Chapter 16
https://firdausnovels.blogspot.com/2024/03/anaconda-island-by-asmaa-nada-ch-16.html
Anaconda Island
Anaconda Island
Chapter 17
They all looked at Clark, and then Raymond shouted, "Please, Clark, think again. I don't want to die here. I want to return to my home and university."
Clark got up angrily and said, "Do you think I want to die or stay here, but how? They're just thinking about exploring the lab or the island or a way to deal with those hybrids. No one is thinking of a way out, damn it. Man, ask Antoine and who was on the beach?" Yesterday, did a ship or even a boat approach here?
Raymond looked at Antoine, who gestured with his hand in denial, so Raymond said
“It's a forest full of trees. You can make a boat, like Mark's grandfather did.”
Mark said, “Raymond, I want to tell you something. I saw the grandfather at the end of the recording in the laboratory when Doctor Youssef was passing to enter the elevator. He was the person exiting the elevator.”
Mary said, “What? Your grandfather was one of those working on those inhumane and internationally prohibited experiments.”
Mark said, "Did I know that before? I was surprised when I saw it."
Raymond said, "This is not the problem, but how did he get off the island, and why did he say in the diary that he was traveling to discover the lost island?"
Mark said, “I don’t know. Remember that the papers were cut out of the memo. How can I answer your question?”
Clark said, "If your grandfather succeeded in escaping, I think we can too. And remember, Mark, that when we return, we will sit with your father and see the rest of the diaries."
“We should go back to the lab,” Mary said. “Maybe we will find something there that indicates how to get off the island.”
"If you'll come back," said Elizabeth, "then we'll all go back there."
Raymond said, “No, I will not go. I will collect wood near the beach and you will go.”
Alice said, “And I will stay here with Raymond and help him.”
Tina said, “Look around you. We do not have any tools to make a boat, and we no longer have enough wood or food. Look at the fish that you were able to catch yesterday. It died in the water. What are there here, some vegetables and what remains of the deer that will not survive?” Only two are enough, plus his smell has become hideous.”
Antoine said, "I had a hope that if you found the laboratory, we would go and live inside it until we found a way to communicate with the world, and that hope has ended, but wait, you said, Mary, that even the sandy ground turns into a monster and eats what is on it. Why didn't you attack us?"
"I think because we're still alive," Clark said.
Mark said, "What do you mean?"
Clark said, "The Earth in the recording did not attack the doctors who were moving and did not attack the hungry monkey until he fell and died. Look."
Clark grabbed the remaining part of the deer, which was already beginning to rot, and then he threw it forcefully, pushing it away from them. In less than a minute, the sand began to pull the meat inside it, and nothing was left of it in moments. Tina screamed in horror, and Elizabeth put her palm over her mouth, trying to muffle her scream. She too, while Antoine pulled his hair back with his fingers while opening his mouth, trying to speak, but he could not.
Minutes passed between silence and astonishment on all of their faces, then Clark said
"We have to work together. First, we will all go to the laboratory inside, and none of you will object. These things do not attack during the day. When we go, we will search for powerful tools to cut down trees, and we must also find weapons or even make them so that we can at least try to defend ourselves. I will not." I will die without defending myself, and after finding these things we will return here, but during our return, we will separate into more than one team, the one who collects food from fruits and vegetables, the one who hunts any animal that can be eaten, and the one who collects enough wood to build a wooden base high above the ground. "Earth, here on the shore"
"I thought you were going to say 'build a boat,'" Raymond said.
Mark said, “There are hybrid monsters in the water, and they are amphibious, by the way.”
Mary said, “Doctor Joseph said that there is a common weakness among all those monsters, which is fire.”
Antoine said, “If we make a small boat out of wood, how do we light a fire on top of it in the middle of the water?”
Alice said, "These doctors are not stupid. They have set up a security building somewhere else on that island. Raymond, look at the maps. It is possible to find something."
Before Raymond took the maps out of the bag, Mark said
"We do not have time now. We must collect enough food and wood for more than two nights, then we will begin implementing Clark's words. Raymond will also search for a safe place within the maps, but later, not now."
Everyone was silent, then they raised their hands in agreement with Mark's suggestion, and Mary said
“We will separate to collect wood and food and search for a safe place during that time, then we will meet here before sunset. Remember, before sunset, I do not want to repeat what happened yesterday.”
Antoine said, "Clarke didn't finish what happened after the Titans attacked the lions."
Clark said, "When we get back, I'll tell you about the night."
This is how the young people began wandering in search of food and a safe place, which does not exist on that island. They move everywhere during the day, separated from each other. Fear fills their hearts. Darkness approached and they were still separated, rushing to return to the beach, far from the heart of the island, far from the trees. They were certain that whoever remained deep in the island had no escape from its deadly fangs. Darkness began to spread its curtains over the island. Some were able to reach the shore, and Mark began shouting.
"Are you all here?"
