Chapter 16: Sabotage

  “Come on,” JJ said. “Last stretch.”

  He motioned with two fingers. Move, Little Bear went first.

  The sprint from the crate stack to the service road was ugly and fast. Boots slapped concrete. Rotor wash shoved their backs. The Jayhawk’s light slid across the yard in hard passes, then lifted and tracked the foliage line.

  Hector moved last, rifle raised, eyes flicking from the yard to the green foliage.

  “J-2-zero,” JJ said into his radio as he ran, words clipped by breath. “We’re taking the service road.”

  “Copy that,” the pilot said. “Keep moving. I’ve got your 6.”

  The squad hit the broken strip of pavement and vanished into the trees.

  Roar of the Rotors dulled as it passed over the canopy. Vines hung low across the road and slapped shoulders as they pushed through. Little Bear kept point, shotgun up, moving with the road’s faint curve. JJ stayed half a step behind, rifle tracking the right side. Loni kept Maria and Emilia in the center, one hand on Maria’s shoulder.

  Hector brought up the rear, periodically turning to look behind them.

  “We’re almost there, girls,” JJ said.

  Maria’s breath came in shallow bursts. “We’re… going back… to the Visitor Center?”

  “That’s where the ATV is,” Loni answered without turning. “You’ll love it.”

  Emilia didn’t speak. She ran with the axe held tight to her body.

  The road dipped through a stretch where the asphalt had broken into jagged plates. Water pooled in the gaps, black and still. Maria stepped wrong, her heel skidding.

  Loni caught her by the elbow and yanked her upright in one motion.

  Maria grimaced, but kept running. It was times like this that she wished she’d paid more attention in gym.

  Loni smiled and nodded, giving her silent encouragement.

  Clicking sounded somewhere to the left.

  Little Bear pointed left and fired into the brush.

  Another series of clicks answered from farther back.

  Hector’s voice came out strained. “Little fuckers are hunting us again.”

  JJ didn’t answer. “J-2-zero, light up the path behind us.”

  “Copy that. Lighting it up.” The roar of machine-gun fire sounded from above as the Jayhawks' guns strafed the jungle behind them.

  The road rose, the canopy thinned in patches. Light spilled through in pale beams. Then the Visitor Center appeared ahead through the green, its front lawn visible.

  The rotunda’s dome gaped where the roof had collapsed, ivy spilling down in thick ropes. The party debris still sat where the kids left it: coolers, a battered grill, and foam plates clung to the ground.

  JJ raised a fist again as they hit the edge of the clearing.

  Little Bear scanned the steps. Hector covered the treeline. Loni kept Maria and Emilia tucked behind the group.

  JJ’s eyes went straight to where the ATV had been parked. Thankfully, it was still there.

  A hard wave of relief hit Maria so fast she almost sobbed.

  Then JJ saw the tires.

  Two were shredded. Not slashed, ripped apart. Rubber peeled back in thick curls. The front end sagged low, the rim biting into dirt.

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  Hector swore softly. “You have got to be kidding me.”

  Little Bear crouched by the nearest tire and touched the torn edge with two fingers. He didn’t look up. “Fresh.”

  “How fresh?” Loni snapped.

  Little Bear grunted. “Minutes ago.”

  Maria stared at the ruined wheel as if it had personally betrayed her. “We… we were so close.”

  “Now what?” Emilia asked.

  JJ’s jaw tightened. He stepped closer and swept his rifle muzzle slowly across the plaza. No movement. No shadows where they shouldn’t be.

  The sense of being watched didn’t leave. It never did on this island.

  Hector backed toward the building’s entrance, keeping his rifle trained outward. “Jefe. We should tell J-2-zero to land.”

  JJ shook his head once. “You know he can't. If there are more like that big one, we'd be compromising the helo. The best thing he can do is hover briefly.”

  “Briefly is fine,” Hector shot back. “Briefly is my new favorite word on this island.”

  Loni crouched by the girls. “Stay strong, girls, it’s almost over. Can you still run?”

  Maria nodded. “Yes.”

  Emilia nodded. Her grip tightened on the axe. “Yes.”

  JJ keyed his mic. “J-2-zero, we’re at the Visitor Center. ATV is compromised. Can you hover for pickup?”

  Static hissed, then the pilot’s voice cut in. “I can give you a thirty-second hover if you’ve got a clear lift point.”

  JJ looked up at the Visitor Center’s roofline, the broken dome, and open sky above the rotunda. A hover there would be a gamble. A rope drop in this wind would be a nightmare.

  “Copy,” JJ said. “Stand by.”

  He clicked off and turned to Little Bear. “Other options.”

  Little Bear nodded toward the building. “There’s that sublevel access from earlier we could try different tunnels.”

  “And get us trapped down there with the small fuckers?” Hector asked.

  JJ shook his head. “He’s right, we’d need a full layout of those tunnels to risk it, and we have limited ammo.”

  Maria’s voice cracked. “So… what do we do?”

  JJ didn’t answer right away. He glanced at the rotunda, at the toppled skeletons visible through the shattered glass, ribs splayed across tile.

  Then he looked at the ridge trail sign half-swallowed by vines at the edge of the lawn.

  And he saw something on the ground near it, dark against pale concrete.

  Loni saw it too. Her posture changed. “Muldoon.”

  JJ walked toward it, slowly, his rifle steady.

  It was a strip of fabric snagged on a low branch, cheap, bright, and familiar. A piece of a shirt, torn clean, still damp at the edges.

  It was fresh.

  Maria’s breath stopped. “That’s…”

  “Don’t,” Loni said softly, but her eyes were on it too.

  JJ lifted the fabric with two fingers, examining it before letting it drop back to the ground.

  Hector’s voice came quietly behind him. “Maybe some survived?”

  Little Bear was already scanning the tree line near the path.

  JJ turned back to the group. “Change of plan.”

  Hector’s brows lifted. “Yeah, I figured.”

  “We get the girls on J-2-zero,” JJ said. “Then we find any remaining survivors.”

  Maria swallowed. “Really?”

  JJ nodded toward the torn fabric, then toward the jungle. “If they’re alive, we’ll find them.”

  A clicking sounded from inside the Visitor Center.

  Little Bear’s shotgun snapped toward the doorway.

  Hector’s rifle came up.

  Loni pulled the girls back a step.

  JJ held up a hand and stared into the dark mouth of the building as the clicking came again, multiple now, a symphony of danger coming for them.