The Isle: Chapter Nineteen

All writing is done by me. 
You can find the previous chapters here.

The next three days consisted mostly of sleeping and eating. Sometimes I would sit in the bath for hours, and sometimes not alone. Hugh hardly left my side. Apparently after my ‘ultrasound’, I was taken away. The others protested, and it started to get violent. After a guard threw Hugh to the floor and Tyler took a hit to the face, Sam calmed things down. While I was being carried out the door Sam had told them I would be back before too long. But they didn’t see me for 4 days. I must have been drugged the whole time because I remember nothing. I refrained from telling them anything for a few hours after I got back, as I was sure they would be watching too closely. But by 8 in the evening we set up a game of pool, subtly covered the ‘hidden’ camera and crammed into the games closet. I needed some help getting in and I was still in a bit of pain, but I put up with it. I told them everything that Finnigus had said about my child; about how I was the first woman to successfully carry a baby like this.
“Well, I suppose that’s good.” Stephen had said. “It means they will keep you alive.”
“Yeah I guess so.” I said. I’d imagined a new life of being used as some kind of lab rat. Used for breeding, being forced to give birth to these perfect human beings. And what would happen to my son? Would he be dragged off, tested on, grown to be used as some kind of soldier? Maybe they even plan on selling these children. At that point I started to cry. I didn’t want to come across as vulnerable and weak but I couldn’t hide it any more  I’d not felt so helpless, so controlled, so imprisoned, until that moment. The others comforted me but it seemed like the meeting was over.

Tyler and I are in the kitchen now. We’re making chicken Caesar salad for lunch. We got delivered another load of food today, which is always nice, not that we ever starve.
“I love Caesar salad.” I say, tasting the dressing.
“Yeah…?” Tyler says.
“I used to have it all the time. I’d always order it if mum and dad took me out for dinner.”
“Really? I always ordered something in the form of steak.”
I laugh, “Of course… Where are the others?”
“Playing pool I think. They’re probably practicing so they can beat us next time.” He flashes a smile at me.
“Probably,” I smile back. After I finish tossing the salad and go upstairs to find them while Tyler finishes grilling the chicken.
“Oh nuh-uh, she was so mean.” I hear Hugh say. I stop on the stairs and listen.
“Really? I thought she was pretty hot.” Noah says.
“Who’s this?” I hear Stephen ask.
“Cara Thomason. She was in our class.” Hugh replies. “I think she hated me for some reason, she tried to pour paint on me in art once and another time she told the teacher I tripped her when I didn’t. Oh and when I tried to have a nice conversation with her she called me a bastard and walked off with her girlfriends.”
“Yeah she was kind of a bitch. Still hot though.”
“Hugh, how could someone ever hate you?” I say, walking around the corner.
He smiles so sweetly and says “I dunno, I mean I’m pretty lovable.” He pulls me into his arms.
“It’s your turn, bastard.” Tyler says before getting poked with Hugh’s pool cue.
“Maybe she liked you.” I say.
“We were 14, not 4.” He says, taking his shot. He sinks two before asking, “Is lunch ready?”
“Oh, yup.” I say.

We decide to eat lunch outside as the weather is so nice. We sit on a big blanket and talk about life before the invasion. As Stephen and I went to a different school to Tyler, Noah and Hugh, we had a lot to talk about. We didn’t all know each other until we’d met in a forest on that mountain, a while after the invasion. The food was amazing, and so was the company. I was looking quite pregnant now, so sitting on the ground was a bit different. But the pain from whatever Sam did to me was going away.

After lunch, Hugh and I decided to take a bath together. I undressed and got in while Hugh opened up the big glass doors in front of the floor-level bath, so the mossy corner of the garden was right in front of us. I’m settled in between his knees, looking into the garden and resting against his chest. Hugh rubs my belly. I pressed a button beside the bath and coconut scented bubbles rose up around us, turning the water a soft, milky white.
“Hmm, this is different.” He says, cupping the silky water in his hands and then letting it fall through his long fingers.
“I love this bath.” I say softly.
Hugh’s hand reaches for my belly again and after a moment I feel a strange pain inside my abdomen. I kind of squeal and Hugh gasps. I feel it again, but stronger. I yell out in shock.
“Did you feel that?” I ask.
“Did the baby just kick? Yeah, I felt it.” He says.
“He must have…” I say, rubbing the spot where he had kicked.
We hear footsteps outside the door and Hugh turns towards the sound. At that moment Stephen rushes in, obviously forgetting we were naked.
I quickly sink into the milky water before Tyler follows Stephen in but it’s too late, Stephen saw my bare chest already. I lower myself more so only my neck and shoulders are exposed, and Noah walks in too.
An odd look crosses Stephen’s face, a combination of greed and disgust and excitement. He’s looking at my neck and the top of my chest. His eyes dart down to where my body is hidden in the white water, and then he looks into my eyes. He quickly looks away. I sink a little lower into the water and cover my chest with my arm anyway.
“S-sorry, forgot you guys would be naked. We heard you yell out, and thought something was wrong.” He stammers.
“It’s ok, not like you can see us in this water anyway,” Hugh says, running the water through his fingers again.
“I think the baby just kicked, really hard. It took us by surprise…” I say, trying to sound normal. I’m blushing.
“Already?” Tyler asks
“Apparently…” I say. “Ah!” I cry as he kicks out again.
“Maybe it’s the hot water.” Hugh says.
After a moment the others leave us alone again. I sit in between Hugh’s knees once more, and together we hold my stomach. I don’t think Hugh noticed that Stephen saw my breasts, and I don’t think he saw the look on Stephens face either. I don’t want to say anything just yet. We sit quietly as we watch the water turn clear again as it’s filtered out.

About an hour later I’m sitting in the garden, the afternoon sun reflects off the pond and throws light around the trees. I start thinking about our future. We can’t stay here, that’s for sure. The best time to leave would be before I give birth, that way we can be sure he won’t be taken away. I never want him out of my sight, I can’t trust this place. But the birth will be risky, especially seeing as we don’t know where we’ll go yet. We know civilisation is close, but we need to be somewhere safe before I go into labour. And we can’t guarantee that safety. We can wait until after he’s born, make sure he’s ok, and then leave. But we would have to make sure, somehow, that he’s not taken from us before we can escape. What we would need is a bargain with the facility, with Sam and Finnigus Moss. But what do we have to bargain with?
Soft footsteps interrupt my thoughts and I turn to see Stephen walking across the grass towards me. I feel guarded suddenly, remembering the way he looked at me earlier. But I remind myself it was probably a misunderstanding and I force a smile onto my face.
“Hey,” He mumbled. “Can I talk to you?”
“Hey, yeah… What’s up?” I say, standing up with some difficulty.
“Sorry about the look I gave you earlier, in the bathroom. It was nothing, I was just a bit surprised, that’s all. We weren’t thinking when we rushed in and I forgot you guys were naked. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea, you know, you just don’t expect to see your childhood friend naked.” He laughs nervously.
“You didn’t see me naked, not quite. It’s fine, Stephen, let’s just forget about it.”
“And I still pictured you more, I dunno’ more childlike. I forget sometimes that you’re growing up.”
I don’t know how he could’ve forgotten, I’m heavily pregnant and I’ve not looked childish, in the chest area or otherwise, for years. He’s avoiding looking me in the eye, and he seems to be having trouble not looking at my breasts.
“As I said, let’s just forget about it, ok?” I try to smile again, and he meets my eyes before nodding.
“Sorry.” He says again and then walks off awkwardly.
I walk over to the pond and kick some stones into the water. I hear the door open and close behind me and I look back to see Hugh. He joins me by the pond and wraps an arm around my waist.
“Hey baby,” He kisses the top of my head. “What did Stephen say? He came back in and stormed upstairs. Is he upset?”
“No, I don’t know. Maybe. He saw me, when they came into the bathroom earlier. He saw me topless I mean. I covered myself but not fast enough. He came to apologise. I said it was fine and we should just forget about it.”
“Oh. I don’t understand why he’d be so upset though. I mean it’s not that bad, is it?”
I breathe deeply, looking out over the water. “Don’t be mad, but after he saw me, he was looking at me with this really creepy expression. It just made me really uncomfortable.”
His body tenses. “What?”
“It was just, I don’t know, I’m probably reading into it wrong. It was probably nothing. He said it was because it was weird to see me grown up, not the childlike girl he remembers. That’s probably all it was.”
He doesn’t relax but he sighs quietly. “Ok. Well if you ever feel uncomfortable with him like that again, let me know right away. Do you want me to say something to him?”
“No, no it’s alright.” I put my arm around his waist too, looking up at him. He kisses me again, on the lips this time.
“I’m here, ok?”
“Ok.”
I’ve always quietly thought about how the others are dealing with being locked away like this. Being the only girl around, aside from when Cassie was with us, I feel outnumbered. Hugh is fine, he’s got me. But Tyler, Noah and Stephen don’t have a girl to be affectionate with, and I wonder if they ever feel deprived. Perhaps the look Stephen gave me earlier really wasn’t that innocent, perhaps he’s realising he needs something he can’t get from anyone in here but me.
An uneasy shiver rolls through me, and I feel ill. 

The next chapter of my book will be upon the third or fourth of January probably, once I’ve moved into my new Apartment :) 

The Isle: Chapter Eighteen

Read previous chapters here
All writing is done by me

Sometimes things just don’t go the way you’d expect.
I suppose we thought we were one step ahead, knowing we were being watched.
Maybe they knew we’d found out about Sam and the cameras, because it seemed as if the gloves were off.

I think I can hear Hugh.
Is it him? I try to reach out, but both my hands lie still. I can’t move.
Hugh?
Voices swim around me and light begins to seep in through my eyelids. I still can’t move. The voices get clearer.
“Affirmative, stage 2 is complete.” It’s Sam’s voice. “Conditions are perfect and the fetus is fine.” What? Is he talking about my baby? I’m still not sure I can move but I lie still anyway, pretending to be asleep so I can hear what is being said. “There is no presence of D5 or any other negative deformity.” Who is he talking to? “I took a sample of the fetus’ blood already, master. I am very pleased to tell you that the trial is a success so far. Philuxor has reached the brain of the fetus and all other brain function is perfect.  Philuxor will have spread through the rest of the test subject’s body in 3 weeks. We will test again then and remove the fetus, if you wish, master.”
There was a sigh from the man he was talking to.
“Unless you wish me to remove the fetus now and keep it incubated until it is time.” Sam says.
“No.” The other man’s voice was strange, rather high, but rough. “Send her back to her quarters. You will remove the fetus in 3 weeks if the drug continues to work. Whatever the girl is doing, she is doing it well. The progress of the fetus is remarkable. Make sure her little boyfriends stay around. Continue with the program.”
“Yes, master.” Sam replies.
“Her little trip to the desert was unexpected but it doesn’t seem to have harmed her too much. How is the guard doing, Sam?” This guy knows what happened? Of course he knew… They were watching.
“He is still in the lab in basement 7. He won’t be useful for much, he didn’t hold up well after the interrogation.”
“Harvest him then. Might as well sell what he’s got.” After everything that guard put us through, after what happened to Cassie… I suppose that is justice.
“Yes sir.” Sam says.
“Why isn’t she waking up?”
“She should wake any moment now.”
I wait a few moments, and then pretend to wake up as convincingly as I can. As I open my eyes I see I’m in a very bright room, and it takes me a minute to see clearly. I try to sit up but Sam gently holds me down on the table. My stomach hurts a lot.
I look around, and finally see the other man. I have the strange urge to scream. He looks ancient but youthful at the same time, and somehow looks artificial. He must be very old, and he’s had so much plastic surgery to look younger. But there’s something so unsettling about him. His eyes look like they died twenty years ago, stuck in a frozen face.
“Ah… My dear girl” He says in a sickly sweet voice, taking a step towards me. “So young, so beautiful…” He takes another step. I want to run, but Sam’s hand is on my shoulder. “Do you know who I am?”
I struggle to find my voice. “Uh… No.” I say coarsely.
“I am Finnigus Moss. I’m the father of this whole organization! I own this facility and all the others like it. I was visiting here when I was told about your success, and I thought, ‘I must see for myself’!” He claps his hands together and his eyes flash with excitement. “Now, dear, you should be very pleased. We’ve been waiting quite some time to get a child like yours. Would you like to know how this lovely drug works?”
I almost scoffed at the word lovely. It is everything but lovely. It is evil and horrible and it ruins lives. But I am intrigued to know more about it.
“Yes.” I say simply. Finnigus moves in very close to me and sits on a chair beside where I’m lying on the bed. He swats Sam’s hand away from my shoulder and delicately picks up mine. His hand is cold and dry; his skin feels papery and strange.
“Our mission here is to make babies better.” He says, with an odd smile. “We give you the drug, and if you fall pregnant, you will birth a child who is impervious to disease. You will birth a child who is strong, and brave. If this trial continues to go well, the child will live for a very long time. Quite simply, we are breeding the perfect human. And this baby,” He drops my hand and touches my stomach, “Is the first to grow to the second stage without any of the deformities or problems we’ve encountered in other test subjects. The drug has worked.”
This is the most I’ve heard about any of this. I assume Finnigus is telling me the truth. I’m not sure what to think, what to expect. What does this mean for Hugh, me, and our child? We need to get out of here.
“Ah, my girl, you are tired. I apologize.” He stands, and turns to Sam. “Doctor, send this girl back to her quarters if you think she is ready. Keep me informed.” He turns back to me. “We shall meet again soon, my dear.” He smiles, and walks out rather quickly.
I stare at the door after he’s gone. Sam works around me for a moment and then starts to wheel me out the door. We travel down the hallway, not talking. I wouldn’t know what to say, anyway. My short conversation with Finnigus is echoing in my brain. After a minute or so, we stop. Sam swipes his ID card or whatever it is, and the doors slide open. I suddenly realize we are back, and Stephen and Hugh rush around the corner, followed by Tyler and Noah. The look of relief on their faces is clear, although they look tired.
“Oh, Nic, thank God.” Hugh quickly walks to meet me, as I’m being wheeled towards them. He kisses my forehead and I feel like I’m home. 

