My name is Jacob Forester. I was eighteen when the incident happened. My family had been told that the government had been overruled by some men from a group of defiers. My father is the head of the guardsmen in our hometown. He told me a week before we headed out that the town was going into lockdown. The only people who could get out would be on a ship heading from the town to a watchtower fifty miles from us. My father pulled some strings and got me a place on the ship, one of only twenty-five. Most of the people on the ship were civilians, but eight of them were the crew. I remember seeing the captain on the day that I last saw my family. It was the day that the ship set sail. I was one of the last people on the ship. I waved to my mom and dad. My older brother walked up to them and saluted to me. My father had asked him to help keep our enemies out. My brother was thirty-one at the time.

The captain put his right hand on my shoulder and told me it was time to go. I said one last goodbye to my folks and stepped back, onto the deck. The stairs that all of the passengers had used to get aboard the ship released from the edge of the dock. I suddenly felt a feeling like vertigo. My legs began to sway. I looked over at the captain. He smiled at me, and I couldn’t help but smirk back at him. Our mission was to reach the watchtower and report back what we saw. I hoped that the people who had taken over the government didn’t make it in before we returned.

The ship started to move, and I realized that the captain was no longer standing next to me. I sat down on the wooden planks and rested my back against the metal railing.

 

We had been sailing for a day, when I heard a crash coming from somewhere near the ship. I got up from where I lay in the sleeping cabin and walked onto the deck. I leaned over the railing and looked at the blue waves of salty water. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but I could still hear the sound. I leaned over a bit more, so I could hear it clearer. When I was about to pull myself back and go to the sleeping cabin again, the sound got louder.

A loud bang erupted from nearby. Part of the railing fell apart and I noticed that some people were falling overboard. I tried to move towards the people in peril, but my legs wouldn’t move. I watched a man I had seen the previous day. He was the last person to board the ship. I believe his name was Tom.

I saw Tom trying to help a woman who was partially in the water.

“Hey, you, boy,” he called. “Come here!”

I snapped out of my daze. He needed my help. I started to cross the deck to where he struggled with pulling the woman up. I was almost to him, when the boards beneath his feet broke. Both he and the woman disappeared beneath the dark blue abyss. I ran over to where he had been standing. I knelt down and began to splash through the water, but saw nothing that told me if the man and woman had drowned or not. They were just . . .GONE.

I looked around. I didn’t see the captain. Had he also fallen in the water? The only person of the crew that I saw was a shorter woman in a brown leather jacket and pants that matched the captains. She was helping an elderly man to his feet. The only reason the man had been let on the ship is because he is the only person still alive that can operate the computer in the watchtower. It was essential that he gets to the destination.

I counted twelve people that were still standing on the deck of the ship. The rest were either in the water trying to swim back towards the ship, or they were unconscious on the deck or they had drowned.

The part of the ship I was standing on crumbled beneath my feet. I landed on my back, on a piece of plywood. I saw a woman below the surface of the waves. She was calling for help through the thick water. I reached for her hand, but she slipped out of view. I didn’t recognize her from the village, but I didn’t really go out much. I closed my eyes and dreamed that I was back home, sitting on the couch, watching T.V.  

The next thing I knew, the captain was by my side, dragging me onto what was left of the deck. I guessed I had been unconscious for only a few seconds. Now there were only two men, a woman, and the captain in sight. He still had his blue captain’s uniform on. I didn’t understand why he seemed to not have a scratch on him. As for me, my shirt was mostly missing, I had lost a shoe somewhere in the panic, and there was multiple holes in my pants. The sock on my left foot was totally drenched. The captain was saying something, but there was too much ringing in my ears. The two men on board were having a conversation about something serious. One of them, who had dark brown hair, was flailing his arms around like he was on fire. It took my ears a few minutes to get back to normal.

• “Are . . . you . . . okay!” the captain yelled.

I shook my head. What had happened to our ship? Why had it broken apart? There was no logical explanation for it all.

“Yeah, I . . . I’m fine,” I stuttered. “What happened?”

“The ship hit a log in the ocean. It wasn’t as strong as we had thought. The ship split in two like it was a stick of butter. I’m just glad that you are alright. I thought we had lost you. I don’t know what your father would say if something had happened to you.”

“Where is the man who can operate the watchtower controls?” I asked.

“He is gone. We’ve been looking for him, but don’t know where to look.”

“We need to look everywhere for him,” I replied. “The watchtower is the only reason we used the ship.”

“Don’t worry about him right now. What we need to worry about is getting rescued. We could be out here for days.”

“No we won’t, Captain Dawson,” the woman said.

“And why’s that?” the captain asked.

“Because, I see land,” the woman pointed out towards a landmass across the sea. I could see that it was clearly an island. There might be a way to communicate there. We might have just been saved.

“Everyone, start to paddle,” the other man said. The three passengers and the captain knelt down on the thin piece of deck and began to splash water around. I waited for a few seconds before joining them.  

A few minutes later, we were closing in on the land. I noticed a piece of driftwood near us. I could faintly see the outline of a figure laying face down, nearly falling in the water.

“There is a body!” the captain yelled.

The three other passengers began to paddle faster. We came close to the body; I saw that it was a child. It was weird. I had been told that no one under the age of ten could come along, and this girl seemed to be either six or seven. What was she doing here?

The captain dove into the water and swam over to her, putting almost all of his weight on the piece of dark wood. The girl leaned over close to him and whispered in his ear; then she passed out. The captain had a deranged look on his face. I couldn’t figure out what she had told him. The captain pointed to the island.

“We need to go there,” he said. “The girl told me not to tell any of you what she told me. If I do, then we all die. She said that I am the key to all of this. All I can tell you is that she was not on the ship. I don’t know where she came from, but her people will take care of us. Apparently there is an entire city on the island. She said that her people were doing experiments on animals to try to get them to communicate better. Apparently they went horribly wrong and have begun to kidnap people. That is why she came out here. She must have been here for hours, poor thing.”

“Maybe that’s where the rest of the people who were on the ship are,” the woman said. “the animals could have taken them, if you believe her. She could be tricking us into trying to save our people, when they are already dead.”

