Scuba Diving Adventures

Chapter 1

It all started couple years ago before I left to college. I wasn't the typical 16 year old high school boy though. I lived on a barrier island in South Carolina called Fox Creek Island. There was about 10,000 people that lived in the county but only maybe 3,000 were in the city limits. I lived with my dad he raised me since my mom passed away when I was about 7 and my dads brother also took care of me. Uncle Carl owns a dive shop so I worked with him and I got to scuba dive all the time. It was one of my favorite things to do.

It was a sunny day and I was driving down the 2 lane road that heads out to my house. I dove a classic 1966 fastback mustang that me and my dad restored. "Highway way to hell" was on the radio as I threw it into 3rd gear and could hear the metal cylinders clanging around in the back seat. It was a beautiful sunny day and I was gonna spend it out on the boat again and that made me happy. I shifted down and turned into the newly paved driveway and pulled around back of our house.
Our house sat just off the intercostal waterway and it took us 15 minutes to get to the ocean on the boat. I parked and pulled the seat back as I grabbed two of the four tanks and headed to the boat. I put them in and secured them in with a bungee as I went back and did the same with the other two. As I was grabbing my bag that had my BC and everything I heard the door up on the porch bang open.
"Brett, where you headed today?" I heard my dad ask. I knew he wasn't gonna let me go to the dive that I wanted so I lied "USS Charleston today dad, I wanted to get the into the bridge today."
He looked at me and I could tell he knew I wasn't telling the truth but he just nodded and said good luck as I put my bag on the boat and cranked it up. I waved to my dad as I headed down the waterway to my best friends house.
I pulled up to Austin's dock and pulled the air horn I had and blew it. I heard crashing and cursing in the house as I laughed and watched Austin stumble out of the basement. "Yo, what's that for you asshole?"
I just laughed as I pointed to the back of the boat "get your drunk self on the boat we headed to the submarine" he stumbled on the boat as he grabbed a beer and looked at me as I pulled away from the docks.
"The submarine that Carl and your dad has both banned you from diving?"
I glared at him as I opened the throttle up headed towards it. "No were headed to the sub that's half out of the water!" I said sarcastically.
" Of course we're going to the sub, I got the nitrox tanks and it should give us both hour and a half under."
He nodded as he drank his beer and climbed to the top of the boat. I sat back and put my sunglasses on feeling the water and the wind go through my hair. I loved living here with my dad. Yes, I do miss my mom and i go see her grave almost every day but i'm glad I'm getting to know my father. I never knew him up until i found out my mother had cancer. He's a nice guy, when he's not drunk. Right after i was born my mother took me and we went to live up in New York City, when she got cancer she wrote everything she could about my father down and put it in a box for when she passed away. Soon after her funeral my father came into my life and i moved back here to the island. It wasn't so bad i got to scuba dive everyday and i only had to take two classes at the high school which i hardly ever showed up for anyways.

I started backing the throttle of as i saw the buoy and Austin helped tie the boat up to it. I cut the engine and hopped down as i put the ladder in the water and put the "Diver Down" flag on top of the boat. I started unpacking my bag and hooked my BC up the both the tanks and got everything squared away as i got it on and helped check Austin as he did the same for me.
Austin was probably the best guy i know. I put my mask over my face and put my regulator in my mouth breathing slowly and giving the OK signal to Austin as he did the same. I carefully made my way to the side of the boat as i did a giant stride entrance and went under the water popping up couple seconds later to give Austin the OK signal again. He got up to the side and looked in the water as he just fell forward making me laugh so much i had to take my regulator out for a second before a came back up and give me an OK.
I shook my head at Austin and his entrances he always has something new. I showed him my thumb down and we started descending down towards the submarine. I knew that both Carl and my dad banned us from going in this sub but i really wanted to go down in here. We reached the top hatch and i looked at my dive computer seeing that we were already at 80 feet below. I gave Austin the OK sign as we flipped our dive lights on and went in with me leading. We got down to just below the hatch seeing a lot of colorful fish going down the hallways. I pointed at one room and went in knowing that Austin was probably gonna go his own way even though we are supposed to stay together.
I set my watch for 45 minutes so that we have a good amount of air left unless we go through it faster. I started swimming through all the hallways careful to not touch anything and i got into the command room. I was going around just looking at everything when i saw a waterproof container that looked like it was recent and not been down for along time.
About that time i saw Austin swimming by me fast and he looked like he had panic in his eyes as i grabbed the container and started after him. He shot up the hatch and out of the submarine as i went after him pulling his fin to keep him from going up to fast. We surfaced and i immediately took my mask and regulator off.
"Austin what the hell?! What happened?"
He glared at me with his eyes still huge "There's bodies down there, like recent bro. We gotta get the fuck out of here!"
I nodded as i tossed the container up onto the boat as he got out first and i continued. I quickly took my BC off and stored my tanks in a seat as i cranked the boat up and pushed the throttle down.