The Isle: Chapter Seventeen

Read the previous chapters here! All writing is done by me, and is completely fictional.

“I think our safest option here is to play dumb.” Noah says quietly.
“Yeah. But now how do we escape? I don’t think we can do it without his help.” Says Tyler. 
We’re all squashed into the games closet again. It’s just past 10 and we’re still clasping mugs of tea and coffee from breakfast. I’m standing in between Hugh’s knees as he sits on a big wooden box and the others are close around me. Tyler, Noah and Stephen all got up at dawn to search our quarters for bugging devices. After seeing Sam hiding behind a corner in one of Tyler’s videos the previous afternoon, we’d decided it wasn’t safe to discuss these things out in the open. We’d decided that it was best to assume they were watching us, and we had to find out how. They found 4 small cameras and two voice recorders without themselves looking too suspicious. We were hoping they didn’t know we were looking for those, in case the boys were being watched at that time. We would leave all of them unobstructed for the time being. We would only talk about trivial things around the voice recorder that was placed above the pit. One of the cameras is in the kitchen, in the corner looking out over the rest of the room. Another camera was found by the main door in a high up corner. The third camera and a recording device sits in the main part of the sleeping quarters; a series of rooms situated off of the main entrance. We never used those sleeping quarters  anyway. The last camera is in the games room, a space which occupies most of the upstairs. The closet we’re in now is adjacent to the camera but we made it look like we were setting up for a came of pool, set an empty cup of coffee in front of it on the shelf, and then crammed ourself in the closet. I don’t know how the boys found all of them, but they were certain they got every one. Apparently when Tyler took holiday courses in filming, he also learnt about bugging. It helped that whenever you got too close to a camera while using wireless headphones, you could hear some static interference in the music. That meant that the cameras were admitting a signal, so they were probably wireless, too. 
“What do you think, Nic?”
“What?” I looked up from my tea to realise I hadn’t been listening. “Sorry.”
“What do you think about Sam? You’ve spent the most time around him, after all.” Stephen says from beside me. 
“Oh, um. I dunno’, I always thought he was good. I thought he was on our side. But there was always something about him…”
“What do you mean?” Hugh asks after a moment.
“Well, he always seemed kind of sympathetic, but I didn’t really get that from him, you know? It’d hard to explain, but like, you know when someone is about to stick you with a big needle they seem legitimately sorry? Even if a doctor has stuck hundreds of needle in hundreds of people and they’re used to it, you can still tell they’re sorry. He just doesn’t have that. It’s like he doesn’t have any empathy, but he pretends he does. In my experience when a doctor or a nurse has to do something unpleasant to you, they generally know what it’s about to feel like, and you know they know what it’s like. You know when someone’s bullshitting you. And I always felt like he was bullshitting me. I don’t know if that makes any sense to you guys, but that’s what it felt like.” 
“Maybe that’s just because he’s had so much to do with hurting people in here that he’s become desensitised by all of it. Maybe that’s just how he deals with it.” Says Noah. 
“Yeah, maybe. It just feels wrong somehow.”
“I think I know what you mean.” says Stephen. “Something about him seems off. But I don’t know if that’s just because now we feel suspicious of him or if there really is something different about him.” 
The closet is silent for a moment as we all think about that.
“Well anyway,” Hugh starts from behind me. “Lets just pretend we don’t know anything about him watching us, or about the cameras. We’ll just go about everything normally, don’t look at the cameras, and never say anything about this unless we’re in here. Lets start playing pool or something more in front of the cameras so that we can do this again without it looking too out of the ordinary.”
“I always wanted to get better at pool.” I say, smiling a little. 
“Also,” Noah says. “I think we should still ask Sam about helping us. Just to keep up the show, until we can come up with something else. If we go off that plan, him and whoever he’s reporting to will get suspicious. They still think we want to use him to escape and we need them to keep thinking that. We don’t actually know for sure whether or not Sam is on our side, but it’s best if we assume he’s not.”
“This sucks.” I say, starting to sulk a little. “It was so good thinking that we had one of our people in here, looking after us. But for all we know he’s been brainwashed. Turned.”
“Lets go and pretend to play some pool.” Hugh says, ruffling my hair. 
We pocketed most of the balls on the pool table by hand, and then after removing the coffee cup, I pocketed a few balls with a cue, missed one, and then Noah sank the 8 ball as we all let out cheers.

Nothing happened on the Sam front until the morning 3 days later. He comes in towing a large machine with him, a guard bringing up the rear. 
“Hello Nic, big day today.” Something in his voice sets off something inside me, and something flashes through my mind. A warning? I can’t quite place it. Play dumb I tell myself.

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The Isle: Chapter Sixteen

Find the previous chapters here. All writing is done by me.

When I was 7 my grandfather died, leaving my mother swimming in a pool of grief. She quickly sank into an unreachable depression and I didn’t understand it. The once neat, beautiful garden became over-grown and wild. My father took over most of the duties in the house. Mum was so distant, it confused and scared me. I would pick her flowers from the derelict garden and would leave them beside her bed where they would wither up and die. 

I understand my mother’s depression now. The events of the past months have finally caught up with me. For a while I could get by, running from the darkness. Ignoring it when it would find me every now and then. But now, Cassie’s death, and my abandonment in the desert have left me exhausted. I can’t run any more. The only thing I can do is try to keep surviving. I’m constantly surrounded by Hugh and the others. They’re worried about me. But their company isn’t enough to ward off the demons. Sam’s been giving me more medication. It doesn’t help. It only numbs me, I always feel sluggish and my mind is filled with fog. 

It’s been two weeks since the day I crawled out of the desert, back into Terra Delta, back to this messed up place. This place where we’re held prisoner, in rooms of luxury. I can walk again, my feet are healed. But all I do is lay in the pit, or crawl into shadowy corners of the beautiful garden and fall asleep. I only eat because I have to keep the baby alive. I had started getting a bad cold once I got back from the desert, but something Sam gave me cleared it up right away. Since then I’ve been in good health, apart from this hopeless depression. The others haven’t given up on me, though. 
But I’ve been avoiding everyone today. I’m hiding under a small tree amongst the bushes in the garden. Laying on my side I stare at the still earth. There aren’t any animals or insects here. That’s what’s weird about it. In such a beautiful garden, there are no beetles in the dirt or birds in the trees. It’s all man made, and isolated. I’m pondering this when someone starts calling out for me. I don’t know who it is and I don’t particularly care. But the voice gets louder and Tyler’s face appears through some branches. He looks at me, disapprovingly, but then his face softens into the expression I’ve grown used to from my friends. Pity. 
“Nic…” He says. I roll over and face the other way, leaves tickling my face. 
“Can I have some piece and quiet please?” I mumble. 
“No.”
“What? Why not?” 
“Come inside, we want to talk to you.” He doesn’t move. 
“Fine,” I whinge, not caring how childish I’m acting. I struggle for a moment as I crawl out into the open. My pregnant belly is now cumbersome, growing so fast I hardly have time to get used to it before it surprises me again. These drugs are fucked up. I have no choice, of course. We hardly know anything about the medication they give the girls here to make their babies grow faster. I have to let Tyler help me to me feet and we make our way across the grass into the kitchen. The others are sitting around the booth, looking serious.
“Is this an intervention?” I stop, looking at them hesitantly. Tyler stops beside me, tugs on my arm and says;
“Yes, this is an intervention. Might as well be honest.” 
I sit at the booth, my belly touching the edge of the table. “You’d think they would’ve designed this place better for pregnant woman.” I say, but no one laughs. “Ok. What?” They’re all looking at me and I feel too uncomfotable now to look anywhere but the bare surface of the table in front of me. 
“We’re worried about you, Nicole.” Hugh says. He hardly ever calls me Nicole. “You know that. But we don’t think this is good for you. You know it’s not good for you, or the baby, to be like this.” To be like this. 
“What do you want me to do? Pretend nothing is wrong and be all happy and shit?” I’m starting to lose control and I can’t stop the words coming out. “How am I supposed to just be healthy knowing that as soon as I birth this child they’re going to take him away from me. They’re going to take him and raise him and steal his organs just like they took our kidneys and…” I’m crying now, but I speak quietly.
“We won’t let that happen. Nic.” Stephen says. The ferocity in his words and in his eyes shuts me up.
“What? What are we going to do, just escape, like we used to say?” I hiss.  ”We can’t go anywhere. We’ll die in the desert. And that’s no way to die.” 
An image flashes in my mind, of me collapsing in the desert, dehydrated and almost dead. Right when my hand fell beside me into the puddle that saved my life. 
“We’ve been thinking about what you said after you got back into Terra Delta.”
Noah speaks up. “We don’t think we’re alone here, either. There has to be something nearby.”
“Like what, another facility like this? Just what we need.” I say, the sarcasm clear. 
“No.” Noah grits his teeth. “No, there has to be something that would be useful to us. Other wise why would they make it so hard for us to escape from here? When they invaded our country, it was pretty evident they needed all the space they could get. Their population is too massive to just occupy our old cities. Remember, before we were caught, we saw them building those new districts? Think about it, there’s still a lot of our people left. Plus theirs. And we know that they have only killed a small amount of our people; most of them have gone into camps or facilities like this one.” He waves his arm out towards the rest of the room. “And that takes up a lot of space. Now, they were also stretching out the city boundaries to build more suburbs… entire districts, or so we’ve heard.” 
Stephen interrupts, “And think about it, it didn’t take them too long to transport us here, did it? The majority of the time we were in that boat-simulation thing so we’d think we were being taken out to sea. We can’t actually be that far away from where we were captured.”
This got me thinking. For the first time in these last two weeks, my mind was focused, and buzzing. In my mind I saw a map of our part of the country. A few hours’ drive, through tunnels under small mountains, the desert began. 

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Drinking coffee, listening to the sound of rain and writing chapter 16. It’ll be here soon so keep an eye out for it :)

Track the tag theisle to get chapter 16 as soon as it’s published! 

