I Among Dogs

Chapter 9: A Stroke of Luck(y)

"Detecting multiple leviathan class lifeforms in the region. Are you certain whatever you are doing is worth it?"

The all too familiar voice of the PDA's voice rang out after I entered this new area. It had only been yesterday when I had received my survived belongings from Andrew. The day went pretty normal other than Bandit and Chilli often giving me extra support and comfort whenever they could.

And after waking up not too long ago and having breakfast, the girls and I decided to have a bit of a lazy day which gave me the perfect opportunity to continue with my current play through of Subnautica with Bingo sat next to me and watching me play with a mix of curiosity and fascination whilst Bluey kept herself occupied with one of those fidget toys.

Said area I had just entered in the game was only slightly dark with the seabed being pretty bare unlike the other biomes I had encountered, save for a few flora. Though occasionally there were that few stone structures here and there including some volcanic tubes with smoke slowly trailing out of them like nature's chimneys. The atmosphere itself was rather quiet, a little too quiet other than the resonating hovering noise the Seamoth I was piloting made. Seconds later however, I soon found a fairly large crevice in the ground surrounded by some more of those volcanic geysers.

As soon as I was just above the entrance to this ground cave, I exited the Seamoth and swam into the hole to investigate. There didn't appear to be much in regards to collectables at the bottom, but there was in fact a sea creature egg I had not yet seen before. Intrigued, I picked up the egg but as I soon as I did that, me and Bingo froze as we heard something.

It was a distant roar, like the bellow of a huge beast who was nearby that sensed that something foreign had trespassed into it's territory and was already on the path of ridding of that trespasser. I remembered that roar unfortunately however after having heard it once before in another region. That region being where the huge ship known as the Aurora had crash landed.

Stopping for nothing else, I immediately jammed my thumb on the left joystick upwards to ascend back up to the Seamoth with the intention of leaving the area as quickly as possible before the source of that roar could make it's presence. I felt a little wave of relief wash over me as I re-entered the vehicle with the Seamoth's digitised voice welcoming me with a "Welcome aboard, captain." as I began to take off for the nearest neighbouring biome.

That was when one of them grabbed me as I was now face to face with my most hated creature in the game, the Reaper Leviathan as it's mandibles had a firm grip around my Seamoth and shaking it vigorously, dealing a huge chunk of damage whilst it roared at me, trying it's hardest to destroy my vessel and claim me as his next victim. Whilst I held back a yelp from the unexpected jump scare, Bingo gasped in terror at the sight as she clung tightly to my arm, I swear I could almost feel the side of her body shaking like a leaf as the monster finally but only temporarily lost interest in me and let go, giving me the chance to escape. I didn't let my guard down until I recognised the patches of red grass of biome I was familiar and knew was much safer, having made sure none of the other leviathans had spotted me on the way.

"That was scary..." Bingo said, still a little shaken by that encounter as I paused the game to rub her back to help ease her.

"Maybe I should play something not as scary if you'd like that instead." I offered to which she responded with a nod so I saved and exited the game and returned to the Switch's home menu to look through the library of games I had to see which one would be suitable for Bingo.

"Hey Nate, can you come with me for a moment?" Bandit suddenly got my attention as I looked up to see him standing at the bedroom doorway. I nodded and stood up off the floor, telling Bingo that she could play on my Switch but just remember to keep watch of it's battery to which she agreed to do as I followed the adult Heeler whom lead me outside to the family car as we both stepped inside. Since it was only me and Bandit, I took the front passenger seat as we were soon off down the road.