Johnny could feel a chill run through his spine as they neared the island. When they were close enough, they turned the engine off, and paddled to the shore. They got out of the boat. Johnny went to look for leaves and small shrubs to cover the boat with while Shawn and Katie tied the boat to a tree.

After they were done covering and tying the boat, Johnny explained to them how he almost fell into a pit on his way back to the boat. It was probably some kind of trap – made to keep out intruders. They knew then that this wasn’t the only surprise that would be waiting for them.

They had already had their breakfast and it was time to move out. Johnny checked his cell phone. And as he had suspected, there was very low cell phone coverage. Then, Johnny removed his GPS from his pocket and looked at it. According to the GPS, there was a factory located about two kilometers from where they currently were. Although the island was beautiful, they had no intention of admiring their surroundings. Instead, they only focused on their goal.

So they set off for the factory. They took their backpacks with them as they knew that it was going to be a long walk.

About half an hour later, they could visibly make out a faint outline of a building. They would take about ten minutes to reach there, and they were feeling exhausted. So they sat down for a quick snack. Their mini-meal consisted of 7ups, chips and ham sandwiches.  Then Johnny spoke up, “So, I was thinking. We’ve made it so far without getting caught, but the factory will be a different story. There’ll be many workers, not to mention the security guards and surveillance cameras. This is definitely going to be hard.”

“I have an idea. We could sneak to the rear of the factory and enter via the traffic door.” Katie said.

“Or instead of the traffic door, we could use the fire escape staircase.” Shawn said.

“That’s a good idea. We’ll also be able to scout out the place.” Johnny replied.

They walked towards the factory. When they were close enough, they began crouching towards the factory’s rear through the bushes. They continued crouching stealthily and hid behind the cover of a few parked trucks. When they saw that the area was clear, they ran for the staircase. Suddenly, a truck pulled up just a few meters from them. They fell to the floor. Then they crawled back to the cover of the trucks.

They waited for about ten minutes, waiting for the truck driver to move, but he just stood there, smoking cigarette after cigarette. They were wasting precious time. So Shawn crept up behind him and dealt him a flying tackle. The burly man fell to the floor and stood up instantaneously. He threw a punch to Shawn’s jaw. Shawn ducked, barely missing his blow. But he had gotten grazed by something hard. The driver was no ordinary fighter. He was poised to strike, waiting for Shawn to make the next move. And then, Shawn saw it. The driver was wearing brass knuckles. A few blows from that would be enough to settle this.

From the corner of his eye, Shawn could see Johnny sneaking up on the driver from behind. Then, Johnny caught him in a headlock and Shawn used that time to throw a rock at the driver’s head. Sparks flew out almost instantly. Johnny jumped back and exclaimed, “What the…” The driver hit the dirt, causing more sparks to fly out. Shawn and Johnny bent down and examined him. They both were thinking the same thing. And then they noticed, he was wearing a human-like-face mask.

After removing it, they saw it. He wasn’t exactly human. Half of his face was metallic. They saw he wasn’t actually wearing brass knuckles either. Some of his fingers were metallic as well. They could see the words ‘Prototype X’ engraved in his neck. “What on earth is going on here? Is he like a robot?” Johnny asked, stunned. “I’m not sure myself, if this is just a prototype…” Shawn’s voice trailed off. He was too terrified to continue. They found a battery compartment on his back. The cover was engineered to blend in with his skin, but one could easily make out the sides of the cover upon close inspection.

They then stood up, still confused. By this time, they were joined by Katie, who uptill now was hiding behind the parked trucks, watching the action from a distance. Katie stared at the semi-robotic driver, looking bewildered. Johnny and Shawn quickly filled her in while they walked towards the fire escape.

When they reached the top of the stairs, Johnny opened the door and peeked inside. Seeing no sign of life – or robots, he motioned for Shawn and Katie to follow him. He crouched inside carefully.

He first looked to the right, and noticed a door. Or rather, he noticed the sign hanging on the door that read, “AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY” In bold red-colored letters. Then he looked to the left. That way led to a curved passage. Johnny, Shawn nor Katie could make out anything beyond that, it was too dark to tell. Finally Johnny peered down carefully, just incase anybody was on the ground floor. There wasn’t anybody in sight and the ground floor was atleast two storey’s below.

“It’s strange.” Johnny whispered, “According to some sources, this place is responsible for about 15% of the island’s total income. And yet, this place seems so…” Johnny paused, thinking of a suitable word to say. Then Johnny and Katie whispered simultaneously, “Abandoned.”

