Mega 3: When Giants Collide (Mega Series) Page 26

  ***

  “Hey, ‘Ren,” Kinsey said as she stepped from the shower and found Darren waiting there with a towel in hand. “I could have gotten that myself.”

  “We have to talk, ‘Sey,” Darren said.

  “Can I put some clothes on first?” she asked as she started drying off.

  “No,” Darren said. “This is the only way I can keep you from dodging me. I have to catch you naked coming from the shower.”

  “You just wanted to do a little ogling,” Kinsey smiled. “Don’t make me have Darby create a sign-up sheet for the showers too.”

  “That was pretty funny,” Darren smiled. “The boys are still pissed.”

  “They’ll get over it as soon as they find out it was a practical joke,” Kinsey said as she wrapped the towel around herself and walked over to a bench by the wall where her clothes lay folded. “They love practical jokes.”

  “They love playing them on others,” Darren said, “not when they’re played on them.”

  “Oh, well,” Kinsey said as she got dressed.

  Darren reached out and lightly touched her temple. She didn’t shy away.

  “What are we doing, ‘Sey?” Darren asked.

  “I don’t know, ‘Ren,” Kinsey replied. “Honestly, I don’t. I love you more than anything in the world, but I don’t know if I can risk getting hurt by you again.”

  “You did some hurting there as well,” Darren said, “but, you’re right, I fucked it all up. I have no illusions that this isn’t all on me.”

  “It’s not all on you,” Kinsey said as she pulled a t-shirt on. “Only ninety-nine percent.”

  “So?” he asked.

  “So, we keep going,” Kinsey said. “We keep talking and we see what happens.”

  “That’s what we’ve been doing,” Darren said. “I need more, ‘Sey. I need to know if we have a chance to be together again.”

  Kinsey didn’t reply as she pulled on a pair of shorts, put on her socks then laced up her shoes. Finished getting dressed, she moved in close to Darren, put her hands on his cheeks, and kissed him.

  “We’ll be together again,” she said, “I promise. Just let it happen, okay?”

  “I’m not good with-”

  “I know,” Kinsey interrupted. “You never have been, but if we are going to avoid repeating our previous disaster, then you’re going to have to let go and wait. It’s not as if it’ll be forever. I mean, I’m pretty fucking horny right now and it’s taking all my willpower not to fuck your brains out.” She patted his cheeks. “Hey, a little anticipation never killed anyone.”

  She turned and walked from the showers, leaving Darren just to stare after her.

  ***

  The island was twice the size of the one that had been nuked only a few weeks earlier, but that wasn’t the only difference. Instead of a long dock leading to a beach, nothing was there but cliffs, huge, sheer cliffs that reached for hundreds of feet into the air. Far off, there could be seen the cloud shrouded peak of a massive mountain.

  “That’s not the same as the other island,” Thorne said as he stood at the railing next to Ballantine. “Where have you taken us?”

  “Not to worry, Commander,” Ballantine said. “It will all be fine.”

  “Should we lower the sails and drop anchor?” Lake asked from Ballantine’s other side. “Or do we need to sail around to a different spot?”

  “No, no, this will do,” Ballantine said as he pointed at a dark spot at the base of cliffs. “We can take the Zodiac in through that cave. Once I’ve disengaged the security protocols, then we can bring the ship in to dry dock.”

  “Dry dock?” Darren asked. “What do you mean?”

  Ballantine turned and looked at the rest of the crew as they stood up on deck and stared at the island. His eyes rested on Ronald’s for a second, who was standing off to the side with Boris, still not exactly accepted by any of the crew. Ronald met Ballantine’s gaze, looked out at the island, and then returned his attention to Ballantine and nodded slightly.

  “You see cliffs, I know,” Ballantine said to everyone, “but part of those cliffs open up. We’ll be able to tow the Beowulf III inside for repairs.”

  “Tow?” Max asked. “Is there a tug boat or something?”

