by M H Ryan
Ben collapsed to the floor.
“Is he dead?” Benji asked.
“No. I see his chest moving.” I could tell if he was faking it if I had my senses up, but with Carmen blocking us, I used deduction.
I motioned for Aubrey and Kara to help me as I neared Ben. He lay face down on the floor, with a trickle of blood coming from his nose. I got near his side, standing over him with the intent of placing my knee on his back while the girls grabbed his legs. I’d seen the cops do it on TV enough times to know it must have been a good way to subdue a person. I motioned for Kara and Aubrey and pointed to his legs.
Then Ben moved. Not like the old man that hobbled around, but with speed and force of a person my age.
He swung a knife at me, and I lifted my leg, then stomped on his hand, freeing the knife from his grip. He yelped in pain, rolling onto his back, clutching his hand. There were tears in his eyes, and, for the first time, terror on his face.
“Carmen?” I asked.
“He’s still pushing, Jack but I got his bitch-lying-ass.”
“Ben, if you don’t stop—”
“You don’t get it. I have a purpose here. I keep it at bay. I keep it below. Just like how you awoken the Anyck, I am suppressing the Murrack. You’re going to do here what you did with Danforth, you fools!”
Shaya gasped, and I glanced back at her. She had her hand over her mouth with a shocked expression as she stared at Ben. I had no idea what a Murrack was, but if it was anything like the Anyck we encountered, I didn’t want any of it. I was getting sick of these sea monsters.
More blood trailed from his nose and he cried out in pain, holding his head.
“We could learn a lot from him, Jack,” Emma said. “Just one touch from me.”
“No, it’s too risky.”
“We can’t let him loose,” Aubrey said. “You saw what he could do to us.”
“I can handle him, and I’m not into killing him just because it’s convenient,” Carmen said. “He could know where things are hidden, like the black stones.”
“Oh, so that’s what you want?” Cass said hotly. “You’ve been looking for stones since we got you.”
“No, I haven’t.”
“I’ve seen you searching the island, picking up black stones by the dozen, but not the black stones. We put those in the tar pit,” Cass said.
“Stop it,” Sherri said. “Jack, what do you want to do with him?”
I thought about it, taking in what we had around us and what we might be able to do with it all. Then it struck me, or weighed on me.
“You know what? Fuck this guy. We know what we can do, but he has no idea what all of us can do. What does he know? We got down here without much trouble, while his ass has been stuck down here for a long time. Sherri, you ready to tear him apart from the inside?” I asked.
“Fuck yeah,” Sherri said, straightening up and looking as deadly as I’ve ever seen her.
“Cass, you ready to fold him up?”
“Just give me a reason, old man,” Cass said, rubbing her hands together and taking a step closer to him.
I kneeled, getting closer to the old man’s face. “As you can see, we can kill you with a snap of a finger. You might get to one of us, or maybe two, but all of us can kill you, and do you really think you can get away with what you pulled a second time? Tell me, Ben, do you feel lucky?”
“I won’t try anything. I swear.”
“Carmen, drop the shield.”
Carmen took a deep breath and then I felt the senses crash back to me. Ben’s anger and fear washed over me, his guarded, false feelings all but gone.
Benji’s bow creaked as she pulled the string back tighter.
“Okay?” Ben said, holding up his hands. “You got me. Can I get to my feet?”
“No,” I said. “Not until you answer some basic questions.”
Ben wiped the blood from his nose and looked at the smear again. “Can I clean myself? I hate the sight of blood and the smell of it.”
“Tough shit,” I said. “And if you waste my time with one more question, Benji will put an arrow in your knee.”
Benji adjusted her aim.
“Now, what is this place?”
“My prison,” Ben said, wiping his face again.
“You said you’re holding something back. Something that was like the Anyck?”
