Mega 5: Murder Island

by Jake Bible

  Mike waited impatiently for the Zodiac to be winched up to the deck. He didn’t know the deckhand’s name that secured the raft for him so he could hop out and race to the hatch that led below to the Toyshop where the NVGs were stored. He kind of felt guilty not knowing any of the deckhand’s names, but they pretty much stayed to themselves.

  Probably a good idea since close proximity to anyone on Team Grendel had led to the deaths of most of the ship’s crew over the past few months.

  Mike was hurrying past the infirmary when Gunnar called out.

  “I don’t have time,” Mike replied, not stopping.

  He made it to the Toyshop and told Ingrid what he needed. She hurried to grab the NVGs and Mike was left standing by an empty counter with nothing to do but wait.

  “Hey!” Gunnar snapped as he came into the Toyshop. “You couldn’t say hi?”

  “Sorry,” Mike said. “In a hurry.”

  “Everyone alright?” Gunnar asked.

  “Yeah, but we need NVGs to search some tunnel we found,” Mike said. “Haven’t you been listening on the com?”

  “No, I’ve been going over Darby’s tests with Dana,” Gunnar replied.

  “And?” Mike asked.

  “She’s lying to me,” Gunnar said.

  “Darby? I thought she was unconscious,” Mike replied.

  “No, I mean Dana,” Gunnar said. “She’s only giving me half of her theories and lying about the rest. I know she has a very strong idea about what is going on in Darby’s head, but why she won’t say is the real mystery.”

  “Her last name is Ballantine,” Mike said.

  “True,” Gunnar agreed.

  “Hey, Gun,” Ingrid said as she returned from the stacks of shelves with a sturdy black case. “Here ya go, Mike.”

  “Hey, Ingrid,” Gunnar said. “Hey, you wouldn’t happen to have a lie detector handy, would you?”

  “I have several,” Ingrid said. “What do you need it for?”

  “Seeing exactly when someone is lying,” Gunnar said.

  “How many pairs?” Mike asked, patting the black case and interrupting Gunnar’s interruption.

  “Enough for all of you except Lucy,” Ingrid said. She patted her left ear. “I have been listening to the com. You want some stronger flashlights?”

  “Not yet,” Mike said. “Maybe later. NVGs for now.”

  “You’re all set to go,” Ingrid said.

  “He needs to sign out for those,” Carlos said as he joined Ingrid behind the counter. “If anything goes wrong, I want to know who checked them out.”

  “Get over yourself, Carlos,” Mike said and grabbed the case by its handle. “None of us have time for your crap today.”

  Mike gave Gunnar a quick peck on the cheek then rushed from the Toyshop. He heard Gunnar laugh then start talking to Ingrid about lie detectors again. Carlos said something, but it was obvious that Gunnar and Ingrid ignored whatever comment he made.

  Mike found Lucy climbing down from the crow’s nest, her rifle strapped to her back.

  “I get to stretch my legs, I hear,” Lucy said as she approached Mike.

  “Yeah,” Mike said. “Where’s Max?”

  “Already getting set up,” Lucy said and nodded down to the main deck where Max was arranging a chair, a cooler, a sun umbrella, and portable speaker. “He’s making a day of it.”

  “I can see,” Mike said. “Come on. Thorne’s not in a patient mood.”

  “He never is,” Lucy said as she followed Mike down to the waiting Zodiac and the anonymous deckhand standing by the winch.

  ***

  Darren, Mike, and Thorne joined Shane and Kinsey at the bottom of the ladder.

  “Anything new?” Thorne asked Shane as Mike crouched and opened the black case, distributing the NVGs to everyone. “Any more movement?”

  “Yes,” Shane said. “Hold up on putting the goggles on. Watch this.”

  He took a step forward and shone the flashlight on the left wall. Distinct movement then nothing.

  “Did the whole wall just move?” Mike asked.

  “No, but everything on the wall did,” Shane said. “I think the bugs are a lot closer than we know.”

  “Then why aren’t they trying to eat us?” Mike asked.

  “Could be they are dormant during the day,” Darren said. “They could also be repelled by the flashlights.”

  “If that’s the case, then the second we switch these off, we could be in trouble,” Shane said.

