The Ocean Is Much Deeper Than We Thought | CreepCast

Charlie Sheen is an icon of decadence.

I lit the fuse and my life turns into everything it wasn't supposed to be.

He's going the distance.

He was the highest paid TV star of all time.

When it started to change, it was quick.

He kept saying, no, no, no, I'm in the hospital now, but next week I'll be ready for the show.

Now, Charlie's sober.

He's gonna tell you the truth.

How do I present this with any class?

I think we're past that, Charlie.

We're past that, yeah.

Somebody call action.

Aka Charlie Sheen, only on Netflix, September 10th.

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Welcome back to Creepcast.

Today we are reading a viewer-recommended story.

Someone on our Patreon actually recommended this.

A person that goes by the name of Caldwell Fitzgerald recommended the story, The Ocean is Much Deeper Than We Thought.

Have we done an actual ocean?

Have we done like an ocean?

We did the SCP.

SCP-3000.

Oh, that's what it was.

I was wondering which one.

Yeah, it's been a while.

We'll have to do another SCP one.

It's been a while since we've done an SCP thing, too.

Yeah, SCP-3000 was just, it was an ocean one, but I think this is our actual first

story story, narrative story.

where we get some fun deep ocean horror, which is what I'm stoked on.

I love, as you know, I love HP Lovecraft weird fish people monster thing.

Wouldn't be upset if this skewed into a Lovecraftian territory.

There you go.

So the timer on that, one minute, that's 72 seconds.

Records.

72 seconds in the episode.

There we go.

Excellent.

So yes, this story is written by Richard Saxon.

Richard Saxon seems pretty prolific.

I'm not seeing any links to like a book for sale or anything, but he writes online a ton.

His last story on No Sleep was in November.

He has a whatpad story called The Crimson Nexus that seems pretty intensive.

This guy writes a bunch, and the story comes highly recommended.

So if you enjoy, we'll have his links in the description.

Thank you very much, Richard, for making this story and writing cool stuff.

As I think I've talked about on the show before, but as a kid, I was like petrified of the ocean.

Like I would have nightmares about it.

I used to have this weird nightmare where I'd be on like on top of a cliff overlooking the ocean and I would just be flung out into it like hundreds of miles into the middle of nowhere and just treading water.

I was always afraid of like giant monsters beneath us.

So this is right up my alley.

I don't even like swimming in lakes that I'm albeit the ocean.

I'm horrified to swim in the ocean.

I don't like the idea of something underneath me looking at me.

you know which is silly to think but i just always i picture like just something down there just looking at my tootsies as i i kick back and forth my fat thighs rubbing together in the water as I'm kicking, trying to keep myself afloat.

I don't like it, all right?

Even like the thought of a fish grazing my leg, I don't like that.

I was fine with stuff being down there.

I wasn't fine with things that were so big I couldn't really wrap my mind around it, you know?

Like, yeah, I see videos of like people in like Washington and they're like on kayaks and like a fucking whale pops up and does like, ew,

it would freak me the fuck out, dude.

I would lose my, I would lose my shit.

It would be unbelievable.

Now, here's my question: How do you feel about water snakes?

I just, I, I, I simply, I simply cannot tell you enough that snakes are my actual biggest fear.

What, what is, what, what did that?

So, I thought he was joking until he came to my house.

And I have a little pet, Kenyon Sanboa.

He's like that big.

He's a very small little guy.

Uh, Hunter would not go to that side of the house.

No, I didn't.

I'm like, oh, you're not kidding, are you?

No, traumatic.

I mean, to the point to where, like, I've even told this, and this is ridiculous, but because, you know, people like to pull pranks and stuff like that.

Like, and, you know, whatever.

I told all the people that work in my studio, I said, if any of you, I'm not even joking, if any of you bring in a fucking snake, I will, you're fired.

I'm not even, like, that's not even me.

I was joking.

Like, I was like,

I will never recover.

I slid

the passing mention to Hunter about

during tour, what if I had like a rubber snake or like a fake snake?

And he said he would end the show.

I would end.

The streamcast would be over.

I would end it.

It would be a level of betrayal that I would never be able to trust you again.

That's how it has to be.

What?

Did something happen?

Do you have like a traumatic snake

of this?

I don't think I even have like a snake.

I just, you know what?

The only pivotal thing that I can think of, actually, what?

Because it has been an irrational fear, but I just don't.

It triggers something deep inside of me.

They have no limbs.

They can barely do anything.

Well, that adds that adds, see, that adds to the factor, though, of I'm like, that's magic.

Like, it's a, it's a, it's a devilish kind of magic.

Like, you have no legs or no, you shouldn't be able to move.

I'm like, how can you, how are you coming at me?

But there was one very traumatic snake moment in my life that I do, like, I don't know if it's the root cause, but I will say it was horrible.

And it was that back in the day when I was very like young, maybe when I was like, I don't know, 18, 19, it's whenever the movie Andaconda came out.

Jennifer Lopez and Ice Cube.

Yeah.

So I was at my house watching it alone.

Well, like, my mom was in the other room, but it was like you had like a little tube TV in my mom's room.

Yeah.

And I was watching it in there.

And it was that part whenever he is wrapping himself around that guy in the river and he's like getting ready to eat his head.

I was so horrified.

And then the power to my house went out.

And it was

like pitch black in the room.

and I just I just screamed and I like dead sprinted down the down the hall and I was like

and I don't know why but ever since then like I think I think I had a fear of snakes before that but that was like a very just like a

horrible thing that's that stuck with me to where even when I watch Anaconda today which is an awesome movie it's like so cheap it's a good it's a great movie but it does unnerve me like I'm very it fucks me up big time but like you know stuff like snakes on a plane that's just it's stupid but anaconda i couldn't snakes on a plane still freak you out because you see snakes yeah but it's it's so dumb that it's just like it's not like when i'm watching indiana jones or something in the snake pit i'm like oh my

do they freak you out if you see them like in pictures or videos no no no no

okay just in person yeah yeah yeah like i went on a flight with my wife uh went on a date with my wife when we were younger as well and uh we went to the zoo, and she was like, went into the because they have like the little reptile room or like the reptile house, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I just like wouldn't go in, and like it was like it was just a very uncomfortable thing.

She's like, Are you really not coming?

He told me about that, yeah.

I think I remember that very, very embarrassing, and I was like, I think I saw pandas over this way.

She's like, You definitely didn't see pandas.

I'm like, I think I did, I'm gonna go try to find those pandas, and I was trying to play it off cool, but I was like

borderline hyperventilating, like

because also you're trying to impress this girl.

And I'm like, God, I hope you're gonna kiss later.

Wow, I hope she likes me.

Yeah, I hope she likes me.

Yeah, exactly.

But yeah, no.

The ocean river snakes, since you brought that up, I don't like them.

But even like eels.

Eels creep me out.

Eels are also just.

So anything that's limbless bothers you.

I think so.

Except I don't mind worms.

I feel bad for worms.

Interesting.

See, I'm the other end of the spectrum.

Like, I don't like spiders.

I don't like centipedes.

Stuff like that.

Spiders will bother me, though.

Like, if I see a picture of a golden orb weaver or something at the right time it will like bother me but it's weird like growing up in tennessee we had those garden spiders everywhere and like they would freak me out if i was too close to them but i didn't mind seeing them that bad um but it's weird it's like i don't think about spiders that much i can normally look at pictures i follow a bunch of accounts on instagram that have like pet tarantulas they feed But I will weirdly have like nightmares about them.

No,

where I wake up and can like feel them touching me and stuff, but they don't bother me when I'm awake.

It's odd.

Yeah, no, I the only thing with spiders is like I deal with the spiders in the household, whatever, but anytime someone says spiders or I see a spider, I immediately think like I feel crawling on my legs.

Which that could also just be, you know, me having a heart attack or diabetes or something like that.

But sure, I do feel it's like that sensation, you know what I mean?

It's like a phantom text or something from your phone.

You're like, did I get a message?

It's that.

So I feel like little, little legs crawling on my on my arms or back and legs and stuff like that.

So, but I understand that.

We're here to read a story, and the story is the ocean is much deeper than we thought.

Isaiah, are you ready?

I'm ready.

Thank you.

Once again, thank you, Richard Saxon.

Thank you to everyone supporting us on audio platforms, on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

It means a lot.

Continue to show love there.

And thank you so, so much to everyone who is donating over on Patreon to fund our silly little projects.

It really does mean the world.

Thank you guys for the support.

Yeah, also, we did, I got to put Isaiah through like a DD style breakdown.

It was basically a role-playing thing

as if he was in the standby me book and he found a dead body in the woods.

And I, you know, I'm curious.

That goes out tomorrow, which I guess by this point it'll be, it'll have already come out, but I'm very curious to see how people react to your

roleplay there.

So, all right.

The ocean is much deeper than we thought.

They told me you were experienced in harsh waters.

James said as he pointed out the pearls of sweat that had formed on my forehead.

Yeah, I do.

I replied, moments before hurling the remnants of a less than appetizing lunch off the side of our ship.

It's just that you look a bit green around the gills, he continued with a smirk.

We just met a few hours ago.