The Isle: Chapter Fifteen

Sorry for the delay in getting this posted! Chapter 16 will be up soon. Read previous chapters here. All writing is done by me.

After drifting off to sleep I found myself back in the desert. But this time there were no tracks to follow, no guiding stars. The night sky swam with darkness, inky clouds hung too low above our heads. I stood amongst Hugh, Stephen, Noah and Tyler, but they couldn’t see me. Cassie lay on the ground, pregnant swollen belly protruding from her skeletal frame. She wasn’t concious. I could hear the searching cry of a baby but no child could be seen. Cassie’s legs were spread, prepared for birth. Her eyes opened to reveal empty sockets and she screamed. The sound reverberated through me, silencing all but the cry of the baby. Insects, rodents and a dark mass flowed from between her legs, something I could only describe as the epitome of death. Her screaming did not cease as I awoke.

I open my eyes only to fall back into the darkness. Dread rolled through my body, from my feet to my throat where it lodged. Voices urge me to wake up, but I can do nothing but let my body succumb to dizziness. My lungs hurt like nothing else, I’m longing to take a breath but my throat is filled with vomit. I can taste it, feel it on my face. I’m drowning, I’m going to die…
Something rolls me onto my side and a tube is forced into my mouth, down my throat. I’m too weak to protest. My chest suddenly expands, beautiful air fills my lungs. Someone holds a bowl up to my head as I vomit into it. Acid stings my throat, my nose… I keep vomiting until my ribs feel broken. A cold damp cloth wipes my face. After a few moments I can finally understand the voices, and I open my eyes properly. The first person I see is Sam. 
“Ah, Nic.” I’m lying on my side on the floor beside the pit, Sam is kneeling in front of me. “Can you hear me?”
“Yes.” I say, my voice rough. As I draw in more clean breaths my vision becomes clearer, and a hand holds a bottle of water out to me. I take it and drink gratefully, clearing my throat. Hugh is kneeling behind me, supporting my head and keeping me on my side. Then his hand is replaced by a pillow. 
“You were having a nightmare, by the sounds of it. And it got a bit much for your body and your mind to handle, not too much of a surprise given the events of the last few days. It’s lucky I was here checking up on you.” He shines a torch in my eyes. “How are you feeling?” 
“Just really dizzy… And cold.” I add as I realise how freezing I am. I’m shaking, hard, and not just from vomiting. They help me back into the pit, arranging clean pillows and blankets around me. Sam takes my temperature, my blood pressure and my heart rate. He orders the thermostat to be turned up and asks Hugh and Tyler to sit either side of me to keep me warm. 
“You may be coming down with something. There isn’t much I can do right now except make sure you’re warm, and getting plenty of fluids. I’ll be back later to check on you. He turns to the guys, “make sure she sleeps on her side, ok?”
They agree and Sam has to leave. Hugh and Tyler join me in the pit. It’s dark outside, and the clock says it’s almost six. The blinds around the pit are still pulled down, but the windows around the booth and the kitchen reflect the inside room.
“What did you dream about?” Hugh asks as he settles in beside me, and Stephen puts on a movie on.
“The desert, and Cassie…” I answer. He pulls me into an embrace, and I’m still shaking. 
“I thought so.” 
Tyler gets under the faux fur blanket on the other side of me, and settles in very close to me. In different world this might be awkward, but over the past few months these guys are all I have, my family, my home. And being close to them is comfortable… Easy.
“When my mum died,” Tyler begins. “I had to watch it all.” I remember him saying something vague once about being in a car crash when he was younger, and he watched her die. He never spoke about it, really. “I had flashbacks, nightmares, everything. They lasted for years. Although they got better with time, they stayed with me because I let them. I never acknowledged the nightmares, never told anyone. Once my father heard me screaming for her in my sleep he sent me to counselling. That really helped. But the biggest thing I did was talk to my friends about it. It’s not something I would bring up in every conversation, but telling them, and having someone who knew what was going on, who could be there for me, was really helpful. Maybe, when you’re ready, you can talk to Sam about it. Doctors are good at listening, and helping. At the very least he can give you some sleeping pills and antidepressants. But you can also talk to us, of course.” 
I’m not shaking as much any more, but I still feel terrible. Stephen and Noah are cooking, apparently a roast has been in the oven for a couple of hours.
We spent the rest of the night watching movies we didn’t pay attention to, eating delicious roast lamb and vegetables (although I wasn’t that hungry), talking and playing cards. At about eleven at night an apologetic Sam showed up, to run some more tests on me and check up on us. After giving no new advice he disappeared again. I fell asleep shortly after that, and then awoke screaming after another nightmare. 
I don’t stop screaming until the lights are on again, and by now everyone’s awake and confused. I calm down a little when I remember where I am. Without a word, Hugh bundles me up in the blanket and takes me upstairs, turning off the lights for the guys so they can go back to sleep. Little, dim warm lights guide the way upstairs and he puts me down on the bed in our room. My face is still damp with tears, and he kisses me so softly. 
“Do you want to get in the hot tub? It will help you relax. Sam said it’s really important to avoid stress, for the baby. Or do you want to go back to sleep?” 
I look at the clock on the wall by the door, it’s after two in the morning.  
“I’m actually not too tired.” I say. “Hot tub would be nice” I smile at Hugh.
“Say no more, m’lady” He says as he pulls off his shirt. I strip off my pyjamas and look at my bandaged feet. “We could just rest your feet above the water if you want, on the side of the hot tub.” Hugh says. 
“Alright.” I take the bandages off my feet anyway and, naked, Hugh picks me up and carries me through the open glass door into the cool air outside. He carefully lowers me into one of the seats in the spa pool so my feet are propped up. Hugh returns to the bedroom and turns off the lights, and joins me in the water. The moonlight filters through the tree branches that hang around and above us, and it’s beautiful. Patches of silver touch the water and create pillars of light stretch towards us through the steam.
“Nic?” Hugh asks me after a moment.
“Yeah?” I turn towards him, amazed once more by his perfection.
“Are you ok?”
I pause. “Is anything ok right now? Is anyone ok right now?”
“I’m worried about you, Nic. You’re the one who’s pregnant, who’s at risk.”
“I don’t want to talk about it right now.”
“Sorry…” He says, looking away through the trees. 
“Hey, it’s ok. I just want to relax with you.” He doesn’t look at me until I grab his chin and turn his face towards mine. I kiss him softly at first, then when he responds and moves closer I kiss him harder. I pull him in close and he wraps his arms around me, kissing my neck. Before I could take another breath he picked me up securely in his arms and carried me into the bedroom. We didn’t bother drying ourselves off before we collapsed onto the bed, struggling to get enough of each other, and we made love under the moonlight streaming through the open doors. 

The Isle: Chapter Fourteen

Read the previous chapters here

The fresh breeze cools my face as I sit in the bath. Hugh just sits there, staring at me. I could be dead right now, I remind myself. If I hadn’t made it out of the desert the previous night, I would be gone. The bath is so relaxing though, that it’s easy to let those particular thoughts evaporate with the steam. It’s a large bath, square and built into the floor of the bathroom. Hugh had slid the window which makes up the wall in front of me, so it’s hidden completely and all that lays ahead is damp, mossy earth, trees and a world of green. But despite the hot steamy water, the refreshing breeze, and the security and comfort of having Hugh beside me, something still weighs me down. My mind feels heavy, dense. Like iron. From the exhaustion of walking through the desert all the previous day to save my life. From the pain and heart break of watching my best friend, a girl a love dearly, die as she gave birth to her rapists baby. From the terror of watching her bleed, and be torn apart. Her gut wrenching screams fill my head, and the sight of her bloody, dead baby is all I can see. Hugh senses my panic and gets my attention, and begins to calm me down. “Sshh, hey, it’s ok.” He caresses my face, brushing back messy, dusty hair from my eyes. “I’m here, the guys are here. You’ve still got the baby to think of, too.” I place my hand over my naked, growing belly underwater. I’m getting bigger. The drugs they give me here make the baby grow so fast…
With a soft towel Hugh washes my raw, stinging feet, apologizing as I wince. Then he helps me wash the dirt and dust off the rest of my body, and washes my hair. I relax back down into the big bath and eat some more.  I eat slowly, watching the bathwater turn clear again as the dirty water is filtered out. Hugh is just watching me, sitting on the floor by the bath with his head in his hands. The look of pure love in his face warms me.
“Our baby’s getting bigger.” I say, a delighted smile spreads across my face. It was the first thing either of us had said in a while. Hugh smiles back, but a certain unfamiliar sadness darkens his eyes. “I know,” I say. “But it’ll be ok. I know it will. Besides, Cassie had so much trouble before.  She was extremely unhealthy. Sam said it depends a lot on the health of the mother during pregnancy. With this drug especially.” The sadness in his eyes recedes somewhat. Suddenly tears spring from my eyes and fall silently down my cheeks. “She’s gone…” I cry. “She’s really gone this time.” 
“Shh, it’s ok, I’m here.” He takes a clean cloth, wets it in the warm water and wipes away my tears. “We’re all here.”
He lets me cry for a while, holding me as much as he could while I was still in the bath. Now he helps me out of the water and swaddles me in a soft bathrobe. I let him carry me again, and I wonder how long it will be until I can walk comfortably. As we come in the living area the others, who are crowded around the booth talking look up at us.
“Not now, please.” I tell them. “We can talk soon.” Hugh carries me upstairs, holding me tight to his chest. It feels so comfortable. We enter the master bedroom and he places me carefully on the bed.
“What do you want to wear?” He asks, walking to the huge closet. 
“What?” My mind is stuck on all the terrifying images from the past days. Cassie, her baby… “Oh, um…” I shake my head to clear the haunting thoughts. “Just some pyjamas I guess. Flannelette pyjamas.” I sit curled up on the bed, listening absent-mindedly to Hugh as he looks through the wardrobe. He returns and hands me a neatly folded blue and purple patterned pyjama set, a soft white cotton singlet, and some clean underwear. I dress stiffly, trying to avoid touching the soles of my feet with the soft fabric. They look even redder now that all the dirt is cleaned off. After I dress, still on the bed, Hugh scoops me up, sliding his hands under the faux fur throw so I’m wrapped up in the soft blanket. He’s carrying me out of the room when he speaks.
“Are you sure you want to talk about it right now?” He asks.
“Yeah. I need to tell you guys what happened.”
When we reach the living space, the guys make space for Hugh and I in the booth so I’m sitting between Tyler and Hugh. Stephen sat on the back side of the booth and Noah sat opposite from us. I still had the blanket around me and the pyjamas made me feel slightly childlike. Too innocent to have been through what I have in the past few months. Someone had set out drinks and food on the table. A glass of water and a plate of saucy, juicy looking pork, vegetables and noodles sat in front of me. I can’t help picking up a fork and digging into it, despite the thick, serious atmosphere. The others had already eaten, their dishes are still on the bench in the adjacent kitchen. They sit holding mugs of tea and coffee. It’s late morning. I eat most of the food on the plate and gulp down some water before looking at all of them properly. They all look tired and maybe anxious, but patient and happy enough. 
“Sorry, but I’m starved and this is delicious…” I say, and continue eating.
“Don’t worry, take your time.” Hugh smiled, and placed a supporting arm around my shoulders. 
“What happened when I… Left?” I ask, swallowing a mouthful.
“Well,” Stephen says. “We had no idea what to do. But them Sam came in and helped take care of… Cassie and the baby. And we told him about what that guard did to Cassie, about the rape. Sam said he knew the guard, and he would want to deal with you himself…” His words sink now, and sound hopeless, stricken with grief. “We thought you’d be killed.” He said quietly, his voice breaking on the last word. The others seemed to feel the same hopelessness and grief I sensed in Stephens words. He drew himself up, and took a deep breath. “But all we could do was wait and hope you’d come back.” He gives me a weak smile. “Thanks for coming back.” 
“I almost didn’t, you know.” I return the sad smile. “Ok. Well, my turn to talk I guess.” 
“What the hell happened?” Tyler asks, and I could feel the sudden electricity around us, the guy’s interest was almost tangible. 
“We’re not on an island.” I paused to let it sink in. Even I hadn’t fully grasped this concept yet. All this time we imagined ourselves in the middle of the ocean, off the coast of the main land. “They made us believe we were on an island. By putting us in that, that boat thing. It was all simulated. But anyway, I’ll get to that later. Well the last things I remember of being in here was when the guard took me around the corner and put me on the stretcher bed intended for Cassie. He injected me with something, a tranquilliser I guess. I went to sleep and the next thing I knew I was lying in the middle of a desert.” I told them about how I followed the tracks left by the guards vehicle, my unbearable thirst. My desire to save the baby, to make it back. I told them about my feet and how it felt like I was walking on fire. I sort of skip over the part where I gave up, where I collapsed on the rocks and found myself beside the pool of water that saved my life. I just said I found the water on my way. “I was thinking as I walked, about why they tricked us. The only reason I can think of as to why they’d make us believe we were on an island would be to stop us trying to escape. But-” I hold up a hand to silence Noah.  ”I know, telling us we were in a desert would have been just as efficient. So I was thinking there must be civilization near by. Other facilities like ours maybe… maybe even towns or cities.” 
“How did you get back in without anyone seeing you?” Hugh asks.
I take another mouthful of food, after having had played with it for a while. “I figured out roughly where I was by the angle of the moon. I saw my lucky stars, and found a fence that seemed close to our part of Terra Delta and I dug underneath it. There were a bunch of doors in front of me, leading inside. I was in some kind of out door recreational area. I saw the number 43 on one of the doors, the number Sam was given, remember? It was a long shot but I crawled to the door. Honestly I almost pissed myself with fear.” My voice is growing weary. “I knew it would be the end if it was the wrong door, but I hear Sams’ voice inside. It was about 3am but he was still up, and on the phone. I basically just walked in. You should have seen his face, I bet he almost pissed himself as well. I hid in his room with him until he figured something out. Then he thought to hide me in the under side of a stretcher bed, covered by sheets, and so he just walked me right back in here. And I was home again.” I don’t notice I have tears flowing freely down my face until Hugh brushes my cheek with the cuff of his sleeve. 
“You’re a genius, Nic.” Stephen says. “And your strength… I wouldn’t have been able to do what you’ve just done.” The weight of his words seems to hit me like a slow wave, and I realise for the first time how earth-shatteringly tired I am. I was tired before, but not like this. 
“Thanks, man. But I’m exhausted, I have to sleep.” I say. They all start shuffling and moving around to tidy up, and help me. I need some help getting out of the booth because I’m so stiff now, and I still can’t walk on my feet. Before picking me up, Hugh speaks. 
“Sam said we should keep an eye on you while you sleep. And we need to bandage those feet of yours too. So it’s best if you sleep down here. We’ll be quiet.” 
“Ok.” Hugh carries me over to the pit but before we get there I surprise all of us when I start screaming and crying. “No,” I sob. I can feel the shock in his tense body, then the realisation. “I can’t.” I groan. “Not after…” I don’t have to finish the sentence. Images of Cassie lying motionless there floods my brain. 
“We cleaned up, we actually replaced over half the pillows and blankets. We’ve slept in here since you left. You could sleep in the bedroom but we have to watch you.” My sobbing slows, and I can feel the others staring. “What if I lay with you?” He asks. “I won’t leave you, I promise.” 
I think about it. “Um…Ok.” I’m too tired to care at this point. The crying has done it. Hugh lays me down so my feet are elevated, and him and Tyler wrap up my raw, throbbing feet in bandages. They wrap me in the fur throw and Hugh settles in beside me. As I final request I ask for them to put a movie on. Spirited Away, one of my favourites. Hopefully that, combined with Hugh’s warm body beside me will help keep away the nightmares. I have my eyes closed before the movie is playing. I can feel sleep claiming my tired, defeated body. I can’t believe so much has happened and it’s only lunch time. I cuddle up to Hugh as someone pulls down the big blinds around the pit, and I’m asleep before the opening credits are done.

