Dream Guide

Alice didn't know what happened, she just felt like she had a dream. She bit the back of her hand desperately with her teeth. She heard that biting herself would not hurt her while dreaming. She hoped this was a dream, and hoped that when she woke up, she would still be on the research ship, Mrs. Larry was still revising the paper under the lamp, Pardick was looking up at the stars on the deck, and Anderson was fishing under the silver moonlight.

But the sharp pain on the back of her hand told her that this was not a dream. Discovery has sunk, and the fate of the crew is uncertain. Partick was eaten by savages, and Mrs. Larry was captured. She, Anderson and two other sailors were fleeing at sea, but the sea 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 in which the protagonist was cursed by a witch and turned into an ant-like villain. He tried to climb up the table, hoping that his lover would 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 falling into a soup pot. She was completely unable to understand the origin of this disaster and could only blindly make the last struggle.

Anderson observed a circle in the center of the lake and said with great frustration: "We seem to be still on the original island." He pointed to a hilltop in the distance, "That's where we just climbed. I saw the island on it. There is a large lake in the center, and now we are in this lake."

Two other sailors corroborated his story. But they couldn't explain this phenomenon. Although Anderson was the first mate of the Discovery, he was only a senior sailor at best. Pardick and Mrs. Larry are away, and the only one among them who can get involved with scientists is Alice, Mrs. Larry's assistant.

Alice looked at their questioning looks and shook her head.

"I don't know, I don't know anything! This is the devil's work, this is Devil's Island!" She cried sadly, "We can't go back!"

Anderson suddenly hugged her, kissed her forehead, and comforted her: "Don't be afraid, honey! We will be fine, we will get out of here!"

Anderson's strong chest and strong arms made people feel safe, and a warmth rose in Alice's heart, and the warmth began to melt her body, which was rigid due to fear and helplessness.

"Thank you! I'm much better," she said.

She rested her head in Anderson's arms as the boat rippled on the lake. What a romantic and beautiful moment this would have been if Pardick and Mrs. Larry were still there, if they hadn't encountered the savages!

While on the Discovery, she loved sitting on the deck watching Anderson fish and talking to him. He is funny and always has endless jokes to tell, and he is naturally optimistic. No matter the heavy snow in Auckland, the thick fog at sea, or the loss of contact with the land, nothing can stop him from fishing happily.

She appreciates such a man, who is sunny, healthy, open-minded and full of wisdom in life. She knew that Anderson liked to talk to her too. After all, she was the only girl on the boat (not counting the serious Mrs. Larry), and which of the men didn't like to talk to her! Captain Church also noticed this, and then specifically ordered Anderson to sit in the same lifeboat with them.

But now, Alice didn't dare to think about anything, and she didn't want to think about it.

The boat fell into silence, a desperate silence. Everyone understood that they could not go back.

Anderson suddenly yelled: "No! We can't do this! We want to go back!"

"Stop talking nonsense, Anderson! How to get back? We are in the center of the island now!" said a sailor. At this desperate moment, he no longer cared whether the tone when speaking to the first mate was appropriate or not, "Even if we return to the beach , we don’t have a boat, even if we have a boat, we will come back here. This is Devil’s Island, we can’t escape!”

"Give it a try anyway!" Anderson said.

"But we only have one boat, so we can't drag the lifeboat over several mountains, right?" the sailor said, pointing to the mountains in front of him.

Although the mountain is not as high as the mountains on the mainland, it is obviously impossible to carry a boat over it.

"At least give it a try!" Anderson said again, his eyes were determined and even a little fierce, as if he was never willing to succumb to fate.

Alice looked into his eyes curiously, which was completely different from Anderson who had known fishing all day long on the Discovery.

At Anderson's insistence, they went ashore, found a secluded place to hide the lifeboat, and then prepared to return to the beach and build a raft to cross the sea.

"What if we still return to this lake?" They kept arguing about this issue along the way.

"Then try again. If we can get in, we can get out. If we think of this as a closed room, then there should be a damn door, and we need to find this door." Anderson encouraged everyone.

Alice felt so incompetent. As the only scientist assistant to the four of them, she had no solution to the predicament at hand. If Mrs. Larry or Partick were here, it would definitely not be like this. Thinking of Madam, she felt sad again.

She wanted to save her, but she knew it was impossible. The four of them only had three pistols in total. Even if every bullet was not wasted, they wouldn't be able to kill many savages.

She thought again of Mrs. Larry's look. strong! Must be strong! Stay strong and live! She told herself so.

…

However, before they could build a raft to cross the sea, they encountered savages again.

The power of the pistol did scare the savages at first, but the savages' fighting power was also terrifying. They failed to wipe out all the savages they encountered, and then fell into complete passivity. They could only escape for their lives while carefully counterattacking.

The savages were far more familiar with the jungle than they were. Their bullets were limited and their counterattack was weak. One of the sailors fell into a trap in the jungle, and the remaining three were quickly dispersed.

Alice ran as hard as she could in the jungle for who knows how long, until she couldn't run anymore and fainted when her vision went dark.

When she woke up, she found herself leaning against a big tree, her body tied tightly by vines. On the other side of the tree, a group of savages were chattering around a campfire, talking in words she couldn't understand. There was a wooden frame on the bonfire, and hanging on the frame was a man who had been burnt by the fire.

Alice's stomach turned, and she vomited in disgust.

She looked at the clothes on her body that were still intact. She wondered why they didn't treat her like Mrs. Larry, or did they wait until they were full before they invaded?

She tried to break free, but the vines that bound her seemed to have hooks and thorns, which pierced into the flesh of her arms and thighs as soon as she struggled, causing excruciating pain.

Alice realized the tragic fate she was about to face, and thought about death. She stuck out her tongue and bit it with her teeth. She heard that if the entire tongue was bitten off, the outflowing blood and sublingual vein thrombosis would block the trachea and esophagus, causing the person to suffocate to death. But what kind of courage does it take for a person to bite off his own tongue!

A crow flew from nowhere and landed on the branch of the tree opposite Alice, stretching its neck to look at her.