The Creeping Kelp

July 24th - The City on the Sea

Sometime later, Lieutenant Mitchell’s voice came over the intercom.

“We’re approaching the co-ordinates we were given. We need the experts up front here.”

Noble got up gingerly. He was used to walking around on boats tossing on strong seas, but just the knowledge that there were hundreds of feet of air beneath him made him more circumspect. Suzie had no such qualms and was already ahead of him and into the cramped cockpit, so he heard her reaction before he saw the sight for himself.

Bloody hell.

He heard Mitchell’s laugh.

“My thoughts, exactly.”

He saw why seconds later as he pushed past the Lieutenant and looked out the front windscreen. He knew they were out over the open ocean, a long way from the mainland, but below them was what looked, at first glance, to be a modern city of glass and plastic, tall skyscrapers rising in canyons along a grid of streets laid out in chequer board fashion. There were several blank areas, like municipal parks, dotted throughout, all a deep shade of green. as if planted with trees.

But those are no trees and that is no city I recognise.

The chopper descended slowly, the pilot taking no risks. Sleek black things shuttled to and from in the street, but this wasn’t traffic, not in any sense Noble knew it. Shoggoths, some grown to the size of trucks, went about some unknown business. The city stretched almost from horizon to horizon and must have been more than twenty miles on each side.

How in hell did they do this without anyone noticing?

He saw why when the helicopter turned and banked around one edge of a street that looked like it was under construction. The scene below was no less regimented than the marines’ preparations earlier. A line of Shoggoths carried plastic and Perspex materials across the kelp, while another group of the beasts seemed to mould and build, a small building going up even as they watched. They worked as one, as if with a single purpose.

Like an ant colony. I wonder what’ll happen if we kill the Queen?

Another thought struck him.

This is all new. It’s only taken them a matter of days, built during the growing panic on shore. What in God’s name will they be able to do if we don’t stop them?

“Over to you,” Suzie said in his ear. “Where’s this boat of yours?”

Noble looked down over the expanse of the city.

I was asking myself the same thing.

He could see no reference points he remembered from his vision and had no idea where to start. Then a thought struck him.

I’ve touched its mind once. Why not again?

He reached out with his mind and pushed.

Something below responded and once again, Noble went away, for a time.

He felt the grip in his mind, much stronger now, and was given a mental picture of the rusted keel, lying parallel to the edge of the largest of the parkland areas. At almost the same instant, the tide took him again, and he was floating, lost, in a luminescent sea, dancing to a rhythm he could feel pounding in his chest, lost with the Dreaming God.

This time he was brought out of it, not by a slap in the face, but by Lieutenant Mitchell shouting in his ear.

“For God’s sake, man, pull up!”

As Noble disengaged from the hold on his mind he felt a pang of disappointment, then a sudden burst of adrenaline and fear as he looked forward.

The chopper spun wildly. The pilot tried to right it, but he looked dazed, almost sleepy. Blood dripped from both his nostrils, but he did not have time to wipe it away, having to focus his whole attention on the bucking craft.

“Hold on to something,” the pilot said. “I’ll have to put her down and it’s not going to be pretty.”

Suzie grabbed Noble by the arm and dragged him back to his seat, where they tried frantically to buckle themselves in. The soldiers opposite didn’t look quite so sanguine about the situation now, but there was still no panic and one young marine even managed to give Noble a thumbs-up when he finally clicked the buckle in place.

And not a second too soon. The chopper bucked and spun and Noble felt like a sock in a tumble dryer.

But only for two seconds.

“We’re going in,” the pilot screamed in his ear.

There was a shattering crash and everything went away again. This time there were no dreams, no visions, just a deep, unending blackness.

He came back out of it into a chaotic world of screaming and gunfire. Someone had him by the shoulders and he was being dragged bodily across cold metal. He tried to stand.

“Stay down,” somebody shouted at him, a tone that brooked no argument.

More shots were fired, almost deafening. His back hit what felt like a lip, then he fell into open air, arms flailing.

