Fear Incorporated

by Hervey Copeland

  “Hey Mike, how are you holding up? No one’s tried to kill you yet?”

  “No, I’m still here,” I whispered into the microphone on my lapel.

  “That’s good Mike. Now listen, we’ve got some instructions for you. We want you to make your way over to the southern tip of the island where there’s a big lagoon. When you get there, we want you to keep an eye on it.”

  I frowned and thought that it was an odd request. Normally, whenever Dirk would give me instructions, it was to get closer to the locals, carry out some risky stunt or remove some type of artefact or other.

  “Why do you want me to go there?” I asked, unable to hide the puzzlement in my voice.

  But Dirk didn’t answer, and instead he proceeded to ask me another question.

  “How soon do you think you can get there?”

  I thought about it for a while. I was at least four miles away and I would have to walk through the forest.

  “Six, maybe seven hours,” I replied. “Could be sooner if I don’t run into any problems.”

  “Ok good. Start moving, and let us know when you arrive.” Then he abruptly finished the conversation, and I was left to wonder what the hell was going on.

  I didn’t see any of the natives on my way over to the lagoon, nor did I see any signs that would lead me to believe that anyone had passed through the area recently. I stayed close to the edge of the forest, but far enough inside it not to be spotted from the beach should any of the locals happen to wander by.

  When you’re moving around in hostile territory, you have to be extremely careful, and you can’t just rush ahead like you’d do if you were going on a hike in the forest at home. You move in increments of around twenty to thirty yards, then stop and hunker down until you’ve establish that the coast is clear before you start moving again. You also have to make sure that you don’t leave any spoors behind, such as broken twigs, footprints or any other signs that would give the people who might want to do you harm any reason to suspect that you’re there. It’s a cumbersome way of making your way from point A to point B, but it does increase your odds of making it out alive.

  This is why it took me nearly five hours to cover a relatively short distance. But given that I managed to avoid being detected, I reckon that it was worth it.

  The first thing I did when I reached my destination was to find a suitable hiding spot, and once again, I found a bush that I could crawl into. I was roughly forty yards above sea level, about twenty yards from the edge of the forest, and I had an almost uninterrupted view of the lagoon.

  I was thirsty and I awarded myself with a few hundred millilitres of the water in my field canteen before I radioed Dirk to let him know that I was in position. Then I waited, while wondering what was going to happen next.

  I found out an hour and a half later, when I saw something reflecting the sunlight in the distance. I got my binoculars out of my backpack and aimed it toward the flashing dot in the distance, and saw that it was the Zodiac that had brought me to the island the day before. And as far as I could tell it was heading straight for the lagoon.

  I immediately radioed Dirk to find out what the hell was going on.

  “Dirk, can you read me, this is Mike.”

  But there was no reply, only the familiar background static.

  “Dirk, can you read me, over.” But still there was nothing.

  I muttered a silent curse under my breath and raised the binoculars again. The boat was getting closer fast, and it was less than one nautical mile away. What the fuck are they up to, I thought as the boat gradually grew in size.

  When they were about half a mile away, I could see that there were three people in the boat, two males and a female. I frowned and put the binoculars down for a few moments. This was just getting stranger and stranger. I lifted the binoculars up again and watched as the Zodiac entered the lagoon and came right up to the beach. Then I looked on in absolute horror as I saw the two passengers, a young woman and a man, by all appearances either Americans or Europeans, jump into the water, grab their backpacks and start walking ashore. A few moments later, the Zodiac turned around and started steaming back toward the entrance of the lagoon at full throttle.

  I dropped the binoculars and stared open mouthed at the young duo, as they walked further up on the beach, dropped their backpacks in the sand and sat down. Their backs were turned toward me, and they were watching the rubber boat as it disappeared in the distance.

  I felt a sour taste rise up from deep inside my gut, and I noticed that my hand had started to shake. What the fuck were they doing here on this island? They obviously had no idea of what type of place this was. That the locals would kill them in the most horrendous manner imaginable if they ever saw them, which meant that the organisation had most likely tricked them into this. I felt an ice cold sensation form inside my stomach, and it quickly spread out toward the rest of my body. I was looking at a pair of human sacrificial lambs. They had been chosen to die in order to spice things up for the members of Fear Inc.

  I felt my blood start to boil and pressed the transmit button on the microphone on my lapel. Then I started whispering furiously into the mouthpiece.

  “Dirk what kind of sick games are you guys playing here? Those two poor kids will be dead before the top of the hour if you don’t turn that Zodiac around and pick them up!”

  I let go of the button, and listened to the static in my ear.

  “For fuck’s sake, answer me Dirk.”

  Another few moments passed, and I was about to press it again when I heard Dirk’s voice in my ear, calm and collected.

  “Listen Mike, I know I didn’t tell you about this, but rest assured it wasn’t my decision. I’m just an employee like yourself.”

  “They are going to get killed, Dirk! When the locals see them, they’ll chop them to pieces. Jesus Christ, they’re only kids. You can’t allow that to happen.”

