Chapter Three
The Tropical Island
The next morning we awake bright and early, not by our choice, but a combination of jet lag and anticipation. What did Minako mean by she'll take us to where Robert's research was kept? Did Robert really become so paranoid that he felt he couldn't even keep his research in his own home? All this makes me worry for Jackson and pray we never have to go through something like Minako and Robert did. I love Jackson with all of my heart but I don't know how I would even begin to support him during something like that.
A few minutes later, when I finally roll over to see if Jackson has gotten up yet, I am greeted with his still sleeping face. He is so handsome, I reach over and gently brush some of his shaggy hair out of his face. He is so tired and so deep in sleep he doesn't even move. I take a few moments admiring the handsome face of the man I love, before getting up and starting to get dressed.
After I look through my luggage and find the clothes I'm going to wear, my toothbrush, hair brush, and a handful of other things I need to get ready for our day. As I begin to undress and get changed I hear Jackson begin to wake up, I can hear his joints popping as he stretches, as he does every morning.
"Someday you are going to fall apart."
I joke as I get dressed, while Jackson lets out an exhausted sigh, before sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
"Hopefully not before we have a few kids. I've gotta able to run around the camp after those little cubs."
I laugh softly,
"You say that like we are going to be raising cheetah cubs."
"No, not cheetahs. Lions."
The two of us laugh as Jackson stands and I finish getting dressed. As I begin to put my hair up Jackson walks up behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and placing his chin on my shoulder, as I place my hand on the side of his head and the other on his arm. I smile softly at him in the mirror on the dresser in front of us.
"You'll be a prefect mother to our little cubs."
I laugh softly and shake my head, as Jackson gives me a quick kiss on the cheek. Before he breaks away from me and begins to look through his bag to get his things, Abe knocks on the door opening it slowly.
"Rafiki, Uzuri, are you both decent, or should I come back later?"
"We are both decent Abe, come on in."
Abe opens the door and steps into the room as Jackson calls out to him. Uzuri, meaning beauty, has been Abe's nickname for me since we met.
"Just wanted to see if the two of you were ready to go. Minako said we could leave our bags here while we are out today."
I nod,
"I don't know about him, but I'm almost ready to go."
"We'll be out and ready in a few minutes Abe."
Abe nods and closes the door as he leaves. A few minutes later we walk into the living room of Minako's apartment, she and Abe are already there waiting for us. Minako looks up to us from the couch.
"Are you two ready?"
Jackson walks across the room to the door, ahead of me.
"Yeah, whenever you guys are."
The four of us leave the apartment and begin to journey to Robert's shed, as Minako called it. For some reason we find ourselves on a plane. Once we are in the air Minako begins to explain.
"As I said last night, your father became paranoid. He began hiding his findings, coding everything, even from me. I finally convinced him that somebody other than himself needed to be in on his genius."
As Minako explains she hands us small monitors, with a small green light on them. Abe gives her an odd look.
"What are these?"
"Rad meters. You need to wear these at all times. They let us know when we've taken in too much radiation."
Jackson looks across the small aisle to her.
"Why should we be worried about radiation exposure?"
"You're father selected an island 30 kilometers outside of Fukushima."
Jackson looks at her surprise, almost as if he didn't hear her correctly.
"Fukushima? As in nuclear reactors, radiation leaks, and deadly fallout?"
Minako nods.
"He called it his 'Ghost of Christmas Future.' Coming to this island worked for your father. The last time we spoke, he was so thrilled. He said he finally understood."
Jackson leans further forward, toward Minako.
"Understood what?"
"I suspect why the animal behavior was changing. I don't know. He did not want to say on the phone. But before I could make the trip out here,.."
Before Minako can finish her thought we hear a thud. Jackson, being closer to a window looks out.
"That a bat. That's flying a little high, isn't it?"
He looks to Abe and then myself, as Abe nods, looking out the window as well.
"And a little too early in the day."
