Double Dragon Read online

  “I see Thomas’ charm hasn’t deserted him,” William said. I stared at him and rolled my eyes, aiming to move past him. Neither of the brothers had endeared themselves to me, and yet there was a part of me that was drawn to them, to Thomas mostly, for he had at least shown me a sliver of kindness, but because William looked the same it was confusing to be attracted to one and not the other. My mind didn’t know what to think of it.

  I continued walking away, wanting to be by myself. The fact that Thomas had accused me of not caring about Bobby wasn’t what bothered me; it was the fact that he may well have been right. I wanted to fall in love. I wanted to return home and see Bobby again and explore the attraction I had for him, but the truth was that I hadn’t thought of him in all this time. I didn’t fear that I wouldn’t see him again, I didn’t yearn to get a message to him, my only priority was exploring the island and finishing what my parents couldn’t.

  I walked to the edge of the trees and sat on the beach, looking out to the horizon. The stars twinkled above and the huge moon hung in the sky like a lantern. The sea was dark but it shimmered as it caught the moonlight. I looked out to the world and felt as though I was utterly alone. It didn’t bother me as much as it should have.

  I thought about my parents, and if the fate they met awaited me. Then, I turned my gaze back to the cavern and thought about the brothers and my complicated attraction towards them. I tried to compartmentalize it and push it to the back of my mind because it wasn’t something I needed to think about. It would only distract me.

  I stayed out on the beach until I thought the others would be sleeping. Thankfully neither of the brothers came to try and speak to me, and Vincent was too wounded. He needed to rest. The night was cool and peaceful, although my heart was filled with turbulence. I wept for my mother and father, and for Duncan and Daniel. Dragon Island had claimed the lives of good people, but that night I made a vow that it would not claim my life. I wiped the tears from my eyes and joined the others in the cave, ready to sleep well so that we could push hard and explore the island the following day.

  10

  When the morning came, I was the last to rise. Thomas and William were making breakfast, while Vincent was stretching his body and moving around as much as he could. It was good to see him up. He was a hardy man, and somehow still had a smile on his face. The ugly gash down the side of his body looked a little better, and he assured me that he’d be fine given enough time.

  “Here,” William said, handing me some food. I took it and glared at him, but ate it all the same because I was famished. It wasn’t enough food to satisfy me, but we had to go careful with rationing. I noticed Thomas looking at me, but I averted my gaze and stayed out of his way. The last thing I wanted to do was talk to him after what had happened last night. When I looked at him, the back of my neck tingled and I felt a warm flush of arousal, which only made me feel guilty. I had no doubt that somewhere out there Bobby was worried about me, and I was barely sparing a thought for him.

  “What’s the plan for today boss?” Vincent asked. He surely noticed the tension in the cave, and I appreciated his attempts to fill the silence.

  “We’ll start to head into the heart of the island. We’ll try and look for anything that looks like a trail and follow it. Since the likelihood is that nobody has been here for a very long time, any ruins are going to be hidden under the jungle, so we’ll have to keep a close eye out for anything that doesn’t seem natural. We’ll have breakfast, gather our things together and then, if you’re ready, we’ll go,” I said. Vincent nodded.

  “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” he said. He stepped towards the mouth of the cave and looked down across the beach. “It’s so damned beautiful. You know, even if we don’t make it off this island, the trip has been worth it for that view,” he said.

  “It looks even better from above,” Thomas said, “at least, that’s what I remember from when we approached the island.”

  My mind went back to that moment when the plane lost control and spun out. I remembered the view from the window, how serene the island looked through the storm, how the stone mountains looked like the spines of the back of a dragon, and how the island curved in resemblance of the mythical animals. I closed my eyes as a fleeting memory scraped at the back of my skull. The moment when the plane lost control was still a blank to me, but the strange sound echoed in my mind and I still couldn’t quite place it. I looked up to the sky and marveled again at how I had survived. It didn’t seem possible that I had plunged into the sea and been carried to the shore without suffering any injury or broken bones. I told myself not to question it because sometimes miracles happened, but my analytical brain kept telling me that I was missing something, that I wasn’t being able to put things together.

