by Greg Boose
Tunick laughs and spits another white glob into the darkness. His face falls and his voice grows grave and low. “There was no accident. The kids, we escaped. And Thetis, you should know, is a very bad place to be.”
Chapter Nine
Jonah stares at the man. “Wait. Is it you? Did you do all this? Did you kill… Where are the adults from our ship?”
“Oh shit,” Malix whispers.
“Shoot him,” Hopper whispers. “Shoot him in the face.”
The camp forgets Tunick’s last statement about Thetis, and the cadets readjust their weapons. The demics push back against wall. This unhinged man could surely be the killer, Jonah thinks. And now they have him. It’s over. Is it over?
Tunick rattles his head back and forth before gnawing on the skin between his thumb and index finger. “What adults? Adults? I haven’t seen any adults. I watched you kiddos in the jungle. No adults.”
“Kids are free now?” Brooklyn seethes. “You want us to run? Is that what you want?”
Tunick spits and turns to look at her. “We don’t need to run, tiny one. We can walk. Unless you want the exercise. I like to stay in shape myself. I’ll show you my little gym. But we don’t have to run. And we’ll bring your dog, Kippy, too.”
Heat courses over Jonah’s skin as he thinks back to what just happened in the sphere with Kip. His trigger finger sweats.
“I’m going to ask you this just one time,” Vespa says. “Did you hang a man in the jungle and write on his shirt?”
“And on the beach!” Malix barks. “You killed four people and cut up their faces!”
Tunick playfully bats his cheeks in rhythm. “What? Oh, no. No, no, no. That must have been Zion.”
“Who the hell is Zion?” Vespa roars.
“I’m the good guy and he’s the bad guy. He doesn’t like outsiders. No, he’ll kill you. With his big, big hands. Can you put your guns down now? I’m nervous. I’m so nervous now.”
“What do you know about that room back there?” Malix growls, jutting the barrel of his rifle at the sphere’s opening. “The one with the conveyer belt and the portal and all the shit on the walls? What is it?”
Tunick sidesteps and peeks inside the door. When he looks back, his face is twisted with an intense look of grief. “You guys…you guys are smart. Next time wait for me. My turn next time, okay?”
“One of us disappeared in there and hasn’t come back,” Aussie whispers. “Where is he? Where’s Kip? Please tell us.”
Tunick cracks a fake smile and takes a deep breath. “I don’t know, I don’t know. Too bad you lost the dog, though.”
Portis marches forward with his gun aimed right at Tunick’s face. “He’s not a fucking dog! He’s a kid! Where did he go?”
Tunick snaps his fingers next to both his ears and then bites the air next to his mouth. “I don’t know.”
Portis presses the rifle into Tunick’s forehead, pushing the man flat against the wall. “Tell us what the fuck is going on.”
“You’re a dead man,” Vespa seethes. She presses her rifle right next to Portis’s. “Answer us. You’ve been setting fires, chasing us and killing us. And now you’re going to answer us.”
Tunick puts his palms up in surrender. “I just live here. I saw you crash and I came to find you. I don’t know where your Kippy went. You never know where you’ll go inside one of those rooms. But as regards the other stuff—the killing and the chasing—well, you must have made Zion angry. What did you do? What did you do?”
Jonah wipes his sweaty hand on his jumpsuit and then aims at the man again. He wishes he would just give them a straight answer.
“We didn’t do anything, ya freak,” Hopper says.
“Nothing,” Aussie says from behind a blank-faced Bidson. “All we did was crash here. We’re just trying to get rescued.”
Portis presses the gun harder into the man’s skull. “Where are the adults? Are they all dead? Did Zion kill them all? Is he going to kill us, too?”
“What do all the messages mean? Why do we have to run? Why are kids free now? That’s what was written on their shirts,” Brooklyn says.
Tunick scratches his beard hard and struggles against the two barrels against his head. “Weird, weird. Straaaaange. I don’t know. You must be free now. That sounds so nice, right? You can do what you want. You can take anything. Anything, anything. Verve, verve, verve. But you must be smart about it, though. You’re free, but be smart. Zion will like you if you’re smart. Then he can trust you. Then you can be with him.”
