Depths Unknown
Beneath the earth, two tectonic plates, under the Pacific Ocean off the coast of southern California were slowly moving together. They had been moving together for thousands of years. Now within weeks they were sure to collide. Little did the people on top, going through their everyday lives, realize that soon the earth would wreak havoc…
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Cassie Newberry yawned as she listened to her professor's lecture. She had woken up at five that morning after only two hours of sleep. She was a third year university student at Berkley University in California. Cassie was hoping to become a seismologist because the movement of the earth and earthquakes fascinated her. Ever since she had been a little girl she had been having nightmares about earthquakes. The reason was because when she was only seven years old, her father had gone to Japan for a business trip and had died in a massive earthquake. Growing up with her mom had not been easy since her mom was really poor. So, they had lived in a one-bedroom apartment in a really bad neighborhood. Since Cassie hated living so poorly she had made a promise to herself that she would not live there anymore; she would get a good job, and live a respectable life. So far she had lived up to her promise, getting straight A's all through school and even a full four-year scholarship to Berkley. Her teachers all thought that she was an exceptional student that was definitely above average. A few months ago Cassie's mom had died because of a cocaine overdose, so now Cassie was completely alone. She had no friends, and she had lost contact with her relatives because she was constantly doing schoolwork.
"Miss Newberry, do you agree with the point that Mr. Anderson just made?" asked her professor.
"Huh?"
"It's nice to see that you have been paying attention," the professor snapped, "Please stay after class, I need to talk to you."
Cassie felt so mortified, she hadn't meant to fall asleep, but she was so exhausted. She glanced at her watch and felt her stomach sink, in ten minutes she would have to explain to the professor why she hadn't been listening again…
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"Pass the water," yelled Mark Sanders.
"What water?" replied Jeff Webster.
"Jesus Christ," murmured Mark under his breath. He was twenty kilometers under the ground with three incompetent fools. Two years ago Mark and his wife Judy had talked about going on an expedition to the center of the Earth. After studying about the Earth they realized that this is humanly impossible, because the human body could not withstand the hot temperatures, so, they decided that they would go down through the crust of the Earth to the mantle. That had been Judy's dream but she had passed away from breast cancer a few weeks later. Mark decided that he would go on the expedition for her. So, he had pooled together all his money and hired three kids right out of Harvard, thinking that they would be really smart individuals. Now he had a constant headache because these brainless kids had no idea what they were doing. He reached into his bag and pulled out a small yellow pill. He broke it in half and quickly swallowed it. Then after a moment's hesitation he decided to take the other half too. After all he had to spend a lot of time with these fools. He figured that he would just ignore the Harvard kids and let them do their own studies; meanwhile he would stay with the team of diggers. There were ten Mexicans hired to dig for them and they would stay about half a kilometer ahead of the others. They stayed ahead because their work was dangerous and Mark and the Harvard team didn't want to get hurt. Mark made a mental note that tonight when they set up camp he would explain to the digging team that he wanted to walk with them. That sounds like a good idea, thought Mark, what he didn't realize though was that the Mexicans could be really dangerous. It didn't matter to him because the pill made him completely carefree…
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Juan Rodriguez wiped the sweat off his brow. He was twenty kilometers under the ground digging a hole that was going to end up being about thirty-two kilometers deep. When he had heard that his friend Enrique had signed up, he signed up right away too. Now that he thought about it, he thought this was the stupidest plan ever. Juan thought that Mark was another ignorant American. He didn't understand why anybody would want to waste their hard earned money on a hike thirty-two kilometers into the earth. He had his own plans for Mark though, once they reached twenty-two kilometers apparently they would loose contact with the surface. So, Juan and Enrique had a plan to kill Mark, take all his money and then make a run for the surface. It was a perfect plan. If worst came to worst, they would kill all the others too. They didn't care how many people died, because once they made it to the surface they could just say that there had been an unfortunate accident. It was a perfect plan that made Juan giddy with anticipation. If all went well they could lose contact with the surface in a day or two…
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"Miss Newberry, I don't know what is wrong with you, when you first started my class you were the best student I had ever had, now for the past month your grades have really started slipping," the professor explained.
