“What?” He asked.

“Listen,” she said.

He listened. The sounds of the screams were dim but they were everywhere. The horrible sounds of millions of souls being tortured appeared to be coming out of the walls, the furniture, everything and anything in the rig. J.D. stood and gripped his sword. He found his clothes, mostly dry now, and put them on. The sound was not getting louder but it was steady. For a moment you could almost forget it was there, like white noise, and then a moments silence was enough of a reminder that it was still there.

“Any movement?” J.D. asked.

“I haven’t seen anything,” she replied.

Lazlo and Mark still slept. J.D. considered waking them up but since this did not seem like an imminent attack he decided against it. Karmen and J.D. had to find out what was going on but J.D. felt bad about leaving the two of them vulnerable like this.

“Which one of us should stay here with these guys?” J.D. asked.

“I already know what you’re thinking,” she said, “so I’ll stay in the doorway here. You go check things out.”

J.D. nodded and stepped into the hall. He debated which way to go and decided he wanted to head up to the control room and then down the hall to the living quarters. He climbed the stairs. The sounds did not grow louder as he moved. It was still the steady low sound of screams of agony and pain and beneath that the steady growling of something evil. It was like listening to thousands being tortured and beneath the screaming the sound of the torturers laughing with delight.

He reached the landing at the top of the stairs and turned to walk to the control room and he froze. The hallway was not empty. It teemed with movement. It teemed with people. People of all shapes and sizes and colors walked slowly from room to room down the hall. Their eyes were blank. Their bodies did not seem solid but appeared to glow a faint blue-green. Their mouths were open and their faces contorted in agony. Despite the contortions of their faces they moved slowly and steadily from room to room. They seemed to have no purpose and just wandered aimlessly. As he watched on form in the shape of a man wearing the GemCo logo on his shirt bumped into the wall and rebounded. There was no sign as to what had snuffed the life of this parade of the damned but their faces showed that whatever had killed them continued to torture them. J.D. saw the workers from the rig that he had watched on the video tape earlier. He watched women in petticoats and men in plumed hats walk by. It was like peering through a window and into the past.

J.D. walked down the hall. His heart thudded loudly in his chest and in his ears but he did not feel threatened. He realized he was looking at the manifestations of the countless souls whatever creature they were encountering had taken over the years. Men, women and children from all ages and times floated past him. This display was meant to be awe-inspiring he intuited and not entirely frightening. Their host was trying to show off how old and how powerful it was.

“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” A voice said to J.D.’s right.

J.D. turned his head and was not surprised at all to see the figure wearing Joe’s face and body. His arm was whole and undamaged. His face held a smile of pride.

“Look at them,” it said. “So many I’ve collected over the years. The beautiful sounds they make.”

“What are you?” J.D. heard himself ask. He hadn’t even been aware he was forming the question.

“I was there before your kind decided to flop out of the primordial ooze,” it said. “I’ll be here long after you’ve destroyed yourself as well. I discovered, eons ago, that the fear your kind exuded was the greatest nutrient I could find. Your souls are so sweet and when they are combined with fear, the sweetness increases. The more they scream and the more souls I devour the stronger I become. I’ve been imprisoned for some time now. Thanks to you lovely people at GemCo I am now free.”
“If you’re so strong why don’t you just kill me now?” J.D. asked.

The smile faltered. “Do you think I couldn’t? I keep you alive because I wish you to be alive. I keep you alive because the longer I torture and torment you the sweeter your soul will be.”

“I think you’re just some kind of pathetic bully,” J.D. said, completely unaware where this bravado came from. “Whatever the hell you are or whatever the hell you came from you’re not nearly as powerful as you think you are. If you were you probably would have wiped humanity of the face of the globe a long time ago. You’re a thug. You’ve even been put in prison. You’re not even a good thug. Right now all you can do is a few fancy parlor tricks that get a few people killed. Killing people isn’t all that impressive to me. I’ve been doing it for a long time myself.”

He leaned in conspiratorially towards the thing wearing Joe’s face. “Now, you may have helped create this storm but as soon as you create the sun or the planet, then you’ll impress me. Until then, you’re just a thug and a coward. You won’t even show your true face.”
The look of mirth was long gone from the thing’s face. The ghostly forms vanished in a blink. The display was over although the faint sound of screams still rang from the walls.

“I’m thinking,” J.D. said, “that maybe you don’t even have a real face or shape. That shadow that I see whenever you disappear is what you really are. You don’t even have a form. You’re a lot of power with nothing to contain it and no discipline to use it properly. You’re like a child with a gun. I’ve never met anything more pathetic in all my time trotting around this sad little globe.”
The thing with Joe’s face moved so quickly that its movement at all would not have been detected by J.D. if not for the fact its hands were around his throat. J.D. was smashed hard into the wall, the collision sent stars across his vision. The face was barely held together. A swarm of faces and countless souls from over the years washed over the head of the creature that held him. The mouth opened to reveal row upon row of sharpened teeth. The voice was no longer Joe’s but a voice that seemed to indicate its longevity and the fact that it had been old back when the world was young.

“You insignificant insect. I could destroy you so easily now. You pathetic beings with your pathetic shells. However, I am not going to destroy you. No, I am going to let you live. I am going to let you watch the other die. Then, I am going to take special care and delight in killing Karmen before your eyes. If you try to look away, I’ll rip your eyelids off. I’ll take my time and let you hear her scream like you’ve never heard a human being scream. I’ll make her scream until her larynx bursts and she chokes on her own blood. I’ll make you watch because each time she screams it will drive a spike into your soul and it will be that much stronger and that much sweeter for me. Yes, I may now be weak after years trapped in a prison but I am stronger than you can possibly imagine and when I have enough souls I will devour this sad little planet. I will destroy that which the being that created it has lavished with so much love and attention while leaving me in a prison to rot for eternity. Keep these things in mind as I destroy what’s left of you, pathetic human.”
The hand was gone from his throat and J.D. fell to the floor gasping and holding his neck. The wind tore through his throat which was raw and bruised. He coughed and tasted blood. There were scratches along his throat and he felt blood seeping into the collar of his shirt. His heart pounded like a jackhammer in his chest. He had never been so alternately scared and angry in his entire life.

“We’ll see about that,” he whispered and he realized how sad that threat must have sounded through his bruised throat.

J.D. found the strength to stand. Then, after he took a few faltering steps toward the stairs, he found the strength to run.

* * *

J.D. reached the recreation room at a full run. He nearly ran into Karmen who was still standing guard near the door.

“What was it?” She asked.

“Get everyone up,” he said, “we’re blowing this fucking thing up and getting the hell out of here right now.”
“What did you see?” She asked again.

