The Island Pt. 01

Adoel stayed silently in her spot - and Grkk retreated to the end of the cave, leaving the women to their mourning.

Adoel had been part of another group. One that had been ambushed by Grkk's people.

Her group had had the upper hand in the beginning as they had throwing spears with razor sharp flint points, but when enough of Grrk's people had survived to get close, their massive and strong bodies had had the upper hand on the members of Adoel's group.

In the end Grrk and his group had won the day, but with many badly wounded.

The women on both sides had been hiding in the undergrowth while the men fought it out.

All of Adoel's friends had been killed on sight, but somehow Grrk had taken a fancy to her, so she was spared.

She had had a baby inside her, but Grkk had killed it as soon as it came out. It was not of his blood.

Therefore, she was not able to join in the mourning, and was sure she would have been pushed away if she had tried to.

She was of a different race than them and the fact that Grrk had fancied her, made her very unpopular among the remaining women from his group.

They had had to flee through the heavy snow as her people had been part of a larger group, that had started chasing them.

One by one, the wounded and the weak women had fallen in the snow. Never to get up again.

They had left a trail in the snow that was easy to follow until the snowstorm had covered their footprints. They had walked on.

Now they hoped for safety in the cave.

The women wailed for the rest of the day and through the night.

In the morning, Grrk dug a shallow grave at the absolute end of the cave.

He used a large, sharpened femur, that Adoel did not like to think where it came from.

The blue and slack, dead baby was put in the hollow and then covered.

Its bearskin was too precious so it was naked, when it was laid to rest.

All the women returned to their places, and Grrk went out looking for food.

Time passed. The snowstorm stopped, but it was still very, very cold outside.

They kept the fire going, and Grrk provided the food and firewood.

He went out every day at daylight and came back with some birds or a dead, little animal or two.

Sometimes he brought eggs, and they had a feast.

If there were enough, even she had an egg.

There were days when Grrk came home empty handed. Many days with no supplies..

And there were many days when snowstorms raged in the seemingly endless, cold winter.

Sometimes they all took time to mix colours from soot and red clay, and paint some of their story on the walls of the cave. She was of course not allowed to join, but at least she was left alone while the others worked on the paintings.

Almost every evening, Grrk crawled over to her place by the wall, and mounted her.

She had become all too familiar with him grabbing her, turning her on her stomach and lifting her hips up and trusting into her.

She always heard him before he came over to her, and she spit on her fingers and rubbed herself between the legs. That way it was less painful and a few times she even felt herself warm and tingling as his fat, hairy balls banged against a sensitive spot under her opening, but most times she just endured.

He hardly ever mounted any of the other women and of course this made her even less popular.

They grabbed every chance to torment her when Grrk looked away or was out hunting. They hit and they kicked her.

Now, she had been dizzy for a while. She knew that some of the feeling came from her being the last to get food, and often not having anything.

Now there was something else. Recently her stomach had started to grow. So far not more than she could hide it, but it would soon show.

He had planted his seed in her and she was carrying a growing baby inside.

She feared that if he did not kill it on sight like he had done with her first baby the other women would.

Her baby would be different. Very different, and she would have no way to protect it.

She was right. Her stomach soon showed and the women behaved even worse towards her.

More kicks and punches and now they even did it openly.

Grrk ignored it and still came to her sleeping place almost every night.

Then one morning, she got pains. Jabs of pain. She knew the baby wanted to come out, and so it did. After almost a day and a night in terrible pains.

She did not rejoice when she heard it cry for the first time, but felt more anxious than ever.

Sulnee and Zuko became friendlier. They stopped kicking and striking her, but Cebna was worse than before.

Every time she looked away, Cebna tried to take the baby. She obviously wanted a replacement for the one she had lost in the storm.

The baby looked a little like the one Cebna had lost, but even though it had the protruding forehead and eyebrows as the rest of them, it also had her dark hair, bluish eyes, and the same delicate features on its face.

It was a little girl and she secretly called her Jovka.

She was losing the battle with Cebna. More and more often Jovka was in Cebna's arms, and she knew she did not have the power to take it back.

Almost every evening, she cried herself to sleep. Grrk had started mounting her again, and she knew it would only be a while before she would have another baby inside her.

