by RJ
“Mia, tell me, did they…” he stumbles on half sentence to rephrase. “They didn’t hurt you, did they?”
“Dude, I’ve been abducted!” she responded instantly, but then she got his thinking. “Oh, you mean…? No, nothing like that.”
“Better for them. Good,” JB exhaled with relief. “Cool that we found you, though. You got here just in time.”
“Really? What is going on that important?”
“Tonight we bail from the island.”
She wanted to ask the next related question when she realized something.
“Is my mother alive?”
Mark gave JB that questionable look.
“Her name is Ellison. A mulatto, about thirty-five years old, a pretty one, a doctor,” JB described Mia’s mother.
“Yep, she’s fine,” Gibson summarized after a fast look at his notes.
When the tension melted, Mia went eating with greater enthusiasm. She finally had a chance to satisfy the hunger, which had grown throughout those days. Meanwhile, the men gradually got back to their discussion. Suddenly, a light went out. It still was day, but since the shutters were closed the room deepened into darkness. The first thing that Mia noticed were the mutant’s glowing eyes.
“Oh, damn!” she shouted. “What’s wrong with your eyes, man?! You look like Eddie-apotamkin!
“Say what?! Hell, no!” JB got offended. “Plus, those bitches had yellow eyes! Just FYI.”
The new topic of discussion was interrupted by a rising squeak that was coming from the kitchen. All three of them rushed there to take a look. A knife appeared in JB’s hand instantly. Being indoors, they saw a light coming out of the opened fridge. A person was snatching food out of there.
“Damn, Lynda,” JB whispered.
They returned to the table.
“Do you know that freak?” Mia wondered.
“She ain’t a freak,” JB disagreed. “She’s intoxicated.”
“Whatever you say, man.”
The hyper-confident behavior indicated that Mia was fully recovered. It brought a peace of mind to her saviors.
“By the way, speaking about drugs,” Gibson said.
With those words, he took out an injector out of the pocket and made a shot into his neck. Since it was still dark, Mia couldn’t see what had happened. On the other hand, JB’s perturbation was limitless.
“Dude, why did you do that?”
“It has been a long time since I wanted to try that out! And just in several hours I have to go out into the jungle full of monsters. I’m not going to do that dry! And I’m not dying sober for sure!” Gibson got started.
“Maybe, we turn on the light?” Mia suggested.
Both men looked at the passage towards the kitchen, where Lynda’s moving shadow reflected on the floor. She still was busy by raiding the fridge. JB and Mark exchanged looks.
“No-o-o… Let her be,” the mutant pulled out. “Let’s go upstairs, to the observatory.”
“Right on, dude!” Doc agreed cheerfully.
“Hey! Hey!” JB rushed. “That’s me! I call dudes ‘dudes’! You’re a nerd! You ain’t cool enough!”
The mutant had a lot more to say on the subject, but a sudden flash of pain in the neck interrupted his speech.
“Did you just?” JB resented. “Did you inject me with that thing?”
“Well, I can’t be under drugs alone! What am I, a junky or something?!”
“Da fuck is wrong with you! You can’t treat people like that!”
“You know what? You’re right!” Doc agreed thoughtfully. “You’re big as a horse, you need a double dose.”
While still processing the last words, JB heard a click of recharged injector and then a new shot followed.
“That’s much better,” Gibson said.
“What’s better?” JB asked. He seemed much more relaxed now.
“Guys?” Mia addressed them.
“What?” they both responded.
“We were going to the observatory.”
“Right! To observatory!” Mark shouted enthusiastically.
The observatory was on the upper floor, seven stories above the ground. JB and Gibson continued their discussion there. At least they tried, as much as their intoxicated minds were capable. Mia helped out too. When there were details concerning the mercenary base, she provided updated information. Occasionally the girl had to bring back her new comrades when they flew too far from reality. To her own surprise, she appeared to have enough patience for all that.
