//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 Jack // Story: EQUESTRIA SKULL ISLAND #2 // by Shark //------------------------------// Jack leg was damaged, but he’s Full determined to head to the north mountain to survive this. He walked through the thick jungle, with his gun ready to shoot at anything that attacks him. “Alright Jack, alright Jack, you can do this, you been through shit before, but nothing like this before. Just pretend you’re fighting the changeling army again.” Jack walked miles in the jungle, until he stumbles on a river connected to a lake. Jack walk towards the lake, he looked around the lake checking there’s not any monsters close by, after that he walk towards the water wiping the blood away. He stopped when he heard something coming but it’s big, he looked at the far valley of the lake, to reveal to be kong walking in the lake, Jack panic, he ran to the nearest rock to hide from the giant ape. Kong walked towards the area where Jack was hiding, Jack heard kong walking towards him until he stopped, Jack wonder. “why the monsters stopped?” He took a peek to look at Kong, to see the giant ape sitting, checking his arms and hands. There were cuts, maybe kong was fighting with another monster, Jack looked closely at kong noticing multiple scars around Kong’s body. Kong looked at his arm showing a bite mark, kong looked down at the water seeing is reflection, he grabbed the water drinking it. Jack was shocked to this creature calm, kong stopped drinking noticing something, he started growling, this go Jack to panic he hide behind the rock, hoping Kong didn’t see him. Kong wasn’t growling at Jack, kong violently put his hand in the water, gabbing a giant octopus, Jack looked back at kong seeing the fight. The giant octopus tried to wrap its arms around Kong hoping to trapped him, but kong isn’t allowing the octopus to do that, kong ripped off the arms of the octopus, and forcing it out of the water. When the octopus was out of the water, kong slammed his foot on the octopus head crushing it, killing it instantly. Kong calm down and began to eat the arms of the octopus, kong walked away pulling the body the dead octopus, Jack was shocked to see it. Jack began to run away from the river, while running he tripped on a branch landing on his head, everything went black. Jack opened his eyes trying to get up, he slowly realized its already night, Jack starts to panic, he pulls his backpack trying to get his lantern but the night is so dark that he barely sees anything, all he can do is use his senses Touch and smell. Jack can smell the oil of his lantern, he finally found it, but there’s another problem the lantern need to be lit by a match. Jack start to search for the matches but have trouble finding them, all he can do is shake his backpack hoping he can hear the matches sounds. He shook his backpack multiple times until he heard and finally found the matches, he was happy. When he grabbed his lantern and tries to light it, when the small fire shown Jack use it to start the lantern. When he turned the lever to brighten the lantern. He froze in fear, his eye widen, his body started shaking. Jack realized he’s not alone, whatever it is, it’s looking at him and he can see the creature, although it was too dark to see the creature, Jack lantern was bright enough to see the creature face and arms. The creature was looking at him expecting him to run, Jack didn’t run frozen in fear, the head of the creature looks like a dinosaur but with hair on its chin and head, Jack slowly reach for his gun, although it’s a bad idea but animals are unpredictable and this creature is here to hunt. Jack moves his lantern a little bit getting the creature attention, while the the creature was distracted Jack grabs his gun ready to shoot the creature, Jack puts the lantern down and the creature was still looking at the lantern. The creature was fascinated at the lantern, not paying attention to Jack, this gave Jack an advantage, Jack points his gun at the creatures head, and ready to pull the trigger. (Twig snap) The creature looks behind to check if there s something hiding, the creature slowly opened its mouth just a little bit showing its teeth, and growling like it feels threatened. Jack got worried, thinking what got this creature to be alert, the creature looked back at the lantern, Jack glad that the creature is looking at the lantern again. When he was ready to shoot, realize something, the creature eyes wasn’t looking at the lantern, it was looking at Jack, the creature slowly turned its head looking back at Jack, then there was another twig snap and another. (Twig snap) (Twig snap) (Twig snap) (Twig snap) Jack looked again still pointing his gun at the creature, he looked back at the creature, the sound wasn’t making the creature flinch. Jack slowly walked towards his lantern picking it up and connecting it to his backpack. Jack turned his head seeing another creature the same kind as the one he saw, then he turned his head to see another, and another and another. Jack slowly walked backwards away from the creatures, in his mind. “Maybe there here to fight each other for food.” The creatures walked closer to each other not fighting and being aggressive. Then Jack realized the horrifying truth, this