Silent Love

Ch. 8

I wake up to the sound of Weaver. "That wall, is that supposed to keep out that thing?"
    "Naw he's not the one we're trying to keep out," Marlow informs us.
    "What?" Brooks asks, and follows Marlow. Opening my eyes fully I start to smile. Closing my eyes once more, I notice that I'm moving. Quickly opening my eyes again to see my surroundings, I notice that I'm in Slivko's arms. Tapping his chest lightly made him look down at me and smile.
    "Morning sleepy head," he teases. I motion for him to put me down and he does. I just smile sleepily. He takes my hand in his and leads me back to the group.
    "These people live in the top of the trees, while we're down in the roots. Some of them don't even seem to age," Marlow explains while we walk through the people's village. Huts are scattered everywhere, some of the people are tending to the gardens while others are sorting through baskets of food. "No crime, no personal property. We're passed all that," Marlow says. Then two people with blue markings on their bodies come up to us with their fellow spear men. They bow their heads and walk on.
    "Good news," Marlow says, looking back to us. "They say you can shack up here." It's odd because I didn't hear them say anything. Marlow must be out of his mind.
    "I didn't hear them say anything?" Conrad says confused.
    "Oh they don't speak to much. When you have been here as long as I have, you'll see," Marlow stated.
    Out of the blue, Victor gets in front of Marlow making us all stop in the process. "Wait wait wait! We can't stay here, we have to get off the island. We have lives, I ... I have a life."
    "Yes, but now is not the time alright," Conrad confirmed.
    Marlow then spoke up, "Whoever lands here tends to stay here."
    I look to Slivko worriedly. He tightens his grip on my hand meaning it would be alright. I look into his chocolate brown eyes and can tell he is worried, but he puts on a brave face just for me. At least if we are going to spend the rest of our lives on this island, I am glad Slivko is here.
    Marlow leads us to an old ship that was destroyed. "As far as I can tell, this ship washed up ten years before I did," Marlow explained.
    "You've been her since '44?" Weaver questioned.
    "Yeah, hey what happened with the war? Did we win?"
    "Which one?" Slivko asked.
    As Marlow ducks into the ship, he mumbles something that I don't understand. As we keep walking, Marlow looks back to us. "This is all hallow ground to them, so if you like your hands, don't touch anything," he warned. Marlow then enters a room and takes off his hat.
    "Wow, look at that," Weaver says, amazed by the sight.
    "The way they tell it, for thousands of years the people on this island lived in fear," Marlow explained. Conrad began to walk towards some stones which made a picture of dinosaur like creatures attacking people. "That's a hell of a long time to be scared. And then one day the dangest thing happened..." Brooks looked at more stones which showed the monkey creature being praised by the people. "Some of the things that they were afraid of started protecting them from the things that were eating them." Weaver then looks at the stones revealing the monkey creature looking down at skeletons. "But nothing lasts forever I guess."
     Everyone soon ended up at the end of the room looking to the last of the stones."And this is where they honor the last of their Saviors," Marlow said, referring to the picture the stones were creating. It was the monkey creature holding out his arms while the spear people were below. "Yeah, that's Kong. He's king around here. He's God to these people. Kong's a pretty good King. He keeps to himself mostly," Marlow says while pointing to Conrad. "This is his home. We're just guests here." Marlow walks around the group until he makes it to the front. "You don't going to someone's home and start dropping bombs unless you're picking a fight," he says while pointing to all of us. Me and Slivko  sit down by the stones.
    "Wasn't, Kong the one who killed your friend?" Weaver asked
    "No..." Marlow then pointed to more stones making a picture of the dinosaur creatures. "One of them did. Kong's got on the island, but the devils live below us."
    Conrad then looks away from the stones and towards Marlow. "And what are they called?"
    "The Iwi's won't speak their name, but I call em Skullcrawlers."
    "Why?"
    "Cause it sounds neat." Marlow says making Conrad nod. Conrad then looks to Weaver "O... ok"
    "Look I just made that name up, I'm trying to scare you," Marlow says.
    "I'm fine calling them that, are you cool with that?" She asks Conrad. He just stutterers saying it was a great name.
    "Never said that name out loud before now. Its sounds stupid now that I say it. Just, you just call it whatever you want. The big lizard things, nasty. They come from the vents deep down. That's why Kong got so mad. Those bombs woke up a bunch of them. I'll tell you about your lucky he's out there too, or else you wouldn't of made it this far. Crappy bastards, mean as hell. He can handle them as long as he gets to them when they're still small." Marlow pauses for a second and takes a breath. "You don't want to wake up the big one," he says pointing to Conrad.
    "How big is it?" Ms. San questioned.
    "It's bigger. It wiped out his whole family. Kong is the last of his kind but he's still growing, and you better hope he does, cause the Iwi's say once Kong goes, then the big one comes up. And it's goodnight." Marlow then began to chuckle scared, while Conrad looked back to the people.
    "Listen," Conrad says, "There's a re-fueling team coming to the North end of the island in three days."
    "You should come with us," Weaver pitches.
    "The North end of the island?" Marlow then faces Conrad and smiles making Conrad smile as well.
    "We're going to get out of here," Conrad states.
    "In 3 days..."
    "Yes," Conrad assures while smiling. Marlow begins to slap Conrad on the face making his smile wash away quickly.
    "You can't get to the North end of the island in 3 days. It's impossible. That's it, no way." Marlow then starts heading to the door then stops. "At least not on foot." He says making us all confused.