Two years earlier

The buzz of Dan’s phone woke him. Internally he cursed, knowing that a phone call at this hour could only mean one thing. Work. With the speed and urgency of a snail, he reached over to his nightstand and snatched his phone.

“Hello?” he asked, his voice coming out like sandpaper against porcelain.

The shift manager on the other end barked his words quick and in a harsher than needed tone. It was just as Dan expected, he was being called in.

Being on call wasn’t that much of an issue, at least most of the time. In his four years working on the rig, he had only ever been called into an emergency once. But that was because the electrician on the rig had to be helicoptered out for some undisclosed medical issue. Rough food poisoning or something.

This time, however, was very different. The manager told Dan there was some kind of massive power failure after an off-coast earthquake. While not unheard of, earthquakes were very rare for the shores of Louisiana. They were, however, something the rig had to consider, along with hurricanes and tidal waves.

The rig’s support legs were built in such a way that they are incredibly resilient to the watery nature of their home. The electrical wiring that ran throughout the rig, however, was not as resilient.

It took Dan twenty-five minutes to get dressed, pack his things, and get on the freeway. This early in the morning left the roads little more than sparce. He made it to the helipad in record time, which was good as the helicopter was waiting on him.

He was last to arrive, but not by much. Quickly he got on, strapped himself in, and placed the headset on. His manager, the rig’s primary contractor shift manager, and two others filled the cabin. In the last available seat was an armored tool carrying case that required a dolly to move around. Looking at it, Dan found that one of the two men he didn’t recognize was handcuffed to it.

Taken aback for a moment, Dan inspected the odd man. While everyone else wore their specialization’s color in the form of thick jump suit, the man wore distinctly military dress. Knee pads, combat boots, camouflage pants, a too tight T-shirt, and dog tags. Even though the man tried not to show it, it was apparent he had just woken up as well.

As the helicopter took off and flew out to sea, Dan oriented his headset’s mic and spoke to his manager, “They called you as well? Problem must really be bad then.”

His manager, a man pushing the limits of “middle aged,” just smiled ruefully. The man absolutely hated flying, which was rather ironic to Dan as the only way to get to the rig was by helicopter. He guessed one could take a boat, but unless a few dozen people needed to get to and from the offshore site, it was simply too expensive.

“Come on, Lam, talk to me,” Dan tried after watching his manager pop some pills.

Lambert shifted his eye to his subordinate and the military guy. He hesitated for a moment before turning his attention to the last of the non-leadership in the cabin.

Fighting the urge to throw up, Lam said, “Dan meet George. He’s in government critical control or whatever they call themselves now-a-days. When we land, I need you to show him to the primary breakers.”

Dan reached over and shook George’s hand. “That’s easy enough. We are going to the same place, at least at first.”

“Thanks,” the government official began. “Will you be able to provide equipment? I wasn’t prepared for this level of involvement.”

“Sure, what do you need?”

“Gloves, flashlight, clipboa-“ George cut himself when he saw the military man smirk. “Something to say?”

The man in question held up his hands in surrender. “No, no. Just thought of a joke, is all.”

George scoffed, turning back to Dan. “We’ll talk later.”

Dan tried to give him a sincere smile, but it was difficult. Not bringing any equipment was something that would get you fired, if you were a contractor or a primary. But such was the way of the government. Low standards and all or poor management and blame. Regardless, he’d find the man some gear.

He pushed the thoughts out of his head and enjoyed the rest of the flight. Dan thought about taking a nap, but he had slept on the helicopter before and the flight was just too short. That, and the flare of vertigo when he woke up. He shuddered in remembrance.

Eventually they arrived at the oil rig. With a final hovering descent, they landed on a white-painted H surrounded by a yellow circle. The final lurch of landing always tricked Dan, he always figured it would be softer than it actually was. It was never soft.

Helping Lambert, the other manager, and George off, Dan watched the military man unfold a collapsible dolly. It took him a moment, as the handcuffs made things difficult, but the man eventually unbuckled his prize and wheeled it off.

Guess he knows where he’s going already, Dan thought to himself.

With a head nod to George, and a pat on Lambert’s back, Dan took himself and the equipment-less man to the main electronics control room. They walked around the steel framing, up plenty of stairs, down some too, went inside, went outside, but soon found the room they were looking for.

Pointing to a metal cabinet for George, Dan set his pack down and removed a laptop. Quickly he printed some files, bound them all together, geared up, and began to identify issues. As we went, he checked off boxes, did plenty of math, read more than his fair share of gages and dials, and snuck a couple glances at his government overlord.

George looked confused. Very confused. He was muttering to himself, the hum of the rig keeping Dan from hearing.

Dan shrugged to himself and went into the adjacent room. Continuing on with his work, he decided that most of the wiring was completely unsalvageable. Dan sighed and looked to the sky, he wasn’t religious but in that moment he wondered if praying would fix his situation. After a moment of nothing, he began to flip levers off in accordance with the shutdown procedures. As he went, he slowed to a crawl.

