Under The Lake

Lost N' Found

I was in awe. Nothing made sense right now, am I dreaming? We reached the surface of the newfound land that we were taken to and drove the sub to shore. Around us was a world similar to Missouri but everything was lighter, brighter and calmer. The trees danced freely, the green leaves were crisp and the people looked amazingly put together. But how is this possible? How do we go into a lake that has no connection to another body of water and somehow end up coming to the surface of another world?

"Holy..." We couldn't even speak, the oxygen was sucked from my lungs as I tried to wrap my mind around going into the lake on one end and coming out in another world.

"Excuse me!" I yelled to a passing woman. She looked young, healthy and full of life.

"Can you help us, we um...we just arrived here from Missori, the Missori lake" I began and the woman looked as though she instantly knew what I was getting at.

"Oh my! Newbies! Oh this is always an exciting time. Our most recent new comer was a man not much older than you. He's adapted quite well. My names Ana by the way" she extended her porcelain hand.

"I'm Ben, this is Julia and Steven. Would you mind telling us that mans name?"

"It was a weird one...Fred...no! No it was Ned!" The three of us looked at each other in confusion and hope mixed into a disturbing cocktail.

"Oh my...listen Ana, Ned was our friend. The reason we're here is because my wife died, well she jumped into the same lake we came here from two years ago and she never came back up. As we arrived here I'm thinking she might have gotten here some how. Do you know a woman by the name of Nicole?" I felt my heart pounding, I was closer to finding her.

"I'm not sure about a Nicole, I've been here for five years. I never met a Nicole. Maybe you can ask someone else. Enjoy your stay!" I was now scared, something felt permanent about this, like we weren't able to leave. I looked around at the people living here and wondered how they got here, what made them adapt to this. So many questions swam in my mind yet I knew the answers would never come.

"Let's talk business with some people, we'll find her" Steven stated before approaching nearly five people, all of whom never met a Nicole. Where is she?