No Survivors
Page 1
The Nightmare Room Thrillogy 3
No Survivors
R.L. Stine
Contents
Prologue
Shielding his eyes from the glare of the sun, Donald…
Part One
This Summer
1
The flames of the campfire danced high in a warm…
2
Some kids laughed. Others muttered to each other.
3
Silence now. Except for the whisper of the wind and…
4
The morning sun was still a low red ball over…
5
April grabbed Kristen’s arm. “She’s in the tree! She’s watching…
6
April examined the robot bird in her hands. “That snake…
7
“Tonight we light the first torch for one of our…
Part Two
The Year 1680 The Port of Plymouth, England
8
Deborah Andersen wrapped her mother’s black cloak around her. The…
9
“AAAAIIIIIIII!”
10
Deborah let out a cry when she saw her cottage.
11
As Deborah screamed, the calf raised its eyes to her—all…
12
Tears streamed down the faces of the silent boys.
13
The town constable’s office was in a small stone building…
Part Three
This Summer The Island
14
“I’m choking…choking!”
15
The morning sun poured down its warm light on the…
16
“Go! Go! Go!”
17
“No sssssurvivors!”
18
At lunch, Donald Marks announced a free afternoon for everyone.
19
Both girls spun around.
20
April felt her jaw drop in disbelief. Pam just called…
21
“Whoa!”
22
“Someone is in this cave,” April said. She suddenly felt…
23
“Marlin! It’s you l” April cried.
24
April fought back tears. Pam was right. She had led…
25
“Are you totally crazy?” Kristen shrieked.
26
Kristen knelt beside Pam. “Stay calm,” she said. “We’ll get…
27
The rocks rumbled and cracked beneath them.
28
April let out a gasp. Why is she staring at…
29
The woman in the blue cloak took a step toward…
30
“I’m your daughter!” Kristen insisted.
31
“AAAAAAAGGGGGH!”
About the Author
Other Books by R.L. Stine
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
Welcome…
Hello, I’m R.L. Stine. Welcome to part three of a very special Nightmare Room story.
It’s about a girl named April Powers who joins eleven other kids on a tropical island. The kids are there to play survival games—for a prize of $100,000. But they soon discover that someone else is on the island, someone who doesn’t want them to survive!
When I started to write this story, I realized that it was too big and too frightening to tell in one book. April’s story had to be told in three books instead of one.
And so the THRILLOGY was born.
Welcome to my special nightmare…
PROLOGUE
Shielding his eyes from the glare of the sun, Donald Marks stood near the top of the hill of blue rocks. He gazed up at the woman standing by the cave opening.
“I have kept my promise,” he said. He pointed to the sparkling ocean below. Moving steadily over the waves, a white boat approached the island’s dock. “I have brought your daughter back to the island.”
Katherine stood with her arms crossed tightly in front of her. Despite the tropical afternoon heat, she wore a heavy blue cloak.
Her face is so pale, Marks thought. It nearly disappears in the sunlight. Her long blond-brown hair fluttered behind the cape in the light breeze off the ocean.
She frowned at him. “We shall see,” she said in a dry voice that sounded more like a cough.
Marks mopped his bald head with the back of his hand. “It’s going to be a cheerful family reunion, huh?”
The woman let out a cold laugh. “Three hundred years ago my daughter vowed revenge. Now she’s coming here to kill me.”
“That can’t be right.” Marks tried to sound confident. “I know these kids. None of them are killers.”
“You know nothing about it,” Katherine told him.
“My daughter used magic to take on a new body. She thinks I won’t recognize her. But I will. I’ll find a way to force her to reveal herself.” Her features hardened. “I shall be ready for her.”
“And you will keep your promise to me?” Marks asked. “You will allow all the others to leave?” Katherine didn’t reply.
“Answer me,” he insisted. “You can deal with your daughter any way you please. But I want all the others to leave the island alive. Do you promise?”
She took a long time. But finally, she said, “I promise.”
He left quickly. She watched him make his way down the hill of blue stones. A heavyset man trembling with fear. Then she turned her eyes to the white boat. She knew it was bringing the Academy kids back to the island.
And she knew it was bringing her daughter.
Katherine kept her eyes on the boat until it pulled up to the dock. Then she picked up a sharp stone from the ground.
“I promise,” she muttered softly to herself.
“I promise…I promise…I promise.”
A thin, bitter smile crossed her face. “What good are promises?”
She carried the stone to the side of the cave where she lived. And using the stone as chalk, she scratched two words into the rock wall of the cave:
NO SURVIVORS
Part One
This Summer
1
The flames of the campfire danced high in a warm breeze. In the inky night sky, a million stars flickered.
