by Eliza Taye
Dr. Wilcox’s eyes widened, just as I’m sure mine did. It was our way out—our way to safety.
“I can help sneak you guys on board and then you’re home free,” added Max.
“But what about getting out of the sub?” wondered Dylan, not yet convinced this plan wasn’t foolhardy.
“That’s the thing. There is a hatch with access to the open sea at the bottom of the sub. It’s in a cordoned off area in the rear of the ship, so there’s no way you’ll be seen when you try to escape.”
Dylan continued to shake his head. “I still don’t see how you’ll be able to sneak us onto this submarine. I’m certain Mayor Aldridge has all the security cameras uploaded with our facial recognition profiles ready to red-flag us as soon as we appear.”
“Ah, and that’s the beauty of it all.” Max reached into the sack and pulled out a few items.
“Oh, no, Max. I am NOT doing that.” Dylan held his arms up and started moving backward.
“If you want to leave here safely you will.” Max dangled and swung a blonde wig with a pink hair ribbon on it in front of Dylan.
“No, no, no,” repeated Dylan adamantly.
Max got serious. “Look, Dylan. The cameras are on the ceiling. If you keep your head down, they’ll just think that you’re someone else. They’re looking for two teens, one girl, and one guy. If they see two different girls, they’ll dismiss it right away.”
“Oh, yeah, and what about Dr. Wilcox?”
Max shrugged. “All we have to do is put hair on the top of his head and he’ll be unrecognizable.”
Dr. Wilcox peered at Max through slit eyes but didn’t retort.
“Come on, now. You’ve gotta do it.”
“Max, even with that wig, I won’t look like a girl.”
“I know…that’s why I brought this.” Max raised a skirt out of the sack along with a blouse that had a stuffed bra attached to the inside.
I couldn’t help it, I burst out laughing. “Max, where did you get all of this stuff?”
Turning toward me with a smile and a mischievous wink, Max informed, “The theater department at our school. They have some of the best costumes around. I just borrowed them for a little while.”
I moved over toward the sack and peered in. “You got anything for me?”
“Of course!” Max reached in and pulled out a short red-haired wig. “This is for you.”
I took the wig from him and put it on my head. “How do I look?”
“Fantastic!” Max held a thumbs up.
Dylan snatched the dress and wig from him. “Max, this better work and you had better not take any pictures of me while I’m wearing this.”
Max pursed his lips and shook his head back and forth. “Not me…come on, Dylan. I’d never do such a thing.” The wide grin spread across his face strongly suggested that he meant the exact opposite of what he said.
“When do we have to leave?” inquired Dr. Wilcox, glancing at his wrist for the watch he’d forgotten was taken away by the guards.
“The submersible is set to depart at 9:00 a.m. We need to be there no later than 8:50. You’ve gotta sneak on and off just like that.” Max snapped his fingers. Wincing apologetically at Dylan, he added, “There’s one more thing you all have to do to evade the cameras.”
…
“I’m going to kill him,” grumbled Dylan, trying not to rub his face, his hand twitching in mine.
“Just don’t touch it. It will be over soon. We just need to be patient.” I, too, struggled not to touch my itchy face.
The last finishing touch Max had given our disguises was a putty-type face mask used in the theater arts. Once applied and dried, it resembled normal skin but was very itchy and hard not to want to tear off. The result of using the putty was making Dylan’s face appear more like a girl’s and my face to appear different enough to fool the face recognition cameras that were normally dormant inside the standard cameras throughout Oceania, but could be turned on if there was ever an escaped criminal, or so Max explained to me.
“Be quiet, we’re almost there,” cautioned Dr. Wilcox, who escorted us, playing the role of doting father. He was dressed in a business suit with a brown-haired wig and fake fat cheeks altering his usually haggard appearance.
As we reached the loading zone, we mingled among other parents dropping off their young kids or seeing off the teenagers that would be onboard to instruct the younger kids as part of the extra credit projects for the high schoolers.
