Desalination

The sound of creaking metal broke the silence of my cabin. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence on the old oil rig I had been stationed at, but it still never failed to lift the hairs off my arms. You would think they would at least modernize the structure of these ancient metal frames before sending us out here to repurpose them. Although, I suppose even the freshly built desalination plants have been falling under lately. What's the point in refurbishing this old hunk of junk if it's gonna collapse regardless.
    We had been sent out here to start the operation of another desalination plant for the Atlantic. It was part of a worldwide initiative to create a "cheaper" source of freshwater. Personally I never subscribed to the idea of destroying the massive ocean ecosystems, but a source of income was a source of income.
    Our job was to install and begin operation of the machines used to remove the salt from the ocean's water. It was no easy task, considering that these abandoned rigs weren't designed to have hulking machines attached to them years after their operation, but within five days we had already gotten one of the machines ready to the point that we could start its operation. All we were waiting for was confirmation from higher ups to begin.
    I had received a relatively small, but significant job within the process. My responsibility lied with starting and controlling the operation of the desalination machines. In fact I was the only one on the rig who knew how to do it. So it wasn't exactly shocking when the old intercom system sparked to life with a call for me.
    In a harsh staticy voice the captain spoke to the crew, "Jason report to my office IMMEDIATELY!" sounding unexpectedly angry. "Again, I want you up here in five minutes or else I'll throw you off this rig myself!" He finished, leaving me with nothing but the faint click of the intercom shutting off.
     Well have it your way then ya dick. I guess someone finally told him his desalination machine was "smaller than average". A chuckle escaped my breath as I rose out of bed, knocking over empty bottles of beer in the process. My head is killing me! I guess I hit the booze a little too hard last night. Closing my eyes for a moment, I rubbed my temples with my thumbs. Focusing on the ever present ambiance of the sea as I tried to settle my pounding brain. The result was negligible. 
    Left with little reason to continue idling in my room I moved to the door. Besides it was a bedside table I used for storage, but on top of it sat a photo of a woman I hadn't seen in ages. She'd be disappointed to see me like this again. There was very little power to my steps, but I exited the room anyway. I wasn't exactly eager to see what the boss man was so pressed over, so I decided to take a detour to the cafeteria. If whatever he had to tell me was so important he'd tell me regardless of when I got there.
    Upon entering, it was readily apparent that something was happening. Although the room wasn't heavily packed, the eyes at tables which did hold small groups of my coworkers immediately glued to me. Faint whispers broke out, some less sneaky than others, but regardless of how quiet they were I knew they all were about the same thing. Me.
    I stood around scanning the room until I spotted my buddy Hector. There was already a very amused grin on his face as I approached him. "Mannn, Leo seems pretty upset yo. You didn't tell him his machines were the shitty knock offs, did you." He said trying to hide the amusement he got from just imagining the interaction.
    "No, unfortunately not. Someone's gotta make him aware of it though before it slips out of my mouth." I reply with a chuckle. "Although from the looks of it, I'd guess I woke up the sexiest being alive, the way everyone's got the hots for me right now." Motioning to the rest of the room as I finish my sentence.
    "Yea you're the talk of the town man. Turns out you become a whole different machine after a few drinks." he said, leaning closer to me after. "But just between you and me, did you really go and start the machine? No one thought you would, given how adamant you were before about "Not overworking the machines" or "Keeping our equipment at the highest functionality possible" or whatever other wordy excuses you gave."
    I failed to reply to him as a mixture of shock and confusion washed over my face. Did I.. start the machine? No I don't recall doing that, but.. I was drunk last night. Very, very drunk. A bolt of panic surged through my veins but I tried to hide it as I pressed for more information.
     "What do you mean.. did the machine start early?" I tried to calmly ask.
    "That's been the word so far. Are you trying to say you aren't aware of this?" He asked, clearly not believing I didn't already know. "You are the only guy on this whole rig who knows how to work one of those things."
    He's right. The only one who could have started it was me. But I don't remember starting the machine at all.. I need to speak to Leo. "I.. gotta go." I muttered to Hector before running towards the exit, his laughter filling the room as I slipped out the door. Leo's office wasn't especially far away, but I bolted down interior corridors as fast as I could despite that. I was at his door in under three minutes.
    Upon knocking on the door Leo immediately opened it and snapped at me. "Get inside right now you bloody idiot!" he yelled while trying to maintain his cool, "Do you understand exactly how much your little ballsy choice could cost me?" but he was unable to hide the fluster that had clearly taken over his face.
    "What are you talking about? Is the machine running?" I attempted to ask.
    "Yes you dimwit! You started it early like you owned the damn place! Not only that, but because we didn't have a crew on hand we blew way past our assigned salt levels!" He yelled, losing control of his frustration with every word.
    "I didn't start the machine. I don't remember doing it at all." I objected truthfully, but my statement caused an immediate change in his composure.
    "You don't.. remember.. turning on the machine?" He asked, a quiet furry lacing his words. Without letting me answer he continued, "So you were drinking. You. The ONE man in this ship who has the potential to do the most damage. You.. got drunk. Am I understanding this correctly?" his words seething with malice.
