Escaping the Island: You are Invited!

Tasks

The time he woke up, which was earlier than normal, or maybe earlier than the regular time an unemployed person would wake up. He immediately took a bath in his narrow bathroom and changed into his best dress which was his branded, black polo shirt, his best black pants, wore his pair of rubber shoes, and his gold watch that he bought cheaply in a cheap market he always visited every salary.

By around seven in the morning, he was already ready, but he didn’t go out first, he looked through all of his wallets first and searched for even a single penny there to use for his transportation since the Quest Organization, an orgnization part of a WIC Company that provides entertainment and salary to those who are willing to participate to them, was in the city while he was located at the outskirt so he had to take a bus. Luckily, he got about ten dollars enough to go there and go home hidden and stuck on his one worn-out wallet.

He didn’t eat nor buy for breakfast anymore, he didn’t have a spare for even a bread though so he just kept the hunger to himself. He went inside the bus, gave the driver his fare, and sat in the middle, beside the window. As he drove to the city, he just silently thought to himself while staring outside, he was thinking if he would be lucky this time or if this would just be another way of the heavens to say that he would never be fortunate ever.

At around nine o’clock, he came into the city, specifically on the East Rd. He came out of the bus and looked around. He specifically looked up the names of the buildings to find the building, and he was right to do so when he found the huge Quest Organization sign along the signs lining up around there.

He immediately walked by the sidewalk with sudden consciousness on his appearance. He was a man with heavy, sunken brown eyes, his hair was long and gelled black hair, he had a small goatee on his chin, he was not short, but he was not tall as well, about one hundred seventy centimeters specifically in height, he was attractive, physically strong, but because of his aloof and silent personality, also his social status, he was still unlikeable.

He stood in front of the huge, full of windows building in the middle of a bakery store and a convenience store on the other. He found a vending machine before the entrance so he walked through it and put in the slot the change he got from earlier and bought a bottle of water at least. As he walked to the automatic door, it was one very much elegant building brightly lit by the chandelier in the middle. There were a lot of bonsai on each side as decorations and also a sculpted figure of a man who seemed to be the owner of the organization.

There was a name sculpted under it through a golden plate.

Mr. Neo Jaguar Quest

Founder of Quest Organization.

“Good morning, sir. How may I help you?” the staff at the front desk asked him politely.

“Uhm…” He scratched his head, looking around the building that obviously he did not belong to. There were other people going and in and out of the place too, but all of them were wearing corporate attires. But his eyes darted to the group of teens who had just come out of the elevator, wearing their exploration attire with huge backpacks behind them.

They seemed elated, especially that the guy in front of them was counting an obviously huge amount of money inside the brown envelope. Then he remembered what was written in the email, the email told him to tell the staff at the front desk about certain words like a password to something.

“Sir?”

“I am invited,” he blurted out. He looked at the girl who seemed very surprised at his sudden voice after not talking for a while but he also saw how her eyes came into sudden realizations upon hearing what he said.

“Ah, I get it.” She took out a logbook and a pen and gave them to him. “Please login first with the needed details and then I will lead you to the room you have to be in.”

He did what was asked of him, wrote his name, the address, the contact number and email, current work which he honestly answered as none for the high chance of being chosen, and weirdly enough even the name of his family were asked which of course, he answered again with none. When he was done, he gave it to the staff who gave him a brochure in turn which had the name of the adventure they were advertising with which seemed to be a map.

He was guided to the elevator with another staff that the front desk staff called, and she punched the thirteenth floor. He just watched the floor go up while he thought of nothing but the money he had seen the teens had received. They seemed like they had enjoyed the adventure, and at the same time had received cash from the organization too. He didn’t know this kind of company existed, if he just knew earlier, then he might be rich now and he didn’t have to stay at the decrepit house full of insects.

“Are you sure with your decision?”

He was surprised when the staff beside him suddenly spoke, she kept on looking at him and to the brochure, and she really seemed to have something in mind, but he didn’t put any heed to that until now that she finally asked.

He tilted his head and raised the brochure with “Escaping the Island” written on the front page. “Honestly, no. Is there any reason why I should consider my decision? Is this company a scam?”

The girl looked at him again and shrugged. “The company is not a scam. Everything that they say is true. I just want to make sure that you are aware that they would not give a large sum of money if they are not asking a huge favor from you."

"Aren't I going to just go on an adventure?" He asked because that was what he heard and read at all from the page he went through yesterday. This organization must be bluffing him.

The elevator dinged and opened, the girl went out and pointed to the door on the side. "You will go on an adventure, yes, since you accepted the invite, and now that you are here, there's no turning back. Go inside, please."

As soon as he was then led to the door, the girl walked back to the elevator and left him outside the empty hall. Having no other business outside, he knocked on the door first before twisting the knob and peeking at what was inside.

He found three people inside, two men and one woman, seated far from each other around the long table so he guessed they were not much close to each other or had just met each other now. They were also holding the same brochure and so the conclusion was that they were also interested in the same adventure and probably received the same email as he did. He completely went in silently, the three looked at him and followed him walking to the nearest seat, three seats away from the nearest girl on his left side.

