Village Agape, Where Home Is Where Your Heart Is

“This isn’t a cargo ship; this is a ship that’s using the wind to carry it and by the size of it the only way it could sail is if it had a full working crew. We don’t know what kind of people are manning it” Elder Christian spoke in his usual soft voice.

“No matter what it holds or who it holds our people still deserves a right to decide whether or not they will stay or if they will leave.” Elder Anna spoke authoritatively.

“But this is not the normal circumstances. If our people, make the wrong decision it could end up being detrimental to our village” Elder Ryan argued.

“What if this crew tried to take over our village. What if they hurt our women or our children? We don’t know what we will be calling to the island if we raise the alarm” Another screamed.

The tent erupted in loud chatter and arguments as they all tried to get their voices and fear heard.

Chief John allowed them to continue on for a few moments before holding up his hand. Just like that the room silenced and they all looked to him on how to proceed forward.

“We have survived on this island for eight years and have only raised the alarm twice. If someone would like to return to civilization, then they are free to. We will not keep them here. That’s the ultimate foundation that the village was built on. Everyone is free to speak and move as they please. If their decision is to move off the island, then we need to accept that.

It will not be right to say that they cannot sound the alarm on this ship because we are afraid of what is to come. What if this is the last one that passes the island? What if it’s their last chance to leave?”

Ryan looked around the room as everyone seemed to be swayed by Chief John’s logic. It never failed, when the man spoke his wisdom and gentleness always swayed his people to peace and unity.

“You do not care that this crew could hold savages that will come and take over our village for themselves? They could be called to allow the deserters off but instead make us slaves to their purpose” Elder Ryan tried once more to get his point across.

Chief John stood from his seat and looked directly at his advisor with an annoyance and anger that he rarely allowed through.

“They are not deserters! They are not required nor expected to stay here. If they would like to go back into the world, they are welcome to. Village Agape is not here to prevent that. We are here to live in love, unity, and peace.” He spoke strongly.

Elder Ryan gave up trying to sway the rest of the council as they all looked at him accusingly. He knew that if he kept up with his ways of thinking that they would remove him from the council. When he washed ashore three years ago, they were wary of him at first but after 24 months they had finally allowed him into their circle of trusted advisors. He knew that if he lost his position then all would be lost.

“You are right Chief please accept my apologies” He spoke gently trying to recover.

The chief nodded once before addressing the room once again.

“Let’s vote. If you are against sounding the alarm, say nay” he waited and when no one spoke he nodded once again before taking a deep breath.

The Chief knew that Elder Ryan was right and that the faraway ship that had been sailing out on the horizon for days now could be dangerous to his people; but he also knew that he couldn’t allow fear to dictate his decisions. That was the reason they had decided to make the island there home when they were stranded there 8 years ago. It wasn’t an easy decision but looking back he knew he’d made the right one. The world as they had seen it was overpowered by greed and fear and he didn’t want to be a part of that any longer.

It wasn’t hard for him to talk to the rest of the survivors of the same once they started building treehouses and tents to survive in and learning the food and freshwater areas on the island. When the first ship was seen on the coast 8 years ago, they had only lost 4 people out of 23. 10 more ships had passed before 3 more were lost. Since then, they’d rescued people from shipwrecks, plane crashes, and other tragic accidents adding to their growing village.

“I am going to go to my place of seclusion for a few days and I will come back down the mountain when I have recentered back into my positive self” Elder Ryan stood nodding to the council before taking leave.

As soon as he was hidden within the trees he started running and didn’t stop until he ran the full twelve miles to what he called his spot of seclusion. What used to take him days to travel now took him a couple of hours to get to.

When the large mossy boulder came into view, he looked around to make sure he wasn’t followed before exposing a keypad beneath the soil at the base of the boulder. Typing in the pin, the boulder separated revealing a staircase that led to a steel door with another keypad on it.

Ryan entered the boulder and waited for it to go back in place before approaching the steel door and entering another pin. When the door opened, he immediately began barking orders as employees in scrubs began handing him reports and updating him on their findings in the study.

