*Bang!*

A noise abruptly woke Ricardo. He slowly sat up wondering what could possibly happen next. Looking around the sub through one open eye he splotted Grace lying unconscious against the side of sub.

"Grace! Grace! Come on girl wake up! Please wake up!” Ricardo’s voice pierced through the fog of sleepiness. Grace pathetically moved around after hearing his voice. “What? *cough*… what…how.. how are we even alive?”

Grace slowly opened her eyes and saw Ricardo’s bloody face leaning over her. “I’m not sure but maybe the monster forgot about us as it crunched up the back of the sub.” He pointed towards a small screen in pilot’s control panel. The small screen kept flashing as words continuously scrolled across it. 'Emergency hatch released! Emergency hatch released!'

“The thing must have forcibly activated the release switch as it squeezed the sub. I’m not sure why it didn’t pursue us as it probably could’ve crushed this titanium personal sphere. But, that’s besides the point! I heard another thing outside of the sub. It woke me up.” Ricardo finished hurriedly.

15 minutes of huddeling terrified and they heard significant. Grace slowly crawled to one of the viewports and saw something surprising. Deeply breathing in relief Grace spoke,” That’s sand! We can get out of this sub!” She looked tearily towards Ricardo and he just nodded. “Wherever we are these waters are completely infested with strange, dangerous animals. I can’t wait to get to land. Hahah.” Ricardo laughed in relief.

Ricardo looked into the front viewport. “It looks like the sphere getting stuck in the sand woke me up. Unfortunately, the sphere won’t get any closer to shore. ” He learned closer to the viewport and looked at the waterline. “Looks like as soon as we open the hatch water will flood in.”

“We should probably gather supplies before we leave whats left of the Calvin.” Grace replied and they began to work in high gear. After about 15 minutes of thoroughly searching they came up with little more then the medical supply case and a two bags of food there were supposed to be for a peaceful lunch. Grace carrying the medical supplies and Ricardo carrying the food both turned towards the ladder and looked at the same spot on the floor.

“Bless you Mike wherever you are.” A small dried pool of blood lay beneath the ladder and was the only thing left of him. “It just…happened so fast. I couldn’t even react ...the poor guy.” Grace sadly said “Yeah, dam I didn’t know what to do. I can’t believe just over 12 hours ago or so we were just preparing to go check out a random anomaly. I’d hoped it was volcanic vent that had just opened up as I’ve always found them fascinating. Who knew it'd be an entrance to this scary place.” Ricardo added. *sigh* “Lets go.” Ricardo walked towards the ladder and carefully avoided the blood. Grace followed him and they eventually ended up before the ladder. With a quick pat and whispered good job to the remains of Calvin, Ricardo twisted the pressure wheel to open the hatch. Water quickly flowed into the personal sphere and the two survivors exited the rapidly filling sphere.

A wave entered Ricardo's vision and he ducked under it. After resurfacing, he turned towards the white sandy beach. Ricardo was lucky enough to of participated in many swim clubs as a child. He began swimming strongly towards the beach and in his wild excitement, he began to outpace Grace. Halfway to the shore and Ricardo suddenly heard a desolate scream over the wind and waves. A brief moment of indecisively swimming in place stopped him before the image of a small bloody flashed in his mind. Ricardo swam on.