Colony by Benjamin Cross (ready player one ebook .TXT) 📗

all experienced. When it had worn off, the two of them helped her slowly to her feet. She squinted in the light and clung to Darya’s shoulder. “So you’ve no idea what in the hell we’re doing here either?”

“Afraid not,” Callum answered. “Can you remember anything at all?”

“Last thing I remember is talking to Dan.”

Callum and Darya exchanged glances. “Peterson?”

“The one and only.”

“Can you remember where you were?”

Ava’s lips pursed as if she wasn’t clear why it was any of Callum’s business. “Yeah, sure. He was trying to impress me with that damn submarine of his again. Honestly, the number of times he’s tried to get me to go out in it, and I just keep on telling him, ‘Dan, some people are seadogs, some people are landlubbers, you’re evidently a dog and you’re barking up the wrong lubber!’” She laughed at her own joke, then added, “Hell, I haven’t felt this spaced out since my freshman year.”

It struck Callum that she would have no knowledge of the creatures that had almost killed him and Darya only hours before. To her, being out on Harmsworth was no more or less treacherous than it had been at any other time, regardless of how she got there. She had no idea the danger they were in.

Darya seemed to share his thoughts. “Ava, earlier this morning we were attacked by some kind of animals. I think that they are new species.”

The remains of Ava’s smile disappeared. “Animals? What animals? Where?”

“Close to here,” Callum said.

“Well, that’s awful! When… I mean, what happened?”

They recounted the story of their encounter, including their rescue by Peterson. Ava listened intently, her gaze remaining stony throughout. Then, after a long silence, a smile broke across her lips. “Okay, I get it. It’s international wind-up-the-Canadian day. Well done you two, you got me! I take it Dan’s in on this as well?”

“No,” Callum said, more forcibly, “this is no wind-up. I wish to hell that it was, Ava, but it’s true. Every word.”

Brow furrowed, she looked from Callum to Darya. Both wore the same unyielding expression. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but instead of words, a jet of vomit rushed out and splattered over the shingle. Darya placed an arm around her as she bent over and clasped her knees. “I’m sorry,” she said, still hacking. “It’s all… I’m just—”

“It’s okay,” Callum said. “Trust me, if there was anything in my stomach I’d join you.” He turned to Darya. “One rifle and a handful of bullets aren’t gonna be much use if we run into any more of those things out here.”

She nodded, her attention still with Ava.

“We need to get out of the open quickly. Where’s the nearest seal hide?”

She threw a glance along the coastline in either direction. “There should be one north of here, about a kilometre.”

“Are you certain?”

“I would be,” she replied. “I think we are on the east coast, but…” Still with her arm around Ava, she took another look around.

“What is it?” Callum asked.

“Usually I would see the ship, to the south.”

Callum turned and scoured the horizon. She was right. The Albanov was nowhere to be seen. For as long as they’d been on Harmsworth, it had been anchored off the island’s south-east corner, opposite Valerian Cove. Now there was nothing but an expanse of calm, open ocean rippling below the empty sky.

Perhaps it was delirium. He screwed his eyes up, opened them and looked again. Nothing. Then something caught his attention. High up, just below the streaks of white cloud sat a grey band; what looked like a single raincloud in an otherwise tranquil sky. It was getting thinner and thinner, bleeding away into the ether.

“Do you think they might have gone looking for us?” Darya asked.

“No, I’m pretty certain they’d send the helicopters over before upping anchor.” He turned back. Ava was upright again, but her face remained grey and she looked unsteady on her feet.

“They won’t’ve gone far without us,” he said, doing his best to sound confident. In reality he was more concerned about the absence of the Albanov than anything. It was their one and only lifeline, the only reason any of them could expect to survive even twenty-four hours at this latitude, summer or not. He pulled the rifle back into his shoulder. “We’d better get moving towards that hide. We’ll be safer there.”

Concealed from Ava, Darya cast him an uncertain glance.

* * *

Koikov flicked the end of his papirosa off the edge of the cliff and watched as it spiralled down into the surf. Then he turned to face his team. “The Albanov is gone. I’ve got no idea why or how, so don’t ask. But as far as I can tell, we are the only survivors. From now on we have two priorities. Number one. Shelter. Somewhere that we can protect ourselves from the weather and defend ourselves against those things.”

A cynical undercurrent of sniggers, looks and comments passed amongst the men, before young Private Tsaritsyn spoke out. “You mean the dragons, Starshyna?”

Koikov kept his cool and held Tsaritsyn’s gaze. “I mean the creatures that killed Private Yudina.”

“What do they look like?”

“They look like you,” Koikov replied. “Ugly. With bad teeth.”

A second round of laughter went up, only this time it was rooting for Koikov.

He seized the momentum. “Priority two. Communications. The primary transmitter for long distance and satellite communications went down with the Albanov, so our radio communications are limited to short-range field transmissions.” He tapped the side of his earpiece. “As of this moment we are cut off from the outside world. Nobody on the mainland knows a thing about what’s happening here.”

“What about the sudden radio silence?” Private Gergiev called out. “Surely they’ll know there’s an emergency now that they can’t raise the Albanov?”

“That’s true,” Koikov answered. “And they’ll send a team to investigate, but it’ll take time, perhaps weeks if they send a ship, and whatever else we’ve got here, we don’t have weeks. We need to try and