by Wesley Stein
Just then a gunshot echoed through the cave.
Everyone spun around to see Tybalt in the passageway. He had fired at Tua but missed. Tua returned shots at them and tried to take cover.
Andy left the platform and headed toward the gunman.
“I’ll handle this,” he said. He pulled his gun and ran toward the man in the tunnel, taking shots all the while.
He was struck in the abdomen and again in the thigh. He went down for a moment. Tua was shooting behind him and allowed him a chance to get to his feet.
Andy stumbled forward and was able to fire several rounds at Tybalt before he slipped past him.
Andy was in pain. Though he couldn’t die, it had been a long time since he’d drunk from the fountain proper. The gunshots were taking their toll.
He hurried back up the causeway and into the chamber that held the steps to the fountain room. Tybalt watched him go but paid him no mind. His priority was to protect Juliet.
But on the platform above the cistern, Juliet was in a different kind of danger. Joanna and Jacey were horrified by the faces they saw below them.
“Is this what you planned to do with us?” Joanna asked her.
“Of course not,” Juliet replied breathlessly. “You are to rule at my side.”
“Then perhaps I should rule the north shore,” Joanna said. “And you can build your empire in the south.”
“Don’t be silly,” Juliet replied.
“Or maybe I could be the leader,” Jacey said. “Why is it you, Juliet? You didn’t discover the island. He did.” She pointed at Shakespeare. “You didn’t build the island on your own either. He helped.” She gestured at Andy. “Your only contribution to this society was this place, this prison.”
Outside in the bay, Robbins was glassing the mountainside and beach. Most of the islanders had crowded near the base of the mountain. The huts were empty, the cabins were abandoned. There was a knock below him and Robbins lowered the binoculars. He heard a voice behind him.
“Put your hands in the air.”
Robbins did as he was told and slowly took a step backward.
“Take it easy,” he said as he peeked over his shoulder. The gunman was shirtless and shoeless, with a gun holster tied to his thigh. He had come aboard from the stern and snuck around the cabin. Robbins knew the man didn’t want to kill him, otherwise, he’d already be dead.
“Get on your knees,” the gunman ordered. Robbins did as he was told. The man came closer and put the barrel of his gun to the back of Robbins’ head.
Inside the fountain room, Andy was splashing water onto his gunshot wounds. The smile on his face was involuntary. It had been so long since he’d felt the water, he’d forgotten how great it was. The bread served its purpose but was nothing compared to the unfiltered water of life.
When he’d drank all he wanted, Andy turned and surveyed the cathedral. Not much was different than he remembered, except a wooden table near the base of the fountain.
He went to it and found Juliet’s baking supplies. His eyes twinkled. Andy had an idea. If he couldn’t find Juliet’s bread, he’d make some.
He thought for a moment, working it out. Then he tore open the cabinet doors and pulled bowls from within. He found the yeast and flour and went to work.
Across the ravine, up the tunnel, and in the adjoining chamber Juliet stood along the edge of the cistern and defended herself to the two sisters.
Tybalt assaulted the tunnel leading to the cistern and Tua stepped forward with Shakes. They blasted their guns toward the intruder and Tybalt fired back.
“Take cover!” Shakes yelled at Tua. Shakespeare leaped forward and shot, taking a few rounds in the chest as he did.
Back at the platform, Juliet’s hands were up and she was smiling at the three sisters.
“You don’t understand,” she said. “These people were criminals. They risked all our lives.”
“Why throw them in this cavern? Why poison the water?” Jennifer asked. Juliet didn’t have an answer. She stuttered.
Jacey stepped toward her, then looked into the pit. There were markings all around the bulbous cistern, where the prisoners had tried to claw their way out. Some of them had clawed until their fingers wore down to the bone.
“This kind of torture is criminal,” Jacey said. Jennifer was happy with her two sisters and goaded them on.
“Juliet is the reason our Mom and Dad left us all those years ago,” Jennifer argued. “She’s the one who tore our family apart.”
