Chapter 21: Thalassophobia.

The end of the second week marked the end of our journey upwards. Not because we were finally free and I was running to the nearest phone to call in the army and a few airstrikes mind you.

No, we had to stop because we’d reached a large body of water that blocked our path upwards. How?

Simple.

The river was running above us, pressing upwards in defiance of gravity. I suppose I should have seen it coming, all things considered.

No way escaping would be this easy after all the trouble our kidnapper’s had gone through. Still, I would have thought that a large number of people with very big guns would have sufficed. Shows how little creativity I have within the pitch-black lake that is my subconscious.

This predicament left me with a simple choice. I could take the reasonable approach and scour the topmost floor, just before the river. If there was a hidden tunnel or passage, I was bound to find it eventually. From there, I could fall back on my earlier plan of snitching to Thunder Fist at my earliest convenience.

Of course, that would mean risking life and limb against the freaking bastard shrews that considered these passages sacrosanct. Recently I’d developed a cunning stratagem of hiding out and calling as many other monsters down on the shrew as I could reasonably reach before being torn apart myself. A plan that had worked very well so long as the vermin had the good manners to be alone.

When they hunted in groups? Not so much.

They had a very annoying tendency to retreat when cornered instead of fighting to the death, luring threats into chokepoints or pre-arranged ambush spots. As such, the scales of battle were very much tipped in their favour.

However, I had another choice. I could do the stupid thing and force myself up into the deluge. It would mean braving a body of water in below-freezing temperatures. While blinded by darkness. While disoriented by a powerful current.

Yeah. A normal human’s chances would not be good.

“So, Buddy, how capable are you in water?”

‘What do you mean?’

“Well, let’s say, hypothetically, that I wanted to go down or up as it were, for a dip. Do you think we could survive?”

‘It depends. Our chances would be much better if I was already upgraded. I’m not sure what the process entails, just that I get much stronger and tougher.’

“Naturally. Okay, different question. How long could we stay alive if we went up into the water right now?”

‘At this temperature? Um. Maybe twenty minutes? I can’t filter oxygen from water yet, so we’d be going up with a limited supply. Plus, we’d be all cold and blind. There’s no telling what’s up there either. I don’t doubt my best friend can take care of himself of course. All I’m saying is that we don’t know where to begin preparing. Or if preparation would help.’

“Right.” I muttered, trying to break through with my fog and failing miserably.

Squinting as much as I could, I could barely make out colourful rock formations that were obviously distinct from the usual cavern walls surrounding us. It looked like coral that was half-bleached, resulting in a texture not dissimilar to dried papier mâché.

More importantly, it looked quite sharp and not at all inviting.

I was about to give up on the idea altogether when a familiar presence appeared below us.

It was shrew. No wait. It was three shrews. No, that wasn’t it. There were….

A great number of them.

All headed here with inspiring alacrity. Their underdeveloped brains oozing spite and wanton bloodlust.

“Right on Buddy. Time to dive. Take as much air in as you can.”

‘You got it Sully!’

In my haste, I was about to discard my warm pelt before leaping upwards, before considering that, if I was going to lose it anyways, I might as well have it shield me from the initial coral greeting.

With a steadying breath, I ran up to where the flow almost met the floor and allowed myself to be taken.

The first of the vicious rodents was turning a corner at that very same moment. Squeaking in rage and indignation, it lunged. Its bulk almost collided with me too, its weight and momentum changing the river’s course for the briefest of instants. Mercifully, those rending claws never found purchase.

Instead, the creature was overtaken by agony when hundreds, if not thousands of little daggers gouged out pieces of tender flesh from its form.

The same was happening to us, only the fur coating us was dead and thusly, in no position to complain.

“Alas, poor trophy, you will be missed.”

‘No, it won’t. I’m all the clothes you need. Good riddance.’