“I know it will be dangerous,” the captain said. “We need to save our people if they are out there. I say the first thing we do is exchange names. Now, you already know me, Ted Dawson, and we all know you, Jacob Forester.” Captain Dawson pointed to me. “Now, the rest of you, tell us who you are.”

One of the men raised his hand to indicate that he was going to speak first. “Hi,” he said. “My name is Craig Hanson, and I am a member of the guard sent out to the watchtower to help get it working again.”

The woman went next. “I am Flona,” she said. “I don’t really work that much. I guess I am just here to site see. I wonder how that’s going to happen with us stuck on an island filled with deadly animals?”

The other man spoke up. “I am Lester, and I am a sanitation engineer.”

The captain smiled at him with a big, dimply grin. “So, you’re a garbage man.”

“I don’t like labels, but I guess you could say that,” Lester answered.

“Do you have a last name?” Ted wondered sarcastically.

“Everyone has a last name,” he said. “I just don’t like anyone to know mine, for security measures.”

It took us a while to paddle our way to the island. The captain had the girl in his arms, making sure that she wasn’t too cold. We brought the piece of ship onto the land and tiredly walked up on the beach. It was totally abandoned. The captain had said that it would be a city, and it was. I stood next to a pillar, dug into the ground.  Flona came up next to me and tried to interpret what we were looking at. It appeared that we were standing in front of a dense jungle. I could hear roars in the distance, that of large animals. The girl had most likely been telling the truth. We could be in big trouble.

Craig and Captain Dawson set the young girl down on the beach and stood back to admire the city ruins in the distance. There were skyscrapers with broken windows. There was even sculptures of people. It looked like what my father had said many of the cities had looked like over a hundred years ago. Now, they were all isolated between fences. No one except the guard were allowed to leave, except for this one time, since war was coming.

I hoped my dad was okay. He had seemed a little off about me going with them to the watchtower, but it was the only way to get me to safety, as they had originally thought. Now it seemed like I would have been safer fighting alongside my father and brother. I really hoped they were okay. I know I had only been gone for a little while at the time, but it had felt like months already.

Ted, the captain, started to walk toward the city, leaving Craig and the other two to stay with the child. I ran after him, finally catching up at the front of a building. It was a business, with most of the darkened windows gone. Captain Dawson pointed to the sign hanging loosely.

“I know exactly where we are,” he said.

I read the sign carefully. It read, . . . Bermuda.

It was unbelievable; there were many tall tales in my time that described the Bermuda Triangle as dangerous and hard to reach. I was there in the very spot, in Bermuda, and I can honestly say that all of those bedtime stories about that place were true. Ted, the man who had taken us here on his now wrecked ship, was staring at the sign very intently. I couldn’t make out what I was seeing. If this was the Bermuda Triangle, then what kind of monsters lived here?

    A roaring sound came from further into the city. There was a chance that the little girl we had found here was telling the truth. She might have just killed us, sealing our fate. I thought at that moment that I would never get to see my family again.

    The roar came again, louder this time. The captain started to back away from the building, just as the roaring stopped. We waited there for a moment, waiting for something to happen. A massive roar came, louder than the previous two combined. The building exploded in a cloud of rubble. The captain jumped out of the way, knocking me out of the way of the collapsing building. We hit the ground together. I rolled off of him and got in a position to look at what had destroyed the building. The sign with “Bermuda” on it was laying next to us. I looked up from it and was stunned by what I saw. There, standing where the building had been seconds before, was a huge beast, two times the size of any structures around him. Ted’s face was covered in terror.

The monster smacked his side arm into the building beside him, sending a shower of bricks in our direction. I grabbed Ted by the collar of his shirt and tugged him out of the way. He snapped out of his trance and followed my example of running for my life. As we got further away from the city, a brick hit the captain in the shoulder. He let out a low grunt and kept moving forward. A booming sound came from behind us, this one high pitched and smooth. We were being chased by more than one monster, maybe even a family of them.

We were about to reach the beach, when something hit me straight in the back, knocking me off balance. I tumbled onto the wet, grassy ground. I turned over, thinking that I was a goner, but I was wrong. The monsters were gone and the captain was beside me, staring down at something laying against the tree next to me. I looked to my right, astonished as I saw that what had knocked me off my feet was not part of a building, it was a man’s body.

“He looks like he’s been dead for at least an hour now,” the captain said.

“I . . .I know this man,” I said. “Well, not really well. He was on the ship with us. I saw him on the deck right before we crashed.”

“If he was here, then that means others in our group made it too.”

“Maybe, but they probably had the same fate as this guy,” I said. “We will surely end up like this too.”

“No we won’t,” Ted said. “I promised your father that I would protect you, and I intend to, with my life if needed.”

“We better get back to the beach,” I said. “We have to make sure that the others are okay.”

“Yes, and then we need to find any survivors. There  are twenty-some-odd people out there, and we need to find them. We especially need to find the man who can help us once we reach the watchtower. If he is already dead, then our mission is a fail.”

“I’m sure he’s fine,” I replied. “Right now, the best thing to do would be to get back to the beach and see what else that girl knows about what we just saw.”

 

We returned to the beach ten minutes later and told the others everything that had happened to us, starting with where we were. Once we were done, I stared at the girl.

“Tell me what you know about the monsters on this place!” I half yelled and half spoke.

“I already told you what I know. They just showed up one day. This is the island of the monsters. My people began to become sick one day. Some of them lasted long, some of them didn’t. There are still some of my people around. I do know where they are, but I can’t tell you, because you will lead the monsters to them.”

“Why didn’t you all die of the disease?”

“Some of us were immune, like me,” she said. “There is about thirty left. We all saw you crash in your ship. I came out of hiding with three of my friends. We got separated when one of the monsters found us. I was running for an hour, at least, when I found the body of one of my friends. I haven’t heard from the other two since. They could be dead, or they could be alive, I don’t really know. That is when I went and found you. I am sorry, but that is all I know.”

“You think you found us?” Craig asked.

“Yes. If I had been fully alert when you “found me”, would you have been willing to help me?”

“Let’s put that aside,” Ted said. “We need to find the rest of our people.”

“You won’t find all of the people from your group. Right before I found you, I was running onto the beach, and I saw three people wash up. They had all drowned, each one of them blue in the face.”

