Chapter 12.

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot, there’s one alternative I brought to test out. I found a prototype in my father’s mansion after the first time I visited this island, but I don’t know how effective it would be here since I’m not too familiar with the specifics. It can convert wifi into electricity.”

“There’s no way that could actually work. Technology hasn’t reached the point where you can get enough power out of…”

I immediately shut my mouth.

“Ah, Darling… the light on it is on. It looks like it’s charging the internal battery.”

With the ridiculous speed of the internet here far beyond its time, what am I even getting surprised over? It’s not like the concept of charging through wifi was never thought of, it’s just that the timing didn’t make sense when I considered when he died. If he really was more than just a simple doctor, and he really was a secret genius mad scientist far beyond his times, then just maybe it could be possible.

I didn’t want to accept that reality, but I stopped questioning it and for the time being chose to just accept it as fact. Her father was beyond my imagination. I’d only seen him once and that was on his deathbed in the strange dream I had, murdered by one of his ‘daughters’. He’d surely lost his mind by that point in his life, but before that, I knew nothing more of him.

His work was a complete mystery. Perhaps he really just snapped and lost it one day in his pursuit of playing god to create a higher dimensional being. Maybe his insanity was even contagious and I caught it through Adele.

“Adele, like you said, we should find shelter.”

Adele put the two chargers in a backpack with some other supplies and put it on her back. She jumped off the boat and ran around a bit in the sand a bit.

It only just hit me, but Adele had made a round trip to the island and back. If that was the case, why did we not have enough fuel to get back?

I jumped off the boat and quickly caught up to her.

“Hey Adele, you made a round trip here and back before, right? How exactly did you get back the first time, and if you did get back safely, why didn’t you bring more fuel for this second trip when you knew beforehand how much fuel it took?”

She turned towards me while walking backwards with a jubilant smile on her face as she explained, “Well, that’s obviously because I knew my darling would try to run away on his own if there was enough fuel for a round trip. Thus, being the clever woman I am, I only filled up enough fuel to make it here. That way we’d be stranded together, just the two of us, without anyone to obstruct us. Like this, I could have peace of mind that my darling wouldn’t ever have a chance to flee and escape the island by himself without me.”

“What if I just used the internet to contact rescue?”

“You’d be long dead before they arrive if you do that darling. It’s not like before in the comfort of your apartment where you could contact the police and they’d show up in a flash.”

She stopped in place, raised her hand and caressed my cheek gently. As I’d grown somewhat accustomed to her methods, I wasn’t that shocked by her revelation.

Rather, I felt a sort of, ‘oh, so that’s what it was. It all makes sense now. She’s still just as batshit crazy as ever even if she’d shown a bit of improvement since we last met.’

“Aren’t you going to put on your standard, you’re scaring me, but I’ll do everything I can to avoid showing it on my face, expression?”

“I’m a bit numb to it by now to be honest. I think I’ve reached a level where my crazy tolerance bar has moved up significantly. Rather than scared of you, I’m more fearful that the level of my crazy tolerance has risen too high.”

“You were cuter when you had that, I want to run away, but I can’t bring myself to attitude. It always made me want to chase after you, but this sort of natural acceptance kind of feels… not so bad? I think I might actually be a bit happy. This is weird.”

“You’re right, it’s definitely weird.”

Adele removed her hand from my cheek and started to pick up a few pieces of dry wood in the sand.

“Are you planning to start a fire?”

“No, I’m not.”

“Then what are you doing?”

“I’m gathering items for a fire. You’re the one that will be making the fire. You need to build up your survival skills. Don’t get me wrong, I love everything about you, but it’s always bugged me how low your survival chances would be if you were dumped out in the wild without any electronic gadgets. You’re too reliant on tools of the modern world. If you ever were faced with an end of world situation and I wasn’t around at that time, do you believe you’d be able to survive on your own out in the wilderness?”

“If the internet still existed I think I’d be able to scrape by somehow.”

“Do you really think the internet would conveniently be available to you like on this island? Look, this is the perfect opportunity to acclimate yourself to the natural world. You even have the internet at your disposal to assist you as a lifeline.”

“I really don’t get why you think I need these sorts of skills. When we leave this island, it’s not like I’m going to live the rest of my life out in the wilderness. I’d likely just go back to city life and return to my job.”

“Assuming there’s a job or city for you to return back to.”

“What do you mean? It’s not like the world is really just going to end out of nowhere like that.”

“Darling, the world is often unpredictable. The false sense of peace you have in civilized society could be shattered from one day to the next. You should always be prepared for the worst.”

“Adele, do you know something?”

“No. It’s just… the moment I saw that woman, Maria, in your apartment... my instincts have been screaming of immense danger of world shattering proportions. I don’t quite know just what it is, but my instincts when it comes to these sorts of things have never let me down. The entire reason I made us use all those escape vehicles was because the sense of danger never disappeared after we left your apartment. I chose to use my last resort which was to escape to this island. Only when we arrived here did that feeling of danger slightly dissipate.”

“Could it be you’re actually just afraid of Maria?”

I looked at Adele with a strange look of disbelief. I could hardly believe she could be afraid of anyone.

“Afraid of her? Hah! Yeah right. I’m only a bit afraid of whatever this hidden unseen danger is. You think I’m afraid to rip out a woman’s throat if she dares bat an eye your way?”

With deadpan eyes, I averted my eyes to the side in silence. She was right, I couldn’t imagine her being afraid of any woman. If she said she’d rip their throats out for sending me a flirtatious glance, I wouldn’t doubt her for a second.

“You’re right, it was my mistake to compare you to someone normal.”

“I’m very normal.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’re very normal.”

For a psychopath that is. I might even be able to say you’re a bit tame now in comparison to how you were before.

“Nevermind, I don’t like the way you said that. I’m not normal.”

“Right. Whatever you say.”

With a slightly annoyed expression, she handed over the scraps of drywood she’d collected. “Get to work on starting that fire.”