Iggy: What No One Knows

Chapter 11: The Hunters and the Hunted

Iggy and Rachel whirled around when they heard a foghorn from the sea. It sounded like a boat of some sort.

"A ship? What is it doing here? I thought this island was a secret," Rachel said.

"It could be the whitecoats," he pointed out. "Best whoever is on that boat doesn't know we are here. Find a place where you can see what is going on."

It got closer until Iggy could hear its foghorn go off much louder than before, and Iggy calculated in his mind exactly how far out to sea it was. He couldn't see the ship for certain, but he imagined it was fairly large, and by the sound of it, it was bulky.

Another thing. It isn't coming near the shore. It is turning away from us. "We should follow it. Don't let it get away."

Once the ship got a safe distance away Iggy and Rachel ran in pursuit. Being new to the environment, Iggy naturally stumbled on rocks and holes, but he ended up keeping up with Rachel by listening to her footsteps.

"This is a fast ship!" Rachel panted. "I'm not sure how much longer it will go."

Suddenly something leaped about behind them and yanked them both backward. Iggy would have fallen flat if whoever did it hadn't steadied him.

"Hey! What's the big idea? Show yourself so I can attack you! You scared?" He whirled around, searching for the attacker.

"I am not an enemy, you idiot," a sharp voice snapped. "What do you two think you're doing, running after that ship like two dingbats for?"

"To find out where we are. Is that a bad thing?" Rachel countered.

"Here it is. You can't let anyone see you, okay?" Then she suddenly changed tone, sounding more friendly and completely changing the subject. "Hello, I'm Josie. And you two are…"

"Iggy and Rachel," Iggy replied impatiently. "I don't mean to rush you, but when you say we have to stay hidden and trail off, it leaves us at kind of a cliffhanger here."

"All right. I hear you," Josie said.

"You are a mutant like us."

Where? Iggy was instantly curious. How interesting.

"I see you two are. Why are you surprised?" Josie stopped, then answering her own question, answered, "You two must be new to the island. I still don't see why they would put winged mutants here on the island though…"

"Wow. You look really odd," Rachel commented. "Would you mind describing yourself to my friend here. Iggy can't see."

Iggy couldn't see it, but he could feel her leaning forward with fascination, probably staring in the depths of his sightless eyes, searching for any traces of movement.

"I don't bite."

Josie drew back. "Oh. Of course. Anyway, I am a mix between a howler monkey. That may explain my size. I also have really muscular arms, and I can climb exceptionally well." Then to Iggy she added, "I look weird. There isn't much else to say."

Geez. It isn't my fault I can't bask in your glow, Iggy thought sarcastically.

"So are there more hybrids on the island too?" Rachel asked.

"You really must be new. I had no idea you two would be that ignorant. I thought everyone knew at least something about the island. Did you two fall out of the sky or something?"

"Ironic, huh? Turns out we did fall from the sky. A storm blew us here and we had to land," Iggy answered. "Does that answer your question?"

Rachel nudged him slightly, the gesture to stop being rude.

Josie paused, and Iggy felt her tense movements. She was looking around for something. She mustn't have found it for she gave up and gave in to answering Iggy's comment. "So to get this straight, you don't know where you are, correct?"

There are hybrids like us on the island. This has to be the work of the School, Iggy concluded. "Is this Island 492?"

"How did you know?" Josie pressed.

"As crazy as it sounds, we were actually looking for this island. Now that we found it, what is going on here?" It seemed that he could never get all his questions answered.

Josie lowered her voice. "Island 492 is a hidden island concealed by the School and some other companies. You don't seem to understand that there is no way off this island. Your wings are an exception, but other than you, no one else has wings. That would defeat the purpose of being brought here in the first place," she explained. "You see, hybrids here are prey. We get the whole island, but we can never be free."

"I don't see any cages. There is one plus," Iggy added.

"It is much worse than that. I was taken here a few months ago. I am lucky to have survived this long. Many others haven't. Here our days are numbered, and we live knowing that each moment could be our last if we aren't careful. Here we are hunted."

"The School hunts their own experiments?" Rachel interrupted with confusion.

"Not exactly. There is a big headquarters by the factory, but it is completely blocked off. It is also where boats and ships come in like the one you two were chasing like a dog after a Frisbee. Don't try to be seen here. Being seen can make a difference between life and death. The School releases experiments to replace the ones that are killed. You see, people pay to hunt hybrids. The School gets millions of dollars off this program, and they find it efficient to…disposing of useless experiments. It is awful."

"Really? That is insane!" Rachel exclaimed, unable to keep her angry outburst down to optimal levels. "What cruel typewads would do something like that? You all are hunted like animals?"

Josie nodded sadly. "We would escape if we could, but how can we? We are on an island with water on all sides. The swim is impossible. It is not like we can fly away from the island. We are forced to play this awful game. So, why did you wan to find the island anyway? I am sure you aren't here to play tourist."

Iggy was getting bored in sitting in silence and leaped in to answer her question. "We were at the School facility in Death Valley, and found some files underneath the School. They mentioned an Island 492 in the files, and we assumed there was some secret undercover work going on here. Unfortunately we were right."

Josie circled around them, and Iggy paid close attention to where she was, keeping alert for ambush, catastrophe, or anything else. "Now that you are here, can you help us? There must be something you can do. After all, you have wings. Very nice by the way."

"Well, let's consider our options. We are on a dangerous island owned by the School. They release their trash here to be hunted by crazies paying millions of dollars just to hunt us and take us home for a souveneir. It all sounds so fascinating," Iggy mentioned sarcastically.

"Does that mean you are going to help us?" Josie asked desperately.

"Of course. We are alike. We have to help eachother, don't we? The School needs to go down, and we all have to do it together." Iggy felt embarrassed by giving such a courageous, hope-filled speech. "So us dudes will stay and see what we can do." That sounded a little better.

"Did you miss the memo that we are being hunted if we stay here?" Rachel whispered so Josie couldn't hear.

"I'm not deaf as well as blind. Of course I heard that. We don't have much of a choice though, do we? After coming all this way, we can't just walk away and leave thousands of experiments like us to be hunted here?" Iggy objected accusingly.

"When you put it that way…"

Josie's happiness and hope filled the air. "I know we can find something to do. I think you are here to help us. I will try to find more of the experiments on the island to meet you."

"You aren't all together?" Rachel asked.

"Too dangerous," Josie answered. "The best chance we have of not being found is to strike it out on our own, but I am sure I can find a few of them around here somewhere. We had better move anyway. Here we can't stay in one place too long. Let's go."

That last statement made the situation sound a whole lot better.