Until The End

by Brown, Derek

  “You have failed.” They kept saying over and over again. Then he voices were gone and I was sitting next to my mother’s hospital bed.

  “Son, I want you to know that I love you, I am sorry, I left you. You are doing so well for yourself.” She looked like she did in my memories before she got sick.

  “I have a daughter and a wife now. I wish you could have met them. My daughter asks about you all the time. I show her pictures of you. She really wants to meet you but I told her passed away and she says you went to heaven. I hope that’s true, I hope wherever you are that you are happy.”

  “I am happy son. Tell your wife and daughter hello and that I love them. Goodbye my son. Don’t give up never stop pushing.” She looked at me with tears welling up in her blue eyes.

  “No, don’t go, not yet.” But she faded away like a breeze and I woke startled and drenched in sweat with my muscles sore from tensing up. Anthony stared at me asking me if I was okay, with a weird look in his eyes.

  “Did the monsters get you?” he said with a quick smile.

  January 05, 2014

  We landed at 18:00 hours, there was a car waiting for us and after landing Anthony and I were immediately driven to the entry site of the drilling machine. We were sat in a room with six other people. Most of us there looked like prior military except for two men who looked like they were active the way they sat ridged and upright never at ease. A Navy Captain came in and spoke to us, he told us that we all needed to sign a confidentially form and that if any of us told anyone else what we were about to be told that it would be considered a crime against the country, treason. After we all signed he sat down and he looked tired there were bags under his eyes dark and his face was strained with deep lines running across his forehead. He explained that at that on January 3rd, 2014 at 15:00 hours two navy divers were sent into the hole to investigate an unknown object blocking the drilling machine. They were connected to the surface world via head-cams and microphones. The Captain continued on explaining that this should have been a routine dive, but something went terribly wrong. He again reminded of us our confidentially form, then he pulled out a silver apple pro-book and showed us a video. I am going to explain exactly word for word what occurred.

  “It is 15:00 hours, this is Captain Hugo accompanied by Colonel Russell, we are entering the tunnel the temp is 40 degrees F, and visibility is limited to 2-5 feet in around us. We are approximately 4.68 miles away from the target object of unknown origins.” Then the two naval officers swam and you could see on the corner the GPS screen showing them getting closer and closer to the red targeted location. The video was dark and you could the bubbles floating around them as them kicked their feet back and forth cutting through the water in front of them. As they got within 1 mile of the object marker on the GPS screen, the video began to light up a pale green color. “This is Captain Hugo, control, are you seeing this? Something is glowing down here adding a greenish hint to the water; the source is located at due north of us. We will investigate further, control do you copy?” I was watching the temperature gauge on the screen I noticed the water temperature had gone up to 90 degrees F from 36 degrees F in a matter of seconds. “Control are you getting these readings, we are getting a major temperature spike?” Then as the video moved forward and they moved towards the looming drilling machine. It sat unmoving and dark almost like a shipwrecked underwater. As the two officers moved to go around the gigantic drilling machine, out of nowhere a fish like animal appear suddenly out of nowhere.

  “Holy Shit!! Never mind it’s just a fish.” Colonel Russell’s voice was heard on the video as he jumped back in surprise. Captain Hugo moved the video closer to the fish, it had brown scales, covered in a green slime, it wasn’t swimming it was actually just floating there, like a dark ghost.

  “Control its dead…Shit… it is covered in slime…” The officer reached out to touch the fish and as his black gloved hand made contact with the fish. He yanked his hand away yelling “Ouch it’s so hot. It burned through my glove, what the heck.” Then the officer’s voice became broken over the microphone. “Agh, my glove it burned through my glove, all the way through, oh my god my hand is on fire. AAGGGHHHH.” The video began to convulse and it looked like the officer was having a seizure. It was shaking and moving all around, we watched as Colonel Russell swam to the Captain Hugo to help him but on the video feed from Captain Hugo we saw Russell’s face had a look of complete and pure horror. He was trying to help Hugo but underwater there is only so much you can do. Then the hand that had touched the fish came up to the face cam of Officer Captain Hugo and it was now a decayed hand that was brown and swollen and bloody with the skin all burned off, scorch marks covering it where it had come in contact with the fish. And then it looked like the hand froze right there in front of the head-cam. Then his hand made a fist and it violently hit the head-cam and the video image turned to static first then it turned black.

