Chapter 4
Anaconda Island
Anaconda Island by Asmaa Nada
Chapter 5
The captain said, “Thank you, thank you, but you have to prepare everything you need so that we don’t stay on that island for a long time. Mark’s father is very worried, and you also have to wear heavy clothes so that you can use covers as clothes because we will reach mountains of snow.”
Two days passed, and the young men, the captain, and the sailors all felt excited. Raymond was the most cautious among them. He tied the internal maps of the island inside plastic bags to protect them from water if anything unexpected happened. Then he tied those bags to his body, and with the appearance of the snow mountains, everyone noticed that the engine stopped and the rise The sails were set, and the ship nevertheless began to move quickly. The atmosphere was clear, and the appearance of the snow mountains shining with the lights reflected from the moon gave a frightening feeling inside all of their hearts. The girls approached each other, and the boys tried to pretend not to be afraid, but they also sat near the girls. On the other hand, despite The enthusiasm that fills the captain's heart, his greatest fear is of any avalanche that will happen to those mountains, so he issues instructions to the sailors and also warns the young men not to make a loud sound.
The night was spreading its curtains, and the place was only illuminated by the lights of the ship and the reflection of those lights on the snow-like mirrors, and the light of the full moon, which sends rays of light over the semi-icy water and bounces back to the sky in thin threads. Silence and anticipation prevailed among everyone, and the ship’s movement suddenly slowed down. Antoine approached He looked at the inner wall of the ship and tried to look at the water while whispering to distract the girls from their feelings of fear
“Look, something is moving in the water. I think it's penguins or those fish called sea elephants.”
Marie approached Antoine and looked at the place he was pointing to, then looked carefully, then backed away in panic, covering her mouth with her hand. Everyone gathered around her and Clark asked her in a whisper.
"What? Did you see a ghost?"
"They're human skeletons tied together," Mary whispered.
They were all silent, then Raymond hurried to look, holding a flashlight. He shone the light into the water and said:
"There is nothing, there is nothing"
Antoine and Mark looked too, and then Mark whispered and said, “Direct the light over there at the beginning of the mountain.”
The captain's voice came and he also whispered, "They are your reflections and nothing more."
"No, I saw human skeletons," Mary said.
The captain said, "It is possible. The islanders throw their dead into the water. There is nothing scary. Go to your rooms. You should all get some rest because in the morning we will be at the beginning of the Al-Shun Islands."
Everyone got up and went to their rooms, but Mark stopped and looked at the moon, which changed shape for a few moments and became like the head of a huge snake with eyes radiating red light.
The sun's rays were creeping in from between the clouds, changing the night into a bright day. The captain stood at the beginning of the ship, then put his hand on the metal railing. He sighed, six hours after the young men had departed to their rooms. Then he closed his eyes, listening to the sounds of the breeze moving between the snow mountains and next to... The ship and he took a deep, cold breath into his chest. For a moment, he thought that this calm was equivalent to the most beautiful feelings, but he could hardly let out the air that was trapped in his lungs when he heard the sound of a strong bell. No, it was not a bell. It was like the vibration of the tail of a resonant snake’s tail, but rather stronger than it by hundreds of stages.
He opened his eyes forcefully and looked around him at the top of the snow mountains, where they embraced the sky with a view that was picturesque but became disastrous. That powerful sound caused the beginning of an avalanche that would bury the ship in the depths of the ocean. The captain quickly shouted, so there was no time for calm anymore.
“Avalanche, wake up, sailors, unfurl the sails, no, even start the engines. We must launch quickly.”
The sailors jumped out of their mattresses and ran around the ship. Some of them raised the sail, some of them went down to the bottom of the ship to restart the engine at the fastest speed, and the young men gathered on the roof, looking in amazement at the falling snow heralding a powerful collapse coming down from the top of those mountains directly around them. Clark looked around him. On one side of the ship at the bottom, in the cargo space for boxes, he found a relatively large wooden box containing a lot of vegetables and fruits. He shouted at the rest of the young men.
“Mark, Antoine, all of you, come and take out the vegetables and fruits from inside with me.”
