1 – Docking
Rachel awoke with a start. She was staring up at a cloudless blue sky. She could hear water lapping and feel the hard texture of the wooden dock beneath her. She pinched herself sharply and closed her eyes.
A seagull cawed sharply, snapping her back to reality... or whatever this was. She sat up.
The island dock was exactly as it had looked in the picture in the book. There was a ship on her right, but as it was sunken so that only the tops of the masts were showing, she doubted that they could possibly have come here on that. Across from her was a set of wooden steps leading up off the dock. On a plateau overlooking the dock was an oversized set of gears.
Rachel got slowly to her feet and started to head towards the stairs, and nearly tripped over Jordan, who was still out cold. She shook him, but he did not stir. After shaking him a bit more to try to get him up, she gave up and headed for the stairs.
Rachel stood on the gear plateau and surveyed the island. Two buildings, one round and one square, were immediately visible down below her. Through the trees covering the west side of the island she could just make out some more buildings, but no real features were distinguishable. She sighed and sat down beside the huge gears. She had only woken up five minutes ago and she was already tired.
Her brain was buzzing with questions. Where were they? How did they get here? Is there anyone here who can answer these questions? And, most importantly of all, how do we get home?
Rachel awoke to a rumble of thunder. The sky had clouded over and the clouds were ominously dark. She hurried down the stairs, heading for the two buildings even as the first freezing drops of rain began to fall on the wooden path. She stumbled into the first building. It was completely empty except for what looked a lot like a dentist's chair. Making a mental note to come back and examine it more closely later, she went back outside.
The rain was really falling now. Arcs of lightning flashed across the sky and the thunder crashed as Rachel ran for the second, larger building, which turned out to be a library of some description, although a little short on books. The rain pounded the roof as she shook herself dry. The room she was standing in was perfectly octagonal, beautifully made with an attractive light brown timber and lit brilliantly by a chandelier hanging above the very centre of the room. There was a bookshelf opposite the door, stocked with a few books that looked like they'd seen better days, two other books on small shelves across from each other, two paintings, a map of what looked like this island and a roomy fireplace. Rachel cautiously approached the bookshelf – despite the pleasant feel of this room, she had the awful feeling that she was being watched, and the raging storm outside didn't help. She knelt down in front of the shelf and pulled one of the books down. She immediately discovered that it was burnt beyond repair, with only a solitary page still clinging to the binding. If she squinted hard enough at the burnt paper, she could just make out something somewhat akin to writing, but she couldn't quite distinguish any words...
A massive thunderclap shook the library to its foundations and the chandelier flickered a little. Rachel was genuinely creeped out now. The hairs on the back of her neck were prickling, and she felt even more like she was being watched. "Creepy," she murmured under her breath more confidently than she felt, "This is just like one of those horror movies where -"
A pair of hands seized her roughly from behind. If the raging thunder hadn't already woken the dead, the scream which proceeded to issue forth from Rachel's mouth would have easily done the trick. She swung her left leg backwards and felt it connect sharply with her attacker – right where it hurt, too. With fists raised, she spun around to face her assailant.
"Jordan!" she yelled, upon discovering who had just attacked her, "You idiot! You moron! You utter twit! You fu-"
"All right, all right, I get it, I get it! Don't sneak up on you when we're stranded on an unknown island in the middle of a thunderstorm if I value my life and the vital collection of items you just kicked! Point taken!" exclaimed Jordan, before the adjectives issuing forth from Rachel's mouth could continue. He looked in such a state that despite herself, Rachel couldn't help laughing, and once he recovered from her kick, Jordan couldn't help laughing either.
By morning the storm had blown itself out and the blue skies had returned. Together this time, and with Jordan in front at Rachel's insistence, they surveyed the rest of the island. They found three more buildings – a small log cabin, some sort of brick shed and an offshore clock tower showing the wrong time. They found controls on the shore that seemed to control the clock tower, but apart from changing the time, they didn't do anything, and the clock didn't work properly anyway. They found a large rocket balanced on a causeway that stretched out offshore behind the library, but the one thing that they couldn't seem to access was the tower on top of the mountain behind the library. The library was built into the base of the mountain, so they had originally suspected that there would be a way in from the library, but they could find nothing. After hours of searching, they finally gave up and sank down on the grass near a large stone basin with a model of the ship by the dock in it. A thin, almost pathetic warm breeze was blowing softly from the north.
