“Fuck it.” She turned to the spiny lobster thing that had advanced another few feet towards them. “And you can fuck off!” She ripped more weed from the helmet and tossed it at the thing, whose stalks retracted for a moment, but it held its ground.

Cate looked back out at the now calm water. There wasn’t a movement or sound from its oil-slick-like stillness. She didn’t know what frightened her more – the thought of being back in that water, or of sitting here when the lights went out, and perhaps having something even worse than the lobster-thing climb out of the water to investigate the strange warm-bodied bipeds sitting alone in the dark.

She turned to him. “Which way?”

Jack gripped her shoulders. “Good on you.” He let her go and turned to Abby, raising his eyebrows.

Abby nodded. “Well, I’m not sitting here alone in the dark.” She gave him a sheepish smile. “But dry is better.”

“Good girl, and I promise, if we can stay dry, we stay dry.” Jack pointed. “This small outcrop we’re on is joined to the cliff wall. I can just see there are boulders and outcroppings for quite a way. We can walk and stay back from the water… at least for a while.”

Cate held out a hand for him. “Then what are we waiting for?”  He hauled her up, and she turned briefly, spying the spindly crustacean that had advanced on them once again. She had an evil desire to take a running punt at it, except it looked solid and heavy and would more than likely shred her boot.

Jack led them off. “We only need to cross a few more miles. Maybe this will get us close enough to the island so we can see what we have to deal with.”

She unzipped her suit, and jammed the helmet inside and then rezipped it. It was damned uncomfortable, but she wasn’t leaving without it.

Cate nodded to Jack, and together they hopped across rocks, heading towards the cliff wall. Some of the boulders marched out into the water, and on either side of them the dark water was impenetrable ink. Unless she shone her light directly down into it, it could have been inches deep or the edge of an undersea cliff that dropped away to Hades itself.

There came a splash from somewhere further out on the dark water. They froze, listening for several moments.

Jack half turned. “Don’t worry about it, I don’t think anything can reach us here.” He continued on, keeping his arms out like a tightrope walker.

Cate noticed he didn’t sound confident. How could he be? Even though he was an expert in sharks and marine biology, what they had entered down here was so alien and primordial no one living today could possibly be an expert. Everything they encountered or experienced here was best guess only.