The Island

by Michael Bray

  TWO

  Fingers numb, arms, shoulders and legs screaming in protest, Chase inched closer to the summit. He found a solid foothold, and pressed his forehead against the rock face. He had been expecting to hear Moses scream out and fall almost all the way up the cliff, but he was still there. Still grimacing, still coughing, but just a little way below. Ryder was around ten feet higher. As Chase watched, he pulled himself up and to safety, rolling out of sight. The idea of a rest felt almost heavenly. With renewed determination, he resumed his climb, double checking every hand hold, every position of the foot. If he fell, he knew it would be to certain death. Images of Alex filled his mind, ones which he quashed. He had done what he had to, and even if the others didn’t understand, he knew he had done the right thing. He pulled himself closer to the top. Ryder leaned over. The cocky, arrogant man who had started the journey had gone. Now he was just another tired survivor hoping to live to see another day. Ryder reached down, and Chase took the offered hand. He was pulled up, Ryder’s muscles bunching. He was as strong as he looked. Safely on top of the cliff top, Chase lay on his back, panting as he tried to get his breath back. Everything ached. He had been on the move without stopping for what felt like an eternity now and his body was desperate for respite.

  Moses was next to be helped by Ryder. He too looked exhausted, and lay on the ground next to Chase, his breathing sounding wet and ragged. Something inside him was definitely broken. Ryder was the only one who didn’t seem to be exhausted. He crouched on the edge of the cliff, staring out over the plains.

  “You better both take a look at this.”

  As exhausted as they were, the urgency in his voice compelled them to drag their weary bodies to where he was. They looked down at the moon-bathed landscape which stretched for miles as far as the eye could see.

  There were dinosaurs. Countless species, all sizes. All of them were heading in the same direction they were. Ryder let his eyes follow the cliff. It stayed at the same height for around a mile, then tapered off into hills again. The dinosaurs were heading for this lower ground, s drawn to it by means none of them could understand.

  “Where are they all going?” Chase whispered.

  “Same place as us. South.”

  “Why?”

  Ryder shrugged. “Who knows? Nothing in this fucking place makes any sense.”

  “It’s like they’re migrating, almost,” Chase said.

  “Birds migrate. Dinosaurs, I’m guessing don’t. Whatever they’re doing, it’s not a natural thing.”

  “Can you all hear me?”

  It was Lomar. They whirled around, staring down the rocky plateau and towards the trees which awaited them. All of them as one expected to see him standing there, rifle in hand. But there was no Lomar, no waiting party. Just rocks and in the distance, trees.

  “You won’t find me down that way. Look up,” Lomar’s voice said again.

  This time, they zeroed in on the source. It was coming from one of the tree cameras. It had been strapped to a scraggy, half-dead pine. The black sightless lens stared at them, Lomar’s voice coming from the tiny speaker below it.

  “There you go. Do you see me now?”

  They looked at each other, unsure how to react.

  “Don’t bother to reply, this isn’t a two way system. Instead, just be quiet and listen to what I have to say.”

  Chase glanced at the dinosaurs, which were still making their way across the plains some three hundred feet below.

  “I’m broadcasting to you now on a closed private channel. This isn’t being recorded for television. I wanted to speak to you in person. It seems one of you stumbled across my little hobby and has told the others. That, as I’m sure you are aware, changes things as far as this game goes. In my defence, those I hunted, the bodies that were found, were immigrants. I paid good money to own them. Like any animal, it was my choice to do with them what I wanted. If I choose to set them loose on my island then hunt them down like dogs, that’s up to me.”

  Chase glanced at Ryder, who was staring at the camera, open-mouthed. Moses had his head down, staring at his boots. Lomar went on.

  “That aside, the rules of the game have not changed. One of you will win the ultimate prize. You will win anything you want. Think about that. Anything. Are a bunch of stinking immigrants worth losing that prize over?”

  He paused for effect, then continued.

  “I’m prepared, under the circumstances to offer an olive branch. Now I’ll admit. I came out here with the sole intention of killing you. All of you. We have footage of lookalikes being eaten by dinosaurs here that were pre-recorded. It would be easy to splice that footage into the feed and let the world believe you have met a gruesome end. Things, however, have changed. The fact is, you have reached further than anyone had ever anticipated. The world is inspired by your journey, and as I have a second season in mind, it would not be good business for me to kill you all over a misunderstanding. So, here is how it will happen. There will be no more interference from me. No more hunting. The three of you will go on and face the challenge of The Island without further interference from me. I won’t bother you, nor will I hunt you.”

  Chase looked over his shoulder at the dinosaurs.