As Buddy complains, the last scraps of protection are taken from us. I take a few blows to my legs before tucking them close to my chest and doing the same with my arms. Underneath, I feel a gaggle of shrews leaping upwards into danger, seemingly undeterred by the threat of a messy watery death.

That admirable courage does them no good.

One by one, they begin to bleed, colouring the river red by virtue of their individual mass and horde-like numbers.

The roaring current takes us all upwards with a vengeance. Up through thicker coral reefs and narrower halls. A few of the larger specimens dam the flow here and there, accomplishing nothing but their own demise via drowning. When they die, they seal the fates of their fellows, who cannot wedge themselves past the narrow gaps left over.

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“I think we might just make it in one piece.” I say, like the hopeless imbecile that I am.

The next instant sees my skull crashing against a rocky formation.

Darkness consumes me.

In its harrowing embrace, I dream.

In the dream, I stand alone in a hall surrounded by slightly different versions of the tall man. Some are barely larger than my six-year-old self. Others are larger than the mother crab, their necks phasing into the ceiling. Foggy as my recollection is, I cannot tell which one was the original and which is merely a fabrication of my trauma.

They all murmur, chittering sounds like that of my first centipede leaving their mouths. They’re trying to say something.

I don’t want to hear it. I know its all evil and lies. Vile deceptions for it victims.

For what purpose, I do not know.

Simple cruelty, perhaps?

That very same impulse that drives some children to burning ants or crushing beetles. A primal revelry stemming from controlling another living thing. To have it in the palms of one’s hands. To be in position to make or break them at the merest hint of disobedience.

“How? How can you do this?”

He. They, move their mouths, or rather, the outlines where mouths would have been. No sound emerges.

The mother crab continues to suffer behind the men. It begs for death, consumed by the depravity forced upon it.

“You deserved it.” Someone says. “You killed people.”

Against all odds, the giant creature whimpers back.

“Food. For my children. My poor, poor children. All dead. Have mercy. Please. Please.”

All the adults in the room echo the plea until the cacophony is all that can be heard in the tight confines of the makeshift shelter.

“Please. Please. Please.”

They wail in desperation.

“Please. Please. Please.”

They weep into their arms.

“Please. Please. Please.”

Monster and humans alike pray for deliverance. For freedom.

“Please. Please. Please.”

The tall men begin to recede into one, merging like molten shadows.

“Please. Please. Please.”

They all want it to stop. They will do anything to make it stop.

“Please. Please. Please.”

This is an evil power. Wielded by an evil man. It cannot be allowed to exist.

In my stupor. I realize the words are also coming from my own lips.

“Please. Make it end. I’ll do anything. Anything.”

The last thing I recall is the tall man staring back at me, with his cold, unfeeling eyes. No, on closer inspection, the sockets are empty. That thing has no eyes.

My skull aches. I lose myself into the waiting lake beneath me. There I lie. Forever.

It gets cold after that.

So very cold.

I can’t feel my feet. I can’t feel my fingers. I think they’re about to snap off like popsicles.

My teeth are clattering. I can’t stop. No matter how hard I try. I can’t stop the pain. The shivers.

I try to open my eyes, but see nothing. There is an endless abyss before me. Thick, black water stretching out for eternity.

“Where am I?”

‘Sully! You made it! Oh, I’m so glad to hear your voice again! I thought I’d lost you!’

“Where am I?” I repeated, determined to get an answer before anything else.

‘I think we’re above the rivers. We entered this open area around a minute ago. I think we have another ten or nine minutes of oxygen left.’

Hearing the explanation was nice, though it did little to clear my confusion. My brain was still rattling inside my skull. I couldn’t tell up from down or left from right. Indeed, the only signal I received, was that of popping notifications.

System Notice:

Student has made a breakthrough with an ability.

Level Gained: +5 Maximum Psy. +3 Ability Points.

Ability Gained: [Premonition] 1 has been added to the Status.

