by Jake Bible
Not that it really was GPS. That would give away their position to possible outside threats. It worked on the same principle, but was contained to the area immediately surrounding the island. Using Darren, Kinsey, and Thorne’s coms as a reference point, with the B3 as another point, the glasses could triangulate the fresh water pool’s exact location. It wasn’t too hard to do.
But Gunnar wasn’t worried about the tech on his face, it was the tech that would be under his feet that troubled him. Trail boarding. Not what he expected to have to do.
“Listen, Gunnar, you’ll need to be quick about this,” Ballantine said.
“I know,” Gunnar replied. “I am fully aware of the dangers of an untreated heart attack, if that is what happened. I’ve been on the clock since the second Darren called in.”
“Yes, that is true, but I was referring to the actual clock,” Ballantine said, gesturing up at the sky. “Daylight is running out. You need to get Thorne stabilized and back to this beach before the sun goes down.”
“Oh, right,” Gunnar said, peering up into the cloudless sky. “How much time do I have?”
“Three hours at the most,” Ballantine said. “Now, Lucy and I will be close behind you, with a stretcher that can carry Thorne, but you may need to get Kinsey and Darren to help carry him part of the way to us. Do you think you can do that?”
“Yeah,” Gunnar replied. What else was he going to say? “We’ll work something out.”
“Good man,” Ballantine said. “You ready?”
“No,” Gunnar said as the Zodiac raced up out of the water and onto the beach. “But I don’t have a damn choice.”
“Exactly,” Ballantine said and tapped at his ear. “Mr. Chambers?”
“Here,” Darren replied over the com.
“Gunnar is coming to you,” Ballantine said. “Myself and Lucy will be close behind, but Gunnar will reach you first. He’ll get Commander Thorne stabilized. What I need you to do is prep the man for evac. Make a stretcher or litter. Whatever you need to do to get Thorne moving this way ASAP. Understood?”
“Way ahead of you, Ballantine,” Darren said. “Kinsey and I have been cutting and weaving. The second Gunnar gives us the go ahead, we’ll have Vincent on the stretcher and moving towards you and the B3.”
“I figured as much,” Ballantine said. “We’ve landed and Gunnar is getting ready. Keep your eyes open for him.”
“Roger that,” Darren replied.
“Time to go,” Ballantine said and helped Gunnar out of the Zodiac.
Gunnar nodded, made sure his med kit was strapped tightly to his back, checked that he had a heavy combat knife on each thigh and a .45 on his hip, then walked the trail board up to the tree line. He turned, gave Lucy and Ballantine a quick wave, set the board down on the ground, its ten inch high wheels settling immediately into the dirt, stepped on, and pushed off with his back foot.
The trail board took off, propelled by an energy source that Moshi had had a very hard time explaining to everyone earlier. She’d just ended up shrugging and making vroom-vroom noises.
Gunnar shouted at the top of his lungs as that vroom-vroom turned into VROOM-VROOM.
“Not exactly stealth,” Lucy said, grabbing gear from the Zodiac.
“No time for stealth,” Ballantine said.
Chapter Nine: Island Unleashed
He could feel the beetles getting restless. They’d backed off from him for the entire duration of his fiddling with the vault’s internal mechanisms. They’d completely left him alone and he’d been very grateful for that. But, as he worked on the last catch and rod, he knew the beetles weren’t going to stay patient for much longer.
It’d been a full hour since he’d detonated the explosives. Time was running out.
Shane had no idea why time was running out, just that his gut was in a constant knot of expectation, waiting for the hammer to fall before he managed to get out of that killing floor.
There was an audible click and clang, and the vault door shuddered then went still. Shane jumped back, almost taking a tumble and falling on his ass, but he kept upright and even managed to sidestep his pack which he’d left on the floor close at hand.
“Here goes nothing,” he muttered as he stepped forward and gripped both sides of the spoked wheel that stood out from the vault door’s surface.
