The caves. Familiarized by cannibals, with many even considering them home. After they were released from the facility after being experimented on, they were free to roam. Going in as normal natives to the island, they re-emerged as changed creatures.
As for Jackson, Rane, and Alexander, they came upon Jackson's treehouse. High up in a sturdy, half dead spruce tree. By now, nightfall had set in. The skies are cloudy, a heavy fog bank began rolling over the island, causing visibility to drop to almost zero.
"Stop," Jackson whispered as he held his hand out to his side. Rane wasn't paying attention, heavily focused on Jackson's bare ass. She had bumped right into him from behind. After coming out of the "trance" she was in, she took some steps back.
"Oh shit," Rane said to Jackson, "I'm sorry."
Jackson turned his head to his right, but didn't make direct eye contact. He put his arm down. Looking up at the house, he noticed something Alexander or Rane didn't.
Alexander noticed the subtle movement of his head and wondered what it was he had seen.
"Jackson?" He asked. "Is every–"
"Quiet," Jackson replied.
The skull lamps were lit. Before leaving to either scrounge for food, get supplies, or gather more intel from the mountain facility, Jackson would always extinguish them to trick mutants and cannibals that remained to think that the treehouse was abandoned.
But when they'd returned, the lamps were lit. Someone or something had been here, but it was unclear who or what that something was.
"Hide over there in the bushes," Jackson mumbled as he turned around to face them. With his right hand, he raised it and pointed over at a bush that was big enough to hide them.
Alexander and Rane both scurried over to the lush green bush; one that hasn't been affected in any way by the fires and bombardments from the past. Strange as it is, it's all part of the natural recovery process. From the ashes, new life will flourish.
"Stay there until I give word," Jackson whispered to them.
Alexander had to grab Rane's hand to bring her over to the bush with him. Still fixated on Jackson, she'd returned to the trance she'd been in a few minutes ago.
ROAR!
Jackson began climbing the yellow rope. It stretched and stressed under his weight as he climbed up it. He had heard the roaring, deathly sound of the Cowman. Loud, it sounded very close to their location; but where?
Hoisting himself up onto the outer platform, he'd made it safely to the top. Turning around to look back down at the ground, he barely saw Alexander and Rane. They were buried within the bush and slowly-lifting fog.
SNAP!
CREAK!
Alexander had slowly withdrawn his gun from the holster, holding it again at his side; ready to fire when needed. He grabbed Rane's arm light and gently, slowly pulling her back closer to him. Holding his finger up to his lips, he signaled to remain as quiet as possible.
"Shh," he mumbled, "do not move. Don't look back."
Her entire body suddenly tensed up; her muscles becoming stiff. She looked him right in the eyes, silently signaling to him that she was spooked. Mouthing, but not speaking verbally, she mouthed:
"It's them, isn't it?" She whispered. Alexander sighs and nods, confirming her fear of what might and could happen next.
As the Cowman got closer to them, their hearts began to race; their pulse only getting faster. The Cowman huffed and puffed; stomping its feet.
Turning its head to the left, then to the right. As the fog continued to lighten up, the more they were able to see. Swinging in from a dead pine tree, Stitches landed perfectly on his feet.
ROAR!
"Oh my god!" Rane muttered as her breathing began getting faster.
Adrenaline is rushing throughout their body, coursing through their veins.
"Oh my god!" Rane muttered again. This time, however, Alexander put his hand over her mouth to keep her from freaking out; not that she wasn't already.
Up in the treehouse, Jackson had been confronted by someone he knew very well.
"Jackson," Matthew mumbled, "how've you been? Let's chat?"
Jackson knew that this Matthew wasn't the real Matthew; but a cloned version. This clone had a slightly different attitude than many others did. This version doesn't think like the others, much less share the same hostilic dream of ruling the World.
"Let's chat?" Jackson mumbled, "what's there to talk about?"
All clones of the original all wore the same clothing for the most part. But every once in a while, they'd change their outfits. That made it easy to figure out what version that said someone was talking to.
Matthew shrugged his shoulders and began rubbing his chin. When he turned around, a number was tattooed on in black ink on their backs. His number was: 004. That number was from months ago when Matthew began rapidly cloning himself.
After the military bombardment weeks ago, Matthew returned to the island to continue where he'd last left off. Also coming back to the island were: Allison and Megan were accompanying him.
Staying under the radar, Jackson surveyed Matthew and his family from a distance. Doing this, he wouldn't risk being seen by any of them. Taking mental notes, he would proceed to write in an old, aged notebook of his surveillance and thoughts.
Matthew 004 put his hands behind his back and began pacing back and forth slowly with his head looking down. He pointed at Jackson, but didn't look or make eye contact with him; remaining fixed to the floor.
"I have information," he told Jackson, "things that you might want to hear."
Jackson crossed his arms and took a step back. "Why come here? You're wasting your time."
