Syndicate of tribulation

Chapter 22

Tyro's POV

When I hear the words 'murder island', a sort of dystopian place comes to mind. Not beautiful sand and twinkling seas. Not native wooden huts and thriving coconut trees.

Are we in the wrong place?

The confusion on everyone's faces shows we are all thinking alike. However, I tripled checked the map and kept track of our course, so unless murder island changed to a deserted beach resort, or can teleport, we are here.

"It's empty" King's voice interrupted my train of thought. I wanted to roll my eyes at the obvious statement. I have working eyes, I know it's empty, captain obvious. As if hearing me verbally abuse her in my head, she side-eyed me and tsked.

How dare she 'tsk' me, I'm not the one wasting time pointing out obvious things.

We ambled through the deserted utopia, checking every hut for signs of life, but they were all empty – and I'm not just talking about the absence of people. I am talking about the absence of everything. No furniture, no floors, just empty. Like they were built as a prop.

A prop.

Shit.

They knew we were coming. Before I knew what I was doing, I quickly snatched King and Bes' wrist, yelling "run" as I did. I scurried with the rest of the team on my tail. A series of explosions went off, effectively blasting all of us forward in the direction we were running. I quickly darted off towards the trees, which on closer inspection were fake.

Everyone hyperventilated, finally coming down from the high of adrenaline that had struck us all. "How did you know?" Domo asked as she held her chest in exhaustion. "The house. Everything here is a prop. There are cameras everywhere. They knew we were coming, and they saw us arrive" I replied. Each sentence is punctuated by a sharp inhalation of breath. "You saved our lives" Amo voiced, wide-eyed as he peered at the explosion that we just escaped.

Now, I have witnessed a bunch of explosions and the rule is to never look back. Why? Because it's never pretty, especially when humans were caught up in it. And this is coming from an arsonist.

"Where did they go?" Amo's voice sounded shocked. What? Where could they have possibly gone, I'm pretty sure they didn't follow us or make it out in time.

King sniffed the air and then swore profusely under her breath. "Bes, do you recognise the smell?" she asked, I was still confused and quite irritated that she knew something and wasn't telling us. "It wasn't an explosion... It was a kidnapping" Bes muttered; the others looked confused, but I understood.

They weren't trying to kill us; they were trying to take us.

King stood up and started to explain. "Where I used to live, we commonly used different types of bombs, though most weren't fatal. The type I suspect was just used was filled with knock-out gas and something akin to fireworks. Basically, they weren't trying to kill us, they were just trying to knock us out. The rest of the people who came with us were most likely knocked out and taken".

"So, we are the only survivors," Eustace asked, her eyes turning glassy.

They should have taken her too. I can't deal with cry-babies.

"Well, if they were taken and not killed by that bomb, then they most likely want them alive for something" King explained the obvious.

Why do people find it so hard to put 2 and 2 together?

"They are most likely watching us now, ready to set up their next attack, so we have to keep moving and plan along the way" I announced. Like the leader I am, they all listened with no complaints. Other than King, the bastard she is. "We can't just keep moving, the bombs I just told you about are specially made by the institute meaning the Perfide has something to do with this undoubtedly. No offense to any of you, but no one here can defeat Perfide recruits. We will get captured if we don't plan first then proceed" She contrasted, and like the fickle people our teams were they nodded.