She took a decision.

One very quiet and cold night when the full moon was up, she stayed awake.

Waited till she could hear snoring noises from all of them.

Then crawled quietly across the sand on all four and gently lifted Jovka from Cebna. Then tiptoed naked out in the cold with the baby in her arms.

Cuddling Jovka close and hoping she would not start crying and alert the others.

She walked away from the shore and into the centre of the island.

The cold did not seem to affect her and she kept Jovka in a close embrace. In the quiet of the night only the full moon and stars watched her walking through the snow.

She reached her goal. Almost in the middle of the island there was a small hot water pond, supplied by a deep underground crevice. They sometimes used it to get fresh water, even though it tasted strange.

It seemed bottomless.

She was naked but had brought some of the tendons used to hold the bearskin around her.

She found a couple of irregular, big stones at the edge of the pond and tied herself, the baby, and the stones together in a bundle.

Gave the baby one last kiss on its forehead and stepped out into the pond.

She looked up at the stars and moon as she slowly sank down, down, down in the pond.

Their joined bodies came to rest on a natural shelf a good way down, and a minute or two after they had disappeared from the surface only the starry night and the full moon looked at the smooth and still surface of the pond.

Grrk had no problem finding her tracks in the snow the next morning.

Cebna tried to mourn the baby for a day and a night, but Sulnee and Zuko were not really joining her.

After all it was not her baby and now there were less competition for Grrk's attention.

Life continued for them in the cave. They took great care in tending and preserving the fire and made sure it would have some embers glowing every morning.

One day the winter finally came to an end and temperatures rose. The snow and ice started melting.

Grrk had forbidden them to go to the pond for water, so fresh water became a problem as only smaller lumps of dirty snow remained in the shadows. They gathered that snow and had a deerskin supported by rocks forming a hollow in their cave.

Here they placed the snow and waited for it to melt.

On the North side there was a spring almost at the top of a cliff. That became their main source of water as the snow finally melted altogether. Grrk crawled up and filled a leather sack with water here. He also caught a nesting bird now and then, or emptied a nest of eggs.

One day he did not come home at nightfall and when they went out the next morning, they found him at the foot of the cliff. He had an open wound and a broken leg from the fall, and had bled to death.

They carried him home but were not strong enough to dig a deep grave inside the cave. They ended up by leaving him outside and covered his corpse with branches.

It did not take long for larger animals to split the branches apart and get access to the corpse. Insects and rot did the rest, and finally his bones were spread by animals carrying them away to munch on in peace somewhere on the island.

Nature took its course.

Now they had to resort to finding plants and nuts, as none of them knew how to hunt.

The ice had melted, the snow was gone and they were isolated on the island.

One by one they perished.

Cebna had eaten something poisonous and died after two days of heavy pains.

Sulnee simply collapsed of starvation.

Eventually there was just Zuko left and she sat and stared at the weak contour of the mainland in the distance till she finally closed her eyes for the last time.

Peace had come once again to the island and it was left to the birds and wildlife.

Chapter Ten - 5 Years Ago - Sisters of Nemesis

by o_girl © 2024

"Why me?"

They were sitting in the deck chairs enjoying the sunset. Elizabeth with one of Brynhild's awful protein drinks, and Brynhild with a Tequila Sunrise with 'a long wick' as she called it.

She turned to Elizabeth and smiled: "I was trying to figure out why my parents gave me that silly name, and why they were so fascinated with Nordic Mythology, and I stumbled over your picture as I researched assorted archaeological sites on the net. It blew me across the room. I had never seen anybody that beautiful." Brynhild blushed all the way up to the roots of her brown hair.

"I read your thesis and your articles. Not that it made much sense, but I began wondering why such an intelligent person was put away like that. Slowly I uncovered a lot of the story, and decided it was time to act!"

Elizabeth got those two, little 'v' wrinkles above her nose that Brynhild loved. She fixed her gaze at Brynhild and smiled.

"I suppose a token of your ever-lasting love is this awful concoction, that you keep forcing me to drink?"

They both laughed. "No, of course not, but you need to build up some strength. This is not over. It has just started, and I think it is on time you meet 'Starfucker', and we take the next step, but not now. Tomorrow, my beloved!"

