' Well , there it is . ' Doctor Stevens looked up from the papers he had been reading , and stared through the windshield of the All Terrain Vehicle with a mixture of apprehension and awe . Only the thought of the smell stopped him from opening the passenger door and stepping out for a better look . It had been 5 days since the world ' s oceans had dried up . Mysteriously , and without warning the entirety of the salt water that had once covered two thirds of the planet had simply disappeared . Panic and pandemonium had been unavoidable , and no amount of demands from the public or politicians could prise acceptable answers from the scientific community . Already , the world ' s climate was beginning to feel the effects the monsoons over the Indian subcontinent had been cut weeks short , and no more rain seemed likely to come . Rivers were quickly drying out as their invaluable water flowed into the massive , empty basins surrounding the landmasses . Lakes and reservoirs still held their stores of precious fresh water , but Stevens and other scientists had known right away that these would not last . A solution was needed , but before that they needed to understand the why , only with the why could they begin to develop a solution . So teams had been dispatched to all the world ' s dry oceans , to search for an answer . Stevens had leapt at the chance and claimed the Western Pacific for himself and his team . Three days after the Event , they had landed in Tokyo , there to meet with the Japanese crew that would join their expedition . No expense was spared and they had the very best in scientific surveying equipment , allterrain transportation and even military support . Dry though it may be now the ground they would be treading was more mysterious to them than the surface of Mars and noone knew what to expect , so no chances were to be taken . It had taken them two days to reach their target destination . Tough though their machinery was the former seabed was a unique challenge . The dry silt was a most uncooperative substance to transverse , and their journey was frequently punctuated by pauses to dig out bogged down vehicles . Huge detours had had to be made to navigate around enormous mountains that jutted from the ground , far too steep to cross even without the precarious slopes of silt that lined their sides . Many of the Japanese crew eyed these silt deposits with fear , and it was no mystery to Stevens why . In the past sudden turbidity currents , or mass movement of these deposits , could trigger destructive tsunamis in the region . In fact as the expedition had descended down the continental slope one such collapse had claimed an entire transport , along with the lives of the 5 poor souls who had been riding in it . The smell hadn ' t made the journey any easier but there was no avoiding it with billions upon billions of tons of sea creatures rotting all around them . But at last , they were here at the very lip of the Marianas Trench . The driver , a local man by the name of Kaito , stopped the vehicle and killed the engine . The two of them stared out at the gaping abyss before them , stunned by the sheer scale of it . Of course Stevens had read about it . You didn ' t become a leading light in the field of Oceanography without doing more than a fair share of research on the deepest part of the ocean floor , but it was another thing to sit there and see it . The chasm gaped before him nearly 70 km in width and stretching as far as the eye could see in either direction , it looked as though an angry god had torn a gaping wound into the very Earth . Stevens remembered a family trip he had once taken with his parents to see the Grand Canyon . It couldn ' t even compare . He shuddered to think what this sight would have been like if the water was still here . He was snapped from his reverie by a loud and unpleasant ' Fuck me , now thats a hole ! ' He grimaced and turned to face the source of the outburst his assistant Travis Aimes , leaning forward from the back seat to get a better look . Actually , his real assistant was back in Los Angeles , having shouted as she stormed out the office door ' No way in Hell am I going anywhere near that trench , find some other nutcase to take with you ! ' And so he had . In fact , Travis had been the only ' nutcase ' to volunteer . ' What is it , like a million miles deep ? ' asked Travis , craning his neck as though he might see the bottom of the chasm before them . ' Not quite , ' said Stevens , sharing an exasperated look with Kaito , ' Current measurements place it at just under 11 , 000 meters at the Challenger Deep , though some estimates . ' But by this point Travis wasn ' t listening . He scooted to the door and shoved it open , leaping out and fumbling to extricate his phone from its waterproof casing . Covering his nose and mouth with his sleeve as a wave of foetid air laden with the stench of rotten fish assaulted him , Stevens stormed out of the car after him . ' Get back here , you idiot boy ! ' He grabbed Travis by the back of the collar and dragged him back as the rest of the expedition convey came to a halt all around them and began disgorging their occupants . ' Aww c ' mon Doc ! ' whined Travis , still with his phone in his hands . ' I just wanted to get a good pic , to show my girl back home ! '' We have no idea how stable the substrate at the Trench ' s edge is ! ' barked Stevens . ' Unless you want to end up at the bottom . ' He was cut off by the unmistakable sound of moving sediment . Everyone froze , eyes scanning feverishly for the telltale signs of moving sediment . Fortunately this movement was not caused by them several hundred meters to their left a section of silt bearing the halfdecayed carcass of a mako shark was pouring into the void of the Trench , disappearing rapidly from sight as it fell into the dark . ' Uh , yeah . You ' re right Doc , ' murmured Travis , his previous overenthusiasm apparently stymied , ' There ' ll be plenty of time for pics later . ' As time was of the essence , the research team got to work even as the rest of the expedition crew set to work setting up base camp . Stevens watched as a drone was flown out into the gaping abyss , before beginning its rapid descent . As soon as it dipped out of sight , he turned to the large screen displaying the feeds from the drone ' s numerous cameras . Though state of the art the range of the drone ' s transmitter was not sufficient to allow it to completely explore the Trench ' s depths , so for now their primary goal was to scout out the best route for their eventual climb down . Already the gear was being unloaded and inspected . With any luck , they may also spot their first clues as to the cause of the Event . In truth though , Stevens thought it unlikely they would . There had been no evidence to suggest the Event was more likely to have originated here over anywhere else in the ocean , but with all options being equal Stevens had decided that he may as well seize the opportunity to fulfill his lifelong wish to see what lay at the bottom if the Marianas Trench , albeit under most unusual conditions , and if by some miraculous chance they also solved the mystery all the better . For over an hour they stared intensely as the screen displayed only walls of rock and the deep darkness below . It wasn ' t until nearly midday when they had their first big break . The drone was now over five kilometers down , and just about reaching the halfwaypoint of its battery and would need to turn back when they saw it . The sun had finally reached its highest point and shone directly down the trench at last the blackness of the ocean ' s deepest reaches was illuminated . ' My God . ' breathed Stevens . ' Is that . ' the technician began to as . ' Yeah ! ' said Travis excitedly , ' That ' s water ! ' In the feed showing the view from the drone ' s downward facing camera , there was the unmistakable glimmer of sunlight reflecting off the surface of water . Stevens could hardly believe their good fortune the answer was here , it had to be ! Here must be the last bit of ocean water remaining after the Event . ' Get the other drone ready to depart immediately ! ' he said , as the battery warning forced the first drone to begin ascending back to them . ' Try to save as much battery as you can in the descent we need to gather as much information as we can ! ' The technicians were apprehensive , but began preparing the backup drone for flight . It was a big risk to have both drones in the air at the same time , therefore invalidating the point of a backup , but they understood this was too important to wait . Within minutes the second drone was zooming out and down into the Trench , falling more than flying in an attempt to descend with as little power as possible . As a result it passed the rising first drone fairly quickly , and managed to reach the depth the first drone had reached before the sun had moved too far to continue lighting the trench . However , the water was no longer there . The drone plummeted several hundred more feet before catching sight of it again . ' It ' s still disappearing . ' mused Stevens . ' It ' s draining away , like water out of a bathtub . ' Travis said , with an awed expression . ' So , what , has our ocean sprung a leak or something ? '' At this rate , ' Stevens said , his mind working furiously , ' given how fast the water level is dropping and how deep we know the Trench to be , it ' ll all be gone in a matter of hours . We need to get down there , now ! ' continued in comments