“Nothing,” he said, “I was threatened. I think whatever this thing is is tired right now. It’s resting. We need to use that to blow this rig up and bring the whole thing down on its head. If we wait any longer its strength with be back.”
Karmen nodded without another word and walked back into the room to wake up Lazlo and Mark. J.D. headed for his supplies and began rooting through the hardware until he found the explosives and the detonators. They were so small. J.D. wasn’t even sure what the explosives were comprised of. He had full faith in Joe, however, and Joe had assured him that it was enough to bring even this monstrosity down.

Lazlo appeared to have the roughest time getting up. Mark stood near the door looking sleepy but awake and ready. Lazlo stood in front of Jason and rubbed his eyes like a sleepy child.

“What’s up?” He said.

“You’re going to tell us where we need to place these charges so we can bring down this whole rig,” J.D. replied.

Lazlo nodded. “Let’s go back up to the control room. I’ll show you what we need to do.”

* * *

They stood minutes later in front of a screen that laid out the plans for the entire rig. Upon looking at it, J.D. realized again the immense size of the structure. Even he, despite trusting Joe’s abilities, wondered if there were enough explosives to bring the rig down. Lazlo was pointing to places on the schematic.

“If we were to put the explosives in the legs, at these joints and places where the legs connect,” Lazlo said, “that should kick the legs out from under this thing.”
“We don’t have a lot of time,” J.D. said. “This thing, demon or devil, is trying to regain its energy right now. I have no idea how long it’s going to be unable to mount any kind of serious attack. It could be hours or it could be minutes. There are four legs to this thing and only four of us. I hate the idea of splitting up but I don’t know what else we can do given the time we have.”

“Just show me how to set these things up,” Lazlo said, “ and I’ll get it done.”

Mark nodded.

“I’ll hold on to the remote device,” J.D. said. “I’ll blow the thing once we launch out of the escape tubes.”

“Are you sure this is enough to bring this down?” Mark said. “If this thing it big enough for escape tubes…”
“I know,” J.D. said, “but I trust Joe. This stuff he got is pretty special.”
“We’ve got radios from the rooms,” Karmen said as she handed them out. “Each of them has an earpiece and microphone so you can use it hands-free. We need to stay in touch. Anything goes wrong or looks weird just send out an S.O.S.”

J.D. leaned forward and assigned the legs to the various people. He then turned around and began distributing the explosive charges. He gave a quick demonstration on how to set up the explosives and set the receivers for the remote signal. He then handed out printouts with routes marked for each of them to show them how to get to their leg of the structure. Lazlo then took a few moments to illustrate where the best placement for the charges should be to ensure the joints ripped apart.

“Try to put it out in the open,” J.D. said. “I don’t think we need to hide this. I want to make sure it receives the signal clearly. I don’t want this thing leaning over. If we can do this right, the legs will kick out from underneath and everything up here will fall straight down and bury this fucking thing.”

He paused to look at them. He saw exhaustion and fear.

“Keep your wits about you,” he said. “This thing can read our minds and knows what our desires and fears are. It can appear as anything. If you aren’t sure what it is then open fire. Let’s get this done and go home.”

All of them nodded. J.D. clapped Mark on the back. He shook Lazlo’s hand. He hugged Karmen. Without another word he grabbed his sword and explosives and walked out of the room.

* * *

Karmen moved steadily through the bowels of the rig. She was now deep beneath the platform and in foreign territory. It amazed her how much of this place they hadn’t had a chance to explore. She realized that to do a full room-by-room search might have taken days if there really had been any threat of terrorists.

The halls were built strictly utilitarian this far below the deck. Pipes and wires ran along the wall. The light was dim and she had to use a small flashlight to light the way before her. The thin shaft of light seemed barely able to cut through the gloom and she felt as if the walls were pressing in on her. She shook her head, her body near the point of exhaustion, trying to clear the thoughts from her mind and concentrate on what she was doing. She had never been claustrophobic and this was certainly not the time to start exhibiting symptoms.

Still, as she moved, the darkness around her began to weigh upon her tired mind. She saw shapes moving in shadows. She swore she saw Joe’s face behind her, smiling a smile that was not nearly as friendly as his had been, reflected in a window set into a door as she passed. She whirled around with one of her blades already out and ready before she realized she was still alone.

The pain of Joe’s death gnawed at her heart but she forced herself to stave off the despair that threatened to reduce her to a heap on the floor. Joe had been a long companion since J.D. had stepped out of her life. Joe had saved her life when things really had gone truly south in Africa. At first she had been certain that their romance was merely born out of the mixed feelings she had when he saved her life. She expected those feelings to die out and intended to enjoy things while they lasted. They had lasted longer than she had anticipated and the heavy feeling in her heart and mind affirmed for her that her feelings for him were much deeper than she knew.

It seemed that she walked forever. Always down she went at each opportunity, following closely the map she had been given. She was certain at any point she had to reach the bottom of the platform and that nothing but turbulent ocean lay beneath her but there always seemed to be another staircase with another chance to go ever deeper. Her mind continued to play tricks with her as it tried to convince her that she had actually gone below the level of the ocean and that the crushing waves were just a short distance outside the walls that surrounded her. She knew this was not possible no matter how much the ocean raged outside but she couldn’t shake the feeling.

She whirled when a sound of metal clanging against metal echoed from behind her. She shined her flashlight back and forth across the corridor behind her. She saw only pipes and wires and maintenance sheds and equipment. She froze and listened. She shut off the flashlight and let the darkness overtake her. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness and she could pick out the shapes of the pipes and equipment. Something moved to her left.

Both blades slid out of their sheaths. She remained motionless. Her heart pounded but she regulated her breathing. She had spent years in the jungle learning how to blend into her background and not reveal herself. She put all of those skills to work now.

“Miss me?” A voice said directly behind her.

The voice was Joe’s and Karmen would have known it anywhere. The ploy did not fool her. She spun and struck at the presence behind her. There was a sound like a gasp and yelp of surprise followed immediately by the sounds of screaming, torment and that hideous inhuman growl. She felt wind rush past her face so hard she staggered backwards. Curses filled her head; some of them in English and others in languages that had died millennia ago.

She crouched down near the floor. She closed here eyes and listened. Whatever they were fighting was trying to stop them with fear alone. It was still weak, she guessed, and unable to attack her physically. The thing expected her to crumble into a heap upon hearing Joe’s voice. Obviously, if this thing read minds it didn’t read them very well. Maybe it was out of practice.

There was no more movement. She stood and continued walking. She didn’t turn on her flashlight again. Her other senses took over and let her read the area around her in sound and smell and shadow. She finally reached the door.

The metal door was set into a corner where two walls came together. The tube curved out into the space where she stood and the center of the door contained a large metal wheel like she had see on Naval vessels. She turned the wheel and opened the door. Inside was a kind of ladder welded to the wall. She made sure the explosives were secured to her shoulder and she stepped onto the rungs. She also placed an explosive charge in this area where the leg attached to the platform. She had more charges than she knew she would need so, for good measure, she placed another one.

