Chapter 11
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Anaconda Island
Anaconda Island by Asmaa Nada
chapter 12
Mark returned to the group, repeating in horror, while Clark was trying to hold his hand so that he would not fall over the wires and injure wounds that no one would be able to treat in this place because they do not have medical tools.
"The head is from that direction and the tail is from the opposite direction. How come the head is here and the tail is there?"
Clark: "There's no time to discuss what you're saying, man."
Raymond shouted, directing the conversation to the head of the snake, once in English and once in Arabic, “We are not looking for any secrets. We only want what will help us get off that island.”
Before that snake could answer, a group of huge foxes appeared and then jumped over the group of young men towards that head. The difference in the size of the snake’s head and part of its body was five times the size of a single fox’s body. Despite that, the foxes attacked the snake ferociously, but it quickly disappeared. Snakehead, the foxes turned to look at the group of young men, making Clarke say out loud
“Run and no one looks back”
Tina started running, then Raymond followed her, and then Mark, while Mary grabbed a branch of a tree that was close to her and threw it to Clark, who was taking out a small fire stove from his pants, and he began to ignite the branch of small green leaves in the tree branch while saying a new message to Mary.
“Run, I will come after you.”
Indeed, Mary ran away, following the rest of the group. Meanwhile, the foxes were circling Clark, who was pushing the flames in their direction. After he noticed that Mary had disappeared from his sight, he ignited the grass in front of him and among those foxes. When the flame of the fire rose, the foxes retreated in fear. Clark ran away, following his friends' footsteps until they returned to the riverbed.
The shock nearly killed Clark when he saw the return of that crocodile at the source of the river near the waterfall. He noticed the group's presence as soon as Clark reached them, and began preparing to attack them, she said with tears.
"Damn, the foxes are behind us and that mongrel is in front of us."
Clark replied, "Don't cry, little doctor. This will slow down your escape, and we don't have time to collapse now. And I don't think that hybrid fears fire like the foxes that I distracted with some flames in the back."
Raymond said, “There is a stream between us and him. We can run between the trees separately. This will distract people from thinking about following one of us. I hope so.”
Mark said, "We try, we won't lose much. Death is on all sides."
Mary said, “Mark! You make a person optimistic, damn you.”
They all turned around and then started running at slightly separated distances, but in one direction, which was the seashore, but they did not go very far from the riverbed, as one of the trees began to move its branches, trying to catch anything that moved, then it began to attack them, and at the same time the trunk of that tree began to change and take shape. In the form of a giant woman, but anchored to the soil, that tree was able to grab Mary's foot with one of its branches, but Mark was faster and closer, as he was immobilized as soon as he saw the tree's branches move in a strange way, and with quick intuition, he used a knife to forcefully stab that branch, and it took off. The tree's screams sound like the sound of a woman in pain, and her voice echoes throughout the place.
Clark said, "The crocodile was preoccupied with something I don't know about back there, but now he has managed to cross the river. Hurry and run away, and I will face that tree."
Clark grabbed the knife's iron hand, then removed the knife that Mark had left in the alarm, and began attacking the body of the tree lady. While he was struggling with the tree, the rest of them started trying to escape, but they stopped when they noticed that the crocodile that had been trying to attack them a while ago turned around, but now he was the one trying to escape, from The giant snake's head pounced on it, but the giant snake's pounce was faster as it swallowed the hybrid crocodile's head until it reached the front of the crocodile's body in one time, then that anaconda sank its fangs into the crocodile's body.
The crocodile was twisting what was left of his body out of the mouth of the giant anaconda. The anaconda rose with its grasping body to the sky, then fixed its head at the top as it looked where Clark was still struggling with the tree with many branches that were expanding to catch him and then quickly contracted and screamed from the pain of Clark's blows with the knife. In its branches.
In the meantime, Mark and Mary had returned and carried some of the small pottery vessels filled with water, then they hurriedly ran towards the beach, as did Raymond as well. After a few minutes, Tina arrived, pulling the furniture with the wood on top of it on her own. Then Raymond appeared, pulling that huge vessel filled with water, shortly after them. Clark appeared.
(Back in time to the time they gathered around the fire)
Marie finished narrating the events they had experienced, and there was astonishment on Antoine's face and horror on the faces of Alice and Elizabeth. Silence prevailed for a few moments, but it was interrupted by the screams of a woman calling for help and asking for help, but this time no one tried to heed her call. Antoine said:
“I think this is the tree that turns and moves. They've all heard it.”
Raymond said, "Clark fell asleep from exhaustion and his attempt to hide the pain but look at his face while he was asleep against his will, and it becomes clear how much pain he feels."
Alice said, “I think if that tree woman had stuck some needles in him, he wouldn’t feel pain now, because they numb the body.”
