Trapp’d Wellingborough: Atlantis The Lost City

They used to shout my name, now they whisper it. A disgraced god, I used to own them. They were my things. ‘Poseidon, god of the sea!’ they used to chant. I was a feared, respected divinity. Worshipped. Now, I am but a hushed murmur. A punished inferior. An exiled mongrel. He will pay for what he has done…

Almost ten thousand years since the mysterious city suddenly sank into the emerald depths of the ocean. The stunning citadels and majestic statues now lay sunken and forgotten on the sea bed. Dancing corals creep up through the cracks in the architecture, lush thick moss covers the once pristine white, sandy temples and the brightly coloured fish dart playfully in and out of the windows. Silence deafens the atmosphere surrounding the excluded fortress. Occasionally, a hammerhead will sweep through, disrupting the peaceful solitude, but for the most part, this is the city that time forgot.

Today, you are on the verge of a break through, you can feel it in your very core. But then again, you’ve been wrong before. The last twenty-three years of research has been filled with false hope and dead ends, excitement and disappointment, trying to be the first to discover exactly why the curious city abruptly sank into the dark azure depths of the ocean. There is a whole new batch of old scrolls to sift through, extracted from a flooded parlour in the large sanctuary you and your team have recently started exploring. This was previously an inaccessible part of the citadel, you had to really push for the permission to bring this type of machinery down to the ocean floor. Hunched over your desk, magnifying glass in hand, you squint intently at the magical symbols and cyphers on the browned parchment. From what you’ve gathered over the years, you can decipher most of it. Shuffling through a few of the vellums, you can tell at a glance that this information is nothing extraordinary to the others that you have collected. It’s discouraging to say the least, but you persevere.

Your radio crackles through before it connects to the surface and a friendly voice sounds out. “Come in, Aqua. What’s the situation?”. Charlie has been a dedicated member of the research team since the expedition began. He’s a kind of aloof soul, you can’t help but adore him. Even if he does insist on silly code names. You smile through your response. “Nothing of importance but theres still a few more to look through. Could you send Hydra in again to grab another pile?”. There is another slight pause and a crackle. “Will do. The forecast up here is predicting crazy stuff. The news people reckon there’s a huge tsunami headed towards England… can you believe that?! I think the facility might get a little shaky so don’t be alarmed if you feel a couple of vibrations.”

Turning your attention back to the delicate papers, you can feel an all to familiar sinking feeling in your stomach. You will it to go away and try to remain optimistic. You happen upon an unusual looking arrangement of symbols, ones you haven’t seen before. It’s curious to say the least, your brows tie themselves together as you hurry to find a piece of parchment that might translate it. You study it meticulously, translating it a few times and a few more times again for fear of mistake. But there is no mistake. The transcription stares back at you, plain and clear and you are confused by what your brain scrambles to comprehend. From what you can deduce, it’s a sort of schedule. A prediction calendar. A list of dates, exactly three millennials apart. At the foot of the scroll, there are a couple more cyphers translating to a very small piece of text;

Triton stole the offering,
It has yet to reappear.
The cause of townspeople's suffering,
Every three thousand years.
Should the legacy stay hidden,
The city shall ascend.
Forgiveness forbidden,
Poseidon’s revenge.

As realisation sinks in, excitement starts to overwhelm you. You’ve managed to stumble upon something massive. This could lead you to the answer you’ve been searching for all these years! You’re just about to radio through to Charlie to share the good news when your eyes fall upon a date on the scroll. It’s today. In exactly an hour… You stop dead as a rising panic floods your body, coupled with a hot flush. Your memory flashes back to something Charlie said earlier “…huge tsunami… England… crazy stuff…” and suddenly it all falls into place. Atlantis is due to resurface today in an angry charge to destroy the world. Poseidon was never avenged and he intends to share his misery with the mortals who exiled him in a bid to anger the gods… more particularly, Triton. A thought crosses your mind to something you read a few weeks ago about an offering left for the gods from Poseidon. It was supposed to be his ticket into the high council. Assuming you can track down the location of the offering, recover it and return it, you may be able to stop the mass cataclysmic destruction about to reign down upon the world. At that very moment, a great quivering tremor engulfs the facility around you. You make a swift grab for the table to steady yourself. Looking out of the window, you can see panicked fish dashing to get away from the area and little air bubbles appear to be escaping from the buildings. You’d better hurry, the onslaught has already begun!