Chapter 47: Submission

I let out an undignified shriek as the three of us get into the cold water. Thankfully it's unheard over the loud splash.

"Next time you want me to jump into the bloody ocean, remind me to wear two wetsuits," Louise says, teeth chattering. "This is freezing."

"Keep moving away from the docks, all of you," Janine orders. "You should adjust to the temperature soon enough if you stay in motion."

"Easy for you to say. I've never seen Five shake so much. If this wasn't for Maxi..."

"Yeah, I don't think any of us would be here if it wasn't for Maxi," Sam says, and Paula nods in agreement.

"And Ed and Caleb and everyone else. We know Comansys is holding them in the Laetitia Greenwald, and we've got the exact coordinates. This is our chance to get them back, and a little cold's not stopping me."

A little? I think to myself. This is not a little cold. It's November, nearing the end of it.

But I'll still push through, for Caleb. Getting him back would be the best birthday present I could ever get.

"If our intelligence is correct, Comansys will almost certainly be searching for foreign vessels. Hopefully they won't be watching the water itself as closely," Janine says.

It's smart thinking. Even though it's dark out, being twelve-thirty in the morning, they still will be looking out for boats. I just wish this water wasn't so stinking cold! Maybe it's because I'm slightly frantic, but I feel as if I might just get hypothermia if I stay in here too long.

"Those weights will carry you to the bottom, where you'll need to move as quickly as possible towards the Comansys vessel, which is around five miles out at sea. If you haven't secured your face masks, I suggest you do so now."

I put the mask on my face, and it covers everything from my chin to my hairline. I don't exactly like the feel of it, but I don't say anything on it. It'll help shield me from a bit of the cold, which is pretty good in my book.

"The masks will leave your mouths free for communication, not to mention keep you from swallowing any stray particles of zombie flesh that may have dissolved into the water."

I hear Sam grimace. "Dissolved flesh?"

"I still don't fully understand how the virus travels through water. Better to not find out today," Paula says with a shrug.

"How many minutes of air do we have in these?" I question.

"You'll have enough air to get out to the ship, but not much more to spare," Janine replies. "You'll need to work smartly and with upmost efficiency once the dive begins. Now, let some of the air out of your buoyancy compensating devices."

Louise raises a pale eyebrow. "Our inflatable jackets, you mean?"

"As the device deflates, you'll start to sink. Are you all ready?"

I nod, and Paula and Louise both give their verbal confirmation. I'm shaking from both nervousness and the cold.

This is it. If we mess this up, the chances of getting our people back are slim to none. It's now or never. This has to be done perfectly-no mistakes.

"Then we'll begin." She pauses. "Oh, and uh, one more thing. With information from the Ministry, we believe it's not just a ship you're traveling to... It's a flotilla."

My eyes widen as my head goes under. A flotilla... not just one ship. That must mean there are hundreds of people guarding Maxine and Caleb, thousands even. How will the three of us manage to get them out unseen? What if we get caught? What if we get captured?

What will Comansys do to us if we are captured? I shudder at the thought. Will they put us under their mind control? Will we become blank soldiers just like the others that have been put under the control of the tones?

No! Stop. Janine has a plan. We're going to make it out. We're going to get our people back.

I'm working myself up again. I need to not do that. It won't help me. In fact, it will most likely hinder my actions and thought process on this mission. I just need to focus on what's happening right now, and take it one step at a time. That's what Caleb would tell me...

He helped me out a lot when I let my paranoia get the best of me. Him and Sam... I feel kind of bad now that that responsibility seemed to fall on only Sam when Caleb left...

We run along the sea floor. It's faster and doesn't exhaust us as quickly as swimming would. Although I think swimming would be more fun. The last time I did anything close to swimming in the ocean was when Simon, Jody, Sarah, and I went back into the Aurora to rescue supplies when it was sinking. Summer stayed on land with the people we rescued.

That was such a long time ago.

But still, it's best not to exhaust ourselves too much. We can't use up too much oxygen too quickly, or else we'll run out before we get there. That wouldn't be good for multiple reasons-dying being the top one, and if we manage to get to the surface, we'd risk being spotted, and we have no idea what to expect when we get to the flotilla.

"Looking good so far, Runners. Just keep running along the sea floor like you are now. It's the fastest way," Janine says. Her voice is calm, but it has tension in the undertones. She knows nothing is wrong right now, but she's not stupid enough to think that trouble won't come our way. I'm bad luck; Janine knows that.

But I'm good at my job, and she knows that too.

"You've done this before yourself, yeah?" Louise asks, and she seems reluctant to answer.

"Yes, a little."

