Below The Earth

by Lucas Pederson

  “Fuck yeah, I’ll do it,” Megan spouted.

  “I’m good,” Max said. “As long as there’s food.” Max was like the fittest man in the park but ate like a hippo. Wish I knew his secret. Yeesh.

  “Okay,” I said.

  A tunnel system linked to the trench? Shit, it felt far-fetched, even to me. But, what if there were tunnels? What if there was a way to make sure plenty of fish and other sea life flowed into the park? Then again, Roofus needed a lot of food. A lot. And what if his hunger took over and he broke through the nanite fencing between exhibits. He’d devour everything. And when the whales were consumed, he’d go after the park facility. I could almost see it all happening in my mind, and it was kind of terrifying.

  I thought a moment, then asked, “Do you have a bit of an idea where the tunnels might be down there?”

  Hannah nodded and pointed at a slightly concaved portion of the trench, which was the outer ocean side. “This will be the first spot to check out. If it’s nothing, we’ll keep searching.”

  “Why hasn’t anyone stated the obvious, yet?” Megan asked. “What the hell are we going to do about Roofus? I mean, he’s not the happiest fella right now, ya know.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, he’d swallow us whole.”

  Hannah sighed. “We’ll figure something out. Until then, plan on this happening. If Burt says yes, we’ll get together again and really plan.”

  Max stood and stretched. “Good deal. I’m gonna get some grub and pass out. Night, all.”

  “Night,” Hannah said.

  He gave me a smile and left the room.

  “How long do you think it’ll take Burt to decide?” I asked Hannah.

  She shrugged. “He typically takes a day to decide on things, but I think he’ll agree to this.”

  “Alright,” I said, started to leave, stopped, and looked at her. “Thanks for bringing me aboard.”

  Her smile was warm. “You’re the only one of us who can really dive and knows all there is to diving. I’d be a fool not to bring you along.”

  “But,” I said, frowning, “aren’t we taking minisubs?”

  “We are, but I’ll need someone to set charges up if possible.”

  I sucked in a sharp breath, as though slapped. “Wait, what? That trench is more than 1,000 meters deep. There’s no way—”

  “You’ll have adequate gear, of course.”

  Why didn’t that make me feel any better?

  Before I could say anything more, she shooed me out of the room and told me to eat something and get some rest before the long day tomorrow.

  In the employee kitchen, Max was pan-frying a couple steaks and boiling potatoes on the stove. He gave me a quick glance and nodded. I nodded back, savoring the smell of the food. My mouth filled with hot saliva and my stomach grumbled. I hadn’t eaten anything since noon, which was merely a small bag of potato chips. Jesus, how long ago was that? Eight hours? Nine? Somewhere around there. I hadn’t checked the time yet.

  As I opened the fridge door, my mind tried to wrap itself around things. Suddenly, I was a star and I really didn’t deserve to be. True, I could dive. Been doing it most of my life, but surely there were true experts out there. I knew how to dive, but as far as the ocean geography or dangers or—

  “You gonna grab something or stand there staring at the carrots all night?”

  I jumped a bit.

  Max stood beside me, smiling. He snorted, ran a hand through his hair, and edged his way by me to grab a stick of butter and the gallon of milk. He held both up to me, grinning. “Not mashed potatoes without butter and milk, am I right?”

  I smiled and nodded, though I couldn’t find any words to say. I wasn’t attracted to him. I preferred women, but he had that odd allure about him. His presence demanded attention, for some weird reason. Funny how some people were like that. They stepped into a room and, boom, all eyes were on them. Much like some actors drew more attention than others onscreen.

  Max drained the potatoes, tossed in the stick of butter, and used the masher utensil to smoosh the potatoes and butter in the pot. After a moment, he added milk and why the hell was I watching him instead of finding something to eat?

  I shook my head and turned back to the fridge.

  Eventually, I decided on eggs, hash browns, and bacon. I tried willing Max to hurry the hell up. But, of course, as I grabbed the eggs and bacon and closed the fridge, he was still mashing away at his damn potatoes.

