"So, when did you learn alpinism?," Ann inquered Emily.
"Since I was little, can't remember when or why I started but I enjoyed it."
"I see, good for you."
"What jealous?," Emily teases her.
"You wish, I'm just looking around."
"Good idea, you never know what might be hiding inside here," peter said nervously.
"Don't worry, nothing bad will happen. Well I hope nothing bad happens."
"Thanks for being honest," peter muttered sarcastically.
"Whenever you want."
"Guys! Lower your voices," Emily demanded.
As the group got deeper into the island they noticed that were barely any noises.
Not even birds were singing, or crickets chirping. Just silence.
All they could see was green of the grass and leaves and blue of the sky.
"It's too quiet... isn't it?", peter asked nervously.
"I mean," Ann was trying to find an explanation, "It's not necessarily a bad thing, maybe that's good we can explore without annoyance."
"What if we're being watched by someone? Or worse something," Peter looks around to find if someone is sneaking up on them.
"Shut up, you aren't helping," Emily said calmly, "if anything attacks us we have what we need for self-defence."
Peter and Ann didn't continue with the talking and were focusing in their surroundings.
"Maybe I'm just paranoid," Peter chuckled awkwardly.
Emily looks around and notices a root of a tree moving.
"No, that's not it," emily stops.
"What is it?" Ann asks urgently.
"I believe I saw something movie, I'm trying to take a better look of it."
At this moment the others started fricking out.
"What did it look like?" Peter's voice sounding demanding.
"I am not sure,it was green it's most likely a snake."
At that moment a tree branch grew and tried to grab someone from the group. However the group reacted just in time and jumped before the tree could catch them, the force of the impulse from the tree's attack hitted the ground, which was enough to sent the others flying.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? DID THAT TREE ATTACK US?!" , Ann got up quickly and then started firing up the tree.
While Ann was trying to take down the tree, she realised that the tree was regenerating it's trunk and branches.
"GOD DAMNIT!" she growled angrily.
Peter and Emily were still on the ground trying to get up.
"What is it?" Emily asked.
"It can regenerate from the hits," she said continuing to shoot the tree while taking some steps back.
While she was busy shooting down the first tree, the one behind her started stretching, trying to reach out to her.
"BE CAREFUL ANN!," Peter jumped and started shooting at the second tree.
Ann changed her shotgun during this period and now she has only one which she's using now.
The trees striked them from below while stretching their roots, while protecting the middle of their trunk. The trees started pulling them towards them through the ground.
"DAMNIT, SHOOT THE ROOTS!" Peter ordered Ann.
The both shot at the roots, which slowly went back down inside the ground.
While Peter and Ann started to get up from the hole they found themselves in, Emily didn't attempt to help them and was just standing there.
"GUYS STOP!," she commanded them.
"ARE YOU NUTS??," Ann screamed at her, "THEY'RE TRYING TO KILL US!"
"NO, THEY'RE TRYING TO CAPTURE YOU!"
Even though Peter and Ann continued with their instinct the tree behind Emily started reaching out to her.
"EM LOOK OUT!," Ann yelled before shooting at the tree behind Emily.
But before she could react the tree had already embraced Emily to itself.
Just a second later Ann ran out of ammo in her last shotgun, the tree in front of Ann grabbed her and chained her to itself.
"FUCK! PIT HELP!," Before peter could react his shotgun also ran out of ammo.
Before he could grab the other shotgun, then Peter also got grabbed by the trees, now all three of them were chained to them.
"WE ALL ARE GOING TO DIE? FOR WHAT?" Peter blurted out frustrated by the situation.
Ann was trying to keep her cool, "there must be a way out we should think of something to get out of here."
"THERE IS NO WAY OUT, DON'T BE DELUSIONAL IN A SITUATION LIKE-," before Peter could say anything Ann interrupted him.
"CAN YOU SHUT UP? WE'LL LEAVE JUST WAIT!," she replied angrily.
Just then the three trees released a group of blue butterflies which flew into the forest.
