The Mariana Trench: A novel of suspense and supernatural horror

by Matt Shaw

  *

  NOW

  Yolanda screamed as the black snake-like creature wrapped itself tight around her neck. It had shot from Becca’s open wound with a speed suggesting it had been fired from within; straight out and straight around Yolanda’s neck. Victoria immediately grabbed at it and started to pull as it made repeated strikes against Yolanda’s face, cutting her open with teeth like pin pricks. The more Victoria pulled, the tighter it throttled Yolanda until she were no longer able to scream. With oxygen running out, she dropped to her knees as John and Chris came to aid Victoria. Even with three of them pulling at the creature, their hands occasionally slipping off due to the slick nature of its smooth and slimy skin, they couldn’t pull it away. Behind them, another creature of similar length slipped from a now-still Becca.

  Nate reacted in an instant and stamped down on it the moment it dropped to the cold floor. Just as the earlier one had been easy to crush, so too was this one and its guts sprayed from its sides in a satisfying splatter. Nate turned back to Yolanda and the others in time to see her eyes roll to the back of her bleeding head. Her body slumped to the floor and only then did the creature release its grip. Quick as a flash, John crushed it with his heavy boot.

  They didn’t say anything. They just stood shocked. Only Jennifer, with her back up against the corner of the room, was making any noise as she openly wept from all that was happening. Unable to support herself anymore, she slid down the wall until she was sitting on the floor. Still no one said anything.

  Chapter Six

  BEFORE

  The expedition team had gathered at the front of the submarine, where the viewing window was. It was a little after six in the morning and, as promised the previous night, they were about to dive beneath the choppy waters for the first time. They’d all been given the option to disembark and all had refused the invitation, even Jennifer although she still felt nervous about the trip. She just knew, if she backed out now, she would only live to regret her decision in years to come. She kept telling herself that it was only thirty days. In the great scheme of things, that really was nothing. Thirty days and so many impressive sights to see in this once in a lifetime opportunity.

  ‘This is it!’ Yolanda looked at Jennifer with a broad grin on her excited face. Jennifer smiled back even though her smile was entirely forced.

  ‘And here we go!’ John shouted with excitement as the submarine started to dive. Whilst this wasn’t the first time he had gone under the waters in this submarine, it was the first time he was going to be heading to the ocean floor. He’d had the chance beforehand, back after they’d successfully completed all of the tests, but he had refused. He wanted to experience it for the first time, along with everyone else. Like an excited child, he snapped a photo of the viewing screen with his mobile phone. A quick upload to his social media account before the inevitable radio silence. The picture and the ones: Here we go!

  The room they were sitting in was much like a cinema in its layout, but with far less seats. There was the super-strength viewing window, of course, and then comfortable seats for the scientists to recline on as they got the guided tour of what lurked beneath the surface. But with each of the seats, there was also a small screen attached to an arm; much like a passenger-television set onboard of an airplane. This television didn’t switch to different channels from Sky television though, it just flicked through a number of display modes for outside of the submarine: Thermal vision, night vision and such. That way if things were too dark to see outside of the window itself, the guests could flick between the different modes to ensure they weren’t missing anything. Really it was just a gimmick but with the aim being to run commercial trips down to the ocean floor in the future, it was stuff like this which would help sell such a voyage.

  John asked, ‘So what does everyone think we’ll find down here?’

  ‘So long as it isn’t Meg, I don’t care…’ Becca said, still making reference to the entertainment industry; this time about a giant prehistoric Megalodon shark.

  ‘I wouldn’t stress,’ Nate said, ‘we could just torpedo it out of the way…’

  ‘Not sure I want to kill it,’ Becca said. ‘I just don’t want to get eaten by it either.’

  ‘Well don’t need to worry about that,’ John said calmly. ‘We don’t have any torpedos onboard.’

  Nate turned to John and asked, ‘No torpedos? So what happens if we come across a Russian submarine and they fire upon us?’

  John laughed. ‘Pretty unlikely where we’re going.’

  ‘But even so… I thought all submarines could defend themselves.’

  ‘You make it sound like we’re heading into war,’ John said.

  ‘For all you know, we could be.’

  ‘Given what previous expeditions have seen down here, it’s highly unlikely,’ John said with a smug grin on his face.

  Nate turned away and looked back to the viewing window. Already, beyond the window, everything was murky out there. Whilst he agreed it was probably unlikely they’d be coming under attack by the Russians, he still would have felt more comfortable had they had torpedos onboard.

  ‘I hope we find Nessie,’ Yolanda said, referring to Scotland’s infamous Loch Ness monster.

  ‘Nessie?’ Becca looked at her with confusion written all over her face. ‘I think we’re a good few thousand miles away from where we’d find Nessie. And we’re in the ocean, not a Loch.’

  Yolanda rolled her eyes and said, ‘I bet you’re fun at parties.’

