Horizon Deep

Flares of red flashed in every direction, and a loud siren bounced on the eardrums of every crew member on the submarine vessel AIB.

We were gaining water and sinking. Three of the ten crew members had already died as a cliff rock slammed on top of the metal ship- breaking the necks of the three sailors like ragdolls being tossed around. The submarine was now a pencil dropping towards the bottom of the ocean which was constantly squeezing the metal cylinder with its massive pressure. No matter the size or the strength of the vessel, the pressure would keep squeezing till it was destroyed.

I was in the room with Captain Stuart and our Engineer Thomas Eldwing; all of us dazed and disoriented. The captain listened to the engineer’s report regardless knowing the outcome- we were all going to die. I had sent a radio message prior to losing our signal when the cliff rock on top of us fell. At least, I was under the illusion that it had sent. I don’t know anymore. We all hoped it went through. The world needs to know the crew of this submarine vessel were no longer alive. Our families needed to know.

The captain, amongst the screaming alarms and dazing lights, pulled out a bottle of bourbon and one very large glass. We passed it around, numbing ourselves for what’s to come, until darkness quickly dizzied our minds, and slowly we fell asleep to the world around us.

The engineer, Thomas Eldwing, apparently woke first. He was shaking the captain Stuart awake after me. It took he and I several moments to realize we weren’t dead.

“Gabriel, Captain Stuart, come with me” was all Thomas had said before walking away.

The captain asked how many were alive, knowing Mr. Eldwing had been comfortably awake for some time.

The engineer told him a total of five, including themselves. Who were the two other crew members, the captain wondered.

The young man had led us into another room of the cabin and began to open the door until the captain and I grabbed hold of him and held him back.

“Are you trying to kill us!?” I yelled at him, holding him down, “Water is going to flood out and we’ll drown!”.

“Trust me, we aren’t going to drown just yet” he replied, showing no resistants’ to the tackle. The young man seemed to expect such a reaction.

“What’s on the other side of this door, Mr. Eldwing?” asked the captain who loosened his weight on the man and motioned me to do the same.

“Two of our crew members, captain, and something very strange” replied Thomas.

“Strange?” I asked.

“Gentleman…I’ve been awake for a little while now, and I’ve opened this door on several occasions,” said Thomas.

“It could have flooded within any time you’ve closed it” I replied, “Do we really want to take that chance?”

“Moss!” called out Thomas from the floor, lifting his head towards up towards the doorway.

Suddenly a knock came from the other side.

“You see, everything is alright. We communicate on both sides, just in case” he said.

The captain and I helped Thomas up, realizing now it was safe. He took no offense to our actions, and we didn’t apologize. We all had to be precautious now.

Moss was alive, which surprised me. The man was in charge of crew meals and rations. I would’ve thought he’d be the first to go when the rock hit the vessel with all the gases and fires in his kitchen.

It wasn’t until Thomas opened the door did we realize what he then meant by ‘Something very strange’.

Before curiosity of it sank it, panic did first. Captain Stuart and I immediately jumped to the sides of the room out of fear and reaction- holding on to any grips on the walls.

There was a wall of water on the other side of the door.

It took moments to prove to our minds that something was not right.

“What the hell is that, Mr. Eldwing?” asked the captain who was getting off the floor slowly, but remained in the corner of the room.

“Gabrial” spoke Thomas, seeing my eyes were still closed.

I didn’t hear him. I tightened my grip on a latch near the floor, still holding my breath.

He walked over and nudged me, “Gabriel, get up” he said again.

I didn’t feel any water around me, nor the gurgling of the young man’s voice. I opened my eyes- thinking now I was hallucinating as I saw the wall of water on the other side of the door. The water could go through the door, but it remained still as if flowing in a vertical direction. It was defying the laws of physics, I knew. The curiosity made me wonder if we were really alive at all.

“This is the strange thing I was talking about” he said.

“Where is Moss?” asked the captain, thinking about where the knocking had come from.

As if queued, Moss Rogans came out of the wall of water- stepping into the room very normally.

“This can’t be real, maybe we are already dead?” I said as I continued wondering about all this.

“No, Gabriel, you’re not dead” replied Moss, “Maybe I am dead” he laughed oddly.

Thomas suddenly eyed his partner in a particular glance, “No one’s dead” he said to everyone.

The thought of being dead was now a struggle to think about for all of us…except for Thomas who smiled for a moment when I looked at him.