"It's been years since the last time I did this," Paula states. "It was with Pandora Hayes, actually. The company sent a team of us to present some of its early research. Had a conference in Sydney. We skived off the last day of mixers and networking sessions, got a car and drove up the coast together, looking for a dive company to take half a dozen walk-ins... Oh."

"What is it?" Sam asks worriedly.

"It's just... I remembered..." She sighs. "Van Ark was with us. I'd almost forgotten. He wasn't much of a swimmer, but he had an eye for spotting fish. It was such a good day. Strange to think I have any good memories of him, given what came later..."

"That's the thing about bad people," I say casual. "They're not always bad. That's the scary thing. In books and movies, bad guys are almost always just bad. It's not like that in real life. Terrible people still do good things sometimes, and that's scary, because when they do good things, we relate to them."

"Why do you think this?" Janine asks, not out of suspicion, but out of curiosity.

Because I know people like that. I've worked with them-for them. I know bad people who did good things every once and awhile.

"I just know the world isn't black and white. The only good person who's always good is Jesus. And He's God. No good person does just good things, and no bad person does just bad things. That's just... not how the world works."

"It's still a shame," Louise cuts in. "If Paula had known, she could've drowned him when she had the chance."

"What about you, Louise? Do any diving in your younger days?" Sam asks.

"Fat chance," She laughs, "but some of those camps had pretty good swimming programs. Perhaps they thought we could splash out the criminal impulses."

"You're all doing well, but save your breath," Janine says. "Your oxygen is not going to last forever. Keep moving."

I do as told, keeping my eyes ahead of me, focusing on the mission. I have to stay focused. I have to keep going. I can't let my thoughts on the past get in the way of the future.

Just keep going. Deep breaths. Don't work yourself up when you don't need to.

It's weird, swimming in the ocean like this. The apocalypse has introduced me to many new things. This is one of them. I'd never even been to the beach before the world ended. Now I'm scuba diving so I can sneak onto a ship and free some of our people who've been taken captive.

We can do this. I know we can.

It's actually very pretty down here. I mean, I don't know why I thought it wouldn't be. I've heard lots about scuba diving, even though I've never been. I know just from what I've seen on T.V. that this is an amazing experience. I guess I thought that with this mission being so vital and all, I wouldn't really notice the beauty that's the ocean.

I was wrong.

I don't recognize any of the bright colored fish I see swim by, nor do I know what any of the swaying green plants are called as we pass them. But my lack of knowledge doesn't take away from its beauty. It's nice to see that there are still beautiful things in the world, even after all this.

But then again, my God is a loving God. He shows us through His creations, even in the hard times so we know He still loves us, and always will.

But the thing is, I can see the beauty of it all, but only because my eyes have adjusted to the darkness. It's just near pitch black down here. If there's anything following us, we wouldn't see it unless it was five feet in front of us.

"Wait here a minute," Janine says. "You need to decompress before you move on."

"Man, it's dark down there," Sam groans. "I can barely see through your head cams."

"I have a light," I say, grabbing the small light that's been hooked to my wetsuit. "Paula too, I think. Is it-is it safe to turn them on?"

"If you're not below the Comansys security watch now, then you've got no hope of getting to their ships unseen," Janine replies. "Switch on at will."

"Ready whenever you are, Twenty-three."

"Does anyone feel that?" Louise asks as my finger rests on the switch. "Seems like the water's all churned up here."

"Lights, now," Sam says urgently.

Paula and I click our lights on, and I gasp at the sight, chest tightening painfully. "Oh, God."

"Oh... How-how long do you think those zoms have been down there?" Sam stammers.

"Difficult to say in salt water," Janine says, but just from what I'm looking at, they've been down here a long while, unless dead flesh blisters and grows black mold quickly in the sea. A fish swims through the girl zom's eye socket as the corpse claws at us. Oddly enough, it doesn't move toward us.

"Why aren't they coming towards us?" Paula asks. "They know we're here by the way they're trying to grab at us."

"Yeah. One nearly got my ankle," Louise snips, and that's when I notice something tied to the zombies' ankles. It looks like cloth, as well as rope.

"Looks like rigging," Janine says when I point out the rope. "There must be a boat down here somewhere, anchoring them to the bottom."

Not even a second later, one tries to swim towards Louise, even though it can't see, since it has no eyes. Its foot is ripped off, no longer keeping it in its place.

"Anchored, my ass." She says. "They're on the move. We don't have time or oxygen for this. Swim!"

•

"Look at all those zombies. It's like 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' meets 'The Little Mermaid' down here," Louise says.

"Yeah, well, I don't remember the bit in 'The Little Mermaid' where Sebastian and Flounder ate the face off of King Triton," Sam replies.

