The Island (10 page)

“And without water, maybe suffering from sunstroke, and that’s if we all made it to the top.” He turned towards Moses. “No offence, old man, but I don’t see you as the climbing-mountains type. This walk to here almost had you on your knees.”

“Well don’t expect me to follow your lead anymore. We’re done,” Chase said.

Ryder picked up his backpack and put it on. “You know what, that’s fine with me. If you assholes want to go off your own way and get yourselves killed, you go ahead and do it. Better for me. I’m happy to go out there on my own and win this thing.”

“Fine with me,” Chase snapped. “At least if we die now it will be of our own doing, not because you thought it would be fun to lead us somewhere you knew we might be at risk.”

Ryder was angry now. His fists were clenched at his side. “You know what? I hope you die next. I mean that. I see you, watching everyone, trying to figure us out. You’re nothing special, Riley. Nothing at all that says winner. It’s only a matter of time before you make a mistake that will kill you. At least I know what I’m doing.”

“And if that means picking us off one at a time, you’re happy with that?”

Ryder shrugged. “We all knew what we came here for. We all knew what we would have to do. Trying the guilt trip thing won’t work.” He turned away, walking towards deeper jungle. “See you around, Riley.”

“Wait.” Perrie grabbed her things and joined Ryder.

“You’re going with him?” Chase asked. She nodded. She was clearly frightened and in shock. He couldn’t blame her.

“I made a mistake coming here. I know that now. This… It’s not what I thought. All I want to do now is go home. My best chance is with him. He knows what he’s doing at least.”

“He’ll only help you for so long. When it comes down to him or you, he won’t think twice about killing you if you stand in his way.” Chase didn’t mention that he had already contemplated killing Perrie earlier that morning, and although he hated himself for it, he didn’t think Ryder would have the same moral issue.

“We’re all going to die anyway,” she said quietly. “Nobody can survive with those things out there.”

Nobody had any sort of response for that. As young and unprepared as she was, she was absolutely right. The game had changed and they all knew it. It wasn’t just each other they now had to be wary or. It was whatever else was lurking out there on The Island. Chase and the others watched as Ryder and Perrie disappeared into the jungle.

THE REALITY OF LEGEND

DAY TWO

THE ISLAND – 3:37pm

They walked without purpose or direction deeper into the jungle. Chase now assuming the role of leader, Moses behind and Alex at the rear. The terrain was just as difficult as before, dipping and winding, their access blocked by rocks, roots and trees which were twisted and gnarled together as they reached for the sun. Chase had no idea where he was leading them. As a rough guide, he kept the sound of the river where they were attacked on his left, but there was no real thought in where they were going. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, Ryder was the only one who had really known where he was going, how to read the land. Aside from a few documentaries on bush survival he had watched, it was the blind leading the blind. There had been little speaking since the incident at the water. Chase wondered how many of them were out there, and if they had been here last time The Island hosted people. He slowed his pace, dropping back to fall in with Moses. The old man was looking tired. His face was twisted into a grimace.

“You okay?” Chase asked.

“Blisters on my feet. Should have brought thicker socks,” he grunted. Sweat clung to his face and a patchy white stubble was starting to form on his cheeks.

“If you want to stop for a while we can.”

Moses glanced at him and carried on walking. “I don’t need your sympathy or your pity. I’m fine.”

“Fair enough.”

They stopped talking for a while, saving their breath for a particularly steep section of jungle. At the brow of the crest, the terrain levelled off and became less densely clogged with trees.

“Do you know much about the last time they did this? The show I mean,” Chase asked.

“No. I was never interested in it. If I didn’t know, I wouldn’t have come here.”

Chase nodded, unclipping his canteen and taking a sip of water, forcing himself not to guzzle and throw up. “I was just wondering how long those things have been here on The Island. It’s crazy to think something like that could have been kept secret for so long.”

He waited for Moses to respond, but the older man seemed distracted. Maybe it was the sting on the blister in his sock, or just that he simply didn’t know.

“They’ve been here for at least ten years.”

Alex had pulled up alongside them so that they were now walking three abreast. He looked remarkably fresh. Still skinny, still bobbing his head, but not tired. He looked straight ahead, hands still in his pockets.

“How do you know?”

“How do you not?” Alex replied, glancing across at Chase and Moses. “Don’t tell me you came here without doing your research.”

