Academy Island

Scream

There was little I could do except try to remain calm. If I ran, the cat was sure to come after me immediately. I had to find a safe place, but where? I tried to remember what I knew about cats, what to do if they had you in their sights as potential prey. The twitching stripes reappeared, then yellow eyes, staring me down, sizing me up. Something changed in it's gaze, intensity and determination...excitement. A paw moved slowly and the cat inched forward. I couldn't look away, my world shrinking down to a pair of amber cat's eyes. Prickles of death ran up and down my spine. The paws gained ground slowly and I tensed myself for the tackle and bite, hoping it would be instantaneous so I wouldn't have to go through the horror long. Every trembling foot I managed backward felt like my last. Dry tears. Unable to breath. This would be the last...hup!

The world jerked around, bands around my middle, shoulder, and legs squeezing tightly right before knocking me off my feet and spinning me violently to hang upside down. My mangos thudded down to the ground past my face, my trapped arm and shoulder unable to hold on to them. An alarming grunt behind me breathed into my ear as the world spun and swung slowly beneath. My cheeks heated at the blood rushing to my head. I was in the air. The tip of an orange tail disappeared into the jungle below, then the tiger was back, pacing and frustrated. I struggled to lose my dizziness, trying to make sense of what just happened. I tucked my chin to look at my chest, confused at the tightness holding me up. Why wasn't I dead? A pair of suntanned muscular arms around my waist and breast, a hand holding my shoulder and neck tightly: a bare footed leg wrapped around both of my legs. Oh.

One of the men had me, .

I screamed, finally letting the terror at almost being eaten out. My captor held me against himself, his arms crossing over my chest and trapped arm tighter as my screams became babbling sobs. He whispered to me, trying to calm me with shushes. The vine that held us up creaked, it's natural fibers unwinding against the strain bit by bit, lowering us a little with each kink. Kitty paced below, his whiskers laid back along his white cheeks with rage-filled black gummed screams. My face felt full and hot with the headache, my eyes unable to leave the teeth and claws waiting on the ground for us. The man holding me against his torso moved, getting me to shut up in complete terror. He was going to drop me.

"Could you, not move around so much? I'm trying..."

Another grunt and then he was still. We twisted together in a sea of green and dappled sunlight, the bait for the orange and black cat screaming in disappointment below. He sighed, exasperated, like he was trying to figure out a hard math problem.

"I can't let go of you to get my gun. Otherwise our overgrown tabby there would already have a rear full of salt. Do you think you can climb up so I can get my hands free, or hang on to me somehow?"

I tucked my chin again, looking up along us. His free leg hooked around my legs and his other was held by a noose made of woody vine that disappeared up into the bushy fronds of a palm. It didn't look that secure either, his bare foot shaking a bit as he tried to hold us up by arching it against the loop. I shook my head, afraid to bounce him too much. We were going to fall if I did that, instant cat food. His hand gripped at my shoulder tighter when I slipped a fraction, and the cat's screams became louder. My head snapped back down to the ground where the cat had just landed, his back feet ready to pounce back up at us, trying to reach. We had to do something before the cat figured out how to get us down, or we fell on our own.

I put my hands behind myself, feeling along the man's leg with my free arm. He inhaled sharply.

"Huwah. Ah...ha ha. What are you.."

"Where is your gun? Is it loaded?"

He was silent, but nudged me on my left side with his inner elbow, on the opposite side I'd been bumbling around. I had to strain to reach around the other side, my hand bumping against his bare hip first before I found the butt of his gun. I tugged at it, struggling with whatever it was caught on. He chuckled.

"That would be my belt. Just pull it off with it. I don't care."

I hesitated only a second at his words, and then yanked. The gun almost slipped through my hands to the jungle floor, it was so heavy once free of his clothing. We bounced too at the movement while I struggled to hold onto the wrong end of the rifle and he struggled to hold on to me. For one moment I thought it would be too much and the vine would snap. It held though, and we both gritted our teeth while I tried to get the gun in a better position, one handed. Being upside down wasn't making it any easier, trying to inch the barrel up so I could get a hold of the trigger and swing it around. A bead of sweat trickled the wrong way up my temple, itching at my hairline. I growled at the middle of the heavy weapon, trying not to be distracted by the out of focus orange and black stripes pacing on vivid green so I could twist it around the right way without dropping it. The butt swung up, neatly under my armpit, and found the trigger with my middle finger. The tiger's slitted yellow eyes found mine as I aimed down at him. I took a moment to breath as we stared at each other, guilt pricking my heart at what I was about to do.

"Sorry kitty."

Kickback from the firearm bashed against my ribs, knocking my breath away. Screams from the thrashing cat, twisting and flipping like a fish on a hook, made me want to cover my ears. Even if he wanted to eat us, I still felt like I'd done something terrible. I wanted to throw the gun away from me and felt like a coward when I clung to it instead. My tiger screamed again and hissed, scratching at his own face. He crouched, then ran, stopping after a short sprint to tear at his face, and ran again, disappearing into thrashing blades of green. The guy behind me snorted when the jungle finally settled and a lone bird called, a question in it's tone.

"You got him right in the kisser. I bet he's going to taste salt for a week."

I chuckled without humor. Poor cat. I let the gun hang loose in my grasp, my fingers beginning to tingle. The man behind me moved his head, it felt like he was figuring out what to do next. I couldn't do much about our situation myself with my one free arm holding on to a firearm.

"Should I drop it? The gun I mean."

I wiggled it for emphasis. His forehead brushed against my back in a nod, and I let the weapon fall twenty feet into a large leafed plant. It landed upright, the butt sticking out of the leaves like a dart. He laughed.

"Fifty points. Now all we have to do is find a way to get us both down safely. I think we need to get you upright. If I could just..."

I examined how his arms were crossed in front of me and then grabbed at the hand he had on my shoulder, gripping his wrist firmly.

"Let my legs go."

He held on to me tighter. "What are you going to do?"

I shrugged as much as I could with him holding on so tightly. "Get upright?"

He thought it out for a minute and gave me a squeeze. "Don't fall."

His hand around my waist moved down along the arm he had trapped and gripped at that wrist while I smiled to myself. We had each other, each by a wrist, as awkward as the hold was. "Ready?"

I nodded, just wanting to get down quickly so we could leave the area before the cat came back. His leg inched off of my trapped limbs and I tensed, trying to let myself down slowly. It was a painstaking process to ease myself through an easy roll so I wouldn't knock us both down at once. The last bit where I had to let gravity tug the rest of me so my legs were dangling and we were both hanging on to each others wrists gave my stomach a tumble, but we were fine, swinging only a little at the momentum. I was finally able to look my rescuer in the face then, a blond man with long hair and deep brown eyes, the type of movie star handsome I had never seen so up close before. Hadn't seen him among the others. His forehead was crinkled in concern as we both looked each other over. The netting crossed over his naked chest and hanging heavily with coconuts against his head had me snapping my eyes back to his face.

"Are you Luke?"