"I'm sorry, it's just that I haven't been getting enough sleep," Cassie whispered. She was so scared; talking to professors was the one thing that she just could not handle. She was so afraid that soon she would break down in tears. She was just so stressed out; ever since her mother's death her life had gone downhill. First dealing with the hospital about her mothers drug overdose, then getting repeatedly tested, to make sure she hadn't used any of the drugs. As if that wasn't enough, the police had come to search her house for drugs. Cassie couldn't stand living in her Mom's apartment anymore so she had moved into a basement suite in the Faulkner's home. They were really understanding and helpful.
"I'm really sorry Mr. Edmonds. Is there any way I could bring up my mark? Could I do an extra project of some sort? Please."
"Fine, research a topic of your choice and hand in the project to me by next Monday. That gives you a week. I'd really hate to fail you, I know how bright you could be if you just committed yourself." Mr. Edmonds replied. "Now I've got a meeting to attend, therefore I'll see you in class tomorrow, Good bye Miss. Newberry."
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Cassie walked down the street and thought about the extra project she would have to do. She sort of had an idea about what to do, but she had to figure out where to get the money to pay for some of it. She wanted to go out in a boat with a seismographic measuring device to track the ocean floor movements. The only problem was she had to rent a boat. Maybe tomorrow she would go down to the harbour to see if she could rent a cheap sailboat or rowboat of some sort. First though, she would go home and take a nap.
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As Mark slowly edged away from the sleeping bodies of three people, he silently congratulated himself for deciding to walk ahead with the Mexicans. Even though they were blue-collar workers they would be better company than the three incompetent fools he was stuck with. They probably wouldn't even notice. As he slipped down the tunnel, he heard a sound, afraid that the Mexicans would make too much noise on sight of him; he decided to crouch down and hide. There was no point in taking chances, because if the other three awakened they were sure to ask questions that Mark didn't want to deal with right now. He just wanted to have at least one peaceful day of walking. He slipped into the shadows as the voices grew nearer.
"Jaun, I'm telling you, by tomorrow nights camp we will definitely be twenty-two kilometers under the ground. That means that tomorrow we can kill that damn, rich bastard and his three friends, steal all their money and make a run for it."
"How are you planning on killing them?"
"We can just hit them on the head with sledge hammers; they're going to be sleeping so it shouldn't be a problem."
"Well what if someone wakes up and starts screams or something? Then people from our digging crew might hear."
"If any of our crew hear anything then we kill them too, or we can block up the entrance. Either way, we have to make sure that no one finds out what our plan is or else it will be ruined…"
Mark heard the voices fade off, he was visibly shaking and there was sweat funning down his forehead. The Mexicans planned to kill him! What was he going to do? Maybe he would make a run for the surface, for now the only thing he could think of, was taking another pill…
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Suddenly the pressure on the two tectonic plates became so great that they couldn't handle it anymore. The two tectonic plates collided with a devastating collision that shook the earth for miles. This earthquake was massive, it was causing mass destruction all over southern California…
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As Mark lay in the shadows of the path he wondered what he could do. He was afraid because he knew that there was no one to help him. As he sat there trying to come up with a plan, he felt very depressed. Suddenly the earth started to shake. Mark didn't know what to do. He could hear screams coming from farther up the tunnel. Suddenly the ground opened up beneath him and he fell into the darkness beneath him…
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Cassie had spent the day in her boat with the seismographic monitor that she had borrowed from the university. As she wrote down notes, she didn't notice that her boat got further and further away from shore. Out of the blue, the ocean started to get really rough, and then out of nowhere she found herself atop a massive tsunami. Cassie couldn't belive this was happening to her. She was terrified out of her mind. As the tidal wave came crashing down, she was engulfed and sucked under the churning waters.
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Cassie sat up feeling really dizzy. She had no idea where she was. Everything was blurry. As her eyes started to focus she screamed from fright as she noticed that there was a man staring at her. He looked really confused too.
"Who are you?" Cassie asked him, "Where are we?"
"I'm Mark Sanders. I have no idea where we are. The last thing I remember is that I was hiding in the tunnel from the Mexicans that wanted to kill me. Then I remember that there was an earthquake, and after that everything is a blank," Mark admitted. "What about you, who are you?"