“Were any of them elderly men?” Ted asked.

“No, there was two men and a woman, all about forty.”

“Okay,” Ted said, “we still might have a chance of finding the watchtower expert.”

“What did you do to the three that washed up here?” Flona asked.

“I buried them all here on the beach. It is a tradition to my people to honor the dead by burying the dead.”

“Isn’t that a tradition in all cultures?” Lester asked.

The girl shrugged. “I s’pose, this culture is all I know.”  

“We have to go now,” the captain said. “I need to find the man who can operate the watchtower.”

Our small group set out, moving inland. As we walked through the dense forest, we heard the sounds of different kinds of animals. I wasn’t sure it they were familiar animals, or some kind of mutated species that I had never heard of.

I was walking beside the young girl, watching as she swayed her arms back and forth. The captain and the others were a few paces behind us. “So,” I began. “I never did get your name,” I said to the girl.

“That is because I was not ready then, but I am now. My name is Amelia.”

“Well, it’s very nice to have you by my side, Amelia. Thank you for helping us, by the way.”

“Oh, no prob-” A monstrous roar cut her off.

I ran for cover, grabbing Amelia’s hand. She picked up speed, and we lunged our bodies through a big gaping hole in a building. My head hit the ground and I closed my eyes tightly. When I opened them again, I was surprised to find that I was surrounded by skinny bodies, dozens of them.

“Where are we?” I asked Amelia.

“This is where we leave the infected. This is the group we brought here most recently. We were waiting until they weren’t infectious to come and retrieve them.”

“Oh, well, are they still infectious?” I asked.

“No, not anymore.”

I sighed. “Good, I really don’t want to die like them,” I pointed to a skeleton with brown spots on his bones.

“Nobody does,” she said. “That is how my family died, a few years back.”

“I’m so sorry,” I replied.

I heard screams coming from outside, accompanied by the repeating roar. I saw Craig trying to climb into the hole. He was almost in, when something pulled him back out. I heard his high pitched scream, and then silence. He was dead, and the others would soon follow. I needed to do something to save my remaining friends.

I got to my feet slowly and wobbled over to the edge of the room. I was waiting for whatever had killed Craig to come back and try to attack me. I heard Amelia yelling for me to get away from there, but it was too late. A beast, with long claws and fur covering its entire body, came charging out of the forest. It jumped on top of the structure next to us and lunged right at me. Amelia pulled me back, but it wasn’t enough. The beast fell into my side, digging its claws into my skin. I cried out and fell backwards. The beast disappeared back into the woods. Obviously its objective was not to kill me.

I lay on the floor, blinking away tears. My forehead was beaded in sweat. Amelia towered over me, glancing at my wound.

“I need to . . .ah, know your last name,” I said. “In Case I . . .ah . . .die.”

 

“You’re not going to die,” she reassured me. “But since you’re wondering, my last name is Earhart.”

“What . . .” I stammered.

My vision went black.

My eyes flickered open, no longer feeling like a clamp was attached to them. Suddenly, I felt a throbbing feeling in my forehead. When I looked around, the room shifted, and I realized that I was upside down. The room was half of a tall building. I could see the ground through the wall in front of me. My side pounded with pain. It all came flooding back to me: the monsters that were chasing us, the other people from the ship, Amelia . . .Earhart? Where were Flona, Ted and Lester. I remembered Craig getting attacked by a monster before I lost consciousness. Now there were only four of us plus Amelia. Wait . . .Amelia! Where was she?

I could see Amelia step out of the shadows in the corner of the room. She was wearing a flannel overshirt with a white t-shirt underneath. It was buttoned halfway up and was tucked into the waistband of her gray jeans. She had her left hand behind her back. I didn’t have to wonder what she had in it long before she pulled out a knife and sliced the rope holding me up.

I hit the wooden planks with a thud. My hands were still bound behind my back. I wiggled my feet and she pointed the knife at me.

“Don’t even think of trying to make a run for it,” she said. “My people have this building surrounded.”

“Why are you doing this?” I asked, scooting away a little.

“Because,” Amelia said, “I need to protect Bermuda. Since my parents died, I have been the protector of these people.”

“Were you even telling the truth about the illness that attacked your people?”

“Yes, but there are fifty of us still alive. Every time someone from outside shows up here, we send out someone to go and be friends with them. Then, we send our creatures out to finish them off. I volunteered to go and find you guys when your ship went down. When I did find you, I found something that I was not expecting. I saw how innocent you guys were. Usually when people come here, they are already expecting to crash. They just want to put an end to my people. We get rid of them and bury the bodies in our cemetery. With your group, I found people I could call my friends. I tried to convince the rest of my people to let you be, but they wouldn’t stop. I eventually had to capture you, so that they wouldn’t get even more suspicious. I am so sorry.”

“Are you even Amelia Earhart?” I asked.

“Yes, well, I am Amelia Earhart Jr. My mom was the original, the one that crashed here on her plane. She lived here for a while, before she got ill. She got married her first year here to someone from outside. Then they had me, and the rest, I guess . . .is history.”

“Where are my friends?”

“They are tied up in a room lower down.”

“What about the rest of the people from the ship?”

“Most of them are dead, but five have managed to escape. They are still out there somewhere,” she extended her arm to the forest outside. “Not that they will last much longer.”

“You don’t understand,” I said. “There is going to be a war going on back where we came from. We need to get to a watchtower. We were on our way when we shipwrecked here. We had someone with us that we need to access something in the watchtower. If he is dead, my people back home are going to have a big problem.”

“Like what?”

“Many people will die,” I replied.

“Who cares? Certainly not me. I may be able to save you. You can live here, with me and my people.”

“Why would I want to do that?”

“Because if you don’t you will die.”

“If I say yes, will you save my friends as well?”

“No, I will not. They will die no matter what.”

“No they won’t.”

“Won’t what?”

“They won’t die. My people back home will find us.”

“There is no way to find this place like that,” she said.

Gunshots followed the buzz of planes. Amelia turned her head towards the sounds. The grimace on her face made me scoot back even further. Her hands were clenched into fists. She grabbed me by the arm and dragged me into the next room just as gunfire started to become a little closer. I could hear frantic footsteps charging from somewhere inside the building. Now there was loud explosions coming from downstairs. A loud cry for help came from the beach.

