Slimer

‘Still June?’ Shelley looked surprised. ‘It seems so much longer since… since…’ His voice trailed away and his face went blank. Then he suddenly smiled at them and said, ‘Please forgive me. I’m not myself these days. Oh, not myself indeed!’ He started to laugh. ‘Ah, amazing that one can still retain a sense of humour in spite of everything — at least I think it’s my sense of humour…’ He stopped smiling and blinked at them in surprise as if he was just seeing them for the first time. ‘We’ve got to get you off the rig. Yes, as soon as possible. For your own sakes.’

Alex took a step forward and grabbed Shelley by the front of his coat. ‘Listen, professor, cut the bullshit and tell me what’s goin’ on here! And where is that goddamn animal that made such a racket earlier?’

Calmly, Shelley reached up, took hold of Alex’s wrist and pushed his hand away. He did it without any visible effort and Paul noted the look of surprise on Alex’s face.

‘The animal is where it can’t disturb you again, I assure you. Now please return to your rooms. I’ll explain everything tomorrow. Goodnight.’

Before they could react he ducked back into the lab and closed the door. They heard the click of a lock and then silence. Angrily, Alex began to bang on the door. ‘Hey, professor! We’re not finished with you yet! Open this goddamn door!’

But there was no response from inside and finally he gave up. ‘Now what do we do?’ he growled at Paul.

Paul shrugged. ‘Do what he said, I guess.’

‘But how can we be sure that animal won’t come back?’ asked Chris.

‘We’re just going to have to take his word for it. Nothing else we can do until morning. But we stay on our guard.’ ‘Well, I don’t trust that mother,’ said Alex. ‘He sounded crazy to me. Completely off his rocker. I mean, what kind of scientist doesn’t even know what friggin’ month it is?’ ‘There was something very weird about him,’ said Chris in a hushed voice. ‘Didn’t you all feel it? The vibrations he was giving ofT — I’ve never experienced anything like it before.’ ‘Screw your vibrations,’ sneered Alex, ‘I’ll tell you one thing about the little creep, he’s strong…’ Alex rubbed his wrist. ‘He almost broke my goddamn arm.’

The next morning Dr Shelley had disappeared. The door to the lab was open but there was no sign of him. They wandered around for awhile calling his name then went back to the level below and had a breakfast of baked beans and coffee in the kitchen they’d used the night before.

No one had slept much during the night and they all looked pretty tired though Paul was relieved to see that Mark seemed to have made a recovery. His face had lost its unhealthy pallor and he no longer appeared feverish.

‘So who’s got any bright ideas?’ asked Rochelle as she spooned the last of her large helping of beans into her mouth. She had the biggest appetite of them all but never put on any weight.

‘We go and have another look for Dr Shelley,’ said Paul.

‘I don’t trust him,’ said Alex sullenly. ‘He’s up to something.’

‘Well, he was right about the animal — this “Charlie” thing,’ said Linda. ‘It didn’t come back again last night.’

‘I’d still give anything to know what it is,’ said Paul. ‘It must be one of their lab animals but what kind? The sound it made — I never heard any animal make a sound like that before, and we used to live near a zoo when I was a kid.’

‘Perhaps it’s a new kind of animal,’ said Chris.

They all looked at her. ‘What do you mean?’ asked Linda.

‘This place is a secret laboratory, right? Well I think they were carrying out illegal genetic experiments here. And that thing that tried to break into your cabin last night was one of them.’

‘You mean it could be a mutated rat or a giant guinea pig? Hey, come on Chris, that’s crazy. You’ve been reading too much science fiction,’ said Mark.

Paul said carefully, ‘I think Chris might have something. I think they were doing genetic engineering experiments here — ones they didn’t want anyone to know about. And whatever they made here got out of control.’

‘But what?’ asked Mark. ‘What were they trying to make?’

‘Only Dr Shelley can answer that.’

‘I think we should get away from this place right now,’ said Linda. ‘Let’s not bother looking for Dr Shelley any more. Let’s just get the hell out of here.’ There was an edge of desperation in her voice that Paul found disturbing. He reached over and patted her hand.

Alex sniggered at her. ‘And just how are we gonna do that? It’s a long swim to Scotland from here.’

Linda gave him a cold look. ‘There are lifeboats. Several of them. I saw them when we first arrived.’

‘But we’d be right back where we started,’ pointed out Rochelle. ‘I don’t fancy being adrift in a little boat again. At least here we’re warm and dry and have got lots of food and drink. And toilets.’

‘Their boats are much bigger than ours was. They’re enclosed and they’ve probably got motors too. And we can take plenty of supplies with us.’ She turned to Paul. ‘What do you think?’

‘It’s worth considering,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘If we can’t find Shelley by late afternoon perhaps we should just get in one of the boats and get out of here. I don’t like the idea of spending another night on the platform. “Charlie” might get restless again.’

‘Do you know how to launch a lifeboat?’ asked Chris doubtfully.

‘No,’ he admitted. ‘In fact I think I’ll go check one of them out right now. Its just occurred to me they might contain emergency radio beacons. It’s possible we could send out a distress signal. Anyone want to come with me?’ He got to his feet.

‘I will,’ said Mark, rising too. ‘I could do with some fresh air.’.

‘Yeah, you two hot-shots go have fun,’ said Alex. ‘I’ll stay here and guard the women.’

‘Huh. And who’s going to guard us from you?'¹ asked Linda, only half-jokingly.

Alex contrived to look pained. ‘I’m a very misunderstood person. It’s the story of my life.’

‘You’d better watch out your life story doesn’t come to an abrupt end,’ said Chris coldly.

He gave her an unpleasant leer. ‘Tough talk, baby. You shouldn’t speak that way to the guy who docs you such big favours. You owe me, kid, and don’t forget it.’

‘I owcyou? Like hell I do.’ Her face began to redden with anger. ‘You got paid a hundred times over, you bastard…’

‘Hey, let’s get on with it,’ said Mark hurriedly and headed towards the door. Puzzled, Paul followed him. Once outside in the corridor he asked Mark what it had all been about. Mark said he had no idea. Paul knew he was lying but didn’t pursue the matter. He presumed it had something to do with Chris and Alex coming out of the same room together last night. Whatever was going on meant trouble ahead, simply because it involved Alex, but he didn’t have the time to be worried abut it now.

When they emerged onto the catwalk they were surprised to see that the weather had deteriorated badly since their arrival the day before. There was now a strong wind blowing and a sizeable swell. They both stared worriedly at the grey, heaving sea. ‘I’m not sure I fancy going boating in that sea,’ said Mark finally.

‘Me neither,’ said Paul. ‘But maybe conditions will have improved by tonight.’

But when they reached the first of the lifeboats they realised it wouldn’t matter if the weather improved or not. The hull of the boat had been smashed in.

There were five other large lifeboats suspended from various sections of the platform and, as Paul and Mark suspected, they too had been similarly sabotaged.

‘We’re trapped here,’ said Mark as they surveyed the sixth and final boat. It had several gaping holes in its side. ‘Aren’t we?’.

Paul picked up the remains of the shattered radio beacon. It had been the same with the other boats — all the beacons had been destroyed. He sighed. ‘We’re trapped all right. Someone on this rig enjoys our company so much they don’t want us to leave.’ He threw the pieces of the transmitter back into the boat. ‘But we’re going to beat them. Somehow.’

Mark shook his head. ‘I don’t think so,’ he said bleakly. ‘I don’t think any of us are going to get off this rig