“Why are you so normal about all this, Thomas?” I asked.

The question seemed to have triggered a stress in both the Captain and Moss, but not Thomas.

“Ok...OK” the young man started, lifting his hands as if he’d been caught. “Three of you are actually alive” he replied.

The engineer then sat on the floor and out of his mouth, ears, eyes and nose came out a jellified liquid that organized itself into a transparent jellified octopus. Right after it formed together, it broke apart retracting back into the body it came out of.

Thomas’s eyes opened again as if nothing happened, looking now at the shocked expressions around him. He gave a shrug to Moss as if he knew he was giving up their charade.

“It’s the only way I can learn and speak to you” he said with a pause until the Captain and I braced ourselves for an attack.

“Try not to waste what little oxygen you have in fighting me,” he said, now holding up his hands in surrender, “Would you like to meet your 3rd crew member who survived?” he then said.

Haruka Johnson was finishing her quilt on the couch. It was going to be a ‘welcome home’ gift for Gabriel. This has been his 3rd voyage with the vessel AIB- a reconnaissance mission, he had told her. She knew otherwise- it was a way for him to figure out what happened to his brother.

Next to her on the tea table was the last letter Gabriel had sent on their routine harbor stops.

It read:

Dearest Haruka,

We are soon entering the deepest and unknown part of the Miriyana trench. I will be returning home afterwards.

There has not been much to report in relevance to my work in reconnaissance. Even if there was, you know I can’t share much. One discovery I will share though- one of the onboard marine biologists fell obsessive with a type of rock that he found next to the tide. He told me it resembled meteorite, but was some unknown species of coral. Many of the crew mock him about it- telling him that he’s obsessing with a simple sea stone. I don’t know much of coral or meteorite to notice the difference between it, but it looks like a fancy rock to me that has been corroded by the sea. This discovery, if you’d call it that, might be the only thing we have to show for our trip.

All things on this voyage have been uneventful- perhaps this trench will prove otherwise, but we can only go so deep. Somewhere, deep in the dark depths of the ocean, is my brother’s vessel. The reason could be forever unknown on why it’s gone missing. The sponsorships and funding stops at this trip- as you know, this will be my last, and you will have to put up with my curiosities and rambling at home even more. I hope you’re doing well. Until we meet- see you soon. – Gabriel Johnson

Haruka had read and re-read the letter at least a dozen times already. She put the quilt down and stared out the window of her 2nd story apartment. A child below was sitting on a porch blowing bubbles that rose to her window. She almost felt like she was under water. She closed her eyes and smelt the letter, remembering the bubbles that the ocean could give with each exhale, trying to smell the sea air.

It felt like she was almost with him.

Suddenly a knock came from her door.

She opened it to find a dressed navy officer- It was Gabriel’s boss, Telson Stern.

All the emotions flooded out of her when she heard the words: “dead”. Mr. Stern had to say it a couple more times for it to seep into her reality.

Haruka only cried for a moment, but locked her tears away. She nodded at Mr. Stern, thanking him for delivering the news. A wave of misery and depression emptied her as she sat in the chair with the quilt on her lap as bubbled rose past her window. She stopped smiling, and talking. Food was no longer something she craved because she didn’t want to enjoy it. Her heart was hollow, and her life now empty.

She stared at the ocean along the horizon, contemplating a thought.

A whiff of a pungent acid, almost sulfuric, hit my nostrils as we walked through the water like through a warm waterfall. It was as if we stepped into another world altogether. Thomas and Moss strapped some sort of bionic breathing devices to the Captain and I. It looked and felt like we had a squid wrapped around our face while the tub in front of our mouths fed us oxygen. The smell was too strong to ignore though. The chemical aroma filled every inch of a broken crater around us, and the pressure around the room felt like we were walking with 150-pound weights on. It was almost like a football field size cave rippled with a honey-combed crater wall which dripped water all around us. This whole structure seemed to prevent the full weight of pressure from crushing us entirely.

“What a strange cave at the bottom of the ocean” the captain murmured as we began walking through.

Moss looked at the captain who was looking into the never ending tidepools that were everywhere, and warned him not to put his foot inside, otherwise the pressure in the water would crush him instantly. A useful piece of information, I thought.

“This isn’t a cave, Captain Stuart. It’s what you call an asteroid” said Thomas, eying both of us occasionally but kept the lead on our walk across the cavern.

