by C.O. Amal
It seem like the sub have stopped its revolution and quietness filled all around him.
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Chapter 7
2026 July 25, Unknown Location
Darkness engulfed Jack and his sub. Not even a faintest light to be seen. Based on his knowledge about previous location he must be in the deep waters. In the abyss. Jack looked at his watch. The fluorescent needles of the watch had stopped rotating long time ago. He cursed himself. He do wanted to explore the Bermuda triangle but what can he explore in this pitch darkness.
He sat back in his seat and closed his eyes. Without knowing sleep took over him.
After a while Jack was awoken by the sound something hitting at the glass window. Jack rubbed his eyes and opened them wide. Darkness haven’t gone yet. Jack tuned his ear for finding out what is it that is making the sound. Then he heard it clearly. Wind is howling outside!
“What the hell! Am I on the ocean surface? Or did I hit some kind of land in the middle of the ocean?” Jack said himself.
Based on the sound, sand whipped up by the wind is clattering on the glass window. How is it possible? If the sub hit some kind of land the sand must be wet. Then how come sand is flying in the air. Also there is no way this would happen if he is on the ocean surface. Then where exactly is him?
Questions began to pop up in Jack’s head like bubbles forming under a waterfall. He thought about noting down his thoughts in his journal but where is the light? All his electronic equipment are dead, even those inside his faraday cage. Fortunately oxygen is still inside the sub.
Jack felt something pulling him into the darkness, like something dragging him deep into the nothingness, into the void. His eyes slowly abandoned him, they closed. Anyway what’s the big deal with eyes in this void, in this darkness?
Images of Jan flashed inside Jack’s mind. Images when they met for the first time. It happened inside a coffee shop. Jan was a part time waitress then. Jack have ordered a coffee and was waiting for it, reading newspaper. Suddenly it happened. Jan fell on top of Jack when her legs tripped over Jack’s leg which was straightened under the table. Hot coffee spilled on top of the newspaper. Fortunately nothing spilled on top of him. Jack and Jan stayed in that position, both of them touching their chests each other, for some time. After a moment Jack helped her to stand up. Jan looked at Jack apologetically but what to apologize? Jack is also guilty in this since he is the reason Jan fell.
Suddenly some kind of dark entity appeared between Jack and Jan. The dark entity dragged away Jack from Jan. Jan’s cry for Jack can be faintly heard. The dark thing pulled Jack into the nothingness. Jack tried to swim away from the darkness but his hands and legs betrayed him. Darkness engulfed him.
Jack woke up panting. He is still in the sub. A dream! It seems that light is sweeping in through the glass window. He just slept over the night. The control panel in front of Jack is clearly lit by the sun’s rays.
Jack looked outside through the window. The site in front of him was unexplainable. There is land filled with sand in front of him. Miles and miles of sand, sand as far as his eyes could see. He is away from the ocean water. That’s a relief, at least he don’t have to fear about drowning.
Jack slowly opened the sealed door on the ceiling of the sub and he slowly got outside and he stood on top of the sub. He couldn’t believe what he is seeing. Jack rubbed his eyes to make sure he is not dreaming. He opened his eyes again and looked.
Desert! He is in the middle of a desert!
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Chapter 8
2026 July 26, the Desert, Unknown World
Jack couldn’t believe his eyes. Is his eyes trying to betray him? How is this possible? He did saw some unexplainable things like that blue light cone inside the ocean, but how is this possible? At one moment he was deep inside ocean water and now in the middle of a desert? Did all the ocean water flowed away through some mysterious hole while he was in the sub, sleeping?
Sun is highest in the sky. Wait a minute. The sky. It’s pinkish in colour. Where on Earth he is at? Supposedly this is not Earth. As far as he know Earth don’t have sky like this. Jack looked at the sky more carefully. He can see stars shining, in this middle of the day.