She descended.

* * *

Mark reached his leg relatively quickly compared to Karmen. He wore a miner’s hat that Lazlo dug out of a closet so that the path in front of him shone with its pale light. His heart beat hard against his ribs and his breathing was ragged and rapid. Mark had never been a fan of total darkness and the darkness seemed to be winning this particular battle with the light.

Mark had been cursed throughout his life with an overactive imagination. Whenever the creaky old house he grew up in let loose with one of the metallic clangs from the ancient radiators, his mind filled with images of aliens and monster crawling through the walls. Darkness in a corner, closet or beneath a bed easily hid a snarling monster or a grabbing hand. The darkness on a country road seemed to press in on Mark if he ever had to drive through one.

The doorway was like that of a submarine. Mark turned the wheel and shined his light down the shaft. The leg of the rig was so wide that Mark was taken aback for a moment. The immensity of this place was very impressive when you took the time to really think about it. He swung his leg over and found the rungs and began to descend. He placed his charges as he went.

Eventually he worked into a routine. He moved from one spot indicated on the maps Lazlo had distributed to another. He placed the charge which was a small device not much larger than a pack of cigarettes. He was assured previously that despite the potency of the explosive inside the device the stuff was stable enough for him to shake or drop. Mark didn’t intend on experimenting.

Eventually he reached the crossbar and the spot where the escape pods were located. A rounded hatch, this one set into the floor, rose up to meet him. There was enough space for him to work around the crossbar and he placed charges around it as well. He knew at this point that he had to be underwater. He wondered how far down this leg actually went and whether or not he had to worry about pressure and the bends. He was sweating and wiping his forehead continuously.

“Guys,” he said into the microphone, “how far down do we need to go here?”

“When you reach the second crossbar,” Lazlo said. “That should destabilize this thing enough to bring it right down.”
“Do we need to worry about pressure and things like that?” Mark asked.

“Let’s hope not,” Lazlo replied and the silence that followed reassured no one.

Mark made more of his descent. His hands and feet were aching from movement on the ladder. He was thirsty and felt more than a little dehydrated. He reached the second crossbar and placed the charges.

“I’ve placed the last of -,” he started to say.

A piercing scream cut through his earpiece. Mark jumped back several inches when the scream tore though his head. He slipped and fell back against the smooth metallic wall of the rig support. Without a doubt it was Lazlo screaming.

“Lazlo?” He yelled into his microphone.

“Lazlo what’s wrong?” Karmen cut in.

“Where are you?” J.D. added.

“Oh my God!” Lazlo screamed. “Oh my God it hurts! Oh my God!”

Mark looked to his right. The crossbar there was a tunnel. The other crossbar was where the escape pods were but the one to his right was a tunnel that would lead to the other leg. In theory this other leg should be the one where Lazlo was right now. He wondered how long it would take for him to run down there.

“I’m running through the tunnel to see what’s happening,” Mark said.

“Mark!” J.D. screamed. “Goddamit you stay where you are. I’ll go.”
“You won’t be able to get to him from your side,” Mark said. “I’m directly across from his leg. I’ll get there way before you.”
“We can’t lose you too,” J.D. said.

“Just don’t take off without me,” Mark said and shut off the walkie-talkie.

Mark couldn’t hear J.D.’s stream of curses as he stood and ran through the tunnel.

* * *

J.D. stood in front of the launch tube and placed the last of his charges when the screaming began. He stood bolt upright, instinctively dropping into a defensive posture. So certain was he that something was rushing up the tunnel to devour him that he actual saw a creature of teeth and claws running at him before his senses registered that he was alone.

“Where are you?” He screamed.

Mark came on and offered his foolish idea of going to help Lazlo. Mark didn’t even have a weapon on him. J.D. looked at the maintenance catwalk that ran the length of the crossbar that also served as a launch tube. It would be possible for him to run through this narrow space and reach the far leg where Mark was. The problem was by the time he wiggled his way through the space Mark would be long gone and probably devoured by whatever was attacking Lazlo.

“Dammit!” He cursed. “Karmen, stay right where you are. I’m coming through the tunnel to you!”

“I’m going to go after Lazlo!” She called back.

“Stay there!” He screamed. “I’m coming through. We’ll go through the tunnel together and meet up with the others. Stay on guard but stay where you are!”

J.D. grabbed what explosives he had left and hiked the bag over his shoulder. He gripped his sword and ran into the maintenance tunnel. The darkness enveloped him and the feeling of claustrophobia came over him powerfully. He became, suddenly, very aware of the water that surrounded them and the immense structure above them. He recalled the terrible boiling seas. He felt very fragile.

“NO!” He said to himself.

He would not let this thing make him think that. It was thoughts like that that gave this creature a purchase in your mind. He ran with his light piercing the darkness in a beam. He focused on the beam as he ran. Sweat ran from him in rivers. His breath felt ragged from fear, darkness and the depth they were at. He began to hear the sound of that multitude screaming and this time it came from the walls and inside his head. It was like a drill burrowing into his skull.

“Hurry, J.D.!” Karmen yelled. “I can’t take much more of this!”

More screams from Lazlo pierced the air. Something was taking its time with him and enjoying the screams he sent to them. It was letting J.D. know that it could pick them off whenever it wanted and it would make them suffer for what he had said. It drank in the screams it brought forth.

J.D. nearly fell over Karmen when he burst through the tunnel into the leg. Karmen’s eyes were wide and full of fear. This was a look J.D. was not familiar with. Her blades were out and she took a few swipes at him before realizing who it was.

“Where’s Mark?” She asked.

“I don’t know,” J.D. said. “He’s probably just a bit slower than me. Think we can run through these maintenance catwalks on either side of the launch tube?”

“Yes,” she said.

The fear vanished from her eyes now that a mission was presented for her. She took the left side and J.D. took the right. There was just enough room over the top of the launch tube for them to see the tops of their head. J.D. had to walk tilted to one side which reduced his speed but he ran hard. His legs were burning. He could hear Karmen’s footfalls on the catwalk and knew she was running ahead of him. The screams of Lazlo were now mixed with the screams of the souls and the tortured. J.D. felt that his head would burst.

They came through the other side and for the first time since he had known her, J.D. heard Karmen scream.

* * *

Lazlo descended in darkness and for the first time felt confident and completely at home. Even without the light on he was able to move through the tunnels and walkways of this rig since he had helped design and build the thing from the start. He moved over obstacles with an ease even the mercenaries would have envied. He positioned the charges perfectly. He figured that, at the very least, this one leg would blow out properly and would bring the house down.