Everyone approached and without the slightest thought, they took out much of what was inside, but the ship shook strongly as a result of the fall of huge amounts of snow rolling from the surface of the mountain into the water, hitting the sides of the ship. Clark placed jacks in the wooden box and then pulled them to burn the box near the wall, and then his friends helped him in He pushed the box to the back of the ship on the floor near the water, then they opened a door called the cargo door, and Clark asked the rest of them to sit inside the wooden box, the lid of which had been pierced with many but small holes. Then he closed it from the inside forcefully through a rope that had been passed through a hole in the beginning of the box. He made a hole at the end of the box, then tied one end to his body, and Mark tied the other end to his body, and the rest of their friends sat between them.
Raymond said, "What's the point of what we're doing here?"
Clark replied, "Theoretically, wood floats on the surface of the water, even if it is filled with water. In practice, we are trying to stay alive if the ship sinks. Antoine, you are the strongest of them physically. You have to hold on to that device that I gave you firmly, and do not let it escape from your hands, no matter what happens."
Alice "What is this device?"
Mary: “A device to push or raise water. I don’t know what Clark is thinking.”
They all listened to the sounds of the sailors screaming and something strong hitting the hull of the ship, causing it to break through and water begin to seep inside. Mark looked from one of the holes and saw some sailors running toward the life preservers and said.
Mark, damn it, Clark, we didn't wear life jackets.
Clark got up and opened the wooden cover after untying the rope from his body. Then he went to grab enough lifebuoys. One of the sailors tried to grab the same set of lifebuoys. Clark almost hit him, but the sailor shouted at him.
"I'm wearing one. Move. You won't be able to carry as many as you need."
Clark left the man and began carrying a group, and the man carried another group, then they headed to the box, and the young men wearing collars and sailors began shouting at them.
“Hurry up, the ship is sinking, we don’t have time.”
Clark entered the box and said to the sailor man, “Come in. There is room.”
The sailor looked at them, an older man, more than forty years old, said:
“You are young, you must live. If I enter with you, who will push the box out?”
Clark sat down feeling sad someone should pay for the box, but Raymond said
“Listen to: After pushing the box into the water, jump and sit on top of the box and try to hold on to the rope.”
The man nodded his face in confirmation of this, then he called one of his friends who was taking out what was inside other boxes, to help him push the youth box out of the ship. Indeed, the box fell into the water, then regained its balance and quickly floated above the water. The sailor grabbed two of the oxygen canisters used in diving. Then he started running and jumped into the water near the youth box, then climbed it and climbed on top of it while looking at his colleagues who were pushing into the boxes, some of whom were riding in it and others pushing them.
At the same time, the captain and some of the sailors were boarding the lifeboats after the captain saw the young men inside the box that the sailors had pushed. After about half an hour of trying to save the ship and then trying to save themselves, the captain approached the small boat from the box that the sailor was sitting on top of, trying to tie him to the boat. After he saw the sinking of the empty ship, he succeeded in attracting the sailors who jumped into the water because they did not have time to board boats amidst all that amount of snow falling from the roofs of the mountain.
But a heavy snowball fell that prevented the captain's hand from reaching the wooden box, which led to the small boat also sinking and the box moving away a great distance. The young men lost consciousness as a result of that strong impact. Mark was the last to lose consciousness and he listened to the voice of the sailor who was on top of the box, crying and shouting.
“Forgive me, Captain, I had to choose whether to save the children or to save you.”
Then he heard the sound of something connecting to the box from both sides and then he disappeared into the darkness of his mind and lost consciousness. The sun was in the middle of the day and its rays penetrated the holes to wake up those sleeping inside the box. Alice moved, rubbing her eyes and yawning and saying
“Oh, I feel cold, and I feel pain all over my body.”
Tina responded, “Me too, of course not. Our clothes are wet and we’ve been in that box for hours.”
Alice opened her eyes forcefully and tried to get up, but her head hit the wooden cover and she was in pain. Antoine spoke, saying:
"What are you doing? Will the lid open like this?"
She looked around and then at Antoine, who was lying beneath her and said
"Why are you at the bottom? And why are the fruits and vegetables at the top?"
Clack said, “I wake up and get up so Antoine can get up on top of me.”
Alice tried to move with the help of Tanya and Mary, and Elizabeth was sitting next to Raymond, who had not yet woken up. Moments later, Raymond's horizons occurred after Clark pulled him away from Mark, muttering.
“How could such a skinny person be so heavy?”
Raymond, “Because I carry all the maps under my clothes, and I also put a lot of books inside the bag hanging on my back.”
Mark said, "Please, the air is running out into the box, and we have to
push it together until it turns to the other side. The lid is at the bottom and we are at the top."
