By Eli DiPaolo
Part 2
The group fell silent for a moment, forgetting the extravagant spread of food before them and trying to remember why they were here in this wonderful room. The silence lasted only a moment because a pair of massive doors opposite the hotel room’s grand windows slowly swung open. A man walked in, flanked on both sides by large men in black suits and dark sunglasses. Grant recognized the man in the center as the one who had greeted him the previous day at the airport.
“Hello,” the man said as he made his way over to the collected experts around the breakfast table. Grant noticed that he was wearing a t-shirt advertising a popular soda. “I am Dr. Joseph Castle. I am currently leading a secret government project which you have all been chosen to become researchers for. You are to depart this evening.”
“What? What do you mean we depart this evening?” Preston asked, as he stood up from the table.
“What is this project?” Janet demanded, also coming to stand.
“I didn’t agree to any of this, I am not doing anything unless you tell us everything.” Beau retorted, his twang coming out loud and clear.
“Would you allcalm down? It isn’t that extreme.” Dr. Castle lifted his hands in the air in a gesture that begged the loud individuals to quiet down. “I’ll explain it all after breakfast.”
“I think I can speak for the rest of us when I say breakfast can wait.” Janet said, placing a hand securely on her hip. Grant admired the confidence with which the journalist spoke.
“Fine, there are cars waiting outside. Let’s go.” Dr. Castle turned and walked out of the room, signaling for the two men in suits to follow. Janet quickly followed with Beau and Preston close behind. Grant made eye contact with Nora and started to follow.
“Are you sure you want to go?” Nora asked without getting up from her seat. She looked at Grant, and he saw the worry that filled her eyes.
“Totally,” he replied, and walked out the door.
Grant rushed down the stairs and quickly caught up with the others, Nora followed suit. The strange collection of people walked across the lobby and through the spinning glass doors. At the curb sat two large black vans, both with drivers sitting upright in their seats. One of Dr. Castle’s bodyguards opened the door to one of the vans. The other opened the door to the van behind and gestured for the group to enter.
“Four per van, let’s keep it even!” Dr. Castle said, clapping his hands in a hurried fashion. Castle climbed into the first van with Preston, Nora, and one of his bodyguards, leaving Grant to climb into the second van with Janet, Beau, and the second bodyguard. Grant did not attempt to make conversation, but that did not stop Beau.
“What do you think this project is studying?” Beau asked his companions.
“I don’t know, and speculation isn’t going to help us figure it out.” Janet replied. “You have been quiet, Grant, what do you think?”
“Well, we have a truly intriguing group of people.” Grant said, avoiding eye contact with Janice, but feeling her eyes on him.
“What do you mean?” she inquired.
“I am a biologist. You are a journalist. Beau, you are a… what again?” Grant looked up at the man, who quickly replied.
“An expert in field medicine and improvisational healing”
“Exactly! Preston surveys land. I don’t know what Nora studies, but I am sure it is something equally impressive and successful.” Grant explained.
“Which means…” Janice led, wanting to hear the conclusion.
“We are needed for some sort of intellectual endeavor.” Grant finished.
Before the conversation continued, the driver declared cheerily, “We’re here!” The four individuals climbed out of the car and met their other half on the stairs of a tall building.
“Follow me!” Dr. Castle said, and led the group into the building. Nobody spoke as he led them through doors, down hallways, down stairs, and finally into an office. The bodyguards stopped following at a certain point, but Grant did not notice until the group walked into the office at the end of their path.
“You have all been chosen,” Dr. Castle began, “to participate in a study called the Gulliver Project. Several decades ago, it came to the attention of the United States government that our world may be bigger than previously thought of. How much bigger, we do not know. Several explorers on an expedition across Antarctica came across a massive wall made of ice. This wall had strange properties; it destroyed the team’s compass, and one man died from severe frostbite after touching it. Very recently, we have found a way over the wall.” Dr. Castle lifted a small device from his desk and held it up to the group. It was covered in many small technical details, and was rather light. “This device counteracts the magnetic field the wall emits and is the key to how you five are going to go over that wall.”
After a moment of silence, Janice asked the question the others were thinking. “What is on the other side?”
“That is up to you to find out!” Dr. Castle exclaimed with a smile. “There is a private plane departing to southern Chile in two hours from Dulles International Airport. I expect each of you to be on it, but it is your choice. Until then, you are free to do as you choose. The group stood without saying anything for a few seconds. “Leave! I have work to do!”
The group exited to find five cars waiting at the curb, each with its own driver.
“Lunch, anyone?” Preston asked and got into one of the cars, leaving the door open behind him.
Beau turned to Grant and mumbled to him, “This is gonna get old real quick.” Beau got into one of the other cars. “Y’all coming?” He called from the car,waving at those still standing just outside the building.
“Where?” Grant called back.
“The airport!” Beau replied, a grin spreading across his face. Janet smiled back and climbed into the car’s passenger seat. Grant scooted into the back seat with Beau.
“Nora, are you coming?” Grant called back to the woman. She hesitated and then got into the back seat with the two men.
“Let’s go, before I change my mind,” she declared. The car in front of them pulled out, taking Preston to some expensive lunch place. Then, their car pulled out and started for the airport.
