Jake didn't dare try to have more conversations after being called out like that. He also doubted the others would humor him anymore.
The boredom wasn't any less maddening, though, and Jake found himself thinking about how he got himself in this situation in the first place.
Jake wasn't a stranger to getting in trouble. The amount of times he had gone out drinking with the boys and woken up in a mess was more than he could remember.
He guessed that his problems had started when he dropped out of school, wanting to get himself a job he had. Making his own money and being free to do whatever he wanted. He had quickly realized that what he wanted to be free from the most was working his shitty ass job.
After that, everything had gone right down the shitter. Not wanting to work meant no money, which he didn't want either. So, in the end, he looked around for easy ways to make money and got introduced to some new friends who were of a similar mind.
One thing led to another, and suddenly, he was running his own little gang, breaking into homes and stealing everything worth anything. Things had been going well until they weren't.
The day things really started to go wrong was doing a break-in where the owner of the house happened to be home still. The less that needs to be said about what happened to his poor skull, the better.
If he had only left the place after that, things might not have reached the point of no return. However, back then, he had been foolish and decided to finish looting the guy's place even as he bled out on his carpet.
As he and his crew had looked around, they struck the motherload. A fuck ton of hard cash hidden away. Yeah, taking that money was then everything went wrong.
At first, they were all happy, happy enough to forget about the murder. Yet as soon as the money was counted, things started to go south.
Danny had gotten cold feet; the break-ins weren't much, yet he couldn't handle the risk of being locked up for murder.
Fucker had taken his share of the money, hidden it all, then called the fucking cops. The next thing Jake knew was that his whole crew, his boys, all turned on him.
They got away with barely a slap on the wrists due to ratting him out, and he got life for murder. As soon as he got locked up, they came, the fucking suits.
Those fuckers in tight black suits showed up with a newspaper article, about his own suicide, from the day before. They told him Jake Dourson was dead, and in his place, D-6642 was born.
They had given him that awful jumpsuit he was wearing even now and taken him away. They said it was locked up to be put to use. However, until today, he had been left to rot in a cell. Not having anyone to talk to at all for weeks had been the worst.
Which was why he glared at the other so called D-class. 'How can they be so calm? Haven't they been dying of boredom as well?'
What he really couldn't understand was how the fuck they were calm about having fucking bombs stuck around their necks!
He knew it wasn't a good person, but even he knew that this was all kinds of fucked up. If the government could do this, and no one knew about it? Well then he was pretty sure that he wouldn't be able to spread the news.
So if he could think about this then surely the others could as well. Yet they didn't even show a single hint that they might want to resist. He knew he was fucked, he wanted to go out with a bang, yet was too scared to start resisting on his own.
After all, he did want to live, so unless they all acted, then there would be no chance at surviving at all, yet the others seemed so fucking cool with it all that he drove him even more mad than the boredom had done.
Jake spent the rest of the trip trying to send subtle hints to the others yet was treated like a complete moron and ignored.
…
"Alright, All D class, get ready for your mission." One of their guards shouted after what felt like forever of silence.
Jake and the others stood up as the guards pointed their guns at them while another unchained them from the wall, though they remained chained to one another.
"Don't try anything; obey the instructions, and this might not be your final mission." The guard who had been the only one talking to them so far told them as he went up the stairs, leaving them standing with only three guards, all armed and unfriendly-looking.
"We didn't reach land, we should still be in the middle of the sea." The old man whispered to the others.
Jake couldn't believe the old man had said something on his own! Nor how the others clearly listened to him. "How do you know that?" he couldn't help but ask.
The others looked at him like he was an idiot again nearly causing him to yell again.
"Because I kept track of the time. From the amount of movements of the ship I can guess at the speed, so yeah I got a rough idea of where we are." He explained in a whisper to keep Jake calm.
"Swimming isn't an option from here, best to do as they say for now." The woman whispered towards Jake as well. Making him realize that the others seemed to have some kind of understanding between themselves, maybe even a plan.
"Just keep quiet and do as we do." The old man whispered before the guard yelled down from above.
"Alright we are ready up here, bring the D class up." To which Jake had no choice but to follow the rest under the watchful eye of the guards.
Going up through the ship was a pain to do while chained up to the others, even more so since he had been sitting badly for hours. Yet as they stepped foot out on the deck Jake couldn't help but give the old man a look as there was very clearly an island no far from them.
