After the initial shock of the return of Matt and Tom and all the upheaval of life and emotions, they soon settled down and it became quite monotonous after a few months. Things seemed to slot into place and life carried on, but for Amy and me life seemed quite a bit fuller, because apart from our jobs, there were evenings and weekends to spend with the boys and their friends. Going for drinks, going walking and swimming.
There was quite a gang of us as Matt and Tom had many friends and they all seemed to have boy and girl friends too. At times it seemed like quite an army of us, but it was good fun, always something to do and people to do it with. Most of all, it was nice just sitting and talking and that’s when we realized how little we knew about Matt and Tom.
Turned out they were cleaver guys. Both had been to Uni. to study Marine Engineering, both had degrees in this subject, both worked for the same firm, which had its finger in many aspects of Oceanography. The more we found out about them the more we liked them and our lives got to be very full and interesting. We got to know them very well, so well in fact, that after a few months Amy and I began to suspect something was amiss.
The boys seemed to become quieter, didn’t want to go out so much and were, most of the time in silent thought. At first when we asked what was wrong, they brushed our queries aside, but as the weeks went by and the more we pestered them as to what the matter was, they had to give in and tell us.
It all went back to the day on the beach when we were all caught up in the terrible events of over a year and a half ago. They said if they told us what happened we would never believe them, but we persuaded them to do so and it was an incredible story.
In the turbulence of the water when the Killer Whale attacked , both boys felt as if they were being dragged down and down, the waves and spray covering their heads, bubbles surrounding them and the feeling of something pulling them down and further down. Their ears were popping, heads throbbing and their arms and legs felt useless to battle against the power pulling them down.
Then, all was dark, but they didn’t feel at all afraid. After a time they began to come round from the coma-like state they had been in to find themselves on the sea bed surrounded by what looked like people, but people covered in fish like scales. They were all looking in awe of Matt and Tom and whispering to one another.
Matt and Tom couldn’t make out what was being said, but they didn’t feel at all threatened, in fact they felt quite at ease where they were, apart that is, from a few bruises and bumps. After a while, the whispering stopped and a very tall scaled person appeared. The crowd fell back and he came toward Matt and Tom and bid them welcome.
He apologised for the way they had been dragged to the sea bed, but explained that was the only way they knew how to get anyone down to their undersea world to seek their help, but he said “Enough for now”, all would be told after Matt and Tom had rested, eaten and got their strength back and heads sorted out.
As their senses returned, they saw a pale eerie blue/green light enveloped the surrounding area, making the place as light as day. Caves were all over the place. Coral made everywhere look beautiful, there were stalagmites and stalactites of some type of stone. Oh, so much to take in, it was too difficult to concentrate.
They were shown into a cave where food was waiting, mostly fish dishes, but there was some fruit, which apparently had been picked up when they were thrown over the side of a cruise liner. After eating they were shown to another smaller cave with two beds in, for which they were very thankful. As soon as their heads hit the pillows they were asleep.
Next day when they awoke, they were ready to hear the explanations as to why they had been ‘kidnapped’.
The tall person who spoke to them the day before came and asked them to accompany him to a large cave where there were about ten more of the fish scaled persons seated around a table, hewn from rock. All were eager to see Matt and Tom, staring at them in a sort of enquiring way.
The one who had come to fetch them seemed to be their leader and took control of the proceedings. “We are the Laroc people and my name is Ny. Our ancestors built this underwater world many thousands of years ago. Although you can’t see it all, there are many huge ‘domes’ under the sea, all joined together, very much like your Eden Project, but on a much larger scale, covering hundreds of miles. All domes and connecting passages are air conditioned, for as you see we need air to breathe as you do. We need light and many of the things you need above the waves”.
“Things have been the same down here year on year for many thousands of years. Everything put in place by our ancestors has worked without a hitch. Until now, that is. Some years ago we noticed things changing, the quality of our air, the light, things not growing so well in our undersea gardens and worst of all, the rocks beginning to crumble”.
“We have tried many things to stop the erosion, but to no avail. So in desperation I’m afraid we kidnapped you both after hearing many of your conversations on the beach about your jobs. We have been listening to you for some months now. We have had our spies up in the ‘above world ‘ as we call it, and you seem to be just the right people who would be sympathetic to our plight, and would know of some way of helping us. We apologise for any upset or hurt we may have caused, but we need answers to our problems, so we may help our people. You are our only and last hope”.
Looking around us we could see exactly what they were talking about. Everything was looking very neglected and in a state of disrepair. We could see they had tried to make repairs, but not having the know how, little had seemed to help in any way. We could also see what needed doing, but to get it done would take an age, but really what choice had we?.
If we didn’t help their whole world would come crashing down literally and we couldn’t let that happen could we?. Thinking that by now our family and friends thought we were dead, we had nothing to lose. So we decided to stay on and do what we could to help
It was an enormous project to take on, but we got our plans together, sorted out what materials were needed and where and how to get them. The rest didn’t seem so daunting. There were plenty of people to do the physical work and they worked in teams and worked with gusto too. Days, weeks and then months passed and eventually a lot of the work was done, enough to keep them safe for a time anyway. Now they knew what to do, they could be left to get on with the rest of the work by themselves, we felt we had more important work to do.
Whilst investigating what was making everything go wrong in this subterranean world, we realized it was man made! Pollution from the ‘Above World’ had slowly but surely eroded the rocks and polluted most other things, and we felt our duty was to come back and see how we could help to make a difference. Until now we’ve kept things to ourselves, trying to work some way out, but we have no ideas at all. So girls what’s your answer?
They have told us their story, and the story of how the Laroc people took them to Wales and how they made believe they had lost their memories, because they thought people would never believe them if they told the truth.
Its an incredible tale, but I for one believe them. I feel it’s up to us now to fight for a better way of life. Not just for the Laroc people, but for all of us. We must stop all this pollution and Amy and I are prepared to do all we can to make people stop and think before doing all the stupid things we do to this poor old planet of ours. I just hope it’s not too late.