At first Lazlo had been traumatized by the idea of blowing his baby to pieces. However, as nightmare after nightmare was visited upon them, the realization that this place had to be brought down because it was itself becoming part of the evil that it had released, he realized he had no choice. Once the decision had been made he followed through with his mission. Being a religious person Lazlo figured he was fighting a demon or perhaps all of Hell itself. He was determined to do something right.

He reached the launch tube and placed his remaining charges. He perspired freely just glad that for once he was able to do something and do it better than the mercenaries. He finished placing the charges and then leaned against the round surface of the launch tube and removed the lighted hat he wore. He wiped sweat from his head and leaned his head against the cool metal.

Mark’s questions came over the earpiece. He smiled at the writer’s nervousness. He answered his questions and assured him that everything would be fine. The tubes were meant to be used in an emergency. Crew members were expected to descend to this depth rapidly and then resurface rapidly. They were below the water level but not to a degree that you needed to worry about the pressure. Had they needed to descend all the way down to where the legs were anchored in the floor of the ocean that might have been a problem. Lazlo was confident that the charges down to the launch tubes would disrupt the structural integrity of the supports enough to bring the many thousands of tons of oil rig above them on top of what remained of the legs. So much material was above them he was also certain that even if the rig leaned as it fell enough debris would cover the hole beneath them.

Lazlo closed his eyes and waited for word that they were to meet up and get out. He allowed himself a chance to smile and thought about his wife. They fought just before he left to come on this adventure. At the moment he could think of no one he would rather have been with than his wife even if she were still pissed at him. Just as the image of his wife entered his head a cool breeze rushed past his head. His eyes snapped open into the darkness.

A shape loomed in the darkness. Lazlo opened his mouth to speak and then stopped. Something about the shape was familiar but the familiarity was all wrong. He sniffed the air and smelled a familiar smell.

“What are you doing, baby?” the figure said.

Lazlo heard the voice and felt his entire body shudder. His head felt strange as if rough hands were rooting through this mind. He could hear the sound of the screaming and torture filtering through his brain. He shook his head and wiped sweat from his forehead.

“You’re not real,” he said.

The air seemed to lighten. The shape stepped forward and the red hair gave away the fact that it was his wife. The image was perfect. Her smell and the way she held her hands. The color of her eyes was the only thing that wasn’t quite right. Instead of the intense green he was used to there was a blackness that swirled behind the iris. He found himself staring at the eyes and the things that were logical and illogical began to lose meaning and importance.

“I’m here with you,” she said stepping forward with her arms outstretched. “They send me to take you home.”

His head buzzed. It was so hard to think. “No, this is impossible. You can’t be here. You’re lying to me like you’ve lied to all the others.”

“They sent me to get you,” it said, “Once the storm cleared. The company sent me to get you. They’ve got it sorted out. You don’t have to blow up the rig.”

“No,” he whispered.

She reached him and put her arms around him. He felt her body against his and it was her body. He smelled her shampoo. He smelled her perfume. He reached out and touched her face and felt her skin.

“Come with me,” she said. “Come with me now and we can go home.”

“Home,” he said just above a whisper. “I want to come home so bad.”
She leaned in and he felt her lips brush against his. He put his hands around her and felt her body against his. His head buzzed and swirled. He was so tired. He wanted to go home so badly and hold her just like he was now. He couldn’t focus past her and her smells. He leaned in and kissed her lips and felt the familiar lips part and her tongue touched his and he closed his eyes. Her hands ran up his back and he moaned despite himself. Then there was pain in his mouth.

He jerked back and put a hand to his mouth. There was blood on his fingers. She had bitten his lip. The taste of blood mixed with the pain cleared the fog around his head just enough for him to see what was really there. The shape did not hold its form now that he saw it for what it was. It seemed to shift and shimmer like a mirage. Something beneath the image had teeth and fangs. Something beneath the mask couldn’t contain its appetites for human flesh and had taken a bite out of him.

“You’re not my wife,” he said.

“Damn,” it said in his wife’s voice and her face broke in a smile, “I just never could contain myself once I had a taste.”

With its cover blown the façade disappeared. The skin fell away like clothing. His wife’s face split and fell away. Something beneath it began to form and this time it wasn’t hiding. It was a form combines of a thousand other forms. It was like a ball with a mouth and thousands of teeth stacked row upon row. The teeth moved and whirred like saw-blades. Arms extended on either side and numbered in the hundreds. Each tentacle was tipped with something sharp and barbed and serrated. It floated in the air and the eyes swam with black and red. It was a creature that had only one purpose and that was to create pain.

“Now,” it said, “I need you to scream, please.”

The teeth and slits on its face that passed for mouths twitched and Lazlo realized he was looking at the thing smiling. One of the arms moved and there was a moment of exquisite pain at the end of Lazlo’s left arm. It happened so fast that he felt nothing at first. He lifted his arm and saw that all of the fingers on his left hand were gone. He looked at the floor and saw them lying scattered across the metal floor. Blood ran freely down his hand, his wrist, his forearm. Lazlo opened his mouth and screamed.

“That’s the spirit,” it said.

Another arm moved and then a dozen more. A dozen barbed and sharp ends pierced Lazlo’s shoulders, legs, arms and hands and he was thrown against the escape tube. The barbs pressed through his flesh and out the other side, pinning him off the ground and against the metal. Lazlo screamed again.

“Now,” it said, “please try your best to stay awake. I’m really hoping this will last.”

Tears began to flow from Lazlo’s eyes. The spikes in his body twisted. He screamed again. The arms began to move. The blades began to cut.

* * *

Somewhere along the tunnel Mark lost his hat and his light. His breath wheezed in and out of his lungs and his legs felt as if the muscles had been scooped out and replaced with lead weights. It took all his effort to put one foot in front of the other. There was pain along his side and across his chest. He cursed himself for the thousandth time for choosing a career that allowed him to sit on his ass for such extended lengths of time.

Up ahead the end of the tunnel began to glow. Screams echoed down the long and dark tunnel. Mark found it rather amusing that the so-called “light at the end of the tunnel” in this case was infinitely worse than the darkness which currently surrounded him. The sounds of Lazlo’s screaming were mixing with the background screaming of the tortured souls. Beneath that was a growling and rumbling that Mark knew, somehow deep in his mind, was the creature laughing.

Mark paused for a moment to catch his breath. The glow at the end of the tunnel pulsated and shimmered like moonlight across the surface of a pond. The glow was a faint blue. It would have been beautiful if not for the cries of the damned and the soon-to-be-damned. Mark wished he had a weapon. He reached into his bag and removed one of the explosive devices. He studied the device and soon realized he hadn’t a clue how the things worked. He hoped that the creature was still weak enough not to pick that fact out of his mind.