He tested it and it turned, although with some resistance. Shane put some muscle into it and the wheel turned a little easier. With a deep breath, Shane put everything he had into it and the wheel began to spin. He pulled back hard and the vault door gave, easing out from the wall several inches before grinding to a halt.
He didn’t hear them, but he knew they were on the move.
Shane looked back over his shoulder and could see the walls wriggle with fresh activity. The beetles weren’t going to wait any longer.
Eight inches was not wide enough for Shane to get through. That kind of gap would have been useful when he was six, but not at the size he was. He needed another foot, at least.
He grabbed the wheel, braced one leg against the wall, and pulled. It was the wrong angle and he had no leverage. Shane needed something he could wedge in the gap to act as a lever. He could pry the door open if he only had the right tool.
There was nothing in the pack, and Shane knew he couldn’t get a piece out from inside the vault door mechanism. The only thing that was long, solid, and sturdy enough was his M4. But the odds of it still working after he was done were slim to none with a heavy bet on the none side.
Shane felt the floor vibrate under his boots and he looked back to see the beetles were not only on the move, they were downright hustling. Not just the walls, but the floor was covered in the black chitinous things. And they were pointed right at him.
The M4 was going to have to take one for the team.
Shane wedged it in the gap and pushed it towards the wall. The door gave another three inches. Shane pushed harder until the M4 was flush with the wall, its leverage used up. The vault door had moved another two inches for a total gap of thirteen inches. It wasn’t the extra foot Shane needed to get through.
But he had no choice. Time to suck it up, suck it in, and do whatever it took to get through that narrow space and into whatever room lay beyond. Shane shoved his pack through, tossed the bent M4 through, and stepped one leg through the gap.
He got stuck at the hips and started to panic, but the sight of the oncoming beetles shoved all panic from his mind. Panic was a waste of time. He wriggled his hips until he got them through then sucked in his gut to get his middle through. The door had him pinned at the chest, and Shane had to let out every last bit of breath he had to squeeze the last foot or so.
He popped out on the other side, gasping for air, then spun around to see how he could shut the vault door on the beetles. He couldn’t. There was no handle on the new side. There was no wheel, no way to grab the door and yank it closed.
“Oh, shit,” Shane said as the first few beetles began to spill out around the edges of the vault door.
He was safe from being eaten as long as he stayed in the suit, but if enough got through and overwhelmed him, then he’d be back to being at risk of getting crushed. There were just too damn many of those bugs.
So, the best plan, was to put as much space between him and the beetles. That meant gathering up his pack, strapping it tight, doing the same to the M4 despite its obviously defective appearance, turning heel, and running his ass off.
To where? He didn’t know. All he saw before him was a long, dark tunnel. The walls weren’t stainless steel, so that was good. They looked like solid rock, but Shane wasn’t going to pause long enough to confirm.
He had some running to do.
***
It was not like skateboarding, it was not like snowboarding, it was not like surfing. It was more like having your nuts jammed up inside your guts six to ten times every few seconds while being strapped to a wild animal.
Yet Gunnar still managed to stay on the t
rail board and avoid decapitation from low branches or disembowelment by gut-level bushes. He rocketed through the jungle, somehow staying on what appeared to be the exact path that Team Grendel had taken. He had no idea how the trail board knew where to go, but he was glad his main job was to simply stay on and not necessarily steer the thing.
That had been the only reason he’d agreed to use the damn thing. Moshi assured him all he’d need to do was keep from falling off. The trail board itself was locked onto Darren and Kinsey’s coms, so navigating the jungle to get to them wasn’t the problem. He verified that by watching the blinking red blip in his eye that represented him getting ever closer to the blinking green blip on the map that represented Kinsey, Darren, and more importantly, Thorne.
Basically, he had to get across most of the island before he reached them.
For some reason, Gunnar had assumed that the three had fled towards the bay and the B3, when in fact, they had gone the opposite direction. They had put more land between them and the bay. That meant Gunnar had a lot of ground to cover. A lot of ground.
