12.

Roland carried with him a backpack, a small light weight ruck sack on his back. He had some meat in it from the animal he had cooked a little while earlier, so he took some and fed it to Wolfie. Wolfie devoured what he had been offered and soon began to run up ahead of Roland. Before he got too far, Wolfie stopped, turned back toward Roland, and whimpered. The four-legged animal stayed right where he was and waited for Roland to get closer.

'What have you got there boy? What have you found?'

Roland had to stop, turn, and move away when he discovered what Wolfie had come across. Being who and what he is, there is little that can surprise him or turn his stomach, and such is what has occurred. Something like this must have been something expected, then perhaps not. Surely there is some sort of clean up policy on the go. With the illegality of it all ... perhaps not.

A decaying corpse lay in the foot high grass. Who knows how long it has been there? One year ... two ... more? It was spotted with flesh and worn clothing, so quite likely this person had succumbed to the island a year previous. The stench was unbearable and even made the big man sick to his stomach. He dry heaves twice, though did manage to keep down the food he had recently eaten, still, he did need to down some water which he had in his ruck sack to rid his mouth of the taste of vomit he could nearly feel coming up.

No point lingering any longer than he needed to, Roland continued on his way. Wolfie began clawing at the dirt next to the body.

'Come on boy, leave it be.'

From off in the distance, an oriental man came running at great speed towards Roland before coming to a halt about thirty feet away from him. To Roland, this man on front of him could be no taller than five foot seven or five foot eight and no more than one hundred and seventy pounds.

The man ripped off his own shirt to reveal his slim but somewhat muscular physique and began to prance around and make noises as if he was Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan or the like. Performing the martial arts on thin air does little to frighten Roland, for Roland knows too well ... thin air does not fight back. Roland placed his ruck sack on the ground next to Wolfie who just lay down making a slight whimper sound as if to say this new visitor is going to get his ass whipped. Yeah, even he figured what was next on the agenda.

Roland flinched once when the oriental man darted toward him before making a slight retreat. If he knew anything at all about his opponent, then this oriental man may not have even considered doing what he just had. One simply does not anger a beast, no matter one's proficiency to defend oneself.

However fancy the oriental man wanted to be, he did manage to run, jump, and jump so high that he was able to push himself up of off Roland's chest with his right foot while also getting to kick Roland in the face with his left foot. A pretty impressive, and fancy, manoeuvre it was, and it brought Roland down to one knee.

This manoeuvre did force Roland to take a step to his right, and once he was sure he had caught himself, he felt the connection which had been made to his face. For a moment he was unsure as to if he should be impressed or enraged. Before he could decide on either or both, the attack continued with another kick to Roland's head.

This did knock Roland back at least three or four steps. To his attacker's surprise, the big man had not been knocked to the ground. Roland steadied himself once more and had enough of his own senses to grab his new acquaintance by the throat as he moved in to attempt a third connection. He squirmed and squirmed and Roland raised the fellow up off the ground with one hand. Once again, the oriental man used his feet. The right foot in repeat or the earlier motion to push off and away from Roland as the left swung, connecting with the right side of Roland's face.

Roland once again managed to stay standing but had to fold himself over to try compose himself and in this he lost the grip he had on his opponent who had come down flat on his back and only struggled a little to get back to his feet. Roland was bleeding from the right side of his mouth, and there would be pain stretching right up to beside his eye.

Wolfie sits up, questioning what is going on. He does not know his new master, friend, all too well yet but even he was not expecting all this. Fuming, Roland went straight at the other man and swung wildly looking for that one knockout punch which proved elusive on that attempt. With his other fist, Roland wasted little time throwing another punch, which also missed.

The fellow is quick, and the injury to the eye was becoming a hindrance, making it difficult for Roland to see anything at all let alone see the guy who he was aiming to destroy. Roland began swinging even more wildly and was becoming further and further away from hitting his intended target. He himself becoming open game, an easy target to hit.

Wolfie barked, and Roland listened. He combined sounds. It sounded like to Roland that Wolfie rushed to be at his left side. Roland took and stretched out a punch to his left side. It felt as if he almost, but not quite, connected with his opponent. Wolfie barked again and this time it came from Roland's right, this was followed by a hit to the right side of Roland's head.

Alright, Roland feels as if he is closing in on what he needs to do. When Wolfie barked again Roland was ready. The bark came from behind him, so Roland turned quickly into a position where Wolfie must surely be directly behind him, and with that, he threw a heavy right-handed punch, straight ahead of himself. It connected full on, and completely knocked out the oriental man. The fellow's own momentum coming in on another attack added to the power of the blow that struck him.

Fight over.

With the kicks to the head and the injury to his eye, Roland could not see very much at all. He had no vision coming out of his right eye and sight from his left eye there was no more than a blur. It was obvious however whether he could see or not that his adversary was indeed out cold. So, when Roland could hear movement, he did not need Wolfie to inform him that someone else was indeed approaching ...

Oh the timing ... he is not ready to battle again, not yet anyhow.

'Steady boy' spoke Roland sensing Wolfie's unease. 'Who is it? Who is there?'

'Now take it easy there my friend. I am only here to help.'

Roland recognized the voice as belonging to the big man he had previously encountered. He backed up slightly and reached out toward Wolfie to pat him on his head.

'Help? Why would you want to help me?'

'Oh, I have my reasons' spoke the big man who Roland had indeed met a day earlier, 'now let me help you. You need to grab on to me. I am going to take you somewhere so I can treat your wound.'

There is blood tricking down Roland's face. He is not sure how well he can defend himself now, if he needs to. A few minutes pass and a destination is reached. This other big man handed Roland a towel to apply pressure to his eye.

'So, what do I call you?'

'You can call me Al.'

'Yeah? As long as you do not call me Betty. My name is Roland'.

'I know. By the way do you still want to kill me?'

'I will get back to you on that one.'

Roland may be in pain and unable to see very much but he still found reason to laugh. This island seems to be messing with him that way. Al had a medical station, a medical station that he had created himself. He had stolen, or rather taken, supplies off from those whose lives he has so far ended ... thus creating his own little sanctuary.

He treated Roland's eye managing to keep the swelling down. Almost certain concussion, along with his eye injury, caused Roland's temporary blindness, or so it would be suggested. With a little time, a day or so, his left eye would return to normality but for his right eye, well that would need a bit more time to recover, time that Roland did not have.