Death at Sea

Only Darkness ~ Tobias

For the past thousand years, mankind has destroyed the thing that allowed it to survive, and with the Earth's death, the 25 billion people lost almost 75% of its population, leaving only a few million people left to survive. Now, the greatest scientists (who survived, of course) have discovered a resource that could allow the planet to start again, to begin anew. However, the said resource is at the bottom of the deepest sea, and would be guarded by the sea's greatest warriors: The Merfolk. Of course, hardly anyone believes the tales of the men who first tried to get the Oxygen-Carbon-rich oil, or to us commoners: Survival Oil. That mermaids abducted the only woman on the ship, and killed just about every other member of the crew. 

Lies, they said. It is all lies. But i believe them. My mother told me once that the legends are true, all of them, even the ones of the dinosaurs, and even though there is no evidense, its because of the earth taking them back, changing them back into the dust from which they came. 

So if all legends are true, then the merfolk that lived in the waters around the world must be true as well. 

"Tobias! Get to work! We have until tomorrow to get everything done on this stupid boat! Hop to it!" The captain yelled from the boathouse. 

"Yes sir!" I yelled back. Being the first mate on a two person ship was never fun, especially since i was the only doing any work. While the captain, all 6'7" of him sat on his butt smoking cigars and getting fatter, letting his beard get even longer than wanted, and not even caring what time of day it was. Apparently i was like a second son to him, because when he was young, he had the same dark blonde hair and brown eyes that i do, as does his actual son. Sometimes he even calls me the name of his son too.

I live in the belly of the ship Argonian Nights, named for the Argo in the myth of Jason and the Fleece. Captain Kirk Wallace took me in 10 years ago, when my mother disappeared like so many women when they go out to sea. My father lives still, only became the town’s biggest drunk and refused to even go out and get food. The only way for me to survive was to go and find a job, and never look back. Since then, I haven’t heard or seen anything of my father.

Later tonight, the best scientists in the world are coming to go to see if there is any Survival Oil off the coast of East Australia, where the surviving coral reef in the world is. They have chosen the Argonian Nights as the ship that will take them there, and will pay us more money than we’ve ever been able to make fishing.

Eventually, I finished the scrubbing and putting everything back where it goes. Sometimes Kirk would show up, drunk of course, and would trash the place. Last night is a prime example of this. The sun was setting, showing me that rather than spending only a few hours cleaning, as I had planned, I had taken the whole day. Typical me. The scientists are arriving, and with them comes more equipment than is even on the boat. Holy crap.

“Captain! They’re here!” I yell, to which the scientists glare at me. Geez. Its almost as if they aren’t used to having any loud voices around.

“Yeah right. They aren’t supposed to be here until ‘morrow, lad!” Kirt slurred through the door.

“Dammit! They’re right on time! You aren’t supposed to be drinking, you know what the doctor says!”

The Captain opened the door, looking better than I’ve ever seen him. His beard is trimmed to a decent length and his eyes twinkle in the twilight. “I haven’t been more sober in my life, lad. How’s the ship?”

“Uh… very well, sir.”

“Get the lights on below deck. We’ve gotta get the ship ready for the seas t’morrow. They say that they’ll be rough.”

“Sir, yes, sir.” I smiled and ran to the bottom deck.

**

“Man overboard!” Someone yelled abovedeck. Instantly, my instincts told me to go and hide. What is going on? I raced up the stairs to find the scientists crowed around the starboard safety rail.. One of them turned to me, and I could see the terror on her face.

“Please, help him! This isn’t natural!” She screamed.

Not natural? That would explain the knots in my stomach. “Where’s the captain?”

She pointed to the water.

Oh crap. “Out of my way! Get below deck, don’t let anyone know you’re there. Go!” I yelled at the scientists. The wind was picking up, and black clouds covered the entire sky. Thunder crackled softly in the distance. There was no way a storm could pick up this fast. The skies were clear just a few minutes ago. I pulled off my shirt, and leapt off the ship into the cold water below.

I couldn’t see anything, not even the streaks of lightning that I knew were streaking overhead. What was going on? I came up for air, and dove back down in vain. I swam above five feet when something hit my ankle. Why the heck was it so dark? Something grabbed my ankle, and yanked. More and more things grabbed me, and yanked me further and further until there was only darkness.