we had waded through the swamp for almost two days, lost a man through snakebite, one through leeches the size of rats, they leapt out and attached themselves to the face, sucking out blood from the mouth, eyes, and nose, the whole attack lasted a few seconds, death was fast, leaving a husk of flesh floating lifelessly and another man just disappeared, not even a splash.
our bodies were wearily and clothes wet, out feet ached and an awful rot had probably set in. the stench of the place was getting worse, and the heat was unbearable.
another attack another creature, this time some sort of huge wasp, except instead of a stinger it was equipped with some sort of missile attack system that fired javelin projectiles at a ferocious speed into their prey. the projectile pierced sgt. smiths chest leaving a small hole. he fell over immediately and his body was dragged down by something in the water. i managed to fire a laser shot in short bursts and clip the wasps wings, it tumbled down from the sky and fell in the jungle somewhere.
I was the only one who's laser worked, the others had all malfunctioned, the lieutenants exploded in his hand, i watched it fly across the sky the hand still gripping it in an almost perfect arc, just before it hit the water a huge spider swung down like a monkey and grabbed it, disappearing into the dense vegetation. lieutenant james screamed as he held his bloody stump up in front of his face, he looked in disbelief and then threw up.
i did my best to dress the wound but blood soaked through and fell into the water. i pushed the men forwards, 'move it, come on, hurry up, they will be here soon, let's go.'
amazonias river was filled with macro piranhas, they were the size of a large turkey, and they were more teeth than fish, deadly. we had seen them strip a man down to bone in under five seconds. blood would bring them to us. we ran as best we could waist high in muddy thick black water, in the distance a small island, sanctuary.
the lieutenant fell behind, i looked back and ran back towards him, 'hurry,' i shouted as i could see the swarm moving in. the lieutenant seemed to pick himself up and start to run but the weight of everything was slowing him down, he will never make it. i leaned forwards and grabbed his hands and then ran backwards to the land, i could see the lieutenants eyes looking into mine in disbelief. i hit the bank and dragged him up out from the water, the piranhas swam away fast but as i pulled him out i could see everything below the waist was bone. blood oozed from his mouth and he spluttered out some final words, 'look out behind you.'
i must admit i was surprised, i was expecting something more profound. i dropped him face down and turned. there up on the mound was a huge bright red flower, a cross between an orchid and a sunflower, it was massive with long tendrils flanking either side of it's stalk. it had hundreds of fine razor sharp teeth and it leaned in, leering at me, spat out something akin to a mild acid and a tendril curled around my leg, dragging me towards what appeared to be it's mouth. another tendril had one man by the neck, it stuck the mans head into it's mouth and spat out the skull, then did the same with the rest of the body, a carnivorous plant.
i reached out, as it pulled me closer, grabbing the laser, took aim, muttered, 'digest this carnivorous fuck.'
the laser fizzled, made a spluttering sound and died. the plant loomed over me blocking out the jungle, my face was burning up, my jacket was melting, a narrow slice of blue sky whizzed past me and then i realised i'd been thrown. tossed aside.
my vegetarian diet had paid of after all.
i stripped of my clothes, the plants acid had burnt right through them but only irritated my skin. it was excruciating but given the circumstances i didn't have time to mess about worrying about appearances.
i was on my own now, just me on this god forsaken planet, me and the plant life.