I LOVED writing this chapter. Enjoy.
Chapter 7: Four Island Isolation
It was key for them all to survive. It was part of the Appointer's rules. Unfortunately, none of the Appointers were doing a very good job on that part. They were too busy helping those already in the clear that they did not manage to return to those that remained within the cavern. By now, all that had escaped could easily say that the others were gone.
It was a tragedy. It was a sad realization. That was all they could put it as. Now they were supposed to push the thought of many gone to the side and continue onwards, to live. It was all they could do. But there was still one question at hand; where would they go? The only way out of the island was by using the Runaway Machines; the watercrafts made by humans. Most had been destroyed along with everything else.
That question stuck with Irathie for a long moment. How was he supposed to lead the others off of the island? When that was the only choice for survival, how was it supposed to be accomplished?
It was a puzzle he would have to unravel later. For now, he needed to stay focused. He, along with the other Appointers led what remained of the colony down an open field, that seemed to get steeper as they walked onwards. There were stone remains of what were once buildings hidden in the landscape used for research. Of course, the Sneasels and the Appointers had no idea of what they actually were. They could all just guess that they were more human homes.
At the back of the line, Wendy walked. She did not go a straight line, and she did not look at where she was going. She just looked down. The ground seemed to get filthy with mud; all she had to do was look down and see where the footsteps in front of her led her.
The only good news that came from their long trek over the wastelands was the fact that there were no humans to try and fight them. Wendy was confused by this thought; just the night before, the humans never acted in this manner. There was nothing to lead them to do what she was seeing, actually. Not even Teresa told her anything that could have led to humans wanting them all dead.
Throughout the entire group, their minds were all focused on one question; why? Why would the humans attack? What purpose did they have? What reason would be great enough for suck an attack? What demonic creature in the back of their heads forced them to do such a thing? Why were they listening to that demonic creature?
It was either it mattered or it did not. The confusion was wide spread in thoughts, and each thought from each Sneasel was different. yet, their outcomes were the same. The humans were the ones that needed to be wiped out. If they found it right to destroy them, then they had all the right in the world to fight back, and protect. To show them how they liked what they were doing.
This was it; they had reached the end of the line. Before them all was the vast ocean. Beyond were the other islands. Those islands were unfortunately too far to swim to. Squinting to catch what lay on the nearest other island, Irathie found that it seemed to be as Four Island once was; lush with greenery and life. That, or he could be imagining it. His vision was not very picture perfect.
"What are we to do now?" One of the Sneasels wondered. It was a question that at the moment, was the million dollar one. Putting the facts up, there was really nothing they could do. They were pitted on a wasteland of their homeland with another species ready to tear their heads apart, with no chance of escape.
"How did the humans get here?" This question was from someone else. The voice was unfamiliar to the colony. They turned, gazing upon the outsider. It was indeed the outsider that had asked that questions. "When you find the answer to that, you have the answer to how we can get out. The humans—at least those humans—did not get here before the bomb. If they had, then they would have been dead. Just like the rest of us should be."
Irathie began to walk towards her. He stood a few feet away from her now, and said nothing until she turned away. "You are expecting us to go out the way the humans came in, yes?" Wendy nodded. "So, tell us; how is it that you manage to come upon us?"
"I was lucky enough to be alive," Wendy answered. "I don't know why the humans are doing this to us; I'm not part of that. This is as much as a surprise to me as it is to you."
"So I see. How do you expect us to do this; leave the way the humans entered?"
"I don't know; you're the leader, aren't you? Lead us."
No other words were said. The silence brought upon a strong wind; a nice change from all of the thickness. It was most likely the ocean that was bringing in the air, with the swishing waves. No; the waves were brought on by air. There was a breeze coming; that was what was bringing in the good air.
Irathie turned around, gazing afar to the ocean. Honestly, he had no clue on what to do next. There was no plan of action to fulfill; they had run from the humans, and that was as far as they were getting. Should they give in? Was it worth it? No, it was not. The humans had it clear that they were going to kill every life form.
"So where are you from? What's you name?" Irathie questioned.
