by Eliza Taye
“Max, we don’t have time to explain further, but yes, it’s true. Allie and billions of other people survived the plague and there was never a second Great Plague—we were all lied to.” Dylan restlessly tapped his foot.
Max’s face was so stoic I couldn’t tell whether he thought we were crazy, or if he had suspected something all along. Reaching his right hand up, he tussled his own curly, dark brown hair and squinted one eye. “I don’t know, man. How would I get into the aquatics department? That place is only a few levels away from Zeta clearance.”
Dylan pursed his lips, grabbing Max’s arm and dragging him to the corner of the room next to a big potted plant. The gigantic living room masking their voices so they were barely audible to me.
“Max, I knew you liked Samantha once. For squid’s sake, I know you guys used to date.”
Max’s stare of disbelief was so comical I almost laughed.
“It doesn’t matter now.” Dylan’s eyes grew sad but urgent. “Max, they electrified her. I don’t know if she’s okay. It looked like she was really hurt. The only way to make her suffering worth anything is to get us out of here.”
Even at a distance, I could still see the pain on Max’s face when Dylan mentioned what happened to Samantha. I also saw when his eyes turned from pain to determination.
“What do you need?”
“Come on, most of the workers have gone home for the day, but there’s always the occasional straggler. So keep sharp,” advised Max as he led us through the double doors to the Aquatics Headquarters. He told us he would have to steal his dad’s passcode in order to gain access to the equipment room. There was supposed to be a small utility closet in the back of the room in which there was no surveillance. There we could obtain the dive suits necessary to mask our identities when we passed the few security camera locations.
The entire facility was fairly dark, illuminated only here and there by white lights tinged with blue. We immediately passed by a vacant front desk, taking the passageway branching off to the right. Winding through the dimly lit hall, it opened up to a cavernous area filled with a few scattered desks in the front and a section of cubicle-like office in the back.
“This is the spot where most of the cameras are…so follow my movements precisely,” instructed Max.
Max must have spent a lot of time with his dad in the Aquatics Department because he knew exactly where every hidden camera was. He had us snaking through the room like spies, dashing from one corner to the next to utilize the one small spot the cameras didn’t have in their sights. We continued into the next room, which was filled with a deep pool of water, but many large pieces of equipment in which to hide behind. Sneaking from place to place, we entered yet another hallway with various doors connecting to it. Opening one, he led us down a stairwell and through the door at the bottom. Eventually, we made it to the utility closet, which was pretty big for a closet if you ask me.
“Okay, each of you needs to put on a drysuit. I know the perfect place for you all to hide. There’s a training room with no external observations. They have a camera system, but it’s for the Aquatic Department’s eyes only. According to my dad, everyone here has recently gone through training so there’s no need for them to do it again for at least a week or more. You’ll be safe down there. Even Mayor Aldridge’s reach doesn’t go down that far.”
“Why is that?” I wondered, finding a drysuit in my size.
“It’s because this is the Maintenance Department. Everyone who works here holds the lives of every citizen in their hands. They want the best of the best, no one with political ties or influence is allowed. Nobody is allowed to have any outside agendas—their one and only focus has to be to keep the people of Oceania safe.” Max shrugged. “At least that’s what my dad always says.”
“Oh, I see,” I responded, trying to figure out how I was supposed to stretch the drysuit over my Oceania clothes.
“You guys stay here. For us to get into the training room I need to get my dad’s access code.” Max flashed a white smile that contrasted to his slightly dark skin. “Be back in a flash. Wish me luck.”
He disappeared before anyone could do so and we were all stuck waiting in the room while we changed. I started to regret not choosing a larger size drysuit to put on over my clothes. I should have realized the drysuit wasn’t like the SCUBAPS and wouldn’t expand or contract to size. Oh well, lesson learned.
Sitting on the ground, we waited in silence. Our lives depending on one person, who may or may not be able to steal the code. I hung my head and thought of Gran. Surely, it was nighttime now. I was supposed to be back by sundown each day. Today, I would be late…if I made it at all.