  I sat down at a table, waiting for the dude to hurry up.

  “He’s pretty, but goddamn if he isn’t the dumbest son of a bitch ever.” Megan sat down next to me, pointing at the carton of eggs on the table in front of me. “You going to eat all that?”

  I chuckled. “Uh, no. Thinking on making a scrambler of eggs, hash browns, and bacon.”

  She grinned. “For two?”

  I couldn’t say no. I’ve always liked Megan. “Sure thing.”

  “Dude,” Megan shouted at Max. “You about done over there? We’re kinda starving.”

  Max shot a glance over his shoulder and laughed. “Patience, lady. Can’t rush perfection.”

  “Yeah, well…I’m about to scissor-kick your ass away from the stove. Hurry the hell up!”

  He gave the potatoes a quick stir and moved his pan and pot off the stove. “All yours, ladies.”

  I watched him place the steaks on a plate and mound of potatoes on another plate and take both to a nearby table. He grabbed a steak knife and fork, sat, then began feasting. How someone could eat so much and never gain a pound… I didn’t get it.

  Megan patted my hand. “Alrighty, let’s get these scramblers going.”

  And so I cooked up enough eggs, bacon, and hash browns for the two of us and sort of reveled in all the attention. I wasn’t a biologist, I was just a guide. But right then, I felt like one of the cool kids. And it felt great to kind of belong.

  “So,” Megan said before shoveling the forkful of eggs, hash browns, and bacon into her mouth. She chewed, then leveled the fork at me. “How long you been diving?”

  I swallowed down food. “About 20 years or so.”

  She shot me a wide-eyed look. “No shit?”

  I shrugged. “Yeah. Not a big deal.”

  “Dude,” she said. “No big deal? That’s huge. Can I ask why you never got into marine biology?”

  Again, I shrugged. “Didn’t think I was smart enough, I guess.”

  “Doesn’t take intelligence so much as passion and love for life in the ocean.”

  Not really knowing how to respond to that, I nodded.

  “You sure nod a lot,” Megan said, smiling. “Not one of the talkative types, eh?”

  I managed, “You get me on the subject of Stephen King stories and I won’t shut up.” I took a few large bites of my scrambler, watching Megan’s reaction.

  Honestly, I couldn’t figure out what her expression was. Something between intrigued and concerned. Then she laughed a bit. “Didn’t peg you as a horror fan.”

  “Well, King could weave a story like no other,” I said.

  “Only saw a couple of his movies,” Megan said. “Never read any books.”

  “You’re missing out, then,” I said.

  She rolled her eyes. “Reading for pleasure is overrated. So much more to life than books.”

  I didn’t fully agree, but she made a point. I knew that too. Life wasn’t solely in books or art, though it lived there and gave a way of escape from the real world. I’ve lived, I just really didn’t care to tell Megan all that. After the mission was over, if it ever happened, I was willing to bet no one would see me as an equal anymore. No matter how much I made friends of Megan and Max, they would continue ignoring me after all was said and done.

  Finally, I nodded.

  “There you go with the nods again, and I know damn well you feel differently about my opinion. Cough it up.”

  I sighed. “I just like the escape books give when life gets crazy. That’s all.”

  She
smiled and dug into her scrambler.

  Across the way, Max spouted, “What’s your favorite King book?”

  I glanced at him. “Um…let’s see. Probably Salem’s Lot.”

  “The vampire one? Yeah, that wasn’t bad. But I really dug The Shining. Creepy as shit.”

  “It was,” I said.

  “Y’all need a room to geek out in?” Megan said. “Pretty sure one of the custodians are gone for the night.”

  I laughed and shook my head. “No way am I staying in a room alone with him.”

  “Hey, now, it’s not like I have the plague or something,” Max said.

  “Man,” Megan said, “I don’t even want to think about what you might have.”

  He was almost finished with his second steak. He popped a chunk of meat into his mouth and waggled the knife at Megan. “My room is always open, ya know.”

  Megan visibly shivered. “No thanks. Ew.”

  He chuckled. “I knew you’d say that.”

