After Carissa read through a few more of the personal records from the black binder. Most of it was a reiteration of the same type of topics, the scientist recorded his results and interactions but mostly his sense of duty of care towards his family.

‘The same attitude, repeated due his own weakness and inability to deal the reality of his situation.’ murmured Carissa as she flicked her eyes and scanned through another page.

The scientist Huang Pengfei was a reasonable man if lacking in imagination, he showed little interest in his failures only tending to focus on any markers of success.

Carissa wasn’t overly surprised that the man had chosen to inject himself and then die in the process. Part of what she was beginning to understand that the virus wasn’t developed on this planet. Not even by mistake. There was no clear explanation of where it actually originated from.

Deciding to take a break from the pages within the binder which she could now easily read in her mind’s eye she used her will to dismiss them before she opened her spatial backpack and threw it back inside.

The sealed black vial was of more interest to her. She focused her intent on it to examine the description given by the Ocean Gateway System before her eyes began to well up.

Two teardrops fell from her eyes and fell onto the floor of the research room and formed a small pool as a reflected face she had seen before looked at her.

A message came unbidden into her mind, not forced, not angry but there was an intent of deep sadness that accompanied it.

There was power in the will behind it, an extremely high level of power which indicated to her that it was one of the Ocean Gods but the face reflected in the water wasn’t her own.

She had only seen the face once from a distance during a storm on a beach. An old memory of her youth passed through her, a teenage friend on a summer day on the beach.

No. Not clear skies, there had been thunder as the winds picked up and the waves began to rise and a figure, a man who stood on the water as the skies began to darken and...and…. no.

Her mind was being changed. Altered. There was a presence affecting her sense of time and memory. This wasn’t her original memory. That day had been one of her happiest, one of the best in her entire life when she had gone out with Laci from dawn to sunset.

Carissa’s face darkened as both anger and awareness flowed into her. She opened her eyes to find that she had been in sitting down against the wall with her legs curled up and her hands resting on her knees.

‘Again. You keep trying to control me. To push me I don’t need to go. I never asked for this. Talk to me directly or leave me alone.’ said Carissa as she shook her head.

The message ceased as abruptly as it began and a hand waved in the puddle reflection as it vanished leaving a single word before it evaporated.

Care...full

‘Careful. What is that meant to mean? Be careful? Don’t open the vial?’ murmured Carissa lightly.

Carissa had been expecting a direct message from another Ocean God, either threatening her, telling her or a warning. The fact that the presence had entirely removed itself from her presence wasn’t an indication of her own personal power.

Her and Matthias had barely scratched the surface of this intermediate level dungeon so far.

‘Enough.’ said Carissa as she pushed herself to her feet, swaying a little. She reached into her spatial storage backpack and took one of the various food leaf foods packs which Matthias had gifted her along with a bottle of her own mineral enriched water.

After eating and drinking, she wiped a hand on her mouth and threw the empty packaging back into the backpack. The system appeared to automate a lot of the manual work so that the player-candidates didn’t even need to work out.

Food for one. She mostly ate because her body needed nutrition and water, but there wasn’t especially a physical need for it. Either the grey suit which had bonded with her and likely every other person here on arrival was reducing her need for calories or the Ocean Gateway System provided it.

Carissa recalled Mike had warned her about overuse of the suit. Perhaps it

Questions. I have a great deal of questions.

For a world that was meant to be flooded entirely, Carissa had only seen the barest parts of it so far. She wouldn’t have been surprised if the entire ‘world’ was simply a massive warehouse filled with different constructed sections.

Experiences and her own physical discomfort and inability to use her altered body or technological mount could have been down to genetic inhibitors or drugs which simply stopped her body being aware of them.

A sound came from Matthias as he murmured and turned around. His face crunched up and his hands gripped the hilt of the coral sword tighter. Carissa wasn’t going to blame him for wanting to be secure.

