Do Or Die

Chapter 8

Audrianna shielded her eyes from the bright white light that had amassed suddenly before her. The light flashed, enveloping her, and then quickly receded into the distance until it was a remote speck on the horizon. She blinked. She was surrounded by darkness but for the dull, glowing orb ahead.

The space around seemed a void. The blackness was more encompassing than the starless space of the cosmos.  She stood on a narrow platform of dry, yellowish earth, leading  to the orb.  On either side, clear water lapped in sullen waves. Barefoot, dressed only in a hospital gown, she walked to the glowing center.

Her feet felt leaden; her legs were cramped. But she knew she could not give up the path she had chosen. Walking, the distance seemed limitless: then she was there. She blinked and was before the orb. It emitted slivers of static electricity that fizzled out less than five inches away from its fuzzy surface.

A low sound reverberated from the glowing ball and bounced off the dark walls of the dome she was in. The phenomenon stood suspended in midair over a cream-colored, twisted pedestal that had thin, rough, curved groves carved into its winding form. The pedestal was heavily smudged by the same yellow dirt as the plain where it stood.  

Audrianna, still dazed from sleep, looked at the glowing ball and raised her hand to touch it. As she paused, her hand close, it hummed even louder.

A calm, soothing, feminine voice softly spoke to her, "Don't be afraid...step into the light."

Audrianna still faltered in placing her hand in the mysterious light. Less than semi-conscious, her wits offered a foreboding that aimed at deterring her from causing herself harm. In that instant she felt a crushing clamp on her lifted arm, making her more alarmed and wakeful. Stunned, she turned to look up at the person who manhandled her.

She stared up into the face of a towering, bald black man with ashen skin. He had harsh, menacing features and gritted even, pearl-white teeth. He appeared to be straining to push her delicate arm onto the glowing orb. His eyes showed resolve, though, and with one strong push her hand landed in the glowing structure. The light flashed and the white glow amassed and spread once again, embracing them both. She screamed.  

* * * 

"What the fuck was that shit?" Mat balked. He was at the helm of the only commercial helicopter on the island, with Lincoln beside him.  They flew north-east towards the Aripo mountains,no longer flying low.. They witnessed a plume of smoke shoot up in the distance, dissipating into the night sky.

The lights of the city had faded behind them, and though there were a spattering of households and squatter settlements in the area, the majority of the mountainous zone was covered by tropical rainforest. Lincoln was afraid there would be no way for the Special Weapons And Tactics (S.W.A.T.) team to make it up the mountain in the Northern Range in time to stop the abductors from transporting Audrianna to a second location.  

Out of sheer habit, as a former Marine, Lincoln glanced down at the controls. But the helicopter they maneuvered towards the scene had the basic flying equipment a cockpit would need to function. There were no thermal imaging sensors for navigation purposes.

Shit, man! It's a Beetle with a rotor blade and a tail fin stuck on it.  

 Lincoln grew irritated that he was basically flying blind with a 360-degree blind spot. He looked down at his smart phone; Audrianna's location on his GPS signaling app had gone dead. The direction had been at 0:200 when it vanished, the direction of the explosion. Lincoln cursed, slamming his palm on his fist. He squeezed Mat's shoulder. "Balls to the wall, Coyote!"

Mat jammed the pedal and eased the cyclic control stick to his right, flying towards the fire that burned the dark-green forest at full speed.  

* * *