Ben let out a chuckle. “Not much of a comparison. More like a puppy versus a wolf. What’s below us right now is more terrifying than words can describe. The Murrack…your Shultar slave could tell you. You just better hope that shit you just pulled didn’t give it the chance it’s been looking for.”
I glanced back at Shaya, and she looked terrified.
“She can’t speak, can she?” Ben said. “My father’s legacy lives on in all of us. Bastard. Surprised you haven’t fixed her, but you all look new to this place…I can’t believe my father hasn’t found you yet.”
He was steering the conversation, which annoyed me, but he went right to my next question anyway.
“What or who is this king, your father?”
Ben laughed. “He’s the ruler of the islands and the most powerful being in all the lands. I imagine the only reason you are alive is sheer luck. That will run out. He has a…” Ben’s lips thinned.
“He has a what?”
Ben shook his head.
“Benji—”
“No,” Ben said.
“Then, keep talking.”
“I feel it. It’s moved closer, more powerful.”
More blood poured from Ben’s nose.
“What?” Ben said, spitting some of it from his mouth. “No…it’s here. I need to tell them before it’s too late.”
I reached out, trying to sense if we were still alone, but only felt the eels and a few fish from the ocean.
Ben got to his hands and knees and crawled toward a panel on the wall near the TVs. I waved off Benji, but we collectively moved closer to Ben.
He opened a panel and punched in a code.
The wall opened up, and a small room became visible on the other side. I caught a glimpse of a single TV with a camera straight over it. The screen flickered on, but I couldn’t make out the image.
“I’m sorry! But it’s coming!” He had his hands over his head.
“How far away is the king?” I demanded.
The TV flickered off.
Ben’s screams lessened while blood kept flowing from his nose. I know that look now; I’ve seen it more times than I wanted to recall. The moment when they knew they were going to die and nothing they could do would stop it.
Ben moved out of the small room and slammed the door. A calm came over Ben, and he made eye contact with me.
“My dad? He’s far away. At the center, beyond the great barrier.” He was telling the truth. “Days away with his fastest pathers.”
“Can he hurt us here?”
“Not you. You don’t have his blood. Why did you do this, Dad?”
“Listen, I’m sorry this is happening to you, but help us. We have people we love out there. People that need our help.”
“He will wash over you like a tsunami and leave nothing behind. If you truly wanted to be rid of him, you’d leave these islands.”
“How do we leave?” Aubrey jumped in.
Ben smiled. “The same way you came in.”
“Have you seen anyone from our group?” Sherri said in a rush.
“I’ve seen a few, and a new ship as well,” Ben said, quiet enough that I struggled to hear him.
“What’s in the room?” I asked, motioning to the closed door he leaned against.
“The end and the beginning,” Ben muttered and then went blank.
It was an eerie feeling, being present in someone or something’s mind when it died, and I understood why Ben didn’t like it. I could feel the fleeting moment while they seemed to be here for one second and then they drift to another place for the briefest of moments before being gone entirely.
“Tell us where they are!” Sherri said, getting closer to Ben.
“He’s dead,” I said.
“No!” Aubrey said. “He knew everything about this place. He can’t be dead. He’s the kid of the king. How the hell is that possible? He’s like a hundred.”
“I don’t know,” I said, grabbing Ben by the hand and pulling his body away from the door.
“What are you doing?” Kara asked.
“We’re opening that door and talking to the asshole behind this all.”
Chapter 14
“3264,” Eliza said. “I saw him punch in the numbers.”
“Hey, a Fibonacci sequence…thirty-two and sixty-four,” Sherri said.
Most of us gazed at Sherri, who just shrugged. “It’s just a pattern in nature and other stuff.”
I typed the numbers into the keypad, and the door clicked open a half an inch.
“Everyone get behind the door and hug the wall. I don’t want him seeing any of you.”
With the girls out of sight, I pulled the metal door open and stepped into the room. It reminded me of one of those confessionals you saw on TV reality shows, where some guy would come in and tell the camera all the horrible deeds he had planned or where another person would go to have a private breakdown.