April Powers glanced around the circle of kids. Their faces glowed orange in the firelight.
April counted ten kids in all. Nine who had been on the island for the first Life Games competitions last spring. And Pam Largent, who had tagged along with April.
Pam and April weren’t exactly friends. But their parents were. For as long as she could remember, April kept getting stuck with Pam.
Back home, Pam had been so jealous that April had been invited by The Academy to compete in their Life Games—especially when April’s team won. Pam admitted she would do anything to be a part of the games. Then, when April was invited back for this reunion, Pam made sure she got asked along.
So now, here she was. Chatting nonstop with everyone. Working hard to impress the other kids. Eager to be the most popular and the most successful.
April watched Pam across the campfire. Pam was flirting with Anthony Thomas. April could hear her teasing Anthony about his red hair.
April sighed. She hadn’t wanted to come to the reunion. The island frightened her. The last time she was here, her team barely made it off alive.
And she left with a souvenir. April’s hand touched the spot on her temple where there was now a blue crescent moon.
April counted the kids again. Nine. Only nine out of twelve had returned. Where were the other three?
Where was Marlin Davis, a member of April’s team? April’s friend. Marlin had vanished. He had pr
omised to write to April, but he never did.
Marlin’s mother said he was still on the island. But how could that be? April and the others had returned home nearly two months ago.
April turned to Kristen Wood. Kristen sat crosslegged beside her. She stared thoughtfully into the fire.
Kristen, Marlin, and Anthony had all been on April’s team.
After they left the island, strange things had happened to both April and Kristen. April had terrifying dreams. She found herself wandering in the middle of the night—with no memory of leaving her house. She heard sounds and smelled things from the island.
She saw the woman in the blue cloak.
Are Kristen and I the only ones here who realize that something is very wrong? April wondered.
As if something had followed them home from the island.
As if something had pulled them back here.
Staring at the darting yellow flames, April remembered the terrifying woman in the blue cloak. She lived in the caves high on a rocky hill overlooking the shore.
She had captured April. April didn’t remember how.
She remembered waking up with the woman hovering over her, sucking away her breath. Sucking away her strength…
The woman had touched her temple. The woman’s touch burned. Later April saw the blue crescent moon where the woman touched her.
Despite the waves of heat from the fire, April shivered.
Back home, her memory had been fogged. Erased. It took weeks and weeks until it all suddenly came back to her.
Did that frightening woman have Marlin up at her cave? Did she have Dolores and Jared, the other two missing kids?
April swore she would never return to this place. But she had to learn the truth. She had to find out what happened to her friend Marlin.
Until she solved the mystery, she knew the island would haunt her. It would never let her live in peace.
The fire popped noisily. A few kids laughed.
Pam had moved close to a young man holding a video camera. There were camera guys everywhere. This whole island reunion was being taped for TV.
Pam chattered away, smiling into the camera.
She really wants to be a star, April thought bitterly. I wish my mom hadn’t forced me to bring Pam along.
Clark Jones and Kendra Willis started tossing a tennis ball back and forth across the fire. Anthony made a grab for it, and the ball bounced into the fire. Everyone laughed.
Another TV guy, a tall, lanky young man with a long blond ponytail, captured it all on video.
April leaned close to Kristen. “Are we the only ones who aren’t here to have a good time?” she whispered.
Kristen nodded. “None of the others realizes the danger…”
April turned as everyone started to cheer. Donald Marks came lumbering across the sand, followed by Mira and Blake, two new assistants.
All three of them wore khaki shorts and white T-shirts with ACADEMY STAFF printed on the front in bold black letters.
Marks was the director of The Academy. He was a huge man with a round, bald head and bushy black eyebrows over round, dark eyes.
He had a bulging stomach that bounced as he strode over the sand to the campfire. And a booming voice with a hearty laugh that came from deep in his belly.
He stepped into the circle of kids, wiping sweat off his broad forehead with a handkerchief. “Hot night,” he said. “It’s great to see you all. Great to be back on the island.”
The cameraman with the blond ponytail moved in close to Marks. Marks waved him back. “No closeups—please!” he said, laughing.
He turned back to the circle of kids. “I hope you will all just act natural. Ignore the cameras, okay? It won’t be easy. They are everywhere. But just pretend these guys don’t exist.”
That will be hard for Pam, April thought. She’s been following the video guys around since the moment we arrived.
“You’re all going to be TV stars,” Marks said, grinning at them. “We are going to hold our Life Games competitions again for the cameras. And once again, there is a big cash prize to the winner.”
Everyone except April and Kristen cheered at that announcement. I don’t care about winning more money, April thought. I just want to learn what is really going on here.