Shawn laughed. “I’ve always loved the way you two complete each other’s sentences.”

Johnny could see Katie blushing even though they were in a dark area. But Katie quickly recovered and whispered back, “Oh shut up. Even if this place seems to be abandoned, we shouldn’t risk making too much noise.”

Johnny then whispered, “Yeah you’re right. So guys, I think we should go right first and check out that room. It could be--”

“An office.” Katie completed his sentence.

Shawn burst into laughter but stopped when he saw Katie glaring at him. Johnny threw a light punch to Shawn’s shoulder.

Johnny got up and walked towards the door quietly, followed by Katie and Shawn. He turned the door knob. It was locked. He removed his trusty pocket-knife from his pocket and began picking the lock. After about a minute, he realized that the lock was jammed. There was only one way to go now; left. While they were walking they saw a door that seemed to be connected to the ‘office’. They continued walking swiftly till they reached the dark passage, then they slowed down a bit.

Suddenly—

“Aaaaaaahh!” Johnny screamed. Johnny being in the lead hadn’t noticed that there was a gap in the platform. Luckily his hand had caught the railing. He was hanging from the rusty railing. With every second that passed, he could feel his energy draining out of him. His grip on the railing kept weakening. Then Shawn caught his other hand and pulled him up with all of his strength.

Johnny sat down, exhausted. He wiped the perspiration from his forehead.

“Don’t scare us like that man.” Shawn said.

After Johnny had caught his breath, he stood up. He glanced at Katie, and then he noticed it. She was standing open-jawed shivering with fear and mixed emotions. Then she ran and hugged Johnny, almost crying. Johnny felt a bit awkward but he patted her on the back and consoled her. ”It’s alright. I’m sorry I scared you Katie. And you too, Shawn.” After that, Katie managed to pull herself together.

“Would any one of you happen to have a torch? My torch’s batteries are all dead.” Johnny said.

Shawn and Katie nodded; signifying a ‘No’. But then, almost like he had remembered something all of a sudden, Shawn reached into his pocket and removed his Nokia Lumia 920 and opened the ‘Torch’ application. He was smiling broadly (probably feeling brainy about himself). Johnny took the mobile from him and shown the light in front of him.

“Hmm. This gap is about 2 meters long.”

“It gets you thinking.” Shawn said.

“What does?” Johnny asked.

“Well, I was wondering whether the platform was broken, which would be odd, or whether this was a trap.” Shawn replied.

“Are you saying someone knew we were coming?” Katie asked.

“It does seem that way.” Shawn replied.

“Or it’s just that they’re taking extra precautions, just incase.” Johnny said.

“Incase what?” Katie asked.

“Exactly, well all we can do is keep moving. Since this gap is only about 2 meters long, I’ll try to jump over it. That way, I can enter the room by using the other door.” Johnny said.

“Hey hold on a minute. Don’t you think you’ve had enough of excitement for one day?” Shawn asked.

“Well, I suppose you could try to jump over it.” Johnny said.

“Try? Oh please. I’m so fly. So why don’t you both wait near that door?” Shawn added, with a stylish accent for extra drama.

Johnny and Katie nodded, but waiting anxiously to see if Shawn would make the jump.
Shawn walked backwards and waited there for a couple of seconds, either praying or taking a deep breath. Then he started running at top speed in order to make the jump.

A couple of seconds later, THUD!

Shawn landed on the other side with a thud. His jump was well executed, as he had jumped atleast a meter more than he needed to, but apparently he hadn’t given much thought as to how he would break his momentum. He put his leg down as though he was walking, but his knees couldn’t bare the force and hence folded, sending him to the platform. Luckily, he wasn’t hurt. He stood up and walked to the door that stood not so far from him.

When he had reached the door, he crossed his fingers and turned the knob.
It was unlocked! After entering the room, he saw that it was indeed an office. There was a ladder in the office as well, passing through the floor, probably leading to the ground floor. There was an elevator too, but it needed a key in order to be operated. Then he walked to the other door and opened it for Johnny and Katie.

Shawn told them that the elevator needed a key in order to be operated. They decided to use the ladder. Katie led the down the ladder. When they reached the ground floor, they used their eyes to scan their surroundings. They were searching for an office, or any kind of room in which they may be able to find the key. There were boxes and machines around them. They split up to search for the key.

Katie found a workshop located to the left of the entrance. It was a small room that consisted of a table, a chair and some tools. She opened the table drawers only to find more tools.

