I woke up with a suddenness that almost left me on the floor. I was sitting up before I even knew where I was. I was surprised to find I could see, that it wasn’t dark anymore. And I was alive! At least I didn’t think I was dead. I didn’t seem to be dead. This revelation took me by such surprise that it took me a little while to realize I could also breath.
I wasn’t under water anymore!
I was alive and I wasn’t underwater. I was in air that I could breath. How did that happen? Where was I? I looked around. I was in a room. I was in an empty room. Alone. How did I get here? And where was here? And where was everyone else? What happened to the others?
I took a deep breath. I had to think. I was alive. That was good. That meant whoever had me probably wanted to keep me that way. I hoped. I wasn’t restrained. That was probably a good sign, too.
I let myself relax. I was safe. I was alive. This was good. I let myself feel that and put away the worry for a second. There had been such ever-present danger for so long, always going from one thing to the next. It was good to have a second to be calm. I was truly happy to be alive. I had not been looking forward to drowning. I was glad I was alive and I could breath. I was happy to be dry and away from all that water.
And then just as I started to let my guard down, I heard a unexpected noise. It sounded like something opening. Like a…door? I looked around, but there was no door anywhere I could see. How had I gotten in here without a…and then I saw the opening, about the size of a vent. And there was water streaming out of it. Within seconds, water covered the floor and it wasn’t stopping.
Wherever I was, they clearly hadn’t taken me very far away from where they had found me. The water smelled of the ocean. I was still in it or near enough to it. Was I in a submarine? If I was, I think it sprung a leak. Maybe it had taken damage trying to save us. If it had, then I was sorry. By trying to save us, these poor people had doomed themselves. Now they got to drown along with us. I wanted to believe that was true because as bad as it was for them and me, it was better than the alternative.
As the water continued to rise, I slid back on my bed away from it, as if its touch could hurt me. I stood up and started looking for exits. The ceiling was a single solid piece. There were no vents to crawl out through. I sincerely doubted I was going to be able to bust my way through it or through the walls. But I had to keep looking for a way out. There had to be one.
The water kept rising and rising, but I couldn’t find anyway to escape. Soon the water level was nearly up to the bed. I thought this was it. Soon the whole room would fill with water and I’d drown. I tried to take deep breathes to oxygenate my blood so I could hold my breath longer. Maybe after the room filled with water I could escape through the opening, the water pressure would have equalized so it’d be pushing against me as I tried to swim through. And go where? The whole place had probably filled with water. I had to try. I wasn’t going to just give up. I was going to just stand here and let myself drown.
And then, just as suddenly as the water had started, it stopped. Why did it stop? Did someone plug the leak? Did that mean that we weren’t completely submerged? Maybe we were on a boat that had smacked into a sandbank. That would certainly make it easier to escape than being in the submarine at the bottom of the ocean.
But before I could get my hopes up, I saw something swim into my room. Something big. I looked around again for some way to escape. I didn’t find one this time either. I looked for something to defend myself with, but there wasn’t anything in the room, not even a pillow on the bed.
The creature swam into the room and came right toward me. I kept looking for a way to escape, but there really was nowhere to go. Everywhere but where I stood was covered with five feet of water. The water level seemed to have stopped rising, so at least I wouldn’t drown. No, all I had to worry about now was the massive creature swimming into my room, heading right for me. The large creature sprung out of the water barely a foot away from me and reached out toward me. I screamed for help.
to be continued…
The Quantum Unstable Man 