Fathomless

by Greig Beck

  Cate groaned, and let her head drop so her forehead rested on her knees, the helmet still in her hands. She could smell it then – the weed and shells and odors of ancient oceans. It was near tropical warmth in the cave, but she began to shiver. She lifted her head.

  “Fuck it.” She turned to the spiny lobster thing that had advanced another few feet towards them. “And you can fuck off!” She ripped more weed from the helmet and tossed it at the thing, whose stalks retracted for a moment, but it held its ground.

  Cate looked back out at the now calm water. There wasn’t a movement or sound from its oil-slick-like stillness. She didn’t know what frightened her more – the thought of being back in that water, or of sitting here when the lights went out, and perhaps having something even worse than the lobster-thing climb out of the water to investigate the strange warm-bodied bipeds sitting alone in the dark.

  She turned to him. “Which way?”

  Jack gripped her shoulders. “Good on you.” He let her go and turned to Abby, raising his eyebrows.

  Abby nodded. “Well, I’m not sitting here alone in the dark.” She gave him a sheepish smile. “But dry is better.”

  “Good girl, and I promise, if we can stay dry, we stay dry.” Jack pointed. “This small outcrop we’re on is joined to the cliff wall. I can just see there are boulders and outcroppings for quite a way. We can walk and stay back from the water… at least for a while.”

  Cate held out a hand for him. “Then what are we waiting for?” He hauled her up, and she turned briefly, spying the spindly crustacean that had advanced on them once again. She had an evil desire to take a running punt at it, except it looked solid and heavy and would more than likely shred her boot.

  Jack led them off. “We only need to cross a few more miles. Maybe this will get us close enough to the island so we can see what we have to deal with.”

  She unzipped her suit, and jammed the helmet inside and then rezipped it. It was damned uncomfortable, but she wasn’t leaving without it.

  Cate nodded to Jack, and together they hopped across rocks, heading towards the cliff wall. Some of the boulders marched out into the water, and on either side of them the dark water was impenetrable ink. Unless she shone her light directly down into it, it could have been inches deep or the edge of an undersea cliff that dropped away to Hades itself.

  There came a splash from somewhere further out on the dark water. They froze, listening for several moments.

  Jack half turned. “Don’t worry about it, I don’t think anything can reach us here.” He continued on, keeping his arms out like a tightrope walker.

  Cate noticed he didn’t sound confident. How could he be? Even though he was an expert in sharks and marine biology, what they had entered down here was so alien and primordial no one living today could possibly be an expert. Everything they encountered or experienced here was best guess only.

  Better than nothing, she knew. The corners of her mouth twitched up, as she watched him leap from rock to rock. After all, that was why he was here. She blushed. The only reason? A sly voice asked. She shook it away. Now was not the time for self-analysis.

  They walked, hopped and skipped in silence for another half hour, Cate brought up the rear, sometimes they strung out for fifty feet, and sometimes they all ended up on the same large flat rock together. But as she moved, she noticed Abby, like her, let her eyes wander to the dark sea.

  “Do you think it’s following us?” Abby asked.

  Jack looked out over the water. “Possibly. Sharks are certainly territorial, and something that size will have a territory that ranges for many miles – hundreds.” He shrugged. “The upside is, from what we’ve seen so far, there is no shortage of food, so…” he shrugged.

  “So probably no, huh?” Abby brightened.

  “No, is my guess.” He didn’t turn.

  In another few minutes he held up a hand as they came to where their rocky path suddenly ended. It resumed again about fifty feet from where they stood. He looked up at the cliff wall – there was a huge gouge out of the stone, creating a sort of little bay. He then turned the light back out to the water, shining it over the still surface.

  “Can’t see the bottom. Maybe a rock slide or and entire section of the cliff wall slid into the sea.” He turned, grimacing. “We’re going to have to swim it, sorry.”

  Cate knew it would come sooner or later. But now it had, she still felt her stomach roil. She set her jaw. “We gotta do what we gotta do. Abby, you okay?”

  “No.” She flashed them a fake smile.

