Death in the Water

To the Rescue!

The moment Matthew grabbed Miao he immediately began to start dragging her toward the river. By the time he was close enough to see the water, he suddenly asked: "Here now, what's this?"

While Matthew's group walked forward to see what had gotten his attention, Henry and Katharine both felt terror wash over them. They knew Matthew had seen the Peloneustes. What else could it have been? When they stepped forward to see, Henry's heart froze. It was indeed the Peloneustes, swimming around in the water like it was the master of the river. Katharine might have hoped that Matthew's plan to toss Miao into the river was spoiled by the possibility of the girl getting hurt, but Henry had known Matthew since preschool and even back then he had been willing to endanger life.

While Matthew might have been willing to endanger life, others of his group were not. Andrew Lee, a rotund fellow who was half-Korean and half-Filipino, the same height as Henry, and nicknamed "the Alp" due to a reptile-like skin disorder was the first to speak up, saying: "Matthew, lets find a different part of the river. That thing could hurt her or worse!"

Alas, the presence of Ella Caine only caused Matthew to be encouraged. Her skin was lightly tanned, her eyes teal, her curly golden blonde hair went down to the top of her back, her body athletic and she was an inch and a half taller than Henry. She was wearing a white button-down blouse, a red plaid A-line skirt and red loafers. Ella was many things and the list of what she was happened to be long. In her high school years alone, she dropped all of the work of a partnered assignment on Henry, manipulated another classmate to make Matthew anxious and usurped the cheerleading captain. At the thought of Miao being in danger, Ella said: "Hurt or worse? Marvellous! Cast her down, Matthew!"

"With pleasure!"

The moment Matthew hurled Miao down into the river, Henry dropped the digital phone and dived in after her. Katharine would have as well, had Ella not been quick to grab her by the arms. With a sinister tone, Ella uttered: "Sorry, tart, looks like your boyfriend is about to be the late Henry Branagh."

As soon as Henry hit the water, a moment of panic washed over him. What was he doing? He wasn't Tarzan the Invincible. He couldn't fight something like this with his bare hands. What was he going to do? What was the plan here?

Then the panic got worse.

As soon as Henry hit the water, the Peloneustes had switched its attention from Miao to him. It was now five feet away from him. What was he going to do?

"Swim, Miao! I'll distract it!" He'd distract it? How? That was something he wanted to... Alligators... Now there was an idea.

The moment the Peloneustes opened its jaws, Henry responded by clamping them shut with his hands. The opening muscles of an alligator's jaws were weaker than the closing muscles. Hopefully, the same would hold true for a ten-foot-long plesiosaur.

Miraculously, it did. Unfortunately, the Peloneustes proceeded to thrash its head back and forth to get its jaws free from Henry's grasp... And sure enough, it did.

As the clay swimmer moved forward to bite Henry, the boy moved to the and put the beast in a headlock. As soon as he did, a sheepish look fell across his countenance. This was definitely, not his smartest moment.

The Peloneustes was by no means an unintelligent creature and Henry knew that. As soon as Henry had put the clay swimmer into a headlock, the beast swam down into the river, dragging Henry along with it.

This was certainly being between a rock and a hard place. The Peloneustes could hold its breath longer than Henry could. If he didn't let go of the beast's neck, he'd drown. If he did and go up for air, the Peloneustes would get him. What a predicament! Had he been a character in a work of fiction, this would have been the time when some Deus ex Machina happened, one worthy of criticism most likely, but this was reality.

Fortunately, reality had a tendency to be unrealistic. Unfortunately, it was Carchemish who appeared.

Black as the night sky with eyes that glowed white and a pair of horns that pointed back upon the head, Carchemish was a creature out of nightmare. Ten feet in height, fifteen feet in length and with a wingspan that Henry could scarcely imagine, Carchemish was hardly the most colossal of beasts, but he was certainly big enough.

Upon seeing Carchemish, Henry let go of the Peloneustes' neck and proceeded to swim for the surface. He only looked back, just in time for Carchemish to clamp his jaws around the clay swimmer's neck. It did not take long for the plesiosaur's blood to start filling the water.

Reaching the surface, Henry swam for the riverbank where Katharine, Miao, Ming-Na and Matthew's group were now waiting. Ming-Na had her revolver drawn and was shouting: "Hurry up, Henry! Who knows when that winged thing will surface!"

The cadaver of the Peloneustes was the first to surface, rising up as soon as Henry was even three feet from the riverbank. As he took his first steps onto land, he looked back, as if expecting Carchemish to come flying out of the water and yet... He did not.

Running a hand through his red hair, Henry walked towards the waiting people. The first to greet him was Katharine, running over to him and throwing her arms around him. His cheeks reddening, Henry wrapped his arms around her. After they'd had their little hug, Miao took her turn and nearly knocked Henry over in the process. Once the hugging was over, Henry found Ming-Na approaching him.

"So, it seems you and Katharine were telling the truth about Carchemish rising from the dead after sixty-eight years." Said Ming-Na, crossing her arms. When Henry began to open his mouth, she then said: "Ned and Louis told us everything this morning. It sure is different than fighting the Annulus Band, huh?"

"The Annulus Band is completely mundane, just a human hate group." Henry answered, looking back to the river. Carchemish still had not emerged. "How are we supposed to know what he is thinking or when he will even appear?"

"Whatever the case, this isn't something you should dwell on." Giving him a smile, Ming-Na uttered: "Go and enjoy the day, be a kid."

Sighing, Henry could not help but feel that this was not the end of things. An alien named Moloch, Men in Black, Carchemish rising from the dead, a Peloneustes appearing in the river, he could not help but feel as if something was coming, unless, whatever it was, was already there.

"Hey..." Henry looked to his right where Katharine was, smiling at him. "You ready to return to what we were going to do?"

"Yeah..." Henry said. Then looking to Miao, he inquired: "Are you okay, Miao?"

"I've been better." Miao said, twirling the skirt of her dress. "But my dress is soaked!" Henry and Katharine both watched in amusement as Miao proceeded to twirl the skirt of her dress faster. It seemed that she was hoping this would dry her garment faster. When it became that the twirling was not making the skirt dry any faster, Miao looked at Henry and asked: "Can we stop somewhere so I can get a dry dress first?"

Rolling his eyes, Henry gave a nod. Hopefully, Miao would not be picky.