Chapter 1

The act of carving the stone with his chisel was grueling for Atlas. It was a strange burden as he worked with stone many times as a boy for his father. You could make many valuable objects from rock, something he knew from being raised in the household of a stonemason. This carving, however, was beyond painful for Atlas.

Surrounding him were nothing but damaged buildings and graves. The white stone pillars lay crooked on the grass of the isle as the sharp rock debris strewn about the place made walking a hazard. The burial sites were marked with simple writing to identify the grave's recipient. The ruins of his former glory stung his heart every time he looked at them.

Everything I have lost is gone. He thought. And I must explain this destruction to…

He looked past the large, domed rock wall he was carving out to stare into the sea. It was a mere ten feet from where he stood, carving his message into the solid, flat stone. The vast, blue plain flowed slowly and peacefully, contrasting to how it was just a few days ago.

Looking at the ocean scared Atlas. Trying to comprehend something so large and deep terrified him. The bottom of the sea could not exist, at least to mortal senses. The darkness of such depth and volume would be impossible to escape if Atlas drowned. No wealth, no kingly position, and no bravado could have one escape its abyssal terrors.

And I've seen what lives down there…He remembered.

In light of recent events, that fear had only grown. It was the opposite of the childish fear one would grow out of upon reaching a certain age. The fear of the dark or what lurks underneath one's bed was a terror considered silly for an adult.

If one confessed to such a fright, they would laugh at him and think him childish. That childish, imaginative fear of the unknown, of the unexplored, was usually gotten rid of upon adulthood. And here, staring out at the uncharted waters, Atlas felt the same fear grip him that a child would. It was humbling.

It was lurking there all along…Atlas thought. Just under our noses. Only in the vast depths can such a monster exist and go unnoticed.

After looking back at his carving, he finished what little remained. Atlas laid down his chisel before taking in what he'd created. It was the best artistry he had done with stone.

Good. He thought. Made of luster stone, this should get the message across.

He looked back to the other carvings he had done. He inscribed them with words and images he had left for the future generation. His predictions succumbed to anxiety as he looked to the tomb he dug himself. Within it laid two stone squares no larger than a man's hand. One had the carving of a man overpowering another on it, and the other mountains were beginning to cover over water.

His gravestone was the only one unmarked. Atlas did not think a failed king deserved to have his name renown throughout history. Within the human-sized hole dug into the ground where a tall, rectangular stone coffin lay. As he walked towards it, he began having misgivings about his endeavor.

At least, I hope they understand. Atlas thought. By the time it returns.

{}

Karl Freshter had never seen flooding this bad. Water surrounded the road. It fell from the sky like bullets to obscure any hope of vision. The world through his windows was nothing more than the depths of a river he was wading through.

As he drove his car down the road, the wheels seemed to adhere to the asphalt more and more as they failed to breach the water. Using a vehicle in this weather was like driving in taffy, as his wheels were half-submerged by this point. Before the precipitation blocked his sight, he saw that the fields on both sides of the road flooded with rushing water.

Karl kicked himself for driving in such bad weather but there was no way he could have known. There was a flash flood, and then a millisecond ocean fell from above. He was driving home from his business meeting in the city where he worked, Ultar, before heading to the town of Jewel, not fifteen minutes away, when it started pouring.

In ten of those minutes it took to get home, the rain started, and the entire road flooded over in less than two minutes. Before Karl could no longer see from his window, traffic on the road halted to a dead stop. Karl grumbled as found that no matter how hard he pressed the gas pedal, he couldn't move.

Dang! He thought. I told my daughter I'd meet her after work. Tricia might think I blew her off…I wonder…could I call her in this weather? I don't know if I'll get a signal, but it's worth…

Suddenly, his entire world lurched backward. Karl wondered what it was before tensing up in fear. After realizing he was in grave danger, Karl unbuckled his seatbelt as his car slid back.

After throwing off his seatbelt like a snake thrown on him, he clasped the door handle to his and opened it in a hurry. After thrusting the door open, his world became a series of loud splashing sounds and a roaring current. The rain was hitting the surface of the water in front of him with force Karl thought in his agitated state was as fast as bullets.

As his car drifted backward with the current, Karl jumped out with all the force a slightly obese sixty-something-year-old could. Upon leaving the shelter of his car, his entire body turned cold from the soaking wetness of the deluge burying him. Karl had never been so hard, this lack of warmth worse than any winter he'd experienced.

