The Heart of the Dragon
Chapter 7

As time past, the more scared everyone became while waiting for an attack by the cannibals. But after 2 hours have passed, there were no signs of any cannibals, and Angie was beginning to wonder.

“Shouldn’t the ‘cannibals’ have attacked us by now?” she questioned as a fire was being made “I mean it’s been 2 hours.”

“That’s true” Tammy agreed while sitting in front of the fire.

“Surely if they wanted to eat us, they would have come to get us by now.”

“Maybe they’re still having their breakfast and are too full to go hunting” Eli presumed.

“I doubt that” Angie denied “I’m starting to think there aren’t any cannibals.”

“What makes you say that?” Tammy asked.

“I just have this gut feeling.”

“Oh yeah,” Tammy rolled her eyes “A gut feeling.”

Angie just shrugged off Tammy’s doubt, but after a moment of thinking, she decided she wasn’t going to stay onshore any longer.

“You know what?” she spoke, “I’m gonna go into the jungle.”

“Wait, what?” everyone’s eyes widen.

“You’re kidding right?” Eli demanded.

“No, I am not kidding” she declared “I came on this trip to have an adventure, and I’m going to have one.”

“Seriously?” Tammy replied dismayed “At a time like this, while we’re on a deserted island that we crashed down on?!”

Angie admitted to herself that now wasn’t the best time to be having an adventure since they needed to focus on surviving and getting help. But at the same time, Angie couldn’t help but feel the urge to go exploring, her feet were itching to go into the forest, wanting to see what it contained.

“Okay,” she breathed “How about I just go into the jungle to look for food and anything that might help us?”

Everyone turned to Mr. Monroe and waited for an answer.

“I suppose you can do that” he sighed “But you’re not going alone.”

“I’ll go with her” Jackson offered.

Angie could already feel herself blushing, not only did he volunteer to go with her, but that means she’ll be alone with him in the jungle.

“Very well” Mr. Monroe concluded, “Take this.”

He handed his son a machete. Now better armed, the two began into the forest, being careful not to run into anything dangerous.

“You think they’ll hit it off in there?” Tammy asked her boyfriend in a snicker.

“Anything can happen in the jungle” Eli shrugged.

Already in the jungle, and Angie had already killed multiple mosquitoes on her arms and legs.

“Shit,” she hissed in frustration “Forgot the damn bug spray.”

“Here” Jackson pulled out a travel-sized bug spray from his vest pocket and handed it to her.

“Oh thanks” she breathed in relief while taking it and spraying it all over her body “I swear if these little pests keeping bitting me, I might as well die of malaria.”

“Try not to worry about that until it actually happens.”

“Gee thanks” she sighed as they headed deeper into the jungle.

Using the machete to cut through the leaves, Jackson led the way with Angie following as they looked around for any food source.

“You see anything?” he asked.

“Nope” she sighed disappointedly while she looked up “Wait, I see coconuts.”

He looked up to see some coconuts up a palm tree.

“It’s high though” he stated “Climbing seems impossible, maybe we can like make some spear to throw at it and that should hopefully knock some down. Look around for anything that can be turned into a spear.”

They began to do so, but while Angie was searching behind a bush, she suddenly spotted something that caught her eye.

“Uh, Jackson” she called “Come take a look at this.”

He went over to where she was and looked over to what she was seeing.

“What?” he inquired.

“Look at these scratches on this tree” she pointed to some deep thin gashes on a tree trunk “Look how deep they go in.”

“Whoa,” he gasped with amusement while examining the scratches.

“Do you know what could have done this?”

“Hard to tell, I mean I know wild cats like tigers tend to scratch trees to trim their nails, but they usually don’t leave marks this deep.”

“So you don’t know what could have done this?”

“I’m afraid not” he sighed “But whatever it was, it must have been big and strong.”

Those words made Angie’s heart began to race, fearing on what creature that big and strong could be roaming on the island.

“Okay,” he breathed after seeing how scared she was “Let’s just hurry this up so we can go back.”

They went back to searching for a spear while being extra cautious of their surroundings. While doing so, Angie finally spotted a thick branch on the ground, and by the looks of how long it was, she figured it would have to do. She walked over to it and reached down to pick it up, but that’s when she felt her feet gave away as she slipped on some mud and let out a cry while she began to slid down a hill.

“Angie!” she heard Jackson scream her name.

She tried to scream for help, but words were stuck in her throat as she continued to slide down the slippery hill while trying to grab onto anything as sticks grazed against her skin and dirt and leaves went up into her shorts. But just when she thought things couldn’t get worst, she looked ahead and spotted what appeared to be an edge, not knowing how deep it was, she frantically tried to grab onto anything to stop herself.

But to her horror, she found herself falling off the edge and plummeting approximately 20 feet and into cold, rough flowing water. With the freezing water striking her skin, Angie gasped for air while trying to steady herself as the river dragged her away.

“Help!” she managed to scream out while getting dragged underwater by the waves.

It was even colder underwater as Angie felt a sharp rock scraping against her leg. Already feeling the blood oozing out, she didn’t bother to think about it as she focused on trying to get to shore. But with the river flowing fast and her body already tired, it all seemed impossible. That is until she spotted a vine hanging from a tree with its branch hovering over the river. Knowing this was her only chance of getting to shore, she pushed herself towards the vine as hard as she could while reaching her hand out towards the vine.

As she got closer, she stretched every muscle in her body towards the vine until she was able to grab onto it. Now with the vine clutched in her hands, she felt the river trying to pry her away as she held onto the vine with all her life. Even with her body fatigued, she began to pull herself towards the shore, not caring that water was splashing in her face. With all remaining strength she had, she finally managed to make it to shore where she stepped onto the sand and collapsed from exhaustion.