The next morning Oliver wakes up to the sound of many birds squawking. Rubbing the tiredness from his eyes Oliver eyes the seagulls gathered around his father's body. "Here!" Oliver climbs onto his feet, "hey, get away!"
Oliver runs down the small slope and across the stony beach hurting his feet to the liferaft. "Dad…" Oliver stumbles down onto his knees and takes one of his father's hands in both of his. Oliver quickly gets back up onto his feet stumbling away before vomiting uncontrollably from the smell.
The birds squawk once more and Oliver drags himself over to his father once more trying to cover Robert with his own. "hey! Hey! Away from him," Oliver cries out.
Trying not to throw up again Oliver hugs his dad shortly before lifting him up over his shoulder while letting out loud growls at his father's weight with his weak and pitiful muscles.
Roaming deeper into the island Oliver finds a good place to lay his father to rest. Needing a break Oliver lowers Robert to the ground and sits beside the body pulling out the brown book his father gave him and opening to the first page. There is a symbol that Oliver vaguely recognises although confused as the pages are blank. How could this help?
Picking up a sharp-pointed stone Oliver starts to dig the grave. He was digging for nearly two hours before the hole was at a respectable level. Lifting up his father once more Oliver steps up to the hole gently lowering Robert down to rest, giving one last squeeze to his dad's hands Oliver covers the body with stones and uses the same sharp stone from earlier to in grave his father's name on a small log as a memorial.
Oliver steps back and looks over the grave when immense pain erupted from his shoulder. Looking down at his shoulder Oliver stares in shock at the arrowhead protruding from his shoulder. He crumbles to his knee screaming in pain and clutching just below the arrowhead. Turning his head Oliver spots a man in a green hood, readying another arrow on his bow. He pasts out from the pain, his head smacking the stone tombing his father's grave.
Oliver comes too in a cave with light coming from the cracks above, the arrowhead still within his shoulder. Oliver looks to the side to see the green hooded man from earlier walking through the entrance barefoot, his bow in hand.
"Who are you?" Oliver asked, not able to keep the pain from his voice. The man lowers his hood crouching down for a bowl.
"To protect you," said the man in a language Oliver didn't understand. He takes the herb from another bowl and holds a bowl of water in his other hand and holds them out for Oliver to take, giving a few nods of encouragement. Oliver shakes his head. The man moves his hands closer, "drink" said the man in the same language as earlier.
Oliver takes the herb nearly choking on them and quickly takes the bowl of water necking back the whole thing. The man waits for Oliver to finish drinking before grabbing the arrow shaft as he puts pressure on Oliver's shoulder yanking the wood and stone arrow out. Oliver lets out an agonising scream.
A while later Oliver wakes up again after fainting to find the man asleep and takes his chance, running out the cave entrance and into the forest. Unknown to Oliver the man's eyes opened.
Oliver runs— well stumbles through the forest as fast as he can away from the cave. He falls face-first still too weak but quickly gets back up running further as he uses his arms to push branches out of the way. Oliver stops temporarily at a mostly cut down tree to regain his breath and looks down at the hole in his shoulder resisting the urge to touch it.
Oliver walks further but manages a few steps before leaves blow everywhere as he is caught in a net.
Later the man casually walks up to the net and draws his knife reflecting the sun into Oliver's eyes. "Fool," the green hooded man said in the same unknown language. "This place is too dangerous for anyone, man to be alone." The man's hood falls back as he walks over to another tree holding the rope and cuts the black rope with his knife, "they will kill you." He then walks away leaving Oliver to untangle himself from the net and rolls out over his injured shoulder as he hears footsteps, Oliver staggers trying to catch up.
Later a group of military-grade men come across the net on their patrol and inspect the cut rope as another searches the net for any more damage. Finding nothing the man throws the net on the ground in frustration.
Back in the cave Oliver opens his wallet and takes out the picture Laurel gave him before boarding the Queen's Gambit. While the foreign man comes back with a bird in a wooden cage. The man pauses looking at Oliver and the playboy freezes up, the archer comes closer and lowers the cage to Oliver's side, "Shengcun." The archer said pointing at the bird.
"What am I supposed to do with that?" Oliver asked confused.
"Shengcun," the archer said before starting a fire.
Oliver shakes his head around not understanding, "Does that mean bird?"
"Shengcun!" Shouts the man.
"I don't speak Chinese," Oliver exclaims. He looks back down at the picture of Laurel, "I'm sorry Laurel," Oliver whispers softly.
After getting the fire started the archer sits down with a piece of meat on a stick watching both the flames and the meat as it slowly cooks.
"What is that?" Oliver asked. The archer glances at Oliver before continuing to turn the stick. "I'm so hungry," Oliver shares, stumbling to his feet. "It smells really good," reaching for the stick. The archer, without looking, grips Oliver's hand and pushes the hand back flipping Oliver off his feet onto his back, rolling onto his front with a cry of surprise and pain.
Oliver slowly sits back, "ok fine, don't share."
The foreign man takes pity on the boy. "Ah," the man said nodding at Oliver. He points at the bird and makes two fists in the motion of snapping its neck. "Shengcun." He goes back to cooking his meal.
Oliver glances at the bird before looking at the fire, "I'm not gonna kill the bird."
The archer gives a small scoff of amusement with a slight smile, "Shengcun" he bites into a piece of meat between his fingers.
Oliver sits down by the cage and stares at the bird for a while before looking up at the man across the cave, "hey, please. I'm starving, I've never killed before." When Oliver didn't get a reply he finally relents using his hand to support his arm as he lifts the cage grabbing the bird with both hands before the bird could escape. Oliver looks down at the bird briefly with great remorse, "I'm sorry." Oliver squeezes the bird's neck as he looks away and with a twist of the hand, the bird neck cracks.
The archer had been watching from his makeshift work table out of the corner of his eye and stopped when he heard the bird's neck snap. For a few moments, the foreign man watches Oliver before going back to his work.
Once cleaning off his work table the man takes the bird from Oliver to the table and pucks the feathers. He makes the final preparations before threading a stick through the bird's body. The man moves to the fire and sits down holding the stick over the fire cooking the American's first meal on the island.
The foreign man passes the stick to Oliver once the food is cooked. Oliver takes the stick and immediately starts ripping off meat and eating from his hand. He has gotten through half when the archer sits down opposite Oliver.
The archer lets out a small scoff of amusement with a subtle nod of approval, "shengcun."
"Yeah, bird." Oliver said with food still in his mouth, "I know."
"Shengcun does not mean bird. Shengcun mean survive," the archer said in English.
Oliver looks at the man surprised, "you...you speak English?"
"You want survive this place. Bird not last thing you kill," the man states. He pulls the picture of Laurel out of his pocket, "forget her. You look at that all day, you'll not survive."
Oliver stares at the floor for a few moments, "what's your name? I'm Oliver Queen."
The man shifts his legs resting his arm on his knee, "my name is Yao Fei."