The Isle: Chapter Thirteen

Click here to read the previous chapters :)

My mind is racing. Thoughts fly around in my head like leaves and dust on a windy autumn day. The desert? But… how? How could I be sitting here now, in the middle of a desert? We were on an Island. The guard either took me off the island and found a remote desert in the middle of nowhere, or we were never on an island at all. Of course, it could have been a lie. They could have just told us we were on an Island to prevent us from escaping. But wouldn’t telling us we were surrounded by desert be enough to stop us running off? There must be civilization near by. Other facilities maybe. Our facility is called Terra Delta so there must be more than one. Of course there’s more than one. Nothing surrounds me but dirt. Orange, dried, burnt dirt. Some plant life. I guess by the angle of the sun in the sky it’s just dawn. There is a large rock to my left. Some tire tracks to my right.  A scraggly bush out in front of me. Wait, tire tracks? Of course. It had been raining heavily when the guard took me away. The ground must have been mud. The vehicle he was driving left distinct tracks in the ground as it dried. I actually bend down and kiss the lines in the dirt.  This is my only hope. If I follow these trails and survive until I find the facility, I might just make it… That’s if they don’t kill me when I get there for what I did to get banished. But was the guard acting on his own accord? He must have been, or I’ll be dead and harvested already. Not just left out here to rot. I place a steadying hand on my belly, as if to tell my son we’ll be ok, and I stand. No point hanging around. I start walking, and my problems soon become clear. My problems apart from being abandoned in the desert, I remind myself gravely. I’m only wearing what I wore when I was dragged from the room. My favourite oversized black shirt, a pear of pajama shorts and no shoes or socks. I also have no water. I dell on this as I walk along the tracks and soon pick up a good pace. I wonder how long it will take me to get there… Soon I realize how painful this will get. The soles of my feet already hurt, the ground is rough and covered in tiny jagged stones and rock. So far I can deal with my thirst but I know soon it will get much, much worse. My thoughts turn to Hugh and the others. I wonder what they’re doing right now. Probably beside them selves, I bet… My final moments with Cassie invade my mind like a swarm of locusts. The final images I have of her are gruesome. Her, lying limp and white. Blood everywhere, through the blankets, through her torn clothes, all over my hands. He legs spread, and her dead baby in my arms. Her final screams of pain and heartbreak. I realize suddenly I’m on my hands and knees, facing the dirt. I vomit. I can’t cry, I tell myself, because if I do I won’t stop. I have to keep going. I have to get back. For the life of my child. Our child. Again my thoughts are with Hugh. What I wouldn’t give to be in his arms again. I would do anything just to let him know I’m ok, that I’m coming as fast as I can. It takes a lot of restraint not to break into a run. I know I’ll have to pace myself. But already I’m getting tired. There is nothing on the horizon except rocks. I pass a few bushes and a lizard scuttles away. I wonder how often humans are out here. The sun is coming up now, throwing rays of pink and yellow across the empty land. My walk slows as my feet continue to hurt. A moment later I step onto a plane of smooth stone and almost shout out with relief. I didn’t realize just how painful it was to walk on those stones. My pace quickens despite my desire to make this smooth rock last longer. But in a minute I realize the dilemma. There are no tire tracks on here. I stop and look around, frantic. The plane of smooth rock is vast. There is nothing I can do but continue in a straight line. I pick a point on the horizon, a strangely shaped shaft of rock, and navigate by that. Once I get off this smooth stony surface I’ll have to walk around its perimeter to find the trail again.
About 300 meters across the rock I come to the rough stones again, and the track is just a foot or so from where I stand. Of course, the guard didn’t have any reason to drive in anything but a straight line. I continue along the trails for what feels like hours. According to the sun, it’s almost noon. I think of my family life back before the invasion. I think about where my mother is now. Is she safe? Is she alive? There is no way to know. I think about the child growing inside me, and what my mother would think. She would be happy with it, of course. How could she not be? She had me when she was 18. My father on the other hand wouldn’t be so happy about it… I push the thought from my mind and consider baby names. This is something that I’ve thought about since I was a kid, but now it’s different. All the names I came up with them don’t seem to fit now. This keeps me going for another few hours, at least. It distracts me from the burning in my mouth, the thirst that is starting to consume me. Eventually it’s all I can think about. My tongue feels fat and dry in my mouth. Swallowing becomes almost impossible. I even get to the stage where I could barely drink my own urine, if I had any means of collecting it. Which I don’t. But I’m more concerned for my baby; I have no idea what kind of impact dehydration would have on him. I start humming when the sun starts to fall lower in the sky. I would sing, if I could even keep my mouth open. My vision is starting to become slow and blurred, and my thoughts grow fuzzy. But nothing hurts as much as my head. Thankfully it hasn’t been too hot in the sun. My headache feels like it’s about to split my head open. Soon I start to even feel quite drunk. I’ve never been this dehydrated before. Even between the invasion and our capture we always had water. Bubbling up from springs, trickling down streams. There’s always water in the mountains. The thought of the cold, sweet streams would make my mouth water if I were capable of producing any saliva. Just as the sun is beginning to set I come across another area of smooth rock. My extreme thirst had taken my mind of my feet but now I felt some kind of relief, I was reminded of the pain. I sat down on the smooth, warm rock and took a deep breath before examining them. They were red raw, blisters were forming, white and angry. It was painful even to look at. I lay on my back, hopelessness overcoming me. I throw my hands out on either side of me to lie sprawled on the stone. My right hand lands in a pool of water and shock makes me leap up from my spot on the ground. I must have imagined it, I think as I look in the opposite direction of where the water supposedly lies. I’m so dehydrated I’m hallucinating. But part of me won’t believe that, and that part forces me to turn my head. YES! Water! I start yelling and laughing and crying (although I can’t produce tears) all at the same time. I plunge my face into the small pool and drink like a dog. Oh god it feels good. The coolness on my face hits me first, and then when the first drop passes my lips I’m in heaven. The nectar fills my dry mouth, and I drink until I feel like I might vomit. I lie down by the water. The little pool is just that, a small pool. Rainwater has accumulated in a wide depression in the rock, from the previous storm. I lie there as the sun is setting, thanking God and everything and anything for this life saving gift. I know I can’t stay here all night, though. It was warm last night, but it’s already getting very cold. I wish I had some way of taking the water with me. I decide to sit here and drink as much as I can, before setting off again. It will be harder in the dark, but thankfully the clouds are gone and so the moon will guide me.

Once, when I was about 7, I wondered off. We lived on a property that had once been a farm, and our land stretched out for miles. One day I’d been home from school with a bad cold, and decided it would be nice to walk in the garden. Mum was in the kitchen when I walked out the back door. I spotted a pretty white and yellow bird, and when it flew off I followed it. The bird would fly a few meters away and land before flying off again, so I could follow it easily.  It wasn’t until it flew off for good that I realized I was completely lost. It was almost nighttime and all I wanted to do was go home and eat dinner around the table with mum and dad. I sat there and cried until I saw headlights in the distance. Dad had driven out in his Ute to find me. He yelled at me all the way home. When I walked in the front door, tear streaks down my grubby face, mum ran into me and hugged me so tight I couldn’t breathe. I had to gasp, “mum, stop” for her to let me go. Needless to say they kept a good eye on me after that.
That’s how I feel now. Lost and cold. All I want to do is go home and eat dinner around the table with Hugh and the others. I picked up the trail again after coming off the smooth rocky surface and walking on the stones now hurts more than ever. My thirst is gone, which is the best feeling. The water gave me knew energy. But now my body has found something else to complain about and I’m incredibly hungry. As I walk by the moonlight, I plan what I will do when I get back. From what Cassie mentioned, most of the facility is under ground. But where we stay, it’s above ground. After what feels like an hour of thinking I get the inklings of a plan.

Did I just imagine that? No, I didn’t. There’s something out there. Just off in the distance, a glimmer. Metal reflecting the moonlight. That has to be it. Terra Delta, that has to be it. Now I can see a large mass of a denser darkness than the sky and the ground, among it, reflections of light.  I’m so intent on what I see that I walk straight into something solid. I jump back in fright and can barely make out what it is. A satellite dish, a new one too. I have to be close to the facility, then. I keep walking, faster and faster.

