Desolation, J. B. Everett [reading a book txt] 📗

shut my mouth, hoping that no one heard it.

Then, I hear a voice whisper out of the darkness,

"Tessa?"

It's Ian.

"Yeah?"

My voice trembles, then cracks. I have let my guard down again in front of him again.

"Are you okay?" He whispers.

I turn my head to look at Tristan. He appears to be fast asleep, so I turn back to Ian.

"Yeah. I''m fine" I lie, my voice still shaky.

"You're crying. You're not okay" he says flatly.

I breathe in slowly, and another sob escapes from my throat.

"Tessa, come over here" Ian says.

I find myself crawling across the jungle floor towards him, on the opposite side of the fire. He sits up and opens his arms. And I collapse into them.

He wraps his strong arms around me, pulling me close to his body. I rest my head on his shoulder, and the tears begin spilling out. He doesn't say a word, instead he pulls my closer.

We stay just like that, until my tears begin to slow down. They finally stop. I have ran out of the energy to keep crying.

Ian slowly releases me. Our faces are only a few inches apart. He puts one of his hands up to my cheek, and gently wipes the tears away with his thumb. His touch sends tingles throughout my entire body.

"I'm sorry. I'm such a baby" I say, looking down at the ground.

"Don't be" he says.

I look back up into his eyes.

"I'm going to go back to bed" I say, and start crawling back when I feel his hand grab my shirt. I turn around.

"Don't leave. You can stay with me tonight" he says.

Another wave of tingles travels throughout my body.

"Okay" I whisper.

I crawl back to him. He lays down on the ground and I lay right beside him, facing the fire. I feel his hand graze mine slightly, and our fingers slowly intertwine. Chills spread throughout my entire body.

"Goodnight Tessa" Ian murmurs sleepily.

"Goodnight" I whisper back.

I close my eyes, and before I know it, I drift off into a dreamless abyss...

Snap.

My eyes flash open. It is the middle of the night, and Ian is sound asleep beside me, our fingers still intertwined.

Then, I hear it again.

Snap.

I sit up, my heart beat quickening. There is something out there.

I look around, but it is too dark to see anything.

"H...H..Hello?" I whisper.

Silence.

Then another snap, this time much louder.

Sheer terrors flood throughout my body, turning my blood to ice.

I reach out my hand to wake Ian.

But I am too late.

Hands grab me from behind, pressing a wet cloth into my face. Before I can even try to scream, I plunge into complete darkness. Chapter Ten

When I wake up, my head is pounding. It's as if there is a hammer smashing my skull repeatedly. I open my eyes, at first blinded by bright sunlight. But then, my eyes adjust, and my stomach sinks.

I am in a cage.

That's when I remember that last thing that happened to me; someone putting a chloroform cloth to my face in the middle of the night. Then blackness.

I have been captured.

I am in a small metal cage in the middle of the jungle. I immediately begin to feel claustrophobic in the small, confined space. Standing up slowly, I look around at my surroundings. No appears to be there, but I have the strange feeling that I am being watched.

When I look up, that thought is confirmed. A surveillance camera is mounted in the top corner of the cage, pointed directly at me, it's red light flashing.

I am suddenly filled with rage and I begin banging on the metal bars of the cage, screaming in anger.

"LET ME OUT OF HERE!" I scream, over and over until my voice hurts.

Even though I know it is completely useless, I continue screaming and banging at the bars until my voice is nearly gone. I slide down to the ground, collapsing. The throbbing in my head has intensified to the point where I cannot even see straight anymore.

Why am I the one that they took?

Then I remember; my name was the only me circled on the list of the names we found at the bottom of the lake. They must have been planning it this whole time. But why me?

I put my head into my hands, trembling with anxiety. I think of Ian and Tristan. They must have woken by now and realized that I am gone. I am filled with a slight bit of hope when I realize that they will probably come looking for me. But then that slight bit of hope is extinguished like a candle when I realize how big the island is and how slim the chances are of them finding me in the vast jungle. And even if they somehow do find me, how will they get me out of a locked cage?

Minutes turn into hours as I sit there, slumped over on the jungle floor. I have ran out of the energy do anything, even to cry. The sun beats down on me, burning my skin. I am dripping with sweat and it feels as if my head is spinning.

Then, just as I am about to doze off, I hear footsteps. Coming towards me.

I quickly pick my head up to see two men in white lab coats coming towards me. They are wearing all white, from the surgical masks covering their faces to the shoes on their feet.