Amelia freed my hands and didn’t stop me from trying to escape. As I took a step towards the door, she grabbed my left hand and pressed into the skin, hard.

“I need you to save me a spot on one of your helicopters,” she said. “That is obviously what your people came in, since ships don’t do well here. Anyway, I just need to find some of my friends. Would you please save me a spot? I really think they would love to find out what really happened to my mother.”

I just glared at her and nodded. She was too young to get trapped on a dreadful place like that. I saluted the girl and ran off, nearly tripping down every flight of stairs I reached. I sensed no one coming after me, so all I had to worry about was finding my group. I was sure that they got away in the commotion as well. Just as I stepped onto the forest mulch, the pilot, Ted came out of the building. He wiped dirt off his face and took a deep breath.

“Jacob,” he said. “We need to get out of this place. Some of the locals told me that they have a security system that goes off when they are found. It is designed to release a deadly poison that will make people go crazy and eventually die. The side affects are like what has happened to the locals before. They made a one hour time limit to escape. If we can not get out of here by then, we will die too.” Tears ran down his face. “I’m scared, Jacob. I don’t want to die like this. I want to die beside my wife, thinking of my three boys. I want to see my family again.”

“You will,” I said. “My father will not let anything happen to me. Now, you need to snap out of it and come with me. We are going to get out of here. Where are the others?”

“I don’t know. I was kept somewhere different than them. Those guys could be anywhere.”

Lester ran out from somewhere in the forest. He also had been crying recently. He shook his head.

“She’s gone,” Lester said. “Flona is dead.”

“What happened?” Ted asked.

“It was a while ago. Me and Flona were trapped in one of the rooms in the building when this gas started to flow in through a vent in the floor. I wasn’t affected by whatever it was, but within ten minutes, she was gone. When all the frantic behavior started, I found something to cut my bonds and escaped. I regret leaving her like that, but it was all I could do. I needed to find you guys. I have been here in the forest searching ever since.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Ted said.

They both looked at me. I was staring into the building. I knew what I had to do. I looked back at them and said, “Amelia is in there.”

“Who’s Amelia,” they said together.

“The girl,” I said. “Amelia Earhart Jr.”

Without an explanation, I charged into the building. It was a bit gloomy inside, but I needed to find her. She needed to get out of Bermuda. I looked in every room, until I found Amelia in a room, hovering over two bodies. She looked up as I entered.

“We are all going to die,” she started, “just like these two. They have released the toxins. Some people are immune, but why would I be. Both of my parents weren’t.”

“It is going to be okay,” I said.

“Just go,” she replied. “You need to return to your people and finish out your destiny.”

“You are not going to die today,” I said. “Wanna know why?”

“Why?”

“Because I’m going to get you out of here.” I looked at her sweaty face. She already looked like the fumes were getting to her. I glanced at the wall of windows, scooped her up in my arms and ran towards them. At the last second before collision, I made sure we were protected by my arm. We hit the glass.

 

The next thing I remember is waking up on the ground. I groaned and made sure Amelia was okay. She barely had any scratches on her. Me on the other hand had my whole arm covered in scrapes. I got to my feet and she followed my example. We both looked in the direction of the helicopters. They were blowing leaves everywhere. People were scrambling towards them, my people, the people who had lived through Bermuda.

I saw Lester and Ted already on one of the helicopters. Amelia and I nodded at each other and continued to walk away from the shattered glass we had left on the forest floor.

 

 

    It was chaos. I saw every citizen of Bermuda charging at the helicopter, while my people were plowing them down by an explosion of bullets. I ran towards the helicopters with Amelia at my side. We were halfway there when a stinging feeling protruded from my leg. I fell flat on my face, tumbling to the side. I tried to scoot closer to my people, but someone put his foot on my chest, pushing into me. I wheezed and grunted. Amelia stood over me as well. She seemed to be pulling on the man’s left arm. I noticed that in his right hand he had a revolver, pointed at my head. I tried to kick him, but it was no use. When they say that at life and death moments, your whole life flashes before your eyes they aren’t lying. I saw my whole childhood and young adulthood as if I was watching a movie. I was about to give in to the man standing before me. He suddenly fell to the side of my body. Amelia pulled me to my feet. I looked at the man’s limp body. He had a hole in the middle of his forehead. I glanced behind us. There in front of us was an older man, his gray hair covering his whole head. It was impressive, considering his age. The most impressive thing was what he had clasped between his hands. It was a rifle, still pointed in our direction. He lowered it and began to walk over to us.

“I  can’t believe I just did that,” the older man said. “I was just trying to injure him, but it looks like I’m not that good of a shot. I was aiming at his shoulder.”

“Thank you for saving my life,” I replied. “I really appreciate it.”

“I hear you are looking for me,” he said. “I am the man who can work on the watchtower. My name is Tucker Hall.”

“Where have you been?” I asked.

“I never got caught by the locals,” he said. “I woke up on the beach after the shipwreck. I wandered into the forest and have been trying to find other ever since. I managed to find my way back to the beach when I heard the sound of helicopters coming. I found the captain and he said that you had all been looking for me since you came here.”

“Yes we have. I am so glad that you found us. We might still have a little time to get to the watchtower before the enemies come. We need to get going. What about the others that we lost touch of. Did they make it to the helicopters?”

“Five others have. The rest are gone.”

I tapped Amelia on the shoulder. “You should go and get on one of the helicopters,” I said.

She nodded and jogged away. I returned my attention to Tucker. “What about my father?” I asked. “Did he come with them?”

“They said that the leaders of the government did not come,” Tucker said. “I am really sorry. You will be reunited with your family soon. We need to go now.”

Tucker and I took off for the beach. I could hear explosions behind us, followed by screaming. Sometimes sand would spray me in the face. I wiped it away as I picked up speed. I could see the captain talking to someone. It took me a few moments to realize that the man he was talking to had the captain at gunpoint. Tucked raised his rifle and fired off a couple shots. I held my breath, afraid that if I breathed even the slightest breath, one or more of the bullets would hit the captain. I was in luck. Two of the bullets fired missed, but one of them hit the man in the side. He took a step away from the captain. He hesitated before dropping the gun into the sand. The man toppled over.

