Stranded - Night 1
#4 of Stranded
Night 1! :o
Wowza what a week it was for me last week! Had almost no free time to do much of anything but homework and study and this is the first time that I've been able to sit down and actually bust out a chapter. I had the first half of this done last Sunday but I didn't have the time to finish it up but it's here now and that's what matters! I won't delay you guys any longer, so get reading! Hope you enjoy and I'll see you all at the bottom of the page! :D
"We walked right through it... we walked right through the heart of that jungle, with some... some _thing_out there that can perfectly replicate your voice." I mumbled quietly, holding my head in my white paws as I sat on the sand near our shelter site. I rubbed my rough pads against my face to help keep me aware of the current situation as I fought off near hysteria.
"Maybe you were just hearing things...?" Lauren replied with little to no confidence in her voice, just as shaken up about the experience as I was.
"I know for sure that I was not imagining that, I've never been more sure about anything in my entire life." I stated firmly, as much as I didn't want to believe it in the first place. I couldn't help but take cautious glances towards the edge of the jungle every few seconds, just waiting to see whatever the thing that mimicked the voice of my companion come crawling out from where it came from.
I watched as Lauren opened her muzzle to speak once again but flinch in surprise as a raindrop planted itself on the bridge of her nose. We both simultaneously looked up towards the sky that had grown maliciously dark, seeming even darker with the thick haze still hanging above. The storm clouds that had been valiantly trying to hold the rain as long as they could finally began to give out, specks of rain beginning to fall more frequently than before.
"We've got to get this shelter built, we can't let these clothes get wet." I exclaimed urgently to the Lab. We both jumped up and began piling the palm fronds she'd gathered on top of the branches I'd pulled down over our shelter site. I could feel my shirt dampening slightly which only propelled my efforts to get covered up Finally once we'd stacked nearly the entire pile of leafy vegetation to form the roof of our shelter we both crawled underneath to protect ourselves from the rain that was starting to fall harder.
Everything was damp, but not completely soaked. However now that our only source of light and warmth had fallen back behind the trees I could feel the heat being sapped from my body. Remembering the advice I'd given myself earlier about layering I pulled the remaining leaves towards us.
"Put some of these under you, it'll help retain whatever warmth you've got left in your body." I instructed Lauren who nodded in response. I could instantly feel the difference as I sat myself on the palm fronds instead of the cold, hard ground, but the way the heat still continued to leave my body was startling. I could feel myself begin to shiver slightly, and the thought of hypothermia crossed my mind for a split second as I pulled my legs tight to my chest and wrapped my thin tail over my feet.
I could hear the rain pelting against the roof of our makeshift shelter now, leaking through the thin layer of foliage. Lauren curled herself into a fetal position similar to mine, letting herself roll onto her side. Her jaw shook violently as she made a valiant attempt at a yawn, only to be shut down as her teeth chattered uncontrollably. In the short time we'd spent in the poorly constructed shelter the wind had picked up considerably, and I watched helplessly as our tattered roof began to fly away with the wind.
"This isn't going to work, we're going to have to go inland." I informed the Lab regretfully.
"I agree, we'll freeze out here in the rain. But we still don't know what that thing in there is." She replied hesitantly, staring into the blackness of the jungle.
"We don't have much of a choice, like you said we are going to freeze if we try to stick it out here tonight." I responded. By now our roof had been torn away, ruining our attempts to stay dry as the rain soaked into our fur.
"You're right, we're wasting our time out here." The Lab stated standing up.
"Grab some of those fronds, we can use them as bedding if we do actually find a place to stay." I suggested.
"Good idea, plus we can hold them over our heads while we walk to keep us from getting any more wet than we are already." She responded.
"Not sure if that's possible, but it's the thought that counts." I exclaimed, hoisting my own pile of fronds over my head with a sigh. "Well, here we go..." I mumbled, leading the way from the shoreline into the dark, mysterious jungle. The canopy helped to protect us from a large percentage of the rain, but there was still a fair amount falling through the holes in the leaves.
My night vision was hard at work as my brilliant blue eyes pierced through the darkness. The Lab was having slightly more trouble, sticking close to me as we trudged slowly through the foliage. So close that she stumbled into the back of me when I came to a sudden stop, gaze locked on a clearly defined set of yellow eyes that bore into my figure in the shrubbery a few yards away. And then just as quickly as the pair of orbs appeared, they vanished into the darkness once again.
I listened intently for the rustling of foliage, but it never came. My heart was beating out of my chest, able to hear the blood pounding in my ears. The silence was deafening as my rational thinking gave way to mind-numbing fear, and we both stood unmoving as we stared into the foliage where the eyes once resided.
