Return To Primordial Island by Rick Poldark (read my book .txt) 📕

“Not without the others, we don’t,” said Nielsen. “We haven’t even established contact with the others.”

“I told you,” said Peter. “They’ll have evacuated the village. There’s no telling where they are.”

Tracey squeezed his arm. “You can use the orb, can’t you, Peter? To find them. You said you can sense everything on the island.”

Peter raised both eyebrows. “That option hadn’t occurred to me.”

“Well, can you do it?” pressed Nielsen.

“I-I think so,” said Peter. “I suppose I could locate them that way.”

Nielsen nodded his approval. “Good. We don’t leave until we have everyone.”

“When we exit the truck,” said Collins, “we have to all leave together and make a break for the river. If our friend is still out there, he’s going to come right at us, fast and hard.”

Nielsen looked around the back of the truck. “What about all the equipment?”

Collins shook his head. “We’ll be lucky if we get out of this with our lives.”

Nielsen swallowed hard and nodded. “Right. Are we all ready?”

Everyone nodded.

Collins turned to the driver up front. “Are you ready, Castillo?”

“Yup.”

Collins hefted his assault rifle. “Okay, let’s do it.”

Part II

Never Split the Party

Chapter 6

“We have to go,” demanded Susan, watching her friends be taken prisoner by lizard men down below. “There’s nothing we can do for them.”

Hiu’s body went rigid, his chin held high. It was the posture he took when he dug his heels in. “Help friends.”

Susan, too, knew how to be obstinate. In fact, one might have said it was her defining characteristic. “They wouldn’t want us to help them. We need to get what’s left of the tribe to safety.”

“Hunter Jason and Mary need we.”

Susan let out an exasperated growl. “How do we help them? Too many lizard men. More than us. They have all of our warriors.”

Hiu stamped his foot on the ground and puffed his chest out. “Not all. I warrior.”

Susan gesticulated wildly. “You’re the leader, and your tribe needs you to lead.”

Hiu looked at what remained of his tribe, and all eyes were on him. Some understood the exchange, and although they viewed Susan as a friend, they grimaced and pulled faces when she challenged their chieftain.

“What us do?” Hiu asked the group of thirty tribespeople, mostly women and children, some farmers.

They clearly looked stunned that their chief asked for their opinion, as it was not usual Umazoa custom. Susan was no stranger to office politics, and she realized she was putting Hiu on the spot in front of his people.

To help him save face, she bowed to him, something she’d never done to anyone in this dimension or her own. It pained her to do it, but she knew that she needed to repair whatever damage her arguments may have caused. If the tribe fell into chaos, they’d be finished for sure. “Okay, okay. We help the others. But how?”

Hiu smiled at Susan’s deference. He gathered his people together. There were still a couple of warriors amongst them. He issued instructions, just like he did before a big hunt. What Susan understood was, after the lizard men below left, they were going to trek to the bottom of the cliff where the others were ambushed, checking for tracks. They would then follow the tracks and mount a rescue attempt.

Hiu turned to Susan, handing her a spear.

Susan put her hands up. “Oh no, I’m not a fighter.” At least she wasn’t in the physical sense. She preferred her sparring to be verbal.

Hiu insisted, shoving it into her hands.

Susan wrapped her hands around the long, wooden shaft. She had never had to engage in combat before. There were always others who did the fighting—warriors, Jason, Mary. She abhorred violence, but she was in a primitive land where violence was a part of existence. It was how the strong fed off the slow and the weak. Susan realized she didn’t want to be the injured animal away from the pack, first to be picked off by astute predators.

She met Hiu’s eyes and nodded.

Hiu huffed, but it was admiration rather than derision. It was what the Umazoa did when they were impressed.

Susan followed Hiu as he led the remnants of his tribe down the narrow path and through the jungle. Careful to avoid areas known to them to be prime spots for the larger predators, they tread through difficult terrain, as the road less travelled was indeed the safer one.

At last, they reached the bottom of the cliff where Jason, Mary, and the others had been ambushed. The place was empty. Everyone, human and reptile alike, had moved on. Hiu and the few hunters in the group immediately scoured the ground, squatting on their haunches from time to time, probing the dirt with their fingers.

Susan attempted to look for traps, seeing many sets of footprints leading in different directions. It all appeared a disorganized mess to her, and she struggled to make sense of it. The only detail she discerned was the human vs. lizard men tracks. The lizard men’s tracks were larger and three-pronged for their three-clawed feet.

Hiu and the other hunters engaged in a lively conversation about their findings. They spoke so fast and with such emotion that Susan found it difficult to follow. They seemed to be in disagreement about something. The only meaning she gleaned from familiar Umazoan fragments of speech was they were discussing Jason and Mary as separate from the others.

Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore. She agreed to follow Hiu, but she hadn’t agreed to be kept in the dark. “What? What is it? What’s wrong?”

Hiu turned to Susan, gesturing with his hands, moving them in divergent directions.

Susan shook her head. “I don’t understand.” She repeated the sentiment in