[MacsChick]

Holidays and my upcoming move are once again interfering with my writing time, but here's part three finally!

Murky Depths Part Three

Rated: PG

“Whoa, slow down, Mac! You said this thing dragged you?” Jack asked, staring at MacGyver. He’d never seen his friend, who was usually so calm and rational about everything, look so frantic. He was wet and his shirt was torn.

“I don’t know what it was, Jack,” MacGyver said, “but…”

He was interrupted by a towel being thrown at his face. He grabbed it and pulled it away from his eyes, giving Jack an irritated look.

“Hey, I just figured you’d want to dry off. Don’t give me that look,” Jack said, shrugging innocently.

“Thank you,” MacGyver said, using the towel to pat himself dry.

“So, go on, Mac, tell me more! This is so exciting!”

“Well,” MacGyver said, dropping into a chair after drying himself off, tossing the towel to a corner. “I saw something, Jack. Before I was dragged out into the lake, I saw what looked like a Plesiosaur moving under the water.”

“It is the monster! I knew it!”

“I was so close to it, I could almost touch it, and then it disappeared.”

“That’s when this thing dragged you?”

“Yeah. I’ll tell you Jack, I’ve been pretty skeptical until now, but what happened a few days ago and my encounter this morning sure changed my mind. There’s definitely something out there.”

“Wow, this is wild! I can’t stand it! When are we going back out there?”

“As soon as you get in touch with the professor,” MacGyver said, looking down at his torn shirt. The scrapes to his skin didn’t look too deep, and they weren’t bleeding too badly. “I need to change.”

“Sure, take your time, get cleaned up, Mac,” Jack said, staring at his friend in concern. “Are you sure you’re going to be okay? I mean, first this thing saved your life, and now it sounds like it tried to kill you. I don’t know if I want my tourists to be eaten by this thing.”

MacGyver looked up at Jack. He thought about the wire he was examining before he was yanked to the ground and pulled out into the water, unsure of how it could be connected to his experience that morning. Still, he had a feeling it was important somehow. He just wasn’t sure how yet. “I’m not sure it was trying to kill me, Jack,” he said.

“Boy, it sure sounds like it to me,” Jack said. “What do you think, then? It was playing with you like a big dog or something?”

“I don’t know,” MacGyver said. “But I do know I want to get another look at it.”

***

By the time MacGyver, Jack, and Douglas were back out near the loch, a small crowd had gathered on the shore, staring in awe at something in the distance.

“What’s going on here?” MacGyver asked a young boy standing nearby.

“I see it! The monster! It’s over there!” The boy shouted, pointing.

MacGyver, Jack, and Douglas stared off in the direction where the boy was pointing. Douglas grabbed his binoculars and focused on the area.

“My God,” he said, “this is extraordinary! Take a look!”

Jack snatched the binoculars from him and saw what looked like a long, slender neck with a small head protruding from the water.

“Wow! This is so amazing! I’m going to be richer than I dreamed!”

“Let me see, Jack,” MacGyver said.

“No wait! Whoa, his head just dunked back underwater! It’s real, all right! It’s moving!”

“Jack, please!” MacGyver shouted. It took an effort to wrench the binoculars away from Jack’s strong grip on them.

“You’ll see it in a minute, Mac! Come on,” Jack said, fighting to keep holding the binoculars.

“I want to take a look!”

“No!”

“Jack!”

“MacGyver, you’ve seen it twice already! I just want to take my turn, that’s all!”

“Children!” Douglas shouted, exasperated by their petty argument. He released a heavy sigh. “Jack, let him take a look. Give him the binoculars.”

Reluctantly, Jack loosened his grip on the binoculars, but he still held onto them. Angrily, MacGyver yanked them away.

“What’s the difference,” Jack said. “When I’m worth tons of money, I’ll get my own private viewing area.”

MacGyver glanced at him in irritation and then returned to the view through the binoculars. “I see it,” he said. “It looks like a head of some kind. I can also see some humps. It’s like it’s moving through the water.”

“Is this what you saw earlier this morning?” Douglas asked him, now knowing about his strange, close encounter.

“Well, it’s pretty darn close,” MacGyver said, squinting through the binoculars. “I’m going to go over there and see if I can get another close look at it.”

“It might be gone again before you get there,” Douglas said.

“It’s worth a try though, right? Especially if it’s a new discovery.” He winked at the professor, who smiled, appreciating MacGyver’s attempts to help him validate his research.

“Still, are you sure that’s such a good idea? It might try to drown you again,” Douglas said.

“I’ll be fine,” MacGyver said. “I can’t just stand here wondering. I need to know.”

He handed the binoculars to the professor and took off, running lightly along the shore, heading towards the direction where the shapes could be seen moving through the water.

“Mac! Wait!” Jack shouted, taking off after him.

Douglas peered through the binoculars again. So much of his research had been focused on the Loch Ness Monster as an abstract concept, as a possibility or a myth rather than a tangible reality. Now, he had visible evidence. He could tell by the way the creature moved that it was not one of the numerous hoaxes that had been exposed over the years. What he was looking at was as close to real as he’d ever seen, yet he was still only looking at it, just as he looked at photographs and field reports. It was still distant, and he couldn’t touch it from where he stood. He knew MacGyver was right. In order to study something, he had to get closer to it and actually touch it, experience it firsthand. He followed MacGyver and Jack, feeling both excited and overwhelmed at the possibility that he would finally discover Nessie and perhaps the academic world would embrace him once again, his theories vindicated.

***

As MacGyver got closer to the area where they witnessed the creature, he noticed that it was still there and still moving. The movement seemed more like an illusion of movement, the creature staying about in the same place. It seemed less life-like and more mechanical, even though its skin and body looked real, wet and leathery. It was shaped the same way as the creature he had seen earlier this morning, long yet bulky with fins. But it remained stationary, possessing none of the swift, graceful movements he had seen earlier as it propelled itself through the water with ease. Watching it for a few minutes, he noticed that it repeated its movements, occasionally diving beneath the water and then resurfacing.

Frowning, he carefully moved closer to the beast, trying to be as quiet as possible. There were some hedges nearby, and he decided to hide behind them so he wouldn’t startle this unusual creature. As he got closer to the hedges, he thought he heard voices. The movements of the creature also began to sound different, almost like gears shifting. He looked down and noticed more wire like what he had found that morning, and it was all connected, partly buried beneath the earth. He squatted down and picked it up, looking at it again. He began to follow it towards the hedges.

Once he was behind the hedges, he didn’t see anyone, and the wires seemed to run beneath them towards the loch. He didn’t get to go much farther. Something heavy struck him on the back, knocking him to the ground.

To be continued…

[Pseodonym]

Hmmmmmmmm Interesting...I wonder why people have made a fake Nessie....Merry Christmas by the way

[MacsChick]

Thank you! Same to you!