Bite Sized
“I
hate the rain, I hate the trees, I hate the clients...” Marianne looked over at
Jasmine, “But more than anything, I hate the humidity...”
“Shouldn’t
have signed up for a job in the Amazon then,” Jasmine grinned, “Besides, we’re
nearly there, what’s the worst that could happen.”
“Never
been this deep into the forest before,” Marianne picked the map out of her
pocket and put it on the trunk, “They want to go here for some reason, and if
they’re right about the location, it should only be a couple of miles away.”
“Ever
wonder why a food company wants to be all the way out here?” Jasmine leaned
back against the trunk and looked back at the party, “I mean, they’re not
exactly intrepid adventurer’s are they?”
Marianne
followed her gaze to the group of people following them, all of them wearing
clothing that would have been appropriate to an exploration in the Victorian
times but with no equal in the present day and age. The leader of the group, Professor Crow,
looked up from her sludge filled shoes and opened her arms wide to them.
“Are
we there yet?” She called
“Few
more miles till we get to where you want us to be,” Marianne called back, “As
for ‘are we there yet?’ You’ll have to tell me when you get there.”
“Should
we make camp? It’s getting dark and we don’t want to travel when we can’t see.”
“Your
call Professor, we’re on the clock here.” Jasmine yelled down, “You want to
rest now, we can do that.”
“I
think...” Professor Crow looked back at the others, all of them breathing
heavily, “We’ll take a rest now and see what we manage tomorrow.”
“We
should take more jobs like this,” Jasmine whispered to Marianne, “If all our
clients wanted to take breaks on half days, we’d be rich in no time...”
“Alright,”
Marianne circled her hand in the air and her people started to unload the
tents.
An
hour later the camp was up and Professor Crow came back into the circle around
the fire.
“Finished
your call?” Marianne looked over at her
“They’re
very pleased with our progress,” Crow looked back at her, “We’re less than a
day away and confidence is high.”
“So
what is it we’re looking for?” Jasmine sat down on the other side of her.
“We
sent an advance team in here some months ago, they reported finding something
growing naturally that had more nutrition in a single berry than the whole of
these ration packs that we’re carrying with us.”
“That’s
impossible,” Marianne glanced over.
“We
thought so too,” Crow nodded, “But the test results sent back from the advance
team were conclusive, those plants may hold the answer to world famine if we
can grow them outside of this atmosphere.”
“So
what happened to the advance team?” Jasmine looked back at the group around the
fire.
“We
lost contact with them the day after the results were verified,” Crow looked
down, “Their camp is still set up and running, and that’s how we know where
they were, but we haven’t had a transmission from them in some time, that’s why
we hired your people.”
“Any
idea what happened to them?”
“Last
visual transmission was that they were packaging up supplies for the return
journey and then they were going to be heading back after leaving a beacon. The
last actual transmission was a code file sent on burst transmission rather than
visual, said that they’d found a much larger patch of the berries just to the
south, they were going to verify it, but they couldn’t take the comms equipment
that deep without risking it.”
“So
we don’t know anything about it then?”
“Not
a thing,” Crow shrugged, “When they went dark, there wasn’t any way of
continuing to speak to them, so the only way to make contact was to send a team
and we couldn’t risk sending a non-science trained team.”
“And
that’s why there’s thirty of us out there when there should be ten?”
“Sadly
yes, If we thought we could make it here by ourselves, we would have done.”
“Well,
not to worry, we’ll be there tomorrow.”
“Thank
god, I miss civilisation...”
Marianne
woke to the sound of Crow tapping the outer tent pole with a stick. Marianne poked her head out and looked around
to see the rest of the camp packed and ready to go, the scientists all washed
and with their packs on their back.
“So
we’re moving?” She looked around and yawned
“As
soon as you’re able,” Crow nodded, then stood back and looked at Marianne as if
she should be already out of the tent.
“Alright,”
Marianne nodded, “It’s just over that ridge anyway...”
Three
hours later and Jasmine looked back from the top of the ridge as the scientists
panted their way up the hill, all of them looking like they’d much rather be
somewhere else than there.
“You’re
not going to be believe this...” She called back
“Can
you see it?” Crow called
“I
can see something...” Jasmine called down, “I’m not sure if it’s what you’re
after.”
Marianne
jogged up to the top of the ridge and looked down, below them stretched out a
huge stone construction, like a labyrinth cut from single stones, each one
larger than man could ever move in this terrain without the assistance of heavy
machinery.
