Sunday, November 8, 2009

Return to Matainui - Day 3

I Awoke while it was still dark, and everyone else was still doing, It must of been a couple of hours after midnight. I unwrapped myself from my survival blanket and stood up. I couldn't make out much, even though I could see outside it was still very dark because there were no stars. I fumbled around and found someones bag. I took it to the portion of the room where there was most light, and could make out that the backpack had "Kieran written in it. Inside it i find our small flashlight. Flicking it on, I scanned the large and complicated dashboard looking for buttons that I knew would do something. One of the buttons was round and made from thick glass. I pushed it. One of the screens flickered on, and it showed a view of the island. The picture was dark, so i assumed it was streaming live. My finger slipped over the button, and the image on the screen panned in sync with my finger. It was like a touch screen computer. Someone must have a camera in space, or something. I kept panning until I reached part of the world that was experiencing daylight.
Someone could have been operating the camera right now. I moved it so it was back looking at Matainui island. Thoughts of the strange silver light from yesterday morning instantly jumped into my head. Maybe this was what it was? someone must have been playing with the button. Or the light could have been something completely different. I hovered the flashlight over the button that switched the wall visibility and pressed one next to it, hoping it would affect the visibility of the wall outside. I pressed the button that Kieran had used to open the blast doors. I Eagerly ran outside, to see if my idea had worked, and it had! I ran back inside and looked for something to test if the camera was streaming live. I tried a button next to the camera controller one. Nothing. I tried another button. Nothing. I tried another button... And the screen got brighter. The camera must of had a massive light on it. I ran outside to see if things got brighter, but they hadn't s it must of been an effect on the camera lens. I looked through the wall at the screen to check for any movement on the island. It was zoomed in so that Matainui had engulfed the whole screen. There was no movement of myself. But.. There was a small, red, thing. It was dancing about in the same spot. I instantly thought it was a fire. Mixed emotions streamed through my head, I knew there were other people alive on the island now. "Hey"! I yelled. The blast doors were closing on me! I ran back but I was too late. A silhoutte was standing behind the dashboard. Suddenly I couldn't see inside the control room.
Great. Someone had locked me out. I didn't have my backpack either. All I had were my clothes and Kieran's flash light.
After a bit of swearing out loud I went back down to the tent where Marek was. I unzipped the tent. "Marek" I called. No reply. I went outside the tent. "Marek!" You there!?" Still nothing. This wasn't good. Someone had taken him. Or he buggered off. I went back inside the tent because it was cold. His backpack was still there, and so was his spear, still intact. I looked at everything closely for any clues of his disappearance. As my light moved over his spear, I saw a spot of blue on it. I touched it, and it felt a lot like blood. Only that it was blue. I lifted my finger to my nose and smelt, but it smelt of nothing. "That's peculiar" I whispered to myself. "No way, that impossible" I discarded the thought that he could of attacked a strange creature with the spear, or maybe even some kind of alien. Whatever it was, it had taken him. "There must be some explanation for this" I thought to myself, but an alien attack seemed like the only reasonable explanation at this point. I took Marek's survival blanket and went to sleep.

"Oh thank heavens" I said to myself, because there were no deafening bird sounds. I must of slept in and missed the dawn chorus. I thought that the events at midnight were all just a dream, but they can't have been because I was sleeping in the tent. This was very unreal, but it was in fact real. Sometimes its hard to face the truth, but this is just unbelievable. Marek's missing, Someone locked me out from any human life I knew with only the clothes on my back. I needed a plan, a good one. Above the majestic scenery, I saw smoke rising through the air. Then I remembered the fire on the control room's screen. My first thoughts were "Thats where I'm headed." I packed up the tent and marked its spot on the map. I didn't even bother going back to the control room, I thought Asser and Ben would be fine on their own with the others. It was Marek who needed help and I couldn't help him own my own. I began my trek down the stepped mountain, two hands firmly grasping Marek's spear incase anything shall jump out at me.

The plants brushed against my back as I lay against the bottom step of the stepped mountain trying to get back some breath, even though it was no wear as challenging as the journey up. I pulled out my map and looked at the position of the fire. It was near one of the streams, probably so the people there could get fresh water. The island is only 3 or 4 kilometres across, so I stood up and set off again. It may seem like a short walk, but the thick plant life and sumptuous bird life make it very easy to get lost.