“An asteroid? We would’ve noticed this size of an asteroid in the trench” replied the captain, “unless. Are you telling us that wall of rock we descended next to...”

“Yes” finished Thomas, “that wall of rock is actually an asteroid that crashed onto earth billions of years ago”.

So, the marine biologist had been right after all, I thought. My mind returned to the letter I wrote to Haruka. I hope she’s well. My heart was now heavy with worry.

We crawled through the crater and I asked Thomas how his species walked around in their true form. He said they didn’t. Most of these caverns filled up with water at some point, like a tide. Only a pocket on the asteroid kept the water out, and that this was where we were headed to meet our 3rd crew member that survived- Kagen Volkov.

We ended up climbing up into an entrance that formed into tunnels- each leading to individually large rooms. The ceiling was at least two stories above us. As we walked through these massive tunnels- familiar objects were found all around us: Crates, chairs, tables, microscopes..etc.

We turned a few times until we got into an almost smaller area which I found to have several people talking to each other. Each were shockingly skinny- as if their physical bodies were wasting away.

“I’m assuming these are…your kind?” I asked Moss who walked beside me.

“Yes, before you meet your crew member- we’d like to introduce our superiors” he said. Moss looked a little nervous, the creature inside must have been expressing a lot of stress.

“Don’t freak out about this next part” said Thomas as we walked up and stood still.

Before the figures turned around, all of the creatures left the bodies, and formed together in the center of the room- mushing together to form one big blob. If I had to guess, it must be some information sharing these species do to communicate.

The captain almost had an initial disgusted expression on his face, but he must have noticed it in time to get rid of it quickly.

The slimy octopus-jelly creatures unhinged themselves from one another and began crawling back to their bodies. The captain leaned into my ear, “Notice one has a different color on his body…He must be the one in charge” he whispered.

I hadn’t even thought to look at their color patterns inside their transparent bodies- I assumed the colors were organs. I watched the jelly “boss” return to its body and form back into a human figure.

They turned around and looked at us, but said nothing momentarily. Who the captain and I figured to be the boss looked at me particularly and it took me a few moments to recognize him.

“Ethan!” I called out, recognizing that this starved figure was my brother!

After a short pause, “Ethan it’s me- your brother, Gabriel” I said tempted to step forward, but the looks of Moss and Thomas told me to stay back.

The alien claiming Ethan’s body finally stepped forward, with the two other people following closely behind.

“Although I bare a spark in recognizing you…This is not your brother anymore. What’s left of him will soon be of no physical importance to me” he said. The alien claiming Ethan’s body walked towards us, and around us- slowly observing the state the captain and I were in.

He looked toward Thomas and Moss, and nodded at them as if giving approval.

Both the Captain and I now felt very uneasy.

“I’m assuming we are prisoners here” the captain asked, noticing the leader wave for someone to enter the room.

I recognized the man who was called in, our 3rd survivor Kagen Volkov.

“These are the crew members you had talked about?” asked one of the other’s next to the alien claiming Ethan’s body.

Volkov did not look our way, but nodded. His skin had yellow patches on it. Perhaps a long-term side-effect from the acidic atmosphere here. He wore the same breathing device we did.

“Traitor” whispered the captain.

“You’ve done us a great service for notifying us of their survival- you’ll have your rations. Escort them to the prison,” said Ethan.

Volkov and Moss grabbed our shoulders and pushed us to move forward.

I looked back at my brother, looking into his dead eyes as I walked out the room and noticed the smile across his face. This was no longer my brother, as much as I wanted to believe he was still inside.

Officer Chris Morison retired his hat on his dash board as he drove home. His daughter had called him a couple weeks ago, letting him know of her news of her husband Gabriel Johnson had gone missing- presumably drowned in the depths of the Mariana trench. Haruka didn’t want a ceremony. She only called to let her father know and hung up.

Chris’s wife, Haruka’s mother, died 12 years ago from terminal cancer. He knew what it felt like to a certain point at least. In his daughter’s case- no body was found; He believed a different kind of emptiness fills her.

He sighed as he pulled up to the driveway, and sat in the car in contemplation of her misery. No father wanted to see their children in such pain. The thought was bringing tears to his eyes.

His work schedule allowed him some free time to visit every few days, but everything he visited she wouldn’t say a word. Chris let her neighbors know of what happen, and they agreed to check up on her.

