It wouldn’t have been possible to do it in
any other way. Theo’s arm had to be cut off and his brother Gary was the one
that had to do it, as he was the only one medically capable to do such a thing.
Of course, Gary was could not bring himself up to do it. His hands were shaking
too much, he cried and sobbed and he just couldn’t do anything in his state.
Instead, it was Jennifer that did what had to be done. She had no training and
no real talent for such a thing but she did have the balls to do what no one
else could do as she had been through too much and she had passed all tests
possible.
She refused to be a nurse to Theo and forced
Amanda, who was Theo’s ex-wife after all, to do that job. Amanda was appalled
that she had to be there to see that and to hear the person she had loved so
much scream in agony and cry like he had never seen him cry before. He got
close to him after Jennifer had put on the first bandage and cleaned the wound
and put on bandages that were covered in the tree sap that they had found
earlier. It was likely that the plants around them had some medicinal value and
Theo should be the first one to take advantage of such valuable goods.
That night, they decided to protect their
little camp all at the same time. They couldn’t ask just one of them to make a
watch because they knew that Theo’s screams had lured many dangerous creatures
nearby. It would have been a better idea just to leave that place altogether
but decided to give the poor man a night to rest before starting to move again.
Besides they had no stretcher to carry him, so it was better if he rested and
walked by himself the next day.
However, he was still too weak to walk. He had
vomited at least twice during the night and the tree sap had apparently not
helped at all. Amanda decided to change the bandages, clean the wound, put on
some new fabric over it and move along. She carried Theo with the help of Gary
as Jennifer stood in front of the group with the rifle. She was very good with
weapons and very skilled in hand-to-hand combat. They had seen her kill two men
with her own hands, so they knew they had nothing to worry.
Advancing through the thick jungle was
difficult, as they had to move from lower to higher and the to lower ground
again quite often. It was obvious that Theo was slowing them down too much.
Jennifer looked at him with contempt every time she could and Amanda knew that
she was right to feel threatened by his presence. If a creature sprung out of
the water and killed them, it would probably be his fault. Because he had decided
to be the hero some days earlier. Because he had decided that he was better
than any of the others that had been there before, with them.
Amanda knew what kind of man Theo was.
At the end of that day, they really hadn’t
done too much. Jennifer went up a tree and, after coming back, she told them
she had been unable to see any lights or fire nearby. So no one was there with
them, or at least no one with the ability to make fire. They were lucky to have
Gary, who was an avid smoker and always had a lighter on him. The lighter was
half full but they only used it to lit up a small fire and night, with the help
of some dry branches.
Of course, it wasn’t Gary who started their
small campfire. It was Jennifer who did that as she had decided it was not the
very best idea to let a person as unbalanced as Gary handle anything that could
harm any other human being. He had been fucked in the head, or so said Jennifer
every time she found Gary speaking alone and doing these annoying screeches.
Amanda knew he had been hit in the head, at last that was what one of the guys
that was with him and Theo told them. Besides, he had seen them all been eaten
by one of the creatures of the swamp, so you couldn’t really blame him.
The sounds all around them announced the
presence of several life forms near them. It was imperative to keep the fire
alive, as it was the only thing keeping all the creatures away. Again, the two
women had no sleep at all and Gary didn’t close his eyes either, as he was incapable
of since he had since his brother go through so much. Theo, on the other hand,
had now come back from the dead and asked for water. He still had to be helped
when walking but only by one person so maybe they would be advancing faster.
As Amanda distributed a piece of power bar for
each person, Jennifer ate her piece fast enough and went up a tree again. From
there, she could see the eternal tapestry of the jungle: trees and trees and
trees, forming a vast green carpet that covered a very good part of the entire
planet. The other part was covered in water and there she knew colonists had at
least one base, one place from which they could help them if they made it to
the edge of the jungle, to the mangrove covered beach.
But as she watched the trees and thought of
her survival, she saw something interesting. It was kind of a glimmer, kind of
sparkle somewhere to the south. She knew they had to keep walking east if they
wanted to find the ocean but whatever was shining there, in the middle of all
those trees, had to be something interesting. She thought about telling them
and just splitting up but she realized they would never agree with her, they
were too scared to even move and they knew that without her and Theo, Amanda
and Gary could easily be labeled swamp food.
When she came down, Jennifer redirected their
stops towards the southeast, declaring she had seen smallest tress that way, so
the path to the ocean could be easier through there. It was all a lie to cover
her need to find out what was there with them, what did the swamp hide to them.
Theo felt much better by the end of the
following day and was very enthusiastic about coming out of the jungle pretty
soon. Gary understood his attitude and he started to be less of a nuisance at
night, even if he still refused to sleep, even a few minutes.
Finally, one day they encountered what
Jennifer had been wanting to find: it was a huge wall that penetrated into the
water below them and rose several meters up. It curved and even if they were
that close she knew it had to be some kind of dome. All of them touched the
glass and it felt strange, not quite solid and its temperature seem to rise.
Amanda was the first to scream. The wall
augmented its temperature very fast when someone touched it. So when the woman
left her hand there, she was severely burned. Theo helped her by pouring water
on her hand and telling her she should scrub it all off before pustules started
to emerge. The former lovers went down the vines and reached the water. It was
very dangerous but they had to do it to clean the wound properly. Amanda was
brave and did not scream at all.
But that did not stop a gigantic monster to
appear and try to eat her or, at least, her hand. It had lots of legs and eyes.
Theo helped her going up the vines, as Jennifer prompted them to go faster and
to follow them. They ran, as the creature broke several branches and slammed
against the glass of the dome, which seemed not to raise its temperature when
the creature touched it.
Theo and Amanda reached their companions and
stopped to take a breath but that had been a mistake. The creature managed to
get close to them and expelled a disgusting tongue out of its orange mouth. The
tongue trapped Gary and the others held his hands in order to fight the monster,
Jennifer shooting to push it away. But the swamp won the round. Theo slipped
and fell and Amanda wasn’t strong enough. Gary was pulled into the creature’s
mouth and down into the water. Jennifer shot twice more but then she stopped.
Theo pushed her and asked why she hadn’t fired
faster and more times to which she answer they couldn’t waste bullets. Theo was
on the verge of hitting her but then a loud sound interrupted them and their
thoughts. The sound came from the dome. Suddenly, a part of the wall disappeared
and they were allowed inside.
They all walked in unsure of what that would
mean for their lives. Bu they couldn’t stay in one place for too long. The
swamp was a nightmare and that dome was the only thing reminiscing humanity
that could be found around them.
Maybe the dome was a trap and maybe they
should have escaped faster. But, who knows, they may have survived to tell the
most amazing story yet.