While he was out of danger of being carried wherever his car was going, the current swept his legs out from underneath him. The water went up to his knees, more so than he initially thought, and was fast. He didn't have a chance as he collapsed into the torrent beneath him, eating a mouthful of water as he was swept off the road and into the meadow that was now a floodplain.

Upon leaving the road elevated above the meadows, he found that this part of the terrain was much more profound. His entire body submerged underwater before his head naturally bobbed back to the surface. Karl gasped for breath as he continued tumbling backward through the fast-moving liquid, his arms as effectively as wet noodles carrying him through it.

Why can't I swim?! He thought as he attempted to avoid drowning. I've always been a strong swimmer! I may be chubby, but I should be able to stop myself, at least! Why?!

He looked up as he struggled against the intense current, the top of his head barely above the surface. Once the rain pelted his eyes like bullets, it proved a bad idea, and he shut them so as not to be further blinded. He flailed about in the water, wishing with all his mind Tricia knew that he had not forgotten her.

Please! Karl shouted in his mind, his mouth gobbling too much water to speak it audibly. Someone help me!

In a second, he almost felt his request answered. His back slammed against something solid, knocking what little breath he had out of him. Karl gasped for air as the current turned him around, and he clung to the shapely pillar that kept him from moving further. He looked up in thankfulness to find it stopping his continued descent into a watery grave.

An oak tree! He realized.

Karl looked up to see the obstacle preventing from flowing further with the current was a thick tree. It was one of the many that formed the treeline near the back of the meadow that had flooded over. As uncomfortable as it was to have such immense water pressure blasted against his back, Karl felt tremendous gratitude that he wasn't tumbling through the water's excessive current.

The volume of water had reached past the bare portion of the tree and up to its branches. Karl looked up to find he could even see a little despite the downpour from above. The treeline formed by the oaks had given him just enough of a canopy to reduce the volume of water blasting from above. Karl was grabbing the branches of the tree for dear life. He used every ounce of strength he exerted to adhere to it.

Alright…Karl thought in panic. I'm strong enough to stay here. I have muscles from when I was young buried underneath all this flab…man I hate getting old. You can't keep in shape like when you were a spring chicken. I'll have to stay like this until the rain stops. Can I call for help? Yeah, maybe. I got the waterproof case for my cell phone. After this rain passes, I'll contact the fire department or whoever and…

Suddenly, Karl felt something wrap around his leg. He looked down to find he couldn't see anything as the water was too deep. He looked down, confused until he found it practically crawling up his leg. Whatever it was, it was limber and prehensile, like a loose and boneless arm. If Karl had to think of the closest approximation to what was traveling up his body, it would be a…

Tentacle? He thought. No. No! That… That's nonsense. Pure nonsense! How…How could a creature like that get all the way here in Massachusetts-

The slimy thing breached the surface to his left side for Karl to find it was a tentacle. This pink, squishy limb had coiled so tightly around his leg that he could feel it restricting the blood flow of the limb. The suction cups felt powerful enough to tear his pant leg off. Any sense of relief or safety Karl had disappeared as the tentacle continued to wrap around his waist and prevented him from breathing.

"No!" Karl shouted. "No-!"

The tentacle pulled him beneath the surface before he could say any more. Immediately, the breath knocked out of him, and he swallowed another gulp of water as it dragged Karl beneath the surface of the fast-moving current. Just as Karl flailed about in vain, more tentacles wrapped around his arms and stomach as he felt something sharp bite him.

The mouth tore the flesh of his belly apart, and he could only scream helplessly as the tentacles further restrained him. Whether his eyes were open or shut, at this depth, Karl could not see anything but could only feel his body ripping apart. Its mouth was sharper than any knife Karl had accidentally used to cut himself. Before he knew it, half his body was ripped away by the creature.

He could hear something speak to him in his last few moments of consciousness.

It is time to reclaim this world that once belonged to us. It said in a language that Karl had never known but understood better than his mother tongue. The time of man is over…the immeasurable depths of the sea shall once again leave no trace of land as a recompensation for our humiliation. The depths themselves shall destroy you all!

Karl only had a bit of awakeness to listen to this before his mind faded into darkness, the last thing he thought of being his daughter.

Tricia…He thought. Please… don't die like me.

And then he was gone.