Well, here's my all-dialogue story called Loch Ness. Please leave me a comment and tell me what you think!
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| The Loch Ness Monster |
Loch Ness
By Rochelle Campbell
“Do you hate me, Kirsten?”
“I wouldn’t say that…exactly.”
“What would you say?”
“I’d say you’d better keep your eye on the Loch. If we’re
really supposed to be looking for Nessie this would be the time. It’s dusk. “
“I prefer a different view at the moment. A twin peaks view…”
“See? That’s
why we have issues!”
“Ahoy there, Matey!”
“You guys couldn’t have more perfect timing!”
“Really? Jeff
staring at your boobs again?”
“Well, if she’d cover them up…”
“Why you dirty little…”
“What’s that sound?”
“Maria, Perkins, Jeff and Boob Lady – get into your
positions! This might be it. I’m going to get the skiff in the water and
take out the ROVNav6 equipment to see if I can get a bead on our favorite
mythological creature. Everyone,
remember what your roles -- go!”
“Aren’t I supposed to go with you?”
“Kirsten, only I’m on the skiff, ‘member? Too much is at risk if more than one person
goes out there. While we haven’t heard
any man-eating stories about Nessie, I’m too much of a pragmatist to take any
chances. You’re working the night vision
camera, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Got all your equipment? Including your radio?”
“You know I do.”
“Right, I do.
I know everyone does because you’re all my best students. That’s why you’re here. Ignore Jeff.
He’s just hot for you. You’re too
good for him anyway. Now…go.”
“Thanks, Professor Tate.”
“Yeah, yeah.
Aren't I supposed to be seeing your fanny right about now?”
"Going…"
"Damn, it's nippy out here. How long do we have to stay? It's been 3 hours already!"
"Stop whining, Jeff.
We have no idea how sensitive that 6G sonar is."
"You need to pay attention to more than Kirsten's
boobs, Blockhead. The sonar won't pick
up voices. Its focus is beneath us --
784 feet beneath us to be precise. Think
he's captured any contacts?"
"Dunno. I keep
remembering Operation Deepscan in '87.
They captured 3 contacts that were -- what was it, Kirsten?"
"…bigger than a fish but smaller than a whale. Why don't you ever remember that, Mare? Oh, and Perkins, it's 812 feet -- that depth
was recorded in 1989."
"See? You're the
brainiac, Missy; the blonde hair and hazel eyes are just camouflage."
"The radio traffic is bothering me, kids. Can we cut the chatter?"
"But the sonar doesn't pick it up!"
"No, but I do."
"You sound like my Dad."
"That's because he could be!"
"Knock it off.
I'm not…well, forget it. I'm only
a few years shy. Leave it to you guys to
bring up my existentialist issues when I am attempting to solve the mother of
all myths. Good Grief, kids!"
"What was that? Sounded like a huge blip, Professor."
"Yeah…it was."
"Leave him let him calibrate to lock in on the contact
signal. Are you already set up to record
to the chart paper, Professor?"
"Damn. Thank,
Kirsten. What would I do without
you? Got it on. Yeah…yeah.
This things moving fast and it's big.
I have it at 190 meters and it's going deeper! Hot damn!
Recording now for a full 2 minutes.
Think this is the longest recording in recent Nessie history…"
"You think it's Nessie?"
"This thing is huge -- bigger than a shark. Like the size of a calf, say 9 or 10 months
old."
"Professor, really?
How dumb do you think we are? A
baby cow? That's not that big…"
"The Idiot Pills are working…"
"Perkins, quit it."
"You're defending him? Wow.
Jeff, you may have a shot after all."
"Owww!!!"
"Ow! You hit
me!"
"Someone clocked me, too."
"We're all trying to protect our ears, Blockhead. That high-pitched keening sound is worse than
nails on a blackboard."
"Professor?! Are
you all right? The sound's coming from
your direction -- Professor?"
"Anybody have a visual of him?"
"Nothing here by Castle Urquhart. What about you, Blockhead?"
"I'm in position 1/2 a mile down from the Castle and I
got nothing; can't even see his boat anymore."
"Kirsten, you're the one with the best vantage point,
up on the hills with the night vision equipment. What do you see?"
"Just a sec, got so worried, forgot I had it. All right, scanning all sectors --
nothing! No boat. No, Professor. Nothing.
It seems like he just…vanished."
"What was that damn noise? Could that have something to do with Tate's
disappearance?"
"For a numb nut, you may have a point there. What do you think, people? Do you think we just heard Nessie's
voice?"
"If we did, did it sink the Professor's boat?"
"Or, did Nessie take him into her cave?"
"Remember the walls of the Loch
are similar to all other lochs; no caves."
"Quit it, Kirsten.
This is not just a school trip
anymore. This is serious. We just heard a God awful screech and now the
Professor's not responding to his radio and we don't have visual. This shouldn't be happening but it is so we
have to think outside of the box. We're
Americans; we don't know this place like the Scottish do. Maybe the information we have is not as
current and up-to-date as the Professor likes to believe. Maybe there is a cave or two down
there."
"Well, we do have some Sonar wetsuits back at the
hotel. Wanna go look?"
"Jeff, you can't be serious."
"Way, serious.
The Professor's gone AWOL and I don't like it. I'm getting more creeped out with every
passing minute. We can't just stand here
and wait for him to reappear. What if he
doesn't?"
"Damn, I hate this.
But ladies, Jeff's right. We
can't just stand around hoping he'll show up.
What if he's drowning as we speak?"
"Was that a splash?"
"Damn him!
Jeff!! Get out of the
water!"