Chris walked into the house setting his keys down on the table when the phone suddenly starting ringing.

“Officer Chris Morison” he said as he picked up the phone.

“Mr. Morison, hi, its Becky- Haruka’s neighbor” the woman replied.

A pulse of fright suddenly shot into his heart, “Is something wrong?” he immediately asked.

“I’ve been knocked on the door, and have been ringing her phone- but there hasn’t been an answer lately” she replied, somewhat worried.

“How long is lately?” he asked.

There was a pause on the other end of the line, “I haven’t heard anything in three days, Mr. Morison” she asked.

Chris quickly hung up the phone and grabbed his keys that had a spare to her daughter’s apartment.

As he arrived to the door, he saw Becky standing next Haruka’s apartment.

“I thought she may be visiting someone after a day or two, but I haven’t heard anything. I’m sorry I didn’t call earlier” she said, ashamed of herself.

As Chris fumbled to put the key into the door, he waved the comment off, “You have your own life to live, Ms. Chang. I thank you very much for calling” he said.

He opened the door to find the apartment empty. Chris walked around as Becky glared around from outside the apartment door.

Everything was neat and cleaned. There was a leftover scent of a lemon-bleach cleaner that filled the room.

Chris’s heart was pounding, part of him did not want to think what this all meant but part of him already knew.

He quickly paced the apartment, looking around for anything out of place.

It was until he looked at a table beside a chair next to a window- there was two letters.

One letter was from Haruka’s husband, his last letter no doubt. The other letter was sealed with the name “Haruka” on it.

“Shit” he mumbled, “Call the police Ms. Chang, if you will. Let them know your roommate is missing and left a suicidal letter in her apartment” he said. His work as a police officer had made him recognize these patterns. He knew what the letter was about before he even read it.

Becky Chang almost looked dazed and confused before the man’s words finally seeped into her. She quickly turned around and went to her apartment to call the police.

Chris Morrison opened the letter and found only eight words written on it: “The tide will carry me to him, farewell”.

He looked out the window and saw the ocean in the horizon.

None of us knew how much time has passed since they tossed us into a jellified bubble prison. The prison room we were in filled with water once a day, but I nor the captain had means to record the time so it felt randomized. When the room was filled with water, the jelly sphere protected us from any of the water pressure which would have crushed out bodies to a pulp. We almost floated in suspended animation with our masks around our face watching the alien creatures swim all around us as if visiting a zoo animal. When the room was empty of water, we were interrogated by the alien leaders.

Kagen Volkov, the captain and I realized, was just as a prisoner as we were. We all shared the same cell. He explained that if he left us in that submarine we would have died regardless. As prisoner’s we were buying ourselves more time…

I didn’t know for what though. We were after all at the bottom of the ocean, surrounded by a crushing water pressure, and prisoners of an alien species that could kill us at any moment, but for some reason did not.

Kagen and the Captain stayed in the bubble as I was escorted by a “skin” (we had begun to call these half-rotten bodies, these costumes the alien wore, as skins) towards an interrogation room. These aliens, I was starting to realize, wanted to leave this place. They used us to build their knowledge of the world above them. Questions were all over the place: “Why is the sky blue” or “what is the purpose of a pet dog”. After the questioning we were returned to float in the cells for the rest of the day until the water filled up the room and we were zoo-animals once again.

Kagen was the only one of them that could leave for an occasional “walk-around” with a skin escort- something he was allowed to do since he had told these aliens about the Captain and I. It was this opportunity that the captain had an idea.

“We are in a bubble” the captain had said, “What do bubbles do in the water?”.

Volkov looked at me and I wondered the same thing: Has the Captain gone crazy?

He motioned his hands up and down, hinting even harder until he rolled his eyes: “Bubbles Float” he said.

“And your point, Captain?” I asked.

“The ceiling is the only thing stopping us from floating out” finished Volkov, as if reading the captain’s mind.

I looked above us and through the translucent bubble we were stuck in. I was starting to realize it.

“The pressure down here isn’t affecting us because of the bubble” I said, “If we get this bubble we’re in out- then we could float to the surface”.

Volkov’s expression turned grim, “How are we supposed to break the ceiling?” he asked.

“We have explosives capable of breaking us out back at the submarine” the captain said.

The realization then came to me, “This is a highly pressurized area, more so when the water is filled up” I said.

“So?” said Volkov, curious on what point I was getting at.

