The loud humming drum of the single engine
aircraft buzzed through Mika’s body as he glanced out the small craft’s
window. The trees below were strange, massive things that slowly became
more numerous as the normal jungle of the Amazon rainforest receded, as
if afraid to enter this strange bastion of a lost primordial world.
“Impressive,
aren’t they?” his pilot, a twenty-something woman named Oklahoma
grinned, “I’ll tell you something kid, you’ve got to be careful that
jungle doesn’t swallow you up.”
“I’ll be fine,” he said dismissively, looking out the window.
“Yeah,
okay He-Man,” she chuckled, bringing the plane into the path of the
wide and winding brownish blue river below. She brushed her long brown
hair over her shoulder as the plane began to descend, “Last chance to go
back, I’ll even refund enough of your money to buy a jetliner home,”
she turned back and grinned, “first class, for nice soft boys.”
He
blushed, looking away. He wasn’t a large man, having preferred time in
the library to the soccer pitch growing up, and he didn’t care for the
casual insults the woman seemed so willing to lay on someone who’d paid
her so much. Still, Oklahoma was his only choice if he wanted to reach
the Lemurian Jungle, no other pilot would take the job, and there were
no guides to take him overland.
There was a rough splash, causing
birds to take to the sky as monkeys cackled in the distance, watching
the small pontooned aircraft come to a slow stop atop the river. From
the ground the trees on the far side of the river looked all the more
ominous, vast rising things that loomed like skyscrapers, but no man had
a hand in these…
“So why do you want to go in there anyway?” Oklahoma asked, unbuckling her seatbelt.
I’ve been dreaming of it for as long as I can remember, he wanted to say, longer than I knew where or what it was. He
thought back, when he’d first seen the black and white photos in the
library book, his heart pounding and his mind blank as he recognized the
lost primordial jungle that he had been so sure only existed in his
dreams.
“I-I’m an archeologist,” he stammered finally, blinking. “I’m interested in any potential ruins.”
Oklahoma snorted, “Good fucking luck, there are no natives living in there kid, they’re too smart for it.”
“What do you mean?” Mika asked with a frown.
“They took one look at those trees, and decided to live on that side
of the river,” Oklahoma said, pointing to the riverbank where normal
Amazon flora and fauna flourished, “the side of the river I’ll be
camping on while I wait for you by the way.”
“You’re scared,” Mika said, smirking a little.
Oklahoma
glared at him a moment, suddenly going serious, “Listen here Mikey, it
doesn’t just stop with natives, there are no criminal groups, rogue
guerillas, corporate logging camps, poachers, or any of the other shit
you normally want to avoid out in the jungle either, if the most
dangerous people in the world think it’s too dangerous for them? I’m not
arguing!”
“The name is Mika,” he said, annoyed, “and surely someone comes out here, sometimes?”
Oklahoma
chewed her lip a moment, “A few guys I know from back in Sao Paolo say
they went in once, smugglers who wanted to see about setting up a depot
of sorts.” She looked up at the enormous trees, the tangling vines thick
as a man’s arm, and the darkness within. “They must have gotten high on
their own supply,” she said quietly, “they came back telling stories of
giant snakes.”
“Anacondas are native to the region,” Mika said slowly.
“Not big snakes, giant snakes,”
Oklahoma said, “Like, could fight Godzilla giant.” She beamed suddenly,
“but hey, that’s just a bunch of bullshit, has to be, right?”
“R-Right,”
Mika stammered, watching as she pulled the door of the small airplane
open. She leapt down onto the pontoon, leaving him alone with his
thoughts as she unbuckled a small canoe which he’d use to cross the
river. It bobbed slightly as he climbed into it, and he checked to make
sure his pack was secure as the rich musty humidity of the titanic
forest reached his nostrils, sweat already beginning to form on his
forehead.
“You got a gun?” Oklahoma asked, eyeing his pack a moment.
“I’ve never used one,” he replied, starting to paddle off.
Oklahoma
just chuckled, opening her vest for a moment, and letting him get a
look at a small shining pistol holstered under her shoulder, “Well if
you need one, run like hell back here, because you can’t borrow mine!”
She thought a moment, “What about any next of kin? You know, to tell if
you don’t come back?”
“I’m an orphan,” he shouted back, raising an eyebrow as she just chuckled at the response.
Strange girl, he
thought, not for the first time. As the canoe hit the riverbank he
glanced back, seeing Oklahoma setting up her own camp on the far side,
the normal side, of the river. With a deep breath, he took his first steps into the impossible forest.