“Of course I looked into it. I’m not stupid,” Chase said, asking himself how much he really did try, how much he had actually tried to find out before signing the forms which was nothing more than a death warrant with fancy wording. “Anyway, what do you know about it?”

“The information is there if you dig hard enough. I’m good at stuff like that. Computers. Finding things out. Information is king.”

Chase still couldn’t figure Alex out. It seemed the assumption they had all made of him was nothing but the outer layers of whatever lay beneath. “What did you find out?”

He didn’t immediately answer. Chase was about to ask him again when he started to speak. “The Lomar Corporation had been interested in cloning and actively pursuing it from right back when Jackson Lomar still ran the company. Of course, the assignment was different back then. Jackson wanted to see if it was possible to grow limbs for soldiers wounded in battle, things like that. When he died and Damien Lomar took the reins, all of that research was canned. Damien was hell bent on building his island and wanted a reason to do it, so he started looking into cloning at first. Did you ever see that movie, Jurassic Park?”

Chase shook his head. “Didn’t see the movie, but I read the book.”

“Damien did too. He always wanted to make it a reality. The problem was that the whole science behind the books and the movies was flawed, at least then.”

“Even with new technology, where the hell would he find the raw materials to create one of these things? It’s not like you can just get one like you can with sheep or an elephant.”

Alex shook his head. “You didn’t look into this too much at all, did you?”

Chase’s silence confirmed that he hadn’t. Not by a long shot. Alex went on.

“Do you remember in the mid two thousands, when the polar ice caps first started to melt?”

“Yeah, I read about that. Sea levels rose by ten feet in some places.”

“Exactly. Underneath all that Antarctic ice was land. Quite a lot of it. There are documents out there that Lomar took particular interest in a certain partially melted glacier, and had a team go out and take something away. Several somethings according to the report.”

He shrugged and glanced at them. “It stands to reason that what they took was some kind of carcass, maybe it had been locked in there for millions of years encased in ice. A complete body, flesh, skin. More importantly, useable DNA. Like that mammoth they found.”

“And from that they created living versions of these animals? That’s a bit of a stretch.”

“Actually, the science of creation would have been the easy part. The only difficulty would have been finding useable samples. It seems the Lomar Corporation hit the jackpot.”

It was a lot of information to take in. It certainly seemed plausible. At any rate, it was the best explanation they had. “How do you know so much about it?” Chase asked.

Alex ducked under a low hanging tree root and then half turned towards Chase. “Like I said, it’s all out there if you look hard enough.”

“I have a question for you,” Moses said, looking past Chase to Alex. “Knowing what you do about these things being here. Why the hell did you still apply to take part?”

“I have my reasons.”

They waited for Alex to elaborate, but he said nothing. Chase checked his watch. “Alright, I suggest we maybe try to find a place to make camp.”

“With those things out on the loose?” Moses replied.

“We can’t walk all night. We need to rest up. It will be dark soon. For all we know, they might be more active then.”

“Where do you suggest we camp?”

Chase stopped walking, and looked around. The trees had thinned and they were walking through hip high ferns. Ahead, the ground sloped away into a natural valley, and then even further ahead was another rise with more rocky terrain. The water that had been beside them cut through the left side of the meadow, then opened up into a wide river of sorts. In the middle of the water was a rocky outcrop, a flat plateau of land with a natural formation of rock curving around the outer edge which the water surged around before heading down the valley. “What about there?” Chase said.

Moses nodded. “Looks okay. Should give us a little bit of protection from the land and warning if anything tries to get to us.”

“What about you?” he said to Alex. “Are you okay with it?”

He shrugged. “I don’t mind. Whatever works best, as long as we can cross the water. It’s flowing pretty fast.”