I've been airlifted to USS Orion, a sea lift handling abyssal transport capsules for a classified project conducted by the U.S.

Navy.

I guess they failed to mention that I'm much better underwater than submarines.

Considering the circumstances, his casual demeanor left an uncomfortable atmosphere among the workers.

They all knew what my visit entailed, but just like myself, they were scant with information.

All I knew was that there might be a contagious infection at the bottom of the ocean, and my job was either to disprove it or to confine the entire crew aboard the station.

As soon as we were positioned securely on top of the Tonga trench, we were rushed into the transport capsule, a minuscule vertical submarine designed simply to take us to the base on the ocean floor 20,000 feet below us.

Talos.

Where is the Tonga trench at?

Also, so it's saying that it's basically just a

so vertical as in it's just like basically a floating, just a diving pencil that's just meant to go straight down.

It's not like a fancy,

every time I hear submarine, I think of like the old like hunt for red October submarine, you know what I mean?

Submarine like a nuclear submarine,

like a like a war, like a war submarine, but this is one that's just literally like a fucking what I don't know, that Pokemon that's just a pod.

Just that floating all the way down to the ocean.

Yeah, well, it's like you said, it's just transport to what I assume is a base down there.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, the base on the ocean floor, Talos.

Which Talos also sounds familiar.

I feel like that's the name of the ocean base in,

what's that video game?

Soma, but probably not.

Talos, a man who protected Crete from pirates and invaders in Greek mythology.

It's a cool name for a base.

But the Tonga Trench is

in the southwest Pacific Ocean.

There it is.

And And it's the second deepest on Earth next to the Mariana Trench.

Interesting.

Anyway, not that that's important, but it's interesting to me.

I entered the sub feeling excited while also dreading the return to the deep blue.

It had been 10 years since serving as a hospital corpsman, one of the few actually stationed aboard a submarine.

Over the years, I'd clearly lost the natural sense I once had for the ocean, yet I longed desperately for it.

Whenever you're ready, Doc, one of the crew members said, patiently waiting to drop us into the abyss.

I raised my thumb.

As ready as I'll ever be.

Go ahead.

10 feet.

Twilight zone.

You do not hit the

twilight zone's at like a thousand feet.

The impact with the ocean lightly shook the capsule.

As we submerged, my nausea quickly diminished and a sense of peace washed over my mind.

I was back.

Outside the window, a few curious fish accompanied our journey downwards, various sea life attracted by the cargo ship, following to see us off.

James Pollard did the miniature sub, having having done the trip a thousand times before.

It wasn't anything new to him.

Myself, I'd never been below 2,000 feet.

Never had I been able to look through the window and admire the mostly unexplored blue world.

3,300 feet, the midnight zone.

Oh, sorry.

Okay, I'm dumb.

Yes, 10 feet is the twilight zone.

I was thinking midnight zone.

My bad.

No, no, you're right.

I googled it.

The twilight zone is, I think it said 600 to 3,000 feet or something like that.

Okay,

isn't the twilight Zone where the sunlight begins to disperse?

Yeah,

it looks like the Sunlight Zone is the first, and then Twilight Zone, then Midnight Zone.

Well, I mean, hey, what the fuck are we?

Masters of the ocean?

Who cares?

I like that.

What are we, Poseidon?

What are we?

Masters of the Ocean.

As we sink deeper towards the abyss, the last strays of sunshine vanish.

We had left the realm of sunshine and mankind all in favor for the domain of darkness.

First time in the abyss, right?

James asked after a long bout of silence.

Yeah, served aboard a submarine for a few years, but they never go very deep.

This is this is something else.

He smiled at me.

Well, you're in for a treat then.

We're going all the way down.

Tell us it's right at the edge of the trench.

Ain't nothing quite like it.

Any sea life once curious about our sub had long since retreated towards brighter areas.

The rapidly increasing pressure had proven hostile to most, but some resilient little creatures had found a way to thrive in places once thought to be lifeless.

Miracles of the ocean.

Within an hour, we had reached a depth of 10,000 feet.

Beyond the 15-inch glass pane separating us from certain death lied nothing but everlasting darkness.

For all we knew, the two of us could have been all that existed in that void.

If not for the sound of the outer hull settling under the pressure, a constant reminder about the vastness of the ocean.

To distract myself from the unsettling creaking sound, I asked James about the only thing I could think about.

Hey, is that the Titanic?

I had the thought when they were talking about submarine pressure.

I was like, huh, that kind of reminds me of another.

Yeah, it's impossible.

It's impossible to think.

Yeah.

Well, it'll be like that, you know, I think, forever.

What a wild.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's a true fucking horror story.

I've watched some documentaries about that.

Man, that's an actual horror story, man.

Instantaneously.

Like, before their brains could process what was happening, they were all dead.

Yeah.

Well, I mean,

the horror is just like not going by like.

Just like all the guidelines and stuff.

I mean, like, ignoring hole breaches, cracks, all kinds of stuff.

Yeah.

Also, the whole thing, I think, was made of carbon fiber, which was like people said was like not a good metal to use, but whatever.

Why don't you tell me more about what happened down there?

James had acted casual that far, but my question quickly changed his nonchalant expression to a frown.

They brooched you on the surface, didn't they?

Of course, but then they'll have to do.

He said firmly.

13,100 feet.

The abyssal zone.

The world outside hypnotized me.

Staring so far into nothing, knowing there could be a full world only a couple of feet before you was bizarre.

I never experienced true darkness until that day, and to think a good portion of Earth's life had existed within it for millions of years terrified me.

When I served aboard the USS Catatia, my captain explained why they don't put windows on submarines.

He told stories about shipmates going crazy after years at sea.

The isolation or distance from the mainland never bothered any of them.

He firmly believed that staring into the ocean and pondering its secrets was what truly drove men from their sanity.

To combat this, they never put windows on their vessels.

Though it was clearly a tale he made up, seeing what truly lies beyond the surface brought back these memories.

Maybe he was right after all.

My sinister thoughts were interrupted by a dim light appearing in the distance, a red dot dancing blissfully up and down, getting close to our little sub.

It was a jellyfish.

Would you look at that?

James said as he pointed at the little creature.

So fragile, yet defying the deep-sea pressure.

Another light joined in.

A few more.

Before long, a symphony of pulsating crimson lights formed around our capsule, welcoming us with the warmth of thousands of stars, making up their own little galaxy thousands of feet below the surface.

That's a beautiful description.

It was the most magnificent thing I'd ever seen.

A bloom of jellyfish happily existing in such hostile conditions.

I couldn't help but feel impressed.

They're called the tolled

It's like it's it's it is meant to be like lucky where you're like, well, it's really beautiful, but also to me, that's also uh

It they are like kind of like the same like birds flying away from danger or whatever, you know that kind of thing like what what do you mean you've never seen this before?

What does that mean?

Listen, Doc,

I'm sorry about that outburst earlier.

I turned towards him turning my back to the darkness for the first time.

It made me feel vulnerable.

You gotta understand this this ain't something we usually deal with.

And Mike, well, I've known him for most of my life.

I know how much this sucks, believe me.

I'm just trying to get as much info as possible for all our sakes.

Yeah, well, there's nothing I can tell you anyway.

The airlock has been on lockdown for the past two days, and we've been under strict orders not to open it until you deem it safe to do so.

I didn't ask any further questions.

I dealt with contagions ever since leaving the Navy, and 90% of the time, they were simple overreactions.

19,700 feet.

The ocean basin.

For the first time since we left the ship, the radio came to life, emitting a static sound, one that slowly took the shape of a man's voice.

The radio started breaking up.

And then shut off completely.

Welcome to the Abyssal Zone.

The radio has been acting strange lately.

Imagine giving us a state-of-the-art station.

What comes from last millennium.

Through the window, we could see a massive dome lit up by hundreds of lights.

Three paths stretched from its center, each lit up by different colors, making sectors A, B, and C.

There was something else lit up by station's lights.

At first, just obscured figures leaving shadows in the sand, but as we got closer, I realized they were fish.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of dead sea creatures littering the ocean bed, corpses mangled from the intense pressure.

Ooh, I like that.

Interesting.

I do like that.

That's this is going to be very.

Have you heard of the bloop before?

The like the noise that was heard.

It reminds me of that.

Yeah.

have you ever also while we're talking about have you ever seen this before hold on you i'm gonna send this to you also do you want to describe the bloop should we describe the bloop for the viewers that yeah so there is this sound that was heard on a uh audio recording in the pacific i think um in like 2008 2009 and it was like this like loud

deep like blue like a noise that was picked up on mics that were like thousand a thousand miles apart from each other.

so whatever made that noise was like way bigger than a whale or something like that um now the realistic

like to be lame the thing it probably was was like underwater tectonic plates shifting and creating the noise uh but the fun answer is that it's a sea creature at the bottom of the ocean that's larger than anything we have on record um so there's a bunch of stories of like you know these deep underwater ocean noises so it seems like it's kind of playing into that idea although it doesn't have to be the bloop i mean it's not super state-of-the-art to say there's a weird noise coming from underwater, right?

Especially like, as you said, the idea of things being drawn down here, dare I say, does feel quite Lovecraftian.

