The Men from Down Under

"Wake up, wake up!" cried the voice of a child, an exasperated blonde girl who couldn't be more than six-years old. She desperately pushed and shoved Gerald who had been laying down sleeping on a sinking mattress.

He opened his eyes to be greeted by the same dim-lit bedroom he recognized and his daughter, Willow whose eyes were red and moist from having cried so much. She had been desperately trying to get her father to notice the rising water submerging the furniture.  

"Willow, what... what happened?" Gerald still groggy watched Willow who had been distracted staring at her feet below the dark murky water that had a distinctive rust odor to it.

The colors were more comparable to sewage leakage than anything else. Gerald quickly lifted her from the hazardous pool and carried her onto his arms as he tried to balance on the mattress. He heard a cracking noise all of a sudden and looked up to a slit forming a thunderbolt above.

"Willow eyes were glued above too while Gerald tried to figure out what was causing the flood. "Willow", he shook her.

"Willow...Where's your mum?"

"Mummy left". she whispered. 

"What do you mean, where did she run off to?"

"She went through the hole in the wall".

He stared at Willow before being distracted by the sensation of water dripping to the top of his head.

"Dad!" Willow shrieked pointing over to the ceiling fan beginning to rupture from its mount above. 

"Willow, cover your-!" Gerald quickly turned his body around to block Willow from the direct impact, the fan had came tumbling down swinging from the loose wires and bludgeoned Gerald in the back of the head.

He tumbled down head-first onto the bed frame as Willow toppled over from his grasp onto the dirty water beneath them.

Willow flailed her arms around intensely while her head barely floated above the water that had risen abruptly. She yelled to her dad as she splashed frantically.

"Willow, give me your arms!" Gerald demanded as he held his arms out to her while the gash on his forehead dripped blood that obstructed his view.

He felt her forearm and grabbed it tightly and pulled.

"I have you Willow, relax, don't let go"  

He's surprised to feel something terrifying in his grip, the skin on Willow's arm felt stretchy and loose almost in a gelatinous texture.

"Christ! Flaming hell.." Gerald flinched.

He kept pulling her as she started to slip away, he pulled harder and realized he had a hand full of excess skin.

"Willow!" he yelled, he reached over and jumped into the water to grab her. He managed to lift her onto the bed. Gerald noticed the strange texture of small lumps that looked like burnt skin on her arm.

He looked closer to identify they were a series of scales forming below her cracked skin.

Gerald flinched and let go of her arm for a moment before Willow slipped away in an instant swallowed into the water before Gerald could reach for her arm once again.

*****

Gerald jerked awake, his forehead condensed in panicked sweats. He yawned and stretched his body as he sluggishly headed over to the bathroom to stare into his reflection in the mirror and brush his teeth.

"You right mate?" he said to himself while staring at his puffy red eyes with bags under them. The daunting reoccurring dreams had taken a toll on his sleep cycle. His bathroom sink had a variety of pills that wouldn't help.

He sighed and rubbed his head down the top of his shaggy hair to his thick grey-streaked beard. It felt refreshing for him to feel the warmth of the water caressing his face.

Gerald walked back into the bedroom and fell back onto his mattress. Then a ring on his phone alerted him, the caller ID had flashed his wife, "Shirley" on the interface.

"Babes, how are ya feelin'? Shirley asked. 

"Hey luv, I'm...fine..." Gerald said suppressing his yawn.

"Hope we didn't wake you Jerry, these little monsters were dying to tell you something... " Shirley turned her phone on speaker mode.

"Come on kids, your daddy is on the mobile, go on..."

"Happy birthday daddy!" all three of their kids shout into it excitedly.

"Thank you kiddos. Your dad loves you all and misses you heaps, we're going to eat some Lammie when I get home in a few weeks to celebrate. With some strawberry jam and cream, sound good?"

"Yeah!"

"Great I can't wait, kiddos. We'll put a foot note on it then. Can you put your mum back on the phone, daddy's got to tell her something".

"Shirley..."

Gerald's friend Lani called unexpectedly.

"Oh, bugger off! Sorry Shirley, I have to take this call, its the kiwis calling. I'll ring you again at the island". Gerald hastily spurts out.  

"Jerry be safe, okay, don't agree to anything too daring?

"Course not. Cheers, love you, talk to you soon". Gerald hung up and quickly answered his other call to discuss the meet up times with Lani and the group, they set out to meet at Pitt island off the Chatham archipelago.

The group sponsoring the diving were mostly from New Zealand but there were a couple of oceanography professors from the University of Auckland, and a few members of the Australian Environment Agency who helped fund the project. Each involved to supervise the dive and investigate the newly discovered cave system several hundred feet below surface. Gerald and Lani would dive using their specialized atmospheric suit. It was a rarity to use as they were usually reserved for military reconnaissance.