Then it hit him. What if the Bermuda triangle is a portal to another dimension? Then he must be in another dimension. In another world. He need to find a way out of this place fast. The sub is dead. No doubt about it. He need to find an alternate pathway to Earth or he is going to die under this harsh sun. Jack got inside the Sub and took his back pack. He put all the water bottles inside the bag. He also took some snacks. Then he got outside.
Suddenly the ground shook. An earthquake. Then he saw what is happening. In the distance sand is flowing away like water, through a hole. And this hole is widening at each passing second. What peculiar about this hole is that it’s dark as night. The edges of the hole have almost reached near Jack. Immediately Jack ran away from the scene but the hole is continuing to get widen.
Then an eerie feeling of Deja Vu hit jack. He remembered the dream he saw in the morning in which some dark entity is pulling Jack in to utter darkness. He had heard that the dreams that we see in the morning are visions which are about to come true. Panic shook Jack in his core.
Jack don’t want to be part of this darkness. So Jack ran and ran. He took a quick glance at his back. His sub have fallen to the darkness. Darkness is still continuing its invasion. Like a well having large radius, the darkness widened. Once the sand hit the darkness there is no evidence of the sand, like it just vanished.
Then it stopped. The pitch darkness stopped expanding and the sand reappeared where darkness claimed its place a little while ago, but his sub didn’t reappeared.
“Where the hell am I?” Jack asked himself.
Jack looked at the everlasting sand. There are sand dunes there and there. He decides to keep going forward, away from the land once claimed by the darkness.
* * * * *
Part 2: The Desert
Chapter 9
2026 July 26, Unknown Desert
Jack slowly walked through the desert climbing sand dunes after sand dunes. He is slow because he isn’t sure that the land he is walking into is safe, so he is walking very carefully now. Taking firm steps only after making sure the sandy ground is stable and that black well thing is not present under the sand.
The sun is highest in the sky and its rays are like light concentrated by a convex lens. Still not a soul to be seen. Desert is silent apart from the occasional sound of wind blowing sand. Jack’s legs are really tired after walking what seems like an hour. Sky is still pinkish and clouds are formed in the form of an eye. The sight induced a sudden eerie feeling inside Jack that someone is watching every move he is making.
After a moment Jack found a sitting position and he cuddled in the sand and took out a water bottle from the bag. He slowly twisted opened the bottle and started to drank from it. With two or three gulps he made the bottle empty and he just threw it away. Jack looked inside the bag. Now three water bottles and few packets of snacks remain.
Jack stood up and continued his walking through the everlasting sand. After a moment Jack saw a big sand dune. Jack mustered all his might and slowly climbed the sand dune. After a minute or two he reached the top and looked at the lands before him. He could see all the surrounding land from here. There is only sand in the direction from which he came and the site toward the direction he is walking is also filled with sandy landscape but in the distance he could make out the forms of mountains in white.
Snow covered mountains!
There is hope after all.
Now Jack have a destination to move on. Who knows what lies beyond the mountains? What if there are grass land and a sanctuary from this scorching sun? What if there is a secret portal that leads to his Earth?
Jack kept his expectation to a minimum since he hadn’t heard anyone returned from this place, from the evil tentacles of Bermuda triangle.
But he promised to Jan that he will be back. So he need to keep moving. Jack continued towards the mountains. There may be two or three mile between him and the mountains and he hopes that the sandy region before him stays silent as it is now.
He couldn’t forget the horror he had just escaped from near his sub. Where will that dark well leads to if he would have trapped in there? What would have happened if he had stayed in his sub? Questions began to pop up in his head violently. Question he don’t have the answers for.
Jack wished for at least the sun to reduce the intensity of its hot rays. Jack is wearing his shirt in his head like a bandanna now to save his head from the sun. After some time his legs began to shake. His skin began to redden and sweat is flowing out of his body like a small stream. Jack suddenly have an urge to lie down to rest. He didn’t lie down but sat down on the sand and cleared the freshly arrived sweat using the sleeve of the shirt which is hanging from his newly created bandanna like two hands.
