Dominant Species
Issue #20
by Tom Zjaba
Chapter 22
Past Problems
The thought of the phoenix is enough to keep Derrick from sleeping. He tries going back to bed, but just tosses and turns. The whole event was too exciting for him to get out of his head. It makes him think back at the many adventures he has already been on. Running from Amazons, entering the dragon's lair, escaping from the city of Spiders, battling the ettin, swimming with merfolk, he has already had a lifetime worth of adventures. Just thinking about it makes it harder for him to sleep. Realizing it is a wasted effort, he decides to get up and head to the deck. With any luck, he may see some other creature.
As he makes his way to the deck, he hears the faint voices of the Chief and Darr. They are both still at the wheel, talking about the old world. When they see Derrick coming, they stop talking for a moment. "Having trouble sleeping?" the chief asks as he sees him walking towards them. "Yeah, I am still too excited about seeing the phoenix." he says as he takes a seat next to them. Darr smiles at him, with the faint glow of the candles illuminating his face. "That was something to see." Scott is smiling a huge smile. "Yeah, I was thinking about our many adventures and it made it impossible to sleep." Darr looks at the Chief. "You had more adventures?" The Chief laughs as he thinks about it. "Yeah, we has some wild adventures." Darr looks over at Derrick. "Is this what you do? Go on adventures?" Derrick and the Chief both laugh out loud. Derrick answers the question "No, we are on a quest." Darr is confused. He is unsure what a quest is. "What is this quest you speak of? I am unfamiliar with that word." The Chief jumps in. "We are looking for a rare and powerful item. But right now, we are looking for Derrick's other friends and when we found all of them, we will find this item." Darr's curiosity is peaked now. "What is this item that is so rare and powerful?" Derrick smiles as he says "It is a Djinn's lamp."
While Darr wonders about what a Djinn's lamp is, the Chief quickly jumps in. "It is a lamp that holds a powerful being that can grant any wish you have." This really gets Darr excited. "Does such a creature exist?" Derrick shakes his head yes as he answers "Yeah and this whole world is proof of that." The Chief looks at him with a sad look in his eyes. But before Darr can ask anymore questions, the Chief jumps in. "By the way Derrick, you never told me how you ever came into possession of a magic lamp." Derrick looks away as thinks back to the how he came into possession of the lamp. "My dad found it actually. He worked for an oil company that was drilling for oil in the Persian Gulf. One time when they were drilling very deep, they broke apart some rock and one of the pieces that came up was this lamp shaped rock. It was all covered with centuries of barnacles and other buildup. He thought it was worthless, but figured I would like it and he brought it home as a souvenir." Darr and the Chief are both looking on with anticipation. They are glued to his every word. "When I got it, I put it on a shelf in my room and forgot about it. It was neat looking, but it was just a rock, or so I thought. Then one day, while we were wrestling in my room, we knocked the shelf down and it fell down. As I was picking everything back up and putting it back on the shelf, I noticed a small glint of gold. A small part of it had been exposed and I could see there was something metal underneath."
