13.
Five hours passed since Al had come to Roland. Al had treated Roland and the two had eaten, and so had Wolfie too. Roland's little or maybe not so little companion was happy to take whatever came his way. As far as Roland was concerned, Wolfie had earned a good feed.
'If you like ...' Al began to wonder out loud, 'we could work together. The two of us together could easily take out the competition on this island.'
If it wasn't for his current condition and for how he and Al had met the day before, Roland would straight away decline such an offer. Hell, that first meeting was definitely cause enough for Roland to decline. He, however, may just so decline but he wanted at least to question it first.
'What about what you told me yesterday? All your talk about me and Rachel being here on the island last year.'
'I wanted to anger you and see if you still have what you had, just that one year ago. You were awesome last year and could easily have softened in the time since ... I would say you do still have it. When you got it, like really got it, it tends to stay but you were not at all injured last year. Well, apart from that you gave yourself. Infection was your main enemy then and injury may just be that same or equivalent enemy this time round, or worse, so not to be smart I may suggest that you need me more than I need you.'
'Fair enough, though if I were to join with you, there would be a major trust issue, how would I know that you would not kill me the first opportunity you get? Or the reverse? That I may just use you to my advantage then be done with you?'
'Oh, I do not think that this is how things will go' spoke Al. 'Sure if I really had wanted to I could have killed you a few times over by now and besides have you not used me already? What would you have done if I had not come to your aid after your last physical encounter? I want to survive the island. I can look after myself though there is nothing wrong with having an insurance policy. And sure, your primary goal of being on the island is to seek revenge here, right? Wouldn't you like the help?'
'Presuming we do not kill each other and that we do find who I am looking for then he is mine, alright?'
'Shush, we are not alone' Al quietly spoke, 'get your bow and arrow's, quickly.'
Wolfie had been laying but he got up and got up quickly as if he too had just noticed something. Roland lifted the bow and pulled back on an arrow, believing this moment not to be a bluff. He looked around as best he could, for something to aim at but could not see anything. He stood no further than twenty-five feet away from Al.
Roland was jumped on from behind and this caused him to turn and release an arrow. This arrow took off and went right into Al's left thigh. A group of six persons had turned up seemingly out of nowhere to the attack the enormous pairing of Roland and Al. This group seemed to have a pact of their own in operation.
Reaching behind, Roland grabbed with ease a man who had jumped on him and proceeded to throw this man to the ground with so much force than one would hardly even notice that it was a man at all who had been slammed to the ground. The force with which he had been thrown to the ground was more than enough to ensure that there would be little or no further movement from that particular individual.
Al, with an arrow sticking in his thigh threw punches at anything that came near him. The group of six collectively, by the looks of them, would not equal the joint mass of the two big men that they had attacked. So even with the fact that Al had an arrow stuck in his leg and that Roland had a serious enough eye injury, this battle became that of one-upmanship. What one could do ... the other could do better.
When four of the six had been dispatched, two smaller men remained. Both Roland and Al grabbed themselves a man each. With one hand each at first wrapped around the neck of their respective victim, the one-upmanship really set in. Each raised their one hand in the air, lifting up and choking out the smaller men. It was as if each man challenged the other to finish off their victim or leave their man suffer as is. Neither gave in to either one way or the other. Safe to say that neither of the two small men would survive with both being dropped simultaneously.
Having disposed of the six pack of wolf wannabe human men there was still remaining a small fact that big Al had an arrow in his upper leg.
'Man, that looks painful, you know it was accidental right? ... Bad eye and all' spoke Roland.
'I know, you were aiming at my head, right? And yeah, it is indeed painful; I don't think it has hit a major artery though.'
'You don't think? And no, my aim is not that bad, I'd hit your head if I aimed at it, sure the sheer size of it alone ...'
'I'd laugh if only I weren't in so much pain. I am going to need you to take care of this for me. Can you do that? Will you do that for me?'
'Sure. I owe you one as it is.'
***
Roland's second night back on the island would be a difficult one. His eye injury caused him great pain and it prevented him from getting to sleep for any decent length of time at all, though he did manage to get himself a few moments of rest. His thoughts also only served to further deprive his chances of sleep and those thoughts mainly dealt with Al.
With Al's pure size and strength, Roland had no reason to doubt that he was part of the islands competition but there were moments that had Roland thinking such as Al's apparent knowledge of the island. Roland had been on the island before, but Al seemed to know it better than Roland did, and then there was also the fact that Al had his own medical base. How did he come to acquire such a thing? Not only that but Al seemed to have quite a bit of medical knowledge but then medicine could just be something he has a background in.
However much his eye hurt or however much mind wandered, Roland did have those few moments of sleep, and there were times when he did awake to daylight with which the first thing that Roland noticed was that he was no longer in Al's company. Al was gone. Where was he going?
First morning after Al's proposal, Al indeed was nowhere to be seen. Wolfie however was still there, awake and awaiting Roland to himself wake. To Roland's surprise, his bow and arrows were still where he had left them. He would have expected Al to have taken them, and of course, he hadn't. His eye hurt like hell but at least he could see out of both eyes.
For Roland, something felt ... off. He was not going to wait to see if Al would return, is this wise? Not willing to take chances, it was now time to move, not only because of his dislike for staying in one place for any length of time but also for peace of mind. Al knows where Roland is so moving changes that, though the camera's still follow his every move. So, who is to say that Al won't know where Roland will move to, especially with how organized he appears to be?