  “We have to know what we are up against,” Thorne said. “Only way we can do that is if we turn off the lights and see the corridor for what it is.”

  “I’m hoping it’s not my final resting place,” Shane said.

  “NVGs on,” Thorne ordered. “We cut flashlights on my mark. Kinsey, I want you and Shane to have yours ready to switch back on at the first sign of trouble. If the light does repel them, then that may be our best weapon.”

  “That hurt my M4s’s feelings,” Shane said.

  “At least your .338 isn’t here,” Kinsey said. “It would be super pissed. You know how sniper rifles get. Total prima donnas.”

  “I hear that,” Shane said.

  “Kinsey, don’t encourage him,” Thorne growled. “Everyone set?”

  “Set,” they all replied as they pulled their goggles down over their eyes.

  “Lights out, eyes on,” Thorne said.

  The flashlights went out and the NVGs went on.

  The corridor was translated into that weird greenish glow that the NVGs produced from just the barest hint of ambient light. All the tech needed was the light coming down from the square above to provide sight for Team Grendel.

  It was not a sight they wanted to see.

  “Oh, shit,” Shane whispered.

  The walls were alive. The ceiling was alive. The floor was alive. Every inch of every surface was covered in a writhing, wriggling mass of black carapaces. The carapaces had other details, spots here, lines there, but the coloring was impossible to make out in the green of the NVGs.

  “Uncle Vinny?” Shane whispered.

  “Hush,” Thorne ordered. “Do not move.”

  The mass of wriggling insect bodies remained where it was, but a few adventurous individuals began to crawl forward, testing the limits of the light that came down through the trapdoor.

  There had to be tens of thousands of beetles in the corridor. Perhaps hundreds of thousands. Each looked to be at least seven or eight inches long. That was a lot of beetle.

  “Fall back,” Thorne whispered.

  No one argued.

  They each inched backwards, careful of their footing, as they made their way to the ladder. Darren went up first, followed by Shane. Kinsey was next and Thorne tapped Mike on the shoulder, but he shook his head.

  “You go up,” Mike said. “I can move faster with my legs.”

  It was true. His cybernetic legs were considerably stronger and faster than flesh and bone legs, even ones in as good of shape as Thorne’s.

  Thorne nodded and began to climb.

  Mike stared into the mass of beetles that was slowly moving towards him. He thought about turning on his flashlight to see if they’d shrink back, but that would mean turning off the NVGs, which he wasn’t prepared to do. He’d rather see them in detail then guess at them in shadow.

  “Come on,” Thorne hissed.

  “Coming,” Mike replied.

  He turned to grab the ladder and flinched as his bare arm caught on a rusty burr of metal. The burr sliced into his skin, but not very deep. A thin trickle of blood began to flow from the scratch.

  “Dammit,” Mike said and pressed a hand to the cut.

  “You okay?” Thorne asked.

  “Cut myself,” Mike said. “I’ll be fine. Good thing I’m up on my tetanus shots.”

  “Get up here and we’ll take a look,” Thorne said.

  “On my way,” Mike replied and began to climb.

  A sudden noise made him pause. The noise was like a
motor starting up and coming to life. Not like a gas-powered engine, but more like an electric motor. A clear, distinct hum.

  “You guys turn something on up there?” Mike asked.

  “What? No. Why?” Thorne asked.

  Mike didn’t reply. He had one foot on the ladder, one foot on the ground, and both hands gripping rungs. He turned to look over his shoulder, and it was only his training that kept him from screaming.

  The beetles were on the move. The wriggling mass was now a flying mass as they launched themselves from the walls, the floor, the ceiling, and buzzed right at him.

  “Shut the trapdoor!” Mike yelled up at Thorne and started to climb. “Do it now!”

  “What?” Thorne cried down. But his eyes widened and it was obvious he knew why as the buzzing filled the corridor, becoming a monotonous drone. “Come on! Move your ass, Pearlman!”

  Mike did move his ass. More importantly, he moved the legs attached to his ass. From just below his thighs, the cybernetic legs kicked in and Mike had to struggle to get the rest of his body to keep up with the power that tried to propel him up the ladder.

