Into the Unknown was a short story I submitted to the Owl Canyon Press Autumn 2020 Hackathon. Writers were provided with a first and final paragraph from which they had to craft a story. I hope you enjoy it!
It was an odd sized casket, too small for a man, too big for a child. A flag was draped over it, a smallish one. It was carried by four men in uniform, though it was hard to tell for sure from a distance what uniform it was, or even if they were all men. There wasn’t room for the usual six pallbearers due to the small size of the casket since it would have made for a comical service to have all six jammed together, shoulder-to-shoulder, crowding around an under-sized coffin. So the extra pallbearers were in the ranks of many others in uniform standing beside a small open grave. The officiant wore a robe instead of a uniform and must have said something because there was a long silence, then a burst of laughter.
It all seemed so strange to me and by this point, I was convinced I’d made the right decision not to make myself known to them, when the first helicopter had landed on the island. I remembered how excited I’d been, following two days of being stranded here, when I’d heard the sound of that engine. I’d already resigned myself to starving to death and to be given a lifeline was like divine intervention.
But something inside had made me hesitate before revealing my presence. Perhaps it was a combination of the caution which comes with age and a track record of being in more than my fair share of sticky situations. Or maybe it was the fact that just a couple of days ago, one of those fuckers had tried to kill me. I was sure, even from a distance, that it was the South Korean flag on that casket.
I reversed on all fours, from the bushes which were shielding me, my hands and knees sinking into the damp sand as I moved. I doubted any of them would see me, given how far away I was, but I wasn’t taking any chances. One wrong action was all it would take for one of those sharp-eyed pricks to spot me, and then the game would be up.
Satisfied I was out of sight, I slumped my back against a tree and sank my head into my hands. I had to think and fast. The arrival of these soldiers was my only chance of survival. I didn’t know how yet, but that much was clear to me. I assumed they were soldiers because of the uniforms, but wasn’t entirely sure. They were obviously burying someone and by the looks of it, someone important, but the detail behind that was irrelevant. Two of them had carried the casket from the helicopter to where it was now, on a sort of stretcher. Six other men had followed. Moments later, two other choppers had arrived and at least ten more of them from each had disembarked, including the officiant. The landing zone was only a few metres from the sea, perhaps forty or fifty metres from where the ceremony was taking place (if that’s even what it was). Shortly afterwards, the later-arriving choppers had taken off again, leaving only the first. I could hear its engine still running and a single solider had been left to stand guard, armed with an assault rifle – something closely resembling a Colt M4.
My body was aching with fatigue and hunger. If it hadn’t been for heavy rainfall the previous day, I would have died of thirst already. That whole three-day thing was bullshit. I remembered ripping the biggest leaves I could find off a maple tree and cupping them as best as I could to try and trap a decent quantity of water.
One thing was certain. If I somehow managed to get out of this, I was never doing a job for Dobermann again. He always did know how to suck me in though, usually with cash-related incentives. Ever since I left the army, I’d been between jobs and never really managed to get back on my feet. That and the fact that I couldn’t restrain myself from the costly business of chasing women. Although to be fair, this had pretty much been my downfall ever since I learned that cocks weren’t just for pissing from.
With Dobermann, you never quite knew what you were being sucked into either, and according to him it was better not to ask. “The less you know, the safer you’ll be,” he used to say, in his oily voice. This time had been no different. I’d been handed an undisclosed package and asked to deliver it in person to his ‘colleague’ in Korea. First I asked if I should expect any problems at customs, to which he responded with a simple shake of the head. When I went on to ask why the package couldn’t just be couriered, Dobermann smiled and said, “I don’t have to answer your questions, Byers. If you don’t want the job, there are plenty of others who’ll be happy to take the money.”
In terms of the drop, everything had gone to plan. My instructions were to meet his colleague in a café at Incheon Airport in Seoul. An expressionless man of local appearance and dressed in a black suit was waiting for me, and took the package without so much as a single word. He left immediately afterwards.
I’d been partly filled with curiosity, but mostly indifference, mixed with a bit of relief that things had gone smoothly. Where that punk Dobermann was concerned, you could never be too sure. I was due to catch a domestic flight to Taiwan an hour later, where I would take a connecting one back to the US, but that’s when things took an unexpected turn.
I’d barely left the café when two other suits approached me. By the look of them, they were also Korean.