The kids stare at each other in confusion.
“Where does he want us to run to?” Jonah asks.
“I don’t know, I don’t know,” Tunick says. “Run there? Run here? Run everywhere? Maybe he wanted you to run here, so you should come with me now, and I’ll introduce you to my sister, and I’ll show you my collections, and you can rest and we can talk, and I’ll show you Achilles because it’s the most beautiful place you’ll ever see, and say, uh, do you have any food I might have? I haven’t eaten anything synthetic in over a year. Chocolate, maybe? Do you have chocolate?”
Without checking with Vespa or anyone else, Bidson opens his pack and tosses one of the thin boxes to Tunick. Vespa and Portis back away with their guns raised. The man rips open the gold foil, and when the steam hits his face, it’s the first time that he stands still. He inhales the fumes and instantly saliva coats his lips. Tunick then hawks up a bright white seed or stone out of his mouth, and it pings into the darkness. The rest of the foil is torn away, revealing thinly sliced roast beef, mashed potatoes, carrot sticks, a bread roll, and a thick chocolate brownie. Tunick buries his face into the brownie and then moves the tray back and forth until everything is gone. He wipes his face with his arm, barely removing any of the food mess, and then belches.
Hopper laughs. “Um, that was kind of awesome, dude. You’re like a vacuum.”
The man smiles and belches again, and then he wings the tray over his shoulder.
“How did you get here?” Jonah asks. “Did you swim or did you make a raft or what? We didn’t see you following us.”
“No, no, no, no, no. Swim? Ha! Are you mad? Are you crazy? I used the reef. If you were smarter, you would have used the reef.”
“What reef?” Malix asks.
Tunick dips a hand into the small green pack that hangs from his hip and pulls out another white seed. He stuffs it into his cheek and says, “I’ll show you the reef and then my home. Come, come, come.” The man turns and nods at Brooklyn as he squeezes past her. “You, too. Come to the reef!”
“Wait!” Vespa calls after him. “What about our friend? We have to get the white thing in there started again so we can get him back! Right now! Come back here!”
“Those only work once.” Tunick turns around. It looks like he’s in pain. “Your Kippy dog friend won’t be coming back. My turn next time, okay?” Then he starts down the tunnel again. “This way to the reef!”
The group looks at each other and then back at the door of the sphere. Jonah doesn’t know what to say. Can they just walk away? Every couple hours, someone else is left behind. How long until it’s him? And when are his eyes going to give him away?
“We need to go west!” Brooklyn shouts.
“Yes! West! We’ll go west! Yes, west! Yest! Wes! This way to the reef, hurry. There are white spider-y things. They’re hungry. They…” And his voice gets softer and more distant until it’s nothing more than a faint series of mumbles.
“What do you think?” Brooklyn asks Vespa.
“We can’t let him get away,” Vespa says.
“I think we need to move anyway. Whoever is following us, this Zion guy, could be up on the edge right now trying to figure out which cave we’re in,” Michael says.
“I agree,” Christina says. “We have to stop stopping.”
“But that doesn’t mean we have to follow this guy! He’s freaking nuts!” Portis yells.
“He scares me,” Bidson mumbles f
rom under his arm. “And we can’t leave without Kip.”
“Hate to say it, but it sounds like he’s a goner, which totally sucks, guys. I mean it, he was my friend,” Hopper whispers. He swallows hard and then grabs the lantern out of Michael’s hand. “But we have to follow this guy. How else are we going to get out of here? Ya freaks want to climb up the sides of the crater? Especially if this Zion guy is up there waiting for us with a knife between his teeth?”
Vespa looks toward the cave’s front entrance, her eyes blank as paper. She then asks, “What do you think, Jonah?”
Jonah stares at the floor and then up at the star high on the wall. “Let’s follow him.”
“You heard the man. Let’s go,” Vespa says.
• • •
The tunnels wind like snakes, and Tunick jogs too far ahead at times, but he always runs back laughing, apologizing, urging them to move faster. Jonah keeps his eyes open for more symbols, anything to try to get Kip back. He thinks he’s made a mistake, leaving instead of trying harder. But Tunick could have answers. Jonah jogs behind Brooklyn and tells her what happened in the sphere. She listens, asks questions, and tries to keep up with Tunick, but she loses her cool after a few minutes and demands the man slow down, that she’s feeling sick. Tunick just picks up more speed.