creature are not dumb, they’re in a pack like wolfs, the middle one, the one he saw was there leader. The leader was distracting him, and the others circle around him, surrounding him. Jack looks behind him he’s cornered next to a large tree with a big hole on the ground. Jack looks back at the creatures. “Ah shit.” He slowly put his hand in his pocket trying to pull a bomb, Jack grab a stick of dynamite and slowly Lighting the fuse, he was breathing heavily and scared. Jack throw the stick of dynamite, the leader instantly Run away and some of the pack did the same. The explosion did killed a few creatures, and Jack immediately started running, the creatures started chasing Jack but not on the ground, they’re chasing him from the trees, Jack keeps running trying to lose them. One creature jumped in front of Jack trying to attack him, Jack Dodge the attack, and started shooting the creature killing it, but this got the others angry, Jack continued running. If he keeps this up, he could get tired making him an easy target, Jack stop looked around violently pointing his gun around the area. Jack looks at the fire of his lantern, Jack grabbed his lantern, he looked at the fire and looked back at the area. Jack was about to throw his lantern, but one of the creatures jump on him, causing him to drop the lantern and his gun, he was on the ground. The creature was trying to bite and scratch him, Jack was struggling, he tried to run away but the creature keeps lunging on him, and scratching him leaving his Army uniform scratch and torn, but it protected him from fatal injuries. Jack kicked the creature on the head, getting it to step back, his instinct kicked in he grabbed his knife, the creature jumped and landed on Jack. Jack use his knife stabbing the creature on the neck, it keep stabbing the creature over and over until the creature collapse on top of him. The creature collapse on Jack injured leg almost crushing it, Jack screams in pain, the weight of the creature is like a full grown cow, it was very heavy. Jack push the dead creature off of him and crawled to the lantern, he can hear the other creatures coming closer, he grabbed his lantern and tried to stand up, Jack waited for the creatures to arrive. When the leader revealed it self, Jack throws his lantern in front of the creature, the lantern broke and oil leak out, the fire started spreading around the area. One of the creatures accidentally touch the flaming oil, the fire was spreading on the creature body, the creature was screaming in pain, this got the creatures to run away from the fire. Jack grabbed his gun, and running away from the fire as fast as he can. Jack walk for hours, he’s tired, he stopped when he sees a tree high enough for no creatures to catch him, so if he thinks. He climbed to the top of the tree finally calm, Jack notices lights in the sky, he turn his head looking at the clear night sky, showing the aurora borealis. The lights calmed him down more, he looked at the valley see other animals but it looks like there sleeping, Jack pulled out his compass show the arrow pointing north, he’s heading in the right Direction, he looked back at the sky hope he’s family are ok, and Jack went to sleep. The next morning Jack walked north, while walking he sees other animals luckily for me they eat plants. Jack see the valley around him, amazed of the area, the all mountains, the endless river and the calm land, an hour have passed, Jack took out his binoculars, looking around the area to check is it safe. “Uh, it’s all clear.” Jack walked towards the area, pointing his gun at the area, after that the area is clear, there’s no monsters around the area, this gave Jack some rest for now. Jack turned his head, thought he heard something, he took out his binoculars and look where did that noise came from, he looked around the area until he found the noise, and it scared him, it was the creatures that attack him, but they don’t seem to be hunting, they’re with the pack. Jack noticed that the pack has babies, looks like a family, Jack is terrified of this creatures, he thought this creatures are just monsters, but looking at they’re pack and they’re families, they’re not monsters, there animals, although they look terrifying their just animals. Jack calm down and walked back to the resting spot, while sitting he grabbed food from his backpack and eats it. While eating, jack noticed there’s a lot of bird noises but, he doesn’t see the birds from the trees, he wondered why isn’t he seeing any birds, the noises of the birds are loud and clear but the birds are not seen anywhere and the trees are not that tall. Jack finished eating, he got up and ready to continue walking, but he stopped, still wondering why the birds are not showing it self. Before he walked heard another bird noise except this chirp was loud and clear like it’s behind him, Jack turned around expecting to see an unknown bird, but he was more than shocked he was terrified. It wasn’t a bird, it was a giant ant, what scared him even more, is the fact that the ant sounds like a bird, you can easily mistake it as one. Jack walked back, bringing out his gun, the ant was looking at him, it was moving it’s head like a cobra. The ant size is terrifying, the ant is almost the same size