24. Escaped from Death

Ran spurred his body to split the calm river water. Not far behind him, dozens of venomous snakes chased with hissing sounds. But no matter how fast he swam, the gap between him and those snakes were nearing.

Meanwhile on the other side, Ben, Tet, and Rabat were holding their heads anxious ly watching the whole thing. Each of them had prepared wood the size of an arm if the snakes reached the land. They put the sticks near them on the ground. They were preoccupied in saving Ran.

Their hope was waning. The distance between Ran and the pack of snakes was getting closer. It was less than 5 meters away. Ran remembered the tree leaves he brought with him. But that would be pointless. After all, he was in the water. Of course, the aroma of the leaves would soon be washed away by the water.

Ran was just trying his best to keep going. The distance to the shore was actually only about 15 meters away. But the snakes were very fast. Only 2 meters left. 1 meter. Ran gave up. Maybe this was the end for him.

Just as the first snake was about to bite him, suddenly the water current changed, pushing the snakes away from Ran. But the snakes swam forward to catch him.

This time three snakes simultaneously raised their heads to bit Ran's feet.

Splaaasssh...Splaaasssh….clap!

A split second before the venomous fangs plunged into Ran's feet, there was a loud sound of water splashing high. Several large beasts grabbed the three snakes in a flash. Caught them and took them away.

The same thing happened again and again. Some animals that looked like Capybara but were bigger snatched the snakes and carried them away, then consumed them on the big rocks upstream.

Until finally the swarm of snakes splited away trying to escape from their predators, swam back to the shore where they came from and sticking themselves again into the ground forming a clump of "bamboo".

Tet, Rabat, and Ben ran to grab the exhausted Ran off the river and dragged him to the riverbank. Ran on his back and looked up at the sky while catching his breath. He was saved at the last second by the arrival of a giant Capybara which preyed on those snakes.

There was no blanket or jacket to recover Ran's body temperature. His three friends just surrounded Ran in amazement. The way Ran escaped earlier was amazing. Unwilling to give up until the last second even though in the end he was saved by the giant capybaras.

Silence surrounded the riverbank which was calm again. From a distance, it looked like the capybaras were enjoying their lunch comfortably. Tet who was watching the scene wondered could they prey on humans too? Uh!

After a few moments of silence and when Ran was able to get up and sit down while observing her friends, then the three people rushed to Ran and hugged him tightly.

"We have to thank the giant Capybara who are having lunch in the middle of the river. They saved you mate!" Tet patted Ran's shoulder happily.

Ran grinned. Madness! The chase had drained his energy as well as his adrenaline. His body felt very weak. But he was incredibly happy that his friends were all safe.

Ran reached into his shirt pocket. Thankfully the leaves of the trees of life and death were still there. These leaves would be very useful for them to escape from this island of death. But he had to recuperate first before start planning with his teammates. Ran closed his eyes. Just tried to sleep the whole thing off.

Tet, Ben and Rabat, who were still overjoyed by the unexpected meeting with Ran, let him sleep.

"We have to find Tet's food supplies. We are tired and need food," Ben said quietly.

"Yup! Let's look around here. Tet, you have a record of which plants are poisonous and which aren't, right? Let us find out. I'm sorry for Ran, he must be starving," Ben responded in agreement.

Tet took out a note. After several days of getting lost looking for a way back to the ship and many surprising events, Tet made special notes of edible plants. The parameters were clear. If animals eat it, then the plant, leaf, or fruit was defi nitely safe for humans to eat.

"I don't have the trees and plants around here in my records. We have to look a little further into the forest," Tet told his teammates after taking a close look at the plants around them.

Ben and Rabat agreed.

"One should stay here with Ran. Let me and Ben look for food. Rabat, you stay with Ran," Tet continued.

Ben and Rabat agreed. The two of them started packing. They didn't know how far they would enter the forest. So, it was better if they prepared for anything. But since almost all of their backpacks and equipment were left on the hill across the river where they were attacked by the kingkong-like creature, they brought what they had left, a knife and a wooden club.

"Wait!" Ran apparently listening to the conversation of his teammates.

"Rub this leaf on your body. This will be very useful to repel certain types of predators on this island. This leaf is rare. So we have to be frugal," Ran explain ned.

They took the leave and spreaded the crushed leaves mixed with water to make it more efficient in use. Although it hadn't been clinically tested, they fully belie ved in Ran's explanation.

While Tet and Ben set out to find food, Ran and Rabat discussed a plan on how to escape from this deadly island while trying to find and free Cindy.

Tet and Ben trekked with extra care. They didn't want to go too far into the forest. Therefore, they were only too happy when they found large and plum berries left by monkeys only a few dozen meters into the forest. They also saw a bunch of monkeys on the trees.

The two of them rushed to collect the berries as quickly as possible. Everything in this island was unpredictable, so it was better if they harvested this fruit and returned to the riverbank quickly.

With two bags were full of berries, they were ready to travel back to the riverbank, suddenly the monkeys on the tree started making noise. Everyone shouted loudly as a warning of danger.

Tet and Ben looked at each other. What else was this? Obviously, this was a sign of danger from nature. The monkeys were scared.

The monkeys were getting louder. This was followed by rustling sound coming from the depths of the forest heading toward them.

Oh my gosh! Tet and Ben nodded at each other and ran as fast as they could.

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