…
Chloe
stirred, the distant buzz of the aircraft engine echoing over her
jungle as she stretched, yawning and blinking at the rising sun. She
brushed a long strand of auburn hair out of her eyes as her snakelike
lower half uncoiled, the shining red and yellow scales catching the
light as she rose, slithering her way out of the massive stone ruins.
She
made her way down among the immense trees, idly reaching up to pull
down a large striped fruit, plunging her fingers into it and pulling the
outer shell away. The snake-woman lifted it to her mouth, taking a long
slow drink, savoring the sweet flavor of the fruit’s milk before
letting her teeth sink into the succulent solid flesh.
As she
enjoyed her meal, she scanned the sky, thinking. The buzz of an aircraft
would mean more of those strange little things which looked half like
her, but had two appendages where their long, scaled tails should have
been. They scurried about, sometimes in things that flew, like birds,
sometimes in little metal boxes, but they always fled when they saw her.
Chloe
wasn’t sure what to make of them, she’d only seen them a few times
growing up, but lately more and more of them were in her territory. She
sniffed the air and smiled, they certainly did have an appealing aroma
though, and taste. She slithered quickly through the trees, eager to locate the newest arrivals.
…
The
small group of mercenaries loaded the beach ball sized fruit into the
back of the large truck, the rubbery spheres bouncing slightly as they
were tossed haphazardly in.
Higgins watched from the jeep nearby,
his ice-grey eyes unblinking the men worked. Where the rest were rough
and tanned from the sun, Higgins somehow kept a pale complexion, even in
a place like this. His black suit was always crisp and pressed, as
though it had come straight from the dry cleaner’s.
His phone
buzzed, and he gave a sigh that was almost a growl as he read the
instructions from his superiors, “Listen up,” he called, instantly
catching the men’s attentions. “We’ve got a pair of trespassers in the
area, coming this direction from the river. Fan out in that direction
and eliminate them both.”
One of the men shifted uncertainly, “Sir,” he said, “if they took a plane in… won’t that have woken up the-“
“If you encounter her, you know what might happen,” Higgins replied sternly, “if you disobey me, you know what will happen.”
He growled at the nervous looks on the mercenaries faces, “You are all
paid exceedingly well, the tradeoff for that is that this company
expects you to act without question.”
With a final sullen
look the man growled angrily, slamming a magazine into his rifle and
marching into the jungle to obey the suited man. He watched them go,
then turned to the large crop of Lemurian fruit, still sitting in the
truck. The secrets locked within those unassuming spheres were worth
billions, more even, but as he climbed into his own personal jeep and
started the engine, Higgins reflected that nothing worth having was easy
to get.
…
Mika glanced at his compass, frowning as he saw it spinning in all directions, everything about this place defies explanation, he thought with a sigh.
Still, there was an unshakable sense of déjà vu as he looked up at the stretching tree canopies, hundreds of meters high.
I almost expect to see them come out from behind one of these trees, he
thought, thinking of the smiling middle-aged man and woman in safari
khakis that greeted him warmly in his dreams. They were his parents, he
was sure of it, but he couldn’t remember anything about them. Like the
Lemurian Jungle itself he’d dismissed them as phantoms, dreams he
couldn’t explain, but standing here it was impossible to deny that some
part of his childhood phantoms were real.
A burst of gunfire
shocked him out of his thoughts, and with a scream he threw himself to
the ground, scrambling across the wet earth as clods of mud were kicked
up by bullets around him.
“I’m unarmed!” he shouted, throwing his hands over the back of his head.
“Good!” a laughing voice barked as a trio of men stepped into view, “that makes this easier!”
…
Chloe’s
snake tail curled around the trees, holding her massive form suspended
in the air as she watched the scene below in confusion. She’d
camouflaged herself, her skin and scales effortlessly matching the
colors of the tree trunks and leaves around her, and while she was the
most massive creature in the forest, she could move completely silently
when she wanted to. From her perch on the tree, none of the scurrying
creatures below would be aware of her presence.
She frowned,
trying to determine what they were doing. One of them seemed scared as
the other three closed in, their small stinging weapons in hand. Those
weapons were no serious danger to Chloe of course, but sometimes if they
hit her just right it would itch or tickle slightly, and the loud
racket they made always annoyed her.
The smallest of them though,
the scared one… what was that feeling? Something about him called to
her, something familiar she couldn’t quite place. She had to examine him
closer, but how? These things always ran when she showed herself, or
worse, tried to hurt her. There was a cry of pain as one of them kicked
the one she wanted, and without hesitation, she sprang downward.
