Ethan
We didn't go far.
The open space of the campus felt safer than the buildings, even though I knew that was probably an illusion. We took shelter near a cluster of low concrete benches and broken planters, keeping the science block in view.
No one spoke for a while.
Finally, Alexa broke the silence. "They didn't run," she said. "Did they?"
I looked at the notebook still clutched in my hands.
"No," I said. "They stayed."
Lila nodded slowly. "That sounds like my dad."
She was calm in a way that scared me. Like she was building walls inside herself to keep from collapsing.
I opened the notebook again, forcing myself to read instead of imagine. There were dates, diagrams, notes referencing other departments. Physics. Environmental science. Marine studies.
All of it connected.
"They were working together," I said. "This wasn't just one lab."
"And then they stopped," Alex said quietly.
I turned a few more pages. Near the back, several sheets had been torn out. One remained, folded and creased, like someone had shoved it into the notebook without thinking.
On it was a rough map of the island.
Several areas were circled. The forest. The beach.
And the college.
At the center, one word had been written twice.
Core
My stomach tightened.
"They were tracking something," I said. "Or trying to contain it."
Lila stared at the page. "Or understand it."
We sat with that for a moment.
The truth was forming slowly now, heavy and unavoidable. Our parents hadn't been caught by surprise. They had seen this coming. They had stayed behind to study it, maybe to stop it.
And whatever was beneath the island had noticed.
A distant tremor rippled through the ground again, farther away this time, like movement spreading outward.
"They're not dead," Lila said suddenly.
I looked at her.
"They wouldn't have left without trying to protect people," she continued. "If they're gone… it's because they were taken. Or trapped."
I nodded. I needed to believe that.
"We find where they went next," I said. "We use what they left."
Alex looked up at me. "And if the ground doesn't let us?"
I didn't answer right away.
Then I said, "Then we learn how it works."
The island was quiet again. Too quiet.
But now we knew something we hadn't before.
This wasn't random.
It wasn't mindless.
And somewhere beneath Nako Island, something was responding to human curiosity.
Just like it always had.