Inside the tiny space sat a chair, directly in front of a TV, with an old-looking security camera positioned on top. A microphone sat on top of the camera, pointed straight ahead.
I stepped into the room, keeping my foot on the door in case it had some automatic close thing activated. The TV flickered to life, crackling with static as the image stabilized. On the screen wasn’t the man or the king, but a woman.
She had to be the most attractive woman I had ever seen on a black and white TV. I blinked a few times, to see if her beauty was some trick of the screen. Her jet-black hair hung far below her chest, and the camera angle only lasted to about her hips. Her clothes looked like a thin layer of silk that gripped her body. Her skin appeared to be milk-white, and she gazed at me with light eyes. She smiled at my obvious admiration. I liked her smile, friendly and comforting as if she knew everything in the world, and just a moment of me snuggling against her large breasts would bring a joy I’d never experienced before.
“Can you speak?” she asked. “Or is Ben doing that freeze trick I taught him?”
“Um—” I stammered, quickly gathering my thoughts. “I thought you would be the king. Who are you?”
“You’re lucky I’m not the king. I doubt he’s even aware of you yet, with you being alive and whatnot.”
“Did you kill Ben?”
“Is Ben dead?”
“Yes.”
She didn’t seem to be bothered by the news.
“The king has so many things tied off to this world. Losing Ben is a good thing for us, but how did you…” She looked sharply at me. “You have a blocker. You must.” It wasn’t a question, and I steeled my face, trying not to reveal any information to her.
“I’m alone,” I said.
“Why lie? I saw all you and those pretties with you. If the king saw them, he would come himself and find you guys. Don’t worry. I’m not telling on you.”
Taking an introduction page from Ben, I asked, “My name is Jack. Who are you?”
“We’ve met once before, dearie, but under different circumstances. The chimp on your shores. I’m Lyra—in the flesh, if you will.”
A gasp came from behind the door. Good, I was glad the girls could hear this conversation.
“Yes, that chimp creeped us out. How did you do that?”
“Oh dearie, there are so many things that we can do given the right encouragement. I could teach you many things.” She tilted her head and slid her arms closer, pushing her chest up and out from sheer top.
“Can you tell us where our friends are?”
“Honey, you are rushing this. I’ve been with enough young men to know that you like things happening quickly, and I need that expeditious nature right now. I need you, and you need me if you ever want to get off these islands.”
“Do you know a way out of here…back to where we came from?”
“Of course,” she said and then looked at something off-camera.
I noticed the room around her wasn’t much different than this room—a tiny space with black walls and a light overhead.
“Then tell me,” I said, getting up off my seat a couple of inches.
“Oh, dear, I don’t do well with demands but I do need you. The whole fate of the world depends on it. Come find me and hurry. Killing Ben is going to have consequences. Mostly good. I haven’t seen Murrack in a long time, but the king will be alerted to this change, eventually. No matter, come to me, dearie, help me and I can get you all home.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m under the great tree, on the other side.”
“Other side of what?”
“Hurry, Jack. We don’t have much time.”
“Listen, all we want is our friends back, and then we’re gone. We don’t have time—”
The TV screen blacked out for a second and then went to nothing but static.
“Shit,” I said and hit the top of the TV. “Are you there?” The screen went to static.
I stormed out of the room and slammed the door. It bounced back open and I proceeded to kick it a few times until it stayed shut.
“Jack,” Benji said, touching my shoulder with her soft hands.
“I swear,” I said, brushing back my hair. “Every time we get close to figuring out this world, it slips away from us. She had the answers. Ben had the answers. I could have gotten more out of her.”
“You did your best,” Sherri said. “She wasn’t going to tell us anything more than she wanted, and what she really wants is for us to get to her. She baited her hook thinking we’d be stupid enough to bite.”
“She said she knew how to get off this island. She could be our way home,” Aubrey said.
