"It hurts!" Sarah complained.
"Oh - poor Sarah, poor shnookums. Of course it hurts! Would you rather we stay here forever?" Fiona's face began to match her hair colour.
"Oh shut up and push!" Sarah snapped back.
Mary sighed. Of all the people who survived she found a snappy pair of girls who probably weren't even teenagers yet.
Finally after much grumbling, the couch relented and the girls were free.
"My leg hurts now," Sarah complained.
Fiona and Mary looked at each other.
...
Henry and Tracy began walking away from the beach. Tracy looked back at the debris as she walked as slowly as she could. Her eyes still strained for the sight of something, anything that was familiar - that would give her a sign that someone else had survived. As they walked further up the slope the fog made it harder for her to see. Reluctantly she turned and looked at the larger tree branches, like spindly hands, reaching out of the grey soup. Henry paused as he noticed something closer to the trees. Something that glinted. He walked and half stumbled over and saw on the ground a locket.
He turned it over in his hands. His chest leapt. It was Melanie's locket. He closed his eyes.
"What have you found?" Tracy peered over his shoulder.
"Odd to find that so far from shore," she watched Henry carefully. He wiped his eyes and cursed himself for getting emotional - she was only a passenger wasn't she? But those eyes ...
"It's almost as if she dropped it," Tracy continued.
Henry stared at her. "What do you mean - dropped it?"
"Well it's the only thing this far from the beach. There's no other way that it could have got here."
Henry paused and chose his words carefully, "You mean to say that she could be alive?"
"Well, I don't know - I can't think of another reason why the locket would be here, can you?" Tracy replied.
Henry shook his head as he stared at the locket.
...
Wayne shook his head as he stared at ...
... ruins. What would once have been a fairly crude stone building lay crumbling in the middle of the forest floor. As he walked closer, Wayne could make out intricate engravings on what remained of the outer columns and he looked down at the shattered gargoyles. They almost looked like insects in some way. Wayne smiled. There were primitive gods everywhere - here was no different.
BZZZT
He swatted absentmindedly at the mosquitoes. His legs were covered in the red marks that had signalled their countless successful attacks.
Anyone bring the bug spray? Wayne thought to himself as he scratched the bites on his body.
He paused as he arrived at the entrance to the ancient structure. Two jagged columns stood on either side of him. Chunks of stone lay scattered over the ground like oversized confetti. Wayne absentmindedly ran his hand over the slimy moss covered column as he looked inside. The remnants of the crumbling walls closed in what was, on closer inspection, a fairly small building. It reminded him of a sandcastle that a toddler had attacked. The roof had caved in long ago and vines crawled up and through the walls like oversized snakes. The walls that remained, if they could still be called that, had giant gouges ripped into them. Sergeant Atler frowned as he noticed what appeared to be a set of stairs in the corner. He strode into the small room, stones crunching underfoot. The fog made it difficult to see clearly but there certainly were some narrow stairs leading underground. He ducked his head as he began to walk down them.
...
"My leg still hurts you know! Just in case you had, like, forgotten," Sarah complained.
"How can we?" Fiona asked. "You keep telling us every five seconds!"
Mary walked along in silence between the two girls. She felt like she was caught between two boxers in a fight.
"Well - soooorry! Next time, I'll just die quietly shall I?"
"You're just a whiner Sarah - at least you are alive!" Fiona retorted.
Sarah pouted, "Oh, great. I'm sooo happy - stuck on this nasty island - which really stinks by the way, when I could have been going to my tournament! Yep definitely thrills-ville!"
Mary was surprised at the attitude of girls who were so young and it reminded of her grandson, Keith. She shook the thought out of her mind. She knew that if she were to dwell on it she would start getting distressed - and that wouldn't be helping anyone. Mary forced the thoughts and emotions away and focussed on the girls.
"... and I can't believe that ...," Fiona was saying.
"Right girls, enough with the bickering. You two have been at each other's throats the whole time since I've met you. We need to focus on looking for survivors. We don't want to miss anyone. Or anything for that matter - if you see something we might be able to use or eat, let me know. We don't know how long it might be until someone comes to rescue us."
The girls stared at her. They were so wrapped up in their argument that they had almost forgotten that the old lady was still trudging through the sand with them.
"Hey I'm sorry," Fiona replied, "I guess we're both just a little scared."
"Speak for yourself I'm ...," she sighed. "Well, maybe only a little," Sarah grudgingly admitted. Mary suddenly stopped and started running towards the waves. The girls started to follow her. She stopped at a body and dropped to her knees.
...
Henry kept touching the neck chain in his pocket. He suddenly noticed that Tracy was not walking with him. He turned around. She was standing in the middle of the jungle looking back the way they had just come. He walked back over to her. She had tears streaming down her face.
He tentatively put a hand on her shoulder
"Tracy, what's wrong?"
She looked at him, "What's wrong? What do you mean, what's wrong? Everything's wrong. I can't do this. I have a family. I have two kids. A husband. I need to find them. I need to know if they are ok... or... or...," She covered her face.
