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“Aluminum, I crush your fun
Aluminum
The sea is radioactive
The sea is radioactive”
Simon didn’t know what time it was, nor where he was, but he heard the echoes of someone singing. He didn’t know who was singing however. He knew his head hurt, but that was about it. Is that enough? Did he need to know more?
Opening his eyes Simon unfortunately started to remember things all at once. He was in the SM-13, the “Iron Lung” and he was supposed to be dead by now, that’s his assumption anyway, and Ava’s. She had said he was supposed to be out of oxygen by now, yet it still felt like he could breathe.
It was dark in the sub, and he assumed the power flickered off again. He felt warm heavy liquid surrounding him and could tell that there was a leak starting to flood the sub, he was laying in a pool of blood. He tried to get his bearings for a moment before choosing how he was going to move. Simon sat up off the floor and tried to turn to look towards the control panel.
His body ached as he twisted, and he was reminded of all of his injuries. His ribs were probably broken, his leg in a similar position, his skin was blistered and broken, his nose was most likely broken, and he for sure had a concussion or 12. Simon let out a gasp of pain as he moved to stand.
It took a couple minutes for him to readjust before he fully stood up, regretting the decision as he did. Blood began dripping down and out of his clothes, and Simon hated the feeling. The echoes of Simon’s labored breathing filling the sub as he pulled himself towards the button on the back wall. Simon reached his hand out to press it, hoping to get some idea of what was going on.
He hit the button, swish, click, flick, a new photo.
The sub lit up and Simon looked around. The floor was covered in blood like he suspected, the O2 meter was at one bar, and there was a figure sitting at the seat near the control panel. Simon jumped back and ended up crashing into the wall behind him, pressing the button once more. A swish, click, flick, the sub lit up again.
There was nothing sitting on the seat. Simon felt himself let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.
“The sea is radioactive”
Simon glanced towards the speaker, it shouldn’t be working right now. The power was out, and Simon had ripped the cord out of the wall. Did he really hear that? Who was speaking to him?
“Hello?” Simon asked the speaker, hoping there was someone there, but the sub fell back into silence. “Is somebody there?” No answer. It must have been his imagination.
Simon took a deep breath before he pressed the button behind him again, swish, click, flick, and he could see, still no figure by the seat. Simon slowly walked forward towards the supply spot in the corner. He grabbed the life vest, spitting on the corner of it once more to reactivate the light.
Simon held up the life vest like a flash light looking around. He spotted no danger, at least within the sub, and walked towards the front of it, staring at the blood on the floor that had overtaken below deck. He was going to need to figure out how to turn the power back on from up here, and he wasn’t even sure if that was possible. He had to give it a try if he wanted to renavigate.
He sat himself on the stool and reached down towards the manuals beside the control panel, wincing at how he had to bend, he could tell fucked his ribs up bad. He blamed Ava for dropping him back down in the way she did. Taking a deep breath Simon sat back up with a manual in hand, throwing it down onto the control panel. Simon flipped it open trying to find something that might tell him what to do.
There was the sound of metal hitting the floor and Simon whipped around. He held the light up to scan the sub but saw nothing that would have fallen. Simon was beginning to wonder how something could have made that crashing noise with the blood covering everything when his thoughts were interrupted.
“Aluminum, I crush your fun” The speaker echoed.
Simon whipped around and pointed his makeshift flashlight towards the speaker, but he didn’t need to. Before the light had made it over he had seen the small yellow light on the corner light up, there really was someone there.
“Hello? Hello, can you hear me?” Simon asked but he was met with silence. “Please, you gotta help me.”
Suddenly Simon felt something on his shoulder, beginning to grip it and pull him to the side. Simon panicked, throwing punches towards whatever was trying to grab him. He fell forward onto the floor and dropped face first into the blood. Simon turned around before he scrambled away from the stool back towards the camera button. He reached the wall below it and blindly threw his hand up to the button.
Swish, click, flick, and the sub lit up. There was still nothing there, at least that he could see through the blood.
Simon’s chest heaved up and down as he tried to catch his breath, wiping the blood off of his face with both his hands. He swore something had touched his shoulder, swore the speaker had made noise.
“Aluminum” The speaker echoed once more, the yellow light shining briefly. Simon stared up towards it wondering what was going on. Was Ava playing some sort of sick prank? Did she find out a way to connect to the speaker without power and was just taunting him?
He understood, he was in a metal sub in a radioactive sea, does she need to mess with him like this?
“Hey.” Simon grunted out, some specs of blood flying from his mouth as he spoke, but the speaker stayed silent. “Hey!” He repeated a bit louder and still nothing. “Hey I know you can hear me! You better fucking knock it off!” Simon shouted at it.
Still the speaker remained silent, no light shining through the darkness.