The old man looked both shocked and surprised. Yet, he ignored Jake's taunting look, so he quickly looked around; instead, what he saw wasn't reassuring.
There were massive ships all around them; worse still, they were all warships, almost as if they were trying to block off the island. Yet he saw more ships further out, making it look as if they were ready to start fighting one another at any moment.
After a short moment, they were forced to the side of the ship, where a rope ladder led down to a small boat, just the right size for four people.
"You four will be taking this boat, your goal is to reach the island in there." The guard said pointing towards the small island. "Once there, you are to find a woman, ask her the questions in this book." He continued on and gave the old man a book.
"We know what answers should be given in according to those questions; we just need them confirmed. Which means that we will know if you make up the answers." The guard continued to explain their mission.
"You won't be able to use the motor for the whole way, so once that stops, you got to row. Now it's very, very important that you touch nothing while in there. You touch anything and you die, simple as that." He glared at them as he said that part.
"We will keep a close eye on what you are doing at all times, If you try to flee, you will either be shot down or have your heads blown off. Do as you are asked, be careful, and you will get to live. Try anything, and you will die. Now get going." He finally barked as their chains unlocked and fell down, freeing them from everything but the bomb collar.
"Alright, you, let's get this done." The old man said as the other three quickly got moving, heading into the small boat where the old man took charge, started to motor, and sailed off.
Back on the ship, the guards, people working for the SCP Foundation, watched them like hawks.
After a moment, one of them asked, "Did we really need to use D class for this? I mean, SCP-900 isn't that dangerous."
"We can't be sure about that, not after the CK, so it's better to be safe than sorry." Was the answer he got.
"Guess that's right, what about our audience? Are they being handled?" He then asked and motioned to some of the ships out there.
"I heard O5-2 himself is handling it, and he gave us permission to sink any ship trying to breach the blockade," said someone standing behind them both.
Looking back, they quickly exclaimed, "Captain!"
"No need for that." He waved them off. "But don't you two have something to do? Like keeping an eye on the D-class?" He reminded them before working off. No doubt to communicate with the other ships about this whole headache this case was quickly becoming.
Why was everyone suddenly making such a big deal of an island appearing out of nowhere? They should just trust the Foundation to deal with it. Fools the lot of them indeed.
----------------
As soon as they had gotten some distance away from the ship Jake couldn't help himself. "What did you say about no land around? Pretty sure I'm looking at some right now."
"Shut up, brat," the old man barked. Yet it was clear that Jake wasn't the only one with questions. "I don't know. This island shouldn't be here, not unless I'm completely off with my estimates."
"Fine, we believe you, but let's have a look at that book; it might hold some answers." The fourth man of their group said, a young guy who really was a silent type, or had been so far.
The book changed hands, and the woman whose name Jake didn't know; in fact, he didn't know any of their names. This group of people really was the silent type.
She quickly flipped through the book. "Not saying a whole lot. The questions all seem pretty basic, they likely know the answers to most of these." She said as she started to look through it.
"Any clue about the situation with the ships son?" the old man asked towards the younger guy. Who definitely didn't look like his son at all.
"It's Hard to say. There seem to be at least three different forces: our captures and two others who seem to have teamed up against our guards. It seems to me that this island is pretty important. No way anything less could bring this many warships out."
Jake didn't know what to think about these three or the strange situation. He really wished he had some more information or context to work with here.
"Well, either this island just appeared out of nowhere, or it's some real important secret that never was on any maps; no other way I wouldn't know about." The old man defended himself.
Before anyone had a chance to comment, the motor went out, and they just started slowly drifting forward. "Guess we reached the point of no return, Son, and you brat, you row." The old man commanded to which the young man didn't hesitate to obey, giving Jake no chance to say anything.
It took them just a short while to figure out the rhythm and they started to make good progress once more.
"Properly the first option, sure looks like the mystical Atlantis to me." The woman suddenly said while looking down into the waters. Causing the other three to do the same.
What greeted them was the sight of a sunken ancient city, one in amazing condition at that. The woman might have just been joking at first. As they continued towards the island, they all couldn't help but think that she might have been right.
A/N
If you want to read 5 chapters ahead or support me, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / SCPsystem