The fall was short and his landing, surprisingly soft. He found out why when he finally got his legs under him and stood. He was on a sheet of what felt like soft plastic. In some places it was clear, with dark water visible many feet below, and in other places the plastic was punctuated with pictures, or pieces of paper, labels from whatever piece of refuse had been used in the construction. The closest piece to his feet advertised a well-known brand of lemonade. But he had little time for study. The gunfire started up again and when he turned towards it, he saw what had happened. The chopper had crashed, embedding itself partially in the plastic material of the ground. It looked like the crew were all out safely, but even now, they were being forced to back away from the crashed craft as the black forms of the kelp-covered Shoggoths tried to crawl over it, intent on assimilating whatever pieces of it they could eat.

The soldiers poured volley after volley into the vegetation, to no effect.

“Break out the acid,” Noble heard Mitchell shout.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. Suzie stood there, her face pale, which only accentuated the redness of the line of blood that ran from her hairline down the left side as far as her earlobe.

Three of the marines strapped on what looked like oxygen tanks attached to short, almost pistol-like hand-held hoses.

“Fire at will,” Mitchell shouted.

Like firemen hosing flames, the marines sent a spray of acid over the Shoggoths nearest the chopper. The result was immediate. The vegetation retreated fast, pulling away from the falling fluid, leaving bubbling and hissing fragments behind where the acid hit its target.

Noble let out a small involuntary yelp of triumph, but he had celebrated too soon. The ground buckled beneath them, like a beast in the throes of pain. The marine nearest Noble, one with an acid tank on his back, fell heavily. The plastic beneath him opened like a mouth and closed again, tight, around the soldier’s waist. The man immediately started to scream. That, too, was short lived. Blood ran from his lips. He coughed, once, and the blood became a fountain. The plastic snipped –and the marine’s upper torso fell forward, cleanly cut away from the part that was embedded in the surface underfoot.

Suzie stepped forward. At first, Noble thought she was intent on trying to help the man, but he soon saw what she meant to do.

She means to take the acid tank.

Noble moved to get there first. The ground buckled again as he tried to un-strap the tank from the dead weight of the torso. Suzie steadied him and helped him strap the tank on, the weight of it threatening to overbalance him until he found the trick of redistributing his centre of balance by leaning slightly forward.

The ground bucked again, a series of mouths appearing around them, as if something was fishing—fishing for men.

Mitchell called out.

“To me. Fall back.”

Noble didn’t have to be told twice. He followed as Mitchell led the team away from the chopper and the opening mouths. The Shoggoths wasted no time in slithering over the chopper. In seconds, it had disappeared under a mound of kelp.

Noble saw Mitchell look back and caught the brief, but obvious, despair that showed on his face. Just as obvious, was the way the young officer pushed it away to focus on the survival of his team.

“In here,” the Lieutenant said and stood to one side, motioning at a semicircular opening in one of the buildings. Noble and Suzie held back, at first, but the marines, used to obeying first and asking questions later, showed no hesitation, filing through and taking positions so that each man was covered by another. Noble was last in.

By the time he turned and looked outside, he could no longer even see where the chopper had been. Several Shoggoths crawled lazily over what was once again a smooth, even surface. They seemed to have lost all interest in the occupants of the craft and were now dispersing to different parts of the city.

Noble turned to Mitchell and motioned at the backpack he carried.

“Tell me we’ve got a radio?”

Mitchell shook his head.

“I’m carrying enough C4 to blow a hole in the planet. But the only radio with the range needed to get a message to the mainland was on the chopper. We’re on our own.”

“What about a rescue?”

Mitchell looked Noble in the eye and said nothing. He didn’t have to.

Looks like this was a one way trip.

He looked around the room. They seemed to have come in the only thing that might resemble an entrance or exit. In fact, Noble thought the whole chamber might be no more than an artefact of the way the structure had been built by the Shoggoths, rather than any attempt to make a room, as such. The place was built out of more of the recycled plastics, the walls looking like a patchwork of stained glass windows of different coloured materials and papers, with thin sunlight and scudding clouds laying multi-fractal patterns all around them. It was strangely beautiful, but at the same time terrifying in its sheer strangeness.

