𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕋𝕨𝕠 ℂ𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕠𝕘𝕣𝕒𝕡𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕤 (ASOUE)

⇗ Chapter 16

"I'm aware of Fernald's history with that villain," Fiona said with a sigh. "But he doesn't work for Olaf anymore. He's back with his family now."

Sabine and Quigley nodded, but still kept their distance from the man as Fiona gave them a tour of the submarine.

~༄~

Sabine and Quigley stayed in the Queequeg for days, following the Hot Air Mobile Home as best as they could. Quigley was anxious to see his siblings again, and Sabine tried her best to calm his nerves, though nothing seemed to help.

The crew of the sub was sitting in the captain's office, waiting for a telegram to come and update them on the progress of rebuilding Hotel Denouement, (it had burned down in a terrible fire), when the alarms started blaring. The whole submarine was filled with the screeching noise and frightening red lights of the alarm system. Something suddenly rattled the submarine violently, making everyone fall to the ground. The telegram machine fell off the table and landed on Kit's legs. She gave a yelp of pain and tried to push the thing off of her.

Sabine gasped as the bookcase in the room started to tilt towards them. Another hit rocked the sub, making books fly off the shelf. A few hit Sabine in the head, and she tried to protect herself with her arms. The bookcase tilted farther towards them, and Quigley managed to shakily stand up. Kit cried out in pain again, trying to stand up too. With one hand, Quigley helped Kit up, and grabbed onto Sabine with the other.

"Everyone, watch out!" he shouted as the bookcase toppled to the ground. The Widdershins had just barely crawled out of the way of the shelf, narrowly avoiding getting crushed.

"What's going on?" Fiona shouted over the chaos.

"Something hit the Queequeg!" Captain Widdershins called. He scrambled over the fallen bookshelf and out to the main room of the submarine.

Everyone scurried behind him, Quigley and Sabine helping Kit limp along.

"What's hit us?" Fiona asked the captain as he leaned over the scanner near the steering mechanisms.

"There's two things," the captain said, "and one of them is The Great Unknown. Quickly! Turn everything off!"

Sabine and Quigley helped Kit sit down in a chair, then scurried to turn off all the lights and engines. They had encountered The Great Unknown before, but the attacks had never been this bad. Once everything had been turned off, they all huddled together in a dark corner.

"What was the other thing, stepfather?" Fiona whispered in a frightened tone.

"I'm not sure, but it fell out of the sky," Captain Widdershins replied.

Quigley gasped and reached out to grip Sabine's hand. "The mobile home..." he said quietly.

Sabine's eyes widened. "Oh, no. Could it have broken down?" she asked.

"It has received some heavy damage..." Kit said glumly.

"My siblings!" Quigley exclaimed, standing up just as the submarine lurched around again. He fell to the ground and one of the sides of the sub ripped open, flooding the insides with cold sea water.

Everyone screamed and held their breath as they were pulled under the water. In one loud whoosh! they were pushed out of the submarine by the water pressure.

Sabine had flashbacks to nearly drowning in Stricken Stream and suddenly all she could think of was getting to the surface. She swam up as quick as she could, and gasped for air as soon as her head was out of the water. She coughed up some of the salty water, then realized that no one else had surfaced with her.