Undersea

Chapter 6: Giants in the Land

Sarah did not remember much of the walk back to her flat but she did remember Zenith and Beamer went with her though none spoke; such was her grief. Indeed, no one said much of anything the rest of the day. There were no words. Out in the street were friendly shouts as people yelled to each other as they spent the day relaxing in the warmth of victory. Everyone seemed to have a flag to wave or had one hanging at the front door of their homes; its colors were splashed seemingly everywhere amongst the drab browns and reds of the rocks that made up the under water city.

In Sarah's flat she and her friends mourned and thoughts turned slowly in their minds like heavy burdens. What had happened exactly and how did it happen? But most of all it came to the biggest question of all: why? Why indeed.

Sarah tried to spend more time thinking about father and the memories she had of him. He had always been a deliberate man, slow to anger, although the move to Undersea had caused him great stress, and now this sorrow. Sarah tried to remember the reason for coming here to Undersea in the first place. Had it been for safety's sake? Sarah could't quite recall, nor could she recollect where they had first heard about Undersea. Had Sarah's family been contacted first and offered a chance to escape from what was happening above? Offered a new start and the promise of a better life? Was this a better life? Sarah seemed to remember that they had been recruited, or "reached out to" might be a better way of putting it. How ever it happened though, and whatever the arguments for and against, father and mother had said yes.

Whatever the reasons Sarah was here, and as far as she could tell there was no going back. Only subs came and went any great distance from the city and few people ever traveled to the world above. Swimming to the surface was impossible, no citizen ever left the confines of Undersea, there was no need. Everything necessary was found in the city: Sir LaRosa had worked hard to make the lands above the waves irrelevent. Sarah felt trapped.

Sarah was sure things would have been much worse for her that day, the day she learned father was no more, had it not been for Zenith and Beamer. They stayed with her all day and when Beamer had finally gotten up to leave Zenith made signs saying she was staying the night. Exhausted in her grief Sarah had given her a weak smile and went through the motions of getting ready for bed. In the dark of her room her hand happened to brush up against grandma's book as she crawled under the coverlet and it spurred Sarah's thoughts. Maybe Zenith was right, how could any of those writings be true? There was just so much suffering in the world. "Well, maybe I am called to help alleviate suffering?" was the thought Sarah had as she drifted off. But Sarah was sure she was not strong enough to make any difference. Certainly not here, not with these giants in the land. She was but a grasshopper.

That night Sarah had the dream again, the second time in three days. What relationship the dream had with the waking world Sarah could not say. What separated the possible reality of one dream with the benign platitudes of another Sarah did not know. "Time would tell," she thought later, for not all dreams are created equal. But this one felt different and not because Sarah wanted it to be true.

In the dream Sarah stood, legs rooted to the stones of Undersea. In the distance walls of dark water gathered and though Sarah wanted to shout a warning she could not, and the earth shook. As the flood approached she found she could cry out but one word. "Help!" Later she would think that that must have been what it was like in Mawdeep when the subs of Undersea torpedoed it's enterance. Those special weapons of Undersea used in the battle Sir LaRosa had expounded upon in his speeches during the week of the war: torpedoes that could bore holes in thick rock and deliver huge payloads to the most vital of areas. Weakened rock then buckled under the outside pressure of the water and waves rushed in to swallow the city. It was horrific to think on.