Chapter 12
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Anaconda Island
Anaconda Island by Asmaa Nada
chapter 13
Everyone agreed to split up, with Mark, Mary, and Clark
going, along with Raymond, to get the maps to discover the laboratory, and the rest would be divided into Antoine and Tina, sitting next to the wood, and Alice, with Elizabeth, exploring the beach. Then they started moving after they ate some food together.
Two hours later, Mark's group was standing in front of those barbed wires. The place was like a large prison. After you pass through a wide land empty of everything, even grass, you find that the building is two floors and takes a circular shape. You cannot know the size of the building with the area of the building on the outside. The ground just by looking, because no matter where you stand, your eyes will not reach an end to it, but what you can know is that all the entrances on the first floor have doors of steel that are difficult to penetrate, but they are all open, without exception, but the walls on the ground floor from the outside are made of reflective mirrors. Because of the light, that is, no one can see what is inside, and on the contrary, everyone inside can see the outside.
There are no windows, and there are slots spaced at the top of the walls that only allow air to pass through, but the second floor is a balcony that wraps around the entire building and is a meter and a half wide protruding outward from the first floor. From an external view, the second floor resembles a bird cage whose bars are lined with glass. Transparent, showing what was inside, Mark advanced from the group and passed through the wires, then stopped and turned around, looking around him towards the trees, but nothing appeared and nothing moved like the previous time, and this encouraged the rest of the group to follow Mark and pass through the barbed wire.
Raymond said, “What I conclude about the absence of this creature now is that we are still early in the morning and the sun’s rays fill the place. I believe that this creature called the anaconda, similar to a bat in its characteristics, does not begin to move until the night approaches, and it is strongly active during the night.”
Mary said, “This is what was written in the first warning on the mountain, in the notes, and on the map, which is that we can wander during the day, but at night we are just sausages inside a large plate.”
Clark said, "If we are just an appetizer or a hot dog, what is the main food on the plate?"
They all stopped in front of the large entrance of the building and then looked at Clark, Raymond said
“Perhaps the hybrid animals that resemble a crocodile with a snake’s head are the food.”
Mary said, “What occupies my mind now is the identity of this being that we are facing. I do not like to meet anything that I do not know about except the fear of others.”
Mark said, "Maybe the fear of others is exaggerated because they do not know who he is or what he can do, and certainly their ignorance of his weaknesses."
Raymond said, “Weak points! Have you lost your mind? No one mentioned the shape of that creature or even an approximate description of it. They only gave it the name of a huge snake native to India. It is a reptile that does not speak, but what we met yesterday speaks two languages. This is what we know.”
Clark said, "It also has the head of a snake with red stone eyes or glowing red."
Mary said, “And he can imitate nature to change his color.”
Mark said, “The Zeal Cobra has a bell, and I think its size is meters or hundreds of meters. Remember, the head is on one side and the sound came from the other side.”
Clark said sarcastically, "There may be more than one being. It is unbelievable that its head is in a place and its tail is meters away, no, and wrapped around that building whose area we cannot know. Look at the size of the building from the inside, people."
While they were talking, they had already advanced only a few meters inside, and the place was like a large square filled with many offices and computers, and huge display screens hanging in the middle in a circular shape, and they were hanging on long chains from the top of the ceiling, and whoever stood on the second floor could View from the first floor through a huge wall,
“I trained in high school in many military biolabs similar to this place, but never on this scale,” Mary said.
On the beach, Alice sat with Antoine in front of the ocean water. Antoine was trying to open a small wooden box that he had found on top of the tree while climbing to rescue Alice the previous day, but no one had told him about it. Alice looked at him and said
"Where did you find that thing?"
Antoine said, "Yesterday when I was climbing the tree on one of whose branches you were hanging. As I was climbing, I saw a gap inside the main trunk and there was this small box inside it. I forgot to tell you about it yesterday. I remembered it now as I am tidying up the place."
Alice said, “Does it have a lock?”
Antoine said, “No, and there is no trace of the location of the key, but there are strange drawings engraved on it. I do not think they are the alphabets of any language.”
Alice said, extending her hand to him, “Give me this and I will know. I have studied some of the history of civilizations.”
Alice held the box and kept turning it over in her hands, then said
“These drawings go back to the ancient Egyptian language, but I cannot explain them. I think Raymond can interpret them because his father worked with the Egyptians and he used to go with him. I remember that he once said that he learned to read maps from his father’s Egyptian assistant.”
