The Island
Page 22
“You think I did that to you? If I’d shot you, you’d be dead.”
Ryder tried to recall what had happened. The last couple of hours were still a blur, however. That particular section of his brain still scrambled. “This is the game. Why the fuck do you care? I can win this right now.”
“No. You don’t get to win. Not now. Not knowing what you know,” Lomar said.
“About the bodies? Yeah, I know. Everyone else will too.”
“You don’t get it do you? You could have won. You should have won. You had been handpicked for it. Then you fell and everything changed.”
“They both know. What’s the difference?”
“One of them doesn’t care about it. The other is only interested in doing right by his family. You…you don’t have anything I can use to bribe you with. You’re a loner, and that makes you dangerous.”
“You can’t stop me before I kill one of them”
“But you do and I’ll slit your throat. You die, one of them wins. Either way, it’s the perfect ending for me.”
Ryder considered it. There was no question about if Lomar was bluffing. He knew he wasn’t. He focused the gun on Chase and Alex, who were still wrestling for control of the knife.
“You know, I came here prepared to die. I’m happy with it.”
“If you put the gun down, I can make sure you live. We can smuggle you out, give you a new life. Tell people you died here. Money. Cars. Everything you want.”
Ryder flicked his eyes towards Lomar. “Who is your money on?”
“What?” Lomar said.
“Which one don’t you want me to kill? It’s obviously important enough to you to throw the idea of a new life at me. Who’s your winner, Lomar? Who is it you’ve handpicked to be your champion?”
“That’s not how it works,” Lomar said.
Ryder didn’t reply. He could hear the agitation in Lomar’s voice.
“I think you hate not being in control here. How much do you stand to lose if I off the wrong person?”
“Ten million. Wired to an offshore account. It’s yours. You’ll be set for life. Just put the gun down.”
“Can I say something first?”
“Quickly,” Lomar snapped.
“Fuck you.”
He fired, Lomar pulling the blade across his throat at the same time. Arterial blood sprayed in a wide arc, as Ryder fell to the ground, finally succumbing to the death he had avoided so far. His shot however had been true. It had hit Alex in the back of the skull. With no metal plate in there to protect him, it had been devastating, ejecting his brains out of a fist-sized hole in the front of his skull. He pitched forward, face down in the dirt.
Silence.
Chase lay there, trembling and covered in blood and brains. He was absolutely spent.
Lomar approached. He too looked like hell, but somehow found a smile. He stood above chase.
“Congratulations. It looks like you’re the winner.”
Chase couldn’t move. He stared up at Lomar, trying to come to terms with what he was saying.
“Come on. It’s just a short walk from here. You need to do it yourself.”
“Why me?” Chase mumbled. “Why me over the others?”
“Right place right time. Just accept it for what it is. Come on. Stand up.”
Chase got to feet. He couldn’t put any weight on his right leg, and his shoulder was still destroyed, but he was alive. He started to hobble towards the pool of lights ahead.
“What about my family?”
“Freed. I arranged it back at the station. They will never know who took them and why. I’m sure you will keep it that way. You don’t want them blaming you.”
Chase nodded. The exit was just fifty feet away. It all seemed too surreal. “Should you be coming with me?” Chase asked.
“I’ll be edited out. Don’t worry,” Lomar replied.
He was calm now and relaxed. The main threat was over.
“What happens now?” Chase asked.
“Now you go free. Your daughter will receive her treatment; you will probably be inundated with interview requests and the like. The Lomar Corporation can assist with those of course. Get you a P.A; make sure you say all the right things.”
“Yeah, message received,” Chase muttered. His mind was swimming. He didn’t consider winning as an option. Now it was about to become a reality, he wasn’t sure how to react. He stopped walking, staring at the wall.
“Problem?”
“No, not really. I was just thinking about the rules.”
“What rules?”
“The rules about how only one person can walk out of here alive.”
Lomar’s expression changed. He watched as Chase pulled Alex’s gun out of his belt and pointed it at the billionaire. “I still count two.”
Lomar threw up his hands and smiled. “I gave you this, made sure you won. You owe me everything.”
“No, I don’t. You put us through hell. You broke me. I’ll never be the same. Nothing can fix that.”
“I’m not a contestant. It will be murder!” Lomar said.
“No. We signed disclaimers. Until I’m outside of the gates, everything is legal. Besides, like you said, they’ll edit you out. You were never here.”
“You haven’t thought this through, you’re overtired. Exhausted. We can talk it through, we can–”
Chase shot him.
There was no scream. Lomar went down, the hole in his forehead spilling blood onto the ground.
He felt nothing. He squinted up at the wall. On the top of it, he could see tiny faces staring down, their cameras rolling. He dropped the gun onto Lomar’s lifeless chest and shambled towards the gate. There was no joy, no celebration. He was quite sure he would never be able to celebrate anything ever again. The Island had broken him, but he had beaten it.
The gate opened as he approached, the pale round-faced television executive staring at him open-mouthed as he shuffled past. Chase paid him no attention. He walked out into the light, unsure what the future held but knowing it could never be worse than the experience of the last few days. It was only when the south gate was closed and locked behind him did it hit home. He walked out into the thunderous chorus of cheers, and then he fell to his knees and wept.
Read on for a free sample of Extinct
Chapter 1
Braddox Founding piloted Liberation. Once out of Clandestine’s bay, he engaged thrusters. The bridge was soundproof, only slightly larger than the cockpit of a fighter ship, and prevented him from hearing the rockets flare. He knew well enough what thrusters sounded like having worked on ships back home. There was a burst of flame from back engines and incredible heat. The whoosh alone could pierce eardrums if protective gear wasn’t worn.