“Some kids are missing,” Clark said, shouting over the crackling campfire. “Are you going to make new teams?”
Marks mopped his forehead again. “We have some changes in the rules to make it more exciting this time,” he announced. “No teams. Everyone is on his own.”
That brought another big cheer.
A grin spread over Marks’s round face. “Watch out,” he said. “Because of the TV cameras, we’ve made it more exciting—and more dangerous.”
“How is it more dangerous?” Kendra asked.
Marks stepped closer to the fire. The darting flames cast an orange glow over his face. His tiny round eyes reflected the light.
He lowered his voice as if sharing a secret. “We have someone new on the island,” he said. “We are not alone here anymore.”
He grinned into the video camera. “We have a witch living on the island,” Marks said. “You will recognize her by her blue cloak.”
April felt a chill freeze her back.
Marks’s grin grew wider. “If you see her—run!” he declared. “She isn’t friendly. In fact, she is your enemy.”
It grew very silent. Even the fire seemed to hush.
“Every day,” Marks continued, speaking softly, “the witch is going to eliminate one kid. Until there is only one of you left. By the time these Life Games end, only one of you will survive!”
2
Some kids laughed. Others muttered to each other.
“Oooh, a real witch. I’m scared! I’m scared!” Anthony cried. He shook all over, pretending to be frightened.
“Maybe she’ll turn you into a frog!” Kendra joked.
“She already did!” a boy named Phil shouted. That made everyone laugh.
Anthony jumped up angrily. He grabbed the front of Phil’s T-shirt. The two boys started wrestling on the sand.
“Easy, guys,” Marks said. “Take it easy now.” Mira and Blake, the two new assistants, pulled the boys apart. Two camera guys got it all on tape.
Kids cheered and laughed.
April stared at the fire, thinking hard. Despite the heat from the flames, she felt chilled all over.
She turned to Kristen. “I don’t believe it. Marks is making a joke of it,” she whispered.
Kristen nodded. “He wants everyone to think the witch is part of the TV show. But we know she’s real. And dangerous.”
“We have to warn the others,” April whispered. “We have to let them know the danger is real.”
Across the fire, Pam jumped to her feet. “Do I just have to watch?” she asked Marks. “I know I wasn’t here the first time. But can I play in the games too?”
“Yes, you can,” Marks replied. “Since some of the kids didn’t make it—”
“Where are they?” April broke in. The words burst out more shrill than she had intended. “Where are Marlin, Dolores, and Jared? Do you know why they didn’t come to the reunion?”
Marks’s grin faded as he turned to April. “I invited them,” he replied. “But I didn’t hear back. I really don’t know why they didn’t want to come, April. I just don’t know.”
He’s lying, April thought. He doesn’t want me to ask about those kids.
Later, April and Kristen waited until all the lights were out in Marks’s cabin. Then they ran quickly to the other cabins, waking kids up, dragging them outside.
“What’s up?”
“Did the games start?”
“Midnight swim?”
“Fire drill?”
April struggled to keep them quiet. “Kristen and I want to hold a meeting,” she whispered. “A private meeting.”
She led them all down to the beach. Past the purple embers of the dying campfire. Around a
bend, out of sight of the Academy Village.
Moonlight poured down on the frothy waves as they splashed over the shore. A warm, salty breeze fluttered April’s hair.
“April? What’s the big idea?” Anthony asked. “I was already asleep.”
“Is this being taped?” Phil asked, looking around. “Kristen and I want to talk to you,” April began.
“We think Marks is lying. About the missing kids.”
“Oh, wow. Here we go again,” Anthony groaned, rolling his eyes.
“Let her talk,” Clark said.
“But she’s crazy!” Anthony insisted.
“We’re not crazy,” Kristen broke in. “Something very strange has been happening to us.”
“Back home,” April said. “Things from the island followed us home. I heard a woman singing. The same woman my team heard when we were abandoned here.”
A few kids laughed. Anthony rolled his eyes again.
“And the horrible stench from the rock caves,” April continued. “It followed me home. I smelled it in my bedroom.”
“Take a bath. It’ll go away,” Anthony joked.
The others didn’t laugh. They had all grown silent, staring at April.
“I had nightmares about the island every night,” April told them. “And they were so real. And I saw the woman in the blue cloak. She isn’t pretend.”
“After I returned home, all kinds of disturbing things happened to me too,” Kristen said. “How about the rest of you?”
No one answered.
“You have to believe us,” April said. “There’s something evil on this island. The witch that Marks is talking about is real. She’s got Marlin. And she may have taken Jared and Dolores too.”