Meanwhile—

Shawn had found a janitorial room. He tried the knob, but it was locked. He got out his pocket knife and began picking the lock. He managed to get the door opened in about half a minute.

Shortly after he entered the room, he was joined by Katie and Johnny who helped him search the room. They found a set of keys hidden in a drawer of the cupboard.
“Any one of these key can be used to operate the elevator. Let’s go back up and check.” Shawn said.

They agreed. Shawn led the way up the ladder. When they reached the office they looked at the shape of the lock and compared it to the shape of the key. In a minute or so, they figured out which key they needed to use. Katie slid the key into the lock and called the elevator. When the doors opened, the stepped into the elevator. Johnny moved his index finger over to the button panel. “Here goes nothing.” he said. Then he pressed the button ‘B’ (Basement). As soon as the elevator doors opened, he took Shawn’s cell phone and shown the light on the ground. There were about a dozen crates in the basement, but other than that it was empty. The ground was dusty as well, except for a few sets of footprints leading to another elevator.  They walked over to the crates.

“Hey, let’s open some and see what’s inside.” Shawn said.

Using his pocket knife, he pried open one of the crates. When they looked inside they saw various metallic pieces. They fumbled through the pieces only to realize that they fitted together to form metallic hands and legs.

“These could be parts of robots. Probably prototypes.” Johnny said.

“Let’s see what’s in the other crates.” Katie said eagerly.

Shawn pried open several other crates. Among some of them were ‘half-animal half-robot’ prototypes. And the rest contained broken metallic pieces.

“Gosh, that is so cruel. Combining an animal with metal. Eww.” Katie said.

“There’s one more box there,” Johnny said, pointing to a corner of the basement, “And that one looks much bigger.”

They walked over to the box and pried it open. There were big black dogs that looked exactly the same.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Shawn asked.

“Yeah, they look like they’ve been cloned. Probably a failed experiment. All of them are dead.” Johnny said.

“Yeah,” Katie agreed, “We should call the cops. Firstly, cloning is like, illegal. I mean, this seems like some kind of a secret op. So far we haven’t even seen one camera or a security guard too. If it was this easy, even for a bunch of sixteen-year old teenagers to uncover a secret op., I doubt their op. would last for this long and yet…”

“I know right. We should call the E.P.A (Environmental Protection Agency) too. I mean if this really is a secret op. and if the E.P.A found out about it, well, it could get published in the paper…” Johnny said.

“And that kind of publicity could ruin whoever’s in charge.” Katie cut Johnny off.

“It makes sense. But that still doesn’t explain the pits, and how you knew there was something strange about this…..nevermind.” Shawn said.

“What?” Johnny asked.

“Nevermind!” Shawn replied. “I’ll go back up and call the cops and the E.P.A. If I remember correctly there was a telephone in the office. Wait here, I’ll be right back.”

Shawn asked Katie for the elevator key and went on his way. Meanwhile Johnny and Katie sat on the floor near the elevator.

“So what do you think? I mean, er, how do you feel?” Johnny asked Katie.

“Jeez, relax! It’s not like I’ve been shot or something.” Katie replied.

Johnny grinned. “Good, because there’s something I need to tell you.”

“Okay, what is it?”

“There is…there’s a reason why we’re here. I’m not exactly--”

“Hey I’m back!”

Johnny was interrupted by Shawn, who was now walking towards him and Katie. Then, he noticed the look on their faces. “Am I interrupting something?”

“Um, no, not really.” Johnny said, standing up first and extending his hand towards Katie.

“Well, I called the cops; they said they’ll send two men to check it out in about half an hour. And then the E.P.A. They didn’t believe me at first but they said they’ll send some people over to see for themselves.”

“Half an hour? Lousy lazy cops.” Katie said, calling the elevator simultaneously.

“Well, their nearest police station is about half an hour away so…” Shawn said.

The stepped into the elevator and pressed the ‘Lower Basement’ button. As soon as the elevator doors opened, the trio stepped out, hearing a voice blaring over a loudspeaker.

“Ah, Mr. Johnny and his friends. I welcome you. This was a foolish mistake. Nonetheless you shall be rewarded for making it this far. Say hello to my little friend.”

On the other side of the basement they could see a large gate opening. And then they saw a seven foot tall robot walking towards them. Then they heard the voice again;

“Meet my latest prototype. I wouldn’t mind explaining to you what it’s capable of, but what’s the point? You three won’t live long enough to remember!”