Suzie seemed rapt and had turned on her full-on science geek mode. The eight marines, on the other hand, were all business.

“What’s the plan, Lieutenant?” Noble asked, as one of the marines helped him out of the harness and took the tank from him.

Mitchell was still looking out over where the chopper –and the dead marine—had disappeared from view.

“We came here to do a job. That hasn’t changed.”

He turned to Noble.

“How’s your sense of direction? You said the boat was on the edge of a large park?”

Noble nodded and pointed to where he hoped was West.

“That way. But it’s a bit of a walk, if I’m right. At least a mile.”

Mitchell grinned.

“This team walked more than that through hostile territory in Tehran. I think we can handle it.”

As one, the marines replied.

“Yes sir!”

Noble looked out over the street. A single Shoggoth slumped along on the far side, carrying a lump of black plastic almost as big as itself. There was no other sign of movement.

“It’s as if they don’t see us as a threat,” Suzie said at his side.

Mitchell came to stand beside them.

“Let’s see if we can do something about that,” he said, then called to his team. “Okay lads. Saddle up. We’re moving out.”

Noble and Suzie fell into the middle of a line of Marines and Noble’s grip on Suzie’s hand tightened as they walked into the street.

The city could almost have passed for any on the mainland on a quiet Sunday morning.

Almost.

It was only when Dave looked closer that he could see the mosaic of recycled material, or a piece of plastic from something he nearly recognised. At some points, he was able to make out a roiling, seething sea beneath, but the ground, such as it was, felt firm enough underfoot. No matter how normal it all seemed, this was far from a Sunday stroll. The men around were tense and sullen, ready to avenge their dead. A piece of plastic crackled on their left-hand side and before Mitchell could stop him, one of the marines hosed the whole area with acid.

Everything went quiet for the space of several seconds. A thin column of acrid smoke wafted above them before being dispersed in a light breeze. And on the same breeze, came a response, a high keening sound that Noble was coming to know—fear.

Tekeli Li. Tekeli Li.

“Run,” he shouted to Mitchell. “We need to get out of here. Right now.”

To his credit, the Lieutenant did not hesitate.

“Move out. And heads up. We’ve got incoming.”

The small squad broke into a run. Noble and Suzie kept pace in the middle of the team, hard pressed to maintain their positions as they ran through streets that suddenly seemed even less inviting than previously.

“Where are we going?” Suzie shouted, but Noble had no answers. Nor, it seemed, did the Lieutenant. It all became moot seconds later. Noble looked up and saw two hulking black shapes block the road ahead. The squad turned back. Three more Shoggoths blocked their retreat.

“Looks like they’ve woken up. We’re a threat now, right enough,” Noble said.

The Lieutenant wasn’t listening. He was making a visual sweep of the area.

“Over here,” he shouted. “Follow me.”

He led them to a squat structure to their left, one that had a small opening, big enough for the squad to pass through, and too small for any of the beasts to enter. The Lieutenant herded them all inside and put a man with an acid tank at the door. The Shoggoths slumped forward, but stopped in front of the structure’s entrance, showing no sign of any attack, no will to come any closer.

But it doesn’t look like they’re going to let us go anywhere soon.

The Lieutenant was in no mood to be caught in a trap. “Enough of this,” he said. “Let’s hit them and see what they’ve got. I won’t die hiding in a hole.”

Noble felt a tickle in his mind and immediately knew what it was and where it was coming from.

“I’ve got a better idea,” he said. He pointed at the far wall. “Can we go through there?”

It turned out they could. It took a wash of acid and it sent out fumes that nearly choked them. But minutes later, they had made a hole in the wall. It opened out into a larger open area beyond, a long cavernous space that stretched away from them into the darkness. Noble, Suzie, and the Lieutenant hung back as the eight marines went through, but Noble already knew that it was safe.

It wants us to come. It’s waiting for us.

He didn’t know how he knew, he just knew. Just as he knew exactly which direction to head for.

The city seemed to have been built purely to accommodate this high vaulting space. They walked through it in silence, each of them unwilling to break the almost church-like silence. Dim light, multi-coloured and always shifting, came through from high above, as if filtered through stained glass. It only further reinforced the almost religious nature of the space.