  He was halfway up when the mass hit him square in the back. All the breath in his lungs whooshed out from the impact. It was like a car had slammed into his spine. He tried to keep his grip on the ladder, but a dozen beetles latched onto his arm, right where the cut was, and began to tear into him with their inch-long mandibles.

  Mike screamed like he’d never screamed before. Even when the IED had blown off his legs, he hadn’t screamed as loud. Back then, he’d been in shock and he couldn’t process the pain. But the beetles were ripping hunks of arm flesh away at a rate of a chunk a second. They hit bone before his scream died away.

  “Mike!” Darren yelled from above and Thorne had to shove him back to keep the man from diving down after him.

  “CLOSE IT!” Mike managed to scream before his throat was ripped out and his body fell to the beetle-covered ground below.

  “DO IT!” Thorne ordered in a voice that God wouldn’t have argued with.

  Shane was out of the room and at the panel in the blink of an eye.

  “Frags out,” Kinsey said, her voice low and menacing as she pulled two grenades from her belt.

  Darren and Thorne didn’t even hesitate. They each pulled two, yanked out the pins, and all three of them dropped the grenades down into the darkness.

  The trapdoor was halfway closed when the grenades went off. A geyser of beetle guts spewed up through the gaps along with more than a few intact specimens. Kinsey stomped most of the intact ones, but Darren managed to spear one with his knife. It wriggled and squirmed for a second then went still.

  The trapdoor was closed, and Team Grendel stared at it with horrified eyes.

  “Return to the ship,” Thorne said. “We relay what we saw to the elves and get the gear we need to wipe that corridor out.”

  There was the clearing of a throat over the com.

  “I do not want to hear your voice, Ballantine,” Thorne said, his own voice thick with emotion.

  “I suppose not, Commander,” Ballantine said. “But you should know that the tunnel system runs in a grid under the entire island. I just thought you should be aware of what we are up against. That corridor was only a tiny fraction of the numbers we’re dealing with.”

  “I want a full report by the time I return,” Thorne ordered. “You will give me every bit of information you have on this island, Ballantine. You hide one fact about one single leaf from one single tree and I split you wide open and toss you down this hole.”

  “Understood,” Ballantine said. “Should I alert the crew as to what has happened?”

  “No,” Darren growled. “You wait. I want to tell Gunnar in person.”

  “We want to tell Gunnar in person,” Kinsey added.

  “You hear that, Ballantine?” Thorne asked as Team Grendel left the shell of the building.

  Outside on the beach, Lucy was standing there, rifle dangling from her hand, tears streaming down her face.

  “I heard that, Vincent,” Ballantine replied.

  Chapter Six: Sitting At The Dock In The Bay, Waiting To Die

  He didn’t want to be hugged, but there was no stopping Darren or Kinsey. At first, he tried to fight them off, but the strength to do so left him almost immediately and he just slumped into the strong arms of his longest, closest, most dearest friends.

  Gunnar sobbed for twenty minutes straight and neither Darren nor Kinsey eased their grip on him for even a fraction of a second as if they were the only ones holding Gunnar together. In a way they were. The three had known each other since childhood, and it was that bond that kept Gunnar from completely falling apart into a million grief-stricken pieces.

  “I don’t want to know details,” Gunnar said when he finally had his voice back. “Do not tell me any details.”

  “Okay, Gun,” Darren said. “We won’t.”

  “It all happened so fast that we don’t have any,” Kinsey said, bending the truth to fit her friend’s needs. “It did happen fast.”

  Gunnar nodded, getting Kinsey’s meaning, although he suspected she was keeping back a couple key facts. He didn’t for a second think that Mike went peacefully or painlessly. Not with what Ballantine had said the beetles were capable of.

  Gunnar gently moved from Darren and Kinsey’s arms and took a heavy seat on a stool by one of the counters. He rested his elbows on the counter and stared at the wall.

  “What’s the plan now?” Gunnar asked. “Where do we go from here?”

  “How do you mean?” Kinsey asked.

  “There really isn’t anywhere to go,” Darren said. “I hate to admit that Ballantine was right, but when it comes to this island, I think he was spot on. We can’t stay here.”

