by Wesley Stein
Tua reached the opening and could see through it to the beach. Everything was quiet. Andy was behind him, waiting. Tua turned and used his eyes to ask for guidance. Andy put a finger to his lips then pointed toward the village huts. Tua nodded and knelt to find a loose stone.
He tossed a stone from inside the cave, toward the beach and the boardwalk that connected the outermost huts. The rock hit the boardwalk with a loud knock.
In a moment, an armed islander appeared in the sand, investigating the sound. Just as Tua was about to leap from his position and fire, a second guard appeared from the outside of the cave mouth.
“Shit,” Tua whispered. Andy pulled him backward by the shoulder, into the cave. The bulb that glowed in the center of the cavern ceiling was not helpful and if it hadn’t been for the metal cage surrounding it, Tua would have tossed the rock at it instead. He ducked back into the cave with Andy.
“Take cover,” he told him. As soon as the men outside spun around and headed back to their posts, Tua and Andy would be spotted. They crouched behind crags in the cave wall, waiting for the moment.
But suddenly, gunshots were fired. Not from outside, but further within the cave. Shakes was still in the main chamber, setting charges. He hadn’t known about the man guarding the aquifer.
The islander had been positioned far up a particular tunnel and had glimpsed Shakespeare’s moving shadow. When he’d investigated further and found a strange man placing explosives around the room, he opened fire.
Shakes was hit. Tua and Andy could see a black hole in his side when they arrived in the Crossing Cavern.
Tua fired in the direction from which he thought the shots had come. He laid cover fire while Andy ran to his old friend.
“I’m fine,” Shakes waved at him. “Get down.”
Andy crouched and raised his gun, firing toward the passage beneath the placard with a water drop and the letter A inside it.
The two guards outside heard the shots and were appearing in the cavern with their guns raised. Tua spotted them and fired.
Andy acted as a decoy and jumped toward them, waving his arms. As the two guards shot at Andy, Tua hit each of them in the head. He saw the side of their skulls explode in a burst of red and black. But he knew the zip ties would still be needed.
Andy had been hit in the left arm, but the bleeding had already stopped and a black stain was appearing around the wound. Shakespeare’s wound was doing the same.
Soon, both men were on their feet, helping Tua restrain the immortal guards with holes in their heads. The guards’ radios crackled and a man asked them to report.
Tua ignored the call but confiscated a radio handset. Andy watched the Aquifer tunnel closely while the other two worked. But the gunman in the cistern had retreated out the other side of the mountain.
The two guards on the ridge had not seen the six intruders land on the northwest shore, nor had they detected them as they slipped into the backdoor of the catacombs. But they did notice the black boat circling the lagoon, headed toward the gap in the twin peninsulas.
Tybalt received the call on his radio as he stood on the boardwalk. He quickly circled to the ocean view.
He spotted Robbins’ yacht the moment it appeared in the bay. It was difficult to see, but there it was. No lights, painted black, crossing the water like a shadow.
“Idiots,” Tybalt smiled. He put the radio to his mouth and called to the guard beneath the docks below him.
“A boat is anchoring in the bay,” Tybalt warned them. “The assault is upon us.”
Gunshots echoed off the mountainside behind him and Tybalt spun in surprise. Again he raised his radio and this time tried to hail the guard at the entrance to the catacombs. When he couldn’t reach them, Tybalt ran down the boardwalk toward the caves.
“Report,” he called into his radio again. Still nothing.
When he arrived at the cave entrance he paused and listened. When he finally crept forward, it was toward the wall of the cave, which he hugged with his back.
Inside, Tua, Andy, and Shakes had cleared the Crossing Cavern and were ready to head for the beach and Juliet’s cabin. Their mission was bread. They waited at the end of the curving tunnel and listened.
There was the crackle of the radios. Both Tua and Tybalt had forgotten to turn the volume down, so when the guard from the ridge reported again, the voice came from both ends of the tunnel.