I immediately begin to panic, edging back into the far corner of the cage. My heart is racing with terror as the two men arrive at the cage.

"Who..who are you?" I shout out, my voice quaking.

Neither of them respond or even look at me. Instead, one of them reaches into his pocket and pulls out a ring of keys. After finding the correct one, he puts it into the lock and twists it. There is a click and the cage door creaks open.

I press my back against the cage, my eyes wide with fear as they both walk in. I can only see their dark eyes above their surgical masks, which cover the rest of their face. One of the men walks into the cage and grabs me roughly. I scream, but it's of no use. No one can hear me.

He drags me out of the cage. Each man grabs one of my arms, and begin to walk, dragging me along. My heart is racing with fear.

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"Where are you taking me!" I yell as they continue to pull me through the jungle.

Neither of them respond.

"WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME!" I scream, this time much louder.

Still no response. The men don't even flinch; they just continue walking, dragging me along as their prisoner.

Finally, we stop. I look down see some sort of a hatch built into the jungle floor.

One of the men releases my arm and walks towards the hatch. He kneels down, grabs the handle on the hatch door, and pulls. The door slowly creaks open.

This can't be.

My stomach flips when I look down into the opening and see utter darkness. It is a chute, leading down to an abyss.

The man then points his gloved finger at me.

"You go down first" he says in a muffled voice.

No way. I am not going down there. I begin to panic, realizing that there is no way out out of this.

"No" I say shakily, even though I know that they won't take no for an answer.

The man still holding me pushes me towards the edge of the shaft. I look down, immediately feeling dizzy. A rusty ladder extends down into the blackness.

"Go down. Now" the man says again.

I have no choice. I have to go down.

I slowly kneel down, terror quaking my entire body. What is down there?

The two men stand right in front of me, preventing any chance of running to escape. With dread filling my stomach, I carefully lower my right leg onto the first rung of the ladder. Then my left. I start climbing down, descending into the abyss. The two men come after me, just a few rungs above me. There's no way out of this. I am doomed.

Darkness envelopes me like a cloak as I continue going down. How far underground are we going? I don't think I want to know.

Finally, my foot hits the ground. I step off of the ladder, and the two men arrive a few moments later. Suddenly, there is a click as when of the men turns on a flashlight.

"This way" one of them says curtly, shining the feeble glow of the flashlight towards a steel door that is built into the dirt.

Now this is getting weird.

One of the men takes out the ring of key, fumbling until he finds the right one. He then sticks it into the handle and twists. The heavy door slowly opens and I am instantly blinded by bright light. Squinting, I find myself facing a long hallway. Everything is white; the ceilings, walls and floor. Bright fluorescent lights shine from the ceiling, hurting my eyes to look at.

The men push me forward and we begin walking down the hallway.

I must be dreaming. How is it possible that I am in an underground tunnel on an island? But the pit of dread in my stomach tells me that I am not dreaming. I suddenly begin to think of Ian and Tristan, and tears well up in my eyes.

We turn around a corner sharply, and enter another hallway. This hallway is nearly identical to other one, but it has doors. The doors are all identical, plain white and windowless. I wonder where they are taking me.

We suddenly abruptly stop in front of one of the doors. There is a sign on the door that reads, "LABORATORY 1A" in large, black letters.

One of the men opens the door and pushes me inside. Before I can turn around, the door is shut behind me. I hear the twist of a key, then their footsteps walk away.

I am locked inside.

The room is all white, just like the hallway, resembling a hospital room. Just like the room in my dream. I suddenly get the chills, even though its not cold.

The room is bare except for a patient bed and a countertop. It smells strongly of antiseptics, which makes my head pound even more.

What the hell is going on.

It was bad enough being trapped and starving on an island, but at least I wasn't alone. I had Tristan and Ian. Now, I am utterly alone, and imprisoned. I think back to my name being that only name that was circled on the list. These sickening people want just me. I have no clue why, but the mere thought makes me nauseous.

Suddenly, I hear the door handle twist and the door squeak open. I whip around to see a man standing in the doorway. Like the others, he is also wearing a white lab coat. But he doesn't have a surgical mask on, so I can see his entire face. He is middle-aged, with cropped greying hair and piercing blue eyes.

I immediately recoil, leaning back against the wall, staring at the man with fear in my eyes.

The man smiles. But it is not a