Chapter 1
“Hey!” A girl’s voice said.
Ruby opened her eyes up slowly and had to blink a couple of times to get adjusted to the light from the sun above her. Some strange girl she had never seen before was standing over her, poking at her with her foot.
“What's your name?” The girl asked.
Ruby got herself up into a sitting position. She was on a beach, covered with sand and ocean as far as the eye could see. “I... i’m Ruby. Where am i?”
“You’re on
The Island, or at least that’s what i call it." The girl answered, looking around her as if she was afraid someone else was close by. "I’m guessing you have a lot of questions. But we’ll get to those eventually, you won’t be leaving this place any time soon. I’m Annie by the way. Nice to meet you.” The girl sat down on her knees next to Ruby and reached out her hand to greet her.
To Ruby’s surprise, the girl was almost naked, only wearing a pair of white panties, or at least what had once been white. She had dark hair that reached just past her shoulders, with matching dark brown eyes. She had a slim body and she wasn’t much taller than Ruby. Her tiny boobs were on full display, and it didn’t look like Annie cared the slightest. Ruby reached out her hand to accept the girl’s greeting. “The Island? The same one i was just in a prison on?”
Wait a second. Ruby thought to herself.
I was just home. How the heck did i end up here again?
Annie sighed. “Okay, just listen to me for a second. This is probably not the same island you were on before, although i can’t really say for sure since i wasn’t there. But everyone currently on this island comes from some other experiment they did to us. Now, you might not realize this right now as you're probably processing everything, but you have all your memories back now, and you did not have all of them until you arrived here. So it might take a while for your brain to get itself sorted out.”
Trying to understand, Ruby closed her eyes for a second to try and remember. She thought back to the prison, to Kate, and how the two of them won their competition and won their freedom. Then, once she woke up in the hospital she met this girl who she couldn’t recognize. But when she thought back on it here and now, it was clear that it had been the same Kate she knew from the Island. “So... how did i end up here then if i’m supposed to remember everything?” Ruby asked, still confused.
“Right, i almost forgot. Look in your bag.” Annie pointed towards a bag that was laying in the sand next to her.
Dragging the bag closer, Ruby opened it up and looked at the content inside. A note, two water bottles and a white t-shirt.
“You might wanna put that t-shirt on.” Annie said with a smile.
“What?” Ruby hadn’t even realized that she wasn’t wearing anything. She brushed all the sand off of her and slipped the t-shirt over her head. It was large enough to almost reach her knees, so a few sizes too large. She continued to read the note.
“Welcome to this island, your new home for a while. You might not know this, but you asked us nicely to fix your head. And by signing a contract, which you read through at our office, you agreed to sign up for this, aswell as make our previous little experiment completely legal.
Now don’t panic, we are completely confident in your abilities to succeed in this new task, just as you did in your last. The goal here is simple. Get four unique keys. Each of them is marked with a number from one to four.
The rules of this island is simple. Get the keys, then reach the building on the top of the center of the island. Other than that, there are no rules. How you get the keys are up to you.
Everyone here is in the same position as you, and they are also winners of a previous experiment. Be careful who you choose to trust.
Best of luck to you”
Ruby felt tears building up in her eyes. The thought of going through something like this one more time was almost too much.
“Hey...” Annie reached out a hand and placed it on Ruby’s shoulder. “I know it’s a lot to take in right now, but you’re lucky i found you here. Most of us wake up alone. I was just checking the nets to see if we had caught any fish, and then i noticed you in the sand. Come back with me and i’ll take you to our little camp. It’s safer there than out here, and it’s going to turn dark soon.” Annie stood back up and grabbed Ruby’s arm to help her get up on her feet.
Not really having any other options, Ruby followed Annie off the beach and further into the island. The path they walked went deep into the woods, along a small trail that hurt to walk on barefoot. Once they reached a small lake, Ruby could see what appeared to be three small huts on the other side of it.
“That’s our place.” Annie said pointing towards it. “I’ll introduce you to Eric, our leader. I’m sure he’ll be happy to see a new face, specially one as cute as you. I’m sure he’ll also want to explain more of this place to you.”
Ruby just stood there for a second as Annie started walking towards the camp.
Be careful who you choose to trust. She remembered the letter tell her. Could she really trust these people? But without really having any other options at this point, she decided to follow.