Radioactive

by Vanessa Acton

  The prisoners’ eyes widen in surprise, but the straps over their mouths keep them silent.

  Zack runs across the room so fast that he almost wipes out on the slippery tile floor. “Ben! I’m here, I’ve got you—”

  “Just a minute, Mr. Silver.”

  Zack freezes. He knows that voice. But it doesn’t belong here . . . unless . . .

  He turns.

  Standing at the far end of the row of chairs is Felix Halwin.

  Chapter 13

  “Grandpa,” Nola stammers. “What . . . what are you doing here?”

  Hal spreads his hands and shrugs. “Sometimes I get tired of my house. Nice to get a little privacy.”

  Zack’s fists clench at his sides. “You’re Talbot.”

  Unchanging eyes. Small smile. Halwin’s shirt is open at the collar, and Zack can see the symbol stamped on his skin. It’s not a tattoo after all. It’s been burned on, the way some animals are marked with branding irons.

  “You told us about the curse,” Nola says. “You gave Zack the tape . . .”

  “I was hoping you’d figure it out. You have a right to know.” Another shrug. “I’m not the one who wanted to keep this secret. It was everyone else. The military, the government, my fellow local leaders. Personally, I always thought it should be out in the open. But as I told you, I made a bad bargain. And my skills make people nervous. My work scares people. As if anything I do is more frightening than splitting an atom.”

  Nola is shaking so hard that Lamar puts his arms around her to hold her steady. “How could you do this?”

  “I did what I had to do, Nola. To protect my home. To make it safe for the future. Safe for you.”

  “But the kidnapping!” She gestures helplessly at the three prisoners. “What are you doing to these people? What kind of experiments . . .”

  “My dear Nola, I’m an alchemist. I’m looking for ways to lengthen lives—besides my own. I’m trying to cure diseases. I’m transforming my starting materials into something much greater.”

  “You’re out of your mind, sir,” says Lamar matter-of-factly. “You can’t keep these people here.”

  “Yes, I can, Mr. Wyatt. That was the bargain. I cleaned up the government’s mess. And in return I could do my work.”

  “Let them go,” says Zack. He won’t let himself look at Ben. He wouldn’t be able to handle the fear in Ben’s eyes. He focuses on Halwin. Refuses to blink. “It’s not their fault this place is cursed. They didn’t have anything to do with Project Pandora.”

  “You think this place is cursed because of what happened here? No, Mr. Silver. Something terrible has happened on every inch of this planet, at one time or another. That’s normal. Wardwell Island is cursed because people insisted on reversing their actions. Commander Nish came to me, begged me to undo his mistake. It’s very difficult to freeze time, to build a wall between decisions and their consequences. And there’s a price for it. A very heavy price.”

  “But why should they have to pay it?” Zack waves his arm at the prisoners. His brother. “We didn’t agree to this bargain. We weren’t here. We weren’t even born!”

  “Doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. Every person alive today exists because of the people who came before them. Some of those people did terrible things to make your existence possible. I’m not saying that’s your fault, son. But you can’t pretend it has nothing to do with you. You’re built from blood and sweat and tears, just like the rest of us. And just like the rest of us, sometimes you have to answer for crimes you didn’t commit.”

  “Fine,” snaps Zack. “Then let my brother go and use me instead.”

  “No!” Nola screams. “Grandpa, just tell us how to break the curse. Please.”

  The usual spark in Halwin’s eyes softens. He looks almost gentle now. It takes Zack a moment to recognize the expression for what it is: pity.

  “Haven’t you been listening, Nola? There is no way to break the curse.”

  Chapter 14

  “Let me put it another way,” Halwin says to Nola. “You and Mr. Wyatt are free to leave whenever you like. And if you want to take Mr. Silver and these other folks with you, you can do that too. But freeing them would break the deal. Not the curse. And you understand what breaking the deal means, don’t you? It means I can’t keep collecting people for my experiments. But it also means I can’t keep holding back that radioactive material. So it starts leaking out. Up into the soil, the groundwater, the air. And it starts slowly killing this island. That’s the tradeoff you’d make, by ending this bargain. Are you willing to make that call? On behalf of everyone on Wardwell Island?”

  Nola draws herself up. Zack sees her fight to control the shaking. Lamar sees it too. He drops his arms, steps back. “Sixty years ago, you made a decision on behalf of everyone on Wardwell Island. Including people who weren’t born yet. And visitors who don’t even live here.”

  “I chose the lesser of two evils,” the old man says. “A handful of tourists, compared to three generations of islanders. Compared to clean water and air and—”

  “Yeah, I get it,” she snaps. “But my point is, you chose which evil was lesser. And now maybe it’s our turn to choose.”

  Halwin spreads his hands again, as if to reassure her. “You’re absolutely right. Just choose carefully, Nola. Because there’s no going back this time. You won’t be able to change your mind and undo your choice. That’s another condition of the original bargain. You break it, you bought it.”

  “Are you sure about that?” asks Lamar. “Technology’s come a long way in the past sixty years. Maybe the government or the military can do something to block the radiation. Something they didn’t know how to do back then.”

  “It’s possible, I suppose,” Halwin says neutrally, like they’re disagreeing about who will win the Super Bowl. “I doubt they’d be willing to go to the trouble, though.”

  “If we exposed what happened,” Zack says. His throat has closed up. He can barely choke out a few words at a time. “If we told the world that Project Pandora caused a radiation leak. If we proved it. Then they’d have to do something. They’d have to try, at least.”

  Halwin smiles sadly. “Counting on that would be a big risk.”

