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

“You had no choice,” Derek said comfortingly. “It was either Troy or the rest of us.”

Dillon choked back the tears as his eyes went red and just nodded, fearing that he would burst out crying if he said a word. He had just killed someone and a massive load of guilt started to well up inside of him.

“Who’s this?” John asked as he approached with another first aid kit.

“This is Dillon Hunt. The boy who is responsible for cracking all the clues you left for us in order to find you,” Derek replied. “He’s also primarily responsible for saving us with his quick thinking of using the Necrotoxin and the Genesis serum.”

Dillon knew that Derek was trying to justify his actions, but he wasn’t sure he could ever feel good about the outcome of the choice he just made. It all happened so fast and he didn’t consider the consequences until after the confrontation was in full swing. Was there a better way he could have handled the situation so that he wasn’t forced to take a life? Could he have used Jordan with his increased strength and speed to overpower everyone? Or was the action that he took merely the action of a boy whose imagination was overactive which clouded his judgement and caused him to make a rash decision? These were the thoughts—and many more like them—that spiralled through the young boy’s mind.

“Well then. I’m very pleased to meet you Dillon Hunt. Any relation to … ” Derek put his hand on John’s arm and shook his head slightly in order to stop him from saying more; a move that Dillon didn’t miss.

“You know Dillon, I’m impressed,” John continued with a big smile. “How did you know that the Necrotoxin wouldn’t react well with the Genesis serum?”

Dillon wiped his face with his shirt sleeve. “The little bit of information I was able to read about the chemicals in the lab said that they don’t react well together. I also saw one of the creatures combust just by touching Oasis land which I already knew was created by Genesis.”

John laughed. “Very good! You’re absolutely right. These two chemicals don’t react well together. In fact, the Necrotoxin is made from the waste that is produced when Genesis is created. With the addition of a couple more compounds in the right quantities that act as reacting agents, even the slightest contact causes them to violently respond to one another. It’s a bit of a failsafe I built into the Necrotoxin in order to make sure there was a way to manage the creatures just in case any of them needed to be dealt with.”

“You did that while under mind-control?” Dillon asked.

John shrugged. “I guess. I can’t explain how I managed it. It was almost like a waking dream most of the time. But I guess that, just like some people learn to control parts of their dreams, I learned to control some parts of my actions. I couldn’t help but conform to their wishes, but part of me was able to control, to an extent, some of the outcome.”

“The thing that strikes me as odd though,” Derek interjected, “is that this Tokala tribe doesn’t appear to me as having the ability to do all of this alone.”

“That’s because they didn’t,” came Tom Tom’s reply as he walked over to join the conversation. “There’s someone else behind this.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know. The elders are really tight-lipped about it.”

“Well that’s a problem,” Derek stated matter-of-factly.

“So does that mean that the whole tribe who owns and runs the place was in on it?”

“No, not at all,” Tom Tom replied, almost sheepishly. “We were deceived by the elders of our tribe just as you and the rest of the world have been over the last number of years. The elders came to us before we built any of the resort and explained that they had received a vision from the spirit animals that roamed these parts, and that they led them to a hidden oasis in the desert that no one knew about.

“Of course we were all skeptical at first, but when they showed it to us and explained their vision of the future; that they were going to revitalize our tribe through the management of this oasis, the creation of the hotel, and the land which they would give us to live in this paradise … we couldn’t refuse the offer.”

“But why weren’t you able to storm in and find John without my help?” asked Dillon, wondering where he fit into this. “And why me?”

Derek looked to the others for a moment and then back to Dillon. “We couldn’t risk an overt assault as we didn’t know exactly what we were dealing with. We had sent covert teams in over the course of almost eighteen months and they found nothing. So we needed a different approach—we needed you.”

Dillon’s face went pale. “But why me?” he blurted, almost feeling like he was on a roller coaster ride that he couldn’t get off. “How did you know I would be able to help?”

“Because you have those special abilities we talked about and saw in action,” Derek replied. “Remember that I told you that you were destined for something greater? As you get older it will all make more sense to you. I promise. When the time is right you will know.” Derek put a hand on his shoulder and smiled. “Come on, we need to get out of here so I can let our team know where this place is so we can clean it up. You kids must be tired.”

Trevor and John bandaged up the group as best they could with the supplies they had. Thankfully no one was really that injured, even Jordan, whose body had started to heal itself with the aid of Centrigenix.

Dillon had a thousand more questions he wanted to ask but somehow knew he wouldn’t be getting any answers. He resigned to the fact that he would have to be patient and hopefully get those answers later—except for one.

“Why does the Takala tribe leave a symbol of a boxed-in pentagram with the eye in the middle of it all over the place?”

John, Tom Tom, and Derek all stopped and looked at him in stunned silence. It was as if he had just dropped a bomb.

“What are you talking about?” Tom Tom asked.

“What?” Derek asked as well.

“You know, the symbol on the wall at the front desk in the hotel, here in the tunnel, and carved into the counter at the information center?”

That’s … ” Derek started to say. “That’s nothing,” he said after he composed himself.

“But what does it mean?” Dillon asked.

“I don’t know,” Derek responded. “But I’m going to find out.”