I’ve been a search and rescue diver for 15 years. What we’ve found in the water is nothing compared to what’s down there.

I’ve been working search and rescue since I was just 17 years old, trained by one of the most experienced and skilled divers in the country. Since then I’ve been on countless operations and logged hundreds of dives, and never in all that time have we found anything as strange as what we’ve been looking for lately.<br><br>Things have been odd, though. I can’t say exactly what it is that’s changed. Maybe it’s the lack of fish in some of the usual places, or the way the current has been picking up in areas where it shouldn’t be. All I know is that my boss brought me in for a chat last week.<br><br>I sat in his office, the same one he’s had for the 12 years I’ve known him, and waited for him to say something. His secretary told me he was just running behind - he was down on the dock, talking with the coast guard. After 15 years in this line of work, I’m more familiar with the mangrove than any house. I could find my way to our location blindfolded if need be.<br><br>I stood outside his office, foot tapping on the tile floor, and wondered what the hell he could be upset about. Our numbers were up, call times were down, and every fisherman we’d gone out to help had made it back to shore safely. If those are your major concerns as a search and rescue, things were going about as well as they could.<br><br>The door to his office opened, and one of the younger guys was inside. I couldn’t quite hear what they were talking about, but it didn’t sound like anything good. The diver was normally the last person my boss wants to speak with, as he’s the one who’s out in the field making the calls. But he was down there because of the current, and I guess something had happened.<br><br>When he came out he ignored my question about what had happened and told me to come down to the dock immediately.<br><br>The sun was setting when I reached the water, casting shadows across the wooden planks that lined the edge of the dock. My boss was already there, along with every other diver and a dozen coast guard sailors. I recognized some of the uniforms as belonging to nearby towns, and guessed that this might be a job for the whole region.<br><br>“What do we know?” I asked, looking around at the dozens of faces all staring back at me.<br><br>My boss led me to a small bench at the end of the dock, where I sat down to listen. The younger diver had been out on a call to help a boat that was stuck in the shallow water. Something had tugged at their anchor in the middle of the night, pulling it out to sea and dragging the boat behind it.<br><br>Their estimates put the boat a long way out, deeper than any of us were trained to go. Three of the more experienced divers had volunteered to make the journey, with a few sailors following in a smaller boat to provide oxygen if it was needed.<br><br>They’d gotten about a third of the way out before they lost radio contact.<br><br>“My guess is they found a way to communicate with the boat,” my boss said. “They’ll have gotten someone on board to tell them exactly where they are.”<br><br>“And then we’re going for them,” one of the coast guards said.<br><br>My boss nodded. “We’ll be heading out in a minute. I want all of you know that we’ll be bringing our own equipment.”<br><br>That was unusual. Normally, if a boat got lost we’d have them drop anchor and then lead them back in with a series of flashing lights. This didn’t sound like a missing boat, though. This sounded like a missing diver.<br><br>The implications were obvious. If one of us went down, and we couldn’t get him back, there was no way anyone else could either. We all knew the risks going in, but this was different. This was a whole team, lost to the water, and we had no idea why.<br><br>I fell into step behind my boss as we headed for the dock. So many uniforms lined the edge that there were barely two per inflatable boat. I recognized a few of the divers who were going out - Alex, the most experienced of us all; Jane, who had a reputation for staying calm even in the most panicked situations; and Ian, the youngest among us at just 22.<br><br>I took my place next to Jane, trying to figure out where we were going from the different navigation tools laid out on the front of the boat. There were maps and sonar, GPS devices and what looked like some kind of computer program I didn’t recognize.<br><br>The last was, of course, how Alex got his reputation as the best diver in training. His use of the deep water program had saved more than a few lives, and I had no doubt it would do so again today.<br><br>We pushed off from the dock, and the sailors shoved us out into the current. It took very little time to realize why the boat had been dragged. The water was moving at more than twice its normal speed, tossing our small boat around so much that I nearly fell over as Jane grabbed my arm.<br><br>“Hold on,” she said, her eyes fixed on the deep water program. “We’re going faster than I anticipated.”<br><br>I nodded, looking out at the water as it whizzed by. I knew this area like the back of my hand, but all I could see were waves. This was the second thing that told me this wasn’t normal. The first had been the depth. At just over a mile underground, I knew we were below what most divers could handle. But the program kept climbing, counting down from almost two miles the deeper we went.<br><br>After ten minutes of tossing around like toys a voice from behind us cut through the howling wind. “You’re at 2000 feet. Your estimated time of arrival is thirty minutes.”<br><br>My boss. I recognized his voice, even over the wind. I turned to look at him, and felt my stomach drop.<br><br>He was staring out at the water, his eyes vacant. I followed his line of sight, and couldn’t understand what I was seeing.<br><br>The water was clouded, like it had turned into some thick milk. Nothing like that had ever happened before, not even at this depth. I was about to ask when Jane squeezed my arm.<br><br>“What do you see?” she whispered at me.<br><br>I looked back at the water. At first glance it looked like nothing was there. The clouded water was so thick that it hid even the seaweed that usually dotted the floor. I focused harder, trying to pick out something, anything, down there.<br><br>And then I saw it. A mass, like something was lying on the floor. It was shadowed, because of the water, but I could make out shapes. A boat. There was a shape that had to be a man.<br><br>My heart skipped a beat. How had a boat gone this far out? And how had someone ended up on the floor?<br><br>“I see the boat,” I whispered back. “There’s a body next to it.”<br><br>The three divers looked at each other. This should have been recoverable, and we should have been able to get it back to the surface. But there was something about the water, something that was keeping us back. It was as if the water itself had changed.<br><br>“Do you see the man?” Jane asked. “He’s not a fisherman. Or at least… not fishning.”<br><br>I stared harder at the figure on the floor. Whatever was lying on the ground, it wasn’t a body. It was dressed in dark pants and a long shirt. It had something in its hand. Was that a gun?<br><br>“I think he’s holding something,” I said, looking back at the other three. “And he’s not lying down. He’s sitting up.”<br><br>“That can’t be right,” Alex said, staring down at the water. “There’s no way a man could be sitting up on the ocean floor at this depth.”<br><br>The three of us stared down at the water, trying to understand how it was possible. The answer came a few seconds later, when Jane pointed down at the body.<br><br>“Look at his hand,” she said quietly. “What do you think he’s holding?”<br><br>I stared, and realized that I couldn’t tell. The object in his hand was small, and when we were this far away it was blurry. All I knew was that it didn’t look natural.<br><br>“Get a sample of the water,” Alex said quietly. “Now.”<br><br>The sailors behind us looked at each other. One of them raised his hand, but Alex was already wading out into the water.<br><br>“What are you doing?” I shouted up at him.<br><br>“We have to see what that is,” he said, reaching the edge of the boat and looking down at the water.<br><br>He didn’t have to wait long. As soon as his feet touched the water it began to rise, bubbling up around him. I screamed, leaping forward as the water climbed his legs.<br><br>“Alex, get out of the water! Now!”<br><br>He didn’t move. I could see the water reaching his waist, and it was still coming. Then, without warning, it stopped. I could see Alex’s whole body, still standing in the water.<br><br>“What the hell?” Jane muttered. “There’s no way the water would just stop.”<br><br>I stared at the liquid, trying to understand. All I knew was that nothing about it looked natural. Nothing about the way it moved, nothing about its color or consistency. Everything about the water told me it wasn’t from around here.<br><br>Alex took a step forward. “Can everyone see that thing in his hand?”<br><br>I looked down at the water. It was harder to see now, but I was sure that whatever was in Alex’s hand wasn’t natural. It looked like a small metal