Cool air shoots past them after another twenty minutes. Soon, Jonah hears water lapping on the beach, and then over Brooklyn’s shoulders, he sees a pale triangle of Peleus moonlight. They spill out of the base of the mountain and find themselves at the foot of another path through the vegetation, just like the one Christina and Malix found on the other side. Tunick waits impatiently as the kids stop and drink water; he hops around giggling for a few seconds before lunging to put Michael in a quick headlock, and then he begins to shadow-box the air. He moves furiously, his arms whipping back and forth like pistons. His energy amazes Jonah. It seems as if the guy could run straight up one of these trees and jump to the top of the next one, top-to-top, top-to-top, all the way around the island.
Tunick boxes his way over to Jonah, and when no one seems to be looking, he snatches Jonah hard by the elbow and whispers, “Do you want to see the reef now, smart boy? Are you feeling lim-ber? Are you feeling…light on your feet?” His breath is sour and suffocating, a cloud of rotten flesh. Jonah gives a nervous laugh and tries to back away, but Tunick only pulls him closer, his fingers tightening around his elbow. His voice turns serious. “Soon, smart boy, you’ll be very light on your feet, I guarantee it. Ooh, boy. You’re going to like it.”
Jonah wrenches his arm away. He places his hand on the strap of his rifle as a warning.
“All right.” Brooklyn squeezes between Jonah and Tunick. “We’re ready when you are, madman. Just don’t lose us.”
Tunick keeps staring at Jonah and then spins away, laughing and clapping his hands. He opens the pack on his hip and tosses two more white seeds into his mouth. He then stops suddenly as if he’s seen a ghost, and he waves his arms wildly over his head, like he’s communicating with something in the sky. He screams nonsense at the air above his head and then pounds his fists against his temples. Before Jonah can ask what he’s doing, Tunick relaxes with a smile. “Okay, okay, okay. They’re gone. They’ll leave me alone for a while. This way, ladies and gentlemen. To the reef with us!”
“Just wait!” Jonah shouts, but Tunick runs down the path. Jonah gives chase with the rest of the kids close behind, and he worries about where this man will actually lead them, if they’re headed for a reef or some kind of trap. He can still feel Tunick’s fingers around his elbow and taste his breath in his mouth. Tunick ducks between a couple of partially uprooted trees and then skips into an open stretch of tropical flowers and wispy black weeds. Then the man hits an all-out sprint. Jonah’s legs feel surprisingly strong, and he pumps his arms, clearing ten feet at a time. Soon, he’s only a few paces behind. Tunick makes a sudden left and speeds through a line of trees. They reach the gray beach in no time.
As they stop to catch their breath, Jonah turns to see Brooklyn rocking back and forth on her heels. She looks nauseous, her throat tightening.
“Hey,” Jonah asks. “What’s going on with you?”
She squints and forces a smile. “Think I have some kind of flu or something. I’ll be okay.”
“You sure?”
“Of course, ca-dick. Relax.”
Tunick scoops up an armful of sand and attempts to dropkick it. “Good, good! You guys are so good! I’m so glad you’re here. Oh man! It’s been a long time, a long time. Okay, the reef now. I want you to meet my good friend. He’s the best.”
He runs toward the water, and once his feet get wet, he darts right, parallel with the sea line. This time the kids are hot on his trail, even Bidson and a struggling Brooklyn, all of them seemingly invigorated by Tunick’s energy and the possibility of leaving the island without getting back on their rafts. Off on their left, the shadowy mainland looms with mountains, surprisingly just half a mile away or less. The shore curves right, and around the bend, Jonah sees a winding white shadow stretching through the water.