The shadows started to lengthen as the trio got to work. The water, although fast flowing, was only knee height, and getting to the plateau was fairly easy. The set up their tents against the rock formation facing out towards the water. They lit a small fire, and opened their ration kits. It was then as their bodies started to rest that they realised just how fatigued they were. As far as temporary camps went, it was a good one. Protected on three sides with a wide view of both the water and the opposite bank. Conversation was sparse. Arrangements were made for a rotation of keeping watch, and attention turned to the next day. The terrain ahead was much rockier and would involve climbing down, possibly falling before they entered a maze of craggy rocks. It would be hot and difficult. They would also need to find food. There was no way their meagre rations could sustain them or replace the calories they were burning. Alex took the first watch, then Moses and finally Chase. He wasn’t sure he would sleep before it was his turn, but he found as soon as he closed his eyes he fell into a fitful sleep until Moses woke him, gently shaking his shoulder. Still exhausted, he sat by the fire, looking out into the night and staring at the stars. He felt his eyes grow heavy just before dawn, his eyelids feeling as if they were weighted. He told himself he would close then, just for a second, his sin soon falling onto his chest. Had he stayed awake a little longer he would have seen two things. First, he would have spotted Ryder and Perrie as they skirted past their position, heading down into the craggy, rocky area beyond. He would also have seen the pack of velociraptors as they crossed the river, heads bobbing much like Alex when he walked. The six dinosaurs paid no attention to the camp. Or the sleeping Chase. They were on the scent of Ryder and Perrie, and were in slow, stealthy pursuit. Much like everything on The Island, the velociraptors didn’t care about prizes or game shows. All they cared about was survival and the hunt, one going hand in hand with the other. The six of them broke into two groups. One followed their prey directly; the others veered away and plunged into the forest. They knew these lands. Knew there was another way and would meet up with their brethren in good time.

When Chase woke twenty minutes later, he and the others were awake and preparing to leave. They broke down their camp and packed, then set out for the next leg of their journey. They crossed the river, weary and tired, unaware that they were following almost the exact path that their fellow contestants and the creatures which hunted them had used just an hour earlier.

BENDING THE RULES

DAY THREE

NECKER ISLAND – 8:12AM

Lomar walked through the rooms of his house, enjoying the quiet. Enjoying the buzz of success. The launch show for The Island had been an amazing success. The sighting of the first dinosaur had sent the world into meltdown. Social media was buzzing, news networks the world over were covering the story, stating how the Lomar Corporation had managed to do the impossible. It was already the most watched show in the history of television, and companies the world over were desperate to add their sponsorship, offering tens of millions of dollars. There were of course a few human rights groups who protested the show, but even they were in the minority and were unable to say much as the dinosaurs roamed free without boundaries or cages. The leading questions asked to the contestants when they recorded their green screen vignettes had been edited together to emphasise that they knew what they were getting into and the risks involved.

Not only was The Island the most watched show in history, it was also the most gambled on. Betting rings ranged from large to huge, as the people put their money on who they thought would survive. He wished his father could see him now, wished he could tell his father he had been wrong, and he would never reap the rewards for his lack of vision.

The house was silent, the staff already making their way to the mainland to enjoy their weekend away. Lomar liked this time. Liked the solitude. He was the only person around for miles, and it suited him fine. He walked into the dining room, then through into his office. At the back of the room was another door. Loma opened it and stepped inside. A spiral staircase led down into the dark. He descended, taking his time. Motion sensing lights flicked on as he reached the foot of the steps. He looked at the room, smiling, feeling the first surge of adrenaline.

It was an armoury of sorts. Weapons lined one wall, rack after rack of guns and knives of every conceivable type. To the right, was a large glass fronted wardrobe filled with clothing. Camouflage pants and jackets, boots and other survival equipment. The room also functioned as a gym. There was a weight bench and running machine, equipment to train his body to be the best it could be. There were no windows. He didn’t want them. He loved the private intimacy of the space. He loved how the room smelled. His secret place. He started to undress. Kicking off his Italian loafers, pulling off his jeans and unbuttoning his shirt. He glanced at the gym equipment, then turned away from it.

Not today.

Today he went to the glass-fronted wardrobe. He slid the door open and let his hand drift over the hanging clothes. He selected his favourites. Dark green with brown and black patches. Green vest. Jacket to match the pants. Brown boots. He dressed slowly, savouring the moment, enjoying the feel of the material on his skin. It wasn’t like the expensive suits he wore my some of the finest designers in the world. These were functional clothes. Itchy and rough fitting. They served a purpose. He fastened the boots. They were heavy, but also durable. Not as flimsy as loafers or sandals. Next came the weapons. His hunting rifle, his beloved Angela, named after his first wife. He was a good shooter. He had paid for the very best training. He selected his favourite things, and put them into the large carry bag on the floor. He was ready. He picked it up and went through another door. Down a short corridor. Into the elevator there, which took him to the roof. There, his helicopter waited, rotors spinning, charcoal bodywork sleek and dangerous looking. He tossed his bag into the back and climbed in, sliding the door shut. The helicopter took off, angling away from Necker Island, leaving Lomar’s luxury home behind. In the back, Lomar closed his eyes, listening to the steady thump of the rotor blades and visualising what was about to happen. He couldn’t wait to get started.

