“I'm fine. Never felt worse.”

Adolf came through some brush.

“What happened?” Balto asked.

“I saw the monster.”

“Youwhat?”

“I saw it. I tripped, and the thing just hovered over me. It was a big puff of black smoke. Then I began seeing things flashing through it.”

“Like what?”

“Memories. Memories that I have. I saw the day I got my first job, I saw the crash, I saw my mother... it was like it was searching my soul.”

“Creepy. Then what happened?”

“It left.”

“Wow. Where's Jenna?”

“I left her back where I tripped.”

“How's she doing?”

“She can't walk. She said she couldn't feel anything from her waist down. Then she lost consciousness.”

“Okay. Help me up.”

Adolf grabbed hold of Balto's wrist and helped him stand up.

“Show me the way.” Balto said.

Adolf pointed, and they began walking. After three feet however, Balto fainted.

“Crap.”

When Balto finally woke up, Adolf had a fire going and was cooking some meat.

“What's up?” Balto asked.

“The opposite of down,” replied Adolf. “I vould've thought you knew that.”

“Ha ha. What are you doing?”

“Making dinner. Ve're having stew. For meat ve have a boar I caught, and for the vegetable ve have a Hemerocallis Fulva.”

“A Hemerocallis Fulva? As in a Day Lily?”

“Thot's right.”

“But that's an Oriental plant. What's it doing here?”

“Don't ask me.”

Jenna stirred.

“She still out?”

“Ya. She hos been asleep for four hours.”

“How long have I been out?”

“Three-und-a-half.”

Adolf continued stirring the stew.

“You know,” said Balto “You don't really seem like the type that would know about wild edible plants.”

“I vas a botany teacher at a college for a couple years.”

“Huh. So what do you do now?”

“I work for a company located in San Diego.”

“Really? Me and Jenna were flying to San Diego to get jobs as pilots for a private jet.”

“Pilots? You two are pilots?”

“Yeah.”

“Is der man dot hired you named Steele Karrzon?”

“Yeah. How'd you know?”

“He vorks vis me!”

“What? What's going on?” Jenna asked.

“Hey, you're awake!” Balto said.

“Vould you like some dinner?”

“What is it?”

“Boar und Hemerocallis Fulva stew.”

“Huh?”

“Boar and Day Lily's.” Balto said.

“Huh?”

After dinner, Balto decided they should map out the island. The next morning, they set out. Jenna's back hadn't gotten any better, so Balto and Adolf made sort of a makeshift stretcher. They climbed a massive mountain, clear to the top, so they could get a look at the rest of the island. When they reached the top, they could see everything! They saw the clearing where Jenna had been attacked, and when they looked around some more, they saw the beach where the plane had wrecked!

“Vhat the... how did it show up again?”

They were puzzled by this. They had clearly seen the beach where they had wrecked before, and there was nothing! Now it was back. Balto looked around some more. Then, he began laughing.

“And just vot is so funny?” demanded Adolf.

“Look,” said Balto, and he pointed. “All we found was a beach that looked similar! Ha ha! If we had kept walking for five more minutes we would've found it!”

“Well let's go!” said Jenna. “If it's that close we can get to it in no time at all!”

They began heading back down the hill, unaware they were being watched...

“Whew!” said Adolf “Let's rest a minute!”

“Sounds good to me,” said Balto. “I'll find some water to drink. I'mreally thirsty.”

He walked out of sight. Adolf started rubbing his ankles when he heard Balto shout. He jumped up and ran in the direction. He found Balto, who stood frozen in his tracks. He was staring at something. Adolf followed is gaze....

“Hey!” shouted Jenna. “What's going on? I can't walk here, so it would be nice to be able to get some help!” Finally she gave up. “Men,” she thought. “Why can't they ever do anything? You have to hit them on the head and tell them exactly what to do. If God hadn't told Noah what to do, he would've prepared for the Flood by changing into a swimming suit!” She hollered a few more times. Then she thought “Never, ever send a man to do a woman's job.”

Eventually, Jenna's shouting broke the spell Balto and Adolf seemed to be in. They went back to her, picked up her stretcher, and carried her over to where they had been. They set her down and pointed to what they had been fixated by. Jenna's jaw dropped. Well, yours would too if you saw a 14-ton, 17th century sailing vessel 11,000 feet above sea level.

