In preparation for the possibility of a hasty departure, they refueled and positioned the plane for takeoff. Desmond reported that the tower was empty, but that it looked to have been used recently.

William launched a drone he had brought with them. The device was small and nearly silent. They all crowded around a tablet in the passenger compartment, watching the images captured by the drone’s night vision camera.

The town was deserted. The buildings were stone, two- and three-story, run-down mostly. They reminded Peyton of pictures of Germany after World War II. They almost looked bombed-out. Weeds and nature had retaken much of the landscape, and stone walls lay tumbled on the ground, the victims of time and gravity and perhaps the wind that whipped this strange island.

The drone flew on, toward the labs. A series of stone and brick buildings were arranged in a large horseshoe, forming a courtyard. A chain link fence with barbed wire surrounded the complex; a metal gate with a curved sign hanging above it spelled out words in Russian that Peyton couldn’t read. The motif was that of an American prison from the sixties—Shawshank, perhaps.

The drone made three passes, but found no sign of life.

William pointed to a house on the outskirts of the town. “We’ll sweep the town, then stage here. Peyton, you’ll monitor the drone feed from the house. Just keep flying over, and alert us if you see any movement. Desmond, Avery, and I will move on the complex.”

The town was creepy. Peyton thought it felt like an abandoned movie set: erected quickly, used and reused, then left to decay.

At the edge of town, closest to the labs, they found homes that showed signs of habitation. The windows were new, and the roofs had been repaired. But no lights burned, and they didn’t hear a single sound except for the wind.

William and Avery took the right side of the road, Peyton and Desmond the left, systematically searching each house along the way to make sure it was uninhabited.

“Are you sure you’re okay staying alone while we go to the labs?” Desmond asked.

“I’m not afraid of the dark,” Peyton said.

“That makes one of us. This place creeps me out.”

At the next house, Desmond ran through the rooms while Peyton waited in the living room. “It’s clear,” he said as he came back. But he didn’t move to the door as she’d expected. Instead he said, “What was that about in the plane? With you and Avery.”

Peyton glanced away. “Nothing.”

“Didn’t look like nothing.”

“She’s just trying to mark her territory.”

Desmond bunched his eyebrows. “What territory?”

She smiled. “You know what territory.”

Across the street, William and Avery entered another home and moved through it systematically, each calling clear as they swept another room.