But neither was she going to approach an armed young man who had been possessed and was likely to respond with violence towards any kind of physical intervention. There was likely some type of group message she could send to override and wake him up but she’d check up on it later.

Bad dreams then. Or good ones. Hard to tell with altered memories.

‘…. leave me alone old woman…. no... real, he was real. Stop. Killed...why...fake...no. Not.’ said Matthias as he turned and fell silently once more.

For one thing, Carissa was sick of being inside this room. The bareness of it was beginning to get to her. Empty cabinets with a few non-functional scientific tools scattered around.

‘On with it then.’ said Carissa as she opened her spatial bag and pulled out the vial of liquid which had been gifted as a system award.

When she tried to focus on it for an identification notification there was an immediate pushback. Not entirely physical but there was a strain behind her eyes and a slow rising pressure on her body.

Standing straight she gripped the small vial on both hands and slammed it down as hard as she could on one of the research room surfaces causing minor indentations into the plastic and metal.

Nothing. This Ocean Gateway built item is stronger than it looks. Stronger than it had any right to be.

Or I’m just not physically strong enough.

Stolen novel; please report.

Her hands ached. Carissa willed the grey suit on her body to cover her lower arms, hands, palms and fingers as she took a grip on it with one hand and jumped into the air to smash it onto the floor.

A kind of minor electrical charge ran through her fingers forcing her half-way through the movement as the grey suit failed to protect her. A charge ran through her body, not enough to cause pain but it was only released when she

All she achieved was a sudden hard sound and an intake of air from Matthias as he immediately jumped to his feet with his eyes still closed. Despite his apparent lack of consciousness, he still held a stance with one hand on the hilt of his coral sword prepared to attack.

Carissa paused and tried her best to slow her breathing as crouched on the floor she watched Matthias release his grip and pushing his back against the wall as he slid down into his original sleeping position.

Then he murmured again lightly, his face showing clear signs of discomfort as the dream he was having carried on. Then again, given Carissa’s own experience he could have had his own memory altered and one of his best of worst memories had been infected and one of the Ocean Gods appearing.

‘...no... he was real. You killed...he was…. real. No. Not a shape. Not a shapeshifter. He protected...helped…. dead. Bring him. Him back...no... real.’ said Matthias as he lay half-leaned back against one of the plain walls of the research room.

After what Oannes did to him I owe him as the leader of our group. But I’m not touching him when he’s holding that sword.

Carissa had never been called a compassionate woman. By Liam at least who had tried to draw out the best in her but to others she was distant, even cold.

Settling back into her own position a distance from the young restless sleeping man in the other corner of the mock research room Carissa made herself comfortable before she pulled out the black binder.

There was a thread within the pages, but not one she was interested in pursuing. A lack of ethics and the constant whining of the scientist as he was apologetic for his actions due to his family made her wonder exactly how he had managed to keep a secure record or if the entire thing was a prop made by the Ocean Gods.

Likely a mix of the two. Real life mixed with imagination.

She looked up at Matthias to see that he had mostly settled and stopped mumbling in his sleep but continued to hold onto his coral sword tightly.

[Personal Diary Record of Hua Pengfei. Diary Entry 84:]

Several of my colleagues believe the Base Commander has lied to us. Our families are dead. The planet and life that we once knew is dead but I’ve made a decision. I will believe that my family is alive, that the promise they made it into a secure underwater shelter is true. I need to believe this to carry on. Otherwise, I’ll become a monster. Please forgive me little Fen Fen and Ju Mei. I love you both. Forever.

Date: 19th April 20XX

We continue to experiment and experience failure. Sometimes the look on the eyes of the subjects disgusts me. We’re using them to save our planet, to find a solution, to turn them into weapons of war which could fight back against these alien gods which invaded us.

And all they can do is look at their feet. They don’t even look me in the eye. I tell myself they deserve it, but to be honest I was considering injecting myself. Just to see what effect it would have.