At the docking bay where each person had to be scanned, we each entered bogus passcodes and took the ramp up into the sub. Once inside, Dylan spun me around.
“Allie, I’m not going. Dr. Wilcox and I need to stay here in order to inform the people of Oceania about the above world. I can’t come with you. You need to escape and find your way back to your grandmother’s house. Tell her the truth. Tell her about Oceania. Get it on the news. Spread it through the Network. Do whatever you can.”
I nodded, feeling anxiety begin to creep up inside me, but I didn’t allow it to reach my face. How was I supposed to get a whole world to believe? “You two be careful.”
“Thanks.” Dylan smiled and then gestured toward the back of the submersible. “The SCUBAPS was already placed there by Max. Just put it on and you know how to use it.”
“Okay.” I reached forward and hugged Dylan, not knowing if I would ever see him again.
Dylan hugged me back and I noticed Dr. Wilcox smiling and nodding ever so slightly at me. Grateful for all of the help the inventor had given me, I gave him a smile that I hoped conveyed my feelings of gratitude.
Dylan stepped back and the doors to the submersible closed, sealing with a hiss. I was left alone in the short walkway to the rest of the sub. Deep down, I worried that I would never see my new friends again.
Chapter 26
“And if you look outside, you’ll see we’re reaching the continental shelf. Above this area is where you will find many different species we don’t see at home. These species…”
The girl rambled on about the differences between the continental shelf and the benthic zone in which Oceania sat. I knew this was my cue. I would need to start suiting up and go down into the hatch in order to get ready to be released into the sea.
However, a thought stopped me.
When Dylan and Dr. Wilcox had dumped me into the sea before, they had pressed a button to release the bottom that allowed me to drop down into the water. I would need help.
Scooting toward one of the third-graders sitting in the rear of the group, who wasn’t paying very much attention to what was going on outside the window or what the girl was instructing, I tapped on his shoulder.
The boy peered up at me with eyes full of boredom. I ruffled his chestnut brown hair and offered as excitedly as I could, “Do you want to see something really cool?” I grinned mischievously at him.
His brown eyes began to brighten, his lips parting to produce a gap-toothed smile. He nodded enthusiastically and I reached out my hand.
When the other teenagers and adults weren’t watching, I whisked the boy away to the back room with me. Quickly, I examined the area, hunting for the hatch release button. After what felt like an eternity of searching, I found a green button on a panel directly up and across from the hatch. I noticed a bag lying just beneath it, which I assumed held the SCUBAPS. I opened it up and found my suspicions to be true.
“Hey, come here.” I gestured for the boy to come closer and I kept my face looking as mischievous as possible.
Stopping about half a foot from me, a little close for comfort, he looked up at me with curious eyes that searched my face for a scam.
“After I put on this suit, I’m going to climb down into this hatch here. You’ll press this green button and then you’ll see me disappear.” I widened my fingers and pulled my hands apart in different directions to indicate mysticism.
The boy’s eyes widened and he giggled, trying to stifle it with his small hands.
; “Okay, so let me put it on.” I hurried over to the suit as the boy watched me in fascination.
Having put on the suit a few times before, I knew exactly how to slide my body through the tricky parts and get it perfectly situated on my body. Due to the proximity to the surface, there was no propulsion device, which made everything a thousand times easier.
When I was done, I checked everything and turned to the boy. He pointed at me and laughed.
“Do I look funny?” I asked with a smile.
The boy grinned even more and nodded his head up and down vigorously.
“Okay, I’m getting into the hatch now.” I turned the wheel on the transparent top and lifted the hatch up. Dropping down inside, I closed it with the wheel on the opposite side.
The boy walked over towards me and put his thumbs up. I nodded and reciprocated and then the boy disappeared. For a quick second, I wondered if I had been tricked, but then I felt the floor beneath me drop and I fell into the comforting cold water of the Pacific Ocean.
