Four people sat in the black jeep wrangler, a scientist and the driver both in heavy winter jackets, and two divers in black drysuits pulling on their gloves. One diver sat in the back, her head bowed, she was muttering under her breath, gloved hands clasped tightly together. The other sat in the front passenger’s seat, he was on the phone staring out the window at the seemingly endless expanse of unmarked blue-white snow that covered the evergrowing layer of ice covering what was once Russia.

“Yeah, sweetheart… Daddy’s just going for a little swim… yep, just going to see if the fish are okay… three more days… okay… tell your grandmama I love her and I’ll be back before you know it… okay… I love you too. Bye Bye.”

The jeep, suddenly skidded to the side, as a low, groan came from the ice beneath them. The light powder of last night’s snow flew into the air as the ice vibrated, causing the scientist to give a startled squeak. 

A few minutes later, the ground stilled, leaving the four people shaken, but unhurt.

“Hey,” the female diver called to her partner up front. He looked back, face pale, she gave him a tense smile and tried to reassure him, “We’re gonna be okay. It’s probably just shifting plates, or something like that,” she glanced over at the scientist.

The scientist’s hands were shaking and his face was anything but comforting. The diver nodded uneasily and went back to staring out the window.

They arrive at the research camp- three identical white tents set up around a roped-off section of ice- and with a single command from the scientist, the area is instantly set in motion. Black cased equipment is brought out, a table is set up and quickly covered with a strange black box trailing wires. Another shout and a hole is cut in the ice with swift, sure strokes. The female diver let out a low whistle, she looked at the scientist standing a few feet away, he swallowed hard.

“There isn’t supposed to be water here, is there?” she asked.

The scientist didn’t respond and ducked back into the white research tent.

 The two divers, bundled in puffy drysuits, thick dive gloves and two large red cylindrical oxygen tanks, lowered themselves to the edge, dangling their flippered feet into the frigid water. Two men in uniforms secure masks onto the diver’s face, more men stand around the gaping hole in the ice, all put on edge by the furious mutterings of the scientists that floated from the tent flap.

The divers gave a thumbs up to signal to the rest of the crew that they were ready, and then they plunged into the deep, oily, black water. The second diver descended after the first, though much more slowly, he watched the dim light from the sky gradually fade as he sank deeper and deeper.

It was darker here than anywhere he’d ever been, the flashlight that had been near blinding on the surface now barely pierced the gloom of the foreboding waters. He felt a tug on the rope tying him to the other diver, pulling him evermore deeper. He was suddenly struck with a nearly irresistible urge to follow the bright yellow rope back to the surface, to kick as hard and fast as he could until his head broke the surface, but instead followed the faint flashes of his partner’s fins.

As he descended deeper, he tried to calm himself, thinking that it was just the dark, the low visibility. After all, man fears what he does not know. It took all of his willpower to force himself even deeper, following the rope of his fellow diver.

Crackling came from the radio installed in his mask, “...dark… something’s down here…” static cut out most of what she was saying but he caught the last part, “so beautiful-” and then cut off into silence.

A sudden savage jerk on the rope pulled him further down. He felt his throat closing up, he’d lost contact with his dive partner and he still hadn’t reached the seafloor even after swimming for at least ten minutes. A dull glimmer flickered on the edge of his vision, flashing silver-green, and vanished. Before he had time to process what he’d seen, he was plunged into darkness, the meager glow from his flashlight had chosen a perfect moment to die out. He jerked wildly at his partner's dive cord, but it felt as though it had been tied around a massive boulder, as it did not give. Every muscle in his body was tensed, his breathing becoming faster and shallower, edging on panic. He tried to calm himself but he was feeling more claustrophobic by the second, the darkness seemed to be pressing in on him, robbing him of all his senses.

There. Another flicker of light. His hand brushed something smooth, the contact was the final straw for him, a burst of bubbles exploded in the water in front of his face as he let loose a shriek that nearly deafened him from inside the mask. Even through the many layers that protected him from the sub-zero temperature of the water, he could feel the texture of the thing. It was solid and smooth, covered with what felt like a thick coating of mucus-like slime.

Then it moved.

This time he couldn’t even scream. Unable to even think, he watched as two glittering points glittered in a light that was, to the diver, nonexistent. The points split and multiplied, dancing mockingly before him.

He tried the radio but in his panic seemed to have forgotten how it even functioned. He pulled sharply on the cord connecting him to the other diver, it still did not budge and he could not see her through the murky darkness. He tried the rope that should lead to the surface; it shifted slightly. But, a dim flutter from below him caught his eye.

Perhaps it was his partner. He prayed it was. 

Still somewhat panicked and now seeking the comfort of a fellow human, he swam in the direction of what he thought were the movements of the woman who had entered the water with him. His breaths coming out in short gasps, fogging up his mask, not that it mattered, it was still dark. The menacing glowing orbs that came to surround him, pulsing blue, sickly yellow, and eerie green, offered little comfort. He kicked faster in an attempt to escape from the muted glow, but they stayed with him, unwavering. He should have reached the surface, his breath started rasping, picking back up again.

He swam on until he couldn’t. His limbs heavy, breathing ragged, he stopped, now drifting, suspended in the thick viscous water.

Unable to even move and having moved well past terror into a cool fog of indifference, he watched passively as the dozens of lights magnified and solidified into eyes of all sizes and colors. The cruelly gleaming eyes moved toward him, propelled by a sinuous silvery body swathed in cloudy slime. A large jagged toothed smile appeared, spreading wider and wider as unblinking eyes glared down at him. The smile opened, and he saw nothing past that gaping hole. He closed his eyes and he felt the teeth close over him.

On the surface, the crew of men began pulling the cord up. A cry rose up, one of the men held up the frayed end of the yellow rope. Arguments and shouting matches broke out as most of the uniformed men demanded that the scientist called in another dive team, but the scientists stood fast by their decision; two divers lost, it was not worth the risk.

The team worked until the last minute of light to close up the tents and collect all the equipment. As they were loading the last monitors into the idling vehicles one of the uniformed men lingered behind. Removing his hat, exposing the tips of his ears to the bitter cold, he crouched by the dark hole in the ice. He sighed, his breath clouding and disappearing up into the empty navy sky. A shout brought him back, he stood and slowly made his way to the waiting vehicle, casting one last backward glance at the dark water just barely visible over the small pile of ice shavings.