Chapter Two
Sharp Sting from a Bee

A few days had passed since the cave collapsed. Some animals had mysteriously "vanished" in the Forest, and I had an eerie feeling that the natives had killed them. I sat on a log at the beach, lifting the tattered off of my busted arm. It had started to sell, and it was quite bruised. I poured some of the water we had gathered onto my arm and wrapped in another shirt. Most of my injuries had cleared up, but my bad arm would last months.

Goldie sat down next to me, rubbing some water on a cut by her ear. "What happened, Goldie?" I asked, curious about what happened.

"I was at the hole we stored the food in. Well, a native came and struck me with a jagged stick. The blow knocked me out." Goldie said, continuing to rub the cut. I patted her on the back, and handed her one of my old gloves with some tape.

"Here, you can use this to cover the cut."

"Thank you Raimundo." Goldie smiled, taping the glove to her face. "What happened to your arm?"

"I landed on it when we fell out of the plane." I explained, then noticed something... Goldie was dazed! "Goldie, are you okay?" There was no response. "Goldie." and like that, Goldie collapsed onto the sand. A small bee flew away from behind her unconscious body. Was that what caused it? No, that would be ridiculous. I grabbed her arms and tried to lift her up. "Guys! Something weird just happened! Goldie blacked out!"

Some of the other animals came running to us at the sound of "blacked out." Wolfgang and Camofrog were the fastest. "What happened, tenhut?" Camofrog asked, inspecting Goldie.

"I-I'm not entirely sure. We were talking, and she suddenly looked dazed. I asked if she was okay, and she collapsed." I noticed that Wolfgang was checking her pulse.

"Thank goodness, she's still breathing. We need to get her to the doctor right away. You think there was any dangerous bugs nearby?" Wolfgang asked, standing up.

"I saw a bee fly off right after the incident. Maybe that caused it."

"Alright, so we have a new thing to look out for: bees. Just great..."

My mind was racing as we carried Goldie of to see Ava, the nurse of the island. I had never seen someone pass out after being stung by a bee before. A scorpion sting, I could understand, but a bee!? My time to ponder what happened ended quickly as we reached the part of the beach that Ava spent time at. She was sitting there, looking at the unconscious body of Goldie, shocked.

"What happened to her!?" Ava asked, searching Goldie's head for bites or sting marks, but there were none to be found. The arms showed no signs of a poisonous sting either. After chcking one more time, Ava stopped and sighed. "I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do."

"What!? How can you not help her, she was stung, tenhut!" Camofrog yelled.

"But there's no mark whatsoever of any form of poisoning, not at all. Without any of those, I can't create an antibiotic." Ava sighed, then walked away. "It's useless to even try."

"Her life may be at risk, and you can't even try anything!? What kind of nurse are you!?"

"A good one who has limitations!"

"This is all your fault, Raimundo! You little punk!!" Wolfgang punched me in the jaw as he shouted this, and I stumbled back from the fierce blow. I collapsed and landed on my broken arm, letting out a yelp of pain. I slowly picked myself up and struck him with a shell off the beach. He barely even flinched from the blow.

"What the heck's your problem, Wolfgang!? She can't help her, so I suddenly need to get beaten?" Angrily, I threw a roundhouse kick at my opponent. Wolfgang stumbled, and I took the chance to strike him with my Golden Shovel. Somehow, he caught the shovel with his paw and flipped it out of m hand. I then felt a harsh blow to my stomach, and I collapsed onto the beach. I crawled off to get up, and pulled out my Axe. I struck at him, and the blow was received by the gold end of the Shovel.

I then blocked several more strikes from Wolfgang's shovel, and noticed something upsetting about my weapon... it was broken. Bits of sharp metal fell off of the Axe, and the stick was worthless in the fight. I then felt a blow to my arm, but Wolfgang hadn't thrown it. Camofrog had attempted to put an end to the fight using shovel himself, but had mis-aimed and struck me. Blackness took over my sight, and I felt a thud...

