50 YEARS AGO
SOMEWHERE IN THE INDIAN OCEAN
Far beyond where fishermen dared, a lone vessel bobbed in the vast Indian Ocean. Desperation had driven one man to these forbidden waters after weeks of empty nets.
The man, Abhijeet, was a lean, muscular fisherman in his late forties, bearing the typical weathered look of the coast. There was nothing too distinct about him except for the scar on his face, which he had gotten while playing with a stray dog.
Abhijeet unfolded his net, sighing at the tangled mess he had hastily stuffed into a hidden compartment earlier to avoid the coast guard and had in the process undone his previous night's hard work.
Finally, after half an hour of working on the net, it was free; it was time to fish. He opened a tin box filled with bait. He took out a metal cup from the box and scooped up the bait, and put it on one of the seats. He angled himself carefully to toss the net as far as possible. It bobbed briefly before sinking, tethered to a hook on the boat. He then took the metal cup containing the bait and threw it over the area where the net was.
Now all he had to do was wait.
***
INDIAN NAVY BASE
WEST BENGAL
Machines hummed a static tune as navy officers stared at their screens. Behind them, in a glass room, sat a burly man with a thick mustache. He was the General.
"When're they going to arrive?" he asked one of his subordinates in an authoritative tone.
The subordinate stiffened, masking his resentment with clipped professionalism. "Currently, we have no connection with the submarine that was sent; however, as soon as they enter the designated area, they should show up on our radar."
"Hmm," said the General, before turning his gaze to the many screens which were being monitored in front of him as he tried to understand everything that had happened in the past few hours.
Upon receiving orders, the General had begun a routine army training exercise of the SSN-774 submarine, also called the Virginia-class, something that they had purchased from the United States Navy under special circumstances. The submarine was one of the most advanced in the world, but above all, it was also nuclear armed. The team inside that submarine was made up of Navy officers having years of experience and a high level of expertise. However, two hours ago, the submarine's radar and GPS systems had gone dark.
While civilians might have shrugged off a communications blackout, to the Navy, it was a nightmare—a lost nuclear submarine.
The General could feel a headache coming.
"Sir!" an officer exclaimed, "We have them on radar."
The general sighed with relief, "Get me coms!" he barked.
"Initiating coms with-" began the officer, however, he stopped midway as on the giant screen in the middle of the room, a bright red notification popped up. It made everybody go silent and made the General's eyes go wide in shock.
REQUESTING PERMISSION TO FIRE NUCLEAR WEAPONS.
The General gulped, this is was not good at all, "Decline the request and quickly get me coms with them!" he ordered.
We're trying, sir, but they're not accepting our coms request," exclaimed the officer.
"Override it then!" exclaimed the General, "I have the key."
The General gave the system override key to the officer. The key would allow the Indian Navy to take command of any submarine from a remote location. As soon as the officer entered the override key, his user interface changed to that of a submarine's with multiple tabs on his screen to show the various buttons.
"Turn on the damn coms!" snapped the General.
The officer obeyed.
"Officer aboard SSN-774, report now!" he exclaimed.
No reply.
"I repeat, officer aboard SSN-774 report now!" he exclaimed again.
Still no reply.
'Dammit!' thought the General, 'What should I do?'
"General, there are cameras inside the submarine. Why don't we shift to those to see the current status of the officers?" asked the officer.
"Do that," said the General, tapping his fingers on the table. He was starting to get anxious now.
The officer switched to the camera feed, and what they saw made their breath stop.
Blood splattered the cabin. Water seeped steadily inside. Dead bodies of experienced navy officers littered the ground. Behind one of the larger control tables, a navy officer sat shivering in fright. He looked around and saw the red light of the camera turn on and the lens zoom in on him.
He raised his finger to warn the onlookers to be silent and picked up a sheet containing official information. He then used the blood on his hands to write something. He then flipped the sheet towards the camera.
IT IS INSIDE HERE WITH US.
The General gulped; he could not understand what was happening, however, one thing was clear: he had to remain silent. He walked up to the officer who was managing the camera feeds and handed him a piece of paper after writing something on it.
TURN OFF OUR MIC.
The officer nodded and did so, and then gave a thumbs-up. The General sighed in relief and then looked at the feed once more.
"Shift through the other cameras to see what he is talking about," he told the officer, "But keep this one open."
The officer did as he was told. As he was scrolling through the feeds, he came to one that made everyone recoil. On the feed, a man appeared to be eating another—or something that once had been a man.