The captain (Ted) looked around. He smiled when he saw that I was coming with Tucker. He sighed and stepped inside one of the helicopters. I noticed that in front of that helicopter was a man standing with a sign. It read ‘get on this heli if you were a passenger of the ship.’ Lester was inside, talking to a woman who must have also been on the ship. There were four others inside. Ted got in the pilot’s chair and one of the others scooted over into the co-pilot’s.

Even though I had been shot earlier in the leg, I felt nothing as I ran towards my rescue. I had on a broad smile. Tucker and I made it to the helicopter and got inside. Ted flipped a switch and the propellers started up.

I called up to Ted. “HEY, IS AMELIA COMING WITH US?”

Ted turned off the propellers so he could hear better. “What was that?” he asked.

“Can Amelia come with us?”

“Do you want her to?”

“Yeah, that’s why I am asking you.”

“Okay, then she can come,” Ted said.

I hopped out of the helicopter and went to find Amelia. She was standing next to some of her people. They were loading onto one of the other helicopters. I guess the government let them come so that they wouldn’t die. I told her that it was time to go. She hugged some of the others and followed me onto the helicopter. Ted turned the propellers on again and the flying vehicle slowly started to lift into the air. I watched as we flew away from Bermuda. The other helicopters lifted as well and went in the opposite direction.

This was it. We would finally have a chance to save our home. The next stop would be the watchtower. Tucker would help us watch for the enemies. I watched as Bermuda got farther and farther away. I felt sorry for the people whose home we invaded. They deserved more. But on the other hand, more than one of them had tried to kill me. I felt Amelia resting her head on my shoulder. She must have been a younger than me, but Amelia could be mistaken for being my age or even older. Most of the others were already asleep. I scooted closer to Amelia and waited for her to close her eyes as well. Then I drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

 

I was awakened by someone shaking me by the shoulders. I looked around with fright in my eyes. I didn’t know what was going on. We could be under attack, or something even worse. We could all be dead. I realized how ridiculous I sounded and through the man to the side. He landed on top of someone’s lap. They both looked at each other with hatred.

“What’s happening?” I asked.

Amelia pointed at something out the window. It was a stone building, at least thirty feet tall. The watchtower was better than I had imagined. We would definitely be able to see our enemies from the room at the top, if Tucker could help us with the computer screens.

The helicopter was on the edge of the island that had the watchtower. I felt like holding my breath, so that no rocks would fall into the chilling water below. People were climbing out of the helicopter. Ted and Lester were already outside, staring at what we would do next. Tucker was talking to them. This is what we had been sent to do. Once we accomplished our task, I would be going home. That is when the tough part would come. The government would then need to fight off the Rebels. The Rebels were the enemies that were coming. They would be coming in battle ships and aircrafts. I was afraid for the bloodshed that would be coming. I just hoped that none of the victims were anyone I knew.

I followed Amelia out of the helicopter. The rest of the group joined us. Ted walked up to the watchtower and opened the weathered wooden door. I watched as Ted climbed up the metal ladder rungs that led up to the room at the top of the tower. I followed Lester up the ladder. Amelia came next. The rest of the group followed.

My hands were sweaty and there was more than one moment that I felt like I would slip and bring down everyone below me. Ted was slowly climbing the rungs to make sure that nobody felt like they were being rushed. He rolled into the room above and quickly helped everyone else up. When I stood in the room, I brushed off my pants. The room was simply made, except for the many computers. One of the walls was lined with computers from edge to edge. Ted and Tucker walked across the room and Tucker pushed a button below the largest computer screen. The screen turned blue, and then it showed a map of the ocean, complete with islands and all land masses.

Ted led the rest of the group over to a window. Once Tucker told us that the enemies were coming, we would make sure that the computer was right. The watchtower was designed with cannons and grenade launchers that would go off when someone got into close range, if the main computer was on.

Tucker turned on all of the other monitors. They each beeped when it was their turn, and I jumped every time. Amelia stood in a corner, glaring at a wall. I walked over to her and she wrapped her arms around me. It couldn’t be easy leaving everything you knew behind. At least we had managed to save some of her people. My guess about her attitude was that now that she had left her home, the shock of losing her parents was finally getting to her.

I took a look at her thin face and messy hair. I remembered seeing old pictures of Amelia Earhart when I was little. The government kept all of the artifacts in the museum. Usually no one other than government officials were allowed to enter the museum, because it was well guarded. But since my dad worked for them, my brother and I were able to see all of the old ways of life that were kept there. I remembered seeing a blue idle called the Statue of Liberty. It was right next to a cracked bell that was also called liberty. Those memories that I had of the museum were some of my favorites. My father didn't spend too much time with me anymore, so those times were pretty much the only thing I could tie him to other than his uniform and medals filling up our mantel.

Amelia pulled away and looked over at Tucker with wide eyes. I turned around and saw that the man had much more life in him now. He was mashing buttons and tapping the screen rapidly in different places. I turned my head  to the others and slowly made my way over to Tucker. When I took a look at the computer screen, I could see that small red dots were coming in our direction.

“What are those?” I asked Tucker.

He frowned. “Those, my friend, are the rebellion. They are here a bit quicker than I imagined. I am afraid that the war is about to begin. We have to stall them for as long as possible. Jacob, press that button on the far left of the last computer screen.”

“What does it do?”

“It is supposed to send out a flare that the government will see back at the base. Do as I say. NOW!”

I ran over to the last computer screen and pressed the black button down. The ground shook and I heard a low whistle and a mini explosion.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

Tucked was still for a moment. “It means that it worked,” he replied with a grin.

I noticed that the red dots were getting closer. They were now only a few inches from the big blue blog that symbolized the watchtower. There were bigger dots coming now that I assumed were helicopters. The smaller dots must have been ships. The room shook, sending me to the ground. I landed on my left shoulder. I could hear shots being fired from the tower, followed by loud explosions.

