Chapter 11: Death at its Crisis
"She stood alone facing a legion. She picked up a rock at her feet and charged them. It wasn't very fair...for them."
The cool early morning of the island found the group of castaways making their way to the Peak. There was a breeze blowing, kicking up the occasional palm branch. On the Eastern horizon you could make out storm clouds on the horizon.
They were walking along the beach, saving penetrating the jungle until they were closer to the Peak. Zack was walking farther ahead of the rest, trying to gain some solitude. Maya caught up to him eventually.
"Zack," she said comfortingly, "if something's bothering you, you should tell someone before it drives you crazy and you kill us." the delivery was the only comforting thing about the statement.
"It's my fault we're all here." Zack said curtly.
"Actually, Bailey and Pepé were here because of London." said Maya.
"My brother and you are in serious danger because of me." he said. "I wanted to run away so he could be safe."
"Then it wasn't your fault." she said. "You should have thought it through a little better. But even if you had, I don't think you could have foreseen this coming. And if we get out of this Cody and Bailey will have that fun archaeological thing. Because of your stupidity we can add the missing pages to human history."
Zack wasn't comforted by this and started walking faster.
"Look," said Maya, "You were stressed, you kept having near death experiences, you were seeing a skinny dude in a black shroud..."
IT'S REALLY MORE OBSIDIAN THAN STRAIGHT BLACK.
"Whatever. My point is: no one blames you for this. And if Cody was the one to jump ship you would have swum after him to make sure he was OK." she finished.
"She's right." said Cody, who had come up behind him. "You would have swum an ocean made of equal parts sharks and broken glass."
That was all it take to break through the bravado. Zack grabbed Cody in a hug. Cody hugged him back. Zack broke down from there and stared weeping openly. Bailey embraced both twins. Maya hugged them from the other side. Finally, London joined in on the group hug. Death tousled Zack's hair.
Of course, all things must end. "London," said Zack.
"Yeah," she said.
"You're here." said Zack.
"Yeah," she said.
"Everyone's here." said Zack.
"Yes."
"Yeah."
"Yep."
YES.
"Who's distracting Akela?" Zack asked. He was answered by the sound of something running through the sand towards them. They all looked up to see Akela tearing down the beach.
"Everyone run into the forest and climb up something!" Zack called and they all disappeared into the trees.
They all tore through the forest, looking for any trees that were promising. The sound of Akela crashing through the undergrowth was growing closer by the second. They reached a grove of promising trees and hauled themselves up the branches. By the time Akela broke into the grove, they were all safe: Cody and Zack in one tree, Bailey with Maya, London on her own.
"What the Hell do we do now?" yelled Maya.
"I'm thinking!" Cody yelled back.
"You better think faster!" London yelled, looking at the sky. They hadn't noticed during the chase, but the wind had picked up. The breeze that had tossed around leaves earlier was making the trees sway like limbo dancers. Huge thunderheads rolled across the sky like flowing mountains. The trees they were safe in were trying to shake them off.
The Bailey and Maya were worse off than the others. The tree they were in had been leaning to begin with, in the gale it was gradually getting lower. Every time the wind shook the tree, more of the roots pulled up and more of the branches came down. The girls were quickly sinking to tooth-level.
Akela seemed keenly aware of this and was waiting below the tree, tail-wagging. The girls were also keenly aware of this and were loosing it. Bailey was hyperventilating and Maya was crying.
Cody looked down at Akela, and he saw Death, waiting. He remembered the day they came to the island and Death told him he could give himself up and save the girl he loved. Now, the opportunity presented itself again.
"Zack," Cody said quietly.
"What?" Zack said, focused on the girls' plight.
"I love you." said Cody.
It took less than half a second for the implications to sink in and Zack's eyes widened in horror. He turned to his twin quickly to try and grab him. He was to late Cody was already on the way down by way of gravity. Cody hit the ground and fell on his side. He lurched to his feet and faced Akela, who hadn't noticed him yet.
"Oi!" Cody screamed. Akela's ears perked and he turned his head to face Cody. "C'mon you mutt! I'm on the menu!" As Death watched, he pondered that Akela would probably choke to death on Cody's massive balls.
The bait was too good for Akela to resist and he made a dash for Cody. Cody ran into the forest like a bat out of Hell, and Akela followed him like a Hell that found one of its bats was missing. Zack reacted immediately. He jumped out of his tree, landed rather more gracefully than his twin, and followed Akela. Bailey and Maya jumped out of their swiftly sinking tree and followed suit.
"I'm just gonna stay in my tree!" called London, clinging to the trunk.
The wind picked up and the tree she was in was wholly and swiftly lifted out of the Earth and was spirited into the sky.
Cody dashed through the forest. He had no clear idea where he was going or how he was going to get out of this. He didn't know anywhere safe he could run, he didn't know where the beach was from here so he could swim for it, and he didn't think he could shimmy up a tree fast enough to avoid Akela's fangs.
A short way behind him, Akela couldn't believe his luck. Then, unnoticed by Cody, a tree branch fell on him, pinning him to the ground.
Cody kept running. The absence of Akela's footsteps was lost on him in his terror. He came across the cave He and Zack had encountered earlier. With no time to think, and no inclination to pause, he ran into the darkness.
Bailey was running through the forest on Maya's heels. Zack was further ahead. She was temporarily impeded when she tripped over a branch.
She pushed herself up and then heard a whine to her right. Akela was pegged under the branch she just tripped over. She jumped up and dashed away, but the sound of another whine stopped her.
She turned around. Akela was scrambling to unpin himself, but he couldn't get any purchase on the muddy ground.
"Ah, heck." Bailey said. She squatted down at the end of the branch and heaved it off Akela. He scuttled out of harms way. He flopped down a few feet out of harms way. Bailey fished through her bag and pulled out the last of the Gefilte Fish Jerky.
"Here," she threw it at him, "now stay out of harms way." She took off.
Maya and Zack had come to the cave.
"He's definitely in there." said Zack "My twin sense is tingling."
"The footprints leading inside are also a clue." said Maya.
Bailey came up behind them. "Are we going in?" she asked.
"Yep," said Zack. "Hey, where's London?"
They heard a hysterical scream behind them and turned around to see a tree flying towards them. It crashed up against the hill side. London cartwheeled out of the wreckage.
"Good, you're here." said Bailey, and handed London a flashlight. She took it, got up, and brushed herself off.
Akela trotted out of the forest and stood next to Bailey. They all turned to look at him, but he didn't do anything more than wag his tail. Zack gave a shrug and they turned on the flashlights. Then they all stepped into the darkness together.