…
Mika
coughed, clutching his aching ribs as the men laughed at his pain,
“Enough of this shit Ray,” one taunted, “finish him off so we can get
the fuck out of here.” Mika looked up, eyes wide with horror as the gun
barrel leveled with his head.
Suddenly a scream caught his
attention, and he looked up, stunned to see the sky changing color in
patches. No, not the sky, a monstrous creature, hundreds of meters in
length, with a red and yellow scaled tail as long as a train, but more
stunning was the enormous torso of a naked woman that was coming into
view, a girl with long brown hair that shimmered almost red in the
sunlight, hanging down like curtains around a freckled face the size of a
house as she loomed over them.
In the blink of an eye her mouth
opened, a long tongue darting out, covered in a sticky saliva that
glistened briefly in the light. There was a wet *smack* as it
made contact with the back of the man who was holding the gun to Mika’s
head, then he watched, stunned as the man was yanked upward, as if tied
to a bungie cord. Her soft lips closed behind him, trapping him within
the gigantic mouth as muffled gunshots rang out from inside. The girl’s
head arched back, and a loud and audible *gulp* rang out through the
clearing, and her throat bulged ever so slightly for a moment as her
morsel traveled downward.
Mika found himself looking up,
spellbound, not even hearing the shouts of the other two men as they ran
for the brush. The giant girl’s eyes followed them for a moment, but
she didn’t pursue, instead drawing those enormous saucers back to him,
gazing on his quaking form as she slithered down the tree. The enormity
of her size dawned on him as she moved ever closer, the mere proximity
to her body warming the air around him as the gigantic mouth, a mouth
which had just swallowed a man whole before his very eyes, came within
arm’s reach. The hair on his head was ruffled as the enormous nostrils
overhead sniffed him.
“C-Chloe-“ he stammered. He frowned, suddenly confused, Who is Chloe? He wondered, but the air around him whooshed as the enormous snake-girl reared back, as if stung. He blinked, “Are you Chloe?” he asked hesitantly, his heart pounding.
She stared at him, shocked. He’d said her name, and why was that her name? Since when did she have a name? Chloe blinked in confusion, a mix of emotions flooding through her. Down below the human stood up, but while she suddenly remembered what exactly he was, the noises he made were still just gibberish to her.
Mika
felt his heart pounding as the girl slithered by him, studying him
intently. Her scaled tail was like a wall as it circled around him,
easily a hundred and fifty meters long. He tried to keep his eyes on her
face as he was surrounded by red and black wall, his escape made
impossible as the freckled giant stroked her chin.
I’m the size of a mouse, he gulped, remembering how she’d casually slurped the other man to his doom, and she’s definitely got the instincts of a snake…
Finally, it seemed the snake-girl, Chloe, had
made her decision. Her hand came down, snatching him up in her warm
palm, a wall of flesh that tenderly wrapped around him and caused his
stomach to lurch as he was lifted off the ground. For a moment he felt
relief, until he realized he was being held over her rapidly opening
mouth.
“No!” he shouted in panic, “W-Wait, Chloe please don’t!”
She
only understood her own name, but she couldn’t help but giggle a little
at the panic in the tiny human’s voice. Part of her wanted to reassure
him he would be okay, that he wouldn’t meet the other human’s fate, for now.
Her
fingers snapped open, releasing the flailing, screaming form of Mika to
tumble the few meters down into her mouth. Her breath was warm, even
more humid than the jungles themselves, and her soft pink tongue lolled
out like a trampoline, almost eager to catch him. He landed on it with a
wet squishing sound, his hands sliding over the rough surface of her
tastebuds as he panicked, looking for purchase, escape.
Chloe
simply pulled her tongue back into her mouth, as if he were any other
caught prey. Her soft red lips slowly pressed closed, giving a terrified
Mika one last look at the outside world before her cavernous mouth
sealed him in.
Chloe hummed happily to herself, vibrating the
walls of Mika’s prison as she enjoyed the rich luscious taste of a
human. Everything in her instincts told her this was right, that there
was an adorable morsel of prey trapped in her mouth, that his struggles
would only stimulating her tastebuds making his flavor all the more
succulent as the soft pink walls around him dripped saliva in
anticipation. It would be easy to forget everything, to simply enjoy
this surprise meal and go back to her temple to sleep, letting the
hapless human digest within in her inescapable belly…
…But that wasn’t what she really wanted,
not right now. The human had stirred odd memories, and he knew her
name. Something stronger than hunger held her back from swallowing him
whole like the other one. She needed to know more, she needed to take
him back to her den to examine him further.
