Island 731

32.

Bennett’s hands shook as he emotionally imploded, folding in on himself as he fell to his knees and began weeping. His back shook from sobs.

Bray grunted and rolled his eyes. “I’ll put the pallets back in front of the door. For all the good they did.”

Joliet stood behind Bennett as Hawkins approached him. Her eyes told him to be gentle, but Hawkins knew his patience would wear out quickly if the kid didn’t pull it together soon. His presence here meant something had gone wrong on the Magellan.

“Try to raise Blok on the two-way,” Hawkins said to Joliet. She nodded and went to find it in the side room.

Hawkins crouched down in front of Bennett. “Phil. I need to know what happened.”

No reply.

Joliet returned, two-way radio in hand. “Come in, Magellan, this is Joliet. Do you read?”

In the silence that followed, Bennett’s body shook.

Hawkins glanced at Joliet, who repeated her silent message: Be gentle.

“Phil,” Hawkins said. “Phil. Look at me.”

Bennett looked up, his eyes rimmed red.

“Tell me what happened, Phil. Why are you here?”

The tears slowed. Bennett caught his breath. And then, between the occasional emotional hiccup, he said, “It… it came back. Got on board. I—I don’t know how.”

“Magellan, please respond,” Joliet said into the radio. “Blok, are you there?”

Hawkins glanced back to the entryway where Bray was shoving the pallets back in place. They’d make a pitiful barrier against the person—or thing—that had taken DeWinter and bent the metal door to his quarters. “Did it follow you here?”

Bennett shook his head quickly no.

“How did you find us?” Hawkins asked.

“I—I wasn’t trying to. I just ran. Straight through the jungle. I didn’t see a path until I got to the river.”

“And the scrapes. The cuts. They’re from the seagulls?”

Bennett nodded. He was calming down. “I think they saw me when I swam to the beach. Somehow tracked me through the jungle and attacked when I crossed the waterfall.”

“Did you see anything else by the waterfall?” Hawkins asked, thinking the kid was damn lucky to have not been attacked by the croc.

“I didn’t really look around,” Bennett said. “The birds were on me pretty much the moment I stepped onto the bridge. Nearly knocked me into the water.”

“So,” Hawkins said, hoping the kid was ready to tell him the whole story. “What happened on the Magellan?”

Joliet spoke into the radio again. “Magellan, come in. This is Joliet. Come in, Magell—”

“You can stop calling them,” Bennett said, picking himself up off the floor. His face was grim. His lips quivered. “They’re dead. Blok. Jones and the Tweedles. All four. Dead.”

Joliet stumbled back, her legs suddenly weak. She held on to the window frame to support herself. “What?”

“It killed them.”

“You saw them die?” Hawkins asked.

Tears returned to Bennett’s eyes. “Jones. Didn’t need to see the rest. I heard them.” Bennett nearly began sobbing again, but held his emotions in check. “And I left them. I hid. And then I ran.”

“Sounds like you didn’t have a choice,” Hawkins said.

Bennett sniffed and wiped his arm across his nose. “I could have fought it. You would have. I could have—”

Joliet put her arm around Bennett’s shoulder and he fell into her embrace, despite being nearly a foot taller than her. With his head over her shoulder, he wept some more.

Hawkins turned away. He’d heard enough.

Bray entered, looking concerned. “What happened?”

“Says the crew is dead,” Hawkins replied.

“Holy shit,” Bray said, rubbing his hand over his head. “Holy shit. What are we going to do?”

Hawkins looked back at Joliet and Bennett, then back to Bray. “Plan stays the same. We stay the night here. Haul ass back to the Magellan. And then leave. Bennett can get us moving. We’ll do our best to help him steer us out of the lagoon and then we’ll head east until we hit land.”

“We can’t go back there,” Bennett said, stepping away from Joliet. “We can’t!”

“Phil,” Hawkins said as calmly as he could. “Listen. Whatever it is that killed the crew and took DeWinter, it’s nocturnal. The first time it came aboard was at night. When did it come aboard the ship?”

