Enemies - A Sean Anderson story

Two Big babies

We don't walk too far, or in Sean's case, we don't hobble too far. When we reach our destination and can see Posiden's trident but no sub there is a lot of confusion.

"We need the cliff. This is just the shoreline." Hank observes.

"The nautilus is supposed to be inside of a cave right here." The injured teen corrects.

"Maybe the map is wrong."

Sean asks for the map on the phone, but as the two men try and figure it out, I spot a ladder leading down into the ocean.

"Uncle Hank, Sean... We are in the right place."

"Well, then where's the cave? Where's the Nautilus?" 

I point toward the ocean. "Down there. I mean think about it. The sea level has risen at least 100 feet in the last 24 hours." I reason.

He looks at me knowing I'm right. "I can't believe this is happening. We're too late. It's over." 

"No, it's not. It's okay. We've just got to think." Uncle Hank reassures. Then a moment passes as he obviously is trying to figure something out. "I got it." 

"What?" Us teens ask in unison.

"Scuba tanks." 

Sean being his usual self snarks. "What, are we listing things we don't have? Okay, a jet pack, a girlfriend, calligraphy paper."

I send him a glare, realizing that Hank has a good plan in mind if he is pulling things out of the backpack. And the 'girlfriend' comment made me roll my eyes.

"No, no listen to me... calligraphy paper?" Hank pauses after realizing what his step-son said. 

"Yeah, it just popped into my head."

"We still have a couple of dry bags, right?"

"Yeah, we should anyway," I answer.

Uncle nods. " Okay, then we take what we salvaged from the beach, and we build makeshift scuba tanks. No short breaths, no wasted movements. Make sure you equalize ear pressure as you go down."

I bend over getting ready to figure out how to do this when Sean decides to get grim... again. "You know, if we die down there, mom's gonna kill us."

"And my dad will be stuck with that horrible woman." I realize, causing Sean to put a hand on my shoulder.

Hank looks between the two of us. "Then let's do this."

_______________________________________

After finishing our scuba tanks as fast we can, the storm seems to be moving closer. 

"Okay, it's only 100 ft down, and we've got two hits of air with this," Hank explains.

We both nod. 

"Are you ready?" I ask the two by my side.

"I'm ready. Are you ready?" Sean asks, clearly not. Hank does the same.

"Oh, come on you big wusses. The faster we do this the faster we get off this damn island."

Hank looks at me with a mix of surprise and pride, and Sean looks like a puppy who got reprimanded.

With that, I tap the two on the arm and run and jump into the ocean below us. Once inside we begin our descent down into the colder part of the sea, where the Nautilus should be. We swim past mini sharks, and giant jellyfish when we take our first breath, and spot the submarine. 

As we swim up to it and find the entrance we struggle to get open and take our last breath. Finally, the door starts to turn when we see the electricity of a ginormous eel. The creature takes a pass at us, so the three of hurridly open the hatch inside, narrowly avoiding the deadly animal. 

Once inside Sean finds the way in and drains the water, allowing us to catch our breath. 

"We made it!"