Chapter 3

Mercenary Island

Part One

The cloud layer passed by in a blur. Her mind was a heavy fog, weighed down by the persistent ache in her head. Darkness surrounded her, with a few sparkling dots between. 

‘@%##!& Current destination, Mercenary Island,’ a male voice announced.

“Who are you?” she whispered.

No voice responded. Before she knew, the pod changed its course from outer space and plunged into the vast ocean, immersing her into the dark underwater world. Her chest tightened. The beginning of panic clawed at the edge of her consciousness.

In the blink of an eye, the MS logo appeared on the front glass. The surroundings became brighter around her, as though someone had turned up the brightness of the ocean. Allowing her to see everything clearly, to the ocean floor. Mix of trash and marine life.

A school of sharks swam by, bringing to mind Ira’s love for them. Tears streamed down her eyes to her ears. “I-I am sorry. Sorry for making you, my friend.”

‘No identification found,’ a male voice announced. The MS logo on the glass disintegrated into particles and transformed into a card-like object. As she raised her arm, a sharp burning pain coursed through them. Faint sunlight filtered through the water and glass, casting a glow on her bruised knuckles. She glanced around and found herself alone in a world teeming with sea creatures.

The mysterious pod had freed her limbs. But inside a limited area. A grin spread across her face. Few commands and she could go back to Ira, save her from the angels. “Nothing will happen to her. She belongs to their kind. And she also gave him back to that melodramatic girl. Yes, she should be ok. I am coming Ira.” But all her efforts to find any way to operate the pod turned out to be futile. “Hey, can anyone hear me?” Her hands were still trembling. “I want to go back, please. Anyone! Send me back.”

The MS card in the middle caught her attention. She grabbed it.

‘You have been issued a pass. It will be essential in fulfilling all the basic requirements before the selection process.’

“Take me back!”

Again, no voice responded.

The pass was transparent with only the gold imprinted MS logo in the middle. As she brushed her thumb over the logo—an information appeared on it.

Name–Ira Wings

Status–Unranked

“Ira?” she said. Ira was the one who had brought this machine with her—perhaps this thing had saved her biometrics. A subtle smile crept her lips. “Wings?”

A group of massive whales swam beside her, leaving her in awe of their immense size and also feeling a sense of fear moving alongside them. She wished Ira could witness the beauty of the underwater world. “I know what you would have said, ‘Only you could cry inside an ocean, Manya.’ Krishna, please take care of her.”

It was faint, but some parts of the whales were reflecting light. One whale among them was shinier at the head—like a shiny object stuck to it. Their limbs appeared metallic, or she was tired.

‘We will reach our destination in five minutes. Prepare yourself for the initial mission.’

“Initial mission? Wasn’t I headed to Aptitude place? Hey, say something!”

‘Your mission: Remove all hostile forces from Mercenary Island.’

“Remove what? Which island? And what mercenary?!”

‘We will arrive at our destination in one minute.’

“It was five, a second ago!”

***

The box reduced the underwater light, once again trapping her in a world of darkness. Once-astonishing underwater life now filled her with terrifying thoughts about fictional sea creatures bigger than a city, gazing at her.

In the distance was a faint light, casting a soft glow on an unknown object nearby. The box approached the surface, only to welcome by a cloud of black smoke.

The box moved on, revealing a heavily damaged yacht with a helicopter pierced through it. A man on the yacht signalled to her, calling for help. In a split second, a gunshot struck him in the head. He collapsed onto the glass of her pod and left behind a trail of blood.

Passing the yacht, her scream echoed over dead bodies scattered on a floating space ahead, highlighted by an island withholding dark mountains.

‘We have arrived at the destination.’

The pod halted next to the wall of corpses and opened up. A glint passed her, resonated a sharp crack sound in her left ear—a tiny object rolled off her shoulder and landed beside her. It was a deformed bullet—vanishing the next second.

If it weren’t for the bodies, every bullet intended for her would have gone through her. A handgun dangled from a dead body; she snatched it. The handgun, covered in blood, had four displayed on its side. “Might be the bullets.”

