Hardcore Prawn Read online

  ‘But I’ll try,’ she said.

  ‘Excellent. I’ll pick you up in a half hour.’

  Marla was dressed in a black summer dress that hugged her figure and got Mendoza’s pulse racing.

  She seemed oblivious to his attentions, focussed on the job at hand.

  ‘So how am I going to show you where it is?’ she said.

  ‘Now this part you might not like. Ever been on a jet ski?’

  She shook her head, raised her hands defensively and backed away.

  ‘It’s fun, honest,’ he beamed. ‘And it would be doing me a big favour.’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ she said.

  He gently took her hand and led her towards the jet ski hut.

  The keys were still in his pocket and he’d chained the jet ski to the end of the pier, out of sight of the other cops.

  He helped her on the jet ski, taking a second to admire her figure.

  She looked amazing in a bikini.

  ‘I’ll drive,’ he said. ‘You direct and hold on tight.’

  She nodded.

  When they set off she whooped with joy.

  ‘Hey this is kinda fun,’ she laughed as they began to skip across the tops of the waves.

  ‘I think it was somewhere round here,’ she said.

  He took the lumps of bloody brisket he’d brought from home and began to hurl them into the sea.

  The jet ski bobbed up and down on the waves while they waited.

  ‘I don’t think it’s coming,’ Marla said.

  He shook his head too.

  ‘It might have been a bit further out,’ she said.

  He moved out a little more and again began scattering the meat on the surface of the water.

  ‘Maybe it’s too deep down,’ she said. ‘It might not be able to pick up the scent.’

  He nodded. ‘Makes sense.’

  They sat there for a full half an hour, bobbing up and down on the waves.

  ‘I’m sure it was around here,’ Marla said. ‘But it’s hard to tell. The sea all looks the same, doesn’t it?’

  He nodded. But didn’t say anything.

  She noticed that he still hadn’t spoken. Hadn’t taken his eyes from the tide.

  ‘Marla, I think we might have company,’ he said.

  She looked down and saw a huge black shape quickly growing larger.

  ‘Holy shit! That’s big,’ she said.

  The waves began to grow larger as the creature drew closer.

  The force of the water displaced by it almost capsized the jet ski.

  A long black tentacle poked out of the water.

  It landed on the edge of the jet ski.

  Began to pull.

  Mendoza floored the jet ski. It skidded out of the monster’s grasp.

  They got maybe ten feet away.

  Then the engine coughed and spluttered and cut out altogether.

  11

  ‘What’s happened?’ Marla said.

  ‘No fucking fuel. FUCK!’ Mendoza said, slamming his hand into the dashboard.

  The creature drew closer, moving fast now.

  It was maybe ten feet away from them and six feet under them.

  They watched, horrified, as it began to come towards them.

  Their horrified stares were diverted by a cacophony from closer to the shore.

  Mendoza looked up to see a familiar face; his partner, Crystal.

  Her blonde hair billowed out behind her as she powered the jet ski forward.

  She was steering one-handed, a machine gun in her free hand, flying towards them almost as fast as the creature.

  As another thick black tentacle grabbed the side of the jet ski and began to pull it under, bullets raked the water behind them.

  ‘Get your asses on here,’ she said as she pulled alongside them.

  She switched magazines and began firing.

  Threw Mendoza another machine gun.

  The pair of them began blitzing the creature as it began to rise out of the water.

  The quick glimpse they had of it was enough to inflict nightmares; a long pointed jaw. Obsidian eyeballs the size of a human skull.

  Pairs of clawed limbs seeking them.

  Worst of all was the mouth, a gaping maw ringed with thick black tentacle-like appendages that writhed, seeking its next meal.

  They opened fire on it as Marla climbed onto Crystal’s jet ski.

  Bullets clanged off the creature’s chitinous hide, seeming to do little damage.

  Indeed, it just seemed to enrage it.

  It let out a horrific cry and disappeared beneath the water.

  Marla helped Mendoza off his jet ski just as the creature’s immense tail came out of the water and smashed into the other vehicle.

  The hard plastic shattered like an egg shell.

  Marla had seen enough; she floored it and they shot away from the creature.

  It had surfaced again and was close behind them.

  Their bullets went into the water, still clanging off the creature’s hide, but doing little else.

  The creature came up out of the water, its head hitting the bottom of the jet ski hard enough to lift it out of the water a couple of inches.

  Mendoza raked the water with gunfire, took another magazine off one of the bullet belts which criss-crossed Crystal’s bikini-clad body.

  The creature ducked again.

  He looked around for it.

  Then it rose again, this time hitting the side of the jet ski.

  It wobbled, almost tipping them over.

  They were suddenly upside down in the water, the jet ski above them.

  Mendoza had no idea where he was.

  He saw Marla was floating beside him, a vacant expression on her face.

  Crystal was pushing hard on the jet ski, trying her best to flip it back the right way up.

  Mendoza could see she was wasting her time, so he began pushing too.

  It was hard going.

  But his priorities changed when he saw the creature was headed straight for him.