Jack opened the bag and took one water bottle and he drank all of it. He heard that in desert you have to keep hydrating yourself as the sun will quickly dehydrate you. Jack’s head began to throb violently, a side effect of dehydration, of course. The head ache is pulsing through his head now, but he needs to move now. He can’t stay in the open too long. He needs to find a shelter too.
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Chapter 10
2026 July 26, Unknown Desert
Jack tightened the back pack on his shoulders and paced forward. The faster he get to the mountains probably the safer it will be. Sun is doing a great job dehydrating him but Jack isn’t going to reduce his pace.
Jack passed about more or less hundred sand dunes now. Jack’s internal counter is counting each sand dune he have passed but the exact number is not clear. Sun is still in its highest position. He really needs to find some shade or sun will suck out all the juice he have.
Jack climbed another sand dune and looked at the mountains. Mountains are still far away and need lot of leg work to get there. Jack looked at the surroundings carefully. Suddenly Jack’s jaw dropped. Legs began to shake. All kind of warning signals kicked inside his head.
About several feet away, on his right side, there is a dog thing eating what looks like the remains of a human. The dog thing is surely a dog. It looks like a dog but it is lot bigger than a regular dog. Probably the size of an adult tiger. Jack had seen tigers in the zoo and he is pretty sure that this thing in front of him is huge as a tiger.
Fear kicks inside him. The thing is eating the remains of a human. The corpse’s head is nothing but a skull now. The tissue on the head is possibly eaten by this thing. Jack crouched behind the sand dune. He slowly moved forward with one eye on the dog thing, the other to the front. Suddenly the dog thing shifted its gaze toward Jack.
Jack did not thought twice. He went for a sprint. Jumping, leaping through the sand dunes with all his energy he had mustered. When he made sure he had made a pretty good distance from the thing, Jack took a quick glance at his back. Jack couldn’t believe what he is seeing. The dog thing is leaping through the sand dunes and it looks like that the dog thing had already set its goal - Jack.
Panic clearly shook his entire body. Jack ran, and ran. In a distance Jack saw what seems like the remains of an aeroplane. Jack increased his speed. Jack couldn’t believe that he can run at this speed because before that thing appeared, his pace was too slow.
Jack thought he is near the aeroplane but suddenly his eyes went blank. The thing have leaped on top of him. For a second he lost air. Jack coughed and opened his eyes. His eyes aren’t processing much. Finally he looked in front of him. The dog is appeared to be growling at him. Jack slowly stood on his feet but he kept his body bent, arms putting forward.
The dog thing jumped at him, pinning him down. Jack struggled to get back to his feet. The thing’s paws are on his shoulders and the thing growled at him. Suddenly pain surged through him. The thing’s retractable claws pierced Jack’s skin on the shoulder blade. Jack screamed.
“Please, god ... Ahh …”
Jack cried at the top of his lungs. The thing quickly retracted its claws. Pain again surged through him.
“Mom ... God ... Jesus ...”
What next happened was almost unbelievable. The thing freed Jack from its paws and it circled around Jack. Jack stood on his knees without shifting his eyes from the thing. Jack have no weapon to defend with. He is clearly empty of everything. His energy is almost expended. The dog thing pounded at Jack’s face using its right paw. Jack immediately went down. The thing is playing with Jack.
Jack somehow managed to get back on his knees. “Finish it already!” Jack screamed.
The thing looks like have enjoyed Jack’s scream. It again pounded Jack in his face. Again Jack went down. Jack sat in the sand and he slowly crawled backward by paddling with his hands. The dog thing followed Jack, growling all the way. Suddenly, Jack’s back hit something metallic. It seems that he is near the remains of the aeroplane. It must have got here in the last century because no aeroplanes had disappeared near Bermuda triangle in this century. Then something caught in his hands. Jack slowly traced his hands around what his hands had found. He hadn’t turned away his eyes from the thing. His sensory system says that the thing his hands had found is a metal rod. Jack tightened his grip around the metal rod.