The very moment Derrick pauses, Scott comes up on deck. "What is this? A late night party?" he says as he heads over. Derrick looks over at him as he answers "I was just telling them about how we came upon the magic lamp." Scott walks over and takes a seat next to Derrick. "Man, that phoenix was something, wasn't it?" Derrick nods in agreement. "Yeah, that was amazing." The chief quickly jumps in "Can we get back to the story, you left us hanging." Darr nods in agreement. Derrick looks over at Scott and then starts talking again. "As I said, we knocked it over and saw a glint of gold from where some of the rock had chipped off. This caught our eye and so we proceeded to chip away the rest of the rock and expose the lamp." Scott quickly jumps in "We could tell it was a special lamp because no matter how hard we hit it, we could not damage it." Derrick smiles as he takes over the story. "Once we had it uncovered, we noticed there was some writing on the side. But it was in a language that none of us understood. So Scott here went online and after some trial and error, we were able to find a site that gave us a list of books we could get from the library that allowed us to decipher it." Scott then jumps in. "Once we understood what the writing meant, the four of us got together and agreed on what wishes to ask for." The Chief then jumps in "So what did it say on the side of the lamp?" Derrick laughs as he says "It said something like, Whoever holds the lamp and says the Djinni's name will command him to grant three wishes." Darr finally speaks up. "What was the Djinni's name?" Derrick looks at Scott and he looks back. He then looks at them and says "To be honest, I don't remember. It was some ancient sounding name that was hard to pronounce." Scott then takes over the story. "Since it was Derrick's lamp, we let him make the wishes and the rest is history." Being the first that Darr has heard of this, he asks "What were your wishes?" Derrick looks at him and says "This world you live in was one of our wishes. We actually asked for this world." Scott then jumps in. "The other wishes were for us to have the powers of our game characters and to be invincible." Darr is confused. "You wanted this world? What was wrong with your old world? It sounded like a great world." Derrick hangs his head as he answers "It was a great world, we just didn't realize it." Scott adds "We had to lose it to appreciate it. Isn't that horrible?" The Chief nods "Yeah, sometimes we must learn the hard way."
The sun rises up, bringing light to the dark ocean. The four guys all look out and watch as the sun rises. In the distance, they see dolphins jumping out of the water. There are also some seagulls, a sure sign that land is near. The chief has stayed close to the shore or as close as he could gauge in the darkness. Knowing the situation with the limited supplies, he didn't want to drift too far out to sea. It's not like the coast guard could be summoned to save you. You are truly on your own. As he watches the seagulls flying overhead, the chief looks at the others and says "I think we should go ashore and see what supplies we can find." Darr looks at him with fear in his eyes. "I would rather stay onboard, if you don't mind." The chief puts his arm on his shoulder and says "The amazons are far behind us. I wouldn't worry about them." While this calms him a bit, he still has a look of fear in his eyes. "I would feel safer if I stayed on board." The chief nods yes as he looks at the others. Scott and Derrick both nod in agreement. "Go wake up the others and we will prepare to go ashore." Scott and Derek rush off to wake the others. Darr looks at the chief and says "I am sorry, but I need time. I am so used to being afraid, that I do not know anything else." The chief smiles and says "Take all the time you need." He smiles back and says "Thank you, that means allot."
Once everyone is up and ready, they lower two rowboats and head towards shore. The only ones to stay behind are Darr and Ashley. She does not want to stay behind, but Scott is too worried about her. "Remain here until we know it is safe. Once I know it is safe, I will be right back for you." She pout a bit, biting her bottom lip, but agrees. "Hurry back, I will miss you." she says as she hugs and kisses him. They then climb down the ladder to the rowboats and climb in. In no time, they are headed towards the shore.
Ahead of them is a large beach of white sand. They can see hundreds of birds flying around. There are pelicans, seagulls, terns and other types of birds. There are also numerous crane type birds that are walking along the shore, grabbing small fish and crabs. There is also a troop of monkeys that are walking along, picking up snails and other animals that are washed up with the tide. They wait until the tide goes out and then run over and look for anything they can eat. But as soon as the tide comes back in, they run back to escape the waves. There is a large pile of various crabs, snails and other shellfish that they have collected. Some of the monkeys stay behind to guard the pile as the birds keep trying to steal their bounty.
As their boats near the shore, the monkeys look up and see something they are not used to, humans. There are many parts of the world where there are no humans. After Hell Week, many people were either cut off from the rest of the world, leaving them isolated or disasters and famine killed them off. In some of these areas, other creatures hunted the humans to extinction. Without all their technology, humans went from the top of the food chain, to the bottom. They proved to be easy prey. They are slower than most beasts and don't have the natural defenses either. Without horns, claws or fangs, they made easy snacks for many of the predators in this new world.
Not sure what to make of the humans, the monkey grab as many snails and crabs as they can carry and run into the jungle. Once they are gone, the birds quickly swoop in and grab all the remaining snails and crabs. By the time the boats reach the shore, the large pile of shellfish is gone. The only thing that remains is some cracked shells and a bunch of footprints in the sand.
