The Forbidden Zone

Chapter Three - Against the Odds

We lost at least two hundred or more of our number on our way into shore. Strangely most of the deaths hadn't occurred by drowning in the strong current.

The waters of this new land had the most abundant marine life I had ever witnessed and with that reality there were also the usual predators, only in greater than usual numbers.

Sitting on the sand of the beach I could not stop myself from shivering as I stared out at the waves even as a steady tide of bloody foam made its way in to shore.

Tall dorsal fins continued to slice back and forth farther out to sea.

Out there the feeding frenzy was coming to a close and yet I wondered if the true carnage had only just begun with our arrival upon the land.

Would anything ever get any better or was the rest of my no doubt short life doomed to be spent in this pallor of mindless fear over what new horror came next?

Looking about I witnessed others in a similar state of shock.

That said groups were already forming.

On board to my surprise I had witnessed the more dominant boys acquiring literal harems for themselves, as if having sex right now was the best thing we could be doing.

My mind drifted to my own encounter of sudden desire and quickly I mentally shut off the topic of sex.

While only partially successful in doing so it did on the other hand bring my mind back around to him.

Where was he now?

Still shivering I stood up and looked about only to see him hard at work like it was just another day of the work week back in the old world. He was busy making a fire and doing it quite successfully.

The reality of the competition I would face to gain this man's covering of protection was quickly escalating.

I could see the appreciation for both him and his evident survival capabilities starting to dawn on the faces of nearby girls that had gathered to watch him make a fire.

Proactively I started walking his way, but by the time I reached him a situation had developed.

The more alpha tendencied boys had also noted the growing attention by females around the older man and they were having none of it.

A group of twenty or more of them were now surrounding the man, who still calmly worked away at getting his fire started as if nothing was going on at all.

Suddenly scared for him I watched as what amounted to a lynch mob developed quickly.

Feeling how dire the moment was I started to force my way through the crowd, but I was shoved back by several boys.

One ringleader was yelling at the crowd, "We can't trust him! He's not one of us! Look how many of us died on the way into shore!"

Screaming out above the muttering of the throng, as I fought to get past the inner circle, I said, "Without him the ship would've been crushed up on the rocks and possibly exploded! He saved lives you fool!!!"

Pointing dramatically in my direction the deranged looking crowd instigator yelled, "You don't know that! I say he's one of the 'Others'! I say we kill him now before he starts eating us!"

The noise of the gathered crowd went silent, even as an unsteady hush settled over the group now furtively looking among themselves for courage to do what had been asked of them.

The ringleader was about to surely call out for more violence when all attention was directed suddenly to the man at the center of it all by the virtue of him simply standing up.

The contrast between what a boy was and what a man was had never been so clearly defined for me before.

Many of the boys were handsome or what girls would call cute, but this man was neither cute nor handsome, but he was the best good-looking one of the lot.

In his hand he held a blazing fire brand of a torch gained from the fire now actively burning away at his feet. Looking around with thinly veiled contempt he paused for a moment before gesturing to the fire, "You're welcome."

The insult was clear as no other boy had either thought to make a fire or had managed to so far.

Even now the shadows of nightfall were quickly forming and the need for fire in the advent of having to defend off against potential predators was only too obvious.

I saw many of the heads of boys in the crowd sink as they recognized their own duplicitness of ineptitude.

Firmly in control of his audience the man spoke, "I am leaving so don't worry your pretty little heads about me. There's plenty to eat here without one resolving to cannibalism I assure you. Despite whatever you may think I am of no threat to any of you. I would've stayed on and tried to help you, but I can see that would be a waste of both my time and likely my life. Hear me now though. Most of you are likely going to die if you commit yourself to following idiots like this one. While we don't know almost anything about this land that we've had all knowledge kept from us previously about, it is however abundantly clear that dangers do abound. My advice to you is to break up into small groups and leave the area immediately. It is likely given what we know of their actions that before long the 'Others' will get here to this far land."

"They already are! You're one of them!"

Disregarding the screaming instigator, as if he was nothing more than the nuisance of a buzzing fly, the man continued with his address to the crowd, "Regardless of that potential danger, the people who intended to use you to your harm are living here in this land and they will come hunting once again for you. My advice is to break up and hide. Now, I've said all I'm going to say."

He headed for the wall of the throng that stood between him and the darkly cast mountains in the distance.

Automatically the crowd began to part back from before him, but the instigator of riot seeing his chance of gaining notoriety and power slipping away rushed forward with an enraged scream.

The boy leaped through the air drawing back his fist in preparation to epically grand slam it forward into the man like he was in some rendition of a B-Rated kung fu flick.

The scene had all the appearance of a baby fawn running forward to smack into the side of an adult tiger.

His intended target did not cooperate though, but deftly slipped to the side with the dexterity of a cat. Unexpectedly then, the man snatched the now floundering would be assailant out of the air and in less than a second with the ease of popping in the top of a soda can he snapped the boy's neck.

The audible sound of the snap and the instant death occurring from it sent a shockwave through all of us.

We had all seen people die along with other incredibly violent things in the past few years, but there was something to the understated savagery by which this man had just extinguished a life that was jaw-dropping.

In shock we watched the boy fall lifeless to the ground as the man released him. In the silence that followed the man calmly reached down and retrieved his torch.

Then without a word spoken he strode off unhurriedly into the dark of the forest in the direction of the mountains.

Excited murmuring broke out and soon raised arguments were being yelled out from every side about what to do. Girls were either actively participating in the arguments about what to do or sitting on the sidelines chewing at their nails and looking scared.

Moving forward I came to the body lying on the sand that no one had moved to touch.

Looking up from his lifeless features to the dark enclosure of the forest that the man had disappeared into I debated about what to do.

Swallowing down my abject fear of the choice that I had come to I took a step forward and then another and another. Soon I was in the forest and quivering with sheer fright I speeded my pace up.

This was without a doubt the stupidest thing I had ever done, but I was doing it. As I stumbled in the dark the real question soon became how on earth was I ever going to find him?

The next question was what would he do to me if I did find him?

Trying to rule over my emotions was not easy, but my very survival was at stake and armed with that knowledge I kept pressing forward into the dark. Then up ahead I saw the dim glow of his torch lighting up the forest and a part of me relaxed.

I could simply not fathom why that was though.

Nothing made sense.

The question of what he would do to me came back to haunt me now more than ever.

The obvious reality was there to smack into my consciousness like a freight train. Without a doubt he would mate me.

I knew it with every fiber of my being.

The real question was what would he do afterwards?

Would he kill me?

Eat me?

Or just leave me?

What were the chances that he would just take care of me?

I didn't like the odds I was faced with at all, but now so far from the others I had no other choice but to continue on.