The dog thing looks like have irritated playing with Jack. It opened its mouth showing its sharp teeth and it lunged forward to bite Jack. Immediately Jack swung the metal rod at the dog thing’s head. The metal rod found it’s mark and the thing stumbled backward. Jack quickly stood up on his feet with the newly found weapon in his hand. Jack swung his metal rod again. Again the metal found its mark and again the thing stumbled to a side.
The dog thing shrieked in pain. Jack didn’t look for the thing to get back to its feet again. Jack swung the metal road again and again, striking all the hits in its head. Immediately blood sprayed out of the thing’s mouth and nose and head. Jack swung again reducing its head to a pulp. Finally the thing went down. Jack breathed heavily. He dropped to his knees and stayed in that position for some time. Jack unstrapped the bag from his shoulders and took a water bottle from it. He drank all of it and threw the empty bottle away. Now only one water bottle remains.
Jack got back to his feet and threw on the back pack on his shoulders. Jack took the metal rod in his left hand and continued his journey to the mountains, leaving the scene filled with blood of the dog thing behind. Surly this is a hostile environment filled with predators.
* * * * *
Chapter 11
2026 July 26, Unknown Desert
It’s very difficult walking through this desert. Pain is surging through all over his body from the small holes formed near both of his shoulder blades where the dog thing stabbed with its retractable claws. He had seen the movie Jurassic Park lot of times in which Raptors have the capability to sink its movable claws right inside its victims.
This dog is more like a Raptor in a manner of speaking since its attack using the claws is similar to that of a Raptor. Jack has the will to go on but the only thing standing in his way is the sun. Nobody could survive the sun in its full strength. It’s like there is no ozone layer in the atmosphere and all the deadly rays are after him.
His redden skin is burning hot now. Jack’s legs are trying to abandon him by swaying to the sides. His arms are freely dropped to the sides and he is moving slowly now but he can’t stay in the open for too long. There may be more of those dog things out here. He can’t survive one more attack for sure. He is all expended.
Then he saw it in the distance. A tent! Tent means survivors, most possibly human. Who else could it be? As far as Jack know, only humans can make tents. Jack quickened his pace.
After a minute or so Jack reached near the tent. The tent is made up of high quality cloth and is in brown colour. There is no one to be seen. There is no one in the surrounding. Jack then quickly without thinking got inside the
tent. In this time what he need is rest. An escape from this scorching sun. Jack wondered why the sun is not resting a bit. Of course he do know the answer but thinking these entities as persons is keeping him sane.
Jack lie down on the sand in the shade of the tent and closed his eyes. All his warning signals are informing him that he can’t rest until he get into the mountains. Those dog things may be out here. Anyway Jack rested discarding all warning messages. After a while he opened his eyes. It looks like the sun have moved away a little bit but the hotness isn’t reduced.
Jack looked at his surrounding inside the tent. It seems like there is stain all over the tent walls. And it looks like it is blood stain. Fresh blood. A sudden eerie feeling surged through him.
Run, Jack! Run!
Warning messages kicked in. Jack quickly got outside and took a water bottle from his bag. He drank half of the bottle and kept the rest for later usage. He readied himself and with the metal rod in one hand he started towards the mountains. The mountains are clearly visible now.
The mountain valleys are covered in snow. It’s one or two miles away. Jack quickened his pace. He haven’t fully recovered from the pain but Jack kept going. This desert is like a big trap. He is leaving all this thing behind and he is moving forward.
What will be waiting for him in the mountains? He hops no danger will be there.
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Chapter 12
2026 July 26, Unknown Desert
Jack slowly passed sand dunes after sand dunes. Cresting and climbing down. Sun have shifted away a little and clouds are now blocking the sun’s rays. Thanks to that, Jack can easily move through the sand in the shade created by the clouds.
The pinkish sky is always trying to pop up questions in his mind. Will he find the door back to earth? That question is reverberating inside him occasionally. He need to return to Jan. She is home alone and he is the only hope she have. Their kid is on his way to earth and he is afraid that he will not be there to witness that.