  Jack hiked his shoulders. “I wish there was another wa…”

  Cate walked past him, and waded straight in. The bottom immediately vanished and she found herself in deep water. She started to breaststroke, hearing Jack and Abby hurriedly following her in.

  As she swam she refused to look out at the open sea. If there was something rising there, a fin, tail, or even just a ripple, she knew she would have frozen then.

  “Nearly there, Cate. Can you feel bottom?” Jack asked.

  “No… yes.” Her fingertips struck something hard, rock, and then she was scrabbling from the water. It was at that moment fear crushed down on her. She scrambled from the water, leaping the last few feet. Jack pushed Abby up and out, and came up behind her, and then together they threw themselves down on the new rock shelf, panting as though they had just swim the English Channel, rather than a few dozen feet of black water.

  Cate rolled towards him. “Well, that was intense.” She grinned through her heavy breathing.

  “Walk in the park.” He sat up.

  Cate did the same and looked back out over the water. “Can’t help feeling its still there, just below the surface, watching and waiting.”

  Jack bent to pick up a fist-sized rock and flung it a hundred feet out over the dark water where it splashed loudly, sending ripples in all directions. They waited. The surface returned to its oil-slick stillness. There was nothing, and after a moment he shrugged and turned to her.

  “Maybe made no difference, but, I’m not sure we’d keep its interest now that we’re out of the water. Come on.”

  They continued for another twenty minutes, sometimes wading, sometimes scaling huge rocks, and sometimes hopping from stone to stone, until Cate stumbled, not seeing a small depression in the rocks at her feet.

  “Shit.” She fell to her hands and knees. “Goddamnit.” She got to her feet and checked her right palm, now scraped, and suddenly realized why she missed the hole – her light was dim, dimmer than Jack’s and Abby’s. “Oh no, we’re losing them.”

  Jack had been checking the compass, and then exhaled slowly through his nose. “Dammit,” he whispered, causing Cate to frown. His head went from the compass to the water again, and once again he cursed.

  Something was wrong. What a surprise, Cate thought.

  Jack went to sit down, but then paused, craning forward. He ran to the water line, and stood there, pointing.

  “Look… look there.”

  Cate and Abby joined him.

  “Is that our raft?” Abby asked.

  “Yep, what’s left of it,” Jack said, unable to contain his grin.

  “Thought it got eaten,” Cate said, and flinched as a sudden image of a dark mountain rising behind Greg welled up in her mind. She felt gorge surge to the back of her throat, and she painfully swallowed it down. Her empty stomach rebelled.

  “Maybe it did, and got spat out.” Jack squinted out at it. “There’s still some air in the cells.” He turned, hands on hips. “That’ll still float us.” He shrugged. “Water line, sure, but the cells will retain some buoyancy.”

  “You mean we have to carry that just in case?” She scoffed. “Maybe I would if we could eat it. I’m starving.”

  He straightened, his jaw set. “Well, I’ve got good news and bad.”

  “Unless you tell me the good news is that this is all a dream, then...” She waved her hand. “Okay, give me the good news; I need it.”
<
br />   “We’re very close; about a mile or so from Heceta Island.”

  His mouth was a flat line, and she felt her heart sink. “And…”

  He lifted one arm pointing. “And the bad news is, the mile we need to travel is that way...” His finger was pointing out over the dark water. “We need that raft.”

  Cate sank down to sit. “Great… just, freaking great.”

  Abby plonked down beside her. “We won’t even be above the water… much.”

  “She’s right. We’ll be barely above the water line.” Cate wiped her eyes. “We might as well be in the water.”

  “But the thing is, we won’t be. And I can’t tell you how important that is.” He squatted in front of them. “It’ll keep our scent out of the water. I know sharks, and it damn well matters. Just having that layer of raft underneath us will make a hellova difference. I promise you both.”

  “Didn’t make a difference before, when it attacked us.” Abby wouldn’t look at him.

  “We were making more noise than the circus. We won’t this time.” The corners of his mouth quirked up. “Bottom line is, we only need to travel about a mile out over the water. We can swim, or we can paddle.” He turned to nod at the raft. “This is a gift.”