"I think it-" The eyes reappearing in the shrubbery once again caused my words to freeze in my throat.
"Don't. Move." I whispered, trying to steady my erratic breathing to the best of my ability. Even with my enhanced night vision and fight-or-flight instinct triggering, I was still unable to pierce through the thick foliage only a few yards in front of me. A light tap on my shoulder nearly made me jump right out of my pelt and I barely suppressed a yowl of fear.
"Nick... look..." The Lab breathed into my ear. I traced her gaze to yet another set of identical yellow eyes peering out of the darkness, and glancing around I took note of many more gazes locked onto us than we originally knew of. I began to back away at the sight, and upon seeing the yellow orbs proceed to follow my movements I made a split second decision.
"Run on 3." I exclaimed almost breathlessly, tensing my muscles to prepare to sprint. "1." My heart was racing, whatever these things were, there was a chance they could be dangerous and I wanted to get as far away from them as quick as possible. "2." The rain still fell heavily above us, easily falling through the saturated canopy to the tropical floor down below. My body trembled not only from the cold, but also from the icy cold fear running through my veins, and I feel my companion's trembling as well as I clutched her paw in my own. I slowly unsheathed my toe claws and dug them into the moist dirt as to help propel me away as quick as possible. Taking one final deep breath I turned to the Lab and nodded. "3." We both turned on our heels and bolted in the opposite direction, and the sounds of the foliage crashing behind us was muted by the blood rushing through my ears as my paws pounded against the soft ground.
I had to dodge multiple trees and even rush to scramble over a fallen trunk that was blocking my path. After a few more seconds Lauren and I burst out of the tree line into a small grassy clearing that was open to the sky. It seemed much more accustomed to a type of clearing you would see in a normal forest, not a jungle. I didn't have time to dwell on the thought however as Lauren's insistent shouting grabbed my attention.
"Nick, look!" She exclaimed, pointing across the clearing to a large hill. Weird, don't remember that being there I thought to myself.
"Let's see if we can get up there, maybe we can get a better vantage point over the canopy." I suggested. Lauren nodded in response and we rushed across the clearing and back into the trees. The hill wasn't very steep, but as we scrambled to the top I took note of the changing scenery around us.
The higher we climbed up the mountain the shorter the trees seemed to get, and not just because we were climbing higher. I could only stare in shock as I looked out over the newly changed island, common forestry now dominating the landscape replacing the tropical trees that once stood against the sky with their height.
"How... how is this possible?" I stuttered.
"I have no idea, all I know is that the rain has stopped and those things that were chasing us are gone." Lauren replied shakily. Although the rain had stopped, the persistent thick fog still loomed above us, seemingly keeping the island in constant shadow, making the dark night even darker by blocking out the moonlight. "See anything worth checking out?" She asked me. I widened my eyes and glared out over the new landscape, letting my enhanced feline night vision work its magic.
"Not necessarily... but these trees have completely taken over the island, the beach is all but gone." I explained.
"Well I don't know about you but I would much rather just stay up here for the night than try to go back down there." The Lab responded, planting herself on the grass covered ground for emphasis.
"I agree, we're probably safer up here anyway." I commented, laying down beside her. Surprisingly the ground was completely dry as if it'd never rained in the first place, and the pleasant breeze made the grass blow lazily around us.
"Y'know, other than the fact that I'm really hungry and scared witless, it's actually really been nice out here." I remarked.
"Yeah, wish there were at least some kind of animals out here, how can this island sustain itself with no wildlife?" The Lab pointed out.
"I'm not sure, if I had an answer believe be I'd tell you but I'm just as baffled as you are. Not to mention the instantaneous changes in scenery would make it really difficult for anything to live here." I added, staring out over the shorter treetops.
"In the morning we should definitely make use of this height advantage and make something that can be spotted easily. I would love to have some fire but I don't think that's going to happen." I sighed.
"Well, maybe if the island can generate trees and stuff, maybe it generated some junk that we can use." She pointed out.
"Maybe." I said quietly. "Hey, you should get some sleep, it's late... I think. I'll take first watch." I said to Lauren.
"I'm fiiiawwwwn-" Her protest ended when her muzzle split into a full force yawn, in which case she nodded and rolled over on her side to rest. I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my thin tail around my foot, trying to conserve what little heat I had left. My clothes were still soaked, but they were helping to fend off some of the wind because of how thick and heavy they were.
