The West Sea

Chapter 18: Lurking Deep

"At our current location, the incoming current will try and pull you away, so what you must do is press the..."

Trio Agapay cut her speech short and pointed at the platform where Dara was supposed to be. Everyone rushed in by the edge of the metal floor overlooking the sea, shoving each other like a group of hens in a feeding station trying to get the best spot.

Trio saw the moment Marcus pushed Dara. It was a brief, but he was sure Marcus pushed her in. His mind ran the scene from when he got shot and Marcus got away with it. All the vengeful thoughts he had summed up in a clinched fist. Marcus was going to get away with it again, so Trio did what he wanted to do from the very first second he got back.

As the recruits compressed more tightly together, trying to reach the small ledge and get a better look, Trio stood by the side of Marcus who was, without a doubt, still smiling at what he had done. The Sakai boy was unaware of who was pushing who with all the commotion, so Trio took his chance.

With a powerful and compact blow, Trio swung his fist in an upward angle on the right side of his body, just below Marcus' ribs, and where his liver took the totality of the piercing shot. Marcus tried to gasp for air as his body immediately felt the tremendous shock while his nerves locked and his body shutdown. The Sakai heir looked like a rag doll falling to the concrete floor, his knees buckled at the weight while his head jolted around in pain. Trio moved out of the way and by the time Marcus was on the floor, Trio was already by the side of the group, away from the fallen recruit.

One of the recruits finally saw Marcus on the floor and called everyone's attention, including Ms. Mathilde, who was busy calling for help with the platform comm-relay. Trio was at the edge of the group's huddle when he noticed Hugo staring at him. Hugo saw what Trio did, and both of them knew. But to his surprise, Hugo just smiled. The big, oafish recruit, who was part of Marcus' team of lackeys, looked at Marcus writhing in pain then looked back at Trio with an even bigger smile.

Trio and Hugo tried to hide their laughter as Marcus, still gasping for air like a fish out of water, was carried by the others to the Medical Bay. Ms. Mathilde, knowing that the Sakai boy will be fine, carried on and gave instructions to Dara using the communication relay built in the Aquanaut suit.

"I said, do you read me, Ms. Palilia?! Over!"

"Yes, ma'am, I can hear you. I was pushed over the ledge but I'm alright now. The current is strong and its sweeping me away from the camp."

"Alright. Press the red button on your left wrist panel. It will activate the hydro-jet of the suit and give you a much needed boost to fight off the current."

"Got it. I'm pushing away from the current ma'am. Over. Wait, what is that?"

Dara noticed a dark, looming object just by the end of the offshore bar where the sand dropped off into a deeper end. From her perspective, it looked like a giant metallic man with a glowing head. The comm relay was getting a bit fussy when Dara propelled her hydro-jet towards the unknown object; a gush of condensed bubbles floated a trail behind her as the hydro-jet accelerated.

"You... Da... Come... Over..."

The instructor's message was beginning to chop into a static noise when Dara was blasted away by a huge underwater wave that emanated from the strange object, sending her flying across the sand bar. Dara regained her composure and saw that the entire sea floor landscape was covered in floating sand particles, making it harder to find the strange man-like object. Once the water had settled down, the object had vanished, which drew more curiosity for the young recruit.

All of a sudden, two aquanauts grabbed Dara on each arm and drove her to the surface. They were the Aseatic Defense Soldiers that Ms. Mathilde had called when she could not contact Dara.

"Wait! Please! I saw something down there."

One of the officers responded back to the recruit, as if he didn't hear what the girl had to say. "We got to get you back to the platform, miss."

"But I saw something down there!"

"There's a lot of stuff down there miss, mostly debris from the aftermath of the war. Don't you worry yourself about it. Let's get you back."

Dara could have sworn it was something else, something new. The two officers carried her towards the awaiting platform that slowly carried them above the water, where the strange mechanical object was lurking through its glass concave eye.

***Thank you for taking the time to read my work. It would really mean a lot if you could leave some comments as I would like to hear what you have to say about the chapter. You can also vote and share this to your friends and help spread the story of The West Sea.***