No. I have more value than them. We all do. All they do is eat our food and use up our life support. I don’t even know if the date I’ve written is correct. My days are filled up with experiments, tests and then mandatory rest periods.

We eat when we’re told, we sleep when we sleep. The days down here merge. Writing in this diary has kept me balanced, I think. Commander Lombardo entered today with his personal soldiers, he wanted to question our science department on our time schedules.

I stepped in and told him that the Chief Security Officer was fully monitoring our progress and he could talk to her. I don’t think he liked that but he simply nodded and left. Thankfully, any conflict between them is nothing to do with the science team.

On passing I heard several of the Commander’s personal soldiers mutter about the threat of hidden cultists but surely that would be mere rumour.

The experimental subjects are fewer now. The quality of samples we find has severely reduced in number and the ones that survived continue to surprise our scientific research team in odd ways due to their reactions.

A few are completely abnormal in the fact that there are no changes. Physically they should have mutated or died but nothing. Not a single part of their genetic structure alters despite the amount of virus they ingest.

Especially one of them. He shows no signs of change despite being injected and tested multiple times.

I don’t understand it. Every single injection or ingestion of the virus had resulted in a sudden violent change or simply a fast death through either cardiac arrest or rapidly blood loss.

His name is Leandro Mata. A survivor he calls himself. I reported him once for being a cultist when he talked back to me, one of those brainwashed servants of the creatures that decided attacking our planet was a good idea.

I’m not going to call them deities. They’re aliens. Powerful aliens of influence but to call them that would be to stop believing in our own pantheon of gods and despite my lack of faith in my own work I’m not there just yet.

The General was putting together a plan in case the supposed cultists reveal themselves. How anyone can change their belief system so entirely makes little sense to me.

She called it Code Zeta. A full-on lockdown for all essential personnel while she releases the test subjects entirely through the unrestricted areas of the facility.

Then we simply release a carefully designed knock-out gas and take them all back to their cells or experimental chambers.

A viable plan, but it verges on the edge of insanity as we simply have no clue about who the cultists are. The General was adamant that none of her soldiers would be but then it only leaves the wranglers, cleaning staff, scientists and remaining prisoners.

I need to make sure this is destroyed. I’m verging on the edge of treason even writing this down, but I need to express my thoughts. The others in my team have begun to act strangely of late. Sometimes they simply repeat sentences or just look blankly in my direction when I ask them for direct test results.

Their behaviour is entirely balanced, one of the experimental test subjects who has potential, he shows no signs of genetic mutation when subjected to minute doses of the virus in aerosol form. We can move to direct injects later but I recall his words.

Strange words.

The thoughts of Leandro Mata being released during Code Zeta scares me. He had charisma in him, enough that all the other test subjects and prisoners listen to him.

When he spoke to me, I was compelled to listen due his madness. His words were complete nonsense though.

He told me that everyone here already died and the alien presences won. We’re simply characters taking on stage roles on a play.

Perhaps I need to examine him again for clear signs of psychosis. His previous records before entering this place didn’t make the transfer when he was shipped here.

I’ve instructed that he was an odd one, entirely calm. There is one fact that disturbs me the most though. He claims that one of the alien presences had recruited him and he talks to him about his role, how he waits for someone to arrive.

Despite the fact that he told me and I’m writing these words, there is no record either video, audio or mention from any of the other security or science staff hearing these words from him.

Leandro claimed to be a cultist of a different type. He didn’t believe in the aliens. Not truly. He believed in one called the heretic.

I need to write this down. My memory is getting worse over time. Code Zeta. I have to remember to try and escape this place and take an emergency escape vessel to find my family.

Code Zeta. To those who are reading it, I hope you don’t experience it. Code...code...I can’t remember.

I’ve just heard a security alarm. We need to attend our posts. I’ll write later when I can.

[Diary Entry Ended. Replay? Y/N?]