by Nathan Lunn
Kye looked up and nodded, delving back into the jungle with Danny just moments later.
“Jesus, the amount of sweat that’s frozen in my shoes now,” Kye moaned, shaking his foot as they bounded over the mess of roots and rocks once again. The smoke had basically dissipated in the time it had taken them to get halfway there, so they were moving a little blindly, back into the dark, back in the wrong direction. Danny chattered his teeth in between his words, “I don’t care… keep moving… supposed to be over this cluster.”
Kye shot him a glance and nearly slipped – scowling, he moved his focus back over to the ground and the task at hand. A few minutes passed by in silence, before a minute glow of light appeared between the trees in front of them, steadily growing in intensity as they moved closer. Danny picked up his pace and started to yell, “Eddie! Eddie, you there?”
Kye grabbed his arm, whirling him around and bunching him up against a tree. “What the fuck are you doing?” Kye seethed between his teeth as his shout echoed off the trees around them, rebounding back in a short time to reach their ears.
Danny stuttered, his tongue tripping him over his words as Kye’s hands dug into his shoulders, “I was calling for them! I mean, they gotta be at one of these right?” His worry turned to rage as a sharp knot of the tree started to dig into his back, and he pushed into Kye, his voice cracking as he slipped to the jungle floor. “Hey, get the fuck off of me!” He stood up as Kye backed away from him, moving directly into the circle of firelight. “Just stop fucking attacking me, okay?” He moved forward, fists shaking as he joined Kye in the light. “You’re so fucking self-righteous, Kye, and I’m goddamn sick of it.” His voice rose as he got closer to the fire, the twisting amber reflecting off his wide eyeballs – he moved into grabbing range of Kye and reached out for him. Kye dodged the stretching fingers and threw a punch that connected with the underside of his ribcage, winding him and sending him crashing to the ground. Kye was stood over Danny, both panting and out of breath, when they heard a crack come from the trees around them.
“Shit,” Kye whispered, crouching down next to Danny. “Get up, man. There’s something in the trees.”
Danny rolled over, and spat in his face. Kye reeled back, wiping at it with his sleeve as he stumbled over the discarded embers nearby.
“Fuck you, Kye. Now you’re just imagining shit,” Danny said, rising to his feet and leaning back to holler as loud as he could into the air. “Come out, come out wherever you are!”
Kye shoved him brutally, yelling back to stay quiet, “Will you shut up! Listen, I’m serious.” A louder crack sounded from behind them, and Danny locked eyes with Kye.
“Where did that come from?” He whirled on his spot, as Kye pointed back to the beach. “We have to go now, I’ve got nothing to protect me from animals, and I don’t want to get fucking eaten.”
Kye spoke, his voice lowered. “You changed your tune pretty quickly. Follow me.” He started to move away from the firelight, back into the jungle and the dark. Danny tailed behind as they rushed, half-running, half-walking, away from the beach and back up towards the mountains. Cracks continued to sound at their heads as various branches broke under unknown weight, clipping their heels and forcing them to remain in motion – passing a useless look backwards, Kye’s attention dropped and he tripped over a tangle of vines, spilling to the floor and grazing his left palm as the skin ripped. He cursed, and Danny passed by his prone body, letting out a laugh as he overtook Kye.
“Danny, help me up!” Kye yelled, pushing himself lopsidedly off the ground as he collapsed onto his left side. “Danny!” he roared, hearing only a gleeful laugh in response. Kye forged forward on his elbows and knees, stopping sharply when he heard a yell and a crack sound out, louder than any of the others previous. He ducked his head down, pushing himself close into the roots, breathing in the wet acidic soil and damp rotting leaves – the jungle sounds had all gone quiet and a light but consistent moaning was floating over to where Kye was lying. Cautiously, he crawled forward, the moans getting louder and louder until he reached their composer.
“Stop, stop, stop,” Danny yelled, panicked words pouring out of his mouth like verbal diaorrhea.
Kye paused in his space, and guardedly called out, “Where are you?” A sense of creeping paranoia started to mount as his voice echoed back surprisingly loud. Caught by a sudden sense of vertigo, Kye gripped the ground beneath his hands tightly, fists bunching up clumps of wet dirt and shredded leaves, yelling out once more to the empty space. “Oi, Danny, is there a hole here?”
