Ripples of electric light patterned yellow with pink and cyan. The fish swam aimlessly with the odd twitching movement, their tropical colours hanging in the air like planets lost in sunset waves. Visitors would wave their arms and watch the fish dart away, startled whenever their hands brushed air.
Rising water was lapping against the glass. Bits of debris had been dragged up to dance in the light: old chunks of polystyrene, stained glass, cigarette butts, wrappings and disposable cutlery collecting in the streets. Alejandro could only laugh at the rain slamming down outside, the wind caught between buildings ripping at loose sheets and Impromptu tents and blurring the kaleidoscope of city lights and rattling the windows. It all looked so artificial.
“Dude, we should get out of here,” Ed murmured as he stumbled through the entranceway into meandering schools of fish, “is it even worth it?”
“What? This is the only chance we get.” Alejandro replied, and was already ahead and looking around as fish approached cautiously. “You know that.”
“Just ‘cause we’re stupid enough not to migrate.”
“After all this. You’re still not ready to leave?”
“Yeah, but now we’re here… I’m not sure.”
“No shit. But there’s nobody else left. We have to do this.” His voice lost traction for a moment, spinning into the virtual light around them. “We have to.”
“And you wonder why I’m having second thoughts?”
They paced towards reception – and the beaming Dive Paradise logo. The wide shopfront narrowed into a hallway, taking them down a throat of old dreams. Gradually, warm silence replaced the slamming wind, and vast orange sunsets appeared over a dark ocean. As the gradient shifted to negative the ocean surface began to rise, projected waves seeping out of the walls tickled their feet, then shins, ascending to head height and above. Fish returned, coral sprung up, and rocky outcrops emerged, sharpened by erosion and calloused by limpets and mussels. Bright tropical light fanned down to bathe in pinks and blues and reds. Alejandro reached out and ran a finger along an edge of rock, pressing to watch blood swirl and dissipate in slow currents. “Nice touch.”
“Talk about catering to the individual.”
“Hey, this is the future. Enjoy it while it lasts.”
Dimly-lit ocean floor spread away to each side, framed under darkness. Misconception carries the illusion. Coral slopes left behind; an agoraphobic arena where only the big fish swim.
“Fifteen-hundred below surface level.” Alejandro muttered, checking his watch as he turned around to look up the slope behind them. “Walking distance covered, three K’s. We’re almost there.”
“You know, I’ve never actually been here before,” replied Ed, squatting to run his fingers through the sand, “apparently it was completed just before the migration started.”
“Wrong place, wrong time.”
“Yeah, some billionaire. What, one tunnel full of lights? Couldn’t have hurt his pocket too much, probably one of the first down.” He stood, brushing his hands. “I didn’t know sand could feel fake. You were saying, how close are we?”
“I can see it.”
“Where?”
“If you squint, you can make it out. Spindle with a solid grey bar through the top. Metre or so off the ground.”
Ed leant forward like an old man, hand above his eyes. “Damn that’s hard to see.”
“Yeah, we’re not supposed to see it. People were warned against coming down this far.”
“And now look where they’ve all gone.”
The light began to dim as they approached; ocean floor fading away. Totality enveloped them as soft footfalls grew clunky and solid.
“Okay, cover your eyes.” Rustling sounded from Alejandro – then a flash as bright red light stabbed into the darkness.
They were on a thick iron plate covered in a matte non-slip lacquer. At the base of the spindle was a flat hemisphere of the same material. After brushing away the loose sand, they squatted and each grabbed an end of the grey bar and pushed, balls of their feet digging in with a low thud. Faces red and teeth gritted. Stuck. Then a snap. And a groan. The spindle began to spin free, and as it span it rose, exposing thread like a giant screw. It stopped with a hissing outrush of cold air, then Ed and Alejandro pulled back on the bar, levering it open. The hatch revealed a pit over a metre across, with a ladder inset into one side. Alejandro dropped the flare. As it fell it flashed irregularly, revealing spaces where the shaft opened out. It began to fade in silence, then disappeared.
2017