Eventually I can see it clearly. I duck down and lay flat on my stomach, paranoid of being spotted. The moon is inching across the sky; it must be about 3 o’clock in the morning. If my plan works, I should be able to find our section of the facility. Judging by the angle of the moon, and where the sun rises from, I should be able to work it out. Then I spot my lucky stars for the first time that night. Three in a row, part of Orion’s belt I think. Now I know where I am. I start to crawl towards a line of fencing to my far right, and continue around a corner. The fences here aren’t too strong, I can probably climb under if I dig a hole… I find a rock and start digging. It takes forever, but soon I’ve dug enough, hopefully. I bend up the wire on the fence and struggle underneath it. My growing baby bump doesn’t help much but I don’t mind. I make it through. On this side of the fence, there is a thick wall of trees. I do my best to replace the missing dirt under the fence and bend the wire back as well as I can. I slowly crawl under the line of trees and find myself looking at a wall, windows and doors alternating.  There is a number on each door and just to my left a number stands out to me. 43. Where had I seen that number? I’d become familiar with it in here; it had something to do with someone in the facility… As I pondered that I looked around more. Tables and chairs, and a pool occupied the area. Then it hit me, Sam. Our doctor. Sam had the number 43 on his white coat; he said it was the number they gave him. It was a long shot but I started to crawl across the cool grass towards the door. He would be asleep, hopefully. If it is him, I remind myself. When I get to the door, I sit there for a moment on the door step. I don’t know what I’m waiting for. But I can’t help but think about what would happen if this wasn’t Sam’s door. Yes, it was right by our ward, it had Sam’s number on it… But what if I walked right into the arms of a guard? Or worse… But my thoughts are interrupted by a voice on the other side of the door. Sam! I can’t believe my luck. He’s talking to someone, but I can only hear his voice. Maybe he’s on the phone. I slowly crack open the door and listen. Yes, he’s talking to someone but he’s alone in there. I poke my head around the door. He’s turned away from me, holding something up to his ear. 
“No, Kit, I told you. He’s a mess. He’s not fit for trials. If you put him in trials he’ll screw it up, I promise you. Yes. Yeah- look I’ve been watching him for days and he’s not even capable of feeding himself. How is he supposed to- exactly. No I’ll talk to them. It’s almost five in the morning, you should get some sleep, you’ve been on for over 48 hours. I’ll talk to you later today. Yep. What?” He asks Kit. But he’s turning around and I’m half way in the door, frozen. He sees me, and his mouth drops open. “Yeah, Kit. Listen, I gotta go. I’ll see you later, bye.” He says, and hangs up. He quickly pulls me into the room, closes the door behind me. “Nicole, where the hell have you been?!” He says, voice hushed. 
“The guard who raped Cassie came to take her body away, I lost it. I hit him, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t thinking. He dumped me in the desert. I had to-“ 
“What?” He said. “The desert?”
“We’re not on an island. We’re in the desert. I know- listen, I had to walk back. I’m fucking thirsty and my feet are screwed.” He goes and gets me me a glass of water from the small kitchen unit he has in his room. “Can you help me get back to the others? Are they ok?” I ask.
“They’re beside themselves, they’re worried sick about you. Yes of course I can help you. I’ll get you back. The officials don’t even know you’re gone, we’ve covered for you. We were hoping you’d turn up.” He smiles. I gulp down the water gratefully. The carpet under my feet feels like clouds, but the pain is still red hot. “Wait here. Get under the bed and don’t make a sound until I get back.” He helps me under his bed and he disappears from the room. I must have been lying there for 5 minutes, feeling totally vulnerable. A sitting duck. Someone walks into the room. “Ok you can come out now.” Sam says after wheeling something large into the room and closing the door behind him. I wriggle out from under the bed. He’s brought in a hospital bed. “Climb under this.” He says, indicating towards the space under the bed. Between the wheels, half a foot off the ground was a metal plate, about the size of the mattress. I climb onto it and sheets cascade down around me so I’m hidden. “Ok, we don’t have far to go to your room but we have to be extremely careful.” He says. “Be completely silent. Don’t move. If anything happens, stay hidden.” He says and I hear the door open. “Ok, the coast is clear.” He whispers, and wheels me out of the room. If I felt like a sitting duck before, I feel like a duck on a spit now. On a spit, rotating over a fire. I’m so screwed. Fluttering around the sheets surrounding me tells me we’re moving. My heart is racing. 
“Where you going?” A foregn voice asks. My heart stops. I prepare myself for the sheets hiding me to be ripped away but the sheets stay still.
“Unit 6 needs a new bed, for the pregnant girl. In case she needs urgent attention. We want to ensure the health of the baby. If anything goes wrong we can remove her and get her help straight away.” In the tense situation I almost laugh. Silently, I clamp hands over my mouth.
“Ok.” the guard says and we’re moving again. I can sense Sam’s relief. A few moments later and we stop once more. I ready myself for another guard’s voice. But I hear nothing. Then I hear a card swipe in a door’s ID lock, and a door slides open immediately. We move into darkness. Somewhere nearby a light flickers on, and a familiar voice rings out. 
“Sam?” Hugh… His voice sounds like heaven.
“Good morning, Hugh. I’d ask why you’re up but I guess I don’t have to.” He says, and he walks around the side of the bed, and pulls up the side of the sheet, revealing me. I look directly into Hugh’s face and slide out from under the bed. I stand up, but now that my feet have had a break from the rough desert and the rocks, standing on them is excruciating and I collapse. Hugh is by me in a second, and so is Sam.
“I’m fine, I’m fine it’s just my feet. I had to walk all day over jagged rocks…” I say, and Sam takes a look at them. I know how they must look. But I don’t care. I’m back… I’m alive. I’m home.

Chapter 14 will be up real soon! :))) 

The Isle: Chapter Twelve (warning, contains a bit of gore)

Click here to read the previous chapters :) 

Something was wrong. Really wrong. That’s all I could think as I lay in darkness, silence echoing around me. As soon as I remembered what has just happened, that I’d fainted, I sat up suddenly. Clutching my stomach I cried out for him, our son. 
“Nic, Nicole…” Strong, capable hands lay me back down. “Everything’s ok, he’s ok.” Said Hugh. His voice sounded far away.
“No he’s not…” I moaned, barely able to open my eyes. “I’m bleeding…” 
Sam spoke next, “It’s not uncommon to bleed during pregnancy. The baby’s heart beat sounds strong and healthy. You just fainted from the shock. I suspect the speed of this pregnancy is putting a strain on your body. It’s not natural, what this drug does, after all. But you hit your head quite hard on the way down.” 
Relief washed over me like a tsunami. As the doctor talked I opened my eyes, the bright lights stung. But the Doctor reminding me of how I hit my head brought on the pain. My skull felt like it was being split open from a point on the back, and a dull fuzzy feeling engulfed me. 
“Ugh” I groaned, feeling the back of my head. I could feel a lump, and a small cut. 
“I’ll give you some more pain killers.” Sam said, and I felt a small prick on the inside of my elbow, cold liquid moving up my arm as he injected something into my bloodstream  ”You should get some rest. You have a concussion. If you start to get a fever, if you vomit, or anything like that, give me a call straight away. He addressed the others who were behind him. “You need to wake her every hour or so to check on her, ask her questions and make sure she makes sense. We can’t have anything go wrong with her right now. I’ll get a nurse to check on you as well,” He said to me. 
“Ok, thank you.” I said sleepily.