“Yes, of course there’s a fucking hole here! What did you think it was?” Danny shouted back, pain straining in his tone. Kye inched forward a little. “Stop!” Kye paused, as Danny let out groans of effort.
“What’s going on, Danny, why can’t I move?” A crack sounded above him and Danny let out a yelp, full of paralysing fear. His voice quietened as he fell further from Kye, and Kye scrabbled as close as he could to the edge of the hole, calling out his name.
“Danny! Danny, you okay? Danny?”
“I’m here! My vines have snapped, I’m just hanging by my hands. I’ve…” another groan floated up the hole, followed by three quick short breaths, and one long drawn out one. “I’ve not got much strength here, but I can see you a little better from below, okay? I need you to reach down and pull me up with that arm of yours.” Kye paused, remaining silent. “Kye, there’s fucking spikes here and I have heavy vines dragging down one of my legs, it’s weak as it is!” He shuffled, as he tried to push himself up the hole. Kye’s eyesight had acclimatised a little better, and he could make out the dimensions of the hole Danny had fallen into. It wasn’t much wider than his arm span on both sides, almost shaped like a coffin, but with wider dimensions; a bunched up mess of leafy vines had snapped from the trees above him and landed onto Danny’s stomach, tense and tight with the immense pressure he was exerting on himself. Kye couldn't see his face, but he could recognise the outline of his body: both palms were out flat, pushing hard against the dirt, and his legs and head were stretched as far as he could get them to push out the other sides. He shrunk as you got closer to the inside of his body, and his pelvis was raised higher than the rest of him. Inbetween his armpits, Kye thought he noticed the glint of metal poles, their dastardly sharp points raised to the heavens and planted in the ground below. He looked small from this height – the hole had been dug deep, over five feet in total, and Kye knew he wouldn’t be able to reach with his normal arm.
“Get me, man! Don’t just fucking stand there!” Danny was screaming now, his voice breaking as his arms and legs started to burn. Spit flew from his beetroot red face, landing on his chest in little clots. Kye could make these out now, little flecks of wetness dotted without pattern on his crusty folded shirt. He poked his head fully over the edge, as the wind picked up in intensity and small molecules of dirt started to rain down on Danny from above. He spat again, blinking rapidly as they landed in his eyes and mouth.
“Kye, fucking talk to me, man! Can you see where I am?” Desperation was at the forefront of his voice now, and Kye remained silent. “Kye, I can see your shadow!”
He spoke, as he moved his right arm out over the hole. “I can see you better now. I’m gonna reach down and grab you.” More dirt rained from above, hitting Danny’s chest lightly and throwing his head and pained leg into spasms of jerky movements. A single foot slipped, the vines wrapped around it catching on his shoes and ankles as they fell to the poles below, impaling itself on the metal with next-to-no resistance. Danny planted his foot back on the dirt, lower this time as he tried to reposition himself – his head started to lift higher than his legs, his pelvis lowering as he pushed into a more vertical position, suppressed cursing all whilst he contorted his body into the unnatural angle.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck! I’m slipping, man, you gotta grab me!” Kye lowered his right arm, the purple remaining dead in colour and movement. He shook it, and it stayed, bouncing off the side
of the walls and raining more dirt down below. Impotent, he shook his head and tried to clear his thoughts, directing his focus towards extending his grip. Silence fell, punctured only by Danny’s quick breathing and curses, as Kye labored fruitlessly. He let out an audible sigh as he collapsed back to the forest floor, right arm weakly swinging in the building breeze.
“I… I just can’t, Danny. It’s not working.” Danny’s second foot slipped down the wall, matching the position of his first – he was now almost entirely vertical, and the curses were coming at a continuous rate.
“You fuck! What do you mean it’s not– fuck, shit, you cunt! Just lean down and grab me, extend it and save my fucking life!” Kye leaned over again, teeth grinding hard as he tried to morph his arm’s shape. It remained still, flat and steady – he could find himself able to wiggle his fingers as he attempted to snatch the top of Danny’s head.
