Chapter 10.

She shot another glare in my direction again. She didn’t respond, instead, she returned to the driver’s seat. She started up the boat and drove it between the wood docking port. It was the only visible evidence I noticed that man had ever stepped foot on this island when we arrived.

Now that we were this close, my nerves were more on edge than they’d ever been before. The island smelled of nothing but danger. My instincts were screaming to run away, but we didn’t have enough fuel for a return trip according to Adele. The damage had been done, and we’d have to locate her father’s lab in this messy disaster of an island.

Well… there was at least one small saving grace in all of this. She said there was… wifi all over the island. How the hell was that even possible though? Where did the electricity to make wifi available all across the island come from? Was it geothermal? Perhaps solar or wind? Hydroelectric? Or could it be… something else entirely?

There’s no way the things I knew about her father were really true. Those were all things I’d contrived in my head. I’d never seen the physical evidence to suggest those insane things were really possible. Everything I saw was through hallucinations, nightmares, and the claims of Adele’s so-called sister whom I’d disillusioned myself into seeing.

Ugh. What would make this island even worse? Well… that would definitely be if it was a haunted one.

No no no. What am I even thinking about right now? I’m letting the atmosphere get to me. Haunted islands, isolated from the rest of the world are for the movies, they don’t actually exist.

“Darling, what are you waiting for? Let’s go already.”

“Go where?”

“Obviously, we need to find shelter first.”

“Find shelter… you mean you really don’t have any idea where any man made buildings could be on the island?”

“None at all. I wasn’t that interested in that when I came here the first time. I was much more interested in the exotic animals. The more I examined them, the more peculiar they appeared to me.”

“Peculiar? What do you mean by that exactly?”

“Hmmm… I’m not sure how to describe it, but the animals don’t quite feel as wild as the ones I’m used to. It kind of feels like they all have some sort of understanding on what it takes for them all to coexist together. I don’t really know why that is though. It might just be in my head.”

I gulped down a mouthful of saliva. Animals that mutually understood how they could all survive in harmony without pushing each other’s species to extinction, the idea alone sounded scary enough. Wouldn’t that be on the level of self awareness? You’re not going to tell me these animals have self awareness, are you?

“Adele, are you 100% sure we don’t have enough gas to make a return trip?”

“Definitely. Either we make some ourselves, or find my father’s lab.”

Well… with the internet available, making it probably wouldn’t be impossible to figure out.

I picked up my clothes from the ground and put them on. Once dressed, I checked my pocket with the intention to confirm we really had access to the web, but I froze up when my hands were met with two empty pockets. My heart leaped into my throat. I panicked and touched my clothes all over. Gone. It wasn’t here. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no.

I was genuinely scared as hell. What the hell, on a deserted island and I lost my phone that was my greatest lifeline? There’s no freaking way!

“Hahaha. Looking for your phone?”

“Do you know where it is?”

“Back at your apartment of course. When you were leaving, I took it out of your pocket and tossed it on the couch without you noticing. You were too busy staring at another woman to be bothered with the one on your back.”

“Are you crazy! Why would you do that if you knew we were coming here!”

“Obviously so we wouldn’t be tracked through your phone.”

“I could have done something about that even if you didn’t get rid of it, I’m a freaking electrical engineer! Do you think I’m an idiot?”

“I know you could do something about it after the fact, but there was no time to do anything about it while escaping. We couldn’t drive around with something that could easily give away our location. Even if you disabled all communications through the settings, unless you dealt with the hardware as well, there was still the chance we could be tracked.”

“What’s the use of wifi if I don’t have anything I can connect to it through?”

“Jeez. Relax. It’s not like I came unprepared. Just who do you think I am?”

Adele opened up a hidden compartment on the side of the boat and tossed something at me. With my epic hand eye coordination I’d developed from gaming over the years I-

“Oh crap.”

It slipped through my hand and I nearly dropped it. Thankfully, I just barely recovered and caught it with my other hand. I let out a sigh of relief.

“Hehehe, don't try to act cool and just catch it with both hands if you can’t with one.” Adele chimed in while she picked up her one piece from the side. She skilfully slid her legs between it and pulled it up to cover her bare body before the thin shoulder straps slid down to her sides. Aside from her knives that were strapped to a belt around her waist beneath her one piece, that was all she bothered to put on. She was definitely… wild, if nothing else.

I covered up my earlier embarrassment with a light cough and took a closer look at what she tossed me. I was relieved when I confirmed it was a brand new smartphone.

“Do you like my return present?”

“Return present? I don’t remember giving you a present.”

She pointed at her abdomen with a crooked grin of victory on her face.

I felt a sudden headache coming on when I understood what she meant. There’s still the chance that her previous efforts didn’t bear any fruit. I could only hope that whatever pitiful state my luck was in, it hadn’t completely dried up, else I would soon be a father.