The time was running out and there was a lot to talk about. So Dr. Gibson decided to resolve the problem created by him earlier. He asked Mia and JB to stay there, as for himself, he left the room with a promise to come back soon.
While Gibson was out, JB showed more and more signs of intoxicated behavior. He wandered around the room, chaotically picking up various objects, studying them carefully and sorting them into different groups after. It was going on to the point when he found a wardrobe with his own stuff inside. There were his riding pants, a dirty-white sleeveless t-shirt, a backpack with the gun and jewelry inside, and, of course, his favorite red leather gumshoes. All of the clothes were cleaned up and accurately folded. JB felt such a joy about that find so he went changing right away, not being ashamed of Mia, if he could remember her at all.
A little bit later Gibson rushed back. He looked energized, excited, and ready to work. His eyes shined with impatience and his hands flew around, from side to side, searching for something to do.
“It works!” he shouted out.
“What works?” JB asked. He appeared in front of him dressed in his old outfit.
“The medication that I went for.”
“Did you go somewhere?” JB wondered.
It looked like a start of the familiar scene that Mia had watched about ten times already for the last few hours. So she decided to take a matter in her own hands.
“What was in that injector, Mark?” she asked.
“LSD!” he answered proudly. “More or less,” he added. “Want some?”
“Just try come close to me with that thing! I’ll kick your ass so hard, you’re gonna be sorry that you hadn’t messed with those monsters instead of me!” She was pointing with her finger in his face to elevate the expression. Mark got intimidated. “What’s there, in your hand?”
Mia and JB noticed an inhaler that Gibson had brought with him. Then JB got even more interested in a big sandwich in Doc’s other hand.
“Cocaine!” Mark answered. “More or less,” he clarified again.
“Would this help him to snap back to Earth?”
They both looked at the mutant, who was busy by greedily consuming the sandwich. He didn’t even paid attention how the ketchup and mustard fell all over his shirt.
“Hey! How did you?” Mark was surprised by such a loss of his snack.
“Focus, Doc!” Mia turned his face back to her.
“Yes, it will help,” Mark finally gave her an answer.
Mia took the inhaler from his hand and put it into JB’s.
“Breathe in!” she commanded.
“Uh?” the big guy got lost.
“Damn! I swear to you, if you don’t make that breath this instant, I’m gonna kick you out of this island myself!”
“Okay, okay,” JB backed off and inhaled.
Just as Mia stepped away from him, the mutant softly walked to Gibson, looking back at her all the time.
“Man, it’s good that she’s on our side,” he whispered. And then he went all puzzled. “She’s on our side, right?”
“Yep,” Mark cheerfully nodded.
As time passed, Gibson and JB got soberer. They continued working and Mia kept an eye on those two. The planning was close to its finish, just a few more details left.
“I think it’s great to be a mutant,” Mark said. “A mutant like yourself can fight the monsters, as well as mercenaries. With your abilities, we can get to their transport.” Doc noticed that JB paid m
uch more attention to last words. “They can leave the island anytime, of course. Supplies, equipment, product export, everything goes over the air. They have three jet-helicopters for that. Really fascinating machines, actually. That’s like a jet and helicopter in one. They call them ‘swingers.' That’s the only way to get off the island.”
“‘Swingers?’ Really?” JB said sarcastically. "Something is just seriously wrong with that!"
“Have I said that out loud? We called them so, in the inner circle,” Gibson went explaining himself. “Hey, that was not my idea!”
“Yeah, right…”
“Look! Let’s not start this, okay! Just don’t!” the doctor resented. “Do you want to leave the island or not?!”
JB made that helpless gesture, showing that he was done teasing.
“So why can’t we take them right now?” the mutant said arrogantly.
