This story begins the same way most love stories do. With two people drowning at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean due to faulty scuba equipment. When you’re slowly dying 1800 miles away from any form of civilization, the last thing you expect, is to run into a stranger in the same amount of peril as you. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of a way for them to communicate, other than wild and erratic arm flailing. They both knew that would be of no use. Their survival at this moment in time relied completely on not trying to learn or understand anything about each other.
The larger of the two pulled out a machine about the size of a desk calendar. Mind you, it didn’t look anything like a desk calendar, and the only similarity between the two was in size. A great flash of light came from it, then shaped into a cone to illuminate a small metal twig. After the short one was dragged closer, it then became clear that the twig was actually part of a painted tree on the side of a vessel. But like most twigs, the painted one had fallen away from the tree. The ship lay in two, split by a rock as it sank below.
As they moved, so did the light. They swam into the crack and then what can only be described as “upwards”. The light intensified as they hit a pocket of air, a room just below the deck with a nice view of the viewless. Climbing on a ledge, they took off their masks. Thankfully for the two of them, their survival could continue based on lack of understanding. The taller one, a woman, spoke in a language that seemed to have an affinity for the letter ‘k’. While the short blonde, spoke in a tongue that seemed to only consist the letter ‘l’.
Collectively, they could only piece together this much: They were at the bottom of the ocean; They were both there on purpose, most likely; They nearly drowned; No help would come; Everyone thinks they are dead; The man’s technology is more primitive; There is something very terrible at the bottom of the ocean. This last bit of information was known by both of them, but they had no way of knowing that the other also knew, or what the other thought it was. This would change after an entire year underwater.
To explain their survival, it is necessary to explain certain things that will never be able to be proven. It is true that the longest a human can go without food is around sixty days, and the longest one can go without water is around a week. However, with the amount of pressure at the bottom of the ocean, metabolism slows to a near standstill, allowing the human body to drink salt water, and ingest small amounts of proteins. Sleep also becomes less needed, since the day-night cycle is unrecognizable. It didn’t take long for them to develop a common language, but at the same time, they didn’t say what was at the bottom of the bottom.
When they ran out of things to say (since they couldn’t talk about formalities such as weather, lunch or dreams) they talked about what they came for. The man’s people knew of a hole at the bottom of the ocean, and any attempt to send equipment into the hole, would lose signal. They knew for absolute certain a giant fish lived in the hole, and sent him down there to die, sending a signal to them as his body was being eaten. The woman’s people knew of the same hole, and had the same problems. They knew for absolute certain, at the bottom was a volcano, and sent her down to find geographic signs to prove it.
Instead of arguing, they decided it was time to find out. They walked out, hand in slimy hand and found the bottom once again. Using the light to find the edge of the hole, they took a minute, and realized how much larger the hole seemed now than it did a year before.
At the bottom was not a giant fish or volcanic rock. Instead, a thousand eyes turned to see them looking back. At the bottom, was everyone else who adapted. The home for the abominations, the algae people.
