For those of you wondering, the answer is no, I did not meet up with Jorge. He blew up my phone with texts and calls for the next three days I was off work recovering from my injuries. It got to a point where it was so annoying I ended up just blocking the number.
Anyways, I was finally back at work since my injuries had healed. After I came back I cleared up canal #10 which was one of the normal ones luckily. There wasn’t much going on there really other than the iguanas, they weren’t cursed or anything, there was just a lot of iguanas and by the end of the day when I got out of the crane I saw about three of them just hanging out on the roof of the crane. Honestly, I’d pick these oversized lizards over the canaleros, cultists and nighters any day, too bad it wasn’t up for me to choose.
It had been only five days since the “after hours” incident, and six days since the stand-off with the cultist. And now I was back at it, the next canal I had on schedule was one of the “special” ones, canal #11. According to the map this canal was just on the opposite side of a retirement home’s golf club, though according to Roger no one really plays golf there (I wonder why) but I shouldn’t be surprised if a loose golf ball hits the crane, not like it’s gonna break it.
I opened the gate and rolled in the crane into the canal. As usual the heavy air and bad energy hit me at once, similar to the one you’d feel at a cemetery or a funeral home. I noticed a few pairs of yellow eyes staring at me from behind the trees, the canaleros had grown wary of me but hadn’t given up, they’d just watch and wait for an opportunity, a mistake on my end, and I was not going to give them the satisfaction.
Up at the distance I saw for the first time one of the things in Jorge’s sketches. Those animal-faced humanoid creatures, I’d expect them to be over 8 feet tall but this one was about half of that. It had a canine-like face, like a short man covered in gray fur and a dog-like muzzle. So far all the creatures I’ve encountered have been smart and quick witted, this one was the exception. As soon as I approached it that thing ran towards the crane and took a bite at one of the pipes on the left side, the pipe didn’t bent and the thing just bit on to it probably assuming the crane was a living creature invading its territory.
It was funny at first, but after ten minutes with all the biting and growling it’s about time for the thing to get off the crane. I reached for the airsoft pistol, removed the safety, looked through the windows to make sure there were no canaleros near. Once the coast was clear, I opened the left hatch and fired a warning shot without aiming hoping that the noise would scare that thing off the crane, and it did, right after it hit the ground near the thing it jumped off and ran in all fours to the nearest tree.
The airsoft pistol was heavy, chromed and it looked expensive. I wondered when was the last time Jorge reloaded this thing, it was the first time I shot this one but I could feel it was weaker that the ones I used to play with back in middle school.
I removed the magazine off the airsoft pistol and felt my blood run cold as I saw the contents, I know by experience that BB and Airsoft pellets are almost exclusively made out of metal or plastic, so how on earth did Jorge filled this thing with wooden pellets? They were clearly wood, I’d never forget that color, ashy black with green sparkles, the same color my cross turned after my first shift on the job. I noticed a tiny hole that went across the pellet on the top of the magazine, shortly after coming to the realization that these weren’t actual pellets but just wooden balls meant for arts and crafts. This was really creative on Jorge’s end, he did wrote down that this would fend off against cultists, I could only imagine how awful it must be to get hit by one of this pellets, but I didn’t had to imagine it, I already came in contact with cursed wood before.
The crane slightly tilt to the left, snapping me back into reality. I looked to the left and saw a canalero crawling reaching it’s arm and claws inside the cabin through the slightly open hatch. “SHIT” I said after noticing how stupid I had been to stare at wooden balls rather than closing the hatch in the middle of one of these accursed canals.
Out of pure instinct, I dropped the airsoft pistol and the magazine, reached for the new bottle of window cleaner and spray its arm about four times before the wretched infant pulled it out of the cabin and ran away towards the trees, not far from the dog-like creature. Immediately after I closed the hatch and shove the magazine into the airsoft pistol once more.
Trying to forget my previous interactions as of today, I resumed work from where I left it. I was hoping that running into the beast-like creature would suffice the canal-related experiences for today, but I forgotten that so far the canal has never hit me just once in one day. Up ahead I saw the rule Jorge had been most afraid of when we meet. Floating upwards in the canal there was a man. The corpse was bald, his skin had turned into a dark gray color. What intrigued me the most were his clothes, he wore a brown three piece suit with a bowtie, you’re ten times more likely to die from a heatstroke instead of drowning if you’re wearing that in the hot and humid Floridian summer, not like that would be a fashionable choice elsewhere though.
What did the rules said about the corpse again? It took me a second to remember I had to pretend it’s not there and so I did. The crane just moved along and I just pretend I hadn’t seen anything but water. The strange thing was that even though the corpse didn’t move I could feel its eyes following my every movement, just like with the canaleros behind the trees, but unlike those little bastards this guy really did send down shivers down my spine.