Tybalt retreated from the glow of the cavern’s light and back to the nighttime air outside the cave. He pulled his radio up and called to the men on the ridge.
“Cover the entrance to Adam’s Hearth,” he said. “I’m going to draw them out.”

Juliet stepped toward us, her chest heaving in labored breaths. Tuahine adjusted her stance for a fight and I came to her side. But when Juliet reached us, she put her head down and stepped aside.
“Go drink with your sisters,” she said quietly.
I didn’t waste a moment and neither did Tuahine. We raced across the bridge and toward the base of the fountain. We saw Juliet cross the ravine and disappear up the tunnel.
When I reached my sisters I embraced them both and they didn’t resist. Tuahine joined us and for a moment I thought we’d begun to sway them. But they did not share our love, they only stood there. Then Joanna stepped back and pulled Jacey by the hand.
“We can’t go with you,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
“But you can Jo,” I said. “We have a way for you to keep getting the water. You don’t have to be on this island.”
“I don’t believe you,” Joanna replied. Tuahine stepped up and tried.
“Juliet found a way to bake the water into bread,” Tuahine said. “She used it to keep Shakespeare healthy in exile and to keep her aunt alive in France. Look at the cabinet, the oven.”
“It won’t work,” Joanna protested. “And even if it did, why would we go? It’s wonderful here. We’re going to rule this island and help build a civilization.”
“At what cost?” Tuahine asked. “You would sacrifice your sister, your friends, your loved ones, for this?” She motioned around the cave.
I stepped forward to offer my input.
“There’s no civilization here,” I said. Didn’t you see the tomb across the hall? Juliet is imprisoning these poor souls forever.”
“We can’t go without the water,” Jonna said.
“You don’t have to,” I reminded her. Tuahine piped up again.
“We found Shakespeare,” she said. “He’s still alive.”
“The founder of the island?” Joanna asked. She looked at Jacey who now came closer to us. I nodded and went on.
“Yes,” I said. “Juliet exiled him to the mountainside. She’s not as benevolent as she would have you believe. He has been living up there for decades.”
“He is withered,” Jacey said. “No one can go without drinking.”
“But he’s not withered,” Tuahine answered. “He’s fine. He’s as healthy as ever.”
“How?” Joanna asked.
“I don’t believe you,” Jacey added.
I exchanged a glance with Tuahine and could see she was frustrated. We would need a new approach. We needed to draw them from the fountain room anyway we could.
“He’s right outside, in the Crossing Cavern.” I told her. “Go see for yourself.”
The next time she glanced at Jacey, I could see a twinkle of recognition in their eyes and I had hope again.
CHAPTER 11
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL
They were trapped. Andy had stepped out of the cave’s opening and bullets popped in the sand around him. He’d spotted Tybalt, who had retreated across the boardwalk and was now joined by more islanders, most of them armed. Tua and Shakes pulled their friend back into the cave and took cover.
“There are guns above us,” Tua said. “We can’t shoot our way out.”
“Where’s Robbins?” Shakes asked. “Get him on the radio.” He spun his rucksack
off a shoulder and opened it. Tua reached in and grabbed a walkie-talkie.
“Robbins, come in.”
There was no response. Tua changed frequencies and tried again.
“The signal is too weak,” Shakes suggested. “Move closer to the opening. But not too close.”
Tua inched forward along the cave wall and kept trying.
“Robbins, do you copy?”
Finally, the radio cracked and Robbins came on.
“Robbins here, go ahead.”
Tua relayed their situation.
Outside, Robbins was using his binoculars to trace the mountainside from the boat. He spotted the two gunmen on the ridge.
“Time to rock and roll,” he said with a smile. He took up his stance behind the machine gun and aimed at the snipers. As he squeezed the trigger, he watched as tracer rounds struck near his targets. Large chunks of the mountainside exploded and the two gunmen went down.
Tua heard the shots and saw the rounds originating from the horizon outside the opening. Large sections of rock were falling in front of the cave.