"If I wasn't running for my life, I'd laugh," I say, sarcasm dripping from my lips as I try go faster while also keeping my breathing steady.

Can't waste precious oxygen.

"Aquatic zombies may have forms of camouflage in its hunt for prey," Paula says, looking down. "That zom below us has worked several kinds of native plant into its costume. In particular, the strands of rubbery, green kelp are woven between both ribs."

"Don't forget to tell him about the teeth." Louise's lip curls up in disgust.

"Oh, yes," She clears her throat and starts speaking as if she's a narrator from a nature documentary. "Observe the undead specimen. See how barnacles are growing on her incisors, preforming what could almost be described as rudimentary tasks."

"They're growing on her forehead too. Someone needs to cut herself a fringe."

"Of course, it's the texture of the skin that sets the sea zombie apart from its land dwelling cousins," She continues, panting slightly. "The waxy, almost melted quality is so distinctive."

"Yeah. Yeah, okay, we get it," Sam says in disgust. "Lots of bloated, rotting zoms down there. We know."

"But we haven't even got to the bloated part yet," Louise says, smiling mischievously. "Nice one, Sam."

Janine hums. "Dr. Cohen, bring your dive light 'round in the zombie heading towards you. On your left-the one with the reddish growths on its skin. Well, what's left of its skin."

"Janine, not you too," Sam groans as Paula does as told, shining her light on the zom. It's eyeball is hanging out to of its skull, only hanging on by an optic nerve. "You know I ate just before the mission right?"

I snort.

"Mr. Yao, I am trying to tell the runners to watch out because-"

"No!" Louise yells as a zombie grabs her oxygen mask. She swims back, but the zombie pulls on mask, pulling it off her face and ripping the line.

"Shit!" I curse.

"We've got to get out of here," Paula says. I grab Louise's arm and pull her off. We're going to have to share oxygen now. I take a deep breath and pull my mask off, placing it on Louise's face. She gasps in air. She had no time to take a breath since it was all so sudden; I have a bit more time.

I remember at the A.M.T.B.-the Torrencers, they would dunk our heads underwater for long amounts of time, since this was sometimes a form of torture. It was so we wouldn't cave if this ever did happen to us.

I can hold my breath for about six minutes if I concentrate enough.

But then again, I can hold my breath for that long when I'm not swimming. I'm not sure since I'm moving around so much.

Let's just hope I can give Louise a few minutes of air before she gives it back to me.

More zombies seem to be joining in the chase. I don't know were they're coming from, but I guess that doesn't really matter. What matters is getting away. We have to out-swim them, because I have no weapon. No gun-as if it would help in the water-and no axe. I might have a knife in my dive pack, but I'd have to get really close to a zombie to use it.

We're swimming up a bit, no longer on the sea floor, but nowhere near the surface. I can feel my chest starting to get tight, the need to breathe in becoming stronger as bubbles of air escape my nose and mouth.

How long have I been swimming without air? Three minutes? Maybe three and a half? I thought I'd last longer...

"Lou, how're you doing?" Sam asks.

"Damn it," She replies, looking back at the zombies chasing us. "That thing doesn't even have legs. How is it moving so fast?"

"Apparently the dead do well underwater," Janine replies through what sounds like clenched teeth.

Louise looks at me for a moment. "Here, Five. Take your mask back. We're going to be okay."

She takes off the mask and hands to me, and I gasp in quickly, my lungs aching. I think I'll have a minute or two before I'll have to give the mask back and go back to holding my breath. It's a few minutes that I'll cherish.

"There must be hundreds of them below us," Paula says, worry shaking her voice. "We can't keep going like this much longer."

"No, you can't," Janine says. "You're using up too much oxygen. Stop flailing your hands about and swim with your legs. Remember what we practiced."

"Runner Five, there's another zombie coming up neath you. Looks like it's got something sticking out of its chest."

I see it when I look down. It's a harpoon, wedged between its ribs. I don't want to think of how it got there. I twist through the water, and as it gets closer, I use all my strength to kick my feet against it, propelling me and Louise forward a bit and pushing the zombie back. I get lucky, because I get just out of its reach as it swipes out a hand to grab my leg.

"Here, Louise. Take my mask," Paula says, and I nearly sigh with relief that I have a few more minutes of air.

"We need to get out of here," Louise says once she gets a good breath of air into her lungs. "What's the plan?"

"You'll have to head for the surface," Janine says. "You're further from the ships than I'd hoped you would be, but you'll have to use the depth charges."

I blink in surprise. "Depth charges?"

"In your dive pack, Runner Five."

"You gave me depth charges?"

"Yes. Didn't Mr. Yao tell you?"

