by Scott Todd
We all nodded in agreement, and he took us up to the bridge, showing us around. The myriad of instrumentation was quite intimidating and complicated. But one by one he gave us a brief overview of what everything did. We spent the rest of that evening learning, until Jan finally looked up at us and said, "I'm toast. I've got to sleep. Been a long day..."
We all agreed. It was time for sleep. So he showed us the bed quarters, and there were quite a few to choose from. "Take your pick," Gary said, and told us he had some complicated preparations to make. He left us and headed back towards the bridge.
I climbed in a bed, and the others followed. We were exhausted from the day's events. My mind drifted around as I dozed off, and I couldn't help wondering exactly how close Gary would get with us. I wondered if the women would... "Shut up," I told myself, and interrupted the thought.
The blackness of the cabin engulfed us as we turned out the lights over our cramped bunks, and fortunately I was tired enough to forget it all and fall asleep. But that would not be the end of that notion, as I would come to find out later. Because if I knew Jan and Terry by now at all, even in such the short time we had been together, I wasn't the only one wondering just how close Gary would get with us. In the former world it took months or years to know someone, but now it only took hours or days.
Although I slept well at first that night, I began tossing and turning with really bad dreams. I was transported back with visions of the scene at the top of the mountain, and that horrendous moment the second wave hit us. I saw the gun barrel at Jan's temple. And heard the shot again and again as Ben yanked my hand away while the roar of all that water enveloped us.
I couldn't shake it. I saw the sky filled with flying boulders on fire again. I remembered the horrible sight of Sandra, and even the deathly smell of her remains permeated my senses again. It was a long night filled with misery as the visions kept invading my sleep. I had already lived it, yet they would not leave me alone. I wondered if they would ever leave me alone.
Then the recurring vision of that gun at Jan's temple replayed itself in my head once more, except this time there was no Ben, and the shot connected- splattering her brains out in front of me, leaving me holding her limp, dead body. I was then alone to live the wretched journey all by myself, and the wave took me from the mountain. I rode the top of it out across the land as it destroyed everything in its path.
I saw the terror in people's eyes as they heard the tremendous roar, and they looked up at me frightened out of their minds at their impending deaths. I was thousands of feet in the air on top of that wave, and yet somehow I saw what was happening on the ground. Dreams- and nightmares- can be that way. I was moving at incredible speed- much faster than any wave should ever go.
I saw what was happening directly below the wave as the immense wall of water crushed and disintegrated everything. Buildings and skyscrapers were literally obliterated, like they were tiny models making a last stand against the total power of the universe. The wave was unyielding, and absolutely nothing even retained its shape, much less survived. No building, no tree, no bird, no road, no anything. The sheer weight of all that water was more powerful than the current itself. It was uncompromising- totally omnipotent and all powerful- crushing everything into literal smithereens. It left just a hazy, murky mess on the bottom, and literally erased all existence.
I yearned for release, and yet it would not let me go. It carried me further and further, thousands of miles, and made me watch as it consumed life after life, and state after state. I saw the souls of the screaming dead rising in huge crowds- thousands at a time, up through the water and into the sky, and vanish into thin air.
I saw the wave hit a descending plane, and obliterate it into a million pieces, along with all the people in it. I saw a flying fire rock hit another plane, setting a wing on fire. I saw huge bridges being snapped off like twigs from their foundations. And then as quickly as it started, all I saw was blackness.
I woke up suddenly, breathing heavily, and sitting up in the bed. I looked around, but all I saw was darkness. I heard Ben snoring, and pinched myself to insure that I had returned to reality. Ouch. I had.
I laid back down and breathed a sigh of relief. Thank God that was just a nightmare. It was a nightmare to me, but a terrible reality for those that perished, I thought. "And thank God?" I questioned myself in my mind. What God would bring this kind of hell to earth? My head raced in varying thoughts again, but I was determined to sleep. My last thought was that I really needed to talk to Ben more about the receding water- and then I was out.
Chapter 37: Forced to Swim
I was awoken suddenly when I nearly fell out of my bunk. The sub shifted dramatically to the right, and I clung onto a side rail to stay in the bed. Terry did fall out and hit the floor, startling her awake. Jan and Ben were on the other side, and they got shoved up against the wall.
Then we heard a dull creaking of the hull, as it seemed to be under stress.
"What the...?" Jan started to say, but she was interrupted.
"We got problems, people. I need you all up here now! Get up!" a voice yelled into the room at us. It was Gary. Then he went running off back towards the bridge.
Within minutes we were all standing at his side, looking at the myriad of instrumentation clusters. I looked at my watch and it was about 7:30 am. Day five.