A fun Love Craft.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I was scrolling through.

That's why I was kind of late to respond, but this website, we'll leave a link to it.

He basically

sent me a link that's neil.fun slash deepsea, but you're able to just scroll through the deep and just kind of see the fish that exist down there.

Very entertaining while reading this.

And I will say, I agree.

I think that

the

basically like a siren call, like a Lovecraftian siren call to even the fish is just really interesting.

It's just a concept for a story.

But little, I really like how the story is giving us little bits of

little bits of exposition.

without ever being too intrusive, you know?

It's just kind of a little back and forth.

You can tell James is just like wanting to help his buddy down there, but you can tell it's just the the layer of commands are making it kind of awkward even uh james is like doesn't know what's going on and even the doc or main character is kind of i don't think it's fully been brought in on what is going on i think so a lot of people probably seen this website it like gets famous on tick tock from time to time you can actually see the atolla jellyfish on here around 4 000 meters um

this thing puts into insane perspective how deep the ocean is.

You'll randomly be scrolling and see like, oh, well, this is how far like

sperm whales dive.

And it's like after you've been in the midnight zone for a long time.

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It really does mean the most, and we are back to the episode.

The docking process in itself took quite some time.

The outer hull had changed ever so slightly due to the high pressure, just enough so that fitting into the station proved a challenge.

As the doors finally opened, I stumbled outside the capsule, greeted by three of the crew members aboard.

You're the doctor, right?

The oldest of them asked.

That's correct.

I said as he reached out his hand to introduce himself.

The name's Robert Lewis.

I'm the captain assigned to Talos.

He said as he shook my hand.

Thank you for coming this far.

I know it's not the most pleasant journey.

He seemed polite enough, though clearly sleep-deprived.

Bloodshot eyes and greasy hair.

This is Jennifer Burke, one of our biologists, and that's Henry Gale, our technician.

They both shook my hand, neither making eye contact as they did.

Hey, Cap, where's Abby?

Still at Section B.

She's not doing too well, as I'm sure you can understand.

James nodded.

Let's talk, Robert said as he gestured for me to follow.

The hallways were narrow, dimly lit up with lights that flickered and constant creaking emitting from the walls.

It looked disproportionate considering how large it had all seemed from the outside, and as a rather tall guy, I had to crouch down to keep my head from knocking into the ceiling.

I'm sorry about the grim mood.

It's the first time we're dealing with something like this.

I'm assuming they told you about the situation on the surface, or they did, but I have to admit I'm a bit fuzzy on the details.

As are we.

Mike put himself in lockdown as soon as he returned to the station, and we haven't had clearance to open it yet.

He Mike didn't give any good reasons?

He never got the chance.

He fell over dead the second he hit the button.

Robert led us into the central dome.

In contrast to the hallways, it was a pleasant surprise.

A large living space filled with furniture and personal effects.

Had I not known better, I could have believed we were still on the surface.

Mike discovered some microorganisms down in the trench.

A new type of parasite, he said.

He claimed they were able to withstand any amount of pressure, which isn't a surprise down here, but he also explained that we were completely unaffected by rapid changes in the environment.

Robert said as we headed inside an office.

Did he believe he was contagious?

Seeing as he was our microbiologist, I can't really come up with any fallible conclusion.

Needless to say, we destroyed all the samples, but we still don't know why he put himself into lockdown.

But that's not the strangest thing.

I waited patiently for him to continue.

While I tried to form words, he clearly had trouble believing himself.

We lost him in the trench for three entire days.

The tracking systems failed and the comms went down.

We did whatever we could, but it was futile.

Even if we had found him, he only had enough oxygen for ten hours, so we unfortunately just presumed he had died.

Then, Then, out of nowhere, his tracker reappeared on our systems, showing that he was moving back up to the Tonga elevator.

And though he never responded to any of our attempts at contacting him, he was clearly alive.

How?

It's impossible, but it had happened.

Once we led him to the station, he simply locked it down and fell over dead on the ground.

Interesting.

How fucked up would that be, by the way?

Three days, you're going to 10 hours of oxygen, okay?

Three days, and then all of a sudden you reappear.

So he was missing, reappears, comes back up, locks himself down, or locks the door, and just immediately dies.

Very, very fucked.

Fuck that.

I'd be like, send down one of those fucking pods.

I'm getting, get me out.

Get me the fuck out.

Put me on that little tampon you got.

The tampon.

The fucking metal tube.

Shoot me up, doc.

Man, what an interesting concept.

Kind of like this mystery happening at a super high-tech underwater base.

Before Robert could continue, Technician walked into the office.

When you examine him, be careful not to damage the EPM suit.

It's highly...

This is hardly the time, Henry.

Robert commanded, glaring at him.

I'm just saying this is a billion-dollar project.

Why don't you get the equipment for a doctor here?

Robert demanded, getting more agitated by the minute.

Look, Captain.

If you just let me get into the airlock, I could take all the necessary precautions.

Absolutely not.

Do you think the headquarters would have set the damn CDC if they thought we couldn't handle it?

For Christ's sakes, Henry, know your limits.

The technician left and quickly returned with a modified hazmat suit and some surgical supplies.

We moved on towards Section B.

Unlike the hallways we had traversed before, these were large and well lit up.

As we arrived at the airlock, we found Abby standing before the glass door, staring longingly at Mike's lifeless body.

Abby,

I know, I know it's time.

She responded as she turned around.

Oh, you're the doctor?

She asked, her eyes red and voice trembling.

I nodded.

You'll figure out what did this to him, won't you?

I just don't understand.

Abby, why don't you come with me while they work?

You don't need to see this.

As Robert led her back to the central dome, Henry started unpacking the card to medical supplies, including isolation drapes and the hazmat suit.

Alright, I'm gonna guide you through this.

No need to mess up a perfectly good EPM suit.

What does EPM mean anyway?

Exoskeletal pressure modulator.

Henry said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

James and Jennifer helped me seal the hazmat suit while Henry hung up the isolation drapes.

I stepped through while Jennifer entered a code behind me to open the airlock.

My ears popped as they sealed the door shut behind me.

Both the drapes and airlock were transparent, meaning they could observe everything I did.

In addition to a mounted camera on my shoulder for closer view, displayed on a monitor on the other side.

Just by the control panel, Mike lied dead, wearing a massive black suit, looking more like a robotic piece of machinery than diver's gear.

There were several cables and hooks hanging from the ceiling, and just turning him over was a massive task as he weighed about half a ton wearing the suit.

His face was pale as sheet, with thin streaks of blood pouring from every available orifice.

The eyes were red from conjunctival bleeding, completely ridding them from any white.

Look for any breaches in the integrity.

It shouldn't be possible, but in the unlikely event that something broke through, a self-healing mesh should have formed.

It looks kind of gray.

I looked over every inch of his suit from top to bottom.

There!

His feet!

Sure enough, there was a patch of gray that stood out from the matte black metal covering the rest of him.

Something actually perforated his suit.

I got closer, giving giving them a better view on the monitor.

Clearly, the puncture wasn't what killed him, though.

I'd agree with that assessment.

Any breach not sealed off within a nanosecond would immediately crush him, but it seemed that the mesh had replaced whatever penetrated the suit at the same time as it was removed.

Next, attach the cables to his shoulder.

They are color-coded, so it should be easy enough.

I attached the cables as instructed, which caused the suit to light up and start unhinging.

The front of the suit opened up, revealing Mike's completely mangled body.

Mike's ribs were broken outwards.

They had not torn apart his flesh.

His chest seemed to have expanded almost twice its normal size.

I continued to remove the helmet, pulling it off his head.

I looked into his eyes for a brief moment, baffled as to what could have caused his internal organs to essentially explode.

For the briefest of moments, it seemed like his eyes moved to meet my gaze.

Did you just see that?

No one said a word.

Y'all just stared at Mike.

That's fucking crazy.

I just stared at Mike.

It's like the eyes are completely red from all the blood.

And

like his chest is huge.

And he looks at you really quick.

Yeah, Maria, you think it's like, did I picture that or did it actually happen?

You know, I love this setting.

A super like futuristic high-tech underwater base.

And there's like a quote-unquote disease that killed this guy.

And they're doing a you're saying super high tech i'm thinking like

i like i guess like less futuristic and high tech and more like something that you would see today it's almost like whenever you see like a the nasa like a nasa space station it's very like i don't know like the ex the exposed cords and stuff like it's not as like it's not like star trek you know what i mean it's very kind of like bare bones i mean it's high-tech in the way that it's a device that's up in you know up in the stars but i don't know like i'm picturing this thing of like graded metal and just even like the terrifying sounds of like creaking metal moving, like

just kind of like existing outside is fucking me up.

Like, claustrophobic.

I'm not thinking of it as like high sci-fi.

In my head, it's like there's certainly some sci-fi elements, like the self-healing mesh and like the exoskeleton suit and stuff.

But are you familiar with the video game Soma?

No, uh-uh.

It's this video game where you're like at the bottom of the ocean after like there's been a plague that's wiped out humanity or whatever.

But the aesthetics from that game are what I'm imagining.

So like a bunch of exposed pipes, everything's kind of in a state of decay.

