Story:
Chapter 1: the pressure beneath
"It's done, we're all screwed!" The captain said over the loudspeaker. It was in the middle of the night and all the soldiers were asleep except for the few who had night shifts. We were searching for an underwater treasure. We had been in searching for almost a year now and nothing was ever found. Anyway he said we would all die. It woke most of us up out of a dead sleep, (no pun intended). "There's... Oh god, I don't know! What are you!?" The captain said. I don't think anyone understood what he meant at the time. There was something deranged on the submarine with us... Some kind of intruder. We all grabbed our weapons and went to search for the captain. We split up and my team found him first. We saw him run down a hall, like he was being chased. It was frightening as hell. He didn't see us or hear us but we called and chased after him. When we finally caught up with him it was probably through an entire other corridor. He was literally split in half from the wast down. He was using his hands to crawl closer. We rushed to him and his last words were "run, run, get away, run." He mumbled. I was afraid he meant immediately, I thought he meant the creature was in close range. I call it a creature, because, the way the captain was deformed, it couldn't be human. Anyway he was right, the creature snatched another human behind everyone.

Half the crew, I was with, panicked and started loosing there mind and shooting everywhere. I tried to stay calm and look everywhere. Eventually there were only three left including me. We started with seven, one was taken when the captain said his last words, the second tried to grab ones hand and took him with him, and another screamed: "WHERE ARE YOU?!" And the creature took him. From this I realized, the creature uses it's hearing more than its sight, this is because when one man screamed it found him instantly. Another thing I realized was that the creature had a lot of strength. It pulled two men into the dark. Two men who were substantially strong because they were in the military. Another was that it was stealthy, no one, not one survivor or victim that we know of saw it coming, or it's face at all for that matter. And the last realization was that it planned to kill us all... my crew and I all fled. We had to go find suits. We were miles underwater, we would die instantly if we went out into the deep ocean without a suit on. There were special suits for submarine soldiers like us. Soldiers in dangerous emergency situations like us. We had to find them to escape. We needed the keys to the lockers they were in first unfortunately though. We ran through a door and locked it. We stood and stared to see if it could get through. The smart thing to do would be to run, but we couldn't. One of the men who was in my crew that survived was named Lois, the other named Ryan. I knew them both well because they were in my crew. Ryan was a cynical person. Not much family, not a good childhood, he doesn't like to talk about it, so that's all I know. Lois was a more positive person. He was raised on a farm, with a little brother and an older sister.

"We need to go back in there and save them..." Lois told me. "No way!" Ryan disagreed. "WHAT IF THAT WAS YOU, HUH, RYAN?WHAT THEN?!" Lois asked screaming. The creature started slamming against the door, we all knew it used its hearing to figure out where things were. "They're all dead..." Ryan said quietly and sadly. We were all aiming at the door. I didn't know who to agree with. I agreed that I thought they were dead, but what if they weren't. Lois unlocked the door, we couldn't stop him because if we said anything it would hear us. Lois ran out think he could outrun the monster. Ryan ran the opposite way. I had a choice of who to go with. I could help Lois save people who may already be dead and maybe even get myself killed, or go with Ryan and leave a human with sympathy and hope behind. I went with Lois and tried to save the four men, I was sure at least one was alive. Lois distracted the creature while I rescued another soldier named Eric. Lois was killed. I watched the creature kill him. He had his neck slit by it. Lois' last words were: "thank you." Talking to me.

Me and the injured Eric started to run. The creature was horrifying. It had gils and a face almost like a fish. It walked on twos. It had a tail too. I was helping Eric walk but I dropped him when I was tackled. It tackled me and it oozed from its mouth onto my face. Eric saw this and pulled out a pistol and shot it three times in the arm, stomach, and tail. It screeched and quickly got away. The ooze felt strange. It burned. It frightened me. I helped Eric up. "That, thing, it was so fast!" I said. "I know, it's strong too. It broke my leg with its bare hands." Eric told me. "We have to find Ryan," I explained to Eric. "Why, he wanted to leave me to die. I could hear you. Vaguely, but I could." Eric asked. "We have to! The more numbers we have the better. Never leave a man behind either." I answered. "That's not what he thinks." Eric muttered. "Even if we don't need him or anything else, we need the suits to get out of here, to get to the suits we need the keys to the lockers, he might have found the keys!" I added. We had to keep moving, fast. The creature would be on our tail again in no time. "Did Ryan tell you where he was going?" Eric asked. "I don't think he even knew, he just wanted to leave." I told Eric. "We need to find a map, I'm lost, we need to figure out where we are and where Ryan may be." Eric explained. We walked. I was worried. I honestly thought I would die. I thought about my family and started a conversation. "Do you have family back home?" I asked. "No." He said very straight. I didn't know if he was in the mood for talking. "Do you have friends?" I asked knowing this would be a yes. "Some." He said straight again. "What are they like?" I asked. "Nice." He said again. I took it that he didn't want to talk. I like to talk when I'm in bad situations. Anyway soon after the short conversation we had we heard a snarl. It was the snarl of the thing. We stopped short and we were nervous. We saw a shadow. Neither of us could make out what it was. It turned the corner and we gasped. It knew our direction. Neither of us moved because we knew it sensed movement. We stood still. I was scared but I could handle it. Eric on the other hand couldn't. Once the thing got a certain distance close to us Eric shivered and made the slightest sound. The thing came close to us. It could hear our breathing and screeched. It hadn't attacked, but it would if we took a breath. It touched Eric and he screamed! The thing started chasing us. Eric couldn't run so he dunked under it. It ran right past him and chased me. I was upset that Eric had abandoned me, but he was holding me back anyway. He was a coward like Ryan.