  “Or something,” Ballantine smiled. “Now, I’ll be going in, as well as Commander Thorne, Mr. Chambers, Mr. Reynolds, the one not still nursing a leg wound, and Ms. Thorne. I don’t believe we need more than that. The rest of you will remain on the ship and get your gear together. We’ll return with a couple more rafts to haul everyone over. I say it’ll be no more than an hour, tops.”

  No one argued and Ballantine smiled.

  ***

  The cliff loomed over them, casting the Zodiac into a deep, dark shadow.

  “What’s through there?” Thorne shouted over the motor noise. “Is that how you get into the facility?”

  “It’s how you get into the island,” Ballantine replied, as he adjusted their speed and direction so they were pointed directly at the cave before them. “The facility is up river a bit.”

  Before Thorne could ask about the river, they were in the cave and plunged into darkness. Darren and Kinsey cracked large glow sticks and held them over their heads to light their way, while Shane kept a tight grip on his sniper rifle.

  They rode in silence for several minutes before they saw light up ahead. Ballantine slowed the motor even more and they basically drifted from the cave and into sunlight that was filtered through tall trees and thick foliage.

  “Holy jungle boat ride,” Shane said. “This place is crazy.”

  “It is,” Ballantine said, “but a good crazy. You will be amazed at what this island has to offer. I called the other one paradise, but I was exaggerating. This island. This island is true paradise. In so many ways.”

  The motor purred as Ballantine moved them up the wide river. The sounds of jungle life filled the air and Kinsey pointed as she saw a group of monkeys sitting in a tree.

  “Are they real?” she asked.

  “They are,” Ballantine said, “and thank you for checking. It’s always good to ask around here.”

  “More experiments?” Thorne asked as he turned and focused on Ballantine. “Do we need to be worried?”

  “Not particularly,” Ballantine said. “The staff will have everything well in hand.”

  “Staff?” Darren asked. “You didn’t say there would be other people here.”

  “Didn’t I?” Ballantine smirked. “Oops.”

  “Not helping with the trust issue, Ballantine,” Thorne growled.

  “Relax, Commander,” Ballantine chuckled. “You are about to see what trust is. These people are quite possibly the loyalist folks that I have ever had...the...pleasure…”

  Ballantine trailed off and his face went white as the Zodiac motored around a bend in the river and came to a scorched ruin of what looked to have been an immense facility made up of several buildings. All that remained were a few blackened walls and some steel beams.

  “No,” Ballantine whispered, “no, no, no.”

  “Ballantine?” Shane asked. “Is this part of the illusion?”

  “No,” Ballantine replied.

  “Yeah, you said no already,” Kinsey said. “What the hell happened?”

  Ballantine gunned the motor and sped the Zodiac over to a splintered dock that stuck out into the river. When they were only a few feet from the dock, he killed the motor and stood up. As soon as they were within reach, he grabbed onto a ladder and hauled himself up.

  “Hey!” Thorne shouted as the Zodiac kept floating past the dock. “What the fuck?”

  “Stay in the raft,” Ballantine ordered. “Bring it back around and wait for me.”

  He took off at a jog and was quickly lost from sight as he stepped into the ruined buildings.

  “That’s not cool,” Shane said as Thorne took Ballantine’s place at the motor. “Nope, totally not cool. Not cool at all.”

  “What do
you think happened?” Kinsey asked, as Thorne turned them around and positioned them by the dock’s ladder. “What was this place?”

  Before anyone could respond, there was a loud roar from deep in the jungle. The sound sent chills up and down everyone’s spines and they all turned to look at each other.

  “That was either something close or it was something very big a long ways off,” Shane said. “I’m hoping for close. Not that I want whatever just roared to be close, but it would be better than-”

  “Shane? Shut the fuck up,” Thorne said quietly. “Just shut up and listen.”

  They all listened and soon realized that the jungle sounds weren’t exactly ones they recognized. Another roar, this time much closer, made them jump and Thorne pointed at Shane.

  “Get up there,” he said. “I want eyes on this place. We can’t see shit with this dock in the way.”

  Shane didn’t argue. He strapped his rifle to his back and grabbed onto the ladder. He barely had time to get onto the dock and stand up straight before he saw Ballantine running towards him, his eyes wide with fear.

