Underground Ocean

    Through the eighth year June 14, overcast.     "Lately I've been hearing muffled murmuring again. It's not like a sound. It's chaotic and dark.     My chief mate, old John, told me I could try the sweet-smelling girls at the Red Lips, his way.     I admitted that the thought had crossed my mind, but finally I resisted. I couldn't waste my hard-earned echo coins on something like that, and I couldn't let up for an instant to get home.     Human beings are living on the ground species, human beings can appear in the underground sea, that there is a way back to the ground, I must find it!     I had another dream about my family yesterday. I miss them, but I almost forget what they look like..."     Charles Reed's writing was interrupted by the sudden roll of the ship.     The old oil lamp next to the diary illumines its owner's face. With black pupils and black hair, it is a normal youth face, but his face is white and almost transparent, like a vampire in a movie.     Charles was a little handsome to modern eyes, but his face was heavy and tired, and he looked haggard.     Listening for a moment to the sound of the waves outside the window, Charles found nothing unusual, picked up his pen and began to write again.     "Journaling has also improved my voices without the help of a special services worker. I've been getting five hours' sleep a night for a long time.     Of course, I wrote it in a language that only I could understand, because of the experience of my predecessors who kept diaries."     Outside the window there was a harsh grinding of metal, as if something was scratching the bottom of the boat with its sharp fingernails.     "Pa". The diary was closed and Charles, frowning, made his way to the round porthole.     He poked his head out of the porthole and saw just as he had seen it eight years before, a dark curtain in the distance between a matte sky and a dark green sea.     Darkness rules all the outside world, as if brewing in the darkness of what monster, full of weird.     But in underground ocean, there are no stars, there is no moon, and endless darkness is the main theme here, and darkness is the proof that everything is ok.     Charles's brow furrowed as he looked out of the normal window. His years of sailing had told him that there was something wrong, and he decided to look.     Charles opened the bedside table, where a hundred yellow bullets rolled to and fro as the waves rolled.     Pulling his revolver from his belt, he loaded it expertly and stepped toward the cab.     "Why are you so early today, Captain? It's not your shift time yet."     At the helm of the cockpit was a fat old man with a stubbly beard, and in his left chair reposed a boy of seventeen, identified by his sailor's coat, with faces of Eastern Europe, and the same bloodless face as Charles's.     "Chief officer, why is the ship a little bumpy? Is her course normal?" Charles asked John at the helm.     He walked over and put his foot on the leg of a chair, shaking the boy awake.     When the young man saw his captain come over, hurriedly with his hand to wipe the mouth of the saliva, scrambled up from the chair.     "Ha, ha, it's probably something underwater that smells our flesh. You know, there are more nasty things in the underground than fish. Don't worry, the ship is an iron ship, and they won't be able to smash it open." "Said the fat old man, stepping back and giving the helm to his captain.     Listening to the chief mate's report, Charles did not let down his guard.     In weird places like this, where humans are no longer at the top of the food chain, where survival depends only on caution,     Charles pressed a key on the old equipment, and the searchlight came on, his eyes darting back and forth across the clear glass.     Between the sea and the cockpit is a deck full of cargo, the whole ship looks small, body length more than 30 meters.     "The route to the Coral Islands has been frequented many times by various cargo ships. There is no way that these things can pass through. There is something unusual about them." Charles grasped the polished and reflective steering wheel, his brow furrowed.     Old John stared. "Are we off course? It's impossible. The beacon is still in the distance."     "He said, pointing to a faint faint point of light in the distance.     In a starless underground ocean, all that could guide the way were the compasses and the bright beacons laid out on the course, as long as the sight of beacons proved that the route was a safe one to explore.     Also at this time, looking at the sea Charles eyes pupil suddenly shrank to the smallest, difficult swallow saliva. "That...... How long have you been looking at that beacon?"     "I must have been watching for a few minutes." At the end, Old John's voice trailed off, a look of alarm on his fat face.     After all this time, we had not yet passed this beacon, which was clearly moving at the same speed as the steamship. Something was wrong with that thing!     All of a sudden Charles seemed to wind up, turning the steering wheel wildly with both hands and pulling it straight to the left.     With a creak of metal, the steamboat beneath them began to swerve, but the boat turned quickly and the ship began to distance herself from the strange beacon.     Before Charles could breathe a sigh of relief, the young man next to him pointed at the glass window behind him, his eyes wide as if he had seen a ghost.     "The ship... Captain! That thing is closing in on us! That was quick!! He's coming up!"     "Damn it! Charles yelled at a nearby pipe, "Pipe wheel! Turn the vortex stove on full blast! Something is chasing us!!"     "Yes, captain! A simple voice came from the iron pipe.     Black smoke billowed from the ship's chimney, and the steam began to pick up speed.     "It's still coming!! It's so fast! It's getting close to us! Day! What kind of monster is that?"     The boy's voice rose several degrees with utter terror, and he shook like a sieve, as if he were about to go into shock.     "Tip! Close your eyes!!" Charles, in a state of high tension, stared at his calf and knocked him to the ground.     John pressed his head to the floor, blushing and Shouting wildly, "Don't look, don't listen, don't think!! The captain will take us back."     With these words, there was a loud crash, a violent shudder in the cabin, and they rolled together on the ground. Charles held on to the rudder for dear life.     "Captain, it's crashed!"     Charles's face was ashen, his cheeks bulging with clenched teeth.     He put his mouth close to the pipe and roared, "Pipe wheel!! Vortex furnace overload 30 seconds!!"     "The captain! No way! This thing is too old!! It'll explode!"