"No."

"How was I supposed to know?" Sam asks. "It's not like you told me about her having depth charges."

"You'd know if you had read the mission briefing, Mr. Yao."

He doesn't reply at first, but finally lets out a quiet stutter of 'oh' a few seconds later. I roll my eyes at him, tsking.

"Sorry, Five."

"It's fine. We know about them now at least."

"Make your ascend now and quickly," She says. "Runner Five, I'll let you know when to drop the charges."

I fiddle to get them out of my dive pack, my legs pumping in the water, trying to swim up to the surface. Paula has had to take her mask back, and in a minute, Louise will need my mask. I keep pushing, trying to go up as fast as I can.

My muscles are burning, and since I'm trying to control my breathing, my lungs are aching. Trying to hold my breath while doing this is going to be terrible, painful. Even right now it hurts, like fire is shooting down my throat with each restricted breath I take.

I can't hear the zombies underwater, and I'm not sure if that's something I like or something I do not. I can't look back, and I can't hear them. But on land it's terrifying when I can do those things. Sometimes it makes me feel even more afraid. I guess it's alarming either way.

I give Louise my mask, taking in a deep breath of air just before doing so. It's so hard to see without the mask. Everything is so blurring and distorted. I keep swimming up, eyes straining to stay open. I think I can see light. My eyes sting from the salt water, but seeing that we've been in darkness for at least an hour, light might be causing me pain as well.

It's still a bit farther away than I'd like it to be, but it's there. The surface is there.

My lungs ache, and my brain is screaming at me to breathe in fresh air, only there isn't any. The light is getting closer, and I am aware of the feeling of the depth charges in my hands. I feel as if Janine will be telling me to stop them any moment now.

Or at least, I hope she'll be telling me that any moment now. I'm pushing myself to swim as quickly as I can, but my legs are burning, tiring out. I don't know how much longer I can keep up with this speed.

"Nearly there. Nearly there." I can hear Sam's voice, slightly muffled from the water. "Looks like you're pulling ahead of them."

I'm trying. A bubble of air escapes my lips as pain shoots up my right leg. A cramp most likely, something that I can usually push to the back of my mind. But it's harder now since I can't change the rhythm of my movements. This is my dominant leg, so I'm starting to slow down.

"Five, the charges, now."

I drop them immediately, and a few seconds later there's an explosion barely heard because of being underwater. The force of it propels us upwards, and I nearly gasp at the sudden motion as well as the sight of flesh and bones flying past us.

"Ugh," Sam grimaces. "Look at those little bits of zombie just-just floating there. Is that an arm? It looks like an arm-well, if you ignore the spores growing off it."

"Here, Five," Louise says, "take the mask."

I don't argue. I take it and press it against my face, breathing in relief. But we're closer to the surface now, only a few feet away.

My legs are still burning, but I push myself just a bit more, finally breaking out of the water. The moonlight shines down on us, and I'm sure that was what we saw while under the surface. It still hurts my eyes, but I know the sun would hurt much worse.

But the dark is good. That means there's less of a chance of being seen.

"Oh, it's good to see sky again," Paula sighs.

"Good to take a breath again," Louise says. "And that's not the only thing. Look ahead."

I gasp when I see, nearly going under because I forgot to keep moving my arms to stay afloat. It's the ships. I can see them in the distance. They're all anchored in a ring, almost like a floating island.

"Praise God," I whisper.

"I don't think I really believed we'd find them until now," Paula murmurs.

"Can you see people?" Sam asks. "Is there anyone on any of the decks?"

"Too far away to tell. I can't see for certain, but we're here. We made it. If Maxine is onboard any of the ships-"

"Don't get ahead of this, Dr. Cohen," Janine interrupts, voice stern. "Getting you out here was the easy part. Getting Runner Five and you onto one of those vessels-that's our real challenge. And unfortunately, it's unlikely that we'll be able to solve that issue with a simple application of explosions."

Louise huffs. "Pity. I was just startin' to enjoy blowing things up."

"Start swimming towards the boats, and watch out for any, uh, chunks," Sam says. "Rotting flesh doesn't play well with the cameras."

"We're on our way," I say, eyes gleaming with determination.

"Hey, Five."

I raise a brow. "Yeah?"

"I didn't get to tell you before you left, but uh, happy birthday."

A small smile tugs at my lips. "Yeah, it is."

A/N: Hello, everyone. I know it's been a bit a bit since I last updated, but I have an excuse. I've been studying for my ACT and I took it Saturday, and Sunday I had church and I took my BFF out to eat as an early birthday present. So yeah.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please be sure to vote and comment. Thank you and have a blessed day.