“Danny, I can’t… I just... “ he pushed again, unsure how close he was getting to grabbing him.
“I can feel that, I can feel you pushing the wind on my hair!” Kye stretched as far as he felt was possible, his left hand scrambling in the dirt, a consistent rain of pebbles, particles and leaves falling past his right.
“Just, push up higher, you’re not quite in my reach!” Kye insisted.
Danny strained, screaming now as fire burned in his legs and arms. “Grab my fucking head!”
“Higher! You’re not that fucking tall, Danny, you need to push higher!” Kye bellowed, as the wind blasted him in the face.
“Are you fucking serious? Not that tall–” The intense gust of wind rushed past Kye’s arm and into the hole, dislodging Danny’s right foot from the crumbling dirt wall and sending it down, hard. As it impaled on a spike, he let out a guttural scream, and his hand broke away, fully collapsing his makeshift bridge, and sending him tumbling down to the spikes below. As the flurry pushed around, the trees clashed and parted, allowing a beam of moonlight to break through to the jungle floor, and Kye saw Danny as he looked upwards, locking eyes with the deer caught in the headlights – the desperation and fear encapsulated completely in his pupils. The rest of his body succumbed to the inevitable gravity, and he fell, the scream dying in his throat as it took the full force of one of the metal spikes. As another punctured his lung and kidney, ripping through his back with ease, all that was left to hear was the gargling congealed sounds of his blood dripping from his body and spraying over the dirt and metal around him. After a few minutes, the sounds had died down, and Kye was left lying on his back, staring up at the shadows of leaves swaying idly above him – his chest heaved up and down as he struggled to breathe.
“My first kill.” A voice formed from the trees above him, and he scrambled up, whirling to the direction he had heard it come from. “Although, I did have some help.” Kye looked directly up, and the branch nearest him bounced as the small figure jumped down from it, still enshrouded in shadow – Kye’s eyes had to readjust to the darkness left in the absence of moonlight caused by rogue wind. “Here.” A blinding light appeared in front of him, causing him to wince in pain – in the short moments it took for his eyes to adjust, the light had moved, dipping into the hole. Kye blinked once more and shook his head, as the figure’s features came into focus. Morgana Croft smirked back at him, before smugly speaking.
“You claiming this as yours?”
22
“Claiming what?” Kye’s head went light, and his knees bent. He span around, searching in the darkness between the trunks for any sort of shadow. “Where’s Alexis?”
Morgana started to patrol around the hole, speaking confidently and without worry,. “Oh, my father is off on his own hunt. I’m here to make him proud, so if you’ll excuse me.” She bent down into the hole and tapped her temple. The spikes slickly retracted with a pneumatic hiss into the ground, and Danny’s body fell to the floor, folded unceremoniously in the ditch. She began to explain as another pneumatic hiss was emitted and the floor began to rise, bringing Danny’s body up next to their height.
“This is my trap, you see? I set it earlier, and you fell for it.” She paused, as she took her rucksack off her back. “And now, I’m going to claim my kill.” After rummaging for a little while, unfazed and unhurried, she pulled out a pair of pliers, shining new and adorned with pink rubber handles, clear plastic sequins dotted at irregular intervals. Kye almost laughed at the absurdity, but he pretty quickly turned morose as she kneeled by Danny’s head and pried open his jaw.
“What are you doing? You're supposed to be scared of me!" Kye shouted, moving forward with a start.
“Oh please, you won't hurt me, I saw that earlier today. As to what I'm doing – I'm getting my claim?” Morgana tilted her head in mock confusion and turned her attention back to Danny, whose back tooth she was busy wrenching from his gums. “What does it look like?”
Kye stopped, and protested, “You shouldn’t do that. Hey, I’m serious!” He raised his voice as the tooth slid out of Danny’s gum with a sickening plop. “That’s not yours to take!” She took out a rag from her pocket and wiped away the blood, dropping the red-stained fabric to the jungle floor. After placing the tooth in the top pocket of her bag, she looked back up at Kye; her face was framed horrifically by the lantern’s light coming from below, her hands were busy rummaging through Danny’s pockets.
