I knew it would be dark. But this is dark.

I haven’t seen Jesse in over an hour. This sub isn’t that big. Benson and I are rather worried but we’ve been too busy with damage control to go look for him. Something hit our vessel and then there was a flash of light. Our controls and sensors had gone haywire. Fortunately, the rudders is finally working and we can at least steer. We have emergency power running right now, only turning on what is absolutely necessary.

“Perhaps…” Ben paused, “Perhaps, we should turn a light on so we don’t crash into anything?”

What were we going to run into? It’s the bottom of the ocean. Mel was working in the engine room patching holes and whatnot, not much more damage could happen without us just completely sinking and drowning. What I want to know is what hit us with such force to rec our pretty and expensive vessel. It’s quite the advanced piece of technology to allow us to venture so deep down into the pacific ocean.

I conceded to allowing our main headlight to be turned on, cutting the engine and just coasting ever further into the abyss. No one in human history has ever traveled this far from the surface. Both Ben and I were leaning forward in our seats staring out through the triple thick pane of glass, waiting for something, anything to pop out at us. Just water and tiny particles.

“Captain.” Mel came in over the radio. The two of us couldn’t help but jump and yelp from fright. “Captain, can you hear me? I’d advise we make the ascent to the surface. I don’t know how long I can keep the water out.”

“How long would you say we have?” Ben asked over the intercom. Mel’s answer was a grunt, meaning we should probably leave sooner rather than later.

“Is there anyway we can recover the video from just before the encounter?” If we could save that then I would have less of a problem leaving without having actually seen anything with my own eyes. Especially since all of our cameras don’t want to come back on leaving us blind to everything outside. Ben tried to call Jesse to check on him but there was just static. I busied myself trying to pull up any sort of video.

Just before something crashed into us there was a fantastical light show within the sub that shut everything down and then BAM! we were jarred so hard I thought up was down and left was right. To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure we were right side up even now.

As I rummaged through files Ben decided to leave the biologist alone in the front seat while he goes to try and find Jesse. I think I found the file I want. As I watch, I skip around through all five of our cameras to see what I can see if I just turned to my left and looked out the window. The only thing I notice, and I can even be sure of it, is that the particles floating in the water seem to react to a wave of some sort, like a fish had just swam by but that was it and then the video goes white to black in an instant.

I need to stretch my legs. I try to radio Mel to let her know I’m coming but I don’t get a response. I grab a flashlight and leave anyway. The corridor is dark and eerie. I’m not a fan but it just a short stroll directly to the back of the sub and around the corner to the engine room. I pause as I hear the sound of water behind one of the doors. Hopefully Mel has many more patches but she’s nowhere to be found when I finally arrive so I grab what I can and rush back to the kitchen and swing the door open.

“What  the fuck is that.” Water floods my feet in frothy waves. In front of me is a large muted brown piece of...flesh? It’s super shiney like that of a whale or dolphin. The thing is pulsating through a hole it has created in the side of the haul. All of a sudden it starts to thrust violently back and forth through the hole. After a final shove and shudder, white blobs ooze out and plop into the water. I know the look on my face is priceless but I am in utter shock and find myself slowly backing up into the hallway only to bump into something slimy. I jump and whip around to find Jesse. A blue skinned, slack jawed, drooling zombie version of Jesse. He just stands there. There’s a thunk to the side and I see Mel further down the corner, she had run into the wall. It appears she has come to the same fate at Jesse. Where’s Benson?

   It’s a delayed reaction to noticing one of the white blobs crawling up my legs. I only seem to notice since I can no longer move my legs. The thing grazes the tips of my left fingers and I’ve suddenly lost feeling and use of my hand. I can’t run. I can’t even swim to latch onto something as the giant fleshy thing pulls out allowing gallons upon gallons of water to come rushing in and the three of us to be sucked out into the open water. I grab as much air as I can although I don’t know what good that’ll do me in the middle of nowhere.

“Mom!” Ashley called out from the hallway. She hadn’t seen her parents all day, where were they? The young girl called out a few more times for either parent.

“Ashley, I don’t feel so good.” Her brother, Nathan, sat on the floor, hunched over as if he were about to throw up. The slightly older boy ran his fingers through his scalp only to stare in horror at what laid in his hands afterward: giant chunks of hair. Nathan did his own screaming for Mommy.