Checking both directions, I chose to swim backward away from the submersible so the students in the sub wouldn’t see me. I turned on the navigation system and was warmly greeted by the A.I. I set my course for the restricted beach and headed in that direction.
I was so used to the propulsion device that I became impatient at how I didn’t seem to have any progress towards my goal. A few great white sharks swam nearby me and I panicked for a second, but then remembered the camouflage mechanism of the suit was now fixed and nothing could see me.
It felt like hours, but I made it to the surface and crawled up onto the beach so exhausted that all I could do was splay out on my back, heaving in the magnificent air I was so accustomed to. Reaching up, I tore off my itchy face makeup, revealing my own skin beneath it.
Breathing in deeply, I slowly let the air out and sucked in more oxygen. My muscles felt like jelly. I didn’t know if they’d ever move for me again. I know I laid there for at least an hour trying to get some strength back into my limbs. They all threatened to cramp up on me and I just didn’t know what else to do other than wait it out.
When I was certain I could walk again, I scrambled to my feet and went directly to the rabbit hole. I found my bike and unearthed it. My legs screamed out in pain as I rode the several miles back to the house. It was only an hour or two before sunset that it came into view. Police cruisers were on the driveway and I found the strength in my wobbly legs to run when I saw them.
Flinging my bike onto the dead yellow grass of the front yard, I jumped the steps onto the porch and burst through the front door. Dashing into the house I yelled, “Gran?”
“Alexandria?” came a voice riddled with sobs.
“Gran?” I ran into the living room to see her surrounded by a couple of her friends and a few police officers.
“Oh, my dear granddaughter, my baby.” Gran scrambled to her feet off the couch, stumbled over, and embraced me so tight my lungs were squeezed empty.
I wheezed slightly as I tried to speak. “Gr…a…n…I…ca…ca,”
She must have gotten the message because she released me and grabbed my face in both her hands instead. “Oh, Alexandria, I was so worried. I was beginning to think the worst. I started seeing you lying in a ditch somewhere or trapped in a hole in the ground, or locked in some sicko’s room. My mind saw so many different things.”
“It’s okay, Gran. I’m fine, I escaped.”
Gran’s chestnut brown eyes widened. “Escaped from where?”
Hearing that, the police barged in on our grandmother-granddaughter moment. “Who kidnapped you, miss? Can you give us instructions on where to find them?”
My eyes drifted from Gran to the police and back again. I took both of Gran’s hands in mine and led her over to sit on the couch with me. “Gran, I’m going to tell you what happened to me, but you have to listen closely with an open-mind.”
“Oh, no.” Gran released my hand and cradled her forehead instead, shaking her head back and forth, as more tears welled in her eyes.
“I went to this place called Oceania. It’s…” I paused and sighed quickly, garnering the strength to tell the truth even though it sounded like something from a dream. “It’s an underwater city.”
Gran’s brow furrowed and she immediately removed her hand from her face and placed it on my forehead.
“Gran, I’m not sick. I’ve been going to Oceania for months now with Dylan. He’s from there. We’ve been hanging out in the city and I’ve been learning so much about it. It’s off the restricted beach just north of here. We’ve been having a great time. I’ve been going there almost every day for weeks, but they found out about me. They found out I was a Land Dweller so they captured me and imprisoned both Dylan and me. We just barely escaped thanks to a couple of friends of his.”
“Alexandria, what happened to you?”
“Ma’am, if I can suggest something. I think whatever happened to your granddaughter over the past couple of days must have been so traumatic that she has invented this story to cover up the horrors she must have seen. We’ve seen this in several severe cases of kidnapping.”
“I’m not making this up!” I shouted to the police officer. His black hair stuck smartly outside of his police hat and his blue eyes held pity in them for me as if I had gone crazy. I turned to Gran. “Really, Gran, I’m not making this up. It really happened.”
“Allie, my poor baby.” Her tears began to fall freely down her face as she rubbed my cheek.