  “But you won’t stop us if we decide to take that risk,” Lamar says carefully.

  “Stop you from letting toxic particles invade the surface of this planet? No, I won’t stop you. I can’t. Is that your choice?”

  Lamar looks at Nola. She looks at Zack, and past him at the prisoners. She takes a deep breath. “Yes. That’s our choice.”

  The last of the hardness seeps out of Halwin’s face. He suddenly looks very old.

  The floor lurches. Nola and Lamar hold on to each other to keep their balance. Zack sways but manages not to fall.

  “You’d better hurry then,” says Halwin quietly. “This building was part of the deal. It won’t last much longer.” He checks his watch. “In fact, I’d say you’ve got about sixty seconds.”

  Zack races over to Ben. He starts undoing the straps and clamps that hold his brother in place. Sweat slides between his fingers, making him fumble. Meanwhile, Lamar and Nola start working to free the other two prisoners. And Halwin just stands there, looking at his watch.

  The floor shifts beneath them again. Zack braces himself against the chair. Ben sobs, terrified. “It’s okay, buddy. We’re getting out of here. Hold still while I undo this last one . . .”

  The final restraint snaps open. Ben stumbles out of the chair. Zack pulls him into a fierce hug. The room tilts wildly to one side and then moves back. It reminds Zack of a teeter-totter on a playground. “Forty-five seconds,” says Halwin.

  Lamar helps Mrs. Dyson out of her chair. The old lady is breathing fast but otherwise seems to be in decent shape. Nola’s hands shake, slowing her down. But one of Jeff’s arms is free now and he’s working on the restraints he can reach. As soon as he’s out of the chair, Nola turns to Halwin.

  In a small voice, she a
sks, “What about you?”

  Over Ben’s head, Zack looks at the old man again. Halwin doesn’t look angry, or afraid, or anything at all. “I’ll be fine, Nola. Don’t worry about me. Worry about the future. Twenty seconds.”

  Lamar takes Nola’s arm. “Come on.”

  “Eighteen seconds.”

  They run for the stairs.

  The explosion starts far below them, deep in the earth. They feel it swelling, rising, getting closer. They take the stairs two at a time. Luckily Mrs. Dyson works out a lot and has strong bones.

  Jeff Aberthol reaches the landing first. The stairwell door won’t open for him. Lamar waves his ring under the scanner, and they’re through.

  The rumbling beneath them grows louder, more powerful. Closer, closer . . .

  They sprint through the dark, crumbling hallway on the ground level. Lamar has his ring ready. The front door opens.

  Zack’s the last one out. He’s just barely cleared the door when the building blows up.

  Chapter 15

  He can’t breathe. Possibly because his face is smashed against the ground. Possibly because his whole body has just flown through the air and landed with bone-crunching force.

  Either way, he tries to sit up. He spits out what’s clogging his mouth. Dirt, and maybe blood.

  Hands grip both his arms. Nola and Lamar haul him to his feet. Ben tackles him from the front, slamming him with a hug.

  “You okay?” Lamar asks, coughing.

  “Yeah,” wheezes Zack. “I think so.”

  He glances over his shoulder. The building is a mass of flames.

  “That wasn’t a nuclear explosion, was it?” Lamar says.

  Zack shakes his head. “If it was, we would’ve been vaporized.”

  “Oh, good. Just an ordinary explosion. Comforting.”

  Zack’s gaze drifts to Nola. He isn’t sure what to say. How to pretend to understand what’s going through her mind right now. “Nola, Halwin . . .”

  “He said he’d be fine,” she says firmly. “I don’t think he’s dead. Which means I’ll have to figure out if I can ever forgive him.”

  Something bright in the grass nearby catches Zack’s eye. It’s a piece of metal, painted yellow. Warped by the heat and the force of the explosion. The writing and the symbol have melted into black splotches on its surface. But Zack doesn’t need to read it to know what it says.

  ***

  The six of them sit at the top of Moray Hill. Someone has called 911. Zack is on the phone with his dad.

  “We’re okay. Both of us . . .”

  “Thank God! I’m so sorry—”

  “It’s okay, Dad—”

  “Leah made me listen to the tape. Zack, where did you get that recording?”

  “I’ll try to explain when you get here. But it’s for real, Dad. You have to believe me.”

  “I believe you . . . I’m on my way to Moray Hill right now . . .”

  They wait for the emergency responders and their loved ones to arrive. Zack has one arm around Ben. “Can you really make the government stop the radiation?” Ben asks him. “Can they actually fix it?”

  Zack swallows. He looks at Lamar and Nola, huddled together next to him. He and Lamar and Nola, three spokes on that wheel of radioactive material, radioactive choices. “I hope so,” he tells Ben.

  Suddenly Ben straightens up. “Dad’s coming!”

  Lamar nods at Zack. “You gonna talk to him?”

  “Yeah. I’ll make sure he runs the story.”

  “Will that be enough?” Nola asks quietly. “Do you think we made the right call?”

  Zack takes a deep breath. He thinks of the toxins seeping up through the ground right now. Past their glass barrier. Past whatever else Halwin created to keep them at bay.

  This island is cursed.

  He looks at Mrs. Dyson, at Jeff Aberthol, at Ben. At the friends who saved his life and chose the future they could live with, a future they could try to fix.

  “I don’t know.”

  He stands up, ready to meet his dad.

  “I guess we’ll find out.”

  About the Author

  Vanessa Acton is a writer and editor based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She enjoys stalking dead people (also known as historical research), drinking too much tea, and taking long walks during her home state’s annual three-week thaw.