Alone - Kong Skull Island [R.Slivko]

13- Dog Tags

1968-
It's been 4 years. After a few days, my father and I moved out of the village and into a mountain in the southern middle part of the island. It was a large cave overlooking the entire island, and most importantly, it was safe.

I stopped looking for them after 1 year, my father still looks. I've lost hope in lots of things. Lost hope in anyone ever rescuing us, them ever coming back, but most importantly, promises. After that night, my father and I silently agreed that promises were never to be spoken, never to be promised.

Another thing I lost was Icarus, he refused to come with us and stayed in the forest. I've only seen him twice since we moved, it was when we went out looking at our first home for Atakan and mom, it was one of the first places we looked.

Today my father convinced me to join him to look in the only place we've never looked, the west side of the island. Could they be there? Possibly. Would they be alive? Absolutely not. But my father thinks otherwise, he still has hope.

"Alex," He called, "Are you ready?"

"Yea," I replied gathering everything I needed.

We walked in silence until we made it to the clearing marking the entrance to the west side.

"Are you sure about this?" I asked him doubtfully.

"100%," He said. The hope he had just made me doubt him even more, was he really in the position to make life-saving decisions on his toes? "Stay on my 6."

"Copy," I say following on his 6 as we slowly walked into the mass graveyard. We walk without making a sound, guns up and safety off. We are about halfway through when we hear an unfamiliar screeching noise from a large vent on our 8. We both snap our barrels towards the sound and slowly step back.

My back hits a large bone, and I turn and see a skull the perfect size to hide in.

"Hide in that," My father whispers to me nodding at the skull behind me.

"And leave you to face that thing alone? Hell no!" I whisper yell back.

"Please Alex, I can't lose you too," He says. I see the pain in his eyes and sigh. I turn around and crawl into the opening of the skull. I turn around so I can see out into the green smog. It is silent for another minute until the screeching sound becomes closer and closer. My father standing still with his gun up.

"Dad!" I scream as a large white lizard crept up from the vent. It was like a living skeleton, 2 legs with long sharp claws, a long powerful tail, and the face of a devil. It was a skull with a long snout and when it opened its mouth, I saw at least 4 rows of razor-sharp teeth and a long snake-like tongue.

"RUN!" I hear my dad scream at me over the sound of gunfire, "RUN ALEX, AND DON'T LOOK BACK!" I started running, but I looked back to see the creature close its mouth around my father and swallow him whole. I whipped my head around and ran as fast as I could, my vision blurring as tears formed in my eyes.

I could still hear that monster screeching as I came upon a collection of bones and hid in them. I sat down and put my head in my hands, trying to slow my breathing as I sobbed into the crook of my arm. Lines on my arms appeared as my tears still fell from my eyes. The screeching had stopped, but the sound of footsteps got closer, and closer, and closer, until I saw its snout.

I held my breath as it just stood there for several minutes until it finally made some gagging noise, then threw up a pile of bones. I wanted so badly to look away, but I couldn't tear my eyes from the shiny metal in the pile of slimy white bones. The snout disappeared and I let out the breath I had been holding and reached into the pile and grabbed the shiny metal object. But suddenly, there was a giant claw tearing across my abdomen and I was thrown against a large ribcage.

I scream in pain as I frantically look around, what the hell just happened? My ears are ringing and my head pounding as I try to stand up, but my body won't obey me.

Am I dead?

Just as before, the terrifying skull peered at me from above as I stalked closer to me, savoring the fear dripping off me, knowing I couldn't do anything to stop what was about to happen. It placed one of its feet on me, trapping me between its claws, and leaned its face closer to mine, slowly opening its jaw to reveal blood-stained teeth. I started to see 2 of the creatures, then 3, then everything started going dark from the pressure on my chest.

Right as it was about to finish me off, it was yanked from me and smashed into the ground. I was barely conscious, but I knew it was Kong coming to my rescue. The monster laid on the ground lifeless as Kong gently picked me up, then I blacked out, still clutching the shiny metal object.