Ability Evolving: [Premonition] 1 has grown to [Premonition] 2

Name:

Solomon Carter

Psy:

187/200

Type:

Telepath Level 30

Abilities:

[Sense Thoughts] 3 / [Message] 4 / [Mental Bolt] 4 / [Fever] 4 / [Fear] 3 / [Static Illusion] 4 / [Hide] 3 / [Faint Presence] 2 / [Mental Map] 2 / [Precognition] 4 / [Friendship] 1 / [Meditation] 3 / [Block Mental Attack] 2 / [Block Mental Detection] 2 / [Premonition] 2

Ability Points:

0

I tried to breathe and found myself choking on saltwater.

[Block Mental Attack] came in like a truck.

The delusion vanished at once, but not before a whole new kind of shivering took hold of me.

I tasted blood in my mouth despite the lack of wounds.

I wanted to scream in response to a monster that hadn’t even noticed us yet.

Because I knew it would soon do so.

[Meditation] was all that kept me from deflating into a useless lump of meat. Snagging my beleaguered mind like a safety net.

In my mind’s eye, the leviathan was as vivid as an image could be. Gargantuan fluorescent cords running along its body, painting it light blue and pink in a manner resembling a jellyfish. Those thin ropes hid a serpentine body taught with proud muscles, ending in a shark-like fin. Its mouth resembled that of some deep-sea predator. Life formed without the influence of sunlight.

Its roar would have been enough to shatter my bones.

If it managed to reach me. If it realized I was here.

“Buddy, I need you to change the suit’s shape. Get me some fins underneath my feet.”

‘Understood.’

That was, apparently, all it took. I wasted no more time, plunging back down to where a few of the shrews were still drowning.

Adrenaline was pumping energy into each and every movement. My heart was beating so loudly, I thought it might burst from my chest.

As I touched one of the holes flowing back downwards, a change in pressure sent a spike of fear through my being.

The roar had finally come.

Even through the water, the force behind it sent me reeling. I felt my lungs struggle to take back the air that had been knocked out of them.

Another shiver caught my attention before I could fully recover and against my better judgement, I looked up.

The leviathan was far more impressive in person, illuminated as it was by its trailing tendrils of death.

It must have been at least 50 metres long. Maybe more.

It was rushing towards me. Its maw was open.

I dove into the hole without delay, swimming down it as if my life was in danger.

Because it very much was.

I got head start of six or seven metres before the hit.

THOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

The entire structure shook.

I didn’t pay the tremors any heed. My mind was focused solely on survival. Living at any cost.

I flailed my legs clumsily, earning bruises more often than not. In my fright, I didn’t notice the cold.

Only when I touched down on the firm stone floor once more did I notice how excruciating each breath was. How stiff my limbs had become.

That too faded into the background, when a different shiver ran up my spine.

“Buddy. I need you to change back. Turn into the suit that makes it easiest to run.”

‘Aren’t you worried about freezing?’

“I am. But I’m more worried about being crushed. That thing. Those things. Are going to get through. The ceiling is collapsing.”

Any sane person would have asked how I knew. That folly would have wasted several precious seconds, endangering us all.

Not Buddy.

He complied at once, changing himself into a form-fitting track suit.

I thanked him over and over in my head as I ran down familiar passages and past untriggered traps.

Smaller reactions informed me of their approximate locations, a quirk of my new ability which had been entirely unexpected.

There was no time to examine it further.

I had to keep running. Until my legs wobbled beneath me and my lungs were on fire from the exertion.

‘Are we safe yet?’

“No. Not safe. They’re coming. They’re breaking down the ceiling. The water. Its all going down. They’ll…”

In the distance, a small twang heralded the end of whatever influence had defied gravity. The insurmountable pressure had nowhere else to go but down.

I felt, more than heard the tide coming to swallow us. In a final, desperate gamble, I climbed into a hidey-hole near this tunnel’s ceiling. Like my old self in the shelter, I closed my eyes and waited for the storm to pass.