TWO

It was already hot. The terrain was rocky, but led mostly downhill, making progress easier than they could have hoped for. Unlike the jungle, it was dry and dusty. The river still accompanied them, although they could still hear the water somewhere off to their right. The rocky terrain was gradually growing on either side of them, forcing them into a natural channel of sorts, before winding away to the right, away from the sound of the river and putting the sun in front of them rather than behind. Chase led the way, Alex just behind them. Moses was in bad shape. He was at the back, limping along, wincing every time his left foot touched the ground. Chase wondered how much longer he would be able to last. The trail started to go uphill, a gentle curving natural path. It was hard going. Muscles burned with lactic acid, lungs sucked air, hearts thundered with the healthy beat of exertion. Chase checked his watch. They had been walking for four hours. It felt like at least double that. Ahead, the terrain seemed to level off. Chase glanced over his shoulder. “I say we stop up there and take a rest.” He gasped the words rather than said them. Neither Alex nor Moses protested. The top of the hill was further away than they expected, and it took them twenty more minutes to reach it. When they did, they came out on a sparse flat plateau of brown rock. The river which they had initially curved away from had reappeared, dropping from the edge of the cliff in a cascading waterfall some sixty feet below before continuing on its journey. There was no way they could go straight down. The cliff face was too sheer, and none of them had any climbing experience. A scrub of trees to their right morphed back into jungle, the way down steep, but passable. Chase sat down, letting his tired muscles rest. He was hungry, his stomach grumbling in complaint. Alex walked to the edge, peering down the vertigo inducing drop to the water below. He seemed to be remarkably fresh and least affected by the punishing conditions.

“What’s the plan?” he asked, not turning away from the drop.

“How should I know? I’m no different to any of you.” Chase was frustrated. He knew going back wasn’t an option. They needed food, which meant they would have to find means to hunt sooner rather than later.

“I thought you were leading us somewhere,” Alex replied. There was no accusation in his voice. No real emotion of any kind. Chase wasn’t sure how to take it.

“I led us here. Now we need to decide where to go next. By all means, you make that call.”

Alex grunted and turned back to look at the waterfall just as Moses limped up the hill. He sat down hard and started to unfasten his boot. Chase watched him, saying nothing as he took it off, exposing a white sock which was now red on the heel.

“Jesus,” Chase said. Alex glanced at it and turned away again.

“It burst a mile or so back. Been walking in blood and pus ever since.”

“Can you go on?”

Moses looked at him, and then shrugged. “As long as you don’t expect me to climb down no cliffs.”

“It looks like we can go around. Through the trees there, although it looks pretty steep.”

“Steep I can handle. I just ain’t much of a climber. Arthritis in the hands.” Moses gently touched the shredded skin on his heel, then looked at Chase, squinting against the sun. “What are we going to do for food? Surely I’m not the only one who’s hungry.”

“We need to find something to eat. Does anyone have any hunting experience?”

Moses shook his head, preoccupied with his wounded foot. Alex didn’t acknowledge him. He had his binoculars out, scanning the terrain below them.

“What about you?” Chase said. Alex lowered his binoculars. “Someone’s passed through that valley ahead of us.”

Chase scrambled to his feet and stood beside Alex. “Where?”

“Down there,” Alex said, handing Chase the binoculars. “There are fresh boot prints in the soft dirt by the river.”

Chase looked, scanning over by the river bank. He could see footprints in the dirt, crossing back and forth. Two sets, one bigger than the other. “Ryder and Perrie,” Chase muttered.

“Yeah.”

“How did they get ahead of us?” Chase said, not really asking anyone.

“Probably went right past the camp in the tree line. We wouldn’t have seen a thing as long as they were quiet. You see the other prints down there?”

“To the right, coming out of the forest.”

