Hidden in the Depths

Chapter 7

Night crawled over the horizon, clouds floating off to the south, the bright blue sky slowly fading to a pleasant yellow. The humidity of the air gained to a wavering mist, a first for all the nights they have stayed here so far. Looking up at the top hatch, he could see little droplets and miniscule puddles forming at the edge of the glass, running down to form a circle at the edge once they turned too heavy.

But when Techno kept looking up at the glass, he could still see a trace of that terrifying green, now seared into his brain in a previous panic and now unease. Every sound, every movement he saw, a trick of his mind, making him see too large scales and bright, bright green.

Despite the obvious fear and panic and annoyance Techno felt towards what had happened, he was glad that whatever had messed with their pod didn't think of returning. If it even thinks that complex. Well, he would assume so with a creature that size... But size does not necessarily determine intelligence, so who knows. Doesn't matter, as long as it didn't come back, he was happy.

Even if he still did not take the fact Fit didn't fully believe him well, the safety Fit was guaranteeing was still better than being proven right in his terror. That though, doesn't mean Techno was any less jumpy about anything swimming close to the thick glass bottom hatch of their pod. Fuck, he was really starting to hate the fact they had a window looking down into the water.

"Are you sure you'll be able to put that back together?" Techno eyed the mess of cables, plates and circuits piled around Fit in some organized mess only he could understand. He had taken apart most of the radio by now, repairing and replacing whatever broken pieces he finds. How any of this mess made sense to him was beyond Techno, but he won't start complaining when Fit is literally the only one able to repair their radio. "About ninety percent, yeah." Techno sighed. "How reassuring."

With Fit busy and the younger unable to help him this time, Techno was left to entertain himself. He did so by reading all the scans Fit had made when hunting fish, learning about the ecosystem they were now forced to be part of. Apparently, the largest creature he had seen so far was about the size of a dolphin and according to the scans, not a predator. There have been a few, but all of them are too small to pose a real threat to the two humans.

Fit did suggest that maybe what he saw below the bottom hatch had just been a large swarm of fish who dumbly hit the pod a bit harshly while swimming by, but Techno wasn't entirely convinced that the fish would be able to get to the top of the pod to form a big, glowing green mass to stare down at him. Fit continued arguing that it was maybe his paranoia playing it up.

Although, the thought of a school of small flesh-eating fish wasn't exactly a calming thought either.

While one by itself was harmless, having 50 of them swarm you was more terrifying than one large predator. He needs to make himself some proper weapon soon, no way he'll leave the pod without it. Not that some makeshift blade or spear would harm some massive creature (that he was still convinced he saw), but maybe it could buy him some time for an escape or something. And it would be a help against the smaller threats.

When night came, Fit carefully moved and organized all the radio parts in one corner so both of them could go to sleep. The last bit of colorful dusted sky they could see faded to black and stars peeked out as the older got comfortable in his spot beside the still unconscious teen, Toby, snoring against his side, covered in Techno's jacket. He seemed well enough, face not scrunched in pain, so his burns shouldn't have been too badly affected after the accidental movement earlier.

But despite all the stress of today, Techno couldn't find it in himself to even just close his eyes for more than a minute, let alone come to rest. After he had just managed to find some small amount of sleep after Toby's rescue, he now had a brand new fear keeping him awake.