Horrors

Isaac let out a yell of terror as he leapt up, as if he were trying to jump away from the strange creatures. Momentarily, he'd forgotten he was actually inside the sub. He let out a sigh, calming down only slightly. He was safe for the time being, and he highly doubted the.. things… could penetrate he sub.

He hesitantly sat back down and pulled the navigation handle up, the Beetle lifting away from the organisms as the claw retracted and they sank back to the dirt, still writhing in horrid masses of flesh.

Red liquid still hung in the water around the sub, but as the Beetle moved up, it began to disperse and fade away.

He looked out at the deep darkness yawning on and on below him. The lights dimly lit up the earthen walls that went down a cave that led deeper into the earth before opening up to a massive chasm that had yet to be fully explored. Isaac thought about returning to the facility.. but he still had an objective to complete. He needed to go to at least 13,000 meters.

With a raspy breath, he pushed the stick forward and the Beetle made it's way over the writhing masses of flesh below him towards the cavern opening.

Isaac gulped as he watched, his heart freezing, as the sub slowly drifted over the edge of the drop off, going over the massive horrendous abyss below that stretched on forever, filled with only the unknown.

Isaac imagined some giant predatory fish bursting out from that darkness and swallowing his sub whole. But he knew that wasn't possible. Large hunters rarely are able to survive at his current depth. Not even Megamouth sharks can go so deep, only non vertebrae organisms can do so.

He had nothing to fear.

At least that's what he told himself.

But his eyes continued to play tricks on him, as he saw massive figures shifting in that darkness below him. Massive shapes that would rise up from the shadows, only to fall back into the darkness just before they came into full view. Every time Isaac would attempt to focus his eyes on any particular shape, it would vanish, while the shapes elsewhere would writhe.

'Damnit!' He cursed in his head. 'Stop, stop, stop, stop…'

"STOP!!" He shouted, the yell reverberating through the metal plates of the sub.

The notes on his watch recorded the word in all caps.

Isaac let out a sigh. Then he remembered, in his distracted, horrified state, he'd forgotten to take note of the strange organisms he'd seen.

He put the sub on auto pilot as it began to descend into the depths, and, to distract himself from the horror, he focused entirely on the notes.

"Date…" he spoke, but, he could hardly remember what day it even was. "October… eighth. Came into contact with a strange organism. The creatures themselves were similar to that of the roots of a plant, when I tried to pull one out of the dirt, it didn't seem to have a beginning or end to it's body anywhere near. This leads me to assume it is some kind of plant like organism, except that it's body is flesh like and has a pinkish red tint. As a defense mechanism, it gives off some kind of red liquid and retractable spikes burst from it's body. The organism spins in an attempt to serrate it's attacker, or victim. I am not sure if this organism hunts others or if it feeds on the nutrients in the soil."

He took a deep breath. How many times had he sighed now from stress? "I cannot determine whether it is a plant or some other kind of organism. It may be a cross between the two that had yet to be discovered. As of now I will call them Root Worms. The name is subject to change if I am to find out more about it. The organisms attempted to envelope the sub, a sign of aggression, so I didn't have the chance to observe further. I will return to it in the future." He said, then closed his watch.

"Descending to 12,684 meters." Isaac looked around at his surroundings. The lights could not penetrate the darkness around him. There was nothing. It was as though he were in an immense and infinite dark void. The lights would shine on into the depths until they simply faded out to darkness.

About thirty minutes later, the sub stopped at 13,000 meters. Yet still, there was nothing in sight. Isaac kept seeing huge figures glide by the sub, but they were never really there. They were figments of his mind, his own fears incarnate.

Isaac reached up and pressed a button. The sub gave a slight jolt as a hatch on the bottom of the mid section opened and, from it, a weighted rope began to descend from the sub. The rope glided down and down and down out of sight. The rope was more than 1,000 meters in total length, and it was used to figure out how deep and area went. The weight at the end of it was also a sonar and tracker, a wire running through the thick rope and up the sub. If it detected walls, the signal would be sent to the Beetle.

For a long time, Isaac sat there as the rope descended. Then, "CLANK" the rope at reached the end. But, when Isaac checked the feed, there was no wall detected anywhere in it's range. He pressed another button and an image came up. It was the camera feed from the rope's weight. A light shot off from the circular object as it spun about in the void, the footage showing nothing but endless darkness.

'There's no way…' Isaac thought. 'This chasm goes deeper than 14,000 meters..? How is that even possible? That would make this chasm, alone, at least 3,000 meters from top to bottom… there is no way it's more than that, right..?'

Just then, a blip came from the radar. "What..?" Isaac mumbled as he looked at the radar intently. There was nothing showing up. But a moment later, a large shape, larger than the sub, blipped across screen, and it was right by the weight.