  ‘What’s this button do?’ Nate asked as he turned his attention back to the screen attached to his seat. Immediately a voice started speaking from the small, built-in speaker, ‘Discovered in 1875, whilst exploring the oceans using sounding equipment on the HMS Challenger, the Mariana Trench is a 1,580-mile crescent shaped section in the crust of the earth. Found in the western Pacific Ocean, it is the deepest part located in any ocean. It was named after the nearby Mariana Islands with the deepest part, the Challenger Deep, named after the two boats which first explored its depths: The HMS Challenger and the HMS Challenger II. The HMS Challenger II sounded the trench a full 76 years after the first Challenger did in 1875.

  At least 36,070 feet deep, the Mariana Trench hasn’t been well explored given the number of challenges involved with getting to that depth. To put things in perspective, if Mount Everest were taken and dumped into the Mariana Trench, then Everest’s mountain peak would still be more than a mile underwater.

  Despite the depth of the trench and the fact no sunlight can penetrate that deep, the water isn’t as cold as one might believe. For the most part it ranges between 34 to 39 degrees Fahrenheit but there are also hydrothermal vents throughout the trench as well. The water which comes from those vents can reach 700 degrees Fahrenheit and its these jets of water which are responsible for sustaining life found down there, due to the minerals within, because there is life down there.

  What makes the 180 million year old (approximate) trench more exciting is that, despite its hostile environment (lack of light and acidic conditions, as two examples), creatures can survive down in the Mariana Trench and - we probably haven’t seen half of what is living there! With more than 200 known microorganisms and small creatures lurking in the blackness - scientists are sure they will find new species too, such as the new type of snailfish which was found on one of the expeditions…’

  ‘Oh shut the fuck up,’ Nate said as he killed the playback. John looked at him, fairly shocked with his reaction.

  ‘Not a fan?’

  ‘Just drones on a bit with the same tone… Just kill me.’

  John laughed. ‘Maybe I should have paid someone else to narrate instead of doing it myself?’

  Nate blushed. He hadn’t registered it was John’s voice. Of course it was his voice! This submarine was his baby so it stood to reason he would be doing as much as he could on it. Nate tried to think of something to say which would bury him out of the hole he’d put himself in but - nothing came to
mind.

  *

  NOW

  Everyone, with the exception of Victoria, had gathered at the viewing area. John was standing closest to the “window” with his hand pressed up against the clear screen. His eyes were fixed forward to the only small crack of light out there. A little rip in the ocean floor, one of many they believed. The light was a burning bright orange which none of them could really explain, nor did they have the chance to fully investigate it before it struck the submarine and wrapped itself around it whilst refusing to let go.

  No one was saying anything. They were all as equally lost in their own private thoughts as John was. Chris approached John and stood to his side.

  ‘You can’t blame yourself,’ Chris said.

  ‘I can’t?’

  ‘You weren’t to know. None of us were.’

  ‘But I could have prepared for it still.’

  ‘How do you prepare for something like this?’

  ‘Not something like this.’ John explained, ‘I could have been prepared for the need to defend ourselves.’

  ‘And that would have meant more crew onboard. More crew, more money, less space for the team you put together and…’

  John laughed. ‘You say that like it is a problem. In this instance, I would rather lose all of the scientists and exchange them for a full submarine crew. Officers who could man the defences and blast whatever the fuck that thing is out there. A proper medical bay where we could do emergency operations instead of having to make up an area in a fucking canteen…’

  ‘You can’t blame yourself. You can’t do this.’

  ‘Yet I’m the one who chose not to have weapons onboard and I am the one who chose to bring us down here. My choices, my plan, my money.’ John turned to Chris and asked, ‘If not me, who is to blame?’ John asked, ‘Should we blame you? You should have seen it coming? You should have steered us to safety?’

  ‘No one is to blame. It happened. It’s not my fault. It’s not your fault. It’s not their fault,’ he added referring to the others standing with them. ‘It just happened.’

  ‘And because it happened, all we can do now is stand here and wait to die.’

  Chris had nothing to say. There were no words of comfort he could offer. The surface was aware of the situation but there was nothing they could do either; not immediately anyway. It would take time to formulate a plan and, even then, it wasn’t as though they could just send a submarine down to collect the stranded crew. The only option they really had was to send a submersible down with some form of weapon device primed on it; a hope that it might dislodge the creature’s grip but even that was a risk. For all they knew, they’d shoot at it and - in a panic - it would simply squeeze harder.

  John turned around and faced the rest of the room. Some people were looking down to the floor, lost in thought. Others, tears in their eyes, were staring directly at him as though hoping he were suddenly going to offer them a way out of his nightmare. He couldn’t even apologise to them. There were simply no words to be said.

  ‘Excuse me,’ John said as he made his way to the exit. Not for the first time, he just wanted to put some distance between him and everyone else. He couldn’t stand them looking at him, with the guilt that he was already feeling. There was even a part of him which wished that thing that latched onto Yolanda - whatever it was - had gone for him instead. At least, for him, all of this would be over and he could just make himself comfortable in the Hell that was waiting.

  John turned into the main corridor which ran through the centre of the submarine from front to back. He was surprised to see Victoria standing there; mostly because he could have sworn she was already in the room he’d come from. She was standing motionless, a shocked look on her face and staring directly into the canteen. John felt a wave of unease wash over him.

