C.N. - chapter 79

When the lights went out, the henchmen on one side of us had rushed right past Dennis and I and collided with the henchmen blocking the other side of the walkway. The walkway was jammed with Mr. Dragon'd henchmen who were groping for Theo, Wolfgang and Heathcliff, who all seemed to have escaped. Dennis and I found ourselves standing just slightly removed from the jam-packed portion of the walkway. How we managed to end up there even though we didn't move an inch since being stopped by the henchmen, I think owed to the henchmen's poor spatial coordination.
Taking advantage of this, Dennis and I inched away in the opposite direction from the mass of henchmen all tangled together in the walkway. As we got further away, and our pitch black surroundings got surprisingly quiet save the churning of machinery, we began a whisper-discussion on the nature of the common henchmen that serve villains. Progress was exceedingly slow, because of the total darkness. Dennis and I resorted to holding each other's hand while tracing our other hands along the wall of the walkway, which had narrowed in this unknown part of the submarine, as we groped forward.
'You noticed,' whispered Dennis, 'back there at the ambush, how those henchmen forgot where we were the moment the lights got turned off? That oddly resembled what often happens in action movies, don't you think?'
'You're absolutely right,' I whispered back, 'do you think the behavior of henchmen in action movies is based on the actual behavior of henchmen in real life situations?'
'From what I've seen so far, the evidence does corroborate that theory.'
'Why do you think henchmen are generally so incompetent at their tasks, especially pertaining to the handling of hostages?' I asked.
'I suppose it's a matter of economy. You see, because villains are always trying to evade justice, and justice does whatever it can with all the intelligence at its disposal to attempt to apprehend the villains, I come to the assumption that villains have quite the limited selection of henchmen to choose from. The henchmen can't be exceedingly intelligent, because then they'll come to their senses and turn the villain over to justice. A henchman of average intellect might not betray the villain, but he will attempt to exploit the villain's weakness, say, by demanding unreasonable sums of payment. So, that leaves the least intelligent members of the henchmen profession to serve the villains, and you can't expect such unintelligent henchmen to be much good at anything.'
'No wonder the villain's plans are always foiled. Even the exceptionally intelligent villains only have the least intelligent henchmen at their disposal to do their bidding.'
'It's true, villains always lose because, well, in the end they have their own wits and that alone, while justice usually has an unlimited reserve of wits and intelligence. It's a fight of one against many.' Dennis sighed, 'That almost makes me feel sorry for villains.'
At that moment the emergency lights came on and the walkway was illuminated in deep crimson.
'Ah, we can see now,' Dennis exclaimed, 'sort of.'
The emergency lights were dim and spaced wide apart. Long stretches of the walkway were still in the dark and stretched on in both directions.'
'How big is this submarine? I feel like we've been walking for hours.' Dennis said, befuddled. I too was stupefied. The largest submarine ever built did not exceed a length of 200 meters. I felt the walkway had extended for half a kilometer already.
'It must be a typhoon-class submarine.' I speculated.
'More like hurricane-class.'
'Most submarines have two corridors running throughout the length of the ship, and three levels. I'd say we're on the bottom level, but I can't say where.'
'What's on the bottom level?'
'There's the engine, the fuel cells, it's where the torpedoes are stored, and a lot of piping.'
'I haven't seen any stairs to take us to the upper levels, have you?'
'I haven't.' I shrugged and looked around, hoping to find some indication of where we were. Behind us, the walkway curved away to the left, as did the walkway ahead of us. The curve was in fact quite obvious. Suddenly, I noticed that walkway floor has a slight incline in the direction we were facing. Wait a minute...
'We're in a spiral.' I whispered.
'What?'
'We've been going up the submarine all along! You see, this walkway is like a spiral staircase, look at how it always curves to the left, and there's even a gradual incline. If we follow this path we'll end up at the top level.'
'Why you're absolutely right! Quick, we have to hurry before these emergency lights shut off too!'
We began to run.
'Say Dennis,' I said, 'Where are we going anyway?'
'We...' he trailed off and we stopped running. We looked at each other.
'Good question.' Dennis said, and stroked his chin. 'We can try to find my sister, but she ran in the opposite direction. We can also try to find the control room, that should be at the top level, right?'
'Right, the top level is the officer's deck.'
'How come we haven't encountered any henchmen, do you wonder?'
'I guess like you said, the henchmen are dim-witted and naturally they never are where they should be.'
'Makes me feel sorry for the villain, almost.' Dennis said, and looked about, 'Oh look! That hatch in the ceiling, it has the letters M.D. on it, do you suppose we've happened upon the submarine's doctor's chamber?'
'I think the letters stand for Main Deck actually, that's the top level.'
We looked at each other and smiled, 'We found the main deck!'

T.N - Chapter 78

Oh my god, I am so sorry for the radio silence. I've been tied up with writing a one-act play over the summer, and I finally got the time to sit down and write tonight. Here's the long awaited Chapter 78!