Tears began to form in my eyes as I thought of my worried grandmother. She didn’t deserve to stress over me like that. Now, my mother, she could use a little wake-up call. I was starting to wonder if she even cared about me anymore. So much had changed since Dad died that I wondered if my mother was even the same person.
“Allie,” Dylan shook my arm, “are you okay?”
I did my best to blink back the tears threatening to overpower the rims of my eyes. “Yeah, I’m fine.” My voice cracked on the last word and I hated myself for the release of my anxiety. I didn’t want to burst out crying in front of Dylan and Dr. Wilcox.
Somehow, Dylan must have figured out what was truly bothering me. “We’ll find a way to contact your Gran. I’m not quite sure how, but we’ll figure it out.”
When I nodded, a couple of tears spilled over. I cursed them for their release as they continued falling down my cheeks. I hated crying, because it made me feel weak. “Thanks, Dylan.”
The door opened and a breathless Max crouched in our faces. “Hey, I’ve got the code, but we need to move fast. I have a bad feeling about something, but I don’t know what it is yet.”
We scrambled to our feet as Max hurriedly threw on a drysuit. With everything but our faces covered, we kept our heads down and hurried to the preparation room. From there, we went through a door that took us down a tunnel slanting farther into the ground. At the bottom was a flat area with a hatch at the center. Max squatted down and grasped the handle of the hatch. Dylan joined him and together they were able to twist it open to reveal a circular dive pool with a four-foot diameter.
“We need to dive to get to the training room. It’s about twenty feet down. It isn’t far. We can each easily hold our breath. The training room is quite large, so you guys won’t run out of air if you have to stay there for a week, but it is cold down there.”
“Don’t worry. We just need a safe place. We’ll manage,” said Dr. Wilcox.
Max nodded and stepped closer to the edge. “Follow me closely, there are lights down there, but there are other twists and turns that don’t lead to oxygen, so please be careful.”
Without another word, Max dove expertly into the water. Dylan was the first to follow, with me, and then Dr. Wilcox last. When the bubbles from our entering the water cleared, I took a quick look at our surroundings. We had entered into an expansive underwater cave system with some lights, but they were few and far in between. The dark water shimmered with blue only in the small recesses of light scattered around the cave system. Gazing down, the water seemed to go on forever with no end.
The black drysuits around me were hard to see in the dim light, but the moving figures of my friends made it easier. Max led us to the north side of the dive pool and towards what resembled a rocky outcropping. When he reached it, he dove underneath and into a short tunnel only about three feet long. A flicker of light at the end of the tunnel led us to an air pocket the size of Dylan’s living room.
With a desperate gulp of air, my lungs were once again filled with glorious oxygen. Wiping the drops of saltwater from my eyes, my vision cleared and I could see the tiny lights dotting the room.
Max solidly placed his hands on the edge of the pool, his muscles flexing as he lifted himself out. Spinning around and lowering a hand down to me, he grasped my ou
tstretched arm and helped pull me up. Dylan climbed out and then helped Dr. Wilcox since the inventor was struggling to pull his older waterlogged body out of the water.
Once on dry rock, I shivered slightly, my teeth beginning to chatter involuntarily. Max wasn’t lying, it was cold down here. With slightly shaking fingers, I undid my drysuit to get the cold, wet water off my body. With the drysuit gone, the cold was easier to bear.
Max shoved his drysuit down to his waist and pulled something out of his pants pocket. “There wasn’t anything in the break room besides these.” Max handed each of us a protein bar. “It’ll have to do until I can find another way to get you some food down here. Don’t drink the water; it’s saltwater. I’ll find a way to return here tomorrow night. Just hang in there, you guys.”
Dylan nodded once and then grabbed Max’s arm, stopping him from diving into the water. “Find out what happened to Samantha. There’s gotta be something you can do. If she doesn’t show up at home, she probably won’t be missed. Her parents are never really home anyway.”
Max patted Dylan’s arm. “Don’t worry, Dylan. I’ll find her and ensure she’s safe before I come back to help you guys.”