Why hadn’t the others on shift already done this? he asked himself.

Setting his clipboard down, Dan moved to investigate. If in the face of an emergency, his coworkers left all the work to him, he sure as hell was going to complain. Written and signed. He needed hands more than anything right now, getting the whole rig restarted by himself was a task that would take weeks if not months.

Walking back into the primary control room, Dan found George with his face in his hands. “Something wrong?” he asked.

George took a deep breath and centered himself. “I’ve never seen anything like this. Something is very wrong.”

Dan nearly laughed out loud. “I’ll say, no one ever shut down the primary power and set the reserves. I’m surprised none of the… breaker sets are… tripped…”

He spun on his heels and looked to a wall of flashing lights. Only three were red, the rest were green. He hit a button, nothing. He hit another, nothing again. Dan frowned, ventured over to a desktop, and started going through the available software… Which after a moment, he realized shouldn’t be on.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“What the…” He said, getting a rapid head nod from George.

“We need to figure this out. Where are the others?”

Dan just shrugged, already at his wits end. “They should be here, they all should be here.” Then the realization dawned on him. “Actually, where is anyone? There was no welcoming for the helicopter, and no foot traffic when we walked here.”

Dan missed what George said as foreboding washed through his spine. He shivered, like a ghost had walked through him. When his senses came back, he found George staring out a window that oversaw the primary drill and floor area.

George gasped.

“What is it?” Dan asked, moving to the window himself.

In the wee hours before daybreak, in the light of the emergency generators, the silhouette of a man ran. From his distance, Dan couldn’t tell what department the man originated from, nor could he identify any features about him. The only thing of note was that the man was limping and clutching his hip.

The man tripped, and took a breath to look back. He didn’t get back up. Dan couldn’t explain it, neither could George for that matter. It looked like the man was frozen, like his whole body was cramped. He didn’t move, even as the thing that chased him rounded the corner.

Dan cursed at the being’s appearance. It was unlike anything he had ever seen. Tar and body parts, dripping indiscernible features like a partially thawed hunk of meat. It glided over the steel floor, leaking excrement and blood as it went. Tentacles draped behind claws and pincers, each whipping or snapping at the air.

The being reached the petrified man, and without any fanfare, devoured him.

The man didn’t so much as scream.

“We need to go,” Dan relayed his internal thoughts, but found his feet stiff. “We should go.”

George echoed the sentiment, but found his legs in a similar situation.

Dan tried to put what he had just seen into words, but found himself unable. Some sort of fish the night crew fished up? No. Maybe a sea monster coming to reclaim its oceans? That seemed more likely. A demon that was summoned? Possible, he guessed.

His mind shutdown at that moment and his body reverted back to its purpose. He needed to fix the electronics, he needed to-

Dan’s head spun like a blender. He felt himself fainting and shot his hand out to steady himself. His eyes trailed back to where the monster was feasting and then to the door away from the monster. He couldn’t move, fear still gripping. But that wasn’t right. He had moved his arm. The realization flooded him with hope.

It was a placebo, he knew, but one he latched onto. He forced his fingers to move, then his wrist, arm, elbow. He forced his chest to twist, moving his locked neck away from the window. When his head was completely facing the opposite direction, his whole body deflated.

He fell to his knees and felt like he had just ran ten miles. A nervous cough-laugh found his lips and lungs, and he peed himself. The shock of warmth brought him back to his senses.

George was still enthralled and stationary. Dan carefully crouch walked to the man and yanked. The government worker hit the ground hard. He shook, like waking up from a nightmare a moment later.

“We need to move,” Dan said, pulling the man up but making sure not to look through the window.

“Where?” George asked, finding his feet.

A moment later they were out the door and walking away quickly. The emergency flood lights lit their way, but the long hallways broke their spirits. Dan stopped once he saw the blood. He spun quickly, still tethered to his new best friend.

“I don’t know,” he whispered.

“Helicopter?” George suggested.

Dan looked like he could have kissed the man. The helicopter, how did he not think of that. They twisted down the hallways, finding more than a few splatterings of blood as they went. Each time they went down a new route, venturing further and further from their original point.

As they went, Dan berated himself for not thinking about the helicopter. Now, more than ever, he needed to think things through, but he simply couldn’t. It was weird, he could recognize. He felt something was wrong, just like a few minutes ago.

Dan stopped, George doing the same.

Again, Dan’s mind broke and twisted. He drooled through his lips and his eyes shook. Blood fell from his nose not a second later.

“Dan? Dan? What’s wrong? Hello?”

He couldn’t process what George was saying. He couldn’t process anything. He was stuck on the helicopter.

What was a helicopter? Where is a helicopter?

Through the walls, Dan felt something as a drop of his blood splashed against the metal floor. It was a presence, multiple presences. Six, seven, eight – he couldn’t count them all, but he knew what they were. They were the same as the monster he watched eat a man. As another drop of blood fell, ideas and images came rushing back.