Antoine said, "That's true. Wait, I brought part of the branch that I cut from her. Is it possible, Marie, to extract the narcotic substance from it, even if just a little?"
Mary said, "I'm trying. Get it, and you, Mark, give me a knife."
Mary grabbed that branch and began to dig into it with a knife. The branch automatically produced something resembling a small needle, and it also made the sound of a child crying, so Mary stuck that small needle into Clark's shoulder, who stood up in panic and almost hit Mary, but Mark grabbed his arm and Antoine helped him. By stabilizing Clark's body until Mary pulled the torso away from Clark, after a few seconds Clark said as he went back to sleep
“What did you do, Mary? The pain has subsided.”
"He's back to sleep," Tina said.
“I will sleep too,” said Elizabeth, “who will stay up to light the wood if the fire goes down.”
Mark said, "I will stay awake. You should sleep a little, Antoine, and after a while, you will wake up so I can sleep."
Mary said, "Anne Alice slept too. Well, I'll stay awake. I'm with you, Mark."
Tina said, “When you wake Antoine, call me to sit with him while you sleep.”
This is how the night passed, between exchanging roles in guarding and paying attention to the strength of the fire’s combustion, and with the spread of the first streaks of sunlight, Clark woke up and found Raymond standing near the ashes left by the extinguishing of the fire while the rest of the group was asleep, so he said
“Sorry, Raymond, I should have changed with you so you could get some sleep.”
Raymond turned and smiled as he looked at him, but soon Raymond's body began to split into two halves and each half fell away from the other. Clark screamed forcefully until he heard Mary's voice calling for him.
"Clark, oh Clark, wake up. It's a nightmare. Wake up."
Clark opened his eyes as he looked at them all. He found Raymond sitting next to the burning logs trying to extinguish them. Clark said while stroking his head.
"Shit, he's fine. I was dreaming. Shit, it was a bad nightmare."
Antoine said while laughing, “Who died? Or who did that creature eat in your dream?”
Raymond said, “Be quiet, Antoine. I feel afraid.”
Clark said, "Don't be afraid, man. I told you I would protect you."
Raymond looked at Clark and then laughed, and everyone laughed after him, even Clark himself laughed. Tina got up and said
“Today we have food and enough wood to last another night. Why don’t we enjoy the ocean water, the sun is shining and the weather is beautiful.”
Antoine said, "What about sharks? Should we swim and have fun with them?"
Raymond said, "There are no sharks. Clark was just scaring you so you wouldn't get in the water and go collect wood."
Antoine looked at Clark and said to him, "You know, you deserve what that tree did to you."
Mary said, “Look, the little log that had the drug on it has disappeared. Did one of you put it on the fire?”
Mark said, "Don't worry, I put it in my bag. We may need the drug for any circumstance later."
Alice said after she got up and started moving cautiously, then she moved normally, “I no longer feel any pain, and the scars on my feet have disappeared. I don’t even need my glasses. I can see well now.”
Clark looked at her, then untied the bandages over his wounds, he did not find any traces of any wound either and said
“I also don’t feel any pain, and there are no traces of wounds.”
“This is good and bad at the same time,” Mary said.
Alice said, "What do you mean?"
Mary said, “It is good that you are doing well. It is bad because we do not know whether there are side effects or not. Will there be a change in your bodies or not?”
"Change like what?" Clark said.
Raymond said, laughing, “Mary insinuates that you will become like those animals: monsters in the morning and stones at night.”
Mark laughed and then said, "Or trees."
Clark grabbed a small piece of wood and then threw it at Raymond and said
"And you will be the first to devour his body."
Everyone was surprised by the force of the small wood that Clark threw, and it hit Raymond so hard that he groaned and then said
“I think Mary is right, there are side effects of that drug in your body.”
Alice said as she grabbed a huge piece of wood to break it
"If that's true, then I also have physical strength like Clarke."
Alice broke the wood easily and then said
"Damn, I didn't make any effort."
Everyone was silent, and after a while, Mark said, “So far, Clark, you have gained physical strength. We are waiting and seeing if there are other effects or not.”
Mary said, “I want to go to that laboratory. Surely some recordings or cameras were working there one day, or at the very least there are files about what they were doing inside that laboratory.”
Antoine: “Okay, me, Clark, Mary, and Mark are going to that laboratory, and the rest are waiting here. They can work on changing the ashes and putting the wood ready for us to return at night to light it directly.”
“Yes,” said Alice, “and I will make a rod and catch some fish.”
Elizabeth said, “Today we have food left over from the deer so we can e
at it and go fishing tomorrow. Let’s walk on the beach. We might find people somewhere. I don’t think an island this size is empty of people.”