Noble’s eyes adjusted to the light, enough that he started to see that the space was not empty. The Shoggoths had built more than just buildings. Tall shapes littered the floor nearby, shapes that looked like sculpture, but not of anything of this world. One shape above all dominated the space, a stocky barrel with a five-pointed appendage on top. There were hundreds of them, all in various stages of development. Some had what looked like wings attached, long wide expanses of gossamer thin plastic that seemed to move in the shifting light.

But somehow the statues didn’t seem worthy of too much attention. All Noble wanted to do was keep walking, heading in a straight line for some unknown destination. He felt dissociated from reality; strangely calm, while at the same time, screaming silently inside.

We’re walking into a trap.

He knew it and he suspected his companions knew it, but they all walked, eyes staring flatly ahead, heading for a point in the darkness at the far end of the space they had entered.

He was brought back to reality by a pain in his hand. Suzie had him in a grip so tight that he thought his fingers might break.

“Fight it,” she whispered through clenched teeth. “We must fight it.”

He found he was able to look around. They had walked further than he had thought.

Much further.

The entrance by which they’d come in to this chamber was lost in a dim distance. Light still filtered in from high overhead, but it was dimmer now than before.

The sun is going down.

The young Lieutenant walked just beyond Suzie. His jaw was set in a grimace and sweat ran down his forehead, but he did not seem able to stop walking.

Help me!

Noble tried to deviate from his path, to move towards the officer, but he found that, although he was able to move his head from side to side, that was all he was able to do. The compulsion that held sway in his mind had control and led him, and the others, onwards into the growing darkness.

It soon became apparent where they were going. At first, it looked like just another darker shadow, but as they approached, the rusted hull of a cargo ship loomed over them. It sat half-embedded in a thick sheet of rough plastic, looking as if it were afloat on a quiet, dark sea. But it was obvious that this vessel had not been seaworthy for a while—a hole in the keel wide enough to allow a truck to pass through attested to that. The hole was darker still than the surrounding chamber and Noble felt a chill seep into him as they were led inside.

He expected it to be fully dark as they made the transition to an interior space, but if anything, it was slightly lighter inside.

They walked into what had obviously been a cargo hold and suddenly, Noble remembered the words from more than half a century before.

I worry about breakages.

It was immediately apparent that the Shoggoths had built more than just the city around them. The hold was a cavern of ever-moving light, a luminescence that seemed to come from a spot in the centre of the space.

As they got closer, Noble started to make out details. It looked like nothing less than a blob of protoplasm, an amoeba grown to monstrous size. But as they approached, they could see that this was no natural construct. Its skin, if you could call it such, was a thin translucent sheet of polythene, ever shifting as the fluid contents inside flowed and swam. Deep inside, almost invisible in the viscous fluid, there was a darker spot the size of a football.

And that’s what has hold of us.

They were brought to a halt only six feet from the thing’s perimeter—all but one of them. One of the marines kept walking, straight at the thing. It surged and enveloped him in folds of plastic. He immediately started to melt. His face took on a contorted, pained expression, but no more than it would if he’d had a toothache. Even as his flesh sloughed off he kept walking forward. It all took place in complete silence and none of the marine’s companions moved to help him. Suzie’s grip on Noble’s hand tightened, but that was the only sign of anything amiss.

They all stood watching as the young marine was assimilated, broken down into first meat and bone, then further digested, until all that remained to show he’d been there was a scrap of khaki cloth and a pink stain in the fluid matrix. His weapon seemed to hang for a while in the fluid before sinking slowly towards the ground.

The last hint of pink slowly faded. In the far distance, the now-familiar chant went up again.

Tekeli Li. Tekeli Li.

Noble felt Suzie’s grip loosen on his hand.

She started to walk forward.

He screamed in his mind

No!

But no sound came from his mouth. Suzie was within touching distance of the plastic skin of the creature. The thing shifted, opening a passage for her to walk in so that it could then enfold her.

Noble remembered the scrap of burnt material in the jar back in the lab and the way it had recoiled from him when he concentrated. He filled his mind with a picture of the kelp burning as the acid hit it and threw it towards the darker spot inside the fluid.

