The mild panic in his head began intensifying into a terrifying realization that he would die inside this flooded corridor, his wife and son stuck in a nether region, unaware of his hellish fate. His slow motions within the suffocating liquid around him soon became more desperate and he began to get confused. In less than a second his disorientated mind could no longer tell if he was moving forward or backwards, or where up and down was anymore.
Blinking his eyes, Nick realized he could no longer see the blurred form of Quentin’s back in front of him, and he began to thrash his arms and legs in every direction, twirling in the dark water as his burning lungs begged him for some life-giving air. Nick’s desperate moans echoed within his throat, for he knew no one would hear him as he began to black out.
Suddenly, he felt something grab the back of his shirt collar and he was being pulled in an unknown direction. Nick thrashed some more, his elbow banging against something hard, enough to make it hurt. His energy was spent and he no longer had any desire to struggle, so he went limp, hoping the end would come quickly.
Nick’s head suddenly broke the surface in an air-filled cavity. The moment his nose and mouth came out of the water, he opened his eyes and breathed in, the long draughts of resuscitating air refilling his exhausted lungs. A bright light shone in his face, temporarily blinding him.
Quentin’s voice entered his wet ears. “You alright?”
Nick continued breathing heavily into his mouth while nodding his head slowly. The brush with death still lingered in his mind, and he felt ashamed of it.
“Just as I expected, there was an air pocket in this tunnel,” Quentin said. “When I surfaced I hoped you’d come up soon after me, but when you didn’t I went back down to look for you.”
Nick rubbed his stinging eyes. Everything was a fuzzy blur without his glasses. “Thanks. I owe you.”
Quentin smiled faintly. “It’s a good thing you were flailing about like that. I could barely see anything and it was your sudden movements that caught my eye, mate.”
Nick shook his head slowly, not sure of what to say about it.
The other man’s smile quickly turned into a grimace. “My ribs hurt like hell. I think I bumped into something that ripped the stitches back open.”
“Can you still keep going?”
“I think so,” Quentin said. “The red lights are brighter on this end. I believe we’re close.”
“Alright. I’ll follow your lead again.”
“Stick close to me, okay? Don’t think about anything else.”
“Okay.”
Quentin gave him a thumbs up before taking a deep breath and disappeared beneath the surface once more. Nick did the same.
He was right. The reddish glow ahead did indeed become brighter, and Nick had no problem using it as a guiding beacon while pushing past more darkened objects around him. The radiance steadily intensified, and he could now see the end of the corridor. Keeping up with Quentin, Nick continued on until the water’s surface was now plainly visible just above him.
Both men came up into the edge of a half-flooded chamber. The circular walls were lined with large lockers and cabinets. A lone, red lightbulb cast an infernal hue over the entire room. With their flashlights breaching the surface, they started looking around.
Nick quickly spotted the entrance to another submerged tunnel. He pointed his light towards it, and he could tell the water was even cloudier than the passageway they had just swam through. “Look at that.”
There seemed to be a bench bolted to the floor just below the water’s surface, and Quentin managed to sit on it, partly elevating his chest above the murky liquid as he pulled out the plastic lined map he had stuck underneath the back of his shirt. Using his flashlight, he began tracing where the next tunnel would lead to.
Nick kept scanning the room with his light. The device had been turned on continuously since they left the boat by the dock, and its once powerful beam had begun to dim slightly. One of the lockers had been left partly open, and the scuba diving gear inside of it was visible. “Hey, there’s a mask and an oxygen tank.”
Quentin kept his eyes on the diagram while nodding. “This seems to be their ready room, a place to suit up before they went over to the enclosure area.”
Nick shone his light back to the flooded tunnel where they had just come from. “I wish I could bring Cathy and Scotty here, but there’s no way they’d be able to hold their breaths that long without panicking and drowning.”
“You won’t have to.”
Nick aimed his light towards the other man. “What?”
Quentin pointed towards the next tunnel. “Along the middle there is an accessway to get to the hydraulic pumps. These things should be automatic, but maybe something’s blocking it.”
“So what do we do?”
The other man winced, pressing his free hand to his side. “I’m definitely bleeding again, mate. My arms and legs are going numb. You’ll have to do it.”
Nick blinked several times in astonishment. “What… what do I have to do?”
Quentin pointed towards the lockers. “Put on a wetsuit and gear up. You’ll need to go into that tunnel’s halfway point and locate the access to the hydraulic pump. Clear out anything that’s blocking them and then turn them on. Once they get started it should drain the floodwaters, and we can bring Cathy and Scott over here.”
Nick’s mind remained in a daze. “I… I don’t know how to scuba dive.”
Quentin shone his light into the water. “It isn’t too deep so you won’t have to worry about decompression or anything like that. The only problem is the damn mucky water. Since there’s no visibility, you’ll have to go by touch.”
The thought of going into a flooded corridor and feeling his way through like a blind man brought Nick’s sense of dread roaring back. “Are… are you sure this will work?”
Quentin sighed. “It’s got to. Right now this is our only chance to get to the habitat section. You’ve got to do this, mate. For all our sakes.”
Nick trudged over to where the lockers were. Pulling out a wetsuit from one of the compartments, he stared at its black neoprene rubber lining. “So… I just get into it?”
“Yeah,” Quentin said. “Choose one that fits you. It should be snug without being too tight.”
Nick went through two wetsuits before he found one that seemed to fit just right. Taking out a dive mask, he placed it on the top of his head. He also found a waterproof pouch, and placed his damp wallet and the stun gun into it and tied it around his waist.
Quentin shone his light at a locker containing an oxygen tank attached to a buoyancy compensator device. He could see that the tank already had a regulator secured to it, and figured it would be quicker if Nick used that one. “Can you look at the air gauge and check if it’s got any oxygen in it?”
Nick trudged over and held his light against the gauge. “Says around 450 on it.”
“Good, it should be a very shallow dive so you’ll have plenty of air,” Quentin said. “Place the regulator in your mouth and practice breathing with it. Use deep breaths, otherwise you might overload it.”
Clenching the mouthpiece between his teeth, Nick began to breathe orally through the device. The hoarse sound of air going through the regulator could be heard by both men.
“Well done,” Quentin said. “Now, when you’re using the regulator, don’t hold your breath. Always keep breathing. If you’re not inhaling then you’re exhaling, got it?”
Nick remained unsure of himself, but he nodded anyway. “Got it.”
“Alright, now put on the buoyancy compensator—that’s the vest attached to the tank.”