Soa como " Slime " (1953) por Joseph Payne Brennan . O texto completo está disponível aqui .
Um envolveu uma criatura parecida com uma bolha das profundezas do oceano,
IT WAS A GREAT GRAY-BLACK HOOD OF HORROR MOVING over the floor of the sea. It slid through the soft ooze like a monstrous mantle of slime obscenely animated with questing life. It was by turns viscid and fluid. At times it flattened out and flowed through the carpet of mud like an inky pool; occasionally it paused, seeming to shrink in upon itself, and reared up out of the ooze until it resembled an irregular cone or a gigantic hood. Although it possessed no eyes, it had a marvelously developed sense of touch, and it possessed a sensitivity to minute vibrations which was almost akin to telepathy. It was plastic, essentially shapeless. It could shoot out long tentacles, until it bore a resemblance to a nightmare squid or a huge starfish; it could retract itself into a round flattened disk, or squeeze into an irregular hunched shape so that it looked like a black boulder sunk on the bottom of the sea.
de alguma forma perturbado ou lançado para a praia.
Had it not been for a vast volcanic upheaval on the bottom of the ocean basin, the black horror would have crept out its entire existence on the silent sea ooze without ever manifesting its hideous powers to mankind.
Fate, in the form of a violent subterranean explosion, covering huge areas of the ocean's floor, hurled it out of its black slime world and sent it spinning toward the surface.
Temia a luz (naturalmente), escondia-se no escuro e dava voltas à noite, sugando várias pessoas. Uma cena tinha um cara mantendo-se afastado com uma fogueira ... até ele ficar sem madeira.
He stood frozen in absolute helpless panic as the tiny fire smoldered down into darkness.
At the last instant, a charred bit of wood broke apart, sending up a few sparks, and in that flicker of final light he glimpsed the horror.
It had already glided out of the bushes and now it rushed across the small clearing with nightmare speed. It was a final incarnation of all the fears, shuddering apprehensions and bad dreams which Henry Hossing had ever known in his life. It was a fiend from the pit of Hell come to claim him at last.
A terrible ringing scream burst from his throat, but it was smothered before it was finished as the black shape of slime fastened upon him with irresistible force.
No final, a criatura tentou voltar ao oceano, mas, até lá, as autoridades estavam procurando por ela.
A number of helicopters which had hovered over the area during the afternoon landed on the strip of shore, bringing food and supplies. At Chief Underbeck's insistence, barriers were set up on the beach. Guards were stationed along the entire length of the highway; powerful searchlights were brought up. Another truck from Camp Evans arrived with a portable machine gun and several flame-throwers.
By eleven o'clock that night, the stage was set. The beach barriers were in place, guards were at station, and huge searchlights, erected near the highway, swept the dismal marsh with probing cones of light.
At eleven-fifteen the night patrols, each consisting of ten strongly armed men, struck into the swamp again.
Um soldado matou-o com um lança-chamas na praia, pouco antes de escapar.
Infelizmente, ele apareceu em um grande número de coleções, então, sem mais detalhes, não consigo identificar qual "livro que foi uma coleção de contos assustadores / ficção científica" em que você leu. Particularmente li no "Museu do Monstro de Alfred Hitchcock: Doze Histórias de Shuddery para Leitores Jovens ousados". Esta coleção também incluiu uma grande história sobre um cientista que tenta reparar cirurgicamente uma malformação no coração de um jacaré e inadvertidamente recria dragões ("O Dia do Dragão", de Guy Endore), e outro conto famoso chamado "O homem quem vendeu corda para os gnoles ". Tocar algum sino?There was a collective gasp of horrified dismay as the monster, with a quick forward lurch, squeezed through the barrier. It tilted there briefly, twisting, as if a few last threads of itself might still be entangled in the wire.
As it moved to disengage itself and rush down the wet sands into the black sea, one of the guards hurled himself forward until he was almost abreast of the barrier. Sliding to his knees, he aimed at the escaping hood of horror.
A second later a great searing spout of flame shot from his weapon and burst in a smoky red blossom against the thing on the opposite side of the wire.
Black oily smoke billowed into the night. A ghastly stench flowed over the beach. The guards saw a flaming mass of horror grope away from the barrier. The soldier who aimed the flamethrower held it remorselessly steady.
There was a hideous bubbling, hissing sound. Vast gouts of thick, greasy smoke swirled into the night air. The indescribable stench became almost unbearable.
When the soldier finally shut off the flamethrower, there was nothing in sight except the white-hot glowing wires of the barrier and a big patch of blackened sand.
With good reason the mantle of slime had hated light, for its ultimate source was fire–the final unknown enemy which even the black hood could not drag down and devour.