Henry stood next to her awkwardly.
"Um. Look - we can go back to the beach if you want. The fog looks like it's starting to lift anyway and I'm sure it won't be dark too soon. Let's head back and look for a bit longer. We can always take shelter up one of these trees later if you want."
Tracy sniffed.
"It's not that I don't agree that we need to find ways to survive. I just need to keep looking as well. Just like you want to look for your girlfriend."
Henry blushed, "Um, she's not, like, you know, my girlfriend... more a friend, a passenger I got to know, you know ... as you do ... when people are... when people go on the cruise a lot ..."
"Right, sure. I'm sure it happens all the time," Tracy smirked. She felt a little better now.
They turned and started to walk back towards the beach.
Eyes watched them curiously.
...
There were large scratch marks around the staircase. When Wayne got to the bottom he was in a small cramped room. It reminded him of a bunker. There were pictures on the walls - an old form of writing he guessed. There was evidence of past fires being lit. Wayne frowned. An unusual spot to light a fire. He shrugged and walked back up the stairs. Unfortunately for Sergeant Wayne Alter, when preparing for duty with the Army, he chose to focus on combat training. Had he instead studied the hieroglyphics of ancient cultures, specifically the Maya, he may have been able to decipher the message inside the room which read:
Beware the demons that sleep.
But Wayne was not a superstitious man and would have dismissed it anyway as a lot of mumbo jumbo, primitive nonsense.
As it was, he was so irritated from all of his mosquito bites that he failed to notice that the fog had almost entirely dissipated behind him. As he pushed aside the vines and clambered over the giant tree trunks he began to feel uneasy. Something was niggling at the back of his mind. He stopped on the outskirts of a clearing. Wayne couldn't make out much in front of him due to the thick fog. He stood for a while. Then he realised.
There were no mosquit
oes.
None of those pesky, biting, whiny creatures that had relentlessly dogged him since he left the beach.
And now that he came to think of it - there were no other noises either.
No birds.
No crickets.
Nothing.
The forest was silent.
As he stood there he looked down with interest at the fog swirling around his feet. It was slowly, inexorably being sucked towards the clearing.
Wayne turned around and frowned.
The forest behind him was clear of fog. It just looked like a normal forest, not a gloomy, murky, smoky jungle.
He crouched down low and tensed his body. Wayne carefully pushed aside the branch and peered into the clearing. The fog was retreating faster now and the grassed area was slowly being revealed. The clearing had fairly long grass and at its edge was an enormous cave. Wayne stayed down low and peered into the clearing. He edged his way through the thick grass.
CRRNCH!
He looked down at his foot. He lifted it up to reveal a crushed skull. Looking around he could make out more bones lying around. Wayne cautiously headed towards the cave.
He finally got to the entrance. It was enormous. Little light filtered in. He stepped into the cave. The walls were slimy and there was a fetid stench in the air. Wayne screwed up his nose and continued inside. The quietness was still bugging him and he was feeling as jittery as if he had downed ten coffees.
SHHCCRRT
He froze at the sound.
With a growing sense of foreboding, he looked up.
Chapter 6
Wakey, Wakey!
Mary was sobbing. Sarah and Fiona stood by looking at each other. For the first time in a long while, Sarah was quiet.
"KEITH!" Mary yelled as she lay on her grandson's body. Sarah opened her mouth to say something but Fiona nodded her head and so she closed it.
Fiona knew that there were no words that could be said.
...
"Are you sure we came this way?" Henry asked.
Tracy stopped.
"No - everything was covered in fog remember. Now that the fog has gone - it's like we are in a whole different world. I'm just following the sounds of the sea," she replied.
They kept walking - both lost in thought about the possibility of loved ones still being alive.
...
Wayne gaped at the gigantic shapes above him. Each one was at least double his size and quite wide. They were a light brown in colour and resembled fat cigars hanging from the ceiling
SHHCCRRT
Wayne jumped back.
The giant shapes were wriggling inside. The outer skin started to crack. He turned around and saw that there were more lying on the ground deeper in the cave.
SHHCCRRT
The sound was like fingernails on a chalkboard. Everything was pulsing and wriggling now and larger cracks started to appear in the skin of the shapes.
Wayne slowly started to back out of the cave.
...
Mary wiped her eyes and slowly stood up, her eyes never leaving her grandson's body.
"Right," she straightened up and turned to the girls. "I need to bury him."
She walked over to a piece of jagged metal and picked it up. Mary dragged it over closer to Keith's body and began to dig.
Fiona walked over and began to dig with her hands. Sarah stood awkwardly watching the two of them. She didn't really want to help - she hated the sand.
Sarah stood a little longer watching them slowly dig a hole. She sighed and bent down and started to work.
...
"The sound is getting louder!" Henry exclaimed.
"Surely we should be there by now," Tracy complained, "It seemed to take us no time at all to walk into the jungle and it was covered in thick fog then. I don't understand - surely we should be out by now?""
SHHCCRRT
"What was that?"
"What was what?" Henry replied.
