The Jungle

David had no idea why they were out here, but the money was good and that’s all that mattered. He was part of a research team sent to the planet Vilinuvious 3, or, as many had coined it back on their home planet of Grund: The Jungle. And so, Vilinuvious lived up to its name.

David used his light blade as the heated edge cut down the suffocating vegetation in front of his troupe. Stopping suddenly and looking behind him he motioned to his six companions to come forward.

“We have a clearing up ahead. There we will set up camp and continue to the objective.”

A few of the weary scientists grunted and nodded as they made their way past the threshold David had created into the clearing. It resembled a meadow of sorts, the binary star system was beaming down on the area. Why no trees were present was a mystery.

David hated mysteries.

“Gerald, can you analyze the soil composition? Something is off.”

As the rest of the scientists started to set up camp, the short stocky man named Gerald scanned the area with his eyes. As he scanned, David looked at the rest of the group. But really, he had his eyes on one person in particular.

“Alright, I think I can explain the lack of vegetation in the area. You won’t believe me, but it’s crystals. There’s some sort of volcanic activity below us that is disrupting the soil. The only thing that grows here is this grass.” Gerald motioned with his foot.

David nodded.

“Alright, thanks, was just a little worried.”

Gerlad smiled as he put a hand on David’s broad shoulder. His dark brown mustache trickled with green sweat.

“Yea, well, you know what they used to say? Better safe than sorry!”

David smiled, the dark chestnut skin around his cheeks contorted into beautiful dimples.

“In the short time I have known you, you’ve been the most useful.”

Gerald shrugged as he made his way back to the middle of the encampment, speaking as he trailed off.

“Mercenaries! Always judging people by their prescribed usefulness, bah!”

David chuckled a bit and turned towards the forest, squinting, he thought he could make out something in the distance. Something shadowy.

“What the?”

As he scanned the forest with his eyes, however, the only thing that came up were small animals and insects.

“Hmmm” he said as he joined the scientists.

___________________________________________

It was nighttime in The Jungle. The troupe knew it would last days. They came prepared, however. Tristan and Jennifer held up glowing pills that they waved in front of the group as they prepared their gear.

“Isn’t it insane that these little things can actually change your xDNA? And we just accept that. We take them knowing that it will alter our entire makeup.” Jennifer said as they twirled it in their hands.

Tristan looked at David then rolled his eyes.

“Wrong! It alters an almost infinitesimally small part of our xDNA, in particular, Gertrude’s Corner which is located within Huxe’s Helix, HH for short…”

Nobody but David was listening as Tristan spoke, Jennifer having already swallowed their glow pill began ignoring the young scientist as they readied their gear. As Tristan finished, he nodded to David and stretched out his hand.

“Thank you, for listening. It seems that despite being people of science, we still have a long way to go towards common courtesy.”

David broke from his trance as he vigorously shook Tristan’s hand.

“Ah, yes. As the only non-scientist here I’m always learning when you all speak. That reminds me though, where is Julius?”

The troupe looked around but could not find any sight of him.

David’s instincts sprang into action. Producing a rifle from beneath his trench coat, he scanned the area. Nothing, no one, but there were footprints trailing off into the vegetation. Still aiming down his sights, David asked the group if anyone had seen Julius leave. A tall attractive woman with a short pug nose spoke up.

“Julius went to gather materials for a current project on Grund. We’d been force marching throughout the jungle for the better half of a day, it would have been nice to stop for a few moments to analyze the local flora and fauna, soldier.”

David shook his head.

“Lylo, how far would he have gone, why didn’t he notify anyone?”

Lylo shrugged.

“Probably fed up, I don’t know.”

Another scientist who fumbled with their gear, frustrated with the proceedings, spoke.

“You know Lylo, that isn’t what happened. Can you get your head out of your ass for ten seconds?”

Lylo walked back to her tent and sat down.

“Not my problem Fredricka.”

Fredricka snarled in her direction.

“That is Rica to you,” she turned towards David who paced around the camp looking for clues “David, he left because of an argument with Lylo and Gerald.”

Gerald held his hand out in protest.

“Why snitch on me?”

David ignored all of their bickering as he sighted in on something coming in from the clearing. As the figure came closer, energy flowed into his rifle. Then, he quickly put it down.

