UNDER THE OCEAN (Original)

Chapter Ten: A small mercy

In the distance beyond the coral she was atop of; Jasmine saw a figure moving slowly away from her, lumbering along the white sand. A lonely individual. It was Sam! Running and jumping over rocks and crevices, she clambered to meet up with him. She tried to call out between her huffing and puffing but he could not hear her. By observing his pace, she knew it would not take long for her to catch up to him.

“Sam! Wait! It’s so good to see you again!” Sam turned and his face lit up for a moment and then contorted into a tortured grimace. He was too disheartened to be happy. “Sam, why isn't Sarah with you?”

“She's gone!” He was deeply distressed.

“What do you mean she’s gone? Gone where?”

“She’s been swallowed up by the abyss! I sent her to her death!” Sam fell to his knees and cupped his face in his bruised and cut hands. Again, he wept bitterly. “Gone. Gone, forever!” Through his pungent tears Sam told her what happened. He told her about the giant gulpers and the dead souls that had tried to grab them. He told her how the walking dead had been swallowed up, and how Sarah lost her grip and fallen. Jasmine also cried and told Sam what had happened to her. She told him of the strange creature she named Holly, which had guided her to the cave. She told him of the strange noises she heard through the night. Sam also remembered the noises he heard and their experience with this strange creature. Some things began to make sense to them, and yet many others still did not. They embraced as they recalled all these weird events and the shocking loss of their little sister.

After some time they noticed a small blue fish had drawn close to them and was looking at them in earnest. It had seven tiny spines along its back, which became progressively smaller as they sloped towards the tail. The small body was about the size and ‘flatness’ of a squished grapefruit, but flicked up on edge. Its big clear eyes seemed to be nervy about these strangers. This was the first time a fish had actually looked at them. It knew they were there, unlike all the other fish around. They stopped and looked at this freaky fish. It was still wary of them, but unafraid. They all kept staring at each other as if waiting for something to happen.

“Ahh, hello.” The fish actually spoke!

“Did you hear that Sam? It spoke!” Sam and Jasmine stared at each other, confused. Looking again at the fish. Awkward!

“I'm Joe.” The tiny fish extended his fin as if to shake hands.

“Ahh . . . ahh . . . Joe? That is an interesting name . . . I mean . . . for a fish,” Sam suppressed a little chuckle. The children both looked dumbfounded.

“Oh um, hi! This is Sam, and I’m Jasmine.” Clumsily, they extended their hands to try and shake Joe’s fin. Unfortunately his fin was not much bigger than a two-dollar coin, so a high-five seemed to work better.

“Hi!” Joe responded. There was another awkward moment. It is a most unusual thing to happen, one would think. How often do people talk with a fish? On the other hand, and even more strange, how often do fish talk with people? The children were stumped: they had never talked with a fish. What should they say anyway? although the children did not know it, Joe did have some very good news for them.

“Please forgive us, um, Joe . . . we don’t often talk with fish. So . . . how are you?” Jasmine's head tilted as she hesitated to speak.

“I’m great!” Another moment of awkwardness. “Oh, General Sabaoth has sent me to tell you good tidings!”

“General Sabaoth – huh? Hmm, who is he?”

“You don’t know General Sabaoth?”

“Ahh . . . no. Should we?” Sam and Jasmine were beside themselves with curiosity.

Joe's voice was grand, for such a little fish. “General Sabaoth is nothing less than the greatest General of all time! The ruler of everything! You must know him?” Joe was shocked at their ignorance.

“How could we know him? We’re not from around here anyway, we . . . ”

“We were just camping out and then this storm came . . . ” Sam butted in as usual.

“Yes, it picked us up. The whole caravan and everything!”

“We were blown off the cliff and into the ocean.”

“Cliff . . . caravan? What do you mean?”

Jasmine was quiet and deep in thought for a moment, and then she chirped, “We don’t come from the ocean! We live up there.” She pointed up towards the sky (or in this case the surface of the ocean).

“You mean you come from up there – from the land of the living?”

“Well . . . yes. Is there something wrong with that?”

“Oh no, no. Well, what are you doing here?”

“We don’t know; we just ended up here.” Jasmine and Sam began to feel homesick. “We just want to go home!” They said together.

“And now we’ve lost our little sister to that horrible black hole!”

“Your sister?” Joe’s expression changed as realisation dawned upon his little blue face (which, by the way, Jasmine thought was quite cute). “Your sister . . . don’t worry about her, she is fine.” Joe remembered what his good news was.

“She’s gone! How can you say don’t worry!” It was fresh in Sam’s mind what had happened to Sarah. He was irritated.

“That is what I have come to tell you. General Sabaoth’s horses and seraphs have completed a successful rescue and she is fine!”

“How could he do that, whoever he is?” Sam knew how strong those currents were. “No one could have escaped from that!”

“I can explain it all later, but first we must get out of the open ocean and find some shelter: it will be dark very soon. The damned will be out again in force tonight!”

“Amazing, she is safe. Can you take us to her now?” Both Sam and Jasmine were thrilled to hear the news, but Sam was the most relieved.

“Oh no, it’s too far, and besides we are going to need some help to take us to her. We need to wait for the warriors to come.”

Jasmine was curious about the damned. “The damned? Who are they?”

“They are . . . well I don’t want to talk too much about them . . . it . . . it’s too distressing.” Joe stopped and thought. He decided to tell them a bit. “They are people, like you. No, not like you. What I mean is they also come from the land of the living, only they’re not living anymore. All they lived for when they did, was self. Self-indulgence, self-pleasure. It's all about them. They don’t remember the General, or where they come from. They certainly don’t know where they are going either. For one last time, they are given a chance, although I don’t know why. They never make the right choice.” Joe looked heartbroken. “They have one last instance before they meet their final fate, final reward. They have been fooled. They think they are just fine, but it’s not so.” Joe did not want to talk about it; he had seen too much of what happens to them.

Sam had a hunch about who they might be. “I think I know who they are . . . Are they the ones who tried to take me and Sarah with them?” Joe did not know what he was referring to, and could not answer. There was more silence.

“So, where are we going to shelter . . . Anyone got any suggestions?” Jasmine asked, as she wanted to take them to the secret cave she slept in the night before.

“Where did you stay?” Sam did not want to go back to his pitiful shelter, not after his experience with all those things that made those awful noises last night.

“I’m glad you asked. Follow me.” She led them cheerfully right to the place that Holly had led her to yesterday. They settled down to a night of story telling and untold questions from both Joe and the children. That night, the same awful violence and depravity continued outside. It was even worse. The lost souls seemed countless. They could hear some familiar words repeatedly – as if it was the center of attention. It sounded like call, or fall. Something like that, but they couldn’t be sure.