Send out the signal and I'll fly low - Chapter 2 snippet
Flash.
Nothing on the screen; mark the new current location on the map, go back to the bolted down chair, move forward, follow the proximity sensors. Fall once again in darkness.
Flash.
Nothing.
And he would take nothing. Nothing was miles better than seeing whatever the fuck had appeared on the screen only a little while before. The image had faded quickly enough, but he couldn’t forget the teeth, countless needles glistening within the blood.
Simon was tired. The oxygen meter had gone down, below half of his reserves. He was out of water, out of food (nothing out of the ordinary there), and his head felt heavy and painful from getting himself flung around in the sub when David so kindly decided to drop him like the waste of resources he was.
Simon was tired, but he was also really fucking scared right now.
“Hello?? Come on, can anyone hear me??? Hello?!” he called, voice hoarse and throat dry. He had called again and again after waking up god knows where, but nothing came from the speaker aside from static, mocking him every single time.
He hadn’t wanted to join this program, of course he didn’t want to. Who the hell wants to be welded in a piece of shit rust bucket of a submarine and explore a blood ocean? No one, and especially not him. But they dangled the promise of freedom right in front of his nose, and he took the bait immediately.
He missed his bare, windowless cell. He would have rotted there but at least he would still live.
Flash.
Another tunnel, still nothing in his sights. He drew another part of the trench on his makeshift map and forced himself to not breathe too fast. He had to conserve oxygen if he wanted to at least try to get out of here.
Who was he kidding. They had released the line, he was as good as dead.
“Anyone? Please, just- hello??” he called once more, feeling more hopeless by the second. “Please, don’t leave me here.”
Silence was the only answer; he held his head in his hands and whimpered.
“I didn’t want this. I never wanted any of this.”
Before he could brace himself something slammed against the side of the SM-13 hard and he was thrown to the side, hitting hard the pipes lining the side of the sub. Then a wail that could only be described as a dying whale’s song pierced his ears, making him scream. He could feel his ribcage rattle around in his body, it was sickening.
When the scream ended and silence fell again within the sub, he held his breath. The monster was back. He could hear it moving around, pushing the blood against the submarine and steering it off course.
Simon held onto one of the pipes and closed his eyes.
The swishing outside stilled and darkness and silence engulfed him once again.
“----kkzzz---….”
He immediately honed in on the speaker. Static meant something was getting through the blood. Static meant hope.
“Ava? David?” the buzzing was getting slowly louder. “Hello?”
He rose and took a step towards the speaker, he didn’t need to see to know exactly where it was.
A flood of pure, unbridled hope sent his brain into overdrive. There was someone out there trying to reach him. Someone was there for him.
They-- they would get him out. He had taken so many photos, he had found a monster in the trenches, he had almost died. That had to be enough, right?
The buzzing subsided and in its place a voice came through. Clearer, understandable.
“H—llo? Kz--...---d- you c-opy?”
He had absolutely no idea who he was talking to.
“...Who the fuck are you?”
He had replied out of reflex, and winced as soon as the words left his mouth. Fantastic way of greeting someone who might just go out of their way to carry your ass out of the blood ocean, stellar job Simon.
“W-wait, sorry. Yeah I-- I’m here.” he tried again, hoping whoever was on the other side of the transmission hadn’t just up and left.
There was complete silence for what felt like an eternity, and then a frantic mix of sounds and – was that music? – exploded out of the speaker.
“-h my God, oh –kz-- God-- bzz--...--- my God” the man was so loud. What was a constant buzzing gave way almost completely to a voice. “—my God yes- kz…. --es!! We hear y-ou!! We’ve been l—king f-r you!”
Simon snorted; that was a joke if he had ever heard one.
“Whe-re are y-ou? We can’t pin-..oint your lo-ation.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“♬♪♪♫♬!!!”
Again with the music, was someone blowing three flutes at once?
“R-cky wait- wait-- we’ve been foll-ing a sig-nal.” the man continued. “We were trying to fi-nd your tra—mission. We rec-ived it a w—ek ago”.
Ah. They were looking for the other poor bastard who was sent before him, then.
They never meant to look for him.
And why would they? He wasn’t just a convict, he was the Butcher of Filament Station. No one in their right mind would waste time and effort to look for him.