“Yeah, well, after we get the last girls,” Kara said. “I’m not leaving anyone out there alone. They could be on an island like I started on. They could be in a hell right now.”
With my blood pressure lowering, I said, “We’re not leaving as long as we have a chance of getting everyone first. Then we can work on getting out of here, but right now, we have three more ladies out there that need us. And we already know where Hanna is.”
“Hanna,” Cass said with a deep breath.
“She’s amazing,” Emma said. “A true force of nature. I pity the poor souls trying to contain her.”
Aubrey laughed. “Remember the time that guy tried to mug her?”
“She sent him to the hospital with a broken nose and one busted ball,” Sherri said, cackling.
“She sounds awesome,” Eliza said. “I haven’t met her, but I have a good feeling about her.”
“She could be trouble,” Cass said and then threw her hands up at the glares. “What? I mean, you guys don’t remember her campaign to get rid of Sherri as house leader? And what about the time she threw a party in the backyard, even though it was against the rules? We almost lost the sorority. Plus, she kind of talks down to some of the girls… Like we aren’t as smart as her or something.”
“None of us are as smart as her,” Aubrey said, shaking her head.
“Well, things are different here. Plus, we have Jack,” Benji said.
“He put your ass in place,” Kara said to Cass.
“Hanna and I are like peas and carrots—” Emma started to say.
“Forrest Gump,” Benji whispered.
“So if she gets out of line, I’ll beat her back in place.” Emma hefted her modified bat for emphasis.
“Hey, people, you know we have a dead body right here, right?” Carmen said, staring at Ben on the ground.
“Oh shit, I actually forgot,” Aubrey said. “What are we going to do with the stiff?”
“There’s probably some way of getting rid of waste in this place. I saw a door n
ear the kitchen. We should make sure there aren’t any more surprises in this place.”
Chapter 15
The door past the kitchen led to a hallway with one functioning ceiling light, giving the long hall a dim glow. My nose wrinkled as I took in the faint, fishy smell.
Well, time to do some exploring and see what old Ben had going on here.
There were several more doors in the hall, all steel doors much like we’d find back on the ship. I stood next to the door and looked back at the girls.
“Go on, Jack. You’re like Monty Hall, let’s see what’s behind door number one,” Benji said.
“Wow,” Aubrey said. “That is one old-ass reference, and I am sad that I got it.”
I opened the door, and what it held inside had the girls gasping and falling over themselves. In the bedroom sat a regular bed. The not-so-clean-sheets covering it tempered their enthusiasm some, but not much. I guess when you’ve been neck-deep in bird carcass soup, old man dander doesn’t seem so bad.
Door number two in the hallway held a bathroom with a shower, a metal toilet, and a sink. It became evident that most of the stuff in the place was from a ship salvage. Much like what our home was turning into. We wondered aloud as we explored, if that’s how they had any tech on these islands. Were the wires taken off the ships and the security cameras? Were TVs collected and repurposed? There didn’t seem to be any industry on these islands, and no way of making things, so was all this just stuff caught in the flytrap of these islands?
Next, we found a storage room that had lost its purpose. The nearly empty shelves were a sad sight, and it made me wonder about Ben. Whatever his plan had been in life, I doubt it was living for much longer, with only a few cans of food left, but then we found the next room, and I solved two things in there: what Ben was eating and where the fishy smell was coming from.
It was a small room with what Benji took as a wishing well near the far wall. The salty smell of ocean water, and the overwhelming smell of a few cast-off fish carcasses in the room, gave us the idea that this water led right into the ocean. Ben probably drew fish in here with his power and could have had them jump right out of the wishing well and onto the floor. We thought it might be a place we could leave by, but Benji quickly confirmed the hole leading in wasn’t much bigger than my leg. The idea of getting stuck underwater, trying to wedge out from a hole, freaked us all out enough to rule that exit out.