The Mariana Trench: A novel of suspense and supernatural horror

by Matt Shaw

  Nate laughed. ‘Science.’ He had enough on his mind without stopping to give a science lesson to someone who clearly had no idea how these things worked and, most likely, probably didn’t even care, either. Nate walked back over to his laptop. He picked it up and started filling in more boxes which were already on-screen. John waited a moment, unsure whether there was going to be a real answer coming at any point.

  ‘Well,’ John said, ‘I guess I’ll try and get a little more sleep then. Catch up with you in a few hours,’ he added.

  ‘Sure.’

  As John turned away, the ground beneath him started to shake more violently than before. Both he and Nate tripped to the floor in a crumpled heap as, through the viewing window, the seabed opened and-

  ‘What the fuck is that?!’

  -a large tentacle, black in colour, pushed up through from beneath. Both men watched in awe and fascination - and fear - as it swayed there like a stray piece of sea-weed dancing in the current…

  ‘Are you fucking seeing this?!’

  Before an answer could come, the tentacle stopped dancing and stood fully erect for just a second before it pointed down to the submarine like an eel-like finger.

  ‘Tell me you’re fucking seeing this!’

  The “finger” slowly snaked its way through the murky waters towards the vessel before it wrapped itself slowly around it; an anaconda snaring its prey.

  ‘It’s going to crush us! It’s going to fucking kill us!’

  *

  NOW

  Billy Smith and Chris stood by the canteen door. With no weapons onboard, both men were armed with whatever sharp implement they’d managed to pilfer from the sub’s galley. The others were standing a little further away, down the corridor, with concerned looks on their faces. With a majority vote “for”, the plan had been set to get into the canteen and kill the creature which had taken control of Yolanda’s deceased body. Whilst some weren’t up for doing this, most notably Jennifer who’d become quite attached to her cabin-mate, the argument had been that this wasn’t Yolanda. They didn’t know what it was but the simple fact was: Yolanda had been killed. Whatever was inside of her now, controlling her, had killed her. Whatever it was, this weird eel-like creature, it was hostile and dangerous. Those who voted “for” knew they couldn’t just leave it locked away in a room. For now it was just banging against the door, trying to break through. How long before it figured out how to open it? Then what? Would it immediately try and kill the others? Could it infect them? Could it have their bodies taken over as well? Whatever it was, it needed to die and the sooner, the better.

  ‘I can’t watch this,’ Jennifer said.

  Jennifer about turned and started to walk away only to stop when Chris shouted, ‘You need to stay here. Don’t watch, fair enough, but we need to stay together. It’s safer for all of us…’

  Jennifer didn’t turn back around. She just stayed with her back to the group and her eyes closed. Aware that noise would soon be a very real factor, she raised her hands up to her ears too to block it all out.

  Chris turned to Billy and asked, ‘Ready?’

  Billy nodded. ‘Let’s do it.’

  Chris gave John the nod. The plan was simple: John was to open the door, Chris and Billy were to rush in and terminate the creature on the other side. For this, the two men had chosen two of the biggest knives they’d found in the kitchen, not that Carolanne had stopped them. Funnily enough, since everything had gone so fucking wrong, cooking had been the last thing on her mind. If anyone wanted to eat, they could fend for themselves. The food was right there, in the galley, after all.

  John hesitated a moment. He took in a few deep breaths, letting each one out slowly. Then, he nodded to himself and just as he went to pull the door open; everything fell silent from the other side.

  Chapter Eleven

  BEFORE

  Chris hurried into the small room in which Becca was investigating the black matter they’d earlier brought in with the remote-controlled submarine. Before he had a chance to say anything she said, ‘Think those quakes are done for the time being? I almost dropped this…’ She was holding a beaker of black, swirling liquid in her hands. ‘It would be nice if whatever was causing it gave us a little warning first, right?’

  ‘Sorry but we need you to come to the observation room…’ Chris couldn’t hide the apprehensive look on his face.

  ‘What is it?’ she asked nervously.

