"Brother, why are we under the sea?" I asked with a hint of fear at the tip of my voice. It's very nerve wracking to see water everywhere outside the ship, knowing that there is only about 20 inches worth of reinforced glass separating us from the waters outside the vessel. I felt myself trembling, but I'm certain that my brother has an answer, if he is not dead out of fright by now, so I kept myself as composed as I could possibly be.
I saw him fix his posture and scratch the back of his head. He looked outside towards the glass and began walking towards the control panel at the very front of the vessel. Then he leaned forwards with his good arm and seemingly scouted the area. After a brief minute, I saw him relax and he then spoke up, not letting go of his hold on the panel.
"We are submerged. I don't know how a tow ship has such a function, but we are. The most important thing you must know is that we are alive. And that's all that matters right now." He looked one last time towards the surface, before turning back to me, grabbing hold of the chair as he stopped beside me.
"Where are we right now? How far off from the coastline are we?" I asked as I thought about what he said. I won't ask any questions about why we are submerged. It saved our lives, and knowing where we are is currently the top priority as of right now.
Kurtis decided to look towards one of the screens, and pushed a button beside it. The screen flickered for a brief moment, before showing a depth meter that reads '51 meter below sea level'. I thought for a bit, before analyzing the distance of which the coastline begins to drop off.
It seems like we are somewhere in the middle of way towards the nearest oceanic drop, so that was good, at least. I asked another question, just to know why we have yet to surface. Hopefully it's not because we don't have enough power, but if the screen lit up, I'm certain that we have more than enough.
"Well, it seems like our unlikely enemies have yet to set sail. I just hope that the others are safe. Hopefully our invaders treat them well, not kill them off." That statement sent a chill down my spine. So the fire was real, and so was the destruction. I began to remember the last thing I saw before I blacked out. I caught sight of the invading fleet before the last shell struck the side of the Dauntless. I simply hope that the chief is alright.
"If you're thinking about everyone, don't worry. I'm certain that they are fine. All we need to worry about right now is how we are going to get out of this mess. But before that, we have to see if there are still some fuel left over. I had to use an emergency system, and I think it's out." He replied while clutching his still injured arm. We managed to make a simple cast to make sure that it doesn't get more injured, but I can understand why he wasn't able to go down himself.
"I suppose that you weren't able to do that yourself because of your injuries, right? I guess I can help you with that. But first, I think we should open the lights." I moved towards the panel, but before I could touch anything, Kurtis' hand shot out towards mine and grabbed my wrist with a surprising amount of power. I actually felt my wrist hurt and I thought for a second that Kurtis might not have been as injured as I thought he was, before I turned towards him in surprise.
"The fleet hasn't left yet, remember? Why do you think that we haven't been spotted yet? I haven't used the power because there's a very good possibility that we might get spotted. I suggest that we use the emergency flashlights instead." He said with an low voice that left no room for other options. I remembered what he said earlier and very nearly slapped my face in realization. He let go of my wrist, and I had to shake it a few times just to get the blood flowing.
"Yeah, forgot about that. Sorry." I apologized as I followed him to the small drawer over to the back of the room. He took a small piece of steel and placed it in the gap between. He then turned to me and motioned over to the steel. I understood what he was saying, and I grabbed the steel with one hand, and placed the other on the side of drawer.
With one strong motion, I opened the drawer, ripping the panel straight off. I looked inside and saw a few emergency items, as well as some batteries. Kurtis grabbed the batteries and tapped my shoulders.
"Can you insert these into my flashlight? Wasn't able to do that cause of, you know." I spoke up as he motioned his hands towards his belt. I carefully took the flashlight off of him, and opened it up, replacing the batteries with the new ones as I threw the old ones inside the drawer afterwards.
"Alright, I'll take care of handling the flashlight. You deal with work. If you get tired, just tell me, and we can switch." He said as he grabbed the flashlight from me. I nodded to him as he looked back towards the outside. After a brief moment, he opened the flashlight and lit up the room.
----------------------------------------
The first thing I noted was how surprisingly clean everything was. For a newly brought in ship from the Netherlands, the floor and the walls are cleaner than expected. I walked over to the steel doors and spun the metal wheel until it gave. The door creaked and Kurtis went in front of me, lighting up the way as we exited the bridge.
We went down through the central stairs, as going through the windowed ones will certainly spell trouble for us. We quietly walked down, always keeping an eye out for anything that might be out of the ordinary, as I reminded my brother a few hours back. I was then hit with the reminder that only a few hours had passed since I last stepped foot on the island. I grimaced to myself as I followed Kurtis towards the bottom of the staircase, stopping in front of another door.
I opened it, thankful that it was just a simple door and not a steel one. We entered the dark corridors, mindful of the wires and pipes that we are stepping on. Kurtis gestured towards the right, and we went onwards to the boiler rooms, if the blueprints I saw before the invasion was correct. I thought back to the siren that Kurtis found, the reason why I came running to the Dauntless in the first place. I placed it at the back of my mind, reminding myself to remember it once we got there.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
----------------------------------------
We went on to the back of the ship. I nearly tripped on a pipe that I thought was placed lower than it really was, and accidentally bumped my heel into it. Thankfully, I was able to grab onto Kurtis, and got the message and quickly helped me up. I dusted myself and we continued onwards.
As we neared the end of the corridor, we were met with a small hindrance. There was a massive amount of rubble and steel laying down on the ground. Given my clumsiness, I tried to tread the floors carefully, but given my shoes, it was either I trip every passing instance, or have something stab my soles every second or so. I tried to go a few meters in, but after the third time I went off balance, Kurtis stopped and stared back at me.