He gathered several lungs full of air and then summoned the last of this strength. He ran with all of his might and endurance into the tunnel. He had enough time to register the hideous creature and its multitude of limbs. He noticed the blood running across the floor and the wounds in Lazlo that they ran from. He even had time to notice the barbed ends of each limb before he drove the full force of his weight into the creature.

The impact was like colliding with a large sponge. The skin and tissue of the creature had an elasticity that was unlike anything found in a sane world. The many limbs flailed. Barbs ripped from Lazlo’s body and he fell to the floor in a heap. Mark and the creature became entangled. Limbs flailed at him and he felt his skin rip open in a dozen places. The creature rebounded against the far wall as Mark fell to the floor.

“Oh you will pay so dearly for that,” he heard the creature say deep within his mind.

Mark held up the explosive.

“I’ll blow this fucking thing down right now,” he said.

The creature let loose a kind of scream of rage that pierced Mark’s head and he let loose a scream of his own. He put his hand to his ear but it did no good because the scream was in his head.

“You’ll blow yourself to pieces,” the creature said, “and your bluff does nothing!”
“I know I don’t stand a chance of getting out of here alive,” Mark said, “so I’m going to be sure I take this whole rig with me and you too if I can. Even if I can’t, I’ll trap you in this place forever beneath a few thousand tons of steal and concrete you pathetic creature.”
Mark expected another roar. He expected another scream of rage to pierce his skull. Instead there was a soft rustling followed by an even softer voice.

“Mark,” the voice said, “put that down.”
Mark turned in surprise. Mark West had long ago given up on love. He had long ago resigned himself to the fact that love for him did not exist and that his life was meant to be one of solitude with his stories and his characters. Before he had come to this realization he had loved someone very much. He had loved a girl who lived in Canada just like something out of a joke. She had been everything to him. He gave everything he had to her and loved her more than he had ever loved another living soul. He exposed his heart to her the way you were supposed to if you believed all the fairy tales. He arranged his life around hers and planned to move out of the country once she had finished school. Never before and never since had he ever felt emotions so intense and so strong and when she had called him late one winter’s night to tell him she no longer wanted to be with him it was the most painful thing he had ever experienced.

She stood before him now. Every detail was exact. She was small with brown hair and intensely beautiful eyes. It was the eyes that he was drawn to. They were blue but they swam with red and black. He couldn’t look away from the eyes.

“Amy?” He said.

“Yes,” she replied. “I’m finally here for you after all this time. Now put that thing down before you hurt yourself.”
The sounds were in his head and he couldn’t think. All the hours of terror. All the lost hours of sleep. All of it was crashing into his head and once and his head hurt. The cuts across his body hurt and he felt blood soaking his clothes. He was so tired. It was so dark. His head swam with a thousand thoughts that he couldn’t push away.

Lazlo jumped from his right. How he could move at all given the loss of blood and the gashes across his body was beyond belief. He flung his body at the figure of the young woman. He swung the miner’s helmet and smashed the hard plastic down on the head of Amy. Mark had a moment of rage at Lazlo and then the feeling in his head cleared.

“Lazlo!” He screamed.

“Get out of here!” Lazlo screamed back. “It gets into your head!”
The creature morphed again. The face of Amy changed and the limbs tipped with barbs and blades erupted from her back. The face became distorted and extended. Limbs shot out at Lazlo and wrapped around his neck and lifted him off the ground. Lazlo kicked, sending droplets of blood onto Amy’s face. More limbs reached for Mark.

Mark held up the explosive device as the limbs reached him. The tentacles froze. The barbs and serrated edges hovered inches from his face.

“You went a little too far with that one,” Mark hissed.

There was another flash from Mark’s right. Karmen screamed in a way that was both fear, anger, fatigue and fright. Her blades came down on the tentacles in front of Mark’s face. The limbs severed and fell twitching to the metal floor. The creature roared and the tentacles ripped through Lazlo, slicing open his stomach. Lazlo tried to scream but the tentacles around his neck prevented him. His intestines spilled onto the floor and the creature tore him in half. The top half of Lazlo’s body flew at Karmen. She was sent spinning by the impact. Lazlo finally let loose the scream as his upper torso skittered across the metal floor. His hands clutched at his leaking body for a moment and then his eyes rolled back into his head.

J.D. reached Mark and put an arm around his waist and lifted him to his feet. Mark turned to see J.D.’s face. He had to be sure what he saw was real and he reached out a hand and felt J.D.’s face.

“What the fuck are you doing?” J.D. asked.

“Just making sure it’s really you,” he said.

“Stay out of the way for a second,” J.D. said.

Karmen was on her feet and both blades were out and shinning in the dim blue glow. The tentacles lashed at her. With amazing speed she dodged them. She spun and leapt and danced. The bladed tips and edges sliced through fabric and scratched her skin but did not let loose any torrents of blood or sever a limb. Karmen could cut as well and she moved with a speed even the creature could not fathom. The tentacles began to fall to the floor as she moved. The blades were flying too fast to follow in the dim light. The creature let loose with a scream as Karmen worked her way closer to it. She drew two blades across its face and burst apart one of the red and black eyeballs. Black ichor sprayed from the socket.

Karmen kicked at the shape and sent it sprawling against the wall. The many tentacles splayed out against the metal structure. Many of the tentacles ended shorter than they had been a few moments ago and spewed more of the black mess from inside.

“Karmen, down!” J.D. cried.

Karmen dropped to her knees. J.D. grabbed his sword by the handle and threw the blade. In the pulsating light the blade cast a crazy reflection against the gray walls as it tumbled end over end. The blade impaled into the center of the creature’s body. The blade, honed to an amazing sharpness over the years, pierced through the creature’s flesh and came out the other side. The metal end clanged loudly against the metal wall of the support and the body fell to the floor.

The body began to spasm. Karmen stood and ran toward Mark and J.D. The creature’s limbs twitched and writhed. The blade bobbed and weaved within the mass of flesh and limbs. The scream filled their heads and then the creature began to change shape rapidly. It was Amy. Then it was Joe. Then it was Iler. Then it was Larry. Then it was Lazlo. Then it was a million faces over a million years. The roar became deafening and still it writhed and beat against the metal floor.

“Do you really want to stand here and watch this or should we get the fuck out of here?” Karmen screamed.

J.D. tore his eyes away from the creature and looked at her. He nodded, adjusted his grip around Mark and helped the writer to his feet. Karmen took a spot on the other side of Mark and they ran for the tunnel.

* * *

They only ran for a few feet before Mark began running on his own without the need for any support. J.D. could feel blood running down Mark’s side and over his shoulders and face but the adrenaline must have been pumping through him so hard he didn’t feel it. Behind them the creature roared and writhed. The entire structure vibrated with the sound. The being they were fighting was not really anymore solid than vapor but it was weak and they had managed to wound it while it was weakened. Their resistance seemed to further weaken the creature. The vibrations seemed to indicate that the creature was getting mad and as it got more mad it gained strength.

