5/2 16:31

The light rain had turned into a downpour, and for the first time in years the Meuse River was overflowing its banks. Everywhere the cruiser passed, it threw up sizable sheets of water, and in several stretches the road itself was nearly invisible beneath it. After a long while, the sprawling recreation center finally came into view, two or three cars parked outside, lights burning inside — but not far off, the Meuse had swollen to twice its width, already washing over the road, its water racing and churned with silt. The sky had gone so dark it was nearly like night.

Hugo parked the car, opened the door, and stepped straight into standing water. He looked down — it had already risen to his ankles. Alligator or flood, either way, he thought, people should have cleared out of here long ago. On the other side, Kevin got out too, rifle in hand, looking around nervously in every direction.

"Soon as I've talked to the Sheriff, we're out of here."

Hugo said this to Kevin, then pushed through the rain toward the side entrance of the recreation center. He shoved the door open and stepped into the side corridor, where a smell he'd never encountered before hit him — but too anxious to give it much thought, he pressed on. The sound of the rain faded behind him as he followed the corridor to the locker room and showers, both lit up and empty, silent.

"Hello — Sheriff, it's Hugo. Are you here? Anybody here?"

Hugo called out loudly again, but got no answer. He pressed on toward the pool, wading through more standing water underfoot, thinking to himself that this really was turning into a full-blown flood. Step by step he advanced until he reached the pool, and he and Kevin worked their way along the wall to the middle of its edge. The pool had grown so large it was impossible to tell anymore where the deck ended and the water began; the surface reflected the white lights overhead, the blue beneath it clear all the way down. The floor-to-ceiling windows facing the Meuse had shattered entirely, and water was pouring in through them without end. Things floated on the surface, and in places the water had stained a different shade of deep brown. Hugo knew exactly what that meant — there was no other possibility. Some instinct told him to turn and run, but instead he saw a shadow beneath the pool, and he swallowed hard, forgetting entirely that he ought to bolt, and simply stood there watching the shadow drift closer through the water, until it rose halfway to the surface.

It was a shade of yellow, a dull, dusty tawny yellow, but far more striking was the blue down the center of its back — deep blue, several dark blue patches of varying size clustered together across its back into something like a totemic pattern. Its whole body was coated in an oily sheen that caught the light. Its eyes were solid black, like a gecko's. Four fins paddled beneath the water, a long, flat tail trailed behind, and its head was nearly the size of half a car — clamped in its enormous jaws was the upper half of a human body still dressed in a police uniform, and its mouth bristled with row upon row of white teeth, each as long as a finger. The thing was right there at the edge of the pool, watching Hugo and Kevin from less than a meter or two away.

"Is this the thing you saw?"

Hugo asked in a low voice, but Kevin only stood there, mouth hanging open, frozen still. Hugo had to hiss out a kind of signal to get his attention, and it worked — but the thing noticed them too. It narrowed its eyes and stared straight at them, still grinding down on the body clamped in its jaws, and the crunch of bone made it clear that for this creature, the task posed no difficulty at all.

"Kevin, listen carefully. It's blocking the way to the locker room. You and I are going to run for the stairs to the second floor, on the right." Hugo said this under his breath.

Kevin gave the faintest nod, then slung the rifle over his shoulder. The thing seemed to sense the small shift too — without any outward sign, it kept grinding away at the flesh in its mouth, but it rose a bit higher out of the water, and the corners of its huge, terrible mouth curled up ever so slightly.

"Run!"

The instant Kevin and Hugo broke into a run, the thing surged — no, more like it slid — up to the edge of the pool, cutting off the way to the locker room, then, paddling with its fins and tail, jaws thrown wide, it came gliding toward the two of them with terrifying speed, snake-like. Neither side had any thought beyond the simplest one — the men wanting only to get away from the thing, the thing wanting only to close the distance to the men — and in that first instant of contact, both sides already understood exactly where they stood, and what fate awaited the hunter and the hunted.