“Why do you care?” she said, emphasising at Kye with her dirty pliers. He looked at Danny, averting his eyes from the dark holes punctuating his body, then looked away to the trees. She stood back up and grabbed her lantern. “I mean, as far as I can tell, you hated each other!”
He looked back to Morgana, his own voice betraying him. “I didn’t hate him! We worked together!”
She nodded, picking some dirt out from under her nails, and spoke. “I watched the whole thing, I know what really happened.”
Kye stopped cold.
“What do you mean, ‘What really happened’?” he said, curling his fingers as he mocked her voice. She finished packing her bag and swung it back around her – her right hand secured tightly in one of her numerous coat pockets. “I couldn’t save him, simple as that.” His voice wavered as she tilted her head again. Kye remained impassive, and she sighed, shaking her head and launching into a monologue.
“Except, it’s not quite as ‘simple as that’, is it?” She copied Kye, curling her fingers and mocking his voice. “I know what that arm is, you had multiple chances to save him and you didn’t bother.”
“That’s not true, I–” Kye was cut off by a raised finger and a yell.
“I’m not done! To be honest, I am surprised it even took as long as the trap to kill him. I’ve been following you both since we landed and I gotta say, you work together terribly.”
Kye turned cold, growing tense, as he chose his next words carefully. “Wait, since you landed?” She smirked once more, and he continued. “Where is Alexis?” She closed her mouth tightly and shook her head in mocking exaggeration. Kye persisted. “Morgana, does he know where Julie is?”
Morgana‘s eyes popped open, and she jumped, speaking fast and muffled as she clapped her hand over her mouth. “Julie! Oh my gosh, Julie!” Her face returned to normal as the lantern flickered at her side. “I don’t know your names, he’s off on his hunt, I told you.” She shook her head and stopped moving.
“Hunting who?” Kye clenched his fists.
“Well, everyone on this island, I would imagine.” Morgana started to laugh again, the same high pitched irritating sound from the shop only hours before. Kye’s teeth started to grind, the sound stabbing through the silent ambience of the jungle. The lantern flickered once more and she stopped – a quick wind of the winch and shake of the mechanism fixed the light so it remained stable.
“You know, speaking of your friends, teamwork is really an important thing. If you want to work as well as me and Daddy do, you’ll need to put in the effort.” Kye narrowed his eyes, wiping the back of his neck as a bead of sweat dripped down it. “In the
interest of honesty, you should probably be clear about what happened here.”
Kye’s eyes bulged as he struggled to find the right words. “I will be clear, why would I not be – look I didn’t do anything wrong!”
Morgana nodded, a blase tone creeping into her voice. “Yes, yes, the innocent one. Always are! Don’t worry, I can help set the truth right.”
Panic gripped Kye as she tapped at her temple. No obvious effect was seen, which only served to heighten his paranoia.
“Anyway, I need to get on with my hunt, so if you don’t mind, I’m calling for Daddy.”
“It won’t work!” Kye exclaimed. “Commlink is down.”
She smiled, and nodded slowly. “Oh, I’m well aware. I thought I would bring him here with one of these.” In a single fluid motion, Morgana pulled her hand out of her pocket, and raised it to the air, clenched tightly around a thick black handgun. Acting out of nervous fear, Kye sprang forwards, his arm reforming and extending to give him the extra reach he needed.
“Wait!” The shot rang out. A yell escaped his lips as his flat and wide hand connected with Morgana’s side, throwing her away from the hole and through the air, hurtling until she connected with the nearest tree, slamming into the trunk with enough force to crack her in two. Her broken body slumped to the ground, as the light from Danny’s flare gun exploded overhead, bathing the entire area in a blinding red light.
23
Julie pressed back into her chair as the acceleration kicked in, first with a shunt, then with a smoother lift as they pushed off the carrier. She frantically spun the steering wheel to the left in a meagre attempt to course correct as a gust of wind caught the back side of the vehicle. The car dropped a metre, before the engine whined once more and caught itself – shuddering as it flattened out, and screaming the high-pitch into their ears. Blue tinged smoke belched into the air behind as they dropped through the cloud line, persistent bangs firing over the back of their heads; the wheel jumped from side to side as red flashing icons popped up in her commlink and the car’s dashboard.