The tunnel was darkness itself but they ran as one down the long tunnel. Their breath was ragged and irregular. Pain stitched across their muscles. Mark fell to his knees and Karmen and J.D. helped him back p and then Karmen stumbled at one point only to have her fall stopped by Mark. The roaring grew more intense and they all darted glances behind them and noted that the blue glow was getting brighter.

Finally they emerged from the tunnel to the other escape tube. J.D. immediately dropped the bag and removed the detonator. Karmen twisted the metal wheel in the escape tube and flung open the door. Inside was a tubular space lined on either side with chairs that had harnesses like something from a roller coaster. The entire chamber came to a kind of conical or pointed end. It was like sitting inside a bullet.

“Do you have any idea how to work this?” Mark asked once he peered inside.

“I think you can use the controls near the door here,” J.D. said indicating a control panel on the wall of the escape chamber. “You guys get in and strap yourselves in. I’m going to keep an eye on this tunnel here until we’re sure everything is secure.”
Down the tunnel the roar grew louder and there came the sound of rending metal. This was followed by a horrendous shrieking noise that did not end but mixed with the endless scream and pierced their ears. The creature was coming down the tunnel and the blades and barbs on the ends of its arms were scraping along the metal walls of the tunnel. The metal was bursting and bubbling from the size of the thing.

“It’s coming,” Karmen said.

“You guys get in,” Mark said. “Let it come for me.”
“What are you talking about?” J.D. said. “Get inside and strap yourself in.”
“Mark,” Karmen said, “let’s not fuck around here. Get in.”

“You first,” Mark said.

Karmen spared a look at J.D. and then shrugged. She stepped inside and made for one of the chairs. She sat down and dropped the harness around her shoulders and secured a belt around her waist.

“Get inside, Mark,” J.D. said. “I can try and hold this thing off until you’re in there.”

“And if you get killed, what happens to us?” Mark asked.

Mark stepped forward and grabbed the detonator out of J.D.’s hands. With surprising strength and force he bent down and shoved his shoulder into J.D.’s chest. J.D. let out a gasp and a yell and stumbled backwards. His heels hit the small lip around the door into the escape pod and he fell into the capsule on his back.

“Mark!” Karmen screamed from inside. Mark heard her start to unbuckle her belt.

Behind him the creature roared again, the scraping and bending and tearing sounds getting closer. Mark reached out and gripped the door as J.D. got to his knees. He swung the door shut and spun the wheel. He heard J.D. pound on the door from the other side. Mark walked over to the wall and pushed the button that filled the escape chamber with water. The sound of water filled his ears, momentarily drowning out the sound of the screaming creature and the scraping metal. He pushed the second button and a red light began to flash and an alarm began to sound. Mark heard J.D. scream something from within the capsule but the words were lost beneath the screaming and the creature and the siren. Mark pushed the final button and a roar twice as loud as that of the creature behind him vibrated the floor beneath and knocked Mark to he ground. Even the scraping and scratching down the tunnel ceased. The roar faded and Mark was left in the pulsating red light and silence.

Mark stood and felt his knees shaking. He grabbed the bag of explosives and walked over to the edge of the catwalk. He dropped the bag and saw it tumble the rest of the way through the darkness. He hoped it reached the bottom of the leg so that when the bombs went off at least one leg would rip apart from bottom to top.

The creature roared again. Mark began to climb.

* * *

J.D. pounded on the door and felt the stinging pain in his wrist and hand when flesh struck metal.

“Mark!” He screamed. “Goddamit, Mark!”

The sound of water flooding the tube caused him to back away from the door. When the sound began to diminish he resumed pounding.

“Sit down!” Karmen yelled. “He’s not listening! Sit down before he launches us!”

“He’s going to die!” J.D. screamed back and pounded again.

The pod lurched forward suddenly. J.D. was thrown off of his feet and he slammed into the far end of the capsule. His head collided with the wall and he saw stars and his vision dimmed. He heard Karmen scream but the roar of the launch filled his ears.

The capsule rocketed through the tube and emerged underwater beneath the rig and the raging sea. The force of the launch was meant to carry the capsule a long distance from the rig since it was assumed if the capsule was being used then the rig was in such danger being anywhere near it might be a risky venture. They traveled like a torpedo for about a hundred yards and then the momentum slowed and the buoyancy of the capsule took over. The pointed nose of the capsule tipped up and rocketed them to the surface.

Inside J.D. slowly slid down the wall to the floor. As they neared the surface the pounding waves and raging sea began to rock the capsule. It was now like being inside a huge clothes dryer. The capsule reached the surface and shot out of the water like a submarine with all the ballast tanks blown. J.D. was thrown against the back wall again, then the side wall and then the opposite side wall as the capsule began to bob and rock and undulate in the raging sea. Each wave crashed over the capsule and sent it back underwater only to have it rocket back to the surface again. Karmen was no help as she was forced to hold on to the harness just to stay in her chair. J.D. was battered against the walls.

Each wave began to move the capsule closer to the rig.

* * *

Mark moved up the ladder. His arms and legs were screaming. His breath was ragged and he felt faint. Blood ran down his arms and legs and made the rungs of the ladder slippery. Behind him the monster roared and the roar reached the escape capsule chamber.

Mark looked down and saw the creature. It was three times as big as it had been in the previous chamber. It was amorphous with tentacles flailing everywhere, some of them as thin as fishing line. Metal ripped to pieces at its touch. The face in the middle of the roiling mass of tentacles was a giant mouth rimmed with row upon row of teeth. Behind the teeth a tongue at least four feet long and also lined with spikes flapped and rattled against the sides of the mouth. Atop the horror of a face were two enormous eyes swimming with black and red. From inside the mouth came the sounds of the sound screaming in torture and these sounds were mixed with the creature’s own endless screaming.

“I see you,” Mark heard the creature say and realized it heard it in his head and not in his ears.

Mark moved faster, finding a reserve of strength he didn’t think was possible. His foot slipped from the rung slick with blood and he nearly fell. He caught himself with an elbow. He pulled himself back onto the ladder and started to climb. Beneath him the creature began to change.

The sound was like listening to bones breaking and re-breaking. The skin ripples and twisted and changed. The arms and legs contracted within the form. Legs appeared and then arms. Finally a human shape stepped forward from the shadows and the last of the flailing barbed arms disappeared. Amy stepped forward.

“You can stop this right now, you know?” She said in a perfect imitation of that voice he had so longed to hear on so many nights.

Mark froze in his climbing. He clung to the rungs of the ladder. He felt tears spring from his eyes and they were hot and burned against his cheeks.

“Goddamn you!” He screamed.