In the passage, Tua was trying to hold off Tybalt. Shakespeare had gone down and Tua wasn’t sure if he’d get back up. He hit Tybalt in the chest but the man kept coming and shooting. Tua worried he might hit the girls and decided to take a risk.
He stepped away from the wall, exposing himself. But he planted his feet, squared his shoulders, and raised his gun taking careful aim at the man’s head. After he fired, Tua dove for cover.
He checked himself for a wound but had not been hit. He looked up and saw Tybalt fall to the ground.
Robbins could feel the gun barrel shaking. He knew his attacker was new at this. Not that Robbins was an old pro, but he’d done okay during the first assault and felt confident he could win this battle.
With a quick motion, he turned. The attacker had given away the gun’s exact position when he’d touched it to Robbins’ skull. Robbins knocked it away with a hard blow from his forearm.
He could see the man was young, maybe mid-twenties, and frightened. But fear can be as dangerous as malice and the kid was terrified.
He came toward Robbins like a wild animal. His arms were swinging, throwing hard punches that were landing. His feet were quick and Robbins couldn’t get away. He tried to punch back but mostly held up his forearms as a defense, boxer-style.
The kid was strong. But Robbins was a fighter.
Tua knew Tybalt was still in the tunnel. He didn’t want to test his luck, so he didn’t charge forward. He backed away instead and retreated to the wall of the passage, near the opening to the cistern.
Inside the opening, atop the wooden decking, stood Tuahine and Jennifer, united with her sisters against Juliet. The platform wrapped around one half of the circular room and the five women stood at the edge of it.
Juliet was afraid. She didn’t want to be tossed in with the condemned. She shuffled around the women until she was about to step into the passage.
Tuahine ran in front of her, to stop her from leaving. She noticed her son, Tua, leaning against the wall ahead. He was waiting for Tybalt to return. Tuahine turned back to Juliet and grabbed her by the arms.
“You’re going to pay for what you did to these girls,” she said. Tuahine wasn’t sure what she would do.
Tybalt appeared in the passageway with his gun drawn. Tua spotted him and raised his weapon. The moment he had a clear shot, he fired at Tybalt’s gun and watched the approaching man’s hand explode.
Tybalt shrieked in pain and grasped his wounded hand with the other. Juliet heard the blast and turned. Tuahine slapped her then.
“Stop,” Joanna said. Tuahine stopped and turned. Jacey stepped forward with her sister and spoke.
“Don’t hit her,” she said.
“What?” Tuahine asked. Jennifer stepped forward too and took up a stance next to Tuahine.
“She deserves to be tossed into the cistern,” Jennifer said. “She’s lucky we’re decent people.”
“She’s one of the founders,” Joanna said. “She deserves respect, even in condemnation. She gave Shakespeare no less.”
“Listen to yourselves,” Jennifer urged her sisters. “Remember what this woman did to you.”
“What did she do?” Jacey asked sharply. “She took us in. She took in our parents when they’d been abandoned at sea. She built this community to protect the fountain. She’ll be exiled.”
“And what,” Tuahine asked with tears filling her eyes, “you’ll take her place?”
Behind Tuahine, Tua was moving away from
the wall and toward Tybalt. She heard her son command the man to get on his knees.
“You can’t stay here,” Jennifer insisted. “You don’t belong here.”
“No sister,” Joanna said. “You don’t belong here. None of you do.”
They heard a roar from the tunnel and looked up to see Tybalt running toward Tua with a shout.
Tua backed up to the cistern’s entrance where Tuahine had Juliet pinned against the edge of the platform.
When Tybalt reached Tua, he lowered a shoulder into his chest and charged forward. Tua absorbed the blow and turned, grabbing Tybalt by the waist as he did. He pushed the man around him, and toward the cistern platform.
Tuahine jumped out of the way and Tybalt crashed into Juliet. Juliet fell backward across the platform, tripping on the edge of it.
As Tybalt landed on top of her, his momentum carried him over the edge of the platform and down into the dark water. Juliet was left clinging to the edge of the boards, her feet dangling, waiting for one of the sisters to help her up.