"Kirsten, keep an eye on him. Start recording now, too."
"Good idea, thanks Perkins."
"Jeff's nearing the spot where Professor Tate's boat
was last seen. Okay, he's splashing
around -- he dove under! Yeah, forgot he
was on the friggin' swim team."
"Don't forget he's a surfer dude as well…"
"You sound jealous, Perkins…"
"…what's Blockhead doing now? Did he come up for air yet?"
"He's only been under for 15 seconds."
"I can't stand all this waiting. I think I was holding my breath! How long has it been now Kirsten?"
"Almost two minutes."
"Have you seen Jeff come back up?"
"No."
"How long can he hold his breath?"
"Dunno. But
David Blaine held his for over 17 minutes in 2008..."
"That's not real helpful information right now,
Perkins. The average person can do about
2 minutes before coming up for air. But
Jeff? Maybe he can do longer."
"Okay, Kirsten.
Let's hope so. You're the leader
now so what do we do?"
"Well, we can track Professor Tate through the USBL
Scout system and the GPS I
suggested he equip it with. We'll have
to contact the local authorities and let them know about this."
"Are you crying, Kirsten?"
"Let's pack it in and get help for them both NOW."
"How many minutes have they been under?"
"Tate's been missing for about six minutes and four for
Jeff"
"I'm heading to the hotel. Meet you guy's there."
"Should we turn off the radios now?"
"No, leave them on.
I don't want to take any chances and please -- no more heroes tonight,
okay? There's only three of us
left."
"Should we change?"
"No time; got to get to the authorities. It's been 16 minutes now for the
Professor. Let's get going. It's 17 miles to the Northern Constabulary. You're driving, Perkins."
"Why me?
"'Cause you're left-handed. With me being nervous, I don't want my
instincts steering me towards the wrong side of the road."
"Good point.
But, my being left-handed doesn't matter. I drive on the right side just like you
do."
"You're driving."
"I'll drive!"
"NO!!"
"Geez, both of you didn't have to yell. And why can't you forgive a little
fender-bender?"
"Because it was with a Mercedes-Benz, that's why."
"It's just a
car. Hey, my legs are shorter than both
of yours. Wait up!"
"So, let us get this straight. You three are from Columbia University
and you had two others with you, your Professor and this feller named numb
nuts?"
"No, his name's Jeff Dawkins."
"I prefer numb nut.."
"Shut it, Iain.
Sorry there lassie. Jeff. And then while your were looking for, hehe,
Nessie, the good ole Professor disappeared after you heard a loud noise. And two minutes later, Jeff jumps in to save
the drowning Professor. Is that about
right?"
"Yes, Constable it is."
"Ach awa' an' bile yer hied!"
"Iain! None of
that. Come back here!"
"Er. A roundabout
translation would be, 'go away and boil your head' but he really didn't mean
it. We get so many crazy stories from
tourist that after a while…let's just say, Iain's a beat cop. He's heard and seen it all."
"So what do can you do to help us find our
friends?"
"File a missing person's report and in the morning,
we'll send out rescue boats."
"That's hours away!"
"Maria, is your name?
Well, we're a 24-hour operation, but the rescue boats can't see out
there in the dark and it would make no sense to send more people out into risk,
now would it? Go back to your hotel and
we'll meet you at Castle Urquhart at 9:30. The fog will have burned off…mostly and we
should be able to see clearly. Get some
rest."
"Can't sleep, Kirsten."
"Neither can I."
"That makes the three of us."
"So, what're we gonna do?"
"Go down and have one more look around."
"I'm with you!"
"Me, too."
"Take all of your equipment. Never know what we might need."
"Okay, over here is where Jeff jumped in and out about
80 yards is where the Professor was last seen.
Right, Kirsten?"
"Yeah. Okay,
I've set up the GPS tracker and
its calibrating. Do you have the GPS tracker code of the RovNav6 unit?"
"Got it. I'm
entering it in. There, done."
"Good. It's
tracking it. Damn! It's 685 feet down! If it's there, that's not good for the
Professor…"
"Guys…"
"He could have swum downstream and is exhausted and
looking for us. Look at this, it
moved! How is it moving??"
"GUYS…"
"How the hell should I know? Let's recalibrate and see if it's maybe an
anomaly --"
"GUYS!!! Look
and don’t you hear the sound starting up?"
"The RovNav6 is almost to the surface! What does that mean?"
"RUN!!!!"
"Stop dragging me, Perkins -- Aww you made me drop the
--"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA--- "
"Keep running, Kirsten.
Don't look back. Mare's
gone."
"But --"
"Let's go faster.
I'll explain later."
"Okay, you've had 4 cups of tea and about a million
crumpets. What the hell did you see,
Perkins?"
"I saw something long and smooth come out of the water
and faster than I thought possible it snaked up close and grabbed, Maria. That damn noise was so piercing I had shut my
eyes and was already running inland and grabbing you so I didn't get a good
look."
"Was it Nessie?"
"Who knows? All
I know is all three of them are gone.
The RovNav6 is inside of whatever that thing is. They're all gone Kirsten. It's just the two of us left and I, for one,
am not going anywhere near the Loch
again. I like being a landlubber."
"How can you say that?
What's wrong with you? I'm going
back out there!"
"I suggest you wait for the rescue crew to come in the
morning, Kirsten."
"Why?? So I can
be sure my friends are dead?"
"You're already sure they are right now."
"Let go of me!"
"I'm not going to let you kill yourself. I know you were in love with Tate and having
an affair with him but…he's gone."
"Oh God…no!!"
"It's okay. Let it all out…it's all over now…"
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