Inside the vehicle, the pilot and a second occupant stared at the screen in disbelief. The rectangular screen was divided into four quarters; the top left quadrant showed an aerial view of the island in front of them, and down the left-hand side of the quadrant was a strip with statistical data on it: sector number, name of the island, population count, temperature, humidity, and such. The top right section was a real-time panoramic view of the front of the island from one side of the coast to the other, with small yellow rectangles overlaid on each other, creating a block of yellow, highlighting every human in front of them. The bottom left was split up into a grid with different camera views across the island, showing people who were all standing at the entrance of the water in front of the craft. The bottom right quadrant showed some more people standing on the cliff, completely frozen, just standing there, looking out to sea.

“Pharis, we have to go back and report this to the Peelers,” a voice in the back of the vehicle said.

“And tell them what Jayce?” replied Pharis. “I don’t have a clue what this is.”

“I need to take some video first so we can assess the situation, and then we can decide what we are supposed to do.”

“We’ve got to tell them something; otherwise, thousands of people are going to die,” came the reply.

“Computer, what are your recommendations?” asked Jayce.

“There is insufficient data to draw a conclusion,” replied the computer.

“See? Even the computer doesn’t know what to do,” replied Jayce.

Outside the view screen in front of them, a landmass stretched from left to right. Appleton Island had never really been something to write home about, but this was not one of those days. Instead of the rocky beach, the docks and fishing boats, the entire bay was filled with over two thousand people, all looking out to the sea. On the top of a cliff next to a large, abandoned warehouse, there stood a couple of people. No one was moving; in fact, they looked almost frozen in time.

“Look up there,” said the woman in the back of the vessel, pointing at the cliff’s edge. “It’s Detective Lissington and the chief’s daughter.”

“Who are those other two?” the co-pilot asked, pointing at two figures coming out of the warehouse and walking towards the cliff edge.

“Sheesh, where have you been Jayce? That’s Zac, and no mistaking who that is, that’s Chief Wilson waving her arms at us,” answered Pharis.

“I know they said there was a disturbance, but this is worse than we thought,” the pilot said, stroking his chin. He tapped some coloured lights on the console, and one of the camera feeds zoomed in on something of interest.

“What is that?” Jayce asked, pointing at a large square screen in the middle of the island, propped up on tall metal stilts.

“That’s the tannoy system. It’s an automated emergency system which warns the island residents of incoming tsunamis, hurricanes, and other dangerous weather anomalies,” replied Pharis. “It’s not usually visible.”

“But it’s a calm day,” came the reply. “Why is it activated?”

The view-screen filled up with more images of the people on the edge of the shore, and as the pilot tapped on the console, parts of the view-screen broke up into smaller sections. One section zoomed in on the emergency warning system. A squeal of feedback sounded across the entire island as the microphone was switched on, and the voice sounded from the Qubek speakers.

“This is a great moment in history,” said the voice. “The moment when you all get to become immortal.”

The two officers looked at each other in confusion.

“This is a police frequency; identify yourself,” said Jayce through the microphone, but there was no response.

On the island, the townsfolk stared at each other, stunned.

Inside the police vessel, Pharis and Jayce watched as a man’s face appeared on the emergency screen.

“In a few moments, you will be assured of the following facts.”

The mysterious stranger held a closed fist up to the holo-screen tannoy. The pilot and co-pilot watched as he slowly and deliberately extended each finger on his hand, counting off each point as he announced them.

“You will never grow older.”

He extended his forefinger.

“You will never know fear.”

This time he extended his middle finger.

“You will never know pain, and you will never be hungry again.”

The ring finger and pinky fingers were extended.

Everyone on the shore looked at each other, and the volume of chatter increased.

“Who is this guy? Some sort of saviour?” asked the co-pilot.

“I don’t see anyone cheering,” replied the pilot. “He looks familiar.”

“HOLLIE, I want you to pull out his file and assess the situation,” said the pilot aloud.

“Working,” replied a voice inside the cockpit. “Facial recognition identifies him as Oliver Black, who has prior interviews on record for questioning in connection with incident 4012b/18 on the Appleton Island files. Would you like to hear more?”

The tannoy speaker started again and echoed once more.

“You only have to do one thing to achieve all of this,” announced Oliver. There was a dramatic pause before he spoke his next sentence. “Walk into the sea.”

There was a moment of echo, then silence, and finally screaming.

Inside the craft, the door opened.

“What are you doing?” asked the pilot.

“I don’t know; I can’t stop it,” replied the co-pilot with a look of terror on his face.

“Look, it’s not just me.” The co-pilot pointed at the shoreline, and his legs started to guide the rest of his body out of the craft.

All along the shore, people were stepping one foot at a time in deliberate robotic movements into the sea, and there was nothing they could do about it, except to scream louder.

On top of the cliff, the detective and the chief’s daughter were unable to stop themselves, with almost robot-like movements, shuffling one foot in front of the other, and stepping closer to the cliff’s edge.

Thoughts started to race through the pilot’s mind as he tried to work out what he could do to stop whatever was happening. As island residents started to drop off the cliffs, others walked into the water from the sandy bay, some climbed off their boats, and some people even stepped off the pier and pontoons. The sea filled up with people screaming in absolute terror, and they knew at that moment they were all going to die. The microphone squealed again, and Oliver just laughed maniacally. He was a man without reason or remorse, and no one could stop him.

Jayce walked out of the back of the boat and made a splash as she fell into the sea.

“Noooooooooo,” screamed the pilot as his body moved involuntarily, and he started to make his way to the door towards the water.

Jayce and Pharis looked around as they bobbed up and down in the water, and there was nothing and no one who could help.