“The most dangerous obstacle to their base is their fence. It’s fifteen meters high, made of solid armored concrete. It also has high voltage electricity grid in it. In case some of the monsters would want to climb that wall. One touch and it’s dead. The perimeter is guarded by automatic turrets. They are located within fifty meters’ interval each. Motion, sound, thermal sensors and everything. For many years, that wall was unbreakable.” Gibson remembered that he had the blueprints of that layout. So he rushed to find them in the chaos of his work desk. “After the wall it gets easier. There are not that many mercenaries on the island. Not more than twenty, the rest are just farmers. A half of them usually are on the patrol runs. There is not supposed to be more than ten men within the camp. If we are accurate, this mission will be a piece of cake.”
“How are you gonna control the planes?” Mia asked.
"Planes?" Gibson clarified. "Swingers, you mean?"
"I'm not saying that," she responded.
JB smirked. Gibson saw that his comrade still wasn’t over it. Yet, he had entirely forgotten about the piloting part.
“You’ve mentioned that you have flying experience, right?” Doc asked Jerry.
“Yeah, I used to fly that old ‘Beach Craft.' But mostly it was gaming simulators,” JB explained.
“Plus, there is a pilot among the people on the beach. Skyman his name,” Mark added. “We basically have two pilots.”
“Basically?” Mia said cynically.
“Well, no one promised it would be easy, sister.”
They were almost ready. JB suggested moving on immediately. He was in his best shape; the island had given him all that it could. It was time to leave that land behind.
Doc was supposed to disarm the enemy’s guard system while JB had to lead the rest of survivors from the beach. And when they had everyone in one group, they could move to the swingers.
Mark had never told JB how exactly he had taken him out of the jungle that night. Or how Gibson was able to move around the island without being killed. Bridgers suspected that Doc had some kind of machine, but he never knew for sure. It was a mystery that Gibson promised to reveal when it would be the right time.
“So, let’s go through everything again,” Mia said.
“Again?” JB asked discontentedly.
“Whatcha want, man? You’re both on drugs! We have to be sure.”
One more time, about the eighth or so, they all began discussing the plan. And how strange it seemed from aside, as Mia watched those two were go through it, as if it was for the first time.
“The water line around the farmers’ base is patrolled twenty-four seven, so we can’t use it. There is another way…” Doc took out a large-scale map of that part of the island. “I’ll take all necessary equipment to the end of the wall, near the coast. Then I’m going to disable two local turrets. After that, using my exoskeleton machine, I’ll make a hole in the wall so we can go through.”
“‘Exo’ what?” JB wondered.
“Exoskeleton,” Gibson repeated for him. “Frankly, it’s a mech, but… I kinda like saying prefix ‘exo.'”
“You have a mech?” the mutant asked again.
“Yes.”
“Is it big?”
“Yeah… About four hundred kilos of weight, four meters high. It’s quite big, I think.”
“Hm… Nice,” JB admitted. "Can I see it?"
Looking at that from aside, Mia suspected she might lose them with such a redirection of conversation.
“Won’t we have a problem there with an alarm or something after we touch the turrets or the wall?” the girl asked.
“Yes, probably,” Gibson remembered about such a hazard. “I’m going to need your help there, B, to take care of patrol. The mech is fine fighting the monsters, but ‘fourteen point five millimeter’ armor piercing bullets are going to be a problem. We need a more sophisticated approach there.”
“Me?” the mutant wondered.
“You!” Doc approved. “The weakest link in this plan is going to be a timing sync. We won’t be able to communicate on the mission. Yet you, with others, have to be at the wall precisely by the time I drill through the concrete. Not sooner, not later. We won’t have a big time window there.”
“Don’t worry, Doc. It’s gonna be cool! I believe in you!” Jerry said cheerfully. Right after, he skillfully snatched the knife out of the case, which hanged on his right thigh. “I’m taking it with me. Think there’re gonna be some beasts to hunt on the way. Now I’ma beast hunter!” JB got caught in thinking for a second. “Or a hunter of beasts… How do you say it right?”
