Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY
IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I
generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family rolls
its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to write
down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration (quote,
website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind. These will
simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat, irradiate, test
or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if anything comes
of them.
H Trope: apocalyptic
diary/journal/log
Current Event: http://news.discovery.com/earth/oceans/lost-continent-discovered-beneath-indian-ocean-130225.htm
Andrianampoinimerinatompokoindrindra
Zehrezgi – who preferred to go by Andri Zee – tried to keep his last meal down
as the boat rocked beneath his feet.
“Isn’t this
exhilarating?” exclaimed Shamma Maslah.
“When do you think
the hurricane is going to stop?” he asked.
Shamma burst out
laughing. “There’s no hurricane! In fact this is the calmest day I’ve seen
since we were out here.” She glanced at him and went to the railing and said,
“If you don’t like the ocean, why’d you come out here?”
“This site is
within the waters of my country.”
She made a face,
saying, “I didn’t know you had a country. Not how you talk about it anyway.”
“Madagascar is my
homeland!” She grunted and leaned over the rail, looking deeply into the water.
“Watch out!” he cried, stepping forward, arm outstretched.
She looked at him
and laughed, “What? It scares you when I lean out this far?” she said, leaning
back over the railing. Suddenly the water below her grew dark and began to
bubble, gently at first, then wildly. Water geysered into the air. She screamed
and staggered backward, into Andri Zee’s arms and they watched in horror as...
A fluorescent
orange conning tower surged out of the water, sluicing aside until the hatch on
top opened up and a young lady waved at them.
Shamma shouted,
“Laura! What’s going on?”
“You won’t believe
what we discovered! Not only is Mauritia a sunken island – there was some sort
of sealed chamber there!”
“What?” Andri
exclaimed. Majoring in archaeology, THIS is what he’d come for! “Where is it?”
“They had to send
down the big sub and they’re bringing up the entire chamber right now.”
Shamma looked at
Andri then Liz, bobbing in the conning tower of the sub and shouted, “The time
is all wrong! Mauritia sank when the dinosaurs died. There shouldn’t be
anything there.”
Liz shrugged, “I
don’t know about when it sank or what should and shouldn’t be there, but
there’s something big and it looks like it was sealed. See you in a bit!”
*
They rendezvoused
at the small sub dock. The massive winch from the ship platform had lifted a
barnacled encrusted, roughly cubic case into the air and was swinging it over
the helipad, where it lowered the box down.
The metal groaned
as the cables above relaxed. Andri said, “It’s heavier than it looks.”
“Way heavier,”
said Liz.
Shamma frowned.
There was something about it. Something strange. Despite the noise around her,
she could hear…not exactly hear…sense? Feel? She wasn’t sure. Something. The
hot sun of the Indian Ocean beat down on the head of the crew. Men and women in
trunks and halters scampered around the deck, disconnecting chains, cables,
hosing down the object. SCUBA divers were lifting up from the waterline; heavy
metal music abruptly blared from the deck speakers and the recovery work began
in a part atmosphere.
Shamma found a
spot, out of the way. Her work on the project was cataloging and identifying
life forms; part of a survey team that had set out to begin to quantify the
anecdotal evidence that the oceans were beginning to recover now that the world
population had precipitously fallen during the H7N9 Pandemic of 2014-2016. With
over two billion people dead, the Earth seemed empty now. It scared her
sometimes. Abruptly, a migraine
assaulted her. It had been years since she had one.
That was when
heard a voice, speaking in Olde English. She only caught the first few words,
vaguely familiar, but somehow wrong as well, “In the beginning, I created this
earth to inhabit heaven...” The migraine became blinding and with a squeak, she
passed out.
Names:
♀ UAE, Somalian; ♂ Madagascar, Ethiopian; ♀ Hebrew (diminutive of “Elizabeth”)
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