Before Antoine answered, he listened to the screams of the returning Elizabeth and Tina, running and screaming
Tina shouted, “Run, we must go into the forest. We must climb on something far from the sand.”
Antoine: “Where are you going, Elizabeth? Tina, what are you running away from?”
As she started running after the girls, Alice said, “Shit, run Antoine, there’s no time to explain.”
Antoine looked at the beach behind the place where they were coming from and found black stones moving quickly towards him. He grabbed some wood and threw it straight up, then he lit a fire with them, and then he quickly ran towards the trees, and climbed a tree that Tina had already climbed, and looked searching with his eyes for the two girls, and they had already climbed. They climbed another tree. He returned his gaze to the beach and found that those stones were nothing but small, wild species of turtles that had caught up with him and gathered under the trees. Then he noticed that the trees had let out some water around them, which made the turtles retreat a little, but they quickly turned around and left. To what remained of the deer hanging above the stone fireplace that Antoine had made.
Antoine said, “The turtles try to climb the stones to eat the rest of the deer.”
Tina said, “She won’t be able to climb anything, and she won’t imagine where we found those turtles and how we were able to escape and return.”
Antoine said, “We will go down and go back to our place there, and then you will tell me.”
Tina said, “I won’t come down until she leaves.”
Antoine said, "I think she's leaving. Look."
Elizabeth called from under the tree, “Get down, those creatures are gone.”
Antoine got out and Tina followed him, then they returned to their place, and Antoine said
“They couldn't reach the suspended food, but they finished eating fruits and vegetables.”
Alice said, “Tell us what those things are and why they were attacking us. Then I will take Antoine and we will bring some fruits and vegetables until the rest return.”
Tina said after she sat down, “When we were walking on the beach, we found a group of rare hawks standing on the beach eating something, and as soon as we approached, they flew and rose into the sky. It became clear that that thing was a unicorn that we only hear about in legends, and it was Elizabeth’s courage.” She came closer to touch the glowing horn, and I do not know how a dead horse can still have a glowing horn. As soon as she placed her hands on the horn, the stones that were under the horse moved quietly, so Elizabeth retreated and stood next to me, while those stones attacked the horse and began to eat it from below until the bones were... It disappears. Meanwhile, Elizabeth and I were retreating, but those things finished on the horse and then turned around and started moving in our direction, but very slowly. I think they were gathering around themselves first. Anyway, we tried to escape, but they started following them, and there were big rocks near us. So we hurried and climbed onto the rocks, but those turtles stood at the bottom and couldn't climb up.
We stood on the rock for almost more than an hour, and these things did not move. We tried to get down and get away, but as soon as we put our feet on the sand, the small turtles moved in our direction. We climbed again on the rock. Fortunately, a large bird fell far away, and the turtles went to it, and we took advantage of their preoccupation. We got off the rock and tried to run and get away, but when they finished eating the bird, it did not take them a few minutes to eat the entire body of the bird, and they ate the feathers and bones, leaving nothing behind. Then it started running towards us, and we ran back and did not stop.”
Elizabeth: "Look, are those turtles standing over there? Or am I imagining?"
Antoine looked and said, “Yes, she is standing and watching.”
Tina moved a little, preparing to run and climb the tree, and the turtles moved a little like her, Antoine shouted
“No one is moving, just hold still.”
No one moved and the turtles did not move. Antoine grabbed a branch and threw it a long distance. When it hit the ground, the turtles moved toward the branch and then returned to their places. Close to the youth, Antoine said
“It cannot see, but it moves according to what it feels of movement over the sand, and this is what makes it not go deep into the forest. Moving the foot over the sand is not the same as moving the foot over the muddy ground.”
Tina said, “Then, will we stand still and not move all day?”
"How long did it take for those turtles to grow up?" Alice said
"Almost eating the horse."
Elizabeth said, "About twenty minutes. We don't have a watch. All of our watches have broken down from the water, except for Mary and Clark's watches, because they are waterproof."
Antoine, “Those things are afraid of water. I saw them moving away when the tree we were on let out some water around it. We must buy time to dig a stream of water around the branches that we are burning, and this way we can ensure that they do not come near here.”
Tina: What are you thinking?
Antoine said, "Don't you now have muscular strength, and I am fast in running? I will run along the beach for an hour one way and an hour back, and during that time you have to dig a trench while they throw water from the ocean into it."
I hope your plan works,” Alice said.
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