And you’d never get a crane out
here...
“How
has this never been seen from the air?” Marianne looked down, “It goes on for
miles...”
Crow
came up behind them and looked down on the stone Labyrinth. “At last,” she gasped, her lungs still
working overtime from the hill climb, “We found it.”
“So
what do you need to do now?” Jasmine looked at her
“Find
what happened to the advance team and then get samples out of here for
processing in the labs,” Crow nodded, “Once we’ve got the samples, nothing else
matters.”
“Alright,”
Jasmine nodded and looked to Crow, “Me and Marianne need to go down there and
scout it out first, stay put and we’ll be back soon.”
The
structure was larger up close than it had seemed from the ridge.
“How
could they have built something like this out here...?” Jasmine looked around
and pointed at the gap in the stonework above them, “Give me a lift?”
Marianne
leaned against the stone and cupped her hands to lift Jasmine up on to the
stone, Jasmine turned at the top and offered her a hand to come up to the stone
ledge.
“Figure
that’s what they’re looking for?” Jasmine turned and looked into the structure.
“Might
be...” Marianne mused
The
area beyond the stone ledge was covered in tents, equipment, fires that had
burned down to the ground a long time since, and seats still arranged where
they were when their owners had left them.
“They
didn’t pack to leave...” Marianne looked down, “They just left...”
“Doesn’t
make any sense.” Jasmine looked down at the camp, “You want me to go get the
nerds?”
“No,
not yet...” Marianne dropped down to the other side, less than three feet to
the floor within. “I say we look around first and see what the score is in
there...”
“Alright...”
Jasmine looked down and dropped in after her, “Stay close.”
The
stone square was more than a hundred feet across and the archways at both ends
were covered in thick green vines with huge red berries hanging from them.
“Reckon
that’s the wonderfruit?” Marianne pointed at the berries
“Not
find me eating it,” Jasmine grinned, “Been out here too long to trust anything
I’ve never encountered before.”
“Thick
brush though...” Marianne looked at the heavy vines meshing together around the
archway, each of them thicker than normal jungle creepers and with long thorns
all the way around. “I’ve never seen anything like that, not even in deep
jungle.”
“Want
to try cutting through it?” Jasmine pulled out her machete
“No,
if it can keep us out, it’ll keep out any animals as well.”
“Figure
there’s something around here?”
“I
figure that those scientists didn’t cut their way through this, and there’s
more, listen...”
“I
don’t hear anything...” Jasmine paused, “Shit...”
“Yeah...”
Marianne nodded, “When was the last time you got silence out here?”
“Never,”
Jasmine looked around, “Let’s get them in, get what they need and get out of
here...”
“Agreed...”
The
scientists took more than an hour to get down, and within another hour, had
already moved in to the tents on site.
Jasmine approached Crow as she set up the satellite remotes.
“Professor,
do you think we could be out of here soon.” She looked around the ruins.
“We’ll
only be a few days,” Crow turned back to her, “We need to run some tests to
make sure the advance party weren’t getting it wrong.”
“We
don’t have food enough for several days of sitting around,” Jasmine looked at
the depleted supplies set.
“If
this turns out to be what we think it is, then we’ve got all the food we’re
ever going to need.”
“And
if it doesn’t...?”
Crow
looked at her as if the very possibility hadn’t ever crossed her mind. Jasmine
raised her hands in surrender and smiled, “Alright, I get it...”
Later
that evening, they had their answer, the scientists were all gathered around
the uplink as Professor Crow showed the fruit to the camera.
“And
this has proved to be everything that we hoped it would be, We’re going to be
taking samples to bring back and we should be home in...” Crow looked over at
Jasmine.
“About
four days if we don’t stop...” Jasmine nodded
“About
eight days,” Crow turned back to the camera, “We’ll have sufficient supplies
with the food that we’ve collected here and we’ll take more in the coolers so
we don’t run out on the way back.”
Jasmine
turned back to Marianne “Reckon we should set guards?”
“Just
on the front door,” Marianne looked back, “You eating any of the wonderfruit?”
“Not
a chance,” Jasmine looked over at the scientists dividing up one of the thick
berries, “Give me dried every day of the week...”
Jasmine
waited till the end of the transmission and approached Professor Crow as she
tucked into a bowl full of the diced fruit.
“So
what makes it so special?” Jasmine shook her head as the professor offered her
the bowl.
“It’s
got a number of protein chains that you only find in animals,” She chewed on
the fruit, picking out the strands from between her teeth, “and the centre of
it is as close to water as anything we’ve ever encountered out there.”