That night they made love for the first time. Slowly and intensely. taking their time whilst exploring each little nook and cranny of each other's bodies.

They were deliriously inhaling and enjoying each other's scents, kisses, and caresses.

--

"Morning my love," Brynhild said and caressed her face gently with the tips of her fingers. "Ready to go avenge a few injustices?"

Elizabeth smiled and slowly opened her eyes: "As ready as I will ever be, I suppose. What's the plan?"

"I think we will start with George. He seems to be the easiest victim, but first we need to do some preparations. Get out of bed lazybones, and we will be leaving right after breakfast".

And so, they did. Brynhild produced a beautiful, blond wig from her mother's leftovers to cover Elizabeth's crew-cut, and after a few adjustments announced that it was 'just perfect'.

Then they drove off. First stop was the Porsche workshop, where Brynhild asked them to re-wire the McIntosh sound system. Something that would take several days.

They got into a small compact Suzuki replacement car. Definitely less conspicuous than the white, turbocharged Porsche 911.

Then drove off.

Half an hour later she parked at a small village church.

"What are we here for?" Elizabeth asked.

"Come along. We are going to kill you. Not as bad as it seems!" Brynhild giggled.

Along the inside of the churchyard wall stood the headstones that had been removed from the graves no one cared about any more. Most of them so corroded. Weather worn and overgrown with moss that they were illegible.

Brynhild stopped at a small one that was almost hidden between two much larger slabs. She leaned over and wiped he surface with her hand. It read:

"Beloved daughter. Sunniva Pierson. 1890 - 1899."

She looked at Elizabeth: "How does that sound to you? OK?"

Elizabeth had still not understood: "Yes, suppose so. Poor girl. Only nine years old!"

"Well being in sync with my Nordic inspired name, you could now be "Sunniva Pierson" It's also old Nordic. It means "beautiful". Original form is: "Sungifur" "Sun" plus "Gifur". Meaning "Sungift" and thus beautiful. You are definitely a gift from the sun! Would that suit you?"

Elizabeth blushed and nodded.

Brynhild had done her homework, and the church was a "Wayfarer Church". Meaning it was open 24/7 as one of few in the country.

They ventured inside where the walls were beautifully decorated with medieval chalk paintings of a very frivolous nature.

Different from most churches this one had its archives in a side chapel and not in the vicarage.

The heavy door had a lock that was almost as old as the church and it did not take long for Brynhild to open it with a large skeleton key that she produced from her shoulder bag.

Inside there were floor-to-ceiling shelves and a mouldy odour. Elizabeth sneezed.

"Bless you", Brynhild grinned. "Suppose a very proper remark here. Give me a few minutes." She pulled a set of thin latex gloves from a pocket, put them on and started to browse along the shelves trying to read the notes on the back of the volumes.

"Here we are. Let's take a look," Brynhild pulled a large tome out and placed it on a not very solid looking table. A cloud of dust danced in the sunlight.

After carefully turning the pages for a while, she smiled: "Here we are."

She used eraser fluid which she unceremoniously dapped on the info of the original Sunniva Pierson. It slowly vanished and left no visible mark on the time-worn page.

The volume went back in the row and she walked along the shelves till she found one of the most recent ones.

From her shoulder bag she produced a rather ancient looking pen and inkwell.

Having the tip of her tongue sticking out of the side of her mouth and with a concentrated look she registered "Sunniva Pierson" being born at a date fitting Elizabeth's age.

She pushed the tome back in the row, gathered her ink and pen and removed the latex gloves. Checked that all was as when they had come in and that everything was back in order. Then they locked the door and left the church.

"Let's mourn the child Sunniva for a moment, and then rejoice at the birth of the present one!"

Brynhild suddenly looked serious and they stood for a while in front of the old headstone.

Then they drove off again.

Next stop was the outskirts of the nearest big town. A dilapidated area, but with a hedged- in allotment garden.

After parking outside, she led the way down the main path between the small cottages and well-kept gardens.

