Alice didn't know what had happened. She just felt as if she had a dream. She tried her best to bite the back of her hand with her teeth. It was said that she would not feel pain when she was dreaming. She hoped it was a dream. She hoped that when she woke up, she was still on the scientific research ship, Mrs. Larry was still revising her paper under the light, pardik was looking up at the stars on the deck, and Anderson was fishing in the silver moonlight.
But the sharp pain from the back of her hand told her that it was not a dream. The discovery has sunk and the life and death of the crew are uncertain. Pardik was eaten by savages, and Mrs. Larry was captured. She, Anderson and two other sailors were fleeing at sea, but the sea turned into a lake. The lake water was still warm, like a pot of soup.
Alice heard a story when she was a child. The hero in the story was cursed by a witch and turned into an ant like villain. He tried to climb up the table to let his lover see him and lift the curse for him, but unfortunately he fell into the mushroom soup just cooked by his hostess.
She felt like an ant falling into a soup pot. She couldn't understand the origin of the disaster and had to make the last struggle blindly.
Anderson observed a circle in the middle of the lake and said very depressed, "it seems that we are still on the original island." he pointed to a mountain in the distance. "That's where we climbed up just now. I saw a large lake in the center of the island. Now we are in this lake."
Two other sailors confirmed his words. But they can't explain this phenomenon. Although Anderson is the first mate of the discovery, he is only a senior sailor at best. In the absence of paldick and Mrs. Larry, the only one of them who can get involved with scientists is Alice, Mrs. Larry's assistant.
Alice looked at their questioning eyes and shook her head.
"I don't know, I don't know anything! This is the devil's masterpiece, this is the devil's Island!" she cried sadly, "we can't go back!"
Anderson suddenly hugged her, kissed her forehead and comforted her: "don't be afraid, baby! We'll be fine, we'll get out of here!"
Anderson's strong chest and strong arms made people feel safe. A warmth rose from the bottom of Alice's heart, and the warmth began to melt her rigid body due to fear and helplessness.
"Thank you! I'm much better," she said.
She leaned her head against Anderson's arms and the boat rippled on the lake. What a romantic and beautiful moment it would have been if paldick and Mrs. Larry were still there and if they had not encountered savages!
When she was on the discovery, she liked to sit on the deck, watch Anderson fishing and talk to him. He is humorous, always has endless jokes, and he is naturally optimistic. No matter the heavy snow in Auckland, the thick fog on the sea, or the loss of contact with the land, he can't stop him from fishing happily.
She appreciates such a man, sunny, healthy, open-minded and full of wisdom of life. She knew that Anderson also liked to talk to her. After all, she was the only girl on the ship (except the serious Mrs. Larry). Which men didn't like to talk to her! Captain church also saw it, so he specially ordered Anderson to sit in the same lifeboat with them.
Now, however, Alice dared not think of anything, nor did she want to think of anything.
The boat fell into silence, desperate silence. Everyone knows that they can't go back.
Anderson suddenly yelled, "no! We can't do this! We're going back!"
"Stop talking nonsense, Anderson! How to get back? We're in the center of the island now!" said a sailor. At this desperate moment, he didn't care whether the tone he spoke to the chief mate was proper or not. "Even if we go back to the beach, we don't have a boat. Even if we have a boat, we'll come back here. This is the devil's Island. We can't escape!"
"At least try!" Anderson said.
"But we only have one boat. We can't drag the lifeboat over several mountains?" the sailor said, pointing to the mountain ahead.
Although the mountain is not as high as the mountain on the mainland, it is obviously impossible to carry a small boat.
"Give it a try!" Anderson said again, his eyes firm, even a little fierce, as if he would never give in to the arrangement of fate.
Alice looked into his eyes curiously, which was quite different from Anderson, who knew fishing all day on the discovery.
At Anderson's insistence, they went ashore, found a hidden place to hide the lifeboat, and then prepared to go back to the beach and make a raft to cross the sea.
"What if we still go back to the lake?" all the way, they kept arguing about this problem.
"Then try again. If we can come in, we can go out. If we think of this as a closed room, there must be a fucking door. We need to find this door." Anderson encouraged everyone.
Alice felt so incompetent that as the only scientist assistant of the four, she had nothing to do with the current dilemma. If it was Mrs. Larry or pardik, it wouldn't be like this. Thinking of her wife, she was sad again.
She wanted to save her, but she knew it was impossible. The four of them have only three pistols in total. Even if each bullet is not wasted, they can't kill many savages.
She remembered Mrs. Larry's eyes again. firm! Be strong! Live strong! She told herself so.
……
However, before they could tie up a raft to cross the sea, they met the savage again.
The power of the pistol did scare the savages at the beginning, but the combat effectiveness of the savages was also terrible. They failed to eliminate all the savages they encountered, and then fell into complete passivity. They had to run for their lives and fight back carefully.
Savages are far more familiar with the jungle than they are. Their bullets are limited and their counterattack is very weak. One of the sailors fell into a trap in the jungle, and the remaining three people were quickly dispersed.
Alice ran desperately in the jungle. She didn't know how long she ran until she couldn't run any more. She fainted when it was dark.
When she woke up, she found herself leaning against a big tree, tied up with vines. On the other side of the tree, a group of savages were chattering around the campfire, saying something she didn't understand. There was a wooden shelf on the campfire, on which hung a man who had been scorched by the fire.
Alice rolled in her stomach and vomited disgustingly.
She looked at her clothes. She wondered why they didn't treat her like Mrs. Larry, or why they had to wait until they were full?
She tried to break free, but the vines that bound her seemed to have hooks and thorns. As soon as she struggled, they stabbed into the flesh of her arms and thighs and hurt deeply.
Alice realized the tragic fate she was going to face and thought of death. She stuck out her tongue and bit it with her teeth. It was said that if the whole tongue was bitten off, the gushing blood and sublingual vein thrombosis would block the trachea and esophagus and suffocate people. But what courage does a man need to bite off his tongue!
A crow from somewhere stopped on the branch of the tree opposite Alice and craned his neck to look at her.