Lost City

The Dive

Spitting the tube out of my mouth, I make my way over to the boat. Another unsuccessful dive. D*mn it.

We've been working on finding Atlantis for the last three years and this dive was supposed to give us more clues. It's still supposedly a myth, but there's enough evidence recently discovered suggesting there's at least some ancient ruins out here. Now if only we could find them.

Climbing up the ladder, a hand enters my line of sight. I tense just a little even after all these years. Stupid habits. I grab a hold of the waiting hand and enter the boat.

"Nothing here either." I say to the retreating figure, pulling off my goggles. "I think we need to move a little more south. There was a crevasse on the sonar map so there might be caves to explore."

I finish pulling off more of my diving gear before heading into the cabin of the ship. My teammate Jay has the sonar map pulled up on the touchscreen table. It's a lot easier to continually update and look at the map together when we share one tablet. Even if said tablet is 40".

"Right here, Sang?" He points to a section a little ways from where we anchored. "The current isn't to strong in the morning, but it gets dangerous after 13:00. If we start around 05:00 it should give you enough time to check out how many caves there might be. Depending on time you might even be able to explore one."

"Ok. That sounds good." I pull my hair from the the ponytail it was in and let it tumble over my shoulders. "Do we want to head to shore today? Or stay anchored here for tonight and head back tomorrow after the dive?"

Jay pulls the calendar up on the screen. "They are expecting us back today or tomorrow." He says, opening the red marked days, "It might be better to go tomorrow." Oh? Is Jay actually excited for this dive? "We won't have to get up as early." Never mind. There he is.

Jay will always choose sleep over a dive. If I want to explore tomorrow we'll definitely need to stay out here tonight. "That sounds good to me. I'll always take more time in the water." I grin up at him and he just rolls his eyes and walks away. You'd think after three years of working together we'd have become friends, but it's obvious we're just colleagues. He puts up with my excessive drive to discover and I tolerate his usual silence. It's not to bad most of the time, but I'd like someone to chat with occasionally. At least he doesn't completely ignore me right?

I walk back out to the deck to start cleaning up my gear. This week it's just me and Jay out here, but next week Karen and Rocky should be joining us. I don't mind Karen, but Rocky drives me crazy by always referring to himself in third person. He still hits on me too. I've refused him every time in the last three years but he won't take no for an answer.

I wouldn't ever leave this project though. No matter how many times Rocky asks me out. It became my entire life the moment I was offered the position three years ago.

I had graduated high school early at 16 and started college right away to escape the place most people call home. Two years later I was finishing up a bachelors in archeology with a minor in mythology. The summer before my 18th birthday I was approached by Dr. Roberts to intern in his Atlantis project while I worked on my graduate classes and thesis. He told me I could use any information found in our discovery for my paper so I readily agreed. I was hooked anyway so it was a no brainer to accept. Now I'm here searching for our next set of clues on the Lost City with one semester left before my doctorate.

"Hey Jay!" I yell out. He should hear me no matter where he is on the ship. "I'm headed to take a shower. Do you want me to make dinner when I'm done?"

"No."

Straight to the point in typical Jay fashion. I wonder what it's like having friends to eat meals with or excited that you're there to hang out with. I know Karen will talk with me next week, but it will mostly consist of her missing her girlfriend. I'll be avoiding Rocky in my room anyway, so we probably won't talk that much.