  “One thing you will have noticed,” Lomar said, “was the sudden movement of The Islands inhabitants towards your general direction. That is a very deliberate move to ensure that the public get the finale they deserve. Instead of being spread about The Island, all of the creatures will be diverted to the southern quarter. There will be no avoidance. No strolling through valleys and skirting around watering holes. There will be constant danger. Constant threat. The fun ride is over. True enough, I’m not hunting you. But you will die. Rest well tonight, my dear contestants. Sleep in the knowledge that you won’t be troubled. Tomorrow, everything that has gone before will seem like child’s play. Tomorrow, the public will see death, and one of you will see freedom.”

  The speaker clicked, and Lomar was gone. The three of them stood there, dazed and confused.

  “What do we do?” Moses asked.

  Chase glanced at Ryder, who met his gaze.

  “We make a fire,” Ryder said. “Then we get some rest.”

  “You believe him?” Chase said.

  “I think so. It’s the perfect ending for him. Push all of the dinosaurs into a small area then make us go through it.”

  “We’re in trouble, aren’t we?” Moses said.

  “Essentially, we’re fucked. All that is for tomorrow though. I don’t know about you, but right now I could use some shuteye.”

  “Should we set up a watch?” Chase asked.

  Ryder shook his head. “For what?” Everything on this damn island is going to be ahead of us and waiting for us to get there tomorrow. Make the most of it, Riley. Get some shut eye.”

  THREE

  The small boy ran outside, legs pumping as he moved across the field, sun beating down on his face. The house backed out onto the glorious green Oregon forest. Creeks filled with salmon provided plentiful food for the brown bears which roamed the forest. The boy’s father had warned him about going there, but he couldn’t help himself. To him the woods were a magical place, a place that was his alone. His secret. He plunged into the tree line, the temperature cooler here, that gorgeous smell of pine and tree sap filling his nostrils. He knew the way well. He had been here countless times. He wound through the trees, hopped over a small stream, and then made his way to his secret place.

  The natural hollow in the woods was where he had been keeping the cat.

  He had borrowed the plastic box they used when they had to take it to the vet. Nobody had noticed the box had gone missing, but they definitely noticed the cat as gone. His father especially loved that cat, and in the four days since it had gone missing, had even gone into town to put posters up in shop windows and on telephone poles offering a reward for information leading to the cat being found safe. Of course, nobody would ever find it and claim the reward.


  He sat in front of the box now, looking at the ginger tabby as it cowered in the back. He poked a finger through the mesh.

  “Hi Tiddles,” the boy said. The cat hissed in response. It sensed the danger it was in. The boy smiled and took the gloves out of his pocket. They were thick gloves his father used when he was chopping wood for the log burner. Very thick, very durable. They would protect against most things, cat scratches included. The boy pulled the gloves on, savouring every second, wishing it could have been different. The fact was that his father loved the cat more than his own son, and in any world that was wrong.

  He unclipped the latch on the door with his left hand just enough to fit his right arm in. He grabbed the cat. It scratched and clawed, but the gloves did their job. He didn’t feel it. Once he was confident he had a grip, he opened the door the rest of the way and reached in with his other hand, closing his hands around the cat’s skinny neck.

  He had rehearsed this is his head countless times, but none of it compared to actually doing it. He pulled the squirming scratching cat out of the cage and squeezed with everything he could muster, watching as the life left it at exactly the same time he came to orgasm, wetting his underwear in a hot, sticky explosion as he broke the animal’s neck.

  He fell to his side in the leaves, exhausted and staring at the animal. It had been the family pet for three years.

  Three years of coming second best to a cat.

  The boy shook his head. No more.

  He stood, wincing at the uncomfortable wet warmth in his underwear. He stood and grabbed the limp animal by one leg, picking it up and holding it at arm’s length. He felt nothing. No emotion, no sense of right or wrong, just a pitiful black void.

  He looked around his secret place, and knew nobody would ever find out what he had done. He was too clever. Too smart even for his own family, even at just twelve years old. He reared back and tossed the cat into the woods, a gift for the animals, maybe a midnight snack for the bears.

  Enjoy it, bears. It will make a nice change to fish all the time.

  He scrambled back up the bank, looking forward to watching the mental suffering his family would endure until they realised poor little Tiddles wasn’t coming back.

  The feeling of what he had done was still fresh, still memorable in every detail, and yet, he still couldn’t wait to do it all again.

  At the bottom of the hill, under the watchful eye of the half moon, an eye opened from its bloody mask. As a tongue ran across broken teeth and assessed damage, a familiar rage started to build. No major injuries. He moved his hands, his arms. Then his legs. Sure enough, he had taken some damage, but it was all superficial, things that would fuel the beast that lived inside him.

  Alex got to his feet, and started back up the hill. More determined than ever to feel that elation at least one more time, and feed the demon which Chase had awoken.

