A Hundred Fathoms

monsters-dmm

 

A hundred fathoms down, the sun looks like a ten-watt porch light.

The suit, which felt so heavy on the surface, is now a second skin–except the boots, which seem even heavier. You move slowly on the bottom,  breath loud in your ears as you clomp through the ooze like the giant in The Brave Little Tailor. Strange creatures dwell at that depth, pale and blind with bodies misshapen by the pressure.

You never forget possible death all around. The suit gets torn, the hose snags. A thousand things.

At a hundred fathoms, your blood would fizz like soda pop.

 

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      • J Hardy Carroll

        Thought about making one of the tragedies actually happen, but I like to let you write the next chapter yourself. A hundred words is just a few brush strokes. If either of you are interested in reading longer work, I’d be happy to send you a free ebook of my first novel. It’s set during the WW2 bombing campaign in Europe and has plenty of detail as well as a fair amount of harrowing action.

        From what I read, the reality of deep sea salvage diving is actually fairly boring because of all the safety precautions. Checking, rechecking, triple checking. Yawn ;-)

  1. Dreamer of Dreams

    Fantastic atmosphere and descriptions.
    Loved this:
    ” Strange creatures dwell at that depth, pale and blind with bodies misshapen by the pressure.

    At a hundred fathoms, your blood would fizz like soda pop.”

Don't just stand there.