  A black tentacle grasped his ankle hard enough to cut off the blood flow to his foot.

  One sharp pull later, he was underwater again.

  Saline stung his eyes, distorting the features of the monster.

  The black eyes seemed to stare into him, pulling him into their shadowy depths.

  A huge mouth opened.

  The tentacles were dragging him towards it.

  He saw the lithe forms of Crystal and Marla up on the surface, the sun beaming down on them.

  They seemed a long way away.

  He swam with all of his might, trying to pull himself up through the water.

  Then he saw Crystal swimming down towards him.

  She had something long and white in her hands.

  As a cloud of bubbles came from the barrel, he realised that she had fired a harpoon at the monster.

  The spear clanged off the armour, but found a weak spot underneath.

  It sunk in, forcing out a billowing cloud of black blood.

  The prawn emitted a screech which was distorted horrifically by the water.

  The tentacles let go of Mendoza but already he felt them seeking him again.

  He swam for all he was worth.

  The hard plastic of the jet ski greeted him.

  Marla was sitting on the underside of the vehicle.

  The three of them managed to turn it over.

  Mendoza took the steering. The ladies sat behind him.

  But instead of heading for the shore, he pulled out, following the creature further out to sea.

  ‘Are you fucking crazy?’ Marla said. ‘That thing nearly had us for lunch.’

  ‘We should find out where it’s going.’

  ‘He’s right,’ Crystal said. ‘We need to nail this fucker.’

  They followed the creature for a while, until it disappeared completely.

  They tried to look for distinguishing features but it was hard since the place looked the sam
e wherever they were.

  Crystal opened a box on the back of the jet ski.

  She pulled off a flare gun.

  ‘Why didn’t we shoot that fucking thing at it?’ Mendoza lamented.

  ‘That would have been badass,’ Crystal said.

  She shot it into the air.

  It slowly sailed down, letting off a red shower of sparks.

  They waited a while, then they heard the roar of speed boat engines.

  The coast guard began to head out.

  A few cops came out too.

  ‘This is the last place we saw it,’ Mendoza said. ‘It was running away. If we search around here we may be able to track it down.’

  The cops shot down his idea, which just made him more determined to go through with it.

  ‘We need a dive team with harpoons,’ he said. ‘Hunt this ugly motherfucker down.’

  The official stance was that it wasn’t currently enough of a problem to warrant that level of treatment.

  They were doing their best to cover up the problem.

  Back on the beach, they were debriefed. Mendoza was shaking with adrenaline.

  Marla looked terrified.

  As usual, Crystal was cool as a cucumber.

  ‘We need to go after this thing, before it kills anyone else,’ Mendoza said.

  ‘We simply don’t have the resources,’ Slaine, his boss, told him.

  There was no sign of the creature over the next few days.

  The mayor declared the state of emergency to be over and reopened the beach.

  Life continued as normal.

  Everyone was wary of the sea at first, but, after a quiet week in Crimson Cove, they began to go back into the sea once more.

  Mendoza and Crystal were out on their jet skis a fair bit, searching the area which had been marked out with black buoys.

  They were prepared; loading their vehicles up with machine guns, bullets and harpoons.

  But the creature didn’t show.

  The official line was that it had been a shark attack.

  No one wanted to admit that they actually had no idea what it was.

  12

  A peaceful fortnight passed in Crimson Cove.

  Ryan Lucky – how that name would prove to be untrue – was out scuba diving with his brother, Guy.

  They had been wary of going in the water again, but Ryan had wanted to take a photo of this mysterious shark that had been causing such carnage.

  They both had an underwater camera with them.

  Ryan had a go pro fitted to his head.

  They reached the bottom and began to float out.

  Ryan looked back to check on his brother, who was a less-accomplished diver.

  He gave him a thumbs up.

  Ryan nodded and they carried on.

  They gently kicked their fins, wanting to conserve as much air as possible.

  Something moved in Ryan’s peripheral vision.

  He frowned slightly, readied his diver’s knife, but realised it was just a piece of seaweed drifting in the current.

  He breathed a sigh of relief.

  They carried on a bit further, and the ocean floor dropped away a little.

  They went down another five feet or so.

  The pressure began to pinch inside their ears.

  Ryan nipped his nose and blew out a little to equalise the pressure.

  The pain lifted.

  As he drifted along, his hand brushed against what looked like a black, shiny piece of coral.

  It was hard, like a crab’s shell.

  He found it strange, and took a few photos of it.

  He made sure his go pro picked it up.

  Then he took his knife out and tapped it gently on the strange material.

  He was puzzled by it. He’d never seen anything like it and he’d dived around here a lot.

  Too late, he noticed it move.

  And he’d realised he’d woken up the monster.

  He lunged at it with his knife, but his attack was much too slow.

  The creature had its front tentacles wrapped around his limbs and chest and was squeezing hard enough to make his lungs starve.

  Before he knew what was happening, his upper body was being thrust towards its gaping maw.

  As he thrashed, his go pro was torn from his head.