The whole plane begins to shake as the pilot begins speaking on the radio in Japanese. We can only make out one word.
"Mayday. Mayday."
The pilot's cries for help and the sound of bats throwing themselves into the plane, echoed in my ears as the plane crashes into the ocean. Somehow, I manage to get out of the plane and make my way to the shore of the nearby island, which is only a few yards away. The next sounds I hear is Jackson calling out. Being the men they are, Abe and Jackson jumped to the aid of those on board the plane.
"Abe!"
"Over here."
"I can't find the pilot,"
"Keep looking! Minako and Katherine are on the shore with me."
I look over as Abe it carrying Minako, her limp body draped over his shoulder. As he climbs higher onto the bank before he lays her down. Not long after Abe gets onto the shore Jackson is as well, walking over to me as I stand and make my way to Abe and Minako. Jackson shakes his head and lets out a loud sigh.
"The pilot's gone."
When the two of us get closer to Abe and Minako we notice that Abe is giving her CPR. Jackson calls out worried.
"She's not breathing?"
Abe hangs his head and stops. Jackson looks extremely worried and upset.
"Don't stop. What are you doing? What are you doing? Don't stop."
Jackson dives in and tries to resume CPR, as Abe tries to console him.
"Jackson…. Jackson... Jackson!"
Abe eventually has to push Jackson away from Minako. Jackson falling onto his ass as he sits in the sand, with his head hanging. I walk up behind Jackson and get down onto my knees, hugging him from behind. He places one of his hands on my Abe looks around and then back to us. A little while later Abe gets up and starts to walk around, looking over the beach. Covering Minako's body with large leafs.
"The pilot sent out an SOS beacon, on our way down. We can expect a rescue. But who knows in how long?"
Abe walks over to Jackson and I, who have found a place to sit on a washed up tree. Jackson takes a few deep breaths as I look over at Abe.
"How do hundreds of bats fly 5,000 feets higher then they normally do?"
Abe shrugs and looks at me.
"Perhaps the radiation?"
Jackson nods and stands, grabbing one of the two backpacks he saved from the plane.
"How far do you think it is to my father's compound?"
Abe shrugs again, standing as well.
"From the plane maybe three kilometers. We could make it there and back before rescue arrives."
Jackson looks down to me, as I am still sitting.
"Think you can make it?"
I nod.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. What's a walk in the jungle?"
Jackson looks down at the Rad Meter Minako gave him.
"This thing survived the crash. But I don't know what any these numbers mean."
He hands the meter to Abe as I stand.
"Green. Maybe we are safe."
Jackson nods as the three of us head off to find Robert Oz's compound, Abe and Jackson carrying the two packs we have.
After we walk for a little while Jackson speaks up.
"I can't believe she's dead."
I walk up behind him and rub his shoulder.
"Jackson, you two did everything you could for her."
"I know. But I would have liked to have thanked her. For sticking by him. It's a hell of lot more than my mother and I did."
Abe sighs softly, as Jackson stops, leaning against a tree.
"Well, from everything you've told us, that was the best thing that could have happened to all of you."
I nod agreeing with Abe, as Jackson continues.
"But what if we were wrong and he was right? Is it possible that we were looking at the situation all wrong? What we thought was a man on the edge of sanity was actually a man on the verge of an extraordinary evolutionary breakthrough."
I walk up next to him, having been behind him.
"That's what we are going to find out Jackson."
Abe sighs a few feet ahead of us.
"Perception can sometimes stain reality. That is why i don't tell everybody about my past."
We look among each other. We all know too well how perception can shift the reality of a situation. Before too long Abe turns and steps forward.
"We should keep going."
As we walk for a little while longer we come across a very run down shack. Jackson takes a few steps in front of Abe and I .
"This must be the place."
Abe glance down at the meter in his hand as I glance over.
"What's the radiation level?"
"It's up to yellow. We need to get in and get out."