Yeah, I'm looking at it.

Yeah.

That's kind of where I picture this in my head.

No one said a word.

We all just stared at Mike, waiting for something to happen.

His eyes moved again, darting in random directions as he started gargling, violently contracting his chest.

Oh God, he's still alive!

Jennifer asked.

He opened his mouth, letting thousands of massive worms pour out onto the floor.

They immediately crawled in every direction, up the walls, onto the ceiling, desperately searching for a way out.

Mike continued to spew out more slimy worms.

His mouth tore open in the process, leaving his jaw completely unhinged before falling off.

Once all the worms seemed to have exited his corpse, his chest tore open, revealing even larger worms.

It quickly became apparent that all of his organs had been consumed, replaced with the disgusting creatures.

Some of them started clinging to my suit as I swatted at them in panic.

None of the others knew what to do.

They could only stare at me, flailing around.

As the worms touched each other, their flesh temporarily fused, forming longer versions of themselves, growing in size and then breaking off again.

They wrapped around my arms and legs.

I begged for someone to help me, but what could they do?

Hang in there!

Henry yelled as he fumbled with the panel for the airlock.

Within seconds, a few small taps emerged from the ceiling, ceiling, spewing what I could only assume was liquid nitrogen.

Whatever it was, the worms froze in place, freezing to the point where I could break them into tiny pieces.

It only took a moment, but all the worms had been killed off, and though my suit had partially protected me from the cold, I collapsed, exhausted and shivering onto the ground.

Get me the fuck out of here!

I demanded, knowing full well they couldn't do that until I had dealt with the infestation.

Robert had just returned in time to see what the commotion was about, and upon seeing what remained of Mike lying torn to pieces on on the ground, he stopped in his tracks.

After a minute of catching my breath, I got some sense back.

With some morbid sense of humor and functioning on autopilot, I turned towards Henry.

Sorry, but the suit isn't going to be salvaged.

We're ejecting the whole fucking airlock as soon as I get out of here.

Henry turned to Robert, pleading for him to make me reconsider despite what we had all just witnessed, but Robert took my side.

After removing the recording unit from the EPM suit, I packed the entire thing into an easily ejectable container while making sure that no worms remained on my suit.

All I took was a small sample of a frozen worm packed into a vacuum container.

I exited the airlock and handed the sample over to Jennifer.

She had prepared the previous parasites brought back by Mike, and I told her to get everything ready so I could determine what we were dealing with.

Robert started the procedure of ejecting the airlock's content, including what remained of Mike and the EPM suit.

Been repouting the whole time.

James hadn't moved an inch since the event.

He turned sickly sickly pale, as if he just realized the severity of the situation.

We have to tell them, Captain, he said quietly after a few minutes.

Tell me, tell me what?

I asked while getting out of the hazmat suit.

Robert took a deep breath, mulling over his options.

You're right.

Tell me what?

The reason why we're stationed down here.

End of part

on anger, damned.

Whoa.

Man, I didn't stop because that scene was so well paced, but gosh, the worms flying out of him and getting everywhere and they fuse together, then fall back apart.

Oh, it's like giant nematodes for it.

I love it.

That's great.

I love it.

I love it.

I love it.

Gosh, what a banger, dude.

Let's go.

Man, great.

Just, I mean, like, I don't, I want to keep going.

I'm very hooked.

The pacing is not only good.

We've established a bunch of characters, and there's a lot of great stuff that sets this up for me so far, which is just deception.

No No one really knows what the fuck is going on.

The doc has been sitting down basically on what I can assume is a suicide mission of the sorts.

And then also, people aren't telling them of like whatever secret that we're getting ready to find out is what they're actually working on down in the bottom of an ocean on this over billion dollar project going down.

It's just there's so much great stuff.

The buildup is great, but also just the gross chest ripping opening and worms.

I mean, it's just, it's vile and it's fucking horrific.

I'm so bought in, dude.

dude it's such an excellent aesthetic i love it i love this setting i love everything about it i i was saving this till the end of the first part so to give an idea of how much i love it i think one of the first

stories i ever wrote that was over like a page was i had a creative writing class i think my sophomore year maybe junior year of high school

uh

And at the end of it, we had to write a short story.

So I wrote like this 15-page short story called Leviathan that was about a group of researchers that were sent to the bottom of the ocean.

And they thought they were down there to like analyze some new creature that was reported.

But at the end, it turns out they were never sent to the bottom of the ocean.

The container they were placed into on top of the ocean was actually a farce.

And they were in a monitoring station where they were being induced with like drugs and

like psychedelics and stuff like that to see like an MK Ultra kind of thing to see what their reaction was.

And at the end, like the door, go crazy and open the door of the airlock and just step outside into a field um

so which that one was like a rug pull and I think I think I posted it somewhere online but then deleted it shortly thereafter because I was like this is not good I don't like my writing here um

but yeah like like I've always been obsessed with the underwater ocean thing And the aesthetics of this are great.

I like his writing a lot.

I like the characters.

I like the way information information is given.

This is a banger.

Big fan.

Yeah.

I mean, I think, I don't know.

It's just setting itself up in great ways.

Also, too, deep ocean horror.

Just fun.

What are you supposed to do?

What are you supposed to do?

It's great.

It's very fun.

It's very fun.

All right.

Well, are you ready for part two?

Part two.

Let's keep it rolling.

Death can be a beautiful thing.

Beyond all the stigma associated around the event.

It's the beginning of a world that starts directly from the end of another.

When a whale dies in extreme depths, they sink towards the ocean floor where entire ecosystems arise from their decomposing bodies.

This is called a whale fall.

Mike's EPM suit had left behind three days' worth of footage.

Henry was put on the task of preparing it for viewing.

While we couldn't save him, nor the suit, we could at least figure out how Mike died.

As we waited, the captain decided it was time for me to learn the truth about their mission and why no one on the surface had ever heard about the scientific wonder that was Talos.

You saw all the dead sea creatures littering the ocean floor around the station?

I recalled the hundreds of Mengel's bodies of fish, not the most welcoming side to the abyss.

James told me something compelled them to dive down here.

Some sort of sound.

Robert nodded as he pulled up a computer.

After a moment of fumbling, he clicked on a sound file.

About five years ago, we recorded this coming from the depths of the Tonga Trench.

It was an oddly synthetic sound.

like a whale's mating call had been pitched down and jumbled around.

In the midst of it all, there was something that sounded like a whisper.

Uh, it looks like the biotwang is an actual thing.

Looking it up.

Strange sounds up that biotwang was first heard bouncing around the Mariana Trench 10 years ago.

But apparently, they now say that it is the moan of a

bride's well.

What is a bride's well?

I've never heard of that kind of well.

Oh.

How deep are these things?

I don't like that.

I don't like that they're that deep.

Okay, anyway.

The sound played on loop as we talked, oddly eerie for something so innocent.

We first thought it came from a whale, just a bit distorted after traveling vast distances, or instrumental interferences.

But then we saw how it affected the wildlife in the region.

Blooms of jellyfish appearing out of nowhere, and fish defying all instincts to dive towards the crushing pressure.

What made the sound then?

Robert pulled up some pictures on the screen.

Creatures similar to roundworms, pitch black.

They looked nothing like what I had just witnessed in the airlock, however.

From what we can tell, there's a thus far completely undiscovered ecosystem somewhere down in the trench.

Isolated for millions of years, unaffected by mass extinction events.

They have evolved quite differently from life we see on the surface.

It's like millions of single-celled organisms working together to form more complex creatures.

But unlike ourselves, the cells can detach and rejoin at will.

We named it the Syncidium, and that's what killed Mike.

They could be a part of it, but what we just saw in the airlock is far longer than the microorganisms we gathered here.

Before we could continue, James interrupted, letting us know the footage was ready to be reviewed.

If they ever decide to declassify the existence of the station, they'll never mention the creatures.

nor the sound that alerted us to their presence.

I'm sure one day, they hailed this all as a supreme technological advancement.

But truth be told, the reason why the Navy put billions and billions of dollars into this project, so that humanity could traverse the ocean floor, is simply because they want to find whatever is making the sound

and find a way to use it.

Gav,

they're waiting for us.

We gathered in the central area.

Abby sat in the back, some distance away from everyone else.

She seemed even worse for wear than before.

Frail, as if she'd lost weight in the past couple of hours since meeting her.

Henry controlled the footage.

Ready to speed through to the important bits as the descent itself was quite slow.

20,000 feet.

The Hadal Zone.

I love that recurring thing is still keeping up.

Like the deeper you go, it says the zones that we're entering.

That's great.

It's a constant reminder to let you know, like, hey,

we're in the middle of nowhere.

Or like, you're in the deepest parts of the ocean.

It's like, it's a nice little tap on your head.

Yeah.

Also, the Hadal Zone is, if I recall right, it's named that after after Hades.

Like, it's the same

as it's like the bottom, the nothing.

So we're in hell now.

Everything we saw would be from Mike's point of view, but it started at the airlock.

Abby standing before him with a concerned expression on her face.

Don't worry, I'll be back before you know it.

It's not like it's my first time in the depths.

