MidReal Story
A team of five explorers arriv
Scenario: A team of five explorers arrives at an isolated island and discovers some modern military equipment
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I had no idea how short a month really was until I was standing on the deck of the research vessel, staring at the uncharted island that would be my home for the next four weeks.
It was beautiful, a lush green oasis in a sea of endless blue, with white sandy beaches that looked like they belonged on a postcard.
The sun was shining, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, but it was an illusion.
This place was dangerous, and I knew it.
The others did too, or they wouldn’t have boarded the helicopter on the deck of the ship, leaving the safety of their home country for one of the most hostile environments on the planet.
We’d all been briefed, and we all knew what to expect.
But none of us could have ever predicted what would happen, what we would find.
Or how it would change everything.
Emily Johnson, team leader and all-around badass.
At least that’s what some people called me.
I usually just went by my first name.
I was only twenty-six years old, but I’d already done more than most people could accomplish in a lifetime.
Being the daughter of a famous archaeologist and an anthropologist who had no fear had certainly given me an advantage.
Or maybe it was a disadvantage.
I wasn’t sure which one it was yet.
The jury was still out on that one.
But as the youngest person to ever receive my doctorate from the University of Cambridge, I’d been primed for this moment since the day I’d graduated high school.
I’d studied my entire life to become an explorer like my parents had been before me.
To travel to the farthest reaches of the globe in search of new discoveries and bring them back to the scientific community to be studied and preserved for future generations.
And today was the day I got my chance.
Smiling at my team as they boarded the helicopter behind me, I knew this adventure would change our lives forever.
There were five people in total now that we’d landed on the beach and disembarked from the aircraft.
Five of the best and brightest young scientists in the world, handpicked by some of the most respected experts in their fields to embark on a mission of discovery that could change everything we thought we knew about human history.
And we were all ready to get started.
“Are you sure this is the right place?”
Olivia asked, glancing around the deserted beach.
“I don’t see anything.”
Olivia White was our linguist and cryptographer, and she was good.
Better than good if her reputation was anything to go by.
She’d graduated from Oxford when she was only twenty-four years old, the top of her class, and had already worked for some of the most prestigious organizations in the world.
But she was young and still new to the field of archaeology, which was probably why she looked so excited when she pulled her glasses down her nose and stared at the ancient inscriptions that littered the island like they were written just for her to find.
I liked her already.
“Positive,” Alex replied, pulling his baseball cap lower over his eyes before flipping up the visor that covered his face and looking through the viewfinder of his drone.
Alex Rodriguez was my best friend, the only person I trusted with my life other than myself.
He’d been there for me since the first day of university, the day I’d walked into the common room of the freshman dorms with nothing but a duffel bag full of clothes and a box of instant noodles that would become my staple diet for the next three years.
I’d had no friends, no experience, and no clue how to act around other people who weren’t my parents or my teachers.
But Alex had taken one look at me, laughed, and thrown his arm around my shoulder like we were old friends.
We’d been inseparable ever since.
He was the smartest person I’d ever met, a tech expert with a passion for coding, computers, and anything with buttons, dials, or switches that he could take apart and put back together again.
And he was the heart of our little expedition, leading the way with his drone while I followed behind him, trying to ignore the way the sun was beating down on my pale white skin, turning it pink as I sweated through my clothes and wishing I’d packed more than one pair of shorts.
“I’ll feel better when I set up the comms unit and make contact with the ship,” he replied, ignoring me as usual.
“Until then, we’re on our own.”
“I thought you said there were no people here,” Sarah, his older sister, pointed out.
“Not that I’m complaining, but I didn’t see a single soul when we flew over the island on the way here.”
Sarah Thompson was our medic and the most resourceful person I’d ever met.
She was also the only woman on our team, other than me, and had spent most of her life traveling the world working for various NGOs and humanitarian organizations before she’d decided to settle down and work at the World Health Organization in Geneva.
But the international health crisis that had brought us all together had been too much for her to resist, and she’d joined our team two weeks ago, just before we’d set sail from the mainland.
“There aren’t any people here,” Alex replied, not looking up from his screen.
“But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing here at all.”
“Like what?”
Sarah asked, looking around.
I could tell she was trying not to panic when she realized we were stuck on an island in the middle of nowhere with no way to call for help, but her voice was calm as she spoke and her red hair was pulled back into a tight braid that fell down her back in a long line like a whip.
“Why don’t you look around and find out?”
I suggested, staring at the dense green jungle that stretched out before us as far as the eye could see.
“This place is amazing!”
Olivia exclaimed, running ahead and disappearing into the trees before I could stop her.
“You might want to take it easy there, Speedy,” Sarah called after her.
“The last thing we need is for you to trip over a vine and break your ankle on the first day.”
“It’s not a vine!”
Olivia called back, her voice already growing faint as she disappeared into the undergrowth.
“It’s a tree root!”
“What about you?”
Alex asked, sliding his visor shut and turning off his drone so we could push our way through the dense vegetation.
I didn’t answer him as I took a step forward, feeling the weight of everything I’d ever been trained to be settle over me like a cloak.
“Let’s go,” I said, stepping forward.
The rest is history.
I like the way that sounds.
The words are so simple, but they say so much.
