I think I fell asleep. I'm not sure what woke me up though. I heard a deafening bang go off, or something like that. My eyes shot open but it was still dark. I could hear people screaming in panic. Was I actually still asleep? A hydraulics sound emitted from the seat beside me. I squinted to see what was happening but it was too dark. Then the lights came back on. The viewing metal returned into the ceiling again to reveal the never ending ocean. The seat beside me was empty.
"What the heck happened?!" I exclaimed, looking over at the vacated seat.
The straps had not been unlocked, and a small, dark patch of something crimson trickled down the seat from the head rest. Some people were crying. Others were yelling hysterically to be let off the vessel. My parents were just silent, but it looked like Lilly was holding back tears.
After a few minutes, the sliding doors to the front where Melinda was opened. She stepped out and greeted us again.
"Do not worry everyone. You're safe now. Like I said before, those who carry weapons will be executed immediately Your journey will end in about thirty minutes. I know most of you must be pretty shaken up from this incident, so I'll see if I can arrange something special for you all later.", said Melinda.
With that, she turned and left us again. Everyone's panic turned into question and disbelief. They talked amongst themselves for the rest of the trip about what it was the missing passenger might have had that got him killed. I simply turned on my i-pod and listened to my music for the rest of the ride. Hmmm, Undeniable by Alvin and the Chipmunks, my favorite song and band.
The ride continued on for a while, but that soon came to and end. I had gone through almost the whole album when I decided to look out the window. There it is. The island. It's rising up on us faster than I can process. Suddenly, the vessel slowed down and came to a halt, all in less than a second. The double doors where we got in the vessel before opened, and the buckles for the straps that held us unlocked. We all poored out of the transport with relief. What a long, and exciting ride that was!
As we walked around the vessel towards the island, we got a FAR better view of it. The thing was massive. Thick jungle stretched out forever to the left and right, and continued up as the island reached mountainous areas. The famous towers of death loomed over us and the mountains. They almost reached the clouds. Besides that, there was no sign of civilization at all. The woman quickly joined us in the clearing we found ourselves in and lead us along a dirt path into the island interior. There were no fences, no guard rails, just raw, untamed nature. Some others made note of this as well and questioned Melinda if any wild animals live on the island. She answered with a yes, but added on that all the dangerous animals are genetically engineered to be friendly to humans and other experimental creatures. That didn't seem to satisfy the crowd but they accepted it.
After what seemed like forever, the path opened up onto a large clearing. This area however was clearly man-made. The dirt path faded into aged stone, although on closer examination was actually textured to look old. The cracks were completely flat. The trees and foliage were neatly trimmed along the edges of the clearing, almost looking like flat walls. More rings of concrete nature displays lined the center of the clearing all the up to a complex. We strode down the clearing towards the building, of which was not in any way shape of form aged. the entirety of the structure was purely steel, jutting out from the side of a steep mountain base. Melinda waved a hand in front of two iron sliding doors, of which then immediately opened. She led us inside, and we were a little surprised that it was nothing more than a corridor, bright incandescent lights embedded in the ceiling, and a wide, single door at the end of the hall.
The door slid back into the wall as we approached, revealing it was an elevator, a larger one than usual on that matter. We all squeezed in comfortably, although the last few had to sort of clamber in. The door closed automatically, then we descended into the earth.
Only after a minute or so did the door slide across the steel track beneath it revealing another corridor. As we were crossing the hallway, I got to wondering if we would even meet Dr. Helix. He could very well be off doing some experiment in a private chamber while the rest of us just had the tour to enjoy. Well, no I'm gonna have that operation. Only he can do that, right?
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the doors opening with a loud hiss and slid outward until at a one eighty degree angle. They certainly have a large variety of door types.
The room it opened up to was massive. It was circular and rose up for what seemed like forever, darkening till everything melted together in the shadows at about fifty feet. Opaque and translucent pipes of large and small sizes coated the walls, disappearing past steel rings into the floor. It was very strange how the entire room seemed to be lit up except for the ceiling, yet there were no lights aside from glowing material in some of the pipes. The center of the room was dominated by a massive machine that hummed with power, crackled occasionally It was undoubtedly a power source for the whole facility. Blue cables arched from the top and returned into the generator in random places along the sides. Smaller generators hum softly off to the side, trailing power cords throughout the room. The air smelled of something faintly burnt but seemed very clean. Maybe I've mistakened the smell of new rubber.
"Well everyone, it isn't much of an ingenious building layout, but it works out fine. This is one of two main power rooms. These generators are powerful enough to run about thirty more buildings just like this one, which is perfect because it's barely over the power we require to run the defense towers. It's impossible to turn either off because they both have to be shut down at the same time since they power each other as well. Even then however, it takes a password only Dr. Helix knows to shut them down, which we of course never have shut them down and never will.", explained Melinda as she turned to lead us to another pair of sliding doors off to the edge of the power room, "Anyways, off we go! I'll show you the living quarters!"
I pretended to follow them, walking slowly to eventually end up behind the group. My parents were too engrossed in the immense structure that they didn't bother to make sure I was following them. Once the tour had left, I headed for the doors opposite the ones they had went through. I was determined to find Dr. Helix and have the operation. I would NOT miss the opportunity of my dreams.
Walking at an almost jogging pace, I strode down the white hall, lined with normal doors, each labeled above it with a plaque, entitling "Mess Hall", Rehabilitation Center", Testing Rooms 1, 2, 3, 4 encounting. None of the rooms were of any interest to me. Perhaps I was on the wrong floor...
I was about to turn back to go to the elevator when I reached the double doors at the end of the corridor. Beyond the glass, sliding doors was a stair case leading down. I ran down the stare well, taking on two steps at a time until reaching another pair of sliding doors, nothing but darkness beyond them. I walked up to the automated doors, but they didn't open. Another plaque loomed over me, it's title engraved in the gold colored metal.
Restricted Area
Authorization Required For Access
_
My heart sank at the sight of the dead end. In curiosity, I decided to press up against the glass to see what lay beyond. The perpetual black room gave me no satisfaction, even when squinting, trying to at least catch sight of the silhouette of an object, but nothing. I was startled when seemingly out of nowhere, a man in a white lab coat materialized from the pitch black room, walking up to the door and typing in a code on a panel on the other side of the doors. The glass separated with a soft hissing sound and the man motioned for me to come in. I was hesitant at first, but my burning desire for the body of a chipmunk over came me. The door closed behind me as I ran inside.