Tidal Vortex-Book One

Chapter Sixteen

Teal:

The swirling water batters against the underwater ship as Connor grits his teeth while firmly guiding the ship through the watery vortex. Reaching forward, Connor hits a few buttons, and our speed picks up, helping our ship slice through the swirling water. My fingers, white knuckled, grip the armrests for dear life as I flinch in fear. My mind whirls as I fight back the overwhelming urge to upchuck. Bile sit's heavily in my throat as I swallow my anxious feelings growing stronger with each passing moment. Steel rattles along with anything else that's not directly tied down. The underwater ship is holding up against the vortex's wrath, far better than the ship I came here on. Regardless, I fight anxiety over the similarity between the first traumatic experience and this. Internally, I obsessively repeat, 'When the sea's tumble to and fro, hold onto your heart and don't let go.' It was an old seafarer shanty that my father had taught me when I was eight years old, and our boat had been caught in a storm. I fixated on those words as I hoped that this trip wouldn't end in a wreckage. Just the idea of ending up scattered amongst broken pieces of this steel ship leaves me in a cold sweat. It didn't matter that I now can breathe underwater, heal faster, and have the strength of a siren. Life has taught me that worries are often not rational, and mine definitely aren't on this occasion.

"We are almost there."

Connor grits his teeth as he focuses on keeping his hand on the touch screen controls steady. The ship bounces around in the raging water of the vortex.

Suddenly we pop out of the water into the air, the blue sky being all we see for a split second before the ship's nose levels out, then falls back down into the water. Once the ship is back underwater, Connor guides it to deeper depths on the ocean floor. We weave in and out between the rocky sea floor, slowly decreasing speed as Connor gears the ship down a few notches. We come to a relaxed crawl, hovering in the water just above the seabed at the bottom of the ocean floor.

Looking up at the screens, I take notice of the map on one screen. I recognize it from some books I read while in prison.

"Are we in the Bermuda Triangle?"

"Yes, the vortex opens in the air and water here. Occasionally it sucks planes and ships into it, pulling them into our dimension."

I feel as if my eyes are going to bug out of my head at the realization that not once but twice; I have entered the Bermuda Triangle. The mystery behind the phenomenon is revealed, and it's freaking mind blowing! I wish I could share such wonders with Sam.

"Wow, that makes sense, I guess. Although had someone told me that a month ago, I would've looked at them like they had grown three heads."

Connor nods and chuckles lightly, his shoulders shaking.

"We will have to keep as deep as we can, so we are not detected by the government. I also will have to turn on our cloaking technology, making us invisible to the government, and eyes, but things can still run into us."

Connor pushes a few buttons then puts the ship in idle. He then reaches up, turning on the screens above his head. With the push of a few buttons on the touch screen, a world map pops up on one screen, and some other program pops up on the opposite screen. A low hum sounds after he inputs a code into the program. I sat twirling a long strand of my raven hair around my finger as I think over everything, I've experienced these last few days.

"What's that low hum? It didn't do that before." I glance around the control center for the source of the sound.

"Don't worry, that sound you hear is just the camouflage nanotechnology working to make the ship almost invisible to the naked eye," Connor explains as he grabs my hand. In shock, I clench my hand without even registering I'm doing it.