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

make contact with the mainland so that we can explain the situation and get ourselves off this hellhole as soon as possible. Does anybody disagree?”

Silence.

“There’s an old military compound on the other side of the island. The bunkers will do for shelter and defence, and there’s an old transmitter that we might be able to resurrect.” He shouldered his rifle. “Now let’s stop fingering ourselves and move out. The sooner we get there the better.” He searched around. “Orlov, Zakrevsky. Grab RPGs and stick behind. The rest of you, I want four- and five-man teams, hundred-metre intervals. Let’s move!”

3

The hide was similar to the last, only larger and better concealed. The journey there had been nerve-racking but uneventful. There had been no sign of the creatures.

As they crawled inside, Callum was still battling to understand the situation. How did three sane, intelligent adults end up on a remote beach with a rifle, a handful of shot and not a clue between them as to how or why? It reminded him of some kind of macabre schoolyard brain-teaser. A hundred people are found dead in a cabin in the woods. They’re all sitting down. How did they die?

Besides the notion that the last few days were a whiskey-induced hallucination, the only common denominator was Dan Peterson. He was the last person any of them could remember being with. But why would a respected professional like Peterson drug three of his colleagues and maroon them on an island? Particularly when he professed undying love for one of them? It just didn’t add up.

“Would you look at this!” Ava was sitting opposite him with her back against the rock. The colour had all but returned to her face. In her hand she held a water canister. “This was in the inside flap of my jacket.”

“It’s not yours?” Callum asked.

She shook her head and raised the neck of the canister to her lips. “But I’m sure glad it’s here. My throat feels like sandpaper.” She stopped short of drinking. “I don’t suppose either of you have water, do you?”

Darya patted her hands across her jacket but found nothing.

Callum did likewise. “Looks like you’re the one with the guardian angel,” he said. “You know, I’m pretty certain the rifle was meant for you as well?”

She shrugged. “Was it now? Well, you can go ahead and keep a hold of that for us. I wouldn’t know which way to point it. As for the water, I guess we’re gonna have to ration it until we get rescued. Two sips and pass.”

Ava took her sips and passed the container to Darya. When it had made its way back around to her, she reaffirmed the lid and pushed it into a crevice in the rock. “There, that ought to keep it cool. Now let’s see if I’ve inherited anything else.”

She emptied all of her pockets out onto the floor of the hide. “Okay, folks, our inventory stands at one fully stocked survival tin, four energy bars, a pocket-sized torch, three emergency glow-sticks, a penknife and a bag of hard-boiled candy. The survival tin’s mine. Otherwise I haven’t the first idea where any of it came from.”

She prised the lid off the tin and checked the contents. “That’s interesting.” She withdrew a small, black plastic rectangle with a metal hoop through it. “Haven’t seen this before.”

“What is it?” Darya asked.

“Key ring,” she replied, inspecting it. “Maybe it’s not my tin after all.”

Callum cast his eye over the assemblage. Then he looked to Darya. She met his gaze and he could tell that she was thinking the same thing. “How well do you know Dan?” he asked Ava.

“That’s an odd question,” she replied, her tone suddenly guarded. “I mean, I know Dan like the rest of you know him. We’re colleagues is all.”

As tactfully as possible, Callum said, “I thought you might know him a bit better?”

There was silence. Ava’s face flushed, “Wha… what’s that no-good Lothario wannabe been saying?”

“Nothing really. He just said that you and he were… more than colleagues.”

“I can’t believe he’s gone and shot his mouth off like this. I specifically told him not to say anything!”

“It is okay,” Darya said, picking up on her embarrassment. “Me and Callum are also… more than colleagues.”

Ava looked between the two of them. Her expression seemed to soften. “You know, I guessed as much. Two good-looking youngsters like yourselves and everything. Just, I’m confused why you want to know about Dan. You can’t possibly think he’s got anything to do with this? He’s a clown, but he’s no Pennywise.”

“Dan’s the last person any of us saw before we blacked out and ended up where we are now,” Callum said. “On top of that, only one of us has woken up armed with a whole raft of survival equipment, and that’s you.”

“The one he has feelings for,” Darya said.

“I wouldn’t exactly say feelings. It’s just a thing, you know? For crying out loud, I turn forty-one next year, not sixteen.”

Callum shook his head. “I don’t think that matters to Dan.”

“Besides,” Ava went on, “if he does feel for me at all, then I can’t imagine for a second why he’d go and do this to me, especially if he knows there are things on here. And he saved both of your asses earlier today as well. Why would he do that, huh? Save you then strand you?”

“I’ve no idea,” Callum said. “I just wondered whether he’d said anything to you, that’s all. Anything that might’ve seemed odd.”

Ava laughed. “Are we talking about the same guy? Everything he ever says to me sounds kind of odd. It’s kind of what I like about him. But no, as far as I’m aware he’s never betrayed any desire to strand the three of us on Harmsworth.”

There was no point pressing her any further, so Callum let it drop. They shared out one of the energy bars and passed a few moments in silence before Ava said, “Tell me more about these creatures? You