"Where did these come from?" Peter asked.
"Don't give attention to it."
Ann started searching her surroundings, after not seeing anything she tried searching her pockets if she had anything useful.
"Search your pockets if you have anything that can come in handy!," she commanded them.
"SHIT!," Peter blurted out , "I forgot the walkie-talkie in my backpack."
There was nothing for the group to do except stare at each other and the horizon.
"Brilliant," Ann said beneath her breath, "now what? Stay here for eternity?"
"It depends," a voice of an old men came from behind. The group tried to glance towards the voice and they saw the blue butterflies flying back inside the trees.
They saw a group of people who looked like a tribe. Some were wearing clothes looked like they've never been washed and had lost colour, whereas others were wearing leaves to cover themselves.
Peter and Ann glanced at each other preparing for the worst these people had to offer.
"Who are you?" Emily broke the silence, "and how can you speak our language?"
The man started approaching Emily while Peter was trembling and Ann was holding her breath, trying not to give a reaction away.
"You are the intruders, so you speak first, who are you?" the old man asked calmly.
"My name is Emily, this two are my friends Peter and Ann," she responded.
"Who sent you here?" the old man was examining their reaction and their moves.
"Nobody, we came by ourselves," she was trying to keep her cool and trying to communicate this issue.
"Are you Nazis?," the man asked taking a step back.
The group was confused at the old man's question.
"No we are not," Emily answered , "why are you asking that?"
"Are you telling the truth?," the man ignored her question while he reached for his pockets and pulling out a blue stone, "are you telling the truth, that you aren't Nazis and won't do us any harm?"
Emily looked at the stone the man was holding then to the man, "no, we aren't Nazis and don't have any intention on harming you."
The stone started glowing, the group started to tremble.
As the stone was continued to glow, the man got on his knees and started chanting something in Hebrew.
As soon as the man finished talking the trees let the group down. They were breathing hard, Peter fell down from the exhaustion, while the girls were trying to get up.
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE?" Peter asked trying to gather his breath, "AND WHAT... THE HELL WAS THAT?"
"I'm sorry that our island attacked you," the old man said helping Ann and Emily get up, "we are from Zakynthos just like you."
"How did you know where we are from?" Emily started to breath normally again.
He laughed, "because only people who are born or raised in Zakynthos can see and interact with this island."
Emily was silent, analyzing the situation and from how it started, all the dreams and instincts that lead her here.
"You still didn't... answer my... question," peter uttered beneath his breath .
"I'm sorry young one, we are Jews from Zakyntho, we've been living here for a long time."
The group was stunned by this information.
"Wha- what do you mean?" Ann raised the question.
He started smiling sorrowfully, "because of the war, why else?"
"What war?," Peter was keeping his distance while he asked.
"World war 2 of course."
Peter looked at him in bitterness, "World war 2 ended over 78 years ago."
Alexander's eyes opened wide, he looked back at his people, all with confused and shocked reactions.
"W-what?," he queried, "it's impossible."
"It's true," Ann spoke up, "you aren't hunted anymore."
He was in a state of shock and disbelief.
He looked around thinking for what to say. He fell to the ground while trembling, covering his face.
Peter approached him slowly, though afraid he put a hand on the man's shoulder, "I'm... not good with words and I can't imagine what you've been through but," he paused for a second thinking of what to say, "... don't feel responsible nor guilt, if that's what's in your mind."
The man nodded while tears striping down his cheeks, "thank you... I- I needed that."
He slowly got up from the ground, with his head still down, he walked up to his people, "well, I think we should welcome you properly,no? Please follow us."
The man and the rest of the tribe were leading the way, almost all hiding their sadness.
The group looked at each other.
"Emily you go ahead, we should prepare our weapons, you know worst case scenario," Peter explained to Emily.
Ann nodded, "he's right, who knows what they'll do as reaction to their emotions."
Emily nodded and started following the tribe while Peter and Ann reloaded the shotguns.