The captain seemed to have realized it.

“It means that we’ll explode ourselves” I said.

The dream of escape then diminished.

“I say we get that explosives anyway, might be useful for leverage” the captain said.

Volkov and I nodded in agreement. The captain was right. It could be a way we escape even if we didn’t explode ourselves.

“How do we get to the submarine?” asked Volkov as he looked at our eyebrow rise behind the breathing mask we wore.

“No chance in hell” said Volkov, “these things won’t believe I need to go to the submarine on our walks. It’s too suspicious”.

“They’re aliens, Volkov...” I said, “maybe add a little human deception to things”.

“It’s not like they hang out with humans to know, Volkov. It’s like lying to a baby” said the captain who tried to add a little bit more confidence.

Volkov was not comforted at all and became increasingly irritable for the next 12 hours (or we assumed that long).

After we were all questioned again the day later, Volkov was taken out of the bubble for one of his walks again.

The Captain and I looked hopefully at him as he left the cave entrance, glaring at us from the corner of his eyes. Shortly after he got back, the room filled up with its usual water and we were made spectacles of the aliens this place inhabitant. Volkov didn’t talk and only stared down as if in shame.

The Captain and I knew he failed. Part of me was comforted he didn’t take the risk. We need all three of us if we were going to get through this. True, it was heart-sinking none the less. We sighed in the shattering idea, but not giving up on it.

It wasn’t until the room emptied of water and the creatures were scarce did he then pull out something from his shirt.

Volkov smiled at us both, “Like lying to a baby” he grinned.

We looked at the object and realized he accomplished his mission. It was the explosive device.

The days, if they were such things, dragged on and on with questions while Volkov, the Captain, and I thought hard on what our plans were with the device and how we would escape with it or use it to threaten these aliens. It was during one of these brainstorming sessions that I was then called out for our usual questioning.

This time I was told I’d be meeting their leader- my brother, Ethan.

The alien jellies were swimming around in the tidepools as I walked into a tunnel that led to the cave. I looked around curiously, trying to map as much of this place as I can. I was in an area of the meteor I haven’t been to yet. At the end of the tunnel there were half-torn sharks and other fish- more skins for these creatures to control. There was no longer anywhere else to go as I was led to a cave. I realized that this was the only place in this meteor that didn’t have another tunnel leading out of it. It was a dead-end.

There wasn’t much around the cave- a desk, chairs, plastic bottles and broken glass, and an anchor- a collection of useless things. Laying on the table was my brother, Ethan. His body was slumped over as if he had fell asleep on his desk. I needed to remind myself again that this was no longer my brother. Behind the desk was a window of water, similar to the entrance we took to get here from the submarine.

Just as I realized my brother’s body was empty, an alien plopped out from the water, and wiggled towards the body on the desk and just like magic- the body was alive and moving.

“You’re the one they call Gabriel?” the man asked, “this body’s other... brother”.

“Yes” I mumbled through my breathing device.

“I need your help, Gabriel” he said.

“Help with what?” I asked him. Perhaps now I’ll find the reason he’s been keeping us all alive, thought.

He took a chest from under the table and opened it, rumbling through different objects I couldn’t see, until he pulled out a globe of earth.

“This is the planet we live on, your planet” he said.

I didn’t know if it was a question or a comment.

The man spun the globe and looked at it very carefully, “Our kind wants to leave this ocean depth”.

“So why don’t you?” I asked.

“Our bodies aren’t built for the atmosphere above, yes we have our... skins as you call them, but we can never leave them without dying instantly” he said.

“I’m not sure how I can help with that” I told him.

A wave of anger flashed across the yellow-patched face of my brother.

“Come with me” he said as he motioned his crumbling body towards the window of water.

“What’s through there?” I asked him, not taking any steps forward.

“I won’t kill you off... just yet, Gabriel. I’ve got more to learn from you”. A smile appeared on his face as if he was trying to look friendly, but it seemed very forced. There was an absence of any emotion when he said it which made me shudder.

I didn’t see much of a choice as I looked down the tunnel behind me- knowing I was trapped in every direction. I followed him towards the window. He didn’t exit out of his body as he crawled through the window of water. This made me a little more relaxed, knowing he wouldn’t destroy his skin so easily.

I followed him through as I wondered if I were going to see the Captain or Volkov ever again.

As I walked through, a jolt of fear and panic rushed through my body.

