thought.
Henri finished climbing in. The dog had ripped off his soft diving boot. He was bleeding at the ankle. He waved away Liri’s help, “I’m fine, help me close this grill or they may find a way of getting in. The child, however, was already grabbing the rope and pulling. Liri helped as the big vent clamored shut leaving them with just streams of light filtering in.
The little girl who fit perfectly in the small tunnel had to wait for the two Navy Seals to keep up. They had to stoop to fit in the dimly lit airshaft. Several times they almost lost the child when she took a passageway that jetted off to the side. Henri was hobbling along. His foot was bleeding.
“What a maze of duct works,” Liri complained. The woman soldier had looked in a few of the grated vents that led into the facility and saw only hallways. Suddenly, the three came upon a grate that ended in a large opening.
“This is the maintenance entrance to the ducts,” Henri speculated. “They had to have a way in to the system to fix any air problems. Good thing or we’d never fit through one of the regular air vents.”
Sure enough, they followed Dolphin through the wall’s cavity that was on the back side of a large janitor’s closet. The child waved them on into an adjoining hallway. As they stepped into the passageway bright lights automatically came on.
At the end of the hallway was a locked door. “What now?’ Henri looked askance at the girl. Had she led them astray?
The adolescent knocked loudly on the dark gray windowless door. “Dolphin?” came from the other side. It was a whispering anxious voice.
“Yes, let me in,” her high-pitched voice piercingly squeaked with impatience.
The entranceway slowly opened slightly. “Is everything alright?” a young child’s voice asked.
“Oh, open up, Tuna.” She was really impatient now, pushing the door inward. The young boy fell backwards. He yelped as Liri and Henri came into sight. The boy ran away, “Run! Everyone run!” his voice screamed.
The girl ran after him, “No, they are here to help.” She disappeared around a corner. The room looked like a doctor’s waiting room. A receptionist desk graced a sidewall, with expensive designer seats lined against the exterior. On the wall were pictures of the surrounding sea life, real photographs. They were beautiful. Despite being in a hurry, Liri stopped to admire the photographer’s holographic shots. How could the owner of these outstanding pictures just leave them? They were a rare costly treasure.
Henri pushed her along. The corner that the girl had run down was filled with doors but one door was opened. They could hear arguing and crying - children, they all sounded like frightened children. Carefully, the two Seals came forward into the room, trying not to seem threatening but putting smiles on their faces and their hands up to show they had nothing to hide.
There were seven small bodies that were backed up against each other in the far corner. Only Dolphin stood apart. She was yelling at the scared group. “They are here to help. Our home is being destroyed!”
It was Henri that calmed them, “Please listen to her. My friend and I are here to help. We are Navy Seals. We are deep-sea divers.”
They all stopped crying immediately, looking intensely at the two divers. “He sings his words,” Dolphin told the group. From inside the hooded jacket came a clicking sound from deep in her throat and all the children started answering. The high-pitched whistles and clicking reverberated around the room.
“They are seals!” one of the girl’s excitingly spoke up. “They do look like seals.”
Liri couldn’t help but smile. The black wet suits did make the two navy divers look like seals. She went to correct them but Henri shook his head at her. The Lieutenant shut up.
“Why are you here and not with your parents?” Henri drawled this time making sure his Terrian accent was loud and clear. “Why did they leave you?”
Again it was Dolphin that answered, “Dr. Marlo hasn’t come back. It has been a long time and he hasn’t come back! Where are Mari and Patsie? We’re hungry!”
Liri swore under her breath. Were these children deliberately left here? Why? “I know Dolphin’s and Tuna’s names, who are the rest of you? What are your names?” she said it as cheerfully as possible, hiding her disgust at leaving children to fend for themselves.
The kids lined up, almost like school children are taught to introduce themselves. Marlin, Hammerhead, Flounder, Orca, Shark and Seabass all introduced themselves. As the group came closer she got the shock of her life. Each of the children had large slanted gills starting behind their ears going down their necks. As they held out their hands, she gasped, as their fingers were webbed. She looked at their feet but every one of them had those big slippers like Dolphin wore.