The next few days passed slowly. Cassie’s return was pushed back but the nurses assured me it wasn’t serious. Apart from that the days were uneventful. A storm was brewing again, over the span of the three days after my fainting. Dark grey clouds grew over the clear skies like mould, and the air in our garden was heavy with humidity and charged with electricity. It was eerie. 
“It’s weird how warm it is, right?” Noah said on the third day.
“I know…” I replied. We were all out in the garden, sitting around the lake eating lunch, chicken sandwiches. The sky had a weird glow, grey and orange, as the sun poked through the dark clouds.
“How’re you feeling?” Stephen asked.
“Not bad.” Cassie said from behind me. 
I whipped around towards the sound of her voice, by the door leading inside. With a mouthful of food I gawked at her. She was in a wheelchair again, and looked thinner and more tired than ever. “Cassie!” I yell, and run towards her, my half eaten sandwich still in one hand. “Are you ok?” I gushed, “I was so worried…”
“It’s ok Nic, I’m fine.” She smiled and accepted my delicate embrace.
We spend a long time by the lake with the boys catching up, talking about everything that had happened since her heart attack three days ago. Which wasn’t much, really.
Thunder boomed in the heavens and the sky was growing more and more ominous. Just after we’d moved inside, rain assaulted the vast windows. Tyler and Noah started making coffee and tea for everyone as Cassie and I settled down in the pit. Hugh was picking out a movie for us to watch, as we made suggestions. Cassie cuddled up beside me and bravely admitted she had a mild fear of thunder and lightening, which was news to me. I looked down at Cassie’s emaciated body, she was all bones except for the oddly large baby bump. The baby wasn’t even fully grown yet. The downpour grew heavier, and the thunder continued to rumble more and more frequently. I sipped banana milk and Cassie ate peanut butter straight out of the jar. The boys were laughing at our weird cravings when the alarms went off. It wasn’t the first time this had happened of course, last time a fence had been brought down by a falling tree and some kids tried to escape. The whole facility had been on lock down for hours. Suddenly I felt claustrophobic. Cassie had been around when the last alarms went off too, but she wasn’t with us then. I felt her stiffen beside me as another round of thunder rumbled over the sound of the alarms. She cried out, clutching the jar of peanut butter. As the boys jumped up to find out more about what was going on, I held Cassie’s head to my chest, cradling her and soothing her. 
“It’s ok, this has happened before. It will be over soon.” The words I just spoke rang in my mind, lingered on my tongue. Something about the sentence seemed more truthful and more honest than I could have expected, but I didn’t quite understand it. The strange thoughts unfolding in my mind where interrupted by Tyler’s voice.
“Yep. The place is on lock down again. Guess we’re on our own for a little while.” He said. Cassie whimpered and I felt something very wet spreading out from her body. My first thought was that she had pissed herself, and I almost pushed her away from me in disgust.
“Oh my god,” She whispered. “No… No no no no…” She was fumbling with the blankets, exposing her body and the large wet patch. Then I realised what had happened, her water had broken. Clear fluid mixed with blood was all around her, and just then she screamed at the top of her voice, her body twisted in a frightening way and she clutched her belly in pain. Her eyes had rolled back into her head, the peanut butter had rolled down her huge stomach and landed beside her and the others were beside us in a second.  I heard someone yelling around the corner, demanding help from the intercom on the wall beside the door. I sat there, completely shocked, no idea what to do. Cassie was now whimpering and seemed hardly conscious. Her back arched again and she let out a sigh, and a deep moan. 
“What do we do?” I cried. “Cassie! Cassie, wake up. Please. Stay with me, don’t leave me again.”
Noah was kneeling in front of her body next, and removing her blood stained pyjama pants while trying not to disturb her too much. 
“Here, I’ll do it.” I said, taking his place and removing Cassie’s underwear. Someone handed me a pile of towels and I placed some under her. The others bent her knees and got her into the proper position for a woman giving birth and I placed a towel over the top over her legs. “What the fuck do I do?!” I demanded, getting extremely desperate. The person yelling into the intercom I figured to be Stephen, and he was obviously having no luck.
“I don’t know, but I think she needs to be about 10 centre metres dilated first.” Noah said. “That’s all I remember from my mum giving birth to my little brother…” He trailed off. I looked between her legs, and she didn’t look dilated at all. Cassie’s body started to convulse and her moaning increased dramatically. 
“Oh god…” I said. The movie was still on behind me, and the happy laughing and dialogue felt alien. How could anything so light hearted exist at a time like this? The alarms were still screaming throughout our rooms, and the storm sounded like it was right on top of us now. Hopelessness engulfed me. Cassie looked so young, so vulnerable. Why her? Why now? Why was this happening to someone as kind and perfect as Cassie, my best friend. The face of the man who had raped her floated into my head. Cassie’s sickening moans ripped me from my thoughts, and I looked back down between her legs. She was bleeding. Suddenly she was screaming again, her eyes wide and empty, staring at the ceiling. Her body convulsed and twisted again, and the crown of a babies head was just visible between her legs. Thunder rocked the skies and the windows shook. The alarms still screamed in my ears. “Cassie, push! She’s coming, just push, that’s all you have to do.” I yelled. I continued to yell at her but she seemed to be deaf. Or perhaps she wasn’t there at all. Maybe the pain had taken over and she was evicted from her own body. Perhaps she was possessed. But then I knew she did hear me, because her whole body tensed and the baby’s head was now in the open. “Good girl, you’re almost there.” I said, as I placed my hands gently around the baby girl’s head and began to pull, delicately, as I screamed at her to push again. Her body tensed one more time and then the tiny baby girl was in my hands. Cassie’s body fell limp. But I was fixated on the tiny baby in my hands, as I turned her around and examined her. She wasn’t breathing, she was still blue. I knew I had to get her crying, and something my mother once said to me swam into my head. She said sometimes the midwives have to spank the babies on the bottom to get them crying, so they can take their first breath. I desperately turned the little girl over as the others started preforming CPR on Cassie. I lightly smacked the baby’s bum and nothing happened. “What do I do?” I yelled at the others, “She’s not breathing.” I turned her over onto her back again and looked at her, as if her face would give me the answer. I numbly wiped the fluid and blood off her with a towel and brought her up to Cassie. I literally ripped Cassie’s shirt down the middle and placed the naked baby on her chest. I felt too distant from my body, like someone else was controlling me. The others saw what I was doing and stopped the CPR. I placed the naked, lifeless baby girl between Cassie’s breasts. At that moment the tiny girls mouth opened into a little O and she took a breath. I didn’t realise tears were pouring down my face. She started crying loudly and I watched as her body turned from blue to pink. It was then I noticed that the alarms had gone off, but the rain was still pounding the windows. Someone had turned the TV off too. So badly I wanted to pick up the baby girl, but I couldn’t bring myself to separate her from her dead mother. I pulled a blanket over both of them, so only the baby’s head was visible. Cassie’s face was now peaceful, and happy. It was the first time I’d seen her like that for a long, long time. Apart from her sunken cheeks, the sharp angles of her face, she could have been back in piece time, asleep. I brushed a lock of hair from her face. The baby girl’s crying started to soften. I thought she must be going to sleep. But after she’d been silent for a few moments horror struck me, gripping my heart and my guts. I tore the blanked from her and took her in my arms. She was dead. Gone. Just like her mother. Her little, fat lips were growing blue. Her eyes were open, and they glistened like blue jewels. Cassie’s eyes. Gently, I closed her eyes and wrapped her up in the soft jumper Cassie had been wearing earlier. The boys had covered Cassie again as well. I was sobbing quietly and then Hugh was behind me, holding me. I heard the doors at the front entrance open, and I looked up. An unfamiliar doctor appeared from around the corner, and he walked over, expressionless. He took one look at the grim tableau in front of him and only said one thing. “I’ll get a guard to remove them.” Remove them. He spoke of Cassie and the baby like they were dead rodents. I wanted to launch myself at him, but before I could make my muscles work he was gone. I stared blankly at where he had stood, as Tyler voiced my thoughts. 
“The piece of garbage. He just acted like Cassie and her baby weren’t people at all…” But before he could say more, the door slip open again. But this time the person who rounded the corner wasn’t unfamiliar. His face had invaded my thoughts every day since Cassie’s return. The guard who raped her. Cassie. The reason Cassie was lying in front of me now, dead. The reason why her child lay motionless in my arms, growing cold and stiff. Calmly, I placed the baby girl on Cassie’s chest again. I stood up. Before the others knew what I was doing, before I knew what I was doing, I was quickly crossing the space between the guard and me. “You monster!” I screamed. My voice was rough. “You killed her! Look, look at her!” I pulled back my right fist and punched him, right on his left cheek bone. Everything was in slow motion. The guards head turned away from the force of my punch, and the others were yelling something behind me. Screaming “No!” “Nic!” and I knew I was dead then. I would be killed. Executed. I stood there, in shock. My fist was clenched, at my side. I swayed, and the guard caught me. At first I thought he was stopping me from falling, but then he started dragging me around the corner towards the door. He dragged me onto a hospital bed, which was obviously intended to take Cassie and the baby away. Then he injected something cold into my arm, and things started to go fuzzy. The last thing I remember is the guard pulling a sheet over my face and Hugh’s voice, pleading. 

I‘m dead. I have to be dead. I think. I’m in a world of light, nothing but light. And the ground I’m lying on. The ground? It’s hard, rough. Hot. This can’t be what it’s like in death. I’m lying with my cheek against the dirt, so obviously I have a sense of touch… I can’t be dead. The next thing I’m aware of is how thirsty I am. Shit. So thirsty. Although the feeling is terrible, it’s the best feeling in the world. Because it means I’m alive. It means I could go back to Hugh, to the others. It means my baby is safe. My son. I open my eyes fully. The world is in fact not made of light, but instead it’s dark and cloudy. Then what I realize next freezes my insides. Stops my heart. Punches me in the face, and I stop breathing. 

I’m in a desert. Where the fuck is the island? Where am I?

Thank you for reading, stay tuned for chapter thirteen!

While writing the Isle.

I’ve started to believe I’m actually Nic, the main character. Seriously. My body thinks I’m pregnant. 

I have baby brain:

• I was baking and I lost the flour. Found it several days later in the cupboard with the pots and pans. 
• Put my cup of coffee down somewhere and I haven’t seen it since. 
• Mum asked me if I wanted a beer and I almost said “no thanks, I’m pregnant”
•  I have to pee like all the time. 
• I was making an omelette and I started blaming everyone for eating my toppings, WHILE I was putting the toppings on the omelette. I don’t even like eggs.

I have weird cravings:

• I want banana milk all the time. All. The. Time. Oh man I want banana milk right now.
• I have cravings for eggs. I don’t even like eggs. 
• If someone bought me a pork stake right now I would have sex with them. Like really.

And now I’ve totally lost interest in this post and can’t be bothered remembering what else I’m feeling… 

The Isle: Chapter Eleven

Just a moment ago my life had been more complete than I could ever have anticipated. Not only was Hugh back, but Cassie had been returned to us… It was the first time for weeks we had all been together again the 6 of us. Chris was the only one missing… But for one glorious, fleeting moment, we were all together. And then he came. One of the rouge guards who had raped Cassie a few days previously, came in with other guards to drop off supplies to our little home, and Cassie fainted. She had a heart attack, her young, frail body finally failed after weeks of starvation and a heavy, unhealthy pregnancy. She died.
Tyler and I were still on our knees by the kitchen, pale faced. Stephen was staring at the door where they’d taken her away as if she would run back in at any moment, laughing. Noah was standing behind Tyler, shocked into silence. Hugh, my lover, was behind me, still in his wheelchair, rubbing my back.
“No…” I sobbed. “She’s fine. She’s can’t be gone…”
Noah helped me to my feet and sat me down in the pit. He lay a blanket over me and then helped Hugh into the pit beside me so he could finally rest as well. Stephen was obviously with it again too as he brought us both a hot cup of tea. We drank in silence as the boys did things in the kitchen. After a while Tyler came and put on a movie, I don’t know which one, and sat down on the other side of me. All three of us were under the blanket, silent, and staring at the T.V but seeing nothing. Eventually the boys came over with chicken soup, and I realized how hungry I was. I didn’t want to eat, but my body was craving it. I ate gratefully. Noah was the first one to speak for what seemed like a very long time.
“If it was a heart attack she can survive it. People survive them all the time, and she can be resuscitated. After we’ve eaten we should call up and see what’s going on.”
A few of us muttered sounds of agreement.
As we ate, and half watched the movie, we told Hugh everything Cassie had told us about her experience in exile. After a while I noticed I’d been clutching my belly since Cassie’s collapse, and with a jolt I realized it was bigger. I handed Hugh my bowel and the tea which was resting between my legs quickly, and lifted my shirt. The baby was growing… In a normal pregnancy I wouldn’t start showing for a long time yet, but already I was visibly pregnant. I looked up to see Hugh crying. I was shocked, it wasn’t often he showed his vulnerability, especially around the guys. For such a tall, muscular guy he was oddly sensitive. I smiled lovingly at him, and wiped away his tears with the cuff of my jumper. The others had seen it too, and ignoring Hugh’s tears, commented on the growth of the baby.
“Sam did say everyone experienced the drug differently. He said if I was healthy and happy the baby should grow at the right size, if not bigger than normal.” I said, rubbing my exposed belly.
After finishing my soup and tea, I stood up and walked over to the door where the boxes of food were still sitting. But before I could pick up a box to take it to the kitchen, Hugh and Tyler were behind me to carry them instead, insisting I didn’t lift anything heavy. I obliged, reluctantly. I helped unpack the food though, and taking a small bottle of banana flavored milk and returned to the pit to watch the rest of the movie. I cuddled up under my blanket with Hugh again, and after finishing the milk I started falling asleep.

“Nic?” Hugh’s voice cut through my sleep. Had I really been asleep? “Wake up…”
“Mmm?” I groaned, “What’s the time?”
“Almost midnight. Cassie will be fine.”
“What?” I sat up suddenly, “Fuck” I said, and burst into tears.
“We just called up, she’s resting in a hospital ward right now. She’ll be alright.”
“What about the baby?”
“The baby is alright too, only just. They won’t know how she is until she’s born-“
“She?”
“Yeah,” Hugh smiled. “They had to take an ultrasound to check on her, and she’s a girl. She’s about three months away from being the size of a normal baby would at nine months.”
“Wow.” I breathed.
“She should be back in a few days.”
“Ok… Wow.” I lay back down and closed my eyes again. “Where are the others?”
“Ty and Noah are in the kitchen.” I registered the sounds coming from that general direction. “Stephen is in the shower I think. Do you want any more food?”
“I’m good.”
“Ok, wanna go back to sleep?”
“Yes please…” I smiled, eyes still closed.
“Ok baby.” He said, kissing me on the forehead and tucking me in more. I fell asleep once more, and much more deeply after the news of Cassie.
His eyes were blue, his hair a caramel brown. He laughed a milky gurgle, clenching and clenching tiny fat fists, reaching for me. “Bah,” he spat. I laughed freely, pulling him closer to my chest, looking down into his angelic face. His soft little pajamas were blue and yellow, and I knew his heart shaped birth mark lay just to the left of his covered chest. Hugh’s voice chimed behind me, calling my name. I looked up from the baby boy to find Hugh some distance away. The sun caught my eye and I looked up to see a strange mess of green vines, flowers and metal… panels of rusted iron and steel, beams and glass, were overwhelmed with coils of vines, plants, greenery and wild bursts of colored flowers. It was beautiful. The space above me was beautifully urban decay, lost within a jungle paradise.
I was brought out of the dream by someone caressing my forehead. I opened my eyes slowly to find Hugh’s handsome face looking down on me. The sadness I felt from leaving the dream possessed me, leaving me in tears. So badly I wanted to hold my son, my beautiful baby… 
“Oh, Nic… What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I dreamed about him again. He’s so handsome.”
Hugh’s eyebrows pulled together, “Hang on…” He said.
“Our son.” I smiled. The words our son lingered on my tongue, and brought me unexplainable joy. The most beautiful, loving expression spread across Hugh’s face, and tears welled in his eyes. “He has a birth mark just like the mole on your chest, heart shaped, just above his left nipple.” I said. 
“Really?”
“Who wants an omelette?” Stephen called loudly from the kitchen. “I do” and “Meee” we shouted out from somewhere just upstairs, Hugh called “I do” and louder than anyone else I yelled “Fuck yes” and the boys all laughed. 
I slowly stood up from my cosy spot in the pit and started going upstairs to shower before breakfast. After I’d cleaned myself and washed my hair I entered the huge walk in closet. I found an oversized grey cotton tee and pulled it on, along with some underwear and black leggings. After putting on some dull pink woollen socks and brushing out my hair, I hopped downstairs, following the smell of a cooked breakfast. 
“So it’s true then.” Hugh said as he saw me.
“What?”
“Your skin glows when you’re pregnant.”
That made me smile. “I’m hungry.”
“Guess that’s true too,” Tyler said, “eating for two.”
I punched him on the arm, and sat down at the breakfast bar by Hugh, as Stephen placed a plate of food in front of me. “Thanks,” I said while cutting off a piece of omelette and bacon. After eating and talking for a while, I stood up to go to the bathroom.
When I walked back out of the bathroom, Hugh looked at me and knew something was wrong straight away.
“Nic?” He said, concern plaguing his voice. The others all turned to look at me too. I could feel my face was white, pale. 
“I’m bleeding.” And once again I fainted, vaguely aware I hit my head badly on the door frame as I went down. 