The forest shook and
rumbled as the massive snake-girl began her slithering journey back
towards the immense stone temple, her passenger stowed safely in her
mouth.
Mika stumbled around in the dark cavern, his hands feeling
slowly around and grimacing as his fingers traced over the hard wall of
the girl’s teeth. The saliva dripped around him ceaselessly, soaking
through his clothes and plastering his hair to his face. The wet spongy
ground of her tongue shifted as she moved, and he gasped in terror as he
slid backwards, towards the black void at the back of her mouth.
One flick of her tongue, and I’m lunch! He
thought in a panic. He imagined what it would be like, pressed on all
sides by the powerful muscles of her throat, helplessly squeezed ever
downward until he dropped into her waiting belly.
The thought was
oddly compelling, like the perverse edge to leap off when standing at
the edge of a tall cliff. Part of him was enticed by it, already
imagining the journey downward, how outwardly she’d just be patting that
toned bellybutton just above her snake tail… All that would be left of
him would be the small belch she’d let out before going to sleep.
He shook his head; I’ve got to get out of here somehow! He
gritted his teeth, hitting feebly against the ivory wall of teeth. He
was rewarded with another of the rumbling giggles that remind him just
how big his captor was as his teeth rattled, and below him her tongue
leapt to life.
Chloe decided to put the little snack in his place,
and her tongue began to slowly push him against the walls of her
cheeks, pressing him along the soft elastic walls of her mouth with just
enough force to make him grunt in surprise. Slowly the tip of her
tongue worked at the straps of his backpack, and in the dark he fought
feebly against the slimy appendage as it easily overpowered him. For
Chloe it was like playing with a particularly tough piece of the
Lemurian fruit, the sweet taste only encouraging her eager exploration.
“Oh
no you don’t!” Mika grunted, trying in vain to hold on to the strap of
his backpack. The tongue thrashed itself across his front, body slamming
him down to the bottom of her mouth as he lost his grip. His heart
skipped a beat as her head tilted slightly, and the wet slick *gulp*
rang out again, closer, louder.
Chloe just smirked,
keeping her lips locked as she felt the tiny pack tumble down her
throat. It didn’t have much of a flavor, and it did less than nothing to
sate her hunger, but the message was sent. The tiny human didn’t resist
as her tongue flipped him back up, ceasing his struggles as she pressed
him against the roof of her mouth. Pinning him there, she simply let
her spit absorb the flavor, sucking it off him idly like a piece of hard
candy.
Chloe slithered through the massive stone pillars of the
stone temple, columns of light from the carved windows illuminating the
building even as she traveled deeper inside. Finally, she reached her
den, a spot in the very center of the complex where she’d piled dried
leaves of a soft sort she’d found, along with an assortment of things
she’d found that were interesting.
Mika shouted as he was spat out
roughly, ejected like a pilot from a jet fighter as the snake-girl sent
him flying into her cupped palms.
“Y-You could have carried me,” he stammered, wiping the muck of her saliva from his eyes.
Chloe just smiled and shrugged, she couldn’t understand the words, but she guessed the meaning.
He
wanted to say something else to her, but his breath caught as he looked
around the temple. Like everything else he’d found here, it was
familiar. The massive columns of carved stone rising up to a darkened
ceiling, the crumbled statues standing as high as an office building,
he’d seen it all before, and not just in his dreams, he was sure of it.
“I don’t suppose you know what this place is?” he asked, looking up at his captor with a sigh.
She just cocked her head, not comprehending the question.
“It’s
very beautiful,” he muttered, glancing around. His gaze lingered over
Chloe, and he blushed as he realized she was naked, her pert city-bus
sized breasts jutting out from a toned and perfect torso. In the chaos
and shock of their first meeting he hadn’t had time to realize just how
attractive of a girl she was… on her upper half, anyway.
“W-Well uh…” he cleared his throat, pointing to himself, “I’m Mika, Mika,” he repeated, jabbing his finger into his own chest.
“Mi-Ka,” she slowly stammered. She grinned, pointing to herself, “Chl-oe!” she said slowly, “Chloe!”
He blinked; she talks?
“Nice
to meet you,” he said, nodding. He frowned a moment, “But we’ve met
before, haven’t we?” He chewed his lip a moment, “Do you know how we
know each other?”
Chloe just stared at him blankly.
“Right,”
he sighed, “Well there’s no fun in an easy mystery, is there?” He
looked at Chloe’s pile of “curiosities.” There were a number of
interesting looking items down there, stone carvings, metal, and a few
odds and ends that looked more modern. “Can you put me down?” He pointed
at the items.