  After finishing our meals, Max waved and said, “G’night.” He walked out of the kitchen.

  Soon after, Megan said, “We really should go to bed too. It’s summer. This place will be packed tomorrow.”

  I agreed. Summers were the worst and that one was no acceptation. Group after group after group. An endless cycle until fall when it slackened a bit.

  After a moment of appreciating her company, I said, “Yeah. G’night.”

  Then Megan left, and I sat alone in the kitchen. The mingling smells of seared steak and bacon still clung to the air. Eventually, I got up, washed dishes, and cleaned up. By the time I was done, it was about eleven o’clock at night.

  I needed to be up at six.

  Once in my room, I stripped down, crawled into bed, and fell asleep almost instantly.

  3

  I woke sometime later to what felt like an earthquake.

  Heart crashing, I sat up in bed. I forgot to turn the lights off before I passed out and now they flickered as everything around me shook. My tube of toothpaste fell from the sink and thumped on the floor where it trembled.

  My door was thrown open and Megan shouted, “It’s Roofus! He’s attacking the facility!” She was barely breathing, eyes wild and shifting in their sockets. Sweat sheened her forehead.

  I scrambled out of bed, only half aware I was basically naked. I pulled on jeans and a shirt. “How bad is it?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. Hannah called and told me what was going on. Bottom level is flooded and sealed off. He broke through.”

  I joined Megan in the corridor as people milled about and shouted this and that while the floor quaked. We hurried away from them and took the stairs to the command bay.

  Hannah was there and yelling at people to follow defensive procedure. “Don’t kill him, just a shock to let him know what he’s doing is bad.”

  No one appeared to be listening. They bustled around with tired, scared faces.

  Hannah faced Megan and me as we rushed to her. She shook her head. “If Burt doesn’t greenlight the mission now, I don’t know what he’ll do.”

  “Has Roofus breached anything else?” Megan asked.

  “No. He’s just ramming into us right now.”

  “So,” I ventured. “What are we going to do? The facility can’t take much more of this, right?”

  “I ordered electrical charges, but these people are in a panic and won’t listen.” Hannah sighed. “If we can deter him… I think he’ll return to the trench.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was about to say and do…

  “Are the minisubs ready?”

  She frowned at me. “Yes. But—”

  I spun and shouted, “Just keep those charges ready.”

  Behind me, both Megan and Hannah shouted for me to stop. I couldn’t stop, though. There was only one way to really get his attention away from the facility.

  Food.

  Bait…

  I ran as fast as I could while the floor shook to the sub bay all the way across the facility. There were two men standing there, both with equal expressions of shock on their faces. Mechanics, judging by the grimy overalls and smudged faces.

  “Get a minisub ready to deploy,” I said as I approached.

  One of the men, the tall one, looked me up and down. “Ya have clearance?”

  “No. But do you want the facility to flood and you die?”

  He blinked. “Uh, no. Course not. Lemme get one ready here.”

  “Good. Hurry.”

  “Yeah, yeah, lady, settle down. I’m goin’.” He ambled away to one of the subs nearest the dock. I watched him press a button to lower and position it into a tube, which locked the sub in.

  The other mechanic, also tall, said, “It’s that big mother at the end of the tour, ain’t it?”

  “Yeah,” I said, heading toward the docked minisub. “Just make sure you find higher ground if he breaches, okay? Run as fast as you can.”

  The mechanic who placed the minisub in the tube gave me a solemn nod. “She’s ready for ya. Careful out there, miss.”

  I shot him a smile and climbed into the sub. I sealed the latch and powered it up. On the screen in front of me, a question appeared.

  RELEASE LOCKS?

  I drew in a breath, held it, and tapped YES.

  The minisub jerked, then slid down the tube. Ahead was the cap. If that didn’t blow off, I’d be dead within seconds. All it took was a simple malfunction and…splat.

  That didn’t happen, though. The cap exploded outward and the minisub burst into the water.