“Come to me, Mark,” she said, “you know you want to, even if it’s just an illusion. Let your last moments at least be ones of pleasure. I’ll even tell you I love you like I used to. I’ll let you touch me like you used to and I’ll touch you. Remember how I used to touch you?”

Mark lifted his head and screamed. The scream rebounded off the metal walls in the tight space and slammed back into his eardrums. For a moment the sound of her voice was gone. Then it was back, drilling into his head, confusing his thoughts. He could smell her. He could stick out his tongue and almost taste her in the air. He was so very tired. He stepped down a rung. Then he stepped down another.

“Just bring me that detonator, Mark,” she said and from the sound of her voice he could tell she was smiling that smile he loved to look at in the picture he always carried. “Just come to me and we can always be together just like you wanted.”
Mark descended.

* * *

J.D. managed to regain consciousness but all he became conscious of was pain. He was hurled against the roof of the capsule and noticed the Karmen was upside down with her hair hanging straight up away from her forehead. She was screaming but J.D. couldn’t hear it. His head was ringing.

J.D. reached out a hand and grabbed hold of one of the harnesses. He hung there for a moment until the capsule righted itself. His legs fell and he tried to stand. The capsule bucked immediately and sank beneath the surface. His legs gave out and he tumbled past Karmen and into the nose of the capsule.

“Grab my hand!” Karmen screamed as the capsule rocked the opposite direction.

J.D. reached for her and his fingertips brushed against hers. The capsule rocked and he fell away from her. His head struck one of the empty seats. His hands reached for the harnesses and felt them go past. His fingers were weak and closed upon nothing. He slammed against the smooth far wall.

Consciousness slipped from J.D. again. He saw the edges of his vision grow gray and then black. He was looking down a narrow tube at the interior of the capsule and that tube was getting narrower. He knew at that moment that he was going to be battered to death inside this space and with that knowledge he drifted back into unconsciousness.

* * *

Mark reached the bottom of the ladder and turned to face her. She was short like he remembered. Her hair was brown and beautiful the way it always looked in his mind, his dreams and his memory. Her face was beautiful and smooth. Her smile broke his heart into a million pieces. Her eyes were the kind of blue that men dreamed of, but there was still that disturbing red and black that swirled and dipped into the color of the iris. It could never get the eyes right.

“I love you,” she said through lips that weren’t real.

“I love you too,” he said and hoped that maybe, somehow, some way the real Amy would hear him and know it was how he felt.

“Come to me,” she said and opened arms that weren’t his and smiled through lips that weren’t hers.

He came to her and let those arms encircle him. He gripped the detonator in his right hand and clasped his arms around her. He closed his eyes and smelled her and, for just that moment, he let himself believe he was holding her again.

“You just never get the eyes right,” he said.

He felt the body tense beneath his arms. The skin began to change and it was like trying to hold onto a bag of mercury. The screaming grew louder.

Mark pressed the button.

* * *

The explosions started immediately around Mark and the creature. Mark’s body was blown to pieces in the concussion. He never opened his eyes. He felt nothing. The creature turned to shadow in his arms and let loose a scream as it flew down the tunnel and the world burst into flames around it.

The explosions were powerful enough to rip apart the joints and seams that held the crossbar and escape tube in place. The salt water rushed in immediately. The metal tore like paper. The other explosives began to go off in quick succession. The joints around the escape tubes went first followed by the explosives connecting the supports to the rig itself. At the same time the waves from the storm battered at the slowly weakening structure. The entire rig began to tilt to one side. Metal screamed in agony. Tons upon tons upon tons of steel and concrete and equipment suddenly found itself without any means to support itself above the water line. The pounding waves took over where weakened metal left off. The final explosions were in the explosive’s Mark dropped down the leg of the rig. They nestled at the bottom and blew apart horrifically. The bottom of that support leg vanished.

The rig did not drop straight down. The rig tipped to the side where Mark dropped the explosives. As it began to fall, the structural integrity of the remaining legs gave way and with a crash and squeal of protesting metal collapsed into the sea. The corner with no support hit the raging sea first. The crane on the deck flew off and fell upside down into the waves. The structure on top of the rig fell part as waves crashed into it and the momentum of its fall accelerated the speed into the water.

As the remaining legs gave way the rig tilted back upright for just a moment. It lasted for the merest fraction of a second as then the rig sank beneath the waves. The waves still raged and the rig broke apart as it fell. Thousands and thousands of tons of oil rig sank into the waves. More explosions from gas lines and equipment within the rig rocked the debris and blew what remained apart.

As the rig crashed into the ocean the wave it created was enormous. The small escape capsule, having been driven back towards the structure by the relentless waves, was suddenly tossed away from the area. Inside anyone or anything not tied down tumbled end over end as the capsule rolled and rolled and rolled within the waves. Once the rig sank the opposite reaction occurred. A gigantic whirlpool began to form, sucking in debris from all around the site. The capsule reversed course.

Beneath the waves most of the structure managed to stay intact. It broke apart half way, splitting in half as something inside gave way and something else exploded. Even with this the largest section of the oil rig fell straight down and came to rest with a muffled crash and grown directly on top of the hole that had been drilled only days before. The debris came down on what remained of the supports and the weight was more than the stubs could bear. They crumpled beneath the weight and flattened beneath the heavy structure.

Beneath the hole itself the creature screamed. The screams of the souls it had stolen grew in intensity as the hole from which it hoped to escape began to collapse from the impact of the structure and the weight of thousands. The walls of stone that created thee hole crumbled and fell in. Its screams became muffled and subdued. It raged and threw itself against the barrier of stone and steel but it would not budge. Darkness enveloped it again as it had for centuries.

The structure that comprised the top of the oil derrick began to fall as the rig’s momentum carried to the bottom. The oil derrick and drill structure heeled over and came to rest at the bottom. The building containing the residences, control room, recreation room and kitchen fell apart and collapsed into pieces on top of the platform. Pipes burst. Gas leaked. There were more explosions, which caused a further collapse of the hole itself.

The capsule was sucked backwards. The waves began to die down to normal levels almost as soon as the rig slammed into the bottom. The capsule stopped rolling over and over but it was still moving backwards. The capsule spun through the whirlpool and submerged. Water leaked through the seams of the covering and sprayed onto J.D.’s face. The capsule groaned as it sank in the powerful suction. The natural buoyancy of the capsule fought with the water and inside the capsule shuddered.

As the rig settled the suction lessened. With the buoyant nature of the capsule it sank slower than the other debris and it didn’t have nearly as far to travel back to the surface once the whirlpool ended. The capsule began to rise. Fortunately for those inside the capsule did not sink far because when the whirlpool ended it rocketed to the surface yet again like a bar of soap squeezed through a wet fist. It broke the surface on now-calm waters and a brightening sky.

All was now quiet.

