My Sanctuary, My Home

Nubbins

"Sanctuary One to Lophelia, do you copy?" Helen called from the helicopter to the ship we were above.

"Still no answer Mom." Ashley told her.

"Take us down." Helen ordered and I lowered the copter onto the ship. We all got out and went inside. Helen, Will, Ashley and I stood at the top of some stairs and looked down into the dark interior of a ship.

"You see anybody?" Will asked us.

"Let's hope they're below." Helen said as we made our way down the stairs.

"What did the message say exactly?" Ashley asked us.

"Just that Eric was bringing back something we'd never seen, and to meet him in the harbor." I told her.

"Only they never made it to the dock." Will said. Helen moved forward and we followed her to see a body torn up.

"It's Eric." she said.

"Yeah." Ashley agreed.

"Make sure Will is covered." Helen told her daughter. Ashley and Will left while I stayed with Helen.

"Come on." Ashley told him. We eventually walked behind them and found more bodies.

"Six dead." Helen said.

"They weren't just killed. They were half devoured." Ashley said as we looked over the bodies.

"Whatever it was, it was powerful." Will said. We moved through different sections with our guns drawn. When we got to the next section of the ship we saw empty cages all around the room.

"Whatever specimens were in these are long gone." Will said as we continued looking around.

"Makes you wonder what was in these cages." Helen said.

"You think they could've broken their way out?" Will asked us.

"Looks more like something clawed or chewed its way in." I told him inspecting the cages.

"Mom, Liz, come check this out." Ashley said to us. Helen, Will and I walked to her and saw a cage with two transparent creatures inside of it. We moved our lights around the cage a bit and the creatures revealed themselves. They were furry with large yellow eyes. We then heard a growl and turned to a different part of the room.

"Tranquilizer rounds only." Helen told us.

"Are you sure?" I asked her.

"Eric paid with his life to bring this creature back. We owe it to him to preserve it." Helen said.

"I think we owe it to him to kill it." Ashley told her. Helen switched to tranqs, then Ashley and I did the same. Something charged us and Helen fired twice and the creature fell to the ground.

Ashley Will and I stood around a table Helen had set her laptop on waiting to hear what she'd learned.

"Now I know why Eric was so excited about these creatures. Their hyper camouflage makes them all but invisible." Helen told us.

"Plus the fact that it's present in both the predator and the smaller abnormal." Will said.

"The Nubbins." Ashley told us smiling.

"You gonna make me ask?" Will asked her.

"Ashley's name for them, scientific name Nubina Atelerix, according to Eric's log." I told him.

"Do we know what triggers this camouflage?" Will asked.

"It seems to be a function of both fear and aggression." Helen told us.