Seeing eye to eye

I felt the water changing. Slowly but steadily the depths pulsed around me, pressing against my eyes and igniting my lateral line. I could smell the richness drifting down in the water and the temptation to meet it on its decent was so great I almost gave in, but I waited. My fins cut through the water strong and smooth sensing my surroundings as I swam. It was now only a few meters above me sinking closer to the ocean floor I paced waiting for it to impact. The carcass of the sperm whale was fresh, it smelled only a few tides dead. As it connected with the sea floor muck and sand billowed into the water clouding my sight. The smell of the recently dead whale mingled with the sulfuric mud clouds the whale had kicked up as it landed. I could not wait any longer I swam directly to my meal and closed my jaws around the thick, rich blubber of the whale.

None of my kin had arrived yet which I was happy for. They would show any minute but as of yet they had not appeared. It would not matter I had gourged myself before they could arrive.

Eating and sensing had not been like this for many many tide turns. When I was a pup I could remember plentiful oceans teaming with prey. That had stopped for a long long time, one meal having to last me a full ocean circle. Now however, prey was coming back. We had above drifters every moon change, when before it could be over 12 moon changes. I was not sure what had changed but something had.

That was when I sensed it. Surly it could not be another feast. But I sensed it, the same pressure, the same pulsing…. But wait no it was not coming from above. This was different something none of my mind had ever seems. The ocean floor shifted as sand flew into the water and i could see something rising from below not sinking from above. It was a large shell. The largest shell I had ever seen or sensed and it was rising. I looked into it’s eyes and saw two small, fragile creatures. They looked like the top sinkers but they couldn’t be, not from below like this. I slowly backed up allowing the shell to rise towards the light where I have never belonged. It rose and rose and was gone. I was sure once it got to the surface one of those creatures would crack open that shell and eat what was inside.

Hallar and Lira were looking back at the shark. It was staring into the observation deck looking up at them. It looked to be around 300 years old gauging by its size, coloration, and lateral circles. This shark had been alive as long as they had been asleep.

They had woken from cryo sleep alone and long past the designated wake date. They found each other after exiting their chambers and searching for anyone still on the ship. There was no one else all others were some how gone. They were able to get the rig started and were heading up to the surface. After the fall out all remaining non infected persons were to enter cryo sleep in the dormant deep sea pods. Once the outside atmosphere on the surface was registering clean they would be automatically awoken from cryo and released with their pod grouping to the surface to start again fresh. However when they had woken there had been no one. There was no trace of anyone from their pod grouping.

The animal disappeared below them into the gloom and they began to see sunlight. Yellow filtering through blue. They broke the surface racing to the outer doors to initiate opening sequence.

As the door opened onto the surface of earth Lira gasped and Hallar started to cry hysterically.