  “Control this is Colonel Russell, I am aborting mission, Captain Hugo is incapacitated, I am coming home. Wait oh god no please; what are you doing, contro….” Colonel Russell’s head cam was moving frantically back and forth making everything a blur and suddenly it all went black.

  The room went silent and you could have heard a pin drop in there; the Captain looked around at each of us slowly. There were a lot of pale faces in the room. The Captain looked around the room meeting and locking gazes with each person’s eyes.

  “Gentlemen this is what we have and this is what we know. Each of you has a very specific specialty and were all hand selected for this mission. This is why you are here today.” The Captain then began to explain the mission outline and the objectives. He put Lt. Michael in charge as our team leader one of men currently on active duty service. We were to enter the tunnel and recover the two missing officers, careful not to have any contact them without proper equipment. While it was presumed they were both KIA it was an unknown factor regarding Colonel Russell. Then were to locate and bag the fish using extreme caution not to come in contact with the fish. After that we were to make it to the original objective and recovery a sample of whatever it was, blocking the path. Sounds easy enough right? Lol. Well my job as the nurse was to monitor everyone’s vitals closely we would all be wearing leads that would wireless signal to a computer set up on a wrist mount given to me. I could easily monitor everyone; Anthony’s job was to assist me because he was also a registered rescue scuba diver, thanks to me pushing him to become one. I would also be responsible for checking out the two officer’s bodies to determine their fate when we got there while on site. I was then to transmit my findings to the naval doctors standing by on the surface via radio. We were to suit up and be prepared to dive at 2200 hours due to the sensitive nature of the mission we did not want undue attention from the media brought to our team so we would be leaving under the cover of darkness. We were escorted to a private tent on site where there were cots for us to rest on and food and drinks were laid out. Anthony and I made a plate and sat down. We were discussing how we were doing to handle the situation when Lt. Michael came up and sat down next to us.

  “Names Michael, how are you both doing tonight? That was quite a crazy video don’t you think? I wonder what we are going to find down there, but you have to admit it is all rather exciting. Sorry I am talking too much, my wife, Stephanie tells me I do that when I get nervous.” He started laughing a bit and I found him to be a likeable guy.

  “Nice to meet you Michael, this Anthony and I am Colin. Where did you serve prior to this?” Both Anthony and I reached out and grasped hands with him individually.

  “I served 82nd Airborne 509th Division Blue Rabbits lead the way. Wooha! Now I try to live a quiet life in Lake Tahoe with my lovely wife, I am a paper pusher now at my local branch office.” He saluted me and I started chuckling as I saluted back.

  “I was 82nd Airborne 507th Division Blue Falcons, Wooha!!” He got an excited look on his face.

  “Great to be severing with a fellow br
other, alright I’ll let you get back to your conversation; I just wanted to introduce myself to both of you. I look forward to working with you both. I do have to ask one more favor if you don’t mind since you are a fellow solider I wrote my letter to my wife and well if you could deliver it just in case, you know?” He looked uncomfortable but handed me the letter which I took and nodded looking him in the eyes then he turned and left. While Anthony and I watched him leave we both agreed that we would have each other back’s down there and that we would hang back from the rest of the group. After about 30 minutes the Captain came in and was followed by several staff members they brought some very cool looking diving gear with them. It was all black and looked like armor but it was extremely light weight however they told us that it could withstand extreme temperatures. It was an experimental Special Forces scuba suit, with fully integrated GPS screens and head-cams built in. The staff began to assist us in putting on the suits, and boy was it a process. All the belts and clips and getting all the pieces to slide together it was a complicated puzzle. The anticipation is mounting now and my stomach is a wreck. I don’t know why but I think the whole team is feeling a sense of unease. It’s that gut wrenching feeling that you get right before you take that step out of the plane when skydiving, that feeling that in any second now you are going to lose control. The Captain went over all the details again even though we all knew what we had to do and how we had to do it. Then he left us alone until 30 minutes before go time and he said some words of encouragement.

