Quantum Leap - Vol. 2 Exile Island (formerly Till Death Do Us Part)

C013 Survival

His body involuntarily followed the momentum and the grabbing of his hair made the head jerked back more forcefully and exposed his jugular. His head somehow snapped back as the momentum of the force somehow forced his occipital bone to be slightly severed, thus nearly severing his nervous system of the neck.

His eyes rolled upwards and he saw a black shadow overwhelming overhead. Then he saw something shiny flashed before his very eyes. Before he could react much except to frantically grab hold on top of his hair, the shiny glint descended on his exposed jugular.

There was no pain at first as the sharp blade penetrated the soft part of his left neck and traversed through his windpipe and exited on the right side of his neck. "CUTTHROAT...!" That was the last thing he heard when the blade began its deadly slice across the neck that severed his windpipe.

With a strong grip to his hair, the head was simply pulled back in a manner that the slice across his neck became a wide jagged smiley open wound...!

Sprays of blood ejected out from the wound as Akitoshi's first reaction was to clutch at his open wound at his neck and tried to close the wound off. Akitoshi's eyes rolled towards the back of his head and he managed to gargle out non-comprehensible words as darkness soon began to envelop him. 

Soon he felt a sudden chill of coldness next as his heart fluttered to a complete standstill. Little did he realized in his last breath or his last grasp of consciousness that he had been targeted for some time by one of the assassins as his limp body slipped into an abyss of death.

Shortly after, his lifeless body was pulled aside by the assassin and covered with loose dry leaves from the ground. The assassin, right after he had made he slice, wiped his blade on the pants and then sheathed his blade at the small of his back. No other ceremony was needed for such untimely death that was brought on poor Akitoshi as his lifeless body was soon buried under a mound of fry leaves near to where he had fallen. No shallow grave, no proper burial, no prayers, no nothing.

That's the end of a short adventure that had been broadcasted live to thousands of audiences as the spectators bet on how Akitoshi would meet his death and how long he would survive once he had recovered from his consciousness in Exile Island.

Soon after three short shrill alarms sounded through the loudspeakers...

=*=

"Preet...! Preeeet...!! Preeeeeet...!!!" three sharp whistles blows were heard through the loudspeakers after a silence of about 2 hours or so from the last announcements of the demise of Megumi.

"LISTEN UP, YOU ALL...!!! One male player was already been located by one of our assassins and had been exterminated in the most illustrious manner ever. What a waste of two such lowlifes such as them...! One committed suicide while the other did not even put up a single struggle...!"

"We are now left with only 5 boys and 5 girls each on both sides...! Continue to work hard in order to survive and may the strongest emerge as the sole survivor and be victorious at the end...! GOOD LUCK PLAYERS...!!!" the loudspeakers boomed its glorious findings throughout the forest and there was no way to find out where who and how the student had perished this time.

"GODDAMMIT...! I HAVE NO TIME TO LOSE...!!! I HAVE TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO FASHION SOME WEAPONS USING THE ENVIRONMENTS HERE...!! I've got to find the bastard behind the microphone and stuff the mike down his own throat...! He's goddamned responsible for the deaths of my friends and I am going to crush his teeth in with his microphone and make sure he suffers before he died in my bloody freaking hands...! " I thought aloud through my gritted teeth at the thought of my fallen friends. First, it was Megumi and yet, another unknown student which was not announced.

Either that fucker was playing some psychological games with us, it is actually working at this particular moment and I can't really think straight at this moment. I was in search for the explosive boom earlier that indicated that Megumi had already committed suicide and ended her life prematurely. Then right after some time, another announcement broke through the loudspeakers and announced that another student had perished and this time under the hands of an assassin...! HOW f*****g FAVOURABLE FOR THE MAD BASTARD INDEED...!!!

I tried to push my anguish at the back of my minds as I began to look around me and discovered some bamboo clumps and I made a beeline straight at it. I remembered how the villagers in the Hope Village, Stone Village as well as Bamboo Village used to fashion these bamboo poles and make them into short spears and also long pikes. I pulled at one of the bamboo plants and with all my strength, I managed to pull down a bamboo plant from its base. 

The bamboo plant was snapped from its base when the plant was literally bent towards me and it took some time before it was removed from its clump. 

I took the thinner ends to be used as a throwing or stabbing weapon instead. I managed to break the intended length of the pole into a 3-foot length and whittled the short end with the pocket knife that was supplied together with the satchel bag that I had found earlier.

It took a while to shape it into a sharp and menacing-looking tip while the end of the 3-foot bamboo pole I just made it as dull and blunt as possible as I began to look for some green leaves and cushion the end of the pole in case I wanted to use it against my body for added cushion and as a driving force. It was just like the weapons that were being used by the villagers in Stone Village...!

The pole was short, and the tip was extremely sharp. It won't do good if it was used against a tree or anything but to puncture a soft target such as a person's body, I think the spiked tip bamboo does not look too shabby indeed. 

I stripped down the bark of the bamboo and made it into a makeshift sling to carry the bamboo pole in my back. If the need arises, I guess I could make this as a hiking stick as well. By slinging it behind my back, I was able to utilise the pole immediately from its standby mode right into a defensive and offensive status. I dismissed the idea of making it hiking stick because I do not want to damage the sharpen tip that I intended to cause hurt, SERIOUS HURT.