Chloe’s eyes lit up, and she eagerly slithered over
to her collection, lowering the human to the stone floor. She’d long
picked up interesting things from around the temple and the jungle, and
having someone else excited to see it sent an unfamiliar excitement
through her.
“I’m an archeologist,” Mika explained, picking up an
odd bronze disc, “Or I’d like to be…” he glanced up at the girl, who was
watching him eagerly, but with no understanding behind her eyes. “We’ll
work on your English,” he muttered, “If you don’t eat me anyway.”
Chloe
watched him looking through her items, babbling away in his strange
tongue. She was starting to understand that the sounds meant something,
and she wanted to learn them herself. She leaned over him curiously, her
massive form blocking out the outside light as he eagerly picked up a
shimmering metal sculpture, pointing at it excitedly and almost jumping
up and down.
“…and if this is a sculpture of Sumerian origin, it would prove transatlantic contact in the bronze age,
everything we know about history would have to be re-written! We’d-“ He
looked up at the smiling billboard sized face and chuckled, “I’m sorry,
I kind of ramble on…” He looked down at the sculpture, whom he was certain was
Gilgamesh, and with a shrug tossed it back into her pile. “You know
what the funny thing is? You might be a man-eating snake-thing, but I
think you’re the only girl who’s shown interest in my profession.”
Chloe just grinned and nodded excitedly, happy that he was happy.
“Let’s see what else you have here,” Mika chuckled. A small leatherbound book caught his eye, and he frowned. That has to be recent, he
thought, and his voice caught in his throat as he realized it had
English lettering. Without thinking he picked it up, flipping open the
cover, dilapidated from years, decades of exposure to the jungle heat
and humidity. The faded polaroid tucked into the inside cover had fared
better, a man and a woman in safari khakis, standing before the massive
temple complex and grinning as each held the hand of a young boy, one
Mika recognized from his own childhood photos.
His hand shook as
he looked at the photo, then slowly up at Chloe, “W-Where did you find
this?” he rasped. Chloe didn’t respond, but she’d sensed the change in
his mood, a concerned look coming over her face.
Did you eat them? He wondered. No… probably not,
he decided finally. Chloe had felt familiar, but not in a foreboding or
dangerous sense, and while he had dreamed of the couple he now knew
were his parents, and the temple itself, Chloe wasn’t in any of those
memories, not physically anyway. Whatever happened to them, you came later, he decided, but you’re a piece of this puzzle, what happened to us here? He thought back to the men who had attacked him in the jungle, Who were they? Who’s so interested in keeping people out of this jungle that they’d kill someone like me on sight?
He
tucked the photo back into the journal, grimacing as he looked around
the vast stonework amphitheater at the center of the sprawling temple
city. It would take a proper archeological dig years to properly
excavate it, countless careers could be made on the secrets in any
particular room, he was sure of it… but the secrets he was most
interested in were hidden here too.
“Okay Chloe,” he sighed, “let’s try to talk.”
For her part the enormous snake-girl beamed excitedly.
…
Higgins
sipped from a plastic water bottle inside the climate controlled mobile
command trailer. His hands flew across the keyboard, establishing the
satellite link to his benefactor’s headquarters.
The circular
sigil of a snake eating its own tail flashed across the screen,
“Ouroboros Incorporated,” a woman’s recorded voice greeted, “In the
business of forever.”
“Mr. Higgins,” a voice drawled on the other line, “I understand there was a complication during today’s operation?”
“We
lost a man to Subject Alpha,” Higgins said, his voice level, “there was
an outside intruder and I ordered his elimination per your orders. The
first squad encountered the naga and she killed one of the hired
security staff, the intruder is presumed dead as well…” He looked down
at the tablet in his lap, scrolling through the report, “the second
intruder, one Sadie “Oklahoma” Espinoza, eluded capture and escaped in
her aircraft, two men have gunshot wounds but are expected to recover.”
“One dead, and one escaped,” the voice growled, “Tell me Mister Higgins, does this sound acceptable?”
Higgins
was unphased, “We are already contacting friends in the local
government to have Miss Espinoza recovered for us,” he said curtly, “if
you wish for us to be able to work more effectively, I am confident the
Naga can be eliminated if we are granted access to heavier weapons.”
“No!” the voice said sharply, “Subject Alpha is not to be harmed, nor are your men to approach the temple complex unless ordered.”
Higgins was quiet a moment, “Yes sir,” he growled, “I’ll send a written report to you by tomorrow morning.”
“See that you do.”
There was a click as the line went quiet, and Higgins sighed in frustration. The job was only getting more complicated…