When they arrived, a tall man in a dark suit greeted them coldly. Unlike the other bodyguards, he wore no sunglasses, exposing piercing blue eyes that seemed to peer into Grant’s soul. “I am Vlad, you will follow me,” he said, with a thick Russian accent. He turned and walked into a crowd. People cleared out of the tall man’s way, and the group followed closely behind. He led them to a small private boarding area where a private jet awaited them. The group climbed in and waited for their departure. The man who led them to this plane walked to the cockpit and began to prepare for the flight. A few minutes later, Preston climbed into the plane’s cabin with the rest of them.
“You all would have loved lunch, it was delightful,” he said as he settled in.
With this, the plane slowly began its departure, and the group watched from their windows as the continent they called home began to fall behind them. They landed in Chile several hours later, and from there headed to a small research station in Antarctica, all with the same pilot. They spent two nights in the research station and found a helicopter waiting for them, filled with all of the supplies they might need on the other side of the wall. As they flew towards the supposed wall, it grew into view. The wall was so massive that they could see nothing else in front of them. With a jolt, the magnetic disruptor device turned on, and a hole appeared in the wall, barely big enough for the helicopter to travel through. As they moved through the small tunnel, their vision was obscured by what appeared to be clouds full of miniscule pieces of ice. The crew clutched their parkas close and waited anxiously for what might lie on the other side. As soon as the team of assorted specialists passed through the massive ice wall, the clouds began to peel back and reveal the massive continent just beyond the grasp of society’s outstretched fingers. Mountains towered in the distance beyond a vast forest that seemed to be flourishing with strange and exotic plant life. As far as the crew could see, there were no signs of industrialization that they had grown so accustomed to their whole lives.
Grant was only dimly aware of Vlad’s voice through his headphones, alerting the scientists that they would soon be landing. He turned to look at the other people in the helicopter’s cabin and saw Janet nearly hanging out of the open door, snapping pictures of the shining sea, the beach with sand as white as the feathers of a swan, and the seemingly endless forest. Preston was leaning as far back as he could into his seat, clutching the straps of his harness so tightly his knuckles were turning white. His eyes were shut tightly, and Grant could almost hear Preston’s labored breathing over the endless whirring of the helicopter blades.
Suddenly, a sharp crack filled the air, and the smell of burning plastic filled the small helicopter cab. Janet yelled and nearly dropped her now smoking camera into the ocean below. Once more, Vlad's voice came over Grant’s headset.
“Everyone, please make sure your seatbelts are properly fashioned, the helicopter is going down.” Grant was shocked by his pilot's calm voice, and apparently he was not the only one.
“What!” Nora screamed from her seat near the back of the vessel. Tears began to stream down Preston’s face and his lips began to move in a silent prayer. Beau immediately grabbed the bag under his seat, presumably filled with medical supplies, and clutched it to his chest.
In the cockpit, Vlad calmly steered the rapidly descending vehicle towards the blinding sands of the beach with his usual emotionless glare. The sand began to fill his vision until it was the only thing he could see. He had no last minute prayers or hopes, only his solid determination to succeed in his mission. He closed his eyes and braced for impact as the end seemed as near as it had ever been. A smile began to creep across his face, and suddenly he was alive.
The helicopter smashed into the soft white sands of the beach and flipped over twice until it came to a stop, blades buried deep in the strange and foreign earth. Grant climbed out of the helicopter and was surprised to see Vlad already standing on the beach without a sign of the crash he had just been in.
“Can you give me a hand?” asked Janet, still seated, though her seat was six feet in the air. Her harness had held well, but it was not getting herself out she needed help with. Preston, seated next to her, had fainted dead away. Janet was struggling against his weight as gravity enacted its ineffable power on the still cartographer. Beau climbed out of the back of the cab with Nora.
“Is anybody injured?” he said, his country twang coming through vibrantly. He set himself down on the edge of the flipped helicopter and brushed his hair out of his face. Nora sat silently next to him, kicked off her shoes and jumped into the soft sand.She walked out onto the beach, and sat in the water lapping at its edges.
“I think he’ll be okay, but Preston is unconscious,” Grant said. He managed to unhook the harness holding Preston in the air, though his attempts to catch the man proved futile, and bothfell to the ground. Janet unhooked her own harness and leaped to the ground. With her help, Grant dragged Preston, now getting on his nerves much more than ever before, towards Beau. The doctor produced a small bottle out of the bag he had clutched so tightly during the crash, opened it, and wafted it under Preston’s nose. He blinked twice and came to.
“Are we dead?” he asked as he sat up and saw the white sand of the beach out of the open helicopter door.
“Naw, you’re still stuck with us,” Beau said. He thumped his patient on the back, chuckling lightly.
“I imagine there isn’t a chance of getting this thing back in the air,” Janet said as she knocked on the side of the helicopter.
“No,” Vlad said. The others waited expectantly for him to continue, but apparently that was all he had at the moment.
“Great, what do we do now?” Preston exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air exasperatedly.
“Wait. That's the only thing we can do,” Grant responded. He liked Preston more when he was unconscious.
End Of Part 2