Survival Island (reality show)

8. Stakes, spikes and more

They fill their water bottles with fresh water and consult the map. They will not blindly follow a trail into the jungle. Who knows what made it? Nothing can be trusted, especially not trails when they know some are riddled with traps. And the footprints lead directly to the most obvious trail. 

“That one goes directly to the swamp and the four guys we watched earlier are a few clicks downriver. Do we take the middle ground and try to avoid the swamp?” Sebastian nods to the trail.

“We might have to make our own trail, but I don’t like that one.” Magnus concurs.

“Do you wanna take point?” He asks. He knows that Magnus will, for this part at least. He took it hard to be helped over the river and Sebastian hasn’t shown him anything a human couldn’t do. Granted, with a lot of training. He had a few team mates that could pull this jump off.

For some time the only noise in the jungle is the breaking of branches when they can’t squeeze through. The middle route is dense and slow, but they are alone in this part. They take a break when they step out into a clearing. It is suspicious as hell. It’s perfectly round, with no bushes or young trees, just nice grass. It’s practically inviting you to take a break and lie in the sun. Do nothing and relax.

“Don’t go there.” He holds Magnus back. “It’s too perfect to be natural.”

“A trap?” The guy asks and glances around the clearing. “I don’t see anything.”

“That’s the point. There is absolutely nothing. In a jungle this dense, you can’t have a natural clearing like this. Look at it! No saplings, no bushes, no imperfections. Nature doesn’t work this way.” Sebastian explains.

“Oh!” Magnus exclaims.

“Let’s see if this really is a trap.” Sebastian says. He picks up a heavy branch that must have fallen some time ago and he throws it on the grass. Not too far from where they are standing. 

A sliding sound can be heard and the branch disappears with a large portion of the grass. In its place, there is a gaping hole big enough to swallow a human. What’s worse? There are stakes at the bottom of the hole. He thinks that they should avoid the clearings as well. The manicured ones are booby-trapped for sure, but it’s possible that someone realized the mistake and the next clearing won’t be so pristine. Another branch flies past him and hits the ground about two meters from the first hole. 

“I guess nothing is there. Or the branch wasn’t heavy enough.” Magnus shakes his head. “We can’t keep this up over the clearing. Who knows how many traps they have set.”

“I know. We can go around it. Carefully, if they have rigged the perimeter as well.” He answers. “We know to avoid any open spaces. Clearings might be traps.”

“You’re good at recognizing them. Wanna take point?” Magnus muses at him.

“Sure. I can’t have you do all the work.” Sebastian chuckles.

Walking on the soles of his feet, he advances slowly around the clearing. They have the hole in the ground for orientation and the position of the sun overhead. He is confident that they are on the right path to the extraction point. It’s still a few days walk away, but they are walking in the right direction. He can’t say that for all people. He stops and turns to Magnus. He lays his finger over his mouth to indicate silence, then he taps his ear to make him listen. It’s so much easier to work with a trained marine. Any other of these so-called experts would be asking questions right now.

Magnus nods to him and smiles. He taps his ear to show him he hears it too. Whatever the thing, animal or person is, that is trampling the branches and making all that noise up ahead on the trail that they are trying to reach. They wait patiently for the noise to stop or at least move away from them, but it persists. Is someone there searching for something in the bushes? It makes way too much noise to be a small animal and he knows crocodiles don’t venture far into the dry land. They are too awkward on land. And he can’t smell the swamp, so it’s definitely not a crocodile.

“I don’t think we’ll find mushrooms, but there is something shiny.” A voice reaches them and they look at each other, making cringing facial expressions. Sebastian shakes his head ‘no’ and lays his finger over his mouth. They are standing still and listening to what will happen next. A few more moments of rustling and then an ear piercing scream sounds out. Topped with the loud noises of birds that were scared into flight. The more important noise that Sebastian heard was the whoosh of ropes flying through the air. 

“Someone triggered a trap.” He whispers. He is not afraid that anyone else might hear him now. The jungle is alive with noises the birds are making.

“Do you think there were two people or just someone that had problems being silent and was talking to himself?” Magnus inquires.

“I only heard one human voice. Even with the screaming.” Sebastian tells him. “I’m afraid to go look at what kind of damage there is. I hear birds and insects, the rustling of the trees, but no human sounds.”

“How can you tell there are no human sounds?” Magnus asks.

“Later.” Sebastian shakes his head at the guy. They are not there yet. He’s not giving up his secrets this soon.

“Need to know.” Magnus smirks and walks carefully forward.

