Prompt# 147 - Biohazard - Taking Photos - Tekia - original

[tekia.livejournal.com]

Title: Taking Photos
Fandom: Original
Prompt: Biohazard
Warnings: none
Rating: PG
Summary: Introduction to the third part of my story, Without Words. Tyler photographs something he never thought existed.

Tyler was taking photos of a polar bear that was watching their ship silently, standing on the pure white snow that covered as far as the eye could see. He smiled and clicked a few more times before finally lowering the camera and leaning against the rail, taking in the majestic view.
This place was truly beautiful. He loved the peace and tranquility the Arctic always brought him. The crisp wind bit, but he didn’t mind. He hardly noticed it with the excitement pumping his blood ever faster. They were getting closer to the bear’s perch. How close were they going to get before the bear fled?
Then the peace was broken by a course voice shouting behind him. Frowning at the interruption, Tyler Matthews turned to face the crew of the ship, just now awaking from their five hour sleep. The men were a motley lot, filthy and unwashed, but they were good men all. He’d known them all forever.
Zach, the ship’s skipper, strolled over toward him and leaned against the rail, a cigarette between his lips. “Four days, and we’ll turn for the port. You’ll have to get your photos from the ship.”
Tyler frowned and resumed his posture against the rail. “The weather’s turning, isn’t it?”
Zach nodded and inhaled, dark eyes taking in the surrounding water. “Get what you want, because I don’t think we’re going to have much time.”
Tyler sighed and nodded, putting his camera to his eye once again. He felt Zach walk away as he shot the glaciers and dark water. The sky was clear, blue and went on forever.
Then something caught his eye. He lowered the camera and squinted his eyes, trying to see the dark blur in a floating chunk of ice. Remembering that his new camera had an amazing zoom feature, Tyler put it back to his eye and focused on the spot.
It was a person. In the ice. He felt himself go cold with the realization and could only stare for a moment as the idea finally settled. He shouted for Zach and pointed out the person, holding the camera for the captain to see for himself.
“I’m not seeing things, am I? That is a person, right?”
“By God, it is,” he said lowering the camera slowly. “What in the world?”
“Can we pull it aboard?” Tyler asked, leaning over the rail, as they smoothly sailed closer. Zach nodded and began giving out orders to haul the small chunk of ice closer.
After much rushing about, and many photos later, Tyler was staring down off the port side at the body laying so lifeless and exposed on the ice. It was so creepy, Tyler thought as he pulled on a life jacket over his heavy fleece coat. The body was that of a young man, but he was laying in such a way that it looked like he had been standing when the ice formed around him, leaving only his torso visible above the ice.
Even stranger, was his coloring. He looked as if he had taken a bath in some biohazardous chemical and the chemical had turned his skin paper thin, and his hair into an odd shade of green that would make neon tetra jealous. Tyler could see green veins under the white skin, at least he thought they were veins.
If the man was dead, perhaps algae had made its home there, but that brought bile to the back of his throat, so he didn’t think about it. As Zach and his first mate, Mattie, approached the body, Tyler was busy taking photos and so he was the first to notice that the thin chest was moving with slow, shallow breaths.
“He’s alive!” he shouted, surprised.
Zach looked up at him, “Impossible. He’s naked. The ice would have killed him.” Nonetheless, he quickly knelt next to him and put two fingers under his jaw. Tyler clenched his fists around the camera’s straps, every second passing like an hour until Zach finally jumped to his feet.
“He lives! Shasta, get some blankets. Peter, get the picks, we’ll see if we can’t cut him out of here. Heaven knows how he got in here.” As he spoke, Zach was pulling off his own jacket and wrapping it around the thin shoulders.
Tyler quickly picked up a pick and made his way to the iceberg to lend a hand. His heart was pounding loudly in his ears as he, along with four other men, dug out the captive.
Up close, Tyler could see that the man was even more unusual than he had first thought. His eyelids were green, almost like they had been painted with a delicate brush. The green veins weren’t veins at all, but trails of tiny, frail, scales that glittered in the sun’s pure light. His lips were nearly the same color of his hair, a startling green that Tyler had only seen in man made objects before.
Then they uncovered his hips and what should have been legs.
Instead, a long, scaled tail appeared before them, leaving them all in stunned silence as they forced their eyes away and concentrated on digging him out. The tail proved to be insanely long, ending in a massive amounts of folds, the fin so thin, it was like rice paper.
Carefully, they carried the merman onto the boat and wrapped him in blankets. Warm water was brought out and Tyler himself took a towel to the icy skin as the others looked on in silent awe.
Finally the silence was broken by Mattie, “Do ya’ll think he’ll live?”
Zach shook his head. “I’ve never seen nothing like this. How do we know how he’ll react to air? To warm water?”
Tyler frowned. “Surely his human part will react just the same as any human?”
“He’s not frostbitten,” another, Shelby, put in. “That’s a good sign, right?”
Tyler nodded and passed the towel over his brow once again, eyes drawn to the pulse so very visible in the hollow of his throat. Was it only him, or did the pulse seem to be stronger? Faster?
Then he was given the shock of his life when the man’s eyes shot open, alert and fiery as they settled on him. Tyler fell back, upsetting the bowl of warm water at his knees as the others jumped in surprise.
The merman quickly looked around, taking in each human in the small space before returning his large, green eyes to Tyler. He bared his teeth, sharp, wicked things, then his eyes rolled up into his head and his body went limp once again.
Tyler stared, slack jawed. This merman was beyond belief. He pinched the exposed skin of his wrist, wondering if it was all just a dream. Mermaids didn’t exist, right?
They didn’t.
“That was a good sign, right?” Shelby asked again, breaking the silence that had fallen over the sailors once again.