The finish line wasn't far — a vanishingly short distance, and yet it was the instant that would decide life or death. The stairwell was right there in sight, but the great mouth behind them kept closing the gap, until less than a hand's width separated it from Kevin. At that moment Kevin took one huge stride and lunged into the stairwell, scrambling on all fours in a mad, undignified rush upward — but the thing still drove its head desperately into the stairwell after him. Hugo, already at the turn of the stairs, reached back, grabbed Kevin, and hauled him inward, saving him from being caught in those jaws by the barest margin. The thing got its own forelegs jammed and couldn't force its way up the stairs, and unable to understand why it couldn't push forward, it let out a furious roar — a shriek every bit as piercing as a lion's. But Hugo and Kevin didn't linger to find out why; all they wanted was to put as much distance as they could between themselves and that shrieking, raging horror.

Kevin and Hugo ran up to the second floor, a long concrete viewing gallery overlooking the whole pool, its stadium seating stepped down toward the water, with an exit at the far end too. But right now all they could do was stare at the stairwell behind them, until the roaring stopped and the sound of something entering the water rang out through the otherwise dead-silent building. Only then did they let out a breath of relief, and, still afraid, crept to the railing to look down. The thing had already slid into the deeper end of the pool, circling there, but they could still feel it watching the two of them on the gallery with predatory intent. When they moved right, it swam right; when they moved left, it swam left. A standoff.

"What in God's name is that thing?"

Kevin said this, still shaken, but Hugo had no answer either. He studied the thing — it looked like some oversized yellow alligator grown fins, but unlike any alligator, it moved with an agility and a sense of menace no gator had. It could even turn on almost no radius at all in the pool, and that oily coating over its whole body seemed to let it glide over dry ground without any friction at all.

"Hugo, what do we do?"

"You keep watching it from the railing. I'll check this exit — if it lets out to the outside of the building, we leave straight from here."

Hugo walked to the exit at the far end, but what waited for him there was an emergency door chained shut and padlocked with a heavy lock. As much as he'd have liked to do what they did in the movies and shoot the lock to pieces, in reality he'd burn through his six rounds long before he ever managed it.

"Hugo, how's it looking?" Kevin gripped the railing with one hand, leaning his body against it.

"Not good. The chain and the lock don't look like they'll break. We need another—"

Right at that moment, a crack of thunder struck somewhere outside the building, and the thing burst up out of the water — its huge tail swept through the empty air of the recreation center, then it fell back with a heavy splash and sank beneath the surface. It hadn't landed on the gallery, but in that split second it had come within less than an arm's length of it. Kevin scrambled back in fright to the top of the gallery seats, while Hugo's eyes went wide and he backed away several steps.

For a long while after, the thing didn't repeat that leap. Was it testing distances? Or just a reflex to the thunderclap? Hugo didn't dare guess. This thing's persistence ran deep, and if they let their guard down even slightly, they'd lose what little edge they still had, in an instant.

The rain poured on with rolling thunder; through the shattered windows, the Meuse River in the distance looked like nothing short of a raging storm sea, sending wave after wave of ripples into the recreation center. The thing, cruising lazily below, showed not the slightest intention of leaving. The lights flickered, and the water level kept climbing — if they kept holding out here, and the water eventually rose high enough to let it leap in close, then hiding out up here wouldn't be much of a plan at all.

"Kevin, give me the rifle." Hugo's expression had gone dead serious.

"What for?" Kevin took the rifle off his shoulder and handed it over.

"I'm going to take a shot. If we keep waiting it out, there's no telling when it'll leap up here."

Hugo edged carefully to the railing. The thing was cruising slowly below, about two-thirds of it submerged, its vast blue-mottled back riding above the water. Hugo drew in a deep breath — the range was short, the target enormous, but his finger trembled painfully, and this rifle only had the one dart, with no guarantee it would even work, no guarantee the needle would even punch through that hide. But even so, he had reasons enough that he had no choice but to fire.