  There was some more static on the line, and for a moment or two, I thought that Dirk had gone away, but then he started talking again.

  “Would it make you feel any better Mike if I told you about why they are here, and give you a lowdown on the crimes they have committed?”

  “What do you mean, crimes they have committed?” I could hear him sigh on the other end and then clear his throat.

  “They’re methheads, Mike. Two weeks ago in Bangkok in a drug induced psychosis, they cut up the stomach of their three year old daughter. After they’d finished doing that, they cut her head off and placed it on the windowsill in their living room. Trust me Mike, these are some truly horrendous people and they deserve everything that’s coming to them.”

  I didn’t answer and Dirk continued, his voice all of a sudden more matter-of-factly.

  “Your job is to keep an eye on them 24/7 from now on. You’re not allowed to contact them, or try to warn them about the natives. And if they are discovered, you are to record the entire thing. I don’t believe I have to remind you of your obligations to the organisation, Mike. That’s it, good luck and over and out.”

  And thus my real mission on North Sentinel Island began. I was the director and sole member of the team that had been tasked with documenting a real life snuff movie, involving two kids barely out of high school. I closed my eyes and took half a dozen deep breaths, before I picked up the binoculars again and started on my new assignment.

  Nothing happened on that first day other than me getting bored out of my brains having to spend thirty hours straight keeping an eye on a young couple hanging out on a beach. But I was a professional, and I had spent more time than that doing surveillance work, so I managed to stick it out. It also gave me ample opportunity to think about what Dirk had told me, about the crime that the couple were supposed to have carried out. If it was true, and I didn’t have any reason to doubt that it wasn’t, I didn’t really care what happened to the two of them.

  I can tolerate a lot of things as far as violence and crimes are concerned, but I absolutely cannot stand
people who harm young children, period. In that regard, my mission became slightly easier to accept. And things certainly started to become more interesting the following day. I have since asked Dirk if the couple had been given any instructions before they were set ashore, but he has always denied this. He simply said that the couple took it upon themselves. What they did was to make their way into the forest, toward the centre of the island, toward the area where the natives were hanging out. And as I had been instructed to do, I followed behind them, observing their every move. It was quite easy to do, given how loud they were. Ever seen Hollywood movies depicting young American backpackers in Southeast Asia? They’re always loud and rowdy, and they stand out like a cat in a swimming pool. And this young couple played the role very well.

  Both of them were what I would describe as laid back, pot smoking, hippie types. The guy, who the woman only ever referred to as Chase had long blonde hair tied back into a ponytail and wore a dirty old sweatband around his head. Every second word coming out of his mouth seemed to be take it easy, cool and awesome. And after having to spend twelve hours listening to it the first day, I guess you could say that it was starting to rub me the wrong way. The young woman was slightly less annoying, and I’m not quite sure if that was because she talked a whole lot less than Chase. I guess I’ll never really know the answer to that question. She had the same long hair as her partner, and she was quite attractive.

  I’ve often wondered since, how long they would have survived if they’d just stayed on that beach, going for the occasional swim and just dozing off under their makeshift shelter, which was a piece of tarpaulin stretched out in a forty five degree angle from a rope strung between two poles. If luck had been on their side, then maybe they would have lasted a few extra days, maybe even a week. It’s impossible to tell. And given that they didn’t, it’s an exercise in futility to go on about it. The truth of the matter is that they had only been walking inland for less than an hour before things started to go downhill.

  It started with the strange noises. To me it sounded like someone was regurgitating their own vocal cords. My heart skipped a beat, and straight away I felt the adrenaline rush into my bloodstream. These were not noises made by any of the animals. These were human made sounds, something that was confirmed a few moments later when the birds in the trees above us all of a sudden took off.

  I froze and stood absolutely still, fearing that we were very close to the natives. The young duo however seemed oblivious to it all, and they kept on walking, talking just as loudly as they had before.

  Oh my god, I thought, they are going to walk straight into them. Then I immediately realised that the same thing applied to me. I had no idea where the natives were. I suspected that they were somewhere ahead of us, but trying to pinpoint the exact location of a sound in the jungle is extremely difficult, and for all I knew, they could be behind us. It was also a real possibility that they already had a visual on us, and that they were getting ready to strike.

  ‘Fuck!’ Why did I get tricked into spying on these kids? I should have insisted on sticking to the original mission and moved around in my own pace. This was crazy, and it could very well get me killed.

  I quickly scanned my surroundings, but was unable to see anyone apart from the young couple, who were walking ahead of me without the slightest idea of the precarious situation they were in. My heart was hammering away now, and I was wound taut as a piano wire. And for the first time since I’d set foot on the island, I started to feel scared.

  The strange sounds continued and I could tell that whoever caused them were approaching. I kneeled down and rested on my haunches. Then I reached down and grabbed the knife from the sheath attached to my leg. I clutched it tightly and held it in front of my chest, the hand holding it shaking badly. And there and then it dawned on me that I might have to use it before too long.

