Alice didn't know what was going on, she just felt like she was in a dream. She desperately bit the back of her hand with her teeth, and heard that biting herself doesn't hurt when she dreams. She hoped it was a dream, that she would wake up on the research ship, that Mrs. Larry was still revising her thesis under the lamp, that Pardick was on deck looking up at the stars, and that Anderson was fishing in the silver moonlight.

But the sharp pain in the back of her hand told her that it was not a dream. The Discovery has sunk, and the fate of the crew is uncertain. Pardick was eaten by the savages, Mrs. Larry was captured, and she and Anderson and two other seamen were fleeing at sea, but the sea turned into a lake, and the 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 struggled to climb onto the table to let his lover see him and lift the curse on him, but unfortunately fell into the mushroom soup that the hostess had just cooked.

She felt like an ant that had fallen into a soup pot, completely unable to understand the origin of this disaster, and could only blindly make a final struggle.

Anderson looked around the middle of the lake and said in frustration, "It looks like we're still on the same island." He pointed to a hill in the distance, "That's where we just climbed up, and I saw a big lake in the center of the island, and now we are in it." ”

Two other sailors confirmed his words. But they couldn't explain the phenomenon, and Anderson, although the first mate of the Discovery, was at best a slightly more senior sailor. Pardick and Mrs. Larry were not there, and the only one among them who could relate to the scientist was Alice, Mrs. Larry's assistant.

Alice shook her head at their inquiring gaze.

"I don't know, I don't know anything! It's the devil's handiwork, it's the Isle of Devils! She cried sadly, "We can't go back!" ”

Anderson suddenly hugged her, kissed her on the forehead, and comforted her: "Don't be afraid, baby! We'll be fine, we'll get out of here! ”

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

"Thank you! I'm much better. She said.

She rested her head on Anderson's arms, and the boat rippled on the lake. What a romantic and beautiful moment it would have been if Pardic and Lady Larry had been around, if they hadn't encountered the Savages!

When she was on the Discovery, she loved to sit on deck and watch Anderson fish and talk to him. He's funny, always has a lot of jokes, and he's naturally optimistic, and neither the snow in Auckland, nor the fog at sea, nor the loss of contact with land can stop him from fishing happily.

She admires 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 ship (if the serious Mrs. Larry didn't count), and what man didn't like to talk to her! Captain Church also saw it, and ordered Anderson to sit in the same lifeboat as them.

Now, however, Alice doesn't dare to think about anything, and she doesn't want to think about it.

The dinghy fell into silence, a desperate silence. Everyone understands that they can't go back.

Anderson suddenly yelled, "No! We can't do that! We're going back! ”

"Stop talking nonsense, Anderson! How to get back? We are now in the center of the island! One sailor said that in this desperate moment, he no longer cared if the tone of his voice was out of line with the first mate, "Even if we go back to the sea, we don't have a boat, and even if we do, we will go out and come back here." This is Devil's Island, and we can't escape! ”

"I'm going to give it a try!" Anderson said.

"But we only have one boat, so we can't drag the lifeboat over a few hills, right?" The water pointed to the mountain in front of him and said.

Although the mountain was not as high as the mountain on the mainland, it was obviously impossible to carry a dinghy over it.

"I'm going to give it a try!" Anderson said it again, his eyes resolute, even a little fierce, as if he would never give in to the arrangement of fate.

Alice looked him in the eye curiously, just like Anderson, who had known about fishing all day on the Discovery.

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

"What if I go back to this lake?" Along the way, they kept arguing about it.

"Then try again, if we can get in, we will definitely be able to get out. If you think of this as a closed room, there's always a door, and we need to find it. "Anderson cheers everyone up.

Alice felt so incompetent, and as the only scientist assistant to the four, she had nothing to do about the predicament in front of her. If Mrs. Larry or Pardick were there, it wouldn't be like this. Thinking of Madame, she was sad again.

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

She remembered Mrs. Larry's eyes again. Strong! Be strong! Stay strong! She told herself.

……

However, before they could set up a raft to cross the sea, they encountered the wild man again.

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

The wildlings were far more familiar with the jungle than they were, their bullets were limited, their counterattacks were very weak, and one of the sailors fell into a trap in the jungle, and the remaining three were quickly scattered.

Alice ran as hard as she could in the jungle, and she didn't know how long she could run, until she couldn't run anymore and fainted in the dark.

When she awoke, she found herself leaning against a large tree, her body tied tightly with vines. On the other side of the tree, a group of wild men were croaking around a campfire and babbling words she didn't understand. A wooden shelf was set up on the campfire, and on the shelf hung a man who had been scorched by the fire.

Alice tumbled in her stomach and vomited in disgust.

She looked at her clothes and saw that they were still in good condition, wondering why they hadn't treated her like Lady Larry, or had to wait until they were full to eat.

She tried to break free, but the vines that bound her seemed to have thorns, and as she struggled, they stabbed into the flesh of her arms and thighs, and it hurt to the core.

Realizing the tragic fate she was about to face, Alice thought of death. She stuck out her tongue and bit it with her teeth, and she heard that if she bit off her entire tongue, the gushing blood and blood clots in the sublingual veins would clog the trachea and esophagus, suffocating to death. But what kind of courage does it take for a man to bite off his tongue?

Out of nowhere, a crow flew up, perched on the branch of the tree opposite Alice, and craned its neck to look at her.