We were in a cauldron like cave with geysers rushing out of pot-holes around us. It wasn’t the geyser that scared me, but the screaming.

It took me a moment to notice that the man tied to a stone was actually Volkov who was covered in the creatures which were no doubt hurting him. Quickly looking around I saw the bubble prison in the corner that held a body floating inside- the Captain.

I immediately turned towards my possessed brother and found several of these aliens crawling on my feet.

“Don’t move or they’ll sting you” he said, “After enough, the poison will instantly kill you”

“Then you’ll lose a healthy skin” I replied, giving off a false courage to bear me through what was happening.

The man didn’t seem too concerned, he shrugged as if it was something that he’ll have to live with.

Several of the creatures crawled passed my brother, dragging one of their kind who was almost ripped apart but still wiggling.

“Our kind should have known better of your deception” said Ethan who looked at the jelly that once was Moss- the skin that gave Volkov the daily walks.

The creatures dropped the jelly next to the geyser where Thomas grabbed it and threw it in the rushing water to be shot up into the holes above. I remembered how Ethan said their kind immediately died in the conditions above. Part of me then just realized it. I looked up through the geyser hole and realized we were closer towards the surface… I could actually see a faint glimpse of sunlight.

“What are these?” asked Ethan, holding up several of the C4 explosives that Volkov had taken from the submarine vessel.

Deception, I thought immediately.

“A sort of radio; we wanted to call for rescue” I said, eyeing Volkov who squinted at me in pain.

Ethan looked closely towards the device, “this is not a radio, Gabriel” he said as he gripped it tighter.

“I don’t imagine you get skins too often down here, and that’s why you ask us all these questions about above” I replied, “Things have changed- technology evolves”.

Ethan mumbled the word “technology” as he looked at the device from all different angles.

“If he calls for help, we might get more of these skins, sir” said Thomas who stood next to the geyser which raged out water every ten seconds or so.

“How does it work?” asked Ethan.

I paused for a moment in thought. Several scenarios were running through my head- all of them told me we’d all die regardless. I shook it out of my mind; this was my only chance. My memory linked to the conversation I had with the Captain and Volkov about the bubble floating up.

If I could get closer to the bubble and hop inside... and the geyser pushing us up. It seemed insane, but with the thought of dying regardless it was worth a try. But what to do after we float up? I suppressed the thought- One unknown step at a time.

“There are two parts you’re holding, one is the... radio, and the other is the broadcast system” I said as I swallowed hard when I almost said ‘detonator’.

Before the man could attempt to press the button, I stopped him immediately. It was too urgent, I thought.

“I’m starting to think this is something else, you’re acting a little strange” said the creature who looked at me puzzlingly.

“It’s only because we have one shot at this- it only works one time for emergencies” I replied, suppressing my emotions. “We need to get that broadcast panel closer to the surface for it to be received” I said. The geyser, I knew, was how to do it, but I didn’t want to give it away so easily out of fear that the creatures would know something was going on.

Both Ethan and Thomas smiled, “And you think we’re going to let you go above? How stupid do you think we are?” replied Ethan.

“How would we get that device to go higher up?” I replied, hoping that the creature catches onto the idea.

I could see Volkov concentrating on me. We both knew not everyone was going to make it alive. His eyes told me that it was the only thing left to do. We needed to convince Ethan to do it.

“Don’t do it, Gabriel” mumbled Volkov, just loud enough for the skins to hear it.

His commend seemed to have done the trick. The creatures considered the thought. I could tell it was convincing Ethan who was looking at the rushing geyser and back to the device. He seemed to have the plan figured out.

“I see” said Ethan after a little thought, “We’ll throw this ‘broadcasting device’ up the geyser as you call it, and then I’ll press the button to transmit a rescue signal” he said.

“I could do it, since I know how it works. We only have one shot after all” I replied, holding my hand out.

“No” snarled Ethan in anger, “I will do it”.

We all began to walk towards the largest geyser which had a hole big enough to increase the chances of success. Luckily, it was closer to the bubble.

Ethan stood next to the geyser, readying his throw. Volkov mumbled that he should count- it helps the mind and body concentrate together. The idea was gladly taken as Ethan practiced the counting to 3. Thomas mimicked the movement, as if learning it the first time (which no doubt was doing).

One…

I backed away, edging myself closer towards the bubble where the captain laid unconsciously.