  I didn’t have time to think about such matters though. We had to get going. We gathered our stuff, as much as we could carry anyway, and made our way into the forest. We had to leave some things behind in the cave as we didn’t want to lug a huge crate around with us, especially because Vincent wasn’t strong enough yet to carry a heavy weight, even though he insisted he was.

  We passed the stream and the turning where my parents were resting. I was tempted to go and visit them again, even though they were just bones now, and would eventually be dust. I had been apart from them for so long that I just wanted to speak to them and tell them everything that happened to me, even if they couldn’t answer back. Yet I was well aware of the presence of the others, and heat rose under my cheeks as I thought of the ridicule I’d receive from the Mapother brothers.

  They walked behind me and occasionally muttered to themselves, although I didn’t catch what they were saying. Vincent took up the rear and I had to make sure I didn’t go too quickly, for I didn’t want him to exacerbate his injury.

  “I don’t want to be a naysayer, but what happens if we don’t find anything? Are we just going to walk around this island forever?” Vincent asked. It was a question that needed to be asked, but I hated the fact that he asked it. The question had been nagging at the back of my mind.

  “We’ll find something,” William said confidently before I could say anything.

  “How can you be so sure?” Vincent asked. William just stared at him blankly and didn’t say anything. The journey through the jungle was arduous. The vines and bushes were thick and linked together, creating a network of obstacles that we had to cut through. The humidity made us sweat and the trees acted like a heat trap. It was as though we were walking through a greenhouse. We kept a careful look out for snakes, and there were a couple of times when what I thought was a vine moved and slithered away. This was an alien world, and I had to remember that danger lurked everywhere.

  “Is that something?” Thomas asked, stopping and pointing towards the ground. We gathered around him and gazed at the floor. There was something that could have resembled a track, although I wouldn’t have been confident enough to declare that it was so with absolute certainty. However, by this point we had been walking for most of the morning and we hadn’t seen any other sign of a trail. It would be demoralizing for us to keep walking without an end in sight, and since we had no other locations to scout, I figured we might as well follow the path, if it was indeed a path.

  William hacked away at the thick vines and we stepped over them. Insects buzzed near us and we had to monitor each others’ water intake, although Thomas and William seemed to have great fortitude. Vincent and I silently tried to show the same endurance as them, but eventually we had to give in and take some sweet sips of the refreshing drink. We didn’t come across another stream so we had to be careful with how much water we drank. Thankfully, none of us had shown any adverse signs from drinking the water, which confirmed that it was safe. Occasionally there were gaps between the trees and the golden sunlight poured through in all its glory, offering a slightly different sight than the green shade that I was getting used to. We heard the scurrying of small animals, but didn’t spot an
y, and I didn’t see any strange black shapes swooping through the sky, so I put my earlier sighting down to my troubled and tired state of mind.

  At that moment I was thinking that Dragon Island, aside from the deaths upon entry, hadn’t given us much trouble. There didn’t seem to be any large predators, nor were there a great number of annoying insects carrying disease. It seemed too good to be true, but after what we’d been through, I was happy for any sort of blessing.

  We followed the winding trail through the jungle and we all noticed the steady incline. We looked around curiously, taking in everything around us.

  “Is this what you hoped it would be like?” Vincent asked.

  “I think I’d prefer to see a little more sign of life,” I shrugged. “I’m wondering if my parents did actually explore the island and found nothing, so they just stayed in the quietest, safest place they could find.”

