[h1][color=yellow]♥ - Rodney Colton Smith[/color][/h1]
[color=yellow]'Ghhhhmph...'[/color]

I wake up to the sound of somebody moving around near me. It's nearly pitch black, so it takes me a moment to figure out what's happening... last thing I remember is the light in the water fading as we all got deeper down, and then my eyes opened in here. I suppose, given that I'm practically dry, that we've been down here a while. "We" being myself and my team, of course!

...and Skylar. "We" being myself, Skylar, and as becomes apparent after a bit of looking round myself, literally nobody else that I can see.

Crud. If we're the only survivors, then... wait, what happened to my equipment? Looking around myself and checking my body reveals that all of my diving gear is destroyed save my wetsuit; the harpoon gun I was carrying is outright missing, with no trace; and whilst my pistol is apparently intact and sealed within the bag I brought it in, all the ammunition stored with it is just gone. Even the clip loaded into the gun proper. How odd. And as for my glasses...

Hah, yes. They're still as cool and undamaged as ever. Though I should probably leave them in the bag for now, given that they won't help me see in the dark. Glancing over at where Skylar currently is - standing, I note, meaning she's probably been awake longer than me - I can see that her equipment is scattered around her, nearly as beaten up as my own stuff. I think one of her oxygen tanks is still in usable condition... so that's going to make getting back the way we came a bit difficult, isn't it.

It's about this time that I register that shuffling noise, partially hidden by my own movement and Skylar's, as well as by the sound of dripping water. The only other humans likely to be down here are members of the other diving expedition and our own team, and if it's not them... my training pushing me into high alert almost automatically, I leap to my feet, unsealing the heavier of my two plastic bags and drawing the pistol from it. I don't know that it's going to be useful in any way without ammo, but... I guess I can pistol whip whatever's down here with us? Or make sure they have no intentions to hurt us, at least. I can use the dark as cover to pretend it's useful, or... just roll with whatever needs doing, Rodney. Step one: protecting the more vulnerable member of my group.

[color=yellow]'Get behind me, Skylar,'[/color] I say quietly, stepping forward and round her so that I'm in the defensive position rather than her, empty gun aiming into the shadows. I continue in a louder voice: [color=yellow]'Right, uh... whoever, or whatever is hiding over there, come into view slowly and calmly. I'm sure nobody here wants to get hurt; do what I've asked, and nobody needs to get shot.'[/color] Honestly, I feel kind of stupid saying all that into the shadows, but better safe than sorry. Really, we should both be moving toward the light, but then what are we going to do with our gear? We can't just leave it here... well, we can't just leave the one functional oxygen tank here, and it may be necessary for us to make a safe return at some point. So it needs defending, plain and simple; we can probably move it around later on, once this situation is dealt with.

And after all, if whatever's out there isn't... human... it may be the first step to figuring out where the other team went...