Star screamed as she saw the natives grab for Max, at the exit to the surface and pulled him back into the gloom. The natives immediately followed. They were crazy with rage, they were hungry and the drugs had worn off.
Star glimpsed their wild, bloodshot eyes. Their frantic grabbing reminded her of zombies, but these were intelligent, crazed humans, not easily fooled, with remarkable strength and agility.
Star lead Max back down the stairs, his eyes quickly readjusting to the gloom. The natives however, could see nothing but blackness for a while. Even though they were frightened of this new environment, they still gave chase, following the sound of Max and Star’s footfalls.
A dozen natives plunged down the flights of stairs, some pitching over the rudimentary guard rail, to the rock floor below.
Those that followed chased Max and Star into the ground floor of the building. They hid in a side room as the patter of native feet raced by, down the passage. When the natives had passed, Max and Star made their way back to the surface, stepping over the unconscious bodies as they climbed.
Cautiously, they opened the exit door and peered out. There were no natives waiting to pounce this time, so they ran quickly into the jungle.
Max called the US1 to see if the drone had spotted Carla. It had not - just the four natives remaining in their cavern.
Bryson asked Max to confirm that the timer had not been changed and Max apologized for his failure. Bryson told him of their own predicament, that the US1 was still stranded and only 30 minutes remained, before their deadline to leave the island.
Max sympathized. He was totally dependent on US1 leaving with him, Star and the girl.
“Star, there is no way the girl will see us, if we lurk in the jungle. We must get into the clearing near the center of the island and try to attract her attention.”
As they broke out of the jungle, the rescue helicopter was plain to see. Max knew the crew was taken away to safety in the boats, so it had been abandoned. Perhaps he would find something there that he could use to attract Carla in his direction.
As Max fiddled with the controls to start the helicopter, Star found a Vary Pistol and a box of flares to fit. The turbine fired up and the rotors began to turn, the engine noise was significant, much louder than shouting.
Standing well clear of the rotors, Max showed Star how to work the Vary Pistol. She pointed up to the sky, into the gentle breeze and fired. The whoosh as the fireball shot into the air and the bang, when it reached its maximum height, was bound to draw attention.
The drone saw it and US1 called Max to check it was he who had set it off. Carla saw it and went to investigate. However, the four natives also saw it and charged through the jungle, to do something terrible to the people who had let them down so badly.
The drone was now picking up the natives racing towards Max, and a single person, near the red helicopter, was also moving in his direction.
“Max, there are four natives racing towards you and we may also have spotted the girl, Carla. She too, is heading your way, slowly from the south, where there is a clearing and another helicopter - the one that brought her.”
Max checked the time and knew that the US1 should be leaving the island in a few minutes.
“Victor, are you free of the island yet?”
“We are easing free now and will have to stand off quite a way, so we can submerge. We cannot afford to be spotted at this late stage as there is only one US1 in the world, so we must remain hidden.”
Max’s heart sank. Even if the girl was Carla, they had no way of getting back to the dinghy and out to the US1, in time to escape the blast. By now, the cyanide gas and cauterizing flame process would be active within the complex, so they would have no dinghy to go back too.
Yelling natives burst from the jungle. They paused as they saw the helicopter, then spotted Max and Star running towards where Carla might be. The natives gave chase.
“Race ahead of me Star, I will try and hold them back.”
She guessed what Max had in mind and was confident he would prevail. In any case, she was not prepared to be torn apart by the savages, so she ran off.
In films, Vary Pistols are as accurate as a Beretta, and they can set dry grass into a wall of impenetrable flame, the moment it hits the ground. However, Max quickly realized neither was the case. The first shot aimed at the nearest native, fell a long way short. It did set light to the grass, but they just ran round it. Max ran off after Star, trying to reload on the run.
Carla heard the yelling and crashing as people ran through the jungle, so she dived for cover and lay quiet. As Max ran past her hiding place, she called out, leapt up and chased after him. He glanced back, saw her and felt he knew her. She caught up and they dashed towards the red helicopter. Star dodged back into the jungle and hid.
Max stood his ground as the first native, a massive man, ran at him. He was just six meters away when Max fired at his upper body.
The fireball hit the native at waist height. He screamed and charged blindly on, as Max side stepped and kicked out at his legs. He fell, face down, still screaming and writhing in agony, as the brilliant red incandescent ball burned clean through his body. Flames and sparks sprayed out of his back.
Carla leapt up into the pilot’s seat, released the rotor brake and started the engine. She hoped the noise and rotating blades would hold the rest of them at bay, temporarily. The three remaining natives stopped about 20 meters away. Having seen what Max had done with the gun they didn’t want it done to them.
Max noticed one of the four fuel containers and gave it a kick. It was full, so he removed the cap. Using the handle, he whirled it around and pitched it at the woman and the two men. It hit the ground in front of them, spraying fuel in the air and over the ground, as it rolled towards them. He waited until it glugged out, empty - and fired at it.