  “A gift?” Cate couldn’t help her mouth twisting on the word.

  “Yep.” He waited.

  She nodded, and reached out to lay a hand on Abby’s shoulder. “I guess I’ll take a half sunken raft over swimming any day.”

  “Good. I’ll go get it.” He turned started to wade in.

  “Hey, wait.” She crossed to him, grabbing his arm, staring up into his face for a moment. “And if anything happens to you, I’m stuck here by myself…”

  “Thanks,” Abby said, her mouth turned down.

  “That’s not what I meant.” She turned back to him. “I’m coming.”

  “Forget it.” Jack turned back to the water, but she lunged and grabbed his arm. “I’ll fucking come anyway, Jack, and you know I will.”

  Abby stood. “And then I’ll be here all by myself.” She pointed a finger at Cate’s chest. “You stay, or we all go.”

  “This is madness.”

  Cate shook her head. “No, it makes perfect sense. If you went by yourself, you’d be making multiple trips – retrieving the raft, bringing it back, and then we all travel back out. This way, it’s just one trip.” She tilted her head, one eyebrow raised.

  He started to laugh. “Stubbornness and logic, two things I love and hate in a woman.” He threw an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. “Thank you.” He kissed her, and she returned it, hard.

  “We’ll be fine.” She said as they broke away, a flippy feeling in her stomach.

  Jack turned back to the water. The raft was about a hundred feet out, not moving at all. “Well, no use waiting for it to drift in on the tide, so…” he started to wade in. “We take it slow, no splashing, no talking, no urinating.”

  “Yeah right,” Cate scoffed. “Something pops up in the water beside me, I’ll be doing more than urinating.”

  Together they waded into the dark water. Even though Cate knew it was about seventy-eight degrees, it still chilled her to the bone. Beside her, Jack was breathing heavily as he worked up some courage. To her other side, Abby looked as white as a sheet.

  “You okay?” she whispered. Abby nodded, but didn’t look at her.

  “Turn your lights off,” Jack said softly.

  “Huh… why?” Abby frowned.

  “We need to save the batteries, and besides, the light just might attract… something,” he whispered.

  They flicked their lights off.

  “What about yours?” Cate said too quickly.

  “We need to see, but we don’t need to be a carnival.” He smiled, put a finger to his lips, turned, and pushed out.

  Abby went next, and then Cate.

  She could barely see a thing, definitely not the raft, and just concentrated on following Jack’s light. She stroked, keeping her arms beneath the surface, and movements even and slow. In front of her, one of Abby’s boots broke the surface, a small splash, but it made her heart thump in her chest, and her anger flare. She bit down the curse to stop it moving past her teeth.

  Jack’s light bobbed, but now and then she caught a glimpse of the raft edge. They glided towards it – forty feet, thirty, twenty, ten… and then they had it.

  Jack held the edge, and brought them all in close so he could whisper to them. “I’m going to lift you in first, Abby. Then you help Cate in, okay?”

  Abby nodded, and turned to place her hands on the edge of the floating pancake. “Nice and easy.” He sunk beside her, and must have put his hands underneath her boot or butt as she was lifted up and onto the flat surface without dipping the raft further under the water.

  Cate grinned. “It works.” Abby didn’t sink, but stayed just above water level.

  “You now, and then you help me up.” Jack went down again, and she felt his hands on the sole of her boot. It lifted and she used it like a step to propel herself up, kicking something as she came up. She rolled into the raft, once again not sinking it.

  “Yes.” She said, rolling back to the side. She looked down, and saw Jack’s light down deep, too deep, and then it went out. Her mouth fell open, and she stared. She placed her face in the water, and reached up quickly to switch on her yellowing light.

  Jack’s face was right there, coming up. He rubbed his forehead. “Nice kick in the head, girl. Lost my light.”

  She grabbed his face. “Get in here.” She switched her grip to his shoulders and with Abby’s help managed to carefully lift Jack over the side. The raft sank a little then.

  “Spread out, everyone lie flat,” Jack hissed.