  ODDS ON

  DAY FIVE

  7:08 AM

  As exhausted as they were, none of them were able to sleep aside from Moses, who continued to drift in and out of consciousness as the fever in him grew. They had awoken tired and angry. With no food and seemingly no chance of survival, morale was as low as it had ever been. Chase had been particularly troubled. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw snatches of Alex, the wide eyed look of realisation on his face which he knew would be forever burned into his psyche.

  It had dawned on him, as he stamped out the small camp fire, that he had taken a life. Even though he had gone into the game knowing it was something he might have to do, the act itself made him feel both ashamed and nauseous. He wondered how it would be presented on television. How it would come across to his family and friends. He would look brutal and heartless. It came to him, as he stamped out the dying embers of their camp fire, that maybe Perrie had it right all along. They had ridiculed her and laughed at her for her lack of understanding, but she had been right. It was all a show. True, they weren’t actors, but they were on a set. The output was being manipulated to be delivered to the public in a certain way. To them it was about survival, to everyone else, it was just a game show.

  “You ready?” Ryder said. He looked jaded and haggard. Most of the mud had flaked away from his skin. It was hard to imagine him as the brash, cocky man from less than a week ago.

  “Yeah, I’m good to go,” Chase said.

  “What about him?”

  They both looked to Moses, who was struggling to pull on his boots.

  Ryder lowered his voice. “We can’t carry him forever. He’s fading. It’s going to get to a point where we have to make a decision.”

  “I think we both need to stop playing god and let fate decide.”

  “We don’t have that luxury.”

  “You don’t have to worry about me,” Moses said as he struggled to his feet. He grimaced as he limped towards them. “I’m dying, not deaf.”

  He walked on towards the tree line. The others followed, wondering if this was the last sunrise they would ever see.

  TWO

  Following the storm, the new day was baking hot. As the ground dried, a light steam rose from it, giving an eerie backdrop to their slow journey. They moved through the scrub of trees, tense and waiting for something to happen.

  “It’s quiet,” Chase whispered.

  Ryder nodded. Even the birds seemed to have silenced. The only sounds were their footfalls and the moans and babble of Moses, who seemed to be flitting from coherent and aware to disorientated and ranting.

  They went on, struggling with the humidity and waiting for the chaos Lomar had promised them.

  “You think he’s out there?” Chase asked.

  Ryder glanced around, eyes scanning the trees. “Could be. Depends how good he is.”

  “Wouldn’t we see him?”

  “You didn’t see me,” Ryder said, glancing over his shoulder. “I was as close as ten feet at some points. If you know how to use the environment, you can be invisible out here.”

  Chase stopped in his tracks, looking through the break in the trees. “Then what would you suggest we do about that?”

  They had reached the opposite edge of the tree line. Beyond, was a marsh, the water filthy and topped with leaves and algae. Large mosquitoes zipped across the surface. There was no way around it. It stretched for miles in each direction. Forty feet across from them, a gentle bank sloped upwards towards firmer ground.

  “It stinks,” Chase said, looking both ways up and down the bank.

  “No way to go around. We’ll have to cross,” Ryder replied.

  Chase picked up a rock from the edge. “We don’t know how deep it is.”

  “Don’t,” Ryder snapped holding a hand up. “Don’t disturb the water. We don’t know what might be in there.”

  It had never entered Chase’s head. He dropped the rock on the ground, and stared at the surface of the water. There was no movement, no hint of anything there. If Ryder hadn’t been with them, he would have tossed the stone in the water. He felt suddenly like he knew nothing, and had got by on blind luck so far.

  “So what do we do now?” he asked.

  “We wait for a while and watch.”

  “For what?”

  “Anything that might disturb the surface. Bubbles, ripples. Some animals, crocodiles and alligators, only need to breathe every so often. Usually they wait under the surface or the water, waiting for someone to either step on them or throw stones in the water.”

  “It’s not alligators I’m worried about,” Chase said, ignoring the jibe.

  “No, that makes two of us.”

  “How long do we wait?”

  “Twenty minutes maybe. Just to be sure.”

  With nothing else to do, they waited, all three of them staring at the water. Fifteen minutes passed. Then twenty. Nothing moved apart from the mosquitoes, and nothing but Moses’s babbling punctuated the silence. He had been indulged in a heated conversation with a family member, possibly from the past and one only he could see. Fo
r the past ten minutes, he had been repeating the same phrase, saying over and over again.

  Why won’t you let me retire?

  Why won’t you let me retire?

  Why won’t you let me retire?

  It was infuriating to listen to, but Chase couldn’t stop it. Moses was clearly starting to break down. For a moment, Chase considered that maybe he was the lucky one.

  “Alright, it’s safe to move,” Ryder said, standing up and approaching the edge of the water. “Here’s how we’re going to do this. Chase, you go first. I’ll follow ten feet behind. Moses, you bring up the rear, again another ten feet back.”

  Why won’t you let me retire?

  Why won’t you let me retire?

  Why won’t you let me retire?