"I'm Cassie Newberry. Why are you bleeding?"
"I pulled out my IV because I don't know who put it on or what medication we were getting through it so I didn't want to take any chances."
"Ah! I'm connected to it too, can you take mine off? Cassie begged.
"Sure," Mark said.
As he was taking hers out they were silent for a minute as both wondered about whom the other was and how they had got there. The strange thing was that they were not really afraid; it was serene here. They felt as if they had known each other eternally.
"What's the last thing you remember before coming to this place?" Mark inquired.
"I remember I was on a boat on the ocean trying to read the ocean floor movements with my seismographic monitor. I had been writing notes for my project when all of a sudden the ocean had gotten really choppy. After many big waves, the tidal wave hit me. I toppled out of the boat and I felt as if I was being sucked down into the hidden depths of the ocean. Then I woke up here." Cassie explained.
"I wonder if there is a way to get out." Mark asked.
They looked around and after a quick glance they realized that other than the two stainless steel tables the room was completely empty. It was weird; you couldn't tell where the floor began and where the walls started. Everything seemed to be made of the same material. The room was very bright with a fluorescent like glow, but Cassie and Mark couldn't find where the light seemed to be coming from. It just seemed to be everywhere. They looked all around the room and found what seemed to be a door. The only problem was that it had no door handles. They tried to push the door out but that didn't work. Eventually they sat down on the tables because they couldn't think of anything better to do. After what seemed like hours but was only five minutes, they heard a faint whirring sound. They whirled around to find that the door was opening! The door had slid open but no one appeared.
"Should we go in?" Cassie whispered nervously.
"Well we can't sit here forever," Mark said.
He got up and started walking towards the door. Cassie followed right behind him. They looked through the opening and saw a hallway that was completely white. The hallway was lit with the same kind of light as the room had been lit with.
"I'm scared to go down there, what if it is not safe, what if there is something dangerous!?" Cassie exclaimed.
"Well I'm going, I don't know about you, if you're really scared you can stay in that room by yourself," Mark told her sharply.
"Well I don't want to stay by myself, I I guess I have to go."
"Suit yourself."
They slowly made their way down the hall. They could see another open door and through it darkness. As they made their way toward it, a figure appeared. It was a man. Cassie and Mark froze in shock; they wanted to run, but their legs were frozen.
"Hello, welcome to our world under the ocean," the man told them. "I hope you weren't scared but I thought that the sleeping medication we gave you would last a bit longer. We were hoping on moving you to a nicer part of our city. But what's done is done, so we'll have to deal with it. I am Rutick, the leader of Yupirn, the capitol city of the world under the ocean. Won't you please follow me so that we can sit down and I can tell you why you are here."
Cassie and Mark stumbled, dumb with shock, after the man to a small room with couches. They collapsed on one of them and Rutick started to tell them the story.
"Our world under the ocean started many centuries ago. We had lived on the top before, but once the earth got too polluted be moved down here. You both were coming close to uncovering our secret so we had to pull you down. We didn't want anyone to find out about us because it might ruin us. Every once in a while when there is a scientist or explorer who is on the verge of finding us we use our advanced technology to shake the earth, simulating what you people call earthquakes. We then suck our selected people down either through a crevice or underwater volcanoes, as you people arrived. The reason you were in that white room is because we needed to sanitize you. We don't want to take any chances about bringing in harmful bacteria. Now we are hoping that you will join our community and live happy, long lives."
"This is absurd, how could we be under the ocean, there is no way. Our scientists would have discovered this place if it existed. I think this is all some sort of cruel joke. How could you make the earth shake…!" Mark screamed.
"Stop! That is enough questions. I know right now you are skeptical but I'm sure that after a few years you will come to believe in our community. As for this being a joke, let me assure you that I am dead serious," Rutick said. "Also Cassie, I have some important news that might come as a shock for you. Are you ready?"
"I guess, although what you have told us right now has already put me into a state of shock. What's the news?" Cassie asked.
"Well your father was also one of the people selected to join us and he is living in Yuprin right now."
EPILOUGE
Ten years later, Mark and Cassie were living contentedly under the ocean. They had both married and had children. Cassie had reunited with her father and now had the family that she had always dreamed of . Life was perfect.