by Nathan Lunn
“What, to the island? And you don’t know where you are?” the man asked. Eddie and Julie shook their heads. The woman sighed and sat up, picking some fruit from the pile as she started to explain.
“You’re on Zobel’s Island. Me and Artie here, were lucky enough to be chosen to take part in the tri-yearly hunt, hosted by our saviour, Alexis Croft.” Artie waved and smiled – he was also missing a tooth. “What, there were about twenty of us? Something similar, I think. Anyway, we all got brought to the island in a transport shuttle, and they let us down for a nice banquet. After that, they took us down the steps, took a tooth–” Julie watched as Artie bared his teeth for them to see; a dark well of congealed blood substituted one of his back molars – “then we left to go and hide.” She paused, rolled her eyes to her head and added as an afterthought, “He should be coming soon.”
“Hide from who? Alexis?” Julie asked. They nodded in return. “Well, what happens if he finds you? Do you win, like you said?” She pointed at Artie, who shook his head, and replied, “Nah. He kills us, doesn’t he? That’s the point of the hunt.”
Julie and Eddie looked at each other, and pressed further.
“Kills you? Not actually though?” Eddie asked, as the woman and the man exchanged a look of their own.
“Well, yes? That’s what we’re paid for, isn't’ it? To die,” the woman said with a bemused smile.
“Paid a hefty sum, an’ all!” Artie added, rubbing his fingers together. “Thank the Crofts for their generous job opportunities! Plus, the longer we stay alive, the more cash we can get.”
Baffled, Eddie asked the same question: “But you don’t actually die, right? I mean, it’s not a job if you don’t get the money.”
“Son, we die, alright? We’re here to get the money for our families.” Artie said, taking a bite of the fruit the woman handed him. “Thanks, Izzy. Ours is going to our son, actually, he’s struggling with drug issues and needs the cash for rehab.”
“But, you aren’t doing a job!” Julie was incredulous, her voice raising and echoing in the small cave. “It’s sacrifice, or worse, slaughter! He’s paying your family to let you die! Doesn’t your son need you more than the money?”
Artie grasped Izzy’s hand and squeezed it tenderly.
“Our son hasn’t needed us for a while. At least, this way, we can help him without interfering in his business again.” Silence fell as Eddie and Julie let this soak in, the only noise being the whistle of the wind rushing about the open space. Izzy spoke casually after the silence had passed.
“I suppose there is the Delta Package though. We opted out of that, but Frank over on the other side went for it.” She finished her fruit and threw the pit to the floor.
“Delta Package?” Julie asked, looking back out of the hole.
Izzy nodded and went on, “Yeah, that’s right. You lose a significant chunk of the fee, but you’re cloned afterwards, so it’s basically harmless. Just a temporary sleep and you’re back into the world, only slightly richer. They’re so kind and giving, aren’t they?”
“Who, the Crofts?” Julie asked, shaking her head in disbelief. “Are you kidding me? You know they’re taking advantage of you, right? I mean, you both especially – but others too. Cloning isn’t a real science, it’s never been done before. Like, it can’t happen, you die. Your body is gone, your life over.”
Artie laughed with Izzy, and they replied, ignorant of the truth and uncaring of this fact.
“No, no. There’s new workers making it happen, new innovations being found – Alexis told us cloning is possible. Like we said, you’re basically sleeping and then up and about a week later.”
“You’re insane, there hasn’t been any advances at all – Alexis is lying to you,” Eddie spluttered. “You’ll die. You, specifically.”
“I think it’s more advanced now,” Izzy spoke, ignoring Eddie and Julie’s protestations. “We have made our choice anyway, so you can’t stop it. And I can’t believe your selfishness!” They looked confused, until Izzy spoke again. “Oh, come on! How can you sit there and complain about the Crofts, when they’re out giving us such kind job opportunities? Without them, our son would have nothing!”
“We’re not selfish! Think of your rights, it’s murder!” Julie shouted, gaining a warning look from Eddie.
“It’s employment!” Artie roared back, spittle flying across the cave. “We had nothing else, and they saved us.” His chest heaved and fell as he basked in his outburst. Julie and Eddie remained silent, as Izzy stroked Artie’s back.