It's not like they waste a billion dollars on me dying, anyways.

She didn't seem consoled by his words.

This time is different.

We haven't tested the suit beyond 30,000 feet yet.

No, but we've tested pressure.

The suit should be able to go much further before breaking.

Henry forwarded the footage.

Mike stood directly at the edge of the Tonga trench.

To his left, a platform extended even further down towards the Hadal Zone, an elevator set at the platform's center.

A short distance down the trench, he saw endlessly long tendrils gently swaying with the current.

They belonged to the body of a malformed creature, looking like it couldn't possibly control its long appendages.

It and it seemed unfazed by the depths

he said excitedly as he pointed at the bizarre being it's a magnope squid what does that look like oh oh absolutely not

yeah this is the big fin squid yeah yeah yeah this thing went around online because someone got a video of one underneath an oil rig just floating in the distance look look that up hunter type Type that in and tell me that it's the worst thing.

I would,

my God.

I know, right?

What the fuck?

Huge.

Those tendrils are like, hell, I mean, it says here, it says, it says here, 26-foot-long arm squid found in November of 27 by an oil rig.

26 feet.

26 feet.

Yeah.

Think about how small you'd be next to it.

Yeah, you know, Shaq.

Yeah, he's not that tall.

See, he's like an unspeakable entity underwater.

How many Shaqs is that?

Yeah.

All right.

So, guys, we're looking at maybe, I don't know, probably seven shacks right here.

Are you getting this?

Do you guys see this?

That's seven shax.

There's just, hold on.

Seven shaqs and three championship rings.

Holy shit.

That guy's, this thing might be 10 shacks long.

This is 10 shacks long.

That's 10 shacks.

Pull me up.

That's the picture I just sent you on the wall, but it's just Shaquille O'Neal.

Anytime they see something, he runs over to the chart.

He's like, oh my God.

All right.

Let me stack the shacks on top of each other and see what we're really dealing with here

captain you're gonna want to see the captain shaquille o'neal yeah

come on chuck

charles barkley's number two

shaq i should have told y'all when i got go down to san antonio i'm telling you

yeah he sees the squid he's like that's that san antonio woman floating around out there yeah the best charles barkley quote of all time is he's like san antonio women need to learn two words on full is like the greatest thing of all time

all right all right so that thing's floating around down there he almost jogged along the edge to get a better view suit audibly exhausted by the effort don't put too much strain on the suit henry interjected over the radio it'll be fine what else did they pay for As he got closer to the squid, another popped up behind him, one with even longer appendages.

Damn.

He boarded the elevator and strapped himself in.

The journey would take him another 15,000 feet into the abyss.

It was a loud, sturdy piece of machinery, able to withstand the immense pressure of the dreaded Hadal zone.

Mike himself would control the speed of the descent, only handing over control to Henry should something happen.

Not long after the descent started, Mike stalled the elevator.

Henry explained with an annoyed tone.

Yeah,

I know, but you'll be fine.

27,000 feet.

Once more, Mike stopped the elevator, directing his gaze at an edge sticking out from the cliffside.

On it lay the corpse of a bowhead whale, almost half a planet away from its natural habitat.

The whale had been partially hollowed out, riddled with deep-sea eels, tiny, eyeless fish, an entire ecosystem arriving from its death.

How did that whale get here?

It died.

Like all the other creatures down here.

Yeah, but it's

a bowhead.

At least I think it is.

Don't they live around the Arctic?

Just continue the descent.

35,433 feet, horizon deep.

The elevator reached the bottom of the trench after about an hour, allowing Mike to finally unbuckle himself from the seat.

Grabbed a box of beacons to allow the next person to easier navigate the area.

After stepping off the platform and getting away from its bright lights, it became abundantly clear that the bottom of the ocean was far from empty.

And that entire bed was covered in previously undiscovered life, millions of fungal-like plants covering the floor and transparent fat shrimp swimming between, apparently feeding off them.

On the cliff wall itself, thousands of bioluminescent plants extended, just a stalk with a blue bulb bending in the direction of Mike's movement.

It was hauntingly beautiful, looking as alien as anything from another planet.

He continued along the cliffside, putting down a beacon every hundred feet or so.

I half expected this place to be horrible.

You know, being named after the god of the underworld and all.

Oh, look at that, I was right.

Thanks, Mike.

No one responded to his comment.

Henry, stop being such a killjoy.

We're making history down here.

I love the uh

that Henry's being a point exer about everything.

And Mike's like, look, that squid was like 18 shacks long.

Okay.

I mean,

think about it.

Think about it, Henry.

12 shacks tall.

You didn't crack one.

You never sign that, Henry?

Okay.

I will say, I do not like Bootlicker Henry.

I'll be completely honest.

Don't like him.

Bootlicker Henry.

Are you on your ACAB arc again?

Well,

listen.

Well, yeah.

I mean,

I feel 10 shacks tall right now.

That's all I have to say.

I didn't like the way you said that.

I could hear the smirk.

You were like, well.

I don't even know what you mean.

It's not an arc if if you never got off.

It's true.

Every time, my dog back there, every time he lays down, he looks like he's been shot.

Do you give him all four legs sprawled out?

There's no way that he would shoot him.

You spoiled that dog rotten, dude.

Oh, Benny, yeah.

I remember he, for people who don't know, yeah, he, I went down to his house

in like the dog's role or whatever, Benny, because you said he was just getting out of the hospital, right?

Uh, yes, I think when you came down.

Yeah, because it was funny because he was that night, he was like, oh, this is his favorite snack.

And Isaiah was breaking off little pieces of dark Ghirardelli chocolate from his fridge and he kept handing it to him.

And then, I don't know, he got sick and all that kind of stuff.

He spoils that dog rotten.

Okay.

I've never given my dog chocolate.

It was a knee surgery.

No, remember, you said you were like, oh, Ghirardelli, you're spoiled.

And is the dark, is it 110% dark cocoa?

Okay.

That didn't happen.

I love my dog.

Very nice to him.

He had elbow dysplasia, so he got a procedure to fix it.

And now look how

passive he is.

He doesn't hurt anymore.

And then his brother, Ollie, had to have double knee replacements because both of his knees went out.

So he's still alive.

Ollie's still alive.

Thank you.

He's not dead.

He just doesn't like coming up the stairs up here because he's old.

That Gyaradilli sponsor sponsor is really

paying itself in full, huh?

All right, well, I'm just going to keep reading.

I'm not going to get

this one.

Henry didn't respond.

How about you hand Abby the radio?

Hell, I'd rather listen to the captain ramble about protocol going on and on.

Mike stopped dead in his tracks, reaching the end of the cliff.

Before him was a steep fall, leading down to an endless chasm of darkness.

Henry, are you sure the elevator took me all the way down to the trench?

He asked as he stared into the abyss.

Yes, give it 35,000 feet.

Well, it's just that I'm standing at the edge of the cliff, and this is clearly not the bottom of the ocean.

That's impossible.

We surveyed the entire area with the sonar.

Well, I'm telling you.

The ground beneath Mike crumbled to pieces.

He slid off the edge of the cliff and dove further into the deep.

Fuck that.

So now he's basically like free falling a little bit.

Or he's like, yeah, just sliding or whatever.

Fuck that.

The darkness now surrounded him was absolute.

Nothing could possibly help him orient himself as he fell.

To fall in the ocean was a much slower process, giving him time to think what kind of fate awaited him as he sunk to depths never before known by mankind.

He called out for his crew members while desperately clawing at the cliff, but even with the suit, he was unable to slow his descent.

As he got deeper, the suit started emitting loud beeps, alarms to alert to rapid pressure changes exceeding 16,000 psi.

Before he could even react, he hit the ground hard.

Mike fell silent, passed out from the impact.

Unknown feet.

The void.

Minutes after landing at unknown depths, Mike awoke to the sound of his suit beeping.

Suit had held its ground and was starting to adjust to the new pressure.

The manometer was broken, his tracking device malfunctioning.

We could only try to guess how far he'd fallen.

Mike grunted as he got to his feet, taking some time to figure out what had happened.

Henry, are you there?

No response.

Captain.

Anyone?

Apart from a few malfunctioning instruments, most of the suit seemed intact, yet no contact could be made with the base.

Everything past that point would be after the comms went down, and we all patiently awaited to learn of Mike's fate.

Despite having fallen far beyond what we believed to be the ocean floor, he had just landed on another plateau, with an endless distance still progressing downwards.

The abyss was ever-present, taunting us with its emptiness.

Please respond, please respond.

He begged, defeated.

He activated the beacon still attached to him and checked his surroundings.

He had landed directly in front of a cave leading inside the cliff wall, and moving steeply upwards, while protocols strictly dictated to wait for rescue in these situations, we could hear gargled sound emitting from the cave.

Whatever it was, it compelled Mike, decided to check out the cave.

The walls inside were perfectly smooth.

An impossible formation of rocks reflecting the bright light shining from EPM's suit, lighting up the cave as far as it stretched.

Man, how otherworldly.

Fuck that.

It's like a tube and like your own lights from the suit are reflecting so far it lights it up.

Also too, just the thought that he's on the plateau.

It still goes deeper.

Much deeper.