“Good.” Dylan leaned against the wall, seemingly tired.
With barely a splash, Max reentered the water and was gone.
“I’m sorry, Dylan, my boy. I didn’t think your birthday would end up the way it has.”
Dylan snorted. “Some kind of 16th birthday. I’ve had concussions that were more fun than today.”
“It’ll be better next year. All of this will be over. I’ll be gone and this whole ordeal will be nothing but a memory.”
“Don’t be so convinced, Allie. I don’t think this is going to blow over, even with your escape.”
“What do you mean?”
“Remember when you told me about that man who’d been hanging around the restricted beach asking about a missing young couple? That was one of Mayor Aldridge’s men. They will hunt you down on land. Even if you returned to Chicago, I don’t think you will be safe.”
“I think…” I began, but I had no reasonable retort for Dylan.
“That’s why we need to figure out what to do,” mused Dr. Wilcox.
“Like what, what can we do that would stop your people’s vile mayor from coming after me?” I glared over at Dr. Wilcox and Dylan, crossing my arms and drawing my knees up to my chest to keep warm.
“We could expose them.”
“What?” I turned to Dylan with wide eyes.
Dylan leaned against the rocky wall of the cave, one leg straight, the other bent with his arm resting on it. By his posture and his eyes being closed, I could tell he was tired and just throwing out an idea. He wasn’t really thinking it through.
“Dylan, that could only make things worse. How would anything get better if we exposed Mayor Aldridge to the people of Oceania? It would cause anarchy. It would mean widespread distrust and maybe even rioting in the streets.”
Dylan lazily shook his head from side to side, although it appeared more like his head was lolling from sleepiness. “No, that’s not what I’m talking about.”
“Then what?” Dr. Wilcox and I pressed.
Dylan lolled his head in our direction and opened his eyes. “I’m talking about exposing Oceania to the outside world…your world, Allie.”
Chapter 25
Both Dr. Wilcox and I simply stared at Dylan. Suddenly, we both started rambling at the same time, trying to reason with him that what he’d stated made absolutely no sense and why he was insane for suggesting it.
Dylan calmly watched us with an apathetic face, waiting for us to finish.
Finally, I ended my tirade with, “Dylan, I just don’t understand how it gives us protection from Mayor Aldridge.”
“Allie, if they know that you exist and what you’re trying to achieve, not only will the people of Oceania be willing to protect you, but your people will as well. If you go missing, they will have to investigate your claims. When they do, they will find out that what you’ve been saying is true. They’ll know there is a city down here called Oceania. And if your government is as meticulous at recording things like it’s supposed to be, then somewhere in the archives there will be evidence of Oceania and they’ll be able to confirm it exists.”
I contemplated Dylan’s words. In a twisted way, it did make sense. If both of our worlds knew about the other, then any action taken against either Dylan or me would enrage the other. This wasn’t a time to think about politics. This was a time to think about exposing the truth and letting what may happen, happen.
“How do you propose going about that, Dylan? Just waltz up to the Land Dwellers and tell them you’re from an underwater city called Oceania with more advanced technology than their own world?”
Dylan tilted his head at Dr. Wilcox and spoke in words dripped with sarcasm. “No, I’m going to hack their video network and tell everyone I’m the king of the sea.”
I tried to hold back a laugh, but a little giggle escaped instead. I composed myself and stretched out my legs so they wouldn’t fall asleep. “No, really, Dylan, how?”
“I don’t know how yet, but we’ve got time to figure it out.” Dylan gestured with both arms to our surroundings.
Due to the lack of a clock hanging on the wall, I didn’t know exactly how many hours passed in our small refuge, but I knew it must have been several hours. Each of us had come up with a scenario on how to inform each “world” of the other and at least one of us shot the idea down. Eventually, our stress and ideas gave way to fatigue and we fell sound asleep.
A large gasp and splashing awoke me first as I saw Max grinning while treading water. “You guys haven’t gone cannibalistic yet?”
“Max,” I shook my head with my eyes closed, “that’s not a funny joke.”
