Desolation by J. B. Everett (read more books .txt) 📕

are heading in the right direction.

"We should be there any minute now" Tristan says after an hour or so.

Thank god. My legs are burning and I am completely drenched in sweat. The sun still blazes down from the cloudless sky.

Then finally, we emerge out of the jungle onto the beach.

And there it is.

A plane.

It's a small plane, but large enough to fit all of us. Painted on the side of it in large black letters reads, "THE BLAIR INSTITUTE" Just those three words sends chills down my spine. We all stare at it for a few a moments in awe, shocked that it is really there.

Then, Dylan exclaims,

"C'mon, what are we waiting for? Let's check it out!"

We all walk over to the plane, which sits in the middle on the sand, close to the water. Ian and I walk behind the rest of them, who run towards it excitedly.

"Don't you find it a little strange how they left a plane out here in the open?" Ian murmurs to me.

I look at him, shrugging. Chapter Twenty-Eight

Hal's malicious cackle continues, reverberating in my ears.

I sit there in the chair, frozen with both fear and disgust for this terrible man.

Then suddenly, filled with a rush of rage, I pick the phone off of the floor and scream into it,

"What the hell do you want!"

Hal continues to laugh; a cold, unpleasant laugh.

"I said, what the hell do you want!" I scream again, my voice strained.

His laughing finally stops, replaced with the low static noise.

Then, he says,

"I'm afraid that's classified information Tessa"

Overtaken with another wave of rage, I shout,

"Why did you kill her?"

Another pause, then Hal says,

"Alyssa? She was a worthless coward"

This time, I seriously lose it.

"YOU FUCKING BASTARD! HOW THE FUCK CAN YOU KILL SOMEONE AND NOT CARE AT ALL!"

I am cut off when I feel someone's hand grab my shoulder, pulling me backwards. The phone falls out of my hand and onto the dashboard. I turn around to see Ian.

I look at him breathlessly, anger still boiling in my veins.

Then, I hear Hal's voice again.

"Tessa, you obviously do not understand the reason why we are doing this"

"The reason why you have kidnapped twelve teenagers on a island, killed Alyssa, imprisoned us in cages, and did some wicked medical procedure on me! It's because you and all of your people are sick, fucking psychopaths"

I have never felt this angry before.

Hal chuckles again, which makes me literally want to strangle the man.

"Remember Tessa, you have until sunset to return to us. And if you don't, you and the others you are with will face the consequences" Hal says coldly.

Then, before I can reply, the line goes dead.

Still breathless, I slowly bend down and pick the phone off of the ground, putting it back on the receiver.

"Holy shit" Dylan murmurs under his breath.

I then around, facing them. I can feel that my face is bright red from the anger boiling up inside of me.

We all stay there in silence for a few moments, all having nothing to say.

"Well we're fucked" Dylan grumbled, breaking the tense silence.

I suddenly feel claustrophobic inside of the small cockpit. Getting up out of my chair, I walk out of the cockpit and into the main section of the plane. When I still feel claustrophobic, I open the door and exit the plane, walking down the stairs and onto the hot sand.

The salty ocean breeze whips my messy in hair in all directions. I close my eyes for a moment, digging my toes into the sand to try to stabilize myself. The hot sun beats down on me, but it feels better to be outside in the fresh air, rather than in that hot and stuffy plane.

My eyes flash open when I hear the door slide open behind me. I turn around to see Ian, standing at the top of the stairs. He then walks down towards me.

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Without a word, he takes my hand in his and we begin to walk down towards the water. When we reach the shore, the cool water laps over my feet. Somehow, it calms me down a little bit.

I look out across the horizon at the endless sea of blue, wondering where the nearest land is. I have a feeling that it isn't for hundreds of miles. We seem to be isolated in the middle of the ocean.

"If only we could swim away" I murmur quietly.

"We'll get off the island. I know it" Ian says.

I turn to him, raising my eyebrows. I'm not sure if he is saying it just to make me feel better or because he truly believes that we are going to get off this island.

"How? We're trapped here" I say glumly.

"I don't know how. But eventually, we'll have to be rescued" he says.

"You think we're going to be rescued?" I ask.

"I mean c'mon, don't you think our parents would call the police when we all went missing?" Ian says.

Our parents.

One of the many things that I cannot remember.

My throat tightens.

"Yeah, I guess. But I don't think that they would send out a search team to look out in the middle of the ocean" I say.

Ian shrugs.