  Chapter Seven

  BEFORE

  John was sitting in the canteen with the rest of the team he had put together, as the crew continued taking the sub down to the ocean floor. They were picking at a chicken salad Carolanne had put together for their lunch; a thought that, at this time of the day and with the dive in progress, they’d probably prefer something lighter lining their stomachs.

  Before being welcomed onto the expedition, John and Chris had sifted through hundreds and thousands of applicants. So many people had stepped forward to be a part of this trip for various reasons and it was almost a full-time job in itself, figuring out the best candidates. Those who were short-listed were invited to a video-call where John was able to give them a further grilling but, now, it was their turn to grill him.

  ‘Your wife didn’t mind you spending all the money to make this happen?’ Jennifer asked, cutting straight to the point.

  ‘I don’t have a wife.’

  ‘Girlfriend?’

  John laughed. ‘No girlfriend either.’ John had learned the hard way that, when you’re a billionaire, a lot of women don’t exactly say “yes” to going out with you for the right reasons. Instead of seeing a potential best friend, lover and partner, they just looked at him as a cash cow and would go on to bleed him dry. Five occasions now he had been hurt by women who’d gone on to accept all his gifts and trips whilst “secretly” been sucking on some other man’s dick. It hurt and, as a result, John was much more guarded now, and not because of the money. He didn’t give a shit about the money. It wasn’t like he couldn’t afford to treat these women to whatever they might have fancied. He had more money in the bank than he’d ever be able to spend. He just hated the lies and, ultimately, the betrayal when he’d discover they were fucking someone else. It seemed that, in seeing his money, most people forgot that - actually - he was just as much human as the next person and, yes, had feelings too.

  Jennifer was almost jealous of him in that moment. Not because he had been hurt, she didn’t know any of that. Just the fact he wasn’t leaving a family behind to come on this expedition. Not even two hours into the voyage yet and she was already missing her family like crazy. She imagined it just being a nice “break” from reality for John. He could come out here, sit on the bottom of the ocean for the duration and simply switch off to the stresses happening up on the dry land. A perfect little vacation which would also happen to get his name in the history books. Not a bad deal at all.

  ‘So how much did this cost? From start through to now? I mean we already know this isn’t the first submarine that you developed with the other ones not going so well…’ Nate asked, ignoring the fact it was both none of his business what it cost, and also fairly rude in asking.

  John just smiled. ‘You don’t want to know.’

  Nate laughed. ‘Well I kind of do or else I wouldn’t have asked.’

  Becca leaned over and helped Nate out by telling him, ‘I think that’s his polite way of saying it is none of your business.’

  ‘Ah. Okay.’

  It was Becca’s turned to ask a question. ‘Okay so why the bottom of the ocean? I thought most rich people climb Everest. Then, of course, the super rich people like to take themselves to space or, at the very least, launch a sports car up into the orbit.’

  ‘Simple.’ John said, ‘Because not many people have been down here. Did you know there are more dead bodies on Everest than people who have been down to where we’re going? And how many people have been up to space exactly? How many of them to you remember other than Buzz and Lance? Sure, a trip up to the moon might make the papers but books don’t get written about those who go up there anymore.’

  ‘Ah so it is a vanity thing?’ Becca teased.

  ‘Sure. A bit. But also, I want to see what’s down here. If I want to see anything of space, I can just go to YouTube and look at the videos people have taken up. I can look through pictures. And as for space? What really is up there to see other than a different perspective of our own planet? It’s not like we’re going to find life right on our doorstep, is it? Down here though… There’s not many pictures. There’s definite life…’ With a buzz about him, John added, �
�This is exciting… And, I want to see it all.’

  *

  NOW

  ‘Victoria?’ John called out to the medic who was still rooted to the spot. She didn’t even acknowledge his presence. ‘What is it?’ John walked towards her until he was standing side by side with her and still she said nothing to him. She just stared forward. Instead of asking another question to be ignored, he followed her gaze into the canteen. His heart skipped a beat and mouth fell agape at the sight of Yolanda standing there with her back to them.

  Yolanda’s body was twitching like she was having difficulty into controlling her muscles. Slowly, with jerky movements, she turned to face Victoria and John. Only the whites of her eyes were visible from where they were still rolled back in her skull. Her pasty white skin had black veins showing just beneath the surface.

  ‘I… thought she was dead?’

  Victoria swallowed. ‘She is.’

  Both just stood there, unable to look away as Yolanda’s mouth started chattering much the same way as a cat “chattering” to some nearby birds.

  ‘What’s going on?’ Victoria asked.

  John didn’t have an answer for her and wasn’t about to give any theories either. Quick as a flash, he leaned to the canteen’s heavy door and pulled it shut tight. Whatever was going on with Yolanda, she could stay that side of the metal door and they’d stay this side. Once the door clanged shut, he screamed out in frustration and kicked his foot against it. ‘This wasn’t supposed to be like this. None of this was supposed to be like this,’ he said as, finally, his previously swallowed emotions started flowing freely.

  Victoria had no words of comfort to offer him. Even if they had, they would have been cut short as - from behind the heavy metal door - Yolanda started to bang her fists against it. Both Victoria and John slowly backed away from the door, not that they expected it so suddenly swing open but… Just in case…