  “I’m sure we’ll find something.” I wasn’t sure if Vincent spoke with confidence or with hope. We’d been walking for most of the day when suddenly we heard a loud rustling in the distance and the sharp crack of tree debris. It was definitely bigger than anything we’d heard before, and we were all on edge. We formed a square so that each of us was facing one direction and tried to get a sense of where the sound was coming from. The ground beneath us seemed to shake and then, emerging from the bushes like a furious demon was the biggest boar I had ever seen. It was at least as tall as me and its tusks were huge and yellowed. Its beady eyes glowed and its thick hide was dark. It had black tufts of hair and when it huffed it sounded deep and bestial. Its hooves scraped against the ground like a bull, and fear spiked within me.

  “Let’s get away from here,” I yelled, and without any hesitation we turned and sprinted away. Thomas and William had no trouble keeping up with me, but Vincent was injured. However, he was the only one who had a gun. The others had all been lost in the crash, and we hadn’t yet had a chance to make rudimentary spears. The only other weapon was the small knife that William had, which had been good for hacking away vines, but seemed entirely inadequate for the task at hand. It had been foolish of us not to take the proper precautions, but we had all been eager to explore the island and I was now regretting following the urge to move rather than preparing everything.

  My feet slammed against the ground and kicked up dirt, I almost stumbled over vines as William didn’t have the time to cut them away. Slender branches cut at me like whips as I hurtled through the jungle and my breath burst out of my throat, my heart pounded in my chest, but I dared not stop. I could sense William and Thomas by my side; the two of them didn’t seem to be out of breath at all and the ease with which they ran made me push myself harder. The boar’s wild and primal noises echoed around us and the ground trembled under the beast’s mighty strides. When I glanced back, I noticed Vincent was struggling. He was holding his side. The turn of speed had torn the primitive salve apart and sap was dripping from his wound. There was a pained look on his face as he stumbled and struggled to keep up with us. Behind him the boar was stampeding, closing the distance between them. My gaze met Vincent’s and in that moment, he said goodbye to me. He stopped running and turned. I stopped too and screamed at him to keep running. I reached out. I felt someone grab me, pulling me away.

  Vincent spread his legs out and met his destiny. He pulled out his gun and aimed squarely at the boar, firing two shots. The animal bore down on him and I couldn’t even tell if the loud shots had wounded the animal. One had definitely punctured the hide, but the boar didn’t seem to be affected by it. It just charged forward, relentless and inexorable like a juggernaut careening out of control. There was a sickening sound as the boar dipped its head and caught Vincent right in the middle of his body, penetrating the soft flesh with its tusk. I heard Vincent’s skin being ripped apart and the man was dead instantly. For a moment he hung on the boar’s tusk, until the animal shook him off. Vincent landed on the ground, his body crumpled and broken. Blood and guts spilled out and there was a red stain on the boar’s tusks.

  My stomach churned and I wanted to throw up. Dragon Island had claimed another life, and there was nothing I could have done to stop it. Thomas was still pulling me away, but the boar continued towards us. William had already started moving to meet it, had begun moving when Vincent had fired and now he was almost upon the boar. I knew that I should run, but my feet were planted to the ground. I watched William run up to the boar and leap onto its back, avoiding the sharp tusks. His knife gleamed as it caught the sunlight and he stabbed the boar again and again in the neck and shoulders, small wounds, death by a thousand cuts, but the boar rocked and convulsed and threw William off, who landed by Vincent.

  “Come on, Amber, we have to run now. If we don’t, the boar is going to get us all!” Thomas yelled. He dragged me away and I almost stumbled again. I tore my gaze away from the boar, leaving William to fend him off. I wanted to do something, I should have done something, but what could I have done? I had no weapons, so I let myself be taken away by Thomas. He kept hold of my hand as we ran through the jungle, sprinting as fast as we could. We raced away from the boar in case it pursued us and ran until I was about to collapse. We followed the path all the way up the incline until the trees thinned and we emerged on one of the sides of the island. I hadn’t realized how far we had ascended for the drop was steep below. My head was groggy, and I had to wipe sweat from my brow. I paced around, careful not to get too close to the edge. There was a sheer drop onto jagged rocks and foreboding water. My head swam just looking at it.

