Dillon Hunt And The Desert Oasis Resort by Chad Stewart (books suggested by bill gates txt) 📕

Dillon looked around. They were in some sort of square room that appeared to be manmade. The walls and floors were made from the same natural stone that the rest of the place was, but there were light fixtures and other pipes running along the ceiling. There were also old racks and a couple of broken tables and chairs scattered throughout.

“Obviously there used to be people down here doing who knows what,” Dillon stated as he walked to the other side of the room. He found a light switch beside the door and flicked it on. Some of the fixtures flickered to life while others remained out and one even had a light bulb explode. The kids jumped as they were startled by the sudden explosion.

“Do you think it’s wise turning that on?” Jordan whispered loudly to Dillon.

His brother merely shrugged. “Too late now.”

The door had a large coating of dust and cobwebs on it which made it look as though it hadn’t been opened in a long time. The top portion had a large window in it that was equally coated with thick dust. Dillon swiped his hand across it making a large clear spot, disturbing the dust which floated into the air causing him to cough. The window looked as though it was naturally fogged which would allow light to come in and exit, but would prevent anyone from seeing exactly what was happening on one side or the other. Through the clear spot that Dillon had made the kids could see a little bit of light on the other side. The light appeared to be far away or faded somehow.

“There’s gotta be someone down there,” Jordan observed.

“I guess there’s only one way to find out,” Dillon said as he reached for the door handle. The door seemed like it was welded in place. Dillon tugged and reefed on the door with all his might but it wouldn’t budge. Jordan moved him aside and pushed on the door—even giving it a quick shot with his shoulder—and it swung open. He waved for Dillon to go first, giving him a knowing smirk. Dillon just shook his head as he walked through. Gwen giggled at her brother’s playful silent banter.

The hallway on the other side appeared to be more constructed than the natural stone look of the room they just came through. It was almost as though they had entered a hospital—an old hospital—with the design of the tiled floor, walls that appeared to be drywalled, and false ceiling that most likely concealed water pipes and electrical wiring.

It was a long hallway and the kids could see light shinning through from probably another room at the end. Dillon and Jordan looked at each other for a moment—both sharing silent concerns—before continuing. Gwen took a hold of a hand from each of her brothers. Dillon saw a light switch on the wall and moved to flick it on, but before he got there Jordan grabbed his arm and shook his head. Dillon withdrew, understanding Jordan’s reasoning.

The kids crept down the hall as quietly as they could; their nerves were strung out as taut as they could go. They looked around anxiously, hoping not to encounter any more creatures which might be lurking in the darkness.

As they got closer to the end of the hallway they could hear the low hum of electricity and a few other faint sounds that couldn’t quite be discerned. They stopped about ten feet short.

“Okay, you stay here Gwen,” Jordan stated as he let go of her and moved her gently against the wall.

“We just need to take a peek,” Dillon reassured.

Gwen was not happy about it, but complied anyway.

Dillon and Jordan inched closer to the opening. All they could see at this point was some shelving units with a bunch of what appeared to be glass jars with various colors of liquids in them. The jars all seemed to have labels on them, but from this distance the two brothers couldn’t make out any of the writing.

When they got right to the edge they stopped and listened intently, hoping to make out whether or not someone was in the room. They couldn’t tell with the hum of electricity. Dillon finally made the decision to peek his head around the corner and see what was going on in there.

He slowly poked his head out and surveyed the whole scope of the room. It appeared to be some sort of lab. There were beakers of fluidic substances in what appeared to be processing equipment. Some were being heated and others mixed. There were a number of computer terminals scattered throughout the room on desks and tables.

Dillon didn’t see anyone right away so he crept inside, trying to keep a watchful eye. Jordan grabbed his arm. “Are you sure this is smart?” he asked.

“How else are we gonna get outta here?” he replied.

The logic must have hit Jordan right away as he released his arm and nodded.

The first thing Dillon noticed was that this room seemed to be kept in better shape than the rest of the places they had been so far. There was a door to the side that was marked with the distinctive “Restroom” sign on it, and at the far end there was another door that was shut.

As he started to go through the room—Jordan right behind him—he noticed, as he moved around some of the shelves, that there were cages lined up on one of the walls which contained various types of animals: snakes, cats, coyotes, rats, and even a goat. Dillon went over to where they were and found that they all seemed to be sedated.

“This place is starting to give me the creeps,” whispered Jordan.

“It’s just starting now to give you the creeps?” Dillon asked sarcastically.

Jordan smirked and shrugged. “We should probably see where that other door leads before someone finds us,” he said as he started to walk towards it.

“Just a second,” Dillon said as he went to one of the computer terminals. He picked up the mouse and noticed that the laser on the bottom of it was still lit up which told him that the machine was still on. He put it down and pushed the space bar on the keyboard. The screen came to life and didn’t even ask for a password! He saw that some of the programs where still open—minimized on the toolbar. When he maximized one of them he wasn’t able to make much sense of the scientific mumbo jumbo, but what he did take away from it was that, whoever ran this lab, were producing something called “Genesis” and something called “Necrotoxin.”

“Necrotoxin,” he said out loud as he read.

“What? You mean this,” Jordan said as he held up a syringe he had pulled from a small stand that was on one of the racks. There were probably a dozen such syringes on that stand, all lined up.

Dillon walked over to him and took the syringe. Sure enough it was labeled “Necrotoxin.”

“There was something written on the computer that says this stuff is a byproduct of Genesis,” he stated as he inspected it further. The liquid was dark, dark blue which made it appear almost black. It reminded him of sludge or oil. “What about Genesis? Did you find any of that?”

“What’s that? Oh … here it is,” Jordan said as he pulled another syringe filled with a light blue liquid from a different shelf.

Dillon took that one too. “These somehow counteract each other, but I’m not sure how.” he said as he put them in an outside pocket of his backpack. “We’d better take them just in case.”

“Good idea.”

Jordan started to look around again and got startled by Gwen who was right beside him. “Gwen, I told you to stay out of the room until Dillon and I said it was safe!” he scolded.

“I know. It’s just that … I was scared all by myself,” she whimpered.

“It’s okay,” said Jordan as he patted her on the shoulder. “It looks like everything’s good right now.”

Dillon went back to the computer terminal.

“What are you doing?” Jordan asked.

Dillon was silent for a moment as he clicked away. “Darn!” he yelled as loudly as he dared.

“What?” Jordan asked as he moved over to him.

“Oh, I just thought that maybe I’d be able to send an e-mail to Mom and Dad letting them know what’s going on, but this computer isn’t actually connected to an outside network. Probably due to the depth below ground that we’re at and all the interference from the rocks.”

“It was a good thought anyway,” Jordan replied as he patted his brother on the shoulder.

Dillon nodded and went to the door that was on the other side of the room. He tried to look through the fogged glass to see if he could see anything on the other side. It was no use. The glass was too clouded. Jordan came over and took a peek in the window of the door himself.

“What’s the plan?” he asked.

Dillon shrugged. “I guess we take our chances,” he replied.

“You don’t have any more of those, ‘I know where I’m going’ sort of feelings do you?”

Dillon shook his head and grabbed the door handle. Suddenly the main lights went low, emergency lights started flashing, and an alarm started to blare. The boys covered their ears, trying to dampen the deafening wine of the alarm. They looked behind them and saw Gwen standing beside the wall staring at them with glowing yellow eyes! She had the same eyes as all those creatures they had seen before. Her hand was still holding onto the triggered security alarm that was on the wall.

“What the … ” Dillon spouted. “What are you doing Gwen?” he yelled.

She just stared at them with those glowing eyes—emotionless.

Dillon was about to run over to her when the door behind them