Deep Ark 6 - Chapter 9

                                              Chapter 9

                                          pg 108                                                    

Finally, the Sea Slug arrives at Octo Serp's appointed spot.

I have spent the last twelve hours pretending to sleep in the cramped forward cabin. The truth is, I have never been more wide awake in my life.

I haven't had the chance to tell Hammerhead of my chilling discovery. He has been guarded at all times by Octo. Sitting alone in that cabin, the black waters swirling past the solitary porthole, my mind is a theme-park ride: spinning, turning, screaming out for answers.

What is Octo up to? Why hide snakes on board the Sea Slug? Where does he plan to take them at the bottom of the ocean? And what does he hope to find there, a thousand

                                                     pg 109

kilometres from anywhere?

Suddenly, I feel the old sub shudder and slow. The rackety engines grow silent.

We have arrived.

I scramble up the ladder to the cockpit. Hammerhead is peering out of his porthole, but the Sea Slug's bright forward lights illuminate nothing but endless ocean. A school of fish swims through the beams.

Octo Serp glares at me. "Rise and shine, kid! We've arrived!"

"Arrived where? The middle of nowhere?" I mutter.

"No, the centre of everywhere!" he sneers.

Hammerhead glares at him. "Vat do ve do now? Ve can't just bob around the bottom like a sick vale:'

Octo's eyes glow. A terrible smile splits his face. "Oh, I don't intend to stay on the bottom," he says, thrusting a pointing finger above his head. "We're going to the Surface!"

                                                            pg 110

"The Surface?" Hammerhead and I both explode together.

But Octo is waving the flare gun in our faces. "Take this heap of rubbish to the Surface. Now!"

Reluctantly, Hammerhead fires up the engines.  I can see anger smouldering in his eyes - anger and fear.

"The only thing you'll find up on the Surface is death!" he snarls. "Storms, poisonous air and a 

sea as violent as hell itself! Ve von't last five minutes up there!"

Octo doesn't reply, but the flare gun does. The sound of the explosion fills the cramped 

cockpit and when the smoke clears there is a ragged hole in the skipper's chair. Now he has 

our full attention.

"To the Surface!" he shouts. "No more debate!"

The Sea Slug begins to rise through the water. I grip the hull as she angles upwards. Through the porthole, I can see the water changing colour

                                                 pg 111

from jet black to murky grey. Fish appear in schools and a cloud of blue jellyfish shimmies by. A shark swims alongside the rusty sub for a while, then darts off.

Up ... up ... up.

After thirty minutes of slow but steady ascent, Hammerhead suddenly shouts, "Brace yourselves! Ve're surfacing!" I feel the Sea Slug burst through the waves, then thump back down with a bone-jangling crash. We roll around the cabin as the old sub rocks in the choppy water of the Surface.

The Surface!

How many times have I dreamed of visiting it, but never in my wildest nightmares had I thought I would arrive like this.

Octo is scrambling up the ladder to the conning-tower hatch. He swings it open with a rusty creak and a cascade of freezing sea water pours down on us.

Something else pours down as well —something I will never, ever forget. Light! Bright, white, pure, glorious sunlight!

It blinds me for a moment. I'm so used to

                                                       

                                                                    pg 112

electric bulbs, neon lights, false daylight.

This is incredible. It has a warmth about it, a golden glow.

I forget about Octo and the flare gun. I push up past him amd take my first look at the Surface.

I've heard people say that a prisoner who has been locked away for years can hardly comprehend the idea of freedom.

I was that prisoner, locked away below the sea for my entire life. Now, as I gaze upon the sights and sounds of the Surface, I know I'm free.

Hammerhead joins me. "I don't believe my eyes!" he gasps.

The sun, the glorious sun, is glowing from a sky of eggshell blue. Around us, the sea sparkles green, lightly dimpled by white-crested waves. A gentle breeze ruffles our hair. The air is sweet, salt-tinged and clean. Everything beams back at us.Octo is beaming, too, though his eyes still

                                                      pg 113

have a mad gleam. He points to something I haven't seen on the horizon.

