Bizarre Rhapsody Part 1 : Welcome to the Wild

Chapter 13: The Journey

"No, no, NO!" a rumbling was heard throughout the tent as if a thousand elephants were jumping at the same time. The Man was turning tables, chairs and everything a person could hide under, "This isn't funny kid, now get out of hiding!" running outside didn't help him in catching the boy either, and Mortimer returned to the tent distraught about something. "What is it with you and throwing things around?" his colleague asked, who was used to him panicking at the smallest things, "ONE OF THE KIDS IS GONE!" Mortimer exclaimed, his internal stress and temperature quickly accelerating to inhuman levels.

Marks' face suddenly lost all color, he rushed to the kids, hoping that they hadn't lost another person on this island, to the shock of the scientist, Jonathan was gone. Victor and Emilie were sleeping peacefully, somehow not hearing everything around them.

Mortimer was still searching far and wide, inside and outside the tent and still found nothing, instead he found what he hoped would never witness again in his life. "He got him, didn't he?" Mark, already outside the tent, saw it as well. A small hole, adorned with spikes made of rocks and a small puddle of blue fluid collecting in the middle. Around the hole, a big patch of bent grass could be found next to a pair of footprints, "What do you think happened ?" Mark asked his friend, who was being overwhelmed by painful memories, "He will pay for this, HE CAN'T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS!"

Mark stood next to the shook brute, his mind ignoring the cries, focusing on a trail of footsteps leading to the other side of the island. Although they would be able to follow the boy's trail, it would only serve to endanger even more people. "Whatever happened to Saul probably happened to the kid, we need to inform the others and return to base." Mark declared, "NO, THE TWO IN THERE WILL UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED!" Mortimer responded.

"Why not?"

"WHY SHOULD THEY KNOW?"

"Stop yelling so that we can discuss this like actual adults!"

Something snapped, a primal side awakened inside Mortimer, why shouldn't he feel angry? People that thought they could trust him were taken twice? Who does he think he is? Mortimer raised his hand and delivered a slap that could have knocked out most people, directly into the face of his partner. A slap so hard, it caused Mark's entire body to fall other and land face-first into the puddle of blue blood. Mortimer's colleague had the right side of his face almost entirely covered in the liquid, which caused his skin to absorb part of it.

"Oh god, nononononononoNO!" Mortimer had regained control of his senses and realized his mistake, he raised his friend's head out of the fluid, trying to clean and dry it with his best effort.  Mark rubbed his face, the man's fingers finding a rough spot on the right side of his forehead. "We need to go as soon as possible" these words were uttered by Mark as he got up, now Mortimer saw what his partner had felt.

A part of his head had turned to stone, every passing second causing his body to be devoured further by said stone. "Go get everything you need, I'm going to talk to the kids." with this sentence the race against time had begun, they were either going to reach the great outpost on the other side of the mountain, or slowly perish and die one by one. 

The tent was even more hectic than before, Mortimer was preparing the sleds and backpacks, food, all records of their research, water, clothes for the mountain and trusty rifle with his last three bullets were put in them. The teenager's blankets were taken from them with a swift motion, creating an annoyed tone out of the teenager's mouth, "cinq minutes de plus...," a quick shake however made Emilie reluctantly change her mind. "Get everything you want to keep on the sled, we will leave once the sun is at noon," while Victor was already looking for things to bring on the journey, Emilie was exchanging glances with Mark. The only thing she had to bring were questions. Mark was unfazed and swiftly returned to the main part of the outpost, beginning to cook breakfast for them.

"Go with it, they probably know something we don't," exclaimed the boy, "ignorance is bliss they say". Emilie knew that something fishy was going on, and her friend was clearly not interested in figuring it out. The skeptical girl took her last memorials of her old life and carried them to the sled, as Victor looked with an astonished face into the corner of their living quarters.

Emilie placed her clothes on the sled as her joyful companion emerged with the top of a flag pole. "It even got the Star-Spangled Banner on it!" Mortimer looked at the flag with disgust, "You guys didn't tell us you were from the States!". Mortimer stood up.

"Why do you want to bring it with you?"

"It's cool"

"Cool?"

"It's a nice walkin' stick and could function as a weapon."

Mortimer knew arguing with the boy would be fruitless. The kid was a fanatic. After half an hour all bags were packed, everybody was dressed and food was on the table. Emilie and Victor's face suddenly went pale, "Where's Jonathan?" Mark grew a heavy heart, but they deserved an explanation.

"He is gone, we suspect it was one of our lost teammates, Saul." both of them stopped eating, "Who the fuck is Saul," Emilie said with a sharp tongue, was it the truth or a cover-up?

"The Island, where we are currently residing, is not an island. Long story short, the blood of a gigantic corpse that masks itself as an island somehow turns people into rock people with all kinds of weird powers, Saul was turned into one of these things and he most likely took your friend," Emilie couldn't imagine a worse lie. She grabbed the scientist by his shirt and looked him dead in the eye.

Only for a gray surface to reflect in her pupils. She released her grip, "You also touched that stuff, didn't you ?" Mark nodded. A few tears were shed by the two friends and after having eaten their breakfast, they had gotten out of the west side. Victor once promised his friend to wave a flag for him, although he never said this to Jonathan, he now needed to honor two of his perished friends with this flag. Emilie howwever was famished, famished for meat.

They all waited for Mark, who came running out of the tent with something long wrapped in some kind of cloth and with everybody geared for the journey, they set foot onto the white mountain.