“Yeah, well, sorry to disappoint you, but you’re late. They’re gone.” he bit out, pausing to take yet another picture. “It’s only me in this shit hole now.”
“O-h. I’m so-ry to hear.”
Wait.
“...Shouldn’t you know that they’re dead? Or don’t you keep track of the people you send down here?”
Something again moved around the submarine, pushing bubbles against the outer shell and making his skin crawl.
“I-m-- S-sorry, I don’t th-ink I follow.” the other replied, tone turning completely shocked.
“Aren’t you with the C.O.I?” Simon pressed, doing his best to ignore whatever lurked in the depths. “Or Eden? Cause either way, fuck you.”
“U-uh..”
“♪♬♪?”
“I’m no-t explaining that t-- you”
“Hey, don’t ignore me!” he slammed his first against the control panel, above the camera controls. Ow. “Who are you with?!”
“I’m sorry, I’m s--ry!! I don-t know what you’re t--king a-bout!” he could almost imagine the other flailing his arms like a child. “It’s just m-e and my fr-end!”
“The music? That’s your ‘friend’?”
“♫♫!!”
“Y-yes, it’s just us. We don-t know anyt-ing about that Seoheye or- did y-ou say Eden? Like- bibli-al Eden??”
“Coalition of Iron. The Eden brothers. Nothing?”
“Can’t say they ring a-- bell.”
He grit his teeth and let out a growl; he felt the other suck their breath, and he gripped the speaker as if he could grab their head and squish. Why? Wasn’t throwing him out to die under the false promise of freedom enough? Was mocking him in his final hours so necessary?
He shakily breathed out, trying to control his anger.
“I’m going to ask again. Who the fuck are you?”
He heard the other sigh under the soft background noise. “Alright. A-right. I’m Dr. Ryland Grace, but just c-ll me Grace. I’m a sc-ientist. My friend’s Rocky, an eng-neer-- yo-- can’t und-stand him b-cause. Uh. Don-t freak -ut. He’s an alien.”
Simon let his arms drop.
“An alien.”
“Y-eah.”
“What, you come from Neptune now?” he mocked the other. If they were going to fuck with him, he was going to fuck right back with them.
“I’m f-om Earth, actually. But we come fr-m Erid, Rocky’s planet. It’s by 40 Er-dani.”
“And I bet right now if you look out the window you can both see lots of pretty little stars. Why not.” he was seething. “Have a fucking party while you’re at it, praise the stars and all that.”
“Where we are-- y-yes, t-here are stars.” the man paused. Rocky, the music maker, chimed low tones (they seemed… sad.) “But I fear w-ere you are, s-tars are gone. Are they?”
At the dismayed tone of the other man, Simon had to pause, his anger withering and turning into nothing more than cold embers. He had sounded so genuine, so honest in his sadness, both for the previous convict and for the lack of stars in the sky. He couldn’t remember the last time he had heard such honesty directed at him. What a thought, that was.
“Yeah.” Simon murmured, sitting down in the darkness under the speaker. “Been that way for a while now. Can’t do shit about it anyway, so we try to survive.”
“♪♫♩♬?” the other, Rocky, trilled. Under the buzzing he could hear soft tapping. “♪♬…”
“We have – theory.” Grace started, haltingly. “It’s n-t pretty but it… it w-uld make sense. First thou—h, what’s y-ur name?”
Simon’s breath caught in his lungs.
He wanted to believe that they weren’t lying to him, that they really were from a world full of stars, he wanted it so fucking badly it was a physical ache. There was jealousy of course, but the sense of longing and wonder was so much stronger. He wanted to trust them, but there was the chance that they were C.O.I, and if they found out who he was… they’d let him die at the bottom of this red abyss. He couldn’t risk that.
“I’m sorry, I can’--”
Something crashed against the front of the SM-13, and the speaker erupted with static.
“No, wait, shit, wait!” Simon grabbed the edge of the speaker and shook it, checked for damage, pleaded. “Grace?? Whistler?? Hello?”
“Who are you talking to? It’s only us down here.”
Link to the fanfiction => https://archiveofourown.org/works/85467526/chapters/225776991
yet, if only i had the choice between all you have done to me, and never having known you
i would choose this path.
you give me fire and zeal in a way no one else does. you grew me up just a little bit more, and now that i’m far enough away to see it all without it hurting again
you make me fight for something - you make me fight against you. and i feel alive.
