Steady and Stable (Part Five)

Steady and stable

A sense of finality washed over John Nolan, whatever was trying to grab him, he no longer had any fight left in him. the scream of the creature still echoed in his head after the Diamond had exploded from the pistol shot he had fired. somehow enough to thwart the plan of the creature and Doctor Meuller.

it was a bittersweet victory, but it was a victory he would savour for the last few minutes that he would live, he could not help himself but he lifted his head and looked towards where the creature stood, he wanted to see the look of defeat on its face and smile one last time.

To his surprise he saw the creature staring back at him in shock, its dark eyes locking with his own as their eyes met across the cavern, John snapped back in shock as his eyes fully opened and he found himself lost in the eyes of this evil monster.

He could feel his head begin to swim like he was drunk, a sensation of swirling motions going around and around in his head as he felt his face begin to tremble, the creature's face now forming into what John thought was a smile, a twisted and sadistic smile.

The spinning in his head began to move faster now, his stomach-wrenching in on itself, it felt like he was going to throw up and as much as he struggled he could not break this thing's gaze.

He felt a sudden sense of calm fall over him and his mind filled with the image of a night sky, the stars burning bright overhead, brighter than he had ever seen before. it seemed like it was from another time or another place.

The sky suddenly filled with a burning trail of something dropping down from the heavens, the object speeding towards what he assumed was the ground. the burning orange flames trailing behind it as it did.

His mind filled with the sensation of an explosion as the fireball struck the ground and the flames spread out across the land like some sort of gigantic reaction to gas and fire coming together.

John could feel drool starting to form at the edge of his mouth, but his gaze still could not break the hold of the creature's stare. his mind now seeming to zoom inwards and down into the centre of the explosion he had witnessed.

Something seemed to form, to take shape in the huge crater that the impact had made. a person rising from the ground and seemingly unaffected by the flames that lit up the night sky and now ravaged the land.

it was the creature, it was the.. his mind snapped to attention as he saw it step forward in his mind's eye, its cruel eyes looking around the burning landscape before the scene began to shift and change like some sort of dissolve used in a movie.

A flash of darkness appeared in his mind's eye and for a moment he could see nothing, just feel the searing heat of the fire that had engulfed that place with the arrival of this force of evil.

The scene now before him was of what he could only assume were primitive humans dancing around a stone gate, the gate where he had seen the creature appear from. the frantic dance seemed to be some form of worship. John's vision lifting to see the creature step forth from the gateway.

This seemed to send the men and women into a frantic burst of energy as moved with renewed vigour and an animalistic lust as they tried to give some form of honour to their apparent Idol.

The sky suddenly turned a dark shade of purple and then started to slowly become a sickening blackness in tone. a single human standing more erect than the others in the group with a glowing black Diamond in his right hand and held high in the air much like Doctor Meuller had done so.

The creature seemed to recoil for a moment in what could almost be perceived as terror, the human stepping closer and calling out something in a language that John could not understand.

The creature took another step back and the gateway behind it came to life, the energy flowing forth as it did in the cavern when Meuller had called the creature from it.

Another step forward from the human and the creature stepped back again, its back now against the edge of the energy that created some unknown pathway, a roar of anger erupted from the mouth of the monster as the man took one more step forward and fell backwards into the gateway.

The creature's vanquisher raised the black diamond high above his head and let out a victory cry as he took another step closer and eased the Jewell downwards and towards the gateway.

The familiar hand of the creature suddenly came from the darkness and grabbed the man by the wrist and without effort pulled him into the void of the gateway and then as quickly as it had opened the vortex closed to leave the open space of the stone circular construct.

"John"

A voice cut through the images in his head, but he could not place it, even as it rang out again, his mind snapped back to reality and he tore his head away from the gaze of the monster and looked to where the voice came from above him,

His vision cleared as he looked up at Doctor Andrew Taylor, the American holding onto his arm and trying to drag him from the ground and back onto his feet, as John could feel the strength returning to his body once more.

"Come on, Captain, you need to get us out of here"

The Scientist offered and even managed a half smile of sorts and John grabbed him around the neck and pulled himself back up onto his feet, the sickening sound of slime creatures now moving towards them.

"You got that right"

John offered as he steadied himself and twisted around and grabbed the forearm of the American and began to pull him back towards the tunnel they had come through, his mind struggling to remember how far the submersible was from here.

The pair of them made their way as quickly as they could, the doctor not being as steady on his feet as John Nolan and this made them have to stop and the pilot pull him back up.

Fortunately, the slime beasts even though in pursuit did not seem to be able to traverse the ground very quickly and this allowed them to make ground on them soon they were stumbling out into the cabin where they had left the submersible

"She looks intact"

John said his worst fears were that somehow the monsters had gotten to the vessel and somehow put her out of commission, but this did not seem to be the case as the two men ran on board and John ran into the cockpit to start powering the submersible into life.

The Scientist dropped into the seat behind him and as much as John sensed the man wanted to shout something in panic, he kept his mouth closed so as not to disturb the pilot.

The craft came to life as the engines powered up, the vessel having not been fully powered down now waking quickly from its dormant state as the sound of something heavy smacked against the outside of it.

"What is that?"

The scientist exclaimed and even without looking at the cameras, John knew the slime beasts had caught up with them and were attempting to force their way into the vessel do Lord knows what?

"Not good news"

John said as he felt the vessel lurch forward and begin to sink into the water and slowly lower itself back down, he knew he should have left it on autopilot, after all, it had mapped out data of all the tunnels, but he knew that would take far too long.

He gripped the controls and pushed the engines harder and soon they were surrounded by the thick blackness of the water, his eyes going to the sensors as he tried to navigate his way free of this.
"Are we going to make it?"

The Scientist finally blurted out, his emotions now getting the better of him as John looked to the sensors and eased the submersible to the left and away from one of the outcropping walls.

"Steady and stable, Doc, Steady and stable"

John offered and wanted to look back and give the man a reassuring smile, but knew that he dare not take his eyes off the screens which would mean the difference between success and failure.

This seemed enough to calm the other man as John now eased the controls to the right and the sound of scraping could be heard against the outside of the hull.

John could not help but cringe at this and guided them into a central pathway and then scanned the screens to see that nothing serious had been done other than the paintwork needing a touch-up.

There seemed to be no pursuit up to now and he relaxed a little and continued to guide the craft with expert precision through the tunnels until he hit the upwards rise they had traversed to get here.

He looked to the screens once more and he felt his hand grip the controls tighter and could feel sweat forming on his forehead either from the heat in here or the jaw-clenching fear that he now felt.

Time seemed to stand still as he felt them rising in the water, his eyes darting from place to place as he tried to make corrections on the fly. the damn autopilot made it looks so easy. but there again, the autopilot had not just tangled with what they had, so to hell with it.

Suddenly light flooded through the windows of the cockpit, John had to bring his hands up to shield his eyes as he struggled to make sense of what was happening, his eyes now adjusting to the explosion of light that flooded his senses.

Through the windows, he could see the bright blue skies above him and he realised they had broken the surface and were now floating on the water and this made him stand to look upwards at the sky.

"We made it"

Doctor Taylor exclaimed happily and slapped the pilot gently on the back to show his joy at this.

John could not help but stare at the burning brightness of the sky above him, it has an almost hypnotic quality to it and he longed to breathe in the air once more and see this brave new world

The end ???