  “Bullshit,” Gunnar said. “While Mike was dying on that island, I was in here with Dana, going over Darby’s test results. She doesn’t have a lot of time. If we don’t get her to a lab with the right equipment, her brain will short circuit and basically seep out her ears.”

  “Not literally, right?” Darren asked.

  “No, not literally,” Gunnar said. “But the effect will be the same. She could be a vegetable in only a few days. Maybe she has a week or two, maybe more, but Dana doesn’t seem too confident of that.”

  “Gun, you can’t worry about Darby right now,” Kinsey said. “Mike just died and you need to come to terms with that.”

  “You two are soldiers,” Gunnar said. “You’ve seen friends die in battle. Hell, since we’ve been with Ballantine, we’ve seen plenty of friends and crewmembers die. Mike is just one more for the list.”

  “My turn to call bullshit,” Darren said. “Mike loved you. You loved him. Not the same as the others.”

  “But it has to be,” Gunnar replied. “If I’m going to be of any use to anyone on this ship, then it has to be the same. I’ll deal with what Mike really meant to me after I get Darby squared away. Until then, I will mourn just like everyone else, but that’s all. No way I’m letting Darby go down because I can’t stow my tears.”

  He shook and fought back a sob, but kept it under control.

  “Gun, no one is asking you to do that,” Kinsey said. “It’s okay to be a mess.”

  “No, it’s not,” Gunnar said. “If either of you was on a mission and someone was killed, would you just give up? You didn’t give up when Mike died. You shut that trapdoor and you got off that island, making sure no one else was killed. I’m a doctor and a scientist. This infirmary, whatever lab we find, that’s my mission. I keep working until the mission is completed. Then I get to fall apart. If I’m still alive.”

  “Jesus, Gun!” Darren snapped. “Do not even think about that!”

  “Think about what?” Gunnar asked.

  “Killing yourself!” Darren exclaimed.

  “What? No, I meant just alive because of this crazy ass island,” Gunnar explained.

  “Oh, well, yeah, you’re right there,” Darren said.

&
nbsp; “For all of us,” Kinsey agreed. She looked about the infirmary. “Where is Darby? Is she in a holding cell?”

  “Sort of,” Gunnar said. “It was kind of Popeye’s idea. We couldn’t find fault with it.”

  “Uh, what does that mean?” Darren asked.

  “Come on,” Gunnar said and slowly got to his feet. “I’ll show you.”

  “Are you sure you’re up for it?” Kinsey asked.

  “Fuck no, but we got shit to do,” Gunnar said. “Better get to it. From what Ballantine says, and that woman you found, we won’t be doing a damn thing except hiding when night comes.”

  Kinsey and Darren both blanched, looked at each other, looked away, then took deep breaths.

  “Shit. It’s that bad?” Gunnar asked.

  “Yeah,” Darren said. “We have no idea how many there are, but there’s a lot.”

  “Then let’s not waste daylight,” Gunnar said. “Come on. I’ll take you to Darby.”

  ***

  Max was by the porthole set into the door of Specimen Bay 1. He was leaning against the door, just staring into the bay, his eyes heavy and sad.

  “Hey,” he muttered as he saw Gunnar, Darren, and Kinsey approach. “Come to see the two o’clock show? You’re gonna love it. If you throw a fish in there, she catches it with her teeth then does a double backflip.”

  He stepped aside so Darren and Kinsey could look in.

  The specimen bay was half-full of water, and floating in a cage in the middle of the surface of that water was Darby. She wasn’t strapped down, but there was a cot bolted into the cage for her to sit on. Her eyes were locked onto the porthole and neither Darren nor Kinsey lasted more than a few seconds before they had to look away.

  “We’ve been having a staring contest,” Max said, taking his place back at the porthole as Darren and Kinsey stepped back. “She keeps winning. Hasn’t blinked in half an hour.”

  “She know about Mike?” Darren asked.

  “Why the fuck would she know about Mike?” Max snapped. “What kind of thing is that to tell someone in her state?”

  “She’s Team Grendel,” Darren said. “Mike was Team Grendel. Doesn’t seem right not to tell her. Maybe it will sink into her brain and some of the old Darby will come back.”