“Nothing
harmful in there?”
“Nothing
on the bacteriological scans, and they can pick up microbes.” Crow shrugged,
“Certainly nothing that would cause a problem to our antibodies.”
“Yeah,
they said that about flu...” Jasmine smiled
“Well,”
Crow smiled back, “If I start sneezing, let me know...”
The
camp was quiet the following morning, it was past ten in the morning when
Jasmine frowned.
“Look,
I know they had a good night last night, but shouldn’t we be getting them up?”
“Give
it till twelve,” Marianne nodded, “If they’re not up, we’ll think about it.”
Twelve
came and went, Jasmine unzipped the professors tent and looked inside.
Nothing
Jasmine
turned back to Marianne and shrugged, “Must have gone out for a walk...”
“Out
here...?” Marianne looked unconvinced
“Yeah,
I...wait, listen...”
“To
wh...”
The
sound of meat tearing echoed from beyond the north wall, Jasmine drew her gun
and nodded to Marianne as she unslung her rifle. The north archway had been forced open at the
bottom of the arch, there was a hole there easily big enough for a human to
crawl through.
“Want
to go in?” Jasmine nodded over to the hole.
“Nope,”
Marianne grinned nervously
“Keep
an eye on my ass,” Jasmine crouched down and moved forwards into the brush, the
wall ending within a half metre, looking not so much like something had hacked
their way through it but more as if the weeds had been pushed out of the
way. The sound of tearing meat came from
in front of her again and she held her gun in front of her as she walked
forwards.
There
was a low sound from the brush ahead of her. Then a cough, like that of a leopard. She turned to see the bush move in front of
her, the white of a doctors outfit behind the bush. She levelled her gun and leaned around the
bush to see Professor crow laid on her front, her body jerking slightly as both
her arms wrapped around her stomach and she rolled back to look up. Jasmine’s gun went down as she saw the red
juice pouring from Crow’s mouth, the chewed remnants of the fruit on the ground
in front of her. Jasmine holstered the
gun and helped Crow to her feet, supporting her under the shoulder as she
guided her towards the hole.
“No...”
Crow groaned, “Leave me...”
“Don’t
talk shit,” Jasmine pulled her up again, “We’re getting you out of here...”
“I
leave...” Crow gasped in pain, “And it leaves with me...”
“What...?”
“There...”
Crow pointed backwards at the other bodies convulsing on the floor.
Jasmine
looked and then stepped back as Crow convulsed again, one of the berries, whole
and unchewed, bursting from her mouth to land on the floor in front of
her. The berry continued to roll towards
the other bodies and Jasmine drew her gun as she watched.
It’s rolling up the hill...
Jasmine
looked down at Crow and saw the desperation in her eyes.
“They...they’ve
got animal proteins because they are
animals. They just need other animal
proteins to thrive...” Crow looked up at her, “Kill me, burn this place, make
sure no one comes back...”
Jasmine
nodded and levelled her gun, then paused for a second.
“Please...”
Jasmine
pulled the trigger and ran back to the opening where Marianne was waiting.
“All
dead,” Jasmine looked up at her, “We need to burn this place and get out of
here...”
“We
burn this place and we set fire to the whole forest,” Marianne looked at her,
“That’s just crazy talk, we couldn’t control it if we did that...”
“Pile
all this stuff up in the middle then,” Jasmine looked at her, “Take the food we
need and we’re out of here...”
At
the end of the day, Jasmine looked back at the pyre still rising from the
equipment they’d set on fire and then back to Marianne as she split the ration
pack.
“Look,
you haven’t said anything since we left camp,” Marianne looked up at Jasmine,
“What happened in there?”
“I
had to kill Crow...” Jasmine’s voice sounded distant to her, “The others were
already gone...”
“Leopard?”
Marianne nodded, “I heard it too.”
“That
was Crow...” Jasmine picked up her side of the ration pack and bit into the
food without enthusiasm, “She was dying, I...I had to put her out of her
misery...”
“What
got them?” Marianne looked back towards the plume of smoke
“You
wouldn’t believe me if I told you...”
Jasmine shook her head. “I’m not sure I believe it...”
“Try
me...”
“She
said it was the fruit that did it...”
“You’re
right, I don’t believe it...” Marianne smiled. “Better not be the fruit
though...”
“Why
not?”
Marianne
waves the long red slice in front of Jasmine.
“Because
we’re eating it...”