There was a pause after everything went pitch black. Nobody moved an inch, and I could hear the breathing of everyone around me, especially the quiet metallic rasp the Dragon was emitting over the intercom. Meanwhile, my mind was spinning. How could Grandfather be on the submarine? He was supposed to be on the island, where the Dragon was holding him captive. Unless he fought his way out and then snuck onto the submarine, a very Grandfather like thing to do. I couldn’t help but smile a bit.

“What are you doing?” boomed the voice of the Dragon, his voice tinged with anger. “Get him!”

The silence was broken, and there was a collaborative scramble as the Dragon’s men tried figuring out which way was the right way to head. There was a lot of mumbling and jostling as they argued which was the most efficient way to get to the control room, but we stood there untouched. I sighed in relief, as it seemed like the Dragon and his men had forgotten about us. Just as that sigh escaped my lips, the Dragon’s voice clicked onto the intercom again.

“And if you’d forgotten about the hostages,” bellowed the Dragon, “you better get them, you incompetent idiots!” The intercom made a loud banging noise, as if the Dragon had slammed the receiver down, followed by radio silence.

“Shit,” whispered Dennis.

“Come on kids, let’s just get this over with,” said one of the men, somewhere in front of me. “Nobody wants an accidental stun to the heart now, would they?” There was the faint buzzing sound of what I could only assume was the stun gun warming up. The man took slow steps forward, the sound echoing slightly down the hallway.

“You might hit one of your own people though,” pointed out Charlie. The steps stopped.

“Well he’s not wrong,” chimed in another of the Dragon’s men, slightly to my left. “And I’d rather not get accidentally shot, knowing your aim,” he chuckled.

“Shut up Derek,” growled the first man. “This is really not the time to be making jabs about my marksmanship.”

“I swear to god, if you shoot and hit me instead,” said another man behind me, “I will kill you James.” He shifted uneasily, as if the very thought of being shot with one of the stun guns was already causing him discomfort.

“Jesus Christ, Eli, not you too,” groaned James. “If it really makes you feel better, then I won’t shoot, happy?” The buzzing sound stopped, and there was a murmur of relief among the Dragon’s men.

Wolfgang suddenly grabbed my left hand and bolted down the passageway. I let out a small yelp of surprise as I was dragged through and past several of the men standing there. I felt hands trying to grab at me, trying to slow me down while Wolfgang pushed on. Somebody grabbed onto the hem of my shirt behind me, and I quickly and blindly elbowed them.

Heathcliff yelped in pain right behind me. I realized that he must’ve been the one that grabbed my shirt. I muttered an apology, grabbed him, and pulled him along with us.

As soon as we were free of the Dragon’s men, we started sprinting down the hallway. “I hope you know where you’re going,” I said to Wolfgang, panting.

I couldn’t see his face, but I imagined he smiled. “Actually, I don’t. But that’s all part of the fun of chase scenes, isn’t it?”

We ran down the corridors, with Wolfgang holding tightly onto my left hand, and me dragging Heathcliff by his shirtsleeve. I’m not sure how Wolfgang navigated us in the dark, but we twisted through the labyrinth of metal walls, interchangeably turning right and left into different hallways. I could barely hear the pursuing footsteps through the pounding of my heart resounding in my ears.

“Dennis, Charlie, are you here?” I asked into the darkness, in between gasping breaths. There was no answer, and I swore, imagining them getting caught after we left. 

The lights started flickering back on, and Wolfgang pulled us into a niche in the wall. We tried staying as quiet as possible as our pursuers’ footsteps thudded closer, and then farther as they passed us. We sighed in relief.

I let go of both Heathcliff and Wolfgang. “I’m going to go find Grandfather, you guys go try to find Laura and the others!” I whispered. I turned to follow where the Dragon’s men had run off.

“You can’t go by yourself,” Heathcliff replied. “You’d be in grave danger! And I can never let my love run into the face of danger without my protection.”

“For once, I agree with him,” said Wolfgang. “Every time you do something alone, you end up getting into trouble. You’re sticking with us.” He reached out to grab my hand, but I recoiled.

“Let me go alone!” I hissed. “I’m not going to mess up this time.”

“Theo, you’re being irrational,” Wolfgang started, but I cut him off.

“I’m being rational here,” I said. “It would be the best to split up, because we need as many allies as possible here. You guys should go get Laura and her men because I’m sure they’re heavily guarded and unarmed, and you two together will have more success that way. I’m going to get Grandfather because I know him best, and I know exactly how he’ll play with the Dragon’s men. And in that way, I can help him more. That’s going to be the plan, and we’re going to stick with it.” I stared at the two of them, looking for signs of assent. When I found none, I turned and started running down the hallway.

“Theo!” called out Heathcliff and Wolfgang. I didn’t pay them any heed.