Ashley seeing and hearing the panic in her brother’s face leapt up to her feet and bounded up the stairs, taking two steps at a time, towards the dreaded office of her parents. She tentatively knocked on the dark wood awaiting an answer before headed in. She, along with her brother, had suffered many a punishment for entering the office without permission. After another round of knocking, Ashley cracked open the door to peer inside. Almost in a whisper did she call once more for her parents for help. No response. The little girl tiptoed inside to have a look around.

Although it was a decent sized house and the room she was currently in occupied a corner of their house, there were no windows. If she thought about it, she remembered that were no windows throughout the entirety of the house but the thing was so well lit and natural looking, she often didn’t think anything of it. The office itself was busy, plain, but busy. There were stacks of paper covering what would seem like more than half the room, on the floor and the tops of desks as well as tacked, taped, or even stapled to the wall. The kids’ parents had been more absent than usual, often in the office doing only what they would refer to as “work”.

Ashley couldn’t make heads or tails of what was on the various piles of notes and charts or the streams of information scaling the many monitors throughout the room. She climbed up onto a wheeled chair to get a better look at one of the computer screens. The thing had flashed brightly, catching the girl’s attention. When eye level, there was a computerized medical model of what looked like a young boy. Before Ashley could investigate further, he heard her brother scream so she bolted back down stairs. She froze once she hit the bottom.

There was blood everywhere and her brother was slightly further down the hall, still screaming as he was throwing himself against the wall, back and forth across the hallway. His hair was completely gone and on the floor. Ashley slowly approached in an attempt to perhaps calm him or at the very least see what else was the matter. The girl was only able to take a couple steps before Nathan stopped dead center in the hallway, head bowed, breathing hard, and blood dripping from his fingertips. Hesitantly, his sister gently said his name, his only response was to fall forward, his face hitting the blood filled floor with a hard, squishy thud.

Ashley stood for what seemed like an eternity before cautiously walking up to Nathan. He was completely and utterly still. The house was so quiet, Ashley could hear the blood pumping in her veins. Tentatively, she touched his shoulder but he did nothing. The beating heart in her ears quickly turned into a deafening, high pitched tone. The sound was so loud and ultimately painful that Ashley herself screamed but couldn’t even hear her own voice.

The poor girl started stumbling down the hall, past her limp brother. Hitting the walls as she was unable to maintain balance, the painted plaster felt like it tore at her skin. As she ended contact with the wall, smeared blood was left behind. The little girl blundered through the door leading to the kitchen. Her mouth felt dry and there were swirling dots clouding her vision. Bloody footprints mucked up the hardwood floor as Ashley floundered around as her senses left her completely disoriented. She didn’t even notice her parents come in from the garage, her father putting a bag on the counter before catching her mid-fall.

It was several moments before Ashley was aware enough to realize that her father was carrying her down the stairs leading to the basement, her mother calmly walking in front of them. It was just a few more moments after having noticed something odd that the man carrying her was in fact not her father despite looking almost exactly like him. Ashley was almost thrown onto a hard, metallic table. She tried to hang onto him, clawing at his clothing but he simply pushed her hands away and forcefully held her down. There was a sharp pain in her arm, she saw a needle and syringe in her fake mother’s hand. Everything seemed to calm down after that, her senses returning to normal. It felt like the skin she had lost upstairs was still there.

Suddenly, her fake father’s face appeared above her’s and quite close, he flashed a light in front of her eyes like a doctor would. “She lasted longer this time.” He said as he continued on with his examination.

“I’m still not quite sure what we’re missing.” Her mother started, “Everything looks fine, they just start falling apart after various amounts of time. I wonder what we could use to stabilize them…” She trailed off.

Her fake father pulled out a recorder, “Female subject 74 suffered minimal damage, only losing skin along the lower and upper parts of the arm and along the left lower calf. Senses seem to have disoriented the subject but causing no damaging long term effects. Will take DNA samples from mouth, ear, eye and skin for examination.” He clicked off the recorder, “ How are the new test subjects coming along?”

Ashley had zoned out, the effects of whatever her fake mother had stuck her with having already taken effect. She managed to lift her head, her parents apparently not caring, and looked to the side. Although the dots were gone, her vision was still slightly fuzzy and what was before her couldn’t actually be was she was seeing. From where she was lying, she could see about five giant water filled tubes with some sort of mass in them. Her father forced her head back down onto the table with an audible thud, Ashley thought that that should have hurt but it was just sort of tingly.

“I think we’re close.” She heard her fake father say, “It’s just fine tuning from here.”

“I am ready to move on with the next phase.” Her fake mother sighed impatiently.