About two minutes later I’ve moved far enough not to see the corpse anymore. According to Jorge, this thing wouldn’t just die if I sprinkled him some window cleaner, salt or if I shot him with that toy gun, even though most living things won’t die from those things either, at least MOST living things outside of the canal won’t die from that though, once inside these were my only weapons, but how can you fight off something you can’t even touch?
Something hit the crane from behind, judging by the sound it was most likely a rock. I looked behind assuming canaleros were just throwing rocks at the crane, again, I wish it had been that. I saw a white ball laying on the grass, it seemed someone had decided to play some golf after all.
The realization sent shivers down my spine, I slowly turned back hoping the corpse would be gone by now or that whoever miss that shot wouldn’t be able to see the corpse if it’s wasn’t already gone by now. I looked back and there it was, an old overweight man shouting something from the distance. He probably wants his ball back I thought, he’s gonna be quite disappointed once he realizes I’m not risking getting mauled by a canalero just to give him back his $2 golf ball.
He moved towards the canal, maybe thinking I couldn’t hear what he was saying, which is accurate, I couldn’t hear much over the sound of the crane’s engine. His face was red most likely out of missing more than one shot this day. I wish I could’ve shoved him off, somehow tell him to back off a thousand miles and forget about his golf ball, but it all happened so fast it was already over before I could even think of a way to toss him back his golf ball.
The guy was looking at me, no doubt, but somehow caught a glimpse of the corpse over his peripheral vision. He stared right at the corpse with a horrified look on its face. Suddenly I didn’t felt the eyes of either the corpse nor the canaleros on me anymore, we were all staring at the golfer now. I looked away from him, adjusted the rear view mirror and stared at him through the reflection.
The corpse seemed to come back to life all of a sudden. His eyes were already open but they had turned completely black now, he stood up over the water like it had been solid the entire time, no, that’s a mistake, he wasn’t touching the water, he was slightly levitating over it. He jumped straight towards the old man and embarrassed him. It all happened in a matter of seconds, the old man twitched while the thing embracing him started to disappear inside of his victim’s body.
Jorge’s words on rule #3 back in the cafeteria replayed in my head “they will eat you from the inside until you’re gone, not physically gone but your soul won’t exist anymore” and so they did. It was over in a matter of seconds, the corpse abandoned it’s victim’s body slowly. It looked somehow revitalized, his skin had turned from a dark gray to a clear gray, it looked healthier. His eyes weren’t black anymore but bright yellow like the canaleros. The corpse looked on my direction and I don’t know if he saw me staring or not, but he just looked down into the ground, like he was ashamed of what he did. Shortly after he jumped back into the water and disappeared without making a splash after entering the water. The old man was laying on his back completely still, if Jorge had told the truth about rule #3 then his body is still alive even though this man is anything but alive at this point.
I rushed to finish what was left of this canal, couldn’t spend another second here and risking another abnormal creature to try to kill me somehow. What was left of the day resulted surprisingly uneventful other than when the dog-humanoid chased after the crane in all fours. I should give this thing a better name for his kin, I guess I’ll just call them brutes since they’re nothing but brute force but no brains.
After reaching the entrance gate, I saw it had been blocked by a white cargo van, and on the driver’s seat there he was. Jorge stared daggers at me and made a hand gesture asking me to get out of the crane, I shook my head and in response he sighed annoyed and and mumbled something behind him, shortly after two bulky guys got out of the van wielding crowbars, I hate being judgmental but frankly these guys looked somewhat unfriendly.
What options I had for now? the sun would go down in less than an hour and they sure as heck would not stick around after that, but I wonder if my mysterious friend ESF would be able to get me out this time, probably not, so driving deeper into the canal wasn’t an option, besides, this crane could go at about 10mph at best so they’re sure to catch up anyways.
I decided to call Roger, why Roger instead of the Police? beats me, I figured he’d be helpful tracking down Jorge’s whereabouts if I do get killed by his goons. Roger picked up the phone in less than a second.
“Dave, is everything okay?” He asked straightforwardly.
“Listen Roger, Jorge’s back, I’m at the gate by canal #11 and he’s been threating me, I think he’s armed. You gotta help me” I sobbed desperately.
“Someone’s threatening you? Who’s this Jorge you mentioned?” He s sounded genuinly confused.
“The guy who used to work this job before me, the cuban” I yelled.
“That’s hilarious, Dave, you almost got me, but I’ve never worked with a Jorge before, matter of fact I don’t know anybody by that name” He hung up the phone shortly after, I just stood there in silence while Jorge’s goons tried to pry open the crane’s door with their crowbars.