Chapter 7: Learning New Things

JB (Jim Bob’s) POV:

When the Professor was passing out groups for us to follow, I kept my fingers crossed that I would get Franklin’s group. Especially after that big flap about Ibera giving him that alien communication gizmo. That thing has the weirdest name and I couldn’t even begin to pronounce it.

I got my wish and Ibera gave us EACH our own little areas to work out of so we wouldn’t disturb each other. I think that’s cool, that way if Ibera feels like joining me for a little ‘fun time’, no one will be the wiser!

I have to admit; I wouldn’t mind being stranded on an island like that if I had Ibera with me.

Ooh-wee-doggies!

Talk about fun, which is something that none of the people in my group seem to be having at the moment.

Each one of them seems to have their own agenda.

Franklin is adamant about immediately trying to find Chen.

Maxwell Lester, who I think should be the leader of this group, is trying to get them to understand they need to build a shelter first.

AL Hunt and Howard Humbacker only seem content to sit on their asses and let everyone else do the work.

Jasmine Tran and Annie Hunt just seem to want to get laid and since building a shelter might just lead to that, they are slightly in agreement with what Max is trying to tell everyone.

They don’t, however, seem to actually want to DO much.

Sam Sparks is basically Max’s ‘go-fer’ and is scared to do anything that might piss Max off.

Since no one is really contributing with constructive ideas, Max is getting a bit annoyed and hostile. He wanted all the guys to start looking around to find the best place to build a shelter.

He basically got six blank stares back at him.

Out of frustration he yelled at AL Hunt, “Al, God dammit, are you trying to tell me you’ve never been camping a day in your life?”

AL or Al shook his head, “My idea of camping is a four-star hotel that doesn’t have room service. I have absolutely no idea what would make a good spot to set up camp.”

When Max looked at Howard, he shrugged his shoulders, “I haven’t been camping since I was in high school. I know a little bit about pitching a tent and finding wood for a campfire, but that’s about it. I can see that you’re getting frustrated, but I’m afraid you’re just going have to tell us what you want us to do.”

Max was shaking his head when he asked Sam the same question. Sam just shrugged his shoulders and said meekly, “I’m sorry Max, but I’m a pure city boy. Ask me where to find the best bagels or unregistered guns and I’m your man. But now that we’re here, we may as well be on another planet! And after that ride we had coming here, I’m not so sure that we’re not?”

Max was pulling his hair out as he screamed, “We are on another planet, you bunch of morons! Just because this island looks like it might be in the Pacific Ocean, make no mistake, we are on a different planet! And the only way we’re ever going to get home is for us to find Chen, like Franklin wants. Then, just pray that he knows how to use that special device that Franklin conned Ibera into giving him.

“Unfortunately, since it’s obvious none of you fools were paying attention, Chen could be anywhere on this island! This island is over 50 miles long and nearly 30 miles wide. Just walking all the way around, it would take us 4 to 5 days, at least. We have no idea which direction to go to find him, so we have to assume we’re likely going to have to go all the way around the entire island.

“Before we can do that, however, we need to gather a lot of supplies for the journey. It will probably be faster for us to make some oars or paddles and use our boat. But all of that is going to take time. In the meantime, we need to make preparations so we have somewhere to live so we don’t get caught in a tropical storm like we saw happen to Chen and those other poor bastards the professor showed us.

“Right now, we need to look around and find a place that’s not right on the beach and get busy to find something we can use as a framework to hang our tarps over like a big tent. Now that our toolkits have gotten here, I suggest we each grab a machete and a couple of those five-gallon water jugs and start looking around. We need to find water as well as a place to set up camp. Come on guys, let’s get busy!

“And I don’t want to see anyone eating anything until we find a good spot and get everything moved to our campsite.”

Everyone started looking around, somewhat aimlessly in most cases, except Max and Franklin. I was surprised that they stuck together and that Max was okay with that.

Having the ability to fly around in my Spirit Walk, like I can, almost made me wish there was some way I could tell them where to look. Within a couple minutes I found what I felt would be a great spot for them to build their tents.

It was obvious they never planned on going to the extent of actually building a solid shelter.

The area I found was only about 500 yards inland and slightly to the north of where Max and Franklin were now looking. They kept walking deeper and deeper into the heavily wooded area, however, completely missing the stream that I’d already spotted.

Since they were near the far south end of the southwest quadrant I was surprised they didn’t think that they would have better luck going north a bit to find a stream or pond. The mountain divider in this area was probably only about 70 to 100 feet tall and tapering off drastically the further south it went.

Since I got bored just following them around, I decided to fly back to their landing zone to see what everyone else was currently doing.

I had to shake my head when I saw Jasmine and Annie just sitting on one of the toolkits, doing nothing. AL and Howard were both walking together along the beach, headed south. They seemed to be more intent on shooting the breeze with each other than actually looking for anything.

I started second-guessing just how much fun following all these clowns around wasn’t going to be. Just seeing how stupid and disorganized they were made me want to scream.

