Journey
“Goddamn jungles and goddamn mosquitoes the size of fucking bumblebees.” The world became hazy with the heat of midday but that was above the canopy where nothing protected you from the heat of the sun. Under the umbrella of trees, the humidity claimed the air with a thick grasp, enough to suffocate even the most resilient.
The hike was tedious and incredibly disgusting. My body was riddled with bug bites and I was constantly covered with sweat. I was sweating so much that it was startling. On top of the sweat and the bugs and the heat was the backpack on my shoulders that was full of useless equipment.
I was currently hacking my way through the amazon with enough irritation to just say screw the money and go back. However I knew that the pain was worth the price they had paid me for my help. But c'mon, an entire team of researchers and the only one who was of any use in the group was me. God help us all.
I was the one who hacked a path through the trees. I was the one who hunted the wild boar when we ran out of food. I was the one who found all the poisonous shit and marked it off so the dumbasses behind me wouldn’t accidentally explore it and die. The rainforest was a perilous place that only the experienced would survive. So when I say I was this team’s only hope, I’m wasn’t kidding.
A large group of soft, chubby, office bound, lounge lizards lazed behind me at a comfortable pace while I hacked away at the greenery enough to squeeze them and their impossibly heavy equipment behind them.
The scythe in my hands demolished the long stalks of tall grass and thick ropey vines as I navigated the ways of the jungle to an impossibly hidden location.
We had started in Macapá three weeks ago and traveled a few hundred miles down the northern channel of the Amazon from the Atlantic on a flat bottomed barge carrying over four tonnes of drilling and mining equipment. The mouth of the river ended at a reservoir where we had paid locals to allow us to dock the boat and continue through their land.
I was clearing a path that grew at a slow pace towards the target location. The researchers were deployed by their governments on a recovery mission. It was some biological specimen that they believed existed in a series of tunnels under a peculiar rock formation. I just wished the damn thing was closer to the rivers so it wouldn't be this hard to get to it.
There were few people that I actually got on with, none of them were amongst the research group. All the members of the government team regarded me like I was a predator amongst their midst.
I couldn't really blame them to be honest. I was toned and lean, my body built up hard from the years of fighting and surviving. I would have been more intimidating if I had the large towering frame of a man but instead I was feminine and slender.
I didn't resent it, being a woman in a man's job, but the world made sure that i never forgot. I was undermined and overtaken at every given opportunity. In the modern world where intellect and knowledge was the key basis of worth, the woman thrived on her ability to converse intelligently but here in the heart of the jungle, where brute force was a key factor in picking the leader, I was often at a disadvantage.
I wasn't insecure however, my boss knew my capabilities and he knew just what I could accomplish when given the opportunity.
One of the locals had fallen in step beside me as he helped to clear the path. The translator headset in my ear crackled to life as he spoke quietly to me. The quiet mumblings of the enormous man in a dignified language hummed through my earpiece in english as he spoke.
"We should stop for the day. It will be night by the time we get back." I nodded and wiped sweat off my brow. We turned to see the scientists rummaging about and collecting samples of flora around them. I snapped the scythe to the harness on my back and walked back in the same direction with the village man beside me. "Captain, are we turning back?" One of the women on the team asked. I nodded and waited for them to finish gathering the rest of their equipment.
"You are a woman of few words." Eloan, the village man rumbled beside me.
I allowed him a glimpse of my smile and said, "A few words is all it takes, friend. To blabber aimlessly is trademark of a fool."
He chuckled beside me, "They fear you because of it. You are too silent, like the jaguar, no one knows if you have come and gone until you strike."
"Good. Fear makes you listen and listening to me is the only thing keeping them alive."
He nodded knowingly beside me. We had been first hand in witnessing just how clumsy and unfit these scientists were to their new surrounding. They often whined and complained, their bodies unused to such strenuous activities. I often heard them complain of the food and the locals. They had no idea just how crucial the locals were in keeping us alive.
I stayed steady as we waited. My body remaining as still as stone, honed to noticing the slightest changes around me. Eloan stood like a mountain beside me. His regal stance and hawk like gaze making him seem much older than he was.
We were both children of the forest. The only difference between us is that he had been born into this home here and I had found my home here.
"Captain Castillo!" A male voice rang through the jungle as clumsy feet carried a lean man towards us. His footsteps resonated like dull thuds that rang through the canopy like a beacon. I winced as the man burst through the tree line and locked eyes on me.
Eric Morrison. He was one of the founders of this expedition, and had funded a majority of it. He was the rich child of an old money billionaire and had the attitude of one. He wanted what he couldn't have, he wanted whatsoever caught his eye and he was cunning about getting it.
He was a few years older than me, his light brown eyes and messy hair often made him seem a lot younger than he was, though. He had a lean athletic build, and while it was better than his colleagues, it still wasn't enough for him to be able to brave the jungle alone.
He came to a halt before me and I could almost feel the sneer of disgust that Eloan gave him.
I sighed and kept my head up, my eyes scanning the clearing. He was about to continue speaking before I held my hand out and stopped him. "Dr. Morrison, while I understand that you are excited, I do not understand why you believe that it is necessary for you to make as much noise as an elephant when you come tumbling through the trees. You are not a fighter Doctor, even a harmless ocelot could do some serious damage to you, so please stop drawing so much attention to your location."
Eloan snickered beside me and I could feel the burn of the glare that Eric gave to him.
"My apologies captain, I was simply coming to ask you if we could talk about our ETA. I would like to reach the site by tomorrow if possible."
Eloan chuckled and nudged my shoulder before murmuring to me in his language. I shook my head and grinned back at him.
Eric simply glanced between us and waited for me to explain what he said.
I cleared my throat and looked away. My voice came out strained as I tried not to laugh, "He said that you do not respect the path we walk, that is why it is such slow going." I continued to try not to laugh. Eloan said the same sentence but a bit more crude and with heavy words that were geared towards demeaning Eric.
The village man had quite the sharp tongue if you provoked him. Eric still just kept watching me. He was waiting for my answer and had chosen to ignore Eloan's words.
I sobered up and replied to him as seriously as I could.
"We will try and reach there by tomorrow but I make no guarantees, Doctor."
