Ancients

As Jack swam toward the temporary safety of the rising lava bed, he felt the water becoming warmer by the stroke. The earthquake was a constant shaking that sent larger and larger pieces of the dome and the seabed that covered it tumbling down. He only hoped that they had stopped the same from happening to the entire world.

Out of the red-tinted darkness, hands reached out and dragged him onto the shaking but for the most part solid rock.

'Glad to see you, Jack,' Everett said as he yanked Collins up by the collar.

Jack didn't respond as he tried to catch his breath.

'Come on, Sarah's over here.'

Jack nodded and followed Everett up the incline to join the other survivors of Operation Backdoor, who were waiting for the inevitable end. The medic was sitting by Sarah as Mendenhall and Ryan knelt nearby. They stood as Collins approached.

Below them, the last of the light towers went under the water and Atlantis dimmed to an unearthly yellow- and-red glow. Lava bursts were erupting out of the fast-rising water and steam was clouding their view of the second destruction of the city.

Collins went to his knee and looked at Sarah, placing his hand on her cheek. Ryan, Mendenhall, and Everett made a semicircle as the medic moved off to the fifty-six others who awaited their fate.

'I ordered you to keep your ass down, Lieutenant.'

Sarah's eyes remained closed as she was in the full embrace of the morphine injection. Her lips parted and she barely moved them, but Collins saw that she had said his name. Then she tried to smile but failed.

Collins leaned in close and for the first time wasn't self-conscious for doing so in front of others.

'I love you, little girl,' he said into her ear.

She remained still, but he saw her lips moving again.

'I knew that ... ass.'

Collins swallowed and was about to say something when the entire city jumped on the seabed. Men were tossed like rag dolls onto the hard lava rise that was quickly becoming a beach.

'This is it,' Everett said as the seabed above the dome cracked and the crystal panes with it. The Mediterranean came in full force and they were all caught in the torrent.

Jack held on to Sarah as they were washed away into the tumult that was now like a glass bowl being filled with water. He was holding her up as he tried desperately to tread water, but he knew that her weight and his own would drag them down. He held her tight and kissed her cheek as an eruption of gas and water created a giant air bubble and they fell underneath the tumult, Jack holding Sarah for the last time.

Twenty of the marines and two of the remaining SEALs surfaced and were immediately crushed by the collapsing lava mount that had initially saved them. The rest tried to swim away from the now-exposed Crystal Dome, which the lava mount had been covering. Outside the crystal structure of the dome, the Mediterranean bubbled and boiled as the long-extinct volcano erupted with its original fury. The explosion was so massive that the seabed for three hundred miles broke free of the crust of the earth and trillions of tons of molten material started edging the ancient seabed toward the surface of the sea, two and a half miles up.

Everett pulled Ryan up, and he, Medenhall, and the SEAL lieutenant started to help marines stay afloat as the agitated waters swirled around them just as the final building sank below them.

Carl anxiously looked for Jack and Sarah, but they were nowhere to be seen. As he turned and looked through the dome's wall, he saw boiling lava rising up its side and then cooling to a solid mass before being overtaken by fresh material from the crust of the earth. He knew that the dome would totally collapse soon, and he hoped that their deaths would be as quick as Jack's and Sarah's.

USS CHEYENNE (SSN 773)

Captain Burgess had ordered his watch team below. The way the boat was rolling, he knew that some of his crew would go over the side and they would never stand a chance of recovering them. The admiral had finally broken through the extreme radio interference caused by the static electricity in the air and had ordered him to secure his boat below the surface. But he knew that he couldn't do that now, after the admiral had let it slip that the carrier was standing by to go back to Crete for survivors. He would not run while a surface ship stayed.

Captain Burgess scanned the roiling sea around the Cheyenne and smiled when his glasses picked up the rolling Russian submarine Gephard. He could see that her captain was the only one on the ship's sail, just as he himself was. Burgess raised his hand and was surprised when his Russian counterpart waved back.

'Son of a bitch, I guess he's just as crazy as me.'

As a large wave crashed over the Cheyenne's tall sail, Burgess ducked for cover. When he stood back up, he saw giant whirlpools around his boat. He saw steam vents rise like the towers of a great city, and the heated water was creating a fog system of its own. All he could think of was that the Mediterranean was getting ready to die and was giving out its last warning.

'Captain, conn.'

Burgess held on to the tower with one hand and pressed the headphone into his ear and listened.

'Go ahead, conn,' he said as another wave hit the Cheyenne and she shook and rolled hard to port, almost dislodging him and throwing him into the sea.

'Captain, sonar says they're picking up some very strange readings here.'

'What in the hell are you talking about, Billy?'

'Sir, the operators say it's almost as if we are bottoming. The seafloor is rising, Captain.'

Burgess had heard what his first officer said, but it took a moment to sink in.

'Goddammit, man, contact the Gephard and the Iwo, tell them to get the hell out of the area!'

'Captain?'

'Take her down to a hundred feet, order all ahead flank, make Cheyenne fly, Billy, fly! The damn seafloor is rising and we're right in the way!'

As Burgess made it to the hatch, the large Los Angeles-class attack boat started to sink beneath the large waves. At her stern, her single-scimitar-shaped propeller threw up a torrent of water as her hull came free of the sea. Then, in a matter of ten seconds, the Cheyenne was running for her life.

22

Everett fought to stay afloat. The violence of the shaking had subsided and an unnatural rolling sensation hit them. They were only a hundred feet from the damaged top of the Crystal Dome and the whitewater foam was drawing near as the sea continued to flood the interior. The water was close to 150 degrees and Carl knew that if they didn't drown soon, they would be cooked, and he preferred drowning far and away over that.

'Stay together!' he shouted, but he knew they couldn't hear him any longer. Even if they floated through the giant hole in the dome, assuming that they could get past a trillion gallons of water flooding through, the pressure of the surrounding sea would crush them as if they were made of glass. But even that was preferable to being cooked to death.

'I really thought I would die flying,' Ryan said as he and Mendenhall held on to each other as they kicked at the water to stay afloat.

'What, did you think we would get out of this mess?' Everett shouted back.

A curious look crossed Ryan's face as he spit out sulfur-tasting water.

'Well, yeah, I thought I would. Maybe not you and Will here, but I was thinking--'

'Thanks, buddy,' Mendenhall said at his side.

Suddenly a dull light began filtering up from beneath the water. Everett looked around and then ducked his head below the surface. He saw nothing but darkness and was at a loss as to where the light was coming from. He brought his head back to the surface and looked around. The water was only eight feet below the damaged top of the dome and the rushing water was starting to rip men apart, sending them in every direction. That was when he saw Jack and Sarah. Jack wasn't struggling like the others, just floating in the tossed waters with Sarah held tightly in his arms. Carl reached out and pulled him toward him and the others.