The Fourth Man

Pine-Tree-Palace

Pine-Tree-Palace

The four boys moved away swiftly from the camp, which may as well have been a morgue, in an unnerving silence. It was worrying to notice that not long ago there had been two other boys walking among them, now they were dead, the honest brutality of the dangerous island was now screaming out at them from every turn.

No-one talked as they jogged steadily away. Thankfully the rain began to relent, a short while ago the thunder and lightning had stopped, now the monsoon-esque rain had reverted back to just heavy. Visibility had improved, enough to tell that the sun was beginning to set, and soon the pitch blackness of night would surround them, with all of it's insecurities accompanying it.

Nerpato was the first to speak up after what seemed like hours of running.

"We need to stop to rest," he panted "and we should set up camp, it's going to get dark soon."

"I agree," Thomas breathed hard, he was clearly the most unfit of the four.

"Ok, we camp," agreed Siggy "Let's find a large leaved tree to shelter under, and possibly a dry patch of ground."

"Sounds good," said Jonathan, "I've still got that Kerolupe Nerpato caught in his trap, we can eat that."

"And we've all got canteens full of water?" asked Nerpato, they all nodded in acknowledgment.

"Good," he said "then let's look for a good place to camp."

Almost an hour of fruitless searching just left them even more wet and cold then before.

"Can't we just camp anywhere?" asked Thomas tiredly, "It's evident there are aren't any shelter trees."

"Yeah, whatever," Nerpato sighed "That large based pine over there," he pointed "we can rest our heads on that."

Nerpato led them toward the tree, and the others followed, until the forest floor gave way beneath his feet, and he fell down out of sight. Screaming wildly as he fell. A soft thud represented his landing.

"Nerpato?" Jonathan shouted. They crowded around the opening in the forest floor. Not too far down Nerpato sat on a pile of dry leaves.

"You ok?" Jonathan shouted down

"Yeah," Nerpato answered "Fine. Quite a soft landing actually, theres a tunnel here that leads somewhere, you should come down, and if it leads nowhere at least we have a dry place to stay."

The others looked at eachother uneasily.

"Well it's not like I can climb up that chute," Nerpato indicated to the smooth metal surface he had fell down.

"Sure, we're coming," said Siggy "We've already lost a load of people we don't want to split up and lose even more."

One-by-one they dropped down the chute, until they accompanied Nerpato at the base.

"Down there," Nerpato pointed, the chute ran like a ventilation shaft away to their right.

"How do we know it's safe?" asked Siggy.

"If they wanted to kill us," Jonathan replied "Why would they cushion our fall with leaves?"

"Fair point," Siggy admitted "Let's go then."

They followed the chute for sometime, as it weaved it's way further underground the forest floor. Eventually, and quite abruptly, it stopped and spilled out into a bright White-lighted room.

The boys looked around themselves incredulously. The sharp contrast of the bright light compared to the dark of the forest pained their eyes.

"Well where are we?" Sight asked.

"You're in Pine-Tree-Palace; my home," a voice sounded from the corner of the room, the boys propped themselves up and faced the voice.

"Who are you?" asked Siggy

"Me?" the voice asked "I'm the Fourth Man."