“Mr Byers?” one of them said, in perfect English.
I didn’t say anything in reply, just eyed them cautiously.
“Please come with us, Sir,” said the other one. “We’ve been given instructions by Mr Dobermann to escort you.”
The whole thing stank of suspicion.
“He didn’t say anything about this to me,” I retorted. “My flight leaves in under an hour.”
The first one raised his hand and gripped my shoulder. The action was smooth but his hold was firm.
“You have already been removed from that flight,” he said. “A private one has been chartered instead. Let’s go, we don’t have much time.”
I hadn’t expected to be leaving Seoul in a tiny plane occupied by only myself and a sweaty little pilot who could barely have been twenty years old. I remembered thinking to myself, what was Dobermann playing at? He hadn’t given me much reason to trust him through the years, but that had been the weirdest stunt yet. I’d started to wonder if the events following the drop were anything to do with him at all.
Whether or not that was the case, I suddenly had bigger problems to deal with. Around twenty minutes into the flight, when there seemed to be nothing but a map of ocean below us, the pilot thrust his hand holding the joystick forward violently, quickly sending us into a nosedive.
“What the fuck are you doing!” I shouted, wrestling with my seatbelt at the same time.
Seconds afterwards, he pulled out a gun, pointed it under his chin and fired. Blood splattered onto the roof above him and he immediately went limp.
I didn’t even flinch, unable to give a shit about the wretched life which disappeared in front of me. All I did care about, was trying to save my own.
As soon as I’d managed to free myself, I lunged towards the cockpit, noting with alarm the fast approaching sea below. I unfastened the body and hurled him out of the way with both arms. He hadn’t weighed much and the adrenalin in my system made me do this much harder than I needed to. I was sure I heard bones breaking as he collided with the side of the plane.
I threw myself into the seat and seized the joystick. I remember it shaking vigorously in my hand as I desperately tried to pull the plane out of its nosedive. I wasn’t successful, but my actions almost certainly saved my ass, as we hit the water at an acute angle rather than a perpendicular one. Everything went black as pain had erupted all over my body.
There seemed to be a lost period of time after that, but as soon as I could see again, I realised the plane was completely submerged and a watery grave seemed imminent. Mercy seemed to be on my side however, as shortly afterwards we must have reached the surface again and to my massive relief, I’d seen daylight through the windows.
There hadn’t been time to check for injuries because the plane was sinking fast. All my limbs seemed to be working and that was enough. The situation was so surreal that it was like I was an outsider looking in, but that illusion didn’t last long. As the water rose rapidly below me, I pulled off my jacket and also my boots. All I remember thinking was that I was going to be in the sea in minutes and couldn’t have them dragging me down. My combat-style pants were far from ideal but there wasn’t much choice. The water continued to rise around me and I wished I could find my phone. But it was nowhere to be seen.
I remember my heart racing as I seized the door handle, which was barely above the water, and pulled for all I was worth. There was a violent jolt as the water rushed into what little space was remaining in the plane and for a terrifying moment I thought I was going to be sucked down with it. But I’d kicked my legs furiously and somehow managed to pull away.
It hadn’t taken me long to spot the island and instinctively I’d swam my way towards it. A bit like the helicopters turning up, I remember thinking how lucky it was that I hadn’t just been surrounded in ocean, where I certainly would have drowned or maybe been chewed up by sharks, which I knew was a possibility in that shitty part of the world. Instead I got to the island on which I was currently trapped and likely to die on, unless I could find a way to make use of these unexpected visitors.
Leaning heavily on the tree, I pulled myself up. My only chance was to get to the chopper while that freak-show ceremony was going on. There was the small matter of the armed guard, but I was out of other options. It would only take a couple of minutes to get there; I could still hear the engine from where I was standing. The whole island was probably just half a kilometre from it’s northern to southern points, as I’d realised soon after I arrived. I remembered how terrified I’d been on the first night when the incoming tide, oil-black in the darkness, encompassed so much of it. I’d found myself thinking that there wasn’t really anyone who would miss me if I perished here, never to be seen again. These had been dark moments, but I quickly shook them from my mind. I needed to stay focussed. The sand was covered in tracks left by the soldiers from earlier and I followed them down towards the shore.
