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Chapter 2: Arrival
3 days later…
Yuri ties up the shoelaces on his military boots before looking up at Nolan who is sitting in front of him. The two men are currently sitting inside the back of an Osprey aircraft and heading towards Cocoon Island.
Yuri is now dressed in a navy blue long-sleeved military uniform, a black bulletproof vest with ammo pouches over it, a dark brown belt with a silver buckle around his waist, navy blue pants, black combat gloves, black kneepads and black military boots. He also has a black gun pouch strap around his right upper leg and his long hair is tied up at the tips with a dark yellow ribbon.
Nolan is dressed in the same outfit as Yuri's, but without the vest, kneepads and gun pouch.
"Yuri Lowell, thank you very much for accepting this mission. My boss appreciates it." Nolan said.
"My own boss is an asshole. So I don't have any choice." Yuri smirked.
"Can we get on with the briefing?" Nolan asked. Yuri nods his head in response. "Good. We're heading our way to Cocoon Island. In January 2010, a terrible virus known as the Rosch Virus was unleashed on the island. But five people successfully escape and return back to the States uninfected and in response, the U.S. government quarantined the island and it became off limits to the public since. But a month ago, on December 2016, our intelligence division picked up a signal from the island."
Nolan takes out a folded paper from his pocket. He unfolds it, revealing it to be a map of the quarantined island and shows it to Yuri. Yuri takes the map and sees a red circle drawn around a square on the southeast area of the island.
"The signal came from the area that is drawn on the map. It was not only an S.O.S. message, but also a message from a person claiming that a cure to the Rosch Virus has been found."
"Who is this 'someone' that your boss wants me to find?" Yuri inquired as he folds the map and puts it in his left pocket. "You still haven't told me his name."
"Not his. Her." Nolan now takes out a photo of the person whom Yuri is assigned to find. Yuri takes the photo and looks at it. It is a woman with pink shoulder-length hair and light blue eyes.
"She said her name is Estellise Sidos Heurassein." Nolan continued speaking and Yuri looks back up at him. "We know her because she used to work for us. She is a military scientist who was sent to Cocoon Island to study the virus. But for reasons we don't know, she never came back. For nearly seven years, we thought she was dead or infected. And now after so long, we were shocked to not only learn that she's still alive, but she also found a cure to the virus. And that's where you come in, Yuri. Your mission is to get down there to Cocoon Island, find her and help her get out of the island."
Yuri looks down at his vest and puts the photo of Estellise inside his right pocket. He lifts his head back up and boldly stares at Nolan. "I understand." He said solemnly.
Nolan leans forward and places his hand on his shoulder. "Be careful Yuri. If you ever come across any infected, kill them. Always do so by aiming for their heads. And no matter what, never ever let them bite you. Not even a nibble. Once you get bitten, you're finished. Understood?" Nolan said, staring at Yuri with a serious glare.
Yuri went dead silent as he stares back at Nolan with his eyes widened and his mouth gaping slightly open. What Nolan just said to him actually brought chills down his spine. He had never felt so nervous and horrified in a long time.
After a minute of struggling, Yuri eventually managed to regain control of his vocal cords and asked, "How do I know if someone is infected?"
"You'll know when you see them." Nolan takes out one final object from his pocket, which is an earpiece. "Put this on. We'll communicate with each other through this." Yuri silently takes the earpiece and gently places it over his right ear. After putting it on, he takes a deep breath, clasps his hands together and looks back at Nolan. Then, they heard a radio static, causing both men to lift their heads up and stare at the speaker.
"Sirs, we're approaching our destination in 5 minutes. Get ready." The pilot spoke through the speaker. He then hangs up the radio and both men look at each other again.
"Prepare yourself." Nolan said. Yuri turns his head and sees the cockpit door opening up. A soldier walks out through the door and goes over to him while carrying a parachute bag and a duffle bag. He places the duffle bag onto the floor and in front of Yuri's feet.