“I like your slippers, can I see a pair?” she laughed pointing at Dolphin’s feet.
“Oh, sure,” Dolphin said as she slipped her shoes off. Her feet looked like duck feet, large webbed and leathery.
The Lieutenant was so stunned; she stood silently looking at the group. It was Henri that recovered first. “Who is Dr. Marlo?” he asked. “And Mari and Patsie?”
“Our handlers,” Dolphin replied, “they take care of us. Doctor Marlo says we are special, really special.”
The kids took them down the adjoining hallway. First, they came to a type of kitchen; tables and chairs, stove, refrigerator, sink. Dishes lined the counter. It smelled of rotting fish. “Look at this,” Henri showed her several empty fish tanks.
“You see, we are out of food,” Dolphin explained. “I found a way out but the dogs are out there. I brought what I could back.”
Liri looked around. Snack bags lay all around the room. These explained the empty grocery shelves. “So you mostly eat fish but can eat human food also?”
Dolphin looked strangely at her, “We are human. We’re special humans, just like you are.”
“Of course, you are darlin,” Henri put his arm around the little girl’s shoulders. A small smiling face looked up at him. She thinks we are actual seals, Liri thought. Did the youngsters come from their namesakes? Surely not. Who would do that? The same people who left their wildlife behind, came into her mind.
The children took the two soldiers down the hall to where their bedrooms lay. Liri was shocked to see large water tanks. “Do you sleep in those?” she asked.
“Of course,” Tuna answered this time. “It is much more comfortable.”
Next came the schoolroom, which was lined with blackboards and books. “Are Mari and Patsie your teachers?” Henri asked.
Eight innocent faces nodded.
Last came the laboratories. One of the clinics looked like a birthing room, another an operating room. The last was a doctor’s office with scales, medicine cabinets, a stethoscope was on the back of the examining table.
“Good god, what are they doing here?” Liri almost choked on the words.
“I’d say they were creating a new breed of sea creatures,” Henri’s melodic voice sounded sad, his words slow and painful. Terrians rarely hid their emotions. His words sang sad.
“Come see our play room,” Dolphin took their hands and led them to the farthest door in the hallway. It opened on a huge gigantic pool with one side part of the clear dome. The glass wall gave them a good view of the surrounding Ocean. “Come let’s show them!” Dolphin’s voice was excited.
“We aren’t supposed to go into the pool without Doctor Marlo,” one of the kids said, his voice full of fear. “He will punish us.”
“We can’t go far, he’s locked it all up, and the portal is locked,” Tuna explained.
“Tuna, did you go in the pool?” Marlin looked shocked.
“It’s okay, Marlin,” Dolphin went over and put her hand on his arm, “they aren’t coming back, they left us to die.”
The smallest of the children, Flounder, started to produce high clicking noises. Liri could tell she was crying, before long they were all crying. The room filled with high chirping and whistle noises.
It was Henri
that noticed the dolphins, actual dolphins. The ocean creatures came up to the glass wall. They swam around in circles, bumping into the glass dome. The underwater mammals were trying to reach the children. An underwater sound system was in place, as they could hear the large sea mammals squealing loudly.
The kids stopped crying and started talking to the large concerned Dolphins. “What are they saying?” Liri asked.
“We play with them all the time with Dr. Marlo. They want us to go with them,” Dolphin explained, “but we can’t get out, it’s blocked.”
Henri looked at Liri, “It is their only way to survive the explosion. I’m going down there to see if I can let them out.” He dove into the pool.
Liri joined her partner. The dolphins were the ones who led them to a portal that was set up to pressurize and then let swimmers out of the dome. They tried the handle. It was locked. The door’s keypad glowed red. Liri typed in 1.2.3.4. - nothing. She tried FIUE - nothing. The pad continued to be red. Henri came over and typed MARLO - again nothing. The divers were running out of air, so Liri surfaced. The children had all jumped into the pool, totally naked. Henri popped up next to her. “What do you think is his password?”
“God, it could be anything. WAIT” - She looked at the children, they had made a circle around the two divers. She dived back down into the tank. Going up to the port she typed in FISH. It cranked slowly open. When Liri surfaced, the children were all around her and Henri.