“Well, it’s been almost twenty hours without food or water. I figured you guys would be famished by now.” Max removed a sack tied to his waist and placed it on the edge of the small pool. “I brought you some food and fresh water. I hope you like it. Have you ever eaten our food before?”
“Yes, I have. I can tell some of your foods are an acquired taste, though, especially those weird snacks at the party yesterday.”
Max laughed. “Well, I like them well enough. The SeaSnax have always been my favorite.”
I unzipped the sack. Inside were sealed watertight containers of food and several tin bottles of water. I was shocked he was able to obtain so much. There was more in the bag, but I ignored it as my parched mouth caused me to make googly eyes at the water bottle. I snatched one out of the sack, unscrewed the cap and allowed the luxurious fluid to run down my throat. I wasn’t satisfied until I had drunk the entire bottle within less than a minute. Then my stomach grumbled in protest at being left out, making me focus on the food next. When I opened the food containers, I heard Dylan and Dr. Wilcox stirring behind me.
“Oh, hello, Max. Did you bring us something to eat?” wondered Dr. Wilcox.
“I certainly did. Max’s signature Grab-n-Go snack pack has plenty enough for even the hungriest of individuals to be satisfied.” Chuckling, Max pulled off his drysuit and got more comfortable in his swim trunks, lying flat on his back in the small cave.
The three of us set to eating right away. Most of the time, when I had eaten the food in Oceania, it had always tasted odd to my Land Dweller palate. Now, the food tasted so delicious I wondered why I’d never savored the glorious taste of it before.
With a mouth full of some kind of fruit, Dylan glanced over at Max and asked, “Did you find out anything about Samantha?”
“Yeah, I did. She’s being held in quarantine as if she were sick. Her parents were notified, but of course, they’re workaholics, so they didn’t stay with her long and just went back to work. They wouldn’t allow me to see her, but I snuck in close enough to see if she was all right. She didn’t look too great, but she’s alive.”
Dylan squeezed his hand tight, crumpling the frui
t and causing the juice to fly everywhere. “Mayor Aldridge needs to pay for what’s she’s done.”
Dr. Wilcox beat me in replying, “She will, Dylan. Once you’ve enacted your plan, she will.”
“What plan is that?” lazily wondered Max.
I twisted around so I could face Max and informed him, “Dylan plans on telling both our worlds about the other.”
“What?” shouted Max, snapping up into a sitting position. “You think that telling Oceania about the Land Dweller’s world is a good idea?” Max shook his head, his curly hair bouncing around. “Dylan, we’ve been lied to for decades about this. No one alive knows the truth about Oceania. To all of us Oceanians, the outside world was destroyed long ago. There is no outside world.”
“I know we’ve been taught that since birth, but it’s time to change that. There was no second Great Plague and now fourteen billion human beings live on land. Oceanians have a right to know that we aren’t alone on this planet.”
Max got to his knees and crawled over to Dylan, resting a hand on his shoulder. “Man, I don’t think this is a good idea. Mayor Aldridge will be after you. You think she’s being mean and ruthless now, but at least you guys are still alive. If you do this, she’ll kill you on sight. There will be no more talking, no negotiating—nothing. It’ll be all over for you.” Max glanced toward me and back at Dylan. “For both of you.”
“We’ve got to try. Oceanians have the right to know. We all do. The Land Dwellers too. We have to expose the truth. It’s the only way to keep both Allie and me safe.”
“I don’t know, man, it sounds risky.” Max shook his head and began to crawl away, and then another thought must have hit him. “Oh, that’s right; I know how to get Allie out of here.”
All of our heads snapped up at that. “How?” I asked.
Max beamed, seemingly proud of his genius. “There’s a tour for a class of third graders going out in the morning. It’s the Sea-to-Surface class trip. Several high schoolers are going to be the instructors on the trip and will be boarding the vessel. Of course, a few adults are going to drive the submersible, but they will be traveling near the continental shelf. It’s the best bet you and Dylan have of getting out of here. You, too, Dr. Wilcox, if you wish it.”