I awoke several hours later, disoriented. The surroundings around me were different. I was on the metal wing of the plane, and we were moving slowly across the water. As I regained strength, I stood up and looked around. The animals that had survived the crash were paddling off. In the distance was another island...

I surveyed the area, baffled. Since when had the raft been finished, or when was there a nearby island? I crawled over to Otis, not wanting to stand on a moving raft. "Otis... where are we going?" I asked, even though it was obvious that we were heading towards a small island.

"We're detouring around the cave. We didn't want to risk running into those natives. Also, you might not want to go around Wolfgang... he's furious with you. Heck, if it were up to him and not Camofrog, you would be tied to the bottom of the raft to drown." Otis explained. Though I wanted to go over to Wolfgang and knock him out cold (as had been done to me), I had a feeling that he was stronger than me, and I would end up tied to the bottom of the raft.

After about ten minutes had passed, we had reached the small island, yet there was no happiness. The island looked like it had been the place of an explosion, with the water a deep brown, muddy color. It was unlike anything I had ever seen, but I didn't have time to investigate the odd coloring. I heard a splash nearby, followed by an arrow nearly piercing through my already injured arm. I looked out to see the islanders.

"Incoming projectiles from the rear!" Punchy called out, and, in the blink of an eye, Comofrog started hurling coconuts at the natives. The coconuts weren't for weaponry, though, they were a diversion. Surprisingly, the natives chased the coconuts wherever they were thrown, and eventually walked off to their huts. I looked out at the area past the cave, with only one thing surprising enough to catch my eye: a mansion!

As soon as we reached land, we scurried to the only sign of civilization we'd seen in weeks. The door was laing in front of a tree a half of a mile away from the house, and the paint was burned off completely, and the remains of a nearby house were crumbling and crisp black. What on earth had happened here? We walked into the mansion, and saw a man sitting in a ranch couch, looking at the air above him... or at least trying to. "Sir?" asked Goldie, who had finally (apparently) recovered from the bee sting.

"They're... gone..."

"Who's gone?"

"The lives of... millions..."

What did this old man mean!? The lives of millions, lost? There was no room on the island for millions, even with the cave included! "B-But that's impossible! This island's way too small!" The old man's eyes seemed to change my mind, though. A dark feeling shot through my spine, and images of a larger part of the island being destroyed. I stepped away, trying to avoid looking at his eyes. As soon as my foot moved, Wolfgang pushed his way to my spot.

"I hate to admit it, but Raimundo's right! This island could never have housed millions of people!" Wolfgang's voice was dark and bitter, like coffee. After even a few days of no good things, even coffee sounded like a treat. I heard a light chuckle, and instantly looked at the old man. Who was he? What did he see?

"I never said the people where from the island. Honestly, this isn't even an island." He laughed. That last phrase caught me off guard. "This place... is part of the United States... or, shall I say, what remains of it. Welcome to California." I couldn't believe it! California... an island!? How could that possibly happen?

"So... how is this part of California!? There's nothing around for miles!" Otis cried out. It was more than obvious that he wasn't feeling safe yet. Then again, I felt worried too. With what this man had said, there was no way to tell where we were. Was this an island somewhere around Hawaii, South America, and the United States, or part of California? Nothing made sense anymore!

"Are you that clueless? Go on further past this house, and you'll see what happened. You can look into it on your own." The old man said, but as the sentence reached it's conclusion, he was stuttering and gasping. His eyes were slowly hidden off by eyelids, and his breathing stopped.

"...He's... Dead..." Ava announced after a quick check of his pulse. She stood up and left the man on the wooden floor. There was no point in trying to save him now. He told us all that we needed.

"So... what do we do now, tenhut?" Camofrog asked, wiping away what appeared to be a tear. Who would've guessed that he had a soft side. Wolfgang looked around.

"We move on."