The men quickly jump out of the boats as soon as they hit ground. Within minutes, they have the boats pulled up on the shore and quickly tie them to the nearest palm trees. The last thing they want to do is have to swim back to shore. As the chief looks around the island, he sees jungle as far as the eye can see. They can hear the sound of birds and angry monkeys in the forest. The monkeys have climbed high in the trees and now are screaming down at the humans, who have stopped their gathering. "Think there is food here?" Derrick asks as he looks at all the trees. "Yeah, I can see some banana trees as well as coconut trees." the chief says as he looks around. "There is plenty of food here, including eggs." he says as he points the many nests built in the trees and along the cliffs to the left. Scott looks at Derrick and says "Why don't we look around the jungle and make sure there is nothing dangerous, while they collect food?" Derrick looks to the chief for approval. He nods in approval and says "I would tell you to be careful, but it seems like a moot point." With that, the two head into the jungle. Bearslayer then speaks up as he takes control. "Men, you know the drill. Let's start gathering as much food as we can." With that, they all take off to collect fruit, eggs and whatever other food they can find.
Ashley stands on the deck and looks out at the shore. She hates being apart from Scott and it shows on her face. The thought of being left behind bothers her. With all the dangers, she can understand it, but that doesn't mean that she can't hate it. While she looks on, what she does not see is that Darr is coming behind her. The sun in her eyes, the sound of the waves crashing block out the sound of his deliberately quiet footsteps. While she is squinting to try and see something on the shore, he walks behind her and grabs her. She is taken completely by surprise. He grabs her arms and holds them tight to her body. She struggles to break free and screams. He lifts her from the ground and carries her towards the ladder that leads into the boat. "What are you doing? Let me go." she says as she turns to see that it is Darr. He laughs as he says "Time for you to feel some of the pain you caused me, Amazon." She struggles to break free, stomping on his foot and reaching down and biting his arm. He screams out as she sinks her teeth into his arm. This causes him to release her. "You bit me?" he says as he glares at her. She quickly turns and starts to run. Seeing her take off, he rushes after her. It only takes a few moments for him to catch up to her. He jumps on her, knocking her to the ground. As she hits the deck, she feels the weight of him on her back. He takes one hand and pushes her head into the deck. With the other hand, he rips off her dress and undergarments, exposing her bottom. "You killed my family, my friends, but now you will pay you." he says as he pulls down his pants. "Don't do it, my love will return and he will kill you." This makes him laugh. "Kill me, is that all he can do? I am already dead. Everyone I know is dead." With that, he reaches down and forces her legs apart. She struggles to stop him, but he puts his legs between hers and starts to force them apart. She screams as the tears stream down her face. "Please stop. Please stop." He laughs as he watches her squirm. "I may die, but I am going out with a smile on my face." he says as he forcibly shoves a finger inside her, making her scream out in pain. He is very rough and his hands are coarse. Nothing like the gentleness she felt with Scott. In her mind, she can hear the Amazon women warning her about men and how they were. She now knows they were right. Men are nothing but lustful animals.
As he prepares to enter her, he feels a tightness around his neck. Before he knows it, he is lifted off the ground. He feels the air being choked out of his as he struggles to look and see what is happening. Then in an instant, he is turned and is face to face with Scott, who has a pissed off look on his face. "You son of a bitch." he says as he squeezes his throat, crushing his windpipe and stopping the flow of air to his lungs. After hearing the sound of breaking bones, Scott drops him to the ground, where he rolls around, trying to breath. After a minute, he stops moving and dies from suffocation. With Darr dead, Scott rushes over to Ashley and grabs her, pulling him to her. "I am so sorry. I should never have left you behind." he says as she sobs on his shoulder. For the next few minutes, she cannot stop crying. All he can do is hold her and try to reassure her that everyone is safe now.
Dominant Species ©
2006 - 2008 Tom Zjaba