The voices called out to me again, and this time, I registered where they were coming from. In my hand, I held a device. My communications device!
“Adeline, are you there? Come in. Adeline?”
I was so excited I nearly dropped it. Hands shaking, I lifted the device and slowly pressed in the talk button. I pressed my mouth near the intercom and bit my lip before responding, “Joy? Is that you? Red? Colton?”
The device responded with the sound of three bells. “Fuck.” The signal dropped, but it was common in rough terrain.
One by one, I listed their names, more for my sake than theirs. It had only been about forty-eight hours since I came here, I thought. But even so, it felt like a lifetime. I listened intently as the radio played back silence mixed in with the occasional FM relay-switch noise as it searched for the lost signal. Finally, it reconvened, and I heard the sound of breathing.
“Addie? Oh, thank fucking heavens. You’re okay. Uh, we’re going to need to triangulate your coordinates. Are you safe?”
Although the responder sounded familiar, I still couldn’t recognize the voice. I searched by memory, but coming out with nothing, I simply responded with, “I found them.”
I listened to the sound of their breathing, a mix of quiet celebration and an odd amount of relief, and guilt washed over me. Again, I was moving, but I felt like I was floating in some strange dream. I didn’t know what I was doing, but what was important was I felt like I was doing the right thing. I walked into the cave and saw nothing except a single mirror. It drew me in.
“Addie, I need you to listen to me. When you reach the gateway to the portal, refrain from entering.”
I heard the words, but I was fixated on the mirror in front of me. In the reflection was a little girl. It was myself, from years ago. “Refrain from entering,” I repeated, voice monotone and lifeless.
It was as if there were two parts of me ripping in half. I knew something was wrong, but I just kept staring. At myself. Freaky.
“We’re sending in...” At this point, the radio dropped off again, scratchy and abrupt. “Do you copy?”
“What?” I asked. “Base camp, do you read? Come in, base camp!”
“Sending...a team... rescue...emergency...”
My heart dropped, and my blood pressure spiked. I didn’t get the whole memo, but I knew what they were trying to tell me. They were going to send in an emergency squadron to come get me out. This was an unprecedented act of heroism, even for the CIA. Normally, this would have been cause for a celebration. Only, I didn’t need any rescuing. I just needed some time.
I dropped the radio and heard my name being called out, over and over again. I saw that little girl, the reflection of my younger self run into the distance as a team dressed in yellow hazmat suits flashed into this world. They wielded assault weapons, carried large detonation packs, and they pointed toward the area of the camp I had fallen asleep in.
I reached out, touching the glass of the mirror, which easily washed around my fingers like a silver liquid or mercury. As I stepped through, I felt the heat of flames, the pounding of deadly bullets, and I listened to the cries of the men I had come to trust. The scientists torched the
place, leaving the land and everything that inhabited it to die. A trial by fire. It was so wrong...
I stepped through the mirror. I heard my name from the radio one last time.
“Addie!” It was my father’s voice.
I opened my eyes to an empty cage and the cold wind that flowed through the valley wrapped around the curves of my body.
Confusion took over. A rush of panic.
Donovan’s voice echoed inside my ears. “Adeline, what are you doing?”
Oh, no...
I blinked and jerked awake. I was naked and standing in front of the cage they had put Zane inside. The door was open, but no one sat in front of me. “No, no, no,” I whispered, feeling frantic and misled as if I was a child who just spilled her dinner across the freshly cleaned carpet. “What happened? Where am I?”
Donovan put his arms around me. He protected me from any harm I thought might be present. “It’s okay. Nobody is after you. You’re safe,” he whispered with no anger in his tone. He was there for me, even when he shouldn’t have been.
I hugged him back, doing my best to calm myself. They were so right. The delusions this place gave me were returning, and they felt even stronger now. I didn’t know myself anymore. My old sources of comfort, my team and crew of scientists were part of something much larger and more sinister than I ever imagined.
It wasn’t their fault. They had been fed the same lies about progress as I. I wasn’t sent on this expedition to save the planet. I was here so the government could destroy it.
“He’s gone,” Mag said. He eyed the horizon, eyes shifting into different colors. He issued a sharp, clicking noise, but he looked dissatisfied and worn down. He wasn’t mad either, but I could tell some of his hope had worn out.
Cadmar placed his big hand around his shoulder blade, squeezing his muscle. “Relax,” he whispered. “He will make another mistake, and we’ll catch him again.”