It flinched.

Noble reached out and found he was able to move. He grabbed Suzie by the arm and dragged her backwards, just in time as the creature surged towards her. Wings of stretched polythene opened above both Noble and Suzie.

We’re done for.

But the momentary lapse in the creature’s grip on them had allowed the marines to move. The air filled with the tang of acid and the polythene wings melted away, thick viscous fluid washing to the ground.

“Kill it,” Noble heard the Lieutenant shout. More acid sprayed, but not quickly enough. Something small and dark scuttled away into the shadows. The grip left Noble’s mind completely and he was able to move freely.

“Incoming,” a marine shouted and they turned towards the shout.

A wall of kelp writhed wildly in the hole in the keel through which they’d entered and was pushing its bulk through into the hold. One of the men carrying an acid pack ran forward to hose the kelp down, but despite the fact that pieces of it fell, charred and smoking, the bulk of the thing kept coming. It fell on the man from a height. He managed one last spray of acid before disappearing inside a mass of vegetation with a hiss and a stink of burnt meat.

The kelp came on fast.

“Get to the stairs,” the Lieutenant shouted. He pushed Noble and Suzie away from the onrushing vegetation. Noble hadn’t even noticed there were stairs, but now saw a flight of rusted steps leading up into the gloom. He was considering the risk of venturing onto a structure that had been under water so long, but Suzie had no such qualms.

“Come on,” she shouted. “We have to find it. Find it and kill it before it starts to grow again.”

That didn’t sound like much of a plan to Noble, but the continued surge of Shoggoth material and kelp in the hold made it a moot point. They were forced into retreat and the stairs were their only avenue of escape.

Noble and Suzie only just got there in time. The marines weren’t so fortunate.

They defended a line just at the foot of the steps, buying enough time for Noble and Suzie to escape. The kelp didn’t give them any respite. It came on in a tall wall, as implacable and unstoppable as a Tsunami. The Lieutenant was the closest to Noble and he was the only one to join them on the stairs. The other marines were all swallowed and swept away in a tide of writhing vegetation, with no hope of rescue. The last Noble saw was a single arm thrusting up through the fronds, a fist clenched around something round the size of an apple.

“Run,” the Lieutenant shouted.

They took the stairs two at a time and only just made it to the top when the grenade went off with a blinding flash and a blast that rocked the whole rusted keel and almost sent them tumbling back down into the kelp. When Noble’s eyes adjusted, he looked down into the hold.

The blast had left a smoking crater in the kelp, a hole some ten feet wide that was filling with seawater. The kelp was already moving pieces of plastic in to try to fill the breach, but the gush of water was too strong.

The hold started to flood.

Lieutenant Mitchell didn’t hesitate.

“Follow me,” he said. “We need to find the fuel tanks in this old girl and hope she’s still carrying a load.”

Noble didn’t need to ask; he remembered the young officer’s words just after the chopper crashed.

I’m carrying enough C4 to blow a hole in the planet.

Mitchell led them along a badly rusted corridor that was slimy underfoot with rotted seaweed. Noble watched it carefully, but it showed no signs of being alive. He was still holding Suzie’s hand, but she had a far-away stare. He thought she might be in shock at what they’d witnessed, so she surprised him when she stopped suddenly and spoke in a loud stage whisper.

“We’re going the wrong way. It’s behind us now. I can feel it.”

And now that she mentioned it Noble realised that he too could sense it, a feather-like touch probing at his mind. He pushed it away and it stayed away.

We’ve weakened it.

He didn’t have time to celebrate. The old ship lurched beneath them.

“Does this thing have lifeboats?” Noble asked, more in jest than hope. Mitchell took him seriously.

“I’m hoping so… for your sake.”

That doesn’t sound good.

Mitchell didn’t stop to explain. He looked Suzie in the eye.

“I don’t care where it is,” he said. “It’s on this hulk. That’s enough. If I take out the boat, nothing’s going to survive.

That doesn’t sound good at all.