No—the thing feasting wasn't human. As the lenses zoomed in, the blurriness went away, they could now clearly see the creature. It was covered in slick, iridescent scales. Webbed fingers ended in claws so sharp they sliced through flesh like butter. As it tore the man's arm and raised its head to chew, they finally saw its face. It looked like…a piranha?
"What the hell is that?!" exclaimed the General. Nobody answered.
"Sir," said the officer, "He is writing something."
Everybody looked at the bloodied officer once more. He wrote just one word and then turned it towards the camera.
OUTSIDE.
"Switch to the outer cameras," said the General.
The other cameras were used for close navigation and vision if needed. As the feed shifted and the cameras changed, the screen went black. It was perhaps a testament to how deep the submarine had gotten due to its damage that even light did not permeate to these depths of the ocean.
"Switching to night vision," said the officer.
As soon as they did, they realized what the bloodied officer was trying to tell them. Outside, a gigantic creature was circling the submarine. It looked like an eel. But its scales shimmered like hammered metal, and jagged thorns bristled along its spine. When it opened its mouth, it revealed rows upon rows of serrated, predatory teeth. It was truly a terrifying sight to behold.
The giant eel continued to circle the submarine before disappearing into the darkness of the ocean. The general sighed with relief and sighed.
"THUMP!"
Just as the General gained relief, the eel came back at a terrifying speed with blue lightning cackling around its body and smashed into the submarine, cleaving it in half. In the other camera feed with the bloodied officer, water gushed into the room, the officer looked at the camera and picked up his gun, he then proceeded to salute the camera.
Then he shot himself in the head.
Everybody in the room went silent. The General fell to his knees.
"General," said the officer, "T-the nuclear weapons…"
"What about them?" asked the General.
"That creature ate them," he replied, "If we detonate them, maybe we can kill it."
"Can't we use the other bombs?" asked the General, getting to his feet. "Using a nuke near the shore would be suicidal."
"The thing is, the team onboard has already used all of them, maybe that's why they requested to use the nuclear weapons," said the officer.
The General looked at his shaking hands and gripped them with each other to stop them from shaking. The officer had saluted the camera, a final act of defiance, before placing the gun to his temple and pulling the trigger.
The General sighed, steeling his resolve, "Give a coastal warning and then kill that son of a bitch." he snapped.
***
SOMEWHERE IN THE INDIAN OCEAN
Abhijeet had been waiting for close to an hour now, but nothing was getting caught in his net. For some reason, the water, too, was getting quite aggressive today.
Suddenly, an alarm bell rang. It's sound piercing through the air like an arrow. Abhijeet looked at the shore and squinted his eyes.
"A tsunami warning?" he said, looking at the calm waters and the clear sky, "What're they even talking about?"
He returned the bait box to its place, exhaling in frustration.
'Today is not my day,' he thought, and then proceeded to reel back the net he had earlier tossed. Suddenly, something tugged at the net. The water around his boat started to ripple.
"Yes!" exclaimed Abhijeet, as he now started using his entire strength to reel in the net. Engrossed in hauling the net, he didn't notice the water turning a sickening shade of red.
As the creature caught in the net came close to the boat and was hauled up by the fisherman, his stomach heaved violently, and he leaned overboard, retching into the blood-slicked sea. There was a man caught in his trap, he was dead. His arm was torn apart, and whatever nerves he had were spilled outside. His muscles, a shade of pink with red dots, were turning blue now, and blood was flowing out of them.
The dead man wore an Indian Navy uniform-one Abhijeet recognized instantly.
'What the fuck is going on?' thought Abhijeet, 'I have to get back as soon as possible.'
He turned to row away before stopping. Should he take the body back to the mainland, the family of the officer would want to give him a proper funeral. However, before he could figure out the answer, the alarm stopped.
Abhijeet looked towards the shore. The alarm usually stayed on during a tsunami, so why had it gone silent? Had they finally realised that they had been wrong? Abhijeet then realised something that no non-fisherman would. His boat had stopped bobbing around. He looked at the ocean water, it was calm, there were no ripples, it was as if he was on a glass.
Then the water started to bubble all around him. Abhijeet ran towards the oars and started rowing towards the shore.
"What the fuck!" he exclaimed as he gave his all to move towards the shore.
'Why did I come all the way here?' thought Abhijeet, 'No matter! I will get ba-'
Unfortunately for him, he would never get the chance.
A huge blast from underneath the ocean lit up under and around him, incinerating his body in the process.
The nuclear weapons had done their job.
However, even as the Indian Navy breathed a sigh of relief, little did they know that this was just the beginning; little did they know that their time on earth was coming to an end.
Little did they know that the extinction of humanity was here.