  ‘Well, we’re kind of hoping you can tell…’

  Before he could finish his sentence, the submarine juddered from side to side once again. This wasn’t from a quake but - instead - it was from whatever thing had a grip of them. Such was the force of the shudder, the beaker slipped from Becca’s hand. She screamed as the glass container shattered on the desk, spilling the contents in the process. ‘Shit, shit, shit…’ The moment the juddering stopped, she hurried over to the side cupboard and pulled out another beaker. ‘Help me get it back…’

  Chris interrupted her, ‘I’m sorry but - really - you need to see this. This takes priority over everything else.’

  Close to the table again, Becca stopped in her tracks and looked at Chris’s concerned face. ‘What is it?’ But now Chris’s attention had been stolen away. His eyes fixed firmly on the black liquid on the table which was “coming together” in a similar form to mercury. Becca followed his gaze and just stood there, open-mouthed. ‘It wasn’t acting like this earlier,’ she said. ‘Something’s changed…’ She leaned down closer to the table, to get a better look as the black mess formed itself into a jelly-like mass. ‘I’ve never seen anything quite like this…’

  ‘Are you sure you should be getting so close?’

  An unknown substance, miles from any potential help, and Chris couldn’t help but wonder as to whether she should be wearing hazard gear when getting so close to whatever the hell it was.

  Chris jumped - startled - as the substance suddenly ejaculated itself over Becca’s face. Immediately she fell back, screaming and clawing at her face, desperate to try and wipe it clean.

  ‘Victoria!’ Chris screamed as he hurried over to Becca’s side without thinking as to whether the “ink” could do the same to his own face. By the time he got down on his knees, next to where Becca lay, her body was still. The liquid, for want of a better word, was pooled over her face. It was pulsing. Bubbling. Unsure what it was and what was happening to Becca with it sitting here, he didn’t dare touch it. He yelled for the medic again, ‘Victoria!’ Unsure what to do, he sat there and quietly tried to reassure Becca, ‘Everything’s going to be okay…’ With her body so still, he wasn’t sure if she could hear him, or was registering anything that was happening but it didn’t matter. If there was a chance she could hear him, he would keep saying it. ‘Everything is going to be okay.’

  *

  NOW

  ‘What’s happening?’ Yolanda was sitting on the galley floor with tears streaming from her eyes and running down her cheeks. Her complexion was pale and her hair hung in knots. She looked tired but, she looked like Yolanda at least. Despite her “normal” appearance, and the fact she was visibly upset, no one rushed forward to her assistance. Not even Jennifer, probably the person closest person to her given how they shared a cabin.

  ‘Why have you got those?’ Yolanda’s eyes fixed to the blades which both Chris and Billy held in their hands. Both men looked down to their hands, almost as though they’d forgotten what they were clutching onto. Billy glanced from knife to Chris, waiting to see what he was going to do and ready to follow his lead. Chris was just standing there, unsure of everything.

  ‘What’s your name?’ Victoria came forward. As medic, she had to take charge of the situation.

  ‘What do you mean, what’s my name?’ Yolanda looked at her with a confused expression on her face.

  ‘Just answer the question.’

  ‘Yolanda.’

  ‘Yolanda…?’

  ‘Lamas.’

  Victoria aske
d, ‘And where are you?’

  Yolanda continued to cry. ‘I don’t understand. What do you mean?’

  ‘Right now, where are you?’

  ‘I’m on the submarine. We’re investigating what’s happening in the Mariana Trench… Why is everyone looking at me like I’ve lost my fucking mind?’

  Victoria glanced to Chris and shrugged. From how it looked, this was Yolanda but there was no way of knowing for sure if it really was. The questions being asked now were answered without much hesitation and gave the impression everything was okay but - what if whatever took her over had access to all that information too? Victoria couldn’t recall anything like this had ever happened before so how could she tell whether her questions were a way of proving anything?

  ‘Why is everyone looking at me like I’ve lost my mind?’ Yolanda asked again.

