“Just about five more miles before we reach the bottom,” Angela said. “Man is it dark down here!” Parker said looking around the tiny sub. “You think we will find a giant sea creature?” Maddison jokingly said. “Everyone stay focused, if you see a giant monster thingy I will let you pet it but I won’t let you back in,” I said laughing at Maddison. She started laughing with me until the thought got to her, “Wait, you won’t really, right?” she said looking at me with concern. “Of course I won’t, if we see something like that we are heading back to the surface,” I said continuing to drive the sub.
The submarine was small, the technical name had too many numbers in it so we usually call it, “The sub” or “The tiny thing” the names annoyed the people back at the research lab. We would usually get a command saying that we needed to call it the right name or don’t drive it at all. But they weren’t the ones taking hours to float in darkness in the deepest part of the ocean. Anyway, there were lights and emergency lights so we could see, if we needed to we could camouflage with the plant life down at the bottom. There was enough room to fit ten people, but that was only if we crammed that many, there wouldn’t be enough room to fit ten people and still have room.
The outside was blue and on the left and right side it had a symbol with an octopus and a name that read, “Ocean Life 203” that was the company logo. It wasn’t the pay that drew me to the company and the job entirely. I will admit that it was part of the reason, but I have always been fascinated by the complex vastness of the ocean, the mystery of what lies at the bottom of the dark, cold ocean. Ocean Life 203 offered me answers. All I had to do was sign a few papers and a few contracts and I was all set to go.
The pay was over 300 grand. When they first offered me a chance to uncover the secrets of the ocean, I was thrilled and immediately accepted. It took 6 months of studying and learning how to pilot the machine, but when I was finally done, the job started. It took a few test runs to see how much the machine could take with all the water pressure. Now here we are, almost to the bottom of the ocean. “Alright everyone, I will go through the plan with you again,” I announced. “Do we have to? I mean we have heard it at least a hundred times,” Parker interrupted.
“Yes it is very necessary Parker now listen up.” I was not about to lose my job to anyone on this sub, this is very important to me. “Once we reach five feet above the sea floor, we send out lights all across the bottom, if we seen any new life forms we report to HQ after three hours we head back. Is that understood?” I asked everyone. “Understood,” everyone replied all together.
“Just a few more feet!” Maddison said hysterically. “Five feet above sea floor has been reached,” the intercom said. “Alright Angela hit the lights!” Parker yelled. I could tell he was just as excited as I was. Who wouldn’t be? After all we get to uncover new species and possibly fallen structures that has been down, for… however long it has been staying there. “Hey Parker, we should send out an ocean scanner to see if there is any life or structures down here so we know where to navigate,” Maddison suggested. “Good idea Maddi, I’ll send it out right now,” Parker pressed a button and out shot a small device used to navigate. We so creatively called it “The Navigator” I know best name ever right?
“Online in 3… 2… 1… and we are all set ladies and gentlemen.” Just then on a small screen to the left of me we had total sight of nearby structures and any movements made within a fifteen mile radius. “Woah! You all need to see this now!” Angela yelled towards us. “Okay we are coming Angela, don’t yell so loud we don’t know if we are alone,” I said while scolding her. We all walked over to a bright green panel she was looking at. It illuminated a huge object that appeared to be a mile out from us. I may love exploring the ocean and uncovering secrets, but venturing into the dark and seemingly endless ocean off course just to see a structure.
I knew they all wanted to see it but I had a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. “We should all go check it out,” Parker suggested. “Listen guys, if we go there we would be completely going off course and could lose our way, sure our suites can hold the pressure but we have to use our tanks sparingly,” I said seriously to all of them, I needed to them all to know the possible risks. “He is right guys, we don’t know what is out there,” Maddison said. Everyone looked at each other in silence. I thought for a long time, if we really needed to we could retreat to the sub and start ascending back to the surface.
“So are we going?” Parker asked. “Screw it, let’s get going,” I said, but I still knew deep down it was a terrible idea. I don’t know why but I had a bad feeling something would happen. “Hell yes!” Maddison screamed. Everyone reminded her to be quiet. The motor roared to life, it wasn’t terribly loud, we wanted to stay as silent as possible, so the engineering team designed it so it isn’t so, ya know, noticeable.
Once we reached the half mile mark that is when my instincts mocked me for leading myself astray, a high pitch signal was coming through the sub’s intercoms. It was deafening, it made my ears ring and it felt like two tones were crushing my head. It was grueling trying to even reach the controls to turn the intercoms off. I stumbled and fell a few times of chairs and diving gear. Before I reached the controls it stopped. It was suddenly gone. It was just complete silence. Not one noise was made. I stood up dizzily and turned my gaze to the rest of the crew.
The crew was out cold. Maybe the frequency of the signal was too much for them to bear. That doesn’t explain why I am still conscious. A boatload of time must have passed because the navigator said I was ten feet away from the structure. Once I read that number I immediately stopped the sub. I sat there for what felt like ages. I didn’t want to go out there, something wanted to hurt us I know it did. Just sitting in the dark alone with thousands of feet of water weighing down on me made me feel hopeless.
