Horror Island

Horror Island Ch 9

When she awoke, the sun was high in the sky. The water had receded in the night and the capsule was no longer visible. She scanned the horizon as she got to her feet but there was nothing.

When she turned around, she was met with a shocking sight. A field had grown over the beach. A field of vines and leaves had suddenly grown over everything in sight. They rustled slightly even though the air was perfectly still. She took a single step toward it and stopped. Where was Yuri?

She began running toward the field of vines, searching it for Yuri. Had he awoken and gone into the forest? No, he would have gotten her up first.

She reached the edge of the field and looked down at the vines. A single shoot was reaching out toward her foot. She looked closer at it and shuddered. Tiny, blood red spikes rested along each edge of each leaf. The stem was covered in tiny hairs, also blood red. At the end of each hair rested a drop of... well, she wasn't sure exactly what it was. She wasn't about to touch one and find out.

She looked even closer and saw the shoot move. She jumped a tiny bit but kept watching. It moved again. And again. It was moving in a pulsing pattern, keeping time with something. Like a metronome.

She looked up and down the beach, seeing that the vines went both ways and she could not see a single break in them anywhere. She took a deep breath, then bent down to start tucking her pant legs into boot. But something stopped her.

Age spots.

On her hand.

She had aged overnight, aged like an old woman. Her arms sagged and her hair was damaged. She had never really cared about hair and kept it pretty short but she was devastated at the destruction wrought overnight. She brought her fingers to her face and began exploring every new crevice that had moved in.

She fell to her knees and began uttering a long, wordless cry. It was a mournful song, a funeral dirge for her old body, missing Yuri and dead Mark. She tore at her hair and finished wailing, placing her face in the sand, feeling the age in her knees.

After a time, she stood up, new resolve in Mia's dark eyes. She reached down and finished tucking he pant legs into her boots. She wiped the blurriness out of her eyes. Then she stepped forward.

Instantly, a thousand tiny needles punctured the orange fabric. They stabbed deep into her legs, injecting the poison deep. Mia, however, did not feel a single pinprick. She was now immune to the poison, her heart hardened and her mind full of steely resolution.

She stepped wisely but determinedly, each footfall designed to crush as much foliage as she could muster. She crossed the field like a tank, neither stopping nor resting.

She kicked something. When she looked down, she saw that it was Yuri. He was curled up under the vines, a blank of leaves hiding him as effectively as camouflage despite his bright clothing.

He was sitting with his knees pulled up to his chest, his arms holding them in place. He rocked back and forth, directly in time with the movement of the vines. His mouth was whispering something and his eyes stared straight ahead. Although no vines touched his body, there were a few wrapped around his neck, their needles piercing his skin.

"Yuri! Yuri, can you hear me!" Mia said as she tried to rouse him, shaking his shoulder and touching his face.

His mouth moved and she leaned closer to hear what he was saying. "I am the body, you are the mind. You are the body and I am the mind." Over and over, repeating the phrases.

When nothing happened, she slapped him, leaving a red mark across his face and forcing his head to the side. He did nothing except return to his original position staring straight ahead, chanting the words.

Mia grabbed a vine around his neck, pulling it free. She could feel Yuri's flesh give way as it slowly drew out of his skin. The hole left behind was empty for a few moments and then blood began pouring out of it. Yuri gave a yell and thrashed around, cutting himself and ruining the perfect little bubble of vines that had formed around him. The entire field of vines tensed up, as if waiting for a signal to destroy the intruder in their midst.

The remaining vines around his neck tightened, pushing the remaining thorns deeper inside his neck. Yuri visibly relaxed, returning to his rocking and whispering. The field also returned to its pulsing. Mia stood back up, realizing that there was nothing left for her to do for Yuri.