The isle: Chapter Ten (warning, contains horror scenes, R16)

Read the first chapters here!

I decided immediately it wasn’t her. It couldn’t have been her. Could it? No. Her cheekbones were too sharp, her eyes too dull. Her hair was limp and her knuckles stuck out of her clenched fists like fleshless bones, resting on her heavily pregnant belly. Her skin was as pale as a bright overcast sky, and dark circles rimmed her fearful, apologetic eyes. Cassie had bright blonde hair; her eyes were full of light. She was curvy, and cute. Her skin was tan. The girl in front of me now was not the Cassie I knew, but as I stared at her I could see the ghost of the carefree child I grew up with. 
“Cassie?” I whispered, frozen still while tying up my robe. 
“Yeah.” She said simply. I could see it now. See her. That was enough. I ran to her, and hugged her carefully. I had so many questions. 
“What happened?” I asked, 

“It’s a long story. Can we talk about it over a cup of tea? Nice place by the way.” She said, looking around. Her anxiety seemed to be ebbing away. “Hey, guys. Long time no see, huh. Sorry that was a really cliché thing to say.” She laughed feebly. 
It was only then that I felt the tears slipping down my face. “I thought you were gone.” I whispered, kneeling in front of her. Sam, the doctor who’d wheeled her into our ward had left without me noticing. “God I missed you so much.” She grasped my hand in both of hers; it felt like holding a bundle of bones. “You’re so thin… “ I said. I could hear the familiar sound of cups being placed on the bench, and the kettle boiling.
“ I’ve been pretty sick…” She began. “When they took me away they operated on me and gave me this experimental drug they’ve been designing. It makes you extremely fertile and-“
“I know, I’ve been given the drug too.” I said, cutting her off. “But, how did you get pregnant?” I asked, fear seeping into my voice.
“There are a few guards who have gone rouge.” I said, her eyes becoming dull again. “’Guess they’re all hyped up controlling everyone, and invading this country. I suppose they think they can do whatever they want. Which I guess they can.”
I couldn’t believe it. Wouldn’t believe it. “They- they didn’t…”
“They raped me, yeah.” She said simply, seemingly untroubled by it.
“Are you fucking serious?”
“Sorry to interrupt guys, the tea is ready.” Tyler called, hesitantly.
I got up off my knees and offered to help Cassie out of her wheelchair, but she made no effort to stand.
“This isn’t just for show,” She smiled a tiny smile.
I stood there for a moment, feeling really sympathetic. Without another word, I moved behind her and wheeled her over to the dining table, as Tyler and the others where putting out the cups of tea. I climbed inside the booth, so I was sitting beside Cassie, and the others piled in. I was the first to speak.
“How often?” I asked quietly.
“Every other day.” She said, her voice starting to shake. She was holding her cup of tea, looking into it as if she’d lost something in there. “They kept calling me ‘naughty girl’, and ‘bad girl’, because I tried to stop them taking you. They isolated me, put me into a room by myself. It was hell in there. It got to the point where I would almost welcome human interaction, no matter how brutal it was…” We were all shocked into silence, and no one wanted to interrupt her. “I started to get really sick, the more pregnant I got. I don’t know if it’s to do with the drug, or the horrible environment I was in. I stopped being able to eat without vomiting, and soon I lost the desire to eat at all. Sam, the doctor started seeing me, and he did everything he could to get me out of there. Eventually he had to convince the people in charge to move me. He told them I would be best to be put with my friends, that it would help my health and help the baby. And here I am.” She said. “So what have I missed?”
For a moment I couldn’t speak. “Well, since they gave me the drug, I’m pregnant as well. Hugh was taken yesterday for his surgery. All these guys have had their kidneys taken out, so have I. That’s what they did when they took me. They also took samples from all our organs to test stuff on. Since they found out I was pregnant, they moved us in here.” I said, pausing to take a sip of my tea. “Oh, it’s so good to have you back.” Agreements echoed all around the table.
“Sam actually gave me these,” She said, pulling a sheet of pills out from between her thigh and the side of the wheelchair. “To help my appetite. Being with you guys… It makes me feel a lot safer. In isolation I felt so alone and helpless. I had no will to live. But this… This is different.”
“We’re glad,” Stephen said, smiling. 
Cassie popped a pill and swallowed it with a gulp of tea. For a while we sat around the table and talked, going over everything. It turned out Cassie, of course, had only been pregnant for a few weeks. Although she was already quite far along in her pregnancy because of the drugs, she seemed bigger just because of her frail, emaciated body, and her belly was rather bloated and swollen due to her unhealthy state. It was apparently having an odd effect on the baby. I was extremely worried about the safety of her and the child. I made a silent vow then to look after her and do everything I could to get her through this. Thinking about how large her baby bump was even now, I looked down at my own stomach and was shocked. Only a week ago my waist had been tiny, now I looked at least three months gone, and a visible baby bump was showing.
Cassie noticed my reaction and said, “So who’s the daddy?” She said smiling, looking around the table.
“Hugh, actually.” Elation and excitement bloomed inside me like a small explosion. I didn’t realize how happy I was to be having a child with him, no matter how soon it was. “Guess we should get married then.” I joked, but I also tingled all over at the idea, like a small electric shock was running through me. Tyler noticed the reaction, and smiled at me, kindly.
“Fuck I want banana-flavoured milk. Oh my god.” I said suddenly, temporarily forgetting where I was.
“Sounds like you’ve got yourself a pregnancy craving.” Tyler said.
“Oh that reminds me, do you guys have any peanut butter? I’ve been craving that stuff like mad.” Cassie said.
And with that, we spent quite some time in the kitchen, after I’d gone upstairs to get dressed, seeing as I was still in my bathrobe. Then we made smoothies while Cassie raided the peanut butter. I made banana smoothies, and decided I was probably going to be addicted to them for the rest of my life. After that we went up to the rec room to play pool and some table tennis before making an early dinner, fried noodles and vegetables with chicken. Cassie ate hers with peanut butter. We decided to request some food on the intercom, and we made a shopping list, which someone collected about 30 minutes later. The list included lots of meat, more fresh fruit, more chocolate and Oreo’s, ingredients for baking, cereals, frozen berries, organic juice, and copious amounts of banana flavoured milk and peanut butter. After that, Cassie and I decided to take some time alone in the garden, and as I stepped, wheeling her chair, out into a beautiful rosy glow, as the sun was starting to set. It was the first time I’d been out in the garden since our arrival here, surprisingly. It was much larger than the garden in our other ward, with a larger pond that could rightly be considered a small lake. Here you couldn’t see a fence either, but we knew it would be somewhere past the increasingly dense stretch of trees. There was an outdoor bed too, which was surprising. It was a medium sized structure, and octagonal in shape. In the centre sat an octagonal shaped, cover-less bed. I helped Cassie out of her wheelchair and we settled ourselves in the middle of it. We talked for a long time about everything, from our lives before the invasion, all the plans we used to have for the future, to our current situation and our pregnancies. As we talked, the pink hue dissolved into red and orange glow. After settling down, Cassie seemed to crumble a little. Now that we were alone she let down some guard and I saw how bad she really was. She looked totally miserable and desperate… Hopeless. 
“How bad was it?” I asked quietly. 
She was silent, apparently struggling to find words. “Oh, Nic. It was horrible. You haven’t seen anything, you have no idea what’s going on in here.” She paused, and took a deep, shuddering breath. “The night after my surgery I was put in a room with ten others. There was a girl that had died in that room a few days earlier, the others said she’d given birth to like four babies.”
“Quintuplets.” I added unsonciously.
“Yeah, she was one of the first human trials for this fertility and pregnancy drug thing. The thing was she was only 13…” Cassie paused. “So she didn’t survive the bith. She’d been horribly sick during the pregnancy and had a premature birth, the babies weren’t fully grown I think. Something happened and she went into labour, and died after giving birth to the second baby. They had to preform a c-section to get the other two out. One of the babies was already dead and two others were really deformed. I don’t know what was wrong with them exactly but apparently it was because of her rough pregnancy and her age and stuff. So only one baby was healthy. Her boyfriend, the father, used to stay in the room with the others but when he heard about the horrible birth he went crazy. Their doctor had come in and told them what happened and left again. A few hours later a couple of guards came in to clear out the girls stuff and the boyfriend killed one of them, and injured the other. All the other people in the room were completely shocked. The boy escaped and came back half an hour later and told everyone what he had seen.” Cassie was talking freely now, her eyes distant as if she were watching the whole thing on a movie screen. “He knew where the birthing room was and he went there. He found the girl, alone in the room, just lying on a steel table, dead. She was cut open and there was blood everywhere, they’d just left her there, Nic. Like a plate of unwanted food. I can’t believe it. The boy was distraught, of course, and started trying to wake her up, like she was just taking a nap or something. Then he heard crying, and opened another door leading out of the birthing room to find where all the babies were. The room stretched on for ages, apparently, and was separated with panes of glass into smaller rooms. On one side of the room he’d walked into were a bunch of babies lying in cots, three newborns lay in the nearest one, two were deformed. He stood there, crooning at them and crying and playing with them.” Cassie had tears in her eyes, and I noticed that I did too. “Then he heard some people come into one of the other adjacent rooms, and he had to duck behind the cribs to avoid being seen through the glass walls. After they left again he got up and saw the bodies on the other side of the room. There were about 5 or 6 dead babies lying on a steel table, one of them his. He knew what they were going to do to the babies; find out what went wrong with them. He didn’t want his child being cut open, of course, so took the dead child and ran back to the room. I don’t know how he didn’t get spotted, but he didn’t. When he got back he told everyone what he saw, and he’d hardly finished when the door burst open and he was shot. He was dragged out of the room still holding the dead baby. I wasn’t there to see it but I can’t imagine… It must have been heartbreaking. The boy was only 14. Him and the girl who died had only had sex because the guards made them. It’s so sad. I got there a couple of days later and the others told me what had happened. Not long after that we were all split up and put in separate rooms. Sam told me that the people running this place had learned their lesson, that they had to treat us properly or the babies would die and so would the girls. They didn’t want any more incidents like that so they changed how things worked around here. But because I was still being punished they decided to keep me separate anyway.” 
By now it was dark but very warm, and the sky was cloudless. The rising moon  was almost full and so it was really bright, the garden was bathed in silver light. Now that Cassie was talking she seemed lighter, a little less troubled. Her hand was placed over her heavily pregnant belly.
“What happened after that?” I asked.
“Well I told you most of it. Not much else happened apart from what you already know.” 
“Ok,” I wasn’t really sure what else to say. I was still processing what she’d just told me. 
“So, this is kinda funny, hey?” She said, looking up at me with that familiar smile on her face.
“What?” 
“Us both being pregnant. Imagine, a few years ago if someone told us we’d be pregnant by now…” She said, her voice bathed in wonder, caressing her belly.
“Yeah… Funny how thing’s have changed, hey?” 
“It’s a little more than funny.”
“If you can call in funny-” I was interrupted by Stephen opening the door leading inside, I looked over at him, his face lit up by the warm light spilling out into the garden. He was squinting out into the darkness, and called out for us,
“Guys?”
“Yeah?” I called back from the day bed. 
“Oh there you are. Hugh’s back,” He grinned, and I climbed off the bed, helping Cassie back into her wheelchair. We went over to the door and Stephen held it open for us as we went inside. I couldn’t contain my excitement, but I had to see him for myself to believe it. Walking over the threshold, I saw him. He was sitting in a wheelchair by the kitchen, the others were fussing over him, asking him all sorts of questions. He was in the middle of showing the boys his stitches when he looked up and saw me. He looked really pale and weak, a contrast to the usual bright, strong capable 19 year old I had grown used to. His eyes ignited when he saw me, and he dropped his shirt back over his stomach, stretching out his arms like a child, a huge grin on his tired face.  I ran to him, and hugged him as tightly as I could without hurting him. I was crying into his shoulder, and he was  reassuring me softly. 
“Are you ok?” I said, looking at him all over, as if I were expecting him to be missing an arm.
“I’m fine, just a kidney and a spleen. I’m just pretty sore and tired. Who’s the new girl-” he stopped short, tilting his head to the side as he stared at Cassie, who was still sitting in her wheelchair by the door. “Cassie?”
“The official.” Cassie said. “We match.” She added, indicating towards her wheelchair.
“Well, it’s good to have you back. I see Nic’s not the only pregnant one around here now.”
“Do you want to lie down over there?” I asked, poitning at the pit, “We can get you some tea or food, then we can catch up properly.”
“I really have to piss first.” Hugh said.
I wheeled him over to the bathroom and took him inside, I waited outside the door for him. As I waited, the main entrance slid open and a few guards walked in carrying boxes. I watched curiously, then something strange happen. One of the guards, who was stocky and arrogant looking, looked up and spotted Cassie. A look of revolution and confusion swamped his ugly face. Cassie, who was smiling beautifully at something Tyler said, looked across to see who’d walked in. As her eyes landed on the guard, her faced drained of all remaining colour, and her lip twitched as if she was trying to say something. The guard deposited the box with the other boxes which had just been placed on the floor, and followed the other guards out the door. As the door closed, I looked back at Cassie. She stood up suddenly, and Tyler immediately crossed the small place between them to catch her, although she hadn’t fallen. 
“No!” She screamed, and she clutched her chest. With that, her eyes rolled back into her head and she crumbled. Tyler caught her just in time. 
“Cassie!” I cried, running to her lifeless body. At the same moment Noah ran to the intercom and called for urgent help. Tyler lay her on the ground, calling her name. 
“What happened?”
“Is she breathing?”
“Guys?” Hugh called out from behind us, wheeling himself over. “What happened?”
“Some guards came in, one of them must have been one who raped Cassie and she fainted.” I said, as I searched for a pulse. I couldn’t find one. A second later doctors, including Sam, came hurrying through the door, wheeling a hospital bed. Together they loaded Cassie onto the bed, and immediately Sam was sitting on top of her, on the bed, preforming CPR. They asked us a few questions but just as quickly as they arrived, they were gone. Tyler and I were left on our knees by the kitchen, Stephen was standing with both hands over his nose and mouth. Hugh was half way between us and the bathroom. The last images I’d seen of Cassie kept running through my head. 
Her being hurried out of the room, white as the sheets she lay on. Her eyes wide open, her breathless body lay dead.