Two…

Volkov looked at me and nodded. He closed his eyes as Ethan tossed the device up the Geyser.

Three… *Click*

A rage of fire and water shot from above the ceiling water flooded from all around and the geyser building up a hose of pressure. I managed to get into the bubble just in time before the captain and I were tossed around like ragdolls. The bubble managed to slightly roll over the geyser which suddenly shot us up into the waters above.

It took a moment of readjusting in the bubble and the thrashing for me to get my bearings right. The captain was slowly gaining consciousness when he looked around curiously at what was going on.

We were floating higher and the water was becoming more transparent to the sunlight.

We were going to make it!

As I was going to say something, the captain immediately hopped onto me and began chocking my neck.

I struggled to breath and fight the captain off as the bubble twisted and twirled in the water.

“Captain, it’s me” I gasped as I struggled for breath.

As the captain held him down, I noticed a shadow on the surface that resembled a boat. Impossible, I thought. It was hard to tell as the captain squeezed harder with a new sense of strength.

“I can’t let you escape” yelled the captain in a rage, “You’ll be mine soon enough” he said as he squeezed my throat harder.

I realized it now- this was not the captain, but one of the creatures.

I struggled to get the heavy man off of me as I was losing air. Too close, I thought in panic. The creature’s grip loosened as the world began to fade around me and I could see the faint tentacles begin to slide out of the Captain’s mouth- waiting for my last breath for the alien to slide into mine and take over my body.

I can’t end it here, I screamed within my head as I sucked in the remaining air for a desperate attack.

I punched the captain in the face which lifted him higher, then twisted the man’s body below mine. I let out a constant heap of fists onto the man’s face. My hands grasped and tightened over the man’s throat and I squeezed with all my strength.

The captain smiled, “You’re trying to kill me?” he struggled to say as the windpipe slurred his words under the pressure.

I didn’t care to stop, but he was right- it was useless to kill someone who is already dead and a host to these parasites.

A shadow suddenly swam past the bubble which caught my attention. A second later the bubble broke and a row of sharp teeth raged past my torso and gripped themselves onto the captain.

Within the slurry water, I saw it- a great white shark tugging and tearing at the body. The shark’s body had ribs exposed and I knew what it was- a skin. It must’ve thought it had gotten me.

The shark realized its mistake as it turned in the water and caught sight of me swimming up to the surface. Panic was now raging through my body as I swam up to the surface towards the boat. My hands gripped the rails of the boat and climbed up.

Part of me thought I recognized the boat, because it almost looked like the one I had at home, but that was impossible. Regardless of the thought, I was thankful this craft was here.

The shark-skin rolled its head out of the water, glaring at me with its black eyes.

I jumped towards the engine and began pulling on the starter. The engine mumbled with exhaustion. The shark torpedoed the boat several times which shook me off the starter. I jumped back and tried pulling the strings several times more, but it kept failing.

A wave of water suddenly bounced the boat. It was much larger than what the shark could be capable of.

I immediately looked up and saw a large, chewed up tail of a wail closing in on him.

“Shit” I said as I pulled the string now in an extreme panic, “Start you damned thing!” I screamed.

The engine suddenly came to life.

I revved the boat forward just as the whale’s tail almost smacked the engine beside me. I turned the boat in every direction as I sped towards the horizon as skins of all kinds tried to crash into me. It was not until I was several miles in that I heard a distant horn.

My heart beat was now racing at the sight of the red ship- it was rescue. I turned the boat towards it, yelling my lungs out for help. As I was nearing within a mile to the vessel, a large bubble of water now appeared to be racing towards the rescue vessel on the starboard side.

I pointed at the bubble and yelled out in panic towards the ship’s crew, but it was too late.

“My god” I gasped as I saw the sight of the creature- the largest whale shark I have ever seen.

It rocked the rescue ship ferociously, almost knocking it over. The second hit did the trick and I turned the boat’s direction as the waves pushed me over into the water.

There I saw it: Half torn sharks, whales, and seals, swimming all around the rescue vessel as the bodies of the crew treaded in panic. I was shocked to see they had so many skins. I watched the nearest sailor being dragged down to the depths of the ocean. The seal-skin then let him go, knowing the human would drown, and suddenly the alien tentacles shot out of the seal’s mouth and entered the man’s throat at his final breath.

