Making themselves solid, they both slumped down into seats. “Nothing really to report,” Ben said. “We probably roamed through fifty laboratories. We checked bottles and ingredients, couldn’t make out what most things were for the life of us. Also checked residential quarters. They have a massive underground compound for mutants, though that’s nothing new. We didn’t manage to eavesdrop on any pertinent conversations. I would suggest, however,” Ben added, “that we try again at a different time of day. We’re here now, so I suggest we stay the night. Lucas and I can enter again tonight. If we still have no luck, then I guess we’ll all just return to the island.”
“All right,” Derek said. “Does anyone have any objections to that?”
Everyone shook their heads.
Nightshade, our helicopter-cum-tank, was equipped with bunks, and there were also toiletry supplies and plenty of food and water. I ended up sharing a double bunk with Grace. Around eleven PM, after Ben and Lucas left again, we snuggled up next to each other on the mattress.
I leaned forward and kissed her forehead. “Good night,” I whispered.
“Yeah…” she said, smirking. “Like either of us is gonna get any sleep.”
She had a point. My mind was too alert now that we were here, just outside the IBSI headquarters. Grace especially would be worrying about her father.
We ended up chatting late into the night to take our minds off the wait. We talked about school, mostly, before I broached the topic of Heath. To counteract this, she quickly changed the topic to my “love life”.
“Well, Vicky?” she asked, propping her head up against the pillow. “Do you really not fancy anyone on the island?”
I smiled at her, then shrugged. It wasn’t like I avoided boys. I had a lot of male friends whom I was close to. I guessed I just hadn’t found that “spark” yet… whatever that even was. I told Grace this, and there honestly wasn’t much more to say on the subject.
We continued chatting about other things until I took a break to go to the toilet. On my way back, I stopped by the fridge to grab a cold bottle of water. I was about to return to the bunk when Kyle, who had still been sitting in the control room, called, “More of them.”
Everyone jumped out of bed and hurried to the control room. Indeed, we saw more of those uniformed hunters. There were eight this time, carrying two large metal cases between them. I guessed they contained equipment of some kind, maybe weapons. But, again, where were they coming from? It made no sense.
As they disappeared into headquarters, we were once again left to our speculations. Only this time, Rose said, “I want to go take a look through those trees.”
“I’ll go with you,” Caleb said, and soon everyone else was offering to go too, including myself. I guessed for many of us this was more out of boredom than anything else—an excuse to get some fresh air and stretch our legs.
“Wait, wait, wait,” Derek said, holding up a hand and shaking his head. “There’s no point in all of us going. Six of us can go; six at a time. And no longer than fifteen minutes for each batch,” he added, looking at us sternly—especially me and the other youngest four. “Or I will come hunting you down myself.”
Grace, Heath, Arwen, Brock and I ended up being allowed out first along with Corrine, perhaps since we’d been first to rush to the exit. We donned high, thick boots, and with our durable, long uniforms, we were fairly well protected from insects. My father handed each of us a mini-flashlight.
The door to the tank opened silently and we stepped outside into the cool jungle. I stowed my hands in my pockets as we touched down in the undergrowth and began to make our way slowly, cautiously through the trees toward the direction we’d seen the hunters emerge from.
After we’d been roaming for about five minutes, coming across nothing but more trees and bushes, we split into pairs so that we could cover more ground. Being closest to Arwen, I took her hand, while, also due to proximity, Brock partnered with Corrine… leaving Grace and Heath together.
I kept a keen eye on my watch as we wandered for the next five minutes. Just as I was resigning myself to not finding anything in the short amount of time my uncle had given us, voices rang through the trees. Male voices. Hunters’ voices. Who else could they be?
Arwen and I ducked to the ground and peered out from behind a bush towards the sounds.
“They should have dropped it by now,” one said.
“Stand back,” another called.
Flashlights flickered on about twenty feet away from us. Then came the sound of crashing. Metal colliding with wood. A deep groan; someone in pain. Heavy breathing. Something heavy being dragged against the ground. Another case? Then I heard the trudging of footsteps. The hunters were moving through the undergrowth. As they came within our view, they were not carrying anything. To my relief, they sped up into a jog and raced right past us, toward the direction of headquarters.
Once they were definitely gone, Arwen and I exchanged glances in the gloom. Someone else from our group sighed nearby. I, however, did not feel relief for long. Curiosity burned in my veins as to what the hunters had just “dropped”. Dropped from where?
Catching Arwen’s hand, I pulled her toward the trees that the hunters had emerged from. As we emerged in a small clearing, we found ourselves staring down at a gaping black hole in the ground. A starry abyss. A portal to another realm.
Victoria