They followed Mitchell through the rotting shell of the boat. Bits of it were in bad shape, and in places the Shoggoths had obviously tried to patch the damage with plastic, giving the whole thing a strange, patchwork appearance. He saw Suzie looking. In other circumstances, she would happily have spent hours investigating, but now, when he pulled her away, she followed.

They had to move quickly to keep up with Mitchell. They were moving fast along a badly rusted corridor when the boat lurched again and settled at a definite tilt. The sound of rushing water came from somewhere deeper in the boat, getting louder, more insistent.

“Whatever you’re going to do, do it fast,” Noble said to Mitchell.

The officer looked towards the source of the sound and then seemed to come to a decision.

“There’s no time to look for the fuel tank now. Get up on deck and look for a lifeboat. I’ll stay here and take the thing down.”

To Suzie’s credit, she didn’t argue and Noble could see in the man’s eyes that to do so would be futile. She gave him a quick hug and Noble shook his hand. When they turned to leave, he had already taken off the backpack and removed several packs of plastic explosive and a small box of detonators.

“Get as far as you can,” Mitchell said. “It’s going to be one hell of a bang.”

Suzie stopped and turned back.

“We need to be sure you get it.”

Mitchell nodded.

“I know, Miss. I hope the bang is big enough.”

She shook her head.

“Hope won’t do. We have to lure it close.” She looked Noble in the eye. “We have to stay. It’ll come, if we tell it where we are.”

Noble knew what she was asking.

But I have another idea.

“We could lie,” he said and saw the dawning realization in her eyes.

She turned back to Mitchell.

“Someone still has to stay here, though,” she said.

Mitchell nodded.

“That’s my job. I’ve got my lads to revenge.”

She hugged him again and then took Noble’s hand. Noble nodded once more to Mitchell, then led Suzie away. He didn’t mention the tears in her eyes and she didn’t mention the ones in his.

They arrived on the top deck of the boat just as it took a violent lurch. The keel listed suddenly. Water lapped across the gunwales and there was a screech of tearing metal. There was just enough light to see that this whole area of the plastic city was being dragged down into the sea and the old boat was going to go along with it.

At first sight, there was no sign of any life rafts along the whole length of the boat, but a cry from Suzie alerted him to a solitary craft hanging by one chain on the starboard side. It took a matter of seconds to release it from its moorings, but by that time, the water around them was seething with a white churn and the old ship rocked and rolled.

Now or never.

He bundled Suzie into the life raft and was about to lower it into the water when he felt the tug in his mind.

Pain brought him back as Suzie raked her fingernails across the back of his hand.

“We don’t have time for this shit,” she said. “You know what we need to do.”

Indeed, he did. He lowered the life raft and Suzie started sculling frantically with an oar to maintain the small craft’s balance in the water. Noble jumped down into the water. The current tried to suck him away and he had a bad moment when he made a grab for the oar and missed, but seconds later, Suzie helped drag him into the life raft. They started to drift, slowly at first, then faster, the current taking them away from the badly listing ship. Pieces of plastic started to fall from above as the city came apart around them. Dark shapes surged and sped in the water, Shoggoths trying to repair the damage. But the sea was too strong, even for them.

Suzie touched his hand.

“Do you think Mitchell is still alive?”

Noble reached with his mind, searching for contact. It came immediately. This time he was ready for it. He sent an image, of the three of them in the corridor at Mitchell’s position, three figures standing, waiting. He sensed the creature’s eagerness, felt it speed through the hull.

Suzie took his hand.

Everything went white as the ship blew.

The aftermath was strangely anticlimactic. Their rubber life raft was tossed violently through surging waves and a large piece of thick plastic falling from above missed them by less than a foot, where it could easily have driven straight through the dinghy.

But within seconds, it was all over. They bobbed amid a sea of plastic and burnt vegetation. Interspersed with the rubble were patches of black tar. Suzie prodded one with the oar. It sank.

While Suzie checked the on-board survival box, Noble probed with his mind, but nothing replied.

It was three hours before a chopper appeared overhead and they were lifted to safety. As they banked away, Noble took one last look.

As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but a sea of plastic and a thought came to him that would never fully leave him, even years later.