“We’ll come back tomorrow once she’s feeling better. We’ll keep a police cruiser outside the house in case whoever kidnapped her tries to come back. If she remembers anything, write it down and relay it to the cops outside.”
“Thank you, Officer Donald. Oh, and tell your mother I said hi next time you see her.”
“Will do. Have a good night.” Officer Donald nodded once at us and walked out followed by the two other police officers.
One of Gran’s friends, Mrs. McCreedy, hugged her and stood up to leave. “Let me know if you need anything. I sure do hope you feel better, dear.”
All of the looks of pity were making me sick. There was no way that anyone was going to believe me. This was nonsense. This was infuriating!
Once everyone had left, I turned back to Gran, who still hadn’t let go of my hand. “Gran, you have to believe me. I’m telling you the truth. I’m not making this up. This is all true.”
“I know, dearie, I know.”
“You do?”
“Yes.” Gran nodded. “You went through a very difficult situation and you do not want to remember it. That is fine. We will try to recall everything once you’ve gotten some rest. If you want to eat something, I’ll fix whatever you want.” Gran stroked my hair.
“Gran!” Tears of fury began to rise in my eyes. If anyone was going to listen to me, if anyone was going to believe me, it had to be my grandmother. “Please, just hear me out. You have to.”
“I will. Just go lie down, and when you decide to get up, we can talk, okay? I need to call your mother and tell her that you are safe.”
My lip quivered slightly. My entire life, Gran was one of the only people who would always believe me. Since Dad died, she was the only person who was always on my side no matter what. She was the one person I could depend on. Now when I needed her the most, she’s wasn’t there for me. I had never been hurt more than now.
I ran into my room and shut the door, all the pent up frustration, all of the fear for my life, for Dylan’s, Samantha’s, Dr. Wilcox, and Max, it all burst out of me like a ruptured dam. Tears flowed down my cheeks like Angel Falls as I slid down to the floor and crumpled into a ball, sobbing on the floor of my bedroom. I felt alone in the world. Alone in this world full of doubtful people. Full of people more prone to say that someone is crazy than to believe in the outrageous. People who didn’t believe in anything unless they saw it right in front of their face.
My entire insides dissolved and came out through my tear
s; I felt lost. Because of my failure, Dylan and Dr. Wilcox could be facing death or worse. I fell down onto my side, curling up on the floor of my room crying hopelessly.
Crackles of thunder awoke me. I pushed up into a sitting position. My eyes were partly swollen from crying, making it difficult to see. I jolted as another thunderclap sounded and a bolt of lightning illuminated my room. The entire room returned to black, leaving only a sliver of light from under the door. Getting up on my knees, I glanced out my window and noticed the police cruiser was still parked in front of the house.
Voices sounded from behind the door. I stood on wobbly legs to walk over to it, my sore legs making it a chore to cross the few feet to the wall. Pressing my ear to the door, voices could be heard.
“Welcome to Divine Health. We are the premier health company in the world. Our scientists and medical professionals have discovered the cures that make modern everyday life possible. Because of our company, there is no more cancer, no AIDS, ALS, diabetes, unexplained or unsolved pain, and no unknown mental disorders. We have everything covered. We will find out what is ailing your loved one so they can get back on their feet. Please describe your symptoms,” came the robotic voice.
Gran answered and was soon connected to a care provider—also robotic of course.
“Don’t worry, ma’am. We will discover what is wrong with your granddaughter. We will find out what is ailing her so she can return to peace of mind. We’re lucky to live in a day and age where anything about the body—mental or physical—can easily be solved.”
I pulled my head back from the door, disgusted. Opening the door a crack as quietly as I could, I spotted Gran standing in front of a hologram of a VEDP, a Virtual Emergency Doctor Projection. Gran grasped the necklace she always wore around her neck that was a present from Grandfather, twisting it between her fingers as I had seen her do many times when she was worried or distressed.