“You’re insane,” Julie whispered, looking at the couple with fear.
Artie shook again, and spoke, quieter but dripping with venom. “Get out. Get out of our space, you ungrateful–” he spat to the floor. “We have a chance of winning more money here, and we certainly don’t need you both to help mess it up.”
Eddie moved out, silent. Julie, shocked, started inching towards the exit.
“You deserve better,” she whispered.
“And that’s exactly what we will get,” Izzy replied, a strong fire burning behind her eyes.
Eddie and Julie ducked out of the cave and back into the mountain.
24
Stumbling back out of the cave, Julie was surprised to find that night had fallen. Over the ocean, there were no reminders of the sun, and instead, on the other side of the island, she could see the moon shining white midway up the sky. Its spotlight cast a wide berth over the entire top of the mountain – there were little clouds around and the uninterrupted light still managed to hurt Julie’s eyes as her pupils adjusted. A smattering of winking stars carpeted the dark blue above their heads. The wind had picked up to be quite strong, so she moved with Eddie towards the end of the mountain, making their way back down the scree carefully and in silence. A few minutes down, they stopped by a boulder and leaned against it, wiping their hands and clothes clean from a thin layer of white dust. Eddie decided to speak, cautious with his words.
“You alright?”
She nodded, her breath a little caught from the walking. “I’m good. Wish we could help them,” Julie replied, taking breaks between her sentences as she thought. “They just… they just don’t get it, I guess. Something snaps when you’re desperate. Something animalistic.”
Eddie agreed, adding, “We can still help them though. We just need to take Alexis out, and we can save all these people. All twenty of them, or however many he’s shipped in. Yeah?”
Julie looked him in the eye and nodded, her steely resolve growing in front of his gaze. “Yeah. We should make our way to the house. Let’s go and find him.”
The mountain path they chose to walk along was well-trodden and easy to follow. The slow moving team were weary and overworked – their feet were dragging and the limited visibility of night was having a negative effect on their coordination. Every now and again, the moon dipped below a dense cloud, and the lighting shut off. The first few times it had happened, Eddie and Julie had tried to keep moving, but after more consistent falling they decided they would be better off to stop in their place and wait for the moon to come back out. They were thankful for the rest stops though, as they allowed a little time to get their energy back up to normal levels – a tough task, considering there was little food and water nearby. The rock-strewn path curved slowly around the upper slopes of the mountain, dipping under various overhanging cliffs that dripped water down onto them. Thick concentrated tufts of grass sprouted up on the slopes below them, intercut with sprawling and scratchy twig brushes. Once more, the cloud obscured the moon, and Eddie came to a stop, sitting on the rock closest to him.
“This is exhausting. Did you get a chance to see how close we are?” he asked, speaking through the dark to where he thought Julie was sitting.
“Nope,” she replied. “I’ll try and look when the moon next shows up.”
Eddie sniffed, and in a response to his impatience, decided to try something else.
“I’m just gonna boot thes
e up and see if I can see it yet. I'll keep the charge from getting too low.” He pulled the Amaterasu goggles up to his eyeline and slipped them over his face, the blocky design jutting out from his nose. A quick boot-up procedure took place, then the goggles powered on; the mountain side exploded into full vision, each blade of grass outlined from the other, the moss on the surface of the rocks and the cracks inbetween. As everything came into focus, his sight zoomed in on specific details, bright green for each. Popping up in his display, he could see the jungle below, the clouds steadily passing by overhead, and the building nestled against the side of the mountain, around a mile from their current position. Passing Eddie’s notice, in his lower right vision, the commlink variant flashed up a warning.
“I see it, just a mile in that direction. We should make it over in another hour of walking,” Eddie spoke, pulling the goggles off his face before the cloud disappeared. A red bar of battery flashed up, and the screen went black. “These are on the brink now.” With the moon back out, Julie and Eddie forged forward on the path, picking their way slowly over the rubble.
“So… I feel like I should apologise for Kye,” Julie spoke in a lull, wincing as she did. “I mean, for what he did with Danny, you know?”