"That noise. Didn't you hear it? It was like a scratching sound," Tracy explained.
Henry stopped and cocked his ear to one side.
"Nope. I only hear the waves. It's been strangely quiet for a while I've noticed though. Before the fog cleared you could hear crickets, birds, mosquitoes - but now ..."
"I noticed that ...."
SHHCCRRT
Henry grabbed Tracy's arm.
"I heard it that time. It's coming from over there." He pointed deeper into the undergrowth.
They pushed aside the vines and went in the direction of the sound.
Soon the two survivors came to a stop.
Tracy looked at Henry, "It must have been a bird or something. I can't hear it anymore."
PLLP
"Gross," She wiped her jacket absentmindedly, "definitely a bird then."
Tracy looked at her hand.
It was covered in a clear, slimy liquid.
She looked up...
...and screamed.
"AAAGGGH!"
...
Melanie looked up. She heard the scream and debated about whether to leave the tree trunk. She felt safe in there. Since waking up, Melanie had felt scared, lost and alone. She couldn't face looking and smelling all those dead ... people, so she had dashed into the forest, dropping her broken locket as she ran. Eventually she found this hollow tree trunk that was just the right size to huddle into. Melanie had noticed the forest going quieter and the fog slowly receding and she was getting worried. All the more reason to stay here. But the scream tugged at her. Someone needed help. But she would have to leave the safety of the tree trunk.
Melanie frowned and waited for a winner as the internal tug of war raged on.
...
Wayne continued to back out of the cave.
SHHCCRRT
Two enormous hooked claws ripped open the giant brown cocoon. A black armoured head pushed its way out. Row upon row of curved orange legs appeared as the creature began to emerge.
PPLLPP
It fell to the floor of the cave and the remnants of the giant cocoon lay flapping in the breeze like an oversized leaf.
Wayne gaped in horror as he struggled to grasp the sheer magnitude of the creature.
It had giant pincers protruding from its head, armoured black plates running down its back, hundreds of orange legs and a thin, whip like tail.
In short it looked like a giant centipede.
Except it was at least six metres in length.
PPLPP
And now there were two of them.
PPLPP
Wayne turned around and ran into the forest. He didn't want to know how many more friends it had.
The giant centipede watched him.
SKKTTL, SKKTTL
Its multitude of legs moved quickly as it glided out of the cave, its tail swishing from side to side.
...
Sarah, Fiona and Mary put the last heap of sand on top of the grave.
"Thanks girls. I really appreciate your help. I'm sorry to put you through that, but it had to be done." Mary put her arms around them both.
"It's fine Mary, really. Are you ok?" Fiona replied.
Mary's eyes welled up again but she quickly wiped them.
Her voice shook as she said, "I'll be fine." She turned and started walking back up the beach.
Sarah turned to Fiona.
"Does that mean we're doing this for all of these bodies?"
Fiona opened her mouth to reply but then thought better of it. She looked at Sarah again, as if analysing an insect. Maybe this is Sarah's way of dealing, or rather not dealing, with things, she thought.
"No, Sarah, I don't think so," she replied.
They followed Mary down the beach.
"Fiona...," Sarah began.
"Mmmm?"
"My feet really hurt," Sarah began, but noticing Fiona's expression she hastily added, "but I didn't want to tell Mary cause she already seems sad."
"Well, that's nice of you to think of her."
> "Thanks," Sarah replied and then, after a short pause, she said, "Hey, what about you?"
"What about me?"
"Well, you know - what about your family?" Sarah asked.
Fiona stopped walking. "What do you mean - what about my family? My father's been dead since I was two, I don't have any brothers or sisters, my mum is never around and now - she's probably dead!"
She stormed off to catch up with Mary.
Sarah jogged to catch up.
"I was only asking. Why are you so angry?"
"You don't get it Sarah, you just don't get it. All the people on that ship, apart from us, are probably dead. All of them. My mum, Mary's grandson, your family."
"Enough. She's just a ...," Mary started but she was too late.
"AAAGGGH!"
Sarah had dropped to the ground and was screaming and beating her fists into the sand.
Mary looked at Fiona, "You didn't have to say that."
"But ..."
"But nothing. You're older than her. You should know better. Look this is hard for everyone. We don't have to be at each other's throats over it."
...
Henry dragged the screaming Tracy back just as ...
FLLMP
The pale yellow cocoon that had been hanging from a branch far above her released its contents.
Henry and Tracy gasped as they struggled to take in the sight before them.
The creature had a body that was about three metres long with long spindly legs ending in sharp claws. In the dappled light cast by the overhanging trees it seemed to glow an iridescent, sparkling blue colour. Its head was large and bulbous, as though a snail was eating its face. It shook itself, spraying Henry and Tracy with slimy liquid. They stood rooted to the spot in shock.
Then, with another shake, it unfurled two gigantic wings that stretched at least six metres into the jungle. It curled them back up against its body and then turned to face the two humans.
"Just walk back real slowly," Tracy murmured to him out of the corner of her mouth. They had only taken two tentative steps backwards when ...
Bug Island Page 4