    I tried to reply, "Well, y-yes I was a bit drunk last night, but I don't think I could've managed to turn on the-" but I was interrupted before I could finish my sentence.
    Leo screamed, no longer in the mood to hold back his anger. "YOU BASTARD! Do you have any idea how much damage you could've caused! All because you couldn't keep your trap away from a bottle of fun-time huh. Well I hope you're bloody happy because whatever damage the machine received YOU are paying for!"
    "Well I can just turn it off now that I know! Let me go do that! I'm sure it hasn't been running long enough to cause any sort of damage." I pleaded, knowing that if it had been operating there was in fact definitely going to be damage.
    Leo took a deep breath before answering. "Ok. Go. But you better pray that the machine is in PRISTINE condition or so help your sorry a-"
    Before he could finish his threat, a terrible sound of metal screeching disturbed the air. It sounded like a metal chair being dragged across a floor, but more violent. Like the sound had mixed with that of nails on chalkboard. It continued before ending with an aggressive crunch. Leaving the oil rig only with the sound of the waves splashing against the structure.
    I didn't bother to look at Leo. I already knew what he was about to say. I didn't want to find out what he would do. Instead, I moved towards the exit and opened the door. He tried to call for me to stay, almost exploding with anger, but his words barely gained attention in my mind. There was only one thought able to run through my head. I need to get to the machine. 

As I bolted out the door, leaving Leo’s screams of rage behind me, I began mapping out the quickest way to reach that side of the rig. Many people had left their rooms to come and figure out what the sound was. Some were panicked thinking the whole rig was going down, while others thought it was merely an abnormal shift in the metal supports. Despite the differences in reasoning it was still clear that everyone on the rig wanted to know what had happened. 
    Only, I knew what happened. And I was DEAD. To whatever god is listening please tell me that wasn't the machine. I can't afford to have this happen. I NEED this job. I'll never drink again I promise. Just let me have another chance. Just one more.
     Part of the path I needed to take went through the cafeteria. As I entered, almost out of breath, I noticed there was a new crowd gathered. What was immediately odd to me was that everyone had gathered around one guy. It was someone I hadn't ever spoken to. He was clearly losing his mind with how he was freaking out, but it was what he was saying that really caught my attention. 
    The man was repeating the same few phrases, "I saw i-its eyes. It broke th-the machine. It broke it. And its eyes.." trailing off into inconceivable words every so often that no one understood.
     And I thought I hit the booze hard. This guy must've smoked something and had a crazy trip because of the noise. I don't blame him though. It gets pretty boring on this rig. I chose to ignore him. I had better things to worry about, like the desalination machine he was talking about. As I was passing him though he stopped rambling. Instead turning and staring at me. 
     "Hey.. you. YOU!" he yelled, running up to me and grabbing me by the collar of my shirt, "This was YOUR fault!! You've doomed us all!! You hear me! You've doomed us!!" before I finally managed to shove him off of me and onto the floor. 
     What is this psycho talking about? Even if the machine was destroyed it wasn't able to harm anyone. Despite my direct stance against his words, it was clear there was a deep fear within his eyes. He truly believed what he was saying, and that laced my skin with an anxiety over what I would find outside. As I ignored the man to continue getting to the machine, one question formed in my mind. What if he was right?
     It didn't take much longer for me to reach the exit I was looking for. Before I even pushed open the door I could hear the commotion that had built up since the noise. As I stepped out onto the exterior of the rig I was hit by an incredibly strong wave of the ocean smell everyone had previously become accustomed to. In my hurry to reach the machine, this unexpected briney punch almost forced me to throw up. Barely keeping my composure I walked towards the area everyone had crowded around. Sure enough, it was the desalination machine.
    Or at least, what remained of it. As I approached, it became increasingly obvious that something had gone horribly awry. Pushing through the crowd of workers I was finally able to get the full picture. The machine had been destroyed. Seemingly having the bottom half of it ripped off. And it wasn't a clean tear either. It was obvious the metal had been violently twisted before it finally gave out. It was an eerie sight. And one that made zero sense.
     That.. isn't possible. The machine couldn't have done that to itself, regardless of if it was overworked for three days or three years. It just wasn't possible. This had to have been an attack by a giant squid or something like that. Yea. It's the only thing that made sense. But deep down I knew it didn't make sense at all. There hadn't ever been a reported case of anything attacking one of the desalination plants. Failures and accidents have occurred sure, but never something like this. That was even disregarding the inevitable drop in the creature's population after we started desalinating the oceans. All the facts simply didn't add up. There was something else at play here. 
    Getting closer to the machine, I examined the spot it had been severed at. The metal is bending inwards. Whatever did this crushed it first, and then tore it off once its structure was too weak to resist. My eyes dropped to the water in hopes of finding any sort of debris that would shine some light on the multiple questions forming in my mind. As I examined the water something did catch my attention. It wasn't the wreckage of the machine though. Deep into the sea I saw two large yellow eyes. 
