Wake up.

In a flash I went from laying on my back to my side. I hadn’t even a clue where I was or what was happening, only that my lungs were full of water and that needed to change. Very, very, quickly.

My sternum shook as my lungs squeezed themselves tightly. Brown river water pooled beside me, spreading out and getting on the side of my face. I had no energy to raise my head as I coughed more foul liquid out.

After my lungs were adequately empty, I took a deep breath in. My vision returned, along with my sense of self. I could barely believe it, but I had lived.

Painstakingly rolling onto my hands and knees, I threw up a concoction of river water and bile. The floor was a dark metal, and my surroundings were extremely dark, but that was all I could make out while focusing on the state I was in.

My cranium spiked with pain, like a harpoon had been shot through my skull. My lungs, of course, felt like they were about to explode.

Surprisingly, one of the most striking pains was a pulsating discomfort coursing down my arm. That discomfort soon became an intense pain as I regained my senses further. Once my vision fully came back, I could see my arm. Deep acid burns ran in spiraling patterns from my shoulder to my hand. They somehow seemed natural and ritualistic at the same time. Like I’d seen the symbols before but could never know where.

I was reminded of the creature I saw just moments ago. It’s tight grip… The hand that it grasped felt broken, but it was better than drowning… Probably…

I would have to push the headache and the many, many, questions I had towards the back of my mind, though. There was air, but I still had no clue where I was.

Looking around, I found myself in a dimly lit metal chamber. At me feet was water, and all around me were cramped walls and cleaning utensils, as if I were in a closet that had been warped and twisted sideways.

I did not know where I was, but I could at least tell that I was still within the ship, and it seemed that air had culminated in pockets here and there. Whatever was left in this room was running out, though, as I noticed that each deep breath I took became less and less invigorating.

Once fully conscious again, I felt the bleeding gash on my back. It was extremely painful, and while I would most likely suffocate before I bled out, I most certainly did not want to spend my time in that water with an open wound.

Taking off my shirt and tying it tightly around my chest, I had closed the wound as best I could. Next, I had to think of a strategy. I had… somehow… ended up in the utility closet. What I had to do was retrieve the flowers and simply hope that there were similar pockets of air further within the ship so I could escape.

I began to slide my feet into the water, then my legs. I had as much air as I could get from that compartment, meaning any more resting would only hurt me in the long run.

A few deep breaths and I was submerged once more. As soon as I dunked my head into the water, my heart began to beat quickly, and a great panic came over me. I had to pull myself back into the closet to get another breath. Who would have known that almost drowning would make one unenthusiastic towards diving?

There was no other option, though. So, I simply took another, very deep breath. Submerging once more, my mind was focused heavily on keeping my composure. First, I had to get the flowers, then I would have to try and escape.

I was back in the dark room I had so feverishly tried to gain entry to before, eyeing a large pile of crates towards the opposite corner of the room. I went to the stack and pulled them all loose. There were a variety of small boxes, but only a few had a large green print on them, meaning there was flora inside. It was three boxes with the print, and by the second box I saw the large “Andha flower” labeled on the side.

I took the crate and swam back into the safety of the closet. I would not be able to swim easily by holding the crate, but I had a rather brutish solution. My shirt was being used to close my wounds, but my suspenders merely hung at my hips. By stretching them to their farthest length, I could secure the small crate on my back. That I did, and I was finally able to focus my attention on escaping the ship.

One more deep breath, and I was underwater once again.

I swam as calmly as I could to the warped doorway. This time, I was able to swim upward and squeeze myself through the same opening I pushed my helmet past. It was even large enough to accommodate the crate.

After that, I had to think quickly. There was no way I could make the swim all the way to the end of the corridor. I had to find another air pocket.

On the other side of the hallway was a closed door. Perhaps it had locked in some air? I swam over and pulled at the door, and it gave way with little resistance. A ginormous engine room was what I found, flooded with water. I had to keep my chin up, though. There was a likely chance air got caught somewhere in that room.

Continuing onward, I found a large metal contraption. I was never much of an engineer, and had no clue how steam engines worked, but I did know that it was unlikely there was any air to be found in the machine itself.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Swimming forward, I found nothing but nondescript metal walls surrounding the engine. After about fifteen seconds of looking around, I knew I had a decision to make. My breath was running out, and I could feel my chest constrict once more. I most likely had just enough left to return to the safety of the maintenance closet…

No. That maintenance closet was nearly out of air already. If I went back, I’d have to make the same journey with even less time. I had to move forward.

I swam down the length of the wall with my hand gliding across it, hoping to find some sort of door or entryway. Seven more seconds and I found a closed door. The sign beside it said it was a closet as well.

In hope, I unlatched the door. I had already been swimming for about a minute, which meant I likely had less than a minute left before my vision started to fade once more.

Opening the hatch, I found nothing but water and various tools. Shit.