That’s what I was thinking when I did hear a very loud female scream.

I flew back to the landing zone just in time to see this huge, birdlike creature flying off toward the mountains with Annie Hunt in its clutches.

Holy fuck!

Shit here just got real - I mean, really, really real!

This fucking bird had a wingspan of over 40 feet and it’s talons were having no problem holding little Annie in its grasp. Jasmine was in hysterics just as Max, Franklin and Sam came scrambling out of the woods. Jasmine was frantically pointing at the bird that was nearly out of sight flying slowly to the northeast with a now limp Annie held tightly in its grasp.

Jasmine was pleading for them to run after Annie and rescue her.

Max threw his arms up, “And do WHAT??? We’ve got no weapons and that damn thing took her over 15 miles away! AND way up into the mountain!”

“Well, we have to do something!” Jasmine pleaded, “We can’t just let her go!?”

Max ran to one of the toolkits, opened it up, and pulled out a machete and a bow saw. He yelled, “I saw some tall bamboo not too far away. We need to get some and make five or six spears that are at least 8 to 10 feet long.

“Without some kind of weapon, then all we could do would be to try and talk that, that, whatever it is, into giving her back. Does that sound reasonable?”

Suddenly, the reality of the situation sunk in.

Max, Franklin and Sam were all running back into the woods with Jasmine hot on their heels. They found the bamboo field and wasted no time cutting eight very long pieces of bamboo.

They hauled all that back to their landing zone just as AL and Howard came ‘doop-de-dooing’ back from their walk, totally oblivious.

The ignorant AL saw them scrambling around making spears and asked, “I thought you said not to open the toolkits until we move them to our campsite? What the heck are you guys doing?”

Max just snapped and coldcocked AL with a right hook to the jaw! Howard’s eyes got as big as pie plates, “What did you do that for? It was a perfectly legitimate question!”

“What the hell were you two bastards doing anyway?” Max yelled in a huff, “didn’t you hear Annie and Jasmine scream?”

AL was just regaining consciousness, massaging his jaw, and heard Max’s last words. “What were they screaming about? And where the hell is Annie?”

Franklin grabbed Max’s shoulder to keep him from clobbering AL again, “This monster of a bird just swooped in and TOOK her up into the mountain somewhere! What the fuck were you guys doing!?”

AL and Howard had guilty looks on their faces when Howard said, sheepishly, “Well ... we were looking for a nice spot on the beach to set up camp!”

AL timidly added, “And look for Chen, like you wanted?”

Jeez, were these guys full of shit!

Max thought so too, “Well, Annie is fucking GONE and she’s probably that bird’s lunch by now! All while you two ass-wipes were out strolling on the beach. I fucking told you we WEREN’T building on the beach! You stupid, lazy, motherfuckers!”

Max was really getting wound up again when AL exclaimed, “Whoa, hang on a second, PLEASE. Are you serious? Annie’s been ... kidnapped!?”

“YES! BIRD-NAPPED is a better word.”

“Well, we gotta go and save her!” AL pleaded.

Max shouted, in obvious frustration, “Well, jeez-us, AL, THAT’S what we’re trying to do! We’ve gotta make some spears first, so that thing doesn’t take one of us for fucking dessert!”

I was thinking I should fly and try to find her when Jasmine screamed again, pointing at the mountain, “Aaaaack! Oh shit! Look! That big fucker is coming BACK!”

I’ve never been so confused and scared in my life! I knew I needed to tell my friends what was happening but I couldn’t tear myself away. I really wished I had powers like Charlie and Bob so I could help, but then I remembered there wasn’t ANYTHING I could really do. I was just Spirit Walking and could do nothing but watch, in horror, as that big fucking bird of prey was coming back.

Looking for more lunch, no doubt!

Max was frantically trying to tie a survival knife to one end of a long piece of bamboo. Everyone was grabbing machetes or more bamboo. Franklin and Sam were trying to chop points out of one end of the bamboo, just as the predatory bird started making loud ‘cawing’ noises and rapidly swooping down toward their position.

Sam handed one to Jasmine who joined Max and Franklin, nervously waiting for the rapidly approaching predator.

I could see that it’s legs weren’t as long as their spears, but this big sucker had to weigh over 300 Lbs. It’s beak was menacing and was big enough to bite their heads clean off!

Jasmine flipped her survival knife into a throwing hold and threw it just as the bird pulled up, trying to put the snatch on one of them. Her aim was good and it buried itself deep into the bird’s chest. Max saw it and used his knife enhanced spear to stab it a couple times in its belly, causing it to retreat, squawking loudly. Just before it got out of range, Franklin swung his machete and took off about 18 inches of one of its legs.

As it rapidly began flying back where it came from, the whole group rejoiced in their successful defensive stand. Nobody even got scratched, which was a miracle in itself. Max and AL were watching intently, trying to follow its trajectory toward its nest.