  She looked at him and he her. Together they all sat in a warm bathtub, full of water in a dark sea beneath the earth.

  “This’ll work,” he said, pushing the hair back of his face. He checked his compass, but had to hold it a few inches from his face to see. “We need to travel about a mile, that way.” He pointed out to the front, starboard, or about two o’clock.

  Cate took the yellowing light band from her forehead and held it out. “Here, you need to direct us.”

  “Thanks.” He took it, slipped it on, and rechecked the compass once again.

  “Paddles?” Cate asked.

  “Home-made.” Jack turned and held up his hand, fingers together. He pointed. “You two on that side, me this one. Once again, just ease the water back, nice and slow. Going to take us a while, but we’ll get there.”

  Laying down, he reached over and dug an arm in and dragged the water back. The raft, like a giant lily pad, barely inched forward.

  Cate and Abby dug in and pulled. She turned her head; behind them there was nothing but a wall of dark. For all she knew there was a monstrous fin gliding up behind them. She dug her hand in again; it tingled, probably from fear, knowing what could be down there.

  She looked up to the comfort of the light. Only to the front could she see anything, and even now, Jack’s light range was shrinking. When that went out, they had Abby’s in reserve, and then…

  Cate shut her eyes, and stroked. There’s nothing there, there’s nothing there, she kept repeating with each drag of water.

  Minutes passed, then more minutes. They were surprisingly quiet, with just the odd gentle lap of water against one of their prone bodies that came over the side. There came a splash from out behind them. And Jack’s head whipped around.

  There was something out there.

  “Jack.” She hissed his name, pulling her arm up from the water. Cate suddenly felt her stomach flutter as she realized how vulnerable it was laying on the raft.

  “Stay still, and be quiet.” Jack’s light played over the water.

  The huge body glided closer, and a pressure wave pushed at the raft. Abby whimpered, and turned away. Cate was transfixed and Jack’s light stayed hard on the massive thing.

  It rolled then, and the
whale’s far too-human eye regarded them with curiosity. Another one, smaller, surfaced beside it, blowing spray into the air. Then another came up, and another.

  “Whales…” She laughed, feeling relief wash over her. “Thank god. Abby, it’s okay, look.”

  Jack commenced to paddle again, as one of the huge bodies came beside them, and nudged the raft, lifting it momentarily. They all felt the solid bulk beneath them, like they’d been beached.

  “Easy, big guy.” He looked back. “They might not attack us, but they can still swamp us.”

  The raft tilted again as a smaller whale lifted them up onto its back and carried them twenty feet. “Shit.”

  It submerged, leaving them still scudding along the surface. “Thanks,” he said, looking down. “At least if there’s a Megalodon down there, it’ll see these big guys long before it sees us. Keep paddling, harder, and we’ll try and stay with them.”

  The whales accompanied them for another ten minutes, the huge cow-like creatures taking turns to either glide closer to examine the strange beings floating above them, or one of the younger ones would lift and carry them again, giving them a free ride for a few dozen feet.

  Cate allowed herself a small smile of comfort as the leviathans took turns coming within a few feet of the side. She reached over once, to lay a hand on the slick surface, and noticed the scars and rents in its flesh.

  “Hard life, huh?” she whispered to the large dark eye that seemed to hold the wisdom of the world in its gentle orb.

  In an instant the water swirled and lumped and they were gone.

  “What just happened?” she pulled her hands from the water again. “Did something just scare them away?”

  “Forget it; paddle… there.” Jack pointed. There was a cliff face, and one section looked slightly smoothed or melted. “Water erosion; means there’s been some sort of drainage from above. Good news, I hope.”

  “We made it?” Abby said, suddenly brightening.

  “That’s our destination. Pray there’s somewhere in there we can climb up,” Jack said, stroking hard now.

  Cate turned back to where the pod of primitive whales had just been. There was nothing, not a swirl, lump or ripple on the dark surface. Jack turned briefly, his light now down to a dim burnt orange color, and she took the opportunity to look over the side. She squinted; did she just see something pass underneath them?