Talia Ciampi
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Stories (1/0)
Bubbles
Bubbles My eyes track across to my team as we prepare to dive. A nod. Another nod. As I look across the faces of the people I have known for years, it seems different. They wear suffering and pain on their faces like war medals. I catch a glimpse into Aron’s eyes, so dark and focused. He motions for us to prepare our rebreathing sets. Routinely, I check the regulator’s seal as one of my pre-dive checks. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the recruit’s hands shaking as he checks his. Silently we enter as dusk settles across the water. The water is murkier than I remember it; it is safer this way. We were concealed from the Machine. As we approached the barrier of the Machine, something was wrong. The recruit is clawing at their rebreather. I saw the whites in his eyes as he fumbled with the regulator in his mouth -seemingly gasping empty air. He writhed in the water column and instinctively reached for his oxygen reserve. At that moment, I felt a lump in my throat. We froze.
By Talia Ciampi 3 years ago in Fiction