Okay, well here's the last part of what might be the final story I write before I move.
But don't worry, I have tons of ideas of what to write next, and I'll be back! Enjoy!
Murky Depths Part Four
Rated: PG
MacGyver rolled on the ground, groaning in pain. He looked up and saw two men standing over him. One of them was holding a shovel and looking angry while the other one looked concerned. He realized the shovel was the heavy object that struck him in the back, which explained why he could barely move as hot, throbbing, stabbing pain shot through his back.
“Bill, stop it! What did you do that for?” The concerned man asked.
“He’s been sticking his nose in our business!” Bill said. “Nobody is supposed to know this is a fake!”
“Yeah, but you don’t hit him, for God’s sake! I’d rather get in trouble for a hoax than for killing a man! Come on, help me help him up.”
They offered their hands to MacGyver, who in his pain had trouble standing as they pulled him up, yelling in pain and stumbling, his legs trembling.
“Easy now,” the man said, steadying him. “Are you going to be all right?”
“I think so,” MacGyver said, wincing and touching his back. It was tender and sore, and he could tell it was already developing a large bruise.
The concerned man gently lifted MacGyver’s shirt and saw the massive red welt across his lower back. He glared at Bill. “You could have cracked one of his kidneys, for crying out loud!” He said.
“Hey, I’m sorry, all right?” Bill said.
“Sorry to interrupt,” MacGyver said, looking at the men through eyes squinted in pain, “but who are you guys?”
“I’m Stan Crawford, and this is Bill Payne. We’re special effects men out in Hollywood.”
“MacGyver. So, what are you doing all the way out here in Scotland?”
“We wanted to see how realistic an animatronic Nessie could look. It’s for a feature film we’re shooting soon. We figured the more people we could fool, the better the special effects,” Stan said.
“Yeah, and we were trying to keep it a secret until the film opened, for publicity and all,” Bill said. “I’m really sorry I hit you, but I was afraid you’d tell everyone it was a fake.”
MacGyver touched his sore back again. He thought about the wire and how something had dragged him out into the loch when he found it. He looked at the two men again.
“So, you were in on the whole thing,” he said. “You pushed me out of the water, and you dragged me into it when you thought I was getting too close.”
“That was us,” Stan said, looking a little embarrassed. “See, we didn’t want to hurt you or anything. We just wanted to mess with you a little bit. You were the most skeptical, so we thought we could convince you with things like that.”
A shy half-smile spread across MacGyver’s lips. He looked down at the wires again. “Well, you had me going there for awhile, I’ll admit it,” he said, never feeling more foolish in his life.
“MacGyver! What’s going on?” Jack asked, running towards MacGyver and the two men. Douglas was not too far behind him. “Who are these guys?”
MacGyver felt uncomfortable having to tell Jack and Douglas that all they had seen and all they had been working on for the past few days was nothing but another hoax. He knew Jack would be disappointed and feel like an idiot for falling for the sham, but he felt even worse for the professor. It was his life’s work to find this creature, and he would have to accept failure once again.
“Jack, Professor, meet Stan and Bill. They’re…special effects men from Hollywood.” He looked at the professor and saw the devastating look of disappointment on his face.
“So,” Douglas said, looking at the mechanical Nessie, “it really is another hoax after all.”
“I’m afraid so, Professor,” MacGyver said. “I’m sorry.”
Jack also stared at the realistic looking robot. “You’re telling me this whole thing is a machine?” He asked.
“Well…yeah,” Stan said. “Look, I’m sorry if we caused any trouble.”
“I’m sorry, too,” Douglas said, sighing. “It looks like more research is wasted.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that,” MacGyver said. “Now you know what to look for, and don’t worry, we were all easily fooled by that thing. Look at it. It pushed me out of the water and it dragged me into it. Of course it was easy to believe we were finally close to finding it.”
“You mean this machine did all that?” Jack asked. “Whoa! Why didn’t I think about that? Instead of wasting all this time looking for the real Nessie, I could have built my own! Hey, would you guys like to work for me?”
“I don’t think so,” Bill said. “We’re on a tight schedule.”
“We’re building this thing for the movies,” Stan said.
“Movies, huh? Well, maybe I could help out! I could help you with this gizmo, and MacGyver…well, MacGyver can make anything! We could help you!”
“Jack,” MacGyver said. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think it’s time to pack up and go home.”
“But, we can’t go home yet! We…”
“Jack, since I got here, I’ve been hit in the head, nearly drowned, dragged, and hit with a shovel! The answer is no!”
“Shovel? Who hit you with a shovel?”
“I did,” Bill said, shrugging. “Sorry. He surprised us.”
“We were trying to keep it secret,” Stan said. “It looks like we almost managed to convince a skeptic and a scientist that Nessie was real. Our technology must be pretty good if it can do that.”
“I only wish the monster were real,” Douglas said. “Perhaps this is a sign that I should move on to study something different.”
Before any of them could offer more consolation to the professor, they heard a splash in the distance. They turned to see what it was, but they were too late. All they saw was a slight disturbance on the otherwise glassy surface.
“Was that you guys?” MacGyver asked the two special effects men.
“No,” Stan said. “I don’t know what that was.”
They looked at each other, stunned.
“Maybe there still is something for you to study out there after all, Professor,” MacGyver said.
The End
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer."
--Henry David Thoreau
brains+brawn+beauty+personality=MacGyver
