The Forgotten Island

CHAPTER THIRTY:

MAN’S BEST FRIEND

-Arya-

Thing’s people take for granted: toilet paper, clean clothes, trashcans to dispose of feminine items, ice cream, and freshly shaven armpits. Thankfully we had a surplus of toiletries in tiny bottles from all the suitcases back on the beach, otherwise an appreciation for deodorant and shampoo would have been a part of my list as well. Someone, somewhere, had decided we had been through enough hell, and body odor would have just been a step too far. I estimate it has been over a year since we shipwrecked, which means my birthday had already passed. There's another thing, I could motorboat a chocolate cake at this point; just put my whole face in it like a face mask. Somewhere in the real world, millions of people were eating cake for their birthdays. They don’t know how good they have it. Here I was, walking aimlessly through a literal jungle, and cake-less. Sighing, I stopped and looked around. We had been looking for a form of fresh water all day, and I was drenched in sweat. I looked back for Val, who had accompanied me on today’s expedition. Over the last few weeks, we had stayed up in the treetops on the platform I had made, and although Val’s leg wound had closed, she now had a terrible limp.

I scoped out the area around me a little closer, seeing if I could find any edible plants to take back with us while Val caught up. This whole place was a conundrum, none of the plants should be growing together and it bothered me still. There are plants that belong in a rainforest, others that belong in a drier climate forest, and still others that weren’t even the right color. The thick green mist we had seen as we came ashore all those months ago was closer now that we were deeper in the forest. It came and went like fog, but why the weird color? I made a mental note that if it was acid fog, I was just going to dig a hole and lay myself in it.

I spotted some more groundnuts and dug them up, listening to the sounds of the forest and Val’s lumbering footsteps. “Geez, didn’t someone make this forest handicap accessible?” she wheezed as she sat down on the leaf littered ground. I giggled at her, shoving the groundnuts in my pack as I sidled up to her. As I approached, a slight red color caught my eye a little in the distance. It looked like chicken pox on the earth, but I had an idea of what it was. “Hey Val, got a little bit more left in ya? I think I see some mushrooms over there.” I pointed to the little red spots in the distance, Val reaching up to shade her eyes as she followed my finger. “Yeah, sure, why not?” she replied. Wiping the sweat from her brow and fanning her shirt to allow some airflow, she got up and began walking. I led the way, talking with Val about her daughter as we walked. Val had been on the cruise with a man she had been dating, but according to her it hadn’t been going so well. The cruise was their last-ditch effort to see if they could make it work before calling it quits. Val had left her daughter with her ex-husband and set sail, not knowing she would likely never see her again. “She would be starting high school this year. I wonder if she still rides horses, she used to love riding horses.” I reached out and took her hand as she spoke, giving her some support as we sidestepped debris. Hundreds of socks squished under our feet as we went. Layers buried under the dirt and still more layers on top, scattered around. I laughed at the ridiculousness of this place “Look’s like I found where everyone’s missing socks went.”

Reaching the red spots, I confirmed they were in fact mushrooms. If I was recalling correctly, they were lobster mushrooms, an edible mushroom with a slightly sweet flavor and red in color like their namesake. I started gathering them as Val rested, carefully plucking them and tucking them into a tattered shirt to place in my pack. I would have to figure out how to test them, just in case I had the type of mushroom wrong, but that would be a future me problem. I listened to Val’s happy chatter as I worked, until a familiar sound caught my ear. I held up a hand at my friend “Holy shit, Val! Do you hear that?” She stopped talking and listened, cocking her head to the side, her long dark hair falling over the opposite shoulder. “I don’t hear anything.” We stayed like that in silence, both of us with our heads tilted, listening to seemingly nothing. I heard it again, this time there was no doubt. “VAL! It’s a freaking babble! There is a brook, and its babbling!!” I started dancing around like an idiot at my proclamation, prompting Val to stand and do a little shimmy alongside me in celebration. I looked up at the sky, trying to gauge nightfall. “We should be good to go a little bit longer. We can shelter in place for the night and head back to the others in the morning.” Val threw an arm over my shoulder in a half hug “I agree. We need the water. Besides, my leg isn’t feeling half bad. Let’s do it.” Carefully placing the mushrooms in my pack, we set off towards the sound of water.

The sound got closer as we walked, but there was still no sign of the source. I could tell Val was struggling, and the amount of boob sweat I had going on was just shy of a swamp. I had mentioned stopping a little while ago, but Val had urged me on with her infectious enthusiasm, convinced we were right around the corner from the water. We stopped to take a breath, and it felt like the sun dropped from the sky in seconds. We had taken too long. Then the screaming started.

We stumbled through the dark, panic setting in as the last of the light disappeared. Shit, shit, shit, shit. The word repeated in my head like a mantra. “Val, we can’t be down here.” I felt her hand grasped in mine, but it was pitch black, and our senses were blocked. “I can’t see anything, can you?” she whispered beside me. “Not a thing. We are sitting ducks down here.” I whispered back even quieter. The screaming got closer, leaves crunched under feet not too far away and I could smell some sort of dirty animal in the air. My foot hit something solid, and I fell to the ground, biting my lip to stifle my cry. I tasted blood as I stood, Val’s breathing pitched and fast as she pulled me up. She pulled me close, her voice barely above a whisper as the screams closed in. “There is light up ahead, might be a clearing. It’s our best chance.” I didn’t answer her as we dashed towards the dim light. As the screams closed in, we threw caution to the wind. Val threw a gust in front of us, hoping to clear any debris at our feet. The heavy scraping of her bad leg marking the beat to our fear as we ran.

The animal stench got closer as we neared the light. Val had been right, it was a small clearing, lit by the moon overhead. We crashed out the of the trees into the small area, looking frantically for cover. I started pulling on my power now that I could see a little bit. I might be able to make us shelter or pull us up into the surrounding trees. Snarling came from behind us a second before the creature pounced. On instinct I pushed Val away from me, rolling us both out of the way of the saliva coated jaws. I crawled backwards on all fours, in front of me stood a massive canine creature. Its body had sparse hair on thick wrinkly skin. Red eyes bored into mine as it snarled, snapping its teeth at both Val and I. Suddenly it raised its head and the noise erupting from its mouth raised the hair on my skin. It was screaming. Answering screams echoed around us. This thing was some sort of undead looking wolf, and like any wolf, it hunted in packs.

I raised my hand, pulling a spike from the earth that impaled the creature through its head, the scream ending in a whistle as it died. I ran towards Val and pulled her up, urging her forward. We ran towards the other side of the clearing as more beasts arrived, giving chase. Val’s leg gave out and she stumbled, both of us falling onto the ground. Blood ran down my cheek, a gash deep in my cheek from the fall. I crawled towards her, seeing the pack of animals almost right on us. The closest one jumped, its jaws gripping onto Val’s bad leg and pulling her back, the crunch of bone nearly as loud as her cries. My own cry tore from my lips as I pulled her towards me a little harder, trying to get her free. A second beast pounced on her back, tearing into her shoulder. Her scream pierced the air as the beasts tore into her. With a panicked fling of her good hand, she sent a gust of wind right at me, throwing me up and back into the trees. The sound of tearing filled the clearing as one of the dogs tore Val’s arm from the socket, separating it from her body with a sickening wet sound. Her wide eyes stared at me as one of the larger hounds closed its jaws around her throat, blood gurgling up out of her mouth before it voilently shook its head, severing her head from her shoulders. The rest of the pack closed in, tearing her body into pieces as I crawled backwards into the darkness. Standing up, I turned and fled into the cover night.