Bolstered by their highly effective counter-attack, they began making plans to go and possibly find Annie.

I decided to retreat myself and let my friends know what had just happened.

Darren James POV:

JB was screaming that we all needed to come and see what he just saw. Since he was also ‘flashing’ at the same time, it startled the hell out of all of us!

In case you were wondering, yes, when you scream in a telepathic exchange, it’s just as ‘loud’ as sitting right next to the person! Maybe even louder.

Anyway, when we all gathered, poor JB was nearly catatonic, “Holy freaking, mother of Mary, SHIT. Did you guys know there were huge predatory birds on that island!???”

“WHAT?” Brad gasped, “What are you talking about!?”

JB called up the portal and zoomed in just as this huge, vulture looking bird just snatched Annie Hunt like she was a small squirrel! We then watched everything that transpired up until JB ended his ‘SW’ (Spirit Walk).

Now we were all stunned! No wonder JB was freaking out.

“I think we need to warn everyone! Ibera, did you know these things lived here?” Brenda asked.

Ibera looked to be just as shocked as everyone else, “NO! When Bobby found this island we watched it for many hours and the biggest things we saw were some mountain goats! And they were pretty small. The only real danger we saw were some snakes that we didn’t know if they might be venomous or not!”

Brad was deep in thought before he spoke, “Well, as far as I’m concerned, IF we’d known about these ... predatory creatures, then yes, we should have warned them. BUT, let’s face it. This IS part of survival! You saw how they were able to fend that thing off, so, they’re NOT totally defenseless. Are they?”

JB looked stunned at Brad’s callous reply, “Are you saying that if you’d known they were there you’d have sent the prisoners there anyway?”

Brad was taken aback a bit, “Ummm, yes. I think so. Look. These aren’t just vacationers on holiday. These are hardened criminals, most of whom were certain to be on ‘Death Row’. From everything we’ve seen so far, they haven’t had anything happen to really pull them together. This just might do it! Don’t you guys think?”

I was leaning toward siding with JB, but I did see Brad’s point.

Somewhat.

“Yes, Boss, but I think we DO NEED to at least warn George’s group! Don’t we?”

Brenda was looking crossly at Brad, but then shrugged her shoulders, “Forgive my hubby’s ruthlessness, but, I agree with most of what he said. We can’t be trying to help everybody every time they have a problem. However, those girls in George’s group DON’T deserve to be there and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with at least trying to give them a ‘heads-up’.”

JB was still upset and wasn’t about to just let this go. “Well, shouldn’t we try and see what happened to Annie? And if she’s even still alive!?”

He was looking pleadingly at Ibera who changed the portal to zoom in on Annie.

She was still alive but had been bleeding from where the bird’s talons had dug into her shoulders and upper arms. She was laying in a huge nest that also held two very large eggs.

They were nearly half as big as Annie.

She must have passed out at some point because we watched as she regained consciousness and began looking around at her surroundings. The nest was on the ground, but that ground WAS on a small rocky outcropping high up on the mountain.

Escape was going to be very hazardous.

We saw the bird slowly approaching, constantly looking down at its injured leg. It was using its beak to try and remove the knife that was buried in its chest, but couldn’t quite reach it. It was making an awful cawing sound, almost like it was crying.

It hard landed next to the nest then turned partially on its side, trying to get to the knife. I couldn’t believe it when Annie appeared to be trying to talk to it!

We couldn’t hear anything, so we all ‘SW’d’ into the portal. Even Ibera!

Annie was trying to comfort her abductor! She was talking soothingly and then slowly moved to gently pull the knife from the bird’s chest. The creature shrieked loudly and snapped at her, taking a small chunk out of Annie’s upper arm.

“Ouch! I’m trying to help you, dammit. That was uncalled for!” Annie said sternly.

I don’t think the creature understood, but it did calm down and concentrated its attention on its severed limb.

We were all blown away and I was thankful they couldn’t hear us. I shudder to think what might have happened if we had startled them.

Annie started talking to the bird again, “Oh wow, it looks like that really hurts! It’s bleeding pretty bad. Will you let me help you?”

We all held our breath, wondering what would happen next.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when that giant bird started almost ‘cooing’ as Annie took off her blouse and tore the bottom third off. Then, she slowly and very gently, used it as a bandage! I kept waiting for that huge bird to freak out and take Annie’s head off, but ... it didn’t. Somehow it sensed that Annie was trying to help it and simply nudged her arm a few times with its beak.

While it wasn’t the best bandage in the world, Annie did manage to get it to stay on and both she and her ‘patient’ finally relaxed. Annie kept talking to it while nervously looking around at her surroundings.

“Now that I helped you are you going to let me go?” Annie asked innocently.

She wasn’t expecting a response and didn’t really get one. Her captor simply looked at her and kept cooing.

Sensing that things weren’t as dire as we feared we went back to Ibera’s kitchen area. We kept the portal on, just in case something happened.