The Assemblage, Pt. 6 of 16.

         Nadine burst through the surface of the water gasping and assumed her companion had made her way to the shore and joined the others when she and the plastic jug were not in view of her clearing eyesight.  The hostile cryptozoan clearly saw her treading water, briefly resting, and moved ahead for the kill almost three meters, until it was distracted just in time by dull thumping noises from the boat below.  From behind, it watched her enter into a fine crawl stroke and swim away before it used its membranous tunic to descend for a more sinister investigation.

         Samantha had recovered her senses and promptly felt fear through them but did not make the sounds.  Her small room was a tossed shambles nearly a quarter of the way filled with water and leaking more in along the now-horizontal door frame.  The lock of the door itself fortunately held fast, but the overall seal of it had been weakened.  Now, it was a necessary barrier between her and the sea and more that lengthened her survival time.  She was bleeding a little from the inside of her mouth and left arm, but the throbbing pain of her many bruises was what hurt the most.  From the dim appearance of things about, her condition could have been worse.  

         She heard a faint steady bubbling above, just on the other side of the wall of the compartment, and when she slowly moved toward the window, the pain of bruised ribs made her cry out and reflexively put a trembling hand to them.  Her left knee, though protected from being scraped by her jeans, nearly gave out; she grasped a firm mattress support fast to prevent taking another tumble into the clutter.  Finally able to peer out of it, a whitish thin stream of bubbles coming from a narrow adjacent slit-like crack confirmed what her ears first detected.  However, the sudden appearance of the ri's mean face in front of hers seconds later frightened her as never before.  

         Samantha screamed when its big eyes, with large dark pupils magnified by the water and glass, glared at her, and she released her grip on the fixture instinctively as it opened its mouth to gnash its metallic-colored fang-like frontal teeth.  Its nose was small with large nostril openings, as if it had been flattened up against the angry face.  The adolescent girl was lucky to land mostly on an overturned mattress and pillows in the water but screamed again when the horrible thing beat a fist against the window again and again, harder and harder.  She coughed, spit some blood, and yelled, "Go away!  Leave me alone!"  

         It did not and continued its assault, but the tempered glass would not break.  Its other aquatic appendages were also even more insufficient to penetrate the barrier, and only when more pounding on her wall outside was heard did it stop its lethal attack.  Aghast, she watched the rest of its unusual form move by the window: the chest with large womanly breasts, the partially scaly sides of the slender abdomen, with a blue-green oval patch instead of a naval very sensitive to vibrations, a big filmy undulating tunic, and perhaps a dozen leafy long tentacles leading out of it from a tapered wide spade-shaped torso.  "My god!  What . . . is it?" her mind could only scream.

         She slowly got back on her feet and gazed at the window after it was gone from view, until a dull tapping noise to the left side made her flinch.  Then, her hands went up over her mouth to suppress another scream.  On the other side of the small round window of the locked door and barely above the gradually rising water, Dorothy's face looked toward her showing a desperate need for help.  Her eyes were agape, panic-stricken, and bubbles burst from her mouth when she opened it to try and form audible words -- pleas.  

         Samantha knew all the circumstances then and found herself in a dreadful paradoxical situation.  Should she endanger both of their lives more by opening the door and letting the water with whatever else in to smother them fast, or does she protect her own life for awhile longer and allow the unfortunate woman to drown or fall prey to the ri outside?  The choices numbed her frightened mind, but time was of the essence in making a choice.  The faster shrinking air pocket that provided life for the older woman would be gone soon.

         Dorothy's face was gone when Samantha turned in her direction and looked down again.  The window of the door was almost half-covered with water, and more of it of a warmer salty kind started to run out of her eyes as a shaking hand still covered her mouth.  The bubbling stopped on the other side of it within thirty more seconds, and she reacted to the new solitude like a person awakening to a loud alarm clock.  There was another reverberating thump, and when her face subsequently appeared on more time behind it, framed by her swirling honey-blond hair, Samantha emitted a forceful heartbreaking cry and knelt down in front of her.  

         Dorothy saw her at last and swiftly tapped the window and made an urgent "up" signal with a finger at her.  Fear and confusion followed.  Did she indicate for her to pull UP the latch on the door, show that there was no more air above, or to return UP to the surface with her?  Dorothy's eye's glared at her a bit, until a small burst of bubbles emerged from her nose.  Then, she knocked on the glass harder and shook her head to show emphasis.  For what?  Samantha reached up the door with her right hand for a few more long tense seconds, but was unable to unlock it.  Could she understand her dire predicament too, she wondered.  

         Dorothy finally moved her face away from the door window when it expressed a certain degree of pain in the growing effort to hold her last breath.  Samantha's showed a final one of dismay, as a wave of crushing unforgettable guilt swept over her.  She began to sob while slowly standing again, but a couple more faint dull thumping sounds raised her spirits next.  Dorothy was still alive and moving away!  She knew that the desperate woman would not swim well upward in her professional attire and disadvantaged physical condition but also knew that she had a strong will to prevail.  A surge of optimism sent her quickly to the the hull window, and she peered anxiously through it.  With her vital signs resisting pain, they showed elevated excitement upon seeing Dorothy in an arduous ascent above the broken hull.  It was a definite awkward struggle up, given the water's depth, and she surrendered more air and more buoyancy.  Then, the dark silhouette of the ri's otherworldly form appeared in the restricted field of view.

         Dorothy did not hear Samantha's loud contained scream and frantic efforts of warning below over the sounds of her own grunts and bubbles, and she remained unaware of the aquatic predator until her legs were drawn and held forcibly together snug within her skirt by its tenacious flukes.  Her upward motion stopped abruptly, she next surrendered most of her remaining air when her head was pulled and held back by the hair.  Instinctively, she tried to reach back and break its grip while shaking her head frantically, but the ri kept twisting her secured body around and about. She wisely knew further resistance was futile when it tightened the embrace close and squeezed her straining distended abdomen, seemingly in anger and envy.  

         In a persistent attempt at self-preservation, Dorothy closed her eyes, stopped doing any further struggling to save her little remaining air, and played dead, but the ri knew better.  It released its hold on her hair, but not her head, and began enclosing it in a strong clear sheath with a skill far better than any spider.  She felt the sleek smooth film firm against her soft cheeks but also the leafy flukes releasing their hold from her pelvis and thighs.  She anticipated to make one more strong move for the surface three meters above yet when her body was free, but the ri also suspected that and just continued to encase it completely in the snug membrane from six modified spinnerettes in the palm of each of its webbed hands.  The enclosure was thin, slippery, and terminated with a short nearly invisible "handle" shortly below her ankles, and she opened her eyes and discovered much by surprise to only be able to twist and squirm some.    

         The ri finally released Dorothy with a sharp tug downward, and her strategy to return to the surface was thus effectively suppressed.  The shiny fresh polymer stretched very meagerly when she tried to kick her bound legs and extend her secured arms; it did not tear to her random restricted clawing.  She uttered a last short grunt of defiance and then had too little buoyancy left to ever float upward, and the ri watched with satisfaction nearby as she shook her head a little more again inside the tight sensual confinement.  Her few further efforts grew more sluggish fast after she gasped once and again, and like the diminutive life within her, she bobbed slightly in the inescapable womb with each jerky vain move and was confidently left to drift away into oblivion and expire like a lost astronaut in the depths of deep space.


Continued to Pt. 7.