     What.. is that? Those eyes... I've never seen anything like it. My curiosity froze me in place as I seemingly held a gaze with the mysterious eyes. Something else did strike me as odd too. The water looked.. darker than I remembered. I'd gazed down at the ocean many times, and it never seemed as deep as the eyes seemingly were. It was as if a sinkhole had opened on the seafloor, creating an isolated area where the water ran deeper than everywhere else. No. That doesn't make sense. That's not how that works. It still wouldn't look quite like that. And then the realization hit me. 
    That wasn't deep water. It wasn't water at all. It was the head belonging to the glowing yellow eyes staring back at me. And it was massive. As I began to understand just what I was looking at, a wave of frozen fear went over me. That's not possible. I have to be imagining it. I'm probably just dreaming, or drunk out of my mind. There is an explanation for this. This isn't real.
    As if it had read my thoughts, the creature began to rise. Its size seemed to only grow greater and greater. Everytime I had thought it was close to breaching it would just continue to rise. After a whole twenty seconds, it finally broke the surface of the water. I stepped back from the edge of the rig. It was truly colossal. It rose steadily, eventually overtaking the rig in height and climbing much father. By time it had fully risen it was impossible to tell just how tall it was. But its size was not its only horrifying characteristic. 
    It looked like an amalgamation of different sea creatures. The head was a mixture of a giant squid and a whale. Deep green scales covered its imposing frame, and both its arms were unique in their composition. One arm led to a fixture of an indeterminable number of tentacles that dipped deep into the ocean below. The other led to a giant claw resembling that of a crustaceans crusher claw. It looked unlike any creature we had discovered, and unlike any others we were likely to ever find again.
    People behind me began to panic in terror. Some were petrified where they stood, others fell to the ground screaming. But all I could do was watch. As the creature looked down upon us, ear shattering clicks emanated from its direction. They had the frequency of a tool a dentist would use, but the pitch of a loud gong. It reverberated in my mind, chewing and digging at my consciousness as I tried to block it out. Many men, including me, fell to the ground clutching our ears from the pain. What was that?! I'd never heard anything like it. There WASN'T a sound like it. As I stared up at the being through winces of pain, I noticed it was staring right back at me. 
    Before I could get up, one of its tentacles ascended from the ocean and grabbed my waist. It pulled me into the air, high enough to where I could see the entirety of the rig below me.
    Pleading in terror I tried to communicate with the creature, "STOP! PLEASE! LET ME GO!! PLEASE STOP!" but it didn't acknowledge me, instead turning its gaze back down on the rig. 
     Was it.. making me watch? Why?!? Why not just kill me? As I tried to struggle within the creature's grasp its claw arm rose towards the rig. Without any difficulty the massive claw enveloped a portion of the structure, and crushed it instantly. The rig began to slowly collapse, tilting to the side that had been destroyed. People, my coworkers, lost their balance and slipped towards the water below. Those who managed to find solid ground were doomed to be met by the tentacles rising out of the water to pull them deep below the surface. 
    As I watched the entire crew devolve into horrid screams of agony, a thought popped into my head. Was this.. my fault? Was the crazy dude in the cafeteria right..? No he couldn't be. I didn't do this. I didn't summon this monster. I was drunk.. it wasn't my fault. It's not my fault!!
    I tried to plead with the creature once more. "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!? YOU'RE KILLING THEM!! WHY??"
    This time the being returned its eyes on me, and stared. What's it doing? Why is it looking at me? What is going on?!? Although, I was about to receive my answer as the beast's eyes began to brightly glow, burning into my retinas. Suddenly an image flashed into my mind. It was the desalination machine. And then another image, this time of the beast and its glowing eyes. As each image cycled out a flash of pain went spiraling throughout my body. The next image was of an empty bottle of alcohol, and then the headlights of a car, and finally the photo of the woman I had on the table in my cabin.
    The images stopped for a moment giving me a rest from the brain sedating pain. But it was a temporary relief. As the images cycled once more I was sent into a bottomless pit of pain. Machine, creature, bottle, headlights, photo. Machine, creature, bottle, headlights, photo. It was the same every time.
    It was too much for me to handle. All I could do was beg for mercy. "S-stop.. PLEASE. It's not.. my fault. It's not!" My voice so deeply entranced in agony you could barely recognize it.
    But it didn't stop. Again it cycled. Machine, creature, bottle, headlights, photo. It started exponentially increasing in speed. Machine creature bottle headlights photo. I was no longer in control of myself, screaming and writhing as the cycle continued again and again. Machine Creature Bottle Headlights Photo Machine Creature Bottle Headlights Photo. My voice was starting to give out from the desperate screaming. MachineCreatureBottleheadlightsPhoto. MACHINECREATUREBOTTLEHEADLIGHTSPHOTO.
    And then suddenly the pain stopped. The tight grasp of the creature seemingly disappeared. My vision was gone, the only thing I could process was the photo of the woman which still lingered behind. My consciousness steadily faded, the life burnt out of my body. The last sensation left for me to feel being the cold envelopment of the ocean water as I slowly sank to the sea floor.