She could not locate a switch to close the pod’s glass back, and it wasn’t responding to her request since ever. The pod’s purpose seemed to expose people to dangerous scenarios. Behind the bodies, there were voices approaching her.

Manya stepped into the water covered with blood and a strong metallic odour. The water has tugged at her skin—it was thicker, and moved sluggishly against her movements. Multiple flying robotic technologies, providing visibility to the unidentified voices, appeared and made her dove underwater.

“There!” a person cried out.

Just in the nick of time, bullets whipped past her, mere inches away—she moved under the platform for the cover, but a thick, ropey object wrapped around her and pulled her out of the water and hanged her upside down.

“A girl!” A man said with an eager smile. 

The thick water dripped down her body, while the lights coming from the robots grew dimmed; the men below had wires threaded through their bodies, wearing similar outfits, like police or army. Their unaltered faces were the only normal thing about them.

“And this one’s alive!” the man said. “For how long?” Laughter spread like a tidal wave.

Her torn clothes, now wet, fluttered in the strong current of the oceanic wind, pushing her endurance to its limit.

“Leave me!” she said.

One of them moved forward while unbuttoning his shirt.

“It’s not your turn.” A man appeared to be their leader, stepped forward—he was the only one wearing a cloth over his forehead. “He still had one left.”

“I have already cleaned the 20^th one from his chamber!” Unbuttoned pointed at Manya. “She’s mine!”

Leader punched him in gut. “Chief gets…” He leaned closer to his ear. “One extra.”

“I don’t give a shit!!” Unbuttoned pulled out a gun and aimed at the chief. The chief forced Unbuttoned’s arm upward, causing him to press the trigger. The bullet hit the robot carrying Manya and malfunctioned it. It dragged her into the depth of the ocean. Powerless against its relentless grip, she was pulled deeper at a rapid speed. Within moments, the light from the surface began to fade.

Few eternities later, the grip of the surrounding robot loosened—freed her from its ropy grasp, and disappeared into the darkness. Relief flooded through her. Praying to avoid running out of breath, she swam towards the surface, hoping that evil sea creatures lurking in her imagination would be at home for the evening snack.

***

 Her stroke grew sluggish against the water, each movement demanding more effort, her lungs aching from the exertion. It seemed an impossible feat to reach the surface. Even with her hard work, the progress crawled forward at a snail’s pace. 

Her breath was on the verge of leaving her. The view before her was fading into darkness. Just as she was about to accept defeat against nature and let go, a blinking yellow light ahead caught her attention. She had two alternatives: either she could reduce the distance to the surface and might reach shore to get molested by those men, or she could go towards the light ahead that could lead to her demise if it turned to be a damaged robot component, but it was within reach compared to the surface and would lead to a far peaceful death.

Jai Shri Krishna! She hurried towards the flashing light emanating from an unidentified object. No matter what, she was determined to reach whatever the light held. Determined, she pressed on, resolved to reach whatever the light held.

Just before her fingertips contacted the yellow-glowing object—exhaustion forced her eyes shut—lungs on their last ounce of breath. She used her fingers to trace the object. Mask? The only hope that drove her to continue until her final breath vanished and what remained was regret at not finding the truth and seeing her mamu before departing from life.

Isn’t it the best? Dying underwater, nobody has to struggle to burn my body. She smiled. Like I have someone to do my last rites.

“Ow,” she mouthed. A sudden heat sensation coursed through her fingers. Panic surged through her as water flooded into her mouth. In a split second, something trapped her face—not budging even after using every strand of strength left. 

The substance tightened over her face, which sooner brought her a sense of relief from her despair. With a deep inhale, her eyes snapped open—the MS logo materialised before her—then transformed into a rapid stream of loading information. Within a few moments, the ocean once again became bright, with no sign of any evil sea creatures. 

Something crawled over her ears, producing a gentle tickle. Upon raising her hands to her ears, there was a foreign, solid object covering it.

‘Get Ready!’ a voice announced.