  “Gentlemen, I cannot thank you enough for the service you are about to offer your country. The men that are down there have families as do most of you and they deserve to know what happened. Sometimes we are placed in situations we never planned for or expected in order to force us to grow as individuals. So while I do not know what you are going to experience down there, I do know that what you are doing is a good thing. Godspeed to you all, our prayers are with you.” And now I have to put this journal away. Like Michael said before going into battle you should always be prepared, serving in the Army was not without its hazards. Believe me this was going into battle my nerves told me it was.

  To the loves of my live,

  It is so difficult to sit down a quickly write a letter to explain how I feel about you both. I mean this letter is supposed to basically sum up my feelings and thoughts about you both if I were to die today. How can I even cram all my feelings and thoughts I have for you both into a letter. A book would be better suited so that it could be a testament to how much I love you both. I will try though; First off I love you both so much more than I could put on paper. To my lovely wife I love you so much and I will love you forever, you are the Catwoman to my Batman. I never really knew what life could be like until I felt your embrace. You have taught me so much my love; you have given me so many happy times. You have been and you continue to be my driving force to make not only my life better but to make our life better every single day. To my wonderful daughter you know you are the most special little girl in the world, you are my Batgirl. I didn’t know what it would feel like to become a father; I mean you hear about how it changes you. Yet nothing could have prepared me for the way you changed my world you actually turned it upside down. You teach me something new every day and I continue to grow because of you. You both are the two halves of my heart and I am complete because of you special ladies. I love you more than I could ever explain with mere words.

  Goodbye My Loves

  January 08, 2014

  We finally got our belongings back now and are being moved out of quarantine zone. What occurred after we entered the water is difficult to explain. The only light down there was our flashlights; it was so dark it was as if we were entering the depths of the abyss, the gates of hell. The tunnel of freshly cut rocks and dirt looked like a mouth with sharp teeth swallowing us whole like a monster from another world. We continued on through the jagged cut into the Earth’s surface in a single file line. Although we were all connected to each other through Bluetooth wireless receivers in our masks no one spoke. It just somehow felt too eerie to speak almost as if we were at a funeral, where death hangs above and no one wants to break the silence. The suits true to what the Captain had said were resistant to the cold and while I was not cold I could feel that the water was cold surrounding us, giving me the chills. So we swam on with little bubbles of air trailing behind us the only sign of our existence down here. I have never felt so small and insufficient as I did in that moment. I mean being miles under the surface of Earth in a tunnel only about 50 feet wide in each direction and traveling in a downward direction is just a little unnerving. The entire tunnel was freshly cut until we got about two miles away from the objective then the tunnel actually widen on its own. It was strange the walls of the tunnel were worn smooth but that could not be possible, it didn’t make any sense. The digging machine should have left the walls rough and jagged, but as we continued on we could definitely see there something was un-natural about the tunnel. Then as we neared the objective marker on our GPS screens the water began to warm up and we noticed the same pale green light that had appeared in the video of the two officers. The man put in charge of the operation Lt. Michael spoke to us all, finally breaking the silence.

  “Alright team we are nearing the point of interest, you all know your jobs, perform them and we be out of here in no time. Sgt. Wesley you will accompany me to the forward position we will be Alpha team and we will take point and we will recover the sample from the object. Then Alex, Zak, Marc, and Andrew will become Bravo team and your objective will be to locate the fish and recover. Then Anthony and Colin you will become Charlie team your job will be locating the bodies and recovering them as you document all injuries and transcribe all you can for the medical doctors top side. Everyone understand your duties? I repeat do not touch anything.” We all echoed a response of yes sir.

