Survivor Story - Kong: Skull Island (Captain James Conrad Love Story)

7. Myths, Marlow, and Monsters

"I was up all night thinking about how this was the moment me and Gunpei were dreaming of," the man kept chattering, though no one was responding. "And now here it is - twenty-eight years, eleven months, and eight failed attempts to get back to the world, and instead, the world comes to me?" He scoffed in disbelief, which quickly turned into hearty laughter. "Ain't that a crack?" He turned to his companions, who remained serious and their gazes never left the newcomers. "They never smile, you know."

"Did you crash here too?"  Mason asked him, the first to speak.

  "I sure did."

"Sorry, who are you?" asked Tilda.

"Oh, right, sorry Miss." He saluted.  "Lieutenant Hank Marlow of the 45th. I'm telling you, you are more beautiful than a hot dog and a beer at Wrigley Field on opening day. But you're real - right?" No one spoke so he turned to face his companions.  "I told you, didn't I? I  said, 'it's fine', see? There we go." Finally the people lowered their spears.

"There's something out there, man," Slivko's voice shook with terror. 

"Oh there's a lot out there," the man - Lieutenant Marlow - said.  "Now, come on, we gotta get home - don't wanna be out here at night, especially not alone."

On that rather chilling and dark note,  he and his companions turned and headed through the stone archways. The group turned to James, who was still in the lead.  Hesitantly, he began to follow, and so everyone took that as a sign to follow as well. 

"You've probably noticed a lot of weird things on this island," Marlow was saying as they walked. 

"That's certainly one way to put it," mumbled Tilda. 

"But as long as we stay in here where the people live, we'll be alright."

He led them to a village on the other side of the forest, where a large dam was built to keep the lake from flooding the homes. 

"Oh, that's not a dam," Marlow corrected.

"Is that wall there to try and keep out that thing?" asked Mason.

"Oh, that's not what they're trying to keep out."

"What?" cried Brooks.  Everyone was thinking the same thing: what else could possibly be worse? 

"The Iwis have been living here on this island for thousands of years.  Some of these people don't even seem to age," Marlow kept talking as he led them deeper into the village. "There's no crime, no personal property - they're past all that."

Two people with blue paint on their bodies stepped forward, who perhaps were the leaders of the village, exchanging a bowing of heads with Marlow.

"Thank you," he told them, before turning back to the group.  "So good news, they say you can shack up here."

"I didn't hear them say anything," said Philip. 

"Oh they don't say much, but when you've been here as long as I have, you start to understand, you'll see."

"I don't want to be here as long as he has," muttered Slivko.

"Wait, wait-" Nieves jumped in front of Marlow, blocking the path.  "We can't stay here on the island! We have lives - I  have a life..."

"Nieves, now is not the time," stepped-in James.

"Well, what washes up here tends to stay here." Marlow led them through the village to a plot of water where an old rusting ship sat, Wanderer.  "As far as I can tell, this ship landed here about ten years before I did." 

"So you've been out here since World War II?" cried Tilda.

"Sure have. Say what happened with the war? Did we win?"

"Which one?" asked Slivko.

"Huh, yeah, makes sense." He led them into the ship through a large rusted-out hole acting as a doorway. "Now this is all hallowed ground to them so if you like your hands, don't touch anything," he advised, leading them deeper inside.

All eyes were on them. James appeared a bit uncomfortable at the attention the further in they waded. 

"Whoa, look at that," breathed Mason.

"This is incredible," agreed Tilda, trying to take it all in at once.  She had never seen the like. 

"The way they tell it, for thousands of years the people on this island lived in fear. That's a hell of a long time to be scared. And then, one day, the damnedest thing happened: some of the things they were afraid of started protecting them from the things that were eating them. But nothing lasts forever, I guess. This is where they honour the last of their saviours." He nodded to the walls where various painted images were. You had to stand at a certain angle in order for the images to come together to form one big picture. 

"Yeah, that's Kong. He's king around  here. He's God to these people. Kong's a pretty good king. Keeps to himself mostly. This is his home, we're just guests here. And you don't go into someone's house and start dropping bombs unless you're picking a fight."

"Damn right," agreed Tilda. 

"Isn't Kong the one who killed your friend?" asked Mason.

Marlow's expression grew more grave.  "No. One of them did-" He pointed to another painting.  "Kong's God on the island, but the devils live below us." 

"And what are they called?" asked James, almost cautiously.

"The Iwis won't speak their name. Bu I call 'em, 'Skull Crawlers'."

"Why?"

"Cause it sounds neat. I made that name up, I was trying to scare you."

"Well it is pretty scary," agreed Mason.

"I've never said that name out loud before, now it sounds stupid. Don't write it down." Tilda's hand paused in its rapid scrawling in her notebook. "Call 'em whatever you want. They're big lizard things, nasty. They come from the vents deep down. That's why Kong got so mad - those bombs woke up a bunch of 'em. I'll tell you what, you're lucky he's out there too, cause without him you wouldn't have gotten this far. They're crafty bastards, mean as hell. Now he's okay handling them as long as he gets to them when they're still small. I'm telling ya, you do not, do not, want to wake up the big one."

"How big is it?" asked San.

"A whole lot bigger. Wiped out Kong's whole family. He's the last of his kind, but he's still growing-"

"That giant monkey thing is still growing?!" cried Slivko in disbelief.

"Yeah, and remember, that 'giant monkey thing' is God around here.  And you'd better hope he does, keep growing that is, cause the Iwis say once Kong goes, then the big one comes up and it's 'Goodnight Irene'."

"Jesus," mumbled Mason.

Tilda peered at the painted image of the lizard-devils.  "What have we done?"

(Duh duh duh! Haha! ;) I love Marlow, he's  so funny!

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))