Alone Together

Chapter 12

Staring down from the top of the tree my body covered in dirt and grim I sit and wait completely still for my prey. It's been four months since the plane crashed on this island and it has truly been hell. By no means would I have made any sort of claim that I was a survivalist before this, only doing some light studying about how to start a fire and make a shelter to protect me from the elements.  

Even with the light research that I did it still didn't help me in any way shape or form. The humid nights and mornings made it nearly impossible to find any dry wood at any time of the day which made it that much more difficult for someone as inexperienced as me to make a fire.

In an odd way, not having any comfort from a fire has accustomed my body to the point that even in the freezing rain and cold weather with no shelter my body is unaffected.

As for food I no longer need to eat my body just regenerates fast enough to the point that eating has become more of an inconvenience than anything else. My training is also going extremely well, I am confident to say that I am at peak human strength. All of my muscles are chiseled while maintaining a lean appearance so my speed remains unaffected.

Hearing the crack of a branch my attention gets drawn to a large brown bear sniffing the ground slowly walking towards the bottom of the tree where I put the gutted bunny. This is him, the apex predator of the island, a Himalayan Brown Bear. I've yet to be killed by this beast but I have my own plans for a beast of this size.

As the beast begins to eat the rabbit I slowly raise the chiseled wooden spear in my right hand raising it above my head as I take aim before releasing it. With a whistle the spear soars through the air striking the bear in its side. Listening as the bear roars in pain it quickly bolts into the forest. Jumping from the tree my second spear still in my left hand I sprint after the bear raising the second spear before sending it soaring after the bear, striking it in the back around fifteen meters away watching it collapse to the forest floor.

Rushing to the corpse of the bear I pull out my golden dagger stabbing the bear in the head to make sure it's dead before slicing open its stomach. Ripping out all the intestines I reach into my inventory pulling out the scaled white dragon egg placing it inside the warm husk. I've been trying my best to get the egg as warm as possible to try and hatch it using the warmth of the freshly killed animals as my heat source. At first I was skeptical that it was working at all but I've been noticing more and more movement from the egg and I can tell that it will be hatching soon. It also helps that anything in my inventory goes into a stagnant state ensuring that the egg won't grow cold.

Pulling out one of the spears from the bear I walk around in a circle drawing the hieroglyphics that I've memorized from the ancient book. Kneeling down in the middle in front of the bear resting the golden blade in my lap, "to you God Apep I offer you this bear and my life yet again." Plunging the blade into my heart my world quickly goes dark. In school Egyptology was what I was most interested in, which is how I learned about the god of chaos Apep and how to read hieroglyphs. 

Standing up from my dead body I don't have to look down to know that my body has a blue sheen to it. Staring down at my dead body the blade completely sheathed in my chest. Watching as the blood of me and the bear slowly trickle into the hieroglyphs they begin to give off a red glow confirming the success of my sacrifice. 

"You're still stuck here?" Hearing the bland tone of Death come from behind me I feel a grin begin to form on my face. Death may be one of the main reasons why I've stayed sane here, on this side of the island there is nothing except me and my thoughts. Death is my escape from this silent hell and those escapes with Death have been one of the main things that has kept me from going insane.

"Of course I am, I saw you yesterday what do you think could have changed in such a short amount of time?" I ask while turning around facing the familiar face of death.

"You humans work fast." She says while walking to my side pointing at the ring of hieroglyphs. "Still trying to contact Apep I see, at the rate he'll come down to visit you out of pure curiosity at who's giving him so many self sacrifices so far away from Egypt. What's your progress on getting the Mirakuru you've reminded me of?" She questions while dipping her finger in the blood before licking her finger the blood reddening her pale lips.

"I've finished searching my side of the island and I'm confident that it's not here I'm going to have to travel to the other side." I say while sitting down on the forest floor.

"Well I've already told you once about most of the spirits that I've encountered who have taken it. They were plagued with hallucinations and rage and I don't see why your case will be any different without a proper lab." She states while sitting next to me.

"You're not wrong Death taking the Mirakuru would be an enormous risk to my mind which was why I was so reluctant to come to this island in the first place but plans have changed." Feeling a small pull back to my body I do my best to resist buying myself more time with my only source of sanity.

I was willing to take the Mirakuru on the plane ride here because I wasn't sure how much longer I was going to stay here and it was my best lead; but now that I know that I can leave whenever I please and that Apep will be coming soon because of my rituals I don't need to take that risk anymore. The main goal that I'm focusing on now is making the best ritual for Apep to somehow lure him here, which I'm hoping won't be too hard if there aren't many worshipers of the old gods of Egypt. My goal for the ritual for Apep may have to wait a little longer if what I have in mind is truly going to come to pass.

"You're being reckless again Theo. I understand that you're still young and inexperienced with your immortality but let me tell you one of the main reasons that immortals last so long. It's because they don't do anything that may affect their mind and they don't mess with gods…  ESPECIALLY gods of chaos." She says while sending a glare my way breaking her typical emotionless face. 

"If anything bad happens with Apep I'm confident in being able to escape and like I said the plan has changed with the Mirakuru. I don't plan on taking the virus anymore all I want to do is have access to it." Being able to get out those last words my spirit gets sucked back into my body.

Looking through the thick trees into the blue sky I take a deep breath of air quickly reaching up gripping the handle of the blade ripping it out with a grunt. Standing up I feel my skin slowly stew itself back together letting only a small amount of blood spill out of my wound.

Walking to the corpse of the bear I press the back of my palm on the dragon egg feeling the heat of the egg noticing that its gotten hotter than it was before placing it back in my inventory. All I have to do is find a consistent heat source and hopefully the dragon egg will hatch but for now I have to move on. My dragon egg will always be there but my time on this island is limited and can be ended at any moment if things go wrong which means I have to focus on the task at hand.

Tucking the golden dagger into my tattered waistband of the shorts that I use merely as a holder than anything else I pick up the two spears and begin the long walk to the stream. 

Staring down at my disgusting reflection I have to use every ounce of my being to not just walk out to the shore and begin the long swim back home. Forcing myself to stare at my reflection I take in every little detail I see; my dirty and tangled black and blonde hair that goes slightly past my neck and my dirty face that has dirt and grime staining it as a natural camouflage and a short dirty beard that's grown out well past any length I would've wanted on civilized land.

In all honesty I'm not sure how I feel about the Slade, Oliver, and Shado. They condemned me to the other side of the island not knowing if I was an imposter or not and I died because of their decision. At the same time I want to thank them because the voice they made led me to become stronger than I ever have been. I've been able to increase my regeneration to the point that unless my heart or brain get pierced I will not die. I've seen the trio as well; they've been coming to my side of the island for the past two months taking my food and water all while I watched in the shadows.

I do not blame them for doing what they did because I would've just killed me on the spot if I smelled even the smallest hint of suspicion but they didn't. Instead they allowed me a chance to live, the potential civilian that could've had absolutely zero survival skills sentencing me to a long and slow death. If my memory is to be believed then I came to this island shortly after they defeated Fyers and his men which means they more than likely have at least some of his left over supplies which means that they had more than enough supplies to at least help me. These people think they were merciful by leaving me alive but all it's done is allowed a small ember of hatred to grow inside of me and now it's finally time to remind them that they are not alone on this island.

Washing the blood off the blade I stand looking at my dirt covered body with blood covering my chest and abs being the only sign of a past injury. Turning away from the stream I tuck the knife in my waistband picking up my two spears walking away not looking back.