Tybalt was ducking in the sand. He pulled out his radio and frantically called over the gunfire.
“Dock patrol, come in!” There was a beat of static.
“Dock patrol, go ahead.”
“Get to that boat,” Tybalt ordered. “Take over the machine gun!”
“Copy,” the voice said. The guard under the dock began to swim out into the bay.
Tua and Andy fired their guns from the cave mouth, but they couldn’t risk exposing themselves. They were forced to sit and wait.
Shakes was on the opposite side of the cavern than Tua and Andy. Near them, Juliet suddenly appeared in the passageway and only Shakespeare saw her, at first. Andy witnessed Shakes’ face change, and he turned.
When he saw Juliet standing there, Andy lost his breath.
Upon seeing Romeo, Juliet smiled and put a hand over her mouth. They stepped toward each other but paused several inches apart.
“Juliet,” Andy said. “I’m here to stop this madness. You can’t build anything this way.”
Outside, Tybalt was closing in on the cave-entrance and now had a dozen armed men at his back.
Farther out in the bay, an amphibious agent was approaching Robbins’ boat. He swam silently toward the black yacht.
On the mountain, the two patrolmen who’d been stationed above the catacombs had moved down to cover the exits. One gunman watched the same tunnel Tua and his company had used to access the catacombs, while the other guarded the exit beyond the aquifer.
Inside, Juliet stood among the three men. Tua was the only one she didn’t know.
“I am Juliet,” she said to him in a raspy, wet voice.
“I’ve heard of you,” Tua said. Juliet smiled then glanced at Romeo and Shakespeare.
“I hope you’ve heard. Good. Things,” Juliet replied with a wheezing effort.
“I wish I had,” Tua said. “But the word is you’ve got two of my friends under the spell of this magic water of yours. I heard you like to have all the power and kill anyone who gets in your way. Cave them in, isn’t that what you call it?”
“You’ve been getting your information from a poor source,” Juliet replied. “Your friends are under no spell. They chose to drink.”
“After you dehydrated them.”
“They will live forever,” Juliet insisted. “That is a gift.”
“That is a curse,” Shakespeare said.
Behind Juliet, Tuahine was stepping into the passage with Joanna and Jacey behind her. Jennifer was at the back, ensuring they all made it into the tunnel.
But inside the passageway, they paused. Juliet was raising her voice ahead of them. They listened.
“Shakespeare,” she cried out. “You could have left long ago. You could have gone to wither like Romeo. But you stayed.”
“I stayed to help my people,” he said. “Any way I could.”
Inside the cave, Joanna and Jacey looked into each other’s eyes curiously. Shakespeare? He was alive? Juliet told them he had fled the island long ago.
The sisters pushed past Tuahine in the tunnel and stepped forward until they were coming up on Juliet’s back. Juliet turned.
“Ahh,” she exclaimed. “You startled me.” She turned back to the cavern and introduced the girls to the three men.
“This is Portia and Rosalind,” she said. Then she looked at Shakes in the eyes. “They will rule the other shores. The prophecy has been fulfilled.”
“Prophecy?” Shakes asked. “You made it up.”
Joanna stepped forward, to Juliet’s side. Jacey did the same.
“I thought you said he left,” Jacey asked.
“You said Shakespeare was gone,” Joanna added. “Why did you lie to us?”
Juliet didn’t have an answer ready for them. Andy stepped forward.
“I’m Romeo,” he said to the sisters. “Juliet has lied to you. You can leave this island any time you like. There is a way to carry the water over the bridge.”
“How?” Joanna asked.
“Stop it!” Juliet shouted. Then she was engaged in a coughing fit. Andy continued.
“She baked bread,” he said. “She soaked up the water with yeast and baked it.”
“She brought it to me,” Shakespeare said. “While I was in exile. She didn’t want me to be in the village, but she didn’t want me to wither. She’s going to do the same to you.”
“She won’t,” Jacey argued.
“The fountain is on the northern shore,” Andy said. “Why do you think she’s given you the other two shores to rule?”