Eddie looked over and softly replied, “No, it’s fine. I should apologise for him, really. You and Kye both okay? Seemed there was some sort of tension there.”
“We’ve been fighting over small things, honestly, but it all adds up at the end of the day, doesn’t it?” She asked a question, but kept speaking so that Eddie had no time to answer. “He doesn’t seem the same sometimes. Like he’s trying so hard to be a different person, because he doesn’t like the one he is, even though that’s the one I fell in love with. I suppose the grief changes people in their own ways, but… it just seems different now. Like we’re trying too hard to save something that can’t be saved.”
Eddie mused over this, before saying, “Maybe the effort is worth it, maybe it isn’t. You only know by how you feel whether it was or not, and sometimes by then, it’s too late.”
Julie nodded, exhaling a quick short breath. They had arrived near a small half-tunnel, the carved rock hanging overhead and the left side – the right fell away from the mountain in a sharp vertical scree, and the open air provided no fencing or prevention from falling. Half of the tunnel had been left in dark shadow, the other half highlighted in the moonlight. Stopping a few feet from the entrance, they looked up to the sky; a large thick cloud passed over the light, pushing them back into darkness for what looked to be a longer time than usual.
“Ah shoot. Let me take a quick look, hang tight,” Eddie spoke, putting the goggles back on and powering them up. The tunnel in front of him came into view, magnitudes of structural cracks crossing over one another in the roof, small rock chips dropped to the floor in no discernible pattern. The perilous chasm to their right looked even more daunting from the further angle and it was clear now that the area in shadow was not more space to walk, instead the side of the tunnel jutted inward with strong rock formations eroded by the wind over the years. No water dripped down over the lip, but long thick bushes and grass swayed in the howl, covering the entire top of the tunnel like an afro. A second warning popped up in his lower right vision, pushing him to change it to commlink variant.
“Hang on, I got something popping up here,” he added, dipping his head to the ground and flicking the switch to change modes. “Oh, I think it’s dead. It’s…” He waved his hands in front of his face, seeing no movement in his vision, nothing was visible save for the red outline provided by the display. “It’s just black, there’s nothing showing.” He looked over to the rest of the island, and still saw nothing but black.
“Is it just out of charge?” Julie asked.
“No, ‘cause the line’s still round the side,” Eddie murmured, too preoccupied with his searching to give Julie his full attention, and his volume only dipped lower as he delved deeper into his focus. Switching back to the night vision, he turned to the tunnel and waved Julie forward. “Move slowly, there’s only room for one of us. Go on, ahead.” Julie nodded and started inching forwards, hands out in front for balance. He watched as she moved under the lip and shuffled her foot over a large rock, hand pushed up against the rough stubble of wall to her left. Her other hand was trailing low down by her foot, clutching at the air in a weak attempt of balance. The wind picked up and the bushes above moved – a second Commlink warning flashed up in the bottom right of Eddie’s vision, causing a whisper to slip out.
“Wait…”
A snap echoed out of the tunnel, mingled in part with the blood-curdling scream slipping out of Julie’s open mouth. Her hands dropped to her leg, scrabbling at the clenched jaw of the claw trap, the slick blood providing little-to-no purchase on the digging metal teeth. Moans and whimpers continued to escape her mouth as the claw trap tightened, pulling a fresh run of blood from her left calf. Eddie flicked the switch to Commlink Variant, his shoulders tensing further as the trap revealed itself. Inside the tunnel, stretching long and thin was a red tendril, stemming from the base of the bear trap, and working its way around the lip of the outcrop. From here it jumped into the bushes, pulsing with continuous energy as it fed into the forehead of a shadowy figure, who was moving away from his hiding space and slowly sauntering down the side of the tunnel wall towards Julie’s screaming location. Her entrapment and noises drew the figure’s attention away from Eddie, who was hidden behind a nearby bouder, prostrating himself on the floor to minimise his visibility and avoid detection. Julie heard the movement and called out, “Eddie? You there? Help me!”