I paused at the last remaining tree before I would be out in the open. Most of the island was free from tress and foliage, but there was a concentrated area of greenery in the centre. The land was generally quite flat too, which was probably why the incoming tide covered such a vast area. In the centre itself, there was a section around half the size of a football field which was also clear, but it was obvious this was down to human intervention, from the visible stumps and roots of felled trees and bushes. This was where the ceremony was taking place. I knew that as soon as I was out in the open, that guard was bound to see me, and given everything that had happened so far, would most likely mow me down like a dog. I peered towards the chopper and saw with surprise that the guard had went back inside. Figuring this was probably the best chance I was going to get, I bounded towards the shore, half-expecting gunfire to explode around me.
It didn’t though, and as soon as I reached the helicopter, I crouched near the open door at the rear, where the casket had been previously carried out. The engine had been left in idle, and the propellers switched off. It looked like a CH-47 Chinook and I was reasonably comfortable I’d be able to fly it. I wasn’t thinking about much beyond that, my main priority was to get off the island and worry about the rest later. I slowly raised my head to try and get a look inside. I immediately saw the guard with his back to me in one of the front seats. He was dressed like the others on the island, in a khaki green uniform and black beret. His head was resting against the seat like he might have been dozing. He obviously hadn’t been expecting company, as the machine gun was standing next to the door, just inches away from me. With my heart pounding furiously, I pushed myself up and reached my hand towards it.
The feel of the metal was hugely satisfying as I seized the gun and climbed inside. My bare feet made little sound as I approached the guard, but it seemed to take forever as I made my way through the slim body of the Chinook. To fire the gun on him would have been unthinkable, not because I gave a shit about blowing him to pieces, but more because it would have brought the rest of them upon me, before I had the chance to get this bird in the air. Instead I drove the butt hard into the back of his head with a sickening crack. Some kind of sound came from his mouth with the impact, but I knew he was out cold as he slumped off to one side. I breathed a sigh of relief and laid the gun on the floor beside me. Then I grabbed the seemingly lifeless body and dragged it towards the door I came in. Without a second thought, I tossed him outside and watched him hit the sand. He wasn’t quite as light as the pilot had been, but once again, it hadn’t been difficult to move him. Pausing briefly to wipe some sweat from my brow, I noticed blood seeping from his head where I’d struck him.
I quickly tried to pull the door closed, but it wouldn’t budge and I guessed it was controlled from the front. I rushed forward and threw myself into one of the seats. It was going to take some time to work this fucker out and I wanted to get moving as quickly as possible. My eyes suddenly fell on numerous bottles of water and a packet of biscuits on the seat beside me and all other thoughts were temporarily forgotten. I seized the nearest bottle and squeezed the entire contents down my throat. It was hard to remember a feeling as good as that water rushing inside me and I quickly grabbed a second one and drained half of that as well. I then started on the biscuits and devoured four of them, one after the other. It felt like my body was thanking me for the sustenance and I would quite happily have burst myself with the rest if it wasn’t for the looming danger nearby.
I focussed my attention to the controls in front of me and suddenly, a terrifying screech rang out inside the Chinook. I barely had a chance to turn around before a combination of black boot and green khaki hurtled towards me. I was struck somewhere on the side of the head and everything went blurry. I focussed all my efforts on trying to restore my vision and could just about make out a figure reaching down towards the machine gun I’d left on the floor. Without losing another second, I threw myself towards the hazy green mass and soon we were tangled together, writhing furiously.
At first he wrestled free of me, having failed to obtain the Colt, and tried to make a break for it, towards the open door. I quickly stretched out my foot, clipping him slightly, but just enough to send him flying and crashing to the floor. He rolled forward several times so I ran towards him and threw the full weight of my body on top of him. This must have winded him at least, but he didn’t show it and we wrestled frantically, both with murderous intent and a desperation to survive. I tried to overpower him by seizing the clothing at his chest but this caused us to roll near the open door and I suddenly found myself being pushed out. We hit the sand, separated again, and I managed to get to my feet. I tried to move away from the helicopter, figuring I had a better chance out in the open, but suddenly he was on my back, like a ninja. With what felt like bands of steel, he wrapped his legs around mine and crossed his arms around my throat. His strength was inhuman, especially considering his body mass compared to mine. With a flash of fear, I also noticed a knife in one of his hands.