She did not want to answer that, but knew that she had to. "My given name is Wendy. I was not born into a Colony. I was born to serve a trainer on her journey. I did well. But please, hear me out. I didn't see this coming; humans are not normally like this. There was no reason I saw that would have turned the humans against us."
"Well then Wendy. What would be your best bet, if you had to guess, as of why they would do this to us? And not just to us; everyone on this island. We were at peace with the humans. Why would they do this to their own too?"
"The humans were leaving the island rapidly; surely you had to have seen that."
"Yes; and now we believe that they had planned this. but, there were a select few that did not get off of this island. Is that the truth? Tell me. Were there any other humans here, seconds before the bomb had gone off?"
"…Yes…there were a few."
"Shouldn't they of all species make for sure that their kind was not in complete danger from the bomb as you say?"
"Listen; I know nothing of this. I woke up to find my trainer disappear, and watch this island go boom! I do not know what was going through the human thoughts. I don't believe that I ever will. Whatever it was, I had nothing to do with it, and I know nothing about it. To answer you're question, I would not have a best bet or guess on a thing. I'm not a human; I was just raised by one."
It did not take long for Irathie to take this as so. He turned around, facing the other Appointers. What were they to do now? It seemed to not matter anyway. Should they just scout the island a bit? Was there a way to survive this? Or would the humans win? What were they planning?
That's when one of the Appointers was going to submit to something. There was a shot that rang in the air, and in the next instant, that Appointer was down. He screeched in pain; there was a bullet that had pierced him just above the heart. It had blocked one of the arteries.
They all turned their directions behind them. Lined in a row where they had come from were humans. And since everything was a wasteland, there were more rows of them appearing in a half circle, cutting the Sneasels and Appointers to only having the spot they were on. The humans had caught up to them; and they were ready to kill. All fired at different times, aiming at the same place. They saw the entire group scramble, only for all of them to eventually meet the same fate.
But not by a long shot was Mare going to allow this to happen. There was no hiding spot he could take on, so he had to hope that he could camouflage himself with the ground. It was enough. He signaled Nadlew and a few others. They all were on one side; the left side. There, Mare jumped on the back of one of the men shooting, snapping the man's neck. The man was a bit farther than the rest; none had heard him fall because of the gunshots.
The others came from behind and either slashed or snapped the necks. It was the humans on the opposite sides that saw this happening, and as a response, aimed at their location. Others caught on, and ended the shooting at the center. There were still a few that kept on shooting in order to wipe out the group quickly.
Irathie and another Appointer quickly created an ice wall to block the bullets, but it was not blocking the bullets from all side. They were still in danger. Wendy crawled to the somewhat safety of the ice wall. The bullets never stopped. That was when she felt that she had enough of this. There were too many humans and they were all changing her entire thoughts upon their race. As the seconds ticked by, she just exploded from the inside.
Without saying a word, she did the one attack that she knew would never fail. Faint attack. And she soon disappeared in dark matter. Way back, there was a man aiming his rifle at Mare. His scope was mark on. All he had to do was press the trigger, and Mare would be dead. Wendy made quick work of him as she appeared from behind, knocking him out with an icy punch that froze his entire mask. The man had a hard time breathing, and began to panic. He pulled off the mask. When he turned around, Wendy punched again, this time without the ice effect, and knocked him out.
Once this act was done, the others saw how easy this was. They were dying, yet they were the ones that had the upper hand. What they had to do was fight back. And so that was what happened. Those that were still alive at the center began to disperse, running towards the nearest human. The humans kept on shooting, taking out Sneasels that ran, but they were no match once they were face to face with them. They began their full scale attack. The children stayed out of it; all of the adults were on an all out war against the humans, and they were not going to stop until they were all dead. Kind of like how the humans were doing to them.
Blow after blow, gunshots were fired. Some were met with ice at the barrel, which backfired the weapons. Others were beaten horribly. They fought until there were only a few remaining Sneasels left; most of the colony had been wiped out. And at long last, there were no remaining humans.