“Ryan after you left, they discussed removing you from the council you need to tone down the aggression when speaking to Chief John. This is supposed to be a study on their social interactions and decisions when out here on their own you can’t continue forcing your ways on them.” his superior Allen Foster walked up reprimanding.

Ryan watched the 40 screens in front of him showing every part of the island and the people in the villages. He refused to acknowledge what Foster was telling him.

“Alana, I need you to fix quadrant seven when I was there yesterday there was a glitch at the top of the dome. We cannot have them finding out that they are not on an island. If they start to realize they are in a controlled environment it will kill our study” He barked pointing to a screen to his left.

“Ryan, are you listening?” Foster continued as he followed him around, watching as he barked orders and suggestions to abide by while he was in the village.

Foster may have been Ryan’s superior, but Village Agape was Ryan’s study and while Foster could make suggestions, he had to allow Ryan to lead it in the way that he wanted.

Ryan watched as Chief John held a vote with the community and no one raised their hand to leave. Throwing the clipboard that he was holding he cursed loudly realizing that they’d have to find more people to drift on to shore. They expected one person maybe two to remain but not a whole village.

It was getting harder and harder to fake accidents with real people. The last group they used was a family of 8 from a small Kentucky town that thought that they’d won a dream vacation to a resort. They had to get them on a private jet, fake engine failure, and get them on a life raft that would take them to the island.

That was two years ago and none of them had decided to leave. The more content the village became with one another the more people Ryan would have to add. He wanted to see what happened when you put different cultures, opinions, morals, and ethnicities in an environment where they had to survive.

So far Chief John was taking control of the newcomers. He was treating them with kindness and patience while trying to make them as comfortable as possible.

Even the ones who decided to be rescued never spoke a word about Village Agape when they returned to life as they knew it. They respected the village and what it stood for in a way he’d never seen before.

Village Agape was the last controlled group standing out of the four that they had started with. The others failed from strife, differences of opinions, poor leadership, and lack of morality. They never even got as far as building a village let alone somewhere to sleep for the night. The other groups had an every man for his-self plan and in doing so they barely made it out alive when it was time to be rescued.

Yet, there was Chief John who became the voice of reason and patience. He took control of the situation and gained the trust of everyone within a few days. Within a week he had the men building tents and tree houses using whatever they could find on the island. By months end they all had assignments and a purpose for day-to-day life.

“Uh, sir? You might want to take a look at this” Arnold a new recruit called out to him.

Ryan and Foster made their way to his screen and looked in surprise as Chief John sat on the buffalo hide rug in his tent staring directly into the camera as if he knew it was there. The cameras were made to be tiny and undetectable to the human eye, but the Chief was staring right at it.

“That’s not possible” Foster whispered as his face paled.

Ryan took a step back as Chief John stood, turned his head to another area of the tent that held a camera, and winked at it.

“Impossible” Ryan whispered as his breathing quickened. The fear of what could happen to his study, if it were found that one of the subjects was aware of the controlled environment the whole time, had his body shaking and his mind wondering.

He couldn’t figure out if he’d done something to give it away or if he’d been followed during one of his so-called times of seclusion.

“What are you going to do?” Foster asked still shaken by what he’d seen.

Ryan stood watching the monitor as Chief John moved through the village like nothing in the world bothered him. He knew that if the chief really did suspect that the island wasn’t real then it was possible the elders knew as well. He refused to allow them to ruin his study that would soon be worth billions of dollars.

“Alana que in a thunderstorm. In 3 days, I want it to upgrade to a category 3 hurricane. Do whatever you have to do to destroy their shelter and block the way to the water supply. Let’s see how he leads when it really is about survival.” Ryan spoke quickly making his way back to the steel door.

As soon as the door closed and locked behind him Foster smiled triumphantly.

“Alana, change the entry codes so that he won’t be able to access this room again. Matter of fact Go ahead and change the foliage as well so that he has a hard time finding his way back up here.” He ordered while watching the monitors showing Ryan making his way back to the village.

“So, the researcher becomes the test subject.” Foster whispered to himself excitedly.

Studies and television all over the world were going to pay big money to watch their entire village rebuild from the ground up.

Ryan just didn’t know he was their new addition.