Yuri removes his safety belt, takes the bag and unzips it, revealing a machete which is currently sheathed inside a pouch, an M16A4 rifle, a Mossberg 500 shotgun, an M45 pistol, two grenades, shotgun shells and several magazines.
He begins his preparations. He takes the shotgun out and loads several shotgun rounds into it. After loading up his shotgun, he puts the remaining shotgun shells into the lower left pouch of his vest and then places the shotgun onto the back of his vest.
He now takes the M45 pistol out of the bag and unloads the magazine. After making sure the magazine is filled with bullets, he inserts it back into the pistol and pulls the top of it. He made sure the safety pin is on before standing up and inserting it into his gun pouch around his leg.
He kneels down and takes out the M16A4 rifle from the bag. He stands back up straight and looks through the optic installed on top of the rifle, making sure it is completely fine. Afterwards, he unloads the magazine and made sure it is filled with bullets. He then inserts the magazine back into the rifle and puts on the safety pin before securely placing it onto the back of his vest and next to his shotgun.
He kneels down again and puts the magazines for his M45 into the lower right pouch and the ones for his M16A4 rifle into the upper right pouch. He takes out the grenades and made sure the safety pins are on them. He then places the grenades securely onto the upper left pouch of his vest.
Finally, he takes out the machete from the bag. He stands back up and pulls the machete out of the pouch. He examines it for a moment and stares at his own reflection on its blade. Afterwards, he sheathes his machete back into the pouch and hangs it around the left side of his belt.
After he finished loading himself up with the weapons provided to him, he looks back at Nolan and nods his head. Nolan nods back at him.
"We're approaching our destination in 1 minute! Opening the hatch now!"
The main door slowly opens, letting a huge gust of wind blow into the aircraft and breeze through Yuri's long hair. The soldier hands him the parachute bag. He takes it and carries it on his back. After making sure the straps around his arms are tightened, he turns to the soldier and gave him a thumbs-up. The soldier nods his head and also gave him a thumbs-up.
Yuri turns back to Nolan whose hair is being blown by the strong winds.
"GOOD LUCK YURI LOWELL!" He shouted. Yuri responded by giving him a thumbs-up before he turns to the main door which is now fully open and takes a deep breath.
'Here we go.'
Yuri proceeds to sprint towards the open door and did a running jump. He jumps out of the aircraft and now finds himself plummeting through the sky in incredible speed.
He narrows his eyes, trying to get a clear vision and see through the clouds as he falls through them.
Eventually, the clouds clear away and Yuri's eyes widened as he sees what's below him. It was a small island filled with lush greenery. He could barely see some buildings and small roads built on it but they are sparse and only a handful of them. What's more noticeable to him is the sandy coastline surrounding the entire island.
Yuri dives himself toward the island. When he finds himself about 3000 feet above it, he quickly pulls the latch on his bag and unleashes his parachute. The parachute bursts out of his bag and Yuri felt himself being pulled back and forced into a sitting position. He clasps onto both levers and takes control of his parachute.
"Yuri, can you hear me?" Yuri could hear Nolan's voice speaking through his earpiece.
Yuri carefully removes his right hand from his lever and answers his earpiece. "Yeah, I do." He replied.
"I assume you're heading towards Cocoon Island. Are you?"
"Yes I am."
"Good. Have a safe landing. And we'll keep in touch." Nolan then hangs up the conversation.
Yuri grabs onto his right lever and sees himself falling towards the surface of the island. As he gets closer to the bottom, he sees the open grassy field below him and aims for it.
He steers himself and slowly descends to the ground. When he's only eight feet above the grassy field, he gets into a standing position and gently places his feet on the ground.
Once he landed on the ground safely, he removes his parachute bag and tosses it to the side. He turns his head to the side, making sure his rifle and shotgun are still securely hanging onto the back of his vest.
He draws out his rifle and turns back to the front. He looks around his surroundings and sees that the grassy field is empty. The trees are sparse from each other and there are no signs of any people or animals around. The place is eerily quiet.
Yuri frowns and holds onto his rifle tightly before muttering to himself.
"Welcome to paradise…or not."
END OF CHAPTER