Hugo lowered the rifle for a moment, letting go of his aim, and let out a long breath. Then, in the next instant, he snapped it back up, braced it hard against his shoulder, and squeezed the trigger. The shot went off with a soft crack; the instant it hit, the thing gave a shudder, seemed to try to lift its head, then sank back beneath the water. It rolled once, bobbing between surface and depth, and before long it floated on its side, jaws half open, its yellow fins and white belly breaking the surface.

Hugo glanced at Kevin, and Kevin looked back at him in bewilderment. Hugo tossed the rifle down; it landed square on the thing's belly, but got no reaction at all — it just kept bobbing gently up and down with the water, drifting there near the pool's edge, close to the center.

"Let's go." Hugo said.

"Go where? That thing's still right down there." Kevin looked dumbfounded.

"The tranquilizer must have kicked in." Hugo started toward the stairwell.

"Hey, wait up, don't be reckless."

"I'm not being reckless, it clearly worked." Hugo stopped in front of the stairwell. "You coming or not? If not, I'm driving off without you."

Kevin scratched his head, and in the end gritted his teeth and followed after Hugo.

They passed through the dim stairwell and came back to the pool's edge, the very spot they'd fled from moments before. The water had risen above their ankles now, making it harder to move, and the power had grown intermittent, the lights dim, flickering on and off. But none of that mattered next to what they were about to do — walk right past that great golden-yellow thing. The drag of the water made every step heavy, and the pounding of their own hearts seemed to fill the entire building. It was right there in front of them; Hugo and Kevin tried their best not to look at it, but couldn't resist a curious glance to the right.

It was a broad, enormous tail, like some giant floating board, several feet long. The wide white belly beneath it was covered in scratches, and the two thick fins fore and aft connected to short forelimbs that looked powerful. Those black gecko-like eyes were shut tight now.

Hugo and Kevin waded forward step by step through the water, and the corridor to the locker room was right there ahead of them.

"Splash."

A splash of water rose up behind them. Hugo felt his stomach drop; he snatched only one glance backward before breaking into a dead sprint for the locker room. Kevin didn't even bother with a glance — he just barreled straight ahead, because at some point the thing had flipped itself upright and was now surging toward them, jaws wide, half swimming, half clawing across the water.

They dove into the locker room, but its wooden door had already been smashed apart — the thing had thrown its whole weight into forcing its way inside, and the wooden partitions were buckling and warping inward under the strain. Kevin and Hugo, soaked through and past caring, scrambled up and stumbled toward the side corridor. In that same instant the thing crashed through the partition and kept coming after them. Kevin and Hugo burst out of the locker room, and the thing got wedged for a moment against the inner wooden door — they sprinted for the side entrance of the building, and just then it broke through that door too, sliding after them. Hugo hauled the outer door shut and wedged a nearby broom through the tubular handle; the instant he let go, a tremendous impact slammed into the door, shattering its glass, snapping the broom in two — but the broken pieces still held in the handle. The thing's hideous face and long snout were right there, framed in the shattered door, roaring in fury, stuck fast.

Gripped by fear, Hugo bolted through the driving rain toward the cruiser. Just then he heard Kevin calling out to him from a distance; he ran toward the sound and found Kevin, keyless, already standing beside the car. Hugo fumbled the keys out, threw the door open, climbed in, jammed the key into the ignition, and tried to start the engine — but it only made that grinding, catching, refusing-to-turn-over sound, the kind that sets your teeth on edge.

"Bang!"

The crash of an impact sounded from somewhere behind them. Hugo, frantic, cranked the ignition again, holding it longer this time, while Kevin stared fixedly out the back of the car, muttering to himself.

"Bang! Crash!"

After the impact came the clatter of metal hitting the ground. Hugo didn't need to turn around to know what had happened — one look at Kevin's face told him things had gone very wrong — but all he could do was keep cranking the ignition.

The engine finally caught. Hugo glanced back — the thing had already burst out of the recreation center and was gliding toward them. Hugo stomped the gas, throwing up a great sheet of water, and pulled out onto the highway.