"Yeah," Kyle agrees. "Maybe a seal? I dunno. I'm not even convinced that's water out there, dude."

He stands beside Carter. moving very slightly in front of him when the sound comes again. He stares intently into the fog as a shape materializes.

"It's a guy," he starts to say, and then freezes.

It was a guy, once. Now it looks like something out of a Bernie Wrightson comic. Bloated and picked over by the dwellers in the deep, the figure shambles inexorably towards them.