Kael Voss and Scout Finch exchanged a few words, gradually easing the tension from earlier. The fear that had clung to them was beginning to subside.
Kael submerged himself again, hoping to check if there might be another door on the surrounding walls of the room. After swimming halfway around the space, he spotted another door.
His heart leaped with joy. "Finally!" he thought.
However, according to the visitor's route map, these two rooms weren't marked, so Kael had no idea what lay behind the second door.
He surfaced quickly to tell Scout. After a brief exchange, they prepared to dive again and swim through the new door. Beyond it, they found a long corridor. As they surfaced at the far end, they were shocked.
Not even a foot away from them, a female corpse was floating!
The eerie, guttural groans of zombies echoed in the distance. Their headlamps could barely illuminate the surroundings, but it was clear this was a large hall.
The woman's eyes were tightly closed. She wore a swimsuit, her skin pale and wrinkled from prolonged exposure to the water. Her long black hair floated around her, and then, suddenly, her eyes snapped open.
Scout let out an involuntary shriek, and Kael quickly motioned for them both to move back. They swam a few meters, relieved to see the corpse didn't pursue them.
"That scared the life out of me!" Scout exclaimed, clutching her chest. After a moment, she looked around and then seemed to remember something. "Wait, I know this place! My mom brought me here once—this is a water park! We're at the deepest part of the aquarium!"
The surrounding zombie noises confirmed their fears; there were definitely a lot of zombies in this area. Not wanting to take any risks, they decided to return to the employee passageway and see if the crocodiles were gone.
If the crocodiles had left, they could quickly escape through the employee tunnel. As they swam back down the corridor, Kael's headlamp illuminated another small door on the wall. On it was a sign reading, "Diving Equipment Room."
"Diving equipment?" Kael thought. He tapped Scout, pointing toward the door. The two of them quickly swam inside.
The room was filled with large metal lockers. They surfaced to catch their breath before diving again. Most of the lockers were locked, but a few were ajar.
After rummaging through the open cabinets, they managed to pull out several diving supplies—wetsuits, respirators, air tanks, diving knives, and cylinders.
They surfaced again to breathe, exchanging a look of excitement. With these supplies, their chances of escaping this terrifying aquarium had just improved drastically.
"Kael," Scout said, catching her breath. "You were right. There really is always a way out, isn't there?"
Kael smiled but didn't say much. "Though we've got all the gear, neither of us knows how to dive properly."
The next few minutes were spent helping each other get fully equipped with tanks, diving masks, flippers, and more. It took them around twenty minutes to figure out how to breathe underwater and use the regulators.
Once they were ready, with their crossbows still strapped to their backs and water knives in hand, they swam out of the equipment room and back to the first room they had entered.
Kael cautiously opened the door just a crack, using the diving light to peer outside. There were no signs of the crocodiles anymore.
"Did those damn crocodiles finally get full?" he muttered.
After waiting for a moment, seeing no immediate danger, Kael waved for Scout to follow and swam out first.
...
With their diving lights cutting through the dark water, they swam for about seven or eight minutes, making their way down the long employee tunnel. Just as they turned a corner, a shadow swiftly darted towards them—a shark!
Before they could react, the shark suddenly flipped over, showing its pale belly, dead in the water.
Kael and Scout exchanged confused glances. They had no idea what had just happened.
After a long pause, Kael suddenly seemed to understand. "Sharks are ocean creatures. If they spend too much time in freshwater, they won't survive long."
Once he grasped this, Kael felt a sense of sympathy for the creature. Once a fearsome apex predator of the deep, it was now trapped in this small aquarium, unable to roam freely in the ocean.
As he pondered this, Scout suddenly tapped his shoulder, urgently pointing behind him. Kael turned around to see four or five large crocodiles, tails swishing, swimming toward them.
His heart skipped a beat. One crocodile would be enough of a problem; now, there were five?
Without hesitation, Kael made a hand signal, urging Scout to swim faster. Scout understood immediately and started paddling furiously.
After swimming a short distance, they didn't feel the crocodiles pursuing them but noticed strong ripples in the water behind them. The crocodiles had apparently started "death-rolling" over the shark's carcass, fighting for a meal.
Kael dared not shine his diving light behind them; the last thing they needed was to attract these predators.
They swam ahead for another thirty meters, but the end of the tunnel still hadn't come into sight. This tunnel seemed endless.
Then, as Kael's light scanned ahead, he realized the water level was rising, inch by inch. His heart sank. "Is it raining outside?"
As the water continued to rise, Kael couldn't help but feel a bit lucky. Without the diving gear, they would have suffocated long ago.
He glanced at Scout. She was following closely behind, half a meter back, still keeping up. Considering the events of the night, Kael couldn't help but feel a deep respect for the young woman.
After swimming a bit further, Kael's light finally reached the end of the tunnel. A sudden chill ran through him—there was a thick, cold wall blocking the passage.
They had reached a dead end.
Kael swore inwardly, his frustration boiling over. "Damn it! This passage was supposed to lead to a fire escape, but it's been sealed off! Those damn capitalists!"
It turned out this wasn't a genuine employee passageway. Before the apocalypse, it had been repurposed, possibly to turn the area into an underwater park or for some other purpose.
But now, that modification had become a death trap for Kael and Scout.
The realization left Kael feeling a mix of shock, anger, and despair. His chest tightened, as if it were about to explode. Scout, behind him, seemed equally helpless, her face pale with shock.
7