Chapter 34: The Ocean.
『"Can you hear the ocean’s roar?"』
"Faster," Amara whispered as the suction force of the Clam’s feeding pulled them in.
Ethan nodded and pushed the throttle harder, overpowering the force with another burst of acceleration that made everyone’s grip on whatever they held tighten.
The submarine made a groaning sound as it moved through dark water, its jury-rigged engine somehow holding together despite its appearance.
With every passing minute, they moved higher and farther from the shrinking clam and eventually, the shrinking effects of the Clam’s Scale Compression Particles began to fade.
"Is anyone else feeling this?" Tova asked, touching his chest uncertainly.
"We’re returning to normal size," Amara said, watching through the viewport as the darkness outside seemed to shift, scale adjusting. "We’re out of the Clam’s particle range."
One by one, they started returning to normal size. By the time Ethan brought the vessel to a steadier course, the change was complete.
Hiro pressed his face against the small window, breath fogging the glass. "Holy shit. Look."
They all crowded to see. In the distance, illuminated by their submarine’s external lights and its own emergency systems, the Shrinking Clam had transformed.
What had seemed like a megastructure was now just a normal-sized giant clam resting on the ocean floor, looking almost harmless.
Ethan’s hands moved across the controls, adjusting their course. "Okay. Next stop, the Machine. We need to get back and get this whole mess sorted out."
Amara walked up beside him, her expression troubled. She pulled out her phone, the photos of the illegal mining operation still glowing on the screen.
"Speaking of getting things sorted out..." Her eyes dropped to the floor. "We let both of them escape. Gaius and the Warden. They’re gone, and we have no idea where—"
Ethan reached out without looking away from the console, gently grabbing the hand that held the device. "Hey. You still got the evidence. We hand this over to the Director and trust that they’ll handle it."
She sighed and squeezed his hand. "Yeah. You’re right." The weight on her shoulders now feeling just a little lighter.
For a moment, they stayed like that. Then Amara glanced down at his wounds and her expression shifted. "You need medical attention. As soon as we get back—"
"I know," Ethan said. "But we’re not back yet."
***
On the other side of the cramped cabin, Naomi suddenly pushed away from Raj with a glare. "What are you smiling at, you big oaf?"
Raj kept grinning, completely unbothered. "Nothing."
Naomi narrowed her eyes. "Keep smiling like that and I’ll wipe it off your face."
She turned on her heel and stalked across the cabin toward where Andre sat, deliberately not looking back at Raj’s still-grinning face.
Andre patted the small space next to him. "Room for one more if you don’t mind being cramped."
Naomi dropped down beside him with more force than necessary, crossing her arms. "We actually made it out of that place."
"Yeah." Andre leaned back, closing his eyes briefly. "Crazy."
Naomi’s voice dropped to a whisper. "I still can’t believe he threw himself in front of three RSF-4 grenades. He could’ve conserved his energy, shielding just her." She glanced toward the front where Amara stood beside Ethan.
"You know that’s not the kind of guy Ethan is," Andre said quietly, giving her a smile.
Naomi was silent for a long moment. Then she said, "I’ve sort of been... kind of a..." She struggled with the words. "A little bit of a bitch. About him and the rest of them."
Andre raised an eyebrow. "A little?"
She punched his shoulder hard enough to make her point and Andre rubbed the spot, smiling. "Alright, alright. Definitely just a litt—"
CRACK.
The sound cut short their conversation and everyone froze as the moment of peace shattered without warning.
There was another crack, followed by another. The hunk of metal groaning under stress like it was being crushed by an invisible force.
Bolts began popping out of the submarine’s hull, ricocheting off the interior walls as red emergency lights started flashing.
Through the newly-formed gaps, thin streams of water began spraying, then the gap expanded and the water got wider.
"This is just great," Hiro took a deep breath. "This is it. This is how we go... crushed like sardines at the bottom of the ocean!"
"What’s happening?!" Tova grabbed onto a support beam as the whole vessel shuddered.
Ethan was already moving, abandoning the pilot seat. "The integrity’s failing. Hull can’t handle the pressure."
"How deep are we?" Amara demanded.
Ethan checked the failing depth gauge. "Thirty thousand feet. Give or take."
"I knew it! We’re all gonna die!" Raj shouted, which did not help the situation.
"We’re not—" Amara started.
More bolts exploded from the walls. Water pressure increased and streams became torrents, causing the submarine to tilt at a terrifying angle.
Hiro fumbled for his inhaler with shaking hands, taking a desperate pull. His breathing was rapid, eyes wide. "Can’t—this is—I can’t breathe—"
"Hiro." Sophia’s hand grabbed his face, forcing him to look at her. "With me. In for four." She breathed in slowly, counting, and Hiro followed the pattern until they were both breathing in the same rythm.
"You good?" She asked.
Hiro was still breathing in that same rhythm. "Yeah... thanks."
"Everyone huddle up!" Ethan commanded, his voice cutting through whatever panic anyone was having. "Now!"
They scrambled together, forming a tight cluster in the center of the submarine. The water was ankle-deep now, freezing cold and rising fast.
"Ethan," Amara grabbed his arm. "You have a plan?"
He met her eyes. "More or less."
The hull buckled inward as the submarine broke apart and everyone reached for someone, anyone, in that final instant before—
BOOM!
The submarine exploded. Thirty thousand feet of pressure, held back by failing metal, suddenly given free rein to crush everything in its path.