Helicopters flew taking people to safety. They landed on the helipad. The helipad is… is… this way.

Dan’s thoughts came back to him, and he took off with George. They ran, Dan leading the way and ignoring the remains that littered a few corridors. They found themselves outside. Through the rebar and framed stairs, a small little flashing light progressively shrunk. It was the helicopter, both men knew it.

They both heaved breaths into their bodies, Dan even wiped the blood from his face. That made him pause. The monsters knew where he was. Right? That was something he felt… right? Again Dan clutched his head, this time noting there was a single larger presence involved.

Then an earthquake hit.

Dan had been on a rig once when a quake hit. This was nothing like that time. Everything shook and moved, the whole rig felt like it was victim to a shockwave. George hesitantly patted his arm, pointing out to open ocean.

A purple haze crested the horizon. It vibrated and breathed, like a strobe light at a rave. Teases of real color pulsed into opaque fog and back, each time revealing itself for longer and longer.

Dan’s heart synchronized with the anomaly and for a brief, almost ephemeral, moment, he thought he understood. A foreign idea bulged into his brain, threatening to situate itself like a squatter. His body fought it, forced it back to where it came. The idea was lost before anything solidified.

“Life boats.” Dan spoke, his mind cleaning from whatever had tried to take him.

He felt real at that moment, like the puppet master had dropped his reins. He found himself recounting things he hadn’t realized he lost. Things like his name, his age, who he was, where he was, came back to him. He pondered helicopters for a long moment, but was able to switch topics instead of getting stuck.

He had been reset.

They found movement at the lifeboats, their hearts sank. Two figures danced in the red emergency light, one playing chase, the other playing victim. Dan recognized both outlines, and when they got closer he realized something was horribly wrong. The victim was the military man; the being chasing him was Lambert.

Lambert was different, however. Something had torn through his skin from the inside, ripping holes through his jumpsuit like pine needles. He swung around razor sharp claws made of blood. They looked like a modified glove with knives bound along the fingers. But the more he watched, the more Dan made the connection.

The claws were pure blood and were growing. The needle holes along Lambert’s body drained him dry while adding fuel to his weapon. Each passing heartbeat pushed the manager into a paler and paler shade. He moved slower with every second, but his fingers grew.

In the few moments Dan had been watching, Lambert’s claws had grown from scalpel-sized to small machete-sized.

Each swipe of Lambert’s hands found closer purchase to the military man. He dove and evaded, expertly dodging every attack as if even a small cut would be fatal. At some point, the man noticed Dan and George and pointed to the safety clips for dropping the lifeboat.

Dan reacted first, understanding what needed to be done. George, on the other hand, was frozen.

Dan pushed the dazed man along, forcing him into the lifeboat’s sheltered cabin. A shout from the military man caused Dan to turn back. He dove to the side as a red claw swiped at where his head had been. The upper layer of the fiberglass shelter was removed in a single pull, leaving the lifeboat without a roof.

Dan stumbled back as Lambert threw a wild swing at his subordinate. Metal sheared against blood, ripping apart the most right clip holding the lifeboat up. The other side groaned as extra weight was forced upon it. The boat teetered and dropped a few feet.

The short fall knocked the wind out of Dan and sent him spiraling towards the edge. He clutched the single protective rope railing and looked back at his manager.

Lambert was breathing hard. The blood pumping from his many holes had significantly slowed, and his claw had stopped growing. They locked eyes, one set full of hatred and rage, the other confused and terrified.

The military man took his chance. He sprinted full speed, launching himself into a flying drop kick. Both boots collided against Lambert’s back, sending him clear over the railing. Landing with a splat, the man-monster smashed into a far below deck.

He didn’t get up right away.

Watching with frustration, the military man committed to memory how the monster rose from its great injuries. Slowly the blood claws receded, filtering back into the tiny holes, cracks of bone shifted, and a black tar secreted out. A trench coat of mucus and excrement fell into place around the dead figure of Lambert, then it stood up and roared.

The military man, not wasting any more time, hopped aboard the safety vessel, motioned for Dan to enter what was left of the cabin, and released the last clamp. Again the housing groaned, but the military man didn’t care. He climbed through the torn fiberglass and metal fittings, finding the release pull. A moment later the lifeboat fell to the dark waters below.

“Good job,” he said to Dan.

Dan went to respond, but the man had passed out. Idly he checked on George. The government worker was muttering to himself, drool forming at the mouth.

“Go to sleep, George. We are safe.”

This stirred something in the distressed man. He nodded slowly, like a child just waking up. He laid where he could, and promptly found the void of sleep.

Dan, for what it was worth, was awake as ever. His mind had been splintered twice, maybe three times, and each time he was able to fight away the malevolence. He was weak, physically and mentally, but alive. And that was what mattered.

His second to last thought before finally falling asleep himself, was noticing that they were drifting closer to the purple haze. His last thought was that the stars were beautiful.