Chapter 5

“The name is The Black Rock.” said Balto. He had gone to the back of it and read the name off the stern. “It looks like it was a slave vessel.”

“Ya, I remember reading about this ship.” said Adolf “It vas sailing back from South America with slaves. She vos a Spanish slaver. She vos lost at sea during a storm.”

“I wonder what's inside?” asked Jenna.

“We'll check it out later,” said Balto “We need to get to Jack. With my head and your back the way they are, we need to make getting to the beach top priority.”

“I vote for staying and looking at it.” said Adolf.

“Me too.” said Jenna.

“Fine,” said Balto. “But promise me you'll make it quick.”

“Mein Fuhrer!” Adolf shouted, and saluted German-style. “Heil Hitler!”

“Oh, can it!”

The went inside, and began looking around. They went down to the holds, and immediately recoiled. Skeletons littered the hold. Some chained to the hull, some just scattered randomly. Adolf, Balto, and Jenna all just stood in the doorway, staring.

“You know,” said Balto “We're witnessing one of the greatest acts of cruelty of all time. Did you know that only half of the slaves would survive the trip? They would all be chained together, packed in like sardines. They didn't even have room to move. They would sit there for the duration of the trip.”

“Not even any bathroom breaks?” Jenna asked.

“No. They would sit there in their own one-month supply of crap. Almost all of those that died on the ship died of disease.” He paused. “Except these ones.”

Adolf was the first to move out of the doorway into the hold. Balto followed. He and Adolf started looking around. Jenna saw a box beside her. She picked it up, opened the lid, and looked inside.

“Hey, dynamite!”

Adolf and Balto shrieked. Jenna had never heard men shriek like that before.

“Put it down! Put it down!” Adolf shouted.

Jenna began putting it down.

“GENTLY!” he shrieked.

After Jenna set it down, she asked “Now what's so horrible about that box of dynamite?”

“Dynamite,” began Balto “Contains glycerin, and nitric and sulfuric acids. Essentially, it has stabilized nitroglycerin in it. However, when it sits in 90-degree weather for some time, it destabilizes, and becomes solid nitroglycerin.”

“If der box had bumped too hard vhen you sat it down,” said Adolf “You vould've been all over dis hold. I'm guessing there's some more of those boxes in here, so there vouldn't be a Black Rock anymore either.”

They left the hold, and the ship, and continued on down the mountain.

“Did you just growl?” asked Balto.

“Me? No.” said Adolf.

They heard something in the forest.

“Is it our friend, Smokey the Cloud?” asked Jenna.

Suddenly something burst through the forest and began running toward them. It was a polar bear!

“Oh come on!” shouted Balto. “What next?”

“I think running would be a good idea.” said Adolf.

They turned and bolted. The polar bear was on their tail (literally!) all the way. They were running as fast as they could carrying Jenna's stretcher, but yet the polar bear still gained. They were about halfway down the mountain when the ground gave way beneath their feet. They fell fifteen feet down and landed hard on a hard surface.

“Ow... I really did not need to do that again.” said Jenna.

Balto looked up. The polar bear was staring down at them, but not following. Then Balto noticed. They hadn't fallen through ground at all. It looked like a metal hatch. He looked around at the walls. Metal. Attached to one wall there was a ladder. One wall opened up into a corridor. Then he heard a gunshot. Balto looked up and saw the polar bear stiffen and fall over. Then the hatch shut and gears began creaking. They were being locked in!

“What's going on?” thought Balto.

A little while later, Balto figured “If we're stranded here with no way out, we might as well explore this place for a bit.”

He and Adolf sat Jenna's stretcher down and looked around. It looked like the place had been abandoned quite some time ago. They found books, a computer, etc. It looked like people had lived here! There was even a TV with a projector. Soon, Adolf found a reel.

“Ve might as vell see vot it is.”

“We don't have time for a movie!”

“You in a rush? Remember, ve're stuck down here! Ve have all der time in der vorld!”

“Fine. Watch your bloody movie.”

Adolf hooked up the reel, and began the movie. Only, he discovered, it wasn't a movie. It was an orientation film for some company named the “Dharma Initiative” that owned the hatch. The hatch was part of an elaborate experiment to study the island they were on. Apparently, there were several other hatches, all for a different segment of the program.

“Balto!” shouted Adolf “I think

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