"Take the sub there!" he commands.

I look. There is something rising up out of the sea. It is small at first but, as the skipper brings the Sea Slug along the surface towards it, it grows ever larger.

I have never seen anything like it before. It has the shape of a cone, carpeted in green. Fluffy clouds gather above it.

"What is that?" I ask out loud.

Octo laughs cruelly. "You've lived all your life like a crab on the bottom of the stinking ocean. Well, feast your eyes, kid. That is called land!"

"Land?" I say, fascinated by the sight of it. "But there is no more land. Dad said it had all been flooded ..."

"Well, he was wrong. They all were," sneers Octo. "This land exists!"

"How did you know it vas here?" asks Hammerhead, his bug eyes still blinking in the bright sunlight.

"I suspected it more than knew it," replies Octo. "Then, over many years of patient

                                             pg 114

research I grew certain. The tectonic plates move constantly, throwing up new land with each violent eruption. I knew such an island as this existed ... The only thing I needed to do was actually find.  But the fool Buller refused to believe me. He refused me permission to go looking for it. Ha! Today, I have proved him wrong. Let him and all the others who doubted Octo Serp rot at the bottom of the sea!"

In spite of the warm sunlight, I am shivering.

We arrive at the island as the sun is dipping on the horizon. Everything is bathed in golden light. Octo orders the skipper to pull into a small bay on the island's northern side and I immediately recognise the green objects that shade the sandy bay.

I have seen them in photos, but never

expected to lay eyes on them. Trees! Magnificent, blooming trees of every shape imaginable.

I'm still gazing at them when Hammerhead

                                                            pg 115

pokes his head through the hatchway. "Vat now, Serp?"

Octo tucks the flare gun into his waistband. "You stay here with the sub. I'm going ashore. And I'm taking the boy with me, just in case you get any ideas about leaving. Understand?"

Hammerhead glares at him. If looks could kill, Octo would be dead and buried.

"If you harm one hair on his head ...

But Octo is already grabbing me by the arm. He pushes me into the sea and jumps after me. The water is cold, but I can swim like a fish. We all can at Basin City.

We stumble ashore, stagger up the yellow sand, and sit gasping for breath on the beach. I can see Hammerhead on the prow of the sub, looking worried. I wave to let him know I'm okay. He seems relieved.

If only he knew he is alone with a sub full of snakes!

In the excitement of experiencing the Surface, I have forgotten the snakes. Until now.

That's when it hits me — the reason Octo has brought them here aboard the sub.

                                                      pg 116

I turn to him as he wipes water off the flare gun. "The snakes!" I Say:"This island is for them, isn't it?"

He looks at me as if I am an insect under his microscope. "You found my children in the hold, did you?" He stands and brushes the sand from his legs. "Yes. This will be their new home. No cages, no microchips — just them and me in paradise. Your stupid father never believed such a place existed. None of them did. 'Crazy Octo, they called me. Well, who's crazy now?"

"Others will find this place;' I say, getting to my feet. "When the skipper and I get back, we'll tell everyone what you've found ... what you have done!"

"What makes you think you're going back?" he says.

I stand there on that sandy bay with my mouth open, but no words come out.

By nightfall, Octo has explored the bay and the surrounding jungle and we swim back to the

                                                     pg 117

sub beneath a million stars.

Hammerhead helps haul me up out of the water. "You all right, boy?" he asks.

I nod.

"Vat's he up to on this island?" he whispers urgently.

I drip on the deck, shivering in the unfamiliar night air.

"Welcome to Octo Serp's new snake zoo!" I reply, pointing to the island.

The blood drains from his face. "There are snakes on the island?"

"Not yet."

"Vat do you mean? Vere in blazes does he expect to get them from?"

Octo overhears us and laughs cruelly. "Didn't the kid tell you yet? There are three hundred mating pairs of snakes safely stowed in your hold, Skipper. And tomorrow you'll help me release them all!"