Stay tuned for chapter 11!

The Isle: Chapter Nine

Read the previous chapters here!

The thing with love is that you don’t realise when it’s swallowed you whole. You’re floating around in a world of bliss and romance, and it’s not until the person, the source of the ecstasy is snatched from your bosom that you realise how utterly consumed you were by it, by love, by everything. 

The guards had come at last and taken Hugh. I had tried to stand up and stop them, I wanted to do something… Anything. Tyler, Hugh’s best friend, had pulled me back down and held me on his lap. We all knew very well what happened to people who protested in these situations. Cassie, my best friend, had been taken soon after our arrival at Terra Delta when they first took me for my surgery, and we hadn’t seen her since. So it was with great regret and sorrow that I sat there and saw Hugh get taken away. I had been expecting it, of course. He was the only one of us who hadn’t been taken yet. I knew he should be back in a day or so, but still I sobbed deep, heart wrenching sobs. Tyler, who was holding me on his lap, relaxed his restraint on me and hugged me tightly instead. Stephen reached across the table and held my hand,
“It’ll be ok, he’ll be back soon. They wouldn’t put us in such a nice place if they were going to remove someone completely, and you wouldn’t have such a wicked bedroom together if that were true either. He’ll be back soon.” He said. He was right, but it was still devastating. I could sense the sadness around the table.  I clambered back into my seat and took a swig of imitation champagne but felt guilty at once. This was meant to celebrate my pregnancy, now it was tainted with what had just happened. Although it tasted fine, it felt bitter in my mouth. 
“You should eat.” Noah said, with a shadow of a smile. “You need your strength.”
Tears were still slipping down my cheeks. I thought I’d lost my appetite, but looking down at the plate and seeing the juicy stake in front of me seemed to wake my hunger. I’d hardly eaten all day, and my body knew I had to eat, for the baby. We all began eating slowly, talking about sports we played as a child. Listening to Noah explain, embarrassed, his short involvement in ice hockey as a goalie, which involved him getting stuck on top of the goal net when he should have been catching the puck, was enough to distract me while I ate. Noah was fit and toned, but not coordinated. He was awkward when it came to sports, as his expertise lay in academics. We laughed a little at his story, but it was far from wholeheartedly. I ate until I was full, and we decided to settle down in the pit, a sunken area in a third of the the living space, filled with blankets and pillows, walled with padded seating and half padded walls. Stephen and Tyler went upstairs to get the X-box, and returned a few moments later, and while they were setting it up on the flat screen in front of the pit, Noah and I started making coffee for everyone from the coffee machine. He suggested I had decaf, at my dismay. 
“Ugh, I can’t have alcohol OR coffee?” I joked,
“Well surely the vomiting, fainting, and childbirth makes up for it.” He replied.
I laughed a little, and then he hugged me. “It’s really inspiring, you know. With you doing this. I mean I know you have no choice, but still. I admire how well you’re dealing with it.” He spoke from over my shoulder, as we were locked in an embrace. Noah was a few years older than me, so it was surprising to hear him say that. 
“Damn it Noah, you’re going to make me start crying again.” I said, and I pulled away from him. “But thank you, it really means a lot to me.” I turned around to finish making the coffee, and put the 4 mugs on a tray to carry over to the pit. Tyler and Stephen were arguing over which plug went where, and Noah and I settled down, sipping coffee. After a minute the boys finally got it going, and we started a four player game of Halo. It was the first time in ages we’d played video games, but I used to play Halo a lot growing up so I was still good at it. After a few rounds, we decided to put on a movie and sleep in the pit. It was getting close to midnight, and we put on a Disney movie in an attempt to feel a little happier. We decided on WALL-E. We cuddled up together, I guess it gave us a sense of security. While we were now getting used to people being taken away, it was never easy, and the uncertainty was the worst part. 
“In the morning we should call the doctor. Tell him that Hugh’s absence is putting stress on Nic, which is true, and that it’s not good for the baby. Maybe that way we can find out what’s going on and get some peace of mind.” Tyler suggested. It was a good idea, I thought, sipping my decaf coffee as the movie started. 

It was about half way through the movie when I started falling asleep, lying between Tyler and Noah. I slept dreamlessly, thank god. And in the morning, at around seven I awoke to the sunrise, red and pink, pouring through the vast windows. The boys were asleep around me, and the TV was off. I felt so warm and cosy, but I couldn’t help the dread and anxiety I felt for Hugh. Standing up carefully I made my way passed the sleeping bodies and over to the intercom by the main entrance. I spoke into it, and a nurse replied promptly. I told her that not knowing what had happened to Hugh was causing me stress and it wasn’t good for the baby, and she told me that he was having a kidney and his spleen removed. She said they’d try to get him back as soon as possible, and to expect him later that night. Relieved, I said thank you, and walked back over to the makeshift, giant bed. I picked my way back to my sleeping spot and huddled back down under a soft blanket, and slept until well after eleven. 
“We should let her sleep..” A far away voice said.
I started waking up, and the room was quite dark. I opened my eyes further, confused at where I was. Dark grey blinds covered half the huge windows, the only light came from the warm sun streaming into the kitchen. I sat up, Tyler was at my feet.
“Morning Ty” I said roughly, rubbing my eyes. “What’s the time?”
“About half past eleven.” He said casually. The others where in the kitchen cooking breakfast. The smell of cooking food wafted over to me and I was suddenly overcome with nausea. Leaping up out of the mass of pillows and blankets I ran to the downstairs bathroom, my hand clamped over my mouth. I was out of sight before Tyler could ask what was wrong. 
Reaching the toilet just in time, I threw up into the pristine bowel. The boys where behind me in a second and Tyler was holding back my messy dark blonde hair.
I was done after about 5 minutes. The pain was excruciating and I was holding back screams. Tyler sensed my discomfort and asked me if I needed anything. 
“The doctor said when I get pain like this to find some way to relax.” I said through gasps.
“How about a hot bath? There’s an in-floor bath just in there” (he pointed through the open door to the adjacent bathroom) “with an overhead shower. It’s really nice. Want some help getting in there?” Tyler said,
“Sounds good. Help me up?” I asked, turning around on the floor. He grabbed my outstretched hand and pulled me up, steadying me when I swayed. He guided me into the bathroom and I was taken by surprise. The room was square, with deep blue tiles lining the bottom half of the walls. The floor tiles were black, and in the middle of the room was a large square bath built into the floor, about a meter deep. The water was still, like a mirror, reflecting the peaceful forest outside the huge window that made up the entire wall in front of me. Above the bath was a large shower head. Noah, who’d followed us in, walked over to the window and slid it to the side and it disappeared into the walls on either side. The front wall was now completely open, the black tiled floor stretching beyond the bath until it stopped and met the soil and moss on the forest floor. Both ground surfaces were level. Trees stood side by side in the garden, moss hanging from the branches. Dappled sunlight littered the ground, and fell through the jade leaves. It was beautiful. 
“Does the bath always have water in it?” I asked, distracted.
“Seems to,” Noah said, “it’s like a pool, only it’s a bath.” He almost laughed.
I sat on the floor by the bath and began taking my socks off.
“We’ll just be out there if you need us, ok? There’s a robe on the back of the door. We’ll leave it unlocked just in case.” Tyler said, as Noah left behind him. 
“Ok, thanks man.” I said, pulling off the expensive cashmere jumper and casting it aside. The door closed as they left, and I took off the rest of my clothes. I dipped my feet into the bath, the water was soft and warm. The breeze from the open window stroked my face, my hair. I slipped further into the bath, while tying up my hair with the hair tie on my wrist. I submerged myself up to my shoulders, and I felt the pain slowly melting away. But as the pain subsided, something else awoke. An old feeling I’d forgotten. I had a strange feeling, like an unknown word on the tip of my tongue.
I must have sat in the bath for 20 minutes at least, just looking out into the garden. I heard a soft knock on the door, Stephen was checking on me. I told him I was fine, and he left me to it. After another 10 minutes I stepped out of the bath, dripping. I stood there for a moment, the feeling that something was coming was getting stronger. I stepped over to the door and grasped the knee length white bath robe and I put it on. I stepped out of the bathroom, hair tied up, and fastening the chord around my waist. I hadn’t heard the main entrance opening as I stepped out into the main room. I looked up to the boys and they were staring at the door, I couldn’t read their expression. The feeling of anxiety and something I couldn’t place that had grown inside me for the past hour was now blaring in my ears. I turned my head slowly towards the door. Sam was pushing a girl in a wheelchair. I barely recognised her. She must have been at least 8 months pregnant. Cassie. 

Thank you for reading! Chapter 10 will be up real soon <3