"I disagree," Matthew 004 replied. "It's about the other… [long pause] well….me."
ROAR!
Rane shook from being startled. That roar was slightly higher-pitched than the other one. It, too, sounded close. But from where?
THUMP! THUMP! [long pause] THUMP! THUMP!
Those were the sounds of the Cowman walking and thumping around. Each step he took, they sent shivers down her back.
Alexander slowly and quietly grabbed his gun, releasing the safety before raising it and aiming it. As annoyed as he is with Rane being a clumsy partner, it was the right thing to do–to protect her; eachother.
"Behind me," he mumbled over his shoulder to Rane.
Stepping back and behind him, he raised his gun again straight ahead.
"He's found what he's needed to resurrect–"
"Resurrect?" Jackson asked, lacking the proper knowledge to understand what Matthew 004 was explaining. "Redirect? Resurrect what?"
Matthew 004 tilted his head slightly as he stopped pacing back and forth to face him directly. He had a snarky, subtle smile.
"You don't remember?" Matthew 004 asked. "What I told you?"
"No," he responded softly but fiercely. "So tell me now! Remind me again what it was we talked about?"
TSK! TSK!
Putting his hands behind his back again, Matthew 004 went back to pacing back and forth.
TSK!
"That's offensive," he told Jackson, "not remembering."
"Why should I care?" Jackson questioned. Matthew 004 sighed heavily, with Jackson feeling the frustration radiating off of him.
"This is why you're a reject," he reminded Jackson, "a mistake! A clone gone rogue!"
Matthew 004 was so over Jackson's attitude, that he walked up to him; their faces nearly touching one another's. Matthew 004 jabbed his pointer finger into Jackson's chest.
"Is that what I am to you?" Jackson asked, "a defective reject?"
"No other way to put it," Matthew 004 responded while gritting his teeth. "He should've disposed of you upon leaving your cloning chamber."
Jackson didn't respond right away. He wants to keep hearing Matthew 004's story.
"He's unworthy of being our leader," Matthew 004 explained, "with my wits and my will, I can make things right. A purge should suffice. Eliminate and correct what's been wronged."
Jackson knew then and there that Matthew 004 had plans of his own. Plans so different, that Matthew 001 would scold and be disappointed.
"What good will that do you?" Jackson asked.
Matthew 004 backed away from him and turned around. As he slowly walked away from Jackson, Jackson looked over over at his katana that was resting up against the wall. Keeping a fixed, keen eye on clone 004, he snuck over to it.
Just as he reached down to grab it and pick it up, the floorboard he stepped on creaked. Just as Matthew 004 turned around after hearing the noise, he was too slow to react.
Jackson swung his katana with brute might, the tip of it just grazing Matthew 004's throat. A straight line across, blood began spewing out, running down his neck and dripping onto his pants and the floor.
Collapsing to his knees, his hands shook as he rubbed his neck with one hand. Looking up at Jackson, he was surprised. He smiled a sinister last smile before leaning to his right and falling onto the floor. A puddle of blood followed, seeping into the cracks in between floorboards.
Jackson sighs as he sets the katana up against the wall. After he did that, he walked over to the rope and gazed down at the bush Alexander and Rane were hiding in.
"All is okay," he uttered down to them, "come on up."
And with that, Rane and Alexander couldn't have rushed out of the bush any faster. Because right on their tail, the Cowman had sensed them and was preparing to charge.
ROAR!
HUFF!
"Hurry!" Alexander shouted to Rane, "you first!"
She wasted no time in climbing up the rope as fast as she could. Near the top, Jackson got down to his knees to lend her a hand to hoist her up.
Alexander now began his rush, life or death, to climb up the rope. Struggling to lift himself up, Jackson and Rane had to grab ahold of the rope and pull him up.
Just as he reached the treehouse platform, the Cowman charged forward right under him, crashing directly into the thick pine tree trunk. It huffed, it puffed, and it roared a deathly roar.
"Fuck," Rane said as she saw Matthew 004's body lying on the floor in a pool of blood, "is that–"
"He's a clone," Jackson told them both. "A genetic, replicated copy of THE Matthew Cross."
"That technology doesn't exist," Alexander told Jackson, "that's not possible."
"I'm a cloned copy, but don't act or look like him," Jackson replied. "But my cloning process was rejected upon awakening, hence where I am now; here."
"I–I don't follow," Alexander replied.
"Seeing is believing," Jackson told them, "he had a dream…and this is his vision playing out; getting one step closer to bring the World to its knees. What you know is only the smidge of what he's building and planning."
"Ambitious and persistent," Alexander mumbled.
"Let's chat," Jackson said, please … sit. I'll tell you anything or everything you need and want to know; with the beginning dating back to 2003. That day, unlike this day, was when this all began."
"We're listening," Alexander said.