“Please,” she urged as she tried to find a foothold beneath the cantilevered walkway.
Below her, the zombie islanders were already surrounding Tybalt. They tore into him as he shrieked.
But the monsters were more interested in Juliet. The ones who could move and walk came beneath the platform and began to pull at her feet and legs. She screamed.
“Please!”
Joanna and Jacey exchanged a look of concern. They stepped forward and began to lean over the platform. But Jennifer grabbed Jacey around the shoulders and pulled her back. Tuahine lunged for Joanna and wrapped her arms around the girl’s chest.
Juliet kicked and fought as the monsters she’d created sought their revenge on her.
“You can’t!” She cried. “It can’t end like this!” Joanna and Jacey wept as Juliet lost her grip on the platform and fell. The caved-in devoured her.
They tore her hair from her head and broke her limbs. She screamed in pain. Tybalt tried to help her, but they did the same to him. The monsters drowned the two repeatedly and they ate their flesh and consumed their souls.
Juliet and Tybalt were scattered to the water. They would slowly become floating bits of debris, destined to spend eternity contaminating the spring.
Joanna screamed as she watched the horrible scene unfold below the platform. Jacey was horrified too. Their sister tried to pull them away with Tuahine. They got them to the tunnel and Tua urged them all back to the chamber.
Joanna and Jacey resisted at first, but eventually all of them were moving up the causeway. Tua paused at where Shakespeare lay and helped the man to his feet.
“The sack,” Shakespeare said as he pointed to his backpack on the ground.
Tua grabbed the bag, then with an arm over his shoulder assisted Shakes into the next chamber.
Here the fountain room’s wooden riser rose on the opposite wall. They could see the steam billowing from the opening.
“I need to get him in there,” Tua said. “He’s hurt.”
Tuahine nodded. She could see into the next passage and noticed Mark and Rachel were no longer there, bound with zip-ties. They had escaped.
“They’re gone,” Tuahine informed everyone.
Joanna and Jacey wasted no time going up the platform and into the tunnel to the fountain room. Jennifer chased after them. Tua followed behind with Shakespeare. Tuahine brought up the rear, her eyes on the passage where she’d left Mark and Rachel.
Claudius and Gertrude had chewed each other's zip-ties off long ago. They had gone outside and joined the throng. The violent crowd of islanders was making its way into the catacombs and was just now entering the Crossing Cavern.
Tuahine could hear their shouts and battle cries as she made her way up the platform.
“They’re coming,” she said. “We can’t get trapped in here!”
It was too late, Tua and Shakes were already at the bottom of the tunnel. They ignored her. Tuahine ran down and joined them. They crossed the bridge together and found Joanna, Jacey, and Jennifer near the fountain with Andy.
Tua took Shakes to the water and helped him drink and tend his wound. The bullet was lodged inside him.
“He’s hit,” Tua told Andy.
“Where’s Juliet?” Andy asked.
“She’s gone.”
Andy looked down. In his hands was a bundle of linen and the dough he’d just shaped was inside. He stepped toward the sisters and held it up.
“Look,” he said. “This is it. This is the future.”
“The future? What are you talking about?” Jennifer asked.
Shakespeare stirred. He was recovering. A stupid smile was crossing his face, then he coughed. His eyes blinked.
Andy stepped away from the sisters and back toward the fountain.
“I want to make more of this,” he said. “I want to turn this fountain room into a factory.”
“Why?” Tua asked.
Shakespeare shook his head and stood up straight. He stepped toward Andy and put a hand on his shoulder.
Andy looked at his old friend in the eyes.
“Shakes, this is it,” he said. “We can get you off this island.”
Shakespeare shook his head.
“No.”
“Yes,” Andy protested. “We’re going to roll out this dough and form it into doses. We’re going to change the world.”
“They’re coming!” Tuahine shouted. The crowd was arriving in the chamber outside. Shakespeare moved beyond the sisters and crossed the bridge.