11

Things got a lot worse within the capsule before they got better. The capsule rolled and rolled and rolled. Chaos reigned inside the capsule. Karmen’s body flung hard against the straps and harness. She screamed as the straps cut into her shoulders and stomach. She watched J.D.’s body fall and tumble around the cabin but was unable to do anything. As the explosions from the rig rocked the capsule and the suction from the sinking rig pulled them back and underwater, Karmen’s head struck the restraining bar and she was knocked unconscious. J.D. had lost consciousness a long time ago and his body flopped and fell around the cabin like something broken. Blood ran freely from his nose and his mouth.

Neither of them felt the capsule sink or the subsequent surfacing. It was a long time before anyone was able to move and even then, it was only Karmen that opened her eyes and looked around. The cabin appeared coated with blood and J.D.’s face appeared covered with it was well. He lay in the middle of the floor just at the end of Karmen’s feet. Her head pounded and everything seemed to be spinning. At first she thought that the capsule was still being buffeted by the waves and then realized it was the blow to the head that caused the spinning. Water lapped against the side of the capsule but other than that there was no sound.

Karmen slid the harness over her shoulders and undid the straps around her waist. Her legs gave out almost immediately when she tried to stand. She found herself facing the floor next to J.D. and a wave of nausea ripped through her. She figured at that point she had a concussion. She wondered what J.D. had.

She moved over to his body. He was still breathing and it was slow and steady. His eyes were shut tight and sealed with dried blood. Cuts along his forehead, cheeks and face had healed but coated his skin with blood that had since dried. There was no blood coming from his ears so Karmen figured that was at least a good start. His nose was broken and looked swollen and slightly twisted against his face. She wiped blood away from his eyes, nose and mouth. She noticed several teeth appeared to be broken behind his lips.

“You’re quite a mess,” she said.

Once she had cleaned J.D. and decided he was still alive for the moment she turned her attention to the capsule. It appeared as if the top of the capsule could be removed or perhaps opened in some way to allow fresh air in and rescuers easier access to those inside. She noticed the control panel near the back of capsule where the door had been. She braced herself for another fall and slowly rose to her feet.

The rocking of the capsule in the water combined with the concussion nearly sent her back to the floor. She held her balance and rode another wave of nausea. Then she stepped toward the control panel.

The panel was very simple with easy-to-read diagrams explaining what each button did. She pushed one and there was a hiss that made her jump back. The top of the capsule began to retract into the sides. Sky appeared above her head and fresh air flooded into the cabin. She marveled at the blue sky above her and realized not only had the storm passed but the sun had risen. She must have been unconscious for quite some time. The capsule now resembled a kind of boat albeit one with larger sides than normal and a bit more conical in shape.

She looked back because instinct told her that this was the direction they had come from and would be the direction she would expect to see the oil rig. She saw only open water. She felt a moment of profound sadness at the thought that Mark was gone and then she clamped down hard upon her emotions. She would have time for all of that later. Right now she needed to bandage J.D. and see if she could figure out how they would be rescued.

She began searching the capsule. Beneath the back wall and the small row of seats there she found several boxes bolted to the wall. One of those boxes was red with a white cross on it and she determined this was the most likely candidate for a first-aid kit. It took some time to fumble with the latches that held the box to the wall but she eventually removed it and opened the kit. She dragged the box over to J.D. and began cleaning the various wounds on his face and head and wrapping them in bandages.

J.D.’s face was swollen and bruised. He was still breathing steadily. She did her best to check for other fractures and thought she felt something give in one wrist and one ankle more than it should have. She also figured he probably had broken ribs. What she would not be able to tell is how badly the battering had damaged him internally. One of the pieces of equipment constantly lacking in a first aid kit was an x-ray machine.

Once she felt that J.D. had been bandaged and tended to as much as would be possible given what she had she set about trying to find a way to either get a motor started or send a signal for rescue. She recalled vaguely that when they were first trained on what they would find on the rig that the capsules were equipped with devices that would summon the Coast Guard when activated.

She removed two more boxes from beneath the seats. Inside one appeared to be some kind of transmitter. There was an antennae she could extend, a red light and a switch. She flipped the switch and the red light began to flash. She hoped that meant it was now transmitting a signal somewhere. Unconsciously she began to scan the sky as if she could either detect the radio waves themselves or as if the helicopters and boats would appear immediately. The second box contained a flare gun and provisions such as water and food. It looked like processed food packs like the Army distributed to their troops. Karmen shrugged and opened one. She began to eat an completely unidentifiable substance.

Karmen sat back against the wall in a small space between the row of seats and the connecting wall. She felt the soft rocking of the capsule. She was very tempted to fall asleep but forced herself to stay awake. Her head still hurt and she was still pretty sure she had a concussion. She remembered reading or hearing somewhere that people with a head injury shouldn’t be allowed to fall asleep.

The sun rose steadily in the sky. The day turned warm. Boredom set in quickly. J.D. continued to be unconscious. Karmen was eventually forced to find a blanket and cover him to prevent the sun from baking him. She poured water down his throat and made some attempts to wake him. There was no response. Several times she thought she heard helicopters or boats. Always the horizon remained empty. Other times she thought she heard the faint sound of screaming and torture but that turned out to be imagination as well.

She did not let her mind drift back to the oilrig. A few times she found her mind trying to force her to recall what had happened there. Already the entire episode had taken on an unreal light and feel in her mind. It was like she had spent a few days watching a movie of someone else fighting some demonic force. If not for the fact it was only herself and J.D. with very real injuries, she would allow herself to believe that it had been a dream. Joe was no longer here. Mark was gone. The pain of those losses tugged at her heart and mind but she refused to let them grab hold.

Sometime before noon and before the sun reached its apex the sound of rotor blades emerged from the sound of lapping waves. At first Karmen assumed she was hearing things again but then the sound came closer and became louder. Karmen stood and scanned the horizon. She spotted the dot in the sky and allowed herself a moment to feel relieved.

Later that night, as she lay in a hospital on the mainland with bandages around her own head Karmen stared at the television without really understanding what was being said and wondered what had happened. The pictures were meaningless. Pictures of Kevin Iler danced across the screen and hovered over the shoulders of the news anchors. She felt hatred burn in her for the man who had sent them in there knowing it was a lost cause but not caring because all he care about was the bottom line.

As the drugs worked their way into her system and into her brain she let her control over her emotions slip. She remembered Joe’s face and Mark’s smile and she began to weep. Her tears were tempered with anger and they burned her tear ducts and left hot trails down both of her cheeks. She wept for all of them including the workers she had never met and who had died because of one mans insatiable love of making money and total devotion to a company rather than humans with feelings and lives.

Just before she slipped away into the first deep sleep she’d had in days she vowed she would make Kevin Iler pay for the lives he had cost.