Chapter 9
The Wilderness
In the Island of Riddles, Alvin was looking at the corpses of creatures, which attacked them while they were sleeping. The lookouts killed them. They walked for few days until all the food ran out.
Alvin took out the picture while on a break and looked at the photo of Diana, him, Tasha and Jake, laughing inside the picture.
“Feeling a sense of duty?” said Nina, from the back, leaning against the tree.
“Yeah,” muttered Alvin. “Never really serious about it.”
“Oh really?” said Nina, coming near him. “Good for you.”
“How far is it?” said Alvin.
“Couple of days. We have to go around the mountain region; it seems like those creatures are moving by the herd when they attack. Luckily for us, they are not very clever,” said Nina, tapping her head, smiling.
“Huh,” said Alvin.
“You seem to sleep really well yesterday,” giggled Nina. “Stein got mad at your snoring.”
Early scouts wondered around the forest and caught a deer. They took out the cooking pot and started making a stew. Yesterday, they cut the tree barks and started chewing it to ease hunger; the smell of the deer meat drove them crazy. They went up to the pot where stew was boiling; all haggard and shabby, they took out their light aluminum lunchboxes and went up to the cook.
“Not ready yet!” bellowed the cook, waving them off. “Shoo!”
Few of the soldiers came back with some rabbits; they hurriedly skinned them and brought to the cook who threw them inside the soup. The guards who were on duty at night took a short nap on the grass. The crickets cried out inside the long grasses. The wind struck and the leaves fell, whirling in the air.
At last, the stew was ready. There was a swarm of joy! The soldiers lined up and waited in the line.
“Bit moldy, don’t you think?” said Alvin to James, eating the last piece of bread. James frowned, hating him, moved and sat near Nina. “What’s up with him?” asked Alvin. Stein shook his head and just ate the soup.
Suddenly there were bellow of screaming and anger. Sarah was beating the cook up with her fists, the panicking cook struggled, and hitting Sarah with a scoop, but Sarah blocked the scoop with her elbow and punched his flat lumpy face.
Everyone gathered, not bothered to break them apart, merely cheered. Stein put down his meal and walked up to them.
“Sarah Johnson! Behave yourself!” shouted Stein. “What is going on here!”
Sarah, breathing hard, let the cook’s bloated face go.
“I’m sorry Captain,” murmured Sarah, standing up, tapping her clothes to take the dusts off.
“Don’t you see we are not in the fancy restaurant? I watched you since you are a rookie! I told you over and over that your temper is like a steaming pot!” shouted Stein.
“It’s not that…” murmured Sarah.
“Still! Do you not realize we are on a very important mission?” shouted Stein, rigidly, and he went on and on.
After stream of disciplinary remarks, Sarah sheepishly went to the soup pot and with a scoop; she took out something black and huge. Stein was horrified and everyone flinched.
“My apologies,” muttered Stein coughing and walked away. It was a rat, about the size of a small puppy, dangled on the scoop.
Later in that day, that cook carried an extra bag. They walked straight for nine hours, it became dark; they slowed down and rested on the spot. Michel, Paul, and Sarah went out to look for some water.
“Urrrrgg” moaned Michel, his stomach growled.
“Shut up,” hissed Sarah.
“I’m hungry,” said Paul.
“Yeah… yeah,” muttered Sarah.
“I miss food,” mumbled Paul with a loud grumbling inside his stomach.
“Guys, come on, you all were trained for this,” groaned Sarah.
“Yeah, we are saying the exact same thing,” said Michel.
“We ate rats during the training too, what’s the fuss?” said Paul.
“No, it was pretty nasty…” said Michel. And then Sarah stopped abruptly, hitting Michel’s chest with the back of her palm.
“What?” said Michel.
“Shh…” said Sarah, pointing at the rumbles among the bushes in front of them. Both Michel and Paul’s eyes beamed. Their gun blazing, they’ve slowly approached.
“A deer or boar?” said Michel, slurping his saliva, aiming at the bush.
The bush stopped rumbling; there were low growling and something jumped out, (“Ah shit,” groaned Michel) it was a hideous creature which the skin was reddish and ill. Sarah and Paul opened the fire. The thing got hit with the bullets, screeched and fell down; as it did, its slimy body pushed Sarah. She tripped by the trunk of the tree and fell on the ground.
Paul gave Sarah hand. Sarah grunted and stretched her arm; but as Paul grabbed her hand, he startled. He let go of her, aimed and pulled the trigger; the bullet flew right next to Sarah’s ear. There were a moment of silence, and Paul, breathing deeply, lowered his rifle. Sarah, dumbfounded, frowned and leered at Paul. She then glimpsed on her back and there laid a huge snake, blown its head. Slowly it fell on the ground. Sarah screamed and jumped toward Paul, clinging on him. Michel approached the snake and grabbed it. He grinned and gave it to Paul. Sarah leered at Michel but Paul grabbed the snake and put it on his shoulder. Sarah jerked and moved away from him.
“What?” said Sarah.
“It’s a good food,” murmured Paul.
“No it is not,” argued Sarah.
“You’ve eaten it when you were training,” said Paul.
“Yeah I figured it’s not a good food,” said Sarah.
