Primal and full of pain, Isaac’s howls carried to the boat. Vicky instantly recognised the voice as her son’s and, without hesitation, jumped over the rails. Feet dangling in the air, Steven caught his wife, and pulled her back on board before she could set foot on the soft sand. She twisted in to face him head on, only for her anger to be abated by Liam tearily hugging himself to her back.

“Don’t leave me.”

Sniffling into the back of her shirt, Vicky’s heartbeat skyrocketed. With arms shaking with frustration and worry, she turned around and held him tightly and Liam buried his face in her stomach. She petted his hair soothingly, but her eyes never left the tree line her son had disappeared into.

“I’m not going anywhere.” She shot Steven a meaningful look that he missed while also searching the treeline.

“They must be nearby.” Sure that Victoria wasn’t about to run into danger, he took one glance between his family members before disembarking himself. Landing in the sand with solid footing and a soft thud. “Keep Williams updated. Who knows what’s out there.”

The trio watched as Steven jogged out of sight towards the scream. Alice, though wary of strangers, stepped closer to the last remaining adult and grabbed onto the back of her trousers. Vicky patted her son’s head a final time before nudging him towards the door that led below deck.

“Best do as your father says.”

In the control room, Willams was storing coconuts in every nook and cranny available. Stacked high in a haphazard pile, he jumped as Liam ran charged down the small staircase, causing a surprising amount of noise for someone so small. He tripped and fell, landing face first into the unsteady pile and sent the coconuts scattering like bowling pins.

Liam picked himself up and braced for a scolding, but the man only took one look between the scattered mess and the guilty-looking child and giggled in the back of his throat. Williams moved to place a comforting hand on his shoulder, but Liam dodged it, which only made the man laugh more. Noting the child’s panicked posture, he quickly sobered and cleared his throat.

“Something happened, didn’t it?”

“We heard screaming. My dad’s gone to find everyone.”

“Alright lad.” Williams waded through the sea of coconuts. Making a pushing gesture to go back up the stairs. “Let’s go see how we can be useful.”

They Joined Vicky and Alice on deck. The young girl he had yet to hear speak worried him. She fluttered around the deck as if being unable to decide if she wanted to be with an adult or not. The odd behaviour was the least of their concerns, so he let it go and approached Vicky.

Holding herself in a loose hug, the tall, skinny woman had the tension of a coiled spring. Worrying at her lip, Vicky swallowed her dread and waited for something, anything, to happen. Unable to shake the feeling that if things went south, there would be nowhere to retreat. The thought that they would be stuck here forever while facing an unknown threat to her family was terrifying.

Williams rubbed the back of his neck as he approached. Between a rock and a hard place, he didn’t want to leave the boat with only a worried mother, two children and a mentally unstable young woman in a makeshift prison if there was indeed danger lurking on the island, but If the exploration group was in trouble, they might need every hand available to get out of a dangerous situation.

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He had little time to mull over the situation. The foliage around the treeline trembled and the sound of struggle travelled across the beach. A green humanoid creature flew out of the greenery and landed in the sand. Though injured, one arm limb by its side, it garbled furiously and made moves to jump back the way it came when it spotted the boat.

“What is that thing?” Williams squinted at it, then blinked like he couldn’t quite believe his eyes.

“Yie eh eh ah!” It charged at the boat and began climbing on board.

“A monster.” Vicky hissed.

More than ready to throw hands with the threat and blow off some steam. She was halfway over the railing when the rallying cry summoned more. They poured out of the tree line like a rolling carpet. Chagrin forward with no sense of self preservation. Trampling each other as they clambered towards the boat. Vicky aborted her previous plan and hastily clambered back on board.

“Get below deck!” She ordered the children, who were already running for safety. As they passed the car that imprisoned Emily. She was watching the commotion with her hands and face pressed on the glass and had the overwhelming urge to shout, I told you so. Suppressing the impulse as the first three fingered hand grabbed onto the rail and pulled itself up.

The creature screeched as Williams hit it on the forehead and sent it tumbling, holding as many back as possible. The repeated action looked like a game of whack-a-mole. Vicky gathered her negative emotions and channelled them into her actions. She punched the first monster in her path square in the chest; the ribs crunching under her knuckles as they caved in. It coughed up blood as it flopped onto the deck and didn’t stand again.

The onslaught of enemies was manageable at first, but as more bodies joined the battle, the sheer numbers overwhelmed the two defenders. Someone had kicked the hornet’s nest and now they were dealing with the swarm. Surrounding the humans didn’t take long.

Leaping, sinking claws and teeth into their flesh, climbing over them and each other, seeking weak spots the giants must possess. The eyes were usually a good bet, but getting up there wasn’t easy. Goblins going for the face were dealt with extreme prejudice. Torn asunder in Vicky’s hands, she didn’t have time to be surprised at how fragile the monster was. Dropping its pieces as it was replaced by two more trying their luck.

Faced with so many attackers, there was only time to react on pure instinct. Shouting battle cries and grappling, kicking, stomping, bucking. The graceless actions looked more like flailing silhouettes obscured by green than any semblance of a fight. Still, they didn’t fall, no matter how many chunks they took out of them.

As one particularly nasty bite got Williams on the butt, he stiffened, scandalised his face reddened and any semblance of fighting fair left him. He returned the favour by tearing out the throat of the one climbing his chest with his teeth. Blood hot and bitter as it dribbled down his chin. Neither of them had ever experienced a true, life-threatening fight before, but found the instinct came easily.

Williams found the clarity of mind startling. Gone was the mix of thoughts that tangled him in knots and prevented him from acting. All that existed was the fight. Grey matter exploded under his feet, the ichor ignored as he moved onto the next target.

Shattering glass was barely a distraction. Emily kicked out the window. The shards cut at her skin as she crawled halfway out. A goblin launched itself in her direction, grabbing onto her hair, and dangling off the ground. As she tried to pull it off, another clung to its legs and soon there was a chain working together to drag her out and pin her down.

More clambered onto her back, but she refused to be dog piled. Ignoring the broken glass, Emily hooked her arm into the window and got back to her feet. Claws raked down her face, cutting through her brow. She saw red as blood dripped into her eye. Picking up the offending monster, she threw it into the mob like a frisbee, the force enough to flatten two more to the deck, disappearing under the wave of trampling goblins.