  Billy asked Chris, ‘What do we do?’

  Chris didn’t know. The honest answer was, he had no idea what to do now.

  ‘What is going on?’ Yolanda asked.

  After another lengthy pause, Chris finally gave an answer, ‘Seal the door.’

  As Billy started to close the door on her, Yolanda’s expression suddenly changed. Her eyes turned black and she jumped to her feet with an inhuman screech from her throat which took all by surprise. Billy slammed the heavy metal door shut and spun the circular handle, sealing the door up tight in the process.

  Immediately, Yolanda started banging on the door again.

  ‘Whatever that is,’ Chris said, ‘that is not Yolanda anymore.’

  Jennifer started to cry again. For the briefest of moments, she thought her friend was “okay”. Now she knew for sure, she was never coming back. Whatever that was in the canteen, it was not Yolanda.

  Yolanda was dead.

  Chapter Twelve

  BEFORE

  Chris watched on as Victoria checked Becca’s pulse by holding her wrist. He stayed silent as his brain tried to process everything that was going on. The old saying loud and clear in his tired head that, it never rained but poured.

  Victoria gently lowered Becca’s hand back down to the mattress they’d laid her on. Even her chest didn’t look as though it were moving up and down anymore.

  Chris asked, ‘Is she dead?’

  Victoria shook her head. ‘She has a pulse but its weak.’ She was quick to add, ‘We need to get her to the surface.’ Chris bit his lip. Victoria knew their predicament at the moment and how that wouldn’t be a possible trip to make so there was little point in her actually saying as such. Victoria added, ‘Not sure there is much I can do for her here. The liquid has congealed on her face and… It looks as though it is actually a part of her skin now. I don’t know, it’s hard to explain. Needless to say, I’ve not seen this before though and we don’t have the means to even contemplate removing it down here.’

  Once again, there was nothing Chris could say. At least nothing which would have provided a solution. None of this had been planned for (how could it be?) and none of this seemed to have an obvious solution. Eventually he said, ‘Just, keep an eye on her okay?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘And let me know if anything changes.’ Before he left the room, he said, ‘I’ll go and talk to the others.’

  *

  Chris had a pale look about his face as he turned to those who’d gathered. The faces of both crew and scientists looked at him with hope in their eyes. Solemnly he shook his head.

  ‘Whatever it is, it has got us and it isn’t in a hurry to let go. At this moment in time, we’re trapped and unless it decides to just release us there’s only two ways this is going to go.’ They waited for him to explain further. He continued, ‘One; it crushes the submarine. I don’t need to explain what happens then. Two; it just holds us here until the oxygen supplies run out.’ He stopped talking. A few people - already on the verge of tears - broke down and openly wept. Others just stood there with a shocked expression on their faces as they processed everything they’d heard, and all that had happened.

  *

  NOW

  Nate, Billy, Chris, Carolanne, Victoria and John were sitting in the viewing area. Carolanne had brought all the spirit bottles up from the galley, along with some glasses. ‘Enough for everyone,’ she had said, ahead of pouring out the alcohol. ‘No sense facing death sober.’

  ‘I understand the lack of weapons. Fair enough. You couldn’t have predicted this,’ Nate said as he gazed out to the ever-growing orange crack on the sea-bed. ‘But would it have killed you to put an emergency escape pod-type thing in here? You know, something we could have all jumped in ahead of blasting up to the surface?’ He turned and stared directly at John, challenging him for an answer.

  John down the remnants of his neat vodka, not that he was finding it easy to get drunk. All the alcohol was doing was giving him a bitch of a headache, unless that was Nate’s constant talking. As John stared down to his empty cup, he said, ‘At this point I welcome death.’

  ‘What did you say?’ Nate asked.

  ‘Enough!’ Chris shouted from the back of the room. ‘I’ve had it with the constant fucking sniping. I don’t want to spend whatever time I have left here listening to you fucking bitching. We’re all in this same position and, you know what, hindsight is a wonderful thing but it changes nothing. It just gives everyone a fucking headache.’