"So, what have we found?" began Rachel, despite the fact that she knew what his answer was going to be.
"Nothing," replied Jordan, confirming Rachel's thoughts, "Oh, except this."
He extracted a sheet of paper from his pocket. "It was lying on the grass over there outside the round building yesterday. I picked it up before the storm could destroy it. It could be our only lead." He passed the paper to Rachel.
"'Catherine,'" she read out loud, "'I've left for you a message of utmost importance in our fore-chamber beside the dock...' Beside the dock? I didn't see anything beside the dock except that ship. Did you?"
Jordan had seen something when he woke up, he said. Some sort of door was set into the wall, but he hadn't hung around because the storm was already coming on. He had gone straight up to the library, pausing only to rescue the note.
"So why didn't you tell me about it?" Rachel exclaimed.
"I actually forgot about it until just then," admitted Jordan sheepishly.
Rachel resisted the urge to kick him again.
The fore-chamber was pleasantly cool, a nice change from the warmth of the dock. At the bottom of the stairs was a small pool of water. Nothing else.
"I thought there was meant to be some sort of imager down here," said Rachel, checking the note quickly. "There's nothing but this pool of water."
"What's that button do?" asked Jordan, pointing at a small button at the base of the pool.
Rachel pressed it and the water disappeared, revealing the machinery below it. "It is an imager, it was just displaying the water. It must be some sort of default setting. There must be some sort of controls."
They searched the room quickly. It wasn't long before Jordan pointed out a piece of paper on the wall next to the stairs. They examined it and discovered that it was a list of codes to make the imager display various things. But they still couldn't find the controls, until Rachel noticed a tiny green button poking through the paper. She pressed it and the paper slid upwards into the wall, revealing a large panel displaying two numbers – a six and a seven. Jordan quickly recalled that the code listed on the sheet for the water pool was 67.
"So this is the input panel. What do we have to input to see this message?" asked Rachel.
"According to the note, the 'number of marker switches on this island'," replied Jordan. "Do you think that they could be the switches we've been seeing everywhere?"
"Yeah, they must be!" exclaimed Rachel. "So how many were there? One here on the dock, one by the cogs and one by the round building..."
"One near the stone basin."
"One near the log cabin."
"One by the shed. That's six. Is that all?"
"No, we've missed one!" replied Rachel. "There was one by the rocket. The number we're looking for is seven." She fiddled the buttons until the screen read 07, then pressed the red button. A series of beeps sounded and the code sheet slid back down out of the wall. Jordan went over to the imager and pressed the button.
Nothing happened.
He pressed it again. Still nothing. Again. Still nothing.
"Do you think that this Catherine person might have already seen the message?" asked Rachel.
"No," replied Jordan, "because she would have taken the note with her. Maybe there's something wrong with the machine."
"Well, it was displaying the water pool alright a minute ago. Maybe you broke it!" Rachel replied teasingly. Jordan just shook his head.
"Hang on, we forgot about the clock tower! There was a switch next to it as well, but we couldn't reach it because it was offshore!" exclaimed Rachel. "The number is eight, not seven!" She quickly made the change to the panel and Jordan pressed the button again.
This time, the face of a man appeared in the imager. He sounded worried, and referred to his books being destroyed. Rachel assumed that he meant the books on the library shelf, but didn't see why that should be such a tragedy.
"I've removed the remaining undamaged books from the library and placed them in heir places of protection," continued the man. "You shouldn't have to use the books until I return, but if you've forgotten the access keys remember the tower rotation. Don't worry, Catherine, everything will be fine..."
Neither Rachel nor Jordan listened to the rest of the message. Two words had stuck in their minds.
They knew they had to get up to that tower.