"All I'm saying is that eventually, someone has to find us here. I promise"

He then squeezes my hand comfortingly. I force a smile onto my face and nod, even though I don't believe what he is saying.

We are not getting rescued.

I begin to think about what Hal said. How we have until sunset to come back to them, or bad things will happen. Very bad things.

Suddenly, I blurt out,

"I'm scared"

Ian looks at me, his eyes locking with mine.

"I'm scared about what's going to happen to us when we don't go back to them" I say, my voice cracking.

The lump in my throat grows even bigger and tears threaten to spill out of my eyes.

Keep it together Tessa.

Ian turns me around so that I am facing him. He puts his hands on my shoulders, looking me directly in the eye.

"Tessa, I won't let them hurt you. No matter what happens tonight after sunset, I will be there to protect you"

I look up at him, tears beginning to well up in my eyes.

"I'm just so scared" I say again, my voice trembling with fear.

Before I can continue, Ian leans, cutting me off by pressing his lips against mine. He kisses me slowly and softly, his tongue gently circling around mine. For a few moments, I forget everything that is going on. All that I know are his lips on mine.

He pulls me closer to him, running his fingers through my hair. After a few long moments, we both pull apart. He looks at me then says,

"Remember Tessa, I will protect you. No matter what happens"

My heart melts. Here Ian is, promising to protect me, while I can barely protect myself, let alone someone else. I am helpless on this island.

I hear voices and turn around to see Tristan, Dylan and Nikki exiting the plane. They see us and walk over towards us.

"We searched the plane and found nothing useful" Tristan says once they arrive.

He then looks at me then asks,

"Hey, are you okay?"

I realize that there are tears still welled up in my eyes and fervently wipe them away.  I don't know how many times I have cried in from of them, but I do not want to make this another one.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks" I say quickly.

"So how about we stay here for the rest of the day? Just to get out of the jungle for a little bit. Besides, I feel a little safer here because we can see everything for miles and miles" Dylan suggests.

Everyone nods, having absolutely nowhere else to go. We all sit down on the sand, our feet outstretched in the water.

A few minutes go by, then Tristan turns to me and asks,

"Hey Tessa, do you want to go on a walk for a little bit?"

"Sure" I reply.

I can feel Ian's eyes on me and turn around to see him staring at me. His eyes then divert to Tristan.

"Why do you need to go on a walk just with her" Ian says brashly.

"Ian, it's fine" I say to him quickly.

I don't want him to get angry again.

Tristan and I both stand up, then begin to walk down the beach along the shore. I know for sure that Ian will watch us suspiciously the entire time.

After a few minutes, Tristan asks,

"So Tessa, have you had any more memories?"

I turn to him.

"No, remember? They removed my memories that night that they took me from the cage" I say.

"Yeah, I know. But I was just wondering if it worked. So you haven't had any flashbacks or memories?" he asks.

"No. I guess I haven't really tried to remember anything since. My mind just feels all foggy when I try to go through my memories" I say.

"Okay. I was just wondering" Tristan says.

I nod.

"I'll keep trying to remember, but I don't think any memories are going to come back. I don't know what they did to me, but they tried to block my memories and I don't think they messed up" I say.

Tristan nods again, giving me a small smile. His bright blue eyes meet mine.

We walk for a few more minutes, then turn around to return back to the others. Even from afar, I can see Ian facing and staring at us.

Oh Ian.

We walk back until we reach them again. I sit down, exhausted from the heat. The sun has begin to dip down lower into the sky, making me even more nervous.

Sunset is coming soon.

As soon as I sit down, Ian wraps his arm around me, pulling me close to his side. I know that he is staring at Tristan now, trying to figure out what we talked about. I sigh, leaning my head against his shoulder and closing my eyes.

I think that I doze off for a little because when I wake up, the sun is much lower in the sky.

It is almost sunset.

The sky is beginning to turn from blue to shades of dark purple, deep orange and pink.

"Fuck, the sun is setting" Dylan mutters.

Him and Nikki are sitting next to each other, their legs in the water. Tristan is sitting alone a few feet behind us. My heart pangs slightly when I see him alone.

"I guess we will just wait" Tristan says.

My heart has already began racing in my chest. I don't want to think about what is going to happen to us once the sun goes down.

We all stand up and Ian picks up the gun from the beach. At least we have one weapon.

The sun sets lower and lower into the sky. We all wait apprehensively, facing the shadowy, ominous jungle. Ian holds the gun in his hands, aiming it in front of him.

We wait.

And we wait.

And we wait.

If only we knew what lay ahead of us when the sun went down...