  ‘Oh shit, look everyone. Captain Cunt is talking. Everyone stop and listen. I’m sure there will be some sound words coming out of his mouth which will save us now…’ Nate started sarcastically. He paused a moment, if only for dramatic effect. Then, ‘Oh nope. Sorry. Just the usual absolute bullshit.’ He shook his head and said to Chris directly, ‘You are a fucking joke. No wonder you came on to take charge of this shit-show. No other cunt would employ you because they realised you’re a joke.’

  Chris got up from his seat and walked over to Nate.

  Nate asked John, ‘What’s the matter? All your money go on putting this death-trap together and you couldn’t afford a real…’ Before he could finish his sentence, Chris laid him out flat with a single punch to the temple. No one was surprised or shocked. Nor did they run to Nate’s aid.

  Instead Jennifer said, ‘What do you think she is doing now? I can’t hear the banging anymore.’

  True enough, down the corridor towards the canteen, everything was silent once more.

  Chris spoke as though his sudden act of violence had never happened. He said, ‘It doesn’t matter. We locked the door. She can’t get out. Just take the silence as a welcome relief and enjoy it while it lasts.’

  John, staring out of the viewing window, said, ‘The calm before the storm.’ John had no idea how close he was to the truth.

  Chapter Thirteen

  THE SURFACE (NOW)

  The surface had been rattled by the recent quakes once again. The seas were choppy and unforgiving to the boats floating upon the salty surface. With the submarine stuck on the sea-bed a few rescue boats had come out to the location with the crew trying to formulate a way of getting the stricken sub brought up. Whilst they didn’t know the full extent of what was happening beneath the waves, they were aware that a creature had pinned the submarine to the sea-bed. Armed with that knowledge, one plan had been put forward which would see a number of remote-submersibles get sent down to where they were trapped. Each remote device being capable of delivering a short, sharp shock to whatever the creature was. A hope that - in shock - it might pull away from the submarine. Then, free, the sub would be able to make its way back up to the surface again. A very real worry, to go with the slim glimmer of hope, being that the shock could cause the creature to crush the submarine. If it squeezed hard enough and caused even the slightest bit of damage to the hull, the whole submarine would be instantly crushed and not by the creature but by the pressure down there. But if it worked… They could get back to the surface and have a story to tell their friends and family. Even if they couldn’t move after being released, due to potential damage… T
he rescuers could at least hook the submarine and bring it to the surface that way. They just needed the creature to release its grip.

  ‘Look we’re kicking up a hell of a storm up here so we’ll probably wait until things are calmer before sending the drones down,’ Mike McGeorge said. He was on the radio, talking to Chris who had moved away from the group and headed back to the submarine’s control room.

  Not only were the waves getting rougher but, the skies had been hidden by a layer of thick, black clouds which were darker than the night-sky itself.

  ‘I thought the weather was meant to be clear for the next few weeks at least,’ Chris said. They’d only chosen to head to the Mariana Trench now because of the local weather reports and forecasts.

  ‘Well that’s just it,’ Mike said, ‘the weather reports are sunny skies and the usual heat. Clearly this came from no where but, hopefully it will go just as fast as it appeared.’

  ‘I hope so.’

  ‘Have you told the people what we’re doing?’

  ‘No. We have one shot at this and we don’t know how it will play out. Don’t want to cause unnecessary stress. Things are already fragile down here.’

  ‘Well all being well, hopefully we’ll startle this thing and it will fuck off back to where it came from.’

  ‘Would be nice.’

  ‘And you say it came out of a crack in the sea-bed.’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘An octopus?’

  ‘Never seen an octopus this big before now but could well be. Sure have been enough paintings of such a creature. Just never expected one to be living down here.’ Chris said, ‘We tried turning everything off that we could and going quiet but, still it wouldn’t let go.’

  ‘Well like I said, hopefully things will clear-up up here soon and we can get down there and shock the son of a bitch back home again. Until then, just hang tight, yeah?’