Chapter 3: (1) - Hunter Island
After a three-hour flight, Alexandre's plane finally arrived at Hunter Island's small airfield.
Since Hunter Island was a restricted, high-security zone, there were no publically available photographs of the famous location's layout. After such a long flight, all the students looked eagerly out the plane's windows to catch their first glimpses of their new home below.
"Hunter Island" was a bit of a false name. It was actually an archipelago composed of several small islands which sat close together in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
Two of these islands were far larger than the others: the first, where the airstrip was visible like a stripe of gray paint on the ground far below them, and which also looked as though it contained a barracks and several other military-style buildings; and the second island, which looked as though it contained the Hunter Academy itself, as well as a small town.
Alexandre had researched the lifestyles on US military bases in preparation for his arrival. Though he'd never seen pictures of Hunter Island before, he was sure he understood how the social and economic situation worked: the military members would likely live on the first island, which would have even higher security than the second island.
They'd get standard military supplies delivered by plane or boat. When they were granted leave, the soldiers would likely spend all their paychecks in the little town on the second island, where prices for alcohol and other forms of entertainment would be sky-high to take advantage of the fact that the soldiers had nowhere else to go.
In addition, no matter how high the security on Hunter Island was, there would surely be some enterprising people who managed to smuggle drugs and other illicit substances into the town, which some of the soldiers would surely spend several times more to obtain than they would on the mainland.
Meanwhile, the students and civilians would live on the second island. The students would likely be in a similar situation to the actual military members—they would have their basic needs taken care of, and they might receive a small allowance, but prices would be absurdly high in the nearby town.
Truly, to have the opportunity to open a shop on a military base like this was a fantastic opportunity! Especially in the modern day, when the average person in the richest countries on Earth was destitute. The civilians who opened these shops would be subjected to strict background checks and sworn to secrecy before, but Alexandre had the feeling that there were also some heavy bribes involved.
As their plane dropped in altitude, Alexandre wondered if he was the only student on the plane to be thinking about practical, analytical matters. What was going through the minds of all the other students? Were they merely thinking about all the power, wealth, and glory they believed they would win as a full Hunter?
Soon, worried murmuring filled the plane's interior as several anti-aircraft installations swiveled to point at their craft. This immediately caught Alexandre's attention.
The government truly had a pathological fear of both Virus Z... and the Hunters themselves, whose superhuman abilities made them a nearly uncontrollable element of international security. It was obvious that the military presence on this island was in part to respond to any Hunter-based threats that might arise from the Hunter Academy itself, rather than simply to protect the government's secrets.