Somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico—

We zoomed to a massive man-made steel structure right in the middle of the sea. Protruding over 100 meters from the surface of the water, this is the Barracuda. It’s a modern deep-water floating semi-submersible offshore drilling rig owned by Gulf Giant Corporation. This 100,000-ton rig built to withstand 50-foot waves is drilling oil at 1200 meters, extracting both oil and natural gas.

Inside the control room—

A man wearing a white hard hat threw his right fist into the air. “Yeah, I knew this would happen.”

“You know?” said another man with a blue hard hat. “You could easily get along with all my kids. They love anime too.”

“With all the crap Hollywood is putting out, Anime is now a much better alternative for enjoying creative entertainment. Believe you me, Alan.”

“Anime is for kids, Bud,” Allan argued, turning towards his boss. “If you want creative entertainment for adults, go read a book.”

“Nah, I’m too lazy to read books,” Bud replied. “I want some good inventive stories. Any high concept story would be great, but most authors write the same old regurgitated tropes or whatever is trending.”

“I know what you are saying,” Alan bobbed his head.

“Don’t get me wrong, I love me some great interesting characters,” Bud explained further. “However, to read them in those same old done to death storylines. That’s not entertainment for me.”

“You need some patience searching through those huge piles of books to hunt down the great ones. And there’s always that joyous feeling when you find those real gems out there. Honestly, there are still authors who are talented storytellers.”

“You’re right, but I would rather play video games than waste my time searching for some enjoyable books.” Bud reasoned.

“Waste time searching, you’re just lazy.”

“Shut it, Alan.”

“Perhaps you can write your own inventive stories,” Alan suggested.

“Yeah, maybe I will. I think I can show my creative side.”

Alan chuckled as he moved his right hand in the air from left to right. “I can see it now. Mr. Bud Wiseman, the next New York Times bestselling author.”

Bud Wiseman pondered for a moment and nods in agreement. “And I can option my books to those big Hollywood studios or even Netflix. That’s where the real money comes in.”

“Your trailer should go something like—from the mind of Bud Wiseman comes this epic story, the romance of the century…”

“Are you kidding me?” Bud shook his head. “Romance?”

“Come on. There’s a big chunk of readers out there into romance and erotica. That’s why they are the top genres in the book industry.”

“Shut up,” Bud kicked Alan’s seat. “Just mind the monitors and not me, will you?”

“Yes, sir, Mr. Tool Pusher.”

Bud rolled his eyes as he put his laptop down. He picked up his cup of coffee.

“Just another day in the office, right, Alan?”

He drank his coffee, but it spilled out to his face and down to his uniform as the control room shook violently while an alarm went off.

“There’s seismic activity, sir!” Alan shouted.

“Activate the blowout preventer!” Bud commanded, ignoring his coffee mess.

“Activated. Do we shut down now?”

“Yes, shut everything down. I want to play it safe.”

The wild shaking eventually stopped.

“That’s a big one and a long one,” Bud said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Check our status.”

Alan scanned the monitors and his equipment.

“They look good, sir,” Alan replied, a bit surprised. “Well, considering the massive earthquake we have just experienced. Our structure and the entire system seem to be intact. The cameras are working fine too. We are ready to go.”

“Send the probe out to make sure. I want to check everything before we operate again.”

The loud alarm screamed into the control room as Bud opened the door. Exiting, he approached another man wearing a blue hard hat.

“Leo,” Bud said to his ear. “We’re on shutdown. I want you and the others to check on everybody and everything. Tend to the injured, if there’s any. Look for any structural damages. Inspect everything, understand? And watch out for those seismic waves out there. Be careful, safety first.”

“Yes, sir,” he saluted and dashed down to a group of roughnecks wearing bright yellow hard hats.

Bud waved them off as he went back to the control room. He grabbed the satellite phone.

“HQ, this is Bud on the Barracuda. We’ve just encountered a powerful earthquake. I ordered a shutdown immediately. So far, everything on the rig seems to be intact. No major damage, but we are still checking.”

“You made the right decision, Bud,” HQ replied. “Based on early reports, your area had just experienced a strong 6.8 magnitude earthquake. The epicenter is somewhere near the Florida escarpment. And there seems to be no tsunami warning yet. No probable cause for alarm, but we are still on the lookout for any signs. Please continue monitoring your structure and update us on your status as soon as possible. We will keep you posted for new development.”

“Thanks, HQ.” he hanged up.

Alan gave the thumbs-up signal. “All is in excellent condition, so far. No actual sign of damage, but that 6.8 magnitude is scary. And we were very fortunate since the epicenter is so near us.”

Bud stared at the probe camera as he tapped his fingers on his chin.

“The pipe looks intact. No cracks, no leaks, or blowout—okay, send the probe to the escarpment. Maybe we can find something interesting there.”

“All right, you’re the boss.”

The probe swam further into the dark sea.

Alan squinted his eyes while controlling the probe.

“This is weird. So many fish are swimming towards the escarpment.”

“Step on it. Are we recording?” Bud asked.

“Yeah, we’re filming. Everything is online. Sh*t. Did you see that? The seabed, it seems to move.”

“Turn the probe lights to maximum.”

“Maximum lights on. Something is wriggling below. Wow, those fish are excited.”

“Zoom in, Alan,” Bud ordered.

“Zooming in…” Alan tilted his head. “What the hell are those?”

“Get me some specimen, will you?”

The probe pulls out a vacuum rod.

Bud pointed to the screen. “There! Get those.”

Alan controlled the rod as it sucked some crawling specimens from the seabed. “Holy sh*t, those crawlers are creeping me out.”

More fish swarmed to the areas, diving down to the seabed. Not long, it turned into a feeding frenzy as sediments floated everywhere. Everything becomes a cloudy mess.

“The fish are eating those creepy crawlers right at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico,” Alan said, then gasped.

“Are we getting all this?” Bud asked, placing his right hand on his mouth.

“Ye… yea… yeah,” Alan stuttered. “Yes, we are recording.”

His lips quivered as he stares with his eyes wide open. “Those are cockroaches.”

“Cockroaches?” Bud said as he sits on his chair, dumbfounded. “No insects could survive saltwater.”

“What in the world are cockroaches doing at the bottom of the sea?” Alan asked.