Island Of The Cryptids

21

Carlin pulled the cabin door shut with a hollow thud. The sound of rain was muffled as it droned on outside, and the group heard the faint echo of the water pinging off the back ramp. Carlin reached into the overhead compartment and pulled out a duffel bag, which he unzipped and then quickly rummaged through, doffing his trenchcoat and then slipping on a fresh new undershirt. He looked Manuel dead in the eye, who was fuming.

"What right do you have to dictate us like that?" he asked, his voice furious. Carlin stared him down.

"I have no more right than you do to do anything here," Carlin explained. "But I was informed that we are in a biohazard zone. One or more of the passengers were sick, and I dealt with the situation." Manuel balled his fists, digging his nails into his palms, raking them along the sweaty skin.

"Did you have to send Hadden outside?" Manuel said. "Even after you saw what happened to Tucker?" Carlin lowered his brow.

"When I was in the military, we once had to deal with a very powerful contagion on some island in Madagascar, I forget the name. The inhabitants were infected with this disease, and it was awful. Their skin turned ashy and chalky and they were ripping it off like wet sheets of toilet paper. They had hyper shits, and they blew out their organs through their asses."

"I studied that outbreak in school," Manuel said, clenching his teeth. Carlin nodded.

"See? Anyways, we were ordered that nothing came into the island, and nothing came off of the island. We got some major backlash from the local government. Everybody expected that there would be outrage. We were practically killing almost a thousand people. But that day I learned a valuable lesson. I learned that if you want to save lives, you may have to throw some other ones under the bus." There was a long gap of silence as Jake and Manuel studied Carlin. Carlin sat down, retying the lace of his boot.

"It was a terrible thing to do. Don't get me wrong," Carlin lied. "But we ran the island over with napalm strikes for the next twelve hours. We needed to make sure that that island was incapable of sustaining any biological life. We poisoned the waters around it too. Anything that went near it got shot dead." Manuel sat down across from Carlin.

"Your point is?" Carlin sneered.

"We're going to get off this island," he explained. "If your fuck-friend isn't showing signs of sickness by morning, we take her with. If she is, she stays here. Then, when we get onto the mainland, we ring up the military and the CDC, call them down here, evacuate whatevers left of Hadden and Kaeli, and then they can rain fire down on this shithole."

Carlin sat back, chewing his lip, satisfied with his plan. Manuel still looked uneasy. Jake did too.

"What about those things?" Jake asked. "The ones that attacked Tucker and killed Misty?"

For the first time all night, Carlin showed something other than a blank emotion. His face was sagging with fear, and his eyes showed it. He looked at Jake, staring at him with a piercing gaze. His eyes were so sharp, Jake thought that he would melt.

"I have no idea what we're up against," he said. "That thing out there, it scared me. I don't get scared much."

Carlin swallowed, his arm shaking. He pointed at Jake.

"Whatever it is, it is a predator beyond anything that should be living. It shouldn't exist. It's something straight out of a fantasy book or Jurassic Park. And if I'm certain of one thing, it would be that it is still out there, right now, hunting us."

"So they are the hunters?" Manuel asked.

"And we are the prey. But the thing is, we are smarter than them. We have a plane full of supplies, brains full of knowledge, and a tank full of gas."
A kittenish mewl came from the cockpit. The three men looked at Tucker who was giggling hysterically on the floor.