In what was a much too gory scene for the children, all that remained regrouped together. They could easily be counted. How many were there? About, 14 maybe? How many were dead? There were the dead scattered around the battlefield. It should not have come to this. the humans had forced this act upon themselves. And so, the Sneasels moved on. They did not plan to stay. They did not plan to take the little ones passed the battle fields either. They met up with the little ones only to lead them in the opposite direction. No one said a thing. They just hurried. There was only one Appointer left. Irathie.
None of the little ones questioned of the blood. Some wondered where their parents had gone; where the rest were. None would answer. Mare helped move them along. On the other end, Wendy wished only to forget everything that had just happened; that she had not taken part in an act that killed many humans, and many of her own kind.
The Sneasels kept their fast pace in walking. They had no general direction to go. All they knew was that they had to move faster; no telling where or when more humans would pop out to kill. Were the humans quickly becoming the new number 1 enemy? It seemed so. And it was all because of that one act that they had done; destroy Four Island.
They stopped, catching a glimpse of the distance. There were about 3 mega sized watercrafts made of iron out in the ocean. They had weapons too. The ship was quickly approaching.
"How many humans do you think are on that?" Nadlew wondered. None answered. They stared. So did the children. It only took a matter of seconds before the watercraft made a complete stop. There seemed to be a hatch opening from the side of the ship; from there, much smaller watercrafts were dispatched with at least 6 men in each.
"The children need to hide," said Irathie. On cue, one of the remaining mothers took a hold of them and began to lead them away from them. "Don't leave forever; we'll take them down. When they begin to turn around, then you know to come back and find whatever remains of us." He turned to face everyone else. "Is everyone ready for what we are about to do?" there was no sound from anyone. Just the look at the watercraft. They did not need to say a thing; their eyes told him that they were ready. "Let's move on out, and kill every single one of them."
The mini-boats with their tiny little motors were planted safely on the waters, and quickly, men were sent off. They had seen the other men disappear behind the cliff edge. They had not seen anything else, but they heard major gunshots. The radiation blocked all types of contacts. What they had to do was check and see if they were alright. They were sending all they had. Then, they were going to circle the island. Wherever their men were, they were going to find them.
The last boat to be laid on the water was nothing like the mini-boats. It was much bigger. It was exactly what the name was; a boat, long and wide enough to carry 33 men (but only held 12) with a bottom deck that held very little artillery at the moment, but was allowed to hold many, and one main control room for the driving at the top deck.
The ship hit the water, and began to rush forward towards land. That was all that the ship left; it and the other 2 giants beside it left in different directions to circle the island. The bigger of the small boats that were released slowly glided towards a good shallow spot, but not too shallow. The other smaller ones made it to the land, and began their search for life.
It was a bit dark. The boat holding the artillery did not catch Irathie slowly swim through the water, hiding right at the side of the boat. He pushed himself against the big thing. When he felt that he was in the clear, he began his climb up the side. He climbed over a windowed part. Inside, there was a man getting ammunition. He did not see Irathie's body slowly pull upwards. Finally, Mare reached the top, but did not fully pull himself over. There was a human leaning against the railing. Stealthily, he pulled himself up and grabbed at the man's neck, locking the air. The man choked for awhile, unable to breathe, and dropped his weapon. Irathie then pulled him overboard and to the water. Even though the splash was loud, none seemed to have heard this.
Irathie drowned the human. Then, he signaled for the rest to come. Slowly, the other Sneasels swam through the dark waters, trying their best not to make any noise at all. Once they reached Mare, they all began to climb. This time, none passed any of the windows of the bottom deck. Irathie was the first to jump on deck, and quickly rolled behind a set of boxes. There were a few humans on the other end that heard that, and turned. They found nothing. Only one was smart enough to come and look to see what made the noise.
When the man looked overboard, he saw the chain of Sneasels hanging. Before he could say anything, Irathie pounced on his back and kicked him overboard. When he landed on the water, the last Sneasel thrust his claw deep into his membrane.
That was too much noise; the others heard, and turned around. They found Irathie standing still. Of course, they did what they thought was right, and began to shoot at him. Irathie was prepared. He put his clawed hand in front of him and formed the black matter that was a faint attack. The bullets were absorbed into the attack, and behind the two that had shot, the black matter formed, and the bullets hit directly on their backs, dropping them to the ground.