Yes.

He's nowhere near the bottom, yeah.

Mike stared at the shiny walls for a moment, adjusting the light.

They had seemed smooth at an angle, but when light was pointed directly at them, it uncovered bizarre patterns, like symbols not corresponding to any known language.

That's so cool.

While he studied the symbols, loud sounds shook through the cave, almost sweeping Mike off his feet.

It sounded similar to the bio twang, but slight differences.

The rhythm was changed.

It seemed to put Mike further into a trance and he diligently followed the source, ignoring any chance of rescue the further in he went.

The cave led to a much larger cavern, extending beyond the reach of any light source he had available.

Unlike the tunnel, these walls weren't smooth, but were covered in millions of tiny holes, each perfectly round, each identical to the last.

Upon closer inspection, the holes weren't empty, but filled with worms.

just like the ones we'd seen spewn out of his body inside the airlock.

He wriggled and reached for Mike as he walked through the cavern, pulled towards the sound in the distance, getting louder with each passing step.

The deeper he got, the less he seemed distracted by the holes, which were growing in size alongside the worms.

Mike's only hypnotic objective was to reach the sound.

On top of the worms, spindly, long legged creatures walked across.

They looked like shellless spider crabs,

dipping their limbs into the worms, merging temporarily while seeming to feed them.

For each dip into the holes, their limbs grew shorter while the worms expanded.

So the

worms that can form together to make different structures like make these spider crab-like shapes

crawling around.

Have you ever seen a spider crab before?

Yeah.

Yeah, they're freaky.

Eventually, he reached a corner of the cavern with it, the source of the sound.

It was a half-consumed whale calf attached to the wall, bound by hundreds of massive worms extending into its torn flesh.

Despite being half-eaten and broken beyond any chance at life, it somehow didn't succumb, as if the worms themselves kept it alive, involuntary life support, repurposed for their own needs.

The calf gaped open, its half-eaten jaw, so mangled Mike could see straight into its vocal cords, which were also covered in the worms.

tugging and moving them into position.

The whale screamed, emitting another jumbled sound that pulled Mike even closer.

While Mike was distracted, several worms had emerged from their holes, rapidly swarming around him.

Within seconds, they had joined together, wrapping around his legs and climbing up the suit.

It temporarily brought Mike back to sanity as he tried to tear the worms off, but they were far faster than him, trapped inside a slow.

metal box.

He stumbled to the ground, allowing more worms and their spindles to cover each of his limbs.

The creatures merged together, forming a sheet of flesh that soon covered the entirety of his body.

Mike fell silent, and the camera showed nothing but a flesh-colored mass, muffling any audio save for Mike's panicked breath.

He screamed as a loud bang almost broke the speakers, the sound of his suit being perforated in the mesh refilling the hole we had found on the sole of his feet.

The creatures had gotten inside his suit, digging into his flesh.

Mike crying in agony before falling silent.

We all stood speechless in front of the monitor, now displaying nothing but a timer, proving the camera was still running.

Abby had left, with James following to console her.

That can't be.

Let me forward it,

Henry said, half whispering in shock.

We forwarded through almost three days of nothing, while the worms incubated inside Mike, trapped alone in the cavern, no one knowing where he was.

The cameras started clearing up, the flesh sheet peeling off as the view showed that Mike had returned to the elevator.

During the three days down in the trench, the Syncidium had occupied, covering it with their fleshy appendages.

Mike was controlling it, or whatever remained of him inside the suit.

He wandered towards the station, flakes of scensidial flesh falling off him for each step.

His crew called out for him over the radio now that they could reach him, but Mike could do nothing but gargle as worms had consumed most of his lungs.

At the airlock, he stumbled inside, ready to unleash hell within the station.

For a brief moment, Mike managed to halt himself.

Perhaps the thought of hurting those he loved was enough for him to temporarily gain control, just enough time to shut down the airlock, putting himself into lockdown.

Mike collapsed to the ground.

He had died days ago, but his will remained even as he turned into nothing more than a vessel for the whores he now carried with him.

The footage ended.

We stood in silence for a moment.

none of us daring to speak a word about Mike's cause of death.

I hardly believed it, despite having almost fallen victim to the same fate.

Henry, call headquarters.

Tell them we're shutting this project down,

Robert said, breaking the silence.

Jennifer, destroy the sample from the airlock.

It's still sealed, right?

Jennifer nodded before heading towards the lab.

We need to make sure whatever this is, it stays in the abyss.

I joined Henry as he attempted to call headquarters, the radio returning nothing more than jumbled static.

Robert was checking all security feed, sending out drones to scavenge for the Syncidium at the elevator.

Captain,

Pole breach center C, an automated voice said.

Isolated!

What about just do it?

Henry frantically tried to navigate the security system, attempting to get an idea as to the extent of the damage.

What's in Sector C?

It's a lab.

Fucking hell.

I hope Jennifer didn't get there yet.

While the station sealed trapping anyone inside, another loud bang shook.

The alarm sounded again.

Holdbreach Sector B.

Fuck.

Fuck, fuck.

What now?

Robert stood still in shock, frozen by the decision of saving the station or fleeing.

We have to evacuate.

Was all he could say.

End of part two.

Part two.

End of part three.

I want to just roll right in.

I'm stoked.

Part three.

I will say, too, just that the worms can just basically join together and create basically a giant flesh blanket that just can like wrap around.

And like, also them being able to reanimate life is pretty sick, too.

The idea of like a whole whale head just being down there screaming is so creepy.

Well, it gives you the idea that it could do the same with people, right?

yeah, that's what happens with them.

They could use the vocal cords to speak.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, they just puppeted him.

Yeah.

They kept him alive enough to move.

I found footage POV of Mike's thing, and all you hear is just him gargling like,

because it's just basically worms just rolling around in his throat.

Just so gross, man.

Part three, the final part.

Most of my old crew, after leaving the Navy, struggled to get over their longing for the ocean.

Such was the case for my submarine captain, Lewis Johnson.

He always claimed the sea would be his final resting place, where he truly belonged.

Following his honorable discharge, he went straight into hyperbaric pipeline welding.

It's a dangerous job where the only enemy is invisible.

Always stalking each dive, each new mission, a foe that can't be sensed, but with the ability to destroy everything you are in a split second.

Pressure.

Maybe I'm cursed.

I'm able to live on land with my own people, but at least I'll die where I belong, he had said.

Johnson would be lucky enough to forever be united with this one true love.

At the sight of a purse pipe, took him away, finally making him one with the deep blue.

It's funny how the brain operates as everything around you is falling to pieces, far beyond your own control.

Once there's nothing left you can do, the mind turns to a place of safety, fond memories from a time long since past.

For me, those memories belong to my time of service, to my old captain and crew.

It wasn't an easy time, but it was filled with purpose, with my problems solely confined to the ocean.

When Robert yelled at me to get my ass in gear, I finally snapped back to reality.

Dark, come on!

We've got to get the hell out of here!

James returned to the central dome alongside Abby.

They had heard the alarms, but hadn't the faintest idea about what had occurred during their brief absence.

Get to Section A.

There's still two transport capsules.

Get number 05 ready for departure and wait for me.

Bab, what are you gonna do?

Jennifer's in lockdown.

I'm getting her out.

What if the creatures got inside?

Robert thought for a moment before handing her a walkie.

If you don't hear from me in 15, just leave.

The station shook as another hole was torn through one of the sections.

My ears popped from the shockwave.

I'm coming with you.

You're not facing them alone.

No,

we need you to pilot the transport capsule.

If you get hurt, we're stuck down here.

It wasn't a valid excuse.

They all knew fully well that the submarine was easy enough for any of the crew members to maneuver, but Robert refused to risk any more lives and would use whatever reason he could come up with.

He hesitantly agreed and started leaving.

I said, knowing he couldn't come up with any excuse to stop me.

He reluctantly agreed and together we headed for the labs in Section C, worrying that Jennifer might be trapped behind the airlock or worse.

Drowning is a horrible way to die.

Once you realize there's no way to reach the surface, surface, you're trapped in a cold, dark tomb, your throat simply closes up.

No matter how hard you try to inhale, your body simply refuses.

Even as the agonizing pain of running out of air overpowers your natural instinct to breathe, you simply refuse to give in to the overwhelming desire.

It isn't until the body starts shutting down and the corners of your vision start to darken that you reach the breaking point.

Your brain decides to pull something in, regardless of whether air is present or not.

Suddenly, ice-cold water flows in through your throat, unstoppably filling your lungs.

So desperate for air.

It's a clumsy, painful way to go.

By the time water has filled each alveoli,

most are still unconscious, but just enough time to regret their decision to ever enter the ocean.

I thought it funny as we ran towards the airlock that at least we wouldn't drown.

Surely the worms would consume us or the pressure from a collapsing station would instantly crush us.

How did the hole get breached anyway?

I asked as we got closer.

It's supposed to be impossible, but I'm sure it's those fucking monsters.

The alarm had stopped alerting us about the hull breach and was now recommending a station-wide evacuation.

Warning.

Hull integrity severely compromised.

All crew report to designated docking stations.

How much time do we have?

Not enough.

