The Bont islands expand from one continent
to the other, forming a natural bridge that connected the biggest landmasses of
the planet. On one side, there was the port of Ventura, one of the largest and
most populated cities in the world and the destination of Captain Kimura,
better known to her friends as Feisty Flo. She had been one of the main
colonists of the Dharma expedition but things had gone horribly wrong:
creatures from deep within the jungle had destroyed the colony and killed every
single person in it. She had been the sole survivor of the attack and was now
attempting to cross the Bont islands to get to Ventura and tell the authorities
what had happened.
There were five hundred islands or so from one
side to the other. Some of them were only a few meters long but others were
large enough to have their own forests and volcanoes. As the continent she was
leaving, he islands remained mostly unexplored except for he one closest to
Ventura. She had to wait to cross during the day, as the moon prevented
crossings during the night. For security, she would only sleep on the beeches
and would keep a small inflatable boat she had known in the destroyed colony
close to her. She had collected some items and put them there, including
footage of what had happened.
She would cross the thin sand bridges between
island and have the small boat, the size of a lifesaver, attached to her waist
by a rope so it trailed behind her at her own pace. The first few days and
islands were nice enough. The weather was very warm and without wind. Finally,
on the fifth day or so, so was caught in a small storm but didn’t sought
shelter, instead gathering water from the sky in various flasks and thermos she
had found back in the continent. The boat was beginning to feel a bit heavier
but it was for him own good.
She would food from fish she caught between
the islands and when there were none she would eat coconuts or whatever plants
seemed good to eat. What Flo didn’t eat were small berries or strange leaves.
She didn’t wanted to have to endure a stomachache or food poisoning in such a
journey. In one of the islands she found enough wood to make herself a spear
(with a pointy rock from the beach) and a bow and arrow with part of the rope
she had around the waist. It didn’t really work much but at least she was able
to get the occasional sea bird for dinner.
At night she wouldn’t eat anything, fearing
the jungles of some islands to be infested with the same monsters that had
killed her friends. Flo was afraid of them and the possibility of luring him
into the inhabited continent. She would hate to be the one to bring them there.
The idea was to warn them, not to condemn them.
When she reached the island called Jall, the
biggest one on the chain, she knew she was midway to her destination. The
island was very large and would require several days of walking and certainly a
more intelligent way to cross it as the beaches were blocked and it could only
be traversed through the jungle. She slept the night she arrived on the beach of
the neighbor island and crossed and first light. She wanted to take advantage
of every single second of light during the day and was even prepared to go
hungry for whatever time was necessary in order to cross the island as fast as
she could.
The jungle was thick and the environment was
very humid and thick, as if it was possible to actually touch the air and even
take a bite out of it. The scents were generally sweet but after two hours of
walking, the air turned heavier even and it started to smell awful. Flo had to
pinch her nose for a straight hour, only breather through her dried out mouth.
She wanted to wait to have some water but couldn’t as she fell she needed it
badly, not being able to wait longer.
She stopped pinching her nose and the scent of
sulfur invaded her nostrils. She grabbed the closest flask on the inflatable
boat and drank fast but when she finished she didn’t kept walking. Flo realized
that the smell came from small holes and gaps in the ground and that it was the
ground itself that smelled like that.
She looked up and between the trees a volcano as majestic as any other
feature of this planet could be seen and a plume of heavy smoke, pouring ashes
onto the other side of the island, was coming out of it.
Flo had to keep walking but then she heard a
noise she had heard before, the sound of pincers opening and closing and before
she realized one of the large animals that had attacked her village launched
itself towards her. Her legs were apparently faster that her head because she
had already begun running when the creature attacked. She escaped by a thread
and ran towards the other side of the island, hopefully reaching the opposite
beach soon. But she could only see jungle and more jungle and huge trees rising
from the ground. They looked like palm trees but much larger and with lots of
branches.
She only stopped running when the ground
around her began to shake. The volcano was causing an earthquake and it was
better to stay still. Far, beyond some plants, she saw the creature that had
gone after her being devoured by a hole in the ground. It squealed horribly and
disappeared as the tremor subsided and the island calmed down. Flo was sweating
a lot and could only think about her boat and seeing if she had everything.
After that, she kept on walking.
The other side of the island could not be very
far but the more she walked the more it appeared the island was expanding or
maybe she was walking in circles. She decided to climb one of the tall trees,
leaving her boat at the base, in order to check out where she was and if she
could see the ocean and the direction she needed to go to be on the good route
home. She climbed with ability, having done it many times as she had built the
village. She had done so with so many great friends and people that wanted a
second chance at life, trying to begin again in a new place. But that had just
been a dream and she was the residue of that nightmare.
When she got to the top she realized that she
was very close to her objective, having only change course a bit. She had to
start walking to her left because if she kept doing what she was doing maybe
the volcano would consume her too. Talking about the volcano, she saw that the
ash cloud had grown bigger and was spilling ash all over the passage she had to
cross. But that wasn’t the most awful thing she saw from there. She noticed
something like rocks on the side of the volcano, big black rocks. But then Flo
realized they were moving and were coming down the mountain. She had little
time.
Fast, she always broke a leg getting down and
tying up the rope to her waist. She ran to the left as she had planned and
didn’t stop until she reached a rocky beach and saw a blackened ocean. The
light of the afternoon, red as blood, didn’t help to the image of the place. It
looked like hell, as simple as that. And the demons were coming behind her so
she just swam. The natural bridge had disappeared so she propelled herself hard
with arms and legs and was soon tired but because the water felt thicker and
she couldn’t even breathe properly.
Behind her, she heard dozens of pincers
opening and closing and that made her try even harder to reach the other side
and when she did she realized her body was covered in ashes and was black as
the night that was beginning to fall. Tired and breathless, she saw how the
beasts attempted to cross the water but something prevented them. The ashes
were apparently more toxic to them than to her. One of the creatures, the
bravest no doubt, launched itself to the ocean and tried to sweet but it got
turned into a big white lump that floated away into the open sea.
The others were mad but not for long. Flo had
felt the ground shake again and then saw fire pouring out of the volcano. Lava,
just like water, bathed every single side of the island and she could feel the
heat on her face. The creatures tried to escape but they had nowhere to run.
She saw them die and she felt bad for them and didn’t know why. The lava slowed
down and she decided to cross the island she was in and sleep later.
Florence actually crossed three small islands
during the night, her fears having been also consumed by the lava. When she
looked back, two days after the disaster, she saw only that the volcano had
stopped and nothing more. She then had the silly idea that maybe, just maybe,
that island was the natural toll booth of this world and maybe that other
continent had never been one to settle a foot on.
She then turned around and headed on to
Ventura, pulling her small boat with her and hoping for the best for the future
of the human race.