Mare pulled himself up quickly and landed in a battle-ready stance. He jumped up and over the bottom deck door. It was just enough noise to have the only man down there come rushing up. When he had, Mare shot a built icicle into the man's shoulder. He fell on his knees in pain, and with this, Mare jumped down on top, striking at the man's spinal cord, and breaking it. In total, 5 were down.
The others climbed up too. Only the last few needed to board. Unfortunately, they had made a lot of noise, and the control room door opened. There was a man with the mask and all, a gun to his side. Somehow, Mare saw a shocked expression passed the man's mask. It struck him as funny.
Mare's grin did not last long; the man readied his weapon and began to shoot those that were on deck. The Sneasels began to hide began objects. 2 were killed right on. The third shot had to let go of the rail onto the boat, and dropped the last 3 that were climbing on the boat.
The man ran to the rail and readied a shot down at those Sneasels. One straight for Wendy. But in all of sudden rush, Nadlew managed to jump over most of the objects on the boat and slash at the man's torso. In agony, the man began to shoot aimlessly at the sky. That was the call that the men were in danger. And that caught the attention of many that were searching on land.
An ice beam from Irathie all over the man's body was enough to shut him up. The control room door opened again, and two more came out ready to hurt. The first thing they did was jump to the side and hide behind boxes. Mare felt that they had the upper hand here.
Slowly, the men made their way across the boat, both shooting at random. The Sneasels did not move; they waited for their clear hit. Unfortunately, they did not count on a third man to come out of the control room. Most were now in clear shot as to not get fired by those men moving about. The man took out 4 more Sneasels with an automatic.
It was at this moment that Wendy was finally able to pull herself onto the boat. She was wet all over, as was everyone else. She dripped of radiated seawater. And she was ready to hurt some people. She shot an ice beam directly at the weapon the man at the control room door was holding, and froze it.
Not too far off, the other humans on the land were getting back on their little rafts to get to the boat. The humans' reinforcements were on their way. The Sneasels had to work quickly.
Mare wasn't looking very well. He had his eyes on the man at the door. He did not see the other human ready the weapon at him. Fortunately, Nadlew punched him with a hard slash on the back, and the man bled in agony, running forward towards Mare. Mare was now alert, and sidestepped. When the man was right in front of him, he kicked him down to the bottom of the artillery deck.
One small boat finally made it to the ship, and began to climb the side to get on board. 6 other men were here. The one that had once stood by the door (and now stood behind a box due to the fact that his weapon was frozen solid) stood, a grenade in hand. He tossed it to the other side, knowing that the Sneasels were there.
Mare saw the grenade coming right at him. Before it hit him, he kicked it, and it went down to the artillery deck, where the man that was slashed at the back was barely getting up. Mare knew what that weapon did, and quickly, he turned the other way and fell to the floor. He heard the man's screams before the grenade went off. When it had, a large explosion and inferno blasted from the bottom deck doors. The windows on the side of the boat were blasted open, and the men climbing on board were knocked back into the water due to the deep heat intensity.
Irathie held his hand out to Mare once the fire lessened. Mare hooked on the clawed hand, and Irathie motioned for the control room. In a rush, the two ran straight for that room, and entered the door quickly as the last two humans still outside continuously tried to shoot at them. They were both cut down by Wendy and another Sneasel.
In the control room, there were only 2 more men. One steering the ship, and the other there ready with the gun at the door. When they entered, that gun fired. Irathie pulled Mare with him, dodging the bullets. The one driving the ship pushed the gun away, telling off the man shooting. It was a good call; all the equipment there was going to help them steer away. Mare didn't see why the man did that. He quickly froze the leg of the one that was driving and skidded across the floor, jumping, and snapped the neck of the man that had used the weapon. As he fell with the man, Irathie skidded too and kicked the driver's leg, dropping him. On the floor, both Mare and Irathie attacked.
