The Swiss Family RobinZOM (Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

It’s hard to tell. And those are just the ones we saw. There could have been more in the jungle, and more still in the cruise ship. We’ve got our escape plan. We’ve got our boat. I suggest we take it and get out of here. We’ll load up all our supplies and be gone before they get anywhere near us.”
    “What if we stayed here in the trees?” Liz said.
    “For how long?” Bill said. “And what happens when we run out of food? Or we roll over in our sleep and fall out of the tree? It’s not worth the risk when we have a perfectly good boat out there waiting for us to use.”
    There was a pause. Ernest had a thoughtful expression on his face.
    “Why don’t we build traps?” he said.
    “Good thinking, Ernest,” Bill said. “We’ll hunt for some animals, dry the meat and take it with us.”
    Ernest shook his head.
    “No,” he said. “I mean hunting Lurchers. We know this island better than anyone.”
    “We don’t want to trap them,” Bill said. “We want to kill them.”
    “First we trap them, and then we kill them.”
    There was a pause. Liz nodded.
    “It’s an idea,” she said.
    “It’s suicide,” Bill said. “We’ll never build enough traps to stop them all.”
    “We don’t need to stop them all,” Liz said. “We just need to stop most of them. If a few get through, we can take them down ourselves.”
    “How do we kill the ones we do trap?”
    “We have a gun.”
    “With four bullets.”
    “We have bows and arrows.”
    “Brilliant,” Bill said. “So we’re going to re-enact the American Indian Wars?”
    “Technically we’re more advanced than they are, so we’re the Europeans in this situation.”
    Bill looked at Liz.
    “You’re being serious?” he said.
    “I don’t want to run away from everything we’ve built here,” Liz said. “I know we’ve got a lot left to build yet, but it’s our home.”
    “I understand,” Bill said, “really, I do. Believe me, I want to stay too. My only concern is our safety. Leaving now guarantees that.”
    “What if we can’t find another island?” Liz said. “What if the next island we come to has even more Lurchers? What if we get stuck on the mainland, or swept up in a storm? The monsoon season isn’t over yet.”
    “Look,” Bill said. “We all knew this could happen. That’s why we came up with the escape plan. Now you’re saying you don’t want to go?”
    “Everything we’ve built here, everything we’ve done…”
    “We can do it all again,” Bill said. “Do you honestly think you could ever rest easy here again knowing those things are out there?”
    “I know I’ll never rest easy out there on the mainland,” Liz said.
    “We’ll find another island. There must be lots out there.”
    “And what if we get stuck at sea?”
    “We have provisions on board. We can survive.”
    “I don’t want to survive,” Liz said. “I want to live!”
    “We must survive first, then live.”
    Liz frowned, shaking her head.
    “Why don’t we set fire to it all?” she said. “Set fire to the whole island, reduce it to ash.”
    “And then what do we do?” Bill said. “What do we survive on? You’re being irrational. The fire would destroy everything. We’d have no home, no food, nothing. Then we’d have to find another island anyway.”
    “And what about Jack?” Liz said. “He can’t go on a long voyage the way he is! What if we take him out to sea now and he needs medicine?”
    “We’ll take plenty with us.”
    “And if we run out?”
    “We won’t run out. Look, I think we’ve debated enough. Let’s put it to a vote. Who votes we get on a boat and leave right now?”
    Bill raised his hand. After a moment, Ernest followed. And then, not looking at Francis or his mother, Fritz put up his hand.
    “Fritz!” Francis said.
    “Dad’s right,” Fritz said. “We have to do what’s best for us all.”
    “Who votes we stand and fight?” Bill said.
    Liz and Francis raised their hands.
    “Three to two,” Bill