  I quickly set the speed and grabbed the wheel. At 10 knots, I veered away from the facility and puttered into water that was clearer. Then I set the speed to 25 knots and spun the sub around so I faced the facility. I increased the speed to 30 knots, careening through spaces of the facility to the other side. Long before I got there, silvery bubbles made me decrease speed. I couldn’t see. Almost as bad as the whiteout blizzards I had to push through when I thought I wanted to be a part of the Minnesota DNR. A lot of trial and errors in my life since graduating high school. Far too many.

  Once the bubbles clear, I hit the STOP button, for I was face to face with Roofus.

  He drifted closer, long snout practically quivering.

  Shit. I didn’t know what to do in that moment. Back up? Shoot him with a small charge? Cry? Because the huge bastard was right fucking there. No more than 20 feet from me. Bubbles warbled out of his flaring nostrils. His amber eyes almost appeared to glow.

  I shook myself out of fear and hit the rapid pulse on the screen. A setting that would jet me away from the monster so fast he wouldn’t be able to catch me.

  At least in theory anyway…

  I shot upward just as those massive jaws opened. Before they snapped shut, I was well away from Roofus, shooting toward the surface so fast I barely had time to put a stop to it. I wasn’t out there to escape him but to lure him.

  All cameras revealed Roofus was just then realizing where I went. He surged upward like a great white about to breach. Mouth gaping, ready to snatch me up.

  I maneuvered the minisub sharply to the right and sped away 100 meters moments before those giant jaws snapped shut. Even in the sub, I felt the pressure of those jaws. Like a sonic boom, almost. It rocked the minisub with so much force, I needed to use stabilizing pulses just to keep it level.

  The trench came into view and I set course for it, speeding along at almost 50 knots. Roofus could, no doubt, swim faster than that, but in his mind, he was pursuing prey. At least I hoped he was. If he was more intelligent than everyone believed, I’d be screwed. He would want to hunt.

  A thrill, perhaps, every hunter longed for before consuming their prey.

  It would be like a game of cat and mouse with Roofus then.

  So be it.

  I checked the rear monitors, but there was nothing. Roofus wasn’t following me.

  Shit.

  I armed sweat from my forehead and slowed the sub to a cra
wl, keeping a close eye on the side and rear monitors. All I saw was the gloom of the sea at night and the sparkle of lights on the facility.

  I waited.

  Waited some more.

  “Where are you?” I asked. “Here, boy…”

  Nothing. Maybe he decided the sub was too fast to go after. Not large enough to feed him, so he returned his attention to the facility.

  “Damn,” I said, begining to turn the wheel and try again, and—

  I only caught a glimpse of a maw opening in the right-side monitor and gunned the sub on reflex. It shot forward, slamming me back into the seat. All the air in my lungs whooshed out. Before I knew it, I was in the trench and heading directly for the ocean-side wall.

  I cranked the wheel sharply to the left, but the minisub didn’t react fast enough. I was going to crash. And as fast as I was going, I’d be dead in seconds.

  Teeth gritted, I awaited my fate. I—

  Suddenly, all I knew was chaos. A tumbling, spinning, shrieking, flipping madness that felt like it would go on forever until it stopped so suddenly it jarred me out of myself for a moment. When I came back, I leaned over and vomited onto the floor. The space stunk bad, but I needed to gather my thoughts. No time to try and clean it up. Dozens of lights were blinking. The left thrusters were down. I was basically dead in the water. Maybe in more ways than one.

  Roofus must have struck the sub, sending me flipping off into, well, wherever I was. It took me at least a minute to gather my bearings. And time was pressing. Where was he? About to swallow me up? Shit…

  Eventually, the left thrusters came online and I managed to reset almost all of the alarms going off. I left the less important ones, like stabilization. I was stabilized just fine. The sensor would need to reset. And it would eventually.

  But where was Roofus? Once the monitors stopped flickering, I stared at them for a moment.

  Nothing.

  I repositioned the minisub, made sure all proximity sensors were on, and waited.

  I needed to get him deep into the trench, but I also needed to figure out a way to keep him there.

  Food. I needed food.

  All around me, there was nothing. His morning feeding wouldn’t be for another four hours or so.