  His body disappeared from the shoulders up, bitten off by the creature’s powerful jaws.

  Guy watched the blood spraying around his brother’s twitching body.

  He turned and began to swim fast in the opposite direction. There was no point in dying too. It was too late for Ryan, that much was obvious.

  Guy grabbed the go pro, thrust the strap up his arm so it was snug around his bicep.

  He rose up as fast as he dared.

  A quick glance revealed that Ryan’s legs were poking out of the creature’s mouth now.

  Then his view was hidden by the billowing cloud of blood.

  He heard a distant rumbling above him.

  As he reached the surface, he began to wave his arms frantically.

  He saw a speedboat circling, saw a man and a hot blonde aiming weapons into the water.

  I’m safe, he thought. I’ve made it.

  Then the speedboat slammed into his head and everything went black.

  Mendoza cursed as he felt the speedboat buck as though it had hit something hard.

  He looked down and saw the body of a diver floating face down in the water.

  Blood was spreading around his submerged face.

  Mendoza grabbed the diver by the arm, hauled him onto the deck of the boat.

  He ripped the mask off.

  The kid was still breathing and had a faint pulse, but he was unresponsive.

  ‘Fuck’s sake,’ he muttered.

  ‘Well that was some nice driving,’ Slaine, Mendoza’s boss, scowled.

  ‘Accident. It could have been any one of us did it.’

  ‘But it wasn’t any of us, was it? It was you. It’s always you. You’re a fucking loose cannon, Mendoza. A liability. And I’m going to see that you’re not around to cause trouble any more.’

  ‘Fuck you. I’m the only one who has taken charge and got anything done around here.’

  Mendoza’s eyes fell upon the diver’s go pro and he pulled it off, hiding it in the pocket of his shorts.

  The dark shape was far below them. The rest of the other diver’s body was already consumed.

  All that remained of him was a blood-smeared flipper which gradually floated up.

  The creature didn’t come back up this time.

  Finally, they headed back to the shore.

  Slaine pulled Mendoza to one side.

  ‘I’ve got no choice but to suspend you until there’s been an investigation into the diver’s death. Although an eyewitness saw you hit the diver with the boat. We might finally be fucking rid of you this time.’

  Mendoza shook his head furious, stood his ground, insisting he was the man to sort this out.

  ‘We need divers, we need more man power. We can kill this thing, I’m sure,’ he said.

  Slaine waved him away.

  Mendoza got home and the first thing he did was pop a cold one and watch the footage of the diver’s go pro.

  It was eerie, the way the diver was moving through the water, not knowing that he was floating towards his death.

  Then the creature appeared.

  ‘What the hell is it?’ Mendoza asked aloud.

  He decided to send it to Roberts, a marine biologist friend of his.

  Roberts came over to his place, still wearing his white lab coat.

  ‘Well, I’m not sure how this has happened but it looks like a giant tiger prawn.’

  ‘A fucking prawn?’

  ‘Yes, I’m aware how ridiculous this sounds. It shares the features of a prawn, the same facial structure, the same limb arrangement, the same form. But somehow it’s mutated and grown to a giant size.’

  ‘I can’t figure this out, Robe
rts.’

  ‘It’s a headfuck for sure. I’ve heard of large prawns in these parts of the ocean, but they don’t usually get to this size. They also don’t usually come this close to the shore. They must have eaten all the available food and have come up the beach for food.’

  ‘A fucking prawn? Really?’

  ‘Yes. A giant mutant prawn.’

  Mendoza thought of what he’d seen the creature do. ‘That’s one hardcore motherfucking prawn.’

  13

  Mendoza thought up a plan.

  After reading up on prawns online, he discovered that chlorine was bad for them. And that they didn’t survive long out of the water.

  They needed to either find the giant prawn or lure it onto the beach.

  If they could somehow drag it out of the water there was an abandoned swimming pool halfway up the beach.

  They could put it in there and watch it suffocate on dry land.

  He called up Hank, the coastguard manager and they got some boats together.

  Crystal had all the weapons from the last time they’d been out.

  They brought diving gear this time.

  Mendoza was ready to see it eyeball to eyeball if he had to.

  They put on their gear and headed out to where they’d found the dead diver.

  The line of black buoys was still there so to mark the area.

  ‘This is it,’ Mendoza said as he snapped his scuba mask into place.

  They sunk beneath the waves, looking around them for the monster prawn.

  The water was murky today, lacking its usual clarity.

  Mendoza saw a flicker of movement from his side and he saw that the creature was headed right for them.

  He readied his harpoon.

  Waited until it was almost upon him.

  Then he fired.

  The spear shot through the water and punctured the monster’s eye with a hiss and a spray of dark jelly.

  The creature’s squeal was horrific.

  It began to thrash.

  Black sludge began to pour from the rent in its eyeball.

  While Mendoza watched, captivated, a flash of pain brought him back to reality.

  He looked down and saw that one of the creature’s clawed limbs had torn a gash across the belly of his wet suit.

  Blood began to stream out from the wound.

  Mendoza barely avoided its next attack.