shoes.
In front of her, she heard more gunfire, more
screams as the beast fought his way toward freedom. She found herself
muttering under her breath. “Let him go! Let him go!”
Fully expecting to fall over his body each time
she encountered more bodies, she looked for him among the dead. He could not
be unscathed. Terrorized as the guards were, they were too close to miss.
She saw the blood trail and knew it must be him. From
out of no where a wall of pain and distress filled her. She didn’t want him
dead and yet she couldn’t shake the fear that she’d signed his death warrant by
releasing him. However powerful he was, he was never going to survive the
bullets they’d put in him.
By the time she reached the exit, he’d cleared a
path for her. Beyond the door were two more bodies. In the distance, she
heard gunfire as the guards gave chase. After only a slight hesitation to
determine which direction he had taken, Erin whirled in the opposite direction
and ran for all she was worth.
She made it all the way to the beach before they
caught up with her. When she felt the sting, she thought at first that a bee
had stung her. The world began to spin even as she looked down at the dart
protruding from her leg, however, and she felt a sense of anger and defeat wash
over her even as she began to fall into darkness.
Chapter Four
One year later.
There were no notable landmarks. The island
looked no different than a dozen other semi-tropical islands, and yet Erin knew
the moment she beached her boat and scanned the dense forest that edged the
sandy water front that she had found the place at last.
Tension coiled inside of her immediately. After
glancing uneasily up and down the beach, she dragged the boat higher, gritting
her teeth and fighting the weight as it left the water completely and she
didn’t have buoyancy to help her move it. Her hands were red and chafed from
tugging at the rope by the time she’d managed to drag the thing into the trough
of a dune and covered it with the fronds she found laying on the ground to
help to conceal it.
Very likely they already knew she was here, but
if they hadn’t detected her there was no sense in making it easy for them.
Moving along just inside the tree line, she
followed the white strip of sand until she found what she’d been looking for, a
narrow trail leading deeply into the heart of the island. It was deceptively
‘natural.’ If one looked closely, they could detect the hand of man in the
regularity of the trail, the arrow straight path it took.
It was unkempt for all that, and doubt flickered
through her.
Pushing it aside, she followed the trail
cautiously, her gaze constantly flickering to the woods on either side of the
trail in search of any movement. She wasn’t particularly comforted when she
saw no guards. By the time she reached the facility, she knew it had been abandoned.
The urge hit her like a slap in the face to
simply crumple to the ground and weep. She had been so certain that she would
find him if only she could find the facility again. She hadn’t been able to
think of anything else since she had finally managed to escape. It was
devastating to discover she had searched so long and she’d been wrong.
He had to be here. He had to! She didn’t know
where else to look.
Wiping the tears from her cheeks, she moved
cautiously toward the door, half fearing, half hoping, that the sense of
abandonment was as false as
In front of her, she heard more gunfire, more
screams as the beast fought his way toward freedom. She found herself
muttering under her breath. “Let him go! Let him go!”
Fully expecting to fall over his body each time
she encountered more bodies, she looked for him among the dead. He could not
be unscathed. Terrorized as the guards were, they were too close to miss.
She saw the blood trail and knew it must be him. From
out of no where a wall of pain and distress filled her. She didn’t want him
dead and yet she couldn’t shake the fear that she’d signed his death warrant by
releasing him. However powerful he was, he was never going to survive the
bullets they’d put in him.
By the time she reached the exit, he’d cleared a
path for her. Beyond the door were two more bodies. In the distance, she
heard gunfire as the guards gave chase. After only a slight hesitation to
determine which direction he had taken, Erin whirled in the opposite direction
and ran for all she was worth.
She made it all the way to the beach before they
caught up with her. When she felt the sting, she thought at first that a bee
had stung her. The world began to spin even as she looked down at the dart
protruding from her leg, however, and she felt a sense of anger and defeat wash
over her even as she began to fall into darkness.
Chapter Four
One year later.
There were no notable landmarks. The island
looked no different than a dozen other semi-tropical islands, and yet Erin knew
the moment she beached her boat and scanned the dense forest that edged the
sandy water front that she had found the place at last.
Tension coiled inside of her immediately. After
glancing uneasily up and down the beach, she dragged the boat higher, gritting
her teeth and fighting the weight as it left the water completely and she
didn’t have buoyancy to help her move it. Her hands were red and chafed from
tugging at the rope by the time she’d managed to drag the thing into the trough
of a dune and covered it with the fronds she found laying on the ground to
help to conceal it.
Very likely they already knew she was here, but
if they hadn’t detected her there was no sense in making it easy for them.
Moving along just inside the tree line, she
followed the white strip of sand until she found what she’d been looking for, a
narrow trail leading deeply into the heart of the island. It was deceptively
‘natural.’ If one looked closely, they could detect the hand of man in the
regularity of the trail, the arrow straight path it took.
It was unkempt for all that, and doubt flickered
through her.
Pushing it aside, she followed the trail
cautiously, her gaze constantly flickering to the woods on either side of the
trail in search of any movement. She wasn’t particularly comforted when she
saw no guards. By the time she reached the facility, she knew it had been abandoned.
The urge hit her like a slap in the face to
simply crumple to the ground and weep. She had been so certain that she would
find him if only she could find the facility again. She hadn’t been able to
think of anything else since she had finally managed to escape. It was
devastating to discover she had searched so long and she’d been wrong.
He had to be here. He had to! She didn’t know
where else to look.
Wiping the tears from her cheeks, she moved
cautiously toward the door, half fearing, half hoping, that the sense of
abandonment was as false as
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