The government had been anticipating this war for years. We wouldn’t go down without a fight. When the dots got so close that they morphed into the big blob, the wall with the computers collapsed. When I got to my feet, I could see ships and helicopters with machine guns pointed into the tower. Shots erupted right at us. One of the others (I didn’t know his name) got hit in the chest. He fell forward, face planting on the floor. Now the floor began to crumble. The lifeless man fell into the rubble. We never saw his body again. Tucker launched himself away from the collapsing pieces of building. He landed on the other side of the room.

I stood in a trance. I hadn’t experienced this kind of trauma before. I noticed that one of the ships was pointing its guns at me. Just when I thought that my time on Earth was up, someone slammed into me. I hit the floor with a thud. When I looked up again, the man who had saved my life was standing before all of us with four bullet holes in his chest and one on his shoulder. He fell backwards at the same time that the back wall fell. The body of the unnamed man disappeared with the rest of our protection. The other walls toppled as well. The rest of us stood, feeling naked to the world.

A woman took a step forward, putting herself at the edge of the platform. She pleaded to the helicopter in front of us that they just kill her, nobody else. The pilot inside the helicopter shook his head and blasted the woman with bullets. She slid off the platform, into the water below. I heard a splash that indicated that she too, was gone. Now there were only six of us left: me, Ted, Lester, Amelia and two others who I later learned were named Bailer and Jon.

Bailer was a young woman, probably twenty-one of twenty-two. Jon was older, maybe in his late fifties. They were hugging now, probably to distract themselves from the fact that we were most likely all going to die.

Bailer and Jon stopped hugging and glared down at the many vehicles that were aimed at us. I saw someone on one of the ships launch a grenade at us. It landed in the middle of the platform. The next moment that passed went by very slowly. Then it seemed like the whole world was exploding before me. I remember landing on my back, my ears ringing. The next thing I knew, I was sliding off of what used to be the floor. Ted fell off after me. Amelia climbed back down part of the ladder for protection. Jon collapsed, blood pouring from a wound in his neck. It was no use to try to save him. By the time any of us got to him, he would already be gone.

Bailer tackled Lester out of the way. They collided with a piece of building. I could only watch for a moment longer before I hit the ground. Bricks covered me as I lay there. In my last moments of consciousness, I heard  someone from the rebellion talking to us.

“I really hope you learned your lesson,” the man’s deep voice spoke. “We are going to leave you here now. We are sure that most, if not all of you are dead. Our leader doesn’t care if you tried to send a warning to the base, because it won’t matter much. Your government will collapse soon, and we will be the new council to lead. Good luck, if you are still there.”

My eyes flickered shut.

 

My armpits ached. I woke up with a jolt of surprise. Lester was dragging me out of the pile of rubble I had been buried under. He set me down in front of the ruined watchtower. I pushed myself off of the dirt and to my feet. The rest of the group that remained were all gathered around the helicopter. Ted sat down in the pilot’s chair. He stared over at me.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “You’ve been out for at least a half an hour. We spent most of the time looking for you.”

I nodded my head without a word.

“We better get going then,” Ted said. “Our enemies must be getting close to the base. By the time we get back, the war will have begun. Lester, take your seat in the co-pilot’s chair.”

Lester did as he was told with no complaint. Bailer, Amelia and I sat down in the back. When we were all settled, the helicopter lifted and we were off.

 

As the helicopter with all of us in it got closer and closer to what was left of my home, I couldn’t help but mentally take note of everything that had happened to us since our ship had crashed. We had lost a lot of people in all of the commotion, Tucker being one of them. Before the entire watchtower had collapsed I remembered seeing a piece of the building collide with Tucker and completely slice him in two.

I couldn’t help but shed a few tears for the old man. He wasn’t supposed to go like that. Tucker was supposed to help us warn our friends and family back home and then return with us. What would my parents think about his death? At least we had managed to save some of Amelia’s friends. Some of the other helicopters had survived and were inside the boundaries of my home. At least they had made it in before the rebels had infiltrated the base. That was more than I could say for us.

Bailer pointed out of the window next to her. “They are already here!” she shouted.

“Uh oh,” Amelia muttered.

“What is it?” I wondered.

She waved her arms around until the rest of us saw what she was looking at. Far below our helicopter was some kind of whirling mass of water swirling around the brick walls of my home.

“What is that?” Lester called back.

“That,” Amelia started, “is the same thing that caused your ship to sink. We don’t have a word for it, but just know that it is dangerous.”

“No sooner did she say this and something caught ahold of the helicopter we were all in. It was as if some invisible giant hand had clenched onto the back portion of the flying vehicle, and had ripped it apart. The next thing I knew we were all falling, and then we crashed into the wall of the base. Bricks went everywhere, and I flew through one of the helicopter's windows and away from the others. I could only see them scrambling for a few moments, and then my vision went blurry.   

 

It was a disaster. My fingers twitched first and then I became aware of my surroundings. People were screaming, children were screaming. This was no place for kids, but there was no getting them out of here. No place was safe any more.

My bottom lip was bleeding and I touched my finger to it. It stung but only for a moment. I couldn’t let the pain get to me. I had a job to do. I needed to find my family and make sure that our home was not lost forever. The rebels that were attacking needed to leave. And I was absolutely fine forcing them to leave, if it came to that.  

I saw the wreckage of the helicopter, and I wish I could unsee it. Lester was trapped under part of it and I rushed over to him. I crouched down and made sure he was still breathing. He was, but barely.

“Jacob,” the man coughed up at me. “You need to go. You need to find the others and save your family. A few minutes ago I saw a few of the rebels charging off with your father.”

“What?” I questioned.

“You need to go?” he encouraged.

“Where are the others?” I asked. “Where are Ted, Bailer and Amelia?”

“They are somewhere inside. I saw them go in.”

I nodded. “I will get you out of here,” I said.

Lester shook his head. “It is no use, Jacob. There is no time to save me and the others. They are the top priority right now. But before you go there is something I need to tell you.”

“What?” I leaned in closer.

“After we crashed Amelia found me. She told me what was happening and why the helicopter went down.”

“What is it? Why did we crash?”

“Because the magic that comes from the waters near Bermuda is now here. Amelia said that her people know about the rebels and what they are here to do.”

“Why are they here?” I asked.

