Page 38 of Lagoon

Lieutenant Harris, Roger Lee, Peter Mann, Nathan Robinson.

But they weren’t them anymore.

They all uttered strange, keening cries from their altered throats and they reached for her with webbed fingers.

She tried to fight them off.

She tried as hard as she could.

LUTHER THOMPSON WASpretty sure it was not his job to investigate strange noises in the middle of the night. Hell, whatever his job was, it was done at this point. He didn’t have a job anymore. They were all just trying to survive now, right?

But it sounded like someone was screaming.

So, he left his cabin.

He went to check on Angela Ramirez first.

She opened the door, though, dressed. “You hear it, too?” she said.

“I can’t just pull a pillow over my ear and go to sleep if someone’s getting hurt,” he said.

“Yeah,” she said, as if she wasn’t pleased about it. She reached inside and came out with a gun. “I swear to God, Thompson, if you make me regret giving this to you—”

“I’ll give it back afterwards,” he said with a nod, checking to see it was loaded and then tucking it into an empty holster on his belt. He was still wearing his uniform. Seemed weird not to wear it.

She eyed him and then gave him a nod. “You’re different than they are.”

He shook his head. “I’m not.”

She gazed at him for a few more moments and then nodded again. “Fine. Have it your way. You’re just like them.”

He sighed.

“Sounds like it’s coming from that way.” She pointed.

“Nancy,” he said with a grimace.

“You want to back out?” She raised her eyebrows. “You can say yes. I’ll let you keep the gun.”

He shook his head. “Nah. Not at all.” He took the lead, glancing over his shoulder to make sure Ramirez was following him.

When they got to Nancy’s cabin, the door was open.

It smelled… it smelled wrong in there, a kind of brackish musky smell that reminded him of the ocean but also… like blood.

He called inside, “Nancy? It’s Ramirez and Thompson.”

Something stirred within. A noise came out of the darkness, a kind of odd groan. It didn’t sound human.

“Nancy?” he called again.

“We’re coming in,” said Ramirez and pushed past him, brandishing her gun. She disappeared into the darkness and he had no choice but to follow her.

Immediately, something burst out of the shadows. It was like that lizardthing, except… it wasn’t.

It was scaled and it had webbed hands, but its face, it was…

Oh, fuck, it was Nathan.

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