“Ok… I’m still going to take it,” whistled Paul and he head toward the base. Sarah grudgingly murmured something in under her breath; her stomach rumbled loudly. Michel laughed, tapping her shoulder.
“I feel very miserable right now,” murmured Sarah.
That evening, Sarah was sitting next to Nina. Both were munching moldy biscuits around fire. As it got chilly, they shared one army blanket. Paul and Michel went up to Sarah and Nina.
“I agree, have nothing to lose is a dangerous state,” murmured Paul, mouth full of rat, ripping it off from the stick. The nose of the cooked rat snickered.
“So, Ms, you want it rare, medium or…” said Michel, handing Sarah the chopped slice of snake.
“No,” said Sarah, gloomily. “Go away.”
The cold blue moon shone upon them.
“I need a shower,” Nina breathed deeply, smelling the grilled rats and snakes mixed with stench from clothes.
“A hot one,” groaned Sarah. She sat down, highly discomforted. But rest of the soldiers seem to be having fun, roar of laughter was heard around fire. Nina twitched her mouth.
“Hey Captain Stein? Feel like a pirates already eh?” grinned Sarah. Stein remained rigid at the biting mosquitoes and ants. Grunting, he slapped his cheek and leg. Alvin shuddered as one of the mosquitoes came near his ear.
James was complaining under his breath. “I worked so much to become a Captain and now what is this crappy treatment? Why am I here? Anyway I…”
“Shut up James,” said Alvin. James stopped muttering and leered at him, hating him.
“Full of moist in the soil, some of them eroded,” said Nina, yawning, scratching her neck; she looked at the yellow clay on the ground.
The soldiers were roaring and cheering. They were into some type of tournament. Paul and Michel, who were surrounded by them, spat out the rat’s back bone, competing against each other for who spat further.
“Savages…” murmured Sarah; she just lied on the ground and fell asleep. Later, the scouts brought the report to Alvin. He nodded and the scout went away.
“There seemed to be cults nearby,” said Alvin.
“Uh huh,” said Nina.
“And bunch of others going for your neck,” said Alvin, throwing rock and hitting the tree.
??
?Give me a break,” groaned Nina.
“Come on Nina, isn’t this what you’ve wanted?” said Alvin, chuckling.
“What do you mean?” frowned Nina.
“Heading for the throne?” suggested Alvin.
“Yeah, whoever gets to that underground bunker will win the island and possibly Cassandra, I presume,” said Nina.
“I forgot to congratulate you. You earned your freedom after all,” chuckled Alvin.
“Yeah,” said Nina, smiling brightly; her eyes glittered. “I did,”
“So, should I call you the pirate queen now?” chuckled Alvin.
“No,” said Nina, giggled. “The king.”
After the soldiers done eating, they all fell asleep. They are more relaxed now.
The submarine merged from the ocean surface. They went near shore and opened the hatch. They got out and stepped on the sand. Titto retrieved the pistol from Mr. Thompson to avoid an unnecessary trouble. Veron didn’t bother to find Ricky. He merely ordered others to set up the camps and the barricades. They were thinking about contacting Tim, one of Veron’s officers living inside the Secret Room inside the underground tunnel.
The officers contacted few cults they already know for grains and killed pirates and bandits for spoils.
There were relatively many creatures near their location, so they dug the trenches. They sharpened the woods and plucked it in the ground to hinder the creatures from approaching and to make it easy to shoot them. It looked like an army base during wartime. They tried to contact the officers who were inside the tunnel, but were reluctant to go underground as the creatures were loosened there.
“Yep, we’ve got someone,” said one of the officer; the soldiers were grabbing ten prisoners with proud eyes. One of the women was trembling and shaking before them. They had paintings all over their bodies with red marks, which seemed like a blood, over their neck and back.
“Cults and gypsies,” grinned one of the officers. He ripped out one of the golden earrings they had, the woman screamed as her ear ripped.
“Shut up,” said the officer, start kicking the woman by his boot. The man among them cried out with anger. Logan, the army general, shot him; he fell on the ground. The women started shrieking and wail. Logan smirked and connected the fishing rod to his head and hung it around the woman like a neck glasses.
“Tell your people,” sneered Logan, grabbing the woman’s hair. “Bring all the grains.”
He pushed her and she fell on the mud, and the soldiers started laughing at her. She was shaking; she stumbled and ran. Veron was watching rest of them without sensation, almost bored.
“Do whatever you like,” said Veron, watching at the rest of the prisoners. The soldiers cheered; his son Morris laughed annoyingly, watching them like an excited pig.
Titto stayed in silence and watched them dragging everyone out. Titto sensed that the nightmare is starting again. The dictatorship and the hideous cycle in Cassandra, it is all coming back.
“I had enough,” mumbled Titto. He is planning to escape with Thompson family, but he wasn’t sure how he can pull it out. Thompson family was located safely in the separate ground. He ordered soldiers to build a separate lodging area for them, which they did it with much grumbling and rage.
Titto was watching wearily at the soldiers. They were contemptuously looked at Thompson family as they gave food, as if they were accusing them for not working. Mr. Thompson volunteered to dig trenches along with them as he didn’t want to be humiliated as being a burden. He worked hard until the sun went down. There was an air of mockery concerning Thompson family. Titto knew it was just a matter of time, before they will start harming them.