As he forced his arms tighter against my throat, and it felt and tasted like the biscuits were being squeezed back out of me, I pulled my head forward and then forced it back as hard as I could. I made contact somewhere on his face causing him to cry out, and he immediately loosened his grip. I also noticed the knife drop to the ground. I seized his flank firmly, hurled him over my head and slammed him into the ground in front of me. Then I kicked him hard in the stomach, causing him to groan loudly. Sensing victory at last, I turned to pick up the knife.
“Right, you piece of shit,” I croaked. “Time to start praying to whoever the fuck it was that made you.”
I didn’t get the chance to even touch the knife though. There was a sudden, sharp pain the back of my neck and everything went black.
The next period of time was lost to me, although I had vague recollections of being dragged roughly through the sand amidst many voices shouting, possibly arguing, in words I couldn’t understand. I wanted to fight or at least resist in some way, but my body wouldn’t cooperate. I thought I heard the sounds of more helicopters, but couldn’t be certain. I suddenly found myself in a room with Dobermann, the same one where he’d handed me the package that got me into this mess.
“The less you know, the safer you’ll be,” he was saying. “Didn’t I tell you that, Byres? That’s your trouble, you never just do what you’re told.” This just brewed a rage inside me and I lunged forward to try and shut him up for good. “Fuck you, Dobermann!” I roared. “Do you hear me? I tried to do what you told me and look what’s happened. Fuck you, do you hear? Fuck you, you worthless piece of shit!”
A loud thud from nearby caused me to open my eyes. This was immediately followed by a dull ache searing through my head as I attempted to focus. I realised I was lying on my side and I quickly tried to raise my hands to my face. I couldn’t though, as they were bound tight, and I soon noticed that my feet were the same. Within minutes I saw that I was back in the centre of the island, where the ceremony had been taking place. It was still daytime, possibly late afternoon, at least from what I could tell, based on the position of the sun. The thud had been from a different casket, this one much larger than the last, lowered to the ground perhaps twenty feet in front of me. Next to it, there were more soldiers digging, four of them in total, and they didn’t seem to take any notice of what was placed beside them.
A pair of black boots suddenly appeared, blocking my view. I craned my neck upwards to try and see the owner. It was none other than the low-life guard I’d tried to take out in the helicopter. He crouched down and smiled at me, causing my insides to boil. A bandage was in place of the black beret he was wearing before, but other than that I’d never have guessed it was the same shit I’d kicked in the guts earlier, before trying to grab that knife. He seized my chin roughly and started mouthing off some crap in what was presumably his native language. He could have been replaying the words to The Star-Spangled Banner for all I knew, but somehow I doubted it. There was a shout that sounded like a military command from nearby and he gave me a final grin before pushing my face back hard and releasing me. There was a flurry of activity from all around and I got the impression the soldiers had been told to get a move on for what seemed to be another VIP burial.
I became aware of other sources of pain around my body as I watched the various preparations unfold. I had no idea what their intentions were for me, but this seemed to be of secondary importance, for the time-being anyway.
Perhaps an hour after I’d regained consciousness, a more senior-looking solider, at least going by his uniform, approached the casket. He muttered something, attracting the attention of two others, who looked up in perfect unison, almost as if they had strings attached. They came forward immediately and eased off the lid. My body seemed to freeze as what was inside came into view.
It wasn’t…human.
Whatever it was, it couldn’t possibly be human. The colour, the shape, what the fuck was it? Fresh terror started brewing inside me, a terror I hadn’t experienced my whole life, as I tried to comprehend what I could possibly have stumbled upon here. The senior officer placed something inside the casket, something I couldn’t see, and signalled for the lid to replaced.
It was at that point the strangest of notions came over me. I couldn’t explain it, but something was telling me that whatever it was I’d delivered for Dobermann, it had just been placed in that casket. I knew it was far-fetched and didn’t really make sense, but the idea just wouldn’t leave me. Afterwards, the officer took a couple of steps back, removed his hat and bowed his head. Then he marched off. I couldn’t take my eyes of that casket, the image of whatever was inside still fresh in my mind. It made me feel eerie, like I’d laid my eyes on something unworldly…something alien. The grave wasn’t ready until sunset, so the whole event was rushed and disorganised, except for the very last part. The grave was a massive affair, more of a crater than a grave, and it took until dark to roll the casket down to the bottom. If any prayers were said, they couldn’t be heard over the dull thudding of the clods raining down on the casket far below. It was an odd sized casket, too big for a man, too small for a dream, but just right for a dynasty.
Thomas McGlone 