No turning back. I had to keep going. Farther down the room, I felt nothing. Fifteen more seconds passed as I swam all the way to the farthest wall. My headache was becoming acutely more painful as I started to feel my extremities tense up. If the sense I received from my body was correct, I only had about thirty more seconds of searching left.

I continued down the far wall, hoping to find something. Anything. Yet I found nothing. It was a shorter wall, but my time was still running out. Ten seconds more. Twenty seconds left.

Panic growing, I followed the last wall. Ten seconds passed before I found one final door, already partially open.

Because of the way the ship was bent and warped, I would have to push to slip through. The space between the wall and the engine was slim enough that I was able to place my feet on the engine and hands on the door. There had to be something on the other side of that door or else I was lost in the water once more…

One push. Didn’t budge. Seven seconds left.

Second push. Slight movement. Five seconds left.

I braced myself, closed my eyes and heaved, pushing for a final, third time. The door swung open as I used the last of my strength. I barely had enough focus to look around, but as I did, I found luck to be on my side.

The door led to the sleeping quarters for two engineers. There was a bunk bed, making the room taller than the air vents that would have flooded the room. I quickly pushed myself off the floor and into the air.

I took deep breaths as I paddled towards the top bunk. As I breathed in, though, the sickening smell of iron, rot, and human feces invaded my senses. I grimaced, but I could not physically keep myself from breathing. Eventually, the smell started to lose its intensity to my senses, and I was able to fully take in my surroundings.

The source of the smell was an engineer. He sat on his bunk, behind him a red splash of grey matter on the walls. His body was covered in a mix of dried blood, vomit, and defecation. In his hand was a revolver. One shot out of six used.

I hated to get closer, by my arms burned intensely. I had to take a rest.

For a long while I simply caught my breath and looked over the dead man on the other side of the bunk. He was disheveled, of about average height and average build. Not much of his face could be made out after he… Well, I could tell that he did not starve, and he most certainly did not die of suffocation. Perhaps he wanted to save himself the suffering of choking, or perhaps his missing bunkmate had something to do with it…

In any case, there was not much for me there once I had my respite other than one thing… I reached towards the corpse and put my hand on his, attempting to pry the revolver from his grasp. His hand was tight on the gun, and his shriveled finger was still wrapped around the trigger. I tried with one hand to retrieve the pistol, but it was fruitless. I had to lean on the bunk and use both hands to finally release his dying grip from the revolver.

I finally had it, and I had a hard time deciding whether I took it for the creatures I saw before… Or myself…

Regardless, I had not lost will just yet. I began breathing longer and deeper breaths, preparing myself for another dive. I was one step forward, with many more to go.

Continuing my breathing, I lodged the revolver in my trousers and took a final inhalation. Once I had all the air I could get, I submerged myself back under the brackish and bloody water.

Utilizing my memory of entering and the doorway being wide open, I escaped the engine room quite easily.

I had to find a way further up without going down the corridor. I relied on what little light was coming through the window. If I were to go into the pitch black, I would have no way to navigate, which necessitated me staying close to the window.

Even by going one door farther down, though, I was already engulfing myself in the mostly black waters. But I had to go through with it. I could not risk hesitation.

Into the partial darkness, I found the closest open door and entered. Little light entered the room, leading me to know nothing other than how large it was, and its size was indeed bigger than any other room.

There were many more things in the water, as well. They simply collided with me and were lost to the river, making me unable to tell exactly what they were. They ranged from soft to hard to anything in between. When swimming farther down the room, though, something quite larger hit my hand.

I recoiled, thinking it was something I had seen earlier, but I felt no difference in the current and saw no blue lights. It was deathly still, leading me to prod at it again. I only had about a minute and a half left in me, so I made it quick. It only took about three seconds of inspection to realize that I had come across yet another drowned sailor.

With nothing to do, I simply ignored the body and continued further, finding more and more bloated corpses the longer I swam. Finally, my leg hit something hard and secured to the ground. Needing to know where I was, I swam down and felt it.

This object was a little more difficult to figure, but eventually I realized that it was a metal table. A suspicion grew, and by swimming slightly further to the side my suspicion was indeed confirmed. Another table. I was in the mess hall.

And if I were in the mess hall, that most likely meant there were stairs to the higher levels…

With haste I continued down the room, quickening myself by continually grabbing hold of the many tables and pushing against them. In but a very short moment I had found myself at the end of the room.

After a bit of groping for the wall in the dark, I realized that the entirety of that side of the room was a large set of stairs, meaning all I needed to do was continue upwards.

Doing so left me in another air pocket, except this one was the entire corridor. The air was fresh and abundant, leaving me to rest halfway in the water and breath a sigh of relief through my pants for air.

Finally, I had means to travel without swimming or nearly suffocating, at least for a little while… The only problem left was navigating the nearly black as pitch labyrinth…

“Only a little bit further, I’m sure…”