{"id":751,"date":"2023-03-29T11:00:35","date_gmt":"2023-03-29T11:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/?p=751"},"modified":"2023-03-29T11:00:35","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T11:00:35","slug":"the-others-chapter-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/?p=751","title":{"rendered":"The Others (Chapter 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chapter 2: Alarm.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A noise. Even under the waterfall, his overdeveloped hearing allowed him to immediately detect the sound of broken branches and stirred leaves. He froze. It was 100 meters away, maybe 80. No 60. It was going fast. He took out his knife in a tenth of a second, and disappeared half behind the waterfall, leaving only his face to appear. If it was an Other, hiding made no sense, but they weren’t the only dangers in the jungle.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Releasing herself from the plant layer, a gigantic doe appeared. The beast leaned its white neck at the edge of the water and drank the pure liquid. He watched her do so, without moving, so as not to frighten her. Daryl loved wild nature.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a child, he preferred to spend his time with the birds next to the school rather than playing with the boys. He had cried when he had to release his cats in the wild when he had to leave his apartment to join the groups of survivors who left the cities where the Others concentrated. And also, for fear of the incendiary bombs sent by overwhelmed governments and armies. But the fact that shortly after the collapse of civilization, Nature had resumed its rights, transforming a small park in the south of the suburbs of Atlanta into a veritable jungle with incredible biological diversity, had made him deeply happy.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For a few seconds, the doe sniffed Daryl’s things. The blade of a knife was reflected in her black pupils, below which immense eyelashes fluttered. Then she stretched out her head, her ears stiffened. Daryl felt his whole body stretch. It seemed as if in the west a strong wind was blowing as if a storm was brewing. But it was not possible, the sky was still clear, and the sun was shining, moreover, there was not a cloud on the horizon. “The alarm!” he refrained from shouting.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He leaps out of the water, frightening the poor doe who immediately fled. He dressed in a flash, filled the gourds with pure water, and accelerated through the trees. Thanks to its small size and low center of gravity, it could make its way quickly and rather silently through the<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

forest, which had often saved his life. But at this moment, and unlike the outward journey, he focused on speed. He was running, jumping, climbing, hanging on lianas, and swaying over chasms.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout the path, his anxiety was increasing. The alarm had been activated. The camp was in danger at this very moment. He had made the way in three hours, paying attention to each step, at the speed he was running now, it would take about an hour. But it was already too much. Especially in case of imminent danger. Even worse without knowing the nature of the threat. The Old Goldblum could no longer fight, and Christian, even though he was exceptionally strong and fast for a 12-year-old child, was still a 12-year-old child. It would already have been difficult to manage an attack with the 6 members of their group. But incomplete and dispersed, it was the worst possible situation. Once again, Daryl was mentally preparing to lose all his companions, as had so often been the case the previous years. And once again, while he had been in this group for over a year, he couldn’t feel much. Sometimes he said to himself that he had more in common with the Others than with his fellows. Daryl couldn’t seem to feel empathy with people.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Arriving near the clearing which demarcated the encampment in a circle of a hundred meters in radius, Daryl climbed up a tree and analyzed in a fraction of a second what was happening. The situation was out of control. The north grids had been torn off, and the central building was surrounded by dozens of Others. At the top of the building, the alarm, the huge fan that he had found three months earlier and that the Old Goldblum had repaired, was operating at full speed, broadcasting the deafening but continuous noise of a tornado, which made it possible to alert of a situation at a great distance without bringing other Others around.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Below the second story window, two small flags flew, a green and a black. Green: attack by Others. Black: refuge on the roof. The attack had been sudden, the roof was only the fourth<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

and last place where to take refuge in the event of an attack, behind the west tower to fight, the south tower to fight and potentially flee on the road, and the basement, where they could flee by the galleries or sewers. The roof was in the last case, if leaving the building was no longer possible and if the first floor was already surrounded. If ever a step was heard, the Others would have broken the windows and would have jumped on the unfortunate fool. It must be said that after a while, by dint of finding nothing to eat, they also had developed their hearing.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Daryl railed inside. Sarah must have missed her watch again he thought. He pulled out a radio of his pocket, and pressed the enter button twice quickly, to signal to the group without talking that he had arrived. He waited a few seconds, the lump in his stomach. Finally, the red button lit up, which meant there was at least one survivor. He took out and then unfolded his little telescope and observed the place on the roof where the shelter was installed. After a few more seconds, a bamboo stick emerges, followed by 4 other sticks. The five of them were alive, gathered on the roof. Daryl closed his eyes of relief. The camp was lost, but at least he had not lost his group.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He climbed down from the tree and started walking along the outside of the grid, at a respectable distance of anything, slowing the rate of his breathing. The fan was still working, but there was no general rule about the distance or the intensity at which the Others could hear the breath of a living being, some seemed more advanced and more sensitive than others. In a minute he reached the west tower, and slowly climbed the grid to climb the ladder on the inside. Once at the top, he could take the weapons hidden under the floor and then communicate in Morse code with his comrades. But, when he moved the hidden board, he only saw a grenade and a katana. The rifles, pistols and the shotgun were gone, as the stock of homemade bombs. He gritted his teeth and held back a shout, “shit”. It was not normal. Although guns have little use against the Others and could even be dangerous in attracting them, it could be helpful during their flight to defend oneself against the other dangers of the jungle, as well as against dissident<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

groups in the army. It should have been there. It was very unlikely that a member of the team had moved them. Perhaps a greater danger than he suspected was hovering over him and his group.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He used his flashlight to contact the group. The response was immediate. He succinctly informed them that he was going to draw the attention of the Others to him, to the west, so that the group could escape through the basement and exit safely to the east. Before going down from the tower, he hung the katana on his belt, adjusted his bag, and took the grenade in his hand. Once he had launched it, he couldn’t just stay hidden, he had to get away from the source of the explosion to not being deafened by the blast, avoid being surrounded by the Others attracted by the sound, and to find his comrades at the exit of the tunnel, east of the clearing. The slightest misstep and he risked a violent and brutal death. The plan might seem extremely risky, but Daryl had helped build this tower. He knew that if the grenade destroyed one of the four legs, the entire structure would collapse down, causing a noise long enough to give him time to get away from theses corpse with no eyes.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Once the ladder descended, Daryl took a few steps back, positioning himself about twenty meters away, activated the grenade, threw it at the foot of the tower, and began to run along the fence. 5 seconds before the explosion. An Other turned his head towards him. 4. Three of his fellows also turned, while the first approached. 3. Daryl accelerated, to be about fifty meters away. 2. The first Other started to run towards him. 1. Daryl pulled the katana from its sheath and cut off the Other’s head. Black blood gushed from the rotten body. 0.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nothing.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter 2: Alarm.\u00a0 A noise. Even under the waterfall, his overdeveloped hearing allowed him to immediately detect the sound of broken branches and stirred leaves. He froze. It was 100 meters away, maybe 80. No 60. It was going fast. He took out his knife in a tenth of a second, and disappeared half behind … Continue reading “The Others (Chapter 2)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[39],"class_list":["post-751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-novelettes"],"authors":[{"term_id":39,"user_id":12,"is_guest":0,"slug":"mhamedtaik","display_name":"M'hamed Taik","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/28445226b8a1211c44f492f3339658d94c787b21c55d0212cb481c851c7054f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Taik","first_name":"M'hamed","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":752,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions\/752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=751"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trove.aui.ma\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fppma_author&post=751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}