Johann Quisumbing

A Fictional Series by J Quisumbing

Chapter 6 continued…

Hallbright gave him the thumbs up as he pulled down his mask and placed the snorkel mouthpiece in his mouth. He slid into the water and the first thing he felt was the current under his legs. He went face down but stayed floating on the surface with the snorkel still above the waterline. Then he tilted down his head so that the snorkel was immersed to test his makeshift breathing gadget. He took a breathe and was satisfied that water did not leak into the system. He exhaled and was again gratified that air bubbles expectedly blew out through a valve at side of his mouthpiece. He was about two feet under when he noticed something.

He kicked off to swim backwards to see what was really below the boat ramp. He half expected to see a metal hull but the surface was rough like rock covered with sea grass swaying in the current. He swam closer to find that the crags and cranny surfaces was plastic. How solid it was, he was not sure. He’ll have to ask Dr. Quimby about it. Thinking of which, he better start heading for her lab.

He clicked on the mini props and was jetting through the water about three feet underwater. He could not help but smile because he was gliding through the water like in the latest Aquaman movie. As he approached the small floating island that was still being developed, he saw that the underside was made up of thousands of plastic cubes being held together by what look like cargo netting. By his estimation, the underside went down about ten feet. Then he noticed two achor lines extending downward to what he was not sure. He wanted to dive deeper but first he had to surface to replenish his air cannisters.

As he was about to dive back down, his peripheral picked up a gray blob the quickly swam past him. For a moment, he thought it was a shark. He had dived with sharks before but he still can’t help hearing the Jaws music in his ear. He decided to skip investigating where those anchor lines went and swam under the island to head straight for the lab. He was halfway swimming under it when he was relieveded to encounter not a shark but a curious bottlenose dolphin.

When Hallbright cleared the island, he surfaced and found that the dolphin came near. He noticed that it wore a harness with a patch that had the Oceanus emblem on it.

“Tony Hallbright…,” it was Dr. Quimby calling from the inner ring shore. “I was wondering where you were.”

He started to swim towards her when the dolphin appeared next to him. “I see you already met Flipper.”

“Flipper! You kidding?”

“Nope. I’ll explain later. Meanwhile, go ahead and follow him.” Dr. Quimby blew on her whistle one long high pitch burst and at the same time making a gesture.

Flipper responded by nodding its head then swam to his left. Hallbright followed suit. It didn’t take long until he reached a netted enclosure. Flipper easily jumped it. He on the other hand, swam to a floating platform where a young girl was petting another dolphin.

He quickly climbed out and said, “And who do you belong to, young lady?”

She haughtily eyed him then turned with her chin up saying, “My mother told me never to talk to strangers.”

“Ooooh, I see. That is wise, but you see I’m not a real stranger. I’m a marine biologist just like your mommy. You can call me Uncle Tony.”

“Well, Uncle Tony…” Dr. Quimby said mockingly. She was standing just above him. “Why don’t you stow your gear and join me inside? I want to show you the works before I have to feed the little ones.”

To be continued…

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Note from the author:
Oceanus Adventure is a fun effort on my part to enter the wonderful world of creative writing. It’s a story of a group of people who launched themselves into the Pacific Ocean on an artificial island to solve the Great Pacific garbage patch. My hopes is that this will end up into a TV series.

Comments and idea suggestions will be most welcomed. I hope you enjoy.