As we turned the corner at Section C, we saw Jennifer sitting against the wall on the wrong side of the airlock.

Took a moment- oh no.

It took a moment to realize the horror of her situation.

We saw her legs fused with the flesh of this incidium.

It started eating away at at her lower body, digging their way through her flesh and rapidly replacing her organs with their own meat.

Despite all this, she remained conscious.

Jen,

Robert said, the only word he could muster from the shock of what lay in front of our eyes.

She slowly turned her head towards us with her eyes red from hemorrhaging, as worms had consumed her insides.

Captain

Is that you?

she said weakly, blind from the blood feeling the inside of her eyes.

I'm here, Jen.

I guess the sample wasn't dead after all.

She joked with a hoarse voice as she coughed up what could only be a mixture of blood and lung parenchyma.

Maybe tell the doctor double-check these things in the future.

He...

he's here with me now.

I'm so sorry, Jen.

I know.

There's nothing left to do.

I guess this is just it.

She coughed up, violently spewing out pieces of her lung and worms.

Don't worry, Captain, it's not your fault that a monster from the abyss crawled its way up to destroy us.

She said, voice cracking as she writhed in agony.

I looked over at Robert.

He looked horrified, but couldn't take his eyes off her.

It really hurts.

Robert nodded, forgetting that she couldn't see him.

I went over to the control panel.

It's fairly easy to use, especially after having witnessed Henry mess with it before.

All I needed was the passcode.

I thought it wouldn't be right to let Robert essentially execute her himself.

I'll do it.

Prov.

Yes.

Don't let these fuckers get to the surface.

I promise you that much.

I promise.

Her abdomen started bulging out.

She screamed in pain as the worms started tearing open her stomach.

Captain, the code.

He told me the numbers, and I input them without hesitating.

Years of watching people suffer a prolonged death, knowing that we could do nothing but pointlessly extend their lives, had desensitized me to pulling the plug.

Immediately, hatches opened up on the walls, and alarms sounded as water started pouring in.

Since the hole had already been partially breached, they quickly collapsed in on themselves.

In a few seconds, Jennifer had died.

Let's get out of here.

We ran back towards the central area.

We had to transverse the entire station to get towards Section A.

It was the only remaining escape, but as we got to the offices, we could hear something moving within the walls, knocking their way through the pipes.

The pumps!

They're getting into the fucking pumps!

Talos' pumps were ancient machinery compared to the rest of the station.

As the dome dome was inserted, they needed to move tons of water outside against the immense pressure.

But after finishing the station, they had been long since forgotten, left inside the walls while they installed more permanent solutions.

Before we could react, the walls broke open and this insidium poured itself through the holes, taking the shape of malformed flesh extending rapidly alongside the walls.

We were cut off from our escape with only the office available as temporary refuge from the oncoming swarm of worms and flow of flesh.

But our safe haven would quickly become nothing more than another prison to extend our survival.

Tell I wasn't amused.

We both knew a gun wouldn't slow them down significantly, but any help was welcome.

He continued- I assume the gun's for them.

I assume those bullets aren't meant for the worms.

That wasn't his intention.

Right.

He continued to rummage through the closets in the room, eventually pulling out two unused hazmat suits, just like the ones I had used while inspecting Mike.

Robert asked me with pleading eyes.

Look, they breached the EPM suit made of fucking metal.

I don't think these will make a big difference.

Might slow them down, but that's it.

It's our best shot.

The worms had started to pile up on the door, forming a contracting mesh, slightly cracking the glass.

It's now

We were far faster than the worms, but they had formed a mesh covering most of the ceiling and dropped down on top of us for each step we took.

Another hole in the wall burst open directly above the airlock towards section A, causing another slump of meat to land in front of the door.

Shit!

Robert yelled as he instinctively pulled his weapon and fired at the mass on the floor.

I froze in place as the worms disintegrated from the bullet's impact, reforming, hastily crawling towards us.

I tried to turn away and run, but I didn't reach it in time.

To my surprise, the worms completely ignored my presence and headed straight for Robert, pouring onto him from all directions, pulling him to the ground.

He screamed in agony as they formed around his limbs, making him unable to fight back.

I hurried towards him and tried to pull them off, but for each worm I removed, a hundred others joined in.

Within seconds, they managed to tear a hole at the armpit region of his suit.

He immediately wriggled themselves in through the hole.

I tried desperately to pull him up, but he shoved me away as he realized there wasn't any hope left for him.

Get out of here, Doc!

He garled as the blood started to fill in his lungs.

I didn't even hesitate.

painfully.

I ran for my life while this insidium was too distracted by consuming Robert.

No matter what I had done, he was already dead.

The hallways narrowed drastically as I once more returned to Section A.

I frantically tried to input the code to close the airlocks.

It took me two attempts with shaky fingers to get the correct code, but within a second, the door sealed, and I was once more separated from the abomination on the other side.

I'm so sorry, Robert.

Central dome finally gave in under the pressure, massive streams of water quickly collapsing the ceiling.

The station fell apart and the central power was annihilated under the flood.

Plunged into darkness and silence, I ventured further towards the docking station.

While each section of Tallow supposedly had their own backup generator, for some reason it hadn't been activated yet in that section, making it hard to navigate through the narrow labyrinth of hallways.

Can anybody hear me?

Called my voice echoing endlessly.

I bumped my head as I saw a light appearing in the distance.

James came running towards me holding a flashlight.

Doc?

You're still with us?

Thank God!

He said, his joy quickly fleeting as he realized I'd come alone.

What happened?

Where's Jim?

And the captain?

I just shook my head in response.

No words could convey what had happened at the dome.

Their absence proved enough of their unfortunate outcome or futile escape attempt.

No time to worry about that now.

We need to get out of here.

The capsule is just about ready to leave for the surface.

We only need Henry to figure out how to get the power back.

When we arrived at the docking station, I was relieved by the increase in ceiling height, only ever so slightly.

Henry was busy at work on the control panel, trying to figure out what had kept the power from the backup generator.

Abby standing behind him with a flashlight.

God damn it!

Something has torn away the backup generator.

Not sure how, but I'm sure I know what.

Fucking abysmal demons spawn!

Between the lack of power and the damaged hole, the sub can't release from the station.

Essentially, we're stranded here.

None of us spoke a word.

Trapped in a tin can 20,000 feet below the surface with no transport.

After what felt like an eternity, Henry finally broke the silence.

They're all great ideas, but that won't work.

He said sarcastically in response to our lack of solutions.

Well, do you have any ideas then, genius?

As a matter of fact, I do.

He walked into the capsule and started messing around with the electronics, eventually pulling off one of the panels.

There are three batteries powering the sub.

The way I see it, I can take one out, and it should still have enough power to get to the surface.

Us, I need to connect the battery to the airlock.

He continued as he pulled one of them out of the capsule.

Then, I'll override the door.

I'll blow open the pressure, and the resulting wave of water should forcibly eject the sub.

What about you?

Well, someone has to stay behind to follow through on this plan.

Let me do it then.

No, you idiot.

One wrong connection, and the door fries.

Locking forever.

I'm the only one with the expertise.

There has to be another way.

There isn't.

Trust me.

This is your bootlicker.

This is the guy you called a bootloader.

What do you have to say about the dynamo?

What do you have to say about that now?

Look at you.

I'm a bastard.

You called him a

bootlicker, the bad guy.

Now he's like, I'm the only one who can do this.

I have to drown myself.

I think that he learned a little something from Mike.

He joked around there, sarcastic, trying to break the tension.

He evolved as a character.

I like him.

What am I supposed to say?

You called him a bootlicker, and now he's dying to save everyone.

Yeah, well, I also just said I was wrong, bitch.

There it is.

Whatever.

The story has a lot of sacrifice.

From Mike locking himself inside to to the captain going and now him, Henry.

James and I looked at each other, both wanting to speak up, but neither able to come up with an alternative solution.

Henry went back into the transport capsule and sealed the panel shut again.

I wish you were all smarter.

Maybe one of you could have stayed behind.

He said as sarcastically as ever, but for the first time with the slightest smirk on his face.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Time for you to go.

He said as he shut the door to the capsule.

We watched as Henry walked away for the last time, ready to face his fate, an asshole to the bitter end, but one with a kind heart.

Like his other parish crewmates, he would forever remain at the ocean basin, never again witnessing sunlight.

Time went on forever while we waited for a wave of water that might just as likely crush us in an instant, with a ton of luck, would be ejected out from the station, and from there, we could reach the surface.

It would be the most violent takeoff in the station's history, but also the last.

Minutes later, we heard the sound of the airlock opening before shattering to pieces under the immense pressure of exploding water and sensitial flesh.

It only took about 10 seconds for the wave to hit us, and we shoot out from Talos, the hallway behind us falling apart as we did.

It hit us hard, roughed us up a bit, but we survived.

James took control of the vessel and didn't hesitate to start descending towards the surface.

Abby and I stared out the tiny window.

On the other side, we could see the utterly crushed remains of Talos, dimly illuminated by the light still powered up by the generators at Section C, which had been completely covered by the flesh of this incidium.

The thousands of corpses of fish that previously littered the ocean floor had been cleaned up, and were now a part of the ever growing monster from the abyss.