“Lies,” Juliet coughed. “The fountain is. Ours. All. Of. Us.”
“What about the people in the cistern?” Shakes asked. “Is the fountain theirs too?”
“Those people were criminals,” Joanna said in Juliet’s defense.
Shakespeare took another step toward the women.
“Were they?” He asked. “Let’s find out. Let us take a look.”
Shakes moved past Juliet and the sisters and into the tunnel. Tuahine had to do an about-face and shove Jennifer back into the previous chamber. Shakespeare came to them and smiled then turned back into the tunnel and called after the others.
“Come on,” he said with a wave. “Let’s take a look, shall we?”
Andy and Tua motioned for the three women to spin and go back the way they came. Soon, all of them were headed back through the passage to the fountain room’s entrance chamber.
There, across the room from the platform riser, was the trench carved into the cavern floor. It led beneath the large boulder, under which was wedged the lever system. A rope and pulley attached to a large beam that Shakespeare now grabbed.
Andy came over and helped pull. Soon, the boulder was lifting and a draft of air was hitting them.
Outside, Tybalt had reached the cave opening.
“No one comes out,” he declared and left the men outside while he stepped into the cave. He curved around the bend slowly with his gun drawn.
But when he reached the Crossing Cavern, no one was there. He heard voices in the neighboring chamber and went to the tunnel.
On the other side of the tunnel, Shakes had stepped into the causeway behind the boulder and was pointing out the tunnel to the cistern.
“This is the island spring,” he said. “This freshwater billows from the ground and could sustain this community.
Drinking from the fountain could be moderated and the islanders could regain their free will. But instead, Juliet would cast anyone who questioned her into this water. She would crush their heads, break their legs, and cast them in like garbage. Criminals, you say? Let’s see.”
He turned and stepped into the tunnel. He reached the split in the passage and went to his right and onto the platform. The sisters followed him, along with Juliet and Andy. Behind them came Tuahine and Tua and soon they all stood near the platform above the dark water.
“These are. L
ies,” Juliet said. “This is. The. Best. Way.”
“Look,” Shakespeare said as he aimed his flashlight into the cistern.
As he shone it upon the faces of the disgusting zombies below, the sisters saw things they didn’t expect. Shakespeare narrated as he moved the flashlight’s beam from one victim to the next.
“This is Ophelia,” he began as tears filled his eyes. “When the Triad first began, Ophelia was the first islander we welcomed. She was my lover. Juliet and Andy were together in one cabin and Ophelia and me in another. But Juliet became jealous of Ophelia’s eternal youth. The girl had drunk at too young of an age. So Juliet lured her here and shot her. Then tossed her in. By the time I found out and came to save her, she was like this.”
The light showed a hideous sight. Ophelia was a bloated, pale, white blob of flesh. Two eyes dotted the center of a hairy white head, more monster than human.
The beam of light moved off her and onto a long-haired man leaning against the cistern’s wall, only his head above the water.
“That is Iago,” Shakespeare told them. “We called him Yoggy. He took your parents to retrieve you, but wouldn’t let them break protocol. He didn’t want to be caved-in. So he tossed your parents overboard. But when he returned to the island, Juliet was angry. She broke his legs and tossed him in here anyway because his mission had failed.”
“This is Mercutio,” Shakes continued with another zombie. “His crime was to allow Andy here to escape the island. That is Horatio. He didn’t appear at one of the sex rituals, held three times each day for Juliet’s amusement. This is Desdemona, who was guilty of wondering how Juliet came into power.”
Joanna and Jacey were stunned. Juliet stepped forward and shouted, “Enough!”
“And this one,” Shakespeare said finally. “I think you know.”
He pointed the flashlight’s beam at Agent Free.
The black hole in Free’s head went all the way through. His eyes were rolled back in his head, but still he waded through the water, moaning.
“No!” Tuahine gasped. She cried when she saw the gap between the zombie’s teeth.