  “Go!” Ballantine shouted as he waved his hands. “Go, go, go! Get back in the raft! We have to get out of here now!”

  Shane didn’t have to be told twice and he quickly got his ass back into the Zodiac, with Ballantine right behind him.

  “Get us back to the Beowulf now, Commander!” Ballantine yelled. “Do not slow down for anything!”

  There were the sounds of trees snapping in half and something very large stomping its way towards the river.

  “GO!” Ballantine yelled. He was answered by a roar that made everyone clamp their hands over their ears.

  Thorne gunned the motor and sped away from the dock. He aimed them back the way they had come then looked over his shoulder.

  “Fuck me,” he whispered as he saw what had made the roars come tearing from the jungle and into the ruins. “Ballantine, what have you done? Where did you bring us?”

  They all watched as a creature that could only be described as a dinosaur, and looked eerily similar to a Tyrannosaurus Rex, but much, much larger, stopped by the edge of the river, opened its mouth wide, and roared again.

  “Holy fucking shit,” Shane said. “You asshole. You brought us to Jurassic Park! What the fuck were you thinking?”

  “They weren’t supposed to be this far along!” Ballantine cried, looking more shaken than any of them had ever seen him before. “This is years ahead of schedule!”

  “What is going on,” Thorne snarled. “What was that thing?”

  “It was a fucking dinosaur,” Darren said. “How the hell do we deal with something like that?”

  “We’ll figure it out,” Kinsey said as she looked at Ballantine. “We can take that thing out if we need to. We’re Team fucking Grendel. We’ll fuck that up and anything else that comes at us.”

  “If it were only that simple,” Ballantine said as they approached the mouth of the cave. “That creature is nothing compared to what else was being developed here. That’s a puppy dog. It’s the full grown wolves we have to worry about.”

  “Wolves?” Shane asked as they entered the darkness of the cave once again. “That’s a metaphor, right Ballantine?” The man didn’t respond. “Ballantine? That’s a metaphor, right?”

  “I don’t know,” Ballantine replied, barely louder than the motor. “I fucking don’t know.”

  ***

  “Welcome back to the land of the living, Mr. De Bruhl.”

  Popeye’s eyes opened slowly and painfully. He tried to turn his head, but found he was restrained and couldn’t move a single muscle. All he could do was stare at the face that loomed over him. He didn’t recognize the face, but he recognized the attitude.

  Clean cut, young, ambitious. It was everything he loathed and a major reason he liked being a sailor on the open sea. The man glanced up at something out of Popeye’s line of sight.

  “You’re thinking of the ocean,” Clean Cut said. “Perfect. That’s what I need you to think about. Now, let’s try for ships.”

  Clean Cut kept his eyes averted from Popeye.

  “Where am I?” Popeye asked. “Who the fuck are you?”

  “No, no, Mr. De Bruhl, I ask the questions,” Clean Cut replied. “You don’t even have to answer them out loud. All I need you to do is think about the answers. Let that subconscious do the work for you.”

  “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” Popeye replied as he tried to resist the restraints. “Let me go, asshole!”

  There was a sharp beep and then a low trilling from a machine out of Popeye’s sight. Popeye wanted to see what was going on when he heard a door open and several feet come running inside.

  “You were supposed to alert me the second he woke up,” a woman said. “Interrogating him now could kill him. Get out, Jowarski. I’ll get him stabilized and tell you when he’s ready for questioning.”

  Clean Cut smiled down at Popeye. “Very well, Doctor,” he said, “but get him stabilized ASAP. Ballantine will not be out there resting. All of us are dead if he decides to come looking.”

  “I understand the implications,” the woman replied. “Now get out.”

  Clean Cut nodded and then patted Popeye on the cheek. He left quickly and was replaced by the face of a beautiful woman dressed in scrubs and a lab coat.

  “Hello, Mr. De Bruhl,” she said. “I apologize for Mr. Jowarski’s actions. I can assure you that despite what you heard, your health and well-being is the number one priority here. Now, can you tell me how you are feeling?”