  There was a big tree about twenty yards up ahead, and I decided to make a dash for it. I took a deep breath, stepped away from the bush I was hiding behind and made my way toward it.

  The strange sounds were very close now, and I was finally able to pinpoint where they were coming from. They were coming from directly ahead of us, from the top of the slight hill. I made it safely over to the tree, and carefully stuck my head out to have a look and that’s when it started.

  There was a whooshing sound, and then the familiar thump that an arrow makes whenever it imbeds itself in a tree trunk.

  I couldn’t see where it hit, but I could see Chase turn toward the right and stare at something, so I suspected that the arrow had hit the tree next to him. I was about forty yards behind the young couple, slightly to the left and at a slightly lower elevation.

  It took a second or two before they reacted to the arrow, but when they did it was with a loud, “Holy Fuck!” A few more seconds passed, and I could hear the whooshing sounds of a few more arrows. But still they were not hitting their targets.

  But this time, the arrows did jolt the young couple out of their paralysis, and they did what most normal people would have done in their situation. They threw themselves around and bolted back in the direction they’d come from. A few moments later I got my second glimpse of the natives since arriving on the island, and this time they were a lot more agitated. There were four of them, probably hunters out looking for food who had accidentally come across the young couple.

  I stayed where I was, not moving a single muscle. The key to avoid getting spotted in any environment, apart from using the right camouflage, is not to make any sudden movements. Instead I followed them with the tiny camera attached to my hat. I turned my head very slowly, doing my upmost to do it as smoothly as possible. This was what the members of Fear Inc. wanted to see, and this was what they paid their premium memberships for. This and the scenes that would play out when the hunters finally caught up with the young couple and killed them. What a fucking sick and messed up world this was, I thought to myself.

  I waited until the natives had passed me, and was relieved to discover that they hadn’t noticed me. Then I counted to three and pushed myself away from the tree. And this time, I was running too. Not that there was any real danger of losing track of them, the young woman was screaming hysterically and the natives were making their loud regurgitating sounds. At the same time they were sending off more arrows, and I could see one of them throwing a spear.

  I stepped out of the vegetation and found a natural path that I could follow, about forty yards or thereabouts behind the natives and slightly to their right. We were making our way back toward the beach.

  Millions of thoughts were racing through my head at that very moment. But the one that kept repeating itself was whether the young couple was going to make it out of the forest or not. I also wondered if they realised the futility of their actions. That it didn’t matter how long they ran for, that in the end, the natives would catch up with them and this whole thing would come to an abrupt end. Their fates had been sealed the moment they jumped out of that Zodiac.

  I kept on running for another minute, and then I stopped and took cover behind a tree. I could see the woman lying on the ground, her hands pressed against her thigh. There was an arrow there and blood was seeping out through the wound. I didn’t see when it struck her. But I did see the moment when the natives caught up with her.

  She was screaming frantically, and when they stopped in front of her, her arms shot out to protect herself. In addition to this, she was kicking with her good leg, as if she believed that this would somehow keep them at bay. But she was no match for the guy with the spear, who ran forward, holding it high above his head with both hands and then thrusting it in a quick downward motion.

  The weapon hit her lower abdomen, and I was able to see the wooden weapon bury itself into her body. Her face contorted in pain, and the screams intensified. I was only thirty yards away and I could see everything that was going on.

  Then the others joined in. They were shooting arrows at her and hitting her with what
looked like mattocks and scythes. And the only words that can truly describe what I was witnessing were barbaric savagery. They were attacking her like she was a worthless rodent. The regurgitating sounds were interspersed with the sick slashing sounds of the sharp implements piercing her skin and the hard wooden clubs hitting her bones, shattering them.

  I felt physically ill and I twitched uncontrollably. This was on par with the incident I had witnessed in the Congo some years earlier.

  The woman had by this stage realised that facing them with her arms stretched out was not a good strategy, and against all odds she had managed to turn over onto her side and was now attempting to drag herself away. But it was no use, the injuries she had sustained had tapped her of all her strength, and it was only a matter of time before it would be all over.

  And as it turned out, I didn’t have to wait for that long. A few moments later it came to a quick end when the native with the spear rammed it through the back of her neck and plunged the sharp tip through her throat. At that point everything stopped. Her attempts at getting away, the hysterical screams, and I guess, her will to live.

  It had taken less than four minutes from the time the natives had first discovered the young couple until the time the woman was lying motionlessly on the ground, blood covering most of her body. I looked around, but her boyfriend was nowhere to be seen. He was probably still running toward the beach, trying to save his own hide.

  I remember having ambivalent feelings about his actions. On one hand he was a coward for leaving his girlfriend behind, but on the other hand, he was doing what most people do when they’re in full blown panic mode. Trying to get away from the imminent threat. I also reminded myself of what they had done to their little girl. Her treatment had been just as bad as the one I had just witnessed. I held on to that thought in order to better deal mentally with what I had just seen.