Chapter 7
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Anaconda Island
Anaconda Island by Asmaa Nada
Chapter 8
((Go back in time))
While we were on the way, Raymond said, “There are footprints of huge animals living here, so why does that snake only attack humans?”
Mary said, “From what I know, snakes have a strong memory. A human may have harmed it when it was young, which is why it attacks all humans, or that snakes do not distinguish between their prey and what is important is that they eat.”
Mark said, “No, I don’t think so, but it is possible that he accidentally attacked someone’s water and liked the taste.”
Raymond said, “I think he is attacking for revenge, because he knocks over the skeletons hanging in the trees, as Grandpa told Mark in the past.”
Everyone stopped at a stream whose water was painted red and filled with deer heads, and Mary said
“He does not eat them but mutilates them. Look.”
Mark said, “I remember that my grandfather mentioned that the residents of the neighboring islands come here once a year and throw someone as an offering on the beach, then they come to the river and throw other offerings.”
Raymond said, "So, this is made by humans. I think I know why he's attacking humans now. He's doing what they trained him to do. They were the ones who threw humans at him in the beginning."
During the conversation, they had covered a long distance on foot, moving between footprints of different sizes and sizes without noticing it. Raymond pointed in the direction of the cave located on the border of the river, which ends at a waterfall located on the top of a huge mountain, covered with human skeletons soaked in a substance similar to strong adhesive. The three approached the entrance door to the cave and it was dark, but they found at the door an unlit man-made torch. Mark put his hand in the pocket of the jacket he was wearing and then took out small sticks containing a portion of sulfur that ignited by contact with any rocky object, he pulled them over the door of the cave. It ignited, and then he lit the torch they found
The three began to advance by the light of that torch into the interior, and they found other torches hanging inside the cave. Raymond lit them with the torch in his hand until drawings were engraved on the walls of the cave, strange drawings of animal shapes that they had never seen before. Mary approached the drawings closer and noticed the presence of engravings similar to what was written. On that mountain outside, so she called Raymond to read,
Raymond looked and his eyes widened with horror as he translated what was written on the wall between the drawings, then he began to read what he had translated in his papers, saying:
A message from the last person present in my group of one hundred people. I am the only one left alive so far. If anyone is again here inside the cave, he must go out and escape from the forests of the entire island to the beach. There is only a safe place for all those animals and reptiles. The deceptive creatures found inside the forests. I know that the beach is not a safe place from anacondas, but it is safe from other forms of predators. Let me explain to you what I mean by deceptive animals and reptiles in simple words. For example, the small cat, that creature whose gentleness enchants everyone who sees it. Yes, it is indeed a creature. Beautiful, but outside that island, while here he is like bait inside a fishing hook. Once he is reassured that you have given him security and that you have been deceived by the beauty of his appearance, he turns into another animal similar to a fox but the size of a tank.
It does not prey on you but spreads poisons inside you that paralyze your movement. Then it takes you to its young, deep in the forest, who tear your flesh into small pieces with their fangs and nails, then leave the rest of your body, which the mother drags to another place, and large animals like her, to break your bones by playing with you among them. You can hear the sound of your bones breaking. And whoever is near the place, note: This is what I saw and heard from one of my friends. That is why I assure you that you will hear the sound of your bones breaking, and then they will gather around you in dozens and take turns sucking your blood through the fangs that are embedded in your body. This is what we thought, and this continues for hours and then they leave your body. They left, but after they left, we approached the friend and tried to take his body to bury him. The surprise was that he was still alive and that his body became gelatinous, strangely swollen, with no trace of bones beneath the skin, and the blood was replaced by something else that we did not know when we took the friend into the cave. The doctor who was with us at the time examined him and told us that some of these animals were sucking blood and others were secreting a substance under the skin equivalent to the same volume that was absorbed.
Night had approached us, and before we were about to leave the cave, we saw worms tearing through the ground and emerging from it. They did not attack any of us but rather attacked the friend whose heart was beating and who began to scream. Then the mosquitoes attacked from outside the cave. We tried to keep them away from him but to no avail. The worms began to tear off the skin, and the substance that had oozed from beneath the skin began to spread in the ground, and the mosquitoes pounced on it, absorbing it and doubling in size terribly. This was the last thing I saw before we all fled from here, and those huge foxes were following us and trying to attack us, but only attempts as if they were pushing us out to... The beach, and then those foxes are stationed at far apart distances and turn into small forms with the absence of the last light of the sun, and now my last words to you before sunset: Do not wait inside the cave, for everything at night was petrified, during the day it comes to life and becomes an anaconda soldier, and everything that moves during the day is transformed. To Sakhr, finally, beware of approaching or being inside the scientific building for doctors located in the heart of the island. Whoever enters it will not only be a curious visitor on the island or a sacrifice offered to protect the rest of the islands but will become an enemy who must be tortured to the point of death and then left hanging on trees for hours and perhaps months until he dies. And no one can help you then. One last thing, try to reach the fifth cave on the maps. There is an inscription of our attempts to escape from the island, which are mostly unsuccessful. You may find an attempt that was not completed, and this will mean that the person who attempted has succeeded in escaping.
Raymond said, “This is what I was able to translate, and the rest is a phrase, as you see blood. I think he could not escape.”
Mary said, "There is nothing else here except the skeleton of someone's head. Yes, only the skeleton of a head. We have learned the shapes of some of the animals painted on the walls and we can be careful not to approach them."
Mark said, pointing to the ground, “I think we should get out now. The ground is opening and the beginning of hairs comes out. I don’t know what they are.”
We hurried out of the cave, and the sun was on its way out, and the sky began to suggest that darkness would soon spread. The strange thing is that when we left, the shape and position of the trees had changed as if Yemen had become in the place of the north, and those signs that we parked on to know the way had been erased and no longer existed. Raymond took out the maps from He took his bag and started looking for a way back to the beach, but we were surprised by the appearance of many small cats, which quickly, with our lack of interest in them, turned into giant foxes, and began to make somewhat offensive sounds. Mark shouted.
"There's no time, Raymond, run."
He and Mary started running from the only road where the foxes did not stop. Raymond tried to collect the maps, but one of the foxes attacked him, and another fox pounced on that fox and stuck its fangs in. Then the rest of the foxes began attacking the wounded fox and tearing it apart. Raymond got up and then started running, leaving the maps behind him.
((Back in time))
Raymond said, “I swear to God, the fox told me to leave them and run away. I know you don’t believe me, but I understood his voice.”
Mary, “Don’t lose your mind, Raymond. He was howling. I stopped and looked at you as he attacked you before the other fox attacked him. He was howling like any animal.”
Everyone was silent when the calm of the place was interrupted by the sounds of screams from outside the fire circle asking for help and calling for something to get away from it. Clark got up and said:
"Do you hear? It's the voice of a girl crying out for help. I won't leave her."
Clark tried to jump
through the flames and pass to the other side, but…
Click on the picture