The vessel shot forward. G-forces sent small waves of nausea through his stomach. He needed both hands on the controls for the moment; otherwise he might coddle the mild sickness with arms across his gut. Regulators kicked in and balanced the speed with the inside cabin pressure. Soon, it wasn’t like they were hurtling through space at all, but standing still. He closed his mouth, swallowed hard, and after shutting his eyes for a moment, the uneasiness settled.
With his eyes once again open, he concentrated on the view from the captain’s chair. Beyond the glass was a vastness of black nothing. The universe looked empty except for the few planets and moons visible. And their sun. The star was larger than the one at home. Heavily tinted windows prevented Founding from losing his sight. He didn’t stare directly at the fiery ball, but avoiding it took effort. He found his eyes were simply drawn toward it.
Founding never grew tired of missions. Flying through space was an unexplainable high. The Milky Way was four-hundred and ninety light years away from home. He and the crew spent ten years in deep sleep chambers. For a decade, Clandestine flew on autopilot. Scientists charted the course. Mathematicians made the journey possible. He understood only bare basics. The brains behind the program ensured unobstructed f
light paths. Somehow they could calculate and take into consideration comets and known asteroid fields, as well as where planets will be during their orbit around their sun. There were still risks. Assignments like this always came with risks.
The excitement of a new mission is what Founding loved. The risks just made everything much more intense. The thought alone made his blood flow faster. It surged through his veins and arteries at breakneck speed. Blood pressure meds could never manage that kind of stimulant.
In a few hours he’d wake the other three crew members. For the moment, the universe was his. Little steering was required, thanks to top notch engineering, but his being awake first was necessary to provide cursory assistance with having Clandestine hold for their return, and preparing Liberation for the short journey. This included moving the three sleep pods from the mother ship to this one.
As much as he valued the time alone, the peace, the quiet, the view, what he missed right now was driving tunes. He switched on the preloaded playlist and bellowed like an animal in heat. Uninhibited because there was not a soul awake to complain.
Captain Founding didn’t have family at home. None of his crew had families. It was a ten year mission. No one left loved ones that long. Some might, depending on circumstances, but most wouldn’t. On a mission that could easily last a quarter of a century, only those with no ties were even considered.
The pool of candidates was picked through with extreme scrutiny. Teams were trained for the exercise and just over ten years ago launched toward planets similar to their own. Overpopulation became an issue. It wasn’t surprising. Medical advances prevented unnecessary deaths from disturbing illnesses that plagued the planet since the beginning of time. Their time, anyway. Climate control took away risk of tsunamis and hurricanes, tornadoes and volcanic eruptions. Forest fires during dry seasons extinguished as fast as they began and long before they spread. Droughts and famine were wiped out long ago. The positive aspect of fixing broken things is wonderful. The warned about negative points were realized after it was too late.
The plan in place seemed impossible, but necessary. Scoping out other planets with similar life support properties might be the only way to cure over population. There were other signs of destruction on the horizon as well. Those in charge were tight-lipped about the impending hazards. Founding didn’t need a degree in science to predict what was coming. For all of the combined intelligence working toward making the planet perfect, they stifled natural growth and change. No. They barred it from existence. The things done to make everything wonderful were cosmetic, topical. The planet’s core was in turmoil. It reminded Founding of when his step-father used to cover his nose and mouth with his big hands. At first it seemed funny. Soon, Founding panicked. His eyes bulged, his lungs burned, and his body reacted to the suffocation. He’d swing his arms and kick and pull away. Eventually, he fought his step-father for survival.
Their home planet was going to self-destruct if it wasn’t allowed to breathe.
You can’t change what something is. It is that simple. You can’t restructure the way something is wired and expect it to work forever. One guarantee that ensured things go from bad to worse was the nearly complete depletion of natural resources. Mining every mineral and fuel source from below every continent and body of water was never a good idea. It became essential to supply the wants and needs, and everyone just figured they’d deal with consequences later. Unfortunately, but expected, it didn’t take later all that long to catch up.
How did politicians remedy the problem they’d campaigned to create?
There was no winning way to tell everyone you were now going to once again allow natural disasters to resume and cured diseases to return. It wasn’t even just about election victories at that point. Turning tables back to the way things once were lacked any compassion. So rather than fix the entire world, they’d let it implode in silence, wearing phony smiles, convincing themselves nothing was wrong.
If nothing was wrong, then Founding wouldn’t be strapped into Liberation rocketing toward a blue planet similar to home with expectations of saving his race. It wasn’t a secret mission as much as shied away truths about why teams were being sent to investigate nearby galaxies.
Observe. Collect samples. Submit data home.
They were not to interfere.
Twenty-five years on a single mission could mean the difference between having a home worth returning to, or complete extinction.
Extinction is available from Amazon here
Table of Contents
DESPERATE TIMES
A SEED IS SOWN
REBOOT
PREPARATION
THE SEED GROWS
THE EIGHT
LOMAR
FINAL PREPARATIONS
ARRIVAL
THE WORLD WATCHES
THE GAME BEGINS
THE REALITY OF LEGEND
BENDING THE RULES
ODDS GET SHORTER
A FIGHTING CHANCE
THE GAME CHANGES
THE CLIMB
STACKING THE DECK
ODDS ON
BROKEN
BEHIND THE SCENES
SHOWDOWN
SURVIVOR
GAME OVER