Second Atlantis

Kevin awoke in a room empty save for a television monitor, silently playing images from the groundbreaking ceremonies at K Island.

All the other Ks were there, smiling and digging ceremonial shovelfuls as they planted the first palm tree. Their victory over Professor Nemofic complete, the boys were ebullient. They held up signs saying “See you Kevin!”; “We’ll miss you!”; “Best of luck!” as if they knew he could see. They were laughing.

It was a room, not a cell; the door was open. He walked out into the hallways, bare, hastily stripped of artwork and posters. It looked familiar but he couldn’t place it. The hallway opened into the control room and confusion flooded Kevin’s mind. It was Professor Nemofic’s underground helm! Most of the portable computers and other equipment was gone, but there was no doubting this was the room where Professor Nemofic had run the day to day business of his well intentioned but doomed floating city, Second Atlantis.

Only this couldn’t be Second Atlantis! The magnetic generators had been cut! Second Atlantis had joined it’s predecessor on the ocean floor! Kevin looked up at the monitor. The Ks. “Goodbye Kevin!”; “We’ll Miss You!” Laughter.

Kevin went to the monitor and activated the perimeter view. The view was murky, until a smudgy blur came towards the camera and the view clarified. A manta ray.

Kevin ran out of the control room, ran down the hall, ran up a stairwell, and then he heard it. The constant pushing sound of water rushing a giant slosh like the beach, but deeper, more immersed. Air bubbles.

The control apparatus of Second Atlantis was sealed well. He would not be drowned. He simply had to wait at the bottom of the Ocean until his air ran out.

Goodbye Kevin! We’ll miss you!

--Dan Kilian
The Giant K Shaped Island
The Magic Banjo