as a person. The ant stopped moving its head, the ant began to lower its body on the ground, jack doesn’t know what the ant is doing but this looked familiar. The ant jump leaping on jack, jack Moved away from the ant, he points his gun and shot the ant killing it, when the ant died the forest went quiet. Jack began to run knowing if this ants can mimic bird noises, and the forest went quiet, it’s telling him this forest is filled with giant ant, he needs to get out of there quickly. While running he started to see more ants revealing themselves, Jack pulled out a grenade and throwing it behind him, the explosion was loud enough to scare the ant away. Jack made it to the end of the jungle, he was relieved, he continued on to the north mountain. After walking for an hour, Jack stopped next to a waterfall, after being alone in this jungle and seeing this animals, he is alerted and focus, he check the waterfall, he discovers a cave behind the waterfall, but the key was only a couple feet wide. Big enough for him to fit inside and small enough for the animal for won’t fit, jack rested in the cave, he pulled out the letter he was writing for his son, he started reading the letter trying to see what is he saying to his son. All he sees is a father who is scared of his son, worried that his son won’t love him anymore. As a soldier your always end up going places around the world, far away from the people you love, and as a father it’s more harder to keep a promise to your children. Everyday he prayed hoping his family will be OK, he want to see his family again, this gave Jack hope to keep going no matter how bad he’s injured, he will always keep going. “I will make it out of here. I will.” Jack pulled another paper and began to write, telling his son the Aventures he been through, and the amazing animals living in this island. “My son this island is a world lost in time, filled with creatures outside our imagination, although some of them looked terrifying they’re just animals, like wolves, crocodiles any animal. At first I was scared of this creature but seeing them how they survived and how they lived, showed me there’s not so different then other animals. The island shows the largest mountains I have ever seen, they’re so large that they can reach the clouds, far bigger than the ones back at Equestria. Remember the story that grandpa told us about, telling us about a Fantasy story, at first I thought it was just a story, but coming here to this island, is telling me that this world is far bigger than our imaginations. I miss you son, I miss everyone back home, I hope you been taking care of your mother, when I’m gone, I won’t give up, I will get back home, the first this I’m going to do is hug you and your mother. I love you son, I miss so much.” Jack finished writing, a tear fell from his cheek, as he fold the letter and put it back in the backpack, he heard a noise coming from the the jungle. He grabbed his Gun and, quietly left the cave to see where the noise was coming from, Jack points his gun around the area, focus and ready. Jack walked quietly towards the noise, he was hiding in a bush, and saw what made the noise, it was the creature that attacked him, Jack hold his gun tightly, he wants to shoot the creature but something is telling him, don’t shoot. Jack looked back at the creature after hearing a loud roar. He sees another creature attacking it, although Jack didn’t see what was attacking the creature, all he hear was the animal noises. (Crunch) Everything went quiet, Jack wondering what happened, until the creature revealed it self, it was a large white Tiger with Atlas, the tiger was carrying the creature on the neck. The tiger stopped and turned its head like it heard something, but it went off carrying the creature away. Jack stand up, and went back to the cave getting his backpack and getting ready to continue on, he pulled out his compass. “Yup, heading the right place.” Jack continued on to the north mountain, an hour has passed, Jack was getting closer to the mountain, all he need to is cross the forest, he walked towards the area, still pointing his gun around the area. He walked for hours he stopped next to a big log, he sit down on the log, surprised how thin the trees are, he can see the other side of the forest. Jack dropped his backpack bringing the letter out of the bag, he looked at it, and decided to put it in his pocket, for safe keeping, if he was attacked by an animal, and it took his backpack with his son letter, he’s not risking it. He also put his compass in his pocket, couple of minutes has passed, Jack was about to get ready until, he thought he heard something, but then the log started moving, Jack stood back, the creature was camouflage like a log, but it clearly look like a bug, the bug was looking at him, until the bug started to run away in fear, Jack wondered why the bug is run away. Jack froze when he heard another noise but it sounds close, Jack slowly turned around, to a large creature looking at, the creature leap and opened its mouth. The birds from the tree flew away in fear, trying to escape a painful death, this island, although Beautiful and memorizing, it has many secrets, secrets that are dangerous and deadly. Only the strongest can survive this lost world.