The three of us approach the shack, as we do a horse approaches us. As the horse gets closer we notice that it has no eyes. Abe is the first to comment.
"Dear lord. Who removed its eyes?"
Jackson steps toward the horse, with his hand extended.
"It's okay, it's okay, boy. it's okay. Don't worry, it's okay."
As Jackson begins to pet the horse as another appears from around the same area, approaching us.
I sigh softly, as the second horse as stops in front of me.
"Oh, my god. Jackson? What exactly was your father doing here?"
The two horses continue walking side by side.
When we enter the shack we hear insects trilling as we enter. Once inside Abe tries the light switch, as Jackson explores inside.
"I'll check for a generator."
Jackson and I look around the shack, finding a small bed and workstation as the lights come on.
"Looks like Abe found the generator."
"Oh, I found the horses' eyeballs."
I cringe slightly.
"Lovely."
"I think i know why he came here."
"What do you mean?"
"My father. He came here because of the radiation, because the animals were already changing."
"But wasn't he already experimenting on animals when you guys where in Boston?"
"Yes, on changes and behavior that were naturally occurring, but I think here he realized that radiation accelerated changes in the animal's biological makeup and behavior."
Abe walks up to us, having heard most of what Jackson was saying.
"He would go to such lengths, even to the detriment of his own health?"
"It's exactly what he would do. This entire island was his petri dish. The Ghost of Christmas Future."
As everything begins to turn on we hear a film reel start and a man speaking from a small side room. As we enter we see another work area, almost like an office. When we look at the screen we see an older man dealing with rather upset horses and hear a voice over.
"This question resides in the most primal aspect of the brain in both animals and humans. That they have the capacity and the capability to rule the planet."
Jackson steps toward the desk in the room.
"He looks like he's aged 30 years since I last saw him."
Realizing that this was jackson's father I step next to him and take his hand. He squeezes my hand as he watches the reel. The film focuses on one of the horse's eyes, as Abe speaks from behind us.
"You see that? The defiant pupil."
Jackson nods,
"Just like the lions."
We continue to hear Robert talking on the film reel as Abe and I look through the work while Jackson watches this film. Abe throws files down.
"Everything is in code."
"Jackson, honey, a little help please?"
Jackson looks to us and then back to the film.
"The eyes are the windows to the soul."
Abe scoffs.
"How does that help to decode this stuff?"
"Like you said before, perception stains reality. What if the defiant pupil is a signifier that the way the animals see the world is now changing?"
I look at him rather confused.
"And what? changing the way they interpret what they see?"
"Yes! What used to be a friend is now an enemy. And because of this, their behavior's changing. What is that's what my father had discovered and he thought that the only way to change them back was to remove their eyes?"
"Jackson, he couldn't blind every animal in the world."
"No, I mean of course not, right? That's ridiculous. Only a crazy person would think that.."
Abe and I look to each other confused and worried. After watching the film for a little longer, Abe, Jackson, and I begin to take waht pictures of the work we can, as Abe calls out holding a photo in his hand.
"Jackson, "
"What is it?"
Jackson walks over to see Abe what had found. He smiles as he takes the picture.
"I remember this day, we were in Western Mass. We'd gone to go observe a family of deer."
Abe leans on the table as I walk up behind Jackson looking at the picture.
"See you still have joyful memories of your father."
"Yeah. alongside the guy who thought he could blind all of God's creatures."
Jackson tosses the picture down, as he does I realize something's not right.
"It's quiet. Why is that?"
Abe looks down at the meter.
"The meter has stopped working."
Jackson looks to the two of us, worried.
"That can't be good."
Abe begins to leave the shack, as we hear the sounds of a helicopter.
"Come on."
The three of us begin running back to the beach. As we approach the beach we are met with a man in a nice suit, waving his hand in a circle.
"Lets go!"
He shouts.
As we approach him Abe addresses the man.
"Who are you?"
"There will be time for questions, but first we must get out of here."