[Todd]

Vi and I jump into the water, and we swim on the surface over to the place where the front of the steeple would've been before the explosion all those months ago, if my sense of direction is any good…

I stick my head underwater to check…

Yeah, I was right.

I signal over to Viola and we take a deep breath and dive underwater. I can see really clearly in the murky water, and that kind of surprises me. The goggles are the new ones the settlers brought with them, the ones designed for underwater exploration that never happened because of the ocean fish. I eventually swim down a meter or so, and find a small opening to the top of the bell tower. The room where I used to sleep and eat and for all intents and purposes, live with Mayor Ledger.

I poke my head inside the hole to scout out the room. My ears are starting to pop, and my lungs are starting to strain, so I make it quick. I find the wood floor mostly destroyed by the explosion, what was left of it starting to host yellow-green algae. I pull out and look over to Vi, who's just floating there behind me, waiting. I have to surface, and I before I even signal with my hands, Vi pulls herself up to the surface.

She's been getting better at reading me.

Not that that would've been particularly hard to hear.

I reach up with both my arms and force the water down, and I glide up to the surface.

As soon as my ears break the surface, it seems, Vi looks at me and says: "That was weird." "What?" I breathe in, heavily. "Your noise underwater. It's kind of strange."

[Viola]

As Todd surfaces, I can still hear it. I don't even give him a change to breathe. "That was weird." Now he breathes in. His noise is back to normal and he's curious as to what I mean. "What?" "Your noise under water," I say, "it's kind of strange. The pictures are all distorted, and the words sound compacted, you know what I mean? They all kind of blur together and they sound quieter." Todd nods slowly, a bit skeptical. "Anyway," he says, "we can get into the bell tower, and there's a small air bubble at the top of the old room." I nod. "You ready?" He asks. "Yeah," I say, "Let's go."

To be honest, I'm a bit nervous about going in there. Not because it creeps me out, really, It's just I don't know if my swimming skills are up to scratch. I don't want to drown or anything.

We go down a second time, and I listen to Todd's noise again. I find it kind of cool, actually. It's curious now, because he's carefully testing the little hole in the wall to make sure we won't get stuck. He quickly decides that it's safe, and he goes in first. I follow a few seconds later, the side of the hole just barely scratching . When I get in there, I see him already head in the air pocket, and I go up to meet him.

It's a small hole, and we can barley fit our heads in, even when we tilt them back. The air tastes stale but also rusty. "It's a small pocket," Todd mentions, "We probably only have a few minutes of air." "Ya. We should go down again." And with that, we both take a deep breath and dive back down.

Todd goes down through the destroyed floor, and signals me to follow him deeper into the bell tower, and despite my lack of confidence in my swimming, I do. My ears start to pop, so I squeeze my nose and blow. Todd knows his way around the place, and he's quick to swim down the somewhat short spiral staircase and into the old chapel. I see him swim up to a long air bubble running across the roof of the chapel. I swim up to meet him.

"There's a lot more air in here," says Todd; "Maybe an hour's worth." "Yeah," I say, "We should stay up here for a while." "Ya." We start a splash fight and that goes on for about five minutes. The tiny LEDs at the sides of our goggles barley illuminate each other.

We go back down, and I'm disoriented for a second. I'm turned away from the spiral staircase, towards the main entrance, one of the doors blasted off, and the other slowly rotting away. By the time I realize this and turn back, though, Todd's already gone. I guess he must have gone deeper, into the basement, so I head down the spiral staircase, kicking slowly.

I get down there and I don't see him. But here's a pile of barrels of medicine or something: I can see pills on the floor. I can't hear him either, but noise doesn't travel far underwater, so I swim around the barrels. And now he's really not there. Now I'm panicking a little, because I'm running out of air and there's not an air bubble in here. I immediately turn around hurriedly and I bump into the barrels and I need air soon but there isn't any and I can't find Todd.

I can't find Todd.

I hurriedly swim up the long staircase up into the high-ceilinged cathedral, but my lungs can't take it, I'm going to pass out before I make it, I'm going to drown.

I kick frantically toward the air pocket. I don't think I'll make it. But then I do. I take a deep breath, but my fatigue gets the better of me, and I fall back down and the world goes dark, and I think I hear someone call my name.