After a moment, the sailor then noticed me in the water, and he violently began to swim over. I shot to the surface and began to climb back into the boat until I felt something tugging me down. I looked beneath the surface of the water and saw the sailor attempting to drag me off the boat. I waved my feet and kicked the man off, climbing into the boat and dragging my body forward towards the engine that was still running.

I roared the boat forward, now towards the shore on the horizon, knowing that the rescue vessel was now a lost cause. Most of the creature’s disregarded my escape as they busied themselves with the crew they were drowning. As I got over the first breaker wave a black and white fin smashed into the boat and took me flying into the air.

I landed in the water and felt my body suddenly hit sand. I was close, I thought, so close to shore. My mind was dazed as my body was smashed around by killer whale’s tail-fin that splashed in all directions hoping to stun and drown me.

Slowly I felt my body moving closer to shore as the sand around me elevated higher.

The bubbled and waves of water gave me an opportunity to escape the cluster of panic. I stood up and felt it- the cold air around my face and chest. The sight of shore only a couple feet away filled me with a feeling of hope as tears streamed down my face. A man was walking towards the beach as I came out of the water.

“Watch out!” yelled the man, pointing at something behind me.

I suddenly started running forward and titled my head to notice the killer-whale striding towards me at the shore. Immediately I jumped to the side and felt orca’s teeth snag onto my leg.

I gripped the sand in front of me, pulling with all my might as the Orca dragged me backwards into the water. My feet couldn’t break loose from the jaw’s grip.

No..So close, I thought in panic.

I didn’t realize that the man on the shore was now running up to me and grabbed my hand. The man used his other hand and pulled out a gun, shooting the killer-whale in the face. It seemed to have no effect until one of the bullets hit the eye-ball of the creature, causing it to release its grip and descend back into the water’s depths behind it.

I grabbed the man’s arm as the stranger helped me up.

“Gabriel?!” the stranger said as he dragged me out towards the dry sand.

I took several minutes of deep breaths until my panic got under control. It was then I recognized the stranger’s face: Chris Morison- the father of my wife, Haruka.

“Mr. Morison?” I asked, faintly believing he was here, “What are- “.

I stopped talking when I saw a figure suddenly walked out of the water. I know her, I thought. Her skin was blueish and rigid. Her hair had kelp strangling off of it.

It was Haruka, my wife.

Chris Morison watched his daughter walk towards the shore in a calm and earie manner. He had to blink a few times to realize what he was looking at.

“Haruka…You’re alive” said Morison, starring at his daughter who stood not ten feet away.

He began to walk over until I stopped him.

Morison looked at my expression and knew something was out of place, something was terribly wrong.

“That’s not your daughter, and that’s not my wife, Chris” I said.

Chris smiled awkwardly, “is this a joke?” he asked, not knowing what to think of all this.

The skin looked past the man, and straight towards me.

“I have a message from our leader” said Haruka, or the creature inside of her. Her voice was gurgling water. No doubt her lungs with filled with it, I thought. How this has happened was still puzzling me.

“My leader says: Clever plan with that Geyser to thrust you up” said the skin speaking as if he was the alien that possessed my brother Ethan, “I should’ve known better from your kind” it said, “I won’t make that mistake again”.

“I’ve found more of those devices in that vessel you came in,” said the creature.

“How is that going to help your kind?” I replied. He knew that the creature couldn’t come out of the skin in this type of atmosphere.

“Our mission was to get off this planet, these devices create a type propulsion” said the skin, “The fact your captain survived inside the bubble so close to the surface, means we can survive”.

The thought had never crossed my mind- how our escape could have helped them. I swallowed hard as I looked at my wife’s pale and purple skin.

Haruka’s eyes now looked angry, “We’ve got a new mission now” it said.

“Haruka, please stop. What’s going on?” chimed in Officer Morrison in confusion. He started to walk until Gabriel stopped him again.

“This won’t be the last time you see us, Gabriel” it said, “It won’t be the last time you see me”.

Chris Morison and I stared in awe as the jellied creature then came out of Haruka’s mouth. The alien wiggled momentarily in the sand before a haze of mist expelled from the body- melting it away. It killed itself, I thought.

Haruka’s body laid dead in the sand in front of them. Morison stared in disbelief at what he saw- an octopus like jellyfish controlling his dead daughter. We both starred at her and at the ocean. Whilst Morison’s thoughts tried to grapple at what he saw, my mind thought about the creature’s last words:

“It won’t be the last time you see me”.