The island was deathly silent, the only sounds being the ocean crashing against the landmass and the light rustling of the grass when the light breeze blew. I glanced over to the lab one last time to make sure she was still asleep before quietly standing up. I was doing no good standing up here watching the tree tops, and even though there were certainly some freaky things happening on this island, I felt better knowing I would be contributing to our case that was growing more and more dangerous.
I began making my way down the hill back into the new environment, trying to make my footfall as quiet as possible. My eyes darted around nervously as I stalked through the forest, and part of me was more satisfied with the change in scenery.
With jungles there were a lot more things I there that could kill you, such as bugs, venomous snakes, and crocodiles. Not to mention the rain. The rain was horrible. But now with a new set of conditions, it was almost like an entirely new world. The game Minecraft kept popping into my head which caused me to chuckle a bit, and I couldn't help but think how similar the situations were.
"Nick, where are you going?" I heard Lauren's voice say behind me. I felt my pelt stick up in surprise, as I whirled around to tell her off about scaring me, but I became more scared than a few seconds ago when I realized she was not standing behind me. I spun around multiple times trying to find the source of the voice; a mimicking bird, a ghostly apparition, hell even a cruel voice box just stuck into the ground would suffice. "Why'd you leave me up there Nick, it's dangerous to go by yourself." The voice spoke once again, only this time the voice felt like it was all around me.
"Leave me alone!" I shouted into the forest, backing into a tree as I tried to get away from the voice.
"Nick. Why'd you leave Nick? Nick? Nick?" The flurry of voices overwhelmed my senses as I flattened my ears against my head, sinking down against the base of the tree. The voice grew louder and soon they were screaming at me with Lauren's voice, asking the same question about why I left over and over again.
"Stop! Stop! Please just stop!" I shouted back, cowering against the tree as I held my head in my paws. Suddenly I felt two rough paws grab my arms and pull them apart and I looked up to see Lauren standing over me. Her voice came through much easier however as the voice seemed miles away now compared to her tone.
"Nick what are you doing down here you know it's dangerous!" She shouted, pulling me off the ground. "Come on we've gotta go, the hill thing isn't gonna work out, I know a different place we can hide out, but we have to go now!" She continued, pulling my arm and digging her blunt nails into my- wait, nails? Lauren got her nails out... I yanked my arm away from the false Lab who stared back defiantly at me.
"Lauren doesn't have nails, now tell me, who are you, er, what are you and why is this island like this?" I asked the phony canine. Lauren's copy grinned maliciously at me, pearly white teeth much sharper than those of the Lab I was familiar with.
"The Island was bored and needed another plaything, so it destroyed your ship and pulled you in here! Hope you said goodbye to your family, because you'll never see them again! And I hope you said goodbye to your Lab friend as well, do you really think I'm the only clone on this island?" She chuckled maniacally before darting off into the woods, disappearing into the darkness.
Her words finally registered in my mind causing a blind panic to overtake me as I bolted back in the direction of the hill. Once I'd finally arrived I found a very disturbing sight, an identical clone of me talking with my companion, she however was clueless to the fact that he was not who he said he was. I walked the rest of the way up the hill and entered her line of sight, watching as her jaw dropped while she looked between the two of us.
"Nick..." She said quietly.
"Lauren, he's fake. Remember the voice in the woods, the one that sounded just like you? That's what he is, you can't listen to anything he says." The phony tiger spewed lies at her.
"Lauren, you have to believe me, he's the fake one. I left to go search in the woods for supplies but I ran into a clone of you." I silently begged with my eyes that she would believe me. Confusion and anxiety was written across her face as she glanced between us once again as if trying to find a physical thing to rely on to help her make her decision. She visibly gulped before turning to me again.
"The real Nick wouldn't go off to find supplies, he would stay by my side and keep an eye on things, not leave me for dead." She stated firmly, causing me to wince slightly as I realized what she said would be true 99% of the time.
"Lauren..." I begged quietly, realizing how much danger both she and I would be in if she decided to believe the faker. Just then an idea formed in my mind, I shoved my hand and pulled my mother's silver locket from the pocket of my pants holding it out for both of them to see.
"Replicate this, asshole." I exclaimed angrily, staring him dead in the eyes as I waited for his reaction. He stared defiantly at me for a few moments before smirking and reaching into his pocket.
Cliffhanger! I wanna see your predictions down in the comments, let me know what you think is going to happen! I'm gonna make this short as I'm going to go eat and then start the next chapter of Silent Soul right after to have up for you all hopefully tonight, if not then tomorrow for sure. Anyways hope you all enjoyed, cya!