The sight is gruesome as hell and it makes Magnus gag and retch with dry heaves. Sebastian is not too fond of it either, but he’s seen worse. He was even responsible for a few things that ended up way worse than this. There is a bloody corpse that is hanging in the air on a contraption made of branches and rope, riddled with short charred spikes. If it is the same guy who made it across the river and over or around the clearing before them, what made him trigger this one? Was he eating mushrooms? It’s a great possibility that any mushrooms he would find in the jungle are hallucinogenic. Did that trigger something in the guy to make him circle around and actively search the leaves on the ground for more? Did he trigger the trap by mistake?

“There is no way someone could survive that one.” Magnus whispers. The poor guy is pale as a sheet.

“No. A stake through the heart kills everything.” Sebastian sighs. “We can’t take him down. There might be more traps.”

“Let the camera operators get someone to do it.” Magnus shakes his head and walks slowly into the jungle.

Sebastian follows him at a moderate pace. He is thinking of when to break the news to the guy? There are no cameras around, nobody will see a corpse hanging there and send a pick up crew. They are all alone on this God forsaken island. He glances at his bracelet and smirks. If the thing is monitoring their life signals, then someone must read those. Someone must know that two contestants are dead.

‘We are going in the right direction. Maybe you don’t have to tell him anything.’ The wolf says. The animal made a den out of palm leaves in his mind. 

‘I see you’re having fun there. What are you building? A castle?’ Sebastian asks the wolf.

‘I'm bored. Why are you the only one to play with things?’ The wolf smirks.

‘And if Magnus sees you?’ He asks back.

‘Then you tell him. I don’t speak, remember?’ His wolf is up to some antics today, he just hopes it doesn’t get them in trouble.

“Stop!” Magnus speaks up after a while of walking in silence.

“What do you see?” Sebastian asks him.

“A rope. It’s disguised, but I still see some parts of it.” Magnus points to the ground about two steps ahead.

“I see it, but where does it go and what does it do?” He answers. “Get low behind that thick tree. Let’s see if I can trigger it with a branch.”

“Where will you be. You can’t just risk it. It can be anything.” Magnus shows some concern for him and it makes him smile.

“I’ll be right here. You can watch it if you want to, just do it from safety.” Sebastian tells Magnus and sighs. Maybe he will have to tell him his secrets after all. Just to stop him from worrying so much.

He takes a long branch and lightly taps the rope on the ground. Nothing happens. Was it too light? Maybe he should hook it and pull it? Or is it better to push it away? Like someone would hook it with his foot when walking normally? There is nothing he can see to indicate what kind of a trap this is. The canopy of the trees is too thick to tell if there is something up there.

This time he pushes the rope forward and up. A rustling of the leaves happens and he hits the ground to roll out of the way just in the right moment. A huge log comes rushing down and over the spot where he was standing. It disrupts the grass and bushes, but doesn’t hit anything. He laughs and holds his palms over his face to keep the noise down.

“This was fun.” He says while shaking with laughter.

“You are totally crazy! What if that log hit you?” Magnus growls at him. “Are you hurt? Did it brush you?”

“No. I’m trying not to laugh too loud.” He takes a deep breath and takes his hands away from his face. Magnus is above him and staring down with an angry look on his face. “Relax. Growling doesn’t look good on you. You’re doing it all wrong.”

“What? I’m growling wrong?” The guy asks, perplexed.

“Apparently I just scared you half to death. You’re pale as a sheet.” Sebastian sighs. He sits up to look at Magnus. “I can show you what a real growl looks like, sounds like.”

He loosens the facial muscles and his throat to make the wolf’s growl come from his own mouth. It was another thing he perfected with his brother. They had a bet going on that you can’t make a real menacing growl while human. He showed him wrong, now he will show Magnus what growling really sounds like.

‘You are cutting corners. Either you tell the man everything or nothing at all.’ The wolf sneers at him. But the growl comes anyway and it sounds all wrong in the jungle. Wolves don’t live here.

‘I’ll ease him in. Don’t want him to have a heart attack.’ Sebastian answers his wolf and keeps looking at Magnus.

“Don’t know what to say.” Magnus says. “That was like listening to my German shepherd when he feels annoyed.”

“You have a dog?” He smiles. He knows how to pick his humans. A dog lover is a good pick for a friend.

“His name is Rolf, he’s fourteen years old.” Magnus smiles. “I miss him.”

“I understand that.” He nods and offers his hand to help Magnus up. “Let’s get going. We still have to find something edible today.”

“How do you hunt birds in the canopies of the trees? I’m kind of thinking they don’t venture down here.” Magnus asks. “I’m not fond of worms or ants.”

“Too bad we can’t make a bow, but a few rocks and a string or a shoelace will do, too.” He answers and looks for small enough rocks on the ground.

“If you can shoot a bird out of a tree with a few rocks and laces, you have to give me something more than growling. That was a neat party trick, by the way.” Magnus chuckles.

“Maybe.” Sebastian shrugs. Maybe he can tell him something more over dinner, but they have to catch it first.