“She claimed that the rebels made it so that her people were cursed as they are now. But that wasn’t the end of the rebels’ quest. No, they are trying to do the same thing to two other places as we speak, one being our home. The other one she did not know about, but it doesn't much matter. When the rebels are done all three places will be cursed.” Lester coughed some more. “Listen son, when they are done the Bermuda Traingle will be formed. The three places that will be cursed form the three points of the triangle. There is no going back from this, there is only survival. And I know you will try your best.”

And then Lester was gone, and defeat seemed imminent. But I was going to try my hardest to make sure that my family was going to be alright. I quickly got to my feet and charged into what I once knew to be my home. Now it looked nothing like I remembered. There were bodies scattered all over the land and it was hard to step over them knowing that they would never get to move again.

I was stepping with anger. If some of the rebels had truly taken my family then I was going to make them pay. I took a few more steps, and then I saw her . . . Amelia. She was standing all alone and I wanted to shout out to her. But what use was that? If I yelled then there was a chance that the rebels would hear and they would come after her. I was about to creep over to her without making a sound, when it happened.

I am referring to the most frightening and sad moment of my life. I saw my mother, father and brother being dragged away from the clearing and into one of the buildings at the far end of the base. And then many explosions went off all around me. The next thing I saw was Bailer lunging in front of Amelia, sacrificing herself so that a child could live. It was beautiful to see that, but hard at the same time. Another life was taken and there was nothing that I could do about it. Bailer was gone.

Ted ran up to me, but he wasn’t his old self. He was pointing a gun at my chest and I couldn’t move.

“I am so sorry boy, but this is the best thing for me right now,” Ted growled. “The base is being overrun and the only way that any of us are going to survive is if we join them.”

“You don’t have to do this,” I said, but I knew that nothing I said could reason with him. The pilot was only thinking of himself. He pulled the trigger and I fell onto my back. He and a group of angry men and women surrounded me as blood poured from my chest. I could do nothing except for watch, watch as my life changed forever.

 

I woke up back on the beach that was known as Bermuda. My eyes took a little while to adjust to the bright light that surrounded me, but once they had I knew for sure that I was in deep trouble. I was all alone on the white sand, and for some reason my shirt was missing. I rubbed my chest where the bullet had splattered right above my sternum. There was no blood gushing from the wound as I would have suspected. Instead, a gruesome scar stretched from right below my left nipple all the way down to my belly button.

            I had no idea how I had gotten back to the island that I had left in a panic, but there was no time to wonder. There was a screaming sound coming from somewhere inland. I took no time to comprehend what I was going to do. Instead I took off running toward the sound, knowing that I was the only person who could save the person in danger. I had no weapon with me, so obviously I didn’t think my full plan through. When I reached the source of the screaming I knew exactly what was going on. About a quarter mile from me in the treacherous black waters was the wreckage of a humungous ship. On the ship was what I had feared. The pilot, also known as Ted, had dragged little Amelia out here to the wreckage, and was currently holding a pistol against her right temple. I stood there barefoot as the chilling water gushed over my toes. And then everything started coming back to me, everything that had happened leading up to me waking up on the beach.

            When I was eight years old my father had told me a story about a war that would come to our home, a war that would test all of us and would have the ability to destroy everything we had worked so hard to gain. It would involve an insider as the main villain, but my father would never tell me who. I now understood that my father knew exactly what would go down. He knew that Ted the pilot was a spy for our enemies, and he knew that there was only one person who could stop him from winning, but at what cost? I was the one who would stop him, I had to be. I was the only one left on our side other than Amelia, the tiny girl that I needed to save.

            My home was gone, and all the people that I ever cared for were gone as well. I now knew the truth. The pilot had devised a plan that involved setting off explosives all over the army base that I had lived on my whole life. In doing so, he murdered everyone that had tried to stop him. This included my parents and older brother. I shed a tear for what I had lost, but only one for the moment. There was still more to remember. After most of the good guys were gone he knew that he had taken everything from me, well, almost everything.

            The pilot rigged the other explosives around the base so that they would go off and kill the men and women that thought they were on his side. When this was happening he grabbed Amelia and me and took his last remaining ship to Bermuda. He wanted me to die where all of this had started. By the time that we had gotten there all of the people left on the island were dead, and so were the monsters. It seemed that another war had been going on at the same time as ours, and there were no survivors. That was just a plus in the pilot’s book. He smiled as he dragged my unconscious body to the edge of the ship’s deck and tossed me overboard. I fell towards the water, and when I hit it a massive sound went off behind me. It seemed that Ted wasn’t as smart as he thought. He had forgotten about one of the explosives inside the sleeping quarters. And this explosion was the biggest of them all. It blew a giant hole in the side of the ship, and it began taking on huge amounts of water. The funny thing was the pilot was too engulfed in his sinking ship that he didn’t see my body drift onto the shore. And that was his mistake.

 

Now we are all caught up and it was time for me to take a little swim. I dove into the freezing water and swam as quick as I could over to the leaning ship. Luckily there were splintered boards that I could reach from my spot in the water. I reached up to the lowest one and took hold. I hoisted myself up and soon I leapt from board to board until I was finally right below the upper deck.

            I used most of my remaining strength to swing myself onto the spot where the steering wheel had once been. Now it was just a pile of rungs. My feet were now covered in splinters, but there was no time to take even one of them out. I had caught the pilot’s attention, and his dark brown eyes were now fixed on me.

            “Well, look who it is,” Ted growled. “Jacob Forester. It seems you are stronger than the rest of your family. They just . . . slipped into their next adventure with the snap of my fingers. You on the other hand, are still here. How is that?”

            “Maybe you are not as precise as you once thought!” I yelled. “Now, let her go!” I pointed to Amelia, who the pilot still had his gun pointed at.

            Ted started to cackle. “Don’t mind if I do.” He threw the girl to the wooden boards and I just noticed the roped that were wrapped around her. The pilot took a careful step back and now fixed the gun on me.

            “How is it that you are no longer bleeding from your wounds?” he questioned.

            I shook my head. “I have no idea. I thought maybe you grew a heart and fixed me up.”

            “I would never do that!” Ted screamed, nearly the same scream that had come from Amelia a few minutes ago.

