Agent in the Dark

It had been stated in the journal, of one early town founder, that while it remained illegal to kill and eat those still living, it was permissible to eat those who died from natural causes, even those long since buried in the ground. Personally, if things got that bad I'd cut my own throat. Humanity sometimes went way too far overboard in the quest to survive.

Some things just weren't worth doing, in order to survive, in the quest to retain one's mortality for a little longer. A queasy thought went through me. Had my little Asian chick turned man-eater on me?

That was a disturbing thought! If that was the case I would be finding a different island to live on, while she spent the year cracking the Code on my former island. I'd toss a fish onto shore for her from time to time that would be about the only interaction I would have with her.

My entire mood soured at the prospect that my playmate to be might already be untouchable. Why had I gone and spoiled everything with that likely scenario? Here I was rushing off to rescue a damsel in distress and instead of a look of yearning for something more intimate between us, she might be yearning to see and experience me Delmonico steak style. Life really sucked right now! I should've stuck with the Eskimo girl idea. About the most socially unrequitable things on their menu and attire were cute little fluffy polar bear steaks and baby sealskin boots.

Two days later in a remote valley I found the bush pilots airfield. Everything was as specified. No one seemed to have found this little hamlet in a forgotten valley of the wilderness. The plane had been out rigged with extra fuel tanks and hopefully it would be enough to both get there and back. I fired up the engines and build up RPMs, as I taxied to the slightly overgrown runway of weedy grass.

I saw three men run out of the cover of the surrounding forest with little more to their name than spears. They didn't look too friendly and in some ways they seemed more beast-like than human. They apparently had been tracking me.

I let the plane lunge forward down the runway away from the charging men, "Asta lovista losers!"

One thing was for sure, I wouldn't be landing here again. I'd crash land in the sea first. I stayed low over the land in an attempt to dodge any radar that the Code may have in play. There was no point in alerting them to my presence. All navigation and beacon type equipment had been deactivated and I was largely flying blind except for my own handwritten chart plotting.