He ducked under a branch and managed to keep from falling off when a small boulder to his left forced him to lean way to his right, nearly sending him tumbling from the trail board’s deck. He managed to get around the boulder, but stayed in a crouch as he saw branch after branch ahead of him.
Standing up would mean losing his head and that just wouldn’t be any fun at all.
Once past the gauntlet of low-hung branches, Gunnar risked standing slightly. He was still hunched over, but not in as much of an ass on the deck crouch as before. He was able to lean forward some as the ground rose in front of him. Gunnar was going uphill and the trail board was slowing down considerably.
“Moshi?” Gunnar called over the com, nearly losing his balance as he put his finger to his ear. “Moshi? How do I boost the speed?”
“Boost the speed?” Ballantine chuckled over the com. “How very ambitious of you, Gunnar. You must be getting used to the board.”
“No, I’m going uphill,” Gunnar said. “It’s slowing me down too much. And don’t interrupt. I’m asking Moshi.”
“I’ll boost the speed,” Moshi replied. “I can do that from here.”
“You can?” Gunnar asked.
Apparently, she could. The trail board lurched forward, nearly sending Gunnar falling off backwards, but he crouched down once more, bringing in his center of gravity, and stayed on the board. He kept that position until the ground began to level out slightly.
“I think I’m at the top,” Gunnar said.
He hit the caldera’s ridge and the board went up and over, taking a screaming Gunnar with it.
“This is stupid! This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done!”
***
“Daddy?” Kinsey asked for the hundredth time. “Daddy, can you hear me?”
She sat on the ground right next to the lip of the pool, Thorne’s head cradled in her lap. Kinsey stroked his brow, tracing the ridge over his eyes with her fingers, hoping those eyes would open and give her that reassuring look they were so good at giving.
But they stayed closed, leaving nothing for Kinsey to do except continue hoping.
“Come on,” Darren said as he finished the last few touches on their makeshift stretcher.
Two long branches with smaller branches as cross braces, and fern fronds woven in between, all tied together using some of the thinner vines found creeping up the trees. The stretcher was far from ideal. It looked like a Gilligan’s Island reject. Even the Professor would have scoffed at it.
But, as Darren pressed his hands to the ferns, giving it one last test before they lifted Thorne onto it, it was the only stretcher they had. They couldn’t afford to be choosy or to mess around with the design too much. Not that they had time for choosiness or messing around. Thorne wasn’t looking well at all.
“His skin is so grey,” Kinsey said. “Is it supposed to be grey? I’ve seen junkies OD and their skin looked like that. I think I’ve looked like that, ‘Ren. This is terrifying.”
“I know,” Darren said, “but we’ll get him back to the ship where Gunnar will fix him right up.”
“Then we come back for Shane, right?” Kinsey asked. “We can’t leave him down there.”
“We’ll try,” Darren said.
“What?” Kinsey asked. “What do you mean we’ll try?”
“Help me get your father on the stretcher,” Darren said. Kinsey just blinked at him. “Come on, ‘Sey, you know how things are. I want to get Shane as much as you do, but Ballantine is freaked about this island. If he is honestly that freaked, then we need to leave ASAP. The beetles and blowflies are bad enough, I sure as shit don’t want to find out what else this place has.”
“Darren Chambers, we are coming back for my cousin,” Kinsey said. “This isn’t a debate.”
“I know because we don’t have time for a debate,” Darren replied. “We also don’t have the personnel. Max is down with a bum leg, Vincent is out, Darby is out, Shane is lost. That’s four members of Team Grendel. We’re all that’s left.”
“We have Lucy,” Kinsey said.
“That’s just one other person, ‘Sey,” Darren said.
“Darren!” Kinsey shouted.
A bird cawed from the edge of the jungle. A large bird.
“We help my father then we come back for Shane,” Kinsey insisted, her voice edged and sharp.
Darren held his hand up.
