History Shows Again and Again

Chapter 14

May 2019

"We'll be out of range while you're down there." stated Foster on the monitor. "But a squadron will stay behind to keep an eye out for you."

"Appreciate it." Mark stated.

"All righty, Bowman," Commander Crane was talking to a crewman behind Zeek, Mark and Ilene. "Let's take her down."

The alarm sounded while Bowman gave the order to dive.

"Good luck." Sam nodded to the three.

"Thanks Sam." Mark paused for a moment. "We'll need it."

Zeek felt the sub move and tilt and knew that they were going down, diving deeper into the ocean, at the spot where Mothra showed them. He took a deep breath, leaning back against the table next to Ishiro, a little bit nervous about being in a submarine for the first time. He noticed Ilene walking to another monitor and watched as she began to go through the legends about Ghidorah once more. He tried to focus on what she was doing, to distract himself from everything.

"What time is it?" Mark suddenly whispered, making Zeek glance over and noticed that Ishiro was currently stroking the glass of his open pocket watch.

"Time to get a new watch." Ishiro replied after a moment of silence, closing it and slipping it back into his pocket.

"Andrew's favorite joke. You never took that watch out of your pocket without him asking that question." Mark paused, as if gathering his thoughts. "If you told me five years ago, I'd be trying to save the thing that took my son, that would be the only way to save the family I have left...I..."

Ishiro turned towards Mark. "Sometimes, the only way to heal our wounds is to make peace with the demons who created them."

"You really believe that?"

"Don't you? Isn't that why you are here?" Ishiro took his glasses off as he leaned back against the table once more. "There are some things beyond our understanding, Mark. We must accept them and learn from them, because these moments of crisis are also potential moments of faith. A time when we either come together or fall apart."

Ishiro turned so he was facing the table, putting his glasses back on and putting his hands on the edge of it. "Nature always has a way of balancing itself. The only question is, what part will we play?"

Mark stared at him for a moment. "Did you just make that up?"

"No, I read it in a fortune cookie. A really long fortune cookie."

"Don't believe what he says." Zeek cut in. "He totally has this book he writes these things in."

Ishiro gave Zeek a half-hearted look while Mark softly snorted. Zeek only looked at Ishiro innocently, everything just melting away from the three of them for a moment.

The moment was gone as the sub shook, making the lights flicker around them. Zeek gripped the edge of the table harder as the sub continued to shudder and rumble around them before he knelt down to grip at whatever he could.

"Status to the ship?" asked Crane.

"Some sort of vortex, captain." answered Bowman. "It's dragging us! Sixteen-hundred feet until impact!"

There was a bigger shudder now. "Eight-hundred feet. Emergency blow! Two-hundred feet! One-hundred! Twenty-five!"

"Brace for impact!" A crewman shouted and Zeek was doing his best to do just that. Then, it was black for God knows how long, the sub jerking as if it was landing on something, until the lights came back on after the sub had stilled, red emergency lights flashing and alarms were blaring. The screens were glitching heavily.