Lee waited until the far younger and better-armed marines entered, and then he cautiously followed with the .45 at the ready. The bridge was empty. It was also a wreck. Papers flew around, and the bridge windows had been smashed, and by the way of the glass patterns on the steel deck, Lee knew they had been broken from the outside. Someone entered the bridge uninvited.
“This is not how I envisioned my day going, Lee,” came the voice from behind him.
Donovan was there and had somehow gotten ahold of a Thompson submachine gun. Lee’s eyes went from the tommy gun to the frightened face of his boss.
“Have you ever shot one of those before?” Lee asked with concern.
“Of course, Lee,” Donovan said.
Garrison knew the man was lying, but whether it was to him or himself, he wasn’t sure. He did know he was just as frightened about what they would find as the head of the OSS was.
“I’ll tell you what,” he said as he allowed Donovan to step up beside him. “I’ll trade you. How about that?”
Donovan looked insulted at first but saw Lee’s sense of it and exchanged weaponry.
“These things are rather touchy,” Lee said as he once more started moving forward as the marines advanced into the interior of the Eldridge.
Suddenly, the line of marines stopped as they entered the main companionway from the bridge section to the command area that was filled with the radio room and the officers’ quarters. All flashlights were turned to the far end of the companionway. Lee’s eyes widened when he saw what was waiting for them.
“What in the hell…” Donovan’s words trailed off just as the same statement started to come from the lips of every man in the marine fire team.
At the far end of the corridor, barely visible in the lights of no less than four powerful flashlights, were what had boarded the Eldridge.
“Can someone explain to me just what in the hell those things are?” a young corporal asked as he raised his M14 to his shoulder.
“Hold fire,” Lee said as he stepped to the front of the stalled squad. Donovan tried to stop Lee from taking the lead but failed, and he cursed Garrison’s take-charge persona.
The bipedal creatures were standing over two of the downed crewmen of the Eldridge. The crewmen were dead. The eyes of the creatures took in the new element. Garrison charged the Thompson as he took these strange beings in.
The creatures were wearing some form of breeches that only traveled the length of their legs to the knee. Their shoes looked as if they were made of some form of seagoing life. The same for their partial pants. They were bare-chested. They weren’t frightened or shocked; they just stared as if they had been interrupted and it hadn’t been appreciated. It was the tentacles that curled around their necks and moved as if of their own free will, up and down, circling their thick necks. Lee saw the scales of the creatures as they gleamed inside the lights being cast by the flashlights. Lee saw the dark, fishlike eyes as they took in the marine intruders. The heads were scarce of hair, and their hands looked to be webbed. They wore brightly colored ribbons, and they all had extremely lethal-looking swords on their hips. These were slowly withdrawn as the intruders aboard the Eldridge took offense at the newcomers. As the men watched, one of the strange creatures stepped forward of the other two. Its feet hit several expended rounds that had been fired during the boarding of the destroyer. Lee knew then that the crew of Eldridge had at least fought for their ship before losing it.
As the creature stepped to the forefront, Lee did the same.
“We must take them alive,” said a voice from the rear of the group.
Lee knew it was Admiral Stark.
“Harold, I think you are done giving orders here. In case you didn’t know it, you have just killed an entire crew of men over this madness,” Donovan said as he also pushed forward of the marines.
Stark huffed up his chest but said nothing as the young marines looked at him with wonder in their eyes over his callousness.
The thing hissed loudly as it took in the large human standing defiantly before it. Lee watched as the back eyes settled upon him.
Before Lee knew what was happening, the sound of gunfire erupted throughout the large ship. Distant shots were heard, first sporadic, and then they increased in volume until they could feel the vibration of the gunfire through the steel of the deck.
The thing before them screamed something, and then its rather large sword was raised above its head, and the large animal charged Garrison. Lee stood his ground, and then he opened fire with the Thompson just as the other two creatures charged with swords in hand. Every marine was glad to open fire. Bullets struck the marine animals and tore into their scaly bodies, sending shards of bright fluorescent scales into the air and the lighting. The small battle was soon over as Lee stepped forward. The lead creature moved, but it was Wild Bill who placed a round into the creature’s head. The body went still as did the others.
“We have reports of fighting throughout the ship, same opposition. Thus far, there are no signs of the crew.”
Lee turned to face the lieutenant. “Drag these bastards out into the light.”
Garrison watched as Stark was shoved unceremoniously out of the way as the marine detail dragged the creature that Lee had just dispatched into the bridge area, where they could get a good look at it.
“What have you done, Harold?” Donovan asked as he nervously looked behind into the long and dark companionway.
“We have much to learn from this experiment.”
“Yes, we have learned that we discovered another way to kill ourselves,” Lee said as he knelt down to examine the species of beast before him.
He could see that there was intelligence behind those dead and open eyes. Garrison reached out and touched the large sword that was still clutched in the creature’s web-fingered hand. The teeth, which were stained in the reddish blood, were clear and sharp. The rags it wore had been hand sewn and stitched. The weapon itself was wood. The blade was fashioned out of some mineral Lee couldn’t place. It was a see-through bluish color and had an edge like no other weapon he had ever seen before. He reached out and touched it and then pulled his bleeding finger back, as the blade that had barely touched his skin cut deeply into his flesh. He winced as he looked at the scabbard, which held a knife. This Lee pulled free, and he examined it. It was also made of wood but was fashioned with a clear edge of some form of diamond-like material. Then Lee saw the pouch wrapped around the creature’s waist. He reached for it.
“Everything here is navy property, Lee. We want it all.” Stark was still being held at bay by his own fright, and the order was basically ignored by the OSS officer.
Garrison felt Donovan kneel beside him as he opened the leatherlike pouch and pulled something out. It was folded. The paper itself looked aged and waterlogged. Garrison unfolded the paper and looked at it. Donovan was confused as he also took it in.
“What is that?” he asked as several of the young marines also joined the two men as they studied what it was this creature had carried into battle.
The page was wide, as if from a magazine or book. It was a painted picture of pirates and of wooden ships. It seemed familiar to Lee, but he just couldn’t place it. The writing was what he did recognize. It was written in Cyrillic. Russian.
“This is strange,” Donovan said.
“No, sir. It’s a page from Treasure Island.”