Chase panned to the right. The prints were clear. Three-toed in the wet earth. Two sets coming out of the tree line which they were due to enter in order to get down. Chase lowered the binoculars and handed them back to Alex.

“Any idea what left those prints?”

Alex shrugged as he put the chord for the binoculars over his neck, letting them hang against his chest. “How would I know?”

“You seem to know a lot about this place.”

“I don’t know what species they were. Could be anything. It looks like they were on the hunt.”

“Ryder and Perrie?”

“Who else,” Alex muttered. “With any luck they found them,” he added as he turned away from the edge and sat on a small rock near Moses.

“Why would you say that?” Chase asked.

“Why else? With them gone, that just leaves three of us. One in three is a lot better than one in five. I can handle those odds.”

“You’re still playing the game,” Chase said, shaking his head.

“Everyone is playing the game. That’s why we’re here. That’s why we’re out here. It seems everyone but
you
is playing, unless you’re just so good at it you have the rest of us fooled. I’m not sure yet.”

“Ryder I couldn’t care less about. But that girl he’s with shouldn’t be here, she made a mistake.”

Alex nodded, taking a swig from his water bottle. “She’s a dumb bitch who made a mistake, and now will probably pay for it with her life. Seems like poetic justice to me. Anyway, since it seems the three of us are sticking together for the time being, we need to find food and a way to protect ourselves.”

“What do you suggest?”

Alex flashed a thin smile. “Why do you keep asking me things like I know the answers?”

“Don’t you?”

“To some things.”

“Do you know the answer to this?”

“To what?”

“What we do next?”

Alex shrugged. “We need to get down from here that much is obvious. Going back would take too long, so it looks like we walk or slide down there and try not to fall, break any bones of cut ourselves up on the rocks. Once we get down, we follow those tracks and see where they go.”

“There are…things down there,” Chase said, still unable to bring himself to use the actual word.

“If you mean dinosaurs, I think it’s safe to assume they’re everywhere. Another reason we need to find some way to protect ourselves.”

Chase turned to Moses. He wasn’t looking so good. “You okay with that?”

He nodded. “Just give me a minute to get my boots on and I’m good to go.”

As soon as Moses was ready, Chase led them into the scrub of trees. The downhill incline was steep, and they were forced to cling on to branches and trees as they half-walked, half-scrambled down the first part of the steep hillside. The ground levelled out a little, and they pushed through more thick trees, pushing aside leaves, swatting aside bugs and baking in the humidity. Chase was in the lead, trying to ignore his hunger when he pushed aside a huge green leaf, and was in a clearing which glowed with sunlight. The others stood with him, none of them speaking. The trail sheared away into a sheer rock face reminiscent of the higher ground. It was smooth and without handholds. To their right. Half buried in the earth was a black maw, a cave entrance. They stared at it, then looked at each other. Their options were to either go back and try to climb back the way they had come, or venture into the cave. The entrance was huge, forty feet in diameter. Sunlight barely penetrated into the dark opening.

“I don’t think I want to go in there,” Alex mumbled. It was the first sign of weakness he had shown.

“We don’t have a choice,” Chase heard himself say, wanting no part of the cave system either. “Ryder and Perrie must have come this way and we know they made it.”

“True,” Alex said, staring into the dark. “Let’s go then.”

Although it was something he hadn’t wanted or asked for, everyone was waiting for Chase to make the first move. Reluctantly and with his inner voice screaming at him about how big a mistake he was making, he led them into the dark to whatever lay beyond.

THREE

The day was quickly swallowed as they made their way deeper into the cave. Each of them had been issued with ultraviolet lamps, thin strips of plastic which were stitched into the shoulder of their shirts, just above where their names were stencilled. When activated, the lamp would glow a dull blue for up to five hours on a standard charge. Now activated, the lamps cast the cave into eerie, shadow-heavy shades of blue as they carefully made their way down the uneven slope which twisted down out of sight. Their boots scrabbled for purchase on the loose gravel, the trio moving in silence into the unknown apart from the occasional grunt from Moses as his blistered feet continued to trouble him.

“We seem to be moving away from the path of the slope, it doesn’t make sense,” Chase whispered, his voice still reverberating and rolling into the distance.

“You need to think outside the box a bit more,” Alex replied. “Remember, this is a manmade island. It doesn’t have to follow nature’s rules. They can put things wherever they want to.”