  “Where am I?” Popeye asked. “I’m not telling you anything until you tell me where I am and who you are.”

  “I can’t tell you where you are,” the woman smiled, “but I can tell you who I am. My name is Dr. Dana Ballantine and once we get you back to the peak of health, you’re going to help us find my husband. How does that sound?”

  Popeye just gaped at her; he had no idea how that sounded.

  Read on for a free sample of Lampreys

  Author Bio:

  Jake Bible, novelist, short story writer, independent screenwriter, podcaster, and inventor of the Drabble Novel, has entertained thousands with his horror and sci/fi tales. He reaches audiences of all ages with his uncanny ability to write a wide range of characters and genres.

  Jake is the author of the bestsellingZ-Burbiaseries set in Asheville, NC, the Apex Trilogy (DEAD MECH, The Americans, Metal and Ash),Dead Team Alpha,AntiBio,Kaiju Winter, and theMega series for Severed Press.

  Find Jake at jakebible.com. Join him on Twitter @jakebible and find him on Facebook.

  Chapter One

  Dr. Chan feared this day would come.

  Research termination.

  The assistant director of PROJECT EV-180 PREY nervously paced the private conference room. One question burdened Dr. Chan's thoughts. How could she ensure the safety of hundreds of scientists and lower level lab techs? The team was drawing close to a successful end to the project, but the way things had been going lately, PROJECT EV-180 PREY would have to be put on hold or altogether terminated. The risk of public contamination was also becoming a serious threat.

  Things were getting too dangerous too fast. Up to date, five people were missing on the top secret installation. The missing persons' whereabouts were still unknown. Worse yet, there was a fatality this morning. One of the lab techs, Edward Campbell, didn't report for morning duty. They discovered Campbell's private quarters splattered in blood. Shards of bones were embedded in the walls and parts of Edward were left behind in chewed up pieces.

  Dr. Chan had opened up many specimens on her lab tables over the course of twenty-seven years in the global/marine research business, but she'd never seen anything this gruesome. The project was ambitious and demanded sacrifices, but Campbell's death drove her to take Dr. Sutherland aside and convince him to put the staff on lockdown until further notice. The director of PROJECT EV-180 PREY had to listen to reason. Everybody was in immediat
e danger, and Dr. Sutherland had to make the right call when proceeding with these delicate matters.

  "You saw Dr. Campbell's room, didn't you?" Dr. Chan begged Dr. Sutherland to take this seriously. "Campbell looked like his body was sent through a blender. Only one thing on this installation could've done that kind of damage to a person. We have to lockdown everybody, contain the escaped subjects, and retool the project. I don't even know who released the subjects in the first place."

  Were her words sinking into the stubborn director's head? What the hell was wrong with Dr. Sutherland lately? His bold white hair was out of its ponytail and hanging wildly about his shoulders. A curious smile was drawn on his haggard face. What was Dr. Sutherland thinking about?

  "Dr. Campbell was a good man," Dr. Sutherland said, breaking the long-held awkward silence between them. "Maybe not a great scientist, Campbell, but every research team needs its pencil pushers. But his death will contribute to the cause. That's what matters. No human life is too great a price."

  Dr. Chan was mortified hearing the response. "Who are you? Can you hear yourself? I want you to lock down the base and call in for help. This is beyond our control. We'll all die like Campbell if we don't. If you won't do it, so help me God, I'll call ENTECH myself and go over your head. I'll them how you've lost your mind. This was only supposed to last a year, and PROJECT EV-180 PREY has gone on for three long years. You need to get off this installation and get your head back on straight. Frankly, doctor, I question your sanity."

  Had Dr. Sutherland heard a single word she'd been saying?

  Didn't he understand the urgency of the matter?

  "Nothing is too great a price to see this project to its full conclusion," Dr. Sutherland said in a disturbing monotone. "I'm in constant contact with our superiors. Everything is as it should be. Deaths will occur. ENTECH is willing to pay that price. This is what the company wants. This is what Mama wants too."

  "Excuse me? Who is Mama?"