  “Everyone keep in radio contact and check in every five minutes once we come within half a mile of the objective.” We continued the trek to towards the green light and what lay ahead. We all did a final radio check when we were three quarters of the way there. The time it took us to swim that final half a mile seemed to fly by so quickly and then we saw the drilling machine it was massive in size and it was crazy to think anything could have withstood its advance. I felt like we were sneaking past a gigantic dragon to steal its treasure, as if we were the tomb raiders of the past. After we edged past it what we saw a sight that literally took our breath’s away collectively. There was one body off to the right about 25 feet away from us I believe it was Russell’s body floating lifeless in the water. Then about 50 feet in front of us was Captain Hugo’s body and you could see his out stretched out hand the skin hanging from the bones. The fish’s body was off the side about 40 feet away. But that wasn’t what stopped us all in our tracks; we appeared to be at a slight rise of the tunnel. Stretched out in below us was a gigantic craven and what looked like an underwater forest of trees. The trees looked almost like evergreen trees with thick green foliage except they had off shots of mushroom like caps every 2 feet up the trucks and they were about 100 feet tall. They looked as if they were a shimmering silver color with pale green light pulsating around the mushroom caps. The trees appeared to be solid and thick unmoving but after closer inspection they were actually moving back and forth swaying. The cavern was immense we couldn’t see how far off the trees ended nor could we see the bed of the cavern. The digging machine’s drill had three of the trees wrapped around it and you could see that’s what was causing the machine to be stuck. It looked like the trees were full of green fluid and you could see where the machine had twisted the trucks around its drill and the drill was now covered in the green fluid that was leaking out of the trees as if it were the blood covering the murder weapon. The trees that were wrapped were drained and they had become a ghastly white color and you could tell they were now dead. The forest stretched as far as the eye could see underwater. It was an amazing view from up here a
nd I don’t think any of us moved for about five minutes. Then as if an alarm had gone off somewhere and we all heard it, we began our assigned tasks, with no one saying a word. Anthony and I moved first towards Russell’s body it was floating lifeless to the right of us. As we approached him we carefully explained the body from a far and at first we saw no injuries. Then we got closer and we saw that there was a knife extending from his heart and it was buried in his chest. I reached out instinctually and pulled the knife out slowly. On the knife I could make out some letters engraved on the blade, as I got closer the words came into focus. It read “Become the man you were meant to be.” B. Hugo. Those words hit me like a hammer coming down on the anvil in a blacksmith’s callused hands. I became lost in my thoughts for a moment, then Anthony nudged me and we began to examine the body for any other wounds. We found none and notified the doctors waiting on the surface of our discovery. They asked if the wound looked self-inflected. It did not; it looked like he had been stabbed then left to die on here in this watery grave. So we bagged the body in the special protective bag that we had been supplied with. Then we approached the other body Hugo, his hand was scorched and the flesh was peeled off as if it had been burned by a very high temperature. You could actually see the bone protruding out for the layers of skin. When we examined his body it looked like he had actually died of suffocation rather than the hand wound. His face was a ghostly blue color and bungling with almost dark purple lips; his eyes were gazed over black they almost looked like glass with a black background. We radioed back the description of his injuries and noted that we could not determine a cause of death but it was suspected that he had drowned to death. Our instructions for his body were the same to bag him up and then we were to meet with the rest of the team. As we moved back the meeting point we glanced over and noticed that Lt. Michael was scraping samples of the trees into vials. It looked like he was surrounded by a cloud of green particles floating around him however he did not seem to notice. Shortly after getting into position Bravo team showed up with the fish in tow. One member of Bravo team was lagging behind the others though. He was staring at the forest and was slowly drifting off course towards the forest. As he approached the forest he went up to a tree and he reached out his hand to feel what could only be described as the bark. Lt. Michael turned and shouted.