Alice didn't know what had happened; she just felt like she was dreaming. She bit her hand hard, because she'd heard that biting yourself in a dream doesn't hurt. She hoped it was a dream, that when she woke up she'd still be on the research ship, Mrs. Larry still under the lamp revising her paper, Pardik gazing at the stars on deck, and Anderson fishing in the silvery moonlight.
But the sharp pain on the back of her hand told her that this was not a dream. The Discovery had sunk, and the fate of the crew was unknown. Pardik had been eaten by cannibals, Mrs. Larry had been captured, and she, Anderson, and two other sailors were escaping at sea, but the sea had turned into a lake, and the lake water was still warm, like a pot of soup.
When Alice was a child, she heard a story about a man who was cursed by a witch and turned into a tiny ant. He tried to climb onto the table so that his lover could see him and lift the curse, but unfortunately, he fell into the mushroom soup that the hostess had just cooked.
She felt like an ant that had fallen into a pot of soup, completely unable to understand the origin of this disaster, and could only blindly make a final struggle.
Anderson surveyed the lake, then said dejectedly, "It seems we're still on the same island." He pointed to a distant hilltop, "That's where we climbed up earlier. From there, I could see a fairly large lake in the center of the island; we're in that lake now."
The other two sailors corroborated his statement. However, they couldn't explain the phenomenon. Although Anderson was the first mate of the Discovery, he was at best a slightly higher-ranking sailor. Pardik and Mrs. Larry were not present, and the only one among them who could be considered a scientist was Alice, Mrs. Larry's assistant.
Alice shook her head at their questioning looks.
"I don't know, I don't know anything! This is the devil's work, this is Demon Island!" she cried sadly. "We can't go back!"
Anderson suddenly hugged her, kissed her forehead, and comforted her, "Don't be afraid, baby! We'll be alright, we'll get out of here!"
Anderson's muscular chest and strong arms gave Alice a sense of security, and a warm feeling rose in her heart, melting away the stiffness in her body caused by fear and helplessness.
"Thank you! I feel much better," she said.
She rested her head on Anderson's chest as the small boat bobbed on the lake. If Pardik and Mrs. Larry were still alive, and if they hadn't encountered the cannibals, what a romantic and beautiful moment it would have been!
While aboard the Discovery, she loved sitting on the deck watching Anderson fish and talking to him. He was witty and humorous, always having a joke to tell, and he was naturally optimistic. Neither the heavy snow in Auckland, nor the thick fog at sea, nor the loss of contact with land could stop him from fishing happily.
She admired men like him—sunny, healthy, open-minded, and full of wisdom about life. She knew Anderson also enjoyed talking to her; after all, she was the only girl on the ship (excluding the serious Mrs. Larry ), and what man wouldn't like talking to her! Captain Church noticed this too, which was why he specifically ordered Anderson to sit in the same lifeboat as them.
However, Alice dares not think about anything now, nor does she want to think about anything.
The small boat fell silent, a despairing silence. Everyone knew they couldn't go back.
Anderson suddenly roared, "No! We can't do this! We have to go back!"
"Stop talking nonsense, Anderson! How are we going to get back? We're in the middle of the island!" a sailor said, no longer caring about proper etiquette when speaking to the first mate in this desperate moment. "Even if we get back to shore, we don't have a boat. And even if we did, we'd just end up back here. This is Demon Island; we can't escape!"
"We have to give it a try!" Anderson said.
"But we only have one boat. We can't possibly tow the lifeboat over several mountains, can we?" Shui said, pointing to the mountains ahead.
Although the mountain wasn't as high as those on the mainland, it was clearly impossible to carry a small boat across.
"We have to give it a try!" Anderson repeated, his eyes resolute, even a little fierce, as if he was absolutely unwilling to succumb to fate's arrangement.
Alice looked into his eyes with curiosity; he was completely different from Anderson, who spent all his time fishing on the Discovery.
At Anderson's insistence, they went ashore, found a secluded spot to hide the lifeboat, and then prepared to return to the sea to build a raft to cross the ocean.
"What if we end up back in this lake?" They argued about this question the whole way.
"Let's try again. If we can get in, we can definitely get out. If we think of this as a closed room, there must be a door, right? We need to find that door," Anderson encouraged them.
Alice felt utterly helpless. As the only scientist assistant among the four, she was completely at a loss regarding the predicament before her. If Mrs. Larry or Pardik were here, things would certainly not be like this. Thinking of Mrs. Larry, she felt another wave of sadness.
She desperately wanted to save her, but she knew it was impossible. The four of them only had three pistols in total, and even if they used every single bullet, they couldn't kill many savages.
She remembered Mrs. Larry's eyes again. Be strong! You must be strong! Live on strongly! She told herself this.
However, before they could even finish building a raft to cross the sea, they encountered savages once again.
The power of the pistols initially frightened the savages, but the savages were also formidable fighters. They failed to wipe out all the savage groups they encountered and were subsequently placed on the defensive, forced to flee while cautiously launching counterattacks.
The savages were far more familiar with the jungle than they were. Their bullets were limited, and their counterattack was futile. One of the sailors even fell into a jungle trap, and the remaining three were quickly scattered.
Alice ran desperately through the jungle, not knowing how long she ran, until she could no longer run, and everything went black as she fainted.
When she woke up, she found herself leaning against a large tree, her body tightly bound by vines. On the other side of the tree, a group of savages were gathered around a campfire, speaking in a language she couldn't understand. A wooden frame was placed over the fire, and hanging on it was a person who had been charred by the flames.
Alice felt a churning in her stomach and vomited, feeling nauseous.
She looked at her clothes, which were still intact. She wondered why they hadn't treated her the same way they had treated Mrs. Larry, or perhaps they were waiting until they were full before assaulting her?
She tried to break free, but the vines binding her seemed to have thorns; with each struggle, they pierced the flesh of her arms and thighs, causing excruciating pain.
Alice, realizing the tragic fate that awaited her, contemplated suicide. She stuck out her tongue and bit it down, having heard that biting off the entire tongue would cause the gushing blood and sublingual vein clots to block the trachea and esophagus, leading to suffocation. But what courage it took to bite off one's own tongue!
A Crow flew in from somewhere and landed on a branch of the tree opposite Alice, craning its neck to look at her.