I looked up at the forrest roof, little light got through to me. But there was one opening ahead. I ran up to and looked up. SQQUUAAWWKK! A gigantic black eagle flew overhead. "Cor Blimey" I thought. They must have been the giant eagle with a 3 metre wingspan that made the Moas extinct. And if they can eliminate all Moa life, imagine what they could do to people. I continued walking, extra careful of what was happening in the sky now.

I could hear the crackling of the fire now, and I ran towards a clearing near the river, but stopped and hid behind a tree. I saw and heard people screaming and running but I couldn't make it who they were. Then I saw a giant worm with a human torso and distorted face, and it was attacking someone. Just then a bird about the size of a person, standing on its feet, with a spear, fluttered in and assualted the worm thing. I thought I should help the bird but I was too scared to risk my own life. The worm embraced the bird and slammed it to the ground. no one had noticed me yet, and the worm had its back faced at me. I charged at the worm with Marek's spear, but it stole the birds spare and faced to fight me. It tried to drive the spear straight through me, but I knocked down with My spear, whacked it over it's demented face, and thrusted Marek's spear through its gut. Another worm, so nimble, slithered in and attacked the giant bird as it was getting to its feet. Helpless, the poor bird was thrown on the fire and left to die. The second worm grabbed someone behind a bush and starting running - or slithering - away. Bloodlust. I ran after it but it's speed and agility was princely. With no chance of catching it, I tended to the bird, but I was far too late. It was unarmed. It wasn't breathing. It wasn't moving. A sudden woosh and the whole corpse was ablaze. Its spear lay on the ground. I waltzed over and grabbed it. It felt much better than Marek's budget spear. The blade was properly attached to it and the weight was evenly distributed. I juggled it around in my hands and twirled it round and round. It was the only good point on top of my situation, any chance at finding human life had been virtually stolen from me. I sat down and took Marek's spear, removing the hunting knife and slipping it into my tattered short's pocket. The bird thing was still scorching, so I kicked it into the small river with my sneakers. As the flames fizzled out and the carkus drifted down stream, I raised my head to my hand in a salute. It was fighting on the same side as me, against the worm people. That probably meant that they had experience of them in the past. But how could either of them exist? the only explanation for this one was that a worm and person were badly affected by the uranium on Matainui island, and the bird must of mutated from a Kea to an even bigger more intelligent Kea. But if the worm people were mutated from worms and people, who would they mutate from? there were no humans on this island before our class crashed here.

A faint "plop" sound came from the river next to me. I jerked my head and saw nothing.
"plop"
I scanned the river for movement, and saw some eels breaking surface about 20 metres downstream. I darted to the site with my new spear, and examined the scene. There were quite a few of them eels, and it felt about lunch time. I waded into the water, and jabbed the spear into the water. I withdrew it, but there was no eel on the end. I jabbed again, and there was still no lunch on the end of my spear. 10 metres down the stream, hundreds of eels were rapidly coming my way. I ignored them, and kept fishing. As they got closer I got more nervous, but they were just harmless eels. But I found out the hard way that they weren't harmless. My legs were wrapped in black, and I couldn't move. The eels had somehow anchored themselfs to the ground. I frantically and aimlessly thrusted the spear into the water around me, but it was no use. I threw the spear to shore, and pulled out Marek's hunting knive. I started stabbing and tearing the sheet of eels choking my legs, but there were too many of them. All the water around me was black. I strained, and used all my force, to move my right leg one step closer towards the shore. As I did, all the eels on that leg scampered off. I stabbed my left leg, but just before the knive made contact, the eels broke up and scampered off with the other crew and it tore the flesh on my shin. "AAAAHHHH!" Birds in the trees paniced and flew away, and I started to slowly get out of the water. I turned around and picked up half a slimy eel on the riverbed and got out of the water. It slipped out of my hands onto the ground with a thud, and I picked up the spear and stabbed the eel.

Preparing the eel was much easier than preparing a Moa, and I had learnt from the fishing trips with my dad. I sat round the fire eating lunch with all my gear sitting next to me - A hunting knive, a spear, and a small flashlight.

As I marched further down the river looking for human life, I thought that maybe people could have crossed it in search for shelter near the lake. "plop" I quickly moved my head in the direction of the familiar sound, and saw a giant eel swimming in the river. It was the size of an Anaconda. Any thoughts of crossing the 20 metre wide river quickly faded.

The sky was pitch black, no stars, a now familiar sight. I lay under a few well put together sticks and branches hat would serve as my shelter for the long night ahead, with my spear by my side to fend off predators in my slumber.

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