  “Are you alright?” Thomas asked, reaching out towards me. I batted his hands away.

  “What the hell do you think you were doing?” I yelled. “They needed us! How could you just let your brother die like that?”

  “William and I have always been willing to do what is necessary to save each other,” Thomas said icily. “Now come with me. We need to keep moving.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you. I can’t. I need time to process this. Vincent…oh my God. This place, this place is cursed. How many people have lost their lives…and all because of me.”

  I staggered back and placed my head in my hands. Thomas stepped towards me and tried to grab hold of me again, and again I pushed him away.

  “Don’t touch me! Don’t you see? This is all my fault! I should never have come here. I should never have come to this cursed place. They’re all dead because of me, and it’s only a matter of time until we’re dead too. How can you just stand there and be so relaxed? Why did you make us run? Why didn’t you save them?”

  “Because I was saving you. Again,” Thomas said, his eyes blazing with fury. I tilted my head and looked at him with confusion. What did he mean by ‘again?’. Before I could ask him, I saw movement behind him and fear seized my heart. I was sure it was the boar, coming to claim our lives as well, and in that fleeting moment I asked myself whether I’d rather die from being speared by a boar’s tusk or from falling onto jagged rocks, just like the plane. Before I had a chance to decide, I realized that the figure coming out from the tree-line wasn’t the boar at all, but William. Somehow, some way he had managed to survive. He was covered in blood and his clothes were torn. He looked dazed, but he was alive. The blood that showered his face was so dark that it made the whites of his eyes stand out even more, and the sight of him startled me so much that I actually staggered back, losing my strength and my balance.

  “Your friend has been avenged,” he said, and that was the last thing I heard as I felt the ground give way before me and I plummeted down, the edge of the island crumbling underneath me.

  11

  A scream left my throat, but I wasn’t aware of it. It sounded like it was a distant echo from another life. I reached out my hands as gravity dragged my body down. My hair splayed around my face and I looked up towards Thomas. Plunging to my death was oddly peaceful. Time seemed to stand still and my mind was clear. I wondered if it was the same for everyone who died, o
r just for people who had time. I tried to think about what my last thought would be, wanting to make it something significant and dramatic but really, I was just filled with disappointment. I had thought I would accomplish something special with my life, that I would do great things, but in the end I was going to die in an accident on a remote deserted island having done nothing of note. I didn’t even get to die in someone else’s arms like my parents.

  I closed my eyes and waited for the inevitable, waited for the pain. I hoped that it would be over quickly because I really didn’t want to be in excruciating pain. But then, amid the darkness, I heard a strange yet familiar sound, the same sound that had surrounded me when everything had gone black on the plane. Then I felt something grab me. I wrapped my arms and felt scales, and when I opened my eyes, I saw a huge beast. It wasn’t possible. It just wasn’t possible, but I was being carried by a dragon.

  I looked down and saw the sea and the jagged rocks recede from me, the ones that should have spelt my doom. Instead, I was being lifted through the air to safety, and was deposited back on solid ground. I slipped out of the dragon’s grasp and scrambled away, falling to the floor. I reached out with panic for any kind of weapon and ended up gripping a small stick, pointing it to the beast. The dragon was huge and black, its scales as dark as obsidian. It beat its wings and howled, and I heard the same crash of air that I had heard on the plane. Its sharp claws dug into the ground and I froze there in shock and fear. It looked at me and I was almost sure it was going to eat me, but it tilted its head and looked at me as though it recognized me. My mind was a blur and I couldn’t believe that I was looking at a real life dragon. I wondered if really I had died and this was a strange version of the afterlife, but the ground felt real, and as I looked around I saw William sitting there as well, seemingly unconcerned by the fact that there was a dragon standing in front of us. But where had Thomas gone?