I at least had the decency to look ashamed, and held onto a pipe beside me. He looked at me for about 10 or so seconds, before walking over to me. I wondered what he was going to do when he gave his flashlight to me, but it certainly wasn't HIM CARRYING ME OVER HIS SHOULDER. He at least made sure that my front was at his front, so we can actually see what we were doing.
It was… very awkward to say the least.
We, well, He treaded the rubble as carefully and skillfully as possible, making sure that we didn't trip and accidentally end our lives by a rebar to the brain. Although there was a man who survived that, I really don't want to bank our chances on a YouTube theory video from 2014.
----------------------------------------
After we passed that little obstacle, he carefully bent down and let my foot touch the ground. I immediately stood up the moment he let go of me, and tied my hair back as he dusted himself with one hand. I gave him the flashlight back, and we never spoke anything of that afterwards.
We eventually found the end of the corridor, and sadly, it was yet another steel door. I stretched my lady muscles and cracked every joint in my arms before laying my hands on the wheel. I turned it with all of strength, and after a small creak left the wheel, it gave and spun around wildly. The door opened at that and we entered room. I saw Kurtis give me a stare, before walking down the stairs that lead to the bottom of the ship.
We walked silently, making sure that the light coming from our flashlight did not hit any reflective surface. The brief walk down the stairs was tense. We honestly do not want to encounter anything right now. The emergency lights were illuminating the lower portions of the stairs, so we turned off the flashlight to save up on what little battery power we had. Thankfully, we were able to see in the dimly lit floors, so there was no need to be extremely cautious.
----------------------------------------
Once we entered the boiler room, we we're greeted to a bright, orange light coming from the many boilers. It was hot, and the enclosed space didn't help either. I started to feel sweat the more I spent time inside it. Kurtis looked at me and motioned to the left. He started to walk to the right, so I went the opposite direction.
I looked around the area to see what I could find. I walked around the dark colored burners and avoided the sparks coming from inside of them. I wiped the sweat on forehead and continued to search, till I found a big pile of coal.
"KURT! I FOUND A PILE!" I shouted from my side of the room, staring back at the pile of coal and looked around for a shovel, or anything similar.
"SAME HERE! I FOUND A SHOVEL, IF YOU NEED ONE!" My brother barked from the other side of the room, his voice being warped by the ambient sounds all over the air. I coughed a bit as a small amount of smoke entered my mouth. After a bit of looking around, I saw a drawer, and in it, a massive array of shovels, gloves and different kinds of heat-proof equipment.
"THERE'S A DRAWER HERE WITH SOME UTILITIES! IM GOING TO CHECK ON THE BURNERS TO SEE IF THERE'S SOME FUEL LEFT!" I barked as I grabbed a thick coat, a pair of thick gloves and a welding helmet. I took a shovel from the drawer and began walking to the nearest burner. I opened the thick steel panel and a wave of hot air washed over me.
There were some coal left inside of the burners, but it wasn't enough. I walked away, leaving the the burner open as I got close to the pile of coal. I dug my shovel into the pile and grabbed a hefty amount, before haphazardly throwing it into the open burner. The fire roared as more coal filled up inside it. However, being a amateur at doing physical work, given my profession of being a simple white collar worker, a few pieces of the black material fell on the ground. I ignored it and continued filling up the burners.
I saw my brother open up another burner. Given how his arm is still hurting, I went over to try and help, but I was proven wrong. Even with only one working arm, he managed to angle his body in a way that allowed him to shovel with one hand, and he began to do the job faster than I was. Feeling bad knowing that my injured brother was better at shovelling than I was, I returned to my pile and continued doing my job.
After a very long time had passed, we somehow filled enough boilers to get most of the power working. The emergency lights were much brighter now, and we took the time to breathe. Kurtis actually did more than me, and still had some energy left to spare.
I felt like dying. Maybe being hit by a torpedo to my face is ideal right now.
----------------------------------------
After about 10 or so minutes to resting, we finally stood up and went over towards the engine room, where the siren was originally located. We didn't really see much of it back then, and it would be best if we knew what that thing really was. We went out of the boiler room and walked over to the engine room at the very back of the ship. The emergency lights lining the walls of the corridors were noticeable now, and it was great to not trip every so often.
We pushed the door of the engine room aside and looked at the massive dormant cranks laid down in groups of 5 everywhere. It was really big, and we made sure not to accidentally fall down from the railings. Kurtis had the bright idea of bringing out his flashlight beforehand, so there was no threat of becoming crushed paste.
At the very back of the smoky room, was a small box. We recognized it immediately as the siren that screamed bloody murder from before. We cautiously approached the broken device, just in case it came alive again. I took a steel bar from the floor, holding over my head if it did come alive.
We studied the siren closely to see what we could find. The speaker was broken, so that was good, but there were some blank screens and askew buttons and switches all around the box. We continued to analyzing it when I saw a familiar looking piece of equipment. I took my bar and smashed it onto the side of the box, breaking the side panel off of it. Kurtis was obviously surprised, but what I saw inside of the device made me think.
It had a receiver. A short range one, capable of transmitting signals from over 7 or so miles away or closer, given the size and shape of it.
Why would a siren sound off at such an event? And why wasn't it active before? It's not like it was a radio or something. And the range didn't really make sense. It's as if it was more of a proximity warning signal than a siren. Why would a Dutch tow ship have this…
Wait.
Oh. Well, fuck.