Camera 73

• Oscar Mirigliani, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2018

Connor hurried down the hallway of the isolated, Deep Sea Institute (D.S.I) base. He reached a door and entered.
Vast and stark were the only ways to describe the room. Empty apart from a projector and a sofa, a man in a blue uniform matching Connors’, waited. “Sit down,” he murmured. Connor obeyed.
“What’s up?” Connor asked in conversational tone.
“We have a situation,” replied the man.
Moments later, a boy walked in, followed by a woman. They both wore the blue uniforms. Connor knew them, Tim and Sarah. They sat as the tall man rose and spoke, “Last night camera 73 was switched off and as you understand, it’s vital we have vision of what’s happening down there. A submarine has been prepped.”
Connor knew this mission would be dangerous, he suspected the D.S.I were carrying out secret research, using their innocent marine biology work as a cover.
Connor, Tim, Sarah and two, submarine crew headed off, dreading the darkness.
“All we have to do is go down turn on the camera and come back,” Sarah thought as they descended.
There was a loud thunk, on the side of the submarine. Sarah and Tim raced to the window, to see the two crewmen reach the special customized escape pod, and blast away.
“OH NO THEY DON’T!” Connor ran to the control room, started turning the sub!
WAM. The three yelled in sync, “What was that?”
“It must be a shark?” yelled Tim.
WAM!
“NO A SHARK WOULDN’T DO THAT…” Connor was cut off.
The sub hit sand. In the distance a camera, ripped to shreds lay on the seabed. A shell of a missile from the escape pod drifted to the sea floor. It had been a trap.
“They survived?” asked the man, back in the vast, stark room.
“Yes.”
“You have done well, now we wait.”
“Why them?” asked the crewman.
“To see how Octilius Deep reacts to boy, man and woman. We must study its intellects.”
On the seafloor, Sarah screamed. Connor did a scan, “We’re not alone. I’ve found three creatures the size of small cars out there.”
Connor geared up to investigate outside. The airlock door shut and Connor was out. The reinforced suit was designed to withstand the pressure, which should be impossible, yet another secret of the Institute.
The escape pod had damaged the Deep Endeavors’ right side. It had hit a power cell and wires, which operated the headlights. Connor was so relieved, he almost forgot to breath. They could use the emergency power system to make it to the surface. Connor started to swim back when his heart stopped again.
A three-metre tentacle slithered towards him. He was petrified, trapped thousands of meters deep with poor visibility and what he now guessed, was a D.S.I created, hybrid Giant Octopus.
So the Institute and Government have had us looking at the skies for extra terrestrial threats, while creating their own deadly species in our oceans.
These were Connors’ thoughts before reaching the safety of the sub…
The end