Wordcount: 10,084, status: slightly exciting now
She grabbed the front straps, testing them out. The harness was made for the creature inside of it to rest on the straps, not be bound by them. But a panicked animal wouldn't know the difference. Squirming around, she pushed and pulled against the velcro straps, making small squeaking noises.
Mitch hummed in his sleep. He was finding himself dreaming of swimming dolphins going back and forth in front of him. Just beyond them was a darker area of water... something was moving. There she was, waiting. What was she waiting for?
She moved suddenly towards him.
His eyes snapped open. He was sitting in his office chair. Why was it so quiet? His jazz music had ended awhile back but the monitors were quiet too. All of the leads weren't picking up anything. He spun around. The harness was empty.
Mitch stared for a second before getting his legs to move him out of the chair and rushing to the viewing window to make sure he wasn't imagining things. She was definitely gone. All of the leads were hanging limply on their cords, the current still flowing through the harness over nothing inside of it. Mitch hit his fist against the glass with a dull sound. He should have never fallen asleep. He jumped at the ladder leading to the rest of the tank, climbing quickly and scanning along the surface to see if she was still inside the tank. It was complely empty. He flipped on the lights to be sure, but unlike the other display tanks, this one did not have any flora or fauna, just a concrete bottom painted turquoise. There was a trail of water leading away from the pool. Mitch followed it right up to... the double doors out into the rest of the building. "Oh no..." He ran back to his desk and grabbed his radio. Tapping the button twice, he said, "This is Walker, anybody in the building?"
After a pause, two security guards answered him, one at a time. "Either of you seen anything unusual? I fell asleep at my desk." He was hesitant to say why he was asking, only Tony, Sarah, and himself knew about the girl fish they'd brought in earlier. Jones on the outer perimeter near the gate checked in saying, "No, sir. Everything been quiet tonight." The second security guard was in charge of walking around the inside of the aquarium with his flashlight making sure nobody had stayed inside after hours. His name was Frank Bailey and he'd been with the aquarium since it was built. He knew that Mitch was usually here pretty late but it was now 4am in the morning. "I've just finished my second rounds, Mr. Walker," he said. Always Mr. Walker, he never used Mitch's first name. It was alright, at least he didn't call him boss like everyone else. "Ok, Frank, switch to channel 5," Mitch said, reaching into his desk to grab his own flashlight and heading out the door. Switching over to a secure channel, Mitch said, "We might have a situation. There may be an animal loose on the grounds."
"Roger that, what am I looking for? One of the sealions? I know they've been pretty active tonight when I passed earlier." Mitch was following the wet marks out the door and into the building. There was a stream of water to start and then it starting becoming a line of drops with a flat wet mark as if someone... or something was dragging it's wet self across the tile floor. Mitch moved his flashlight beam around the darkened building, flashing it through different aquariums. None of them looked like they had been disturbed fortunately. Mitchell was surprised she'd actually gotten this far on land without being in the water. The gills had been a sign that she was an actual fish, not a mammal. Mitchell was actually getting worried he was going to come across a very dead or gasping corpse pretty soon.
Suddenly, he stopped. The trail led right out the main doors. "Frank... did the doors alarm earlier?" There was a pause before he answered in a surprised voice. "Why yes, how did you know? There wasn't anyone there when I went to check, I thought it was a false alarm. Those doors have been on the blink now and again."
Mitch pushed through the doors into the night air. It was warm enough that he didn't need a jacket. The stars were visible more here than in the rest of the city since they were close to the waterfront. His flashlight beam played out in front of him, following the diminishing wet trail of drops. It led past the closed lemonade stand and then circled around the sealion pit. Mitch flashed his light down into the pit. If the sealions had been active earlier, they were pretty quiet now. Mitchell had a good idea why they had been so vocal... maybe something they saw or sensed was nearby. "I'm heading out towards Suzy's tank and the dolphins. Can you meet me there, Frank?"
"Sure will, I'll keep an eye out. What am I looking for exactly, Mr. Walker?"
Mitchell paused. "....you'll know it when you see it."
The trail was getting harder to follow because the drops were far enough apart that they were starting to dry up. Mitch hurried as fast as he could. He could just imagine if this creature got into Suzy's tank... she would be endagering their Orka for one, and endangering her own life as well. Killer whales were named aptly and were meat eaters. Even if the creature resembled a woman in some ways, she might still register as a fish for Suzy.
When he reached the big arena tank, Suzy whistled a greeting, following him along the glass wall as if hoping for a fishy midnight treat. Bad for Mitchell, her waves splashed over the side, completely obliterating the trail he'd been following. "Suzy! Come on, you're killing me here!" he scolded her. She squeaked almost sadly, moving off with no treat from her favorite person.
Frank was coming over towards him. "Nothing yet, Mr. Walker. Everything seems normal enough. Did you find anything?"
Mitchell sighed. "I'm afraid not, Suzy just took out the trail I was following. Now she could be anywhere in the park." Frank gave him a curious look in the dark. "She, Mr. Walker? Is it a person?"
"No," Mitch shook his head. "Not exactly. If you don't mind doing one more round, I know you're not due but while you check inside, I'll check the rest of the outside tanks. It's possible I missed her while inside. Radio me if you find anything." They split up with Frank heading back to the main building. Mitch was getting more and more anxious. The more time this creature spent out of the water could mean the closer to death they could be right now. But with eight to ten large open tanks in the park, not counting the little ones for the smaller fish and not counting the dolphin tunnel, surely they had headed towards water of some sort. Mitchell had a silly thought in the back of his head, thinking about mermaids and their ability to walk on dry land... he shoved that back into whatever mythical corner it came from. He and Tony had definitely brought in a flesh and blood creature. He wasn't going to accept that it was up and walking around right now like a human being.
He'd reached the dolphin enclosure. Most of them were sleeping, which involved small groups of them moving up to surface and back down to sleep. When dolphins sleep, they only shut down half of their brains, the other half working on giving them enough air. Usually they would pair up with an awake friend who would keep them going up and down while they slept. A few others were scampering around the enclosure, calling out to Mitchell to come in and play with them. He flashed his light in and around the water, realizing this eerily looked like what he had been dreaming earlier. But there wasn't much for dark corners in this tank. He was only able to see one side, then the other as the bridge between them housed the tunnel that he'd taken the tours through earlier that day. He didn't see any telltale wet spots on the corners of the tank as he scouted around the outside. There was a semi sharp edge to the corners that prevented the dolphins from jumping over onto dry land. If she'd gone over into the tank, she would have had to be careful or get herself cut on those sharp corners.
His search turned up nothing. "Anything with you, Frank? Be sure to look at the dolphin tunnel, she may have jumped in the tank."
"Yeah, I'm there right now, Mr. Walker." There was a pause. "I'm only seeing the dolphins, nothing that shouldn't be there. Kind of hard to see farther out though."
Mitch sighed. "That's ok, I checked already." He was at a loss as to what to do. "Ok, I'm going to have to search once more around, you continue your regular scheduled rounds. I'll radio if I need you again." He wouldn't be able to stay up too much longer, the weariness of the day was still hanging on him. He would have to sleep eventually. And it would be easier to search in the daylight. They didn't have anywhere else to look. If she was still on dry land, they would have come across her by now. She had to be somewhere in the tanks.
We'll do a thorough search tomorrow, me and my team, he said to himself. Before the tourists come in. Trying to keep this thing under wraps was starting to become harder than he had hoped.