Short Story

I call this one The Submarine

Thousands of miles from civilization, a brave team of 10 set course for the middle of the Pacific Ocean to study deep see creatures. Though research was their main goal, the crew was in desperate need of money. If this mission fails, the research company would be forced to declare bankruptcy and disband. Xavier James was one of those ten. Dr. James, to be precise, he received his PhD from the University of California in Marine Biology. He was one of the three who would be going down in a submarine to research deep sea animals in their natural habitat. He was a slender white man, no taller than 6 feet. He didn’t have much muscle on him, but his mind was more powerful than the average man. His two colleagues were qualified just as he was, but he had an edge for the subject that the other two just simply didn’t have. He was an expert. Sloan Jamerson was one of his partners, an attractive Latina woman who studied with him at UCA. She was about 5’4, and wore thick glasses. She always had her hair up in some way, only ever letting it down to wash it. Xavier’s other partner, Jim Dawson, was an enormous man. He was taller than Xavier by about a head and was twice his size. He looked like a Neanderthal with little exception, but just like Sloan he was a marine biologist all the same. He also had some understanding of engineering and physics, purely out of personal interest. It was like a hobby to him.

I like this one more.

The time came when they were to board the research submarine and go down, connected by a lifeline to the boat. The plan was a 6-hour submergence, but the submarine was equipped with a week’s worth of survival gear and 2 weeks of oxygen in case of a disaster. Down they went, almost 3 miles under water, no source of light except the ones on the outside of the vessel. Cameras were mounted on the outside of the sub to monitor and capture footage of the wildlife that live in these extreme conditions. Things were looking good for the team, and for the company. An overabundance of research was collected on the depths of the Pacific Ocean and the team was ecstatic. Jim suggested that they surface early to celebrate and go back down the next day. Xavier and Sloan agreed, and Xavier radioed to the ship that they were surfacing. Silence. He tried again, with no response. A small wave of panic was overtaken by confidence when Jim sat down in the captain’s seat and began messing with the controls. He seemed quite confident that he could get them to the surface without a problem, and they believed him. Just as the gauge that said how deep they were began to rise, the sub jerked and rattled violently. The lights turned off and the emergency lights flicked on. The submarine would not operate at all, nothing worked except for the emergency services. There was only the eerie sound of radio static as the three looked at each other in silence, each panicking in their minds.

Xavier tried like a madman to get some kind of a response out of the radio. A voice, a click, something. His efforts were fruitless and he became more frantic with each tried. He got hysterical, Jim slapped him. Almost immediately he calmed down and thanked Jim. They needed to think of a logical solution to the problem. They agreed after exploring every possibility that remaining calm and waiting for rescue would be the best option. And so they did. They occupied their time with word puzzles, games made out of paper that they had lying around, rationing out food, taking inventory of the entire sub, and waiting around the radio in some naïve hope that something would happen. Hours turned into days, and days into weeks. Because there were 3 of them the rations ran out by day 6. It only got harder from there, and the three began to fight amongst themselves more and more often. They divided the sub into parts, claiming their own territory just to get away from one another. Sloan cried herself to sleep often, but Xavier remained awake almost perpetually, only taking 20 minute naps every so often. By day 10 their time was spent staring at the wall, motionless, trying to conserve energy. Jim and Sloan fell asleep, Xavier was still awake, his mind slipping further into madness. He was hearing voices, and he was arguing with himself. A voice told him to look at a different part of the wall, and there he noticed a decoration life raft with 2 harpoons forming an X over it.

The voices were no longer speaking, they were yelling. Screaming, he could not even hear himself think. He touched one of the harpoons and suddenly there was silence again. He wrapped his hand around one and carefully pulled it from the wall. “Do it” one of the voices said. He slowly turned around, his beady eyes staring directly at Jim and Sloan. He had to eat. He had to survive. After all, he was the expert. The leader. Right? He should be the one to make it out of this situation alive. He had to. He approached Jim’s sleeping body. He knew if Jim woke up while he was doing this to Sloan he would be killed. Jim never woke up again, the harpoon was driven forcefully through his skull. The sound woke Sloan. She stared at Xavier as he yanked the harpoon from Jim’s lifeless body. He slowly turned to her and she shrieked and tried to back away from him. He quickly lunged towards her and pinned her neck with his boot. She struggled with the little bit of strength she had left to no avail. As he raised his murder weapon she looked into his eyes. She had a look of pure terror, as she knew there was no escaping her death. If she could speak in that moment, there is no doubt she would have pleaded for her life. Her death was like Jim’s, swift. Xavier giggled, for some reason killing his two closest friends was strikingly humorous to him in that moment. He removed the harpoon from Sloan’s face, and snapped it as close to the tip as he could. The harpoon was then used as a knife to cut off body parts to be eaten. He started with Jim’s legs, as they were thick and probably rich in protein. He cut a chunk off of his left thigh and ate like a wild animal. Suddenly, the sub lurched and began to slowly rise.

Xavier was terrified, but paralyzed. He could not move from his spot, hunched over Jim's body with part of his leg in his mouth and hands. The sub surfaced, and moments later the hatched opened. A U.S. Navy sailor looked down to see Xavier, and Xavier looked up like a stray dog looks at a passerby. He did not resist when they brought him aboard the Navy ship. In fact he was quite relieved that he had been rescued. In his mind, it was not even a crime what he had done to his colleagues. He never gave it a second thought until I asked him about it. I was a healthcare professional aboard the boat and I tended to him to get him on the road to recovery. I asked what happened down there and he told me all about it, like how a young child tells about his first day at school. He left no detail out, and it sounded like he had no shame about what he had done. In his mind he had to survive at all costs, and their lives were the price to pay. When we reached a port in Hawaii he was immediately turned over to the authorities. He pleaded guilty on all charges and was sentenced to life in prison for first degree murder, among other charges. His life was spared only by the insanity plea. It's rumored that he committed suicide in prison, but I have no idea anymore what's become of him.

Thanks to those who actually read this whole thing. Again, wrote this in the 10th grade, I just rewrote it based on the same concept. Tell me what you think

pretty horrifying, but decent imagination. I enjoyed the read, tbh.

Thanks user, means a lot to 10th-grade me

(But seriously thank you)

god damn dude just write a book instead

Thank you user. I have no idea what I would do with my book after writing it, if I ever actually decided to do that. I'm not good enough to write a novel, maybe a collection of my short stories?

A fine lesson from me to the world: YOu can do and be whatever the FUUck you really want to if you believe you can do whatever the Fuuuck you Want to.

...

jupiter