The down draft from the main rotor and the cloud of vapor in the hot air, exploded in a ball of flame, as the flare struck home. The natives ran off to a safe distance.
Seizing her opportunity, Star ran from her hiding place at the edge of the jungle, in a curved course, to the far side of the helicopter. The natives ran towards the helicopter, to cut her off.
Max tried to intercept the tall man who was nearest to him. Suddenly he turned on Max.
Max was standing near the tail rotor, biding his time. He let the man lunge and Max grabbed him around his thighs, in a bear hug. He heaved the man up and tipped him forward into the rotor. The rapid banging sound was like a stick in a rotary mower, as the man’s arms, followed by his face, were sliced through. Max felt the body lurch to one side, stiffen and flop limply, backwards.
Max dropped the body, the man hit the ground and his brain slipped out of the faceless skull, partly contained within the Dura Mata. With a scream, the remaining man charged at Max. Without a weapon Max knew he stood no chance against this powerful man. The woman would get to him at the same time, so it would be two against one.
Carla dropped to the ground from her helicopter, ran at the woman and chopped her throat. She sidestepped the woman, kicked at the back of her legs and the woman hit the ground in a choking heap.
Max grabbed another fuel container. He threw it hard at the chest of the man, like it was a medicine ball. It hit the man’s chest and bounced off. Momentarily stunned or just surprised, he staggered back and circled round, clear of the sweep of the main rotor. Star backed away from the helicopter and watched, as Max prepared to wrestle with the native.
Carla picked up the Vary Pistol, ejected the spent cartridge and pushed in the last flare. She was going to fire at the man before he could attack Max. Suddenly, the native woman leapt up and threw herself at Carla. Her strength frightened Carla, as did the speed of her attack. There was no chance to aim the pistol. She dropped it and the two women fell to the ground together.
Carla would be the first to admit that she would probably be overpowered by any attacker, who could grab her. She only prevailed if she could make use of her phenomenal speed, striking hard and keeping out of reach.
The woman grabbed Carla by the throat. Before she could squeeze, Carla had seized her thumbs and strained to hold the woman’s hands apart. The woman broke free and tried again, but Carla countered by raising her arms between those of the woman and boxed her ears. As she paused for a split second, shocked by the pain, Carla’s thumbnails dug deep into the woman’s eyeballs. The scream of agony echoed across the island, deafening Carla, but still she hung on to Carla’s arms. In an instant, she lunged at Carla’s exposed neck with her still screaming, open mouth. All Carla could do was nut the woman, hard on the bridge of her nose. She leaned back, astride Carla, face in hands and still screaming.
Feeling around for the fallen pistol, Carla lifted it, cocked it as she swung and rammed the barrel into the open mouth. She pulled the trigger and twisted sideways to throw the silent woman off her. Carla did not want the flare to fall on her, or to be burned by the sparks.
The native woman lay dead on her back and the flare burned through the back of her head, into the ground.
Meanwhile, as Max circled away from the helicopter, the man tracked him, preparing to spring. Star had kept Max between her and the native, hoping she could help when the two men were in a clinch. She had seen Carla dispatch the woman and now she had to do her bit.
The man charged with head down and arms ready to embrace Max in a bone crushing bear hug. Max ducked under the arms and using the man’s forward motion, threw him over his shoulder, high in the air, to land flat on his back, on the hard rock.
The hollow sound from the ground was instantly followed by another, more alarming sound - like a rockslide, but beneath Max’s feet. He leapt back and watched as the prostrate body sank quickly into the ground and vanished-. the hole continued to open up rapidly, as its edges fell away. Within a matter of seconds, large cracks were radiating away from Max and the ground caved in, forming a 30 meter wide chasm.
“Where is Star?” shouted Max over the engine noise.
Carla was now at Max’s side. “Sorry Max, she’s gone. I saw her fall through as the ground caved in.”
They cautiously edged forward to the rim. As they peered down they saw Star and the native on a broad ledge, some five meters below. Neither of them moved. Beyond the ledge, at the limit of the beams of sunlight, water glinted.
Max was in deep shock. What could he do? Star was beyond his reach. There was no way down, he had no rope or ladder, nothing. She might just as well be on the other side of the moon, for all the good he could do.
“Max, I am so sorry! I have nothing in my helicopter that we can use to go down and get her, perhaps we should see if there is a coil of rope in the other helicopter?”
Max looked at his watch. “There is rope in it, but there is no point.”
Carla was stunned, “why not, it would only take 15 minutes to get it here, probably the same time to get down and lift her back up. Anna, or Star as you called her, is probably just unconscious; perhaps a few broken bones, but you cannot just leave her.”
“We will all be dead, soon after we bring her up. One moment we will be living, breathing, feeling souls-. a millionth of a second later, we will be carbon atoms, no life, no breathing, no feeling, no love, no hate, no pain, no fucking anything!” He screamed. The anger was building inside him like a volcano, “all because of you. Do you realize that? It’s all because of you!”
