Survivors of Alterna: Final Run

Chapter 22: The Legend of Atlantis

Akikta laid sprawled out on the cold floor like a sack of potatoes, unable to muster the strength to sit up. He stayed there for a good bit, listening to the others' conversations.

Nakji and Callie were talking about their personal lives, eager to learn more about each other.

Marina and the snatcher, whose 'fake' name turned out to be Ricky, were discussing how to get back to the Residential Zone and regroup with the others. Marina also revealed to Ricky that Biggie was dead, which saddened him.

Akikta eventually got tired of lying on the ground, so he flipped over and stood up to face the white room where Subject 7 dwelled.

It had been at least ten minutes since the group hid away, and in those ten minutes, Subject 7 didn't do anything. He didn't scream, try to break down the door, or look for another exit. All he did was stay still in the darkness, which was highly unusual for him.

Subject 7 didn't even react to Akikta approaching the glass wall. "Come on, Chaska. I know you're in there somewhere..." Akikta mumbled, still not accepting the fact his brother was gone.

There was a moment of silence before Akikta lightly tapped his head on the glass. Oh, who am I kidding... If any trace of Chaska was still left, he would've come to his senses by now, wouldn't he have?

Akikta sniffled, coming to terms with the possibility that his brother was gone in everything but the physical aspect.

He sighed and slid down onto his knees, turning to put his back up against the glass wall. Suddenly, something fell out of his jacket. It was the tape recorder Marina had repaired for him earlier. He had forgotten all about it until now.

Akikta looked up to see everyone else was still doing their own thing, so he figured now was a good time to listen to whatever recording was on the device.

He brought the tape recorder close to him before pressing play. "Log one." A gruff tone of a young man spoke out, his voice marred only by the distorted static of the tape recorder. "It has been approximately one week since the flood. I've come across a voice receiver in the lower sectors, so I'll be logging everything in here from now on." There was a pause in the man's speech. "If someone other than me is listening to this right now, then you somehow got a hold of my voice receiver. That means I am either dead, or have no longer found it useful to log my entries. Hopefully, the latter is the case." Considering the man was speaking in clear English, the former was likely the case—unless he was kept in a cryopod somewhere, but Akikta doubted they had any of those lying around. "And if you found this recording where I think you've found it, then you've come to a terrible place, my friend. Not hell, if that's what you're wondering. No. This place is much worse. This place... is Atlantis."

It was settled. Akikta was officially hooked on whatever this man had to say. And boy, did he have a lot to say.

First things first. The man speaking in each log was a scientist. Well, his official title was Senior Genetic Advisor. But scientist was much simpler. His name was Paul Miller, which explained the faded-out words of 'ler's log' on the tape recorder, which he kept calling 'voice receiver.'

According to him, he was one of the 'unlucky ones.' What that meant was he had survived the flood within Atlantis. How did the flood happen? To understand that, Akikta had to piece together Paul's many ramblings to paint himself a clear picture of Atlantis's history.

Before Earth became inhospitable to humans, Atlantis was actually a massive submarine-boat hybrid. It being enormous wasn't so strange, since humans were known to overcompensate with big things. What made it strange was that it wasn't a military vessel. It was a cruise.