“You’re right,” Wade agreed. “We’re going to have to venture forth to see if there are any survivors. At the very least we should try to make it to the village. Maybe try to raise somebody on a short wave radio. Or call somebody if we find a landline or a cell phone.”
“The power is out,” Susan reminded them. “That means the landlines are probably down, too.”
“A cell phone then,” Jennifer said.
“Maybe. I don’t know.” Susan sighed. “It’s so hard to think with this headache.”
“I’ve got one, too,” Jennifer admitted.
“Me, too,” Wade said. “But Susan brings up a good point. If communications are shot, we should find a boat and get off this island.”
Jennifer frowned. She didn’t like the idea of being in the ocean in a boat. “I don’t know about that, Wade.”
“Why not? Out of the three of us, you’re probably the most qualified to not only pilot a boat, but navigate to the nearest island.”
“Me?”
“You’ve been on how many ocean expeditions now?”
Jennifer thought about that. She’d been on two dozen, from the Indian Ocean to parts of the Pacific and Atlantic. She’d never piloted a boat, though. She didn’t know the first thing about boats except how to turn them on, press on the throttle, and steer them. And as for navigation—
“You’re right,” Jennifer said, thinking out loud. “If we can get ourselves situated and find a vessel with enough fuel, I can get us going.” It would be nerve wracking, but it was worth a shot.
“Nearest island is a few hundred miles northwest,” Wade said. “I have no idea where we’ll end up once we get out of this cave, but the position of the stars or sun will tell us plenty.”
Jennifer was nodding now, liking the idea. She knew enough about the world’s oceans, about basic geography, about weather patterns, that she could navigate their way off the island to one of the neighboring South Pacific islands.
“What if we can’t get a boat?” Susan asked.
“We stay alive,” Wade answered. “We stick together and we stay alive. These things can’t ravage the island forever. They’re going to have to do whatever it is they came here to do—summon this god of theirs—and eventually, the Clickers will return to wherever the hell it is they came from. They’ll lose interest as soon as they deplete their food source. The control the Dark Ones exert over them is limited. They’re like any other beast of burden.”
How long would that take, though? Jennifer had no idea and she didn’t want to venture a guess. Wade was right though. They had to stick together, had to take cover in the mouth of the cave until they were certain the coast was clear, then they had to try to either radio or call for help or they had to get off this island by themselves.
The terrifying cries of the Dark Ones seemed louder now and Jennifer stopped, her heart racing. Susan and Wade crowded behind her, pressing close together. Several more Dark Ones roared and hissed and Jennifer tried to discern where they were coming from. Where before it was hard to tell, now it seemed that they were coming from somewhere in front of them, but there was a muffled distance to their roars.
“We’re heading straight toward them,” Susan murmured, her voice shaking with fear.
Behind them, still very far away, came the roars of the Dark Ones that had chased them into the cave.
“We can’t go back the way we came,” Jennifer said.
“Shit,” Wade muttered. “So we’re screwed?”
Jennifer hesitated, trying to decide what to do. This tunnel couldn’t last forever. At some point they had to get to a fork in the cave and they would have to roll the dice of lady luck and see where their choice took them.
“Let’s keep going,” Jennifer said.
“Are you sure?” Susan asked. Her hand squeezed Jennifer’s.
“No. But we can’t stay down here forever.”
“Maybe we can just sit down here a little bit and…wait it out…”
“No, Susan,” Wade said. “They could break their way through here and then we’d be sitting ducks. At least if we keep moving forward we might find another passageway.”
Susan suddenly stopped. Jennifer tugged at her arm, urging her forward. “Come on, Susan!”
“No.” Susan’s voice had taken on that scared, petrified tone she’d had back at the command center. Once again, fear was overtaking her. “I don’t want to go any farther. We don’t know where we’re going and—”
“We’re getting out of here is where we’re going!” Jennifer still couldn’t see, but she could sense Susan’s presence; the other woman was only a few feet away from her. Wade was standing right next to Susan. Jennifer took a deep breath and tried to gain control of her emotions. “Look, I know you’re scared. I’m scared, too. But we have Dark Ones coming at us from behind.”