THE END [[#Wattys2020]]

DAY 6

Chapter 108: Settling In for the Long Run

Jason Livingston (St. Nicolas Island, California Coast)

Everyone whose final destination was Los Angeles, or had family here, kinda just stayed together in the mess hall. Most everyone else, at least those of us who'd given up on immediate rescue, had found longer term accommodations in the A and B barracks. The Mexican TV star and his entourage remained in the hangar and really didn't have much to do with anyone else. And a couple families ventured over to the other side of the island; I guess there's buildings over there of some kind. Otherwise, the place was completely devoid of life. I know it's technically a "deserted island", but there aren't even seagulls and almost no plant life. It's all still, all quiet, all wrong!

"Nice shirt!" Henry said, allowing himself admittance into my room.

"It's all I could find," I replied.

The shirt, a replacement of my puke covered button-up, was a yellow tee with black bold text on the front reading, "I'M HARD AS FUCK!" in all capitals.

"Ready?"

We were on our way to meet with the rest of the passengers to discuss the situation and possible options. Not something I was actually looking forward to.

"Yup, let's roll!"

Chapter 109: Patrons

Shannon's Diary (Four Seasons Resort Kauai, Hawaii)

"I've never heard of anything like this. These idiots don't have a clue!" Nick said.

Nick was a good guy, but he tended, like a lot of New Yorkers, to talk quite a lot. He was a short, fat man with a short, fat face and short, fat arms that, when they weren't busy telling you a story or illustrating a point, mostly just dangled there.

Nick was talking to another guy from another resort a few years his senior, sitting two seats down from us. They'd been going at it for well over an hour!

"What are you talking about? This shit happens all the time... a few years ago, over there in Europe, flights were grounded from Greenland because a volcano erupted!" --Other guy.

We actually spend most of our free time, which here is all our time, sitting in the Infinity Bar. The 'new' arrivals (those who arrived on the island after we did, but before flights stopped coming) though, well they spend most of their time at the Infinity Bar, too.

"Oh, nice... let's not let anyone off an island with a live volcano burning through the landscape! Brilliant! That's EXACTLY what I'm saying!" Nick said.

Chapter 110: Pieces and Puzzles

Vice-President Todd Lewis (Government Bunker, Sierra Nevada Mountains)

"Ok, so here goes!" Sam said.

Sam and a couple other people had been up all night inspecting the remains. Now, in the predawn hours, we were mustered back into the lab around the table... felt like we were about to watch an alien autopsy.

"All this stuff here is basically just stock drone parts... these are the gyros and relays for controlling the craft's pitch and lift and tilt and whatnot. Here's the camera and feed cables... It's all regular, out-of-the-box, 'Made in China' shit that the drone originally came with... not our concern."

"...All of this here, here, here and here, however, is added after-market hardware."

"For what purpose?" Commander Nelson, of the California National Guard, asked.