I took a rest in some shade and wanted to recollect and plan what I should do in this kind of situation. Armed with only a folding pocket knife and a makeshift spike tipped bamboo pole, I wondered if the assassins use hot weapons as well. If so, the efforts in making this bamboo pole proved to be very useless indeed. 

I was at wit's end when I thought about the possible situations. I wondered how the rest of the classmates and students were doing right now since there was no way to communicate with one another. Furthermore, I do not have a single idea on who would be in this freaking jungle at all...! We might not be classmates in the first place after all...! Dusk was quickly approaching and I need to at least find some kind of sustenance in this forsaken forest.

Searching through the depths of my memories, I had managed to recollect some of the tactics I had learned a long time ago before I transmigrated into this body and era. It was the "Living off the Land" and "Jungle Confidence Course" that I had undergone while in the basic military training many years back in my original past life. 

Coupled with the experiences I had gained in my previous so-called 'life' as Bo back in the Bamboo Village, I hoped to gain some sort of fighting and survival skills that I had possessed during my hours of meditation. I hoped and sincerely prayed that for the existing hand to hand unarmed combat would make an appearance during the time of need...!

I stood up, dropped both the satchel bag and the sharpen bamboo pole on my side as I readied myself and taking up a horse standing stance. I had lowered my body weight down closer to the ground and gravity as I separated my legs apart as I took up the horse stance and got into a ready position.

Different from the WingChun position, this stance would also be used for meditation and I would not be caught in the most unfavourable position at all if I stayed in the most basic battle-ready position. From this position, I could easily move into a boxer's position and be ready to throw everything at the opponent before me...!

I closed my eyes and began to control my breathing as I meditated and stood in that kind of stance. Oblivious to the whirring electronic sound above me, a PTZIR camera was pointed at my direction and recorded my every single movement.

*Cough*

*Cough*

"Ahem... HEY BOY..! No need for you to practice your little KungFu or whatever you are doing right now...! It would be best for you to look for the wooden chest that contains the basic necessity of sustenance for you to last a day or two more...! You do seem a lot fitter than the rest of the students and it would be served as a fat little pig to my assassins...Hahaha...!"

"Do you think you have the ability to protect yourself with your pathetic martial arts right now?! Look at yourself in the f*****g mirror, boy...! You looked so damn pathetic right now and I am sure my assassins are able to detect you once they come into a radius of your location...! 300 feet, my dear boy...Then you would be zoomed in as my assassins would toy with you like a stinky little mouse...!"

My assassins would be swarming to your place as I speak, DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT, BOY?! " the sneering electronic voice boomed through a loudspeaker... Unfortunately, it managed to break my concentration as I muster up my Qi through my meditation.

"f*****g PIECE OF BASTARD s**t ASS c**k SUCKER ASS LICKER!! "I screamed through my thoughts as I try to meditate further and restarted my meditation once again as I finally came into an absolute peace of mind. I find myself looking down at my own body like in an out of body experience when one is on the verge of dying. 

In that kind of state, I was floating and encircling my body. HOW IN THE WORLD DID I MANAGED TO DO THAT?! Would it be best if I could levitate and find the rest of my friends and schoolmates in this manner?

In my subconscious mind and controlled breathing, I slowly raised my hands outwards and then rolled them back into a ball of a fist at my sides. This continued a few times before I subconsciously took a step back on my right foot, leaning my weight behind and slightly made a forward punch and made circular motions with an elbow block afterwards. Then I made a palm strike forward before I retracted my right hand into a fist back to my sides. All this movement were made into a slow-motion kind of effect and I was able to control every single muscle in my body as I executed the punches and strikes in all directions.

The movement continued with the right foot as I moved forward thus using my left foot to support my weight this time. A few overhead blocks, a few low kicks, a few steps retracted and moving forward and ending with a high sidekick... I subconsciously made the area around me look like a small fighting arena and before I knew it, I had moved around almost in full circular motion, pivoted to the ground in the centre where I was meditating from.

"Good... Good... Very Good...! Hey Boy! You must be from Shitoryu Karate, yes?! Do you think you are up to the tasks to even touch my assassins?! You are nothing like a piece of s**t on the ground that people steps on!"

"Do you realize that? By the way, you must be Kenzo Watanabe, right? Hey Kenzo...!!! You must be looking for your dear poor and pathetic friends, am I right?! Silver grey hair and quite tall for a 15-year-old boy too! You want to show your prowess and intimidate me, eh boy?! How about I send my assassins to your location so that you could prove your worth!"

"If you can beat him, I let him drop a piece of equipment for you... This is my reality show, boy. Rules are being made by me and can be changed as and when I deem fit...! What do you think?! Hey, boy! I'm talking to you...! Show me a thumbs-up if you agree on an one on one unarmed combat?!" the electronic voice boomed once again as I returned back to reality after my meditation and also my warm up of my martial arts and proved that the martial arts that I had learned in my previous leap and life did not diminish one bit...!

Instead of giving the thumbs-up as mentioned by the voice, I raised my left hand, slapped my right bicep and showed my middle finger as my victory sign..!!