A wave of relief washed over me, with my heart calming down for each foot of our ascension.

I no longer felt the need to constantly look out the window.

The world outside was dark, and whatever life once remained down there had been consumed alongside my longing for the ocean.

Once we reached a depth of 5,000 feet in the middle of the midnight zone, we managed to establish contact with the USS Orion, called for an emergency evacuation.

They were quite the distance away, but by the time we'd reached the surface, they would pick us up.

I'll be curious as to what happened in the depths.

At 3,000 feet, the first rays of daylight greeted us with the warmth of the sun.

The ocean started filling up with peaceful life, fish thriving in the waters, completely ignorant to the horrors that existed directly below them.

The vast darkness turned to a calming blue, and for the first time since being hired for this mission, I felt safe.

Before long, we reached the surface and were greeted by a team wearing hazmat suits as we boarded the ship.

We had been unable to alert them to the situation.

All they knew was that a potential contagion existed in the depths, one we could have brought back with us.

So understandably, they locked us in the sick bay.

isolated from the rest of the crew.

For 72 hours, they pricked and prodded at us, taking multiple blood samples and even a CSF probe.

After they all returned normal, no sign of sickness was apparent, they led us into more comfortable living arrangements as we set for shore.

After being released from the sick bay, I hardly saw James and Abby.

They spent most of their time in their rooms, only coming out for the occasional interrogation.

Headquarters were incredibly curious as to how state-of-the-art installation suddenly collapsed, so we had absolutely no proof of the events that had transpired.

They needed someone to blame, but as a part of the CDC, not the original Talos crew, I was safe from prosecution.

All that was required of me was to sign a non-disclosure agreement when I'm breaking out to warn you about the horrors of the abyss.

We know more about what exists in outer space than we do about the life in our own oceans, and that's how it should remain forever.

These creatures, this incidium, can't be killed.

As long as one single cell remains, it would be enough to restart their hives and i fear that with the consumption of talos they have learned about life on the surface.

Now that I'm posting this, I'm heading for the center of disease control.

I can feel the worms wriggling.

I knew it.

I knew he was infected.

I knew he was infected.

I was like, that was way too clean of a way to escape.

Yes, okay.

I can feel the worms wriggling inside my chest as I type this, ready to burst at any moment.

I guess the suit didn't protect me after all.

I hope James and Abby are safe and get a second chance at living a happy life.

I'm so sorry for all of this.

For what's to come.

End.

Oh.

Oh, Isaiah.

That was so fun.

What a fun story.

It's fun.

I don't know.

I'm saying this not as a negative, but I'm disappointed.

I want more.

It's like one of those stories where it's like the disappointment comes from like,

I wanted so much more.

from that.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Excellent.

Excellent first part.

Maybe one of the most effective first parts parts of a story we've ever read.

I'll say that.

Yeah.

I think that like this story would have benefited greatly from just more meat.

Like, I mean,

the biggest thing is we go down with Mike, we get his footage, and then from there, we basically see like the smooth cave with the holes.

These organisms, these worms are technically,

if I remember right, is like the first organism on Earth, and they've just survived everything.

So technically, this is the first thing to ever live.

Or they were the only one to to survive, like, Massey's extinction events and stuff like that.

True.

Yeah.

So, there's that, but then there was like weird cryptic writings on the walls to where it's like, is it, are they like able to write these things?

That implies to me they have an intelligence.

Like, they learn.

Because he mentions at the end, I fear after consuming Talos, they know about life above.

I think it's kind of like a hive mind thing.

Hmm.

Well,

I wish there was just more put into that.

And I wish that we had more.

Like

they set up all these great characters.

henry is a great character uh that's like kind of a hard ass that takes his job seriously and then at the end he evolves into like a guy which i mean he always had a heart but it was just like the stern asshole that had to like you know keep on track whatever but he's a selfless saint and he died and even like the captain

yeah no i mean like the captain good guy and even like james i like i mean all of them abby jen

All great characters.

I wanted just to know more about them.

I think like one thing that this story would have benefited from is like more time talking about like,

I guess, just like there's a lot of setup for things that just don't have tons of payoff.

You know, like just the idea of people going crazy and stuff.

Like, could have danced around the idea of like, is there something out there?

Isn't there something out there?

Because it's just kind of immediately like, this is, this is what it is, right?

Yeah.

I'm, I would be totally fine with this being a much longer story.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

And that's just, that's where, and the majority of the criticisms come in for me is just like you set up a lot of things that don't have a huge payoff.

But that within itself, I love the idea, like

the narrator, the doc,

the worms in his chest at the end.

It's like you can see it coming, but it's still just satisfying to be like, of course, he's infected.

And you have to assume that maybe even James and Abby are.

Who knows?

You know, we don't really know.

What happened?

I mean, there's no contact, but you know,

with the dock and the

submarine with them, did anything happen?

Who knows?

It was really

Really fun.

Really enjoyed this one, man.

So creepy.

And then, too, the visual of like thinking, like looking out little, like looking out of a little porthole and seeing a giant wave, like a carpet of flesh.

And there's just like dead whales and other fish conjoined in with it.

And it's just like covering

the section, section A and B of this building of the, of a Tardos.

Uh-huh.

Yeah, it's like the visuals were so good.

it blends off so many sci-fi elements but also kind of like um

i mean it it reminds me of movies like alien right like you're the isolation but there's a creature in there trying to kill what was that one movie

about

there was a life form on a space station that was absorbing people life you remember that movie did you watch that

I think it was just called life.

I can't remember.

Yes.

Yeah.

It was called Life.

Yeah.

There was this thing.

It was...

It started out as a little cell, but then it started to consume people and become this larger biomaterial.

Yeah,

this story reminds me of that a lot.

But I love that.

The idea of like an isolating thing that you're trapped there with it.

There was an underwater movie

with Kirsten Stewart, the one at the end.

I think it was just called Underwater, where at the end it was like Cthulhu that was down there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

I saw the tail end of that, Alice and was watching, and I saw the tail end of it, but I didn't know if I needed to watch it for myself to see the sound, the

ringing that people have heard.

What was it called?

The bio,

the bio-twang.

The bio-twang.

Was that just the fish head that was in the wall?

Or was there ever really a reasoning for that?

I think it's saying that's just the noises that the worms make somehow

to attract things down to them.

It's like an angler fish's lure, like trying to pull people towards it or other fish towards it because they just feed off of any mass.

Yeah, which I think is awesome.

I really love that.

I like the idea too that

the kind of harrowing line of like we

like now that the now that the

Syncidium are on the vessel

on Tardos or Tardos that it knows that there's life on the surface.

Like it's going to keep going up because it knows that there's more up there.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

So I just really, uh, really enjoyed that.

I don't know.

All in all, I mean, like, I don't know.

I just, it was fucking great.

Really, really fun story, man.

That was, uh,

what I love about this show so much.

And I mean, I guess it's just stories in general, right?

But we get to jump around, like, the last week was a church in the middle of the woods.

And, you know, before that, we've covered cults, we cover supernatural, we cover far future and stuff like that.

Like, there's so many different cool settings you can tell neat horror stories through.

This one reminds me a lot, too, of the one we did.

I'm the other astronaut on this mission died.

Yeah.

Like,

you can just do so many interesting things with stories.

It's so cool to see what people who are just writing stories for the love of the game are able to put together.

It's great.

I really love this story.

This was a banger.

Short, sweet.

I wish it was longer.

But for what we had of it, selfishly, I just want.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Selfishly, I wish I just wanted more, but that was just me being greedy, a greedy little pig.

I will say, at the end of part three, there is a link to

Richard Saxon, who is the author,

his Facebook, which we'll leave that link there as well in case you want to follow him and maybe any updates that he does have.

He also

posted that he's finished a novel.

This was two years ago, so I don't know current status, but he's finished a novel that is currently undergoing edits.

The name of the novel is The Walls of the Basement Used to Talk to Me Growing Up, which is a cool name.

Like that.

Yeah, but this guy writes a ton of stuff

about some about like creepy woods, some about sci-fi, stuff like that.

So, yeah, check him out.

We'll have his stuff linked in the description.

I certainly want to check out.

Oh, he has another underwater one called I'm a Rescue Diver Specialized in Underwater Caving.

We discovered something horrible in the depths.

We'll have to read that one too.

That one's so, that's just

the ocean is such a haunting, haunting place.

and it's cool too because I feel like a lot of times we've had a lot of like camp ones.

There's a lot of stuff of just like just eerie like home creepy paranormal stuff.

So diving more into the ocean would be just a treat for me at least.

I love this the setting of that.

It's just very, very haunting.

But thank you guys so much for listening to this episode or watching this episode on YouTube.

Thank you to all of our audio listeners on Spotio, on Spotio, Jesus Christ, on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

We appreciate you listening there, giving us a nice rating.

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And of course, to our beautiful patrons who also got this episode ad-free.

So, appreciate you so much, guys.

Thank you for supporting the channel.

And as always, we will see you in the next one.

Stay creeped, bitches.

Bye.

Don't get eaten by worms.

Unless you want to, I guess.

Bye.