11.

Making his way to seek shelter from a sudden down pour, Roland was to be taken back, back in time to when he was last on the island with the rain coming down this heavily. For he would have this sense, a feeling, an out of body feeling where he would be helplessly standing by and watching, watching the moment that Rachel dies in his own arms.

He knew he would be unable to escape it. It, she, was never really gonna go unremembered. How could a brief encounter, for basically that what it had been – one or two brief encounters – affect someone just like how Rachel has impacted Roland's life? Sure, his recent mystery opponent basically tried to stick Roland with it and use the memory against him.

Right now, it was as if he stood no more than twenty feet from another version of himself. The version of himself that had only just removed an arrow out of Rachel's back and could do nothing other than hold her as she struggled to breathe.

It is tough. Not just being on the island, and in a moment like this, but Roland's whole life in general has been tough. If anything, and at that, Roland feels more at home on the island than he does anywhere else either in the world or in time. This Daniel Allen persona with the cheap car, cheap suit and crappy job, it's not him, not by a long shot.

He does not like that, what his life became back in the real world. Roland being Roland, he despised it. At least on the island he can be himself, his real self whether his life is or has been tough. No having to restrain his anger. No wishing he could knock his boss out and not being actually able to do so. What the island had brought him was love and that had been ever so brief. This showed him that there is more to life than pain and anger.

All this could only pose the what if questions. What if Roland makes it off the island for a second time? Does he just accept another new identity that might come with an even worse car and an even worse suit? Suppress his anger, thoughts, and emotions? Of course, if he does not make it off then he has no need to worry about what the future holds.

There is the one matter however that Roland wants so badly to resolve before anything else can even be considered or dealt with and that is to seek revenge. Seek out Claude Raymonde and take his life, anything after that, well that is all at this point ... an unknown. Something else that is an unknown is whether or not Claude Raymonde is actually still on the island. That however was something Roland never doubted.

Roland awoke at dawn on his second day back on the island. Laying only feet away from him and to his right was something which confirmed what he already knew. Claude Raymonde was indeed on the island and the confirmed came with a message, a message which Claude knew that Roland would understand. For what it was that was lying next to Roland was a bow and a satchel of arrows.

Thing was now, should Roland be happy with the confirmation that Raymonde was indeed on the island and with the fact that he is in possession of a weapon? Or should he be angered by the fact that someone got so close to him while he slept, close enough to kill him? Claude was never gonna kill Roland so soon into his second stay and that's why a present had been left. Leaving the bow and arrows does more than leave a message, a message that taunts; it is as good as sticking one to Roland.

It is almost like saying, I killed your lady friend with these, but before you come get me, you need to take care of island business.

However which way Roland would deal with the moment in which he awoke, he now indeed had a weapon other than his fists to carry around and use as how he sees fit. Though he would first reacquaint himself with the bow and arrows in a manner in which he gets to feed ... and feed he would. Catching himself a meal now was something which already was proving that much easier than it had twelve months earlier. Roland would be cautious too in cooking his food. He had no problem taking on all comers, but he would rather not do so while he was feeding.

Feeding time, for the time being, was done and dusted, so for not being one to stay still very long Roland moved on fully aware that cameras were watching his every move. For a first time, he properly felt them watching him. Eyes, there are many eyes watching his every move.

There was a wide-open space up ahead and Roland did not like the looks of this for two reasons. One, of course being the fact that he would be moving through a wide-open space leaving himself open to attack, especially if there were others out there who would also be wielding weapons. And two, being that this was and is a part of the island he had not seen or been to before, so where he was going and why he was going there had no meaning in particular, other than to progress along the path of his two missions.

Sure, it had all been new to him a year ago, his return, however, was bring little familiarity to him in which he could use to an advantage. Those missions of his indeed are to destroy anyone and everyone who is part of this 'animal' show, and of course to seek and destroy the one man he so badly wanted to seek revenge on.

Despite the fact that he had caught, killed, cooked, and feasted on a wild boar Roland had completely forgotten about was the fact that there were actual animals on the island such as the wolves he had encountered the year before. Just because he presumed that those particular wolves were all dead did not mean that there could not be any other wolves or any other kind of beast other than the humankind on the island.

What brought back some memories of the previous year was the sight of a wolf coming running toward him from some way off in the distance up ahead of him. Weren't they something more, some sort of wolf like hybrid? This could be trouble. ... Oddly, this incoming wolf did not particularly look in any way menacing but Roland did not want to take any chances.

He aimed an arrow along the bow and waited ... then waited some more. The wolf came to a halt. Roland eased off on the arrow after which the wolf continued to move toward Roland. Everything about this moment was and is confusing. The demeanour of the wolf suggested he were more domesticated dog than wild wolf, and the possibility of Roland himself actually feeling some kind of compassion ... everything indeed about this moment was as strange, as strange could be.

The wolf let out a quiet low sounding howl and began circling Roland. Roland definitely did not particularly want to kill it. Besides, wolf for his next meal did not sound in any way appealing, but if he needed to, he would have no problem eating whatever comes his way.

The wolf seemed friendly enough for the moment, it too appeared not to have come seeking trouble, so, Roland let it be. He moved five steps off to his left and the wolf matched his movements. Roland again moved five steps, this time to the right, and again the wolf matched his movements. In a strange way, it seemed that this animal was looking for a companion more than anything else.

For in this moment, it appeared that Roland may have also found himself somewhat of a new friend, an ally perhaps. How long this would last and if it could last, would be something of another thing. When Roland moved on for real, as in to continue on with what he needs to do, the wolf moved up alongside him, in an I'm coming too kind of conversation. This ally would need a name and the first thing that came to Roland's mind was Wolfie.