            “Then who fixed me?”

            “Beats me.”

            I chewed my lower lip. “Let’s stop prancing around what needs to happen,” I said.

            “And what’s that?”

            “We need to end this, and it is going to end with one of us dying.”

            “I couldn’t agree more,” Ted grimaced.

            Ted took no more time to chit chat. Instead he aimed the gun at the floor boards and fired three shots to get us started. The first bullet came an inch from my right pinky toe, and I could feel the wind blow against it. The other two shots missed me by about a foot, but they managed to loosen some more of the planks. The pilot glared at me and gritted his teeth so I could see where he had chipped one of them. It had happened recently, since it wasn’t chipped the last time I had seen him.

            The bad man continued to fire until the upper deck was nowhere to be seen. All that was left was where I stood and where he stood, and of course where Amelia lay. I could tell that she was pretending to be unconscious, and apparently the pilot knew as well. His plank was right next to her and he used his left foot to kick her into the water. I yelled as this happened, but there was nothing that I could do. If I tried to jump in after her I would only end up getting myself shot. It is ironic that I thought that, actually, because of what happened next.

            I had somehow managed to pick up a pebble, a rock that would end up saving my life. I gripped onto it tight, then with a flick of the wrist let it go towards my enemy that stood at the other end of the collapsing ship. Before the pebble could reach him he unloaded another six shots, all of which slammed into my chest and stomach. I lifted my head and my vision began to blur. The last thing I saw before I fell backwards was the pebble bouncing off of Ted’s shoe, and then he fell too.

            Some may say that it is poetic that the two enemies fell at the same time, and some may say it would be a better ending to my story if we had died together. Only that is not what happened. I slammed into one of the bunks that was still intact, and Ted, well . . . something completely different happened to him. He fell onto a sharpened board that ended up being the end of him. With my last moment of consciousness I watched as thick black substance ran across the boards and stained them. It was coming from Ted, and it was not human at all. It seemed to me that he had turned into some kind of monster, because when I stared over at him one last time his eyes were a metallic color, not their usual brown. And then I drifted off to sleep.

 

I have no idea how she did it, but when I woke up I was back on the Bermuda beach and Amelia was safe and no longer tied up. And to top it off my injuries were completely gone. I looked around to make sure that we were actually going to be okay, that Ted hadn’t somehow made it out and was sneaking up to us that very moment. Well, he wasn’t, and we were truly safe.

            “How?” I muttered.

            “How is it that your wounds are now gone,” Amelia finished for me as she sat next to my stretched out body on the white sand.

            “Yeah,” I said.

            She cracked a smile. “Let’s just say that Bermuda had special powers that allow people who live here to heal those that need it. That is why so many bystanders think of people as dead when they are really living a wonderful life on this very island. Or they were, now we are the only two left.”

            “So, you saved me?”

            The girl smiled, but remained silent.

            The two of us were safe. That was all that mattered. I held the girl’s hand as we watched the broken ship in the middle of the sea slip below the chilling waves and go under. There was nothing to worry about any longer.

 

Ten Years Later

 

My name is Amelia Earhart Jr. It had been ten years since the terrible events took place that nearly destroyed my home, and definitely destroyed my friend Jacob’s home and family. Now the two of us live on the island that had been known as Bermuda for centuries. It had taken a long time, but we have built a steady life for ourselves. We have a nice Victorian style house with our own garden that produces fruit and vegetables like crazy. And we even found some livestock that had survived from the old age of the island. In short, we are living in luxury where we were always meant to be.

          Exactly fifteen days ago we left home and traveled via our raft that we made. We believed that there was another lookout tower somewhere along the sea, and it seemed that we were right. We came across it today and tied our raft to a post that had been left there, possibly for us. We climbed to the top of the rocky tower and peered through the scope, but unfortunately there was nothing to see out in the horizon. I don’t know what we expected to see out there, but it wasn’t there. Well, at least this view is magnificent. I am watching the sun go down now, and we better settle down for the night. At least tonight we have somewhere to stay. We found some fleece blankets and food in one of the closets, and I think I saw a gas powered stove downstairs.

          And it wasn’t a total waste of time coming here. We did find this paper and quill, and maybe now we have a chance to find someone out there. So, if there is someone beyond the horizon, it would be much appreciated if you could send back something, whatever it may be, to let us know that you are there. There is a radio here, and me and Jacob will be at the lookout tower for a few more days. We can just call it our vacation. I am guessing that if you are out there you know the frequency to get ahold of us.

          I really must be going now. Thank you for your patience, and if there is no one there, then no sweat.

• Your friends,

Jacob Forester and Amelia Earhart Jr.

 

Amelia set down the quill and folded the many pieces of paper up. She then stuck them deep inside an empty wine bottle they had found in the sock drawer of the dresser and stuck a cork in it. She climbed down the wooden rungs of the lookout tower first, and Jacob followed. At least this time there was no one firing at them. They were the only two around for the time being.

            When they had made it out into the fresh air once more the two friends sat down on the raft and let their bare feet dangle in the water. They held hands as Amelia set the bottle with the note on the water. They watched as it floated away from them and past the lookout tower, never to return until it was ready. Jacob smiled. That sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach had not lifted.

 

Three days had passed with no activity. The bottle floated across the cold water, until brushed up on an unfamiliar shore. It had completed its journey, and it was a successful one at that. Because not a half hour later the radio of the lookout tower started to buzz, and for once there was someone on both ends.

            “Hello, is this the lookout tower?” a man’s deep voice boomed.

            “Yes, this is Jacob Forester and Amelia is right beside me. Who is this?”

            “This is Lenny Whigam. We got your message and we are on our way.”

            “Oh thank you, thank you so much,” Amelia jumped up and down as if she were a child.

            “It is entirely our pleasure. Keep a look out for our ship. It should be there soon. We hear that these waters are notorious for sinking ships.”

            “That they are,” Jacob said.

            “I am signing off,” Whigam said. “Looking forward to seeing you soon.”

            “Yes, us too, very much so,” Amelia said.

            The girl turned towards Jacob and planted a kiss right on his lips. The funny thing was that a ship never went under that sea again.