They speak of things that happened long ago, of people whose names have been forgotten, and of a past that no one remembers.
But they also speak of a future that has yet to come, of people who are still alive, and of things that have yet to be discovered.
I know how they feel because I have felt that way myself many times in my life, but never more than I do right now as I stand on the summit of an ancient pyramid and look out over the island.
“It’s beautiful,” Olivia said, standing beside me with her arms crossed over her chest as she looked out at the view in front of us.
She was right, of course.
It was beautiful.
The waterfall was beautiful.
The trees were beautiful.
The river was beautiful.
Even the jungle was beautiful in its own twisted way, with its dark green leaves and tangled vines that stretched out as far as the eye could see on every side like something out of a fairy tale or a nightmare.
“Go set up camp,” I told her, not sure how much longer I could take it before I lost my temper with her for good.
“But aren’t you even a little bit—”
“I said go set up camp!”
“Yes, ma’am,” she replied, lowering her eyes as I glared at her and walked away, leaving me alone on the summit of the pyramid with nothing but my thoughts to keep me company as I waited for everyone else to catch up with us.
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It was only a few minutes before the others arrived.
The sound of their feet crashing through the underbrush was so loud that it was almost deafening, but it wasn’t enough to distract me from the view in front of me.
The island was only a few hundred meters away now, and as we got closer, its features became more distinct.
The lush greenery covered every inch of the island’s surface, from the cliffs to the beaches to the jungle itself, and the cliffs rose high above the waterline, towering over us like giant monoliths that had stood there since the dawn of time.
It was impossible to tell how big the island was exactly, but it stretched out for several kilometers in every direction at least, and when I looked down at our boat below us, I could see how small we really were compared to the vastness of the ocean surrounding us on all sides.
It was a beautiful sight, but also a daunting one, and as I looked out over the water in front of us, I knew that the real challenge was still to come.
“Get the gear ready,” I told Alex as I walked over to where he was standing and looked down at the boat below us.
“We’ll be there in a few minutes, and I want to be ready to go as soon as we hit the shore.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied, not even looking up from his work.
I knew I could rely on him to get the job done, and I left him to it as I went to check on Sarah next, who was sitting on the ground with a first aid kit open in front of her as she went through all the supplies we had with us.
“Is everything okay?”
I asked her, kneeling down beside her as I looked over her shoulder.
“Yes, ma’am,” she replied, not even looking up as she waved me away.
“Just checking to make sure nothing got damaged in the crash.
Should be good to go once we get to shore.”
“Good,” I said, giving her a pat on the back as I stood up and headed over to Michael next.
He was standing at the bow of the boat with his hands resting on the railing as he looked out at the island in front of us with an intensity that I’d never seen from him before.
He was always like that when we were out in the field, but this time it was different somehow, like he was more focused or more determined or something.
I didn’t know what it was exactly, but I knew enough to leave him alone and went back to where Alex was still working instead.
I found him just finishing up, and he gave me a thumbs-up as he stood up and leaned against the railing so he could look out at the island with me.
“What do you think?”
“It’s beautiful,” he said, echoing Olivia’s words from earlier, but without the same sense of wonder in his voice.
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“It is,” I agreed as I looked out at the island in front of us.
The boat’s engine had slowed down now, and I could see that we were only a few hundred meters away from the shore.
It was so close that I felt like I could almost reach out and touch it, and I could feel the excitement and anticipation building up inside of me.
It was finally happening, and I couldn’t wait for it all to get started.
The island itself was just as beautiful as I remembered it being when I’d seen it from the plane earlier, if not more so.
The cliffs rose up almost vertically from the water in front of us, their dark grey walls jagged and imposing and completely untouched by human hands.
It was clear that this island was ancient, and that it had been formed by volcanic activity many millions of years ago.
It wasn’t hard to imagine what it must have looked like all those years ago when it had first been formed; a massive cloud of steam and ash rising up into the air as molten rock spewed forth from deep beneath the earth’s surface.
It was almost frightening to think about how powerful something like that must have been, but at the same time I couldn’t help but feel awed by it too.
The cliffs weren’t the only thing about the island that was awe-inspiring, either.
At least not in my opinion.
On top of the cliffs, the island was covered in lush greenery, which nearly concealed the fact that they rose almost vertically from the water at the edge of the island before dropping off several hundred feet into the ocean below.
It was a beautiful sight to see, but it was also a stark reminder that we were entering a dangerous place, and that we needed to be careful if we wanted to make it out of here alive.
As I watched, the boat maneuvered around what appeared to be a small cape that jutted out from the side of the island, revealing that it was much larger than I’d originally thought.
From where we were, the island stretched for several kilometers in either direction, and there were several smaller capes and inlets along its length that would have made for good places to land if we’d needed to.
Not that we did – this one would be just fine – but it was good to know that there were other options available to us if we needed them.
All in all, the island looked like a beautiful place to visit, and I felt a sudden surge of excitement as I realized that we were among the few people in the world who would ever have the chance to see it for themselves.
It felt like a privilege, in a way, and I was determined not to waste the opportunity that had been given to us.
“Alright,” I said, taking a deep breath before I turned around to face the others.
“It looks like we’re here.