“I don’t know.” Bennett said. “Maybe an hour ago?”

“So dusk?” Hawkins asked.

Bennett hesitated and then nodded. “Yeah, the sun was below the horizon.”

“Dusk, then. Odds are it won’t come out during the day. So we stay here until morning, wait for the sun to be in the sky, and then head to the Magellan. We can be out of the lagoon before night.”

“There isn’t really another choice,” Joliet said. “We can’t stay here.”

Bennett was nodding now. “It could work.” He stepped away from Joliet, rubbing his head. “It could work. If we’re fast. If—”

“Do you guys smell that?” Joliet asked.

Bray sniffed the air. “Smell what?”

Hawkins took a deep breath through his nose. “Something sweet.”

“Like flowers,” Joliet said.

“But it’s faint,” Hawkins said. “Could be nighttime-blooming species on the island.”

“It’s really strong over here.” Joliet sniffed the air near the window.

Hawkins stepped up next to Joliet and sniffed. It was stronger by the window, but… Hawkins leaned in close to Joliet and smelled again. “It’s you.”

“Maybe she got something on her outside?” Bennett said. “In the jungle?”

Hawkins wandered the hall, sniffing like a dog. As he neared the stairs, the odor of formaldehyde tickled his nose. Definitely not coming from up there.

He turned around again. Bennett stood on the left side of the hall, near the room where Drake still lay. Bray wandered the far end of the dimly lit hall, sniffing the air. And Joliet remained by the glassless window, watching him. The last light of day was fading. They’d need to make a fire soon. It might attract predators, but there was also nothing better for keeping them at bay. Luckily they had a large supply of very dry pallets to burn. He was about to bring the subject up when an ear-splitting blare, deep and full of bass, rolled over the entire island like an audio tidal wave.

“What was that!” Bennett shouted, cringing.

“That was the same sound,” Bray said. “Before DeWinter was—”

Hawkins didn’t hear the rest of Bray’s sentence. Something moved outside the window behind Joliet.

His mind screamed snake!, but as he opened his mouth to shout a warning he noticed the slender intruder was jointed. It had knuckles—a finger—with a sharp claw at the end! “Joliet!” Hawkins shouted, but his warning came too late.

The long, slender finger slid beneath Joliet’s arm, wrapped around her shoulder, and lifted her off the ground.

Joliet screamed. She pounded the large digit with her fists, but her effort had no effect. Hawkins and Bray charged forward simultaneously. Bray had the ax ready to swing, but the finger pulled Joliet halfway out the window.

“Mark!” Joliet screamed.

He dove for her legs as she continued to rise out of the window, but her feet slipped outside before he arrived. He collided with the wall and fell to the floor, but wasted no time springing back to his feet. He thrust himself halfway out the window and looked up. Framed by the nearly black sky, he saw Joliet being pulled up the side of the concrete building. Above her loomed a massive shadow he recognized from the Magellan.

It’s the same thing that took DeWinter!

“Joliet!” he screamed. “Avril!”

And then they were gone, up and over, onto the roof.

Hawkins flung himself back into the hallway. He snatched up the rifle as he ran for the exit. Bray followed on his heels and together they made short work of the pallet barricade. Hawkins ripped open the door and charged into the darkness.

The night’s cool air felt like a cold winter day, causing goose bumps to rise on his skin. He ran out into the field. His sudden appearance and rapid approach sent goats fleeing. Their bleats and jangling bells blocked out all other noises.

Hawkins spun with the rifle, looking for a target.

Where did you go? he thought. Where did you go!

He found his answer when he looked up.

So far from civilization, the stars were already out in force. Every constellation imaginable filled the night sky. The Milky Way cut across the center of it. But a portion of the sky was blacked out.

It was above him!

The blacked-out portion of sky grew quickly larger.

“Bray, look out!” Hawkins shouted and shoved his friend clear before diving out of the way.

The ground shook from an impact. An inhuman roar ripped through the air—one part lion, one part crow. The creature had arrived.