Julius pushed away vines and brush as he sauntered towards camp. The entire troupe let out a long sigh of relief as Julius rushed back to his gear.

David grabbed him by his shirt, spinning him around.

“What do you think you’re doing, going out there by yourself? You were about to get blasted.”

Julius looked back at David and nodded.

“I’m sorry, I just needed to be alone.”

David scrunched his face, the glow pill illuminating his surroundings.

“And where is your glow? Jennifer, get him a glow pill please.”

Jennifer shrugged.

“Okay but he already ate one.”

Silence enveloped the group as David squinted his eyes.

“Okay, give him another.”

Jennifer found another pill and threw it to Julius. Julius jumped and ate the pill in midair to the surprise of everyone.

“What the f-” Tristan went to say as Julius’s head blew into thousands of tiny fragments.

There was a screech in the jungle as the troupe screamed.

Lylo yelled at David.

“What did you do! Why?”

David yelled back at everyone, ignoring Lylo.

“We have to get out of here, look,” he said as he pointed at Julius’s body “look what’s happening.”

Julius’s body started to convulse as white fluid poured out of his gaping neck. Everyone immediately grabbed their packs and surrounded David.

“What do we do?” Rica said as she hyperventilated.

David readied a pistol in one hand and his light sword in the other.

“Run, run to the ship! Let’s go, follow me.”

David took off, following the coordinates in his mind. Rica followed closely behind Tristan as she passed through blackened vegetation that was singed by David’s light sword. Then, suddenly she stopped. Tristan looked behind him and yelled at her. Then, a small smile began to show on her face.

“Holy shit! David, Jennifer?”

Suddenly Tristen was running in complete darkness, only the glow of his body lit up the immediate surroundings. Tristan took out a few glow pods from his waist and threw them through the brush.

“Somebody! Anyone! Gerald?” He said as he saw the face of his companion not far off in the distance. This too disappeared.

Then, suddenly, there was a sharp pain at the back of Tristan’s neck and all went black. The skin was completely sheared off his head as he screamed in the night and blood splattered in every direction. He gurgled as he frantically tried to run away. He looked down, his feet were cut off at the ankles. Falling to the ground, his last moments would be Rica’s smiling face staring down at him.

__________________________________________

It had been hours of running through the brush and they had lost Tristan and Rica. David looked back at Gerald and Lylo, fear on their faces as they all ran.

“We are almost there! Keep pushing, do not look back for any reason.”

Rica had rejoined the group, but David had no time to think about if she had just gotten lost or if she was a part of whatever was hunting them. David sprinted through another clearing and vaulted over vines and bushes in the way. He knew none of the scientists would be able to clear it that fast, but as he glanced behind him, Gerlad seemed to have little difficulty.

“Got you.” David said as he aimed his pistol center mass and dropped Gerald as the round spread fire throughout his body. There was another screech in the forest as Rica suddenly grabbed her ears and tore them off.

“Fuck! David?” Lylo said as Rica stopped running and turned sharply on her.

David cursed under his breath and jumped into the air then shot three times. One round struck Rica’s head, another her torso, the other her abdomen. Lylo ran towards David as he lay on the ground getting up slowly.

“David! David!” She said as she helped him up.

David grunted and grabbed her wrist as she hoisted him to his feet.

“Let’s go!”

Lylo followed him close. David knew it was Lylo, he wouldn’t have been alive had it not been.

With the ship now in sight, he looked behind him as Jennifer emerged from the clearing on the other side. The entrance to the ship slowly opened as Jennifer shot a frightened glance at David.

“No, no it couldn-” David said as he felt a sharp pain on his side and flesh exploded outwards. He screamed as he twisted around and sliced Lylo’s head clean off with his light sword. Falling to his knee he grabbed a swirling orb beneath his coat and slapped it on his side. It completely healed the wound.

Jennifer closed the distance on David, their leg was badly wounded.

“David, it was Rica, Rica was the one!”

David shook his head, still not fully recovered. Jennifer slowly walked towards him, their skin falling to bits around them.

Their voice changed, the pitch changing from high to low randomly. They laughed as David hung his head low.

“It was Rica, it was Rica, Rica it was!” The shadowy figure taunted as David kneeled, defeated.

“What are you?”

It leaned down close and whispered in David’s ear.

“Better safe than sorry, David.”