“Wait,” Andy said. “Shakes, let’s talk about this. Tell them not to worry. Tell the village they have a better future ahead.”
Shakespeare ignored him and went to the tunnel. Andy followed him, carrying his linen-wrapped dough.
Tua came too but stayed far enough behind to keep an eye on Jennifer and his mother.
When Shakes reached the platform at the end of the tunnel, he held his hands up and the crowd quieted.
“My name is Thomas Shakespeare Mills,” he said. “I was the first outsider to discover this island.”
“Liar!” Someone shouted from below. They fired a shot above Mills’ head.
“I was a part of the Triad that formed this place,” he said. “Along with Juliet and this man.” He reached back for Andy’s hand and brought the man forward. “This is Romeo.”
There was a murmur among the villagers.
“I was exiled to the mountainside,” Shakespeare said. “And once Romeo discovered what Juliet was, he had no choice but to leave.”
In the fountain room, the sisters were following Tuahine and Tua toward the passage, curious about what Shakespeare was saying. Soon, all of them were huddled at the top of the tunnel, listening.
“You came here for a better life,” Shakespeare continued. “You came to live in paradise. But you only found the fountain and you were fooled into thinking the water would bring you joy.
But the water is not life. The water is only a tool. It can sustain or enslave. That’s why god forbade Eve to drink from it. Mankind cannot decide what is worth sustaining.
To attach our spirit to our body is a perversion of the highest order and the proof is in the cistern on the other side of that wall.”
The villagers looked at one another to gauge the sentiment toward the speech. Their worry about Juliet’s rule passing to another was fading. Perhaps this was Shakespeare Mills and Romeo, after all.
Shakespeare held up a fist, high in the air. Inside it was a detonator.
The crowd gasped and took a step backward.
“Tua,” he called. Tua stepped forward in the tunnel and saw what Shakes was holding. His face went pale.
“What are you doing?”
“What does it look like?” Shakes asked.
Andy shook his head.
“You can’t,” he said. “We can’t blow the catacombs. Not now.”
“Give the bread to this girl,” Shakes replied as he pointed to Je
nnifer. Then he turned to Tua. “Get your mother and the girls out.”
Tua nodded and motioned at his mother. Tuahine stepped forward and Jennifer came with her, the two of them holding hands. Jennifer called for her sisters and took the bundle of linen from Andy’s hands.
“Joanna, Jacey, you have to come with us,” she urged. Her eyes were full of tears and her sisters, despite the influence of the water, could see the desperation on her face. Then Jennifer held the dough up in front of their faces.
“We have this now,” Jenn said. “Come with me.”
They nodded their heads, albeit with absent expressions, and followed her out of the tunnel.
There was another moan from the crowd as they saw the sisters appear on the platform. Shakespeare stepped to the edge and held the detonator over them.
“Don’t get trapped under this mountain forever,” he said. “I’ve placed explosives all through the tunnels. Let them pass.”
The crowd parted to make a pathway for Tua, Tuahine, Jennifer and her sisters to cross the chamber. They went to the passage leading to the Crossing Cavern and paused. Shakespeare smiled at them and nodded for them to go.
Jennifer and Tuahine exchanged a concerned glance. Shakespeare was helping them escape, but at what cost? Then Andy stepped forward and addressed Shakespeare.
“Bread is the future,” he said. “We will no longer bring people to the fountain. We will bring the fountain to the people! Tell them!”
While Andy petitioned him for attention, Shakespeare locked eyes with Jennifer and nodded with a confident smile.
“He knows what he’s doing,” Jennifer told her companions and they darted out the passageway.

We ran from the cave and into the sand. We didn’t look back as we skipped over the boardwalk and ran for the beach. But my sisters weren’t running with me. They had hesitated at the mouth of the cave.
Ahead of us, Robbins had pulled his boat closer to the shore. We only had to cross the beach and wade aboard. Tua and Tuahine ran ahead of me. But when my sisters lagged, they paused.
“Come on girls!” Tuahine shouted. “We have to go!”
