Thalassophobia (A Subnautica fanfic)

Chapter One: A Rough Landing

Trigger/content warnings: Canon typical trigger warnings and panic attacks.

Notes: Not beta read nor edited. Also, new cover!!

Ryley breathes in ragged breaths. His skin perspires, his palms particularly affected by the slick sweat his hands produce as they shake. He pries at the door of the escape pod closest to him, his brain telling him to keep calm all the while his heart seemingly threatens to explode. Around Ryley, the blaring noises of the Aurora's alarms sound off alerting all of the imminent fate of the ship they had for months called home.

Others can be seen in varying levels of panic, some making haste for the escape pods on either side of Ryley; others yelling in fear and terror. It's a mass of anxiety and fear, the flight or fight- and in some other cases, freeze- setting in and running deep in the blood of everyone around, not that Ryley can notice it over the monumental task of keeping his panic from overwhelming him all while trying to escape.

After a few seconds of fumbling, Ryley manages to open the hatch to the life pod and crawls inside. With as much haste as he can muster up in his stupor, Ryley crawls into the chair in the life pod, strapping himself in with the lap bar. After taking a swift glance at the interior of the life pod- something Ryley had only seen once and through safety training videos for his job on the Aurora- he hits the launch button, sending the life pod plummeting down towards the blue waters below. As the life pod descends from the Aurora, Ryley can see through the glass hatch on the top of the life pod and what he sees causes his stomach to drop all while threatening to climb out of his throat.

Shock Waves emit from different sections of the Aurora, and arrays of bursting orange and red clouds followed by thick, black billows of smoke pour out of the Aurora. The noise that follows causes Ryley to squeeze his eyes shut and then quickly open them to test if he is seeing what is in front of him, bile rising in his throat as the Aurora begins to deteriorate. The shockwaves catch up to Ryley's life pod, both shaking it and sending the fire extinguisher in it off of its hooks. Ryley can do nothing but watch in fear as the extinguisher starts to bounce around the life pod, hitting first the ladder and then the wall next to a panel for access to the mechanical guts of the life pod. The mix of turbulence from the fall and the force of the fire extinguisher sends the maintenance panel flying from the wall, bouncing to and fro the life pod just as the fire extinguisher continues to do.

Ryley can do nothing other than watch as the two large pieces of metal ricochet back and forth across the life pod until the maintenance panel, seemingly having its very own vendetta against Ryley himself, hits the side of the life pod right across from him, sending the large, metal square bounding right into his face.

When Ryley wakes up, his eyes feel glued together, his body crawling with the ache of exhaustion. It takes him a moment of trying to peel his eyelids apart and bring feeling back into his hands and feet that help kickstart his mind, memories from not too long ago racing back into his consciousness and thoughts. His eyes shoot open and he takes in his surroundings. Hot, orange, and red flames overtake nearly half of the life pod causing Ryley to shove the protective lap bar off of his body, his knees buckling under the weight of his own body.

He catches himself on the wall, taking deep breaths and steadying his body as best he can before reaching for the fire extinguisher on the floor. The flames lick at his arm, and the heat is nearly unbearable, though this does not deter Ryley for long and he grabs the fire extinguisher, backing away from the fire before shooting the white, puffy foam onto the flames. The foam snuffs out the fire, depriving it of any oxygen. Ryley sprays the extinguisher until he is sure without a shred of doubt that there is no chance of the fire rekindling before dropping the extinguisher on the ground, and falling to the ground of the life pod himself.
Ryley catches his body with his arms, each of his limbs feeling like they weigh a ton, his body nothing more than a sentient, fleshy brick. His mind feels like nothing but a group of inky scribbles- curves and lines that may have been able to form a coherent image if in the right place but all were misplaced, both crisscrossed and tangled in the worst way possible. Ryley's body is in no better shape. His head pounds from the pain of a metal sheet colliding with his temple. Ryley grasps at his forehead, the pain feeling both dull and sharp at the same time- a cacophony of dead and damaged cells. He flops himself over onto his bottom, his back leaning against the wall.