The Island Chimeras

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The island was small yet large; enormous, even, to young eyes. Every square inch blessed with sturdy luminous trees, magnificent lakes ponds or waterfall around every corner, the little island creatures, of course, and not to forget the lovely beach that circled the land mass with the sapphire gleamed ocean crashing against its shores.

A vacation spot for any foreigner, but for them, it was home; ever since their arrival 5 years ago.

Two pairs of feet were the first to hit the ground, kicking up the dirt in their faces, which none of them spat out dramatically, before the boys speedily booked it along their revised pathway back to the treehouse hill.

They came to a stop in the middle of a clearing of a mostly flat plain of dried mud, their usual meeting spot a safe enough distance from the hill to hangout besides the house itself, and gazed up at the sun coming from behind the hill in its glorious streaks, parting the early blue sky.

Multiple other rattles came from the bushes surrounding them before soon the others arrived in the clearing also.

There was a click from the stopwatch in Chuck's hand and the two boys fist bumped victoriously.

All fourteen children were now from 6 to 11 years old. Overtime, familiarizing themselves with each other and their surroundings.

And all of them, including their supervisor, lived in a quaint little area in the smack middle of the thick forest, surrounded by the hills in the distance, in a house and tree house combo that wrapped up the front side of the hill; hanging bridges connecting them all together.

"Bow down to your champions" Benny exclaimed and one of the girls rolled her eyes.

"Again" she grumbled.

"That's not fair. You both cheated" the raven haired, blue eyed boy grumbled crossing his hands with a huff.

"Hey, don't blame me and the best bud, we're just that good" the boy replied bumping the blond's shoulder and he grinned before the man cleared his throat.

"Congratulations to Benny and Dean. Excellent try the rest of you, now head up to freshen up for breakfast" he advised and they all took off at super speeds towards the hill, the five year greyer man sighing before following suit.

<·><·><·>

There was loud chatter at the large rectangular dining table from the children, once finishing their breakfasts, and the man, once again, gently cleared his throat while entering the room in a demand for attention and silence, before handing each of them a glass cup filled with a limited amount of liquid of different colors for each of them. Just as its been for the years of being here; on time, at the same time every day since being on this island. They never really questioned why, just complied.

Benny, however, screwed up his face, as he usually did, and glanced at the rest of the table, to see the others had already downed theirs, before reluctantly gulping the weirdly disgusting mixture.

Their ears all picked up on the harsh and putrid coughing coming from the other room, as the man checked their temperatures; clipboard in hand, yet their faces remained neutral with innocence and filtered emotions.

"Mr Chuck, what's going to happen to Pamela? Is she going to be okay?" A blonde girl, Jo, questioned, concern flooding her eyes and soon they all turned towards him with the same inquisitiveness, leaving him to sigh solemnly with his inability to give the desired answer.

Hopefully, he thought.

"Come with me" he prompted instead and they all squabbled to get up and follow the white coat wearing man.

The door creaked open and the wavy dark haired girl on the bed coughed profusely as they all filed in and gathered around her bed. She coughed once more but this time, she smiled, sensing the others' presence, and turning in their general direction, blindly reaching out her hand.

"She can't see" Bella whispered for them to hear, pointing out her random gaze and the green eyed boy grabbed the girl's wandering hand.

"You're going to be okay, we promise" he pledged.

A tear fell from one of the girl's grey eyes and they all went to hold her hand in the joint pile on the bed.

()()()

All through the night, Chuck was switching between caretaking the sick girl and the paper work he still had to do daily and submit on time.

After coming back from the room filled with the noise of viscous hacking, he picked up the small outdated recorder next to his pen on the limited spaced wooden desk before rubbing his tired face and pushing the button with a drained exhalation.

"Subject 041, Pamela, she's not-- her eyes-   Currently, her body is actively fighting the chimera leopard genes and her progress has deteriorated tremendously in the past week, possibly permanently. The possibility of a hybrid chimera is zero to none with this discovery, and-" he paused mournfully. "-...And I'm afraid that she doesn't have much longer realistically, not until-"

As soon as he noted that unfinished conclusion, a scream sounded over the light storm raging outside and the man hurriedly got up, running to the other room where the brown haired girl was screaming her head off in the corner of the room while in the opposite corner was that of the lifeless body of the wavy haired brunette on the med bed; his chest fell.

It wasn't long before the others came rushing in and he immediately snapped back into action, trying his best to block their view from the gruesome sight.

"Out, now!" he demanded urgently. "Charlie take Lisa back to her cabin please"

The red head nodded before receiving the weeping girl that the man guided towards her prior to him shrugging the blinds shut, simultaneous with a clap of thunder and lightning.

<>

The dead leaves swayed across the bumpy cliff rock in the light breeze, carrying with it, the scent of the salty ocean air, the lusciousness of the trees and of course, grief.

They were all gathered by the East cliff side, in mostly dark attires and each sporting a dark overcoat, the sea side breeze, picking up, threatening to push them back down the steep bumpy path that they took all morning to trek up here.

The blond watched as the brown haired girl, accompanied by the red head, Charlie, and another other brunette, Meg, walked up to the manmade headstone, rooted securely into the cliff stone, and gently placed a flower by the sheen but chained coffin immediately before it.

More and more tears cascaded down her rosy cheeks and all of them silently agreed with exchanged glances before gathering into a hug around the three.

They remained like that for some tine, as the girl sobbed for the loss of her closest friend, but it was only a matter of time until they had to leave one of their own to rest on the hill peacefully; overlooking the wonders of the island that she might've knew and remembered as her only home.

._._._._._.

The blond's moss eyes diverted from the sill whimpering girl getting comforted in the corner of the main room, before going over to the others scattered over the couch and ground, on one side of the room, and sitting next to the raven haired boy on the cushion, and Benny who was slouching on the couch arm.

"He said that she would be okay" he heard Benny grumble but kept his head down, remaining opinion less.

"Even Mr Chuck can't fix some things" one of the other dark haired boys, Kevin, piped up in his philosophical tone that he usually bore, being the wisest of them all in his studies and whatnot.

"But he said-!"

"She's already gone, the least you can do is have some decency" Jo snapped suddenly and the boy groaned but went silent straight away.

"...All we can do is look out for each other" the blond heard a mumble from beside him and looked at the sapphire eyed teen with a smile. "-from now on"

"And protect each other" he added and the other boy beamed before placing his hand atop his; soon joined by the others, putting their hands in the middle of the circle pile for a pact of their word.

"I promise"