“Look, look!” Tunick points to the sea, his dirty index finger jutting back and forth so fast it’s a blur. “It’s not so bad. You just have to keep moving, and be mindful of the zims, ’cause they’ll bite ya! They’ll bite ya right in the neck. Look at my neck.” He leans his head to the side, showing Jonah a cluster of tiny welts that remind him of the school of silvery scars lining his own back. “They’re like piranhas but meaner, and they feed on the reef, right at the surface of the water. But just follow me and you’ll be fine.” Tunick spits a sticky white line of saliva over his shoulder and then spins around so he can address the group. “Just follow me, step where I step, do as I do, keep moving and dodge the zims.”
“What are the zims?” Michael asks.
“They’re like piranhas, but meaner.” Jonah shrugs. He makes eye contact with Vespa and Brooklyn, the two of them displaying the same look of apprehension.
Tunick pulls back and puts his finger to his lips to shush them all, but no one is speaking. He rolls his big green eyes from side to side and then pounds the heel of his palm against his temple. “Okay, they keep talking to me, but I need to focus on the reef. We ready to focus?” Then he’s off like a shot, high stepping into the sea until he dives over a low wave. “Now, now, now!” he yells, standing up to his waist. The reef rises out of the water a dozen feet in front of him, a skeletal on-ramp to an ancient highway.
“That guy is out of his fucking mind,” Portis says.
“An obvious case of schizophrenia,” Michael says. “Notice the disorganized speech, the paranoia.” They all watch Tunick pull himself on top of the reef. The man whips his hands around his knees as if battling a swarm of invisible bees. “And possible hallucinations brought on by social isolation.”
“But do you guys trust him?” Jonah asks. “Because I don’t. What if he was wrong about that room and getting Kip back?”
“I don’t know if I trust him, but I think I love him,” Hopper says. “The guy’s a freaking riot. I want him to be like my big brother or my dad or something.”
“You’re an idiot,” Vespa says.
“Let’s just get back to the mainland and reassess things. Decide if we want to follow him any farther,” Brooklyn says, clenching her eyes in pain. “If he tries anything, we lose him, one way or another.”
“I like what I hear,” Vespa says, draping her arm over the demic’s shoulder.
“I bet he knows this moon inside and out,” Michael says. “He could be indispensable. He could even be our ticket off this place somehow.”
“Sure, he could, maybe, but this dude could also be our demise. Look at him out there,” Malix says, nodding at Tunick who gnaws on his elbow like a dog with a new bone. “He’s obviously messed up.”
Vespa checks her rifle. “I just want him to introduce us to this Zion guy. Then show us how to get west. And quickly.” She nods at Jonah, acknowledging
his secret disease and its ticking clock. He blushes and then nods back, even though he doesn’t feel like it.
Aussie begins to walk toward the water. Her voice is frantic. “We have to keep running. We have to run. We have to keep running. We have to run. We have…”
Soon, all the kids are in the dark water, swimming for the reef with prayers that whatever’s below them—be it zims or the translucent airplane monsters from the day before or something else—won’t feast again until daybreak. Tunick jumps farther down the reef, and when Vespa says they’re ready, the man claps his hands and then rubs his fingers together over the ends of his dreadlocks. “Watch me, watch me. There are some places that are a little—”
A piece of coral breaks under the man’s bare foot, and Tunick tumbles into the water with shrieking laughter. The kids gasp and Aussie yells about the zims, but it’s not a second before Hopper reaches down and offers Tunick a hand. “Thanks, partner. Thanks, mate. What’s your name, Mr. Mustache?”
“Jules Hopper. But just call me Hopper like everyone else.”
“Hopper Hoppy Happy. I’m choosing you, Hopper Happy. I’m choosing you, too.” The man then yells up at the stars: “I’m choosing this one, too! Mr. Hoppers!”
“Okaaaay, man.” Hopper laughs. “Sure thing.”
“You’ve been chosen now.”
“You’re choosing him for what?” Jonah asks. “What are you talking about?”
“You, too, smart boy. You have some legs. I’ve chosen you, too. I already told them about you. Now, okay, let’s go before we wake the zims. Come on, Happy Hopper. Hop this way!”
Tunick spins and hustles over the reef. Jonah tries to keep up, running over the skeletal structure like a kid during the first five seconds of recess. He runs and attempts to open his mind, wanting that feeling from the sphere back, before Kip disappeared. Something was happening inside him. He just wishes he knew what it was. Maybe Tunick will know.