Horror Island

Horror Island Ch 6

Mia found her senses and began swimming with powerful strokes to the shore. She was the best swimmer out of all the astronauts she had trained with and her training now showed.

All three threw themselves up on the beach, gasping for breath as they scrambled away from the water.

Mark was the first to recover, flipping over and staring into the water, bright sunlight sparkling off the surface, the capsule bobbing in the waves a quarter mile out.

When the other two followed his lead, he said, "The raft isn't even there anymore. What the heck was that thing?"

Yuri groaned and laid back down. When Mia looked over, she saw that he had four nasty stripes across his side, cutting straight through his jumpsuit. It looked like something had torn the meat straight out, not leaving a single tatter of skin. When she went over to take a closer look, she saw that they were shallow and hadn't gotten anything important.

"What happened to you?" she asked.

"I think it was the barbs on its sides. Did you see it at all? It had these whiskers on both sides." He cursed, placing a hand over his throbbing side.

Mark placed a hand on her back and she looked into his eyes. She loved his eyes, the bright green that made her want to stare into them all day. He looked back at her, their connection broken only when Yuri coughed, then cursed again.

Mark grabbed his arm and helped him up, saying, "We need to find a stream, some fresh water. We can't last out here without any water."

Mia said glumly, "All our water was on the raft. Without it, we'll have to find water fast or we'll die."

Mark nodded his approval. "Okay, let's go."

They walked to the edge of the forest, stopping at the threshold. It was a nearly straight line, separating the forest from the beach. There was no sand in the forest and there weren't any leaves on the beach. Without looking at each other, they stepped into the forest.

There was almost no talking as they trekked through the tall trees. The ground squished underfoot as their feet crushed rotting leaves and pockets of water.

Suddenly they walked into a clearing. Just like the beach, there was a nearly perfect line between the jungle and the ground inside the clearing, the only difference being that there was dirt instead of sand on the ground.

In the direct center of the clearing was a hole in the ground and out of this hole bubbled a stream. It ran out into the jungle, away from the astronauts.

"We found the source of a stream." Mia said in wonder. "We're only in the jungle for five minutes and we find a stream!" she laughed.

Mark ran past her and knelt by the stream. He plunged his hands into it and scrubbed his face then stuck his mouth in it and drank deeply. His whole body shook as he gulped it down.

Mia turned to a smiling Yuri and she grinned back at him.

They jumped when Mark screamed.