As Max turned on her, she realized what he had said was true - she didn’t know that the island was about to explode. She was thinking of that fateful night when they first met two years ago and then she had waved him down on the mountain road. From that moment, she had been his downfall.
Max looked into the most beautiful face he had ever seen. So deeply sad for him, her eyes were a disturbing shade of blue, filling with tears at his misery and he could not account for his strange emotions. He fell silent as grief for Star washed over him. He struggled with his confused feelings about Carla, a girl he was supposed to have loved, but of whom he had no knowledge.
“Max, what do you mean, we will be dead soon?” Carla had believed they would be rescued when the US1 arrived, Sam had said so. If that didn’t happen, the rescue team would come for the helicopter.
“Carla, the island is about to explode and disappear beneath the sea, that is why Star and I came to rescue you and why I said it is your fault she is down there. You and I will die here!”
“Star? You mean Anna Short? Star is her real name?”
“Yes, Carla - her real name is Star. She has stayed with me and helped me through terrible times. I owe her so much and now I can do nothing for her.”
“But Max, I came here to rescue you. Law enforcement and criminals came to the island, trying to capture or murder you - Star as well, I expect.
“My employer, Sam Leighton, told me not to come here, because he would have a rescue team arriving by submarine, about now.”
“Sam Leighton? The sub wouldn’t be the US1, would it?”
“Yes, on both counts.”
“Well Carla, the sub arrived mid-day yesterday. It left the island a short while ago, to get out of range of the blast. You should learn to do as you are told; now we are both screwed.”
It was all starting to make sense now. “Why is the island being blown up?”
“Ah!” replied Max, “there is a secret complex here, developing a cure for a world killer virus. Fortunately, their work is complete, because they found a cure. Incidentally, you were infected by just landing here. Anyway, they put precautions in place years ago, to destroy the island and all traces of the infection. That process would also remove all traces of them.”
“What about the natives, they’re far from normal. Is that what happens when you become infected?”
“No Carla, they stumbled on the island a few at a time and were infected. At that stage, these people had not found a proper cure, but what they had, damaged the poor devils. The disease would have resulted in an agonizing death, so they were spared that and until today, were relatively happy. They will be wiped out with us, so they will not suffer.”
Carla was never one to accept the prospect of dying, so decided to process what she had been told and find a way out. Max was certainly not himself, he looked like he had a bad dose of the flu and was of course, grieving for Star. He would not be his usual imaginative self at the moment.
“How had you planned on getting back on the US1, if you had left early enough?”
“The three of us would have used the dinghy we came in, to get back aboard, way out to sea. We will never catch them now.”
“I don’t suppose you remember being aboard The Ocean Raider. We were under attack from Philippe, his men and Stan Peters. We flew off in a helicopter, with the statuette they were after and you were at the controls.”
“No, I am sorry Carla, none of that means anything to me and I don’t have the faintest idea how to fly.”
“You couldn’t fly then, but you got us up and away from all those bullets and we landed in Malé, in the Maldives. I know it was a terrible landing, but we did it and lived to tell the tale. I remember what needs to be done and I can guide you, but you are the one who has to be at the controls.”
Carla realized that there was only enough fuel to cover about 100Km, about 80Km away from land. Max had given up already, but she was not going to die here and negativity never achieved anything.
“Well, what are we waiting for Max?”
“The first phase in the destruct sequence is a fuel/air bomb, which will happen in about 30 minutes. From what little I know of them, we have to be at least several kilometers away to avoid the shock wave. The blast and heat is intended to sterilize the surface of the island.”
Seeing a glimmer of hope, Max hopped up into the pilot seat and Carla went to the other side. She took one last look down into the depths of the cavern and was shaken to her core. Star was climbing up the face of the cave-in and was within three meters of the top. They looked deep into each other’s eyes-. a chill passed through Carla.
She hurriedly clambered up next to Max. Carla looked at him as he strapped in and examined the controls and vowed she was never going to lose him to Star-.
Carla guided Max to increase revolutions, until the needle on the dial entered the green segment and ease up the collective. He felt sort of familiar with the controls, instinctively countering rotor torque and easing forward at a gentle climb, south west.
Carla risked a glance down at the rim of the cave-in, just as Star reached the top. The girl looked up at the rapidly vanishing red helicopter - her face twisted with hate. If they could fly away, so could she.
She raced to the large rescue helicopter, its rotors spinning, as Max had left it and climbed up into the pilot’s seat.
Star’s mind was clear and focused; she knew the rudiments of helicopter controls and proceeded to experiment. The craft was fitted with a stabilizing system that made stable flight possible in very bad weather. This compensated for the errors she made and enabled her to follow Max and Carla. By now, they were just a dot in the clear blue sky.