“Do not quiet me,” she snapped. “I will kick your fucking ass, Chambers. I’m two seconds from falling apart because of my dad, but I’ll use those two seconds to destroy you.”
“Shhhh,” Darren said, hand still up.
“Oh, you are so fucking dead,” Kinsey growled.
The large bird cawed again. It was quickly answered by another. And another.
“Shut the fuck up,” Darren hissed at Kinsey. “Do you hear that?”
“What? The birds?” Kinsey replied. “Yeah, I hear it. It’s a fucking tropical island, there will be birds.”
“How many have we seen so far?” Darren asked. “Just those cranes earlier. These don’t sound like cranes.”
Kinsey started to argue, but the cawing grew in volume and density. There were a lot of birds close by. She frowned and looked towards the trees that rimmed the waterfall’s pool.
“Help me get my dad on the stretcher,” Kinsey said.
“Yeah,” Darren agreed, hustling over to Thorne. “Ready?”
“Ready,” Kinsey replied.
They squatted and lifted Thorne onto the stretcher. The birds continued to caw and the rustling of branches and leaves became almost as loud as the calls. Kinsey and Darren kept their eyes on the trees, watching for movement as they secured Thorne. There was no movement, nothing.
“Ballantine?” Darren called over the com.
“Yes?” Ballantine replied. His voice was staticky and sounded a million miles away. “What can I help you with?”
Darren shook his head. Ballantine’s casual manner was not what he needed at that moment.
“You can help me by telling me what else we’re going to find on this island besides beetles,” Darren said. He nodded to Kinsey and they lifted the stretcher, careful to keep it balanced so Thorne didn’t spill out. He was strapped down, but only by vines, not real straps. “We’re hearing some avian activity close by.”
“Avian?” Ballantine asked. “Oh.”
“That’s not a good oh,” Darren stated.
“No,” Ballantine said. “Have the birds begun to mock you?”
“Have the birds begun to what?” Kinsey asked, interrupting. “Mock us? What the fuck does that mean, Ballantine?”
“Have they begun to mock you?” Ballantine repeated. “Taunt you with their calls. Try to intimidate you or scare you.”
“No,” Darren replied. “No mocking yet.”
He was in the lead with his back to Kinsey, so he couldn’t see her face, but he was pretty sure she was ro
lling her eyes. Not that she didn’t believe Ballantine, but because once again, the man had brought them all into some impossible nightmare.
“Good, good,” Ballantine said. “When the mocking starts, that’s when you are in trouble.”
“Jesus,” Kinsey grumbled. “Nice, Ballantine.”
“Don’t blame me,” Ballantine said. “At least not for this island. I didn’t design it. Had a wee bit of trouble with a rogue scientist that believed we needed a disposal island for the living creatures we couldn’t figure out how to kill. He set this all up. Screwed it all up. Then went and died, leaving his computer program to run everything. It wasn’t capable of doing anything except grow the nightmare. I tried to shut as much down as I could, but in the end, I just had to write it off and walk away. No one was ever supposed to come back here. The computer should have died out by now. I guess it still had some nightmares to make.”
“Yeah, I’m totally gonna blame you,” Kinsey said.
“How far out are you?” Darren asked. “Where’s Gunnar?”
“Gunnar should be getting close,” Ballantine said. “Hold on.”
Darren and Kinsey, with stretcher in hand, approached the tree line. Darren paused and the two of them studied the shadows, looking up at the branches far above, trying to see if they could make out the source of the cawing.
“Well, this isn’t good at all,” Ballantine said.
“Anyone care to bet how not surprised I am you said that?” Kinsey grumbled.
“I believe there is some magnetic interference from the volcano,” Ballantine said. “I’m looking at my tablet and your location is on the other side of the island. We should have taken the Zodiac around the other way. Might still be a good idea.”
“What do you mean on the other side of the island?” Darren asked. “You mean on the side where we first arrived? Where we found Nivia’s yacht?”
“Precisely that side,” Ballantine said. “Hold on.”