She stopped at something that was definitely different from the rest. A jungle of plants, bushes, and trees. Totally overgrown. It was hard to distinguish the once beautiful ivy 'portal' and the mailbox beside it. It was obvious that the mailbox had not been emptied for quite a while. Soggy adverts and letters sticking out of the top did indicate that some kind of entrance was hidden there.

They made their way through the portal and brushed the wilderness aside trying to follow the concrete slabs forming a path until a small house with peeling paint could just be distinguished between the greenery.

At least the door was visible and seemed to have been used more recent than the rest of the garden and house.

Brynhild did not bother to knock but pushed the door up and stepped inside in the semi-darkness.

A stale and almost sickening smell hit them when and made Sunniva take a few deep breaths. The insides looked like a very messy storage room. A deep, hoarse voice sounded from somewhere within: "Hello Brynhild and friend!"

"Hello Starfucker. How's life?"

"Well. Enough Jolt Cola, take-away pizza and computers and I am a happy nerd as you know!"

"May I introduce my very good friend: Elizabeth - alias Sunniva."

"Of course. Friend of you, friend of me! Sorry the mess Sunniva. Maid's day off again today!" A short laugh rolling out of his big corpus filled the room.

They moved closer. In an array of monitors, blinking machinery and used pizza boxes sat a rather fat and pale guy with very greasy, long hair glued to his head.

Brynhild pushed some of the garbage on the floor aside with her foot, lifted stacks of paper from a couple of well-used chairs and dumped them in a heap to make room for them to sit opposite the guy.

She handed him a fat envelope: "Here's something for your services so far. Get yourself another Mac, Server or something."

He grabbed it with his fat, stumpy fingers, opened it and took out two large banknotes. Then handed the still bulging envelope back to Brynhild.

"No need. I just want something for the part of the electricity I have to pay for". He laughed his raspy laughter again. "It has been an exquisite pleasure till now. I hate idiots and love to make them accountable for their misdeeds."

"OK, but we are not finished yet. Actually, we have just started."

"Right. What can I do you for, ladies?"

"For starters we want an identity for my friend here: Sunniva Pierson. We've been the old church at "Friggham" and she is now formally registered there as being born, but we need some official info put into the system. Can you do that?"

He smiled and chuckled: "Not many places on the net "The Star" cannot go. Let me have the details and give me a few minutes."

He worked concentrated for about 10 minutes, then looked up: "Right. She is now officially born at the Central State Hospital. Here's the time of birth. Time and date and her personal, and social security number are these. He scribbled the info down on a wrinkled piece of paper with the short stump of a pencil and handed it to them.

"I added a Driver's License as an extra bonus. Anything else. My lovely Sirens?"

"Yes! Could you make a registration of a Death Certificate for Elizabeth Hullchester. Deceased at the rest home "The Whispering Pines?" - and then Brynhild gave him the details on a piece of paper.

Brynhild smiled at Elizabeth - now Sunniva, who was pale as a sheet: "Congratulations, my dear. Not every day one witness one's own death and resurrection."

"It's not funny, you know! You have just killed me!"

"Sorry, but a necessary step. Now no one will be asking for you and you will be able to apply for a replacement Driver's License and all other official papers as you like."

Brynhild gave her a big, long hug.

"Is that all, dears?"

"Nope. Not exactly. I have another 'burner phone' as we have talked about and when I text you the assorted code words, I want you to do as we have arranged. OK?"

He nodded and smiled.

They said goodbye and left. Taking a deep breath of fresh air as soon as the door closed behind them.

"Why is he living like that?" Sunniva asked.

"Well! He lives for his computers and has 'social difficulties', but the reason he is exactly here is that." Brynhild pointed to a grey, big box almost blocking the pavement just outside the allotment garden. Sunniva looked like one big question mark.

"That grey monstrosity of a windowless house contains one of the major internet hubs in town, and he has laid a cable from his house to that. He is connected to the back of the 'WhatNots' living inside there, and has a motorway into the internet for free."

Brynhild giggled, and they got into the car.

--

A day later they sat in the Suzuki on a hill overlooking brother George's large luxurious house.

Brynhild lowered the binoculars: "As I thought, rumours have reached him. Look at that black car right in front of the driveway, and the uniformed guy at the electric gate. I bet he has another guard patrolling the grounds!"