The room was cold and bright, the long mahogany table was as shiny as the tiled floor, there was also a huge television. There were like ten seats around the table and other things on display. He sat silently and did not look nor utter a word, it seemed like they did not have any plan to do so at all, so they just sat there still, waiting for something to happen.

The door was opening from time to time, and there were people coming in one by one just like him until the room was almost filled and only the two chairs on both heads of the table were left. There were a total of eight of them inside the room filled with rather deafening silence from all of them. No one dared to speak, they didn’t know each other, and honestly, Stuart somehow wanted to start the conversation but he realized that he was somehow not used to doing so and decided against it.

They waited for half an hour more before the door opened once more, three people came in, two staff with loaves of bread and cups of coffee in the plastic in hand, straightly giving and placing it in front of the eight of them with one each, while a man on his suit, obviously emitting the aura of a boss, about mid-thirty of age, looking elegant and handsome with his corporate clothes as a black flash drive was in his hand that he instantly connected on the television.

However, Stuart could only pay less attention to him as his eyes were fixated on the food in front of him. It was a chocolate-flavored bread, and an americano from a branded coffee shop, and the way he was immensely holding himself back on diving onto it right there was torturing, but no one was indulging in it yet so he was kind of embarrassed to do it first.

“You seem hungry and excited that you come early so you can eat first,” the man said with a cordial smile as he pointed at the loaves of bread for them to eat.

And that’s when Stuart did not think twice about unwrapping the bread and bit on it. The thankfulness he felt by the provision of breakfast that might probably last until lunch was illimitable. The others did it as well, they seemed to be in the same situation as his*************, poor, struggling.

“Why are you not eating?”

He looked at the side and found the girl beside him was being asked by the other man on his other side. She was really not moving her food and just watching them eat, she looked hungry and was swallowing her lump every now and then while watching them eat, so he wondered why she was not eating at all.

“Ah…” She hesitated. “I’ll just give this to my siblings. I’m not hungry.”

“Really?” the other man replied with a hint of not believing her at all. He looked at his half-consumed bread, then he wrapped it again and pushed it to her with a smile. “Here. Give it to them as well. I’m not hungry either.”

Stuart frowned. How can this man be so kind and even give what’s his just like that? He couldn't do that. He barely had something to himself, he was also struggling, why would he give it to someone when he was dying in hunger too and needed it as well.

The girl declined, but the man insisted so the girl just let him and thanked him as well. He looked at the others, they were mostly men inside, only two were girls and seemingly both uninterested and forced to be there. While some of the men were looking so bored and regretting coming there, and just waiting for the man to speak and tell everything to them.

“You all seemed done, so shall we start with this?” The man finally spoke after a while. He looked at each of them with a simple smile as the television showed the title of the adventure they would be going in. “By the way, before I explain everything, I’m giving you time to reconsider your thoughts with this one and get out now. After that time, you wouldn’t be able to come out and back out.”

Stuart creased his forehead. How could he do that to them? Of course, they would all stay in the curiosity of hearing the adventure. It was like a dangerous deal that no matter what you hear, you do not have any more choice but to just get on it. He didn’t know if it was a smart move or a cruel one to ensure that they would have explorers. As much as he read their profile, they were just getting volunteers, why did he feel like he was being forced now?

As expected, no one stood up. They just looked at each other, waiting for them to stand up and back out, but no one did. Though he felt the girl beside him squirm, as if she wanted to do that, but still, after a while, she did not and everyone remained seated.

“Great. So, it’s officially the eight of you who would be taking this adventure,” he declared and put his hand together in satisfaction. “So now, let’s get this discussion done. I will just say a few important things, those that the best of our knowledge know. I hope you listen well.”

Stuart sat properly and gave all of his attention to the man as he touched the screen of the television and swiped it, showing a certain place on the map. Kropeti Island.

“Your destination is here. The Kropeti Island. Near Papua New Guinea, almost invisible on the map because of how it is almost a dot, and of course, barely visited by people. This island has been on our list of destinations but we have no explorers willing to be on this far island.”

“That’s why you look like you are holding us at gunpoint,” the man across from Stuart remarked, scoffing and rolling his eyes.

The man did not reply to that. “We actually do not know if it is inhabited even by animals, but we are sure that there are a lot of stones which are basically your tasks while you are there. If you have already opened the brochure, you can see a checklist there.”

Almost automatically, they opened their brochures and found the checklist beside the distant picture of the mysterious island that just upon seeing it, the shiver had run down Stuart’s spine. It felt like someone was looking at him.

He read the checklist silently, and honestly, he couldn’t believe his eyes.

Get one diamond.Get every kind of gem you can find inside.Get the largest fossil of a dinosaur.See if the Merinster is real.

“What is a merinster?” the kind man earlier asked curiously. “The island’s name is weird enough but a merinster? What’s that?”

“A merinster was an old legend of before that eats the soul. Red, sharp eyes, sharp-as-a-saw teeth, piercing claws, fast moves like a wind. They lived on a far, far island. People said it was true but unauthenticated, so we just want to check if it is true.”

“What kind of ridiculousness is this?” the same man earlier across from him scoffed in disbelief. “And what if it’s true? Then what are you going to do with us? What are we going to do if we encounter this? You’re all unbelievable.”

“There’s a small chance that it is true. But sure, if it turned out to be true, you’d have only one choice*** escape, to survive.”.