And in the heartbeat before they were all pulverized by physics itself...
***
The pressure should have killed them instantly. Thirty thousand feet of ocean, crushing force equivalent to several tons per square inch. Human bodies weren’t designed to withstand it.
Even as Awakeners, at the level that they were, they wouldn’t have survived even a second. But in the darkness, a blue light blazed.
Ethan’s force field had expanded outward in a perfect sphere just in time, surrounding all ten of them inside just before the submarine’s remains tumbled away into the black depths.
The instant the shield took form, it strained immediately, hairline cracks spider-webbing across its surface.
Water surrounded them on all sides and it wasn’t the peaceful blue kind, but the absolute black of the deep ocean where there was no light or life. Just crushing, infinite darkness.
And somewhere in that darkness, the wreckage of their escape vessel was still falling, tumbling end over end toward the seafloor miles below.
"Holy shit," Sophia whispered. "Holy shit."
Hiro pressed both hands against the interior of the shield, face pale. "Have I told you how much I love this shield? Ten out of ten if I were rating shields."
More cracks appeared across the force field’s surface. Ethan stood in the center, arms spread, bleeding from wounds that hadn’t stopped bleeding while maintaining the barrier through sheer will.
"Well, what now?" Weesil asked, voice cracking. "We have no way of navigating. No submarine, no radar, no—"
"We focus on getting to the surface," Ethan said through gritted teeth. "Navigation can come later."
The shield pulsed with blue light as he pushed it upward agonizingly slowly.
"Are you sure you can maintain this?" Amara moved to his side.
Ethan didn’t look at her. His jaw was clenched so tight she could see muscles moving in his neck and blood dripped from his chin onto his torn uniform.
"Don’t have a choice," he said finally. Then he pushed harder.
The sphere began to rise through the dark water, glowing like a small star in the abyss and cracks continued to spread across its surface.
30,000 feet.
Everyone stayed silent, barely breathing, as if sound itself might shatter their fragile protection. The only noise was the creaking of the force field under pressure and Ethan’s labored breathing.
20,000 feet.
"Come on," Raj whispered. "Come on, come on..." From the cracks, tiny streams of water began to spill through the fractures, into their protective bubble.
10,000 feet.
A particularly loud crack echoed through the sphere. Water sprayed in through a new fracture, cold enough to startle and Naomi jerked back, electricity instinctively crackling around her fingers.
"Don’t!" Andre grabbed her wrist. "You’ll fucking electrocute all of us." She powered down immediately, nodding.
5,000 feet.
Ethan stumbled. His knees nearly buckled, but he caught himself and forced himself upright as the shield flickered.
"Ethan—" Amara reached for him.
"I’m fine," he muttered. But he wasn’t fine. Blood loss, exhaustion, and the sheer energy expenditure of maintaining a force field against literal tons of ocean pressure was destroying him.
"Just... don’t distract me," he added.
1,000 feet.
The water outside was still absolute black. There was no change in color or hint of approaching the surface. Just endless crushing depth.
800 feet.
More water leaked through expanding cracks. They were now standing in two inches of freezing ocean, and the sphere’s integrity was failing faster as Ethan’s energy reserves depleted.
"We’re not going to make it," Weesil said flatly.
"Shut up Weesil," Amara responded, her eyes never leaving Ethan. "We are."
His nose was bleeding and every breath he took looked painful. But he didn’t stop pushing.
"Almost there!" Raj shouted. "Come on, Ethan! You got this!"
100 feet.
Ethan screamed with the effort, blood vessels bursting in his eyes as he channeled everything he had left into one final push.
0 feet.
The sphere burst through the surface of the Pacific and shattered into thousands of twinkling blue fragments, leaving the group tumbling into the open ocean, immediately bobbing in the waves.
Amara surfaced first, gasping and treading water. "Everyone okay?" she called out, spinning in the water and watched as heads popped up around her.
The water was freezing. So cold as opposed to the warmth of the shield’s interior. And the sky above was dark with stars and a moon. But it was sky. Not a crushing darkness fifty thousand feet down.
"We made it," Amara gasped, still treading water. "Holy fishsticks, we actually—"
Before she could finish speaking, Ethan went under immediately, unconscious from the effort as his body finally gave out.
"I got him!" Hiro who was closest to him dove, grabbed him, and hauled him back to the surface. "I got you! I got you!"
Ethan’s head lolled against his shoulder, and his eyes closed, barely responding.
"Is he okay!?" Amara called out with a terrified look on her face. And as though he knew she needed it, Raj grabbed her hand underneath the water, letting her squeeze.
"He’s ok, Hiro’s got him," Raj said.
She took deep breaths and steadied herself before letting go of Raj and spinning in the water. "Is everyone okay!?" She asked again while counting heads.
"One, two, three, four—"
Sophia surfaced last, shaking water from her hair. "That was too fucking close," she said, voice shaking. "I swear to God, if anyone—"
Something grabbed her legs and her eyes went wide. "What—"
She was yanked under so fast she didn’t even have time to scream. One second she was there, treading water, speaking. The next second, just ripples where she’d been.
"Sophia!" Hiro, who was currently supporting Ethan in the open sea screamed immediately.
But the water was already empty. There were no bubbles, no thrashing, and no sign of her anywhere.
Just the endless, indifferent ocean, and whatever had pulled Sophia back into its depths.
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