SHORT FICTION | SCUBA | DANGER

Swimming in the dark

A fight for survival.

Darkness smothered Simon. Even his high beam touch attached to his wet suit was ineffective. The kicked-up silt cloud permitted no more than a few centimeters of visibility in the tunnel he was making his way through. All Simon could do was stretch his hands out in front of him feeling his way one rock at a time. It was slow going and dangerous. Without sufficient visibility, any turn could lead him away from the main tunnel into a dead end.

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But what worried Simon the most was why so much silt was kicked up. The team of four divers was experienced enough to handle a passage like this. They knew how to move as smoothly as possible to avoid stirring up silt. Only exaggerated movement from one of the men ahead of him could have caused this blackout.

He didn’t have the oxygen to make a return journey as they had passed the 50% mark. All he could do was continue at the downward angle. It felt like descending into hell. He waited with trepidation for the darkness in front of him to open up revealing fire pits, with devils and demons torturing the unfortunate souls that found their way there. Well, not hell, but the abyss awaited him somewhere deeper in the earth. He continued downward. Bjorn, their party’s leader had described it this way. Once you get…