It wasn’t long before I found something off about Angela. She looked way skinnier, she wasn’t like this before. It looks like her skin is deteriorating. Why wasn’t Parker or Maddison like this? This all makes no sense. Angela suddenly woke up, but something was different. When she opened her eyes, they looked like endless voids of darkness, sucking the life out of me. Then she opened her mouth abnormally large and screamed. Almost as loud as the frequency.
Then she closed her mouth, and closed her eyes and her skin turned to ash and nothing was left except bones. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I had to see what was killing my friends and colleagues and put it to rest. For some reason the engineer and design team decided to put light on out sub that only reached up to five feet and since I was ten feet away I would have to get five feet closer to see what I was looking at. This realization almost killed me inside. I took a quick look at the diving gear, took a long sigh and started getting ready to venture out, through dark on my own.
Once I went through a hatch that lead to the ocean, I immediately had the urge to go back inside the sub and just leave. But I fought the urges and kept myself in check, I felt like I was going to have a panic attack but I kept that in check as well. “Flash, check. Flares, check. Water resistant batteries, check. Harpoon gun, not leaving my side, check,” I whispered to myself. I wasn’t going in alone. I could definitely feel the water weighing down on me but the suite was working like a charm. “Crap, crap,” I heard myself say. I heard a cry come from in front of me about twenty yards away. “Oh for f**k sake,” I said. I starting slowly making my way to the supposed structure.
It was the most terrifying, lonely and cold swim I had ever taken. Being in unknown territory made we feel sick to my stomach. I bumped into something, I flashed my light and it looked like a broken pillar. In that short flash I could also see a doorway that must have led to something. “Of course,” I said. I kept on flashing to make my way to the doorway. I had plenty of batteries and a lot of life left in my first set. From what I could tell the place looked ancient. No I am not going to say Atlantis but definitely something. In my com I thought I heard a voice. It sounded like it was crying out for help. I couldn’t distinguish its gender.
I thought it might have been one of the crew members so I screamed back in relief. “PARKER! MADDISON! Which one of you am I speaking with? If you can hear me just hold on a little while longer. I’ll be back!” I replied to the cry for help but all I heard was static interference. Oh god how I wish I wouldn’t have done that. I heard an inhuman screech, multiple of them and somehow it wasn’t muffled by the water and I could hear it perfectly. It was like a gurgling noise mixed with a puppies bark. I don’t know how else to describe it.
I had the urge to ignite one of my 8 flares. What I first saw was just a giant hallway help up my tumbling pillars of marble and stone. I swam around for a while until my flare almost burned out. I pulled out a second and what I saw once I ignited it haunts me every, single, day. Hundreds of scaly, wide-eyed, no mouthed creatures were staring directly at me from the ceiling, walls, and even the pillars. They were gray so they blended with the stone. Somehow these creatures with now mouths made a deafening, ear ringing, high pitch scream like we heard over the subs intercoms.
I felt sick, I turned around to look for the doorway that led me to this hell. Once I did at least thirty or so were in front of me, starring with those blank eyes. I turned around once more and more were there. I was totally surrounded, with no way out. I had an idea, they have adjusted to the dark so maybe light will blind them. I ignited another flare and shown them the bright red light. They screamed and howled in pain. They moved to the side and I quickly swam out of there back to the sub. I got through the hatch and took off my gear. I could see that whatever I heard wasn’t Maddison or Parker because they were still unconscious.
They must have followed me because one latched onto the front window. Then I heard some from the back, bottom and top latching on. The sub’s alarm was going off like firecrackers. I was panicking and what I did… I will never forgive myself for. I threw out Angela’s remains, Parker and Maddisons unconscious bodies outside the sub to distract whatever those things are. It was looking like it was working. I wasted no time to start ascending. I don’t know how it long it was but when I finally saw the light coming from the surface I almost cried. Ocean Life 203 workers were there to pull me out of the sub.
I was in serious shock and it took two weeks to finally talk about what happened. I told them everything and they didn’t look in the least bit worried. I was furious and my veins coursed with rage as they told me that our mission wasn’t to be the first humans to reach the bottom of the ocean, but a secret mission to see what loud frequencies were coming from. Their company didn’t even exist to the known world. Reports say that we don’t have the technology to put humans at the bottom of the ocean. They told me that this information was never released to the public.They also said they didn’t know if we would survive the mission or not and didn’t care. I was told to be kept quiet and that nobody would believe me anyway.
They fired me and sent me on my way. I couldn’t believe this was happening, if any of you want to know what lies at the bottom of the ocean, you have your answer. Those things have been multiplying and have large numbers. The frequencies being heard by the ocean floor is getting closer to the surface. I think they plan to invade. Please, hear my warning for this is the last time you hear from me…
