Oh my apocalypse [YiZhanFF]

Chapter 48 - Island Paradise

For almost exactly three days, Zhan and Yibo had been traveling with their son and parents in a submarine to the mysterious island of Zhan's late great-uncle. In a very cramped space, they had tried to spend this time as best they could. Mostly by playing with A-Yuan, reading to him or telling him stories.

Twice, however, they were also allowed to the captain, who had a special highlight for the small group, but especially for A-Yuan. They could hear whale songs over sonar. The captain had said: "Now that there are hardly any people on the sea and fishing, the whale population will be able to increase again. Also those species of which there are only very few left. But that counts for all animals of this world. Who knows why these creatures appeared just now. Maybe they are just to bring nature back into balance."

These words got Zhan and Yibo thinking. They had, of course, long known through a scientist's assistant that the creatures had existed for many thousands of years and were simply frozen in a mountain range in the Arctic. But they also had to agree with the captain. Now that the creatures are there, nature and wildlife have been given a new chance to recover.

When Zhan and Yibo asked the captain if he himself had also had to fight the creatures, or the vampires, the captain nodded. "Yes. All of us, my crew and I, were aboard an aircraft carrier when the first attack occurred. These black creatures came swooping down on the ship out of nowhere and grabbed one man after another. We shot at them, but they didn't even care if we hit them. A few creatures managed to destroy the command bridge and kill the men including the captain. I and a few men managed to get below deck. Since the creatures stayed aboard the ship and spread out on the deck, we could do nothing but wait while the ship drifted at sea. And sometime after a few days, we heard noises and thought it was other survivors. But it were vampires. Men who had been bitten by the creatures and turned into vampires. I believe the creatures did this deliberately so they could kill us all. Fortunately for us, we were able to access the supplies unhindered. We also managed to make a few weapons, which we then used to gradually kill the vampires below deck. Still, we drifted at sea for almost 2 months before the creatures finally gave up and flew away. We managed to get the engines going again and night after night we slowly made our way towards home. When we finally reached our home port, everything was already destroyed. We looked for our houses and apartments, but there was no one there. Nothing but destruction and many dead bodies. We found this submarine here by chance when we all met back at the harbor. We decided as long as we could, we would travel around in the submarine looking for survivors. But our communications system wasn't capturing emergency calls until recently. It was my old comrade and friend whose voice was suddenly heard through our loudspeakers. And finally we knew that we were not the last survivors."

Zhan and Yibo could very well understand how the captain had felt. They too thought at the time that besides the group Zhan's father rescued and, of course, the two of them, no one else had survived. Because there were no distress calls. And on their way to the hotel, their first Dangerous Journey, the only person they finally met was the old dying man in that small town. Otherwise, they too saw only dead people.

On the evening of the third day, the submarine finally reached its destination. As close as possible, they approached the dock and decided to wait until dawn before leaving the submarine. Even though Zhan and Yibo are convinced that the gray creatures nesting on the island would not harm them, they do not know what it is like when they have young ones to protect.

But on this last night, no one in the sub was asleep. Instead, they were almost all up there fishing. They wanted to catch as many fish as possible to give as gifts to the gray creatures. And in the morning of the following day, the yield could be seen. They had caught more than enough fish.

Using a small boat, they began the morning by first bringing Zhan, Yibo, A-Yuan and their parents ashore, and then the many buckets of fish before the crew themselves also went ashore. They said goodbye to their submarine and the captain finished by saying, "I hope we never need you again. Thanks for giving us a safe home all these months."