"See that depth gauge there?" Gary said, sounding concerned and pointing to it. "Well when I parked this thing, it read about thirty meters. That means there was more than fifty feet of water below us, just yesterday. Now it reads a mere ten. I think the front of the sub may have hit something on the bottom, but I'm not sure how. I am confident that we haven't moved, judging from the other gauges, because we have a newer navigational system that automatically compensates for currents, allowing us to remain at a fixed position for as long as we want."
"Is that referenced from GPS? Cause satellites might be inoperable," Ben remarked pensively.
"Yes, but I already thought of that, and recalculated our exact position from other instrumentation. I'm pretty sure we are exactly where we are supposed to be," Gary countered, sounding convincing- but worried.
Aware of a potential answer, I had to jump in. "Well I've been wanting to tell you about the receding waterline, Ben. I noticed water marks on the trees yesterday when I..."
"Yes, I saw them too as we were pulling away from the shore," he said. "It appears we are losing some thirty to forty feet of water per day. And that's a lot. Something is going on, but it could be due to any number of things- or a combination of them. The front of the sub probably hit what's left of the trees that were, or still are, in varying states of destruction on this side of the mountain," he concluded.
"Well can't we just back up?" Terry asked innocently.
"Maybe," Gary quickly replied. "But first I am going to HAVE to go down there and see for myself what the situation is before I move it. If it's hung up on a tree or rock or something, we could do critical damage to it. I don't think there has been much if any damage so far, just from checking various gauges and going down below to inspect it. We aren't taking on any new water, and the leak plugs are holding in the other damaged areas we patched."
"But how, with that arm the way it is?" Jan interjected.
"I don't know. I am going to have to just grin and bear it, I guess," Gary mused. "Except I won't be grinning. But I really do have to go, and immediately. We can't afford to wait a single minute, with that water lowering at nearly two feet per hour. Fortunately for us, we have one torpedo tube that's been modified for deploying underwater operations teams, so that's where I'm headed."
"Well I really need to go back to shore and get some definite waterline measurements that we can rely on," Ben insisted. "Brian, want to go with me, or should he stay here and help you?" Ben asked.
"Nothing he can really do here to help me," Gary said. "And if you're going to shore, I'd feel better if he went with you. Remember, you have bears and mountai
n lions running around- and no telling what else- or who else. Bye. I REALLY have to go. NOW! Don't forget- don't touch anything- and oh- get back to the sub ASAP!"
And with that he scurried away into the ship. Jan and Terry, uncomfortable at the prospect of being left alone onboard, looked up in obvious concern.
"Well, I guess we'll go make coffee and breakfast or something," Jan said, looking at Terry. "I mean they do have coffee on these things... Right?" she asked.
Ben and I looked at each other and shrugged. Hell, we didn't know. Besides, we weren't all that hungry yet after that good meal the night before.
A brief trip back to the beds where we had left our weapons, and within minutes Ben and I were standing on the deck. It was slanted to the right a bit, and tilted upwards some. "That tilt is going to get worse as the water drops if we don't move this monster soon," he said, looking out towards shore, which appeared markedly closer.
Looking up, I noticed the day appeared mostly clear, and a cool wind was blowing lightly in the morning mist off the sea. But then I looked down. Where was the boat?
Ben realized it was gone too at about the same instant, and we both looked at each other with an "Oh no," kind of look.
"The water probably carried it away when it receded and the front of the sub hit the bottom, knocking the boat off," Ben theorized out loud. "Huh. Well then looks like we better get swimming," he said nonchalantly. "You... You didn't... Tie it off when we landed on the front of sub... Did you..." he stated, sort of matter-of-factly.
I grimaced in shame with my grave error. "No," I meekly replied. "But if we can find it, I'll be sure to tie it off next time. I mean... It can't have gone too far, right?"
Ben looked at me in disappointment. "There's no telling where that thing is," he sadly replied. "But I think we can make that swim. Look. The shore is closer than it was." So we made our way down to the bow of the ship and paused, looking at the water and the shore line.
"Well what about these?" I asked, pointing at our rifles. "Will they still work after being submerged?"
Just then, we were startled to spot a masked head in the water, right beside us. "Yes, they'll work," Gary shouted, lifting up his mask briefly. I could see he had some kind of underwater contraption with powerful lights on it. Then he was gone.
So we put our weapons on our backs, and I took out a large knife I had strapped to my lower leg.
"What you going to do with that?" Ben asked.
"Well, I figure if anything like a rogue, hungry shark tries to bite me, it's going to get this right up its ying yang," I smirked. Ben just shook his head, and dove in. I followed.
The knife was a novel idea, but after a few yards of trying to swim with it- back into its sheath it went. Nope. A scene from some movie barreled into my head as we made our way slowly towards shore. The soldier had the knife in his mouth as he surfaced in the movie- and I thought about it- but no. Just get to the damn shore. I made a mental note that the current seemed to be drifting us to the right slightly- the same way the ship had leaned.