They had done it; they had defeated all of the men on the ship! As much of a victory that was, they were not in the clear just yet. The reinforcements were crowding onto the right side of the boat. Fortunately, the ship was set to go full speed ahead. The boat moved forward ever so slowly, and would eventually pick up speed. The reinforcements weren't going to catch up; their motors weren't fast enough.
On the ship, the last remaining were Irathie, Mare, Wendy, Nadlew, and one last Sneasel. Mare stepped out of the control room. The reinforcements were far as they began to circle the island. "We took control of the human watercraft!" he shouted. It was just what Wendy, Nadlew, and the last Sneasel needed to hear. It was strange for this to happen, but they ended up cheering. They had their dead companions on board, and they were cheering because they had won the ship over.
Wendy was the first to come to this realization. She was the first to go grim within the cheers. She questioned what she was doing; why she was cheering. It was not a good thing; she knew that. So why was she cheering?
Irathie exited the control room. "Everyone, get your biggest ice beam you've ever concocted! We need to build a bridge!"
That was something really strange to come out of Irathie's mouth. He was pointing somewhere. The others all turned in the other direction, and saw what. It was the female Sneasel and the children running along the beaches, seeing the boat full of Sneasels, and trying to flag them down.
"Can't you just stop this thing?" Wendy wondered.
"I do not know a thing on human crafts; I wouldn't know how. Now; Ice!"
Without another wasted second, all of them lined up, and shot their ice beams across the water surface. The water became rough ice. It even froze around the boat, slowing it down a bit. The children and female Sneasel ran towards the boat as quickly as they could. Finally, they made it. The younglings had an easy climb; they were quite energetic on climbing the boat the last to board was the female. Wendy helped her on board.
"You did well," Wendy said.
The female smiled, but said nothing in return. The motors pushed harder, and unlatched themselves with the ice, and again, the ship began to go forward. They had done it; they were all on a human watercraft.
It would have all been good, but then there was one problem. There was something ahead of them. It was the big ship that was circling the island. And it was coming. "Who's controlling this ship?" Wendy asked.
"No one; no one knows how," Irathie answered. He noticed the ship, and began to fear now.
"Move!" Wendy shouted pushing through to the control room. Irathie followed after her, a questioning look on his face. "My trainer would sometimes gain access across large bodies of water by boat. Sometimes, the boats were very small. I was able to see how the turned; this should be easy." And it seemed easy. There was a large wheel. It looked slightly different than the ones she had seen when she was with Teresa, but they were close enough. She turned the wheel to the left. In cooperation, the boat began to turn. "We're going to make it," Wendy assured.
There indeed was enough space. The boat turned. The large metal stronghold of a ship slowly drifted passed them. If they were lucky, they wouldn't notice that the ship was…
Whoops; the ship was full of Sneasels. "Irathie! Tell the others to hide! NOW!"
Without question, Irathie ran to the door and opened it. "Everyone in this room!" No one ever questioned an Appointer. The Sneasels began to stock themselves into that one small room, away from sight of the large ship.
"Now…hopefully they won't notice that we aren't humans in here…"
They drifted passed the side of the ship. So far, nothing had happened. They all held their breaths, keeping in a good prayer and wishing that they were not discovered. Still, they got nothing from the ship. Slowly, the large craft fully passed them, and the Sneasels had gone by unnoticed.
There were sighs of relief's throughout the entire room. No one would have wanted to find out what would have happened had they been discovered. "We're safe for now…" Wendy said.
"That's…that is good news. Now, where should we go?"
"Right now, anywhere but here." She looked back at the remains of Four Island. "Say good bye to your home. I don't think any of you are going to see it for a long while."
"Wendy, how do you know how to use this craft?" Irathie asked.
"I don't; I'm just steering." She looked all around the room with the many buttons fixed in. "I wouldn't know how to use any of these."
"Wendy, you saved our lives. And you're an outsider. We owe you our debt for that," Irathie bowed.
Wendy didn't know how to respond to this. if course, she knew that it was a good thing. The best she could do was somehow reply with a thanks. But how? Was there some sort of special 'no problem' sign that would be within a colony? She wasn't so sure. So she did it the human way. "There was nothing to it." She then continued to steer the ship, not knowing where the next piece of land would be at.