“You better stop fucking messing with me okay?” And a part of him knew he wasn’t going to get a response. Ava was going to keep fucking with him until he died. “I’m tired okay, I’m so tired and I don’t want to fucking hear it anymore.” and he said it was a near sob.
Simon was tired, he didn’t know the last time he slept was, he didn’t know how long it had been since he had any food, he didn’t know how long it had been since he had chugged the water or the isopropyl alcohol. He didn’t know much, he just knew he was suffering.
What was he supposed to be doing again? Finding a way to get the power back on, right.
Simon stood up out of the warm blood again, his clothes now soaked front to back with the warm substance. It made him feel heavier and heavier as he dragged himself back to the front of the sub. He didn’t know how much more of this he could even take.
He threw himself back down onto the stool, excess blood still dripping all around him. The amount of blood on the floor had risen past his ankles, the remaining manuals were soaked on the bottom halves. He was running out of time.
Simon debated a lot of things in that moment, debating his likelihood of survival, debated his ability to survive, debated his skills and how he was able to do the task he was assigned. He debated if he wanted to keep going, or if he just wanted to give up at that moment.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” Simon said aloud apologizing, but he wasn’t sure to who. He began crying, tears mixing in with the blood that still remained on his face. He wasn’t even sure what he was sorry for, but he was sure he had done enough wrong in this life to warrant an apology, he was stuck down here wasn’t he?
Simon heard a loud clang behind him and turned around quickly. The life vest was floating in the blood, bouncing from one corner of the sub to another, but the light was still shining. Granted it was shining red due to the thin layer of blood over it, but it was still shining, and with that shining Simon could see there was still no one in the sub with him.
“The sea is radioactive” The speaker repeated, and something heated up inside of Simon at that moment. He had taken out his anger on the speaker once and it didn’t work, this time it would.
With all the might Simon had left in his body he grabbed onto the sides of the stool, dragging it side to side until it suddenly snapped at the base. Simon took the now freed stool and began bashing the speaker with it, low clanging and small sparks filled the sub.
The speaker fell from it’s place on the wall but Simon wasn’t done with it yet. He dropped the stool and began stomping on it with his less injured leg. The box was dented, split open around the wire cage, the cords within starting to spill out.
Simon picked up the remnants of the box and ripped apart the remaining bit. Broken metal cut into his skin, cutting his hands open, but he didn’t care. Simon threw one piece of the box towards the wall, the other ended up hitting the button.
Switch, click, flick. The sub lit up again.
During his fit the blood had begun to increase more rapidly. What was at his ankles was now past his knees. The manuals were stuck under the blood, soaked and useless now. There was no getting the power back on now, there wasn’t much of anything anymore. Simon was at his end and he was going to have to accept it.
With a sudden jolt the whole ship shook, whatever was out there was starting to attack again. Simon attempted to grab onto the wall nearby but he ended up falling back into the blood, his whole body covered this time. Simon was trying to swim upwards, but he never did learn how to swim.
After several moments of attempting to get his feet on the ground Simon ended up crashing into the control panel. He took the chance to grab onto it as he tried to move his feet through the blood to the ground.
“The sea is radioactive”
Simon whipped around for what felt like the millionth time. He had ripped the box from the wall, smashed it with a charge, broke it apart with his bare hands until it cut him open, how could that stupid fucking speaker KEEP PLAYING.
Simon screamed out in rage, just a pure gut feeling of rage and anger. He was abandoned down here, he was minutes from death he knew it, and he was still being haunted by a stupid fucking song. Simon threw his hands towards the nearest wall, and but the way he felt it crack under him Simon knew he had punched the port hole.
He looked up at the shattering glass. With the reflection of the blood covered light in the background Simon was able to see himself within the glass.
Simon didn’t look like himself. His hair was matted down with blood, as were his clothes. He had so many wounds, many of them open and pouring out his own blood to add to the mess. He was thinner than he last remembered seeing himself, and this was the first time seeing the reflection of the burned off tattoo on his neck.
Eden wanted him to be a soldier, a killing machine.
The COI wanted him to surrender, be something useful before everything was useless.
Simon just wanted to die at this point.
Didn’t anybody care about what he wanted?
He knew there was no getting out of here, no matter how desperate he was, no matter how much he begged and pleaded for the life that had never been his own.
This was his end, this was his entire worth right here in this moment. His own death about to occur was nothing but fate and the consequence of being sent into this dumb fucking ocean.
Simon reached forward onto the control panel, hoping for one last miracle, for one last thing to work without power.
His hand found the port shield cover, the only thing stopping the glass from crumbling under the pressure.
“The sea is radioactive”
Simon flipped the switch, and the sub began to flood full. Within mere seconds Simon was drowning in the hot sticky substance filling his lungs. He smiled as it did.
He was going to be dead soon.
“The sea is radioactive”