“You better listen more carefully. And put that knife down!” Gibson got a bit worried about his comrade’s childish attitude. “To solve that time issue, I’ve designed a precise plan, according to which, the operation is divided into phases. So you, along with the beach group, have to move with one speed, the planned one. You’ll have one hour to get to the beach. When you’re there, you have to gather everyone and get on the way immediately. You need to wade through the water. Considering speed and time for breaks, you’ll need about eighteen hours to get to the rendezvous point. So in nineteen hours I expect you to be there. I’ll do my part by that time. In ten minutes after I’ll make the hole, the patrol is going to be there. Anything may happen then…”
“Do I get a gun?” Mia asked.
“Have you ever used a gun?” JB asked in return.
“No.”
“So there’s your answer.”
“Come on, man! Are you serious?” she protested. “There’s gonna be monsters, mercs, and everything…”
“Yeah, right! All we need is guns in inexperienced hands,” JB insisted. “You’re staying with Gibson. Hide behind his mech, if anything.”
“Behind the mech? Are you kidding?”
“Do I? You tell me.”
Meanwhile, Gibson remembered that he had already thought that problem through. So he took a spray that he had prepared for Mia.
“Here, Mia. Take this,” he gladly handed the can.
“What? Pepper spray? Are you kidding me? This stuff is useless!”
“No, it’s not!” the doctor objected.
“Yeah, it is!”
“No, it’s not!” Gibson went again, even more recklessly. “Here, look!”
His next action was spraying JB’s eyes, who was beside them. The pain made the mutant twisting and squirm, and it was just growing.
“Are you fucking nuts?! Why?!” Bridgers shouted.
“What did you expect, man? I’m on drugs!” Doc made an excuse.
“I can’t see, damn you!”
“You see? I told you,” Mark turned to Mia. “It works.”
Now Mia accepted the weapon and looked at the suffering mutant once more.
“So, it’s not pepper spray inside?” she wondered.
“Well… More or less…”
“What about him?” Mia nodded at JB.
“Oh, don’t worry. It’s not his first time.”
The scientist handed Jerry his old blindfold, which the mutant whipped away when looking in other
direction.
“You know, Doc,” JB started, putting the blindfold on. “When this is over, me and you are gonna have a long talk.”
Everything was ready. According to the plan, Mark and Mia were supposed to go in sixteen and a half hours after JB. As a time syncing measure they took two exact timers with preset hours until the end of the mission. Just as the start button was pushed JB’s inner switch went on with it. He focused fully on the mission. Not even using the stairs, he ran for the window and leaped through it.
A seven story fall ended with a soft landing on the feet, going into a tumble after. Not losing any speed, JB braced himself and ran on, straight into the jungle.
ESCAPE
The rainforest changed in the twilight. Like it came from another reality. The plants gained new appearance, the sky went dark. There was no light in it. On the ground, though, everything looked different. The leaves glowed with a slight incandescence. JB had seen it before, that night when he saw an evil beast for the first time. That night was hot too, but not as hot. The evening of their escape was nothing like any night before, the temperature turned the air into the furnace. Perhaps that was a trigger for such a reaction from the local vegetation. They glowed when it was hot.
The jungle turned into a colorful exposure. Exotic illuminating flowers were everywhere. Some of them were big and lush, others like vines crawling around the trees. There were spiral-formed ones, which had cyan coloration inside and bright-yellow on the outside. The ones that grew from the vines had a bell shape and glowed with purple light. Even the grass and moss had its luminance. This one was much dimmer, but the quantity of it compensated for the brightness. When looking up, it seemed as if there was no sky, nothing, just this place.
That picture couldn’t be seen from outside. The trees’ dense foliage hid it very well. At least, JB thought so, according to his previous experience.
The life thrived in the jungle that night. Animals were everywhere, from small ones to big, and the air was full of flying insects. These beasts didn’t look like the ones that JB been used to. Their skin looked more like scales, no fur. Some animals had it smooth and colorful, others – dark, but sharp as spikes. They seemed to be thermophilic, it was the heat that made them come out and play. JB wondered if they awakened just now, in such a temperature, what might be there when the real summer came?