Still struggling, Eddie watched the tendril move closer through the tunnel, slowly but purposefully, bobbing up and down as it ducked under the formations. Moving with caution, Eddie raised his hand to his head and flicked the switch, to once again jump into night vision format. A flash of green preceded a notification popping up, alerting Eddie that there was too little charge to change back to this mode. The switch manually clicked, and the red tendrils popped up in front of him once more, still pulsating as the figure interacted with the claw trap. Reaching Julie’s side, the shadow bent over and flicked the trap, sending it biting back into Julie’s leg with renewed vigour. She yelped and whipped her head around, screaming in pain and looking for the creator of it.
“Eddie isn’t here, I’m afraid. Just us two, and guess what? You’ve lasted quite a while, I’m impressed,” the voice spoke from her side, waggling the red tendril as his forehead flexed. Julie flinched, and Eddie moved closer forwards, trying to recognise the voice. He hadn't needed to expend so much energy, as Julie spelt it out for him a moment later, putting it together far quicker than he had:
“Alexis. The hunter.” She whimpered as the claw trap tightened; at the same time, Eddie watched the tendril expand and a message send from Alexis’ forehead.
“Who else? And you are? Usually I’d be able to tell my victim,” he spoke, laughing as he rotated a full 360 degrees. “But as you can see, the circumstances are still a little dire.” Julie shuffled from him, closer to the edge of the tunnel. “Well, don’t be intimidated! You nearly bested me, that’s something to be proud of!” He paused and Eddie saw the tendril lower, about waist height. “Or, are you humbled, reduced to silence. Trust me, I’m just like you, don’t treat me like some kind of celebrity.”
Julie, her voice shaking, found a way to reply, grasping for a pseudonym. “I’m Izzy… please don’t kill me.” The tendril moved back up and swelled. Julie cried out as the trap tightened around her – the ground was now pooling up with her blood.
“Well, Izzy. I would say it was nice to be the one to kill you, but you see, I already did. When I took you and your husband out of the game an hour ago.” Alexis rolled three teeth over in his hand and slipped them into his pocket. His voice started to show signs of rage, cracks in the calm facade he was trying so desperately to keep up. Julie panicked, and bit her lip; Eddie surmised that the trap was
increasing further in tightness as the tendril stretched and swelled continuously. The wind picked up and the moon found a small crack to shine through into the tunnel, revealing Julie’s hunched figure and frightened dusty face, slightly overshadowed in Eddie’s sight by the hulking shadow of Alexis, standing by her side and looking down to the figure caught in the trap.
“Oh, it’s you!” he yelled, his voice snapping. “Not from the prey bus, but my tormentor. How convenient for me, to have you literally ensnared in my trap.” The cloud dipped once more, blocking the light – Julie and Alexis were swallowed by the darkness. He continued talking, his rage unfiltered. “You know, you’d think I’d have missed you and your little friend when you flew off in the hovercar, but I have keen eyes. I miss nothing, especially when it comes down to my hunting instincts. Especially when it comes to shit-sipping scum like you, who think it’s okay to attack my precious daughter, and come to my island and ruin my hunt.” Spit started to fly from his mouth. “Do you know just how much time it takes for me to set this up? To even find the helpless souls I can liberate from the desperate existence they’re stuck in?” He laughed, and the trap loosened from Julie’s leg. “But it’s no mind. My hunt is now over, and no person has gone un-extricated. My unbelievable skill and ability has rendered my prey useless, and even by accident, I have you ensnared.” A red flare erupted from the forest behind them, and he laughed in glee. “You see? No doubt my daughter has taken care of your precious Eddie – he won’t reply to you – and on her first hunt, no less! Takes after her father.”
Julie’s hand clutched around the chip in her pocket with the drier of her two hands. She had gone silent as Alexis walked around her side, his heavy footfalls indicating where he was stepping. He stopped talking and moving, waiting a moment, before he increased the pressure on the trap and launched into further speech.
“You will stop wiggling when I take your tooth, won’t you? Or, I’ll have to do it afterwards, and that can be messy. It’s no use staying silent now! Honestly, it astounds me that you think it’s okay to do what you did to my daughter. Or to not thank me for freeing you from this painful experience.” He lifted his arms back and shouted, his voice rebounding off the near walls of the tunnel with a strong resonant energy. “I am your Liberator! Worship your emancipation with humility and–”