*****

The next morning, Gerald met up with his good friend Lani, a Maori native former member of the Royal New Zealand Navy. Gerald and Lani assisted the group in ensuring the suits were primed and ready for the expedition . Gerald stayed behind for another safety check while Lani lounged by the house they had reserved. He ensured the joints on the suit was secured and the propulsion system was free from any hazards and everything was to its optimal condition.

Gerald walked over to Lani who he had known to always read the same thing before a dive at this caliber, a book from the most famous French undersea explorer. Lani read the book as a way to validate his reasons for a risky dive. Lani had spent many hours underwater diving but couldn't shake the nerves at the very beginning, but once he floated in three dimensional space he remembered why he fell in love with it. Lani had always loved the exploration aspect of diving, he always said the closest thing to being in outer space and discovering an alien species was right under our noses.

Gerald walked over to his friend and peaked at his reading material to confirm his speculation and smiled. He sat besides him to take in the sights of the strangely isolated island. It was a place where the flocks of mollymawk albatross outnumbered the residences 100 to 1. Gerald sat down enjoying the wind hitting on his face until the deep stench of cold manure overwhelmed his vicinity.

"Mate, how can you stand this sheep shit?" Gerald flinched and held his nose. "Smells like a bucket of prawns in here!"

Lani was undistracted holding his book outwards in his loosened grip, wearing his sunglasses and breathing deep. Gerald patted him.

"Ah, mate. You scared me. How's the equipment going'?" Lani said.

. "Its going good mate"

"Ah sweet as, I'm going good too bro, whole thing is a piece of piss. We'll be fine. It's being in the wop-wops that makes me feel a little out of place though".

"I hear you mate, we'll be in those shiny new suits in no time. They're a beauty to look at, and they'll keep us safe. I trust these kids at the uni know what they're doing. They sound a lot smarter than I am. Soon as you know it, we'll be back up and enjoying a cold one on me".

"Yeah, I hear ya Jerry...we need a proper celebration for the big four-O, bro" Lani closed his eyes again and drifted back to sleep.

****

Gerald and Lani looked towards each other through the face plates of their diving suits as they began to descend from their platform. They drifted below untethered several feet deeper and deeper into the darkness of the ocean basin below. The sunlight slowly disappearing as they descended and the lights on their suits activated as they sunk further where there was an absence of light leaving cavitation bubbles in their trails.

They basked in their sensation of weightlessness. Lani closed his eyes and smiled and his nerves dwindled down, and Gerald mustered a summersault to show off.

"Hey Hey, Don't break an ankle, old man!" Lani laughed. 

Soon they both found themselves nearby the entrance to the cavern as they sunk deeper towards the bottom, with the harsh pressures building up in their bodies, their ear drums felt a tight squeeze. The cave was wondrous however, an abstract formations of sharp rocks surrounded by the fluorescents of the phytoplankton that gathered around. Gerald watched the giant blue cod swimming around next to Lani.

"Ay, give them an Aussie salute, mate!" Gerald chuckled through the speakers in his suit.

They continued on and hovered into the entree way of the cave, while Gerald scanned the environment, he began to feel a malfunction in his suit. The propulsion stammered and jolted him horizontally towards a sharp side of the cave until he crashed. The sensor in his suit immediately alarmed and Gerald immediately started to feel difficulties breathing.

"Jerry, stay with me..." Lani said, his voice reverberated through Gerald's helmet. Lani had witnessed this dangerous crash before in the Navy and understood its severity.

"I'm...I'm I'm good, mate" Gerald stuttered, he grew silent for a few moments. "You'll make sure to tell the kids I love em?"

"Jerry, listen to me...mate, we are going to get you out of here".

Gerald started to feel the bends as he ascended too quickly, the pain of his joints constricting made him feel full and woozy.

"Mate, don't panic".

Gerald hovered erratically as he swam buoyantly in the darkness at the top end of the cave. He realize they were far too distant to make it.

"Jerry, follow my lights, mate. Do not give up!"

Lani flagged him up to a light emitting through the cave in hopes there was a temporary air pocket at the other end.

Gerald followed a few feet behind Lani leading them through an opening in the cave towards a shiny beacon of a light. Then suddenly they are engulfed and trapped into a powerful flow of water pressure, Lani and Gerald were taken away at quick speeds spinning in through the underwater river along them several other small critters. 

After a few minutes of blurred visions and flashing lights drifting in through the stream, the water felt suddenly warm and they found themselves blinded again by a white light washed on shore of a navy-blue sandy beach.

Gerald struggling to catch his breath, laid on the sand and looked over to find a couple of dying fish and Lani who had already removed his helmet running ahead pass a large boulder on the newly discovered beach. Gerald couldn't see the exit of the grotto they were in. Sunlight pierced through and Gerald could hear the strange ambient sounds coming from outside and foreign languages muzzled in the distance. He closed his eyes and lost consciousness. 

"Wake up Jerry. Wake up! You'll never believe this mate! Lani screamed excitedly running back to him.