The response of one of the girls, Elizabeth, came quickly and intermittently from among the sounds of thumping in her chest as she pointed in the direction of the trees leading to the island.
"Antoine and Clark are still inside."
Mark said, “Shit, Antoine, Clark, come on, hurry up, please.”
Alice sat near the water inside the circle of wood that they had prepared before they entered the depths of the island, and her body was shaking as she repeated:
“I don’t want to die, no, I want to become food for those hideous creatures.”
Elizabeth approached her and hugged her, trying to calm her down, despite the terror that was also running through her blood. She could not find the words that could remove that fear. Raymond stood inside the wooden circle with Tina next to him, then he said in a trembling voice:
"Come on, Mark, enter the circle. We don't have time. The darkness is spreading. Come on, we have to start a fire."
"Kun, Antoine, and Clark," Mark said, sadness filling his voice.
Then he looked at Tina, who was standing next to Raymond, trembling with fear, trying to regulate her breathing, and said:
"Where did you last see Clarke and Tina?"
Tina: We dispersed near the slope of the waterfall. We were trying to catch the rabbits, but his foot slipped and he fell near the river bank. I saw him standing on his feet. He was fine. He signaled to me to come back and that he would take a path from the bottom and come back.
Antoine's voice shouted, coming from the direction of the trees, quickly
"Light the fire, he's coming behind me."
Followed by Clark's voice shouting something, "Fuck you, you bastard. I won't let you enjoy the downfall of one of us anytime soon."
The three of them ran into the circle of wood, and Raymond quickly set the wood on fire, and soon the flames rose surrounding them. Antoine jumped before the flames rose, then Clark jumped out of the flames, then fell, twisting in the sand until he extinguished the flames that caught his clothes. After a few minutes, everyone calmed down and They sat in the middle, wrapping around each other, their bodies trembling in terror as a strong hissing sound approached the shore. The night had spread its black curtains over the entire island, and there was no longer any light except those flames in front of those red eyes creeping from between the trees.
Mark repeated, saying: I wish we had not gone out on that trip. I wish I had not found that map
Antoine said: I wish we had taken that warning written on the map seriously
Thus, the hours of the night began to pass for them, between the memory of their coming to that island and their fear that the fire would be extinguished and that they would not emerge from that island alive. Antoine looked at the girls and said:
“You can sleep inside that box that Clark made, and don’t forget to use the deer skin that I dried so you can get some warmth. I will stay awake on guard for the first period.”
Clark said, looking at Antoine with some concern, “Me too, I want to sleep now.”
Raymond said, “Antoine, how do you feel now? You didn’t take the rest of the serum. We forgot about that.”
Antoine said, “During the research, Marie and I went to the laboratory and she injected something into my arm. Ask her.”
Mary said as she got up and entered between the woods of the box
“I found a medicine that slows down the process of merging Antoine’s blood and what that creature spread inside his body. Tomorrow, when we enter the laboratory again, you will be searching for weapons and what cuts wood. I will search in the papers and records for what that doctor took so that he would not transform.”
Antoine said, "Raymond, hold that box and read what's on it. I found it two days ago and forgot to ask you."
Raymond grabbed the box and started turning it over, then sat down near the fire and said
“It says: ‘This is the last safe thing for you. Look for my symbols so you can survive.’” This is just what was written on it.
Clark said, "What are the symbols?"
Raymond turned the box over and said, “What is the meaning of the starting point in the heart of the Devil’s Tree? He carved that at the bottom of the box. I did not see it.”
Tina said, “The Devil’s Tree, that tree mentioned by the Arabs that comes out in Hell, its head like the head of Satan.”
Mark said, "A tree that comes out in hell."
Alice said, “Wait when we were in the heart of the forest before that tree tied me down. I saw smoke in the sky that looked like the smoke coming out of a volcano crater.”
“This is what we are missing,” Mary said, “a volcanic mountain.”
Antoine said, "And a tree comes out in hell. No one even thinks about looking for the crater."
None of them spoke, while Mary grabbed Alice's hand after she motioned to Tina and Elizabeth to follow her. Then they entered the wooden box. Antoine got up, turned the empty pottery jars over sat on them, then raised his feet on top of the bags. Clark laughed and said.
“What are you doing, Antoine?”
Antoine answered, “I am afraid that I will forget and fall asleep, and my heart will stop at any moment, and these sands will think that I have died and devour me.”
Mark said, "Don't worry, I won't let you sleep."
Antoine sat up and said, “Tell me about the rest of the day after you leave the laboratory.”
Alice said loudly, “Don’t tell him anything until after we wake up. I want to listen.”
Elizabeth got up and then sat next to Antoine and said, “We won’t be able to sleep, Alice. Let’s sit down for a while and leave Marie alone, she has fallen a sleep.”
Tina sat down and said, "I will listen from here. Please raise your voice, Clark. I will not be able to approach you."
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