I tripped and was knocked out. It didn't kill me though. I woke up hanging upside down. I was about to scream but I knew it would hear me. Why didn't it kill me? I thought. I looked around. I was in the pitch black basement. The creature had put me in a place where it had an advantage. That is when I knew this creature had high intelligence. I heard a sound. It was just like gargling of water. I knew it was the thing. Since it was smart, I had a thought, since it already knew I was here, I decided to try to communicate. "Hello," I said very slowly. I saw a quick movement from a silhouetted creature of it looking towards me. It walked up to me and it came into view. It put it's disgusting hands near my face and then moved down my body. It stopped at my heart. It had a table with needles behind it. It turned its head and gurgled again. This thing had so many sounds like the gurgle, the snarl, the hiss, and the screech. I really thought it had the ability to speak too. "Why are you doing this?" I asked. It stuttered and mumbled gibberish. After probably a whole minute of it it finally uttered something. I understood it vaguely. What it meant to say was: "for help." I was astonished. It spoke! I gasped. "What help?" I asked. "Human again" it barely said. I could only understand it because of its motions and distorted yet readable facial expressions. This thing was once human? I thought. It grabbed some tools on the stand with the needles. "WAIT!" I commanded nervously. "What happened to you?" It ignored me and started putting the knife closer to my face. My hands weren't tied so I grabbed his knife in his hand. The creature was strong. It was getting closer to my face with slow accuracy. It only used one and I used two but it wasn't enough. Something within me clicked though, I heard it, I felt it. I felt a change within me as I moved the knife farther away from me and eventually took it out of its hand. I cut myself down and fell. I stabbed myself in the thigh by accident. I stabbed it and it screeched. I got a head start for running. I had to limp because of the wound. It started chasing me. It was so dark I couldn't run without making noise, never mind run in general with my thigh injury. So I quit and waited so I could have a clear shot of it. I knew how to throw a knife very well. It would also make a very good silent weapon in this situation. I didn't have any view at all for at least two minutes until I felt something, breathing on my. I turned my head and saw it was the creature put of the corner of my eye. It quickly stabbed it in the shoulder and moved again. The creature had given up on the stalking strategy and started just darting behind me while I frantically turned around looking for him. He tripped me from behind and I was down on the ground. He was standing over me raising his claws. I closed my eyes and shivered.

Then I heard gunshots and a shriek. I knew it was shot, I opened my eyes and the lights flickered on. It was Eric and Ryan. The thing scurried off and they ran over to help me. Apparently Ryan and Eric had some guts and helped someone else even when they were in danger. They helped me up and we ran out of there. My leg was still bleeding but I couldn't feel the pain. I took that as a bad sign, I had no choice but to move. "I have the keys to the lockers!" Ryan added as we ran. We knew how to get to the lockers from the basement, all we had to do was beat the thing there. Eric's leg wasn't any better but he had to run. I heard the creature screech in the distance. Eric screamed and it immediately knew where we were. It was catching up with us. It caught Ryan. It quickly killed Ryan and I screamed at the top of my lungs: "NO!" He was a good friend even before this attack. Eric shot the thing again. It ran away again. I went to retrieve the keys from my friends lifeless body. I turned around. Eric stared at me. "What?" I asked him. He was silent. He aimed the pistol at me. I knew he planned to shoot me. "Hey, I know your scared, we don't have much time. Don't kill me. You can't walk without me anyway! I know your scared but killing me won't do anything." I tried to convince him. Then he said, "A man I once knew told me: we fear what we don't know..." Then he shot at me. He missed and I moved quickly toward him. I took the gun out of his hand and threw it behind him and and we were fist fighting. I punched him in the jaw and he fell back. He reached for the gun and accepted defeat. For some reason... He shot himself. I had no idea why he would do something like that. I was alone again.

The creature had heard the gun shots. It started coming for me. I ran like hell was rising under me. I ran so quickly. It screeched and panted while it was staring at me while got closer. I got the the room where the suits were. I barricaded it too. the thing was slamming itself against the door. I tried to unlock the locker but I was too shaky. I pulled the strength from within me and unlocked it successfully. I entered the ejecting chamber for emergencies. I was sad to be alone. The timer for ejection counted down: "10, 9, 8," the creature could fit its hand through the door. "7, 6, 5," it had half it's body through. "4, 3, 2, it had everything except one leg through. "1" the thing was through and it punched the glass, the glass cracked but it was too late. I ejected and was safe. I floated up relatively fast, but I didn't know if it was fast enough. I wondered everything about my life and especially this horrific event. Why did Eric shoot me? Why did Ryan run? Why did Eric abandon me in the first place? How did this creature board the ship? What was that click I felt? So many questions. I made it to the top and...

I was in the middle of the ocean. I didn't know if I would make it to land at all, but all I could do was swim. I looked at the water and saw my reflection. That was what the ooze did! It didn't really matter anyway. I may not even make it home...