"Bro, we are going to be the next Jacques Cousteau!"

"Lani, are we back at the island, mate?" Gerald asked confused.

"Listen bro I think we discovered something grand" said Lani.

As Lani is caught off guard talking to Gerald he is suddenly struck with a sharp rod through his chest. The weapon that looked like a trident had lots of small thin spikes at the end.

"Lani!" Gerald cried out watching his friend tip over on his front staining the sand beneath him in his blood. He watched two strange looking people that appeared to be dressed up wearing masks and a turquoise tinted body suit. 

"I'll kill you!" he shouted.

The two perpetrators are surprised to see Lani's dead body lying unconsciously. They tugged on his clothing as they inspected them and muttered something to each other in languages that Gerald could not identify.

Gerald is terrified and reached for a rock he found in the sand as he turned to the killers who quickly noticed him. They approached gawking and observing his helmet on the ground.

Gerald noticed the uncanny features of their faces that were too detailed to be prosthetics and dropped his rock. The hairs on his arms stood up and his breathing sped up the closer they got before rolling his eyes back and fainting onto the water.

Gerald awoke right after waving his arms in desperation and spitting and gulping down sea water, his muscles are too weak to swim effectively.

The two hands of one of the creatures reached over to Gerald who still looked haunted by them, their skin had small colorful blemishes and pores that shined with the reflection of the sunlight. Gerald hesitantly grabbed their offered hand to released himself from the water. The creatures hands were warm and soft in his grip, Gerald felt a certain discomfort in them being human-like. The two creatures were not human, he was certain of it.

Gerald continued observing them with wide curious eyes, in return they did comparably towards Gerald. They touched Gerald's hair on his head and stroked his beard but held their weapons close and tucked to their back.

Their bulbous golden eyes had large black pupils that squinted at how Gerald carried himself but they were more astounded when he started to speak.

"Why did you kill him?" Gerald pushed the creature that helped him out of the water. The other one flinched and backed away from Gerald.

"Why?" Gerald demanded an answer but they were unresponsive.

The creatures vocalized something to each other again. It sounded like a mixture of dolphin chirps and whistles mixed in with a variation of an unidentifiable phonetic language.

"Onko-han-hugsa-contu-iri-tech" one of them said to Gerald who stopped crying to hear the strange sounds they were making.

They may have had similarities with human's physical form but they couldn't understand each other.  

One of the creature reached over to Gerald's hand and opened his clenched fist, Gerald pulled away and resisted, but they attempted again and aligned their hands over his.

The other aquatic person laid his weapon on the ground and dipped his hand in the water nearby. He proceeded to rub the water to Gerald's arm as if he had painted his natural peach colored skin tone. The creature is surprised that the color won't wash away.

After a moment of observation the creatures gently attempt to pull Gerald toward the exit of the grotto. Gerald is speechless and a little frightened but nonetheless susceptible to them guiding him outside. He looked around to find himself exiting to a new maritime civilization with unique architectures and a culture that seemed to center around an aquatic ecosystem. 

Gerald is taken over on their boat sailing on towards land at high speeds, he paced his gaze to the crystal clear oceans below riddled with large duck-billed platypus swimming around along with other larger aquatic mammals further away.

A small group of the aquatic humans like the two that captured Gerald greeted him on the pier. His eyes wandered around to see glimpse of giant aquarium-like buildings several stories high where other creatures congregated inside. Some of the buildings are transparent, they appeared to have a transportation system with a high-rise water pressure tubes that connected between the buildings. There are similar creatures swimming below hastily through a canal system.

Gerald continued on guided by the people and arrived into one of the buildings that appeared to be their version of a secured and well-lit cell. They had prepared a platter of exotic shrimp and meticulously cut raw fish and a seaweed for him to eat. The creatures closed the door as Gerald walked in and headed over to another area with thick layers of transparent walls as they watched Gerald in anticipation.

Gerald got to his knees to the low-end table to sit by the plates of food. He picked one up and pointed it towards his mouth before noticing the dozens of eyes watching closely to his every move. Gerald instead placed the plate back on the table and slid his arm across.

"Let me out!" he screamed and pounded his fist. The crowd of creatures appeared bewildered as they communicated with each other. "I said let me out!" he cried.

Gerald couldn't imagine the language they were speaking but he knew some of the phonetics sounded familiar. He could see they were listening too, so he yelled out an assortment of foreign phrases he had memorized from his travels. Along the phrases he repeated some words Lani had taught him in his native Maori language.

"kei konei koe..." Gerald mustered out.

Then the creature's chatters behind the wall fell silent.

One of the aquatic people walked up to the front from behind the crowd and spoke in through a speaker on their console. He spoke very gently and slowly.

" Kei konei koe hei tukino i a maatau?" it enunciated, the words coming out barely intelligible to Gerald who could only fixate on the strange piercing whistles in their accent. Though Gerald understood the gist of what they were asking. They were mortified of him.