The swim was actually easier than I had anticipated, given the distance. But as we neared the shore, my leg brushed up against something- or something brushed up against my leg- I wasn't sure which. Every shark horror movie there ever was flashed through my mind, and I froze in the water, grabbing my knife again. The thought of getting devoured by a shark after all I had been through sent raging strength to my knife arm, and I sat still there for minute, expecting the worst, in silent terror.
But Gary continued right on, and emerged from the water onto the shore through the trees. Looking back at me some forty feet out, he just yelled "You coming?" That awoke me from my transfixed horror stare, and I swam as fast I could towards that shoreline. Finally emerging from the water, I collapsed in exhaustion for a minute.
"You ok?" he asked.
"Yeah, just felt something brush up against my leg... Thought it might be a shark..." I replied, panting and out of breath.
"It was probably just a tree top," he countered. "I doubt much of anything in the water survived those waves."
"Yeah... Let's hope you're right... THIS time," I jabbed back at him. But he didn't appreciate that at all. He just looked at me menacingly, shook his head, and got his rifle off his back and in his hands. I did the same.
He headed up the hill, inspecting more closely the water marks on the trees.
"We really need to find that boat," I barked up the hill at him. "Cause I don't want to swim back like that again."
"Then go look for it," he yelled back. "I've got serious work to do."
Frustrated that he wouldn't- or couldn't, come with me- I just sat there in contemplation a second, as I tried to figure out where the boat might have gone. Then I remembered the current drifting us off to the right, and figured that would be as good as any a place to start.
So I got up and headed westward around the new shore, and curving around the base of the mountain top. I quickly got out of sight from Gary, and in no time I was dangerously far from him. But I had to find that boat. And I was hoping the current had deposited it on the shoreline somewhere- rather than carried it out to sea further.
After thirty minutes or so, I had long lost sight of both Gary and the sub. But looking out to the sea, I think I spotted something floating in the water, way further ahead. Was that the boat? It was way out there, and I trembled at the thought of having to swim that far to get it. I moved closer on shore, working my way even further around the waterline, and putting dangerous distance between myself and any available help. But even then I couldn't tell what it was. It was just too far out. It seemed flatter though than the boat should be, I thought to myself.
I stopped to think a minute, and looked up the hill to my left. The destruction was unimaginable. Some trees were down, some were still smoldering, and others were just completely cut in half. There were indentions all over, and I saw several large rocks protruding from the ground where they had landed. This was the side of the mountain that had endured the considerable pounding from the fire rock storm.
But then a miracle caught my eye. For straight ahead of me in the distance I could barely make out what appeared to be the boat on the shore through the trees, some fifty yards ahead. I started to race towards it, but stopped dead in my tracks when I saw it was tethered to a tree.
That didn't just happen by accident- I thought, and racked my brain for how that could be, knowing that boat was left on the bow of the sub. No. Someone else must have done that. But... Who?
My mind raced with possible answers, and I could only conclude that someone else must have arrived- as I peered out at the landing sight from behind the remains of a stricken tree.
So I looked up the hill and all around carefully, but saw no one. I moved up closer to the boat, and finally went to it. Looking down, I saw one set of footprints, and another odd indention that looked like a drag line right next to them. My eyes followed the whole imprint assembly up the hill until it disappeared into the trees. Looking back at the boat, there was a splotch of fresh blood on the side of it.
Someone had found the boat, gotten in it- and for some reason-disembarked there. And they were bleeding. But after what we had already gone through with the submariners, I cautiously gripped my rifle tighter, and raised it in anticipation. Whoever it was had gone up that hill to the top of the mountain.
And I had an idea of who it might be. Gary had said they were here to rescue the President and any of his team. Realizing that he would no doubt want to seize power and commandeer the island immediately, and that it appeared at least one other person was with him- if that's indeed who this was- I became even more concerned for my safety, as well as my friends. If this was him, then that was likely some kind of highly trained Secret Service agent with him.
I looked around again up the hill and saw nothing. I contemplated what to do. I began up the hill cautiously, weapon raised and ready. I stopped after about a hundred feet and peered back down to the boat and
out to sea from the higher elevation. That's when I could clearly see what appeared to be a star on the object floating out there. A big, US star. It looked like part of a wing, but I couldn't be sure.
Had they seen the sub? I reasoned they had probably not, if they had found the boat over this far, long out of sight of the sub up on the north side. But I guessed it wouldn't be long before they found it- if they could move at all, which clearly they could. But one of them was injured- so maybe they couldn't move far- I just didn't know.
I stopped again to think. If I waited, they might surprise Ben and arrest him- or worse. No. I clearly had the stealth advantage, because I knew they were here, but they didn't know I was here. Not yet. And stealth proved to be the deciding factor in my last battle, so I clung to it like gold. The intruders might have recognized the boat and that it came from the sub they were meeting, but I doubted they would know anything else about us survivors.