Alex feels like being beaten by a wave and almost drowning.

Alex feels like being beaten by a wave and almost drowning when he was surfer, an unfortunate incident that happened a few times and always didn't like go by again, mostly when you get old, your old wounds hurt and the new ones hurt even more.

It feels hot as being in the ship engine room, 120 fahrenheit maybe? Well, not worse than Darien or the Amazon jungle in summer and humidity over 70%.

He got up and tried to walk on the little inclined ship, the ship got aground?, he thought to himself. He made it to the bridge in the Castle of the Ship, it's really hot and annoying brightly, the light's tinted blue to yellow, it's weird.

So far, it seems he is alone, the strong storm appeared from nowhere, with the edge of modernization in sailing, this behemoth of over 200 thousand tons was shaken in the sea as if he were a 5-year-old kid.

When the power went off, the old captain ordered him to evacuate to the lifeboat launching pad, he was trying to get there but suddenly felt a massive impact and was sent into a place he couldn't see because to the darkness as the Ship power went off, and tried to hold on to something for dear life, he felt being submerged in salt water, and later it felt odd, as if the whole ship was floating in the air, a feeling he knows when flying small aircraft, then the impact that knocked him out.

Inside the bridge, he searched for the first aid, he really needed aspirin or something like that, he also searched for any survivors besides him on the Ship, nothing at all, inside the castle was a lot fresher, he found a pet water bottle and aspirins, he took a seat on the bridge and saw from there to the outside.

[Damn, what is this?, nothing just desert?, Why?, We weren't close to the Sahara, wait, there's NO SEA!?, wait, wait, am I death or crazy? It's those stories about dying without knowing and being in an empty world?]

Then he saw 2 abnormalities: one flying serpent like Quetzalcoatl kind of far in the horizon, flying farther, and a huge earthworm jumping out of the sand. With many, many small like things battling the worm, he went to the front windows and took the heavy binoculars.

[What in the...]

He doubted and looked again, the enormous earthworm was fighting with kind of scorpions, the hundreds of the Scorpions jumped over the worm or were trying to use their tail, the earthworm was trashing on the sands, killing a few every time, the battle was epic in his view, they were approximately 15 kilometers away, but it seems they were closing here, the earthworm tried several times to get under, but something was amiss, the earthworm can't get the entire body submerged in the sand.

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Now Alex can see like a hole in the sand with rocks like island few kilometers away, more and more scorpions keep out from that hole, the earth worm gets closer and stands tall, the released something like mud watered hot spring in the entrance and inside the hole, screams like screech was heard, a nasty sound, the Scorpions went crazy and the earth worm trying to kill the Scorpions went more crazy, moving, rolling, spraying the hot mud, the battle continued close to 3 hours, meanwhile he tried to search inside the bridge building, even in the Captain room, attempting to keep an eye on the battle, he needed to figure out what the hell happened to him, if those things come here he will die for sure.

He looks from the sides of the ship, and it was really a miracle, somehow it was aground but didn't get to the sides, as if was built there from the start, a little to the left, but nothing serious, also it stands high from the grounds, the ship landing was in the gravel rocks with sand, looks is the same island the Scorpions nest, no clue of survivors, the battle suddenly went silent, he ran to the bridge and the Earth worm was spewing the hot mud watery solution inside the Scorpions nest, later the earth worm try to move out but falling, probably exhausted from the battle, now close to the ship, maybe 3 or 4 kilometers, the worm it's at least 200 meters long in size, countless Scorpions corpses lying on the sand and the ex calling island of gravel and sand.

Now Alex, trying to see better his situation and potential dangers, took the naval binoculars, moving up and around, he noticed the sunny light was weakening, now looking up the sky, there's like a soft, small yellow sun, and to the side, farther, a bluish, like purple, bigger other sun. He can see at least 9 moons, small, medium, and big ones; 2 of those have bluish colors.

Well, now he had something more urgent; he went inside the castle, the bridge on top, and the launching lifeboat wasn't there, meaning there's a high probability the crew was launched, he went to different places, checking if there was electricity or power in the castle or the ship insides.

Alex has nearly 5 years since his almost 20-year marriage was done, leaving all his belongings to his stepdaughter, he did accept a friend's request to become a sailor, he always likes to travel, the job was easy: ship chief security, as his experience in the US Marines came as part of the CV, it was almost 6 years time in his 20's, after divorce, he was depressed, adding he was in his middle 50's at the time, his friend told him they needed trusted people in his security company.

A company that offers security contractor service to ships and oil and gas platforms, so Alex signed in, and now he had 15 months on the Adela, one of the biggest container ships in the world with over 24 thousand TEUs (containers) of capacity and over 200 thousand tons of dead weight.

The job usually easy when traveling and intense in port calls, every 6 months Alex has a paid leave, he usually didn't get each six months terms but, but at least one a year, the 3 months leave is usually used to visit friends, his stepdaughter, and those sorts of things.

He remembers the central panel controls, if the problem isn't in the castle, it means it's in the engine room, he went there, opening the safety door, with his flashlight, he started to see what could be done.

In one the screen was a warning message. He did turn down all the systems to let them start the protocols to restart, he chose to keep the main engine off and just use the batteries to support basic features, make livable areas comfortable, and provide illumination and communications, the batteries should be fine for a few days, now illuminated again the inside corridors, he walked out the room and started heading to the castle.