The well-dressed man

TW: death, implied genocide

As I look on to the setting sun and my best friend, stranded all alone on this once inhabited island, there is chaos in my mind that cannot be reigned. After what we’ve been through in the past 24 hours, I can proudly say we can handle probably about anything in this world. How did I get stranded here? It is a question for which I now know the answer.

The past 24 hours had started with me and my best friend, Daniel ‘Dee,’ ending up mysteriously on this island ‘Maqui’.

The last vague memory I have is of talking with this well-dressed guy who droned on and on about incineration and bio cremations.

So, I’ve never been to Maqui or (so I thought)

But every time I look at anything here, I get these weird flashbacks of some time I do not remember. Dee guessed I must’ve been here as a toddler with my parents, and we now know that that is true.

The ‘well dressed’ person, as it turned out, was the very person who led me here in search of my parents. My parents left me at my aunt’s one day, and we never heard from them again. I assumed they were dead, but deep down, I knew they were not.

I must return to the topic of bio cremations and incinerations and Maqui.

Whenever I looked at the Ferris wheel in the amusement park here, I heard shrieks and laughter. I had a feeling that this place once used to have a happy, healthy population here. Their disappearance was also a mystery.

But the jars and jars of weird dark liquid that we saw at Dr. Mulani’s lab last night solved that.

How far can a person go in the name of science? The answer is, however far it might take them to achieve what they want. The stuff they do to reach there might be immoral, inhuman, pathetic, and whatnot, but will that stop them? A firm NO.

So, thousands of people, how and why do they vanish without a trace? Dee and I found this out last night the hard way. As we were looking for answers, we traced the entire perimeter of the island and were absolutely sure by then that this island had now become a ghost town. We realized one other thing, though, that the population did not vanish without their own knowledge suddenly. All the houses were locked, the shop shutters were down and locked, and there was a big rock guarding the gates of the high school. Whatever happened to the population here, they did it to themselves voluntarily and recently. As we walked to the heart of the main town, we stumbled upon this research facility that used to be run by one Dr. Mulani. At first, it looked like a simple oceanology research center, but there was something really odd about it. But, the thing that struck me first was that unlike all other buildings in the town, it was not locked up from the outside. We tried knocking, no reply. Then we tried calling out, again no reply. That’s when Dee saw an open window on the first floor. So, we somehow made our way up there and entered the building. We walked about the entire facility, checked each and every single room, but all we could find were jars and jars of a weird dark liquid stacked neatly. It had also seemed that whoever used to operate this facility had left in a rush.

“What kind of research facility it even is?” I asked Dee.

“I don’t know maybe they used to do all their research down in the basement.”

So we went downstairs, but the basement was also locked up, which kind of confirmed our suspicions.

Dee tried to disable the biometric lock and after a few tries, succeeded in doing so. What we saw inside completely blew our minds. Whatever research they were doing here, they were performing experiments for it on actual alive humans. Dee went to look for the documents while I walked around observing everything. There was a large portrait of doctor Mulani. I stared at his face for a while; I don’t know why, but he seemed vaguely familiar. “All scientists look similar” I shook my head and muttered to myself. That’s when Dee came running to me with a huge folder, “Percy they were researching a cure for Alzheimer’s’ and the entire population of Maqui volunteered as test subjects because apparently at least 2 members in each family here have or had been riddled with Alzheimer so they know what it’s like for them and wanted to help them.” Dee said.

“But what happened to all those test subjects?”

And that is when the jars of weird black liquid and the well-dressed man’s words started to make sense.

“Dee, they’re all dead.”

“How do you know that?”

“bio cremation”

“what do you mean?”

“Their bodies were cremated. They must have objected or had some disagreements or I don’t know and to shut them up, the doctor cremated them and stored them in jars.”

Dee and I stood there, completely shook. We started going through all the files and computers, and while I was going through the list of assistant researchers; I found my parents. And that’s when I also remembered why Dr. Mulani looked familiar. “Dee, Dr. Mulani came over to my house the day my parents left. And they left with him to work here, as researchers.”

I then felt a sting at the back of my head. It grew stronger and stronger until it was overwhelming. My head felt like it was being cracked open. It lasted for only a few minutes, but it felt like a lifetime. Some faded images started to appear. It could have been a hallucination, but I was positive that they were suppressed memories.

I then rushed back to the building and looked under the desks. On the backside of the building, I found my parent’s photo kept on top of a desk. Under the desk, I found a pen drive hidden in a secret latch.

I tried to hook up the pen drive into one of the computers, but they were redundant. With the help of Dee, I brought the systems back online, but only for a brief period of time. Although brief, it was enough to read the content of the pen drive.

My mother had secretly recorded a video for me. The very first line she told was, “if you are seeing this video, then we are dead.” Hearing my mom say those words pained my heart, but I knew my mother wouldn’t have recorded the video unless she wanted me to do something for her. In the video, she had described how she and my father were forced to work for this facility. Dr. Mulani’s crooks had used me as the leverage. She also explains how Dr. Mulani deceived the Maqui people and denied them the medicine, which was made because of their contribution. When they revolted, Dr. Mulani had incinerated them. She also told me about the well-dressed man who had sent me here. He was my Godfather, Collin, who was supposed to guide me to this place once I reached adulthood. My mother had wanted me to learn the truth and if an opportunity presented itself, I was to expose Dr. Mulani.

I briefed Dee about the message from my mother. While I was busy with my mother’s message, Dee had accessed the control systems and found us a way out of this place. There was a portal about a kilometer from the building and it was open only for another 15 minutes.

As we were leaving, Dee suggested that we take a recording of the building and the incriminating evidence in case the need ever arises.

I had repaired our hoverboards and hovering on them we reached the portal about time. There were only two minutes left before the portal closed, and we were stranded forever. Dee was on the edge of the portal gate when I stopped and knelt.

Dee was yelling, “What are you doing? Come fast,” but I didn’t pay any heed to him. I paid my last respect to my parents and Maqui people. I felt them smiling at me from the heavens above. I had always detested traditional rituals, but at that moment, I felt an urge to do a quick one. But I was interrupted midway by Dee, who dragged me to the portal.

I screamed, “No!” but before I knew it, I was back in my aunt’s house with Dee and the well-dressed man was having a cup of tea. For a moment, I wondered if I was dreaming all along, but when I unclenched my hands, I saw the sand that I had collected from Maqui before being pulled into the portal.

As I tried to riddle the various questions I had about my experiences, the well-dressed man smiled at me.